julybm08's reviews

The worst service ever and their suits were extremely shabby. Don't bother with this place!

Aileen has a true eye for detail! We could not be happier with our engagement and wedding pictures!
We had worked with another new photographer on our engagement pictures at the beginning and after being disappointed with that photographer's pictures we found Aileen through recommendations on theknot. She was absolutely everything we were looking for. She works quickly and is great at capturing the candid moments. She had scouted out our location before we arrived and knew exactly where to capture the best pictures. In 1 hour she got so many more, quality!, pictures than the other photographer we used first.

After being so happy with our engagement pictures we couldn't wait to see what our wedding pictures would look like. And they are amazing! Aileen was invisible at the wedding. I didn't even know she was taking pictures. I remember thinking, where is she, I hope she's getting this. And she was there! stealth! She captured so many sweet moments like me kissing my new hubby on the cheek as we exited down the aisle and a beautiful hug between me and my sister.

I just couldn't be happier. And the icing on the cake is that her prices are so reasonable. I highly recommend her and would hire her again in a second! Which I'll probably do next year for boudoir pictures. ; )

FI worked with Dale in there and he was very nice. He took the ring my FI picked out and had half of the channel diamonds switched out on FI's request. The only downside was that my center stone is not set exactly straight and when I asked Dale about it he sort of brushed it off. Also, my FI proposed with the diamonds in the ring because they ordered the wrong size sapphires and they didn't arrive in time to swap out the diamonds before our vacation where FI proposed. When we shopped the ring off later to have the stones switched they were supposed to size the ring a half size smaller which never happened. We ended up having it sized at IOTR. The ring is beautiful despite the funny service. They also quote us 3 times as much as IOTR for both of our wedding bands

We worked with Vic and he was just awesome. My e-ring has pink sapphires in it so we HAD to have a custom ring because a wedding band with pink sapphires in it is just not something you find at the normal jeweler. Vic immediately knew what I was looking for and found a band that would go well with my e-ring. He then custom laid alternating pink sapphires and diamonds to match my e-ring. FI also wanted an entirely custom ring. He wanted to have waves on the ring but not just any waves. He wanted the tide chart from the day we met and the tide chart from our wedding day to over lap. Very sweet idea I must say! We took a sketch into Vic and after some discussion he was able to make exactly what we were looking for. The best part of all this was the price. Our rings costs us half to a third of what all the other normal jewelry shops were quoting us. I highly recommend IOTR.

Ashleigh is new and just starting out. She is very accomodating for locations and such but we didn't feel that she had the confidence we were looking for. Her prices are great though so if you are on a budget I'd give her a shot.

I loved Katie! She did an even better job on the day of the wedding than she did at the trial. She arrived right on time and had everything she needed. My hair turned out exactly how I wanted and my makeup was perfect. She even covered up my birthmark so that it could not be seen at all. My only complaint is that I had to drive to San Clemente for my trial which is a bit far from Long Beach. She did seem willing to travel to me though if it was absolutely necessary. I was having a hard time finding free time on an evening night but she was totally willing to work with me.

Our cupcakes were AWESOME! They tinted the icing just the right colors. They looked very well decorated and most of all, they tasted amazing. We ordered 72 cupcakes for 48 people and only 4 were left at the end of the night which we took home and they disappeared by morning. The delivery and set up was only $45 which was totally worth it. The deposit for the cake stand was $60 which we got back when we returned it. The stand was easy to take apart and transport. I highly recommend Frosted. Talk to Stacia or Nancy.

Also, as a follow up to other reviews...we had no problem getting a free tasting for our small wedding of 50 people. They let us pick out 3 cupcakes to taste.

I found this florist through a friend that is using her for her wedding. She found her through her mom who knew her from a friend's wedding. They said she did great work. Sonia was very kind by showing me her work and we had a looong discussion about what I wanted. My other florist bailed on me two weeks before the wedding so Sonia was a lifesaver (or so I thought) to come through and help me out at a great price at the last minute.
However, my flowers were NOTHING like what I asked for. I told her I wanted my bridal bouquet to big MOSTLY Fuschia. I was VERY clear that I wanted Fuschia; not light pink. And that I wanted orange and green accents (ACCENTS!)
Well, my bouquet turned out almost completely green and white. The orchids she put in (which I asked for only a few because I didn't originally want them but she insisted that they'd be great) all fell out! By the end of the night there was not a single orhid in my bouquet. They were all on the floor!

By BM bouquets looked like they were just tossed together, no creativity at all. I had given her pictures! Pictures of exactly what I wanted! My bouquet wasn't ugly by any means but it definitely was not anything like what I asked for. I could have done a better job myself.

We had a small wedding so we decided against using their large ballroom and opted for the dining room instead. We had our ceremony on the beach behind La Palapa. This is one of our favorite restaurants and had the tropical beach feel we were looking for. Elizabeth does most of the weddings there and she was easy to work with. My only gripe is that sometimes Bear (Mary – her mother) returns Elizabeth’s emails and she doesn’t know what she’s talking about since she hasn’t been involved. I even had a cake baker (Great Dane) complain to me about Bear. However, Elizabeth was good about answering all of my questions (even though it took her a few days to email back sometimes) and did a great job coordinating the wedding ceremony. The ceremony started right on time and ran smoothly with her directing the whole thing. The food was fantastic and we got so many great comments from our guests. My mom said it was the best thing she had ever eaten (she had the King Salmon). One gripe about the reception though…the servers kept clearing drinks if a guest got up for even a minute, even if they weren’t empty. When hubby and I went to take a few extra pictures outside after dinner we came back to our drinks gone. When we cut our cake our drinks disappeared. When we tossed the garter and bouquet the drinks disappeared. It was a real pain but the server did replace them when we asked her about it. But there is no telling how much that happened to our guests and we ended up paying for new drinks. We had set a maximum bar limit and they somehow went over it by $200. Elizabeth gave the few of us that were left at the end of the night free drinks because of it but I’m sure it didn’t equate to the $200 we went over or the amount of non-empty drinks that were taken. All and all though the service was excellent. The food came out fresh and hot and all the tables were served around the same time. Elizabeth was also active during the reception making sure that everyone had what they needed and were enjoying their food. The best part of everything is that we didn’t have to break the bank to have a great time and good food. The entire reception and ceremony for 50 people was just under $3000 (that did NOT include flowers, décor, cake, etc… but it DID include food, drinks, linens, cake cutting fee, sangria toasts, ceremony, tax & gratuity).

Mahtab did a fantastic job with my dress. Only the hem, straps, and bustle needed to be altered because the dress fit me like a glove but she made the hem look even better than it did from Pronovias. Provnovias had made a sort of rolled hem which wouldn’t lay flat but Mahtab fixed it all and also created a beautiful French bustle which was perfect with all the layers in my dress. For the straps, bustle, hem, and steaming she charged $330. She was in Laguna Niguel which was about a 45 minute drive for me but totally worth it.