Orchard Avenue Events Reviews
Reviews
We're all about trust. Our community relies on honest reviews to help you make those big decisions with ease.
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![J Goforth]()
J Goforth Sent on 05/30/2026Healdsburg Wedding
Choosing Brooke was the best decision we made! From our very first meeting, her communication was flawless—always responsive, organized, and reassuring, which completely eliminated our wedding stress.
When the big day arrived, her day-of management was a masterclass in execution. She handled every detail behind the scenes with incredible poise, keeping the entire event perfectly on schedule so we could actually relax and enjoy our moments.
Overall, the service was truly exceptional. They went above and beyond to bring our vision to life with warmth and professionalism. We cannot recommend them highly enough! -
![Jenny]()
Jenny Sent on 03/25/2026The Best Decision We Made for Our Wedding
Brooke was truly the heart and soul of our wedding planning experience. From the very beginning, she was incredibly organized, detail-oriented, and completely on top of everything, which made the entire process feel seamless and actually enjoyable. She anticipated needs before we even knew we had them and handled every challenge with calm, confidence, and total professionalism.
More than that, Brooke genuinely cared about us. She went above and beyond to make sure both my husband and I felt supported every step of the way, always checking in, offering reassurance, and making sure our vision came to life perfectly. On the wedding day itself, we were able to be fully present and soak in every moment because we knew we were in the best possible hands.
What makes Brooke even more special is who she is as a person. She’s kind, warm, and so easy to connect with, it never felt like just a business relationship. I can honestly say we gained a friend through this process, and I know we’ll stay close even now that the wedding is over.
If you’re looking for someone who will not only execute your wedding flawlessly but also truly care about you along the way, Brooke is the absolute best. We couldn’t have done it without her. -
![Niki]()
Niki Sent on 01/20/2026Brooke >>>
Brooke was absolutely amazing, and I truly can’t imagine our wedding without her. From the very beginning, she made the planning process feel manageable and even enjoyable. She was always available for Zoom or in-person meetings and worked seamlessly around our busy work schedules. She gave us “homework” along the way that helped guide us through important decisions without feeling overwhelming, and her timeline was invaluable in keeping everything moving forward steadily instead of piling up at the end.
I had a clear vision of what I wanted—and didn’t want—for our wedding, and Brooke was incredible at respecting that. She never pushed me into decisions I wasn’t comfortable with, but instead offered thoughtful, experienced advice that helped me consider things I hadn’t thought of. She always worked toward solutions rather than steering me away from ideas, and truly helped bring my vision to life. Her vendor recommendations and relationships were fantastic, and she consistently checked in to make sure we weren’t feeling overwhelmed.
I was very big on DIY elements for our wedding (champagne escort cards with bows, signage, etc.), and Brooke was fully supportive while also helping me realistically understand the time commitment. Toward the end, she even stepped in to help with smaller tasks I had planned to do myself—like table name cards with meal indicators and signage—when she knew it would reduce my stress.
On the wedding day itself, Brooke was the calming presence both my husband and I needed. She worked quietly in the background and had already thought through every detail ahead of time, so she didn’t need to bother me with questions. Everything just flowed.
The only drama of the day (thankfully) was a fire that broke out in the distance—our wedding was in Sonoma in September, so this was one of my biggest fears. Brooke immediately stayed on top of it, kept me informed, and reassured me that it was being handled. We also had a few champagne escort glasses break due to wind, and she handled it effortlessly. Because she had planned ahead, we had extras ready to go. (Hot tip to other brides: avoid etching on glass escort cards if you can—breakage happens! Bows worked perfectly because we could transfer them to new glasses.)
Brooke was truly a pleasure to work with. I would recommend her to any bride without hesitation. She brought my vision to life, kept stress to a minimum, and handled everything so seamlessly that I didn’t even realize half of what she was managing behind the scenes.
Bride tip: this experience is truly what you make it—don’t let stress take over and try to have fun with it. 💛 -
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![Blair]()
Blair Sent on 01/04/2026The best money we spent on our wedding, period.
Do you want a stress-free wedding day? Hire Sarah Aylward. She made us feel at ease, and took care of all the logistics of coordinating with our vendors, handling rentals, and designing the space for us. She is meticulous without being overbearing, cheery but not cloying, and overall a massive uplift to our whole experience.
Our guests and vendors both remarked on how smoothly everything ran, and how stress-free my spouse and I appeared throughout the day. I've heard horror stories about other planners from friends and colleagues, and I wish I could travel back in time to their weddings and recommend Sarah to them. She's just that good. -
![Will]()
Will Sent on 09/27/2025Cannot recommend enough!
We worked with Sarah A. as our coordinator for our wedding in June 2025 in Guerneville. From our first meeting our impression was that we were in confident, experienced hands. Sarah carefully checked our work to make sure we'd accounted for every small detail and worked closely with each of our vendors and our venue to ensure everything went smoothly on the big day. The event itself went flawlessly thanks in no small part to her (and her assistant's) hard work behind the scenes (and I mean it as a compliment when I say several of our guests didn't even notice we had a coordinator on-site!). -
![Olivia]()
Olivia Sent on 09/12/2025May 3rd Wedding Calistoga CA
Sarah was the perfect addition to our wedding day. She was extremely responsive, organized, flexible, and open-minded. My husband and I never had to check in to make sure things were getting done—Sarah had everything handled. It was such a calming feeling to confidently rely on her during an otherwise overwhelming time of wedding planning. We are so grateful for all that she did to make our weekend run smoothly, and we would absolutely recommend working with Sarah from Orchard Avenue Events. -
Candace Sent on 09/02/2025
Brooke is amazing!
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. 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. Furthermore, 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. Most importantly for us, 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. 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. 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. We truly couldn’t think of anything negative when she asked for our feedback after the wedding. We absolutely recommend her without reservation! -
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![Simon]()
Simon Sent on 09/01/2025Wedding planning made easy!
Sara S. from OAE was our full service wedding planner and we couldn't be happier with our choice to go with her! She made the wedding planning process incredibly easy (and dare I saw it, stress free). We didn't have a lot of specifics in mind but Sara just seemed to get our vibe and made excellent recommendations for vendors (usually giving us 2-3 options but knowing that there was one of those that we'd probably like... and she was always right). Amazing communication and accommodated our needs for off-hour meetings. Top notch organization of all of the details, from her countdown calendar to make sure we were staying on track as the months ticked down to the day-of timeline making everything run so smoothly. On our wedding day, Sara was the first one at the winery to make sure everything went according to plan and then tirelessly worked in the background to keep everything flowing perfectly. We couldn't recommend Sara and OAE any more highly -- she is simply incredible! -
![Helen]()
Helen Sent on 06/11/2025OBSESSED is an understatement
Working with Brooke was easily the BEST decision I made when it came to the wedding planning process. Our venue was Stanly Ranch and Brooke came as one of the recommended planners. From the very first call, Brooke and I vibed - she is obviously so thoughtful and has an incredible attention for detail but is also fun and easy to talk to. Throughout the entire planning process, I truly felt I was Brooke's only client given how responsive she was - this is in stark contrast to experiences of many of my friends, who seemed to feel either totally neglected or bullied by their planners. Brooke rose above and beyond on too many occasions to count, advising me when my wedding dress did not fit (fml) and flying cross country to attend our tasting. I can't put into words how calm I felt going into my wedding day, knowing that Brooke had all the details covered (which is actually shocking because I typically very anxious about everything) and I feel that sense of safety is priceless. The actual wedding day? Flawless, obviously. The only sad thing about the wedding being over is I don't get to hang out with Brooke all the time :( -
![Abby]()
Abby Sent on 04/29/2025Best planner in wine country!
The second my husband and I met Sara S., we KNEW we had to have her as our planner. From the day we met her, Sara was not only extremely personable and organized, but clearly went out of her way to accommodate our busy work schedules (once even meeting late into the evening when I was on an especially busy block in the hospital!). There were so many times throughout the process where it was clear that Sara was already putting out fires before they started and prompted us kindly to think of things we hadn't even considered. Each and every one of her vendor recommendations were spot on and her personal working relationships with so many wonderful vendors in wine country made for seamless communication and coordination throughout the whole process. We had many personalized touches that were important to us, and Sara did not forget a single one, her attention to detail unmatched. On the day of the wedding, she was simultaneously omnipresent while also seemingly present just out of the way. Given little instruction of all our belongings, she organized them without any instruction and placed them beautifully at our event. We had our absolute dream day that we cannot stop reliving in our minds, and at the end of it, it felt like many of the details we loved just "happened," and we have no doubt it was Sara behind the scenes pulling the strings. After the wedding, we had serious post-wedding brain fog and forgot a rental suit up in wine country (we live ~2 hours away). Without hesitation, Sara was able to pick up the suit and send it back to our rental company so that we could avoid any late fees. She is a one-of-a-kind planner, but more importantly, a one-of-a-kind human. We could NOT have asked for a better planner for our dream day. We recommend OAE without hesitation and if you want your perfect day, look no further than Sara and OAE! -
![Joy]()
Joy Sent on 01/05/2025Incredible planner
Sara S was an absolute rockstar for us! We planned our Sonoma wedding at Viansa primarily from London so we knew we had to find a coordinator who could help us manage all of the details, communicate with vendors, and support our vision from abroad. Sara did all of that and more for us! She was so responsive, organized, and collaborative from the get go. We had a lot of ideas and details that required quite a bit of set up (champagne towers as centerpieces, for example) and she always responded with enthusiasm and poise, pulling it all off effortlessly. Even small things like sending us photos of wedding decor that we shipped to her place made us confident that the day would run smoothly. We paid extra for her design support with rentals and our guests couldn’t stop raving about the personal details and touches that she helped make happen.
Some of our vendors had never worked at the venue before and I cannot emphasize enough how much Sara’s wisdom and experience helped us in terms of identifying any blindspots in our planning and making sure that we had the right rentals for the day. Furthermore, she recommended some wonderful vendors based on our priorities and budget, helping streamline the planning process for us.
We cannot recommend her enough! -
![Iris]()
Iris Sent on 11/05/2024Excellent experience - highly recommend!
Sarah A. was the absolute best - we were looking for someone down to earth, efficient, detail-oriented, supportive/friendly and knowledgeable to work with for our Napa wedding; she was all those things and more! She is a total pro and kept us on track and organized throughout the planning process and on the day of - offering helpful suggestions, responding so quickly, providing calm and thoughtful guidance through stressful moments. We couldn't have done it without Sarah and would wholeheartedly recommend her as a wedding planner! She's amazing!! -
![Jane]()
Jane Sent on 10/21/2024Organized, supportive, and amazing wedding planner
Brooke was an amazing wedding planner! She was incredibly organized and gave us the space to make our own decisions while still calmly guiding us through the process. Her network of vendors was top-notch, helping us make quick, confident decisions. Everyone she recommended was fantastic, and our wedding day went off without a hitch. Our guests had a great time too! Highly recommend her! -
Isaac Sent on 10/12/2024
Highly recommend Sarah and the Orchard Ave Team
My wife and I keep reflecting back on our wedding and how it was the most amazing day of our lives. One our jokes is that to have the perfect wedding you need, “the perfect venue and a Sarah.” Sarah was everything we wanted in a wedding coordinator and everything we didn’t know we needed! She helped us create our timeline and stick to it. She did an incredible job communicating with our vendors and anticipated our needs. Because she and the rest of Orchard Ave have so much experience in the area they know what vendors work best for your goals and your venue. 10/10. Would recommend to any of my friends and family. -
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![Nancy]()
Nancy Sent on 09/05/2024Exceptional Wedding Planning
One of the best decisions made for our son’s wedding was hiring event planner Sarah Aylward of Orchard Avenue Events. Having 15 years of experience in the field to rely on was evident every step of the way, and she exceeded our expectations. She is knowledgeable, accessible, detail oriented, organized, upbeat and calm to name just a few of her many positive attributes. She was responsive and available to answer our questions and flexible as plans changed. The small touches, including the personalized card and homemade banana bread gifted to all of us at the rehearsal demonstrated her caring ways. She and her team set up extensive decor, she coordinated the vendors, welcomed guests and handled every ceremony and reception detail until the wee hours of the morning. She even gathered and boxed all of our items after the reception in order to make transporting them from the venue the next day a quick and easy process for us. From start to finish, Sarah was extraordinary and working with her was an absolute pleasure. We highly recommend Orchard Avenue Events and will be forever appreciative of Sarah for helping make Michelle and Jordan’s wedding one filled with many special memories that will last a lifetime. -
![Simi]()
Simi Sent on 08/30/2024Indian wedding in Sonoma
Brooke did a phenomenal job planning our wedding in early August 2024. We had opted for her full service planning package, and she made both of our wedding events on two separate days run 100% seamlessly. Throughout the planning process, Brooke provided great vendor suggestions. My husband and I would try other vendors as well to only end up choosing the ones that Brooke suggested because they were so good. It wasn't easy to plan a wedding that blended both Indian and American cultures, but Brooke was extremely patient with us and made the planning process feel easy, even working with our parents to plan components of the wedding when my husband and I were unable to do so. Our parents loved her as well, and we would recommend her services in a heartbeat. Thank you, Brooke! -
![Sarah Boujaoude]()
Sarah Sent on 06/05/2024Absolutely amazing!
My husband and I worked with Sarah Aylward for our intimate wedding in Sonoma, and I can confidently say working with Orchard Avenue was one of the best decisions we made. Sarah made sure everything was seamless from start to finish, and I was able to sit back and enjoy our day knowing she would without a doubt handle it like a rockstar! She is extremely communicative, kind, and attentive to detail, and I’d recommend working with her to absolutely anyone! -
![Mayhew]()
Mayhew Sent on 05/20/2024Allowed us to focus on enjoying our wedding
Sarah A. was our planner, and she went above and beyond for us. She worked with us to find a custom tier of service that fit our needs, and was within our budget. She was always responsive, and held our hand through a lot of questions and helped us achieve our wedding vision. She was great at working with our vendors and keeping as much off our plate as possible. On the day of, and the rehearsal the previous day, she was cool and professional and in control, and had a deft hand at managing the vendors, officiant, wedding party, and family, and adapted the plan to work with changing circumstances. Sarah was a pleasure to work with, and my partner and I were so impressed and grateful for all her hard work. -
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![Shipark]()
Shirley Sent on 04/22/2024Great Experience with Orchard Avenue for April Wedding
Our wedding was planned by Sarah A. at Orchard Avenue, and it was one of the best choices we made (and any other good choice we made was made at the assist of our planner.) My fiance and I just had our spring wedding in wine country, and it went so well!
Day of Service: Sarah directed our rehearsal the day before. She ironed out all the details, really helping out our officiant and family members so that all they had to worry about was their individual role, and Sarah managed everything else. On the day-of, Sarah directed all the vendors, gathered up all the items after the event for us, and also found time to take care of me, my bridesmaids and my fiance and his groomsfolk. I really can't say enough good things about Sarah!
Vendor Acquisition: In the months prior to our wedding, Sarah was on call with us to find, vet and hold our hands through the process of working with our different vendors. She helped us find: hotels, shuttles, gifts for our wedding party and guests, a photographer, a videographer, band, DJ, a florist, a babysitter service, cake, and a caterer.
Extras: Sarah was amazing to work with; she is direct, able to advocate on our behalf with all the vendors we interfaced with, (and she had a relationship with all of the vendors). She excels at communication: she was always responsive and had a close attention to detail, be it combing through contracts or ironing out the fine details of our day-of timeline.
Professionalism: as I said before, Sarah was consistently responsive, and excelled at communicating with our vendors. It is clear she draws on her experience as a planner.
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Sharon Sent on 10/15/2023
My daughter’s wedding in Calistoga
Brooke takes care of all the details including driving to pick up guests for the wedding ceremony when the shuttle company fails to do so. She allowed my daughter and her new husband to relax and thoroughly embrace family and friends for their special day and not stress about any of the details. Brooke, I can’t thank you enough for making Chloe and Alek’s wedding so lovely. It was amazing! -
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![Nicole]()
Nicole Sent on 09/21/2023Brooke is a Star!
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) -
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![Kaylin]()
Kaylin Sent on 08/28/2023The best in the business!
Look no further and hire Brooke! We hired Brooke for our August, 2023 wedding at BR Cohn Winery. Because of her, our wedding planning process went seamlessly. She was always available to answer questions and talk through the many moving parts a wedding brings. She responded to emails promptly and I felt like a priority which is huge in such a large industry. She listened and helped me bring my vision to life. She was also extremely honest and never hesitated to tell us what we should and shouldn't pay for which was extremely helpful in budgeting. She worked closely with all of our vendors and took so much work off our plate...I seriously could not have planned this wedding without her! If you are looking for someone who truly cares and will put their heart and soul into your wedding like she did ours, look no further and hire Brooke! I promise you, you won't regret it. As I mentioned, I just got married 3 weeks ago and have already referred her to 2 of my closest friends who will also be getting married in the Sonoma area next year.
Brooke, thank you so much for all of your help and everything you did for us. I could not have imagined a more beautiful wedding and it's all thanks to you! I miss working with you already! -
![Shannon]()
Shannon Sent on 07/12/2023Made our wedding planning seamless!
We have nothing but great things to say about Sarah and Orchard Avenue Events. Sarah is a true professional! She is responsive, detail oriented, thoughtful and an overall amazing human! We were planning our wedding at V. Sattui from the east coast and couldn't have done this without her. She helped us select amazing vendors, provided many great options to ensure we stayed within budget and was a god send on the day of. She brought all of our visions to life and no single detail was missed. We can't thank her enough!! She's a true talent!! 10 out of 10!! Sarah and OAE made our wedding spectacular!! Our family and friends are still raving about our wedding 2 months later!
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![Adrienne]()
Adrienne Sent on 07/06/2023I don't know what I would have done without Sara!
Sara was our day-of coordinator and began working with us 3 months before our wedding. She was so organized, incredibly responsive, and made me feel like everything was under control. I had multiple guests remark that our wedding was one of the best run events they had ever been to - they knew exactly where to be and when and everything was on time. This was all thanks to Sara! One thing I will be forever thankful for though was Sara coming to the rescue when I spilled red wine on my dress just before the first dance. She had red wine stain remover on hand that made the stain vanish and was so calm while helping, which kept me from having a meltdown. I would highly recommend Orchard Avenue and Sara specifically for a great wedding planning experience! -
![Ashley]()
Ashley Sent on 07/02/2023Amazing Wedding Planner
Sara did an amazing job guiding us in creating the wedding of our dreams. She was very detail-orientated, a great and calm communicator, knew exactly how to handle family dynamics, and collaborated amazingly with all of our vendors. I really appreciated how she was open to leveraging whichever communication style worked best. We decided to opt for email and then text the week of, and she was always quick to respond.
On our wedding day, Sara noticed the arch from the prior night's wedding was still at the venue and was able to call the vendor to quickly have the arch removed, prior to me even knowing it may be a problem. Our wedding guests were so excited about the event, that many of them arrived over an hour early. Sara did a great job of keeping the guests away from seeing my bridal groom while we were still taking pre-wedding photos. Throughout the wedding, Sara was great about checking in on both of us and consistently had solutions to problems prior to the groom and me knowing and starting to worry.
I would not hesitate to hire Sara and her team if you'd like a flawless, unforgettable wedding. -
![Sandy]()
Sandy Sent on 06/14/2023Sarah A impeccably turned our vision into reality
Here’s the bottom line- Sarah A is simply the best!
Finding Sarah through Stanly Ranch, Napa (she is on their approved planner list) was absolutely the most important starting point to guide us from just having very personalize big ideas materializing into an actionable plan that were executed beautifully with all the right vendors and connections. The outcome was simply ‘two’ amazing and perfectly perfect events for our wedding and reception. Note that we held a intimate wedding ceremony with just 25 people at the SF City Hall (followed by a celebratory lunch at Wayfare Tavern in SF), then we hosted a separate Sunday lunch reception with 90 attendees a month after the ceremony at Stanly Ranch.
The looks and feel, scale of our two events were unique and highly personal- through Sarah’s remarkable work, both turned out beautifully (and perfect in our eyes)!
Sarah is professional, well connected, exquisitely detailed driven and super responsive. Besides being a ‘pro’ at what she does, Sarah is just simply an authentic and wonderful person to work with. We entrusted such an important matter in her hands and she absolutely nailed it and enabled a beautiful start of our lives together! -
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![Brandon]()
Brandon Sent on 05/14/2023Brooke is the best!
We recently held our wedding in Sonoma with Brooke as our wedding planner. She started off the process by getting to know us and providing recommendations on the venue and vendors. She responded to all of our questions and requests at light speed and always found time to meet with us via Zoom whenever further discussions were needed. We even flew into town to see the venue and do tastings, and Brooke joined us for everything to make sure we were properly taken care of. On the day of the wedding, she made sure everything went off without a hitch. All in all, absolutely everything Brooke did for us was FLAWLESS and we would very highly recommend her and the Orchard Avenue team to anyone searching for the right wedding planner. -
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![Andrea]()
Andrea Sent on 04/17/2023Orchard Events and Sarah are incredible!
Working with Sarah to plan our day was amazing. She helped us create a beautiful vision that exceeded expectations and was there to support us every step of the way. She was such a calming, valuable and knowledgeable resource and we could not have done it with out her! She really went above and beyond to make sure we had the best day. -
![Lindsay]()
Lindsay Sent on 04/03/2023Incredible Planner - hire now!!!
Wow, I can't speak highly enough of Sarah Aylward! This was by far the best money spent for our wedding. If only every vendor communicated like Sarah! She is extremely knowledgeable, helpful, courteous and very prompt in communication. She answered every question I had thoroughly and whenever I came to a dead end or frustrated, she had an idea on how to fix it or which direction I should go in. She went above and beyond in every way. I interviewed several planners and I'm SO glad I went with Sarah. Maybe it's the industry or maybe it's Napa Valley but I feel like there were some planners I interviewed that were so entitled, not so with Sarah, she is there to help you and make your life easier!!! I'm so grateful to her for making the best day of our lives go unbelievably smooth and most importantly we were able to fully relax and have so much fun! Thank you again Sarah!!! -
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Hannah Sent on 03/29/2023
THE BEST wedding coordinator
Words cannot express the perfection that is Brooke. She brought our dream wedding to life and executed it flawlessly. As a control freak myself, Brooke made it so easy for me to let her run the show. She went above and beyond in so many details - from ensuring my husband and I got a plate of appetizers to being willing to run an errand on a moments notice. Brooke is clear, communicative, professional, organized, enthusiastic, creative, supportive, and has amazing taste and style. So many of our guests commented on how it was the best wedding they have ever attended. My husband and myself were able to enjoy every minute of our wedding day, and all of this is really because of Brooke. We can’t thank her enough. We’re already hoping to come back for anniversary party just so we can work with her again! -
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![David]()
David Sent on 09/26/2022Sarah is awesome and our wedding was a massive success!
Our heads are still spinning from how great the wedding went! And it's all thanks to Sarah and her years of experience, knowledge, advice, and agency.
Super responsive and helpful in wrangling our vendors together, as well as executing on all the moving parts. She also was very familiar with our venue, filling us with confidence and feeling prepared.
We would definitely recommend if you are thinking of having a wedding in beautiful Sonoma! -
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![Lucy]()
Lucy Sent on 08/24/2022Absolutely the best decision we ever made!
Brooke is amazing. She caps the number of weddings she does per year so she can spend enough time with her couples. She is the most responsive ever. She helped review all the contracts, keep up on track with our budget, and recommended great vendors. We bought her full weekend package and oh my was it the best choice we have ever made. Couldn't have done it without her. And not only is she professional, she is also fun! -
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A&T Sent on 08/18/2022
Simply the best!
We worked with Sarah Aylward from OAE to plan our July wedding, which went off without a hitch! Many of our guests are (notoriously) hard to please, so the fact that several told me this was the best wedding they had ever been to is high praise.
I would especially highlight Sarah's strengths in:
(1) Finding great vendors who fit our budget and style (invaluable to us planning a destination wedding)
(2) Organization & attention to detail, always keeping us on track and reminding us of key to-do's
(3) Overall enthusiasm for weddings (especially ours!). It was such a pleasure to work with someone who is just as excited as we were for our big day and wanted to ensure it's was a special and meaningful occasion.
I would highly recommend hiring Sarah for your wedding! -
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![Julia]()
Julia Sent on 08/12/2022Don't Look Anywhere Else!
Writing this review is so hard, because it is so difficult to put into words just how incredible Brooke is. When we first interviewed wedding planners, we spoke to a long list of highly recommended planners from our venue. After our first conversation with Brooke, I texted my fiance, "Baby… I have a gut feeling about Brooke over {other wedding planner}.
She seems more organized and more immediately available, more engaged. She responded quickly the first time, sent out her proposal either the same night or the next morning and checked back in with me today without being prompted… aka I heard from her today and wasn’t expecting to.
By contrast, {other company} hasn’t sent me the proposal they said they would send today, it took 3 weeks to be able to even schedule an initial interview with them… and I just get a different feeling with them. I didn’t hear from them today and was expecting to."
This is a verbatim text, I looked it up. To explain how my love for and trust in Brooke grew would take a novel. She is incredibly easy to get along with and you fall into an easy friendship with her. Her expertise is CRITICAL. Every small or large blip in the process, Brooke had an answer and a solution and made it happen. She transformed every dream or idea into a magical reality. She is dependable, quick to respond, and an outright genius. I leaned on Brooke for so many small and big favors, over and over and over again. Even her husband came to our rescue with things like logistics, which was so important to us, as we had a destination wedding and were not around to examine/think through things ourselves. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, was taken care of, down to the tiniest detail, in the highest quality, best, most magical ways possible. Anything you could think of, Brooke has either done it before, or will figure out how to do it best. I would trust Brooke with anything and hold her in the highest regard and warmest place in my heart. I am so sad our wedding and thus our experience with Brooke is over. She is an absolute gem, and if you pass her up, you're making a huge mistake. I wouldn't change one single thing about my wedding--- it was flawless. And all thanks to Brooke. -
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![Jayme]()
Jayme Sent on 08/11/2022Made our day an absolute dream!!!
I don't have enough amazing things to say about Sarah Aylward and Orchard Avenue Events. From the moment of our first interaction I knew the level of professionalism that we were working with. My husband (now, yay!) and I are both in the hospitality business so we certainly see events with a different lens. Everything about Sarah and OAE was top of the line, they had already finished it before we even thought about it. Communication was quick and thorough. Even on our wedding day they made it seem effortless down to the detail. My favorite moment was when I went to the dance floor to dance with my Dad and I forgot my hanky. I motioned to my husband but he didn't pick up on it but Sarah immediately did and ran it over to me. I was so amazed. I don't plan on getting married again but if I ever needed to hire an event company again it would hands down be Orchard Avenue Events. You will be so happy you did. Thank you Sarah and Brooke, you helped make our day absolutely perfect! -
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![Megan]()
Megan Sent on 08/07/2022Best wedding decision we made
Brooke was everything we could have hoped for in a wedding planner. We felt taken care of every step of the way. She kept the process lighthearted and fun. I will recommend her to any and all Sonoma brides! -
![Julia]()
Julia Sent on 05/23/2022One of the best decisions we made!
Sarah A. at Orchard Avenue Events was an absolute joy to work with and choosing to hire OAE for coordination was one of the best decisions we made! Sarah was so organized and on top of all of the details which is exactly what you want in a coordinator, especially as we were planning a wedding from across the country. She went above and beyond to make our day so smooth and special, we can’t thank her enough! -
![Katie]()
Katie Sent on 02/28/2022Hire Brooke for a terrific event and peace of mind!!
Brooke was absolutely terrific to work with from start to finish. She's organized, practical, responsive, and flexible. She understood what mattered to us and suggested great ideas to ensure we had the event we wanted, and made sure that absolutely nothing that needed to be done got forgotten. Her expert advice on our timeline made for a terrific event, with guests complimenting us that the long evening (NYE wedding) always felt exciting and the time before midnight flew by. More than anything, we knew that with Brooke on our team, if anything went wrong on the wedding day we were in the absolute best possible hands and she would get it taken care of (probably without us even knowing anything had come up!) which allowed us to totally enjoy our own day. -
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![Emily]()
Emily Sent on 02/01/2022WONDERFUL experience!!
We can not say enough great things about our experience working with Brooke and her team!!! She is fun, kind, professional, organized, and very knowledgeable. She has in depth knowledge about all of the vendors and venues in wine country. She handled our budget very well, helping us to maximize and prioritize what we had to spend. She always went above and beyond and is very patient and flexible. Hiring her to lead the team and planning process was the BEST decision we made. -
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Lydia Sent on 07/29/2021
Best wedding planner ever!
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! -
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![Jake]()
Jake Sent on 05/31/2020Sara is an incredible planner
We are late to writing this review, but with our anniversary approaching, we were reminded of just how wonderful our wedding day was thanks to Sara.
We felt supported throughout the entire planning process. My wife is a designer and had an unconventional aesthetic in mind, which Sara caught right onto. She was able to work with us to make this vision come to life.
With her help, the planning of this wedding was essentially stress-free and we could focus on the fun stuff while we knew the organization of vendors/rentals etc. was all in good hands. We did not have an established venue, so we were starting from scratch with most everything. This added layer of complexity did not phase Sara at all.
Day-of, Sara was a calming presence for everybody, even given a larger wedding with more than a few moving parts.
In the end, my wife and I, along with our whole family reminisce fondly about this day all of the time--it exceeded our expectations in every single way.
Thank you Sara and also Brooke! You are excellent at what you do. -
![Lauren & Jeff]()
Lauren Sent on 11/11/2019Brooke is the best wedding planner you could imagine!
There are just not enough words to fully describe how phenomenal Brooke Altman is—but I will try!
We worked very closely with Brooke over 16 months to plan our wedding at BR Cohn in Sonoma. Everything turned out spectacularly well—even a few little hiccups that arose along the way turned out to be even *better* than the original plan because of Brooke's incredible ability to problem solve on the fly. Most importantly, I had ZERO stress in the days leading up to our wedding and was able to thoroughly enjoy myself on our big day because I was 100% confident that everything was in Brooke's very capable hands. I cannot overstate how important this—my (now) husband and I looked at each other at least once a week throughout the planning process and agreed that the best money we spent on our wedding was for our awesome wedding planner.
More details about our specific story and experience are below, but for those who just want the bottom line: Brooke is exceptionally detail-oriented and creative in the way that she works to achieve your vision within your style and budget. She is a delight to work with, bringing many years of valuable experience and local vendor connections to the table. She makes you feel at ease from day 1, is amazingly fast with thorough responses to call/texts/emails, and is just hands-down the best wedding planner you could imagine. If you want the wedding of your dreams and an amazing woman by your side to expertly guide you through the adventure that is wedding planning, then you simply must choose Brooke at Orchard Avenue Events!
Now for our story: Several of our recently married friends gave us the advice to go for more than just a day-of coordinator. They told us that wedding planning was way more work that it might seem at first and therefore it is very important to choose a good wedding planner. In the course of interviewing 5 different planners, I found it odd that almost all of them expressed what came across as extreme excitement that we had gotten engaged, for example: "OMG! You're getting MARRIED!! Wow, that's so, so amazing—I'm just SO excited for you!!!" For me, this feigned enthusiasm for a stranger's wedding was off-putting. I wanted a planner who was more genuine—someone who I could trust to tell me the truth if my vision was ridiculously expensive, hard to pull off well, or unrealistic for any number of reasons.
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 this extremely helpful article written by Brooke, which gave actual dollar value ranges broken down by line item together with helpful context. This was a breath of fresh air, as most articles I found on other websites didn't actually answer the budget question and spent a lot of words to simply say "it depends." After clicking around on Orchard Ave's website I saw a beautiful photo of a lounge setup at what I recognized to be B.R. Cohn's newly constructed pavilion area. I sent Brooke an inquiry right away, figuring it would be great to chat with someone who had already had experience planning an event in this new space. From the very first phone call I could tell that Brooke was unlike any of the other planners I had talked to. She was happy for us, sure, but rather than spend time showering me in "OMG's" and "that's SO EXCITING's" she was keenly interested in getting to know us as a couple and helping us determine the type of wedding that would help us realize the things that were most important to us within our budget. She was personable, down to earth, and with her many years of experience in hospitality it was obvious she had a wealth of knowledge about the wedding industry in general and lucky for us, BR Cohn specifically.
Brooke worked with us to draw up a custom contract based on our needs. We chose a partial planning package, which turned out to be a highly collaborative arrangement with unlimited emails, phone calls, texts, in addition to a few strategically timed in-person visits. After we signed our contract, Brooke sent us a thorough budget worksheet made in excel, so we could play with the costs in each line item and see how it affected our bottom line. She also sent us an extremely detailed wedding planning timeline that outlined all the tasks to complete on month-by-month basis. This greatly helped us to stay on track, get things done in a reasonable timeframe, and not forget any step along the way. As we worked to choose vendors, we would ask Brooke for recommendations and she would send us detailed emails outlining about 3-4 good options. She would then explain which one she thought would be the best fit for us and why. In the beginning, I would dive into doing a bunch of research on all the options she suggested... but in the end I always ended up choosing the same one she thought would be the best for us. After a few months of working together I learned to trust Brooke's judgement so thoroughly that I just started going with whatever her top suggestion was without even looking into the others. I have no regrets about this and it saved me a ton of time in the long run.
After all the vendors were picked it was time to get deeper into the details of reception and ceremony layout, style, decor, etc. Brooke is just as detail-oriented as I am, which was crucial and much appreciated. There was literally nothing that got by her—even little passing comments I made about hating the overuse of Papyrus as a rustic font and that I love my food piping hot—these things showed up in our wedding overview sent out to all our vendors. In this way, she made sure to capture all these little preferences making sure the caterer didn't print our menus in Papyrus (lol) and instructing them to bring out the food for our sweetheart table extra hot! It was obvious that she listened carefully, taking meticulous notes and when we met in person she had all our information organized in a large folder ready to review the fine print of our various vendor contracts should any questions come up.
Sometimes I found myself working on a few different aspects of the wedding at once. I'd send long, late-night emails to Brooke asking a host of questions at once. I can only imagine how overwhelming that could be for some, but Brooke would reliably respond with a thorough answer to every question written in a different color under my original text. Amazingly, she'd accomplish this almost always by 9:30 or 10 am the next morning. Even during times when she would tell us that she might be slow to respond while she was handling another event, her responses were still remarkably fast. Looking back, it's hard to believe she *was* handling other events as she made us feel as though we were the only wedding she had that year. Perhaps one of the best things about Brooke is that she is easily able to work with people who have different communication styles. For instance, my husband is more of a get-to-the-point, bullet notes, 2.5 minute phone call kind of guy. On the other hand, I am liable to tell the whole meandering background story (for example, this review...) to the issue at hand and I want to discuss every option in detail over the course of 20-40 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 suddenly got thrown into our plans. BR Cohn wanted to schedule BottleRock on the day of our wedding and they came to us offering to pay for a significant chunk of our wedding costs if we'd agree to move to a different venue... definitely didn't see that one coming. This was a big dilemma: it would obviously be great to save a lot of money, but on the other hand we had already spent months finalizing our vendors and starting to plan our vision for the space at BR Cohn against the beautiful rolling vineyard backdrop we loved. And it wasn't a matter of simply moving venues—a whole set of new logistics would need to be sorted out and the wedding essentially re-planned. Thank god we had Brooke to guide us through this unforeseen situation. She graciously agreed to meet us at the other venue right away for an additional in-person meeting. She spent hours walking with us through the new venue, talking us through what would be different, how we'd deal with it, and helped us consider whether or not we should make the move. Suffice it to say I was really stressed about the prospect of moving venues—my heart was set on BR Cohn and although the new venue was also beautiful, it was very different and just not what I had envisioned. My husband, however, was far less attached to the venue and wanted to save the cash. In the end, Brooke helped us craft a counter-offer to stay at BR Cohn but switch dates instead and they accepted. I cannot thank Brooke enough for handling the immense amount of work that resulted from this, which included contacting all our vendors to ask if they had the new date available and literally re-doing every single contract. She also managed to move our rehearsal dinner, and a welcome reception we had planned at Lake Sonoma Winery, working out some scheduling conflicts along the way. This whole debacle was a great example of something that we had no way of anticipating would happen and we are SO glad we had Brooke to lean on to guide us through it!
In the end, everything turned out to be just wonderful. Some vendors even threw in a few extras for us for free just because they love working with Brooke. She also let us borrow a huge collection of wedding decor items that she owns, which saved us big time on rental costs. These are just some cherry-on-top items you'll get to enjoy by having Brooke as your wedding planner. I'm sure there are probably a ton of little mishaps that happened on the day itself that no one even told me about, but Brooke expertly handled all of it. From the very beginning she proved herself to be extremely competent, our biggest advocate, and was without a doubt our wedding MVP!
In closing, this is a long overdue review... over dinner tonight my husband asked me if the reason I was dragging my feet was because after leaving the review it would mean that our time with Brooke is officially over. You know, there just might be some truth to that—Brooke grew to be a constant presence and 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.
Thank you for everything Brooke!! -
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Curtis Sent on 11/02/2019
Superwoman Sara!!!
Sara is superwoman! We are from out of town and this was a destination wedding in wine country. Sara was our eyes and ears during the entire planning process. From our first call with Sara we felt like she was part of the family. Sara kept us calm through the whole process and was very organized, responsive, and knowledgeable. She understood our vision perfectly and helped us bring to life our dream wedding. We were hit with bad news during our wedding week with multiple power outages and the outbreak of the Kincade Fire. We were told 24 hours before our wedding that we would need to move the reception inside due to poor air quality. Sara made sure that everything was still beautiful and the event was amazing. Some of our vendors, including rentals and catering, lived in evacuation zones and needed to leave in the morning on our wedding day. Sara essentially set everything up herself with a very limited crew. It was completely seamless and you would never know that everyone was operating shorthanded. Sara went above and beyond every step of the way! Could not recommend her enough. -
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![Miriam]()
Miriam Sent on 09/18/2019Sara To The Rescue!!!
I found Sara in the middle of our planning process, when we already really needed help. I had just figured out that a day-of coordinator was pretty much necessary for a wedding to run smoothly, and was realizing that we needed planning help in order for all the details to come together. My now-husband and I were planning a Santa Rosa wedding with him in LA and me in Seattle - we just couldn't do it on our own.
At first, what set Sara Sugrue apart from other planners was her flexibility. We weren't doing a mega-wedding, we didn't need full service planning, and we already had a vision for what we wanted. She embraced our vision, without trying to change it, and made it come to life.
Throughout the process, Sara was patient, professional, responsive, creative, knowledgeable, an awesome communicator, caring, and diplomatic as she negotiated a balance between our crazy and super-specific set of needs and the reality of how to make it happen.
Sara saved our planning process and gave us a day that was smooth from start to finish. Literally everything was just as we imagined and hoped.
Sara, we couldn't have done it without you, and we are so grateful!!! -
![Joseph]()
Joseph Sent on 03/26/2019Brooke is my personal hero!
Brooke made our wedding weekend perfect. Not only did she plan an incredible experience for our destination wedding pre party on Friday. She made our actual wedding better than we could have ever imagined. From someone that is obsessed with the details and over plans everything Brooke made me look like an amateur. She planned out every detail to perfection. I never needed anything and more importantly my wife never wanted anything because of her attention to detail. If you are even thinking about a planner talk to Brooke she truly is incredible. Thank You for making our wedding weekend perfect. We can't thank you enough!! -
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![Christy]()
Christy Sent on 11/03/2018Beyond exceeded any possible expectation as a planner and made every single one of our wedding dreams come true!
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! -
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Samantha Sent on 10/07/2018Brooke 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.
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Brent Sent on 08/13/2018We are from Chicago so when it came time to look for a wedding planner in the Sonoma area, we relied on reviews and recommendations from sites such as these. We were recommended from our venue who suggested we meet with Brooke from Orchard Avenue Events. Having been an event planner myself, I had very high expectations of who we would work with. After meeting with Brooke, we knew it would be her! I cannot emphasize enough her extreme level of detail, responsiveness, and knowledge in wedding planning. From assisting us with event rentals such as chairs and linens, to running out to make sure our raw bar display was exactly how we imagined it, she took care of every detail imagineable. We truly were able to come to Sonoma and enjoy our wedding weekend with no worry- a real gift to us! You’ll come to realize very quickly that most vendors in Sonoma take a little while to respond- that’s just not the case with Brooke. She was incredibly quick to reply to our questions, made sure we felt comfortable every step along the way, and kept us on schedule amidst the craziness of wedding planning. Do yourself a favor, and don’t stress at your wedding- work with Orchard Avenue Events, they are absolutely the BEST!
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Annie Sent on 05/28/2018Brooke was amazing. My husband and I are both very busy professionals who travel most of the time. Having Brooke local and managing all the vendors as well as working around our schedules was great. She did a fantastic job of really understanding us and what we were looking for from the beginning, then gave us the right choices to help turn our vision into a beautiful, wonderfully executed reality. All of our guests are still raving about the wedding and most of them have commented it was the best wedding they had ever attended!
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