Ashley and Miles Lane 

Wedding Date // March 3, 2023

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If you need ANYTHING wedding related do yourself a favor, go directly to this store, and talk to
Katerina. Honestly even if it’s not wedding related you should go directly to this store and talk to
Katerina. Unless you are a rude, self-centered person, then do not go there, because you don’t deserve
her help. Katerina threw my fiancé and I the most amazingly beautiful, fun, and memorable wedding
week that I have ever experienced (I am only slightly biased, but I’m telling you the whole thing was
absolutely incredible) and kept us within our modest budget. She took care of every single detail,
enduring massive setbacks, weather complications, and vendor disputes. She absorbed every issue and
no one, including myself, ever knew any problems arose. As someone that has been in the military and
the construction industry for over 20 years, dealt with thousands of different vendors across hundreds
of different industries, Katerina’s Darling Bridal is Number 1 customer service I have ever experienced in
my entire life and its not even close.

My fiancé and I decided we wanted a Winter Wonderland Wedding in southwest Colorado, the
problem was we are from Texas. We searched for months looking for someone to help us get a plan
going. We talked to at least 40 different people and venues, but we kept striking out (too expensive, not
available, no response, the full gambit). One day out of shear desperation, I went to Google Maps,
centered on Durango, and typed “Wedding Dress” into the search bar. I figured that if there is someone
that deals with wedding dresses surely they could point us in the direction of a planner or event center
that could help us. The first place that popped up was Katerina’s Darling Bridal. I went to the store’s
website and I thought to myself, ok this is promising, and then as I kept browsing I saw a link that said
Wedding Consultation. Little did I know at that moment I had just hit the WEDDING JACKPOT. I sent the
website to my fiancé, who was basically in a full-on panic at this point, and she reached out to Katerina
that day.

When I saw my fiancé later that day she was jumping up and down, smiling from ear to ear, and
glowing with joy. She had talked to Katerina for about an hour about our goals for the wedding, and
hired her on the spot. At this point, I should tell you that this wasn’t just a standard destination
wedding, it was an entire week of planned events that would have countless moving parts. Moving
people back and forth from different venues, several times a day, coordinating with transportation
companies, event staff, food vendors, florists, makeup artist, hair stylists, photographers, musicians, and
multiple different wedding venues. Katerina didn’t even bat an eye, she said “Absolutely I would love to
help you” and that was that, GAME ON.
The process began with Katerina and my fiancé talking on the phone at least once a week for
months, running ideas by each other, getting plans for all the normal stuff like color combo, flowers,
food, cakes, booze, locations, transportation, accommodations, venues, etc… Then once we had a solid
game plan Katerina had us come out to Durango and set up meetings with all of the different vendors
that she knew so that we could vet them for ourselves and start getting them set up to help us. Just this
trip out there was one of the most fun vacations I’ve ever been on. Katerina also set us up with an
incredible photographer that took our engagement photos during that same trip. By the time we left to
go back to Texas we had solidified every detail minus the cake because one of the cake vendors had an
emergency but wanted to bake us samples and ship them to us, which she did and it was amazing.
Katerina set up a fitting for my groomsmen and I at a store in Texas so that she could get
measurements for us and then she ordered our suits and had them shipped to her store so they were
there when we all arrived in Durango. This was SUPER convenient, and saved all of the groomsmen a
huge amount of trouble since all of them were traveling by air to get to Durango. When I arrived in
Durango a few days before the wedding, I went to her store and tried the suit on, it didn’t quite fit right,
so she immediately contacted the vendor and had them send not 1 but 2 replacements just so we could
make sure we got the fit right. I don’t remember exactly but I think there was even a problem with the
2 replacements, but I can’t remember because Katerina took care of it and as far as I knew there were
no issues. Along these same lines my wife had purchased a wedding dress from some hoity toity super
fancy store in Houston, TX, and when she tried it on a few days before the wedding she naturally
decided that she didn’t like it. I’m going to say this again, she did not purchase the dress from Katerina
(this was because her dress was going to take multiple fittings and alterations and it just wasn’t feasible
to try and accomplish that). Guess what, do you think that mattered? Hell NO!!! Katerina had a
seamstress come out of retirement to add material and make several alterations to the dress THE DAY
BEFORE THE WEDDING and I’m going to tell you, she looked STUNNING.

Remember we wanted a Winter Wonderland? When we went for the initial site visit before the
wedding, I made a sarcastic comment about I don’t just want Winter Wonderland, I want a “National
Emergency” and to have to be “Rescued by helicopter”. Be careful what you wish for. Durango had a
record snowfall the week before the wedding. Obviously this was going to throw a wrench in literally
everything. Did that affect Katerina? Nope, she just adapted and overcame.
I had told Katerina that I wanted to ride the Durango Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. She
contacted the railroad and rented us an entire rail car so all of the wedding party and all of our guests
could make the train ride up to Cascade Canyon. On top of this, she hired her friend that owns a bistro
to make all of us (over 50 people) delicious boxed lunches, and then personally delivered them to the
train station! After the train ride, which I could write a 5,000 word essay on how incredible that was,
Katerina spoke to another one of her contacts and acquired a second floor patio at a super fancy hotel
for us to have the wedding rehearsal. After the rehearsal she had set up a welcome reception for all of
us at this amazing outdoor restaurant/bar area complete with our own personal musician, amazing
food, flowers, decorations, the whole 9 yards. After that was over she helped arrange transportation for
our entire group back up the mountains to where we were all staying.

Remember Winter Wonderland? Yeah it was a bit much, in fact we had to move the wedding
completely to a new venue, THE DAY BEFORE THE WEDDING. Do you think this affected Katerina? If so
your reading comprehension is terrible and you need extra instruction. She put an astronomical amount
of effort into solving this problem. I know that she did, not because she told us, in fact she didn’t even
mention it to us until she had the problem solved (which by the way, this was a natural disaster, not her
fault, AND she warned us that having the wedding where we wanted to that early in the year could be
risky as far as too much snow). I knew that she put a lot of work into just because she was moving an
event that took MONTHS to plan and she did it in less than 24 hours. I’m telling you, and I mean this
sincerely, it was better than it would have been at the original venue.

Have you ever had a wedding and the entire staff of the catering company at the reception
venue quit the day of the wedding? We have. Do you think that bothered SuperKat? Reference
comment about reading comprehension. Katerina worked with the caterer to find replacement bar
tenders and servers and then she not only helped the bar tender literally making drinks, but she went
into the kitchen and was getting people’s dishes and serving them and even helping the chef prepare
some of the meals. I literally didn’t even know there were any problems until the next day, which
means there were no problems.

In summary, if you want to have a beautiful, fun, touching, unforgettable wedding, then you
need to haul your ass over to Katerina’s Darling Bridal, and hire one of the kindest, most knowledgeable,
thoughtful, hard working women I have ever met. I don’t know if wedding reunions are a thing, but we
are about to make them a thing. Thank you SuperKat.

Sincerely,
Miles Lane & Ashley Lane

Wedding - March 4, 2023