When planning our wedding in Ojai, Brite Star Lighting was one of the vendors we took the biggest risk on. I had yelped and thoroughly googled (i'm talking all the way to the 5th "o" in "Gooooooogle") to ensure that we would be working with affordable, and TRUSTWORTHY vendors. Wedding expenses are no joke, and when tasked with putting together a one-night event with a price tag in the thousands, good vendors are paramount in the planning and coordinating, especially with a bride like myself with no such experience planning, much less managing it on her own.
In all honesty, if I had read the one negative review on here, it would have been enough to turn me away, but when I contacted Dale a few months ago, Brite Star Lighting had no reviews, so I took my chances.
From the start Dale was easy to work with and replied quickly by email. He had never worked at our venue (another risk), so he asked to visit it before providing a quote to avoid unforeseen expenses. Dale arrived to our site visit right on time (probably earlier since it was we who were late) and even took a few minutes to coordinate with our DJ in regards to their power needs for our wedding. As we walked around the property going over details, Dale took notes and drew out maps. We made adjustments based on power supply and needs, and then went over it one last time before we went out separate ways. Dale then invoiced me for exactly what we had gone over.
Brite Star Lighthing was to take care of all of our electricity needs since our venue provided absolutely NONE of it. We had to provide path lighting to the restroom, we had to provide mood lighting, accent lighting, lighting for the buffet tables, bistro lighting over our reception tables and dance floor, and power for our DJ and his lighting. It was a very large task to take on, but they managed it with ease. Dale kept in touch via email and scheduled to set up early in the morning on the day of our event. I only realized they had arrived because Dale was looking for me to approve the spacing of the bistro style lighting before he hung the actual lights.
To say the lights turned out beautifully is an understatement. He knew exactly which trees to wrap in lights to reflect off the pond. He made a last minute decision to move the generator in order to provide more electricity where it was needed since we had a last minute change in our reception layout. The end result left a dramatic impression.
Dale and his crew worked quickly and professionally and really gave me one less thing to stress about on that day. I hope it's not offensive to refer to a group of men as fairies, but that's what it felt like-- they quietly came in, made the place sparkle and then came back the next morning (a Sunday, by the way) and it was gone. They needed no direction from me (only a quick approval), which was GREATLY appreciated since I was running around the venue figuring out table arrangements and seating charts, all while cooking mashed potatoes for 50 people.
Just to make it clear, in reference to the previous reviewer, I was not charged for anything that we didn't review ahead of time. I was charged for exactly what agreed on and nothing more. On the day of the event, they brought in the generator and provided power for our DJ and his equipment, and for the caterer, just as we had agreed. Also, their pricing was EXTREMELY fair! I reached out to other vendors first who were trying to charge us up to triple what Dale quoted us and many of them had never even visited the location, they would instead give us quotes for a "starting price." And they weren't nearly as responsive as Dale.
I hope future brides in the Ojai/Ventura area give Brite Star Lighting a chance as I did. I should probably mention that he's very familiar with Ojai (big plus!). I hope you'll see from the get-go that he is professional and true to his word. I had many, many vendors on that day, but Brite Star Lighting was one of my favorites (Shhhh! Don't tell the others, I'm still waiting on some of my deposits!). read more