Nicole planned our destination wedding, as well as a Welcome Party and Farewell Brunch, and it honestly was the wedding weekend of our dreams thanks to all of her hard work, commitment, experience, & great sense of style! We got married Labor Day weekend in Palm Springs, CA at The Parker hotel. We have family & friends all over from Southern California to the East Coast so we wanted to do an entire wedding weekend so we would have more time to enjoy & celebrate with everyone. We really wanted our wedding to reflect our personal style. We love Mid Century Modern, the 60's, Jonathan Adler, and a lot of color. From the moment we explained our style to Nicole, she knew exactly what we were looking for and we knew we could trust her guidance. She was very receptive to our ideas for decor, etc while keeping us focused on what would look the best. She's not just going to agree with everything a couple suggests, she's going to make sure your wedding turns out gorgeous, even if that means being honest with you about some of your ideas, it's for the best! As far as vendors, all of our vendors came from Nicole's recommendations (invitations, florist, photographer, videographer, table & chair rentals, linens, lighting, desserts, DJ, dance floor, hair & makeup). We loved that Nicole worked with & had relationships with such talented vendors because it really helped us save time from having to search for reputable vendors and move on to all the fun details! The vendors she works with are not the cheapest, but they're also not the most expensive. But you can be assured they're all amazing! Nicole really knows what she is doing. She has done it all before, so the advice she gives comes from experience. But she treats every wedding as its own special thing, so you know your wedding will be unique to your personality and style. Nicole is not a person that will just agree with you all time, but to be honest, do you want someone who says yes to everything and either cannot deliver or causes you to go way over budget? No, you want someone who can help guide you to what is going to be the most important things to focus on. That being said, if you feel strongly about something, it is your wedding and by all means tell her and she will always respect your wishes. Onto our wedding day, it was way beyond our expectations and honestly was the BEST day of our lives! From the early morning where Nicole was dealing with vendors and taking care of our wedding guests and wedding party needs to the ceremony where she was organizing our first look and wrangling people so we didn't have to stress about it. And when Nicole guided us into our ballroom for a sneak peek prior to the reception starting, we literally were speechless at how beautiful it was. Sometimes throughout the planning process it's hard to envision everything together and picture all the little details together, while you're making a lot of hard decisions and spending a lot of money, but if you hire Nicole, you will know that it's all worth it in the end and it will all payoff when you see how beautiful your wedding turns out! read more

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Hi! Regardless of your goals/budget/timing, etc Nicole Arena and the entire Green Ribbon Parties staff will help answer any of your questions and guide you to have the most magical wedding of your dreams. We interviewed A LOT of people and Nicole created instant trust. When assessing a planner, I looked at 3 main things: - Care: she deeply cares about the work she does. This is her true passion. It comes through in the way she speaks and what she posts/blogs about - Capability: sheer experience. Nicole's mentor is the top party planner in LA, Mindy Weiss. Look her up. - Cost: she will make your budget work. Not only regarding her price but the entire spectrum of vendors Nicole is an absolute master when it comes to planning a wedding, understanding the vendor landscape and truly caring about the event before/during/after. She's more than a planner, she's become our friend. From the moment we met her, she put my bride (and me) at ease (isn't that what it's all about??!)! Immediate trust! Our families had a wonderful time working with her and exploring dozens of options together. She is so very accommodating and even came to my house to meet my mom when she came into town. If you have any questions regarding our experience, do not hesitate to reach out to us! Love, 1 happy couple read more

Green Ribbon Parties - Wedding Planning Near Me

Nicole helped me plan my mother's 70th birthday party a while back and not a detail was overlooked. She has such great taste and I loved all of her suggestions on who we should use for catering and flowers etc.. It was at my home so there was a lot of moving parts and she had it all covered. I was never worried about a thing. She was there at the house making sure all the rentals arrived on time and the house was returned to perfect condition at the end. My mom was thrilled with how it all turned out and I will definitely use Nicole and Green Ribbon for any future events we have. read more

We are grateful we hired Nicole of Green Ribbon Parties to provide wedding planning services for our magical day. We discovered Nicole because she planned personalized and stylish events at venues we loved including Dos Pueblos Ranch and San Ysidro Ranch. After a one hour phone call to confirm we were compatible; we were happy to book her for our event. Nicole shares her industry insight with experience and honesty. She is efficient, offers elevated vendor referrals, and has excellent style. Throughout our engagement: Nicole provided above and beyond service via around-the-clock emails, multiple site visits, mock up meetings, a catering tasting, and coffee dates. My husband and I were together for 10 years prior to our wedding and wanted the event to reflect our love story. I was a very involved bride with a clear vision of our dream wedding including inspiration boards and spreadsheets. Nicole was supportive and collaborative and helped make our ideas a reality. We had the perfect venue, a family property in Ojai, CA. We wanted to hire a professional to ensure we were respectful of the space and none of our family members had to take on any tasks. Nicole managed 15 vendors for our special day: catering and musicians, a photographer and florist, along with decorative rentals and mobile kitchen and restrooms. She had excellent recommendations including the best catering team and rental company in the industry. She was happy to work with vendors we personally selected and worked professionally with those in her network and the new teams. She helped us splurge and save according to our budget and created a spreadsheet on how to allocate our funds. We loved saving costs by repurposing our rentals for the ceremony and reception as well as skipping an extra course at dinner that would have compromised our time on the dance floor. The day before the wedding, Nicole spent 8+ hours supervising vendor deliveries and installation along with directing us through a Wedding Rehearsal. She effectively produced every aspect of our event and we had true confidence on the day of our wedding. The cost of a talented Wedding Planner is invaluable. We were able to enjoy the planning process (an often stressful time) and stay present on our wedding day. The entire event exceeded our expectations, it was so rewarding to see our vision come to life, and we had an unforgettable celebration with family and friends. We would highly recommend Nicole and her services - we are looking for an excuse to hire her and her team again. read more

If I could give negative zero stars I would. Nicole is the most unprofessional and rudest person I have ever come across in my life. EVERY vendor other than the one she recommended, person in my wedding party, and guests all commented on how rude, unsociable and lazy she was. GUESTS were telling me how she was being rude, checking on her phone constantly and looking like she didn't want to be there. She was never friendly to any of my guests and never had anything together. My photographer was running around arranging things because my planner wasn't doing it. She refused to come to my venue any earlier than 4:00 PM, and my wedding started at 6:00 PM. She did not want to help unload boxes, most of the decorations we discussed she said she didn't know where they went, and she had attitude with the minister, the venue coordinator, and my bridal party. Here are some examples of her not doing/knowing/wanting to do her job: -Not wanting to unload any boxes, or meeting with us at our hotel before the wedding to coordinate. -When I asked to her write what guests wanted to eat on the back of their cards, she told me "normally people have this done before a wedding." I asked her if she could do it very nicely, and her response was, "Well I guess I don't have a choice, do I?" -Her responses to most of our questions were met with an "I don't know." -When we did the bridal walk and I noticed my groom was not already at the altar, she rolled her eyes and said, "We'll send him out now." -I could not reach her through telephone on the day of the wedding until 1 hour before the wedding started. -She told me the 'Here Comes the Bride' sign was flimsy and couldn't be hung. My bridesmaid ended up telling me later it was fine and beautiful, and was a shame it couldn't be used. -And again, EVERYONE, I MEAN EVERYONE COMMENTED ON HOW NEGATIVE AND UNHAPPY SHE LOOKED. I hired Nicole as my Day Of Coordinator. I paid her a large amount of money to do menial things anyone could have done. The day would have been overall BETTER with her not being there. Seriously, I could have used the staff already provided at my venue. The only useful thing that came about the whole thing, was her picking up and dropping off my linens. I received a friendly email from her after my wedding asking if I was able to drop everything off okay. I wish she had had that attitude during the day of my wedding. Part of me wonders if she wrote that because I left great reviews for all my other vendors. A wedding planner is supposed to make your life easier, not stress you out on the day of. I would never, ever, ever, recommend Nicole Arena. read more

Nicole is an incredible wedding planner! I cannot believe we were lucky enough to have her plan our summer nuptials last year. Let me begin by saying...this woman has impeccable taste and a knack for channeling her style genius into a couple's unique vision. I was amazed at how effortlessly she enhanced our DIY projects (my hubby and I are crafty) with a tweak or suggestion, how perfectly she elevated our concept to something even better than we could have imagined and how she fine tuned every detail with such creativity and finesse that our guests still talk about how personal and beautiful the wedding was...a year and a half later. Our wedding was even featured on Style-me-Pretty a few months later simply because her details were so whimsical and lovely! From day one and throughout, Nicole was organized, communicative and hugely supportive. She put my 'type A' mother with her 1,000 questions at ease after a single meeting. She introduced us to a range of wonderful vendors who matched our budget, aesthetic and energy flawlessly. She was with us through every planning 'milestone' and guided us through rentals, tastings, florals etc. I would have been completely overwhelmed and befuddled without her. Our 'day of' was joyful, dreamy and completely stress-free, thanks to Nicole. I was well aware, after months of planning with her, that things would be perfect, our guests would be happy and we could dance the night away without at care! She is wonderful and I would highly recommend her to all new 'brides-to-be" and "soon-to-be-hubbies". read more

Our wedding day was perfect and Nicole was instrumental in bringing it all to life. We hired her for full-service planning and design and I can't recommend her enough. She was professional, courteous and timely, and was also very cognizant of our budget. She knows exactly what she's doing and has a ton of experience because she is able to anticipate any issues that may arise and has the resourcefulness to swiftly prepare for and handle them. She communicated with all of our vendors, so that we didn't have to. Her presence on our big day was warm, cheerful, and unobtrusive, as she held everything together and made sure it all went smoothly. We trusted her completely with every detail and she turned our vision into reality. Can't thank her enough for planning one of the best days of our lives! read more

Green Ribbon Parties - Wedding Planning Near Me

Being on my second marriage, I entered into the planning process full of apprehension. My husband wanted a big wedding, and I was acutely aware of the costs, having already been through this once. And this time, I was paying for it. More importantly, I desperately wanted this wedding to be different than my first - a unique expression of our values and love for each other and our friends and family. Needless to say, I came into wedding planning with a lot of unexpected angst and emotion. Nicole was incredibly caring and empathetic to my situation when I shared with her my concerns during the proposal phase. She immediately put me at ease about the process, and listened closely to what I wanted, and then helped me refine and elevate my vision along the way. The thing about Nicole is she has impeccable taste - I would say the best eye in the entire business (and I spent a long, long time looking at different planner's portfolios). Her work is fresh, unique, and always beautiful. And my wedding did not disappoint. My husband is a director, and all of his production friends described the weekend as the most "technically perfect" event they had ever attended (and also super warm and loving, of course). We ended up working with dozens of different vendors - some from LA, and some local to San Luis Obispo, where we married (she has the best connections) - different people for china vs. regular rentals, bartending services and caterers, I had a dress change, we also had a wine tour, welcome dinner, and brunch, etc., etc., etc., so there were a TON of moving parts - which, you would never know, since everything seemed to run so effortlessly. There are one or two bad reviews, below, amidst all the other rave reviews, which surprised me. I would never describe Nicole as rude, although you are paying her for her expertise. My first wedding planner was a lovely person, but she sugar coated a lot of decisions to "keep the peace." Nicole will always tell it to you straight, and be open and honest with you about the pros and cons of different directions. I prefer this type of professionalism, because I rather have all the information and no surprises on the day of. She really knows her stuff, and that's why you're entrusting her with such an important occasion in your life. Overall - our entire wedding weekend was legit flawless - and the happiest times of our life (all of that initial angst, for nothing!). We never worried about a thing, and could sit back and enjoy every moment of it along the way thanks to Nicole. She works SO hard and it shows. Five stars forever! read more

Nicole planned my wedding back in the spring of 2014. I live in NYC so I needed a planner to help me since I wasn't able to attend all of the meetings in person and didn't know all of the CA vendors. I got her name from my venue. I was set to get married at Twin Peaks Ranch in Ojai and in November they shut down after the contract was already signed. I was a mess!!!!! Nicole quickly called around and got us one of the last remaining dates at Ojai Valley Inn and we were back on track. All of this went down right before Thanksgiving and Nicole was completely available to help me and really reassured me that everything was going to be ok - and it was! After the venue debacle we were able to secure all of our vendors based on Nicole's referrals. We had some vendors booked and had to get new ones when our date changed due to the venue switch. However, it all worked out and we were really happy with everyone we ended up with. Our wedding was a day I will never forget! We had many friends and family traveling from the east coast and they loved being in Ojai and everyone had a great time. Nicole made sure that everything flowed and I got tons of comments on how it was the best wedding my guests had ever seen. Nicole made the day a stress-free one for me and my husband and even my mom (who is very picky) said she thought it all turned out perfectly. Highly recommend Nicole - we are still in touch and I refer her to any LA friends tying the knot! I have total confidence in her aesthetic, relationships with vendors and ability to make what can be a stressful process, seamless and organized! read more

I hope that any bride doing her due diligence will read this review and think twice before hiring Nicole. I had very high hopes for my experience but was left sorely disappointed. Out of all my vendors, GRP was the only one that I felt remorse about hiring afterwards. Even some of my other vendors commented after our wedding on her negativity, rudeness, and downright unprofessionalism. I write this in hopes of encouraging any prospective, excited bride to please research and vet (ask for references!) any vendor they choose, especially a wedding planner. read more

We hired Nicole for month-of planning for our January wedding several months prior to our event. She was hugely helpful leading up to our wedding fielding all the questions we had well before her contract kicked in. She quickly replied to all of our emails and phone calls and her deep knowledge of the industry eased several of the stresses and confusions associated with wedding planning. We loved our wedding and everything seemed completely seamless and easy despite the day's unexpected challenges. We had multiple venues and each had an incredibly challenging coordinator--despite this Nicole continually followed up with them to ensure all of our expectations were met. Finally it poured most of the day, yet everything went smoothly and Nicole seemed to have thought of every detail and issue as they popped up that day. Lastly, both my husband and I are designers and Nicole did an amazing job of helping us layout the venues to our liking while having an amazing design sensibility for the details. I had an incredible time at my wedding and was able to relax and enjoy the day entirely due to Nicole's extreme attention to detail, organization, and amazing planning skills. Every vendor thoroughly enjoyed working with her and all of her vendor suggestions absolutely exceeded our expectations. I can't recommend Nicole more wholeheartedly, she is a wonderful, down to earth professional--I can't imagine anyone better to have helped us navigate the wedding planning process. read more

Nicole was an absolute rockstar of a wedding planner. From the get-go, she worked with my very limited budget and we started working on the details of my wedding months out. She helped me narrow down the design of my wedding, advised me on some of my DIY projects and guided me thorough the whole wedding process. I had her as a month-of coordinator but she was certainly more like a year-of coordinator with the amount of phone calls, skype meetings and texts we had back and forth. Her attention to detail still amazes me and she had great, productive and professional advice for me as a bride as I worked out the details. The day of the wedding she was on-time, stayed late to help everyone clean up and kept the schedule of the day on-task. She had every minute of the day planned out and was in direct contact with all my vendors. The day of my wedding, I was able to relax and enjoy it because I knew she was on top of it and I had nothing more to worry about at that time with Nicole there organizing! Recommend her to any bride in So. Cal as a month-of coordinator! read more

As a corporate event planner, I had extremely high expectations for our wedding planner. Nicole not only met all of my expectations both personally and professionally but on the day of I think I was even more blown away than our guests at how well organized and executed our day was. Nicole has the ability to oversee large scale events from conception to execution without sacrificing a keen eye for design and details. Her expertise and aesthetic would be an asset to any event planning team in any corporate or social capacity. read more

We hired Nicole at The Green Ribbon Party Planning Co. to help coordinate our wedding this past Jan. after she had set us up on a blind date 2 yrs prior! It was an absolutely amazing experience. I remember Nicole walking Jason and I through our reception before the rest of our guest and it was just magical! I kept saying, "This is just a dream!" Nicole was able to execute and deliver everything we had communicated to her that we wanted for our big day. She has great relationships with many vendors in all the different areas of putting your big day or event together! We found this very helpful as I never feel like I've "seen it all" before I make my decision. If anything went wrong that day we definitely didn't know about it... Nicole is very hands on and takes pride in making sure that her bride and groom have the best experience possible. If we could do it all over again... We'd change nothing! I'm just waiting for the next event we can have Nicole do! She's truly a talented planner that you can trust!!! read more

Nicole planned my sisters wedding this summer and the evening was flawless. Guests have not stopped telling us how, this wedding was magical. My family and I did not have have to worry about one, single thing. We were able to just take in the day, knowing that everything was getting done behind the scenes and that sense of comfort is worth so much. Additionally, she has a wonderful eye for design and pushed us to take our design to the next level, and it came out so incredible. Happy happy clients and highly recommend Nicole to anyone planning any type of event. Thanks so much! read more

Brides, guess what? You need a wedding planner. For real. I would be in an insane asylum if I didn't have the wonderful Nicole Arena of Green Ribbon Party Planning, to keep me grounded and organized. My husband and I threw her a curve ball saying we wanted a small ceremony in one location, then a larger reception in a completely different location, all on the same day. Nicole not only excuted this crazy plan flawlessly, but every one of our guests came up to us afterwards saying this was "the best wedding ever." That was due to Nicole's expertise, vision and relationships with incredible vendors! My other favorite thing about working with Nicole is that she is so responsive. I could always count on her to get back to me in record speed, and if you are currently planning your wedding, you know how important that is. Brides be losing there minds thinking we are the only people on the planet getting married and we need that attention! Bottom line, if you are looking for a professional, seasoned, creative, no bull---- wedding planner who not only sincerely cares about each of her brides but is also loved and respected by the best vendors in the biz, Nicole is your gal. read more

I'd like to write a few things about my experience with Nicole the owner of Green Ribbon Parties. We had a beautiful wedding. It was literally out of a fairytale and took a tremendous amount of planning. We had many prearranged events to squeeze into one day and wanted to make sure everything unfolded as we had intended. Fortunately Nicole was very organized and helped us make sure our wedding went as planned. I was very appreciative that she was flexible with her availability during our planning stages. As the groom, I wanted to make sure our wedding day was as wonderful as we both hoped for. Because of Nicole's reliability, responsibility, and hard work to ensure everything went as planned, our wedding day was amazing. read more

When looking for a wedding planner, a mutual friend suggested I meet with Nicole Arena of The Green Ribbon Party Planning Co. Nicole genuinely cares about each bride (and groom, and event) and making sure ALL the details are taken care of perfectly. She is a get-it-done, no-nonsense planner and won't sugar coat things (which is what many planners do). Nicole listened and really understood the vision we had for our special day and was seriously available 24/7 - whether it was answering a small question, to setting up meetings with wonderful vendors, and everything else in between. She seriously thought of everything - the tiniest details made it extra special. My wedding day was 100% stress free because she handled it all. I couldn't have asked for a better planner and recommend her to anyone who asks! read more

Recommended to me by a friend who was also a wedding planner, Nicole will help you make sure your day runs and smoothly as possible. I've never met anyone who takes more notes! Over the year and a half of planning with Nicole there was nothing I mentioned that she didn't take note of for my wedding, nothing slipped past her. She's a take no nonsense kind of woman which is EXACTLY what you need for your wedding day, so you can just enjoy the day and have fun. Nicole will make sure everything runs perfectly and quickly handle any issue than might pop up. She's fun to work with, flexible with schedule and meetings (she drove from Santa Monica to Glendale to meet me on my work lunch break - twice!), arrived early to help coordinate all the set up the morning of my wedding, and even dressed to match the colors at my location! She has so many amazing connections and can hook you up with fabulous vendors, I would have been lost without her : ) read more

My husband and I just got married in April at El Encanto in Santa Barbara and Nicole helped plan our big day from start to finish. Nicole was very professional, easy to get a hold of through out the planning process, well organized, and extremely attentive. We were completely stress-free on the day of our wedding and that was thanks to Nicole and her unbelievable follow through and attention to detail. She seriously does not miss a beat and she was an absolute pleasure throughout the whole process. Nicole also has fantastic taste and she really helped take our ideas and wedding inspiration to a whole new level of design. All in all Nicole was simply beyond wonderful. We highly recommend her! read more

My husband, Tim, and I got married a year ago in Santa Barbara, and Nicole did a fantastic job on our wedding. We were overwhelmed when we started planning, and knew we needed help. We looked on the Santa Barbara Historical Museum's website (our reception location), and saw that Nicole had planned a really beautiful wedding there before, so we gave her a call. After talking to her for a few minutes and finding out that she went to Boston College and used to work for J. Crew, we knew it would be a good fit! We met with Nicole before we started any of the major planning, and she took a ton of notes about what we were looking for. One thing Tim and I were stressed about was how to choose good vendors out of the seemingly endless options. There was no way to tell from a website whether a florist, DJ, or caterer was really as great as he/she looked or was a total nightmare. When it was time to choose a photographer, caterer, etc., Nicole would send us three or so options that she knew we would like, and then we would choose the final one. She coordinated the vendors, told us when to pay someone, helped us negotiate, and kept us on a timeline leading up to the wedding. Nicole also worked with our florist to develop a cohesive design for everything from my bouquet to the buffet to the cake table. On the day of the wedding, Tim and I didn't have to worry about anything. Nicole had it all handled. And, because Nicole had it handled, our families were also able to relax and enjoy themselves. The wedding was beautiful, fun, and totally exceeded our expectations. Our wedding photos even ended up on the California site for stylemepretty.com, which we didn't expect but allowed us to relive the day. read more

My husband and I got married in Montecito on 11/1/15. Nicole helped my husband and I plan our dream wedding and rehearsal dinner in 4 months! She is organized, has great taste, has connections to awesome vendors and is easy to get hold of- Nicole was always available via phone or email. My husband and I had such a relaxing wonderful and FUN wedding day because Nicole had taken care of everything. I would highly recommend Nicole to any 'bride to be's'. read more

Nicole is awesome. And hilarious. She told my wife and I at one of our pre-wedding sit downs that "She is not a wedding planner because she 'Loves love', but because she is organized and detail oriented." It's totally true and thank goodness for it. Our wedding was perfection because my wife and I figured out exactly what we wanted the night to be and Nicole helped us execute it perfectly. Nicole was always very responsive to our emails and phone calls. She was present at the venue. She wrangled my hooligan groomsman like a champ. She recommended THE PERFECT caterer. She also jumped in to lend a hand the day before when we were setting up the space (which was something that my wife and I chose to take on as a cost saver). I cannot recommend Nicole and The Green Ribbon Party Planning Co, Highly enough. read more

Nicole planned 2 huge events for me: my wedding(150 guests) and my business' grand opening party(approx. 115 people). I get emotional when I think about how much she has helped make those 2 very important days so perfect! My wedding was in Mexico and Nicole made every detail perfect. From the check in guests were greeted with a drink and a goodie bag (all courtesy of Nicole), to a very organized 4 days of activities. My flowers and décor were dreamy-I NEVER would have been able to pull those together myself. She was very organized and focused. Nicole is a "tell you like it is" kinda gal. I love that about her and appreciate her honesty. For my studio's grand opening she knocked it out of the park again! So many cute touches and details, clients were raving about how beautiful the space looked. I have recommended Nicole to several friends who have used her for weddings and they are all completely happy with her. She has done everything from huge mega-budget weddings to smaller, intimate ones and they all have the same result: a happy bride with a gorgeous wedding. read more