With two weeks to go before my big day, I was in a last minute search for a groom's cake. After a few emails, I met Shannie at her Oakland location. I gave her my drawing with my ideas, had a cake tasting and we were all set to go!! The day of my groom and I were in shock at how fabulous this cake turned out!! The cake design far exceed my expectations. This was a smooth transaction. Not only was she friendly to work with, but she was very professional. Reasonable pricing and delivery!! Nothing but compliments about the cake!! Thank you for making this little detail, so fabulous!!

Katrina Rozelle!! 5 stars across the board!!

Recomended by The Claremont Hotel Club and Spa. Not only did she take my original drawing and enhance it, she made it come to life!! Everything I envsioned for my wedding cake was there. I didn't want to cut it. It was beautiful and the taste, simply fabulous.

I had two flavors. Red Velvet and Almond Pound cake. Both flavors are amazing. Her Red velvet is not a flavor she has on hand, it's a special order flavor, but WORTH IT!!

Our communication was by email, again based on my planning from Tennessee, but she responded quickly, and efficiently.

A bit Pricey, but WELL WORTH IT!!

The Claremont Hotel Club and Spa, was the location for my November 11th, 2011 wedding. Kathy Marty was the person I was directly in contact with. My planning process started in January of 2010. I knew immediately that I had to have my wedding here. Not only are views from the Sonoma(upstairs) and Horizon (downstairs) rooms breathtaking but the whole experience was a once in lifetime experience, just like our date. There were a few bumps along the way, because I planned my wedding from Tennessee. But in spite of those hiccups, the Claremont far exceeded my expectations. The food was simply divine. 5 stars all the way. Our Bridal suites and Honeymoon suites were magnificent. Kathy really bent over backwards to accommodate our wedding and we are truly appreciative!!

Mandy Scott Flowers was one of the easiest vendors that I have had the pleasure to work with during my wedding planning process.

Mandy was very helpful, considering my wedding was in Berkeley, Ca. and I was planning in Tennessee. We set up a conference call, she asked me very detailed questions to get a good idea as to what I was looking for. She sent me an email with a breakdown for each portion of the wedding that flowers were needed for. If I went over budget she suggested other options. We set an appointment to meet, once I actually got to town, and she showed me flowers….REAL FLOWERS. Not just pictures.

Mandy gave me everything I wanted and even made a few suggestions that we took her up on to enhance the elegance of my wedding. In a heartbeat I would recommend Mandy Scott Flowers!!

She worked well with my budget, (although we did go over, but not because of her) and gave me everything I wanted. It was really nice to be able to tell her what was in my head, and have her create that vision. My bouquet was a dream come true!! 5 stars just doesn’t do her justice!!

I cannot honestly give Beverly a 5 star review. Her personality is great. She is a friendly person, but her ability to communicate well with a client is severely lacking. When I first attempted to make contact with her, after being referred to her by the Claremont Resort and Spa as a preferred vendor, I had an extremely hard time getting in contact with her. I left messages and emails, and no response. It wasn’t until I threatened to move on to another vendor, that I got a response from her. That was the first RED FLAG.

On our first initial meeting at the Claremont, she was an hour late arriving. Our original meeting time was 1pm on August 8th, confirmed in an email on June 17th. She emailed me on August 6th to ask if we were still meeting at 10am? Since I replied from my phone, I confirmed that we were meeting on Monday, and that the original time was for 1pm, but earlier was fine. I inadvertently put 10:30 as the time, not 10am. So I got there early to meet with her. At 10:30, she called me to tell me she was running late from the city, but that she was about 15 minutes away. She finally arrived at the Claremont at 11:30am.

After doing a walk through and discussing the things I wanted to do we discussed extras things. I informed her, I was thinking about a gobo light and she said, Oh let me put you in touch with my guy. He’s got great pricing, I’ll shoot him and email and we’ll go from there. Sounded Great!!

I also told her I want to do a little piping and draping around the door. She said “Oh I can do that. “ My response was Great!! That makes this easier than having to deal with lots of vendors.

Several hours later, she sent me an email forward from her lighting person, who just gave me a number and nothing else. I emailed back, asking for a full proposal. I never got it. I went back and forth with her and her person, several times, saying I wasn’t going to give money without a proposal. Again, it never came.

Moving on, In November, Beverly sent an email asking us for the final numbers. So I sent it back to her, and asked her to get back to me on the draping. I sent her a picture of the draping and what I wanted to do. No response. After the second or third email during her posted business hours, she responded at 10pm to inform me that it was after hours, and that she doesn’t reply to emails this late. In this late reply she informed me that she would get a quote for me for the piping and draping. A QUOTE!! To my surprise she informs me, 1 week before the wedding that she doesn’t do the piping and draping. The next day over the phone, she informs me that she meant, she was going to refer me to someone she knows. However the only person she referred me to was the lighting guy, who never sent a proposal. When someone tells me they can do something, I don’t interpret that to mean a referral to someone else. Highly upset, she asked me to calm down, and even said, “Girlfriend, wow, there are some issues here. We can work this out”. I am not your girlfriend. I’m a client. An upset client. Stuck with her for the chairs, I moved on, without the piping and draping at the very last minute.

The day of the wedding, the chairs arrived early!! Thank God for that, but upon further inspection, some of the chair cushions weren’t ivory, they were more of a dirty ivory almost tan color. Some of the cushions were a bit tattered as well. For $1800 I just expected her very best. The chairs were beautiful, but it wasn’t just my eye that caught the color distortion.

While my personal experience with her deserves 1 star, based on overall completion of our contract for chairs, I give her 3 stars.

Best Black Bridal Blog.

Wonderful complimentary planning worksheets. Lots of ideas and suggestions!

This place is unbelievable!! Amazing cookies and pies and their homemade fried chicken sandwiches are to DIE for!! They catered a friend’s bridal shower.

Located on the corner of Telegraph and 52nd Street in Oakland, CA. Just look for the long line wrapped around the store.