ojai1's reviews

Gabe, from Gabriel Boone Photography took my husband and I’s engagement photos. He drove up to British Columbia, where we first met, to capture some of our favorite memorable spots. He was a pleasure to work with and made us feel extremely comfortable and relaxed. Joking around during the shoot provided some great, fun photos. We received our photos very quickly, which was helpful for incorporating them into our ceremony programs. The photos were perfect for using in our slideshow and other decorations around the reception. Gabe and Boone are brothers that shoot mainly in Portland and Seattle, but cover the west coast. They are fun to work with and amazingly talented.

Ashley is a pastry chef out of Bellingham, Washington, who has been trained by the best at one of Wolfgang Puck’s restaurants, Spago, in Beverly Hills. Her cakes and desserts are absolutely fabulous and make no comparison to any of the bakeries I have sampled. Using only the finest ingredients, they are moist, rich, melt-in-your-mouth delicious! She makes the tasting of seemingly simple chocolate cake rise to new heavenly heights. Do not think the frosting far behind, as she has perfected delicious butter cream icing. Oh, and she makes everything absolutely gorgeous as well.

Being drawn to historic ballrooms with beautiful wood floors and romantic lighting made the Acadian Ballroom a fitting choice for my reception. Since my wedding was in the summer, I had the challenge of making a dim and candlelit ambience. The ballroom had shades that they pulled down over most of the windows, which was really helpful. My biggest concern upon visiting the ballroom for the first time was the seeming fascination with Greek/Roman décor. There are white urns with green ferns placed all around the ballroom, as well as on the buffet table. The object of the fruit display at the buffet, I am told, is to give that Roman feast feel. Despite being told up front that the ferns could not be moved, they eventually did remove them for me, and I was able to decorate how I wished.

There is a nice loft area upstairs for the bride to get ready in, and is great for photos. They also have a nice built-in bar area – though it does look a bit like a night club with blue lights and all. When we visited the ballroom, we were surprised to be able to talk to the owner, Sean, who was very accommodating. Their staff is extremely helpful and friendly, and makes the actual reception flow with ease. We were very pleased with our experience there.

I was a little weary of the fact that we had to use the Acadian’s catering, and after attending the food tasting at the ballroom, my husband and I weren’t very impressed. However, at the actual reception, the food was fabulous: hot, tender, and very aesthetically pleasing. One of our favorite dishes was the roasted vegetable ratatouille. They customized the menu for us in order to cater to our tastes, which was great. The wait staff was also excellent, and made sure to serve the wedding party and family right away, without being asked. The appetizers were also great, and as a bonus, they had chocolate dipped strawberries and truffles available all evening.

I have heard similar reports as far as the food tasting before the wedding, so unfortunately, the first impression does not accurately represent the quality of food on your wedding day.

In my hunt for chair covers, the most important factor to me was price. I just did simple white covers, with no sashes. I found Touch of Style, located in Hillsboro, and they were wonderful to work with. They had the least expensive chair covers out of everyone we researched, and they arrived as early as the reception site would allow to put the covers on for us, and they showed up to take them all down after we left the reception. On the day of the wedding, neither my husband nor I ever saw them… which to me indicates that they did a superb job.

This photography duo, Brian Lee and Leah Nash, were a pleasure to work with and were very professional. They got our photos back to us in a timely manner, which was very important to me. Brian and Leah shoot “documentary style”, which means that all of our photos were very candid. They had a creative eye and got some great shots.

What I realize now is that I was putting different expectations on “documentary”, or “photojournalistic style” than what that style actually entails. Romantic, non-traditional posed shots that have a candid feel to them was more along the lines of what I was looking for.

Note: Brian Lee and Leah Nash have since embarked on their own separate photography companies, and no longer shoot together under the name “The One Photograhy.” www.theonephotography.com directs you to each of their sites.

The Academy Chapel was the perfect setting for our intimate ceremony. This historic building, which encloses the chapel, is a beautiful, stately looking brick manor. The grounds are beautiful and make a perfect backdrop for photos. The chapel itself is gorgeous and majestic, while small and intimate. Light streaming in the many windows makes the hardwood floors glisten, and the acoustics are excellent – no need for microphones for the ceremony. Parking is plentiful, but I have heard that it can get really muddy for your guests if your wedding is on a rainy day (ours was dry). The chapel assigns you a wedding coordinator, which mainly just helps with the major logistics on the actual wedding day. They do have a ballroom to hold a reception in, but there were too many rules and regulations for us, and we thought it was a bit pricey for what it was.

Overall, I am pleased with my wedding band from Shane Company … they were very friendly and helpful in the store, and it continues to sparkle and shine. The only "bump" we ran into was that one of the tiny diamonds (it is an eternity band) fell out of the band before the ceremony on the wedding day. My husband tried to get it fixed, but the right person wasn’t in the office that day to fix it. They did offer a loner, but my husband (thankfully) refused. Therefore, there was an obviously missing diamond on our wedding day and on our entire honeymoon. We got it fixed upon our return, and were having a second reception … when the same diamond fell out a second time right before the reception. At that point, I was thinking, "this is absolutely ridiculous." Of course they were very apologetic, and fixed it a second time. The ring has been in tact since, but I can see where they raised one of the prongs to hold the diamond in which sticks out a little more than the rest.

my actual rating would be 3.5

My husband and I created our invitations ourselves, but got all of our supplies from, and were inspired by, Paper Zone. They have so many templates and examples of wedding invitations to look at in the store, which really helps to get the creative juices flowing. The staff was very helpful and friendly, and for the most part, the supplies were easy to find. You do have to buy in bulk to save on cost, which may mean you have half a pack of paper left over (we still use some of ours for crafts, etc.). The only “let down” from Paper Zone was that I was able to find similar paper in different places a little cheaper, but Paper Zone was the only one to have everything we needed in one spot.

Bridesmaid dress shopping was almost the easiest experience in my wedding planning. I knew that I did not want really trendy or fancy dresses that my bridesmaids would never wear again. Every bridal store’s dresses just had the same look that I’ve seen at any other wedding. I was looking for something different. Browsing online at Nordstrom.com, I found a simple, timeless and classy knee length truffle brown dress. I simply emailed the photo to my bridesmaids and was delighted that they all loved the dress. I am so pleased the my friends have continued to wear these dresses to special events long after the wedding, and I must admit, even I borrow one of them occasionally.

Steven can best be described as an extraordinary wedding planner and designer. He is an extremely talented floral designer, dressmaker, cake artist, and musician. His exquisite taste adds class to every detail. Though we did not use him as our wedding planner/designer (he is based in Bellingham, Washington), he did design and create my wedding gown. Working with Steven, you are taken back to a time where couture dress designers created masterpieces by hand for a specific person, for a specific event. Being able to help design your own dress is a wonderful experience I think every bride dreams about. The result was a beautiful silk ballgown, complete with a gorgeous train, beautifully accented lace, and individual crystals hand-sewn onto the lace. Breathtaking.