Our married friends told us it's *very* important to choose a good wedding planner. Luckily, I found 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. read more

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We wholeheartedly agree with every positive comment in Brooke's previous reviews! She made our entire 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! read more

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I cannot imagine a more competent, experienced, professional, and kind wedding planner than Brooke Gustafson of Orchard Avenue Events. She truly pulled out all the stops to create the most magical, heavenly day of my life! My husband and I were in awe and so impressed by her, especially since we are pretty detail oriented ourselves. Brooke is even more so, and genuinely cared that our wedding day was perfectly executed from start to finish. She is prompt when responding to emails and texts and is always on time. In addition, her extensive industry experience is obvious and came in handy time and time again as we navigated the complicated wedding planning process. It is important to note that she is also very kind, understanding, and hard working, so I never once felt uncomfortable asking her questions or for tasks to be done. Brooke knew how much I cared about the look and feel of our wedding being just right, and she completely blew me out of the water - so much so that I cried for the first time before walking down the aisle when she gave me a sneak peak of the reception hall. And on my wedding night, Brooke provided all of my bridesmaids flip flops and even went back to our hotel to grab the flats I left behind so that we could dance the night away! She is so special and a true artist. Without a doubt - there is no one else you should hire for your wedding planner - Brooke is the one! (Nicole and Nicholas Errico - Sonoma Golf Club - 6/3/23) read more

Wow! I can't recommend Orchard Avenue Events and Brooke enough. My wife and I first reached out to Brooke at the height of the lockdown during the pandemic. We needed someone to help us plan our California wedding, and Brooke seemed like a good fit. Choosing to work with her was the best decision we could have ever made. Brooke is professional, helpful, caring and amazing to work with. At every step of the process, she guided us and supported us. Brooke has knowledge of all the vendors and suggested a fantastic team for us to work with. She helped us secure our venue even when we were in New York at the time. As the wedding day approached, she took on so many tasks, including making our website, designing and printing our menus, and handling ALL the logistics. Brooke was always the first to ask us, "How can I help you?" and was incredibly eager to take on any task. She offered us advice when we needed it, helped with our budget, and got to know our friends and family. Even as Covid impacted wedding planning, Brooke was able to keep us calm and on task. Our wedding day went PERFECTLY thanks to Brooke. She worked amazingly with all the vendors and was so helpful at every turn. For example, my wife had left her veil in the hotel room, and Brooke had her business partner run back to grab it. When I didn't love my initial bouquet, Brooke made sure it was perfect. We had the best day because of Brooke. We loved Brooke so much that we also hired her to plan a post-wedding pool party for 120 people at my parents' house the next day. Just as with the wedding, Brooke made sure the event was perfect. I could go on and on about how much I love Brooke and Orchard Avenue Events. Even from a financial standpoint, it was money VERY well spent, and she was able to help guide our wedding spending so we saved money in other places and didn't waste money on bad vendors. If you are lucky enough to have the opportunity to work with Brooke and Orchard Avenue Events, GO FOR IT! read more

Words cannot express how much I enjoyed working with Sara. She was calm, poised, communicative, organized, fun, caring, detail-oriented, and more - everything you could hope for in a wedding planner. My husband and I wanted a sort of non-traditional wedding, and Sara understood and executed our vision perfectly. She stepped in when I needed help and let me handle the things I felt I could take care of. I can't even begin to count the number of emails we exchanged, but I can tell you that every single response from Sara was quick, carefully thought out, and addressed everything I had asked. She was the perfect fit for us and our wedding. We had a couple small 'disasters' (food- and DJ-related), and she tactfully and professionally kept me updated and handled the situations. I'm so glad I found her and Orchard Avenue Events. Thank you, Sara!! read more

We are so glad that we decided to work with Brooke for our wedding! We don't know how we would have done it without her. She was so organized, calm, responsive, and made our wedding day just perfect! I couldn't have asked for anything more on our special day. Brooke executed it exactly the way we imagined it. Would highly recommend her for wedding planning! read more

Sara was the perfect fit for all of my unique needs! She listened attentively, held my hand through the process and had great solutions. Always a consummate professional, I never had to worry about any detail. She's great at planning and very creative, but equally as good at problem solving in-the-field! Most importantly, she's fun and such a delight to be around. I made a friend for life in Sara and will be hiring her again in the future for all of my party planning needs. read more

I got married about 3 weeks ago and had an amazing experience with Brooke from Orchard Avenue Events. Like all brides, I feel like my wedding was magical, but more important I was able to enjoy the process because I brought Brooke into the picture. I'm a construction project manager so my work life is pretty insane with all the different projects that I work on. I knew that I needed help to plan my wedding so I wouldn't lose my job...or my mind for that matter. I did a lot of research and landed on Brooke. I think what really sold it for me was my discussions with her previous clients which all had glowing reviews. She was so helpful through out - I'm a no frills kind of girl, like to keep it simple but can sometimes over complicate things (as brides do with all the stress) and am very budget driven. Brooke was very honest with me and helped me save money in a lot of places. She understood my needs and requirements ahead of time and was super communicative throughout the entire process. As a PM myself, I loved that about her. She ironed out stuff in the background and usually had it figured out by the time it came to my attention. She had great advice, always kept me calm and did what she could on her end to negotiate with the vendors. She went above and beyond throughout the process to make sure both my husband and I were happy. I was so calm my wedding weekend because I knew she had it under control which is pretty unusual for me as i'm a high stress person. I knew the wedding was a complete success when my husband told me it was the best day of his life. He also loves Brooke and is so thankful we brought her on...now if only she had connections in commercial construction in the bay area, I would hire her in a second! read more

I never thought about how much work a wedding entails...I just thought about how my wedding day would be one of the happiest days of my life. Now that I've done it, I can say that there is a ton of work involved for months leading up to that day and having the right people in place will make all the difference. Brooke was our wedding coordinator and she was outstanding. She was so helpful throughout the process and having someone with her experience to rely on was a huge relief. I highly recommend her. read more

I had an amazing experience working with Brooke from Orchard Avenue Events! She met with us months in advance to walk the venue and gave us great ideas with how we could set things up for the wedding. I loved the fact that she had also worked at my venue so many times and knew exactly how everything should go. She was very quick to respond to any questions I had and was extremely helpful. Her professionalism and experience is out of this world! The day of the rehearsal she wanted me to feel comfortable and was willing to go through everything as many times as I needed and the day of the wedding I wasn't nearly as stressed as I thought I would be because of her. I knew she had everything under control. I cannot recommend her enough!!! read more

When we first got engaged my fiancee and I felt that there was no way we would hire a wedding planner. We were more than capable of handling it on our own. But as we got into the process of planning a Sonoma wedding from Los Angeles, we realized that we needed help. And that's when the wedding coordinator at our venue recommended Brooke from Orchard Avenue Events and our lives got a lot easier. Brooke was invaluable in helping us to figure out how to have a wedding that felt true to the outdoorsy-quirky-geeks that we are and still be classy and beautiful. She paid attention to all the things we said we wanted and then got back to us with lots of ideas that we never would have thought of on our own. The vendors she recommended to us were all fantastic and she went the extra mile to make sure that they all gave us their best. On the day of the wedding she set up all the decorations and then packed them all up for us after the reception, which allowed us to stay focused on just enjoying the day and having a good time with our friends and family. And through it all Brooke was always a delight to work with - even when she was giving us bad news. We could not have asked for a better organized, innovative, or more wonderful person to have as our wedding planner than Brooke. read more

Words cannot express how helpful and invaluable Brooke was in planning and coordinating our wedding and rehearsal dinner. Not only did she pull off a spectacularly beautiful wedding weekend for us in Napa, but she was also such a pleasure to work with throughout the process and extremely responsive. I cannot say enough good things about Brooke and her planning abilities! We are so grateful to have had her plan and coordinate our wedding! read more

Brooke is a life saver! Both my fiancé and I have busy work lives and we could not have done this without Brooke. She helped to navigate the complex vendor landscape while helping us avoid unreliable and unresponsive vendors. From contacting different vendors until we liked the choices, to reminding us when payments are due and simply to remind us to eat on the day of the wedding-Brooke was on top of it all! She has more than a decade of experience doing events like weddings but also running Taste of Sonoma which has 200+ vendors every year! She told us she does weddings to keep her sane. She loves what she does and it shows in everything she does. She is organized, has such amazing attention to detail and definitely put out so many fires on the day of our wedding that we never even dealt with. If you want a stress free day, HIRE BROOKE! She is an excellent communicator. She was always a quick email or text away and you know you'd get a response VERY quickly! She has such a good eye for decor, I had no idea what our dessert table would look like (didn't know we needed boxes and high rises) and look below at what she put together! She even hand wrote some chalk boards for our wedding hashtag, assembled our picture frames, made paper cones, and really brought in so many good ideas that we would have never thought of. Honestly, Brooke without you there from the beginning we would have been hot messes, but with you there every step of the way we were able to enjoy our wedding day stress free. This may be rare in the wedding world but absolutely nothing went wrong! And that should be more than enough for anyone to hire Brooke!! Thank you again Brooke for all your hard work. read more

As a perfectionist and control freak myself, finding someone to plan a wedding from afar seemed like a daunting task. I chose Brooke because she was the most responsive, enthusiastic and professional planner I had spoken with on the phone. After hiring her, I knew I made the right choice. Planning a very intimate wedding in Sonoma from SoCal (meaning I'd never visit the site, see the flowers, or do a test run of anything) required someone who understood my style, taste & ideas for the wedding. Brooke immediately understood the vision in my head and brought it to life. Her #1 priority throughout the process was making sure I wasn't stressed, and she succeeded. From visiting the rental company and staging multiple place settings with various chargers and tables, to sending me 10 different "deep berry" colored napkin swatches, to giving me multiple options for every vendor, to keeping me informed of my budget, to picking the appropriate wine glasses for each course/wine pairing, she is truly the best. Every vendor she picked was amazing and met my high standards! She knows all the right questions to ask and made sure all the details were taken care of prior to the wedding. She was available anytime I needed her and would go out of her way to make my life easier. I even sent a few things to her house so I wouldn't have to bring them with me and she took care of pressing my dress and my husband's suit the week of. On the day of the wedding, Brooke let me enjoy being a bride. She worked with all the vendors to make sure they were set up and ready to go. She coordinated setting up our outdoor space, cocktail hour space, table settings and ceremony space. Her experience and attention to detail are worth their weight in gold. Zero stress, pure wedding bliss. :) After the wedding, my first thought was "I wish I had another event for Brook to plan." I can't think of a better compliment to give. read more

My wife and I could not say enough amazing things about Brooke- both as a person and as a wedding planner. Her responsiveness and attention to detail are unlike anything I have seen before. She was always five steps ahead of us, which was invaluable to my wife and I who were not familiar in any way with process of planning a wedding. Brooke was always incredibly patient and kind with the endless questions we had and changes we wanted to make- she truly made all of our wedding dreams come true with a smile on her face and such a contagiously positive attitude. Brooke's sense of style and vision are incredible and her close connections to the event planning community in both Sonoma and Napa gave us a clear path to selecting the best vendors we could have asked for based on our budget. We live in VA and did not know one vendor in Sonoma (where our wedding was), but Brooke facilitated every single connection we could have ever needed and our wedding was seamless, from start to finish, thanks to Brooke. We cannot recommend Orchard Avenue events enough. There is no way to describe the value you get by choosing them as your planner. But in a final attempt to reinforce our overly positive experience, after our wedding, my wife and I were most sad that our time working with Brooke was over. We loved every minute of our experience with Brooke and will be jealous of the future brides and grooms that have the pleasure of working with her! read more