Take Home Chef Experience with Bay Area native: Joseph Hodgkinson…read more Last October 2006, our director organized a cooking event with Joseph and our department. This gave me the opportunity and encouragement to get back in to cooking through this one on one experience. Although, the food was delicious, I couldn't believe that I cooked it. Thanks Joseph for helping me. For some time now, I've ran out of dinner selections for my personal gatherings at home. Now being single, I have much more confidence to experiment with new dishes and ingredients when i invite guests for dinner. Highilights: Joseph introduces Vegan dishes. Gougere (cheese appetizer), Nicoise Salad (Mediterranean salad), Potato Gratin, and Peach Creme Brulee. Note: I served the Peach Creme Brulee last Thanksgiving and my family enjoyed it very very much! And my father is very selective with his desserts.

The best meal I ever had…read more Joseph was the chef for our proposal celebration and both Vivian and myself have been watering over the food. It was so good it nearly overshadowed the proposal.. He is stellar- just.. stellar.. You *have* to try his new style sashimi but everything was fantastic- from salad, to thai duck noodle soup to rib eye (omg- a basic rib eye should not taste that good-- it felt aged but wasn't) to Mango Ice Cream to Cardamon tea with cinnamon. And besides meal- the service.. everything was set up, put down, whole kitchen was cleaned, even better then when he arrived, the food was served on time, was hot, but not too hot, he kept refilling our glasses, stayed out of conversation, but then would join in if asked or at the right time.. It was.. amazing.. if i could afford him, I would hire him every day. We have already agreed to hire him at least once a year. And he made a menu for us to keep as a momento.... Pictures: https://plus.google.com/photos/104649177688789340653/albums/5928460446955723873 Proposal Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdDHwscnzLI

I can not say enough about Shannon Mae Photography! My family and I absolutely adored her! Being,…read morenot from the area of Lincoln City, I researched a photographer to do our family photo session. I was referred to her from another photographer that didn't have availability for us. Woohoo for us! She made us all feel so comfortable with getting our picture done. She was absolutely ok with me showing her some pictures of what I liked. Shannon really did so much to make us happy, I wanted two locations and she was happy to do it! To top things off, she is sooo reasonably priced! She could charge double, if not more! My big thing was I wanted the CD of the edited photos, with the printing rights to them and she does that! Honestly, if you are in the area and want some really cool pictures, she's the one you want!!!

Shannon is an amazing talent....Not only is she amazing at capturing beautiful pictures through her…read morelense, but she is absolutely a delight to be around. My fiance and I had so much fun with her the day we shot our engagement pictures. We laughed and we talked and we laughed some more. We were so at ease with her and when we got our pictures back we fell in love all over again. She has the innate ability to show someone's personality and love through the pictures she takes. I had many of my friends asking for her contact information once they saw the album. Thank you Shannon from the bottom of our hearts! I would recommend Shannon to anyone! She's that good!!!!

Melissa was a wonderful person to have design our wedding. She answered all of our questions…read morepromptly and gave us a fair price. We would definitely recommend her services. :)

It's always such a pleasure to work with Melissa at Table Tops Etc! Melissa and her staff always…read moreprovide top notch professional and timely service along with BEAUTIFUL floral work. Our clients are always SO HAPPY they chose Table Tops Etc.

These guys did our wedding a few weeks ago and they were great to work with. Having two guys…read morereally helped things go smoothly, and we appreciated having them to advise us on the reception schedule and timing. We only gave them a list of 20 or so songs on which to base their playlist, and the other tunes they picked matched so perfectly that we had several guests ask us if we had picked every song! The only mishap was on my part when I didn't have my shoes on in time for the first dance. :) It helped that they were very familiar with our venue, but they are so professional and experienced that I'm sure they would be a great pick for any venue. They weren't cheap, but considering we had zero problems with them and they were so easy to work with, they were worth it.

I love Jessica's work. Not only are all her designs unique and original but her Henna is homemade…read more I'm confortable enough to allow my children to get a design because I know her products don't have any chemicals or dyes. She personally makes everyone of her batches and they all smell wonderful. I highly recommend her for weddings, parties or just for a quick design. You won't regret it.

Truly a pleasure to work with Alit Events, Rios is a very professional hard-working young man who…read morereally puts his all into his work. His flexibility and commitment to his craft really shows, and he really knows how to get the party going. Beyond the party music he also really impressed us with his ability to time and queue up specific songs at the perfect moment with seamless transitions. He worked very closely with our wedding day coordinator which made our life a whole lot easier since we were not in the equation. We simply provided the requested songs for specific moments and a few guidelines and he handled the rest. I would recommend anyone and everyone to use Rios and his talents for any occasion, truly blessed to know Rios and I have him do our wedding.

We hired Melissa through a friend's recommendation. I was actually present at his wedding that she…read moreofficiated. Melissa was very professional, made the whole process extremely easy from start to finish, showed up on time and ran the ceremony beautifully! Thank you so much, Melissa! We would recommend you to anyone we know!

I've worked with The Affable DJ twice, for two very different events and crowds. Once for a…read morerehearsal dinner for my niece and once for my mother's 80th birthday party. In both cases McKenzie was fun to work with, had all the music our two very different groups requested and knew just the right time and music to get the party hoppin' or quiet things down for toasts. I live in San Francisco and come to the Portland Metro area to visit family and friends, I'm so happy to have found a DJ that can help me throw a great party when I'm there!