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!

Heads up, this is a lengthy review. But I now firmly believe that selecting a wedding planner is the single most important decision one can make for a successful wedding, so I think some verbosity is warranted. I hope you’ll read on, but if you only take away one thing from this, I hope you hire Brooke at Orchard Avenue.

My new wife and I just got married at Solage in Calistoga, California. As part of booking the venue, we were required to contract with a wedding planner. Our contact at Solage provided a couple names of wedding planners that they had worked with in the past, and we met with all of them. From the first meeting and follow-up, Brooke at Orchard Avenue stood easily at the top of the list. She exuded a perfect mix of warmth and professionalism, and it was clear she would go above and beyond to make our day super special. We quickly moved to book her – even going so far as to select our wedding date around her availability.

It’d be really hard to overstate the role that Brooke played in making the event what multiple guests described as “the best wedding they’d ever been to”. Neither my fiancée nor I are particularly organized, and we’d never planned an event larger than a 20-person dinner. Brooke started by getting to know us and our hopes for the wedding, and quickly followed up with a planning timeline, preliminary budget, and target list of vendors we’d want to lock down ASAP.

During the planning process, we ended up behind on multiple aspects like getting invitations out and finalizing our seating chart. But through it all, Brooke was patient and purely encouraging and understanding of where we were (I’d been hospitalized and my fiancée was busy with work and school). Brooke pushed everything forward as much as she could and made sure we knew every decision and task we needed to handle and by when.

Brooke came with us to every major vendor appointment, and provided great guidance and even design advice when we requested it. She introduced us to vendors within our budget that she already had relationships with, and every one of them provided services that were seriously better than our greatest expectations. We trusted Brooke every step of the way, and she never steered us wrong.

Aside from vendors and timelines, Brooke did so much more along the way to handle the little details – always promptly and with an amazing attitude. Some quick examples. Our guest list ballooned from 130 to 160, and Brooke proactively made multiple revisions to our layout and worked with the venue to make sure our guests were well-situated. Then, several weeks before the wedding, we decided we wanted to get some chandeliers with florals for the reception space, and I don’t know how she did it, but Brooke found a way to nearly replicate our inspiration photo – within a reasonable budget too. At one point, the venue pulled a (possibly unintentional) bait-and-switch on billing, and I was so angry that I just asked Brooke if she could handle it for us.. and as always, she came through. Brooke even double checked our print order for place cards and discovered an error that the print shop made in recording the order, which would have cost us time and money.

Finally, on the day of the wedding, intermittent rains were forecasted. Brooke called us on the week leading up to the wedding and ran us through a comprehensive rain plan, which would keep costs down while ensuring we could handle whatever weather came our way. On the day of the wedding, the morning was cold and rainy, but we made a gut call and at the last minute asked Brooke to move the ceremony back outside. She made it happen, even though I could tell she really wasn’t sure if it was the right call, and we were so lucky that the rain stopped and the sun came out mere minutes before the ceremony began. It was beautiful and the rest of the night was simply a dream.

With all this said, there’s so much more that Brooke did – both ahead of the event and especially on the day of. We credit her single-handedly for making the day an unforgettable one for both us and our guests, and I can’t recommend her highly enough. If Brooke is available to plan your wedding, you just have to work with her. If she’s not available to plan your wedding, I think you should honestly consider moving your wedding date to get her involved. She’s that good.

Brooke, thank you again so much for everything! For your professional guidance, for your emotional support, and for going above and beyond in every way. We couldn’t have done it without you!

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.