A Timeless Occassion

Very helpful! I had a great experience looking for dresses at this shop. Not only are their gowns beautiful but they are affordable too. This store is definitely worth the travel. Be sure to ask for Pat. He knows a lot about the fit of the gown, the designer, the bustle, etc. He also does the alterations. He's very helpful and patient. Another plus: they do not sell their samples unless it's discontinued. That's such a huge relief since most shops will sell their samples if a bride is willing to buy it. I plan to go back and look for more gowns. More reviews to come!

UPDATE 5/26/08: I met Helen and she is great too! Her, Pat, and Helen's mother in law are all great and very patient. I tried on several gowns and they were wiling to bring them all to me. I absolutely love their bridal collection and bridesmaid collection. They were also very honest with regard to the fit, weight, and look of the gowns.

We almost didn't get our tuxes! We were suppose to pick up our tuxes the Wednesday before our wedding. We called the Sunday before to confirm and kept calling them for the next couple days. No one answered or returned our voice mails. DH drove to the shop that Wednesday and no one was to be found. Luckily, I was able to get the owner's cell phone number from someone off a wedding forum. Apparently, the owner was really sick. But, that didn't explain why the rest of his staff wasn't at the shop to help us. If we hadn't gotten his phone number we would have been screwed. There was no note on the door or a phone call. I was very disappointed.

I was actually quite surprised at the level of service and pricing we received from A Timeless Occassion. Their pricing for their selection of Maggie Sotterro's and Cassablanca dresses were very affordable and all their wedding dresses come with a complimantary veil.

OH MY GOD... I just had my wedding and I could not have been happier with Helen as my wedding planner. From the day I met her, she was on top of everything. Even though I had to keep going back to my budget to see how we could have fit her in, my husband and I made it worked AND believe me, it was the best decision we could have ever made. She did everything from morning to the end of the evening to make sure that all my vendors were happy and everything was packed away properly for my parents to take back with them. She was very responsive... ALL my vendors just LOVED the timeline she sent out to them... AND especially my family and bridal party just adored her!

She showed up early... worked with the Altadena Country Club team with ease. It definitely helps that she comes highly recommended from them. I don't think that my husband, family and I could have asked for a more perfect day.

Just on a side note, I read what that last post said about her and I think that everyone has an opinion. I felt bad that, those many things went wrong, but I would hate for future brides to rely on that post solely. Everyone, please do your research like I did... there are a lot of other reviews on them out there. DO your research before you hire them and not base it on one particular bride.

Just wanted to give Helen and her team the "shout out" that they do DESERVE!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU to you guys!!!

I hired A Timeless Occassion for rental of chair covers and also for a DOC (Day Of Coordinator). Although having a DOC was outside of my budget, I really wanted to have someone who would handle the logistics and any issues that may arise, rather than placing the burden on family and friends.

I hired Helen, and at the first few meetings, she seemed perfect to me. We seemed to get along very well, she was responsive, and seemed like she was very experienced and was fully confident in having everything under control-so I booked her! I let her know that since I was only hiring her as a DOC, I would handle everything leading up to the day-of on my own, but would need her input on my timeline, and she was okay with that.

Unfortunately I started having problems when I could not reach her, sending her e-mails, leaving messages on the business answering machine. I was planning my wedding and needed her input on my timeline, as I was looking to her as a professional for her input. After waiting and waiting too long for feedback from her, I moved forward and luckily, had a MOH who worked with me on my timeline, addressing my concerns of balancing it out so that the guests were not waiting too long while pictures were being taken, ensuring everyone had enough food, making sure that my playlist was being honored, etc.

I began to feel frustrated when I realized that Helen was not the person I thought I had hired. Just before the wedding, I visited her to drop off all of the items, provide her with checklists, went over my timeline and last minute details.

On the day of the wedding, my vendors had difficulty getting in touch with her. My husband and I planned to surprise our Mothers with roses during the ceremony. During the ceremony, my pastor asked me for the roses, and I had no idea where they were, so we sadly, we had to completely skip that part of the ceremony. I found out later that they were placed underneath chairs- it would have been helpful if she had let someone know she had placed them there!! During the reception, passed trays of food were never brought down to the lawn, where family were waiting to have their photos taken. They didn't get to eat any food for the 1.5 hr it took for our photos. Not only our family not get fed, we also paid for all these appetizers that didn't get served!! I had also let her know that the votive glass candle holders were loaned to me by my florist and she would need to help me keep those from being taken home by guests. At the end of the night, I counted up the votives and there were 25 out of 69 missing. When I asked her about this, she said the florist understood some would be taken home by the guests, and if there were a few missing, not to worry. My florist is an amazing lady, she let me borrow so many things and was so understanding of how guests usually walk away with stuff, I totally get that she would have said something like that. BUT 25 PIECES MISSING? How can that rest easy in anyone's heart?! Helen did not apologize or address the fact that she didn't have the DJ make the announcement to guests asking them to not take home the centerpieces, as I asked her to. I'm sorry, but I can't take advantage of my florist's good heart and be okay with giving her stuff back with 25 pieces gone- how is that acceptable? I talked to the florist the next day and she was stunned at how many pieces were gone. I ended up replacing the missing pieces.


Let me be clear in saying that I totally understand that things happen at weddings, I did not expect it to be perfect, there are always things that will happen that can't be controlled. But my problem with Helen is that there were so many easy things that she could have done if she had her finger on everything (as she should-I'm paying her money!). A big portion of the guests not being fed, running behind schedule, missing items... these were all things that I addressed with her during the meetings prior to the wedding, to try to prevent things like this from happening. I feel that she did not put the time she needed to dedicate to making sure she would have a good hand on my wedding, which is why all these things happened. When we had face to face meetings, I got the impression she was reviewing the materials I had sent her for the first time when she was sitting in front of me. She did not have the input of an experienced coordinator to share with me.


I worked really, really hard on my wedding, and kept organized and made sure I was sharing my wishes with Helen, as she would have the responsibility of making sure the day went well. As a bride who is working hard to make her wedding special for herself and her guests, you will work your butt off up until the day of the wedding. On the wedding day, everything is out of your hands-the responsibility becomes that of the coordinator. Your job that day as a bride is to soak up every special moment of that day that is yours.

This company gets one star, because it's the minimum required to post an entry.