My husband and I are so glad that we chose A Savvy Event (ASE) as our planning team, but more specifically, Kimberly Rosen, as our wedding planner! We initially spoke with several other planners, but after our first call with Kimberly, we knew we wanted her to be the one helping us plan our event this past October in Sonoma. We insisted that Kimberly was our go-to with ASE. ASE has several levels of planning packages depending on what you are looking for. My Husband and I decided to go with the partial planning package and it was the perfect balance for us. We are from the Chicagoland area so having a planner in California where we were getting married was essential. Kimberly is also well-connected in wine country/the wedding industry and has relationships with many of the vendors who ASE has worked with over the years. This is a major perk, since she was able to point us in the direction of some of the best vendors out there! We always felt like we were in the right hands and were provided high quality recommendations by Kimberly. Throughout the past year of planning with Kimberly she was always kind and had such a positive attitude. Aside from being our wedding planner, Kimberly felt like a friend. Not only did we hear from several of our vendors how much they loved working with Kimberly and how organized she was, even several of our friends asked who she was because they noticed how on top of everything she was at the wedding. Everyone tells you how stressful wedding planning can be, especially since our entire planning process was virtual and during covid, but ours was carefree and fun! You also hear "something is going to go wrong the day of" but my husband and I can say that our day was flawless. If something did go wrong, it was nothing made known or visible to either us or any of our guests. When my Husband and I returned to our hotel room at the end of that night, Kimberly and her assistant had already returned all our signs and personal belongings to our room. They laid out my veil on the bed with our welcome sign so beautifully (see pic). Although this was a small gesture, we felt it was so thoughtful to walk back to at the end of what was already the perfect day! One final touch if you will! I have said to my husband on numerous occasions recently that I wish our wedding planning wasn't over and how I want to experience our day all over again and he agrees! Thank you, Kimberly for helping make our wedding one we'll always treasure and never forget! It was more magical than we could have ever envisioned! read more

A Savvy Event - This is how we returned to our hotel room after the wedding---Kimberly and the ASE team assembled my veil and our welcome sign in our hotel. - Wedding Planning Near Me - Sonoma, California

Kelly and the ASE team are truly the best you can get when it comes to the wedding planning industry. My 14 month engagement turned into 26 months and I cannot imagine having gone through the challenges the pandemic and wild fires presented without Kelly. In addition to her gorgeous work, creativity, and connections in the industry, she is as genuine as can be and truly wants the best for her brides, grooms and their families. Not only does Kelly want to make your wedding planning experience as easy and fun as possible, but she also does an incredible job of getting to know you and making the wedding extremely personal. She got to know my husband and me in addition to our story and overall vision for our special day/weekend. Kelly goes above and beyond. For example, Kelly knew mine and my husband's love for Crumbl cookies and it became a shared love between all of us. She had the great idea to pick up Crumbl catering for our Rehearsal Dinner, which was also my husband's birthday, because she knew how special that would be for us. This is just the smallest example of Kelly's thoughtfulness throughout the whole process. Our wedding planning process presented extreme challenges between having to postpone a full year due to the pandemic and having to find a new venue/caterer/other vendors after our original venue burned down, but Kelly had my back every step of the way. She worked tirelessly to give us the best options while still taking our budget and preferences into consideration. The day would not have been possible without her and we are forever grateful for her dedication, her hard work, and her genuine love for what she does. Three months later, anytime we see our friends and family, they still talk about how perfect and absolutely stunning our wedding day and weekend was. I knew our day would be special but it was beyond anything I could have ever dreamed of. Kelly and the ASE team went above and beyond in creating the most special, beautiful, personalized and intimate wedding for us and I will forever be grateful. I could go on for several more paragraphs, but in conclusion, if you are looking for a wedding planning team, you will be in the best hands with A Savvy Event! read more

We greatly enjoyed developing a relationship with Kelly over our extended (due to covid) wedding planning experience. I knew, from Kelly's clear creativity, that the day was going to blow everyone away. I was not able to imagine how truly stunning it would really be. Everyone noted it was the most gorgeous wedding they'd ever been to! Also, Kelly has so many connections in the network that after our initially hard-to-get venue had fire damage, she got us into a secret private estate through using her connections and relationships in wine country. We were so lucky! Happy to chat with anybody interested in hearing a brides perspective about utilizing Kelly and her ASE team! read more

Kelly and her team did an amazing job coordinating my wedding. Shes wonderful to work with and is always coming up with ideas. She has a great taste and a wonderful sense of design. Every time I look back on my photos I can't believe how gorgeous she made my wedding look. Even my mom can't sing Kelly enough praises! Kelly handled all the coordination so that I would have nothing to worry about on the day off which was awesome! She even provided parasols for my guests because I underestimated how hot it would be on that day. My only concern that sometimes communication was spotty. I know that they were busy especially during wedding season and being an anxious person doesn't help. However I trusted Kelly and I knew she would have everything perfect on the day. Oh, another great thing is that her husband is an officiant. Just like Kelly, he was awesome. I am glad we had him do our ceremony. It was short and sweet just like how we wanted. read more

A Savvy Event - Ceremony - Wedding Planning Near Me - Sonoma, California

Kelly and her team at ASE were such a pleasure to work with! They made the whole planning process such a breeze. She was always available by phone or email whenever I had any questions. I was pretty hands on with the planning so I found most of my own vendors. But once I had booked them, ASE handled the rest. Kelly had a super detailed itinerary and coordinated ALL the vendors. Kiera was there day of and helped make sure everything went perfectly. I wasn't stressed out one bit. Kelly and Kiera were amazing, I can't recommend them enough! read more

Brittany Payton was the best thing we could ever think of. Brittany took the stress of our big day away from us, only thing we had left for us to enjoy our moments. Our wedding was like a dream, nothing went wrong. It was classy and sophisticated, thanks to Brittany. Thank you Brittany, you are the best! Ulku & Tony read more

See all

It has taken me way too long to write this review, but as we approach our first anniversary and I was looking back at our wedding photos, I was reminded of the incredible design talent of Kelly at A Savvy Event. She pulled all the details together to create stunning spaces- from the ceremony, to the dinner, to dancing in the barn, she transformed Cornerstone Sonoma into something unique and perfect for our sentimental wedding. We told her we wanted casual elegance, and she nailed it, using linens and lounge furniture to keep everything classy yet comfortable. Her vision of splitting the large lawn with faux barn walls to keep the ceremony and dinner areas separate was brilliant and created such intimate spaces. Our wedding of 175 people truly felt like it was an intimate gathering of our closest family and friends, and the spaces were a huge part of that. Kelly and her team did an incredible job the day of making sure that my husband and I didn't have anything to worry about. We were told where to be and when, and other than that, we didn't have to stress about anything. That was huge! I would recommend any bride and groom use A Savvy Event to help create an amazing event that your family and friends will be talking about for years to come! read more

See all

Book Lally Clark for your private estate wedding (or any wedding!) She is organized, responsive, on top of everything, knows everything one needs to know regarding vendors in wine country, and most importantly she truly cares about her clients and will make sure your day is incredible and that you don't worry about a thing other than having an amazing time. I'm writing a long review because in the early stages of planning, it would have been nice to have something like this to help us understand how to figure out what type of planner we wanted to work with and how much we wanted to take on ourselves. As with most things in life, you get what you pay for. We initially hired a cheaper planner, and it cost us 5 months of wasted time where nothing got done - in fact we went backwards- and we were constantly frustrated. You should definitely cut budget on things that aren't as important to you, but a good planner is not something you should cut! A private estate wedding requires a lot of work to plan - do not underestimate. We had at least 10 individual vendors from the typical ones like catering and florist, but also things like lighting and porta-potties that we wouldn't have known we needed. If this is your situation, do not underestimate the amount of work it takes to understand what vendors you need, select them, know if you're getting a good deal, etc. Not to mention coordinating all of their dropoffs and pickups the weekend of your wedding itself. After seeing our property, Lally knew exactly what was needed and which vendors to work with. She knew where it was possible to save money so that we didn't have to figure all of this out. Working with Lally to plan the wedding made it more fun! She gave us a very helpful checklist at the beginning of each month to help us keep track of the things we have to do. We had meetings from her in person from time to time, some with vendors and a few random phone chats. We emailed almost daily and she was incredibly responsive. When there was a task that I just didn't want to deal with (like choosing florals), she would help make it easier by giving me options or advice. Lally goes above and beyond: 3 months before the wedding I had a major wedding dress freakout! I realized I wasn't sure I liked the dress I had already bought after a few alterations were done. I call Lally at 10pm freaking out and she calmed me down! then she graciously attended my next fitting with me and even got me a last minute appointment at a bridal shop in the city so I could check out other options. It ended up sticking with the original dress, but it was remarkable how much she was able to help me through that crisis. The weekend of our wedding was an incredible success! I cannot say enough good things. It was the best day/weekend of my life, and I didn't have to worry about anything. I've been at other weddings where this is not the case. When you don't have a planner, or only a "day of" planner, things just get missed. You and your family do NOT want to deal with the coordination of vendors and decorations on the weekend of your wedding. After the fact, we found out about a few mini-disasters that she was able to fix without us or anyone even knowing about it! She totally went above and beyond to make sure we had the perfect weekend that we will remember for years to come. She even found a few ways to save us money. A few weeks after the wedding, we got a few surprise refunds from vendors who had apparently made mistakes! wow! So, don't look elsewhere....you've found the right team! hire Lally and A Savvy Event! read more

A Savvy Event was the best decision we made to make our wedding day amazing. We worked with Lally to plan our destination wedding in wine country. With only 5 months to help us pull everything together, she made things so stress free and easy for us. She helped with everything from assisting us in choosing the prime location for our day (we booked site unseen), having excellent food recommendations, to coordinating me getting my gown safe from Indiana to Sonoma undamaged!!!! Her day of coordination was also excellent. As hectic as wedding days are 'supposed' to be, everything went unbelievably smooth. If there was something that went wrong, it never got to my husband or I. I cannot thank her and Savvy Event enough for being there for us. read more

See all

Hiring A Savvy Event for our destination wine country wedding was the smartest investment I made in my wedding day. Living in North Carolina and getting married in California made planning a bit intimidating. Meren being assigned as my coordinator was a blessing of good fortune. Having someone so thoroughly organized and on top of every nuance was the only way our wedding could have gone as seamlessly and beautifully as it did, and every single detail was perfect. Though I had found most of my vendors by the time Meren was hired, she was so helpful in getting the last couple of people in place and then orchestrating all of our vendors to work together to create what I had envisioned. Though I did contact each one of them during the planning stages, it was really my communications with Meren that always cleared everything up. She is a bundle of positive energy, and it's so great to work with someone who is so thoroughly competent while still being a joy to talk to. She is a gem. read more

This review is for Meren Dehaze who, from my experience working with her and from the testimonials of others, is clearly a rock star!!! When beginning to plan our wedding, my husband and I knew that we were going to need some help and support to pull off something outside our comfort zone. We wanted to have an nontraditional wedding, yet one that had a tightly managed time line and included a killer party. Thank goodness we got the suggestion to call ASE. Meren was the one to call me back and I could tell from that first chat that she was experienced as a planner, trustworthy, organized, calm and awesome. And totally on board with all of the strange ideas we kept coming up with! Three days later, we can't stop talking about how perfect everything was for our wedding. It was so awesome for me to see everything come together, and be able to enjoy the entire day knowing that it was in Meren's capable hands. We received so many compliments on the smallest details, and were told by more than just a handful of people that this was the best wedding *ever.* Meren was instrumental in the entire process of planning, dreaming, and executing a phenomenal celebration -- and I've learned that she is not only a kick-ass planner, but a kick-ass person. I am beyond grateful to have had Meren on our team. She made sure everything was thought of and covered, made the best suggestions and, most importantly, made sure that all my husband and I saw on wedding day was absolute perfection. Should we ever have the opportunity to plan another giant party, you better believe Meren will be a getting a call!! I highly recommend Meren and ASE to anyone considering a wedding or event. They will work with you to create your dream, and respect your uniqueness and budget along the way. YAY MEREN!!! read more

Overall, I think Kelly and her team did a great job on the day of the wedding in September 2011. She is super personable and positive. There are very few things that could have made our wedding day a disaster but Kelly made sure nothing did go wrong! Also, she was very thoughtful and offered to bring parasols for our guests because it was sunny and hot during our wedding ceremony. Being a distant bride ( I live in NY), I definitely had concerns about whether I was doing things right and I was really looking for someone to help me figure things out locally. Kelly was super responsive initially but gradually became less responsive over time. The biggest challenges I had in working with A Savvy Event for planning our Sonoma wedding was communication (i.e. getting in touch with staff) and not knowing when tasks would be completed as they were regularly busy with other clients. The stress and pressure from being afar made it less than an ideal experience overall in the planning process, but the day of worked out just fine and that's the most important day :) I'd give Savvy Event 3.5 stars but it doesn't appear that Yelp has half stars. read more

My husband and I worked with Kelly at ASE while at the end of the day our wedding was nice... we had utilized the full-service weekend package and working with the ASE team was very disappointing. There was no regard for our budget, no ideas on how to cut here or there to make room for what was important, we were the ones coming up with ideas and keeping track of everything. On top of that, we really we led the way with planning and keeping on the timeline (we basically were the project manager of this event as well). We would send emails with questions or ideas and not hear back for over a week or more and have to continue to follow up. There was excuse after excuse on why she was delayed or why she missed a call. We would end a call with Kelly only to have to rehash everything again because it was like she forgot what I had said or didn't take it into account. So if you want to throw away money, and have a wedding planner who will blow you off, drop the ball, not listen, and make your life more stressful instead of trying to help when planning a wedding then this is the planning service for you :). read more

Jamie Gallion Gansler is a miracle worker! We had a very large and international wedding of 260 in Santa Barbara, CA, at the Four Seasons Biltmore, with multiple events to coordinate. I have known Jamie for years, but after our site visit last June, I knew she was an ace. She was the full coordinator, and Jamie did not deliver 100%, she delivered 1000%! Jamie handled all of our many vendors with class, consideration, and consistency. She was a coordinator and so much more: she let me vent about the details and some annoyances along the way, she took on multiple meetings with me and with vendors, made many, many phone calls, responded to hundreds of emails, and did two site visits to Santa Barbara. Between managing my needs and my mother's many desires, getting us the best possible prices and best possible vendors, and just her fantastic attitude, our stress was reduced and I and my husband could truly enjoy our wedding. My mother and I wanted a party, and that is what we got. People danced for hours, caught up, and enjoyed the seaside venue and perfect views. Many of our guest have called or emailed me, my husband, or my mothers, and said our wedding was the best and most fun wedding they have attended and one of the most beautiful. Jamie is an ace, worth 10 times her weight in gold, and the best person to make your wedding more than you could ever imagine! A Savvy Event is a fantastic wedding planning company, and Jamie is the best possible person to take your event to the most fantastic possible result! read more

I got married last May 2018 and my husband and I used A Savvy Events as our wedding planner. This review is long overdue, but we had to mention amazing wedding coordinator and how happy we were with ASE's services. We were so fortunate to work with and have Laura F. as our wedding coordinator. There aren't enough words to express how grateful my husband and I were for Laura. She went above and beyond her duty as a wedding coordinator. We met prior to our wedding day to go over a questionnaire, review what we were looking for in a wedding coordinator and what we needed specifically, was a personalized package set up by ASE. Laura put together a comprehensive wedding outline for the rehearsal and day of, and forwarded the info to all of our vendors. She gave us "homework" each month to ensure we were checking things off each month on a timely manner before our wedding day. On the day of, I barely noticed Laura. She was like a ninja, quietly coordinating what I could only imagine is chaos when you're trying to coordinate so many vendors, ensure they have whatever equipment they need to do their job, while being behind the scenes so that my husband and I could enjoy our day. I had been so stressed with wedding planning but Laura immensely helped ease that stress for me. I don't know what I would've done without her. I didn't have to worry about anything on the day of, and I truly was able to relax and savor each moment of my wedding day. My husband and I are truly so thankful for Laura F. to help coordinate our very special day for us. Thank you again!! read more

Jamie from A Savvy Event was my day-of-coordinator for my September 2011 wedding in Sonoma. She is amazing! Day-of-coordinator is such an understatement. She helped coordinate so many different aspects from dealing with rentals, vendors, the staff at our location, to being my emotional crutch during a very stressful time. I am a very detail oriented person and have a hard time letting people do things for me - even when I know I desperately need the help. Jamie was very patient with my requests (and revised requests-as I can also be indecisive) on a million different items. She continuously claimed that we worked well together because she loves concentration to details. And it's true. Every aspect of our special day (and rehearsal dinner) was planned perfectly. The evening moved along so smoothly and with such elegance. For years to come when I look back on my wedding Jamie and her amazing help will always remain a fond memory of mine. Use A Savvy Event for your special day, and special it will be. read more

The smartest thing we ever did was to hire Meren Dehaze of A Savvy Event for our wedding in Sonoma, California. You could not find a more organized, detail oriented, friendly, fun and wonderful person. She reassured us from start to finish this would be a wonderful day. And she was right. We live on the east coast so most of our arrangements were done through the internet or telephone. Meren always answered our emails and phone calls right away. Even when she was at her cousin's wedding she made time to set up a phone conversation so we would be reassured that all the details and the vendors were in place. At the rehearsal we handed her all our extras and with no explanation a she displayed them beautifully. Even though my wedding was on one of the hottest days of the year she again reassured me. Meren managed to get parasols, extra water and coverage for the band's equipment with ease. She is a pro. Yes, she is the real thing. I would highly recommend Meren without any hesitation. It was the smartest thing we did and she made our wedding day so special and just how I imagined. Meren took my vision and made it real!!!! read more

Jamie Fields was my wedding planner and she created a fantastic beautiful wedding event at the Fairmont. Months later my family and friends are still talking about what a fairytale fantastic wedding it was and it would not have come together without Jamie's expertise. We had a very condensed timeline and started planning end of September/beginning of October for a February wedding. Despite the short time frame, Jamie was able to recommend fantastic vendors and help us book them. She even came to some vendor meetings with us and we did a walk through in December to discuss details that needed to be thought about. While everybody else around me constantly asked about details I hadn't planned yet and stressed me out, Jamie had the opposite effect and made the planning very stress free. She also responded to my questions and e-mails very quickly and made communication and planning so easy. On the day of the event, she kept everybody calm and even was able to help the florist arrange a last minute bridesmaid bouquet for my jr. bridesmaid (I forgot to tell them the change of plans). Jamie also used to work at the Fairmont and knew all the staff we were working with which made things run even more smoothly. Jamie made my wedding day fantastic and I cannot recommend her enough! read more

A SAVY Event is an A+++++ Planning Company. I had the pleasure of working with Brittany Payton | Event Producer of A Savy. She's professional, hands on and ALWAYS responds to text and emails within the hour. (sometimes I texted her at 10PM =) I never felt that I was asking too many questions, because she made me feel (as a vendor), I was part of her All Star Team. I highly recommend A Savy to any couple looking to hire a wedding planner. If you're in the Napa area. please ask for her. All the Best and thank you once again! read more

If there were an option for ten stars I would unhesitatingly give it to Kelly, Brittany and the entire staff at A Savvy Event! They were the absolute best at making our wedding day a day to remember and the wedding itself a fairytale event. Some background: My good friend is the owner of Annadel Estate Winery. Annadel is not only a very successful winery with world class wines but also a premiere destination for wine country weddings. My friend graciously offered my fiancee Angela and I the use of his property for our wedding, which we gladly accepted. He also strongly suggested that we contract with Kelly and A Savvy Event to plan and execute the wedding. Due to my friend's experience in the field (no pun intended) we took his advice. And we have been grateful ever since. In spite of the beautiful location and setting at Annadel, everything - and I mean EVERYTHING - has to be created on the property where the wedding is to take place. Essentially what you get is a beautiful vineyard with rustic ruins for the ceremony. And that's it, although "that" is pretty impressive. So we had to pretty much build out the entire event, which went something like this: Hiring a shuttle service to transport guests to and from the event due to county restrictions on vehicle traffic. Renting a commercial sized tent to accommodate 125 people, dance floor, space heaters, electrical services, etc. Renting tables, chairs, plates, silverware, candles, etc. (This was a key component because we initially were going to use one of the larger commercial event companies in the Bay Area and Kelly was not satisfied with the prices that they were going to charge us. She shopped around and found us a local company that had nicer materials for much less, saving us a considerable amount of money.) Kelly and Brittany, due to their extensive experience in the event planning business knew exactly where to go to get the perfect items and which vendors to deal with. These are just a few of the tangible items that Kelly and her staff arranged for us. THEN there was coordinating all of the principles who were essential to the ceremony: caterer, florist, band, DJ, officiant, cake lady, and on and on. On the note of the cake lady, one incident will always speak volumes about the ethics and integrity of A Savvy Event. There was a minor deposit on the cake plate that we agreed to with our pastry chef. At the end of the wedding day the plate had somehow come up missing. As stated, it was a nominal amount of money, especially compared to the overall expense of the wedding. Kelly was adamant that she would pay the fee for the missing plate, to the point that we argued over it! (She eventually paid, against my better wishes!) Time and space preclude me from listing all of the endless work and little details that went into making our wedding day magical but the bottom line is that Kelly and staff are truly worth their weight in gold. I don't have any experience with other wedding/event planners in the area but I can't believe that there are any as good and as professional as Kelly, Brittany and A Savvy Event. read more

Hiring Lally Clark of A Savvy Event as our planner was one of the best wedding investments I made ! From start to finish, Lally is a joy to work with. Thorough, responsive, organized, and amiable - she helped bring my vision to life. Lally takes care of all the logistical details (contacting vendors, drawing up contracts), allowing the bride to focus on herself and the personal elements of a wedding. She does an amazing job of working within budget parameters, and her industry connections often garner vendor discounts. She has a keen eye for design that she respectfully offers (if asked), but never presses upon you. On the big day, I had more than a few friends comment on how I was such a calm bride - I absolutely attribute this to hiring Lally ! There wasn't a doubt in my mind that everything would go smoothly under her helm - I had nothing to worry about other than enjoying myself and making sure to take in all the love and beauty of the day. read more

I cannot say enough good things about A Savvy Event. Initially, I was hesitant to use A Savvy Event because I was afraid that since it was a big company (as opposed to other planners that are a 1-2 person shop), our wedding would not be as important since they would have so many others to take care of. But after a lot of asking around, I decided to go with Savvy since everyone (wedding venue, catering companies, etc) had nothing but amazing things to say about the ladies here. We worked with Courtney for our Cornerstone Wedding and she was absolutely amazing, fantastic, and a miracle worker. Because things fell through with our first non-responsive wedding planner (not from A Savvy Event), Courtney only had 4 months to plan our wedding. I was afraid that because we were so late in the game, we wouldn't be able to have everything that we wanted in our wedding.... but Courtney turned made it happen! We live out of state, so it was a destination wedding for us. The entire time leading up to the wedding, Courtney was super responsive, answering all her emails in less than 24 hours. She was able to see our vision, with the help of various pictures I found online and her detailed questions. Courtney thinks of everything and is super detail oriented.... she thinks of things that I would've never in a million years think about when it comes to wedding planning. She is super organized and knows her stuff when it comes to weddings. It's obvious that she loves her job and her work definitely shows it! Wedding day: Courtney was also our day-of-coordinator. She had this uncanny ability to read my mind and knew exactly when my husband and I needed to take a breather by ourselves. Things ran so smoothly with her in the background. And most importantly, she turned our dream wedding into a reality! Everything was amazingly beautiful and just like how we imagined it in our heads. The ceremony lawn and dinner tent were absolutely stunning. The barn was so cozy and perfect for ending the night. There was no way we could've done our wedding without her! All in all, Courtney is amazing. She's exactly what we were looking for in a wedding planner and more. I highly recommend her for all your event planning needs!! read more

A Savvy Event - stunning dinner tent - Wedding Planning Near Me - Sonoma, California

See all

A Savvy Event will undoubtedly take your wedding (or event) to the next level. Jamie went ABOVE AND BEYOND for our Tahoe wedding. I wouldn't recommend anyone else; there aren't any other planners in the area that even compare. Jamie did two site visits for me, and made my vision come to life. When I walked into the dining room for our dinner, I said, "now this is what I was dreaming of!" I loved working with all of the girls from A Savvy Event, and I know you will too. read more

A Savvy Event is by far the only reason we even had a wedding. Kelly is a gem and her team made our day so insanely smooth and dealt with my 5000 questions, day in and day out for 8 months. Our first venue was destroyed and they literally did the entire process of helping us find a NEW venue without even knowing whether we would be signing a contract with them. If you want to ensure you have no issues and get a top quality wedding planner who literally knows EVERY VENDOR, pick Kelly and her team at A Savvy event. We are thrilled with the service and professionalism we received and now consider Kelly family. read more

I do not recommend this vendor if you are looking for a personalized planning experience. With planning a wedding, you hire a planner to ease the stress and to create a personalized wedding. This company treated it much more like a business than wanting to help us personally. My husband and I planned a wedding for 9/2020, which of course was postponed due to COVID. We therefore didn't require any planning assistance for a whole year of postponement. To give examples of the unpersonalized experience, our planner knew we were heartbroken about postponing, but still wanted to get married on our original date with our families. We received not a single thought of "hey, we know you are supposed to be getting married in Napa today, but enjoy this day and we look forward to next year." Fast forward, due to the continued lockdown due to the pandemic and a music festival being planning in Napa on our backup wedding weekend, we ultimately had to cancel our contract with A Savvy Event and replan our wedding in our hometown. We did not request a refund on the thousands of dollars we paid the company. So they kept our thousands of dollars and never met us in person and only spent a few hours on phone chats and in emails over a course of 2 years of planning. My husband and I spent hours filling out the planning paperwork, timelines, etc. We asked to have access to these documents so we didn't have to reinvent the wheel as we are on attempt #4 at having this wedding. We were told that A Savvy Events owns the rights to the documents and we could not have access to any of them. So thousands of dollars invested in this company with no return on investment. To not even have the understanding of the rollercoaster of being a COVID wedding couple and allowing us access to these documents as we have to replan yet again is beyond disheartening. At the end of the day, we were treated like dollar signs as opposed to a unique, couple worthy of their efforts. Be mindful of what you would like from a planner before committing to this company if you are hoping for personalized, caring planning experience. read more

Choosing A Saavy Event as my wedding coordinator was the biggest and most stressful mistake I made while planning my wedding. I am getting married in Napa in June, since I live in Sacramento and have two jobs, I had my Mom interview and hire a wedding coordinator on my behalf. Before being hired Kelly was professional, warm and very responsive. It was unknown to me at the time but after being sent a deposit check from my mother she stopped returning phone calls and emails. When my Mom finally got ahold of her Kelly apologized and offered my Mom her money back-- I wish my Mom would have taken it. It would have saved me a TON of grief. In November I was contacted by Kelly who wanted to meet in person and discuss my wedding. We had the date planned almost a month in advance. A few days before our meeting Kelly emailed wanting to cancel due to illness. I let her know that was fine-- however-- I do have two jobs and live an hour and a half away so rescheduling would be difficult for me. It took several emails back and forth but Kelly decided to keep our original appointment. On the day of our meeting Kelly called 30 minutes before to change the location of our meeting. That was completely fine with me. I arrived at our meeting destination 10 minutes early. Kelly on the other hand was 20 minutes late. Then we had to wait for one of her employees, Amber, who was 40 minutes late!! Since timing is a huge part of a wedding I was starting to worry!! My meeting with them was nice. They were very friendly. However...several things just didn't seem to add up. During conversation it came up that Kelly had been out of state on vacation and just come back the day before...since she had tried to cancel our appointment due to "illness" it made me a little skeptical. Also-- during the meeting Amber and Kelly didn't seem to be on the same page about anything! The longer I sat with them the more things didn't seem to add up. After the meeting I drove home and thought about my experience the whole way. I was so concerned that I called Kelly to voice my concerns. She immediately got super defensive and started to raise her voice. She told me that if I was not comfortable working with her that she would rather refund my money and we could go our separate ways. I was so stunned and appalled by her reaction that I said that was fine-- at which point she basically hung up on me. It was horrible!! I spent most of the afternoon crying and stunned. Unfortunately, it only got worse from there. A few days later she emailed me and said that she WOULD not refund. She told me that since I wanted to cancel (she's the one who cancelled!!) she was going to keep the money unless she re-booked the date. We exchanged a ton of emails and my father even had to get involved. Kelly never budged though-- she told my father she would be happy to continue working with me. Why would I want her to be there on the biggest day of my life after she yelled at me and caused me so much unneccessary stress?? To date Kelly has never refunded the $1,000 deposit that we paid her. She has never followed up as to whether she has re-booked the date. Overall, I would say that planning a wedding is stressful enough without having to deal with vendors like Kelly. read more

We first heard about A Savvy Event from our friends who got married a couple of years before us. They raved about their experience with ASE and specifically, their experience with Courtney. When I told my friend I was looking for a planner she told me I had to go with ASE and I HAD to request Courtney -- one of her bridesmaids and another friend of mine reinforced this, saying how on top of things Courtney was and how smoothly everything ran. From the first call and meeting with Courtney, it felt like she'd known us forever and knew exactly what we were looking for. We felt completely at ease. Courtney sent monthly checklists to keep us on track and was responding to my emails literally DAYS after having her second baby (despite me telling her to ignore my ramblings). When our caterer went bankrupt 6 months before our wedding and had to cancel, Courtney gathered proposals from a couple of other places within a couple of hours and set up a beautiful and delicious tasting with Girl and the Fig (who we ultimately went with) -- also making sure that our catering budget stayed the same. The weekend of our wedding, she was such a calm and positive and upbeat presence -- every one of my bridesmaids and even some of the groomsmen commented on how on top of it, friendly and wonderful she was. Throughout the day of the wedding, she texted to check in and make sure everything was going well and stopped by multiple times to bring hungover bridesmaids coconut water, save wardrobe malfunctions with safety pins and just generally keep things feeling really smooth and peaceful. As a bride, you don't really see how everything is set up until the ceremony is over and I couldn't have been happier with how everything turned out. It went far above and beyond what I'd envisioned. Though I have no plans to get married again, if I did, I would choose Courtney and ASE in a heartbeat. read more

I have been contacted by Kelly, who is now the owner of a Savvy Event, with a lovely and appologetic email. Apparently Emarie is not longer running this company and it has been passed to Kelly. I don't feel comfortable removing my review, as this was my experience with the company, but perhaps Kelly has made strides in the business to be more communicative and responsible. read more

Allison from A Savvy Event was by far the most helpful person in my wedding planning process! She was so on top of every detail from the very beginning and was always quick to answer any question I had during the process. She went above and beyond to make sure everything was perfect. On the day of the event, everything went smoothly and was absolutley beautiful because of her attention to detail and hard work! She also had Katie help her do some of the planning and Katie was also there the day of and was a tremendous help!! I don't know what I would have done without A Savvy Event during the wedding planning and execution on the day of was perfect. Kelly also helped with some of the design aspects of the wedding, so all hands were on deck to make sure my dream wedding came true. If I have any other events, I will definitely be using them because their work is flawless!! Thank you!! read more

Our venue recommended A Savvy Event to help plan and coordinate our destination wedding in Sonoma, California and we could not be more pleased with the results! Meren Dehaze took on our event with enthusiasm and extreme organization. She was the perfect source for any and all questions I had. She knows the area like the back of her hand and her relationship with all of my vendors made me feel very comfortable. The day of wedding was running behind, due to late guests, but she kept things moving and even managed to keep me calm (which is not an easy task!). I was able to completely let go the day of the event and trust that Meren had everything handled. Our wedding day would not have been the same without Meren - we will be recommending her to all of our friends and family getting married in the area! read more

Jamie from a Savvy Event was amazing and made the wedding planning process easy and as unstressful as possible. She went above and beyond for customer service and I would recommend her to everyone planning a wedding. read more

Oh my goodness. This event planning company is a beautiful thing. Kelly, the founder, is amazing to work with and puts together events with grace, care, and genuinely wants the best for her customers! 1000 times recommended! read more

My review is specifically for our wedding coordinator, Meren DeHaze. I chose A Savvy Event only after a telephone conversation. So in the beginning, there was an inkling of doubt to the decision made. However, such doubt lasted for a moment. Meren was an amazing wedding coordinator. She has all the qualities that you would want in a wedding coordinator - highly organized, detail-oriented, very responsive, incredibly patient and very reassuring. I had moments of stress about getting things done throughout the process and conversations with Meren always reassured me. Meren also included my husband in all notifications as he chose to be actively involved in the planning process. Not all our vendors were savvy enough to reply all but Meren always included him in her e-mails, keeping us both informed as needed. On the day of the wedding, Meren removed all stress & anxiety for me. She arrived at the venue at 9:30am and took all personal items & decorations from me. I felt a huge weigh lifted off my shoulders as soon as she collected the items because I knew that I could trust her. Meren ensured that everything occurred seamlessly and on schedule (as much as possible) and was there until midnight getting stuff ready for collection by our vendors. Amazing dedication to her clients. I would highly recommend Meren if you are looking for a coordinator. read more

My fiance and I hired Emarie and Kelly for our wedding in Napa/Sonoma for September 2010. We went from partial to almost full coordination because we realized how helpful they were and appreciated their creativity and involvement in our wedding. They reply to my MANY emails in a timely manner and notify me if they may not be able to reply as quickly due to an event, appointments, etc. And trust me brides, it alleviates ALOT of anxiety when your coordinator simply lets you know why they won't be able to answer your questions and they will get back to you on a so-and-so date. They are open to my suggestions and actually listen to what I have to say. If a vendor they recommended is not to my liking, they are open to vendors I choose even if they may not have had a working relationship with them. Whereas other coordinators(friends' stories) may make you feel pressured or "bully" you to hire the vendors THEY recommend. I can go and on about their strengths. But I gave them 4 stars only because I still have months to go and will have a final review post-wedding. read more

My experience with Jill (Hinchman) Hartnett was incredible! My husband and I hired her as a day of coordinator, but she went well beyond her role. Jill managed vendors, kept us on track, gave us great ideas, and provided us with strategic advice. She is organized, detail-oriented, and an excellent communicator. To throw in a twist, our wedding day comprised of a Catholic mass, Chinese Tea Ceremony, and a wedding reception. Thanks to Jill's experience and knowledge-set, she conducted a beautiful multi-cultural ceremony. If you want your wedding day to run smoothly, we can say with full confidence that Jill is, without a doubt, the person you need to hire. Jill truly cares about you and your special day and she will do everything possible to make it magical. Thanks Jill - we are forever grateful! read more

My husband and I said to each other multiple times during the wedding planning process that hiring Meren Dehaze from A Savvy Event was the best decision we made for our wedding. She is amazing! Meren is a delight to work with for several reasons: 1. She was very responsive when we first inquired about her services and remained so throughout the process - she never took more than 24 hours to respond to our e-mails! 2. She has amazing contacts - she introduced us to our photographer, photo booth, florist, lighting company, rental company and gown pressing service. All of her recommendations were spot on and we loved all of our vendors! 3. Meren is really fun to be around - we had several planning meetings and we loved her energy and creative ideas! 4. She is professional and knowledgeable. She always had answers to our questions which helped us feel calm throughout the process and really gave us peace of mind. I felt relaxed the morning of my wedding knowing that she had everything under control. 5. She is also incredibly organized - after our venue walkthrough she sent us a checklist of to-dos for my husband, me and the venue coordinator. Even our venue coordinator (Laura Vaughan from Calistoga Ranch) was impressed! 6. She was very accommodating of our needs and rolled with the punches - we changed our ceremony site to a different location at our venue several weeks before the wedding and she was able to make it happen! Our wedding day went so smoothly. If there were problems, we were completely unaware. I'm sure it was challenging to coordinate everything at our venue due to very limited cell phone reception and Meren did an amazing job! The ceremony and reception were beautiful and many of our guests told us that our wedding was one of the most intimate, personal and fun weddings they had been to, Meren also had Katie help her on the day of the wedding and she was very helpful as well. Thank you so much Meren and Katie and everyone at A Savvy Event! read more

Emarie is amazing to work with! She's totally on-the-ball, is always quick to reply to emails, has a great sense of design & is a nice person on top of it all. I would highly recommend A Savvy Event to any bride looking for a wedding planner (they do destination weddings too!). read more

I used A Savvy Event to help with my daughter's wedding upon the recommendation of a good friend. My expectations were met and exceeded by the very competent and lovely Jill Hinchman. Don't be thrown by the fact that A Savvy Event is located in Sonoma; ours was a San Francisco wedding and Jill is a local. All meetings were at my convenience in my home. She came to me; I wasn't running around. I texted Jill the day after the wedding one word: PERFECTION. I meant it. She is extremely capable and was a joy to work with; many vendors commented to me how professional she was. If you find yourself in need of a planner for an important event, consider Jill; you will not regret it. read more

Our family knew of the Savvy Events group because we have attended several weddings they organized. When we needed to plan a celebration of life event for 300 guests, we contacted them knowing that they were very professional and reliable and had good local Sonoma knowledge. We were assigned Marie Rios as our organizer and she was quite simply, amazing. Through our initial conversations she immediately grasped the tone and style of the event we imagined and everything flowed from there. The decor was simple and beautiful, the food local and delicious, the flowers soft and natural. We did not have to weed through long lists of caterers, florists, or anything else. Marie said she knew the vendors for us and she was right. It was such a relief to have her in charge of the details, especially at such a difficult time for the family. I should also mention that Marie was not at all snobby about our wish to be a bit cost conscious. She was calm, competent, reassuring and confident, and other than watching the weather forecasts rather obsessively, because our event was outside in early April, we really didn't worry about the event once Marie was on the job. read more

Words cannot express how thankful we are for having A Savvy Events assist with our wedding. Having Alex by our side throughout the planning process was invaluable. Every step of the way we were well prepared. The wedding day was amazing! Time flew by, but Alex and Marie made sure we and our guests were well taken care of. Everything was under control, and we did not have to worry about a thing. As we've spoken to friends, we've been complimented on what a beautiful day it was. We couldn't have done it without A Savvy Events, and especially without our wonderful coordinator Alex Decius. Thank you so much for making it such a special day. read more