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We have so many people to thank for making our wedding day so wonderful. It truly was the happiest day of our lives, and so much fun too! I want to thank everyone who has posted on this site, it was an invaluable resource to me in planning, and I still find myself looking at the site even months after my wedding! I definitely went overboard with my reviews, but I wanted to be as helpful and detailed as possible for future brides as I got so much great advice from this website during my own planning. We were able to have a classy, fun, wonderful wedding for 60 guests for $25K, which included EVERYTHING from our attire to our to our rehearsal dinner to a full open bar at our wedding to our 4-night stay in Santa Barbara to our favors and invitations and day after picnic. I hope these reviews will be helpful to other brides working with a budget who also want the perfect SB wedding. I hope I didn’t forget anyway and really want to thank everyone again for making it all come together!
Save the Dates/Invitations – Lazaro Designs
Tracy Lazaro is a really great resource for all your wedding paper needs, and also a pleasure to work with. I originally found her to do our save the dates (really cute, custom designed magnets), and was so happy with the turn out and response I got that I stayed with her for our invitations too, even though I had originally planned on trying to do them myself. Again Tracy custom designed our invitations, and made several proofs for us to look at before deciding which one was exactly right. The result was a beautiful invitation that was elegant, different, and gave the perfect vibe for our fall-beach wedding. I got so many compliments, and I know they will be a cherished reminder that our families and friends will keep forever. Tracy is full of great ideas as well, and will also custom design your party favors, programs, thank you notes, and any other wedding needs. She was even nice enough to give me a copy of her graphic design and font from our invitations so that I could print some of my other materials myself to cut costs. Best of all, she is extremely reasonable, and can work with any budget. Our invitations were about the same price as they would have been to buy online, and we got so much more personalization, quality, not to mention the time saved from not having to print and put them all together ourselves. Tracy is highly recommended! You can reach her at or 805.861.8409, tracy@lazaroinvites.com or view her work at www.lazaroinvites.com.
Dress & Shoes - Macy’s, South Coast Plaza
I, like many brides, had a hard time stomaching the idea of $1,500-3,00K or more for a wedding dress that I would wear for 6 hours, which is what the “average” cost for a wedding dress these days. Santa Barbara is pretty limited in its selection of gowns, especially if you have a budget, so I chose to go elsewhere for my shopping. I looked around at many bridal boutiques in Orange County and even New York, but nothing was perfect and I felt that dresses were either too expensive or poor quality. Eventually I found my dress in the “special occasion” section of Macy’s. I’m not sure it was meant to be a wedding dress, but it was a beautiful 100% silk, intricately beaded, ivory Sue Wong dress, which I bought new off the rack for just over $300. I’m pretty sure that every one of our guests commented on what a beautiful dress it was. I’m sure if this dress was in a bridal boutique, it would have cost ten times as much or more. Hopefully this is a helpful hint to brides who want quality without the hefty price tag.
Bridesmaid’s Dresses - jcrew.com
J. Crew has a nice variety of both bridal and bridesmaid’s dresses online and in catalogues. I actually chose to purchase dresses that weren’t in the bridal section, but I thought they looked great and weren’t too “bridesmaidy.” My hope was that my bridesmaids would be able to wear them again. I believe they are available in pre-made sizes only, so there might be some alterations costs. I bought the dresses for my bridesmaids and then they paid for the alterations, which I thought was fair. There are usually some great sales on jcrew.com, so you can buy dresses for much less than the typical $300 bridesmaids dress.
Tuxes – Men’s Wearhouse
Men’s Wearhous is a great resource for tuxes, especially if your groomsmen are scattered in different towns. Each of them can get fitted, pick up, and drop off their tuxes in a different place, and you can even arrange to pick up your tux at one store and drop it off at another if the wedding is out of town. The tuxes are extremely reasonable (I had a coupon which I received from weddingchannel.com which saved us additionally on every tux), and the groom’s tux is even free, which is a nice little bonus!
Alterations & Veil – Mercedes Trump
I cannot say enough good things about Mercedes. Her boutique Beautiful is so cute, and immediately makes you feel like a bride as soon as you walk through the door. Mercedes was extremely helpful and has an eye for all things bridal. Since I bought my dress of the rack, it needed some cleaning and re-beading, both of which she did beautifully. I luckily enough to not need any hemming on the bottom, but the alterations she did on the top of my dress were perfect as well, and very reasonable in my opinion. She also has a beautiful selection of custom veils and jewelry. I bought my veil from her, and she even hand dyed it the day before my wedding free of charge when it turned out that it wasn’t the perfect color. On top of her expert work, she also was very supportive and has great style and advice. Since most of my family and friends were not in Santa Barbara, she helped me decided on what shoes were right for my dress, and even how I should wear my hair. It was like having another super-stylish mom to help me with my decision. She is a true gem and I miss working with her already! Call her at 805-687-7433.
Bridesmaids Gifts & Accessories
I found a darling little ivory clutch with a cluster of gold “pearls” at Target on sale for $8, perfect for storing my lip gloss and personal items for the wedding. I also found ivory pashminas for myself and my bridesmaids online at peachcouture.com, which has an extensive color selection, perfect for bridesmaids gifts. Great finds!
Flowers – Camille Panzarello at Modern Day Designs
I got many, many quotes for floral arrangements, and decided to go with Camille. I sent out the same general idea to several different vendors via email of what I wanted, and Camille replied with pictures that almost exactly captured the look I was going for. I didn’t have a lot of specific ideas, and I felt Camille was very intuitive and able to make my ideas a reality. I was very pleased with her work and thought the flowers were gorgeous. Her prices were competitive, too. Camille can be reached at camille.panzarello@gmail.com or 805.689.6197.
Officiant – Miriam Lindbeck
We cannot say enough about what a pleasure it was to work with Miriam. She is an extraordinary woman, and we feel blessed to have had her in our lives. Our ceremony had everyone in tears, and all of our guests commented that it was the most loving and personal wedding ceremony they had ever attended. We had several meetings with Miriam prior our ceremony, all of which lasted multiple hours, so we really felt like we go to know her before the wedding, and more importantly she got to know us. Each session with her felt like therapy, and we always left her cozy east-meets-west office feeling inspired. A lot of people lose sight of the real importance of the day with all the reception and details planning, and we really felt that Miriam helped everyone to remember why we were all really there that day. You can reach Miriam at 805.564.4414 or miriamlindbeck@verizon.net, or check out her philosophy at http://www.weddingsantabarbara.com/.
Photographer – Edee Olson
Edee is a not only a talented photographer, but a true sweetheart as well. Photographers are another thing in the long line of wedding related vendors that are extremely unaffordable. Paying $5,000 for a few hours of work and not even getting negatives or prints was just not an option for me with my budget. I was really losing faith that I was going to be able to find a good photographer when I happened upon Edee’s name on this website. Once we met with her in person, we knew she was the photographer for us. She was so easygoing, and made us feel really comfortable and at ease, and our happiness on the day really shines through in our pictures. She shoots in film which makes for beautiful, crisp pictures, but also puts all of the pictures on CD for you (in color and black and white!), which makes ordering prints or printing them yourself a snap. She sent us 4x6 doubles of all the rolls of film she shot at our wedding with the negatives and CD in less than 2 weeks from our wedding!! It was amazing to get to see our pictures so soon, and they turned out great. She even stayed an extra hour at our wedding as we were running a little behind due to weather issues, which was so amazing. She is also very, very affordable, which makes everything even better. We highly recommend her and you can reach her at 805-564-4995 or check out her work at www.edeeolson.com. You can also see our pics on this site under Wedding Albums – Erin & Tim Nordholm. Unfortunately there are only a few since I had technical trouble sending the rest over, but they are a good example of her work. She is really great at shooting flowers and details as well.
Music – Pan-a-Cea steel drum band
We wanted to have a non-traditional, laid back vibe at our ceremony and reception, and steel drum music really set the tone. Wendy at Pan-a-cea was so helpful on the business side, and Clinton Crawford was great on the steel drums. Walking down the aisle as newlyweds to “One Love” was such a happy moment, and Clinton even learned how to play Canon in D for our processional as well. Our guests continued to enjoy his music throughout the cocktail hour. Steel drums aren’t the easiest thing to come by in Santa Barbara, and this band is actually based in LA. We would definitely recommend them if you are interested in this type of music. You can contact them at panaceabandmail@yahoo.com or (626) 969-8202 or hear their music at http://www.steeldrumband.net/panacea.
Reception/Ceremony Site – Rincon Beach Club
Rincon is a great place to consider if you are looking for a wedding by the beach. We had our ceremony in the garden area and dinner inside, but you can even set up your ceremony on the beach if want to really have your feet in the sand. It’s very flexible, whether you want indoors or outdoors, more formal or more casual. Many of our guests commented on the homey atmosphere, which we really felt added to the intimacy of the evening. As far as beachside venues in the Santa Barbara area go, it’s definitely the most reasonable as well, especially if you choose to have your wedding on a Friday or Sunday. Another great thing about it is its all-inclusive nature, so you don’t have to worry about separately arranging for chairs, linens, tables, etc…it’s all included in the facility fee, which I felt really cut down on stress. The food is also excellent. Since they started as a catering company, the focus is really on quality with the food, which was very important to us. So many guests commented on how great the food was, which made us happy as we didn’t want anyone to leave hungry. They use a lot of organic and local ingredients, and the quality really shows through with the taste. It is a great venue, you can check out yourself at www.rinconcatering.com.
Cake – Christine Dahl
Christine’s was the first and only cake that we tasted. I am not a huge cake fan, but I immediately fell in love with her cake. Christine even let us take home pieces of cake after the sampling session We had a 3 layer cake that had chocolate with raspberry and chocolate ganache filling, and another layer with a vanilla with passion fruit filling, both with white chocolate frosting. To die for, and we got so many comments that it was the best wedding cake people had ever tasted. It was all covered in a beautifully decorated ivory fondant. Delicious! We couldn’t even wait for our year anniversary to eat our cake top, and ate it all the next week. Ooops.  Visit http://www.santabarbaracakes.com/ for more info.
Candles – General Wax Company
This is a wholesale shop in Hollywood, and they’ve got great prices on all candles. I ordered their filled votives online, which were half the price of paying for them through the florist or venue. Check it out at www.genwax.com. If you’re into scented candles, the white jasmine is intoxicating.
Hair & Make-up
Yet another department where it’s a hard to find reasonably-priced, quality service. I was willing to pay more for myself, but I found a lot of the services were especially expensive for bridesmaids too ($200 for hair and make-up), which I don’t really feel is warranted. I looked and looked and waited until rather last minute, but finally ended up going to Darin Jon Studio. Brooklyn did both my hair and make-up, she did a good job and was about half the price of a lot of freelance make-up/hair artists in the SB area. I did have some scheduling misunderstandings with the front desk, but they did work to accommodate my party, including having another artist come in on her day off, which was very nice. The also gave me a nice little gift of some Aveda products on my wedding day, which was an unexpected nice touch. I would suggest talking to Brooklyn yourself though to ensure you are on the same page, as I found my messages didn’t always make their way to the appropriate person. Looking back, I might have splurged more in this area and had a bridal hair and make-up artist come to me. This is one of my very few minor “regrets” however, and I still felt Darin Jon did a good job for a fair price and I got a lot of comments on my make-up. You can call them at (805) 962-1884 for more info.
Manis/Pedis – Artistic Nails in Paseo Nuevo
Went with my four bridesmaids the day before the wedding to Artistic Nails to have our wedding manis/pedis done. While it’s not the cheapest place in town, it’s a nice atmosphere to sit and chat in, while relaxing in the comfy massage chairs. I did have to call and confirm my reservations twice due to a language barrier, but we ended up getting in with no problems, and they even let us bring a couple bottles of champagne in to celebrate. Call them at (805) 560-0632.
Pre-wedding Spa Treatments – Avia Spa
My husband and I each got a treatment at Avia on the day before our wedding. Not only did it help us relax, but it also gave us a little alone time together in the midst of all the wedding chaos. It’s a very tranquil atmosphere in a convenient downtown location…highly recommended! Call them at (805) 730 7303 or check out http://www.aviaspa.com/ for details.
Videography – Bon Vivant Cinema
This is another category that I felt was pretty over-priced in general, and almost didn’t end up getting it at all. I happened to see Bon Vivant mentioned on this website about a month before our wedding, and they were able to accommodate our last minute request. We decided to go with an unedited video, which included a professional videographer for 6 hours at a much more reasonable price than many of the $5K+ packages that you will see out there. Rojelio was very easy going and friendly, and we barely noticed he was there. Our video is great, and even without “editing,” it’s very well done and we probably won’t end up changing a thing. They even added special touches like burning out wedding photos onto the labels for the DVD’s, and included a little intro on each DVD with our song in the background. It was really sweet and a nice touch. They also can make pretty reasonably priced slide shows, although we opted to just scattered picture frames around the venue instead for a more homey atmosphere. I would definitely recommend Bon Vivant!! Check out their website at http://www.bonvivantcinema.com.
Rehearsal Dinner – The Palace
The Palace has always been one of our favorite restaurants in Santa Barbara, and our rehearsal dinner was no exception. We had about 30 people, and were able to choose a custom menu for our guests. The food and service were excellent as usual, and everyone had such a great time singing and watching the magician do card tricks. We even have our very own card on the ceiling now as the new Mr. and Mrs. We had almost the whole left side of the restaurant to ourselves, which made it feel more intimate and fun. It ended up being really reasonable too, we brought in our own wine which helped save on costs too. I would definitely recommend this as a rehearsal dinner site…give Erol a call at 805-963-5000 for more info.
Guest Accommodations – Best Western Carpinteria Inn
Most of our guests stayed at the Best Western in Carp, which was only a mile from our ceremony reception site. We didn’t hear any complaints, and have had family stay there in the past with no problems. It’s not a luxury resort like the Biltmore or Bacara, but it’s a cute Spanish style hotel with nicely decorated rooms, and is very, very reasonable for the SB area. You can get rooms online for under $100 if you book in advance, and it’s only a 10 minute drive to downtown SB. I would highly recommend this hotel if you would like to provide your guests with reasonably priced accommodations. I made the mistake of not blocking rooms because the rate they quoted me was much more than what was available online, but in retrospect I would have blocked rooms as a back-up, and then just told guests to book online for a reduced rate if possible.
Bride & Groom Accommodations – Rented house
Instead of staying at the Biltmore or Fess Parker for $400+/night, we decided to rent a house on the Riviera as our mini-honeymoon retreat. I would say this was one of the best moves we made. Not only did we have spectacular views, it also gave us enough room to move about and get ready on the day of, and to relax after, and all for less than the cost of many ocean-front hotels, with much more privacy. Unfortunately the owners don’t usually rent to wedding parties, but there are many houses to rent in SB, you can check out www.coastalescapes.com for a variety of options in the SB area.
Day After Brunch – Shoreline Park Picnic Area
We wanted to continue to share the beauty of SB with our guests the next day while getting to say a proper goodbye to everyone, and Shoreline was the perfect place for a casual brunch. We stocked up on pastries, yogurt, and fruit from Costco, got coffee for 50 from Starbucks (which comes with all the cups, cream, and sugar for about $1/person) and headed to the picnic area at Shoreline. You can check the calendar online at http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/Government/Departments/Parks_and_Recreation/ for availability and even reserve in advance, but we took our chances and didn’t have any problems setting up with no charge. It was a great way to say bon voyage to our guests, and we were able to do it all for only a couple hundred dollars.
Favors – Charity Donation
Instead of having favors for our guests at the table, we donated the money we would have used to buy them to a charity that was close to our hearts, and made cards for the tables explaining this to our guests. We got a lot of comments on how nice this was, and it made us feel good to be able to give back instead of spending money on something that would most likely be tossed aside.
Gift baskets
I found little baskets at the 99 cents store and some shredded paper and gift basket wrappers from Michael’s made them look really nice for a very modest price. We filled them with water (Costco) and mini-wine bottles (Target) with labels we printed at home, candy, maps of Santa Barbara (photocopies from map purchased at visitor’s center) and homemade treats with favorite family recipes for our out of town guests. I think they were really appreciated, and for 30 gift baskets it probably only cost a little over $100 to make.
Programs and Menus
I bought ivory program paper and stock from Staples and printed our programs and menus myself. They turned out great and I was able to print them for less than $30, a great way to save.
Transportation
Road Runner Shuttle. We rented a Town Car to take us from the reception back home. They were the most reasonably priced carried we talked to by far, and were on time and very courteous, and waited over 15 minutes for us while we said goodbye to our guests without giving us an attitude or extra price. It would of course be less expensive to have a family member drive us home, but we felt it gave us more privacy and let our guests enjoy the night without have to worry about driving. Definitely recommended, visit http://www.rrshuttle.com/ for more info.
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