Merrily Wed

First of all, I want to say I am SHOCKED by the rating of Merrily Wed when I came here to write a review. I’m not sure why Unilocal has only 2 reviews showing. They are from many, many years ago with terrible ratings and do not reflect at all what I experienced. I read those reviews and have to completely disagree with everything that was written. Please go look at the other reviews written that are «not currently recommended» at the bottom of this page. I just went and saw 22 reviews that gave 4 and 5 stars with a lot of context behind them — plus they are newer reviews and definitely what you should base your opinion on. It actually makes me angry at Unilocal for hiding all those reviews when my experience with Merrily and her team was nothing but phenomenal.
My husband and I hired Merrily Wed for our June 2015 wedding before we had a venue or even a date. We both live in Texas but knew we wanted to get married in the beautiful setting that is Lake Tahoe, CA. That being said — that is ALL we knew. We have no connections or ties to the place and didn’t know anything about wedding venues. We found Merrily after some initial online searching for «Lake Tahoe Wedding Planners» and after talking with a handful of different planners, decided to make the choice to go with Merrily Wed. We felt comfortable with Merrily and her team, had an amazing experience with Beth Hill, one of her team members, who showed us all around Tahoe one afternoon looking at multiple different venues and Merrily fell within our budget (which was a big thing for us).
Beth became our go to girl for over 14 months as we planned our wedding. Again, we live in Texas and Beth is local to Tahoe so my Husband and I basically planned our wedding via emails, phone calls and recommendations from Beth/​Merrily. Beth is one of THE most organized people I have met — and I consider myself to be organized — but she put me to shame in that category. She could answer any question regarding ANYTHING to do with the wedding within hours of my email. It was so comforting to know I didn’t have to keep track of who needed to be paid when, when I needed to make certain decisions, etc. Beth provided us with a detailed wedding timeline broken out by month starting 12 months before our wedding. It had everything you could think of on there and it was an amazing tool we used throughout the planning process. She also provided us with a budget template, worked with our budget and helped us negotiate with certain vendors when we potentially were going to go over budget. We had three in-​person meetings with Beth throughout the process but other than that, our wedding was planned from afar and with the amazing coordination Beth provided. Of course there were a few stressful times — as there always will be with planning such a large event — but there is no way I would have enjoyed this time planning if it wasn’t for how calm, organized and excited Beth was each and every time I talked to her. She was literally on top of everything from day one and I can’t sing her praises enough. Truly an amazing woman who is remarkable at her job! If it wasn’t for Beth, Merrily and the entire team — there is no way we could have picked such amazing vendors. They helped us decide on everything from who to work with on linens, music, venue, hair, décor, etc. It was so nice to have someone who knew the area, knew our budget (and stuck to it) and knew our taste/​style we were going for.
The day of the wedding finally arrived and everything was perfect. Beth, Merrily and Pam worked flawlessly with each of the vendors and allowed me the time to get ready with my bridesmaids to be as fun and carefree as possible. We had a meeting with them before our rehearsal the day before and we passed off everything that needed to be done. I have had so many of our guests come up to me and say it was the best run wedding they have ever been part of and how beautifully everything came together. That is a true testament to Beth and Merrily for an amazing job well done — I promise you, you will not be disappointed by hiring them to help plan your big day. They have forever touched our hearts and I am so grateful our paths crossed during this time in my life. As Merrily told me the day after the wedding, «This isn’t good-​bye, just a see you later» and that’s how I truly feel because I know we can get together for coffee and a catch up session the next time my husband and I are in Tahoe. These ladies are remarkable at their job and you will be in great hands with them by your side.

We are working with Merrily now on our daughter’s September wedding and I have been very impressed to date. She has good vendors but when we didn’t click with the first one she suggested, she was happy to figure out the reason and then us to someone else that would meet our needs. It has worked perfectly so far. She is accessible and very organized which I know will help make the big day smoother. I thought I’d share this now and will top it up post-​wedding. So far it is all been very good.

A wedding planner might be one of the most difficult and important decisions to make, so when you have an experience like ours we felt like we needed to spread the word.
We were married July 2013 lakeside at the Playtime Estate in Homewood. To say that Merrily and her team made our dreams come true is an understatement. We interviewed the top wedding planners in the Tahoe area and immediately connected with Merrily and Beth. Beyond being the utmost professionals throughout the process, they took the time to listen and really get what we were looking for, then they turned it all into reality within 6 months.
We live in Los Angeles and are both very busy with work so we needed someone that could take charge and not only get things done but keep us calm, focused and on track at the same time. Their knowledge, expertise and talent are undeniable and made us so comfortable in making all of our decisions along the way.
Our wedding day was absolutely seamless and just about every guest commented on how smoothly and perfectly it was run, not to mention that it was one of the most beautiful weddings they had ever been to :-).
We recommend Merrily and her team with all our heart to anyone looking to plan the wedding of their dreams in Tahoe.

We were thrilled with Merrily’s wedding planning services. She is an exceptional wedding coordinator and we highly recommend her. We booked Merrily’s Simply Bliss package, which is basically a month-​of coordination package. We also used Merrily’s services to help us coordinate a wonderful post-​wedding brunch on Lake Tahoe. Our only regret is not booking one of Merrily’s more extensive wedding planning packages. We are so glad to have hired Merrily as our wedding coordinator because she ensured that we had a memorable and beautiful wedding at the Ritz-​Carlton, Lake Tahoe, which occurred in June 2011.
Merrily is professional, creative, responsive, attentive to detail, organized, positive, kind, and flexible. I found Merrily by viewing several of her weddings on Style Me Pretty, which are a very accurate reflection of Merrily’s planning skills and creativity. I very much appreciated Merrily’s ability to work both with me and my mom, who was handling a great deal of the planning. Merrily seamlessly coordinated with all of our vendors. She provided helpful reminders and planning sheets, spotting many details that I would have overlooked. She also provided many wonderful ideas relating to the décor, room organization, and the wedding timeline. For example, she helped design a gorgeous and unique candy buffet table. Merrily made me feel very much at ease and confidant that our wedding would be wonderful.
And Merrily ensured that we had our perfect wedding. The day ran smoothly and seamlessly thanks to all of Merrily’s thoughtful planning and organization. She had not yet coordinated a wedding at our venue, which was new, but you would have thought she had coordinated dozens of weddings there. Merrily ensured that we stayed close to our timeline, that our wedding party was organized and ready, that our vendors were prepared, that our guests knew where to go, and that our wedding décor and details were in place. We cannot thank Merrily enough for all of her help.

Merrily is absolutely the best. From the moment that my now husband and I got engaged, we dreamt of gathering all of our friends and family on the shore of Lake Tahoe for our wedding in the Summer of 2009. Merrily helped us create a day that far surpassed anything we ever could have imagined. The first awesome thing she did was find us the perfect private home on the west shore for our wedding and reception.
I am extremely detail oriented, but live in the Bay Area, so having someone like Merrily, based in Lake Tahoe, was extremely helpful. She worked with all of our ideas (of which I sent her countless) and helped me incorporate every detail into the wedding. For example, when I asked if she could find a solo guitarist who could play sing-​a-​long songs by a campfire at the end of the night, she found us the best guitarist in the basin.
In addition, Merrily never stopped surprising me with incredible ideas of her own. Keeping in mind our budget, she was always thinking of interesting and affordable ways to make our wedding very «us» and incredible vendors (except for the photographer, Albert at Mulberry Photography, but thats another day, another Unilocal).
In addition to being creative, Merrily is fantastically detail oriented. She always knew exactly when things needed to be completed, and was diligent about helping keep me and my family on track and on schedule. By the time the wedding came along, I had absolutely no concern that anything would not be done perfectly.
Thanks to Merrily, my husband and I look back on our wedding day with the fondest of memories. Thank you Merrily!
PS– If you are getting married in Lake Tahoe, can I also recommend Sara Spurlock at Belissima Floral, Jennifer Ergut at Kiss and Make Up, and Laura Seegmiller at Bellavita Salon in Tahoe City…

Working with Merrily was one of the best decisions I made throughout
my wedding planning process. She was not pushy or difficult at all to work with, and she provided all of the knowledge and guidance for me and my fiancé (now husband) to make the right choices for us and our wedding.
One of the most important and most flattering things to note about Merrily is that during the entire year that we worked together to plan our wedding, I always felt like I was her only client and never even once felt she was working with other brides to plan their own weddings, although she had an entirely booked Spring, Summer and Fall of weekends full of weddings.
She was always accommodating and aware of my personal style and details while adding her knowledge and expertise to help make the ultimate best decisions. She worked with me to accomplish exactly what I wanted– a day that was a reflection me and my husband. She is also great about giving her opinion when I asked for it, and stepping back when I knew what I wanted.
We were married at a historical lakefront location that required complicated coordination on just about everything– transportation, catering, etc… It all had to be brought on site. The ceremony was on the lawn where the dinner was being served and the whole area had to be turned over during the cocktail hour!
The big day went off flawlessly and without anyone knowing how much time and effort had put into the whole thing (the way it should be). On my wedding day, Merrily kept everything on schedule and organized and most importantly kept me relaxed and able to really enjoy my day. I was not worried or stressed for one minute as I knew I was in good, very professional hands. Many brides are excited about their wedding day but are so relieved when it’s over and done. Not me. I would do it all over again because I had such an amazing, wonderful day; all thanks to Merrily.
In the end, Merrily also turned out to be a friend (especially with
the amount of time we spent working together!). She’s someone I
still stay in contact with and would recommend to anyone getting
married in Tahoe. She was a great help and a big part of the reason
that all of our wedding guests said our wedding was the most
beautiful (and fun) they had ever seen or been to.
Kate

Merrily! I love this woman! I don’t even know where to begin.
We could begin at the beginning, when I told Merrily, «well, let’s see, I’d like to get married near the lake… outside… that’s about all I know.» So how did she figure out exactly what I was looking for and deliver it? It’s still kind of a mystery to me, but I think it has something to do with months of patience, lots of creativity, and tireless efforts to work closely with me, my husband, and my mom.
Merrily found an estate that was perfect for our needs — actually a lovely vacation home, right on the lake, owned by a lovely couple that rents out for one wedding a summer. She visited the estate multiple times (while I was living in Chicago), measuring, imagining, drawing plants, re-​drawing… and laid out a fantastic ceremony and reception.
My whole family went up to Tahoe for a long weekend and Merrily arranged great meetings for us with the vendors I’d selected (based on her recommendations) — it was really fun working with these women, they love working together and clearly have the logistics of weddings down to a science. With that said, they all (Merrily, as well as the florist and the caterer) put so much creative energy into my wedding and came up with such great ideas, it made me feel like I was the only wedding they were doing all year.
Speaking of vendors, I need to write a whole separate Unilocal review about Chapin the DJ, who was the most unexpectedly awesome part of the wedding weekend. He had these crazy lounge singer versions of early Michael Jackson among other gems. We loved it. Really. Merrily rocks for finding him.
I hired Merrily about 14 months before my wedding. Anything can happen, right? Yes: one day she called to tell me that she was having a baby a mere 2.5 months after the wedding day! Even if she hadn’t been 6 months pregnant, I would have been surprised how hard she worked on the day of our wedding. She was out directing the small army of people building and arranging stuff, she managed the rescue of the altar when it fell in the lake during setup, she arranged and perfected flowers, rocks, petals, table arrangements, guest cards, …man, there was a lot of stuff… and of course kept us all on schedule and in the right place at the right time. The day went incredibly smoothly. I didn’t worry about anything, except keeping myself from crying and smudging the eye makeup.
If you think I’m over the top in gushing about Merrily, you should read one of the emails my mom writes to prospective brides looking for references. Every time she gets the chance to write one of these, I am convinced she spends hours crafting a new letter. (Let’s just ignore the part where she takes digs at me for going to India for 3 months in the middle of wedding planning season.) My mom is a little more detail oriented than me, and definitely a much better party planner. Since she’s the expert, I’ll just quote her here: «Merrily is very creative, easy to work with, prompt. She pays attention to detail and keeps everything on track. In short, she is a very accomplished professional. I really think she was an angel.»
As my mom says, I think you’ll be lucky if you get to work with Merrily.

I was surprised to read the two negative reviews regarding Merrily’s services. My wife and I felt that not only was Merrily extremely professional but also very enjoyable to work with. Our idea of an ideal wedding planner is one that makes your wedding «what you want» as well to infuse it with her own experience and creativity. Merrily suceeded at both.

While Merrily Rocco gets high marks from references she supplies, I have to tell you — STAY AWAY. My fiancé and I hired her to plan our Lake Tahoe wedding from start to finish — her most expensive and exhaustive service. Things seemed to be going well, but in a series of emails I traded with Merrily, she was answering my questions with one word answers. I don’t know about you, but if I’m told «no» on something, I expect an explanation. I asked Merrily to clarify and pointed out that I needed more information. I also sent her contract revisions for the wedding site we were renting (nowhere in the contract did it say we were allowed to have a wedding, event, or any gathering greater than 22 people — funny, huh?) I got a response from her that her one word answers was because she was busy and she was also dumping us as clients. Apparently, my questions and contract issues indicated to her that we didn’t «trust» her.
Being dumped was one thing, but when I talked to the site manager about finalizing the contract without Merrily, I was then told that Tahoe was a small place and she wasn’t going to jeopardize her relationship with Merrily.
We still don’t have a location for our wedding. We were completely in shock. Merrily refused to return my phone call to discuss this. I guess in the end, what Merrily really wanted to do was plan a wedding from start to finish with no questions from anybody, not even the bride and groom.
Merrily is not certified by any wedding planning agency — I went in knowing this and was initially comforted by her response that she does enough business with excellent service that she doesn’t need to be certified. I’d strongly caution against going with an uncertified wedding planner based on this experience.