Back Patio Event Design, LLC - La Mesa, California

Felicia M

TLDR: Worth every penny. Laura and Kayla are a delight and you should hire them.

Fist off:
We hired them as day-of coordinators, not as full wedding planners, so I can only speak to the portion of their services we utilized. Though they did provide an excellent recommendation for one of our vendors.

Good Communicators:
We worked predominantly with Laura, but both respond quickly via email; usually next working day (occasionally same day but I tend to be a late night corresponder). They reached out several times between their date of hire and the event to make sure they had all the correct information, and understood what we wanted of the event. They were very clear on what services they do and do not provide, their requirements for meals and safe working conditions, and the payment schedule.

Good Eye For Decoration:
Due to a major snafu, we arrived much later than anticipated; Laura and Kayla had to do pretty much all of the set up by themselves without any direction. They did have a floor-plan, but unfortunately the dimensions provided by the venue weren’t accurate and they had to make some executive decisions on where to put the lounge furniture so it made sense and didn’t get in the way. They did a wonderful job and we didn’t make it easy on them. Laura and Kayla turned on and placed an obscene amount of LED candles (at least 150) and fairy lights and pre-lit garlands, added the provided florals to the table garlands, set out the chargers and menus and place cards, and set up the ceremony space (baring the chairs, that was our rental company). They even moved the welcome table and ceremony decorations to the reception space during cocktail hour so we could get more use out of them and more guests could sign the book. Everything was lovely and they worked very hard to make it so. If Laura and Kayla weren’t there to take charge, the whole day would have been about 3 hours behind, and it would have been a disaster.

Problem Solvers:
During the wedding, they handled most of the problems without needing my input, but for the major snafu the information and the options were presented to me as a clear this or that scenario, so they were off again and handling it without much delay.

Thoughtful: I was panicking before the ceremony, due to the aforementioned snafu. Not only did they keep everything going smoothly for the guests, Laura also found my best friend and sent her to me to calm me down. No one ever mentioned to me later that they noticed anything had gone wrong. They also chased my husband and I down with a snack tray during couples photos, which was much appreciated since I hadn’t eaten yet that day. They both, Laura especially provided a very calming “we got this” energy when I was being pretty emotional/illogical. By the way: I’m sorry, and thank you!

Payment: Accepted credit cards and provided invoices, via Quickbooks. Very easy. We paid in two installments, half when we reserved their services, the remainder the week of the wedding. The cost for their services was very reasonable and I do not regret a cent.

Perks: They offered to make our personalized welcome sign, if we provided them with the materials. We did not utilize this offer, as my sister made our welcome sign, but the table numbers and general signs (pick a seat not a side, table numbers, etc) were lovely; so I’m sure the personalized sign would be equally beautiful. Laura and Kayla generously allowed us to use the general signs along with some décor items (easels, blanket crates) at no extra charge.

Jessica Davis

The Backyard Patio Event Design team made our wedding such a spectacular, beautiful celebration for my new Husband and myself. From clear communication the and our family and friends. The whole way through our planning process to an abundance of vendor referrals they made our day feel so manageable to plan.

To the day of the wedding where they were nothing short of amazing! We truly could not recommend their services more. They went above and beyond! I give them so much credit for our day being as enjoyable and seem less as it was! Thank you specifically to Kayla who was always there for us!

Lauren Gima

We had the BEST experience working with Laura at Back Patio, and I think it was the best investment we made during wedding planning! As someone who went into wedding planning feeling intimiated by the vast unknown of the process, I found it immensely helpful to have Laura to guide me through it all. I was planning my north county San Diego wedding while living in LA, so I decided to book the Garden package to get expert insight on local vendors from the beginning. From our first phone consult, Laura was so clear in what the different package offerings covered, what to expect working with her, and immediately got to work to help bring our vision come to life. Outside of our contracted check in calls, she was always accessible via email or phone to answer my various questions or provide suggestions. When unexpected challenges with weather came up days before our wedding, Laura worked swiftly to help us navigate the situation with ease and we ended up having the best day, despite a little rain. Plus, she and Kayla were so kind and friendly, so it made getting to know and work with them such a pleasure. If I were planning another event in San Diego, I'd work with Laura and Back Patio again in a heartbeat!

Katy

A lot of moving parts from our wedding — extremely DIY, large wedding party, and even a moment of rain in San Diego. Laura and Kayla were legitimately the best investment we made in regards to wedding planning. We hired them as “day-of-coordinators” but really they were helping us 3 months out. I kid you not I was asking random questions about what flowers last the longest, we needed a first aid kit on the day of (twice), and the planners handled everything with grace and a smile. Tons of people came up to us and said something along the lines of ‘your planners are on top of it,’ or even ‘I wish our planner was like that.’ The only bit of advice I would give is they are underpriced for the value of service they provide!

Kelly Mergenthaler

Laura was incredible and I have already recommended her to many friends! While I myself am a "type A" and have event experience, nothing can prepare you for the number of decisions that need to be made throughout the wedding planning process. Laura was there every step of the way, not only offering guidance and keeping us organized but also connecting us to some of the best vendors for our specific style. We are so grateful!

Nicole E

You should hire Back Patio and never look back! I am so forever grateful for all the help I received from both Kayla and Laura. They are gems and by far the best money we spent on our wedding (ok, maybe tied with our amazing photographer).

I hired Back Patio for their month of services. Compared to most other planners, Back Patio has some of the lowest prices I could find for month of planning. So, it came as a shock when their services actually began nearly a year before my wedding. I met with Laura at least 4-5 times (often for over an hour) BEFORE the month of my wedding.Additionally, Laura went to a venue walk through 3 months prior to my wedding. Laura provided me with such great recommendations, including finding a florist in my budget (which was pretty difficult to find and that florist turned out to be astonishingly amazing).

Laura also took over the reins of coordinating my vendors. I had some issues with my venue/park coordinator and Laura, knowing how frustrated I was, completely took over those communications for me (again, months before what we had contracted for). Laura is easily the most organized person I've ever met; she laid out every single aspect of our wedding minute by minute. She made sure that we got everything we wanted out of the day. Truly, Back Patio's customer service is just unmatched. Planning a wedding is stressful, even if you are pretty low-key about the entire event. With Laura and Kayla on my team, I knew I never had to stress. I was able to let go entirely, because I knew that Back Patio would pull everything off for me.

On top of their amazing planning skills and exceptional customer service, Back Patio handled pretty much all of our signage. I was shocked at how little they charge for this! Many items were free for our use because they were already in the Back Patio collection and for our customized pieces we were only charged for the materials (our giant welcome sign ended up costing $40).

Laura was actually 9 months pregnant by the date of our wedding (congratulations on your baby boy!), so by day of our wedding Kayla took over (along with her assistant Diane).
Our wedding day went off without a hitch. It flowed beautifully and I am sure that wouldn't have been possible without Kayla and Diane. We had a complicated venue with the reception and ceremony being on opposite ends of the Safari Park. I'm sure that less experienced planners would have floundered. Kayla kept us on schedule whilst simultaneously decorating both the ceremony and reception venues. At the end of the night, Back Patio took care of all the clean up.

In addition to their expertise, Laura and Kayla are exactly the types of people you want around on one of the most important days of your life. Laura truly felt like a friend to me by the time our wedding came around. Even though she was approaching her due date, she kept responding to all my questions and emails until the very last second. Kayla is a little ball of energy. She's so happy (but also incredibly professional), it's simply a joy to be around her.

I truly cannot thank Laura and Kayla enough for their incredible work. I simply could not have pulled off our wedding without them.

Matthew Welsh

Would give Laura and Kayla 100 out of 5 stars!!

Laura and Kayla are absolute rockstars of the wedding planning world! They were with us every step of the way in our planning process and helped us breathe when we were stressing about the small things. Then the day of the wedding came and they kicked it up a notch being absolutely incredible making sure we had everything we needed and made sure our families enjoyed themselves. Seriously two absolutely amazing people that we were so lucky to have as part of our day.

Irem Kurt

Working with Back Patio Event Design was the best thing we did while we were planning our wedding. Kayla helped us a lot on going through that wedding planing process. She made these times before the big day easy and stress-free for us. She always came with options and alternatives to make sure we are happy with our choice for the wedding day.
And on the big day Kayla and Laura were everywhere we needed. They did an amazing job. Our guests, our families and us had absolutely the best time ever! We couldn’t imagine better wedding day!
Thank you so much Back Patio Event Design!