I found Elise at Stand By Me Cabo through wedding wire when I first got engaged and I can truly say that I would not have been able to have the wedding that we did without her and the team.

She researched venues for us, negotiated contracts, made sure that we got the best deal possible, and always had her opinion ready if needed. Her previous experience in hotel weddings really comes in handy through every stage of the process. She had vendors ready to use with amazing prices and was able to negotiate with new vendors that we needed.

Elise went above and beyond for my husband and I. She let me ship things to her house for safe keeping, meeting us for a site visit, responded to my messages quickly and always available for a video call if needed, and even came on our boat welcome party knowing she could get sea sick. She wanted to make sure she was there to ensure everything went perfectly! She was able even to find me a vendor within my price range in Cancun for items I really wanted to have but didn’t fit into budget. She can make anything happen!!

I have SO loved spending the last six months planning with Elise and can’t recommend Stand By Me Cabo enough to others. Planning a wedding is stressful enough, doing it in another country makes everything that much harder - let her team help you through every step of the process and enjoy your engagement season. Leave it up to her :)

My fiance and I initially met with Elise virtually in spring 2024 for our spring 2026 wedding. We signed a contract with her in November 2024 and eventually met her when we traveled to Cabo in December 2024. Initially when we started working with Elise she was responsive, offered a lot of valuable information, and was kind and welcoming to us. She also had very good reviews at this time. I spoke with a bride who had worked with Elise and she said nothing but wonderful things about her.

Leading up to our trip to Cabo to tour venues she started to respond with progressively longer delays. There would be up to one week at a time that she did not reply. She didn't get us the venue tour schedule until the day before our flight. As somebody who is a planner, this was very stressful to me. Elise was 45 minutes late to pick us up on the first venue tour day. I truly thought she had stood us up. She showed up with one of her staff, which resulted in three seats for myself, my fiance, my mom, and my dad. She knew there would be four of us. I sat on my fiance's lap in the back seat for tens of miles at a time, which was very uncomfortable and unsafe. The next day of tours she did not show up - she sent one of her staff. Thankfully, her staff was wonderful and a beautiful human being, but it was not appropriate or professional of Elise to just leave us hanging without any notice of her not coming to the tours. I didn't realize at the time, but Elise had provided us with a LOT of false information. She told me that The Cape did not require a room block/a certain number of guests to stay at the hotel. She also told us she could plan a wedding for 70-80 people at The Cape for $45,000 or less. She also told us that she could plan a wedding at Corazon for 70-80 people for around $25,000. Now I know (after we found a new wedding planner) that we will be spending about $25,000 just for food, drink, and venue.

After our trip we started to plan, receiving more information on The Cape and Corazon (our top two). Meanwhile, we started to see more bad reviews of Elise, including review videos with proof of her mistakes and scamming tendencies. I started to talk to vendors, past brides/grooms, and future brides/grooms. Many people had the same story about Elise canceling orders prior to the wedding day without notifying the couple, showing up late on the day of the wedding, and not paying vendors. We spent about a week processing all of this information before we met with another wedding planner, who has been the most beautiful blessing to us.

We then met with Elise via video and provided her an opportunity to admit her faults and mistakes and to tell her side of the story with all of the past couples and vendors she worked with. While some of what she said could be feasible, other stories she provided simply did not make sense. She presented disorganized. We told her all of the ways she had breached our contract, which resulted in her agreeing to send back the $1,000.00 down payment I had sent. We had the whole conversation on video. We presented her with 72 hours to send our money back or we would take legal action against her and also write reviews. She read our several messages and never replied. I fought her via PayPal and won, thankfully PayPal is amazing and took my side after I provided several photos with proof of all of her breaches in the contract.

Whatever you do, avoid this wedding planner. She will present nice at first and say her father is a priest and she is religious, then she will turn on you. Do not fall for her games and do not take any advice from her.

I really was hoping that I wouldn’t have to write this review and Elise would make things right and unfortunately she didn’t. She owes me money as I paid her for the vendors and she did not pay them so in order for me to make sure they showed up on my wedding day I paid them again directly. She was then supposed to refund me and instead has ghosted me. She made several mistakes on the actual wedding day and caused me to be the most stressed I have ever been on what was supposed to be the best day of my life. To name a few things - she showed up with less than half of the chairs that were supposed to be at my ceremony leaving many of guests standing. I was promised a champagne tower, didn’t get it. I was promised sparklers for my grand entrance, didn’t get it.
Things were spelled wrong on the signage she provided for the wedding. She put the wrong chair sign on what was supposed to be a beautiful memorial for my dad and my husbands parents that passed away for the ceremony chair. She never placed the order the morning of the wedding for the bride and groom rooms to be stocked with drinks and food. Unfortunately I could keep going with the mistakes that were made. She promised me she would pay me back and I haven’t seen a dime. Do not use Elise, you will be making a big mistake.