Praise
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Ashley D. {Bride}
My husband and I just got married in April at El Encanto in Santa Barbara and Nicole helped plan our big day from start to finish. Nicole was very professional, easy to get a hold of throughout the planning process, well organized, and extremely attentive. We were completely stress-free on the day of our wedding and that was thanks to Nicole and her unbelievable follow-through and attention to detail. She seriously does not miss a beat and she was an absolute pleasure throughout the whole process. Nicole also has fantastic taste and she really helped take our ideas and wedding inspiration to a whole new level of design. All in all Nicole was simply beyond wonderful. We highly recommend her!
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Sarah K. {Bride}
Recommended to me by a friend who was also a wedding planner, Nicole will help you make sure your day runs as smoothly as possible. I've never met anyone who takes more notes! Over the year and a half of planning with Nicole there was nothing I mentioned that she didn't take note of for my wedding, nothing slipped past her. She's a take no nonsense kind of woman which is EXACTLY what you need for your wedding day, so you can just enjoy the day and have fun. Nicole will make sure everything runs perfectly and quickly handle any issue that might pop up. She's fun to work with, flexible with schedules and meetings (she drove from Santa Monica to Glendale to meet me on my work lunch break - twice!), arrived early to help coordinate all the set up the morning of my wedding, and even dressed to match the colors at my location! She has so many amazing connections and can hook you up with fabulous vendors, I would have been lost without her : )
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Rebecca L. {Bride}
When looking for a wedding planner, a mutual friend suggested I meet with Nicole Arena of Green Ribbon. Nicole genuinely cares about each bride (and groom, and event) and making sure ALL the details are taken care of perfectly. She is a get-it-done, no-nonsense planner and won't sugar coat things (which is what many planners do). Nicole listened and really understood the vision we had for our special day and was seriously available 24/7 - whether it was answering a small question, to setting up meetings with wonderful vendors, and everything else in between. She seriously thought of everything - the tiniest details made it extra special. My wedding day was 100% stress-free because she handled it all. I couldn't have asked for a better planner and recommend her to anyone who asks!
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Ashley F. {Bride}
My husband, my parents and I were extremely happy with the service that we got from Nicole. A couple of the key points:
1) I would say universally most of our guest said that it was the best wedding that they had ever been to.
2) Our wedding was beautiful. Nicole has a great design aesthetic and it was reflected in our wedding. No detail was overlooked and she is able to translate your vision into a reality.
3) Nicole is incredibly organized and detail oriented. In fact, she may be the most organized person I have ever met.
4) Everything went smoothly from the planning process to the wedding. We had a couple of vendors that were challenging (my selections) and Nicole did a great job of dealing with them.
Our wedding was a phenomenal day and it could not have been done without Nicole. -
Leighton {Bride}
My husband, Tim, and I got married a year ago in Santa Barbara, and Nicole did a fantastic job on our wedding. We were overwhelmed when we started planning, and knew we needed help. We looked on the Santa Barbara Historical Museum's website (our reception location), and saw that Nicole had planned a really beautiful wedding there before, so we gave her a call. After talking to her for a few minutes and finding out that she went to Boston College and used to work for J. Crew, we knew it would be a good fit!
We met with Nicole before we started any of the major planning, and she took a ton of notes about what we were looking for. One thing Tim and I were stressed about was how to choose good vendors out of the seemingly endless options. There was no way to tell from a website whether a florist, DJ, or caterer was really as great as he/she looked or was a total nightmare. When it was time to choose a photographer, caterer, etc., Nicole would send us three or so options that she knew we would like, and then we would choose the final one. She coordinated the vendors, told us when to pay someone, helped us negotiate, and kept us on a timeline leading up to the wedding. Nicole also worked with our florist to develop a cohesive design for everything from my bouquet to the buffet to the cake table. On the day of the wedding, Tim and I didn't have to worry about anything. Nicole had it all handled. And, because Nicole had it handled, our families were also able to relax and enjoy themselves. The wedding was beautiful, fun, and totally exceeded our expectations. Our wedding photos even ended up on the California site for stylemepretty.com, which we didn't expect but allowed us to relive the day. -
Kristin { Bride }
Nicole was our wedding planner in May 2011 and she made our day better than I could have ever imagined. From start to finish she made our experience wonderful! She took so much pressure off of us because of her ideas and acute attention to detail. She listened to everything that we wanted and also shared her ideas and professional experience with us.
We would have been lost without her. She was so amazing that I have recommended her to our friends getting married this year and told them they will never have the wedding of their dreams without her. I urge you to seriously consider her help. She takes a lot of pride in her work and cares deeply that the day will be the best day of the bride and groom's life. I could go on and on about how wonderful she is and how she does not miss a beat. She is extremely organized and you will not have to worry about a thing. -
Erin B. {Bride}
Nicole is an incredible wedding planner! I cannot believe we were lucky enough to have her plan our summer nuptials last year.
Let me begin by saying...this woman has impeccable taste and a knack for channeling her style genius into a couple's unique vision. I was amazed at how effortlessly she enhanced our DIY projects (my hubby and I are crafty) with a tweak or suggestion, how perfectly she elevated our concept to something even better than we could have imagined and how she fine tuned every detail with such creativity and finesse that our guests still talk about how personal and beautiful the wedding was...a year and a half later. Our wedding was even featured on Style Me Pretty a few months later simply because her details were so whimsical and lovely!
From day one and throughout, Nicole was organized, communicative and hugely supportive. She put my 'type A' mother with her 1,000 questions at ease after a single meeting. She introduced us to a range of wonderful vendors who matched our budget, aesthetic and energy flawlessly. She was with us through every planning 'milestone' and guided us through rentals, tastings, florals etc. I would have been completely overwhelmed and befuddled without her.
Our 'day of' was joyful, dreamy and completely stress-free, thanks to Nicole. I was well aware, after months of planning with her, that things would be perfect, our guests would be happy and we could dance the night away without a care! She is wonderful and I would highly recommend her to all new "brides-to-be" and "soon-to-be-hubbies".