ik425's reviews

I booked Elaine about a year before our wedding, but in late 2010, I read a review from another bride who had given her a very poor rating mostly due to the fact that she had arrived late, requested for a tip, and mentioned that Elaine had called her after the wedding to confront her about her negative review. I became very wary of this. I seriously considered hiring another artist, and in fact, became very anal retentive with Elaine, even requesting her to arrive earlier than necessary just to have a bigger window for time in the case that this should happen at our wedding (our wedding was also really far away, in the Malibu/Calabasas area).

A few days before the wedding, when I went to Elaine’s studio to pick up makeup/hair accessories, I mentioned to my mom the review I had read, as I was unsure of what an expected ‘tip’ would be for something like this, who said that this seemed out of sorts with the Elaine that we had worked with, who was always very courteous, friendly, and professional. When we picked up our accessories, Elaine patiently helped us pick out the accessories she had, and even helped my mom pick out some accessories for herself.

On our wedding day, Elaine’s helpers not only came on time, they were 20 minutes early, and were very courteous, and even played around with different hair styles that the bridesmaids, MOB, and MOG wanted. They also were very professional with all my bridesmaids, were great on time, and listened to all their requests and did everything perfectly. When Elaine came to do my hair/makeup, she was equally courteous and friendly, and just a genuinely kindhearted person who cared to make the bride/her bridal party look amazing. Considering how she probably does hair/makeup every weekend for every bride, she did not consider us “just another job”, and treated us with respect, did an AMAZING job, and I am COMPLETELY satisfied with her services.

When my mom went back to Elaine’s studio to return our borrowed items, she asked Elaine about the negative review, and Elaine explained that while she was late, she did not ask for an extra tip. She tried to call the bride to explain herself, but the bride was terse and hung up on her. I suppose I’m writing this on behalf of Elaine – I’m not trying to negate what the other bride said, because I am SURE that the makeup stylist showing up late on your wedding date is indeed very stressful, but I was definitely influenced by that review, but that instance was uncharacteristic of what Elaine’s services are usually like. And 99.999% of the time, she is an amazing artist and does great work. Also, she has great packages that she puts together for big wedding party groups that are very affordable and cost efficient. She was one of the few people who was great on pricing for such a giant party like ours!

Command Performance was listed as preferred vendor at our wedding site, so I got in touch with them to get a quote for our catering. Unfortunately, the salesperson who I was told to get in contact with was difficult to get ahold of, and did not help much when it came to giving me a sample menu. He haphazardly put together a menu, without giving me any choices, and sent it off to me. When I called him to discuss pricing, and see if there was anything we could cut out of the quote to fit within our budget, he was very abrupt and cut me off several times.

I suggested hiring another vendor to bring in chiavari chairs, as the rental company he was using was charging more than $9 per chair. He went off on me about how some chiavari chair providers did not include set up or take down fees, and that his vendor was better. I asked him to see if there was anything to cut out of our budget to help us get down to the price we wanted, and he said he would try, but never called me back again. In economic times like these, you would think that they would have better customer service, or be more accommodating to people who are going to be paying them upwards of $15,000 for an event. I was not trying to nickel and dime him and try to get him to throw things in for free, but merely work with us on cutting things out that would be unnecessary. Unfortunately, he did not react well to that, and furthermore, never got in touch with me again.

I later spoke to another wedding coordinator in the area, who mentioned to me that this catering company does so many events in one day, it would be virtually impossible to get the kind of attention that you would like. I don't know if everyone at this catering company is this way, or that I just got stuck with a bad experience, but ultimately we went with the sweetest caterer who was so willing to help us make our day special, and not think of it as just another event they had to work.