We had decided on Cornerstone Sonoma as our venue, and having a day-of coordinator was required - (for good reason, as we absolutely could not have pulled off the day without one). We picked Ooh La La who was on the venue's preferred vendors li...st, but boy did we get lucky!!! Lindsey, who is the owner of Ooh La La, took us on as clients herself. Because we were not planning for anything elaborate in terms of decor, we went with their "basic package" instead of the full service package. But the service was WAY more than basic. Lindsey is not only super experienced and efficient, but also has such a warm but confident presence that makes you feel like you are talking to an old friend. She understood our busy work schedules and sent us documents/questions way ahead of our first meeting, so that we could cover the details and flow of the day efficiently but thoroughly. Both my husband and I were somewhat anxious after looking at the pages of questions, (as up until that point we were clueless about what goes into planning a wedding celebration), but after our meeting with Lindsey, we left feeling organized and educated - feeling like "ok, we can do this!". She also kept us on track by setting deadlines for us on when to decide on certain things, and sent out just the right amount of reminders. As the wedding day got closer, she called several times to just see "how I was doing", which I thought was really sweet.
We were planning for a traditional Nigerian ceremony with a bridal party, with a lot of moving parts (live drummer, officiant flying in from out of state, and live musician) in addition to the traditional vendors (catering/furniture rentals, shuttle for out of town guests, florist, cake, etc)... and due to my work schedule, a "rehearsal" was not possible. But Lindsey never batted an eyelash, reassured me that we will make it work without the rehearsal, and seemed genuinely excited about being a part of our wedding (at times, more than we were! LOL) After we had finalized vendors, she acted as the point of contact for them, confirming their time of arrival. Then, she emailed us a detailed minute by minute timeline of the day and the processional order, complete with a schematic of the venue, which I was able to email to our wedding party as instructions in lieu of a rehearsal! And she even communicated with our mom to figure out the details of the Nigerian ceremony.
Needless to say, under Lindsey's guidance, our day turned out PERFECT, even better than what we had imagined! Our family and friends had a blast and that is what we wanted for our day. Everything went smoothly and even when we got locked out of our on-site cottage where we had to do a dress change, Lindsey was right there with her walkie-talkie getting someone to come over with a spare key ASAP. She even took some photos/videos with her phone and texted them to us the next day! You can tell that she truly enjoys what she does, and we were so happy to have gotten to work with her. We recommend Ooh La La 1000%!