Emily Smiley Fine Weddings and Soirees

I wasn’t going to write a review on my experience because my now husband worked with Emily’s husband at the time but after recently hearing of another couple I know who went through the same nightmare I did 2 weeks ago using Emily, I felt compelled to write this review. I honestly believe there are many more of us out there with a bad Emily experience but don’t write reviews because the last thing we want to do is relive the experience by writing about it.
I am one of the lucky ones who ultimately ended up firing her 3 months before my wedding because both my husband and I were stressed out due to barely any communication follow up from Emily over the 6 months we knew her and no confidence that our wedding was going to end up a reflection of what we wanted. Most importantly, we realized that this happy joyous occasion was becoming a bitter experience because the person at the front of the healm was someone we felt we had to walk on eggshells with and didn’t really treat us with respect. Even though we were worried about how close it was to the wedding, we both knew she was not the person we wanted to remember when we looked back on the wedding even if she pulled off a gorgeous event. We had started working with Emily in Aug of 2011 and finally parted ways with her in Feb 2012. We got married in Coronado in May 2012.
I hired Emily having seen the mixed reviews on Unilocal but really hoped that the good outweighed the bad. Plus, I had a friend in the events industry who helped me secured a venue, florist and caterer already so I really just needed her to help put it all together and give me peace of mind. At the end of the day, what makes a planner really a cut above the rest is not just the outcome she delivers but most importantly how she delivers it. Emily’s «how» stinks!
The simple truth is that Emily is horrible at maintaining timely communications and meeting her commitments as far as following up on details. These are 2 fundamental reasons why brides hire full service planners. to give us peace of mind reassuring us of the progress that is being made and taking care of the details. She would often wait up to 3 weeks to get back to me on simple questions. It’s just inexcusable to me to have vendors calling me directly asking if Emily was still my planner because she never got back to them. I even had the band we used tell me that they were happy that we got a new planner because our first one (Emily) was rude and didn’t get back to them
Emily is not self aware and does not take feedback well. She tries to intimidate and becomes spiteful when she is confronted. It’s her way or the highway. She thinks the ends justify the means. Just because you can pull off a beautiful wedding doesn’t make you a good planner if your bride has a horrible experience in the process. Emily needs to tailor her approach to the needs of the bride instead of making excuses or saying «this is how I do things». I think that venues and vendors she is unfamiliar with make it difficult for her to conduct her normal last minute tactics because she doesn’t have the relationships established or comfort level with the site.
When we gently tried to part ways so that we wouldn’t damage our friendship with her and her husband, she was very childish about it and told us that we should «consider it damaged» and we were not welcome to use her husband’s company for a dance floor. She also insisted we pay her full fee because we were within 90 days of the event. The irony is that she had done virtually nothing for us to that point and we were only a couple days short of 90.
The proof in the pudding is that once I hired a new coordinator, it was SO ABUNDANTLY clear that I was not a crazy bride… I was amazed at the difference. I never had to ask twice and always got an answer to my question within days not weeks! I was now getting several options on vendors instead of 1. Most importantly I actually started having fun with the planning piece and was smiling the rest of the way. The first thing my husband and I said was «why didn’t we do this sooner!?»
I’m so happy for those who ended up getting what they needed from Emily but given her inconsistency with different clients, please reconsider. There are some amazing planners in San Diego. Choose one that respects your time and puts you first!
Sarah

Emily was a fantastic wedding planner! Her prices were reasonable and she was professional and detailed oriented throughout the process. Emily made the whole wedding day go smoothly and there were no hitches. It was perfect, and I appreciated all the work she and her girls did behind the scenes to make my day relaxing!

Our meeting Emily was fate. When my husband and I got engaged, we hid a different company to plan our wedding and it didn’t take long for it to turn into a disaster. We spoke to Emily and asked if she could help us, and not only did she do that, but made our wedding day absolutely perfect!!! When we met with her for the first time, we told her what had happened to us, what we had as far as contracts, vendors, and monies paid. She took everything and told us it was going to be alright. She was right. She helped us fix current contracts, spoke to our vendors and made sure we were all on the same page, and coordinated everything impeccably. I can’t say enough about how awesome our wedding was. She is an amazing person, with a fabulous skill set. from her homemade gift boxes for visitors, personalized dance floor, lighting, décor, and her ability to keep us all in line and on-​time the day of (which can be difficult for us :)) she was amazing. My husband loved working with her, and the day after even he couldn’t stop commenting on how perfect our day was. It was amazing to meet and work with her, and I can assure you will love her too.

As soon as I got engaged… one of the first advice I got was, get a wedding planner. So that’s what i did… you’d be stupid not to get emily. she’s honestly the best out there! I’m not really the most creative person, I know what I wanted for our wedding, I just didn’t know how to put it all together. Emily def knew what I wanted and everything I visioned it to be was way more than my expectations. She is def a busy gal, and at times I got a little nervous because she didn’t get back to me stat… but TRUST, that she will do a good job in making sure your day goes 110% right. When it came to working with my vendors, getting my overall look and theme, all the little here and there I wanted for my wedding, best believe she made it all happen. My wedding was BEAUTIFUL! and its been almost a month since then and I still have people talking about it. I’ve had so many friends and parents of friends inquire about Emily because everything was just so beautifully and perfectly done. Her professionalism throughout the whole process was great but she still made you feel like she was doing this wedding with you. She became a friend. When it came to the day of the wedding, everything went by so smoothly. and even though I had a tantrum ringbearer, she kept everything cool and everything still went smoothly! I don’t know how she does it. Even when I was stressing about something, all I had to do was find Emily right there fixing it! Seriously, she was more than I asked for and expected. I would highly recommend her for anyone planning a wedding… you’d be stupid not to! thanks again for everything em!

I hired Emily as my day of coordinator and working with her was great! She definitely knows her stuff and the day of went perfectly! Emily kept us on schedule throughout the entire evening, and I didn’t have to worry about a thing. She even kept the unruly groomsmen in line. :) If I could do it again, I would have hired her to handle all the planning and saved myself seven months of headache! I would highly recommend her for your special day.

If you want your wedding to be beautiful and amazing… hire Emily Smiley. I hired Emily because she is the best. Not only do you hire the BEST wedding planner but she also works with the most professional people in the industry. My husband and I were very happy with her and would recommend her to any bride getting ready to walk down the aisle. She knows this industry very well and your wedding will be a spectular event. Don’t hesist to hire Emily Smiley if you want the best.

My husband and I got married last July at the Hotel Del and we could not have done it without Emily! I could not recommend a more organized, helpful, knowledgeable person! In this line of work you have to be able to do whatever you can to make people happy and Emily continues to go out of her way every second of every day! We had many times when my mom and I who were planning the wedding needed answers but because we are in Arizona we could not just stroll into our vendors offices, Emily personally helped with all questions immediately and the ones she did not know she got back to us within a day! We were also given great treatment as far as any loose ends when it came to vendors we did not have yet and were given a huge variety of pricing and abilities. She actually helped us save a good amount as well! Emily is the best at what she does! There is no doubt about that!

I was very fortunate to work with Emily in 2007 when she was my wedding coordinator. I have never worked with anyone so professional and who works so hard to please her clients. She is one of the best wedding coordinators I have ever seen (I interviewed many). I was very lucky for her to book me when she had a wedding already planned for the same day. She pulled off an amazing job and I still get comments on how beautiful and how fun my wedding was. It was a wonderful, worry free day and I would recommend her in a heartbeat. She is beautiful both inside and out. She provided multiple references all of whom had nothing but great comments. The photos of her previous wedding say it all. BEAUTIFUL and AMAZING!

I’m writing just to let everyone know that while a planner may have won awards or be highly rated that does not come with a price to pay in this instance. I interviewed 3 planners and was very impressed with the reviews and recommendations for ES. Much to my dismay and disappointment, she didn’t measure up. Within a month of handing over a deposit and signing a contract I was frustrated and worried that working with her was a mistake. There were errors in the budget (+25% of the working budget) and communication blunders throughout. I decided it was best to part ways amicably and cut my losses. I was hoping she’d return even a fracttion of the deposit after we spoke about breaking our contract. This was in late September. To date she has failed to communicate with me or even respond to emails with an update on her decision which only further reinforces my decision to break contract– unprofessional and poor communication.

If you want a perfect wedding I highly suggest Emily Smiley. She helped me plan the most amazing wedding at the Hotel Del complete with a bright pink dance floor!!! She is so sweet and a pleasure to work with. She had amazing, unique ideas and great vendor suggestions. My wedding day went so smoothly and people loved everything which I had to credit to Emily.