We LOVED working with Jackie and Cookie of AboutJoy. If we could, we would give them a 10 out of 5 star rating for how much they went above and beyond for us. Even before we officially hired her, Jackie was acting like our wedding planner, and immediately began throwing out ideas that showcased our main focus for our wedding (delicious food and a beautiful outdoor venue). We could tell right from our first call that Jackie was truly excited about our vision and "got it." From there, Jackie was a true creative/collaborative partner, and helped make our special day a reality. Jackie brought a wealth of knowledge and wisdom to our planning - while she was always encouraging of our vision and would find a way to make my crazy ideas possible, she also was quick to offer a reality check based on her extensive experience (ex: she very smartly and politely informed us that using scented candles at our reception - while trendy - would likely summon bees and might get overwhelming given all the other floral scents in the garden reception area). We almost exclusively used vendors from Jackie's recommended list and each and every one did an absolutely stellar job. Jackie also did a phenomenal job of working with our outside vendors, and was even able to use her extensive professional network to solicit feedback on vendors we used outside of her list. She made the wedding process seamless and significantly less stressful than if we planned it ourselves, which allowed us to truly enjoy our wedding weekend and be present with our family and friends - if anything went wrong on our big day, we had no clue because About Joy had it handled! Once we had finalized all the major items with Jackie, Cookie worked closely with us to pull together details that added a very special touch to our wedding. She custom designed and drew our wedding signage, table numbers and menus to showcase our unique tastes and personalities. We had an outdoor venue and wanted to incorporate the plant life from the venue in our wedding materials, and Cookie drew 12 separate menu covers and table numbers that highlighted this plant life, and then hid custom sketches of our dog into each table number to bring in one of the important pieces of our life to our wedding - we love the designs so much they're going to be framed and put up in our home! Along the design journey, Cookie brought us along and solicited feedback, always taking our garbled thoughts and seamlessly translating them into a beautiful end product. She also brought so many unique ideas and suggestions to the table, including turning our escort table into a "meadow" and hiding our dog in the signage. It's clear that Cookie is passionate about design and her excitement for our wedding specifically really helped sustain our momentum in the final months leading up to the big day. Jackie and Cookie were truly dream wedding planners, and were lucky to say that they're now friends for life. Would 100% recommend hiring Jackie and Cookie from AboutJoy for your wedding. read more

There is a reason Jackie & Cookie are so highly recommended - they are the perfect combination of professionalism, organization, & genuine fun! From the moment we started working together, they made us feel completely supported & by the time our wedding day arrived, I truly couldn't imagine doing it without them. I had a long engagement, which meant I had *a lot* of ideas & questions. Not once did Jackie make me feel like any detail was too small or insignificant. Every vision, every little idea, & every tiny detail we discussed was brought to life so beautifully. Our wedding day flew by in the blink of an eye, but every time I caught a glimpse of something we'd planned together, it was exactly as we had imagined - & often even better! One of the greatest gifts Jackie & Cookie gave us was the ability to actually enjoy our wedding day. While we spent the morning surrounded by our family & wedding party, they transformed our venue from ceremony to cocktail hour to reception to dancing. Walking into each space throughout the day was magical, & knowing we never had to worry about a single setup detail was priceless. Jackie also kept the entire day running so smoothly. She led our rehearsal so everyone knew exactly where to be & when, created & coordinated our timeline, answered vendor questions, adjusted plans as needed throughout the day, & somehow made everything look effortless. She checked in with the wedding party - including making sure the groomsmen were all set - & kept everything moving without ever making the day feel rushed. On a more personal note, Jackie & Cookie were there for so many little moments that meant the world to me. They fluffed my dress before I walked down the aisle, & Cookie came to the rescue more than once when my veil & dress seemed to have minds of their own! Those are the moments you don't necessarily think about when hiring a planner, but they made me feel so cared for & allowed me to stay present instead of stressing about the little things. There are countless moving pieces that go into planning a wedding, & having Jackie overseeing every detail gave us complete peace of mind. She has an incredible eye for detail & thinks of everything before you even realize it needs to be done. Because of her & Cookie, we were able to soak in every moment of our wedding instead of worrying about logistics. Jackie & Cookie, thank you from the bottom of our hearts!! Thank you for your kindness, your calm presence, your incredible organization, your endless hard work, & for making our dream wedding come to life. We are so grateful for everything you did for us & will always look back on our day with so much joy because of you both. We cannot recommend you highly enough!! read more

Jackie is everything you would want your wedding coordinator to be. She is experienced in the industry, kind, assertive, reassuring, and quick to respond. Jackie has your back. She steered me in the right direction when I needed help with finding various vendors. Through her, I ended up choosing my DJ, florist, transportation, and cake vendors. I loved working with them all. During the day of my wedding, she was not feeling her best, but she still constantly communicated with me from the start to the end of the day. She showed up to coordinate my City Hall ceremony and though she could not make my reception due to not feeling well (rare in her case), her colleague Cookie handled everything amazingly. I highly recommend Jackie for your wedding. I miss her now that my wedding is over. read more

We just had an August 2023 wedding with Jackie and she was just a joy to work with (it's in the name, after all!). When we first called her almost two years ago, I knew that we just clicked. I had called around to a couple different planners and I ran into a combination of upselling, different visions, and just personality mismatches. The call with Jackie was lovely and both my partner and I knew we'd be in good hands. We went for the partial planning package and it was worth it to have someone basically check our work and guide us through timeline, next steps, staging, etc. I have a background in project management and thought I would know what to do, but Jackie quickly showed me I was wrong. Dropping off decor with Jackie was easy, and she and Cookie set everything up beautifully. She has a great relationship with a bunch of vendors and it really shows in the day of work. She helped meet up with other vendors to lay out staging in the different rooms, read through contracts, helped talked to some of our more difficult vendors, set up AND packed up, and I can't imagine having done this with anyone else. Our guests loved her, our wedding party loved her, we loved her. We ran into some disasters (truly, but out of our control) and yet the wedding went off without a hitch and we and our guests had such an enjoyable time. She is honest and true to her word - as long as you communicate clearly and effectively to her, you're bound to have the best time of your life. She made herself so easy to contact (sorry Jackie, for those late night texts...) there's no reason or chance to have poor communication! We love Jackie to pieces and couldn't recommend her more. If you think you don't need a planner or coordinator, you do - give her a call and you'll see :) read more

Working with Jackie has been such a great pleasure!! She recommended fantastic vendors to us. She went ABOVE AND BEYOND for every single call. She provided us with so many useful documents and sheets which helped us organize everything from budget to tracking vendors to day of coordination. She helped ease my nerves when I texted her at like 4am the morning of my wedding that I didn't think I could walk down the aisle with my dress with m parents (because it was too big and poofy). On the big day, she said to my wedding party that she apologizes for putting her mean face/attitude on, but I didn't think she was mean at all. She was professional and she got things DONE. The day couldn't have gone on without her and her sister Cookie. Even after the wedding, Jackie is still there for us to help us navigate some logistic issues we had with one vendor. Jackie pointed out to us that the vendor didn't deliver common services and she wanted us to make sure we wouldn't be overcharged. Highly recommend her. We love you Jackie! read more

I have worked with Jackie on several weddings, and she is the BEST! Super attentive, organized & calm during any situation. From a vendor's perspective, it doesn't get any better. For couples shopping around...book Jackie! She looks out for everyone & aims to please. Five stars. read more

You know that feeling when everything clicks on a first date, and you know that relationship's going to work out wonderfully? And then you go on one or two dates with other people because you're "supposed to see what your options are", but you know right away that those aren't going to work out? That was exactly how my wife and I felt after our first call with Jackie. We got in touch with her while looking for help with wedding planning after our jobs devolved into twelve-plus hour days of corporate mayhem, and we couldn't be happier that we did. (We had two other initial calls with other planners. They were lovely people, but we knew we were set on Jackie.) From the first call, it was clear Jackie understood what we wanted our wedding to be and the kind of support we'd need to make it real. And boy, did she follow through. Every single one of her vendor recommendations (photographers, florist, makeup artist, DJ) worked out amazingly for us- both in terms of the quality of their work (top notch!) and in their personalities (absolute gems of people!). Every phone call left us confident nothing had slipped through the cracks- Jackie's excitement and attention to detail really shined through. If we had a particular opinion about something, she made sure it happened; if we didn't, she had tons of beautiful ideas for us to consider. Her dedication to making sure our wedding was perfect was unreal: One of our signature cocktails featured cucumber, so she special-ordered ten pounds of it from "her guy at the farmer's market" to make sure we'd have plenty day of. We wanted dim sum desserts for our wedding, so she toured dim sum restaurants all around San Francisco to find the best ones she could. (Spoiler: my very-much-a-tiger-mom mom was impressed.) As for the wedding day itself: utterly seamless. (I really mean this: people from our wedding party have since been in other weddings, and continue to comment on how calm and organized our wedding was. We did none of that; it was all Jackie.) We were able to relax, stay present, and enjoy each moment of our wedding, and we can't thank Jackie (and Cookie!) enough for all of the work they put into making our wedding day the best it could be. read more

Katie is AMAZING. I love her. She was around the whole night and you could tell she was making things happen. She was discreet and almost unnoticeable, but her sweet smiling face was always ready to greet you. This team rocks. read more

We got married in June and had an amazing experience working with Jackie, Cookie, and Kaylin at About Joy -- we really couldn't have pulled it off without them and they truly live up to their joyful name!! They were each creative, attentive, and took every detail into account when we were planning. Their creativity and attention to detail were key for communicating about our complex, multi-event wedding in Oakland. As soon as we signed with them, they helped us hire all our other major vendors, making sure we got to work with their (and now our!) favorite people during the extra busy summer 2022 wedding season. And not a day went by in the final weeks of preparations that we didn't say to each other "thank goodness we hired About Joy." We cannot recommend About Joy strongly enough for your upcoming wedding! read more

What can I say about Jackie and Cookie other than they are truly the most amazing individuals. My wedding day was truly the most beautiful smoothest BEST day of my life, and that wouldn't have happened without them. Jackie is a gem and her attention to detail is above all. I had an extremely specific vision for my wedding that they absolutely delivered. Everything was set up the exact way I would like it. My vendors were so organized because of Jackie and Cookie's work. My timeline was gorgeous and so detailed. My day was perfect I can't say that enough. Please use About Joy if you genuinely want to have an easy breezy wedding where you genuinely don't have to worry about a thing. If I could give them more stars I would. read more

Jackie is the best, she plus Katie and Cookie made my brother's wedding a great success even when difficult and incompetent vendors who were friends of my parents were extremely late and derailed the schedule for the evening. Jackie handled everything so well and very professionally, it was such a monumentally good decision to hire her and her team at Milk & Honey Special Events. Thank you so much to them all! Moral of the story: go with the pros - pick Jackie and her team for your special events. read more

Jackie and Cookie were absolutely amazing!!! So professional and helpful throughout the planning process and day-of. They were crucial in making our wedding the fantastic day that it was. From helping me source vendors, giving advice on anything and everything wedding, to sewing me into my dress and so much more... I truly cannot thank them enough. Highly recommend! read more

Jackie is the perfect wedding planner. Have used Jackie and her team for two weddings and they were both fabulous . Jackie has great recommendations for other vendors and stays on top of it. The second wedding was during the latter stages of pandemic and our wedding was magical; absolutely perfect and nothing went wrong. Her team is terrific too. read more

I hate to give small businesses 1 star reviews, but I believe this is warranted and needed to warn other brides/bridesmaids. As a bridesmaid who has been in many weddings over the years, the lack of organization and communication on Jackie's part, even for someone serving as just a day-of coordinator, was shocking to me. Many loose ends were left behind for the bridal party to figure out at the last minute. No one in the bridal party had contact with Jackie the entire day of the wedding until we had to process into the ceremony and we didn't have her contact info until the ceremony was about to start. She didn't perform the first and most important role of the wedding coordinator, to keep time for the couple and bridal party on the day of leading up to the ceremony. She didn't give proper instruction to us as to where to go drop off decor ahead of time, and we had a small window to do so, so we went to the wrong place at the wrong time and wasted time such that the bridesmaids were helping set up tables and decor through the point where people were in the venue. Folks were also locked outside the venue for the first few minutes of when it was supposed to start. When the bridal party was supposed to process, she prompted us to start at the wrong part of the song. If friends and family hadn't stepped in throughout the wedding planning process and tried to organize this all up till and including the wedding, it would not have gone as smoothly as it had. read more

Samantha made our rehearsal dinner perfect. My wife and I found the venue, a yacht club, and we lined up the caterer. However, we did not have any idea how to organize the tables, seating area, or any of the decorations. Samantha basically took it over from there. Samantha handled all of the decorations, which turned out amazing. Many of our guests thought that we had hired a florist for the rehearsal, but it was all Samantha's work. She coordinated purchasing the flowers, purchasing and renting the vases and other table decorations, and designing and assembling all the flower arrangements. I would definitely recommend Milk & Honey for your wedding, or any other important party that you're throwing. read more

Justine was incredible and really went above and beyond our expectations for a wedding planner! She was energetic, organized, attentive to details, and flexible to any of our needs. She was eager to tackle any challenge and came up with creative solutions (she even helped to disassemble and transport our chuppah!). Our wedding day was seamless and perfect thanks to her help. read more

Jackie is wonderful. She is very responsive and organized. In additional to that, she is also very fun to work with. Jackie makes our wedding planning process very enjoyable. Highly recommended her services. read more

Samantha worked with me for 9 months helping plan my wedding. My new husband and I live in Seattle, but our wedding was in Marin, so we couldn't have done it without her. Having a point-person during the month and day of your wedding so that you and your mom don't have to field questions like, "where should the band set up?" is PRICELESS. I appreciated Sam's "a la carte" menu of planning services, and I recruited her help for month-of/day-of coordination, ceremony rehearsal coordination, and planning and executing decorations. She was a pleasure to work with and was very patient with my many emails/texts throughout the process. She event visited the rental vendor multiple times to take photos of the linens for me so I could make sure I liked what we chose! She was kind and laid-back, and was always full of great design ideas. Sam worked her tail off the day of the wedding and made sure everything went 100% perfectly, and I mean perfectly! Even the guests could tell that everything was organized! I recommend Milk & Honey Special Events to everyone, and hope to hire her again for our next event in the Bay Area! read more

Jackie has been the wedding planner of our dreams! She is enthusiastic, organized, and timely in her responses. Everything was going according to plan then COVID hit us less than 3 months before our wedding. While our world was falling apart (my fiancé and I both work in healthcare) Jackie was our support and lead us to making the right decisions when we had our blinders of disbelief up! Even though we postponed, our enthusiasm remains strong because we know Jackie will remain committed 100%; just as she has been through the most difficult challenges. Jackie contacted every single vendor during the crisis and made sure they could all agree to our new date. She removed what would have been a major headache and allowed us to focus on our jobs and merely get through. You will not regret booking Jackie along with her sweet sister Cookie! They're a great team & you would be lucky to have them on your side! Thank you Jackie!!! read more

I had the pleasure of attending two events planned and managed by Samantha: a baby birthday and a wedding. Both events were flawlessly set up and organized. I really appreciated the artisanal touch Sam added with every detail. In summary: Baby Birthday, Monterey, CA - Indoors - Approximately 50 people - Fun, kids-oriented, with lots of colorful details - Delicious finger food that was filling but light and healthy - Gorgeous dessert table with fun treats for kids Wedding, Sonoma, CA - Outdoors - Approximately 200 people - Sophisticated but relaxed - Delicious food, with a mix of ethnic Russian dishes and new American - Many rustic style details perfect for Sonoma - Sam's dessert tables deserve a review of their own, with a selection of French macarons, cupcakes, candy and a gorgeous wedding cake with ruffle-like details. It was interesting to see how Sam organizing these two events, very different in terms of theme/venue/number of guests/food, and excelled at both! I would definitely hire her to organize an event without a second thought. read more

Sam was nothing short of amazing. We got hooked up with her through a friend a few weeks before our wedding when we were really feeling overwhelmed by the details of things. To make matters worse, we were having trouble connecting with a major vendor. Sam met with us and was all ears to learn about what our vision was and what things we still needed to accomplish. Although she was initially going to focus solely on the day-of coordination, I'm sure it was clear to her that we needed much more help than that. She was very professional and up front about expectations and remained clear on both what she was handling versus what we needed to take care of ourselves. She was also always available to give her opinion on little details, even going so far as to meet us at the linen place to pick colors. She was also great on the day-of with extra stuff like decorating the venue, and she went back and did a full walk through the day after to make sure everything was in order for the venue inspection. Although we didn't hire her until the 11th hour, she did an amazing job and I am certain that our wedding was a success largely based on her efforts. Also, from the point she started working with us I really felt a sense of relief because I was confident that things were being handled, and it allowed me to be relaxed on my wedding day knowing that the details and timeline were in capable hands. My only regret is that we didn't hire her earlier! I would highly recommend Milk & Honey to anyone who is looking to put their wedding or event in capable and caring hands. Thanks Sam for making our wedding a success! read more

Although I have not hired Jackie for an event, I've seen her work first hand and it's top notch. As a fellow parent at my kid's school, any time there's an event she brings in nothing short of a masterpiece. She's shown me pictures of her events and it's the same. She puts in 110% and blows the rest of us away and always takes pride in her investment, and that carries into everything she does. We plan to use her if/when we have a nice event in the future and I know it will be done with nothing short of perfection. read more

The Spectors reached out to me to make a tiered fondant cake for a birthday party. Our communication was through emails and our work together went so smoothly. They were professional, timely and gave great description of what the cake should look like, which is important for a baker to have to make sure the client gets their dream dessert or cake. The dessert table was beautiful and I would work with Milk & Honey Events again. read more

Recently I was a guest at a wedding Samantha planned. The theme of the wedding combined French country elegance with rustic flair and was carried out with lovely little touches. The event lasted almost 12 hours. Sam looked calm, collected and always with a smile, I would definitely recommend her services to my friends. read more

We attended the "You are my sunshine" 1st birthday party (featured here with more pictures http://www.karaspartyideas.com/2013/07/you-are-my-sunshine-1st-birthday-party.html). The table settings, decorations, and theme was just eye popping, elegant, and very coherent. Lots of simple items combined to create a wow factor. Everything went together gorgeously. Felt more like an amazing wedding reception than a kid's birthday party. Just an outstanding job. Highly recommend hiring Samantha for your next event! read more

I recently had the pleasure of working with Samantha and she was great! She's professional, kind, organized and has a great eye for design. My team and I were very impressed by her calm and collected demeanor, even during the frenzy of the event preparation! read more

I collaborated with Samantha on custom party supplies and she was wonderful to work with. The end result produced a beautiful, visually spectacular party where the vision was implemented perfectly. I hope to work with Samantha again! -Elizabeth at Sunshine Ink Studio read more

Samantha worked with us to plan our wedding in Geyserville, CA this past weekend. The event had over 200 guests, multiple vendors, and a very large wedding party, and it was absolutely flawless. The success of our wedding had everything to do with Sam. She was calm, collected, organized, had amazing taste, and truly captured the look and feel we were going for. She paid very close attention to detail, even things I never would have thought of, and kept us on track. She has great ideas for how to tie the whole event together to create a beautiful space and flow. It was the best day of our lives and wouldn't have been possible without Milk and Honey Events! read more

I'm not one of those brides who had a grand vision of my wedding from the age of 10. I was actually dreading it (the planning, not the marriage). The idea of having to sift through linen colors made me want to stab myself with a spork. The hubby and I had actually eloped the year before, but were having a Catholic ceremony to please my crazy Asian parents. I knew I needed help. Enter Samantha and Milk & Honey Special Events. She was referred by a colleague, and she turned out to be my fairy godmother. She handled month-of/day-of coordination and design/decor. Thanks to Samantha, we had a lovely wedding in Palo Alto that made both my traditional Vietnamese family happy as well as the groom's Texas relatives. No mean feat. Whenever I got super stressed out, she was calm and reassuring. Sam has impeccable taste and can be relied upon for advice and guidance on pretty much anything wedding-related. I can't tell how wonderful it feels to have someone else worry about details on your wedding day while you just concentrate on walking down the aisle without tripping on your train. read more

I reached out to Samantha from Milk and Honey Special Event to help with an engagement party that I hosted in my home. Thankful I did, because there is no way I could have done it without her!!! She helped with every detail from beginning to end including pinning images to my pinterest board so that we could set the theme. I decided to go with a "gold" theme and she had such wonderful ideas that made the party incredibly special. I wanted to do some of the setup myself and she helped by sending me great ideas as well as where to get the best supplies. She also helped me coordinate the caterer and even suggested how much food and drink she thought we would need--which ended up being the perfect amount. She completely coordinated the stemware, flatware, china and linen rentals, which ended up making the tables look truly amazing and she suggested that I rent some gold sequinned pillows to bring the theme into the living room and so many guests comments on how great the pillows were! I would HIGHLY recommend Samantha if you want to have a stress free occasion that your guests will rave about! read more

Hiring Milk & Honey Special Events was, hands down, the best decision that I could have made for my wedding (other than the groom, of course). Working with Jackie was absolutely fantastic! Not only was she a professional in every sense of the word, she was also wonderfully fun and energetic. Jackie often said that she hoped to "spread joy" through her work: the joyfulness and love that Jackie brought with her transformed the entire planning process. Before I hired Jackie, I was behind schedule, stressed out, and overwhelmed. Jackie completely changed the game. She not only got things organized, she also worked directly with the vendors, was unbelievably flexible and generous in her time, and was so incredibly helpful in everything from brainstorming ideas (Jackie is INCREDIBLY creative and has so many beautiful ideas!) to addressing any problems that came up during the planning and during the event itself. She turned stress into excitement, and worry into joy every step of the way. Every time I got off the phone with Jackie, I felt inspired and optimistic. The team that she brought with her on the actual day of the wedding was wonderful: Cookie and Katie were kind, supportive, and all-around awesome. Jackie, I cannot thank you enough for everything that you did for me. I am so grateful to Milk & Honey Special Events for making my wedding happen. read more

We made the wedding cake for one of Samantha's brides recently. She is very professional, supplying us with all relevant information and equipment, responding to all inquiries promptly and just being very pleasant to work with. The dessert table she put together was spectacular! read more