A Savvy Event

I worked with Lally from A Savvy Event and she couldn’t have been more perfect! She planned my wedding from start to finish and it was such an enjoyable process. Lally has such a positive energy, a warm heart, and a passion for creating events. She brought the stress out of wedding planning by keeping on timelines, budgets, vendors, and a million more items! Everything on our wedding day was amazing and so fluid. I highly recommend Lally and A Savvy Event to anyone planning an event or a wedding. Thank you Lally!

Marie was our planner from A Savvy Event, which i found online. We couldn’t have been more thrilled with how she went about helping us plan the most perfect wedding! Marie was there for me anytime I had a question, a mini freakout, or just needed input/​advice. She came to interviews with vendors, exchanged multiple phone calls, and millions of emails. She helped walk me through excel and seating charts online (my husband and I aren’t tech savvy in the least). On the day of our wedding, Marie handled venders, my own stubborn bridal party, taking care of all my personal belongings and basically making sure the whole operation ran smoothly. If anything did go wrong, I was kept in the dark… the way it should be! I would recommend a Savvy Event and Marie to anyone who wants this process to be stress free an enjoyable!

Thanks to Lally Clark & A Savvy Event our recent wedding in Sonoma was absolutely perfect, effortless, & just what we had envisioned. Our friends & families could not stop telling us how amazing everything was from the venue to the food, music, & unique details. Hiring Lally was the best decision we made throughout the wedding planning process & we’re so grateful we found her at the start!
We originally were planning a destination wedding (later moving to California ourselves) and Lally quickly turned around an amazing selection of sites for us to tour, all meeting our top criteria & none of which we would have been able to find on our own!
After selecting our dream venue Lally got to work ensuring we were connected with the best vendors, keeping us on a timeline, accomodating all of our requests and helping me to make countless decisions that I would have struggled with forever without her! I spent the last three weeks before the wedding with nothing to do, completely relaxed up to and throughout the wedding day. My friends were shocked at what a calm bride I was (as a normally stressed person) — a real testament of how talented Lally is at her job!
While working with Lally you can be sure you’ll get the following:
1. Super responsiveness at all times
2. Extremely talented contacts — all of her vendor recommendations were outstanding
3. Peace of mind — she’s so professional & literally takes care of every detail & vendor relationship, there is nothing to be worried about!
4. Organization — not only was I impressed with her skills here, the 2 vendors we hired that had not worked with A Savvy Event in the past were also SO impressed by the day of timelines and communication leading up to the event
5. Flexibility — she effortlessly rolls with change, up to the day of no problem!
6. Flawless execution — Lally LISTENS and really helps deliver the day you are imagining from suggestions to day of set-​up, she creates the vision you’re trying to communicate
7. FUN — she’s just an awesome person to hang out with while planning

I am delighted to write this review of Marie Rios, (event producer), our wedding planner for our destination wedding in Napa. We chose to have our wedding at the Carneros Inn. Our package was the basic package where I still had control over the design process. However I was very pleased that Marie still offered her opinion when she felt that it would help with the wedding design.
Marie was extremely patient during the entire process. I can be indecisive at times in terms of rentals, changing the rental order a large number of times. Not only that, I had changed my mind about which rental company to use as well. I believe having Marie handle the rentals order and organizing timing and delivery, how many of each to order, if this specific item will look out of place, was priceless. I highly recommend just booking her for that alone, because I could not imagine handling the logistics of delivery and setup. On my wedding day, I did not receive any questions from Marie about the wedding timeline or logistics, she handled EVERYTHING. We did not have anything go wrong on our wedding day. It ran smoothly, and it was because of Marie. Even our photographers commented on how professional and organized our planner was. The timeline that she put together was detailed and organized. It would have taken myself hours to put together the same thing, and I would have probably left multiple things out.
Our wedding venue had many issues, one including changing the entire ceremony site, to our disappointment. Marie had tried to look for other options as well. She had great vendor recommendations as well. And while we chose to not use some of her recommendations, we never felt that she was annoyed that we didn’t.
Marie responded to my texts nearly immediately. Emails within one day, sometimes hours and minutes. She was calm, made sure I had everything I needed. Not one vendor came up to me with a question. The only thing i did at my wedding was get ready, walk down the aisle, eat food/​cake, and dance the night away. She and her assistant even helped with a difficult dress bustling. It was an amazing day.
I think it may be hard (including myself) for a lot of brides to feel that a wedding planner is a required part of their budget. You truly get what you pay for. However I have been in weddings where there wasn’t a planner or perhaps simply a day of coordinator and I saw multiple (important) things being left out. A day of coordinator will not serve you the same way as a planner who has worked with you months before, and truly understands the framework for the wedding. I highly recommend Marie and I believe she would make an excellent addition to your wedding planning process.

This needs to be the very first thing you book for your wedding or event.
My wife and I live in New Jersey but wanted an intimate wine country destination wedding for our family. We were not going to be able to visit before our actual wedding (yikes), so we were totally depending on some major assistance. Courtney Sorensen was our planner for the entire process and we ended up with the wedding of our dreams. We rented out Beltane Ranch in Sonoma, which is a property that basically needs everything brought in. So we were dealing with caterers, furniture rentals, florist, music, and other vendors. Lots of moving parts! Courtney managed all of these things for us beautifully. The day before our wedding, we finally met Courtney in person and it was like meeting a member of our family at that point. When my wife and I saw the property transformed into this dream setting, we were blown away. The entire event went perfectly, without us having to think about anything but each other and the moment. Our families are eternally grateful for the work put into this. Courtney shipped tons of items back to NJ for us after the wedding and went leaps and bounds beyond the call of duty. I cannot possibly recommend Courtney and A Savvy Event enough. THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts.

I am a local DJ and I had the opportunity to work alongside Brittany this Saturday for a wedding that she was the panner for. Brittanys attention to detail is excellent. Brittany got all documents to me in a timely manner and her communication was awesome leading up to the big day. When the day arrived she was on her A game. I highly recommend Brittany and A Savvy Event. Thanks!

Jamie Fields was my wedding planner and she created a fantastic beautiful wedding event at the Fairmont. Months later my family and friends are still talking about what a fairytale fantastic wedding it was and it would not have come together without Jamie’s expertise.
We had a very condensed timeline and started planning end of September/​beginning of October for a February wedding. Despite the short time frame, Jamie was able to recommend fantastic vendors and help us book them. She even came to some vendor meetings with us and we did a walk through in December to discuss details that needed to be thought about. While everybody else around me constantly asked about details I hadn’t planned yet and stressed me out, Jamie had the opposite effect and made the planning very stress free. She also responded to my questions and e-​mails very quickly and made communication and planning so easy.
On the day of the event, she kept everybody calm and even was able to help the florist arrange a last minute bridesmaid bouquet for my jr. bridesmaid (I forgot to tell them the change of plans). Jamie also used to work at the Fairmont and knew all the staff we were working with which made things run even more smoothly. Jamie made my wedding day fantastic and I cannot recommend her enough!

A SAVY Event is an A+++++ Planning Company.
I had the pleasure of working with Brittany Payton | Event Producer of A Savy. She’s professional, hands on and ALWAYS responds to text and emails within the hour. (sometimes I texted her at 10PM =) I never felt that I was asking too many questions, because she made me feel (as a vendor), I was part of her All Star Team.
I highly recommend A Savy to any couple looking to hire a wedding planner. If you’re in the Napa area. please ask for her.
All the Best and thank you once again!

Jamie Gallion Gansler is a miracle worker! We had a very large and international wedding of 260 in Santa Barbara, CA, at the Four Seasons Biltmore, with multiple events to coordinate. I have known Jamie for years, but after our site visit last June, I knew she was an ace. She was the full coordinator, and Jamie did not deliver 100%, she delivered 1000%!
Jamie handled all of our many vendors with class, consideration, and consistency. She was a coordinator and so much more: she let me vent about the details and some annoyances along the way, she took on multiple meetings with me and with vendors, made many, many phone calls, responded to hundreds of emails, and did two site visits to Santa Barbara. Between managing my needs and my mother’s many desires, getting us the best possible prices and best possible vendors, and just her fantastic attitude, our stress was reduced and I and my husband could truly enjoy our wedding.
My mother and I wanted a party, and that is what we got. People danced for hours, caught up, and enjoyed the seaside venue and perfect views. Many of our guest have called or emailed me, my husband, or my mothers, and said our wedding was the best and most fun wedding they have attended and one of the most beautiful.
Jamie is an ace, worth 10 times her weight in gold, and the best person to make your wedding more than you could ever imagine! A Savvy Event is a fantastic wedding planning company, and Jamie is the best possible person to take your event to the most fantastic possible result!

My wife Summer and I hired A Savvy Event to coordinate our wedding at The Beltane Ranch in Glen Elenn, CA. We were assigned Courtney Sorensen, Event Producer as our coordinator. At our first meeting with Courtney, Summer and I knew she was the perfect fit for us. Courtney listened to how we wanted the vide and style of our wedding to be and then she created the most amazing wedding for us. Our wedding was 50 guest, outdoors and at a venue with natural beauty. Many of our guest have called us and said our wedding was the best wedding they have attended and the most beautiful. We had hired vendors prior to A Savvy Event taking over but once Courtney started she took care of it all and reduced our stress to zero. When one of our vendors wasn’t responsive she found us one that was even better. Courtney really created an amazing day for us and our guest, all based on what we told her.
Over all from the first contact with A Savvy Event and Courtney Sorensen they were more than what we could have imagined. If you want a great event coordination company give A Savvy Event a call.

I had the absolute pleasure of working with A Savvy Event last year for a private dinner party at my home. I can’t say enough good things about the experience. I worked with Lally from start to finish. She 100% planned and executed the event exactly as I had imagined it — even working with me to change the dates at the last minute when I had a death in the family. Everything was perfection from the florals to the food and décor. We could not have been happier. As a corporate event planner, my expectations are sometimes very high. A Savvy Event will get my business again. Don’t stress about that awesome party you want to host — give them a call!

Lally made our wedding amazing! The entire weekend was beautifully planned, meticulously executed and absolutely magical! The job she did throughout the year-​long preparations coordinating with everyone down to the tiniest detail was simply beyond compare. She saw to it that we could relax and enjoy the day, and she made everything seem effortless. She even coordinated our guests taking pictures and assembling a scrapbook during the reception, and gathered, stored and shipped our decorations after the honeymoon. I hope we have an excuse for another event! We had so much fun. Highest recommendations for Lally and A Savvy Event.

A Savvy Event will undoubtedly take your wedding (or event) to the next level. Jamie went ABOVE AND BEYOND for our Tahoe wedding. I wouldn’t recommend anyone else; there aren’t any other planners in the area that even compare.
Jamie did two site visits for me, and made my vision come to life. When I walked into the dining room for our dinner, I said, «now this is what I was dreaming of!» I loved working with all of the girls from A Savvy Event, and I know you will too.

Where do I even start?!
We got so lucky with Courtney Sorensen and Jamie Gansler! Courtney was our primary planner and was an absolute champion throughout. She took the time to understand our vision and from there made the best vendor recommendations to make everything a reality! I wouldn’t even call her a ‘planner,’ but a trusted advisor and a friend (or therapist).
Jamie was our day-​of planner and she was a rockstar in making our wedding one to remember! Looking back, it was flawless… I mean, FLAWLESS. So impressed by her ability to ensure we had the time of our lives.
All in all — ASE has true professionals. They know what they’re doing, and it’d be a mistake to not work with them.

It has taken me way too long to write this review, but as we approach our first anniversary and I was looking back at our wedding photos, I was reminded of the incredible design talent of Kelly at A Savvy Event. She pulled all the details together to create stunning spaces– from the ceremony, to the dinner, to dancing in the barn, she transformed Cornerstone Sonoma into something unique and perfect for our sentimental wedding. We told her we wanted casual elegance, and she nailed it, using linens and lounge furniture to keep everything classy yet comfortable.
Her vision of splitting the large lawn with faux barn walls to keep the ceremony and dinner areas separate was brilliant and created such intimate spaces. Our wedding of 175 people truly felt like it was an intimate gathering of our closest family and friends, and the spaces were a huge part of that.
Kelly and her team did an incredible job the day of making sure that my husband and I didn’t have anything to worry about. We were told where to be and when, and other than that, we didn’t have to stress about anything. That was huge! I would recommend any bride and groom use A Savvy Event to help create an amazing event that your family and friends will be talking about for years to come!

I can say a million wonderful things about my experience with Courtney and the ASE team! Our destination wedding was everything we hoped for and much more. Every expectation was exceeded– it truly was my dream wedding. Literally everything was perfect and looked like it was straight out of a magazine. I’m forever thankful to have had such a fabulous experience. If you are looking for a fantastic planner, trust me you need look no further. Their expertise, follow up and flawless execution allowed my husband and I to focus on making this process a fun and memorable moment! Thank you Courtney and ASE– we love you!!!

I cannot say enough good things about A Savvy Event. Initially, I was hesitant to use A Savvy Event because I was afraid that since it was a big company (as opposed to other planners that are a 1 – 2 person shop), our wedding would not be as important since they would have so many others to take care of. But after a lot of asking around, I decided to go with Savvy since everyone (wedding venue, catering companies, etc) had nothing but amazing things to say about the ladies here.
We worked with Courtney for our Cornerstone Wedding and she was absolutely amazing, fantastic, and a miracle worker. Because things fell through with our first non-​responsive wedding planner (not from A Savvy Event), Courtney only had 4 months to plan our wedding. I was afraid that because we were so late in the game, we wouldn’t be able to have everything that we wanted in our wedding… but Courtney turned made it happen! We live out of state, so it was a destination wedding for us. The entire time leading up to the wedding, Courtney was super responsive, answering all her emails in less than 24 hours. She was able to see our vision, with the help of various pictures I found online and her detailed questions. Courtney thinks of everything and is super detail oriented… she thinks of things that I would’ve never in a million years think about when it comes to wedding planning. She is super organized and knows her stuff when it comes to weddings. It’s obvious that she loves her job and her work definitely shows it!
Wedding day: Courtney was also our day-​of-​coordinator. She had this uncanny ability to read my mind and knew exactly when my husband and I needed to take a breather by ourselves. Things ran so smoothly with her in the background. And most importantly, she turned our dream wedding into a reality! Everything was amazingly beautiful and just like how we imagined it in our heads. The ceremony lawn and dinner tent were absolutely stunning. The barn was so cozy and perfect for ending the night. There was no way we could’ve done our wedding without her!
All in all, Courtney is amazing. She’s exactly what we were looking for in a wedding planner and more. I highly recommend her for all your event planning needs!

If there were an option for ten stars I would unhesitatingly give it to Kelly, Brittany and the entire staff at A Savvy Event! They were the absolute best at making our wedding day a day to remember and the wedding itself a fairytale event.
Some background: My good friend is the owner of Annadel Estate Winery. Annadel is not only a very successful winery with world class wines but also a première destination for wine country weddings. My friend graciously offered my fiancée Angela and I the use of his property for our wedding, which we gladly accepted. He also strongly suggested that we contract with Kelly and A Savvy Event to plan and execute the wedding. Due to my friend’s experience in the field (no pun intended) we took his advice. And we have been grateful ever since.
In spite of the beautiful location and setting at Annadel, everything — and I mean EVERYTHING — has to be created on the property where the wedding is to take place. Essentially what you get is a beautiful vineyard with rustic ruins for the ceremony. And that’s it, although «that» is pretty impressive.
So we had to pretty much build out the entire event, which went something like this:
Hiring a shuttle service to transport guests to and from the event due to county restrictions on vehicle traffic.
Renting a commercial sized tent to accommodate 125 people, dance floor, space heaters, electrical services, etc.
Renting tables, chairs, plates, silverware, candles, etc. (This was a key component because we initially were going to use one of the larger commercial event companies in the Bay Area and Kelly was not satisfied with the prices that they were going to charge us. She shopped around and found us a local company that had nicer materials for much less, saving us a considerable amount of money.)
Kelly and Brittany, due to their extensive experience in the event planning business knew exactly where to go to get the perfect items and which vendors to deal with.
These are just a few of the tangible items that Kelly and her staff arranged for us. THEN there was coordinating all of the principles who were essential to the ceremony: caterer, florist, band, DJ, officiant, cake lady, and on and on.
On the note of the cake lady, one incident will always speak volumes about the ethics and integrity of A Savvy Event. There was a minor deposit on the cake plate that we agreed to with our pastry chef. At the end of the wedding day the plate had somehow come up missing. As stated, it was a nominal amount of money, especially compared to the overall expense of the wedding. Kelly was adamant that she would pay the fee for the missing plate, to the point that we argued over it! (She eventually paid, against my better wishes!)
Time and space preclude me from listing all of the endless work and little details that went into making our wedding day magical but the bottom line is that Kelly and staff are truly worth their weight in gold.
I don’t have any experience with other wedding/​event planners in the area but I can’t believe that there are any as good and as professional as Kelly, Brittany and A Savvy Event.

Kelly and her team are absolutely amazing and a wonderful vendor team to work with. We have done numerous weddings with her and have always witnessed her team execute weddings with flawless perfection. She really is one of the best coordinators and one of our top favorites! A Savvy Event weddings are always top notch!

Kelly and her team did an amazing job coordinating my wedding. Shes wonderful to work with and is always coming up with ideas. She has a great taste and a wonderful sense of design. Every time I look back on my photos I can’t believe how gorgeous she made my wedding look. Even my mom can’t sing Kelly enough praises!
Kelly handled all the coordination so that I would have nothing to worry about on the day off which was awesome! She even provided parasols for my guests because I underestimated how hot it would be on that day.
My only concern that sometimes communication was spotty. I know that they were busy especially during wedding season and being an anxious person doesn’t help. However I trusted Kelly and I knew she would have everything perfect on the day.
Oh, another great thing is that her husband is an officiant. Just like Kelly, he was awesome. I am glad we had him do our ceremony. It was short and sweet just like how we wanted.