eclktp's reviews

Dina was the very first vendor that I KNEW i wanted to work with when I first got engaged. Photos were a high priority for me because I knew that I would have those forever and look through them many years to come. I loved her work because it captured something truly magical, romantic, and emotional in photos and her photos of the brides had this breath-taking, classic, candid, and elegant feel to them!
When I first met Dina, I knew she was perfect- Dina is warm, friendly, sensitive, funny, and honest. My husband and I are, at most, semi-photogenic (I only have one pose and smile). Dina helped make us laugh and comfortable in front of the camera. More importantly, she would tell me if I had my fake smile or how to strike the most flattering pose. I appreciated these corrections while we took the photos so I didn't have to see one single bad picture (of the 3000+ images) of me or my husband from our wedding and engagement photos! Dina would help guide us in what poses and where we should place our arms, hands, head, and it made the shoots so much easier.
There was a fire on PCH when we got married so the traffic caused delays in our timeline, causing us to miss scheduled time to do our bride/groom photos. Dina graciously offered to re-take our photos if we got dressed up again, which we did a month later and it was so much fun working with her again! Dina wanted to make sure our wedding photos were perfect and she did everything to make sure that it happened. While Dina does alot of Indian weddings, our wedding was a traditional wedding and I cannot say how amazing and how happy I am with her work! If I could give Dina more than 5 stars, I would!

I love flowers, so I had very particular tastes and preferences that make no sense to many people-- For example, I do not like flowers with dark centers, certain shades of green flowers and the buds of orchids). Michelle did an incredible job!! After our first meeting, I felt that Michelle was very receptive to my ideas and very conscientious. Michelle was affordable and would provide great input on the ideas I had on areas that I could save money when I was debating on certain items. I felt that Michelle truly worked with me on what I wanted.
I debated quite some time on high or low centerpieces or mixed high/low and Michelle, having worked at my reception site, recommended a combination of high and low because of the chandeliers in the ballroom. She was right; it was stunning! At the trial when I saw my centerpiece, I was truly blown away and touched that Michelle had created everything I wanted, remembering my dislikes and quirks.

The flowers at my wedding were beyond stunning. I didn't think it could be possible, but they were even more beautiful than the trial! I had people compliment my flowers all night long. My husband's grandma who has attended ALOT of weddings in her years told me how they were the most beautiful wedding flowers she's ever seen. I felt like she went above and beyond what I expected. I had added this green mum covered cake stand/base idea last minute, which Michelle had never done before, but executed beautifully! Due to a fire on PCH, I had to do a makeup shoot with my husband and Michelle recreated my bouquet. She was happy to do a small project and I really appreciated that even then, she created such a stunning bouquet! I highly recommend Michelle!

My husband and I picked Pepperdine because we loved the stained glass windows in the chapel and its ideal location in Malibu. We wanted to have a smallish (110 guest) wedding and I always disliked venues that seemed so empty because of the vastness of the location. I loved Stauffer Chapel because of the beautiful wood ceilings and the stained glass windows that gave this warm, uplifting, and beautiful feel to it. Lyn from Pepperdine was a wonderful to work with. She was always friendly and promptly returned all phone calls. She followed up with me to inform me how my florist needs to attach the flowers with particular pew clips and sent my florist photos of the pew edges so my florist would be prepared with the right stuff. The student helper who was available at our rehearsal and wedding ceremony was very nice. The dressing room was located up a flight of stairs, so I opted to stay in the limo before the ceremony. Despite the PCH fire that caused roads to be closed and a delay in my ceremony time, they were accommodating. I highly recommend Stauffer Chapel!

I had seen several veil photos that I liked because of the fullness of the veil on the top. I contacted Occansey and explained what I was looking for and sent them some photos. They were able to identify what I needed to order and how I could attain the "fullness" of a single layer veil. I tried on a veil at a bridal salon and could not believe how much more they were charging for the same style veil for the same quality. The veil was perfect and affordable!

Linda did a wonderful job. I bought my Monique Lhuillier dress on ebay because it was no longer available in stores. The seller and I compared our measurements and the sizes we wore at most retail stores. I even thought it may have been a tad too big. When I received it, I couldn't button the top 5 buttons! It was a strapless dress and it was about 1 inch too small on the small of my back!
This was stressful because I bought the dress early and did not want to alter it 10 months before my wedding. I spent months worried that this could not be fixed and I would have to buy a dress last minute. When I met with Linda, Linda assured me that it could be fixed and after months of worrying, she was calm, patient, and smoothing and her work was amazing!
I knew that I needed the dress to be hemmed, bustled, and let out, but Linda had an eye for details- she noticed that the boning in the bust line wasn't very natural on me, so she told me and altered it. I did not notice it when I first tried it on, but after she fixed it, it looked so much better! I loved Linda's friendly personality, her dedication, promptness, and eye for details. My mom loved her work so much that my mom had her alter her dress too.

My parents mainly dealt with the cake order. They charged extra because it was delivered to our wedding reception, which was far away from their store. It went smoothly-- showed up on time without any language barrier issues. They did not have many flavor selections and there designs were less ornate, but I'm not really into wedding cakes. I had white cake with fresh strawberries. The cake was simple and elegant and it tasted fresh and not too heavy. It complimented the dessert buffet. For the cost and overall experience, they were great.

I hired Pat Maki Players because I loved the sound of their trio and their pricing is very fair. I grew up playing the piano and I love classical music, so music selections were important to be. I love the sound of the harp, so I picked a trio with a harp. The harp player costed extra, but it was completely worth it. I loved working with Pat. Pat made sure I heard all available samples with the harp combination. Pat was friendly and helpful and all the musicians were very professional. I only wish I heard more of the music!

I booked Karri for my Day of Coordinator about a year before my wedding. I instantly loved that Karri was professional, calm, experienced, friendly, but also able to be serious because I wanted someone who I could count on. I didn't want another "girl friend" who would gush over details about my wedding. There were times that Karri would take a week to e-mail me back, but my wedding was more than half a year away and my questions were not pressing. Karri would always provide insightful suggestions and ideas on everything. Karri went above and beyond what I had hoped for as a DOC. Anything I needed, she was there for me. A week before our wedding, we had a problem with our officiant, so I sounded the PANIC horn and Karri saved the day. Within 24 hours, Karri had contacted officiants she had worked with and liked. She had a working list of three who were available. I cannot thank Karri enough for helping me through this. The officiant we went with, Rev. Clint Huff was fantastic.

About two hours before our ceremony, there was a brush fire on PCH that shut down traffic and caused delays. Karri handled this calmly and professionally and did not cause me or anyone else to worry about anything. During the whole day, Karri was always calm. Karri's personality matched my and my husband's personality more than Courtney's, but Courtney helped at the ceremony location and made sure everything was cleaned up while Karri was making sure the reception location was set up. Karri was a lifesaver because she kept our stranded guests company, who were unable to make it to our ceremony due to road closures. I highly recommend Karri!

Damon was great. Damon was recommended to us by our Day of Coordinator, who used him as her DJ for her wedding. I thought that spoke volumes of Damon's abilities. Damon was everything we wanted in a DJ- someone who was professional, polite, attentive to details, and conscientious. Damon was always on top of our time lines and e-mails. While Damon offered to meet with us, we did not meet with him before the wedding because we felt so confident talking to him on the phone. Damon was so great that my out of state friend who was planning her wedding asked me how we found Damon and what questions we asked him-- we had to tell her that we were just lucky!

The garter maker created wonderful garters. I had a charm from my husband and my alma mater that I wanted attached to my garter. I mailed it to her and it was done perfectly. I had requested peach ribbon on my toss away garter and Shelli e-mailed me when she couldn't locate it. She made another trip to the ribbon store and found it! She books up fast so be sure to book her early!