We got married in 2007 and had a destination wedding in Canmore. Since we are from the states we…read moredecided to make things easier and go with a wedding planner. You CAN do it yourself, but we honestly did not have the time to figure it all out and didn't want our wedding to be ruined by not hiring the right vendors, location, etc. Included was booking the location outside, the back-up indoor location, getting our marriage license (which they went with us to do!), photographer fees, flowers, hair and make up, cake, and limo transportation. While they do not book the reception, they gave us a great recommendation that was fantastic. Everything turned out awesome. I did not have ANY worries on my wedding day and it was so nice to be able to just take it all in and enjoy those precious moments. THAT is definitely worth it. All of the vendors were fantastic, the location was amazing, and we have pictures that are unbelievable. Thanks Rocky Mountain Weddings! Our 5 year anniversary is coming up and we still think about our beautiful wedding all the time!

I love Kismet & Clover. They are so talented, in a non-pretentious, genuine way. One might be…read morewondering what the heck they do. Basically, they offer a few different services, including rentals (we're talking antique furniture, mismatched vases, suitcases and other gloriously vintage goodies for event decor), as well as full event design. I went with the latter for my recent wedding, and hired Jessica to take the reigns when it came to decor for my event. Working with her was the perfect amount of collaboration for me. She listened to all my Pinterest-y ideas, took note of my dream theme, and ran with it. Every once in awhile we'd be in touch; she'd ask me my thoughts on burlap and other things, and pin decor ideas to my Pinterest board. I helped with some of the crafting (but honestly not that much) and worked on my own little projects for the day. I can't imagine what my day would have been like without her and her husband! A hell of a lot more stressful, I'll tell you that much. I also really appreciated their emphasis and support for other local artists. I could have ordered a zillion things on Etsy, from artists based in the U.S. and further (which I have no issue at all with, yay for Etsy!), but Jessica opened my eyes to a myriad of local Calgary artists who are doing amazing things in our city. I was thrilled to spend much of my wedding money supporting local artists. Let me just conclude with this. I was so, so touched by the little, thoughtful details she came up with. The decor was a perfect, symbolic marriage of both my new husband and I. If you want a wedding with charming, thoughtful decor and don't have the first clue where to start - check out Kismet & Clover!!!!! I recommend wholeheartedly.

From The Newly Wed Husband Who Doesn't Care About Decorations:…read more I never would have guessed I would be writing a review on a wedding decorator, but I owe it to Jessica & crew. I wasn't involved in planning the theme, colors and decorations (cause I'm a guy and my input is invalid), and that was okay with me. My wife claims Jessica was a breath of fresh air to work with and my only concern was the price (which was extremely reasonable and WELL WORTH IT). What I experienced from Jessica's end was on the day of the wedding. Unfortunately there were some flaws in the logisitics at the venue, the space was cramped, and the venue manager was bat sh*t crazy to put it nicely. Jessica took all the stress away from my wife (and as we know, a happy wife = a happy life), and made the event flawless, memorable, and an absolute delight. I can't say enough good things about Jessica and her help. The decorations as I'm told were beautiful and full of character. What I noticed the most was how much she cared, and how much she wanted to make our day better. Thank you Jessica! - The careless husband

BRIDES BEWARE. This Mia Angela is full of lies and deceit, and will resort to anything in order to…read morenot fulfill her obligations. She has taken over $9000 from us, and we have no wedding to show for it. I first contacted Mia Angela of Sweet Occasions Inc (which has since changed to Beginnings by design, then Banff Wedding Co) in November 2016. I had seen her company on Wedding Wire Canada, and there were lots of positive reviews. I am sure she wrote those reviews herself, by the way. Included in our wedding package was supposedly the following: A personalized wedding itinerary, complete with contact information, maps and directions, and all scheduling and reservations. An itinerary was sent to us, with words such as : "Your commissioner has been booked!" and "Your flowers have been ordered!". No contact information was provided for any vendors, except Michael Buckley of Photoflow as our Photographer. No maps or directions were provided, which is not surprising since I learned that Mia is not even based in Banff, but operates from the Cayman Islands and Hawaii. A Commissioner: Despite my request to have the contact information for our commissioner, Mia never gave it to me. A bridal bouquet: Same as for the commissioner, no florist was ever booked for our event. A Photographer: Michael Buckley of Photoflow was the photographer I had selected for our wedding. When I personally called Michael last week (November 20th 2017), he told me he didn't even work for Mia anymore, not since the past Summer. I was never informed that there would be a change in photographers for our wedding. Our Marriage License: although our wedding license application and commissioner form were filled out and sent on December 2nd 2016, when I called the Banff Registry on November 20th 2017 (that's right, a year later), they had still not received the documents from the wedding planner. I called the wedding planner the same day, and the Banff Registry received the documents half and hour after my call. Then, on Saturday November 25th 2017, I received a call from my new commissioner (that I booked myself) saying that Mia's assistant had contacted the Banff Registry and told them that our wedding was canceled!!! The Banff Registry thus destroyed our documents, and we had to apply for a new wedding license. Accomodations at the Château Fairmont Lake Louise: We had paid Mia in full for our honeymoon stay at the Château Lake Louise for the week following our wedding. Two months before the wedding, I contact the hotel to verify whether the room has been paid, as agreed. The credit card they had on hold was expired! I informed Mia that this was unacceptable, and she updated the credit card, but only paid the deposit on the room ($690 out of $3500). Then on Friday November 24th, I receive a call from the Director of Conference Services and Catering at the Château. Mia had just tried to obtain a refund on her credit card for the deposit. I have filed a complaing with the Better Business Bureau of Southern Alberta, as well as the FBI (FTC and IC3), the local police, the Canadian Antri-Fraud Centre, the CIU, and more. Mia, if you're reading this, know that you will not intimidate me as you have with other brides. On Thursday November 23rd 2017, Mia calls me (from Honolulu Hawaii) because she received the complaint I had filed with the BBB. She wants me to remove my complaint, since I "lied". As you can see Mia, I have kept records of everything, and cannot be more transparent. I told her I would only remove the complaint once she fulfilled her obligations. She told me she would send me an "updated itinerary" on Monday, November 27th 2017. This is what I received on Monday: "Hello Melanie, Per your request to cancel the wedding on November 20th, 2017 via email, our relationship is hereby terminated. I have sent your cancellation agreement via SignNow. Please kindly return this to me by the end of the day. Sincerely, Mia Angela ​CEO" ​ I obviously never requested to cancel our wedding, on the contrary, I am trying to salvage it despite the circumstances. So I repeat, brides beware, because this evil woman will steal all of your hard-earned money and will try to manipulate you until the very end. A professional scammer indeed.

It would have been cheaper do to everything our selves. She missed so many details on the day of…read morethe wedding. I will post a big long juicy review I just wanted to let anyone thinking of using her to run. I had to change my wedding date b/c she didn't book venues as soon as we gave them our $10000 deposit. I had to send out new save the dates like a month later.

He is awesome he decorated the hall for my wedding. It was amazing. Thank you so much Rafi. The…read moreguests loved it. It was very cheap, we checked some other businesses like Superior decor it was really expensive and a family friend told us about crystal decor it was very cheap. Once again thank you so much Rafi.

Recently I was invited to a wedding reception for a friend. I asked if they needed help to set up…read moreanything and they did need a few little things. I show up and the people from crystal decor that were supposed to be there already when I showed up did not show up for hours after I arrived. Because of this I ended up setting up most of the decorations with a few other guests while we waited for the decor people. When they did show up the staff did very little to help. They set up a few chairs, some tables, a few decoration pieces and promptly left. There were many items missing including the number of tables that were supposed to be there. The few guests that were there to help set up some smaller items ended up setting up almost the entire venue. As well I discovered, after talking to the bride, the decoration was not what was agreed. The staff then showed up late for the reception, after most guests arrived, and did not set up properly. No tables had glasses, water, etc, as agreed. As well the staff were not dressed in a respectable manner for a wedding, T-shirts, sweats, and so on. At the end Crystal Decor asked for more money claiming they didn't receive enough even tho they poorly set up and missed many items. Recently I found pictures of the reception on their Facebook page promoting "their" work that truly was the work of the guests that showed up early to help. Overall a horrible experience with this company. If you want a event to be well decorated, on time, stress free and on budget this is not the company for you.

Dreadful. The…read moreAlberta marriage commissioner, Soleiha Mahrcell, is supposedly taking over from Nomi Whalen, who is phasing out of the marriage business. Soleiha's website is the best thing about her business. In our initial meeting with her, she was sweet and smiled a great deal. As the date of our event got closer, the tone of her e-mails became a bit more terse. She makes it very clear in her contract that she will not attend a researsal. We even offered her more money for her to do so, and she declined. She will send you a number of documents that include information and a contract. The format and font of these documents was quite bizarre and difficult to read. Luckily, she sent them in Word format, so we could re-format them into a font that we found easier to read. Her e-mails come complete with animated emoticons that, while cutesy, make her seem a bit unprofessional. She arrived at our event clearly rushed, as she had just come from another ceremony. She seems to stack up ceremonies back-to-back. She left moments after the ceremony was done and we never even had a chance to say good-bye. On the day of our event, we found her positively snippy towards key family members. Naturally, they had never met her before, since she refused to attend a rehearsal. Our wedding party members did not stand exactly where she wanted them, so she took each person by the shoulders and (gently) shoved them into position. All this was done in front of our guests. Some members of our wedding party found this embarrassing. Instead of a sermon, she will tell a story about how the two of you met. This story is based on a questionnaire that you will fill out. Our guests later told us that while they thought the idea was cute, Soleiha went on and on, ad infinitum. She made a few comments during the ceremony that were flat-out inappropriate. Guests later commented that Soleiha did not seem to notice (or care) that she had made a cultural gaffe and seemed to think of herself as humorous. All in all, we were not impressed. As I look back, I regret hiring her.

We had the same experience as Fay M regarding Soleiha Mahrcell. She appears very friendly during…read morethe meetings prior to the wedding but on the wedding day she turns into a dragon lady. During consultation she was raving about how she would go above and beyond to ensure wedding goes as planned. But on our wedding day when she first arrived the very first thing she was hounding me for is payment rudely interrupting conversation with me and my guests. Even though she claimed to have no other weddings booked after us, we were running 15 minutes behind schedule and said that she would leave if we didn't start the ceremony right away. Would not recommend.

We had a verbal and written contract with Louise for day of co-ordination for our wedding. She…read moredidn't fulfill what she verbally promised and what her website states - a stress free wedding day. While other vendors were telling her not to call me with little details, Louise still called. She mixed up all aspects of the wedding songs (processional and bride and groom introduction into the reception) and then blamed the DJ then tried to blame us saying we never sent her the list (when the DJ had the list she forwarded to him). She almost sent the children of the wedding party down in the wrong order, the venue she set up was a mess (she blamed the hotel for not being at her beck and call - when she had hotel, DJ and my friends helping her - obviously can't get it done herself). She said she doesn't have the proper insurance to use her personal vehicle to run "work errands." Was having a drink at the wedding (not sure if this is general practice - especially when she claims she had no time to sit down). Decor wasn't set up how it was discussed and I even sent her pictures (also she suggested me buy items she didn't use because she "didn't know what they were for") the guest book pens in a vase next to the guest book - "I didn't know what those where for, so I didn't put them out" so our guest signed our black guest book pages with a black pen she put out. Top is ALL off we had paid her to stay an extra 2 hours to clean up our wedding decor - she left. Her excuse is that she checked with the hotel (a server or bartender) to see if they were okay with taking it all down. When in fact she had talked to the event service manager about this specifically and was told that the hotel IS NOT responsible for taking those items down, also in the contract with the hotel which Louise had a copy of. So at the end of the night we were ripped of $$$ and had to take down our wedding decor. 3 of the 4 vendors had negative things to say about her. She didn't inform our photographers of changes to the sched and they almost missed the garter/bouguet toss and the Chinese dragons that came through. 2 very big events during our wedding. Denies that any of this is her fault - CANNOT BE TAKEN FOR HER WORD or CANT FULFILL HER CONTRACT. Her website promotes her wedding, with testimonials from her husband. Don't be fooled.

From the owner: We are a full service wedding and event planning company. Day of Coordination offered, as well as…read moremonth of, full planning, and hourly rates. Call if you're looking for someone to coordinate your wedding or special event, make arrangements for florists, DJ's, transportation, wedding attire, Wedding ceremony locations, venues, live bands, ceremony music, other entertainment, wedding decor, linens & chair covers, you name it, we can help. Budgetting assistance, scheduling, timelines and communicate with your hired vendors on your day.

On Jan 6, 2026, I found myself with a flat tyre. I called AMA via their online app, and while I…read morehad trouble accessing it and then confirming they had received it, a Roadside rep showed up. To my surprise, the driver's excellence in ALL was outstanding. Driver 78 (RP) was a huge cup of sunshine on a very crappy day. He arrived and assured me he would have me on the road in a few minutes (shieh he did), told me I had a great car (BMW 525i) and that it was in super shape! My ego flourished, but nothing compared to the driver's confidence and kindness. I want to be sure you knew that he was such a valuable resource to your firm and your brand! Thank you so much, Driver # 78!!!! I don't need to use you often, but when I did, you more than delivered! Thank you!! Margie

I have been an AMA member for over 10 years. I live in Canmore and have relied on AMA services many…read moretimes in the Canmore and Banff areas. What happened yesterday represents a clear breakdown of service and communication. Yesterday, my vehicle broke down and would not start while I was approximately 90 km from my home in Canmore, in Cochrane, in the Bow Ridge neighbourhood. I contacted AMA at 1:00 pm to request roadside assistance. I required a tow truck and transportation home. I was given an estimated arrival time of 6:46 pm, meaning an estimated waiting time of approximately six hours. I understand that there may be other emergencies that require priority assistance. I was prepared to wait. However, after waiting more than six hours, the way my situation was handled was unacceptable. The vehicle was stranded in Bow Ridge, an area with no nearby warm places to wait. The closest warm location was approximately 3 km away on foot, which was not a realistic option in winter conditions. For that reason, I had to take a taxi to downtown Cochrane to wait somewhere warm. Each taxi trip costs $18. At 6:00 pm, I called AMA specifically to confirm whether assistance would actually arrive at the scheduled time, because at that moment the service had not yet been assigned to any provider, which I found concerning. During this call, the representative did not place me on hold or attempt to confirm availability with the service provider. Instead, she simply checked the app, which still showed an arrival time of 6:46 pm, and told me that assistance would be there at the time shown in the app. Based solely on that information, and while I was still in a warm location, I returned to my vehicle and paid another $18 taxi fare. The tow truck never arrived at the confirmed time, and until that moment, the service had not been assigned to anyone. I was also never contacted to inform me of any delay. At 7:10 pm, I called AMA again and clearly explained my situation. I made it very clear how frustrated and angry I was with the service and the information I had been given. I explained that I had returned to my vehicle because AMA had confirmed the arrival time, that I was now sitting in my car in winter conditions, without heat, with no warm places nearby, and 90 km from home. The response I received was dismissive: I was told to find another ride to a warm place, meaning yet another $18 taxi fare, and that I would have to wait another hour just to receive an update. No effort was made to locate assistance or improve the situation. Based on my previous experiences with AMA, whenever I had called for assistance before, I had been sent to Standish Towing & Recovery. For that reason, and given the lack of action from AMA, I decided to call Standish directly to confirm if they were available and if they could assist me. They immediately confirmed that they had a tow truck in Cochrane at that moment. AMA had never communicated with Standish, and I do not know what assistance they were planning to send. After Standish contacted AMA for authorization, a tow truck arrived within 10 minutes. I also want to emphasize that there were services available to help me. After waiting more than six hours and explaining my situation in detail, it is inexcusable that AMA made no effort to seek an alternative provider or solution. This demonstrates a complete lack of urgency and responsibility. This leads to an obvious question: Why, after waiting more than six hours and clearly explaining my situation, was no action taken to locate available assistance when I was able to secure help in 10 minutes with a single phone call? This experience shows poor communication, lack of follow-through, and a failure to act, despite clear information being provided multiple times. As a result of this experience, I am extremely dissatisfied and will not be renewing my AMA membership. I no longer have confidence in a service that relies on an app rather than verifying availability, confirms an arrival time without confirmation, and then leaves a long-term member without assistance.