sophiedb's reviews

Pacific Grove Florist on Forest Avenue in Pacific Grove did an amazing job with our wedding flowers and bouquets. They were just beautiful and were exactly what I wanted. I can not say enough nice things about working with them. I met with the owner to go through some example wedding flowers books, she helped me decide on the combination of flowers I could use for the bouquets, and everything was delivered on time for the ceremony and was nice and fresh. I had to make a couple of changes and it was no problem and things were exactly as I wanted. All in all, a great choice for your wedding flowers but also for other occasions (my mom just sent me an arrangement for my birthday from them and it was beautiful and still looks great a week later!!).

http://www.pacificgrovefloral.com/

Condescending customer service and horrible alterations

If you want to be a happy bride and have your bridesmaids treated with respect, do not go to Campus Bridal in Salinas! There's a no return or exchange policy (I should have been concerned when I saw that!)

Here's why:

When my bridesmaid called with her measurements, Theresa, the shop owner, asked her if they were correct. When my bridesmaid said, yes, Theresa said "Really, you have no breasts and big hips?" That is not something anyone wants to hear, so my bridesmaid was really upset.

When my bridal gown arrived, the fabric was billowing out on my rib cage area. The seamstress, who's supposedly worked there for 25 years but does not speak a word of English (and I can say that since English is my second language) did not offer any suggestions on how to fix it. I went for 3 alteration sessions but my dress did not get fixed. My main concern was that I was carrying the whole dress on my neck since it was a halter top and due to the long train, it was really heavy. So, their solution was that I would wear a bra in addition to the breast pads they had sewn into the dress...what a sight that would have been...two bras! They didn't care at all about my concerns and just wanted me to be happy without addressing my concerns. Theresa told me that my hips were too big for the dress (I wear a size 4!!!) and that halter dresses weren't made for my body type. When I asked her why she didn't suggest that I look for another style when I ordered it, she said that was not her job. At the end, I had to tell them I was going to take it to a different, more competent, alteration store and they ripped out the breast pads and the little hook for the bustle before putting it in the bag. I had 2 friends with me and they couldn't believe how horrible the whole experience was. Do not go through this yourself! Check out some other stores for your own sanity and happiness.

Colin Michael is an amazing photographer! He is so talented, especially with using the right amount of light and just a really nice person to work with. He's professional, yet cool. Everyone, from young to old at our wedding, said he did a great job and were very impressed with the pictures. I could not have been happier with the pictures, both our engagement shots and wedding pictures. "WOW!!" That's what I kept hearing from all my family and friends who saw the pictures, they were just amazed, as was I. Since my significant other is a photographer himself, it wasn't easy finding a photographer since he had a very critical eye. We researched about 30 photographers before we found Colin. We met with him and realized he was the best for the job since he took great care in his pictures, listened to what we were looking for and then told us how he could provide that for us. And after seeing the wedding pictures, knew we had made the best choice! Yes, you will spend some money on your photographer and we're happy that we decided to spend a bit more than the median price to come away with such amazing pictures!

We selected the wedding package offered by Gardiner's Tennis Resort in Carmel Valley. What a great choice! It included the rehearsal dinner, Saturday breakfast, the wedding ceremony location, the wedding reception and dinner and Sunday Brunch for the 36 wedding guests staying at Gardiner's (and other little things like a massage for the bride and groom). We did pay extra for the other 40 wedding guests we had in addition to the 36 for the night of the wedding. We wanted our guests (90% were from out of town) to have a great place to stay, we didn't want to coordinate all the transportation and we wanted to work with competent people. We found this at Gardiner's. Cheryl was wonderfully attentive and addressed any questions we had with the help of the other great staff including Carolyn. The food was very good and the atmosphere was absolutely phenomenal thanks to the flowers and care they take in keeping up with the grounds. I would definately suggest Gardiner's to my friends who are looking for a nice complete package and great service.

Kim Larson from Kim Larson Bridal Make-Up & Hairstyling in Carmel Valley did an amazing job! She was calm, collected, did exactly what I had asked and did it with great confidence. I received tons of compliments on my hair throughout the whole wedding and was glad that I had selected to work with Kim.

A month prior to our wedding, I did go to another hairdresser for a trial and when I showed her the picture of what I wanted, this other hairdresser was not able to pull it off so she called the style "Stupid." This is not what I was looking for so imagine my relief when Kim nailed the hairstyle when I went to the trial with her. She also has a great studio in Carmel Valley! All in all, I'm super satisfied with Kim's great work!