Mariposa's was the third store I visited. The staff was very nice and helpful, and the layout of the store is nice too, so you don't feel overcrowded when looking through all of their dresses. I wanted to show my friends a dress I had tried on last week at La Soie, and it was $550 cheaper at Mariposa!!!

Sandra was really helpful and even brought out dresses from their back room once she started to get a feel for my taste. I would definitely recommend Mariposa Boutique - very pleasant experience.

Update (7/4/09) - Everything went smoothly after I purchased my dress. I was able to pick it up, no problem - and I'd also purchased their dress-prep package where they steam the dress/veil after alterations, and everything turned out well. They don't pressure you to use their seamstress, which is nice. I loved wearing my dress on the day-of and got tons of compliments from our guests.

Jaclyn's Bridal was the first place I went to try on wedding gowns. It was a very pleasant experience. The store is a little smaller, so their selection of gowns is limited, but the ladies who worked there were very nice and helpful. Some of the samples were a bit dingy, but overall the store was clean and cozy.

I loved my experience at La Soie! It was the second place I've gone dress shopping. I've been there twice so far - I initially was eyeing Pronovias Diamante, and they didn't have the dress in the store that day (they have another location in Torrance), so they offered to let me come back the next day to try it on.

The girls who helped me, Sheena and Esther, were genuinely nice and very patient. I was initially a bit scared off of bridal dress shopping in general after reading so many negative reviews for places, but it was great here. The store itself is very spacious and clean, and the dressing rooms are very large and attractive. The samples are in very nice condition, and they have huge selection, which was fantastic. They're also very flexible about how many dresses you can try on (I tried about 10, but they told me some people try on over 25-30), and they were very nice about letting my family take pictures and giving us style names/designers of dresses, along with prices. Awesome service.

I ended up falling in love with a dress from Enzoani's Blue line, instead of the initial Pronovias. I'll update when I make my final decision, but I'm 90% sure I'll buy my dress here.

UPDATE: I ended up ordering my dress from Mariposa as they had the same one for $550 cheaper - but the service here was great!

We were referred to Reverend Schneider by FI's best friend. We met with him and he was so nice and personable to chat with - he even remembered FI's best friend's wedding! His rates are very reasonable and he is extremely flexible with the ceremony - we wanted a non-denominational ceremony, so he is perfect for us. I'll update this after the wedding.

Update (7/4/09) - We were very pleased with Reverend Bob! He is so nice and laid-back, and our ceremony went exactly as planned. I would highly recommend him!

We booked Tom Chandler to deejay our wedding next year. He seemed very professional and prepared when he met with us. He drove out to meet us, which was really nice too. He has very reasonable prices and seems very laid back, not cheesy at all. I'll update this after my wedding.

Update (7/4/09) - Tom did a great job DJ'ing our wedding! Everything was exactly as we'd requested - he got all the songs we wanted, and it was clear that he'd really paid attention to all of our requests prior to the wedding. We had a morning wedding, so I told Tom we didn't expect a lot of dancing - no problem, he just gauged the vibe of the wedding and went with it. All of his music selections were great and the our reception went seamlessly - he even nailed all of the pronunciations of the last names :D

We just met with Eddie yesterday, for our consultation. I liked him immediately - he is genuinely friendly, and clearly loves his work. He was organized and patient, and spent well over an hour with us, just chatting about our wedding. I'm sure he's done it hundreds of times but he never seemed bored or impatient. It was fun to tell him all about my "vision" and he seemed to understand everything right away. He also drew pictures of my ideas which was really cool to watch, and that just enforced to me that he really understood what I wanted.

The quote we received was extremely reasonable - less than I thought - and he never made us feel bad about having to stick to a budget. He even gave us tips on how we could save money. Such a nice guy - after meeting him, I can't imagine going elsewhere. AND (since yesterday was the final game between Lakers/Celtics), he even turned on the game for FI to watch on a mini TV he had set up next to our table! FI absolutely LOVED that! hehe.

I'll update after our follow-up meeting (where he shows us a mockup of our centerpiece and a BM bouquet), but I'm 99% sure we'll book them.

UPDATE (7/14/08) - We just booked Eddie today. I was a little disappointed that he forgot to make our mockup of the bridesmaid bouquet, but the pomander ball he made for our centerpieces was really cute. I think he could tell I was a little sad, so he tried really hard to make me feel better and promised to make a mockup closer to our wedding date, when ranunculus comes into season. I'm still confident that Eddie will do a great job on our wedding day. I'll update again after the wedding!

Update (7/4/09) - Our flowers on our wedding day were beautiful! At our final meeting before the wedding, Eddie was really helpful with figuring out the final touches for our arrangements and extra decorations. When I saw everything on our wedding day, it all looked really nice and he'd followed our requests exactly. Our personal flowers especially were beautiful - I LOVED my bouquet, it looked amazing.

The only thing I was not 100% happy with were the hardiness of the pomanders - they looked lovely during our ceremony, but I noticed during the reception, it looked like some of the flowers had fallen out of a couple of them them and they looked a little bare. Other than that, though, everything turned out beautifully. They are also so reasonably priced!

Yay! My experience at Ann Taylor was AWESOME! Vesna (at the Westside Pavilion location) spent nearly an hour tracking down all the sizes I needed for my bridesmaids. She called five different Ann Taylors, having them do stock checks and having them put them on hold for me. She also placed an order from another store which wasn't local and had a dress shipped directly to me for no extra charge. I also opened an Ann Taylor card that day, which gave me 10% off all day, so I was able to get a discount on everything! I can't recommend them enough, both for the quality of their dresses and the great customer service they offer. I ended up visiting four different Ann Taylors to collect the dresses, and every single employee I interacted with was extremely helpful and professional.

I just received my order from them today - I ordered all of the paper for my placecards/escort cards, programs, and menus from them. They are awesome! Easy ordering, great prices, super cheap shipping, and most of all - the product is GREAT quality. Couldn't be happier!

After listening to all of the samples of string quartets I could find in the area, these guys stood out in their quality of sound/playing. I met with Petros and while he was a bit nervous, he was very polite, organized, and answered all of my questions. He seems like a very experienced musician, and his communication is prompt and courteous. I'll update this after my wedding.

Update (7/4/09) - I was really pleased with String Quartets and More. Throughout the whole process, Petros was very communicative and easy to work with. He and the other musicians were even willing to learn new songs for our wedding, which was really nice!

On our wedding day, everything went flawlessly - I could hear the music from where I was hiding (waiting to walk down the aisle), and everything sounded great - there were no issues with cues or anything. Petros also asked me how I wanted the quartet to dress, which I thought was a nice touch. I would highly recommend them!

We just booked our date with Louis and Erin Palos. They were so friendly and personable in their emails, so we had high hopes for our actual meeting. They were just as funny and natural in person - as soon as we walked in I knew they were the right photographers for us. Their work is also very impressive - my fiance and I knew we wanted clean, crisp photos without a lot of effects/retouching, so they were perfect for us. I'll update this after our engagement session and wedding, but our first impression of them is extremely positive.

Update (3/12/09) - Our e-session went really well! Erin met us at UCLA and we walked all over the campus shooting pictures. It was a little weird to have someone following us taking pictures at first, but Erin has a really great personality, so we relaxed pretty quickly. Some of my favorite shots from the session were from places Erin suggested - and she has a great eye, so she was suggesting areas that never would've occurred to me. We were very pleased with our pictures and received many compliments.

Update (7/4/09) - Erin and her two shooters were amazing on our wedding day! Erin was super accommodating and really listened to my requests - I'd asked for tons of detail shots and while I was getting ready, I could see her scurrying around the room and hearing clicking noises - I can't wait to see what she captured. Her second shooters were also great - one of them, Carrie, was so nice and helpful, I felt comfortable with her even though we'd never met before.

We just saw our teasers and LOVED them - everyone is so impressed with them!! We are very eagerly awaiting the remainder of the pics!