bex's reviews

Bella Bridesmaid took all the great things about their SF Marina store and brought them down to Los Gatos. I went to the SF store when I got married last year to get my girls Jenny Yoo dresses. Now that I am in a friends wedding this summer, I was so happy to go to the new Los Gatos store. The location is super cute, the vibe calm and there is plenty of parking. There is no fighting over dresses with other brides, or trying to get crammed in dresses off a rack, or dealing with tiny dressing rooms or even a "screen" like some other south bay shops or manufacturers. There is plenty of room, lots of designers and lots of cute choices. They made getting measured and putting in our order easy. We even made a bit of a day of it visiting some other vendors in Los Gatos.

I can't remember how much I paid-- but it was prob 25% of the next quote and the flowers turned out 10x better than I could have imagined. Her website doesn't look like much, and the shop is small. But the quality of the arrangements was amazing. Michaela is super talented and had the flowers delivered and set up on time. I can't recommend her enough. I brought in some pictures and we talked about different flower choices that were in season and she matched them exactly. We had her do 5 bouquets a bunch of bouts and flowers for our arch, side things and aisle. I wanted something modern and pretty for a garden wedding and she delivered.

Chiaosze's review is right on and I could not have said it better. I too had a June 2008 wedding and many of her pros/cons were the same we had. Overall we were looking for an outdoor and casual venue that we could personalize. We also broke the evening down into 5 uses- pre-cocktails, ceremony lawn, cocktail patio, outdoor dinner, and indoor dancing/with separate bar which worked out great. However I had a few tiny things to add in our particular situation:

- We were allowed to have our puppy in the wedding and some pre-photos and not the reception. this all worked out great and we had no problems with this. (this was one more reason we used this venue)

- We had our ceremony under the large oak tree on the far lawn. When we previewed and booked the facility they had told us there were large green outdoor curtains that would separate us from the public pool. However at a few days before they informed us that the curtains had been eaten by moths and that this happens and normally they replace them--however due to the remodel they were going to do that they weren't going to replace them. in the end it was OK, but i was pretty disapointed and ran around trying to figure out a solution and in the end just had the ceremony open to the pool-- but it did add some stress to a pretty stressful week.

- I second the sound restriction comments from chiaosze-- we also thought we could bend the rules a little, but believe everything they tell you and plan accordingly.

- one thing you need to think about and plan is how to get the guests from the ceremony lawn to the reception and vice versa-- this was kind of clunky. If you have it here, you should ask more questions and plan a little better.

- while the outside was beautiful and the flowers amazing, the place was showing a bit of wear inside. Luckily the price reflected this. I assume the remodel will take care of this though.

Overall we were very happy with our choice of venues and it really made our evening.
Thanks!

i just wanted to write a follow up after our wedding.
the cupcakes were one of the best parts of our wedding and we had extra boxes for people to take home the extras and there wasn't a single one left at the end of the night. I'd recommend ordering lots of extras. she delivered on time and they looked and tasted better than the samples. She even did a custom design for each of the 4 flavors. She was recommended to me and i can't recommend her enough to someone else.

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I booked Laura and liked her so much I wanted to let everyone know and then i'll update my review post-wedding (06.07.08). We did a tasting and it was AMAZING. She makes her own almond roca for the almond roca cupcakes that are to die for. Also her prices are just as amazing as the cakes- unlike other vendors who charge up to $150 for local delivery and set up and then another $100 for cupcake stands-- that stuff is just included in her price. Laura is a joy to work with and made the grind of planning much more fun. I can't wait until my wedding.

I couldn't agree with these girls more, wedding paper divas are the best and fill a clear niche. 3 days to proof and 3 days to print and mail to the bay area. We were super late on the invite and they were done in no time and I didn't even have to leave work to go to some silly store that closes at 5. They are nice quality and we have gotten tons of compliments. They also let you pay $15 to change colors or fonts. Overall a great value of price and quality. They seem cool, custom designed and modern. I also had to call customer service to ask them how much it would weigh so i could order my zazzle stamps before the invites got here and they were super nice and weighed it for me.