johnthyne
Wedding: 1/14/12
Nico is undoubtedly a genius floral designer and event production professional! My wife was particularly concerned about the flowers and wanted to make certain they were memorable. Our guests raved abou the incredible beauty of Nico's designs from the tabletops to the candles, bouquets, arrangements, lighting and overall design. Our wedding was magical for many reasons but Nico was one of the biggest! We wholeheartedly recommend Nico and NLC Productions!
michelle
Wedding: 4/10/11
I had the pleasure of working with Nico and Jasmine (btw, how perfect is her name for this kind of job?!). Both were extremely flexible and patient with the changes I kept requesting. Our whole wedding was not traditional; Indian officiant, Persian feast, French DJ and it didn't stop with the flowers. Nico had created these amazing boutonnieres that were simply unique and tied in nicely with our wedding ceremony. Clearly a creative master in his profession! Although I'm an artist myself, I would have never thought of wheat stems or a burlap sash as a possibility! It was so natural and I love looking at them in the photos. We had two extra which was perfect cause they went to my sister's fiance and my other sister's boyfriend! It was nice to include them!! Many thanks to Nico & Jasmine!
Rachel
Wedding: 8/15/10
Fabulous and reasonable compared to other floral designers. We had a high end wedding and he was fabulous and didn't nickel and dime us like others attempted. Joy to work with, wonderful design, and taste.....
denise
Wedding: 5/16/09
Nico transformed our reception into a beautiful fantasy, he is an artist!
esm
Wedding: 9/12/08
Nico (himself) made time to meet with us on our visit to Santa Barbara to make sure we had the same understanding of the vision for our wedding. We only spent about 20 minutes with him and he was able to perfectly tap into our vision and provided us with the simple elegance we were hoping for...with white flowers (he had the freedom to choose which kinds) that varied beautifully in texture that added depth and expression and candles that were the perfect final touch. Amazing to me that even giving him total flexibility, he was able to create the exact ambiance we were going for (within the budget we gave him). Plus, he made a gorgeous arrangement that we had delivered at my parents the day of the event that knocked their socks off!
Darealelx
Wedding: 6/7/08
Nico is one of the most creative people I have ever met. His staff is amazing. He takes what you tell him and creates the most beautiful arrangements I have ever seen, and I"m not a big flowers person, but he made it so I loved my bouquet!!!! He was worth ever cent.
shalyn717
Wedding: 3/27/08
Nico is one of the MOST CARING, KIND, TALENTED & WONDERFUL DESIGNERS I KNOW!!!!! There is noone who puts their heart and soul into design and execution of any wedding (or engagement party or any other event for that matter) more than he does. He gives 120 percent always! His staff is lovely and they really try to go above and beyond to make their clients happy.
No matter what you do or who you select - BE SURE TO CHAT WITH NICO FIRST! I guarentee he'll win you over with his sparkling personality and easy to talk to demeanor. Seriously, I can't imagine not getting along with him - more likely you'll totally fall in love with him!
He really knows his biz!
Punkandmatt
Wedding: 6/30/07
Nico was amazing and was able to listen to my preferences and create the look exactly as I saw it. We did this all by telephone and email. I would strongly recommend Nico Designs as a preferred vendor to work with for floral and design.
KO
Wedding: 9/4/10
I love, love, love what Nico did for my wedding!! He was the main reason it looked so wonderful, and exactly what I had wanted- if not better!!! He's got a great eye, and is super sweet and creative. I let him know what I wanted, what my ideas were, but let him play with it - since I figured he knows more than I on how to make things beautiful. He did an outstanding job. My Mom was super happy too- and she's a perfectionist. His assistant, Jasmine was always wonderful to correspond with as well. I truly have such fond memories of that day, in large part to the setting he helped create- from the tables, to my beautiful bouquet and even the cake he helped decorate- which was beyond gorgeous!
Ali
Wedding: 9/12/09
Nico and staff did an ABSOLUTELY AMAZING job on our wedding at the San Ysidro Ranch. Nico had a vision for our wedding, and executed perfectly on it! He truly listened to what we wanted and incorporated every single idea we add and made every idea so much better.
Our families were stunned when they saw the work that Nico and crew did - every detail was thought out brilliantly.
They will always hold a special place in our hearts and we will be singing their praises for years to come!
Micho11
Wedding: 11/28/08
Nico did an absolutely incredible job with the flowers for our November 2008 wedding in Santa Barbara. I was actually talking about the flowers the entire wedding day and evening- they were gorgeous!
Nico has such an eye for color, and really knows how to make the flowers 'pop'. His attention to detail blew me away! For a busy bride, I think Nico is your best bet. Many vendors are very needy, but not Nico- you can trust his style and talent.
The flowers really went above and beyond, I believe because Nico and his staff truly enjoy what they do. His office staff is extremely responsive, even while Nico is in high demand.
Nico is great at what he does, and will be honest with you about your ideas. He knows flowers and understands the industry, enabling him to work with your budget and ideas. My bridal bouquet was incredible- we kept it in water in our hotel room for days after the wedding! All of our personals looked straight off of wedding magazine covers.
I highly recommend Nico Designs for brides who want high quality floral arrangements and an immensely talented floral designer.
Elle
Wedding: 9/3/11
The end user result for me was how beautiful the trellis and flowers were and how Nico's designs have
added to my wedding and my photographs. Nico's team brought the tropics to my venue. Sure, there can be issues when a bride has a perfect picture in her mind. Sure, there are things that happened that are not always how one wants it to happen. A wedding is a production even though people don't want to believe it. There were
many things that happened at my wedding I could not foresee like my nephew's missing tux or the weird family stuff that happens when there are uncontrolled variables. Yes, there were issues like any wedding and it was stressful putting together a wedding. I can tell you an email or two may have been lost between myself and Nico in the shuffle of putting together my wedding. Did it strain communications? maybe. Then again, I think about how I should really clean out my mailbox. I don't know why some things happen or not happen. If I were crazy woman I would have nit picked over every detail and made myself into a bridezilla. There were a lot of emotions happening to me and there were many things that happened at my wedding. Were there issues that happened at my wedding I could control? No and yes. At the time it could have been major if I let it get to me.
What really counts is this: As I walked down the isle and saw all my friends, family supporting me, my eyes then averted to a tropical designed trellis. I remember thinking how beautiful! I was really happy I was under all these orchids standing here ready to marry my love. How PERFECT!! I knew I did not make any mistake hiring Nico. His work is stunning!!! My custom shell designed bouquet was so beautiful. It was special and different. My bridal group looked beautiful with their flowers.
As for the The reception room , it too was transformed into a tropical island. Flowers hanging from the ambient lighting and I noticed guest kept taking pictures and looking up. I remember thinking that this is my wedding and it is beautiful. Nico makes art pieces. He is not a cookie cutter person and neither is his work. He is different and his work is bold and not like any other. I don't think he is like any other person I have met. He is good at what he does. I liken Nico to having a childlike spirit and his creativity stems from this. I understand it and I respect it. I am happy we hired him.
Installing something so beautiful is art. I know that art is so fanciful and creative that there is bound to have a few things not go my way. But then again it DID go my way!! It was AMAZING.
ltansey
Wedding: 6/27/10
Nico is very familar with the Bacara as a result knew how to make my venue look beautiful. He took my ideas and brought them to life. I enjoyed interacting with him and creating the event.
I was very pleased with my room, but my bouquets were just average. They didn't really match my vision or the picture that i gave him as a guide.
Make sure that you get your final table count and flower order in place before the 30 day mark. I realized that I did not need two table arrangements 29 days before my wedding and he was not willing to work with me to save me the cost-which was significant. I understand that he has to have a cut off date to place the flower order, but I didn't feel that he worked with me when I realized 1 day late that I needed to make a significant change.
fabulouswinerywedding
Wedding: 10/18/08
Staff is totally RUDE and unprofessional. Nico did not execute my wedding day-of and as a result, several items were missing from our dining room and the 2 common orchids (cream with fuschia speckles and green with fuschia centers) that I ordered were apparently not available and were instead substituted with boring pale yellow roses and white orchids. Particularly disappointing considering that I expressed to Nico that my favorite color was purple! When I acknowledged these mistakes after our wedding, Nico's staff wrote me a disgusting email (I will forward a copy to those interested) and behaved like children.
Needless to say, our venue promptly removed Nico Designs from their preferred vendor list. There are so many other Santa Barbara florists worth your time and money!
Katie
Wedding: 9/18/10
Ladies. Do yourself a favor and do not hire this vendor. It's not worth the stress. Trust me. One of the "guest" reviewers posted below that he has a "sparkling" personality and it almost made me gag. If you look closely at the 5 star reviews, it seems a bit fishy as they are all logged on as guests...just saying
-Friend of the bride
Skye
Wedding: 7/24/10
DO NOT USE NICO FOR YOUR WEDDING. I had a very bad experience with Nico and his staff as many others have commented on above. He and his staff were very rude and unprofessional telling things such as there was nothing they could do the week of my wedding to enable me to have the floral decorations I wanted. Invoices took forever to receive and were constantly incorrect...even to the point that the day of they were going to put up the wrong things because their workers did not have the correct invoice to follow. It was so bad that on the day of my wedding in the middle of my hair and makeup, I had to walk to my reception location and check each floral arrangement to make sure it was what I wanted...and they were not what I wanted. Nico's first mock for me was completely wrong but he did not take notes or photos to correct his errors. Then, after much anger and frustration, he did another mock for me which was again WRONG. The day of my wedding the flowers were still not completely what I wanted but Nico did not seem to care. This is a business for Nico and nothing else. I do not recommend this vendor and have asked my venue (Bacara) to remove him from the preferred vendors list.