Having Very Merry Events coordinate during the month of our wedding was one of the best decisions we could have made! Our wedding was held at Cornerstone Sonoma which plays hosts to multiple property attractions including a winery, barn, dinner tent, shops and outdoor art installations. With a venue as such, VME was efficient and strategic in all accounts to ensure each phase of our wedding ran smoothly. Rom was absolutely amazing as our lead coordinator! Right off the bat, she understood our style and the type of wedding we wanted to plan. She showed a genuine interest and offered sincere suggestions which we really appreciated. With it being wedding season and all, we never once felt her attention divide. We can not thank her enough for being engaged and on top of everything. As a bride who has never dreamed up a wedding as a child, we were kind of just pulling random pins in hopes it would all come together. Rom was really supportive of all our major DIY projects and even scheduled touch bases to help keep us on track. We commend her patience and positive attitude throughout the entire adventure-- which I have to mention was tested during our ride from the hotel to the venue! With a storage mishap, each of the bridesmaids literally held a layer of our four tiered wedding cake in lap as we steadily drove all while keeping with the timeline schedule. Let me just say how comforting it was, Rom was completely calm and collected ensuring me the cake would be assembled without worry. In my head, I'm just praying we don't run over a speed bump and butter cream her entire interior! The level of dedication we received from Rom and VME on our wedding day was above and beyond anything we expected! The communication between all our vendors alongside the VME team was consistent from start to finish. Throughout the day we even received compliments from our guests on their professionalism and how well each series of events was executed and transitioned to the next. It was clear all parties involved were on the same page. Number one wedding day advice: spend a moment with each other to just take it all in. We are so grateful for Rom, as we were lucky enough to take in many moments during our wedding day! read more

Mary was absolutely fabulous to work with. She was the second or third planner we met with and we hit it off right away. Mary asked what style I was thinking and came through during our first meeting with pictures and swatches of what I wanted. She is very professional, prepared for anything, and above all just a cool planner that we can now call a friend. I would say that hiring a planner is such an essential thing because she was so on top of things and supportive whenever I needed her. My mom just loved her also and was very pleased with the work she did. Mary really put her whole heart into making my dream wedding come true and would recommend her to anyone. read more

Here's an angle....I was the Best Man in my friends wedding...so I can rate effectively as a participant with a limited but essential role. Mary was very communicative, authoritative and friendly. I received my instructions and was always in the loop for any changes that occurred between her and the happy couple. Once we established the "need to know" relationship, she knew exactly how to handle me (and that says a lot)! From the day before to the day of scheduling, all printed out for me, she had it all together. All truth be told, if something was off, I never saw it..and access from the front to the back, it seemed to go without so much as a hiccup. I would unequivocally recommend Mary and Very Merry Events! read more

Mary & her whole team were the most integral part of making our wedding weekend run smoothly and be unforgettable. I hired Mary to be our month-of planner, but I feel she went above and beyond. Before I moved from the Bay Area, we met to discuss my needs and how she would be able to help, especially since I would be across the country during the bulk of the planning. I consider myself a pretty organized person and someone who enjoys planning. Yet, if I didn't have Mary to turn to during the past year, I'm sure there would have been lots of tears, fights, and hair pulling. She was there every step of the way from providing vendor recommendations to checking in with a list every month. Not to mention the positive affirmations! Just hearing that I am on track and doing a great job made all the difference. Our wedding took place in the Santa Cruz mountains at Sequoia Retreat Center. It was a full weekend for our 130 guests, which included 1/2 the guests staying right at the camp site. Being in nature, there were plenty of concerns about safety and comfort of our guests. However, Mary was there ready to tackle any issue and make sure every little detail was covered. On the day of, Amy & Vera joined Mary to ensure I wouldn't have to worry about anything. And with stress running high, I was truly able to relax and know that every little detail I had painstakingly planned for the last year would come to life through the Very Merry team. I think the best touch was arriving back to our cabin to find all our supplies, gifts, & little things all wrapped up together. Not to mention the huge take out box of food for us to enjoy again! One of my biggest worries was not having enough time for everything we wanted or feeling rushed. However, in hindsight, everything went so smoothly that we ended up early on most accounts and having more than enough time for everything! read more

From the time I started wedding planning, I knew that I wanted to hire a month-of coordinator. I realized I couldn't be everywhere at once in the weeks leading up to the wedding and wanted to try and relieve as much stress as possible from me and my family so we could enjoy the big day. When I first met Cynthia and Mary they instantly put me at ease. They are calm, sweet, and flexible. I felt like I really connected with them and could trust them to handle any unforeseen situation or issue. I happily hired them for their month-of service (though I loved their taste and wouldn't have minded their help with decor!). They communicated with me for several weeks leading up to the wedding and quickly took over the reins, genuinely caring about what we wanted, but also offering their advice and expertise when needed. Fortunately for us, due to their amazing attention to detail and professionalism, in my eyes the wedding was flawless! Cynthia's timeline allowed for us to fit in everything that we wanted and the other vendors were able to execute their jobs seamlessly. On the day of, she quietly and calmly waited in the wings throughout the night. It felt like everything magically came together and unfolded in front of us! Other brides always warned me that something will go wrong on your wedding day and it's ok-- but honestly, Cynthia helped to make our day more perfect and enjoyable than I ever imagined. I could not recommend Very Merry Events more for their incredibly talented team and amazing work! read more

Mary Mary Mary.... She was probably born on the day that all the stars aligned because nothing she does or touches ever goes wrong. She is the perfect wedding planner, no seriously, she's perfect. My trust and love for this girl runs deeeeeeep. I had a dream wedding that was, needless to say, difficult to plan. I wanted a Vintage Carnival wedding. Yes. A vintage carnival wedding; a 50's inspired vintage carnival to be exact. When I decided to go for a themed wedding, I knew a planner was needed, because there are way too many details involved in a non-traditional wedding. I started to google and yelp like many fellow brides and that's when I came across Mary's website. By this time, mind you, I have already gone through at least a dozen other planner's websites and blogs but nothing gave me the "WOW" factor, that is until I visited Mary's website. Seeing those pictures of the weddings she had done previously inspired me to envision what my wedding would look like. For me, having a source of inspiration is so important and that's exactly what Mary had given me, inspiration. Immediately growing through those pictures made me all smiles and giggles and I soon began plotting to convince my then-fiancé how IMPORTANT it was for us to hire a wedding planner. The rest was easy breezy. I spoke with Mary over the phone to get a vibe of what she's all about, because it's important to like the person you will be working with for the next year! And thank God! Mary is a super chill and sweet girl!! Working with Mary was like hanging out with a gf on girl dates! We are always chatting, and eating :)...hehe....There was never a dull moment. She is super informative and organized and more importantly, she is very communicative and responsive whenever you need to ask her anything. Mary doesn't take on too many full event planning clients per year, that is why she can really dedicate her time to you and rest assured that she will really be there for you when you need her! Continuing on speaking of how great Mary is, I really have to point out her artistry. She is a true designer, not JUST a planner. You will know as soon as she present to you a drawing board of the "vision" she has for your wedding. It is simply amazing. I can't emphasize the design part enough because I think most people over look this area of expertise when it comes to wedding planning. Having a wedding planner that really has an eye for design makes a world of difference. Mary has the design down to the very last color of the chocolate candy I needed for my dessert station. If only I can share my wedding photos, then you will know what I am talking about! Although, I am sure Mary will be posting of my wedding photos soon ;)))!! I am not here to just review on Mary as as planner for her business, but as a friend who support hers 110% on what she does and continues to support her because I know she'll be the one I call when I want to plan for my baby shower ;) I love you Mary Berry!!! read more

We knew wedding planning could be time consuming and challenging, especially due to our crazy work schedules, so we hired Mary to be our full service planner. This was the best decision we could have made for so many reasons. Mary helped us from the beginning to the end. In the beginning, she sat down with us to get to know us as a couple and get a feel for what we wanted our wedding to be like. She is extremely down to earth, personable, genuine, honest, and just an awesome person. One of the biggest things couples worry about is their budget. Mary is great at being honest with you on what is a realistic budget and manages to the budget. She helped us find all our awesome vendors and was great at negotiating, communicating, and coordinating with them. She was there with us for our venue visits, food tasting, vendor meetings, making sure we were on top of vendor payments, and basically everything! She has so much wedding planning experience and was able to give us advice on everything. Another major reason we went with Mary was because of her design services. We loved her taste, style, and other weddings she has planned for. We aren't very creative people, so we trusted Mary to design our wedding based on her interpretation of what our styles/vision was. She did such an amazing job at designing a wedding that was exactly what we wanted and more. Our wedding was very personalized to our taste, romantic, and fun! During the rehearsal and wedding day, Mary and her team ran the whole day flawlessly, so my husband and I could enjoy ourselves. Her team, including Rom, were extremely sweet, professional, and on top of the schedule. Through this process, Mary has became one of our friends and we are so grateful to have met her! read more

Mary was so on top of all the details of our wedding! I was what you might call the anti-bride. I don't like dealing with details and while I knew what kind of wedding I wanted, I am not patient enough to spend the time and energy going over all of the fine print of things. I was so lucky that my mom and Mary did! They made the event a huge success! Mary is calm, kind, and very organized and thorough...she made it easy to trust that all those little details would be handled! So happy we hired Very Merry events! read more

Mary was our day-of coordinator for our March 20, 2010 wedding at Sebastiani Winery in Sonoma, CA. Even though she was the DOC, she was a big part of the planning process. This was especially helpful for us, as we did most of our planning from San Diego. She was always there via email or phone if we needed a second opinion or a idea for a new twist for our decor or timeline. Even when she was supposed to be on maternity leave, she still found time to email me about our progress. Her charming, upbeat personality allowed her to develop good rapport with all our other wedding vendors. On the day of our wedding, Mary totally rolled with the punches. Nothing that came up rattled her, which really helped me to stay calm and kept everything running smoothly. Her assistant was great too. He ran our iPod system all night, inlcuding cueing the all-important ceremony songs and even saved us when we ran low on dance music. Even though ours was a far-from-grand budget, we were repeatedly told that we had one of the best weddings people had ever been to. Even the winery's staff agreed. Mary was a huge part of that. read more

Mary was simply amazing. She seemed very sweet and unassuming when we first met her - and we were almost thrown off by how humble and easy going she was. A few of the planners out there have a huge attitude and we've heard of quite a few people blowing a ton of money on people they ended up hating. We had the exact opposite experience with Mary - and I knew things were going to go well with her at our first on-site meeting. She had a multi-tabbed notebook that was amazingly organized and had EVERY detail covered. Her level of organization, online tracking, smoothing things over with difficult vendors, and communication were amazing. She was equally impressive day-of... she was super organized as usual... but what really made the day was how calm and collected she was the whole day - it really helped us not freak out about anything so we could stay focused and enjoy the day. I can't say enough things about her, I'm recommending her to one of my good friends in the bay area who is getting married next year and I would recommend her to anyone else as well. She even impressed the on-site coordinator so much that she's on her recommended vendor list as well! I think that says it all! read more