dbeatty's reviews

Working with John has been great. My mother went to a wedding where John was the photographer and she said he was great – he was all over the place and was taking some amazing pictures. I spoke to that bride and she had nothing but great things to say about him. I looked at her engagement and wedding pictures and really liked what I saw.

It was early in our engagement when we started looking at photographers. Pictures are the most important thing to me because this is something you are going to have for life. When we meet with John we meet at his home/office and he was really nice and professional. He took his time with us answered all of our questions. We wanted someone who had been taking pictures for a while and someone who took pictures full time – this was their job – it wasn’t a “hobby” for them. John worked with our budget, which was great, and also did an engagement book for us as well.

Our engagement pictures turned out AMAZING!! Prior to having our engagement shoot with John we had worked with 2 other photographers – but John’s session was totally different. John tends to pose you for some shots – which as he will tell you, can be weird/uncomfortable – but they do look amazing. It took some getting used to because the other two photographers we used did no posing and everything was very natural. Our engagement session was down at Laguna Beach – it was supposed to be 2 hours long but due to John having some car problems he shot pictures for like 3 hours. I was worried we were going to lose light but we didn’t – our pictures turned out were GREAT – more than what we expected and we had the disk in 2 weeks.

What is also different about John from other photographers is his equipment – he has the top of the line cameras – you feel like a superstar with his paparazzi cameras. Also the color changes he does with your photos – he doesn’t just do the typical black-n-white or sepia – he is amazing and worth every penny.

Since we had booked John so early in our engagement – and I had started seeing other photographers work I liked – I started second guessing my decision in booking him. But let me tell you – the day of our wedding he and his second shooter worked their BUTT off. They got to our hotel early to look around and find locations for us to shoot our first look and take bridal party pictures. He took tons of detail pictures in my hotel suite of things I wanted like; my dress, flower girl dress, shoes, invitations, menus, rings, makeup – tons. He spent a lot of time taking pictures with my fiancé and his friends (which was very important to us). He took pictures of our gift giving we did with each other prior to our first look and he managed directing our entire wedding party for pictures at the hotel. After that, he left and took more pictures of Kelvin and I at the train station prior to going to the wedding venue. Every time I saw John he was working and taking pictures.

The best part was the day after our wedding I logged onto my email and he already had a website for us to look at pictures he took the night before! Seriously I have heard brides waiting weeks even months to see “A” picture and John had several for us to see the next day. For about the next 4 days, each and every day he would add more pictures – it was awesome. Many days I sat and looked at the pictures and just cried because they looked so good and it was like reliving my wedding day over and over again. It was also nice to have a website to forward to friends and family too look at as well, especially for those who couldn’t make it.

I can’t tell you how HAPPY I am that John was our photographer – he has a gift and knows how to use it.

Michelle’s Cake is ROCKS!!! We meet with other bakeries and Michelle’s far exceeded our expectations. Our cake tasting was great and well worth the $25.00 initial deposit! We went on a Saturday due to our schedules but our appointment was at 9:30 am. My fiancé was skeptical at first but by the time we left we knew we wanted them to do our wedding cake. It’s funny because they are kind of hidden but they get so much repeat business because people just keep coming back. When we were there we saw about 10 people come and pick up baby shower cakes, birthday cakes and pastries.

Their cake is just so moist – it is amazing. We went to other cake tastings and nothing compared to Michelle’s cake or her filling. Their Bavarian cream and lemon cream are to die for – it is like gourmet and fresh. At other places their Bavarian cream tasted like something you would use to caulk your kitchen sick with – gross!

On top of the great tasting cake – their prices and designs are amazing. What we liked most about the staff is they were honest. She told us if we are having 150 people at our wedding we should get a cake to feed about 125 because not everyone is going to eat cake. At other places we went to, when we told them our guest count was 150 – they gave us quotes based off of 150. Another bonus with them is that when you hit your 1st year anniversary they will give you a free anniversary cake – so there is no need in keeping the top layer and freezing it. It doesn’t get any better.

Since ordering our wedding cake we have order dozens of cupcakes for a birthday party, my bridal shower themed cake, our wedding cake and a grooms cake. Every single thing was AMAZING.

I highly recommend Michelle’s Cake House and will use them for many future events.

****Update****

Just ordered a father’s day cake as well.

Westridge Golf Club was GREAT. After visiting about 10 different places Westridge had everything we wanted and the price too. Robert was great to work with. He was honest and this is a plus when you are spending thousands of dollars.

The food – what can I say… When we booked our wedding we also had lunch there (thanks Robert) and we realized how great the food was. But when we had our tasting – OMG we were really impressed. Food and photography are some of the things that were important to us and Westridge didn’t let us down at all. The Chef was amazing and it was great because he came out and talked to us and answered all of our additional questions. The food was well seasoned and was plentiful. We left our tasting full and very well satisfied.

Our rehearsal was the night before our wedding. The was another reception going on but it didn’t affect our rehearsal. Kim was great – and she answered any question I or my Day of Coordinator had. It was also nice that Westridge allowed us to store our water bottles and apples in their refrigerator overnight so they would be cold and our apples would not spoil.

Since there wasn’t anything scheduled the day of our wedding our coordinator and linen person were able to go as early as they wanted. When I got there everything looked amazing, people were drinking and talking, music was playing – everyone was in a GREAT mood. Robert was really really helpful to me because I misplaced my poem I wanted to read at our reception and he let me use his office/computer twice to print it out.

All of the staff there were GREAT!!! Thank you Gloria for taking extra special care of Kelvin and I. She made sure we had drinks when we wanted and our plates were removed as soon as we were done. The bartenders ROCK!!! Our guests were really impressed with them and the drinks – they were friendly and they moved – they weren’t slow by any means. And the food – our hats go off for the Chef. The food was amazing – we have received so many compliments that the food was great – our guest were full and well feed – exactly what we wanted.

Robert and Kimberly – thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

I highly recommend Westridge Golf Club for a wedding, retirement, birthday, graduation – anything – you will not be sorry.

I worked with Duke for my wedding flowers. Each and every time my mom and I went to meet with Duke he was so patient and easy going. He told us a lot of stories of different celebrities he worked with and showed us different pictures in their books of their flowers. At our first meeting I told him our color scheme and explained to him what I was thinking of so we could get an idea on cost. He suggested certain types of flowers and also colors of more antique. I had to let him know I wasn’t interested in an antique look and was more interested in a contemporary/modern look and color. The price we got at our first meeting was very competitive and Duke left me with the impression that he cared and that I could call anytime if I had any questions or wanted to make any changes.

After meeting with 2 other florist we decided to book with Commerce Flowers.

I meet with Duke 3 more times – 1st to do a mock up and put a deposit down, 2nd time to make some changes to types of vases and quantity and 3rd to do final payment and go over final count.

My complaints with Duke are:
1) Duke is FORGETFUL. Every time I went in to make changes he would always go back to my ORIGINAL request. I had to constantly tell him no I changed it remember. So that worried me a little because I didn’t know what I was going to get.
2) my second and MAJOR complaint is that every time I meet with Duke he said our personal flowers (bouquets, corsages and boutonnieres) were going to be delivered the day of our wedding to our hotel at noon and then his guys would go to the venue and do the setup. Well the day of our wedding I was busy at the hotel with hair and makeup and it wasn’t until around 1:30 pm while my photographer is taking pictures that I realize “hey where are our flowers?” So I call and Duke tells me that no they were delivered to the venue and that they look beautiful. I was really upset and I told him he always said they were going to be delivered to us at the hotel! He said he doesn’t remember that and that they were taken to the venue. Not once did he offer to make the situation right by having his guys take them back to us at the hotel especially with us only being 10 minutes away on the same street. He kept telling me they looked beautiful – and I told him I didn’t know if they looked beautiful because I don’t have them. I didn’t want to cry because I didn’t want to mess up my makeup. Everything was going smoothly up until this. The bad part is I have NO pictures of wedding party with our flowers, corsages and boutonnieres – when we did our 1st look and pre-wedding bridal shoots at 2:15 pm. This is a downer because I had a list of photos I wanted to have taken that my photographers couldn’t capture because of this.

I just would have been soooo nice to have the pictures that I wanted before hand when we had the time.

3) My third complaint is – at my 2nd and 3rd meeting with Duke I had added on 1 large centerpiece for our escort card table and 2 short centerpieces for our guestbook and card box table. The large centerpiece was supposed to be submerged orchids with a floating candle on top and the 2 short centerpieces were supposed to look exactly like my short centerpieces on my reception tables. Well the tall centerpiece was not at all like what we had discussed – it was still pretty but not what we discussed and the two short centerpieces were again not like what was on the tables – these were 2 small vases with submerged orchids – the vases were really short and didn’t have a lot of orchids. I know I overpaid because what I got was very very simple but what I wanted and paid for was what I had in my reception room which had substantial flowers.
4) My last and final complaint is that in every meeting I had with Duke I said and paid for fabric draping for my ceremony. His guys did place the brown fabric draping and flowers on my gazebo and it looked amazing but I was supposed to ALSO have brown organza draping down the ceremony aisle, on each side. I know he had notes on this because he wanted me to use a different fabric and I kept insisting on using organza because I wanted it to be airy and light. So again this is something I paid for but didn’t get. Nobody noticed because they didn’t know about it – but I noticed because it was something I wanted and didn’t get.

One good thing is two days prior to my wedding I got a call from Vanessa, I believe, at Commerce Flowers. She was working on my bouquets and had some questions. I really really appreciated this call because for one she was nice and two I liked the fact that she called first to ask me instead of just doing what she wanted. She mentioned that Duke had some notes of using some white flowers in the bouquets and it was different from some of the pictures I had left as examples. I told her I didn’t want ANY white in the bouquets that I had told Duke this several times and I wanted the bouquets to be all green – but with a mixture of flowers. She told me it was no problem and also gave me some suggestions of adding a little brown to the bouquet if I wanted. I took her suggestion and felt very confident that she was working on them and that they would turn out to be what I wanted.

Needless to say when we did get to the venue the flowers were there and they did look amazing!! My bouquets were full and looked exactly like I wanted them to. The centerpieces in the reception room looked amazing and they really made our room pop. Duke also got us flowers for our cocktail hour and to cut down on the prices we supplied the vases and they looked fabulous. The flowers on our cake, in our cake base and on our serving set and toasting flutes were great.

Overall I still do recommend Commerce Flowers and if I have any event in the future I would still use them. I just would be more on top of things if I work with Duke again – he is very sweet but just not as thorough as I would like.

After reading all the reviews I definitely wanted to work with Tom from Cal Sounds. When we inquired about meeting with him, he informed us he was already booked the day of our wedding but that Chris Brouelette was available and could meet with us. We decided to go ahead and set up a meeting with him. Chris responded quickly via email and we set up a time and day for him to come to our home and discuss everything.

Unfortunately the day of our meeting Chris was a no-show. This was really disturbing for us because we were worried if he didn’t come to a meeting would he show up to our wedding. So our search was going to continue. But the next morning I received an email from Chris apologizing profusely for missing the meeting. He explained the mix-up and wanted to set up another meeting. I explained to Chris that my fiancé didn’t want to chance working with him because he would be afraid he wouldn’t show up the day of the wedding. But Chris told us he would make it up to us if we met with him and offered us a discount. After hearing discount we figured what could we lose by meeting with him.

Well we are glad we did – Chris was amazing. Chris was easy to talk and we felt that he knew the direction we wanted to go with and could deliver.

The day of wedding Chris was there and ready to go by the time we got to our venue. He also was dressed in a suit and looked great. He had all the speakers and microphones set up at the gazebo for the ceremony and had music playing for our guest prior to the ceremony, during cocktail hour and for the entire reception. Chris collaborated great with our DOC Christina and Melissa from Tina Molina Events and our timeline ran smoothly. From the reception on he took over – he did all the introductions, announced the dances and did the cake cutting. He was great and the music was great as well.

We were very happy with Chris Brouelette from Cal Sounds and would recommend them.

I worked with Ashleigh for my boudoir pictures. When I first meet with Ashleigh I loved how energetic and personable she was. Right off the bat she made me feel comfortable and our personalities matched so much I knew we would work well together. Even before our meeting was over I knew I was going to hire her to shoot my boudoir pictures. About 6 months later I contacted Ashleigh to set up a date, time and place for the shoot. She was very accommodating with the day and time – which was great because I didn’t want to do it on a weekend because it would be easier for me to do it and keep it a surprise if I could do it during working hours.

About 2 weeks before our shoot Ashleigh sent me and email with some very HELPFUL tips. This was great – because I wanted to make the photo shoot as easy for her and me as well. She gave me tips on what to eat and drink beforehand, about doing any facials and about what to bring. Being overly organized; I brought a TON of outfits, shoes and accessories so that Ashleigh and I had more options rather than not enough. What was also great was that my friend and hair stylist came with me and totally helped with the photo shoot. She was there to assist in picking outfits and accessories and also lended a helpful hand in hair placement and lighting.

At the photo shoot – Ashleigh was awesome – she had all kinds of ideas and poses for me to do. I had so much fun. Any insecurities I had beforehand were gone. While shooting she also showed me a few of the shots so that I could see how they were turning out. Being able to look at them got me empowered me and made more into it than I was before.

I was EXTREMLY happy with my photos. She did an amazing job and I had so many to choose from. I made a “For Your Eyes Only” book for my, then fiancé, now husband and gave it to him the morning after we were married and he was BLOWN AWAY!!

Thank you Ashleigh for helping me conquer my fears and for allowing me to surprise my husband!

I highly recommend Ashleigh Taylor for boudoir pictures she has class and taste but really for any photography needs.

Lupe is amazing!!! My mom and I meet with Lupe at her home about 3 months before my wedding. It was nice to go to her and see her linen so I could get a feel of what it would look like. Lupe also did a mock set up with different sashes and overlays so I could get a better idea. Lupe took her time, offered suggestions, let me see multiple setups and allowed me take pictures. Lupe was extremely easy to work with and her prices can’t be beat. The quality of the linen is amazing as well.

For my wedding I ordered 2 organza chair sashes per chair (avocado green and brown) and 18 brown swirl organza overlays for the tables. The way Lupe ties the chair sashes is just amazing. She made my colors pop and made the room just look GREAT. Everything was so cohesive. I also ordered brown runners for our escort, card box and guestbook tables and she did our cake and sweetheart table with brown tulle and had them both light up underneath. Just amazing. She came to the venue early and set up all the chair sashes (170 chairs) and did our tables. She even went back to the venue the following day to pick up the linen for us.

All I can say is that if it weren’t for Lupe I don’t know if my room would have looked as good as it did – I will forever be grateful.

I definitely recommend Lupe and C & L linen for any event.

All I can say is that I’m so glad I had Tina Molina Events on my team  Christina and Melissa worked soooo hard for us on our wedding day. Our wedding was one of the best days of my life; it was organized and ran smoothly. My reception room looked AMAZING and I have Christina and Melissa to thank because they took my vision and made it a reality.

I hired Christina about 11 months before our wedding. We selected her 3 month package and day of coordination. But like others have mentioned each and every month Christina was so good about checking in (via email) to see if we needed anything. That small effort was so nice because knowing our wedding was still so far out, it was nice to know that we were on her radar and it felt like she cared about our wedding as much as we did.

Being a VERY anal bride – I knew how I wanted things set up and placed. At our final meeting it was nice to sit down with Christina and go over everything from; how I wanted our ceremony to look and where I wanted things placed (like reserved seats), to cocktail hour, to what I wanted on our escort card table, gift and card box table and guest book table, to how I wanted our tables set up for the reception and our sweetheart table and cake/grooms cake table. So there was A LOT I knew she was going to be responsible. Our meeting was long because I had so much to discuss but not once did she seem overwhelmed or pressured for time. That was so refreshing because I knew I had a lot of stuff but I would have been really nervous if she would have seemed overwhelmed because I would wonder if she could handle it. And not feeling pressured for time made me even more relaxed because it just shows that she really does care about our wedding and she wants to make sure that it looks like we want it to look like. Also at this meeting we went over timeline. This was something that really shows how organized Christina is – she accounts for every moment so that your wedding runs like clockwork, which ours did.

Our rehearsal was the day before our wedding – Christina ran the rehearsal like a pro. Our venue was having a reception there while we were there so I really didn’t want to leave our stuff there overnight – so Christina was more than willing to put all of our stuff in her car so that everything would be together and safe. This was a PLUS and something she didn’t have to do – she is amazing.

Needless to say – when I saw my room I was blown away – it looked better than I imagined. My tables were set up beautifully and my guestbook, card box and gift table looked fabulous. I couldn’t imagine setting all that stuff up before I got married. I wouldn’t want to do it nor have family and friends do it – it was nice to have professionals and now “friends” take on that responsibility.

I highly recommend Christina from Tina Molina Events, but not just for your wedding for any event!

Rubi has done an amazing job on my makeup thus far. So far Rubi has done my make up twice, once for our engagement pictures and most recently for my boudoir pictures. I’m not one who wears makeup normally and both times I didn’t feel like I was weighed down because of the makeup. The first time I asked Rubi for a more natural look because they were for our engagement pictures and we were going to be outside. The second time, for my boudoir pictures, I wanted more of a sexy look and she definitely gave that to me. I felt so beautiful both times. I can’t wait for her to do my makeup on my wedding day – I know I will look flawless!
Thanks Rubi

*****UPDATE*****

Rubi is a girls dream – she is amazing. My wedding day makeup was flawless – it lasted all day – and most importantly I FELT SO BEAUTIFUL. Once again Rubi did an amazing job on my makeup and my mom’s makeup on my wedding day. And by the way – she is such the sweetest person and so gentle. Rubi came to our hotel suite the day of – she was early and ready to go. Having meet with Rubi a few times prior to my wedding – having her there was like having one of my girlfriends there with me. We all laughed and talked and had a great time while she was doing our makeup. What is also great about Rubi is she tells you what she is applying (this is great for girls like me who don’t wear makeup so therefore don’t know) – some MUAs are really secretive so you don’t know how to do it yourself – but Rubi was not like that at all. Even when my Maid of Honor had questions – she answered them and even suggested places where they could by the product. Rubi is so creative, current and knowledgeable about makeup you can see she has benefited from her schooling and all of the hands on experience she has had.

I’m so blessed to have found Rubi I will definitely be using Rubi again in the future.

I highly recommend Rubi for any occasion!

I can't say enough about Kelly and her husband Derek. They are so AWESOME! Kelly took engagement pictures for us in Downtown Long Beach. Although we knew we wanted to take pictures in the city we didn't have any particular places in mind. Prior to meeting us Kelly scouted the area and had several places for us to go. The backdrops she chose were amazing and so creative. Kelly had so many ideas and at the same time was also willing to shoot pictures/poses we wanted. We were overly satisfied and can’t wait to work with her in the future!