This review is a looooong time coming! My husband and I got married on Catalina Island on February 22, 2020...2 weeks before the pandemic started shutting the world down. As we just celebrated our 1 year anniversary, I realized I didn't post a review and wanted to get to it! I believe that the ownership of Avalon Magical Weddings has changed so the negative reviews posted here do not match up to our experience. Our coordinator, Janeth, was AMAZING. My husband proposed on January 10, 2020 and we wanted to elope with just our kids on 02/22/20 (2 is my fav number) and it had to be on Catalina, where we had gone every year to celebrate our anniversary for the past 5 years. Janeth jumped into action, coordinated the flowers, the pastor, location, photography, marriage license and the dinner...mostly all over email! She asked detailed questions, I sent her numerous pics of what I had envisioned and she was patient through it all! We met her in person the day before our wedding, walked through how it would all go, met with the Pastor and had all of our last minute questions answered. The morning of our wedding it POURED! We had no Plan B really, as we were committed to getting married on the beach, but as luck (or some other Devine intervention) would have it, the rain stopped and the sun came out in time for the 3p ceremony! I hadn't seen the flowers or knew what to expect but my bouquet was stunning! Exactly what I wanted! All in all, it was a beautiful day and we were blown away with how great everything turned out. Absolutely zero regrets! read more

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Gosh where do I begin. First of all if you are shopping for a wedding package in Catalina this is NOT the place to go. Let me repeat that to save you a possible wedding disaster...DO NOT again DO NOT hire Laurie to plan, officiate or have anything to do with your wedding. In her add right now it says the silver package (the one I signed up for) cost $975. I added 2 corsages and 3 boutonniere and had my bouquet upgraded (basically added 6 roses and 3 carnations) my total came up to $1525...thats $550 extra. Now as if that's not ridiculous enough, I asked to add a tulle in my arch and to change the venue from Cabana Beach to Beach platform. I was charged extra $300 for the platform (I guess I understand that) and extra $400 for the tulle (WTF!!!!). Laurie says that I have to pay for the time she spend away from work and her transportation. Then she told me that she did not charge me for the Tulle. Now just how much does she charge per hour, a roundtrip to Catalina express is $72.50 plus the taxi $100...I'm pretty sure she knows a vendor to go to, so should not be more than an hour to pick up a Tulle but I was charged $400 just for that. Then she had the nerve to tell me that I got the tulle for free...Bullshit!!! And the unlimited phone contact is a joke. First of all good luck on trying to contact this lady. If you get a hold of her she is always in a hurry. Then try and talk to her I dare you, thats a joke...one question will take you one hour and a half to get answered 'coz once she start talking you will never have a chance to talk, she can literally talk you to DEATH. She nevers listens to what you want and she will insist that her way is the ONLY way. Now if you want to just show up on your wedding and have no input of whatsoever, like a puppet on Laurie's show, then she will be your gal. The Background music and the ceremony itself is ridiculous. The boombox you will not hear, she does not wear a microphone of some kind so the guest will be surprise when she pronounce you as husband and wife. The wedding is over and none of the guest know that it even took place (sooo sad!!!). The minister (Laurie) dressed inappropriately, I will take a hooker in a heartbeat to officiate our wedding, a clown costume is better. I will post a picture later and you be the judge. She is also the photographer (professional, or at least she calls herself). How can you officiate and take the precious moment of the ceremony? She can't and she did not. No picture of my dad (who is sick by the way) walking me down the aisle. Our first kiss as husband and wife and so forth and so on. And the pictures which by the way she throw 50 extra (making it 150 total) had 102 pictures (no exaggeration here 'coz I counted) of the same pose...me and my husband kiss like picture. I asked to have a family photo as my dad can't be out on the sun for a long time due to chemotheraphy drugs that he is taking but Laurie said that she need to take the photos in order. In the end I have 4 group pictures in which at that point was incomplete guest due to dehydration and we had to pack our stuff from the rented hotel. The icing on the cake is this, not only did she give (paid for already) the garter but when she sent the expedited marriage license registration she sent it $3.00 short. So we had to come to our local county registrar to pay the $3.00 and pick our license ourselves. This whole experience with here was a NIGHTMARE. Do yourself a favor if you want a wedding bliss this is not the place. There is NOTHING MAGICAL in Laurie's business!!! P.S. Laurie don't deserve even a half star but yelp will not allow zero!!!! read more

Update 01/25/17 my sister lost her battle with cancer and never received her wedding license. Thanks for being a horrible person and allowing my sister to pass away and to never get to officially be married. Had an interesting encounter with Laurie with Avalon Magical Weddings. During the ceremony she paused a lot, skipped parts, went out of order, and seemed a bit lost. She apologized for her stuttering and that her fibromyalgia causes her to forget. Then as she filled out the marriage license she wrote in the wrong month on the first copy, then couldn't spell the correct month on the second copy. I almost felt like calling for help and saying that our officiant might be developing a health issue. She seemed to have lots of excuses for her fumbling around. Sad to say but the wedding wasn't magical. I hope Laurie is ok and future weddings go better than this one. read more

I strongly encourage anyone considering Avalon Fantasy Weddings to ask a LOT of questions and make sure everything is well set. My girlfriend's mother just got married using this outfit (lady really, as it is all one person, but that in and of itself isn't an issue). Things just did not go well at all. To begin Laurie was late for our appointment. After going 10min late, we called to fine out where she was and we're told she'd be there in 5min. She arrived 15min later. (That's 25min late.) Next, this complaint I guess needs a grain of salt, I suppose, but still... The main beach was where we intended to have the ceremony. It was obvious long before Laurie arrived that the entire beach was completely packed, mainly see to a cruise ship that was visiting the island. This is, where the grain of salt comes in. It is indeed a public beach and her literature DOES say the unexpected can happen due to ALL locations being public access. However, we were assured, that this site would be available over the phone, so I don't think she gets off the hook completely. Laurie explained that cruise ships "NEVER" come in on Mondays. They supposedly only come through on Tuesday and Wednesday, so there was no way she could have planned for this "rogue ship". We were then asked to use our smart phones to look at alternate locations we liked while she drove to them to see if they were more open. After an hour and a half of discussing alternatives, Laurie finally let slip that this, is the 3rd time this "rogue ship situation" has happened. Shouldn't the 2nd time been enough to make sure it didn't come up again? I don't think ships are in the habit of just showing up unannounced. After mentioning at least 4 times a perfect location she didn't want to take to us due to a party member being in a wheel chair, we gave up and used the stage. Why keep bring up a perfect location that she herself says we can't get to? Felt like rubbing it in. She graciously didn't charge us the usual $300 extra for the stage. Finally, this lady does indeed talk. That's not always bad, but it did feel as if she wasn't really listening to our wishes and was more scrambling to fix things. She also regaled us with story after story, dragging our ordeal out, even after we said MULTIPLE times some of us needed to leave the island soon and grandpa was getting tired. So. Do your homework. It COULD work for you, but I'd make sure everything is as certain as cab be. read more

It is Sunday, the day right after my marriage. My marriage day was PERFECT!!! I seen two comments that are bashing Laurie and I think that is unfortunate. She had such the best attitude and a great personality. Laurie does talk a lot but that is what made it a better atmosphere for my wife and me. She took us around to try to figure out different spots but let it be our choice. We chose the spot and she officiated us in the most professional way even though she is a joker at heart. Once that was done we took tons of photos and after we wrapped that up she took us back to the landing to leave. It was just the three of us, Laurie, my wife, and me and we had a wonderful time. We laughed together and we cried together, and if I could go back I would have not wanted anyone else to plan or officiate our marriage. Laurie made the wedding more special, and as long as you can keep up with her energy and positivity it will be special for you too. We had a special day and met someone that was worth meeting. So if you are looking into getting married I have no other choice but to recommend Avalon Magical Weddings. read more

Avalon Magical Weddings was truly MAGICAL. Call Laurie, she made my special day VERY special. Marissa

We had our wedding done by Laurie this last November 2013. She was professional and kind. The previous review is correct in saying that she does not take photos durning the ceremony as she is perfoming it which was a little disappointing but we got over it. We were on a strict budget and stayed the weekend in Catalina. The weather was a little iffy and she worked with us and stayed in constant contact with us. We ended up having the ceremony a couple hours early since it looked like it was going to rain. She took a ton of photos. She does all the flowers and cake as well. It was all beautiful. We had only 4 of us in our wedding party and it was a great day. There was no disaster or drama. She worked with us well and we couldn't even get anyone else to talk to us since our party was so small. read more

i just got married on catalina, wow!!! it was great, laurie from avalon majical weddings handled the whole thing for 30 people, just perfect, , i would recommend her to any one that wants a special wedding on catalina!!! PC. read more

I was sorry to read the review posted last July by a user, because I had a very positive experience with Laurie of Avalon Magical Weddings. Yes, she is very intense, but she really wanted to make sure that we had the wedding we wanted. Our ceremony was end of March, 2013, with 62 guests at the Step Beach location. We purchased the Silver Special Ceremony Package, and the Royal Reception Dinner Package. Everything was beautiful, and some of our guests have even commented that it was one of the nicest weddings they had ever attended. I found her pricing to be extremely reasonable for what was included (i.e., wedding party bouquet and boutonniere, flower girl basket and rose petals, my bouquet [which was beautiful], floral runners, decorated chairs, officiant, photos, champagne, keepsake champagne flutes for us, wedding cake with floral top, keepsake cake servers, sit down dinner at Steve's Steakhouse, keepsake guest book and decorative pen, etc.). She does use a boombox for the ceremony music, but we had no problems hearing our song. She also does not use a microphone, but you are on the beach.. So that really would not be possible, and no one told us that they had difficulty hearing the ceremony. As far as the photography is concerned, you are fully advised that there will be no ceremony photos when you sign your contract. She also fully discloses that you are in a public beach setting so there is potential for unexpected surprises. We didn't any problems, even with the art festival going on down the street. The post ceremony photos turned out wonderful, and she dropped off our discs of photos at the front desk of our hotel the next morning. She also put together a little folder for us with a printed copy of the vows we recited, which I though was a nice memento. In all, if you are looking for a simple and sweet beach wedding, I would HIGHLY recommend Laurie and Avalon Magical Weddings. She seems to have thought of every detail, and cares that you get what you want. read more