Cynthia and Doug are scammers. I'm writing this to warn you, so you won't become their next victim. She slithers around church looking for connections and name drops Rock'n'Roll celebrities she claims to know to build your trust. She promises you everything and delivers minimally. She sucks you in by claiming to have items you can use for your event (but not usable) or says she makes plenty of food and therefore will reduce the head count . For example, we expected 150 people and she said she would only charge for 120 people because she wanted to "save us money." When the contract was being signed and it was too late to back out, she didn't remember saying it and wrote the contract for the full head count. When the taste testing occurred the food was delicious, then right before the wedding, she offered to "upgrade" us. The upgrade was worse than the taste testing sample, a Bait n Switch. The closer the wedding date got, the more we began to catch on to what was happening. She cancelled more meetings than she attended, and always at the last minute, which was incredibly disrespectful to our schedules and daily lives. Her contract was scoped for a "personalized day of itinerary for every member of the wedding party". What we received was a sample schedule texted to us the week of the wedding that seemed to be pulled from google and we needed to figure it out for ourselves. She was scoped for coordinating the rehearsal dinner and she was nowhere to be found. She did not even attend the full day of the wedding, which she was supposed to be coordinating. She disappeared for 5-6 hours to "shower". I wrote our vision for decorations and action items for the day of the wedding because she did not have anything written down. I had her sign it. Only 6 of the 21 action items were completed. For example, table runners were not set out on tables, lights were not placed in vases, etc. ,etc. Beware of last minute scam charges and manipulations. She tried to charge adult prices for children. 6 of our wedding guests were children under the age of 5 and she tried to scam another $700.00 for their plates. The children's parents actually brought their own food. When we asked about water service, she decided she needed 2 more servers for that (already charged us for 6 servers and the event was a buffet). She charged $700.00 for both servers and a small coffee bar, which was poorly organized and hidden off to the side of the event in a dark corner nowhere near the cake serving (no one ended up seeing the coffee or drinking it because no one knew it was there.) We bought 2 beer kegs on Cynthia's strong recommendation because she had a kegerator she kept pushing every single meeting, and they were mistakenly left off to the side (this was set up by her team), and no one knew they were there, complete waste of money as they were never touched. Cynthia and Doug's team did not follow our layout and placed the bars behind the reception tent which led to no one having drinks at dinner or knowing where the bar was located until people stumbled upon it around 8pm. We were left with hundreds of dollars of unused alcohol and mixers that we were unable to return due to their poor planning- mind you the hard alcohol was completely gone and Doug had given us his recommendation of proportions of mixer to liquor based on his professional opinion. We did not see many guests taking shots or drinking alcohol straight, so these proportions were either wrong and cost us hundreds of dollars or something more nefarious was at play. It would have been a disaster if we had not hired a second day of wedding coordinator. Our second coordinator was running all over the place trying to salvage the mess and chaos Cynthia and Doug created with their lack of leadership skills, no planning (as Cynthia never took notes at meetings) and no integrity. When I realized I could not trust them to even provide water service to tables, I purchased 18 carafes for each tables. Thank you Amazon. 17 carafes and extra special bottles of alcohol were lost and mismanaged due to lack of coordination and planning. We asked if the other vendors mistakenly had taken them. We did not bother to ask Doug if he mistakenly took them. You decide. Her staff mismanaged the leftover wedding cake topper, and the dog ate it right off the counter due to Cynthia and Doug's incompetence. Doug was even asked directly by the bride to make sure the left over cake was put away and he assured it was. We wasted thousands of dollars due to their poor planning, unused materials, unused alcohol, last minute scam fees, and wasted time. We can publish an entire essay outlining the rest of our negative experiences, but this review will have to do. Find someone else! read more

these people are scammers. they befriended me at church,built up my trust and then conned me out of $75k. To go into business with them. I had a court awarded judgment against them to prove it... they also had seven other liens against them before mine.. all their equity is in other people's names, not theirs so nobody can claim a penny from them... 10 years have past and I have not received one penny .. total scammers.. and they call themselves Christians.. This is many years ago for me now but they just catered a small private event close to my home and I was shocked to see they were still doing business. Needless to say, I was not surprised when it turned out to be a disaster. It was a nightmare to my neighbors nickel and dimmed them. Charged them for items that were not listed. anyone that has had a positive experience with these people. I'm very happy for you. But newcomers beware, just know who you're dealing with, wolves and sheep's clothing... Unfortunately, I had to give it one star otherwise my review would not have been counted.. a minus/minus sadly was my life's experience with these people especially cynthia she has a dark soul. read more

Lacked attention to detail- I can't say enough about Doug, but Cynthia needs to take notes, do better accounting, and put hidden costs in writing. This was a stressful event! Thank goodness for those who stepped up to pull it all off. Cynthia doesn't work the day of events... no mention of that either. The food and display were good, except for the months old expired chips, made mentioned that and Cynthia put it on Restaurant Depot. Isn't it up to the caterer to check the date?! No apology/compensation for those chips either. read more

Cynthia and Doug did an amazing job catering my sons wedding. Their staff was awesome. Food was great. What a fabulous team they lead. Thank you so much for all your help creating a day we we will never forget! read more

Absolutely TOP NOTCH. First, I fell in love with Doug and Cynthia. They are an amazing couple and have a way of serving and blessing and making everything come together in a way that is just perfect. We hired them to serve a catered dinner on board our vessel that we docked right in front of their location as well as pre-dinner appetizers at their ocean view venue. They completely transformed our vessel into a work of art and their staff served a delicious dinner and appetizers with professional and positive attitudes. I was thrilled. My guests were blown away as too! Thank you Doug and Cynthia! read more

Cynthia and team at Breakwater Events are a pleasure to work with. I remotely planned a corporate whale watching event and was on pins and needles about guest experience and service. I had a very specific upscale/chic aesthetic to achieve and Cynthia delivered 110% ! She went above and beyond, sending photos of food display items over the weekend, and working through choices and pricing. The B.W. team has impeccable taste and ability to understand client's desires and needs for events. It was easy to communicate (text,email, phone) and I appreciated the seasoned team helping plan details and make sure our food and wine were beautifully displayed. Breakwater events helped make our event a huge success and gave me (the Event Planner) peace of mind from 300 miles away. Highly recommend and work with Cynthia and team for future events! read more

My mom and I used Breakwater Events OC for my dads memorial service. The owners Cynthia and Doug were fabulous to work with. They were very accommodating to make Armenian food that turned out great. Their facility is beautiful overlooking Dana Point Harbor. I would not hesitate to meet with them for your next event as they were wonderful to work with. Our family and friends thought the facility was beautiful and this made for a memorable day for all of us. read more

We had my daughters wedding here yesterday at Breakwater Events with the help of Cynthia and Doug Sieloff. They far exceeded our expectations!!! My family typically makes large events in Beverly Hills which cost minimum six figures and everyone raved about the gorgeous venue and impeccable service. Cynthia was the most gracious big hearted person. Her vast experience in the business made our experience stress free and heartfelt . We feel so blessed to have had Cynthia at our event. I would do all of our celebrations with Cynthia and Doug. read more

My son and his beautiful bride just had their wedding reception at Adventura put on by BREAKWATER EVENTS. OMG! Cynthia, event coordinator, hit it out of the park!! This event was Fabulous! Beautiful! Detailed! Perfect! Great food!--You get the idea. This is an amazing venue with an entire wall overlooking the boats in the harbor. Cynthia is amazing! She thought of everything. The tables were beautifully decorated with stunning centerpieces. My family and friends are beginning to look over the photos taken during the reception and noticing the details (flowers, lighting, colors, centerpieces.) They have been calling me to comment on the beautiful venue, the lighting and the centerpieces! You won't be sorry if your reception or event is held here. It will be a memorable event and every detail will be taken care of. You can enjoy yourself and receive the compliments of "such a great location" and "fabulous evening!." Great job Cynthia and Staff! Thank you!! read more

My son was threatened by Cynthia over a review. My son was married two days after Christmas, familes flew in from all over the country. My son was on leave from the Army, and their wedding was a mess. Cynthia was absent through most of the event. She did not allow the purchase of liquor, only beer and wine...even though I was taking care of the bar tab, begging for a darned whisky to share with my son on his wedding day... I will say that the food was pretty good, the music was good (we had to coordinate all songs and dances...Cynthia was missing). When my daughter-in-law wrote an honest review, Cynthia then went full blown unprofessional and threatened to call my Son's Commanding Office to have the review taken down...just bizarre. No way to treat a soldier fighting for us overseas-period. My daughter-in-laws family asked for a refund, or even a partial refund...with no help from Cynthia...just threats. read more

Seeing as Cynthia and Doug have 5/5 stars across every website you'll find about them, I'll try to do my best about why I know that's simply not the case for me. For starters, Cynthia has never gotten my name correct, despite numerous reminders throughout the ordeal of planning my wedding at her venue. My name is Elizabeth, yet she has always called me Tess because that is the start of my email. If the fact that the wedding "coordinator" can't get her client's name right doesn't bother you, here's a list of the pro's and con's that I experienced while planning my wedding through Breakwater Events. Pro's: The venue is absolutely gorgeous and the guests were definitely raving about the food all night. The service and cleaning crew were spot-on. Cynthia is an incredibly nice person and comes off as very caring and understanding. The decorations that are set-up are decent and matched the theme that we had agreed on. Con's: Cynthia was very money-oriented throughout the whole affair. I'm not talking about deadlines for payments, I'm talking about odd deals for paying earlier than agreed on and promising things free-of-charge but later asking for additional payment. When we discussed decorations, she would bring up neat and fun-sounding ideas that I agreed to have done, but on the day of the wedding the only thing that was remembered was the color scheme. I also had to make the wedding timeline for the night a week prior, despite her being the "wedding coordinator" because she never had time for it. She also lost this plan and asked me for it again later. She left hours before the wedding was over and barred access to the hard liquor entirely when we agreed that the guests would just have to purchase those options (beer and wine were paid for). I've tried to make this review as fair as possible. If I could do it over, I would've hired my own wedding coordinator but still paid to use that fantastic venue. read more

Cynthia and Doug are absolute Gods!!!! We had our reception here and from the day we booked this venue to our Wedding day last weekend, they have been incredible to work with. The second we walked in the door September 2016, they made my husband and I feel like family, they truly cared about us and our story, it was a beautiful time meeting them and we knew the second we left where we would be having our wedding (not to mention we have bragged to everyone for the past year how incredible they are). Their professionalism to set-up a seamless reception for 135 people was astonishing, their attention to detail to create the most personalized and special room brought such a warmth to our heart, and their passion to assure every guest would have a great time was simply incredible. Every single one of our guests has non-stopped told us how amazing our wedding was and how they wish we could do it all over again, they have continually said it was by far the best wedding they have EVER been to (including those who were married themselves). From the decor, to the food, to the dancing....it was the BEST DAY EVER!!! Thank you Cynthia, Doug, and your entire team for creating Justen and I's dream wedding past any vision we had. We love you! read more