schoi110's reviews

WPC is a gorgeous gothic church that was featured in many movies and commercials - The Wedding Crashers and The Wedding Planner to name a couple. We were very happy with the church and we were lucky to have found it available on relatively short notice.

Some Pro's and Con's:

Pro's:
- Absolutely gorgeous inside and out
- Wedding price included an organist, a coordinator, and pastor
- Price (not compared to other church but compared to other nearby venues-hotels, outdoor areas/gardens, etc.)
- Long aisle for your moment of glory! :)

Con's
- They require marriage counseling (5 meetings total: an inital mtg with the pastor who will be officiating, 3 one hour meetings with the Westminster Counseling Center next door, a final meeting with the pastor to go over the ceremony)
- They have a strict wedding program that they follow (you cannot write your own vows or play modern music during the ceremony)
- Photographer/videographer rules (can only shoot from behind the last pew and from the balcony up near the front; no flash photography)

It really is a beautiful church...despite whatever con's there were, we were both super happy with our choice.

We feel very lucky to have found the Rococo Room for our wedding reception. We had 120 guests plus 5 vendors and we were worried it might feel too cramped. It was a bit cozy but it definitely didn't feel too crowded. We worked with Sarona and she was very helpful and accessible (via email and phone), however, she was not present on the day of the reception to supervise (which didn't really bother us because we had hired our own day-of coordinator). We loved how the Rococo Room looked and felt. Not at all like your typical hotel ballrooms. It's got cool red walls and twinkly lights on the ceiling. It created a very warm, lounge-y vibe for our reception which was exactly what we were going for. The food was fantastic. We got to choose three options plus a veggie option and the prices are unbeatable! Also, the wait staff was great. They were very friendly and really took care of us and made sure that we got our own plate of hors d'oeuvres and that our plates weren't cleared while we were up and about greeting guests. For the location and quality of the food, I honestly don't know if you can do any better. For those with less than 130 guests, I would definitely recommend the Rococo Room.

After finding Jerry through a a friend (iyroe-she wrote the first review here for Jerry), my then fiance (now husband!) and I knew that we had to have him shoot our engagement/wedding. After meeting with him SF we decided we MUST have him at any cost. :) It was already February when we met with him and his weekends were pretty much booked up for the rest of 2008. He had about three weekends open so my husband and I picked a date and location of our wedding based on Jerry and Ingrid's availability. That might sound extreme to some of you but we have never regretted that decision.

We were on a tight budget for our wedding and although Jerry cost more than we budgeted for photography, we really felt that he was worth more than what we paid for. I agree 110% with what the other reviewers posted. Both Jerry and Ingrid are not only extremely professional and creative, they are just cool people. They're the type of people you want to hang out with and be buddies with. Jerry and Ingrid flew up to Seattle (where we had moved just before our wedding) for our engagement session so we got to hang out with them for a bit and we really had a lot of fun getting to know them a little better. And our engagement pictures turned out sooo amazing. The pictures are artsy, fun, and most importantly, they feel like us. Jerry and Ingrid do an awesome job of trying to get to know you so that your personality comes through in the pictures.

As Iris said, Jerry does a great job of calling and checking in with you periodically before the wedding just to reassure you that everything is on track. I think this personal touch is great and really put me at ease during that stressful week leading up to the wedding. During the day of the wedding, they were there early to scout out the location and to shoot some pre-ceremony pictures. We had a special arrangement with them to shoot our two day wedding. Saturday was the traditional western style wedding at the church. They were everywhere capturing the details but were so unintrusive that I hardly remember them being there! At the reception my 10 year old cousin Jack took an interest and started bugging them and following them around. Instead of getting annoyed, Jerry gave him one of his own cameras to take pictures with for the night! I mean, who does that?! It was so amazingly sweet...above and beyond anything I ever expected from our wedding photographer.

Then on Sunday we had the traditional Cambodian ceremony at my husband's family's house in Irvine. Now, mind you our wedding was during a ridiculously hot weekend (temperatures in the high 90's-low 100's) and because there was a lot of going in and out of the house, it was not exactly cool in there. I have to admit I was feeling pretty grumpy from the heat and exhaustion but Jerry and Ingrid remained in good spirits and THEY actually tried to cheer ME up. And they were professional and courteous to my sometimes demanding mother-in-law. The ceremony started super early and lasted three hours longer than we had anticipated yet Jerry and Ingrid stayed until the end and never complained about the change in schedule or the ridiculous heat.

Needless to say, my husband and I are Jerry/Ingrid fans for life. If I could I would hire them for every special occasion in my life because everything they capture on camera looks magical!

If you don't believe me, see for yourself!
www.blogjerry.com

I found Ricky through my coordinator Margaret (greengelato-see above). We were also sold by Ricky's resume (see above). He was very easy to talk to and flexible on his pricing. He is the opposite of your typical cheesy wedding DJ. We were pretty hands-on in picking the music for our reception and Ricky was very open to our suggestions. But if you don't have any suggestions and just have a vague idea of what you want, he'll definitely be able to work with that as well. We absolutely LOVED the music he played. It was one of our favorite components of the wedding. Our reception felt more like a cool bar/lounge than a typical wedding reception. We would definitely recommend him to any bride looking to create a cool (NOT cheesy) vibe for their wedding.

His contact info is not on here but the easiest way to contact him is via email: kana2003@aol.com