Honey Bear Events -

Raina Poria

Melissa was the BEST Wedding Planner we could have ever imagined for our BIG FAT INDIAN AND JEWISH wedding day! I contacted Melissa after seeing Honey Bear Events on a website of vendor recommendations, but I had no idea that I would be meeting my literal dream wedding planner.

Melissa came into my wedding planning process after we had another planner quit on us. While it was easy to initially feel embarrassed, Melissa made me realize this wasn’t about us at all and the previous planner had her own issues that we could do nothing about. It was a blessing in disguise that we lost our first planner as I transformed from stressed about planning to EXCITED to be wedding planning with Melissa as my planner!!! She immediately made me feel comfortable and that I could trust her with all the tiny little details floating around my brain.

When Melissa and I started working together, I was living in Boston planning my wedding that would take place in Santa Barbara the next summer. Melissa was so accommodating with my schedule and when we would talk on the phone I knew I could talk to her for hours in one go and feel so incredibly relieved after. I did the Full-Service planning package with her and she was so amazing at providing suggestions for vendors, setting up calls with them for me, and getting their pricing together, so that I could have a productive call with them. She would also prepare PowerPoint slides of my design vision that she would share with them on the call, so we could make sure they were on the same page about what I wanted my dream wedding to look like.

One vendor in particular that Melissa found for me and was absolutely amazing was Pratto Paper Company. Lauren Pratto was an absolute pleasure to work with when designing my wedding invitations, day-of-stationary, and signage for the wedding day! Melissa went way above and beyond to create my vision of a mirror seating chart by working with Lauren and another vendor to build 3 giant mirrors that could stand on their own and then had Lauren apply the names in vinyl to the mirrors. I was BLOWN AWAY with how much Melissa CARED about my wedding and it really felt like she was just as invested in making my dream come true.

Melissa worked with my mother-in-law to plan a BEAUTIFUL rehearsal dinner with the most GORGEOUS FLORALS from Honey Bear Events. She worked with us to ensure all our deadlines were met and leading up to the last 2 weeks before the wedding, I didn’t feel stressed at all like I imagined I would. Everything was taken care of and if it hadn’t been, I knew Melissa had a handle on it.

As we approached the wedding day, I loved that Melissa was my SUPERWOMAN. She immediately went to bat with the hotel when they tried to put me in a different bridal suite than what was initially discussed. She never showed me any stress she was under and made sure Kevin and I were having the BEST TIME! Everything flowed so well from the moment we stepped into the hotel on Friday. On Saturday morning (Wedding Day), Melissa had her assistant bring us bagels and ordered us coffee and juice to our bridal suite. She had already set-up a group text with my maids-of-honor to communicate with them the day of, and she was fully on top of all the vendors arriving for a 5-6am set-up time! Throughout the day she would come check-in on me, make sure I was eating, and again never made me feel like there was anything going wrong outside (a week later I would find out the hotel was a mess to work with). She and I are VERY DETAILED people and I can tell you that there was not a single detail forgotten that day. Melissa was there all the way until the last vendor left and we caught her when we were coming back from our afterparty. I wanted to give her the biggest hug and cry! She was the angel in my head that created the most STUNNING wedding I could have ever imagined.

S Clark

I had the great pleasure of working with Melissa to both plan and design the florals our wedding. After interviewing several planners, Melissa really stood out. She was warm and upbeat and it really felt that she was just as excited for our wedding as we were. With her it felt like anything was possible. One of the things I really appreciated was how she stuck within our budget and provided real examples of what we could expect within that budget. As with most weddings we experienced some bumps in the road but Melissa handled all the curve balls with creativity and grace. She transformed our hotel ballroom into a magical garden. It was beautiful, I didn't have to worry about a single thing that day and our flowers were AMAZING! I could not have pulled it off without Melissa.

Ariana Faron

Melissa and her team not only coordinated my wedding of >180 guests but they also did my florals. Melissa was absolutely amazing to work with. Picking her as my coordinator and florist might have been one of my best decisions during all of my wedding planning! She was so easy to talk to and went above and beyond her role to help me. Planning a wedding was hard but doing it with Honey Bear events made it so much easier!

Vivien Phung

I had the honor of hiring Melissa and her team to be my Day of Coordinator and my florist for my wedding at Casa Romantica. Melissa was a huge joy to work with because she has amazing attention to detail, and this may be both a strength and a weakness for her (but for me, I appreciated it), she spent a really long time on Zoom with me every meeting until we dotted every i and crossed every t.
As a bride, I was very concerned that my design vision would not be translated from Zoom call to real life. However, Melissa made sure everything would be communicated clearly to her team - she made Excel sheets with photos - and made the most detailed timeline. The timeline also saved my life! Everyone made sure to try to stick to the timeline.
On the day of rehearsal and on the wedding day, I received numerous comments from my family and friends about how hard she and her team worked. They loved her ideas such as waiting until everyone was served dinner to have the toasts. My dad was lost and late to arrive to the venue but Melissa timed the procession just right so that there was very little delay for me to get down the aisle. Everyone asked if I felt stressed and honestly, the moment I walked down the aisle and felt that I could let go of everything, I had no more stress. My guests and I loved how beautifully the reception area was designed and loved the floral arch and ikebana floral arrangements. It was such a fairytale of a day!

Photos below are from Alison Bryne Photography.

Adrienne L. Hunter

My (now) husband and I worked with Melissa to design our table florals and bouquets for our intimate garden wedding in LA. WOW oh wow did she go above and beyond what we ever had imagined. Her eye for design is unsurpassable. Every detail was perfect and the florals were so bright and lovely. Our guests were raving about it all night! We will be highly recommending Melissa's services for decades to come. Highly recommend her services!

Kristen Shepard

I worked with Melissa at Honey Bear Events. She is super organized, professional and just plain fun to work with! She made our special day absolutely perfect. I had heard that there are always a few unpredictable hiccups on anyone's wedding day. Melissa was able to face anything that was thrown at her with quick thinking and grace. Thank god someone was calm cool and collected on my wedding day. She is an event wizard! I look forward to planning future events with this incredible company. I would give her six stars if I could.

Gina C

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Melissa on a few events. Melissa is not only professional and easy to work with, but comes with a vast knowledge about events. She is one of the few planners that understands all aspects of an event - from the planning, design, catering and execution - she knows it all and ensures an amazing event for her clients!

Liz Chan

Such a talented florist!!! Thank you for taking care of our clients' wedding at Rancho Los Cerritos.

Literally nailed our mood board from beginning to end!