Coming on a year out from our wedding day, I can finally write out full reviews of our space and vendors. This is a long one so grab your coffee or wine glass and let’s begin!

NOOR: our venue was a one stop shop as it was the venue, food, tables, chairs, linens, lighting etc! We only had to bring in our own cake, dj and photographer. I found Noor on wedding spot as they’ve won yearly for best wedding spot in LA. I give Bridget Ann a lot of credit as she was one of the few vendors to be persistent in emailing us to set up a walk through and give us pricing right away. She was a rockstar as she helped us get things squared away especially as we were a pandemic wedding so we went from having our wedding May 2020 to October 2020 and then to October 2021. My only issue with Noor was during the pandemic they did not communicate their closures. In March 2020 when things locked down, I saw on their website that they were closing for the spring and summer so I had to chase them down to reschedule to October 2020 (oh how naive was I to think the pandemic would be “over” in a few months). Then again in July I saw on their social media that they were closed for the rest of the year and had to reach out to them to reschedule for the following year…I understand they were short staffed and trying to work in unknown times, but communication is so key. If we had an option to take our money and go elsewhere (honestly wish we planned a smaller wedding situation like my brother’s!) we would have, but their contract was iron clad so we just kept to it since being out thousands of dollars just wasn’t feasible for us. Overall Noor was a great venue and Bridget Ann was amazing! NOOR’s day of coordinator did move and change a few times due to pandemic, but we greatly appreciated Miranda and Kaelan!

Day of coordinator: NOOR’s recommended vendor list had Wife of the Party as the go to for day of coordinator so we went with it since it seemed like a good idea to have someone who knew the venue and the flow of timing. I can’t speak for the actual owner of Wife of the Party, but we were assigned Lucy and she honestly phoned it in aka was terrible. It started with our tasting in March 2020, we met and she seemed disinterested the entire time. She didn’t say much and I chalked it up to her being busy or having a lot on her mind as I used to work in the wedding industry as a wedding planner and day of coordinator (2011-2015 and love celebrating love, but coming out of school it made me nervous not to have a 401k…but one day I want to go back!). Fast forward to Sept 2021 for our final meeting and Lucy was much more chipper and I thought oh good, the time off aka pandemic closing time did her good to reset. Her attitude was better, but she didn’t bring much that day as I made up the timeline template and full vendor and wedding contact sheet. Then the next day was our rehearsal and Lucy was a no show. She didn’t tell anyone she wasn’t coming and luckily NOOR’s coordinator, Kaelan, jumped in along with myself and my dad (retired pastor) were able to run the rehearsal. Day of wasn’t much better. During our first look, Lucy was blowing up our phones about a missing table name card. First rule of being the day of coordinator, don’t bother the bride and groom and problem solve yourself. I didn’t see her solution in person, but heard it was ghetto and not well done. Also I typed and printed a set list for how the table seating would be and when I got there, none of it was followed correctly. And to make matters worse, I find out later she straight up was missing most of my wedding parties’ table seatings. Thank goodness most of my friends knew the table arrangements and had the issue fixed before I got there, but she was also rude to those who were trying to help make my vision come true – again all typed out in detail. To end it all, Lucy left early! She left her assistant with me, but never introduced me so it wasn’t till it was all ending that I even knew her assistant was there to help.
I can’t speak for Wife of the Party itself, but Lucy was terrible. I did tell Noor the feedback and they said she was no longer allowed to work their events. I really hope that wasn’t lip service and it was the consequence to her lazy actions. Recommendation: 0/5 – I’m probably a harsher critic for this since I was a day of coordinator and wedding planner in the past, but not showing up for rehearsal automatically lost Lucy any recommendation – imagine if I hadn’t been in the industry/a bridesmaids 9 times and had a pastor father help run the rehearsal – that’s not fair to any bride and groom.

Photographer: I met Wes from Still Talking Productions at my friend’s wedding in 2019. Their photos were sharp and bright and airy and it seemed like a good fit. We booked Wes a month after we got engaged! He seemed quiet during our meeting, but I trusted his guidance. Our engagement shoot was a few months after October 2019 and Wes spent extra time with us since it took a bit to warm up and we loved the photos (see link for that post!). Day of the wedding he and his team were silent ninjas working around us and I was excited for the photos! Here’s what I have to say upon receiving them: Wes takes beautiful outdoor photos with natural light and great shots indoors of movement meaning our before the ceremony and reception photos were great. Indoor photos without a lot of movement were strange – the ceremony photos were pretty orange and the styling/crop was never quite centered – he took a lot of over peoples’ head shots that seemed like my uncle would take (actually I think my uncle would have done better!). I’ll admit I wasn’t pleased with the photos when I first got them and cried and then had to talk myself down that it’s just one day and at least 2/3 of the photos were good. Please note also that Wes shoots tight shots meaning printing 4x6s are fine, but going any bigger is going to require special printing because an 8×10 will cut off someone’s shoulder or face so you’re looking at special printing 8x12s. And I’m bummed no one took a photo of my husband as I walked down the aisle – that seems like wedding 101, but I didn’t get a shot of my husband’s first reaction which is a bummer because I heard he cried! I think overall the priority was different and again I’m a harsh critic, but I definitely should have shopped photographers before deciding since I prefer farther away shots than cropped in and all the photos of my dress, no one fixed my train which I’ve now learned that women photographers are better about that attention to detail, but definitely lesson learned for me. I still love my before ceremony photos and most of the reception photos, but since I wasn’t pleased with all, I ended up retaking some wedding photos a month later with Aja from Bairly Media for better dress photos. She was a rockstar and I would highly recommend her! As an add on, I would still hire Still Talking Productions for their videography – they capture the mood very well and I feel like all the amazing ceremony shots were on video! Recommendation: Still Talking Production: 3.5/5 (engagement shoot ✅, most of before ceremony and cocktail hour photos ✅ – some group shots people were cropped too tightly so missing ears and shoulders, reception action shots ✅ and wedding highlight video was a huge ✅✅✅ so that’s 4/5 but the items were a little past the due date so knocking .5 off for that); Bairly Media: 5/5 recommend – knew how to direct us for posing and attention to detail was 100% and photos came back early.

Cake: Dream Sweets Baking Company who is only a kitchen with no brick and mortar shop and to be honest they were exactly what we were looking for! The price was well within budget for a 3 tier cake with added sheet cake for the rest of the guests (to feed 120) and the cake was moist and delish and we got so many compliments about our cake after the wedding! Recommendation: 5/5

DJ: Rob is the owner of Second Song who we found on the knot. Friendly guy and worked with my husband mostly – they were quick to respond to all emails which was super helpful during pandemic planning. We were assigned DJ Henry who got the cues right aside from starting the father/daughter dance song a bit early, but overall was good. Music was a little loud for me and I wish I did just tell them to turn it down, but apparently club music is the way to go and I have learned I rather it to be at a talking level. Recommendation: 5/5

Photobooth: Eureka Photo Booth we met at our friend’s son’s birthday party in 2018. We booked them immediately once we got engaged since we loved their fun props and that they had a boomerang feature. Daphne was quick to respond to any and all emails and we got the photos night of our wedding! Unfortunately the boomerang option malfunctioned so that was a dud and I do wish they told me that instead of waiting for me to ask about it. I also do wish I got a print out of everyone’s photo booth pic, but hindsight is 20/20. Recommendation: 4.5/5

And that’s it folks! Our wedding day vendors in a nutshell. Would I have gone with the same vendors knowing now what I do? No, I definitely would have shopped around more, but I also didn’t know I had 2.5 years between my engagement and wedding. Am I glad the wedding day happened? Yes, regardless of the mishaps (which yes, I’m still in therapy trying to let go) I am glad for a day for our family and friends to celebrate our love. And let’s be honest, the wedding day is more for the family and guests anyways and by that count, it was all a success since we got told our wedding “was the most fun!” – pretty sure that open bar helped a lot with that declaration 😝 xo