tychan's reviews

The Buttery Bakery was the only way to go for our July, 2009 wedding in Monterey. This was one of the last vendors we needed to select, and probably the most difficult to decide on. Our original plan was to just go to Safeway and order a cake from their wedding collection, but after attending a bridal fair and meeting the ladies of The Buttery, we knew they were the bakery for us. Very laid back and nice, they described the cakes they could make and their prices were affordable, considering the over the top prices some other vendors were charging. We scheduled a tasting with their coordinator, which by the way is really nice and patient. At our tasting we decided on a four tier chocolate devil's food cake with two types of filling, fudge ganache and hazelnut cream with a white buttercream frosting accented by clusters of green cymbidium orchids on each tier, white chocolate shells and topped by two blue sugar paste dolphins. Lovely. (but try their carrot cake, one of the best I've ever had) they have books and books of photos of cakes to give you inspiration, because we had no idea what we wanted.

The cake arrived on time without any problems, eventhough it was traveling from Santa Cruz to our venue in Monterey. And the cake? Divine. A bit rich maybe for most, but perfect for us. Highly recommend.

I worked with Julia, who is the owner of Seaside Florists in Monterey. She is great and this is a third generation, family owned florist shop, so they have been at this for a very long time and have cultivated very good contacts with the local growers. She keeps meticulous notes and is very kind when you change your mind on flowers or styles. I had five bridesmaids bouquets, five groomsmen boutonnieres, bouts for all of out uncles and aunts (about 10, my bridal bouquet (and toss away) and groom's bout along with our parents' bouts and corsages and two flower girl hair wreaths. All of them made entirely of orchids and it cost under $800! They delivered the flowers on time, and at no extra cost, because we were only about a mile away. Everything arrived fresh and beautiful and withstood the entire evening of hugging and dancing. One thing that stuck out was when my husband and I went in for a consultation, everyone that walked in was greeted by name, which was nice and showed the relationship that has been built over time.

It helps to bring print outs of exactly what you want, even though they have books of samples. If you bring the print outs, you can leave them with Julia, and she can work off that.

We had Ho'omana play during our ceremony and cocktail hour at the Beach Resort Monterey (see reviews for that hotel) and they were wonderful. They came early and played as our guests entered and got settled down. Can't say enough wonderful things about them and their music. Beautiful acoustic music. The best way to contact them is via email. They are not a cover band and have released their own CD - so they mostly play their music but readily play anything else you may want. They've performed all over the Bay Area and if you truly want that Hawaii-in-California feeling, hire them without hesitation.

We had our wedding here in July, 2009 and what a fantastic experience! We booked this hotel about a year before our wedding date and from day one, we had nothing but great, top notch service. We checked out Seascape Inn, the Monterey Plaza, etc, but this hotel by far had the best view (only hotel in Monterey right on the beach), most flexible menu wise (we didn't have to pay extra to add entrees and got to design our own menu), and very affordable for what you get with their services. We booked it on the spot.

Emily and Alexis are a dream to work with, very on top of what's going on, very helpful and they'll do whatever they can to make sure you and all of your guests are well taken care off. They both respond to emails and phone calls in a very timely manner and are also ready to step in with suggestions. In fact, the staff for the most part were very nice and extremely helpful to our guests.

We decided to have our wedding on the South Terrace with our reception in the La Grande room. We were very lucky to be the only wedding taking place at the hotel, its not uncommon for them to have two weddings in one weekend. Our menu went hand in hand with our "tropical, hawaii-meets-Monterey" style and the chef whipped up an amazing buffet of Huli-Huli chicken, baked mahi-mahi and my favorite, the kalua pork! When you book their wedding package, just about everything is taken care of and the only things we brought in were our own cake, flowers, photographer, DJ and decorations. The wines are a bit pricey, so we opted to bring our own and pay the corkage fee, which worked out better for us.

Our ceremony took place at the South Terrace which is an elevated area just off to the left of the hotel overlooking the beach and ocean. When we originally booked it, there was sand and no sea wall (had an infinity pool look to it - very cool). There was some minor grief when we found out that the entire place had been ripped out, replaced with a 3-foot seawall and concrete flooring with carpeting for special occasions. It actually worked out well and we were able to have all our guests and our Hawaiian band set up without the worry of sinking into the sand. A new feature for this year is a new arch, which we got to use on it's maiden unveiling, so now you don't have to choose their standard, white metal arch, you can have this lovely bamboo arch which is beautiful for beach weddings. The reception room held our cocktail hour and dinner. The La Grande has a perfect view of downtown Monterey due to their entire wall of windows. The hotel was a great value as well with all the inclusives at a very reasonable price. The hotel rooms can be a bit pricey, especially if you are on the ocean side, eventhough this is a Best Western. But you'll forget that as soon as you walk into the lobby with the view of the ocean just steps from the reception desk. The rooms are on the small side, but unless you're spending a lot of time in the room, its clean and quiet. We stayed one night on the 'garden' side, which you would think is noisy since the freeway is not far away, but they have great soundproofing and we didn't hear a thing.

We prepped in the Bayview room on the morning of the wedding, which is nice because there is a partition so the men can change on one side and the women can change on the other and giggle and tease each other which helped elevate the whole experience. Another plus is that its large, so you don't have to worry about everyone fitting into a room to get ready.

Overall, wonderful hotel that has spectacular views, great service, helpful staff and is affordable. Did I mention that when we went to settle our tab the next morning, we actually got a credit?! How many people get a credit back at the end of a wedding? The nicest moment was after all the partying had been finished, and nearly all the hotel guests had already gone to bed, my new husband and I gathered with some of our friends and settled in the lobby to laugh, drink and reminisce into the wee hours and the staff left us to celebrate, never once asking us to pack it up or keep quiet. Beach Resort Monterey is top notch in our book and we're really grateful for their help in making our wedding day perfect.

I must have had some luck on my side when PW brought me to Giao. Another vendor I was working with fell through with only three weeks until my wedding. I contacted several vendors through this board and Giao was the only one who responded - added bonus, she was free on my wedding day, but booked solid from there on out. I immediately booked a trial hair and makeup with her. When I met her, I knew right away that I would feel at ease with her. As with the other posters, she is indeed extremely nice and personable. We went over my photo inspirations and fortunately she steered me away from my "prom hair" selections and gave me a very contemporary (and comfortable) hairstyle. The makeup session was more than I could have asked for since I don't wear make up at all and I was so afraid I'd look really over done. She worked her magic, and she managed to accentuate all the right features without it looking like I had makeup caked on. The application of individual false eyelashes was smooth and it felt as if I was not even wearing them, but boy, are they fantastic! I cannot wait to have her work on me and my girls at my wedding. Her prices are reasonable, and her hair accessories are fun and beautiful. I'm wearing a few of her orchid creations in my trial photos. She is also a photographer, and along with her husband (who is also a photographer) together they are a triple threat. Seriously girls, if you are still searching for a hair and makeup person in the Bay Area, seek out Giao, she is a rising star in her field and she will take good care of you.

Check out my photos to see an example of her work.

UPDATE:

Giao is a gem! She arrived on 7/11 at my venue in Monterey early (Start time of 9 am she was there at 8:30 or so) and started immediately on my five bridesmaids. Each of them turned out beautifully - she has an amazing ability to make each girl look lovely. When it was my turn, she did a fantastic job - I looked even better than when I had my trial. My eyes were amazing - I forgot I was even wearing individual lashes or make up! I also had Giao made three orchid hair pins for my hair and they turned out great and really added to my beach themed wedding. It felt like a friend was taking good care of each of us and when she was finished with each of us, she didn't immediately pack up her things to go, she did another round of touch ups for each of the girls and even worked on our flower girl, who was a bit off that day. Another thing to note, her makeup stays put. I teared up quite a bit walking up the aisle to my husband (I didn't expect to see him tear up) and nothing budged, nothing smeared on my veil. My make up lasted 1:30 to 10pm without needing a touch up and my hair stayed put during two wardrobe changes. We had an after party well into the night and I never felt that I had to take down my updo or remove my makeup, that's how comfortable I felt. She is a real sweetheart too, and will keep you at ease as you get ready for your big day. I'm definately keeping her mind the next time I need to "jazz" up my look for the day or evening. Book her now while you can, I forsee her becoming very popular and in demand and for just cause. Thank you Giao for making me feel so beautiful on my wedding day - the look on my guy's face said it all!

I will post photos as soon as they are ready...