ilsci's reviews

Peter Rudolfi was a little rude with me and I didn't want to work with him, but DH struck a deal with him for our wedding musicians. They turned out to be great musicians, but they were not very professional. We explained to them several times which song should be played for the wedding party processional, bride's processional and recessional, but they still didn't get it right. Their guitars were out of tune and they started having a loud conversation right in the middle of our ceremony. I don't recommend using Rudolfi Music Agency for your wedding.

My response to vendor's responses:
1. It was not their voices, but their guitars which were out of tune. Several musician friends were cringing at this and thought it was very unprofessional of them not to tune the guitars before-hand.
2. There was no friction between my husband and I - what is he talking about? I didn't like the way he spoke to me and I felt disrespected. I was planning to go elsewhere, but my husband thought it wasn't worth the time to search for someone else with the wedding so close. The fact that he wanted to charge us a "lesson" fee of $50 or $100 just to meet with the musicians before-hand was ridiculous. Especially because we did not require meeting with all 3 musicians, and we agreed to meet at the time and place most convenient for them. Every other musician we considered had a pre-wedding meeting built into their contract. Can you imagine hiring someone to play for your wedding without hearing them play? This is especially crucial for non-standard musicians, since I did not know any Mariachi songs which would be appropriate for a wedding processional.
3. I don't care if the musicians denied it, they did not play the songs we agreed upon. We had also agreed that they would begin playing the recessional the moment we kissed, but they actually took a very long time. My husband and I played it off by kissing for a VERY long time - which was fine in the end ( : But, again, not professional. Also, you cannot blame any of these things on a language barrier since my husband is fluent in Spanish.
4. Finally, we have all of this on tape and if anyone wants to see it you can email me. The loud talking along with my 76 year old mother turning around to sush them, the out of tune guitars, the late start for the recessional, the fact that they forgot the brides recessional and just re-played the bridal party recessional over again rather than changing the music for me. It's all on tape, and with multiple cameras too.

I would give him zero stars if I could. We hired Eric because we thought he would be able to play some of the latin and world music we wanted. He is a very irresponsible person and after he received our deposit, we never heard from him again despite countless phone calls and email during the two weeks before the wedding from both DH and our coordinator. He showed up the day of our wedding with no clue as to what was supposed to happen. My coordinator gave him a detailed timeline and a CD that I had made. DH also sent him several emails practically begging him for a playlist for dinner and dancing so that we could edit it and provide him with any music he didn't have. We said we wanted latin and world music during dinner, so he went ahead and played Phil Collins full blast. Then for the reception we said we wanted him to play "Celebrate Good Times" immediately after our first dance to get things going. Instead there was silence, for about 5 minutes with DH and I standing on the floor feeling so uncomfortable. He then played some oother random song no one had ever heard of. This guy is completely clueless and I regret not hiring the DJ recommended to me by my wonderful coordinator. Don't hire Eric Sanchez! Save your $750 and rent speakers to use with your ipod instead.

Karen's cakes are absolutely delicious and beautiful. We had 3 tiers of tiramisu, chocolate rasberry and lemon contreau. All were fantastic and the cake was beautiful. My only problem with them was that they called me 3 hours before my wedding to tell me the florist had dropped off the flowers and they weren't sure what to do with them. That was the florist's error, as we had agreed she would place the flowers herself. Nonetheless, it is a major faux-pas to call a bride on her wedding day. They should've called my coordinator. In the end, however, the cake arrived on time and was decorated beautifully (see photos) and tasted absolutely amazing.

I don't even know where to begin with this review. What Melissa Franco and her team did for our wedding is something money cannot buy. She was thoughtful and caring and treated me, DH, and all our family and friends with such kindness. She has a wonderful personality and diffused every stressful situation by making everyone laugh and by coming up with excellent quick fix solutions. Melissa is an amazing problem solver and she is just the person you want to take care of you and those you hold most dear on your big day.

I hired Melissa as my Day of Coordinator, but she did so many things that fall far outside that job description. Our venue called less than two weeks before the wedding to say that the city had begun construction near our ceremony location. I called Melissa in a panic and she straightened everything out - there were no remnants of the construction visible on my wedding day.

Then there was the rehearsal, for which we were almost an hour late. Melissa stayed a full extra hour and never complained or rushed us through it. She made sure everything was right and that everyone was comfortable with their role before we were done.

We had a lot of printing trouble, and so by the day before the wedding we still had not assembled the programs, place cards, favors, and many other crucial details. Melissa stepped in and went to the fabric store to get the exact ribbon I wanted for the programs, then assembled them all herself. She assembled our favors and cleaned up the mess the printers had left with our place cards. She even found a way to fit in 4 last minute guests and she picked up 150 sparklers for our farewell at the end of the night. I felt so guilty throwing all these extra tasks at her the day before the wedding, but she never complained and executed everything perfectly.

On the wedding day I was so thrilled to see that all the decorations and projects I worked so hard to plan were all perfectly executed by Melissa and her team. She brought along two interns and they all wore those wireless headsets so they could communicate easily by cell phone. Melissa was a superhero that day. I wasn't there for all the setup, but my in-laws were and they were amazed at how she was always in 10 places at once and was always one step ahead of the other vendors, helping them set up.

During the wedding, Melissa consistently made sure that DH and I were happy. She handed me a glass of the special sangria we asked for and if she hadn't, there's no way I would've been able to taste it. She helped me with my dress change for the reception and made sure DH and I had lots of cake in our getaway car to enjoy later.

Hiring Melissa was the best decision we made for our wedding. She made our day so special and memorable and we will always be grateful to her for that!

The flowers were the single most disappointing aspect of my wedding thanks to Anne Mendenhall.

Let's put aside for a moment, the fact that she completely forgot about so many of the details that we agreed upon (and that I paid for), that she dropped off the cake flowers with our baker instead of arranging them herself at the site like we agreed (causing the baker to call me 3 hours before my wedding - not what I needed on my wedding day!). Let's forget about the fact that she didn't even show up to my wedding, but sent assistants instead (apparently that's her standard practice) and that she didn't even read the emails or look at the flickr album I spent hours creating for her to give her a better idea of what I wanted. There were so many blatant blunders by Anne and her team, but forgetting about those things for a moment and looking at the quality of the work she did do according to our contract and plan, it was terribly disappointing!! I nearly cried when I saw my bouquet. It wasn't hideous, but it wasn't pretty at all. She did what I asked for, the types of flowers and the colors, but the quality of the flowers was terrible. The blooms were small and browning, wilted and lacking any vibrant color.

A florist is not just a technician, but an artist. I didn't include the instructions "make it beautiful" but even if I had, my guess is she wouldn't know what that looks like.

From looking through her books and going to her cute little house, DH and I really trusted Anne's artistic style. We really figured we couldn't go wrong with her. Now I wish I would've just stopped by the farmers market to grab whatever fresh flowers they had. The colors may not have matched, but at least it would have been pretty.

I spent so many hours pouring over wedding magazines and websites, planning out the perfect look for my wedding. I would have spent double the price to have a florist who was professional, who cared enough about her clients to actually read their emails and spend the time to make the flowers beautiful.

I will never have my wedding day back and though it was still a beautiful, wonderful day, I deeply regret hiring Anne Mendenhall.

If you're looking for an all-over-lace sheath type dress, Monique is your girl. No one has better quality lace or more elegant designs. I bought mine used and it still looked fantastic on the wedding day.

This is a beautiful and versatile venue for a wedding. There are several different spaces you can use, a redwood grove, a large, private patio, a Japanese tea house and garden, a large exedra with a beautiful fountain, and a large, beautiful hall with hardwood floors and floor to ceiling windows, a HUGE kitchen (caterers love this), a little stage for your band or DJ, a pull-down projection screen, and several chandeliers and wall lighting with sconces which you can dim individually to achieve the best lighting. The people here really know what they're doing and are super helpful too. The prices are steep for non-residents on the weekends, but weeknights and resident rates make this place a steal.

Post-wedding update:
This space was beautiful on our wedding day, but keep in mind that it is first a park and community center and second a wedding/special event venue. We got married on July 3rd and there were about 20 port-o-potties at the parking lot entrance and the beautiful grass was covered with blankets from local citizens wanting to secure their spot for the 4th of July festival the next day. There was a larger-than-life stage that completely blocked the path between the exedra and the community hall (thank goodness we didn't have our ceremony there). Also, they called me the week before to say the city was doing construction next to our ceremony site. This was very stressful, but in the end they cleaned up almost everything and were very apologetic about the whole thing. Also, there were endless people and dogs walking right through our ceremony location right up until the ceremony began (and again right after it ended) despite countless "private wedding" signs placed all around. The staff at PCH were very competent and helpful. The rental coordinator, Barb Murray, was even on site the day of my wedding. Though this space is magical and beautiful, I can't really recommend it for a wedding ceremony. As a reception venue, however, I can't imagine a better or more versatile location.

This review is based on the wedding site only. The concert venue is beautiful and the whole park is great for dogs and general recreation. We reserved the wedding site on-line without ever seeing it since we are out of state and had fond memories of concerts there. This was a BIG MISTAKE. We lost $430 since the deposit is non-refundable and there is no way I would consider having my wedding there after seeing the place in person. The redwood grove where the ceremony is supposed to be held is really a mud-pit that never dries out, even in the summer. The "beautiful reflecting pond" was dried up with a bunch of garbage at the bottom and a stench so powerful, I can still smell it in my car. Last, but not least, the clubhouse is really the gardeners house (his room is upstairs with the dirty curtains hanging in the window). The place is seriously run-down inside and out. I thought it would be rustic, but dilapidated is the more appropriate term. There were rat traps in every corner of every room, and did I mention the smell? It's sad, because the rest of the park is so beautiful. When you walk into the beautifully landscaped concert venue, with pretty green grass, the difference is like night and day. The wedding venue is inexpensive for SF, but I expected a lot more than this for my $1500.