Little Blue Box Weddings

at being said- the day after our wedding, he too sang Nicol's praises!!! Hiring LBB Weddings was THE best idea I had for the wedding planning process. Her eye is stylish, sophisticated, and fresh. Every idea I had, she improved. When I unfortunately had some hiccups with vendors- she came to the rescue and whipped them into shape! When I threw a COMPLETE curve ball and changed my venue three months before the wedding, she rolled with the punches and made sure that there was nothing that I freaked out about. Her timeline that she has perfected is priceless all on its own. LBB is amazing and Nicol is friendly and made my day run flawlessly. It was the most amazing day ever- what every bride wants to think after the fact, Right?!- I cannot sing her praises enough! My wedding was positively extraordinary and it would not have been so amazing had it not been for Nicol and Little Blue Box Weddings!

l the way from the East Coast without a planner. Only a couple short days after our engagement, we found Nicol/LBBW online. We were drawn by her positive reviews, style, and price point. The ultimate decision to hire Nicol came after our consultation with her, in which she exhibited a highly personable yet professional demeanor. Our relationship with Nicol started 15 months prior to our wedding. Throughout the course of the year, we spoke with her on several occasions, typically on a monthly basis until we were just weeks out of course, and we did a handful of onsite/vendor meetings together. While Nicol was busy coordinating more immediate weddings during this time, she was always attentive to our needs/inquiries, and did a great job setting up vendor meetings, coordinating contracts, and orchestrating our timeline. If you are looking for a wedding planner who is going to put together your entire design/concept, then I cannot speak to those qualities. What I can say is that Nicol is a wonderful sounding board and will support you in any decision you make. She works with you to ensure that your ideas flow together seamlessly, and that every detail gets addressed. She takes your concerns, worries, and budget restrictions into consideration and does her best to make sure that nothing goes overlooked. Nicol was wonderful at handling contracts and ensuring that all of our vendors were in line on the day of the wedding. For the vendors we chose on our own, she even vetted them and made sure that they were credible. Chris and I did not worry about a single thing our entire wedding weekend and we owe a lot of that to Nicol. We can honestly say that our wedding was ABSOLUTELY perfect. The only thing that we truly struggled with was some day of coordination… we feel as though Nicol could have made better use of her assistants the evening of our wedding, specifically when she herself needed a break or needed to be elsewhere (ie- moving guests between cocktail hr/dinner/reception; coordinating parent/child dance, and coordinating cake cutting). Throwing a wedding is a very personal and significant undertaking. It should not be assumed that it can be just thrown onto someone’s shoulders to do everything. Nicol is a great person to partner with when planning your wedding, and will help make the process fun and truly memorable. Chris and I are very particular and would highly recommend her to anyone in need of her services.

t calling a few vendors myself and just became overwhelmed. I had called one other planner and she had told me that it was a bad idea to get married in March in Napa for many reasons and that I should wait. Not what a bride wants to hear on a first conversation! Then Nicol called me back (within a day) from the inquiry I sent on their website and knew write away I would work well with her. We were able to make it to Napa 3 times to meet with Nicol throughout our planning process and each trip was completely organized with everything I needed to do. She had a perfect timeline as to when certain decisions needed to be made and when I would show up I literally would get an itinerary of when/where my appointments were. This was huge, because as any bride knows planning a wedding is super stressful EVEN with a planner, and I could actually relax in Napa at night after a day of running around and know that I wasn't forgetting something crucial!! She is VERY well-connected in the wedding planning business and for many vendors was able to get discounts as a result. Little victories like that were huge in a very expensive wedding atmosphere! While she could not always make every single vendor meeting I needed to attend, she made the most important appointments. For us that was fine and we were able to make it to a cake tasting on our own and pick flavors on our own since she was the one who even pointed us to such a wonderful cake vendor in the first place. However she was there for most appointments, especially where there were complex contracts and a lot of details (caterers, florists, venue selections, etc). We had a "catering emergency" just months before the wedding where our selected caterer had gone out of business. Before I was even called about it, Nicol had already set up for our 2nd choice (which was a very hard decision for us anyways, as both caterers she recommended were wonderful) to take over our wedding. Easy! I arrived in Napa 3 days before the wedding to herd the crowds of family and friends, which was very busy. Nicol had everything taken care of. I handed her some items I had brought myself to use at the wedding and she took care of finishing from there. She stressed several times not to worry about another thing and just to show up to places at all the correct times. It was hinting of rain on our wedding day, and she had made the decision early to use our backup plan of doing the ceremony indoors. It was more beautiful than I think our original plan would have been! While I understand it's hard for a bride to just let the planner take over complete control of things, especially on the wedding day itself, I had 100% confidence in Nicol and was not let down. Thanks to her I was able to ENJOY my experience of getting married instead of stressing about the details. I cannot stress enough how important that is if you're about to get married and looking for a planner. I could enjoy my friends and family who flew in from literally all over the world instead of making calls to every vendor the days prior. She was attentive, understood my style, and when she didn't, she logged into my pinterest site to get a better visual for what I was looking for. Thanks Nicol!!

say about her, so I guess I will just start at the beginning! My husband and I work full time and we wanted a wedding planner so that we would not have to deal with all the work involved in planning a wedding. I decided to call Nicol because I saw pictures of a wedding she planned that I LOVED (http://www.stylemepretty.com/2012/09/10/napa-valley-wedding-from-invitations-by-ajalon/). I am Indian and my husband is half Mexican/half white, and we wanted a fusion wedding that would represent both of our cultures and interests. After talking to Nicol for the first time for just thirty minutes, it was very clear to me that she was everything I wanted in a wedding planner. She was sweet, efficient, and smart, and she perfectly understood what we were looking for in our wedding. Wedding planning with Nicol went exactly as I had hoped it would. We started by spending a full day looking at venues she thought we might like. I told her we wanted wine country, hard alcohol, and an outdoorsy feel, and she delivered a number of great venues, including the one we picked, which I would have not considered without her help. She then helped us pick all of our vendors, who all ended up being INCREDIBLE. We told her we wanted a DJ who wasn't cheesy and who could play some Bollywood music, and that is what she gave us. We told her we didn't really care about flowers that much, but she ended up setting us up with a florist who blew both of us away. (We told this florist that we wanted Indian touches and surf/ocean touches in the wedding, and she gave us beautiful red and orange flowers that looked like underwater plants--amazing.) I said I wanted an upbeat hair and makeup person who was a St. Helena local, and she found the sweetest, most talented hair and makeup person ever. I spent NO time doing research on any of these things because Nicol did the research for me, and it turned out better than I could have imagined. As much as I valued Nicol for all of her work leading up to the wedding, probably the biggest advantage of hiring her was having her there for the actual day of the wedding. SHE. DID. EVERYTHING. She set up all of our vendors and deliveries as they came, while I hung out with my girlfriends getting ready and sipping champagne. I honestly felt no stress at all on my wedding day because I knew she was taking care of everything. During the wedding, she kept us on a gentle schedule (nothing pushy or crazy) so that everything kept moving without issue. She took care of all the clean up and shutdown after the party and saved everything that might be important to us. All of our guests who interacted with her loved her, and I also feel like our wedding would not have been so successful without her. Nicol is simply amazing, and I would hire her again in a second. She helped our wedding ideas come to life, kept us on top of our tasks and time line, and calmed us down when things got hectic. If you want to hire a wedding planner (or even if you don't!), Nicol is outstanding!!!

l helped us find vendors and choose among the endless options for services. The vendors she suggested were very professional and she helped us explain our preferences and desires to them. And, when my hubby and I found some vendors with whom Nicol had never worked (more on why we did this, below), she quickly established good working relationships with them. Nicol's true talents shone during the week and day of our wedding. She confirmed final details with each of our vendors, created and managed a complex wedding-day schedule, and kept things running smoothly--mostly without us lifting a finger. We were able to dance, laugh, chat with guests, and enjoy our night. It was our time to have fun. I have only two cautions about Nicol's services; whether these are issues for you depends on your expectations and desires. First, Nicol was not a helpful budget planner for us. We organized our own budget--despite our initial belief that Nicol would do the heavy lifting--and we consistently found that Nicol's recommended vendors blew the budget that she had suggested (e.g., she suggested we spend $X on florals to keep to our budget, but then recommended a vendor whose estimate was $2X). Sometimes we made a decision to go with her recommendation as a "splurge," and other times we went out on our own to find a different vendor at a lower price-point. If you are especially budget conscious, I would recommend being very clear with Nicol about your expectations. Second, we had two disappointments during the wedding that I believe Nicol may have been able to prevent or help fix: (a) the first two rows of the "bride's side" during the ceremony were nearly empty because Nicol did not ask other guests to move forward to fill in the seats after it was clear the seats were not needed for family, and (b) the caterer changed executive chefs after our tasting but before the wedding, and we knew nothing about this until our food was different (and of much lower quality) than we had at our tasting. Clearly, these were NOT caused by Nicol or her fault; however, I believe that more communication with us and our vendors would have prevented or fixed them before they became issues. Overall, I am glad we hired Nicol.

and although there were not many of them, they all seemed to be good. My mom met with her in person since my fiancé and I were living on the east coast, so we decided to hire her especially since it seemed to be a reasonable price for her all-inclusive services. Her attitude completely changed after the contract was signed. She was completely unresponsive to my emails, unprofessional, and outright rude to not only myself but my fiancé and mom as well. Nicol was supposed to attend all vendor meetings with us, but when they were conveniently on the other side of town; she seemed to be “too busy.” I quickly learned that finding vendors through online reviews and other sites was much easier and more efficient then going through her. Many times she made me feel as though if I did not have an unlimited budget then my wedding was going to be very average. Nicol was also supposed to be in charge of keeping track of my budget & payments, timeline, and design all of which things I had to prompt her for. When I did not ask to receive something, I didn’t get it or it would come a couple weeks after I emailed her. She was not proactive at all. When she did respond back to my emails she was extremely short, rude, and not how I would imagine a wedding planner should speak to their client. She even asked me at one point if I “had an attitude problem,” not exactly professional in my option. In the middle of the planning she even emailed me one day saying that now I was supposed to work with her assistant as my primary contact, pushing me off since she was “crazy busy.” The wedding came together after much diligence from the onsite coordinator at my venue and me, but even at the rehearsal I had family and friends commenting on how rude and short she was. On the day of the actual wedding Nicol left 2 hours early leaving me to answer questions about packing up supplies with the vendors at the end of the night. I then had to call her at which point she did come back and finish up with the vendors, however if I did not call her she may not have come back. Needless to say hiring Little Blue Box was my only regret of the wedding planning experience; Nicol made the process difficult, stressful, and did not provide any additional value for the money we paid. I would save the money and use online reviews or pay additional money and go with another company.

dear friend recommended Nicol and suggested that I would like her immediately...and I did. I hired her even though I didn't really THINK that I needed anyone to assist me. Although I am a very organized, resourceful person, there is NO WAY I would have enjoyed my wedding as much as I did without Nicol. Working with Nicol was so effortless; getting to know her so smooth; trusting her professionalism and thoroughness so easy; knowing that she would manage everything so reassuring. I had not a single worry on my wedding day - and as a result, I was radiant.

nted to work with. If you're looking for a genuinely warm, smart, thoughtful, well organized and well connected wedding planner, you should give Nicol and her staff a call. She did a great job working with us remotely, as we live in San Diego but our wedding was in Sonoma. We took advantage of Nicol's experience as a planner and day of coordinator. She was extremely helpful helping us stay on track, within budget and had plenty of recommendations on other vendors that we needed. As the groom, having her keep my bride's stress level low was a huge plus. For the big day, she kept everyone in the right spots and the entire day whizzed by smoothly! We barely noticed Nicol and her assistant, until the party was over. Just how it should be, no drama, no worries. Thanks again Nicol, we love ya! J+W

gs to do. So after some searching on TheKnot and Yelp and a few other websites we stumbled across Nicol at Little Blue Box Weddings, read the reviews and gave her a call. It was one of the best decisions my fiance and I made. She was in one word: amazing. My fiance and I were looking for a relaxed, "garden feel" wedding with around 75 guests coming - and within an hour of speaking with Nicol on the phone, she understood our vision completely and we hired her immediately. I am a super high strung, neurotic New Yorker - (read: bridezilla) though I tried my best not to be and Nicol was so great with me. She calmed my nerves and talked me off several ledges when the planning of everything got too overwhelming. (working full time and trying to plan a destination wedding can be a lot!) All of the recommendations that Nicol made for us - from the flowers, minister, limos, caterer, etc...to the "after party bar" were perfect for us. The wedding itself was the most beautiful, most perfect day of mine and my husband's lives. All of our guests have commented that it was the "most beautiful wedding" they had ever been to and I couldnt agree more. Thank you Nicol for your help in making our wedding day the most memorable day of our lives. xoxo, L+E

te our wedding for two weeks prior to the event, and she did a fantastic job. From the first phone call, I felt comfortable with her & I knew that she would be able to really understand what Mike & I were looking for in our wedding. And what a good decision it was... because we had some CRAZY issues with our reception venue (multiple management & caterer changes, ack!), and Nicol did a wonderful job of making sure that everything turned out just right. Without her I would've been a stressed out mess! Just when I thought I was about to lose my mind due to all the issues with our reception venue- she literally saved the day. Nicol is also very accessible, which I appreciated. She would promptly respond to emails & phone calls. She made sure our favors were taken care of, the place cards set, DJ in place, schedule in place- everything was perfect! The reception hall looked amazing when we arrived, and even with all the issues we had with the reception venue, none of our guests had any idea- thanks to Nicol! She was so discreet as well- she made sure that we were on time for the speeches, first dance, cutting the cake, etc. without being obstrusive. She made sure that our special day was smooth from start to finish. It was great because no one amongst our family or friends had to stress the day of our wedding, which was our goal in hiring her. My fiance and I were able to relax and enjoy the moment knowing that Nicol was going to handle any problems that came up. I only wish I had hired her to help out earlier on in the process so she could help with ALL of the planning (she's really that good!). Bay Area Brides, do yourself a favor- hire Nicol- she's phenomenal! Definitely worth the money, and she's a sweetheart to boot :)

irst but as soon as we had our first conversation with Nicol, he was completely on board. We had about 6 months to plan, which meant we needed to move pretty quickly. Nicol made everything easier for us! She helped negotiate with our venue/caterer which was no easy task considering they were extremely unresponsive and sometimes just plain unprofessional. When I had trouble finding a hair and makeup artist, she stepped in with some great recommendations and helped relieve what was starting to be a very stressful issue. She went out of her way (literally driving hours from Napa to Half Moon Bay) to meet with us and make sure we knew what we had to do and by when. Not having any family members who had been married before, we had no idea how to make our event feel laid back, yet elegant, thoughtful and most of all fun. That led to us having a ton of questions. Nicol patiently answered all of them and made little suggestions here and there to help us think through the flow of the weekend and day. She helped put together our space layouts and even tracked the weather starting the week beforehand so we knew to order extra heat lamps when the wedding weekend finally arrived much colder than we expected. On our big weekend, everything went off without a hitch (no pun intended!) or at least that’s what it felt like to us since Nicol and her team made everything run so smoothly. Some of our friends who were on site said they could see her working her magic on the day-of, making sure that the tables were set properly, that the desserts and flowers were all delivered and set, that the escort cards were placed appropriately, that the photographer knew where to be and when, that our wedding party was all taken care of, and that all of our needs were met. Our wedding turned out just the way we imagined and we’ve had friends and family tell us it was one of the best weddings they’d been to. I know without a doubt it was in large part due to Nicol and Little Blue Box Weddings!!

rdination" services. Our "day of" person did a great job overall but a few details were overlooked (i.e. Groom's mom didn't get her corsage until after the ceremony, she forgot to put our cake toppers on our cake).

ad nothing to worry about. Along the way, there were some aspects that I coordinated over the phone or through email, the first time I was seeing or tasting these was right before or at the wedding.... they all came out exceeding my expectations!! Nicol knew how to make my (sometimes convoluted) vision come to life. I really could not have done it without her.

ere was an issue with anything I had no idea about it and that was a dream to me. She kept a smile on her face the whole time and a cool head. I would recommend her to everyone and anyone. If you are looking for amazing service, an awesome person and fantastic organization then Little Blue Box Weddings is your one stop shop!!!

my first conversation with Nicol, I was ready to stop looking. From our very first meeting, Nicol seemed to "get" me and understand the kind of wedding my (then) fiance were looking for. She helped me come up with a preliminary budget, and showed me some initial ideas that were exactly what I had envisioned. Throughout the planning process, Nicol was there to provide ideas, lists of vendors, and general emotional support. Planning a wedding can be very stressful, and Nicol talked me out of my tree several times over the seven months or so we worked together. On the day of the wedding, Nicol and Emily were there every step of the way to ensure that my groom and I didn't have to worry about any of the details. Our job was to get married, and the rest was just taken care of, the big things and the small. To give an example of the small details that Nicol made sure were handled, one of the points of my bustle pulled out. Seconds later, Nicol appeared with a safety pin and fixed it. She also made sure that I brought comfortable shoes for dancing, which made the reception a lot more fun. At the end of the night, my husband and I simply got in our "getaway" car and left. Everything else, including making sure that all of our gifts and other personal items were accounted for, was left to Nicol and Emily and we didn't have to worry about a thing. One last important item to note: Our wedding ended up coming in over 20% under the budget that Nicol helped with at that first meeting. The savings more than covered the cost of Nicol's services. Could I have planned my wedding without Nicol's help? Probably. Could I have planned my wedding without Nicol's help and kept my sanity intact? Absolutely not.

tally relax as our wedding approached, since I knew she had everything under control. She even worked with our caterer to save us some costs, despite their hesitation. Nicol also dealt with demands and concerns of my overbearing and demanding father with incredible grace. She is brilliant at getting everything done and keeping everyone happy. During the wedding she was amazing, keeping everything running but being incredibly discreet. Nicol and Little Blue Box made me a very happy bride! I recommend her to everyone!