Golden Coast Event Planning

ially for a full wedding planning service. On our wedding day, Josh was great in organizing everything and making sure our vision came to life. He also got along great with our guests and was very attentive to us. He kept us on schedule, and was able to think on his feet to make the day even better, like moving our photo guest book to the reception area, so guests could keep signing it. Overall, our wedding day was perfect, and we were very happy.  Though everything came together perfectly, working with Josh to plan our wedding was  frustrating and stressful.  It was clear Josh was struggling to juggle multiple clients, and he would often times not respond to us in a timely manner, making us chase after him for days or weeks before we could get a response. We had hired Josh to manage and book all of our vendors, but in the end we took on the work of communicating with multiple vendors. We also missed out on hiring some vendors we were very excited about because Josh and his team took too long to connect with them and respond to us. There were also several last-minute missteps leading up to our wedding. For example, I continuously had to review and change our rental orders because of certain mistakes, and we had to make additional changes the day before our wedding weekend. In addition, Josh told us we needed more bartenders and needed valet for our brunch, so our bartending quote doubled and we had to pay extra in transportation costs a few days before our wedding. This was something that should’ve been known and included in our original contracts. And instead of feeling only excitement for our wedding, all of these experiences left us with anxiety on our wedding day as to how it all was going to come together.  But beyond the everyday frustrations and lack of communication, we were informed after the wedding by one of our bartenders that the bartending company we had booked, Coastal Crafts, is actually owned by Josh and that Josh had told the bartenders not to be honest with us about that fact. Josh never told us that Coastal Crafts was his own company yet he recommended it. If I had known it was his company, I would not have hired them, particularly because of my poor experience in working with Josh by that point. And sure enough working with Coastal Crafts was also extremely difficult. It took months before we could get any response from someone at the company and we were not able to finalize our drink menu or drink order until the last week before the wedding. With the last minute doubling of the price, his company was not as cost-effective as promised, and we feel cheated and tricked. In addition, we found out that our DJ gave Josh a commission of $1000 for working our wedding. We were never told that Josh would get money from the DJ if we booked him, and it makes us think that we paid the DJ more because of it. Josh also never told us if he would receive a commission from other vendors, but it’s hard for us to trust that prices weren’t increased so he could receive a kickback. Overall, we caution couples hiring Golden Coast Planning for full service planning. 

st year. I noticed that most of the reviews are 1+ years old and I don't want people to make the same mistake we did. The set-up of our client/planner/venue relationship was that the planner would work directly with the venue (to streamline things as Golden Coast had worked at the venue before). Here are some examples of Josh/Golden Coast’s extreme unprofessionalism and poor management: 1) In our last handoff meeting (16 days before the wedding) the coordinator told us everything was on track for the wedding and she was just confused about the valet plan. This was a red flag, as Josh had worked directly with the venue to finalize that plan. Luckily, my husband directly reached out to the venue and learned that there were many missing pieces of information about our wedding (now 14 days away) that Golden Coast had not shared with them. Why were we told by Golden Coast in the finalization meeting just 2 days earlier that everything was set/on track? Fortunately, the venue provided us a comprehensive list of missing items directly (with Josh/Golden Coast included in the email). We were obviously very worried and extremely confused as 90+% of these items were things we had discussed/finalized opinions on with Golden Coast long ago. Josh only responded 4 days later after our 4th follow up email (mind you our wedding was now in 10 days!!!). Luckily, my husband and I had quickly responded to the venue and populated most of the information within 1 day of receiving (having lost complete faith that Golden Coast even knew the plans we had discussed in our meetings). In our eventual call, Josh did not apologize for the lack of response (saying he had been busy), and blamed the venue / tried to pit us against the venue! It turns out he was playing both sides and also bad-mouthing us (his client) to the venue! What the heck? You hire someone to be in your corner and they not only don't do what you hired them to do, don't respond, and bad-mouth you to the venue. 2) We hired staff for set-up/teardown/decorations/table settings/trash removal directly through Golden Coast (in addition to the original coordinator staff who are in charge of coordinating all vendors). Later, we found out from the venue that the staff did not do the table settings and the venue manager had to step in to do it during cocktail hour. Why did we hire staff directly through Golden Coast if they weren't going to even do the jobs they were contracted to do? 3) Golden Coast created our rental order and established themselves as the point of contact with the rental company. The morning we left for our wedding, I checked the rental order and realized it did not have napkins. This is a pretty essential item to miss on a rental order they created. They clearly never would have caught it. I think that in an effort to expand his operation, Josh/Golden Coast have lost their touch. They clearly prioritize being viewed positively by venues vs their clients (as they already have our money and weddings are not recurring business). If Josh had even been apologetic after the fact, I probably would have tried to move past this, but he has been nothing but excuses, bad mouthing us, bad mouthing the venue. Think twice before hiring him and note the date of reviews you choose to trust--things have sadly changed.

ning process, and he and Angelina really went above and beyond on the big day. They were always responsive and easy to work with, and are real sticklers for the details! Once they fully took on the planning the month of the wedding, we didn't have to worry about coordinating our vendors or other logistics, and we could focus on all of our personal touches and details. Josh and his team made sure everyone's I's were dotted and T's were crossed, and that they all had the information they needed. Any changes or corrections we wanted to make were quickly resolved! It was great to have Josh leading our ceremony rehearsal, he herded the cats (our family) so everyone knew how to line up and where to go. On the day of our wedding, Josh and Angelina took care of everything so we could truly just enjoy the day. All of the vendors, family, and guests knew where to be and when to be there, and everything came together like magic just as we designed it! They even took the extra time to set up our home-made light-up name cards. We highly recommend booking Golden Coast Planning, you'll be in great hands!

ut him. Throughout the entire process, Josh made sure to keep us on track - bring up things that we never even thought of. His expertise gave us so much peace of mind during what could have been an overwhelming time. On the day of our wedding, every one was so kind and helpful. They made sure that my husband and I could enjoy our wedding without stress. But of all these things, what meant the most to us, was how much care Josh treated our family with. He helped make sure that our family members with physical disabilities able to get down the aisle. On top of that, he brought food and drinks to them so they wouldn’t have to get up. If you are looking for someone to plan your wedding, you cannot find better than Golden Coast Planning.