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What is the story behind Ampersand Weddings & Events?
Ampersand Entertainment is a wedding planning company based in Westlake Village, California, servicing weddings throughout the Santa Barbara and Los Angeles areas.
Ampersand Weddings and Events represent a beautiful reflection of grand orchestration! Under the parent company of Ampersand Entertainment, our wedding team offers full-service weddings and partial planning services. We are based in Westlake Village, California, servicing weddings in all of Southern California, with a focus on Santa Barbara, Malibu, the central coast, and Los Angeles. We also travel and do destination events! Our goal is to make your once-in-a-lifetime event the most meaningful, with great attention to detail and seamless event management that is always expertly executed.
Experience
Award-winning producer Karen WaldroAwardn owns Ampersand. Karen brings a creative eye and years of professional experience in the event and entertainment industry. She discovered her passion for wedding planning while working in film and television. Ampersand was recently selected for The Knot's Best of Weddings Award for 2025, 2024, & 2023 and honored to be a Wedding Wire Couples Choice Award winner for 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024 & 2025! We were also voted Malibu's favorite wedding planner for three years, from 2017 to 2019, with the Malibu Choice Awards. Nikki Visser has recently joined this family team as a lead planner and brings a great eye for style & 10 years of event experience! We staff your wedding based on guest count, design, and location and work consistently with the same planning team members so you can be assured that our events are detailed and well-orchestrated.
Services Offered
Ampersand offers a wide range of wedding planning services for your rehearsal dinner, wedding ceremony, and reception. The company offers services for cultural weddings, religious and non-religious weddings, as well as destination weddings. Partial and full-planning packages are available and include:
- Budget analysis
- Curated event design
- Entertainment
- Ceremony planning
- Custom Invitations & Papersuite
- Hiring all vendors and overseeing contracts
- Hidden gem locations
- Strong industry vendor relationships for anything you need, I.e., Catering, floral, signage, rentals, music, photography, glam squads, staging, set design, and lighting companies that are the best in the industry.
We manage all of your details so you can be stress-free and truly enjoy your engagement and the planning process!
- Woman-owned
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What are Ampersand Weddings & Events's coordination packages and rates?
What is the starting price for full wedding planning?
Do you offer an hourly rate?
What wedding events do you provide services for?
What wedding planning services do you offer?
What weddings do you have experience planning?
What are real couples saying about their experience with Ampersand Weddings & Events in reviews?
Review summary
Ampersand Weddings & Events is repeatedly praised for professionalism, responsiveness, and a calming, organized presence during planning and on the wedding day. Reviewers highlight strong vendor relationships, smart budget guidance, and excellent problem-solving under last-minute changes. Couples say the team executed every detail flawlessly and made the day feel seamless and magical.
Magical Wedding Day
World’s Best Planning Team!
Best planning team ever
Our Wedding Day was Perfect Thanks to Karen & Her Team
She was great on checking in on us and making sure we were feeling good on being on track for things. The day of, she was both firm in making sure things went off without a hitch, but also a non-anxious presence for us, our families, and the bridal party!
My wife and I still talk about how not only did nothing go wrong, but everything went off splendidly. The Venue looked beautiful, the programming was pretty on time for the most part, and we never felt like we were missing something.
She is great as a professional, and also just a kind and warm person to interact with! Definitely Hire Karen Waldron and her team if you want your wedding to be stress free and perfect!
Excellent!
BEST decision for our small airbnb wedding!!!
Our wedding simply would not have come together without them. They anticipated every detail and logistical concern we never would have considered, we felt in such good hands with them balancing the operations of it all with creativity, and calmness. Above and beyond. Their passion for what they do made everything feel SO effortless and joyful. I truly believe God led them to us, and I cannot imagine our day without them. For couples looking for southern california/ Malibu wedding planners, I can not recommend Karen and Nikki enough!!
the best of the best!!!
Throughout the entire planning process, they kept us calm, on track, and actually made planning enjoyable (which we know is not always the case!). On the wedding day, they handled every little detail behind the scenes so we could be fully present and just enjoy every moment. It was seamless, beautiful, and more special than we ever imagined.
Beyond being incredibly talented at what they do, Karen and Nikki are just genuinely wonderful people — kind, patient, and truly invested in making the day perfect for their couples. We are forever grateful for them and couldn’t recommend them more!
If you’re thinking about booking them — don’t hesitate. You’ll be in the best hands!
What awards has Ampersand Weddings & Events won?
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