I highly recommend working with Ella for hair and make up for any special event. She and her colleague Anita (whom I would also highly recommend) did the hair and make up for myself and the women folk of our wedding party. Ella is a pure artist and was able to create the exact look I was going for in a manner that was flattering for my unique beauty needs. She provided excellent guidance and worked hard to ensure that I felt beautiful on the wedding day. She also provided me with a detailed timeline to get hair and/or make up for 8 women in time to take pictures before the ceremony. She and Anita were able to keep to that timeline without rushing anyone's hair and make up. All of us looked so beautiful and the hair and makeup held for all the pictures and ceremony despite it being a super windy day.

We had an AWFUL experience with Ella Leyva.

Context: my husband and I were planning to get married in Napa in November 2020. We secured multiple vendors, including Ella Leyva.

Early in 2020, we realized that COVID made our original plan impossible (especially with a lot of family living abroad). We thought we could push our big wedding back to 2021.

When we considered all of the uncertainty about the virus spread and vaccine availability - think back to mid-2020 - we decided to have a small backyard wedding instead.

We reached out to Ella and requested a refund - this was more than 9 months before our intended wedding date.

Ella gave us one response - declining the request - and then ghosted us, not replying to any follow-ups.

We'd had a terrible experience with her communication. In January 2021, we finally told her "We don’t like leaving bad reviews, but this has been a very unpleasant experience."

One week after that, we received an email from a lawyer - Caleb Stewart, from the law firm Oseran Hahn.

Caleb Stewart threatened legal action. Here's what we had to deal with (we'd post the whole thing if the character limit was bigger):

"You noted that you 'do not like to leave bad reviews' but to be clear, not only is that a violation of your contract, it represents a clear intent to defame and tortiously interfere with Ms. Leyva's business."

Caleb Stewart said that "Ms. Leyva desires to amicably resolve the situation".

Caleb Stewart then said:

"An important note, however, is that if any action is taken by you to defame or otherwise besmirch the business or person of Ms. Leyva, such as posting any negative reviews or other make any negative, derogatory or defamatory comments regarding Ms. Leyva or her business publicly, this offer to settle this dispute shall be void and Ms. Leyva may pursue further legal action against you."

Literally tried to muzzle us into silence - legal action for posting "any negative reviews"? Seriously?

At this point, we're not expecting anything from Ella Leyva.

We want to make sure that you - whoever is reading this - know about our terrible experience with this vendor.

We had an AWFUL experience with Ella Leyva.

Context: my wife and I were planning to get married in Napa in November 2020. We secured multiple vendors, including Ella Leyva.

Early in 2020, we realized that COVID made our original plan impossible (especially with a lot of family living abroad). We thought we could push our big wedding back to 2021.

When we considered all of the uncertainty about the virus spread and vaccine availability - think back to mid-2020 - we decided to have a small backyard wedding instead.

We reached out to Ella and requested a refund - this was more than 9 months before our intended wedding date.

Ella gave us one response - declining the request - and then ghosted us, not replying to any follow-ups.

We'd had a terrible experience with her communication. In January 2021, we finally told her "We don’t like leaving bad reviews, but this has been a very unpleasant experience."

One week after that, we received an email from a lawyer - Caleb Stewart, from the law firm Oseran Hahn.

Caleb Stewart threatened legal action. Here's what we had to deal with (we'd post the whole thing if the character limit was bigger):

"You noted that you 'do not like to leave bad reviews' but to be clear, not only is that a violation of your contract, it represents a clear intent to defame and tortiously interfere with Ms. Leyva's business."

Caleb Stewart said that "Ms. Leyva desires to amicably resolve the situation".

Caleb Stewart then said:

"An important note, however, is that if any action is taken by you to defame or otherwise besmirch the business or person of Ms. Leyva, such as posting any negative reviews or other make any negative, derogatory or defamatory comments regarding Ms. Leyva or her business publicly, this offer to settle this dispute shall be void and Ms. Leyva may pursue further legal action against you."

Literally tried to muzzle us into silence - legal action for posting "any negative reviews"? Seriously?

At this point, we're not expecting anything from Ella Leyva.

We want to make sure that you - whoever is reading this - know about our terrible experience with this vendor.