Carina arrived on time, ready to go, and did a stellar job of making my mom, my girlfriend, and me look like rock stars. My makeup held through the night completely and I had no issues with my false eyelashes coming off until I wanted them to which with other makeup artists this has been a problem (however my mom and friend both had a little problem with them poking/sliding which resulted in their eyes watering). I opted to go away from the traditional, natural looking bride approach and went with what we had pretty much used for my boudoir pictures (also done with her) and she was able to accommodate my request with ease.

I had reviewed the demos of at least a dozen different videographers who had our date open and ended up not finding anyone I felt comfortable enough to be there with us on our wedding day. We were very lucky to find HD InVision so close to our wedding date.

On our wedding day Robert and his assistant showed up early and were ready to roll. They captured so much footage that we had no idea that they had even gotten... they were everywhere! Because we were such a small, intimate wedding we weren't sure how they'd settle in among our guests but even our friends and family were having a blast with them.

We were blown away when on a whim on our honeymoon we checked his website to find our demo video already up. We forwarded it to everyone on our email lists that we could find as it was simply amazing. We couldn't wait to see our video and thankfully we didn't have to wait for long until our video arrived on our doorstep. We were both rolling in laughter and crying so hard by the end of our video we both hurt. His ability to edit the actual video (we also received the raw footage) still blows me away three months after I received it and after at least half a dozen viewings. It’s truly a professional, TV-quality piece of work. I can't recommend these guys highly enough.

You can view our montage on his sample video page under “Kelli & John.”

I love these girls. I don’t think I would have made it to our wedding day without them. Jennifer was an absolutely invaluable resource during the wedding planning process. She was able to give us referrals and help me know where I needed to be at that point in planning. The rehearsal went smoother than I had expected thanks to her – I don’t think I had prepped anyone as well as I thought I could have for my two sets of parents dynamics. Our wedding day was… well, a challenge. They kept everything going as best as they could given my two families interference, our friends showing up early (way, way early), wedding crashers, my SIL from hell, and the general issues of our venue. Without them we never would have had the wedding - after everything - of our dreams. I cannot recommend them highly enough!

Kristi was our second shooter for our wedding and we were blown away with her ability to capture our event without feeling like we were being directed or our space was being invaded on. She's down to earth and was a joy to talk to. We cannot recommend her & our main photographer (Serena of Serene Image Photography - both were originally second shooters for Digital Studios) enough! We received all of our professional pictures this last weekend and the attention to detail and the little moments that we hadn't even realized were happening just blew us away.

This woman is a dream to work with. Flowers were never a top concern for me but she managed to peak my interest and gave me the time to go through what I wanted and put together exactly what I asked for. When I changed my bouquet with two weeks to go she had no problem with the adjustments and was in addition able to order the 200 loose white orchids I was going to order online for the same price. Day of, my flowers arrived via my DOC and they were simply stunning! Everything held up to the ample abuse we put them through and still looked amazing by the end of the night (and two days after the wedding is still looked awesome).

Our cake turned out amazing – so soft, rich and yummy! We had major excess in cake (I opted not to downsize it from the 50 we ordered it for originally) that we were glad to take home. The rich chocolate with peanut butter mouse was by far our favorite. Did I mention it was stunning? I think everyone got more pictures of our cake than they got of us. I originally located them through a bridal show (worth it - we got 10% off!). The cake was design was one of their model cakes that used to be in their show room in Los Alamitos

I booked Greg without ever meeting with him based off of my DOC's recommendation & other good reviews. When DH & I met with him a week before the wedding to review the ceremony wording, we were blown away with what an amazing and funny guy he was. He helped us walk through our ceremony wording, verified what we didn't want there, helped us remember some of our longer lines of our vows, and just gave us one hell of an entertaining afternoon. On our wedding day Greg was a calming presence. He met with us before the ceremony to review, to calm us down, and to get us ready to go. He performed the ceremony beautifully and I had the best time watching him crack up during our reading... He was by far one of our most entertaining and easiest vendors to work with.

By far The Surf & Sand had a ceremony view that we could not find anywhere else in OC. The terrace view was unsurpassed by any other venue we had talked to (and many did not want to talk to us due to the size). There are some quirky steps to their planning process: you cannot book your location until nine months before the wedding, they are not willing to shift or bend to ideas they are not comfortable with (square tables – oh the bane of my planning existence!), and are at many times completely and totally impossible to communicate with. Our catering manger was at times a nightmare to deal with. During the last three months of planning I could not seem to get a hold of her for anything if my life depended on it. My DOC set our final walkthrough and the catering manager called me an HOUR before hand to ask who was coming. I had to ask for my final paperwork (layouts, payments, finalized menu, etc) twice before she gave it to me. She neglected to wait until my final walkthrough to let me know that the final payment that was due 20 days prior had never made it (yet my parents had a signature confirmation from when they sent it a week prior to the due date). You want to infuriate a bride? Tell her thirteen days before her wedding that they haven’t received final payment and they need it today. There was a time span of 17 days between the time my final payment was due and final walk-through - ample time to let me know that payment had not been processed.

I did not find out until our wedding day (and I had asked multiple times!) that there was another wedding going on at the exact same time as ours on the upper terrace - both outdoors, literally two stories apart. Our reception rooms were stacked on top of each other so our guests mingled to use the restrooms. We ran into the other couple and their bridal party multiple times through out the day and there appeared to be no effort on the S&S’s party to negate that. The other bridal party was allowed to take pictures using my cocktail setup and the only reason they moved was one of my DOCs & friends said something (never mind I actually witnessed this while hiking back to my bridal suite before the ceremony). Their guests were frequently found before the wedding down by our reception area, hanging out at our tables, looking at our pictures, before either ceremony (theirs or ours) started. Weird? The personal favorite part was while my brother and DH were walking over to our ceremony site one of the lovely GMs from that wedding screamed at my husband to “shut the f--- up, you’re not getting married today.” Classy! Suddenly there was a shortage that day of candles (we had been promised 10 on each table, they provided three instead - Jennifer went out and bought more on her way up to the venue) & chilled champagne, wine, and beer to satisfy both weddings.

At our reception our DOCs really took over which is probably why it went a thousand times smoother. Have I mentioned I love these girls? The event manager (not the catering manager) kept our drinks full and went out and got us Red Bull for our cocktails for just the two of us since they do not normally stock their event bars with it. I had asked her to put together a to-go plate for our honeymoon suite since we got to eat very little… that never showed up to our room (which by the way, by the time we got up there, there was no longer room service so all we had was the booze and cake our DOCs put up there!).

By far the most interesting aspect of our reception was our sheer number of crashers from the other wedding. Apparently a large number of people spent all night peeking in, sitting at our tables, looking around, and getting on our dance floor. Our DOCs were in overdrive kicking people out while I don’t think the S&S figured it out… Our wedding had 32 guests. All of a sudden we had a lot more. Some had to be removed from our wedding multiple times by DOCs, family, and friends before they got the picture.

I would recommend the S&S for the view but I would highly, highly suggest to you get your own wedding planner for more than day of services to give you a helping hand through out the process. Their venue and catering managers, in my opinion, are only there to protect the interests of their hotel and little else.

I did my original dress shopping alone – I couldn’t get my mom to come along with me for a number of reasons. Grace was amazing – I came in on a Tuesday morning by myself for my “hour” appointment and stayed for two. She and the manager played dress up with me to our hearts content because I hadn’t given myself a specific idea of what I wanted as my gown. I tried on everything from Amy Michelson to no-name designers (Exclusives who?). They really paid a lot of attention to me and stayed within my budget.

I found my dress misplaced on a clearance rack. It wasn’t attractive in the bag. I figured I’d give it a shot. I’m so glad that they helped put together the whole package (veil, sash) because it sold me.

When I brought my mom & a girlfriend to make the final decision we weren’t pressured and the entire process went smoothly even though I ordered rather late. My dress came in two months early.

The ONLY unhappy experience I had was during the pickup. We arrived on time and were made to wait so someone buying shoes would be serviced since they were so sorely understaffed the day after Christmas. I had made it VERY clear that all I wanted to do was get in my dress, verify its fit, and get out of there (my parents moved out of state that night and we had a moving van sitting at our house while we were at Mon Amie). Unfortunately she still insisted on putting loads of expensive jewelry on me and pushing flower girl baskets and ring bearer pillows and other random things that I didn’t need, want, or wouldn’t have bought from them anyways. I opted to have my alterations done with a private seamstress (Mahtab) so I saved myself the $350+ I was originally quoted.