I Do...Weddings & Events

I recently worked with Melissa for a event at the Moniker Warehouse. Wow! I was very impressed. She is very organized, professional, hard working and goes above and beyond to make sure everything gets done to perfection! I highly recommend Melissa to any bride looking for a great wedding planner!

Melissa did a wonderful job coordinating our wedding in November at the Catamaran Resort! We chose the full-​service package and also used her for florals. Melissa was very easy to talk with and great at listening to ideas and providing some of her own. She truly invests in her brides and I never felt rushed at meetings or just like a client. She encouraged me in my DIY projects and also helped my MIL plan the rehearsal lunch. What I benefited the most from Melissa was her 10 years of experience planning weddings in San Diego. There are so many vendors and options to choose from, having her give me a handful of photographers/​hairstylists/​florists that she has personally worked with and recommends (and that would fit within our budget) made the process so much less stressful. She helped me stay calm and on-​track throughout the whole process and was understanding of my crazy schedule being a grad student and would always check on how I was doing with other life besides wedding planning. I was working by myself for most of the planning process since my fiancé was deployed and both of our families live on the east coast, but having Melissa helped me feel like I wasn’t alone. Our wedding was absolutely beautiful and so much fun and all of our guests had an amazing time. I would highly recommend Melissa!

We fortunate enough to hire Laura from I Do Weddings as our day-​of wedding coordinator for our wedding last month. From the beginning, Laura was kind, friendly, professional, and very capable and experienced. We knew from the first day we met with her that she should be our wedding coordinator. During the months that led up to the wedding, Laura was always there for us, no matter how many questions we had for her!
We met up with her a few weeks before our wedding for the final walkthrough, and she really helped us nail down all of the final details and reassured our nerves, making sure that we felt prepared and ready with all of the final preparations.
She ran our rehearsal for us which went so smoothly, and then on the big day, took care of so many things for us. Things went off without a hitch, and we know that Laura played such a big part in that happening. Also, we were able to relax and really enjoy our wedding knowing that Laura had everything handled. We would recommend Laura without hesitation for all of your wedding planning needs!

I highly recommend Laura Lambillotte without reservation.
Laura helped my husband and I plan our wedding at the Scripps Seaside Forum in La Jolla. I know I am biased, but our wedding was perfect. And that was due in large part to Laura.
As a bride, I wanted to be hands-​on as much as possible, but I really needed an expert to pull all of the details together and to keep me on track. Laura was really adept at making me feel comfortable and competent and talking me through the wedding planning process. From our initial meeting, Laura figured out what my needs were and from that moment forward she filled in exactly where I needed her to be. She let me enjoy the parts of the planning process that excited me, and she really supported me in other areas of need.
I realized the true magic of Laura the day of the wedding. She expertly attended to every detail and facilitated communication with every vendor to create one seamless event. From my perspective, our wedding day was a whirlwind. Looking back, I can simply remember how perfect it was, how everything went off without a hitch. And to me, that is the unsung mark of an amazing wedding coordinator.
If you have any additional questions, please contact me. As you can tell, I am very happy that we got to work with Laura, and I have the utmost confidence that you will feel the same when you hire her.

I have worked with Melissa on several occasions and she is a phenomenal event planner. She has a strong attention to detail, she is personable and she is flexible and willing to work with all of her clients and vendors. I strongly suggest that you hire her… You won’t regret it!

We hired Lindsay as our day of coordinator a little over 2 months prior to our wedding date. We chose the package she would handle logistics since we have picked out all of our vendors. I’ll have to say that this was probably the best money spend on the wedding. Lindsay was fantastic in every aspect. She was really on top of everything and really made sure I did not forget any aspect of the ceremony and reception. She even worked with the catering manager for the floor plan and details. She was much more than a day of coordinator. She constantly checked in to see how I was doing, promptly made any adjustments that I requested, and on the day of my wedding, I didn’t have to worry about anything. She literally took care of EVERYTHING!!! She went above and beyond what she was hired to do and if I could give her a higher rating I would. I highly recommend her.

We hired Jill as our day of coordinator for our September wedding and it was by far the best wedding decision we made. She was so much more than a «day of» coordinator. We communicated very frequently months before the wedding and she was always very responsive, friendly, and knowledgeable. She helped me pick out several wedding vendors, put together a beautiful and detailed wedding timeline, and helped me deal with any issues that came up before the wedding. I can honestly say that because of her I did not have one minute of stress on my wedding day and was able to enjoy absolutely everything. Even my wedding guests commented on how great of a job she did and how professional she was. I would hire her again in a heartbeat. Thank you Jill!

My husband and I hired Melissa as our wedding planner. She was phenomenal! Our wedding was absolute perfection and we couldn’t have done it without her. Melissa is so organized, professional and has great experience with all types of weddings — big, small, simple, extravagant, local, etc. She has amazing connections in the wedding industry and has the most creative ideas to make each and every wedding unique to the couple. I loved working with her! It was such a great experience — I wish we could do it all over again. I will be recommending her to all my family and friends.

We hired Jill for our day of coordinator and never had a doubt in our mind that she was the perfect fit for us. Jill constantly checked in with us prior to the wedding, was extremely detail oriented, and was attentive to all our needs throughout our special day. The wedding day ran completely flawlessly due to Jill’s professionalism and eye for detail. She set up all our personal items as we discussed, executed the timeline and informing us of when important events were coming, and ensured that our vision came to life; allowing us to truly enjoy our day together. We would highly recommend both I Do… Weddings & Events and Jill for your special event!

We had been referred to Melissa for wedding planning services. We ended up choosing a venue that had most coordination taken care of and therefore didn’t need her. We did hear she could do flowers as well and used her as a florist for just bouquet and wedding flowers. Unfortunately, despite lots of back and forth, flowers were not what we were expecting– from all the leaves wilted to the color scheme not matching what we wanted (specifically asked for flowers to NOT be orange) to never getting the vase for the bridal bouquet we were promised, the flowers by Melissa ended up on our list of «would not do again.» The price was reasonable but not worth it.

If one single word can sum up the amazing results from Jill Hudgins for my daughter Kristen and son in law James’ recent wedding at the La Jolla Shores Hotel, it’s…WOW! She may be the most energetic, organized and upbeat person on this planet. They worked with her long distance prior to the day and raved about it every step of the way.
It wasn’t until the rehearsal to meet this wedding planner extraordinaire. Jill made the rehearsal at the hotel effortless, with two quick run-​throughs and on-​the-​spot updates for the following day. She hauled away all the wedding décor we would be using the next day and stored it for us. The day of the wedding, she was in constant contact with the maid of honor and best man (thanks for telling the bride and groom to turn off their phones… brilliant!). Every moment ran smoothly. She was there for «first look,» to make sure the beach setting was beautiful, to get us all ready walk down the aisle, to calm this teary mother, to have the cocktail hour beautifully hosted, to assure that the patio location for the dinner was perfect in every way, to help bustle the bride, and to make every moment a success.
And when the email came in early the next morning with her well wishes and reminders including the contact info for returning the borrowed items from the bakery and the florist, we were so thankful.
Jill, you made this the most perfect wedding we could have imagined. (And by the way, your tip on using an old-​fashioned hankie rather than «fuzzy» tissues to stem my tears was great!)
My husband and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

My husband and I were recently married and were beyond lucky to come across the amazing Jill Hudgins to be our wedding coordinator. My husband and I both lived in NYC, so picking someone we trusted to help manage the process in San Diego was very important. My husband and I are pretty easy going people, and Jill was tremendous in working with us on keeping us on schedule, making sure we checked all the necessary boxes, etc without feeling controlling or overwhelming us. We met with her about 7 months out when we were still deciding on a venue, and she gave us great vendor recommendations and checklists to help us get a grasp on what needed to be done.
She worked incredibly well with all the vendors, many of whom she already knew and already loved her. She checked in throughout the process to ensure we felt comfortable, were staying on track and still having fun. It always felt like Jill’s first priority was making sure we were happy and enjoying every step. She made sure we had the important details to her in advance so that the day of we could take in every moment without having to think about any of the details. I have been an attendant in many weddings in the past, and something that Jill did better than anyone I’ve ever encountered at weddings was seamlessly integrate into the day without seeming like she was running the show (even though she was :)) She got along so well with our wedding party and family, and made everyone feel at ease — whether it was knowing when to cue a pity laugh at someones not so funny joke or delegate a task without seeming demanding :) She is truly a wedding rockstar, and helped make our day the perfect one for us.

My husband Ian and I were incredibly lucky to work with Jill Hudgins for our Wedding at the Darlington House! She helped plan our Wedding from start to finish and was helpful, professional, detailed, and supportive the entire time! She is cool under pressure and got the job done well above our expectations. Throughout the year and a half we worked with her, she stayed in constant communication– reminding us of deadlines, discussing decisions, and giving her welcomed, expert advice.
She is so knowledgeable in all aspects of the Wedding preparation including fabulous vendor recommendations, tips on creating the perfect day, and Wedding etiquette. The close relationships she has created with everyone in the Wedding industry, was incredibly helpful and ALL of them could not have spoken more highly of her!
On the day of, she came organized, well-​aware, and confident. Jill took the time to make sure that Ian and I were having a good time and I appreciate her willingness to keep me calm and to make sure that we enjoyed every minute of our special day. The day was flawless!
After working with Jill, Ian and I can confidently say that this day could not have been more special without her. She will remain a close, personal friend and we will never forget everything that she did for us.
Thank you so much, Jill, from the bottom or our hearts! We love you! xoxo

My husband and I hired Melissa about 2 years prior to our wedding. As soon as we saw our venue, Scripps Seaside Forum, we knew that it would be the perfect place. After much researching, we found Melissa online and heard from others that she would be the «go-​to planner» for a Scripps wedding. We met with her once (we met no other planners) and felt that we were in good hands.
At our first meeting, we met at Carolines Café above our venue and Melissa came with armfuls of books documenting her past works and wedding inspiration. My husband and I were planning a destination wedding so she also gave us a San Diego wedding planning magazine that would help us find Vendors. We decided that day to go ahead and make her our planner.
My husband and I have crazy busy jobs and were planning our wedding from Cleveland. We opted to get month-​of planning services as well as the Blueprint that detailed a very explicit budget. We received this budget proposal along with recommended vendors within one week of our initial meeting. This was SO helpful, especially for us planning from afar. The list of vendors that she gave us was a nice starting point. We probably booked about 50% of our vendors from this list. Her initial list was very conservative and respectful of our price point which was nice. My husband and I were the ones that decided to spend more — we never ever felt that Melissa was pressuring us to spend more money — which is a common complaint with wedding planners. Intact — she showed us how to save money in big places (catering, transport, etc), that enabled us to spend more in areas that we (i) cared about (vera wang and film photography). As a destination bride, setting up hotel blocks got pretty stressful, especially finding reasonable hotels in La Jolla and Melissa took care of that. She was able to get our guest rates between 109 — 239 a night. Yes — $ 109 dollars for a hotel in La Jolla in April!
In the year — months that led up to our wedding, Melissa was there for all of it. Truly. Given, at times it got stressful, but she was there always — answering all of my emails and ready for a phone conversation in less than 24 hours notice. Since I was planning from afar, (and from a 3 hour time difference), we had lots of little (they seemed big to me then) dramas, that came up, and Melissa worked with us (and our vendors) to create solutions to every single one of them. Even though she was a «month of coordinator», she helped us make every decision — catering, bar service, rentals. She coordinated us a generous rental discount. When we came into town (which was for 3 – 4 days as our schedules are crazy), she was there to meet with us and tour the venue each time)
In the month leading up to our wedding, she was meticulous at coordinating a timeline. She emailed at least once daily, with new updates and she worked with each one of my vendors (many who she had not worked with before) to make sure everything would run smoothly. We had many last minute disasters — for example: our ceremony musicians bailed 2 weeks before the wedding, and within 12 hours — melissa found us a beautiful string trio at a price in our budget (mind you — FAR BELOW any of the going rates for string trios in San Diego). She helped me plan Transportation and organize cars, which wasn’t an easy thing for a non-​native san diego bride to do. In the weeks that led up to our wedding, she made a perfect minute by minute schedule of speeches and events that she worked tirelessly on.
When we arrived in town for our wedding, we did a final run through and then our rehearsal dinner where she coordinated everything with our families and bridal party.
In the months leading up to the wedding, I had bought lots of things and had lots of ideas. She took everything from me on that day, and said it would all be set up perfectly.
Our wedding day was truly perfect. My husband and I felt incredibly strongly about not seeing each other before walking down the aisle, which is pretty challenging to do at Scripps Forum, with all of its glass, but Melissa made sure we did not see each other. After I arrived, she led me to a side room and kept me calm, cool and separated and when it was my time to walk down the aisle, she fluffed my dress and kept me calm and the rest is history…
After I had the chance to look around our wedding venue, I was amazed. In the 2.5 years that led up to our wedding while we were engaged, I had dreamed of how it would look. I had shared with Melissa all of our ideas, pin boards and décor inspiration, and she managed to pull it all of so perfectly. She truly took every vision that I had and made it a reality
Additionally, we had some sensitive family situations at our wedding and Melissa was able to navigate these interactions with incredible grace and poise and she saved my husband and i from a great deal of stress on our wedding day — we will be forever grateful to her for this!
Thank you Melissa :)
L&R

As soon as we got engaged, we were referred to Melissa by my husband’s best man and wife, who were referred to Melissa by her matron of honor. They were in the tail-​end of their planning process and highly recommended her for not only the help she had provided them thus far, but also because they got to see her in action during the wedding for their friends.
During the nearly 9 months for which we had her assistance, she displayed care and professionalism with regard to our wedding. As a Type-​A bride, I was constantly emailing her with my ideas, questions and concerns, and she was always responsive and attentive to my needs.
Melissa attended various meetings with vendors along with us, providing her insight and direction when needed. It was such a huge help to have her there to ask important questions and consider details that hadn’t crossed my mind!
In the month leading up to our wedding, we scheduled weekly conference calls to make sure all the last-​minute details were convered and my nerves were in check. I would have surely been a stress-​case without her assurance and checklists to keep me organized.
The day of our wedding, she presented me with the most beautiful bridal bouquet I had ever seen (she also does florals). It, along with the bridesmaid bouquets, ceremony aisle petals, and centerpieces exceeded my expectations and captured my vision perfectly. She was also very calming, providing me with anything I needed, and kept our event orgranized and fluid.
Our wedding was an absolute dream come true, not only because it was executed beautifully, but also because I was able to relax, have fun, and enjoy the best day of my life. A testament to all of the hard work that went into the event… Many of our guests have told us it was the best wedding they have ever been to! I would have to agree! :)

I’ve worked with Rachel Leiber for over a year now up to my wedding last Sunday. She is the most amazing, organized, well put together women I have ever met. She help facilitate our vendors contracts. She made recommendations of who we should see, and even set up meetings for us when I was busy with work.
She was there whenever I needed her besides our monthly phone calls. She answered questions through text, email, and even over the phone. Rachel is extremely sweet. I feel like we got along from day one and my photographer Aaron from true photography highly recommended her.
She helped execute my vision in the most spectacular way possible. We chose scripts forum because it’s a blank slate. Rachel help me coordinate a rental company, the Photo Booth, espresso bar, set up tasting with the caterers, worked with the venue, helped me find amazing hair and make up artists, set up transportation, and worked so hard to put together a day of timeline.
Speaking of the day of. Rachel was amazing. Keeping everything running smoothly and helping pull off the most amazing event.

Cannot say enough about Rachel and her crew. We hired her for our daughter’s wedding based on several recommendations. Without a shadow of a doubt it was the best money we spent on the wedding. Her attention to detail is beyond as are her communications.
Besides recommending A+ vendors for the wedding, she worked with each of them, created a precise timeline for everything and saw that every detail was taken care of. She did so much behind the scenes that I am sure I am not aware of but some of the things that I found after the wedding: Purchased all alcohol as planned and what was not available from the vendor she went on her own initiative to buy them without worrying us. She also found something that one of the vendors forgot to supply, truthfully I still have no idea what other than she got me an instant refund from that vendor.
The day of the wedding itself could not have gone smoother. Rachel had her timeline and kept everybody and everything precisely on time resulting in a function to remember and one that has elicited superb comments from every one of our 200+ guests.
She was always available to answer questions, provide advice and assure everybody that she had it all under control.
I have organized several functions in the past and can honestly say that Rachel stands head and shoulders above every single planner I have ever used. The night of the function itself she was there with 3 assistants and I don’t believe that she sat down for one minute. Towards the end of the evening she asked for my car keys and made sure that everything that I had to take home or alcohol to return was loaded in my car. I never had to lift a finger to do anything. What did not fit in the car, she put in her own car and delivered to my house the following day.
THEY JUST DO NOT COME ANY BETTER
Oh and don’t think that all of this comes at an exorbitant price. I was pleasantly surprised by how reasonable the bill was for the entire function.
Thank you RACHEL. We owe you!!!

I can’t begin to express how amazing Laura was as our day-​of coordinator. First and foremost, she isn’t just a «day-​of coordinator» she had been helping us for months before the wedding whenever we had questions. We used the New Children’s Museum as our venue, and the only allow set-​up at 4:00pm, giving only 2 hours for set-​up. Our wedding had 165 guests, so it was hectic to say the least for set-​up. Laura and her staff were able to set-​up all my DIY projects flawlessly and coordinate the set-​up into the venue. I cannot begin to express my thanks to her and her staff. She is attentive, detail oriented, and is extremely easy to get a hold of. Hire here for your DOC, you will not be disappointed.

Our experience working with Jill Hudgins was nothing short of extraordinary. She was worth every penny (and more) and our wedding turned out to be gorgeous. Her sense of urgency, detail orientation, and time efficiency proved to be above expected performance.
We ended up hiring her a month before our wedding — after realizing that we were overwhelmed and stressed by attempting to coordinate ourselves. Jill alleviated so much accumulated stress, streamlined all details, and carefully planned and executed our schedule.
Our wedding was PERFECT! My wife and I highly encourage those who are planning a wedding, and considering a coordinator, to contact Jill; you’ll be doing yourself a solid, especially considering the stress and tremendous amount of details in planning such an event.

I worked with Lindsay on a few weddings. She was the coordinator and I was the videographer. Lindsay was a pleasure to work with! She was extremely polite and kept the bride, groom and vendors well informed. This made my job much easier! I would highly recommend I Do… Weddings! jfvideography