Would recommend Shari for ALL events!!! She made our wedding week and day go beyond smoothly!! She…read moreensured our large wedding party (24 people) was where they needed to be and that they all had fun! She ensured all our request happened from my voice over before walking down the aisle to getting all of our gifts and special items to our trailer at the end of the night. She is personable, professional and fun!!!

Would highly recommend Shari for all things planning related. She was our day-of coordinator for a…read more~100 person wedding in the Santa Cruz mountains. - Organized & communicative: She handled all details flawlessly including timeline, vendors, etc. She communicated with us and other parties very intentionally to make sure all details were thought of. - Detailed & thoughtful: I had a couple of guests tell me afterwards that Shari helped provide them with emergency items during the wedding - Professional & determined - Our wedding included a vendor that was more difficult to work with, and Shari handled a lot of communication with professionalism and endurance to ensure that we had a great day. Overall, working with Shari was one of the best decisions we made for our wedding day - I would highly recommend her!

Hiring Sarah's team for month- and day-of coordination for our wedding was definitely one of the…read morebest investments we made! Sarah was organized and so lovely to chat with that we immediately felt at ease having her help coordinate our wedding. We worked with Lalita from her team, and she was the absolute best! She took over as liaison for all our vendors a month out, which eased a lot of stress leading up to the wedding. By the time the day arrived, we knew everything was under control, and we were able to have the most beautiful, stress-free day! Lalita handled everything to do with vendors, timeline, and family-wrangling so we didn't have to lift a finger. Highly recommend Sarah's team and Lalita specifically to give you the best wedding day experience!

Trevor was hands-down one of our favorite vendors to work with. From the very beginning, he was…read moresuper professional, quick to respond, and just an all-around awesome person to have on our wedding team. He somehow managed to be both incredibly chill and personable while also being 1000% locked-in and on top of everything - it was very clear from the start that he really cared about getting every detail right, even though he made it all look extremely effortless! He also had previously worked with our venue (Waterfall Lodge & Retreat in Ben Lomond, CA) many times before and knew a bunch of our other vendors as well, which made coordination super smooth and easy. The ceremony and reception dinner audio were flawless - not a single hiccup or weird transition. And once the dancing started, Trevor completely nailed the vibe. His mixing was seamless, and he read the crowd better than we ever could've imagined! Every song felt perfectly timed and chosen, and for songs we had requested he played for certain guests of ours, he made sure that the people a certain song was for were on the dance floor before hitting play. His work was just overall exceptionally seamless and extremely impressive! The whole day flowed so perfectly, and Trevor's energy had a lot to do with that. He absolutely crushed it and left us wanting the music to never end! If you're looking for a DJ who's talented, easy to work with, and just genuinely fun to be around, we can't recommend Trevor enough. We also added a photo booth to our SCDJ package kind of last minute, and they were super quick to add it to our contract, hammer out the details, and put together a personalized photo strip design. Our booth was manned by Scott, who was an absolute gem - he was just super sweet and very patient with everyone throughout the whole evening. And the photobooth ended up being way more of a hit than we thought it would be (plus, getting digital copies of all the photos afterwards was super cool!), so if you're on the fence regarding whether to also book a booth with SCDJ, just do it!

Working with Santa Cruz DJ was easy, all microphone needs were met seamlessly, and the party was…read morepoppin' all night. Music: They helped us create a custom song for our first dance and honored our song/vibe preferences for each different part of the evening (pre-ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner, dancing). As bride, I feel like the sign of a good party is an active dance floor and Trevor delivered (pics for reference). Sound: All mic-related needs for ceremony, speeches, announcement of transitions, etc were so seamless that I didn't think about it at all until now. We recommend SCDJ for event DJ needs.

I first met Herminia Borge through my mother and I am so glad she did. We hired Mina to do the…read moresetup, cleanup, flowers, flatware, silverware, glassware, flowers, decoration, for both the rehearsal dinner and wedding day and her waitstaff. She was also our day of coordinator for the day as well. She did an absolutely great job! She executed nearly both events flawlessly. There were some minor hiccups the day of that could have been perhaps dropped because of lack of communication or perhaps lack of staff the day of. We also lost part of our deposit for the venue because her staff took a bit longer to clean up then was allotted. However, regardless of all of the little hiccups the wedding and rehearsal dinner were absolutely gorgeous. She surpassed our wildest expectations and gave us the wedding of our dreams. Her price is worth the quality that she offers her clients. Minor hiccups were nothing compared to the job she did.

Barbara & Company Catering handled our wedding last week. My partner and I feel like we "hacked"…read moreour wedding by getting to work with Marina. From the very beginning, we sensed we could trust Marina, and she absolutely took care of us from start to finish. I never had to "supervise" the catering at our wedding, which was a huge gift because we simply didn't have time to. She had everything covered. We were able to leave it all in her hands, and our guests couldn't have had a better time. 75 guests, everything perfectly on time, delicious. Food-wise, we had a relatively simple menu, but every single thing sparkled. My family is from Chicago, and they were raving about the hot dogs, which is saying a lot. People said the mac and cheese was the best they'd ever had, and I agree. She sent us home with plenty of leftovers, and as we've been working our way through them, we're really seeing the quality of the ingredients. She could have cut corners and no one would have known, but she clearly didn't, and it showed. Other examples of that include barbecuing everything on site and constantly topping off extras like more cheese, etc. I even saw a few extra toppings we didn't have to pay for. The overall pricing was extraordinarily reasonable, especially considering the multiple meetings we had beforehand, the fact that she handled all of our rentals (one less huge thing we had to think about), and provided an event crew. Thanks to her experience, we were covered on planning details as well, and she even gave us great ideas for things like our favors and centerpieces. Looking back, it almost feels like we got a party planner bundled in with the catering. Thank you so much to Marina and everyone at Barbara & Company Catering for taking such good care of us. Your work is very meaningful, and really can't thank you enough.

The food was delicious, Marina was a joy to work with everyone on site was kind, professional and…read morehelpful and did I mention the food?!?!?! If you need a caterer, definitely go with Barbara & Co!

If you are looking for a floral designer, artist, decor coodinator, or anything remotely related to…read morethose vendor-types, stop looking immediately and book Christina ASAP. Seriously, don't waste any more of your planning time looking for the perfect florist because Christina is it, the real deal. I talked to Christina about 9 months before my wedding (at the Hyatt) and had door issues about the cost of flowers. I decided not to book her, and I looked elsewhere. What a mistake! The headache and disorganization of the other vendors I was trying to book was a nightmare, and I called Christina back (now 4 months before my wedding) and tried to book her again. She was AMAZING and worked with me every step of the way. She is expensive, but not much more so than other florists in the area, but literally above and beyond in every way and WELL WORTH the money spent. Not only were the flowers perfect but she really made my vision come to life. Equally important, she gave me peace of mind through the whole process that everything would be taken care of. She also coordinated my linens, helped me pick colors, and offered decor suggestions/advice to me that she was in no way required to do. I emailed her a ton of questions about her opinion on several things with the wedding and she responded immediately with the BEST ADVICE, and always very direct and honest - which, when you are planning a wedding, is appreciated. Thank you Christina for making my wedding beautiful!

I contacted A Bud & Beyond simply because of the beautiful flower arrangements and the great…read morereviews. Unfortunately, my experience was similar to the two other 1 star reviews that were posted on yelp. I spoke to Christina over the phone and I thought we had a good idea of what we were looking for. I mentioned to her that my color scheme was rose gold and sand. She mentioned flower options with pink and purple. I didn't really want to change my color scheme but since she mentioned other colors, I figured 'ok well, let's look for other colors then' (not wanting pink or purple because my fiancé is not interested). I asked if we could do teal. She said no because there are not a lot of natural flowers in teal which I completely understand. She then again sent me back to pink. I told her as nicely as I can that the honey does not want pink, can we do peach/salmon/coral. Her response was: "This is a very limiting color scheme, but I can try. Several of these photos are with FAKE flowers. Let's just say we'll go with peach into orange tones with some neutrals. If you keep changing colors on me it makes my job really tough. Do you think you can stick with this?" I was extremely thrown off by the response. We just talked on the phone 2 days ago and emailed each other maybe about 5 times. It's a bit odd that I am making her job really tough to just establish the colors of natural flowers that she uses. If I am going to be spending a good amount of money on my wedding, the service should be above and beyond. I am a very polite and respectful woman so her response seemed very rude and impolite. She is the professional florist. I don't have a clue which flowers are natural and/or fake and the only reason I changed the color scheme is because she chose pink and purple flowers which is not at all what we are envisioning in our wedding. I am honestly bummed because I did appreciate the look of her flower arrangements but, unfortunately, because of her rude attitude I will not be utilizing her services. I am sure I will find an amazing florist with true above and beyond customer service that will add beauty to our special day!! Caitlyn M (in the previous yelp reviews) hit it spot on!! I would have loved to have her flower arrangements at our wedding but I could not find myself to invest in such an unfriendly and pretentious attitude as mentioned by Larissa B (in the previous Yelp reviews). It is also quite interesting how there is an immediate Yelp review in response to the 1 star Yelp review - Larissa B. Really makes me think of the manipulative ratings.

We had a lovely time with My painting faces at the birthday party for our son Mac turning five…read more The kids LOVED the face paints and she was the hit of the party, fully equipped with her own table and chairs, full pallette and book of design options. It was wonderful!! Hope to book her again for a future party.

I hired Sandy to come to my nine-year-old daughter's Llama-corn 9th birthday party and she was a…read moreHUGE hit! Her designs were gorgeous, FUN, colorful and creatively crafted. All the children LOVED their designs and the parents were amazed at the technique and skill! I couldn't recommend Grins and Giggles more!

Kristine is amazing, I contacted for my baby shower decor. Gave her a budget and made it work…read more She is so crafty and is an amazing artist. Highly recommend Kristine

Kristine is a creative genius and always executes beautiful installations that are the talk of the…read moreevent! I have used Kristine for several birthdays and she is so fun to brainstorm ideas with and always seems to take my ideas to the next level! I highly recommend Carried Away for any event large or small if you want a big impact and to work with a well connected and best in class event professional.