mandy57's reviews

After losing the beautiful set made for me by Steph at Springdream.com, Jenn came in and saved the day by making the gorgeous necklace that I wore on my wedding day. I designed it originally, drawing inspiration from other designs that I’d seen on www.carriedmader.com (More gorgeous jewelry!). Steph made it for me, but I lost it in my cross-country move. I then had Jenn make it again for me. She was so sweet to meet with and did it really fast for me (even though she was planning her own wedding for the same day!). It was just perfect - all my BMs adored it. It was perfect with my gown. I loved it. I highly recommend checking out Jenn’s web site - she is offering much of the same kind of jewelry that higher end bridal jewelers are offering now, but at much lower prices!

Overall, they were great to work with and the staff were wonderful. I was a little sad because the suite I wanted was booked when I tried to get it, but they did give us an upgrade to a gorgeous ocean view when we then booked a standard room. They negotiated a good price for our guests, and made sure all guests received their OOT buckets. Some rooms (ours) were noticeably smaller than others, so some of the guests were taking notice of other guests' rooms and wondering about the discrepancy, but the hotel overall is very nice and well decorated and clean. By far the best value in Santa Monica in my opinion. Location was great, as lots of people explored 3rd Street and some went on a morning beach walk together.

We loved the fact that these candles came in really good glass containers with seals, smelled delicious, and came already tied with our choice of ribbon color and a little poem of wedding remembrance. Not only were they really easy, they were cheap (under $2 each) and everyone took them home! I have to mention that because I hear all the time about people leaving favors behind...and if anyone did, others made up for it by taking extras. People loved them. Plus, Rog and I took a few along with us on the honeymoon and they were perfect for setting the mood :)

The fact that we knew him since he was our neighbor for two years made it so special to us and everyone present. He also happened to be a reverend, so he flew out from the east coast to do our ceremony. It was such a personal and moving ceremony, with elements of lightheartedness....everyone talked about how wonderful it was. We did a lot of things to involve the guests during the ceremony as well, and his personal testimony to our love made it a very personal time. We were so lucky to have had him.

Not only was the food great (the shrimp were huge and tasted amazing, and they had lots of vegetarian options!) and the atmosphere fun, the staff was friendly and provided great service, the room had an amazing view of the ocean, the location (at the end of the Santa Monica pier) was perfect for our out of town guests, and best of all: at the last minute, they arranged for my DH to be able to show his video that he made as a gift to his GM on the TVs in the banquet room, so we could show it for all of our guests to see.

For my 'maids I got them each a different sterling silver necklace, a silver frame to hold a photo of each one with me on the wedding day, flip flops for the reception, and a silver satin clutch purse with lining to match their gowns and their initials embroidered in them made by Sarah Michelle Designs.

Guest book was beautiful and just as described. Great seller with quality products.

My mom and I designed and put them together ourselves. But we did buy the ribbon from WWW.PAPERMART.COM and they were great. Cheap and beautiful, quality ribbons.

The good news is that all of the guests absolutely RAVED about Dan and his band. They really were fantastic performers and to anyone not behind the scenes, they were the best band they’d seen at a wedding. This is why I gave them as high a rating as I did. However, my experience with them was a bit...complicated. In a nut shell, once a deposit was received, the lengthy and kind phone calls and emails ceased. I was met with curtness and annoyance to my questions, he double booked my date (with another member - thank goodness, so disaster for one or both of us was avoided!), and I was unsure if he would arrive. He did arrive, but he did not prepare to announce the wedding party, mispronounced a few names, and...worst to me of all...played the father-daughter song before the father-daughter dance was scheduled. Luckily - see my catering review - Donna from Monrose handled it all and made sure that he was doing things on schedule (he had no idea), and had him play the father-daughter dance later in the night. We used the same one because, realistically, nobody else realized he’d already played it. Still, I was upset when my dad walked up to me halfway through the song, ready to dance to half of it if we needed to...and I just said to him, “it’s okay Dad, we’ll get to dance to our song.” Nonetheless, we hired him for his Sinatra renditions, and he did an incredible job. We also hired the band for their versatility and energy and this was fantastic as well. They played fun songs (everything from Madonna to Earth, Wind and Fire) and the crowd was dancing to every song. Our floor was packed all night, and people were sad when the band had to end. Donna was amazing and took care of his carelessness with regard to running the show, and the only real upset I had was pre-wedding and with the one song. Still, in spite of the amazing performances and the fun time had by our guests, it might have been nice to be able to trust the band to show up and emcee the event :)

Although I didn’t get to hear them play during cocktails, they brought tears to my eyes at the ceremony and when I heard them audition for us. Margaret and the guys were so sweet and professional, and everyone LOVED them. I heard from a lot of people about their talent and their friendly personalities. They learned to play a hymn for us as well, that was incorporated into our ceremony where everyone sang to it together. They also provided a music stand for my BMs to use during their ceremony performance (one of them sang and one played guitar). They even went to the trouble to learn a bunch of Cole Porter tunes because they knew I wanted an “upbeat, jazzy” feel to the cocktail hour. They always remembered who we were and what our wedding was going to be like, even with all of their other customers. A very reasonably priced and talented group who were wonderful to work with. I gave them all big hugs after the cocktail hour :)