I booked pillows and picnics for my engagement and let me say - this was one of the best decisions…read moreI made for my surprise engagement! They were very responsive in their communications and really helped coordinate with my photographer for my surprise engagement. They helped me setup the whole thing on Monastery Beach near Carmel by the Sea inclusive of the the exact colors, style, and location. They were very upfront with pricing, extremely professional, and accommodating. They waited by the setup until we arrived and were there promptly to help clean it up. As the photos show it was absolutely beautiful and my significant other could not be happier (plus she said yes during the proposal). Truly - props to Pillows and Picnics - could not be happier with the outcome - highly recommend for special events, thanks for making my engagement one to remember forever. Thanks so much for everything!

Pillows + picnic exceeded my expectations in every way. They created a magical atmosphere that made…read morethe day even more special. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a luxurious outdoor experience.

I got married in 2020, yes during the pandemic. Why? Well my dad's been battling cancer and so has…read moremy husbands step-father. It was the right thing to do because at the end of the year my husbands grandfather passed away, we are so fortunate that he made our wedding. With that said, planning a wedding is stressful. Planning a wedding during a pandemic is next level. Luckily, I had Emily from a sparkling event by my side every step of the way. Emily was literally a God send. From the minute I got engaged (before the pandemic) to planning all the details, Emily was there answering all my questions and handling tough things like discrepancies with vendors and making sure things got done in a timely manner. She was my go to when I was having a breakdown as so many crazy things happened during the planning process that I was going to write a memoir. But when the day came, and I looked all around me, it was worth it. I got to marry my husband knowing that all the blood sweat and tears Emily and I had endured was priceless and I am forever grateful for her support and her let's get it done attitude. I highly recommend a sparkling event for your next event whatever it may be, if they can weather the storm during 2020, they can definitely handle anything.

I was lucky, because my future daughter-in-law hired Mandi for her November wedding in Carmel…read moreValley, CA. Mandi managed the rehearsal dinner that we hosted for our son and his bride. Having a destination event, required that I have a local and experienced person working with me. Mandi was perfect, as she had insight into the bride's preferences, yet worked with me as the host. She managed the venue staff, the photographer, florist, and decorating details. I was able to ship supplies directly to her and she handled all the details. The winery garden dinner for 45 was flawless! Most impressive was the personal service and quick replies during the planning and organizing. She's a kind and generous person who happens to be an amazing professional event planner!

If you're on the fence about hiring a wedding planner, let me save you some time--do it, and make…read moresure it's Kate! My husband and I came to her with nothing but a venue and a vague idea of what we wanted our autumn beach wedding to look like, and she took that and turned it into one of the most magical days of our lives. From the very beginning, Kate was an absolute dream to work with. She is incredibly knowledgeable about all the local vendors and made the entire design process easy and fun. My husband and I were pretty clueless when it came to wedding planning, but Kate knew the answers to everything--even the things we didn't know we didn't know! Her expertise gave us confidence every step of the way. Kate is also beyond organized. She handled everything--from RSVPs and seating charts to coordinating vendor cleanup--so that on the day of the wedding, we didn't have to worry about a single thing. She ran the entire show behind the scenes, allowing us to be fully present and soak in every moment of our special day. And let's talk about Kate's personality--she was the calming force we didn't even know we needed. As the wedding day got closer and stress levels started rising, she remained completely unflappable. No matter what unexpected twists came up, Kate handled them with confidence and ease. She was also incredibly thoughtful, truly taking the time to get to know us as a couple, which made our wedding feel even more personal and special. Looking back, my husband and I both agree that hiring Kate was, without a doubt, the most important investment we made in our wedding. If you want a wedding planner who is knowledgeable, organized, and an absolute joy to work with, Kate is the one. I would recommend her to absolutely anyone!

When we got engaged, all my husband and I knew was that we wanted to have a wedding that felt like…read more"us," but we had no idea how to put that into words, let alone make the vision come to life. We knew we could plan a wedding on our own if we really had to, but that we'd be blind to the things that would make it a "wow" wedding and to be honest, we really wanted to enjoy being engaged and not have to worry about planning every single detail. We had several consultation calls with different planners, but Kaitlin stood out from the get-go as someone who is experienced, professional, and most importantly, has a skill for really listening and understanding what was important to us. Kaitlin took small pieces of what we said was important to us and made our vision come to life. We wanted a wedding that felt like an experience for our guests. We wanted them to feel relaxed, have great food and drinks, and be delighted by small surprises at every turn. Kaitlin had incredible ideas for unique vendors to bring in, from a live guitarist who fit our vibe perfectly to our own coffee truck service. She also knew how to respectfully encourage us to consider color choices or other decor that she knew would make the event feel more timeless and well-rounded. The entire weekend of our wedding, Kaitlin and our vendors were perfectly in sync. I never felt stressed over details or timing at any given point. They were attentive, caring, and incredible detail-oriented. My husband and I had the best year planning our wedding with Kaitlin. We're so grateful that our vision came to life and we'll be forever reminiscing on our perfect day. If you are looking for a planner who will be a partner with you in creating the wedding of your dreams, cares deeply about you and your loved ones, and can create an experience that wows your guests, look no further than Kaitlin!

Victoria was an absolute joy to work with. She made sure that our entire day ran smoothly -- top to…read morebottom. Most importantly, she catered to our specific needs on the day of our wedding and we truly felt like we didn't have to worry about a thing. We're so appreciative of her professionalism, knowledge of local vendors and her motivation to make sure that our wedding day was the absolute best it could be!

Victoria was amazing in helping us execute our recent wedding in Monterey. She was an extremely…read morehelpful partner in planning our destination wedding- she understood our vision, and worked within our budget. She was a great resource as well for connecting us with local vendors who met our desires. We were a bit nervous about executing a wedding as all of our guests would be traveling in and we wanted to make sure they had a great time. Victoria was extremely helpful with all details (large and small) to ensure we were able to deliver that to our guests. The end result was a great ceremony, that was only topped by her execution of the reception - the décor, and layout were exactly as we had envisioned; the food...ah-mazing! Quite a few of our guests informed us that this was the best wedding they had ever attended. We would definitely recommend Victoria, and are waiting for our next excuse to throw a party and have her help us execute it! C&C

We had the pleasure of working with Coastside Couture for our wedding in Nov of 2022 and we are…read morestill reminiscing about the incredible day they helped us create. From the very beginning, their team was dedicated to understanding our vision and bringing it to life in ways that exceeded our expectations. They dug deep to get to know us and our families and words can't do them justice. One of the standout aspects of their amazing work was their recommendation and orchestration(no pun intended) for a band that matched and exceeded our hopes for a lit and epic dance floor. The energy and talent of the band they suggested turned our reception into an unforgettable celebration. Our guests are still talking about how much fun they had dancing the night away. The attention to detail and commitment to excellence from Heidi, Sonja, and Harley were evident in every aspect of our wedding. They managed to seamlessly blend elegance and fun, creating moments that reflected my husband and myself and will be memories we will literally never forget. Also I reflect now on how much stress they removed from our lives and I am eternally grateful. We have no idea all the ways they just allowed us to have fun in the process. We truly believe that our wedding was one of the best day of our lives, and much of that is thanks to the hard work and dedication of this dream team. If you are looking for a wedding planning company that will go above and beyond to make your day as special as possible, we highly recommend Coastside Couture. Their expertise, passion, and personal touch made our wedding day epic and unforgettable. Love them!!

Heidi, Sonja and Harley were great to work with for our wedding. We started working with Heidi 9…read moremonths before our wedding in Carmel Valley and she immediately started reserving/confirming vendors that we absolutely loved. She is experienced, and really knows the area and the best vendors to work with. She managed to reserve one highly in-demand vendor before we had even finalized our contract with her, anticipating that it would be the best option for us (which it was). That is how forward-thinking and proactive Heidi is - a true godsend for two people with busy schedules and very little time to plan a wedding. Without Heidi, our wedding would be an absolute shadow of the wonderful event that it turned out to be with her at the helm. We recommend Heidi for any event in and around Carmel, particularly for those individuals with tight schedules, busy lives or far reaching visions of what you want out of your event. She really focuses on personalizing your wedding day to reflect the couple's tastes and vision. Heidi and her incredible team will move heaven and earth to make sure that you have the event that you want. We hope that we will have many opportunities to work with Heidi and her team in the future. To Heidi and her team - thank you for everything.

We've been together 13 years and finally decided to make it official in 2025. We wanted something…read moreintimate and meaningful, and choosing Weddings in Monterey was the best decision we could have made. Brian guided us through everything--location, flowers, dinner, hotel recommendations--and made the entire process effortless. He was warm, patient, and open to personal touches in the ceremony, including a special bible reading that meant a lot to us. Heidi was incredible. We're two grooms who are not comfortable in front of the camera, yet she made us feel relaxed and confident. Our photos are stunning--both classic and editorial. She captured the emotion and beauty of the day perfectly. What we planned as a simple elopement became a deeply meaningful wedding experience. We are forever grateful to Brian and Heidi for giving us a day we will never forget. Highly, highly recommend.

This review is way over due. We got married 01/01/2024 and it was the best experience. From the…read morebeginning Brian was super commutative and kind. He did an amazing job with the ceremony and included everything we wanted. Heidi did an amazing job with the pictures. We are so glad we chose Heidi and Brian for our elopement we couldn't have asked for a better day. Highly recommend them for your wedding you won't regret it.

We have had our Staff Christmas Party at this venue for the last 3yrs. Every single time they do…read morenot disappoint. The Staff are very nice, not one of them was rude. We are all about taking care of our Guest BUT during our event they sure took care of us. We will 100% be continuing to come back every year for our Staff Party AND recommend this place to anyone looking for a Nice Venue. Chick-fil-A North Salinas

My husband and I had an amazing and beautiful wedding at Fairview Laguna Seca! It was literally the…read morebest day of our lives. I found this venue on Instagram and didn't see it in-person until I was engaged. When we were visiting venues, we fell in love with the event space, both the ceremony site (overlooking the golf course) and modern indoor reception area. We booked the venue one-year out. It was the first & only venue we looked at! We knew it was the location we wanted to be married at. We thoroughly enjoyed working with the Fairview team!! They were very attentive to our details and made our plans & visions a reality. From all the vendors we worked with, everyone was professional and courteous. The baker made us a delicious and beautiful 3-tiered cake, each layer a different flavor. The florist followed my inspiration photos & the DJ read the room well, playing the perfect songs and introducing everyone with a great flow. I highly recommend having a day of coordinator. Well worth the money to have an stress-free (less stressful) day. My husband and I chose the Elite package because it was the best fit for our 150-guest list. Our guests enjoyed the venue, loved the bartenders and appreciated the kids' meals for their children. And the sparkler send off at the end was a fairytale experience! It was truly a joyous day. We are so thankful for the Fairview team and couldn't ask for a more perfect wedding day.

I am still waiting on my photos to come back but I have a few to share! Let me just say this...if…read moreyou are thinking about Hiring Diane...DO...if you need a wedding planner hire Diane!!!! She is ABSOLUTE MAGIC!!!!! I live in los angeles so don't have the ability to know the vendors in Big Sur and she handled EVERYTHING!!!! Her recommendations were top notch and everyone gave us the wedding of our dreams! Truly we were all blown away and all of our guests said it was the best wedding they had ever been to! I will upload more photos as I get them! I don't have photos yet of the reception but it was everything!!! The food, the dj, the flowers, the drinks, the ceremony...all of it. She is an angel...a magical angel! Super reasonable, super attentive, super helpful! She only wanted us to have exactly what we wanted. I cannot recommend her more highly!!!!

I had almost the exact same experience as Olivia below. Our wedding was 1 week before Olivia's and…read morewe had almost an identical experience. I hate to leave a negative review as I knew Diane was dealing with some personal stuff, however, this is not the person you want ghosting you for months leading up to the event or cutting ties with you a week before the event. Also, I heard from an assistant of hers who said she would be taking over (we never knew Diane had an assistant) however when we emailed this assistant back, they never responded. We tried reaching out to Diane several times and eventually took matters in our own hands and organized our day assuming Diane would be nowhere to be found. Then 1 week before our wedding when everything was set, she began emailing our vendors (photographer, flowers, videographer, officiant, hair and makeup) and communicating a completely different timeline and old information that was wrong!?! She had not read our emails we copied her on for months and caused so much unnecessary headaches the week before our wedding bc we had to go back to each vendor and explain that Diane's information was old and dated and to stick with the timeline we had communicated. This is. Not what you want to be doing last minute. In the end, we all agreed to part ways. Our wedding turned out exactly as we wanted minus the Loss of the $750 for Paion that she suggested and minus the headaches and drama leading up to the event. I can say that she gave us a list of vendors which we paid for, however we did hours of our own research to find hair and makeup & photographer and deserts. The only vendors we used from her were our catering company, Catering Monterey- phenomenal btw - officiant, Soaring Starkey- HIGHLY RECOMMEND, and Big Sur flowers, they were pretty good and made a gorgeous bouquet but had some issues delivering the flowers to us the morning of and left them at Glen oaks reception instead of the house which was frustrating bc we were on a timeline and the reception is not close to the house. The worst part about this experience is that not only did things get so contested and we agreed to part ways 1 week before the event, she also listened to my vision and then booked us for Paion Estates which after talking to my photographer, Lynn Lewis (HIGHLY RECOMMEND) we realized that my vision would not happen at Paion. So we lost our $750 deposit for that location in order to take the wedding photos on the Rocky cliffs (north of glenoaks) which is all I explained I wanted from the beginning and showed very detailed images of my vision. Lynn Lewis, our photographer ended up putting together the day of timeline and making all our dreams for our elopement come true. her services include vendor referrals and timeline management. I'd you're having a small wedding, skip the coordinator all together and just go with Lynn. Lynn was the photographer we found on our own. I'd be happy to talk to any future bride about my experience. Drop me a message and I'll email you. Diane was a nice person and in the beginning I thought this would be great, but as time passed it was clear she's had other things going on and was not 100% committed or at least she wasn't with Olivia and myself.

I've been planning events for my company for about 20+ years, and Linda and her team are by far the…read moreBEST I have ever worked with. The team is sooooo good, that we paid extra for them to go from Carmel all the way to Napa for our recent event; and they still met our budget. I was introduced to Linda through one of the venues we had an event at in Carmel. Linda and her team did such a crazy amazing job, that we asked if she would come out to Napa. And there, she just wrapped up a 450-person, 2-day event for us, and we so many compliments. Even my banquet coordinator in Napa said she would keep Linda at the top of her list. What I love most about Linda is that she is super creative. We provide her with a theme, some ideas of what we are visualizing, and she makes it come to life. We don't have to do any of the thinking; she does it all and we just say yay or nay. Linda and her team truly make our jobs as event planners much easier. Looking forward to working with you for many more years to come.

Kris and Lezlie were an absolute dream to work with while planning my small October wedding at…read moreBernardus Lodge in Carmel Valley. From our first email interaction, I knew I was in good hands and I was absolutely delighted with the final result. Kris is an excellent listener and really took the time to understand and adopt my vision for the day. Lezlie is a true floral artist and created the most beautiful bouquet and table-scape I have ever seen. I am so grateful for everything that these amazing ladies did to make my wedding so beautiful and I highly recommend them for your wedding or event! They are simply the best!