Mark Abdilla

First let me say that Mark is very professional in how he made me and my fiancé feel through the whole wedding process. He answered all our emails, text messages and phone calls right away and put us at ease which was great considering how stressful wedding planning is. He showed up to our wedding early, was dressed appropriately and knew exactly what to do. As a guitarist/​musician we couldn’t have been happier. He seemed to know exactly what music to play and when. His wide variety and musicianship was impressive. Our family and guests loved his playing as it set the mood for not just the guest arrival and ceremony but also the upbeat Latin and other styles he played during cocktail hour. Then for dinner he played Brazilian music which was the perfect mood music. We can see why he is in so much demand on the website where we found him at
. We have referred him to friends that are to be married. AWESOME GUITARIST and great guy.

I had to write a review so any bride was well aware of what she was walking into here. I saw all the five star reviews and thought he was a safe bet, and maybe the one star review said more about the bride than the vendor. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
The music was great, he clearly knows how to play. He was polite enough and well-​mannered so no need to worry about that. The huge huge drawback was he showed up an hour late, when timeliness is really of the essence on a wedding day. I had even printed and sent him custom directions (with street level pictures I painstakingly screenshot one by one from google maps) to find the venue, and confirmed multiple times. My husband was livid with how late he was, Mark barely made it in time for me to walk down the aisle, scrambling to set up in front of all of our seated friends and family.
So if you don’t mind rolling the dice with whether or not he will show up on time for your ceremony, his great musical aptitude may be worth the risk. If you’re not the kind of person that likes to leave things up to chance, I would suggest looking elsewhere.
Our wedding was in the month of July 2014.

I recently had the pleasure of working with Mark at Meadowood in Napa at a beautiful wedding. Let me first off start by saying, he is extremely talented. The music he plays is probably the most beautiful acoustic guitar I’ve ever heard. He is professional, he showed up on time, and he preformed better than I could have imagined. If you are looking for a guitarist to play at an event, book Mark.

Mark played for a business conference in April of 2013. It was a cocktail reception that was a very mixed group of businesses associates. I’m sure all were not ‘classical Flamenco’ enthusiast, most not familiar with that style of music at all ! Yet, Mark was the perfect fit for the mix and mingle!!! I wanted live classical music that would not make it difficult for people to visit ! On top of that, Mark’s talent is outstanding.
I engaged Mark’s services almost a year prior. He was very professional with his communication and arrival at the event I was managing. His fee is VERY fair and
he is personable and friendly with the guests!
I would most definitely recommend using Mark at any corporate or social event.
Deidre
dh-​events

Mark performed for our San Francisco City Hall Wedding and I’m so happy he worked with us. He was on time, professional, and played beautifully. I was so nervous to hire someone sight unseen (I hired him thorough
), but I am so happy Mark was part of our day

I was looking on gigmasters and gigsalad for a classical Flamenco guitarist to play at my wedding reception during all the feasting and I am so glad Mark ended up emailing me about my event. His playing is absolutely amazing! My guests were all so impressed, plus he is just the nicest and funnest guy to talk to. I still can’t believe what a bargain it was to hire him. I mean, he is really, really good, yet was totally affordable. Once we saw the clips of him playing on his website, we were actually sold before he’d told us his price :)
I really loved working with him. I wanted Flamenco since my family is Spanish and most of my wedding was playing more towards my husband’s Celtic heritage, but after I saw his website we ended up asking him to incorporate some of his Renaissance music. It is really rare to find a musician who can play such a variety.(In fact, we’d love to hire him again some day to play Baroque music for us as that is my husband’s favorite).
Our wedding had a loose Renaissance theme in a woodland setting and we were so happy that he took to it and had fun with it, recommending songs and even dressing up in his own Renaissance garb for the occasion! His mixing of the two genres into the evening was seamless. He played mostly romantic Renaissance music while we all sat at our long feasting table at dinner and as the meal ended and guests began to move around and socialize more he switched gears very naturally to the more upbeat flamenco to suit the mood.
We didn’t have to give him very much direction at all. He’d find the best spots to play in as we hit different parts of the evening and took breaks at the best possible times. The guests loved him and he was really great with them whenever they stopped to talk with him a little. Several of my guests asked me how I’d found him.
What I really loved most about working with him is his enthusiasm. We could all tell that this guy just really loves what he does. He even ended up staying for longer than we hired him for just because he was having a good time. He had told us before that he was happy for the chance to play some of his less requested styles of music. I also loved how laid back and easy to talk to he was.
I did see that one negative review on Unilocal before I hired him, but from reading it, I wrote it off as a Bridezilla that was being unreasonable in what she was asking of him. I’m glad I ignored the review and later on my officiant recommended him as well even. She lives in Petaluma too and had worked with him at several weddings before. Mark’s attitude was pretty much the opposite of what that one reviewer said. He was really accommodating and really went above and beyond for us. I would definitely hire him again for an event.

A true professional!
Mark played for our daughter’s wedding in Sonoma at the Depot Hotel in march and we could not have been happier! His guitar playing was absolutely in sync with the occasion.
The sound of his music was smooth, gentle, gracious… what a treat for us all.
At one point, we even sat and look to hear him play. it was like the sounds of Heaven in the air!
Thanks again Mark! You are the best!

Summary: Unprofessional, rude, immature, patronizing, «his way or the highway» attitude
Mark is the first person we hired for our wedding. At first, he was friendly, communicative and proactively informed us of his availability. However, he typically could only speak on the phone late at night (10pm-​ish), mailed me an agreement in a reused PG&E envelope, and said that he needed to be paid in full (cash only) before performing.
His attitude made a turn for the worse after I began asking things of him. I asked for an in-​person meeting, and he said I needed to drive (an hour) to see him; he would not meet us half-​way. When I asked if he had contacted the DJ to coordinate equipment needs, he responded with, «Everything is going to be fine. we are professionals. „; however, the DJ was telling me Mark was not responding to his emails.
You get one shot to make your wedding the best you can make it with the team that you have, and in Mark’s case, he let his professional standard sink well below that of our other vendors and subsequently was posing a significant risk to our wedding.
At this point, our confidence in him dropped incredibly. So, a little more research revealed that others were having negative experiences too. I heard stories of Mark showing up late, having a „my way or the highway“ attitude, and (sadly) yelling at people at his clients events.
At this point, we made up our mind to let Mark go. So, I sent him the following email:
„Hi Mark,
After much consideration, I am writing to inform you that we will not be needing your services for our wedding scheduled to occur on [xyz] 2009.
Unfortunately, you have not been responding to my emails in a clear and timely manner. Furthermore, you have not responded at all to the DJ’s multiple attempts to reach out to you. You have not been willing to meet me in person (unless I make the drive to Petaluma), you rushed to get through our 10 minute touch base call earlier this month (we had not spoken in over a month) and you have also since made it clear that you are demanding full payment before you play a single note. This is enough grounds to demonstrate that the quality of communication and service that you are providing poses a significant risk to the events and quality of our wedding. I need to have a guitarist who will be a team player, be fully cooperative and provide at least a basic level of timely communication.
As noted above (as well as in our email history), I have not asked much of you. What little I have asked of you, you have not been able to do — which is to spend 10 minutes on the phone with the DJ to ensure that you both are on the same page on the day of the wedding; e.g., 1) ensuring that all technical needs are met and 2) ensuring that you both have a sense of familiarity of each other before the event. Otherwise, I have done all the other work; e.g., assembled the playlist and put in the effort to connect you with the DJ.
For your reference, I’m including my mailing address below so that you can return the deposit. Per the points illustrated above, I’m sure you will agree that this is the right thing to do.
[address removed]
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Regards,
H.“
And here is his response:
“ YOU ARE A COMPLETE, NEUROTIC, CONTROL FREAK. I have never seen anything like it in my 25 years of performing music. I perform at weddings every weekend and have never dealt with such a nervous insecure control freak like you. I am not a part of the [xyz] corporation and do not have time to drive all over the bay area to have meetings with brides and grooms. If you wanted me to do this it is $ 100 an hour extra for my time. I am actually extremely professional and HAVE NEVER had a client less than elated about my services. As far as i am concerned you were extremely lucky I was going to perform at your wedding. I do not need to talk to the dj. Our conversation was more than enough information than I need. the dj emailed me and repeated all the information you already gave me. MORE THAN ENOUGH!!! pity you caters, venue people and the rest of the [xyz] team. It is your loss because for the ridiculus low price I was charging you, you will NOT find anyone
close to as skilled as me.
As for deposit you owe me money. I passed on much more lucritive weddings over the last 3 months to play at yours. I might need to pursue legal action against you as a result of this loss. In any case THIS IS EXACTLY why pro musicians like me demand a deposit prior to performing.»
End result: Mark never sent our deposit back, removed our wedding date from his web site calendar AFTER our wedding date, and we hired a MUCH BETTER guitarist. BEST WEDDING EVER!
The story continues however. Mark sent me an email a few days ago advertising a new gig.
I responded: «Please do not contact me.»
His response: «Sorry, you werent invited anyway, you were in my bulk mail. I will throw you int the garbage right away. hehehe»

Let me start by saying that Mark is very talented and super nice. I am uncomfortable posting this; however I planned my Clayton wedding entirely off the internet from Honolulu, so I feel user reviews are extremely important. Although Mark possesses the aforementioned qualities, he was VERY late to our wedding (which held up the ceremony!) and did not offer any kind of reimbursement or apologies. We wanted a guitarist to play during the pre-​ceremony, ceremony, and cocktail hour during our wedding. I found Mark on Craigslist (or maybe it was Gigmasters???). He quickly returned my calls and was a delight to speak with. We settled on a play time frame of 3:30 to 5:30. He told me he would arrive a tad early to set up; I was not concerned with his arrival time as long as music was played between these times. I told him the location, and we were good to go… A week prior, I called him to confirm. He was in Europe and told me not to worry, the gig was on. Cool. A couple days prior, he called to say he was back in the country. We confirmed the location (East Bay-​Clayton) and he mentioned that he still had the directions I emailed to him. We exchanged cell #‘s. Welllll… the day of it’s 3:30. No Mark. 3:45 — no Mark. It’s now 4:00 and everyone is seated waiting for the ceremony to start — still no Mark. Then my usher comes in and tells me that Mark got lost, was in BENICIA, (!!!) on the other side of the bridge, but was on his way. Wow. Finally around 4:15 he gets set up — at least the music was beautiful. On another note, while we were all waiting for our introductions, the director told me that Mark said he wanted to finish his song on the patio before we were introduced… really?! We were already running behind schedule… In conclusion, Mark is a very talented musician who has great reviews on Gigmasters. Maybe he was having an «off» day, but I paid for it. Literally. In today’s age of cell phones and Internet, I have a hard time with someone who shows up this late and gets lost. Maybe 10 years ago I’d buy it — not today.