We were looking for a month of coordinator for our wedding reception, as it was required for the UC…read moreBerkeley Botanical Garden. Brenda did a fantastic job helping with layout planning, timeline creation, decor/floral ideas, coordinating with other vendors and making sure everything ran smoothly the day of. Even prior to the month of, she was already touring the venue with us and gave suggestions when I had any questions or concerns. She made sure to meet with / communicate through e-mail / text/ zoom in a timely manner to address any issues and coordinated smoothly with other vendors. Overall our special day went exceptionally well, exceeding my expectations. We were very grateful we had Brenda to help make sure everything went smoothly and did not worry about anything the day of. If you're looking for an affordable and professional wedding planning in the East Bay, we would strongly recommend Brenda.

Cierra did an excellent job as my month of coordinator for my Millbrae backyard wedding in August…read more She met me several months ahead of my wedding at my family's property to guide me where things should be placed. We had several meetings to ensure I was on the right path and checking off all the to do's. And the day of coordinator was perfect. She knew exactly what to do, never bothered me asking for anything. She kept us on schedule, she did all of the day of set up, coordinated with all my vendors and handled the tips. I was also so pleasantly surprised and thrilled when I came back on Sunday that she and her assistant had put everything away, all decor and staked the tables and chairs and put away linens. Not enough ice arrived and the bar was lacking some items and her assistant went to the store to grab everything. I am SO glad to have hired Cierra because I was fully present during my wedding day and can't imagine how differently and stressful the day would have been without her help. Best money spent!

My husband and I are so glad that we chose A Savvy Event (ASE) as our planning team, but more…read morespecifically, 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!

Kelly and the ASE team are truly the best you can get when it comes to the wedding planning…read moreindustry. 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!

We hired Reverend Rick Tan to officiate our wedding. He came with a strong recommendation from our…read morewedding coordinator (Carly Saber Events), and in the first call, I knew that his soft, charming demeanor was exactly what we needed for our wedding day. It's an intimate business to officiate a couple, especially one that isn't familiar with the couple, and we didn't take it lightly as we prioritized the ceremony most of all. Rick helped us through building a ceremony, and he gave us so much warmth throughout the process. On the wedding day, he visited each of us privately and checked in. During the ceremony, he led it with such grace and clarity. Two months later, as I watched the ceremony video, I realized with even more clarity all that he did so wonderfully. I highly recommend him to any couple looking for an officiant. We are so very thankful.

A wedding officiant is something you don't actively seek out until you need one. And when it came…read moretime to plan our wedding, I had no idea where to start. We found Rev. Tan at the recommendation of our wedding coordinator, With Grace and Love, and I'm so grateful for the connection! Rev.Tan service's were pretty straightforward and given our wedding plans changing significantly due to COVID we still needed someone to officiate for our party of 11. The idea of crafting a wedding ceremony seems a bit daunting but they share a great program that helps the couple craft the perfect ceremony unique to them. I found the program to be easy to use and so helpful in mapping out the narrative. I felt super confident going into our ceremony having reviewed the script beforehand. There were no surprises. Rev. Tan was readily available in the lead up to the day with some tips on the order of the readings and even gave us some pointers on crafting our personal vows. I especially appreciate him respecting our request to wear a face mask during our event. It's little details that really resonated with me given the times. He took care of our marriage license, sent us an image of the signed doc, and mailed it off to the county. Overall, I was so pleased with the ease of his service. I do hope to take him up on his offer for coffee one day when the world settles down a bit. Forever grateful he officiated our micro wedding!

We truly cannot recommend Lindsey and the Ooh La La team enough! From the very beginning, Lindsey…read moremade our entire wedding planning experience feel so smooth, organized, and genuinely stress-free. She was incredibly thorough, knowledgeable about our venue and vendors, and always quick to respond to emails. No matter what question we had, Lindsey always had an answer and made us feel completely taken care of throughout the entire process. On our wedding day, Lindsey was absolutely pivotal in bringing everything we had planned to life so seamlessly. We never once had to worry about the timeline, what was happening next, or whether things were being taken care of. She kept everything running perfectly and allowed us to simply be present and enjoy our day. Even with the weather being incredibly hot, Lindsey was quick to adapt and helped us come up with last-minute solutions to keep our guests as comfortable as possible. Her ability to stay calm, organized, and think on her feet made such a difference. Lindsey is seriously the BEST. She is professional, responsive, and so easy and enjoyable to work with. Having her there gave us such peace of mind, and we are incredibly grateful for everything she and the Ooh La La team did to make our wedding day so special. If you are looking for a wedding planner who will make the entire experience feel effortless and make sure you can truly enjoy your wedding day, Lindsey is your girl!

Lindsey is simply the best, and I'm so incredibly grateful we found her to plan our wedding. Over…read morenearly two years of planning, her expertise, organization, and industry connections were absolutely invaluable. From day one, Lindsey was knowledgeable, kind, and genuinely invested in making our wedding everything we envisioned. Whenever I had a question, she always had thoughtful advice and recommendations. What I appreciated most was that she never pushed her opinions--instead, she shared her expertise while empowering us to make the decisions that felt right for us. She made the entire process feel personal and true to who we are as a couple. As someone who is extremely Type A, I expected to be stressed leading up to the wedding, but I honestly felt none. Lindsey was so organized, responsive, and dependable that I had complete confidence in her and her team. That trust paid off--our wedding day was absolutely perfect and ran seamlessly (or at least any issues were handled so flawlessly that we never knew about them!). She coordinated every detail with our vendors, allowing us and our families to be fully present and enjoy every moment. One of the reasons we chose Lindsey was her flexible planning approach. I loved that we could take ownership of the initial planning and vendor outreach while still having unlimited access to her guidance whenever we needed it. That level of support is rare, and her recommendations for vendors, from our DJ and rentals to our florist and cake, helped us build an incredible team that truly brought our vision to life. One of the most impactful moments during planning came at our 90-day meeting when Lindsey encouraged us to reconsider our decision not to do a first look. She thoughtfully explained that, based on our priorities, being present with each other, having time to ourselves, and valuing photography, it would enhance our day rather than take away from it. We trusted her advice, and looking back, it was one of the best decisions we made. She even built in a few private moments after the ceremony for us to soak in being newly married and enjoy some of our cocktail hour together, and those memories are among our favorites from the entire day. I'll genuinely miss my weekly (and sometimes daily!) emails with Lindsey. Working with her was one of the best decisions we made during our wedding planning process, and I cannot recommend her highly enough. If you're considering hiring a wedding planner, do yourself a favor and book Lindsey, you'll be so glad you did.

Just superb service! If you're considering who to use to bring your wedding dreams to life, you…read moremust use MaKela Allen and the Cole Drake team. Every detail from the consultation, the wedding day and post wedding events were carefully thought out and tailored to us as if we were royalty. We truly experienced the wedding of our dreams. We 100% recommend ColeDrake.

This past weekend our Cole Drake planner, Courtney Bailey, achieved what I never thought…read morepossible...a flawless wedding at the gorgeous Four Seasons in Calistoga. I consider myself a perfectionist...but Courtney and her team have me beat! I knew from the beginning working with Courtney that we had nothing to worry about, but still I'm the type that doesn't expect everything to turn out just the way I invisioned. The magnificence of this wedding was so far beyond my most hopeful vision. All of this orchestrated by Courtney and her amazing team, along with vendors she trusts. Courtney's upbeat personality was such a pleasure throughout all the months of planning. I don't know how this wedding would have come together had I chosen a different planner, but I will say there is no way it would have been the jaw dropping, exquisite event that it was...not even close!

We wholeheartedly agree with every positive comment in Brooke's previous reviews! She made our…read moreentire wedding day flow effortlessly from start to finish. We found Brooke by searching for wedding planners that had worked with our venue (Timber Cove Resort) before. Having worked there before, it was a huge plus that she already knew the coordinators and had cultivated relationships with trusted vendors who were familiar with the property. This insider knowledge made our planning process very smooth. We decided to go with the partial planning package, which fit our needs well. Early in the planning process, we'd spend time researching vendors on our own as well as ask Brooke for her recommendations, then reach out to the vendors on both of our lists. We found ourselves choosing her suggestions almost every time. Her industry experience and keen eye for quality vendors became obvious very quickly, yet she never made us feel pressured to go with any particular choice. She simply provided excellent options and let us make the decisions. Throughout the entire process, Brooke was incredibly mindful of our budget. In our very first meeting, she showed us a detailed budget from a previous wedding she did at our venue and walked us through each line item, pointing out areas where we might want to allocate more or less based on our priorities. This level of transparency and attention to detail immediately gave us confidence in her approach. Her communication style was exactly what we needed. We often sent her emails late at night, and Brooke would consistently respond first thing the next morning with clear, comprehensive answers. There was not a single time that she didn't address a concern in one of our emails, even when we sent her massive lists. She was also always proactive about letting us know when she'd be on vacation well in advance, allowing us to plan our questions and timeline accordingly. Brooke's flexibility was another standout quality. While our contract only covered the wedding day itself, we had planned a Welcome Dinner the night before and a Farewell Brunch the day after that we intended to handle ourselves. Unlike other planners we'd heard about from our friends who strictly limit their involvement to contracted days (which is understandable), Brooke was incredibly supportive when questions came up about these additional events. She went above and beyond by helping us order linens from the rental company and create layouts for these extra events. Not to say that future clients should expect this kind of support for non-contracted events by any means, but we were grateful for her willingness to lend a helping hand with the extra details that made our entire wedding weekend cohesive and stress-free. When our wedding day arrived, everything ran flawlessly! Even when we had a last-minute request to move our toasts indoors due to wind and chilly weather, Brooke handled it seamlessly without missing a beat. We can't imagine having planned our wedding without Brooke. Her expertise, professionalism, and genuine care for our vision made what could have been an overwhelming process both enjoyable and successful. We truly couldn't think of anything negative when she asked for our feedback after the wedding. We absolutely recommend her without reservation!

Our married friends told us it's *very* important to choose a good wedding planner. Luckily, I…read morefound Orchard Ave Events by googling "how much does it cost to have a wedding in Sonoma wine country?" One of the top hits was a very helpful article written by Brooke, which gave dollar value ranges with useful context. I sent her an inquiry and she got back to us promptly. From the first phone call, Brooke was personable, down to earth, and with her many years of experience in hospitality it was obvious she was well-connected to local vendors in Sonoma. She was keenly interested in getting to know us as a couple and helped us determine the things that were most important to us for our wedding. We chose a partial planning package: a highly collaborative arrangement with unlimited emails, phone calls, texts, in addition to strategically timed in-person visits. After we signed our contract, Brooke sent us a thorough budget worksheet that allowed us to play with each cost and see how it affected our bottom line. She also made us a detailed wedding planning timeline outlining all our tasks by month. This greatly helped us stay on track, get things done in a reasonable timeframe, and not forget any step. In choosing vendors, we'd ask Brooke for recommendations and she'd send us emails detailing 3-4 good options. She'd then explain which one she thought would be the best fit for us and why. At first, I'd do a lot of research on all the options, but I always ended up agreeing with her first choice. I learned to trust Brooke's judgment so thoroughly that I started going with whatever her top suggestion was without even looking into the others. I have no regrets and it saved us a ton of time.  Re: reception and ceremony layout, style, decor, etc. Brooke is just as detail-oriented as I am and literally nothing got by her--even passing comments I made about hating the overuse of Papyrus and that I love my food piping hot--she captured all these little preferences making sure the caterer didn't print our menus in Papyrus and instructed them to bring out our food extra hot! It was obvious that she listened carefully, taking meticulous notes and kept all our information organized in a large folder for in-person visits. Often, I'd send long, late-night emails to Brooke asking a host of questions at once. She'd reliably respond the next morning with a thorough answer to every question written in a different color under my original text. Even when she was handling another event, her responses were still remarkably fast. Brooke is easily able to work with different communication styles. For instance, my husband is more of a get-to-the-point, bullet notes, 2 min call kind of guy. On the other hand, I am liable to tell the whole meandering backstory (for example, this review) and discuss every option in detail over 40 mins. Brooke was able to cater to each of our disparate styles with ease. My husband is still learning :)  So our vendors were all picked, save-the-dates sent, and everything was going great when a big wrench got thrown into our plans. BR Cohn wanted to schedule BottleRock on the day of our wedding and they offered to pay for a significant chunk of our wedding costs if we'd agree to move to a different venue. This was a big dilemma: it would be great to save a lot of money, but we had already spent months planning our vision for the space at BR Cohn. Thank god we had Brooke to guide us through this unforeseen situation. She graciously agreed to meet us at the other venue right away and spent hours helping us consider whether or not to make the move. I was really stressed--my heart was set on BR Cohn and although the new venue was also beautiful, it was just not what I had envisioned. My husband, however, was far less attached and wanted to save the cash. Brooke helped us draft a counter-offer to stay at BR Cohn but switch dates and they accepted. She even handled the immense amount of work that resulted from this: contacting all our vendors about the new date and literally re-doing every contract. This whole debacle is a great example of something we had no way of anticipating would happen and are SO grateful we had Brooke to lean on to guide us through it!  In the end, everything was amazing. Some vendors even threw in a few extras for free just because they love working with Brooke. She also let us borrow a huge collection of wedding decor items she owns, which saved us on rental costs. These are just some cherry-on-top items you'll enjoy with Brooke as your planner. In closing, this is a long overdue review... my husband asked me if the reason I was dragging my feet was because after this our time with Brooke is officially over. Perhaps there's some truth to that--Brooke grew to be a constant sense of calm in my life. To say that I'll miss working with her is an understatement and it's certainly the saddest part of our wedding being over. Choose Brooke at Orchard Ave Events and you'll see just what I mean.

I was a client of Amiee's over the past year, up until our wedding on September 20th, 2024. It's…read moredifficult to pick where to begin in writing a review for her, but I will start with that hiring Amiee was the best decision I made. When I hired Amiee in October 2023, I had only booked our venue, HMUA, and photographer. I was having a very difficult time finding a caterer. My husband and I were on a fairly tight budget. We were gifted money from both sides of our families for our wedding but would be covering a significant portion ourselves. I received a few quotes from caterers that were simply not feasible for our budget. Even ones my friends had recommended from pre covid and through 2021 had drastically increased their prices since then, and it seemed some had altogether gone out of business. At that point, I hired Amiee as I realized I needed a professional to help navigate this critical element of the wedding. We ended up hiring Amiee's catering team for our wedding, and they were our saving grace. Prior to the wedding, Amiee and her team set up a beautiful tasting for my husband and I, that felt like a romantic date night in itself. At the wedding, the food was fantastic, with my cousin exclaiming at one point during dinner "This food isn't just good for a wedding , it's GOOD GOOD!" It's been a few weeks since our wedding and my husband's boss was still talking about the food at work last week, same with my mom. I personally do not believe you will find any caterer in the Sonoma or Napa area that will provide the elevated dining experience and quality of cuisine for the affordable rate we had, and we are so grateful for that. Beyond the food, I deeply valued Amiee's breadth of wedding experience, spanning decades. A planner like Amiee has seen it all, and there is nothing she can't anticipate. She went above and beyond, helping me with some DIY tasks I simply could not complete myself due to the fact that I live 500 miles away from Sonoma. She stepped up and ensured that the day of my wedding I was not burdened with any set up tasks, and could just focus on sipping mimosas and enjoying my morning with my loved ones. Amiee also became a confidant and friend over the course of our year working together. She listened to my rants, provided wisdom, and shared many laughs. Ultimately, our wedding was everything we wanted it to be because of Amiee. We are forever grateful for the role she played during this chapter of our lives. If you hire Amiee, she will exceed your expectations. She is not only a professional, but deep down a romantic who loves love & her clients love stories. She will do whatever it takes to honor yours and ensure your wedding is everything you dreamed it would be. Thank you Amiee, we are so grateful. Cassidy and Ty

I'd like to write an update. Amiee D'Maris has been in contact with me over the last few months and…read morestarted paying me back the money owed. I understand COVID presented her (along with many others in the industry) really challenging times. I don't want your entire judgement of her to be based off of my review and I do think she could be a good caterer. As I mentioned above, she has reached out, is in communication with us, has started paying me back, and I'm very optimistic all will be well in the future. I wish her and her business the best of luck. Thanks, Megan

I worked with Janice at Rue 29 to plan my husband's 40th birthday dinner, and I cannot recommend…read moreher highly enough. From start to finish, she was incredibly detail-oriented and thoughtful, always coming to the table with smart suggestions that elevated the evening and made the guest experience so much more special. Communication with Janice was a dream--she is responsive, organized, and on top of every detail. All the vendors worked together seamlessly, which speaks volumes about both her planning skills and her professionalism. Janice is also extremely well-connected and has relationships with the most talented vendors--musicians, cake designers, calligraphers, florists, and more. She curated a team that worked beautifully together and truly brought the event to life. Above all, Janice is incredibly thoughtful--she thinks of everything and goes out of her way to help in any way possible. One of the things I also appreciated most was how budget-conscious Janice was--she focused on getting true value and never suggested spending money where it didn't make sense. That gave me a lot of confidence in every decision we made together. Thanks to her, we had an unforgettable celebration that felt effortless for us as hosts. If you are looking for someone who will treat your event as if it were her own, and who has the talent, connections, and dedication to deliver an extraordinary experience, Janice is the one. Rue 29 is simply exceptional! Thank you Janice and Rue 29 for an event to remember!

Our wedding venue required a month-of coordinator and they highly recommended Janice and Rue 29. We…read moregot Rue 29's "Wedding Day Management Coordination Package" which included day-of coordination and up to 30 hours of work before the wedding day, but we got so much more value than that! Unlike other month-of coordinators who won't talk to you until a month before, Rue 29 made sure to set us up for success from the beginning. As soon as we signed our contract Janice shared her list of preferred vendors and introduced us to everyone we needed to know. She seems to know everyone in Napa! She was then so helpful with any questions we had while we were booking vendors and coordinating with them over the intervening months. By the time we got to a month out from the wedding everything was pretty much already set! Janice was so incredibly helpful, super responsive, detail oriented, and extremely professional. When the wedding day came our day went off without a hitch! We were completely relaxed all day because of the trust that Janice had already built-we knew she would move whatever mountain needed to be moved to make the day perfect. During the day she was the perfect amount of attentive to verify a few last details with us but mostly left us to just enjoy the day while she took care of everything else. She was also so attentive to our families during the day, always making sure they had food and drink and everything they needed, which was such a sweet level of service and care. If you want a coordinator who truly supports you through the wedding planning process and will make you feel completely at ease on your wedding day then hire Rue 29!

Chic Events and Designs I would highly recommend for your future events. My baby shower was planned…read moreby the owner and she does a fabulous job! She is very detailed in her work which gives the event that extra touch to make everything just perfect! She takes her time in planning to make sure what you want is just right. My baby shower was a BLAST and nobody could have planned it better than Christine! I would give her more than 5 stars for her great skills!

We hired SmittenKiss last year to help with month-of coordination / end phase planning for our…read morewedding. We were assigned Christina Tran as our coordinator who started working with us properly about 2 months out from our wedding. I have told so many people this by now, but hiring SmittenKiss and Christina was the BEST money we spent on our wedding. I am so serious. I have been to multiple weddings in the past year and not to sound overly smug, but our wedding was by far the most on-time and smoothly run wedding of them all. And one of the biggest contributors to this was Christina. She and her day-of assistant did such a phenomenal job keeping us on schedule and communicating with all the vendors. Multiple times throughout the day our photographers and videographers remarked "I can't believe we're on schedule!!!" And beyond just the task of keeping everything running smoothly on the day, for me the peace of mine of getting to let someone else take over was priceless. I am a VERY Type A person, a massive planner, and a complete control freak. I was able to plan the vast majority of our wedding with my husband without a full-service planner. But 2 months out from the wedding Christina reached out and told me she would be taking over all direct vendor communication from there on out and I didn't realize how much a relief that would be. On the day of my wedding I was able to fully enjoy my wedding and not have to worry about answer questions and directing people. Also, SmittenKiss provided us with a really helpful workbook that broke down seating arrangements, desired photos (though our photo/video company also had one), song list, schedule breakdown, props/items, etc. I already had a massive wedding master spreadsheet, but I still found this really useful. I think with SmittenKiss the best thing is that they're really here to help manage and coordinate your day. A friend of mine lamented to me that for her wedding she wanted a project manager, but got a wedding designer. I wanted a project manager and absolutely got one.

We got married at the Golden Gate Club, a Wedgewood property. Our venue had a day-of coordinator as…read morepart of their package, but we wanted a bit more pre-wedding support so decided to add the End Phase Planning by SmittenKiss. It was one of the best decisions we made during planning! We worked with Christine Nguyen starting ~2 months in advance of the wedding. She met with us weekly to lock in our details (most notably, a super tight and clear timeline). We had everything so well planned (thanks to Christine) that our last few months leading up to the wedding were waaaay more relaxed than we would have anticipated. On the day of, Christine and her assistant Jane were on top of everything! I don't think I batted an eyelash the whole day because they were hustling so hard behind the scenes to make everything feel totally smooth for us. On tope of the incredible execution, it's worth noting that we felt Christine's genuine excitement for us all throughout the process. She brought the best energy from day one and we felt it right up to the end of the wedding day. 10/10 would recommend!