Cole Drake Events

expert in wine country wedding planning. Working with her for over one year, Stephanie exhibited the following qualities that truly make her the best: Personable - Stephanie’s gregarious personality is contagious. She loves what she does and that made working with her all the more enjoyable. You will spend a lot of time with your wedding planner. Whether it’s corresponding over hundreds of emails or discussing details over hour long calls. With Stepanie’s can-do energetic attitude I don’t know how you can’t not love her. Meticulous - As to be expected, Stephanie pays attention to every detail. On your big day, her goal is for you to be stress free and that was truly the case with Stephanie. As my own mother said to me (who is extremely hard to please), “your wedding planner is incredible, she is always where she needs to be exactly when she needs to be there.” In addition, With her deep experience comes an intimate knowledge of every possible outcome and how to plan for it. Stephanie’s attention to detail and ability to plan for any mishap (i.e. rain) was incredible. Two thirds of our wedding was planned to be outdoors. When our wedding week rolled around, heavy rain was in the forecast for our big day. Within 5 days Stephanie put together an entire plan B that was executed without mishap. Our guests were none the wiser that the entire flow and the location of our wedding had changed 5 days before they arrived. Connected - Napa is a luxury destination wedding location filled with vendors that are difficult to navigate. As someone that lives and plans weddings in the Napa region, Stephanie is connected to the best of the best of wedding vendors. From florists to photographers Stephanie will ensure that you have an ample selection of the most talented people to bring your big day to life (within your budget). Honesty - We think one of the best qualities of Stephanie is her honesty. She will give you her true opinion and tell you what you need to hear, even when you don’t want to hear it. From telling you that those farm tables you want won’t add much and are not in budget, to delivering the tough news that we need to plan for rain, Stephanie ensures that her honesty is delivered with your best interest in mind. She really cares about her couples and this honesty is sometimes the thing you need the most. If you are planning a wedding or event in Wine Country (Napa/Sonoma), then we could not recommend more that you use Stephnie or ColeDrake events for your special day.

rt driven by Alexis Alexander, the "fairy godmother of weddings", from the venue to our wedding suite). Let me start at the top. I was looking for a planner to take full control over the wedding. I had a newborn at the time of the first phone call and my priority until the wedding was to focus on my new role as a mother. After a 3 hour phone call going over the specifics of my vision, Alexis guided me through the process with questions to narrow down vendors while also sparking creativity. Once she got to it, she scheduled a time for me to meet the vendors, go over designs, chose table settings, etc. All of this work was done for me. I just showed up and said yes or no. The process can be overwhelming at times being that there are many "yes" or "no"s to answer but Alexis was very good at simplifying everything and explaining things in a way that made the decision making process easier and pain-free. One of my favorite parts of the process was choosing dinner/ wine and Alexis was such great company to have be apart of this process. Along the way we would touch base via email or phone call and I was always reassured by lists that were checked, vendors who have been contact, bills paid (or unpaid). I never had to reach out more then once and I was always met with prompts responses. I wanted to add a few little details to make the wedding day more intimate and more "us" and she granted each and every wish! It truly was a dream come true. Alexis smoothed over any road bumps which came up along the way and was very protective of our wishes and our plans for our special day. The wedding night was better than I could have imagined it to be. I have zero regrets, and only have positive things to say about our experience with Alexis at Cole Drake Events. Highly recommend Alexis as well as the Full Package if you are looking for more of a "hands-off" experience. You can trust her to make your wedding dreams come true!

tury steamship commissioned in London in 1941, sailed by Howard Carter who found King Tut’s tomb, and the scene of Agatha Christie’s writings. Marooned and abandoned, in 2004 it was discovered, specially modernized and re-commissioned for a lucky few to enjoy. Majestic with period charm & character born of its history, with timeless, impeccable service and now with modern amenities. It is the most unique and coveted boat on the river Nile. I prize encompassing services that meet and exceed the relevant standards of a respective industry. However, I also deeply desire creative experiences that are not cookie-cutter, and that as such can properly set apart important chapters in my life journey. I am here on this special, splendid ship with my beautiful new bride. She is smitten with our adventure and the unfolding surprise of it all. But what we are enjoying even now does not quite compare to the splendor of our wedding, curated by Alexis Alexander and Cole Drake. The destination of the Egyptian Nile as honeymoon is very important to me: since my boyhood I have dreamed of digging for the treasures of the Pharaohs and of discovering secret stories written on papyrus scripts. That dream is now coming true. But the greatest treasure for which I could ever have searched, is my beautiful [then]-fiancee. My biggest dream was to find my precious soulmate. When I found her, I was determined to ensure the smoothest and most surefooted passage of us, together as one, into the next new chapter of life. The stakes were high. Higher than our honeymoon. They were much, much higher than anything I have ever had to face before in my life. I trusted these stakes to Cole Drake. My pediatrician mother taught me that one of the of greatest of human values is when a child trusts somebody. You can go somewhere on that. A child will tug at you, telling you what he or she wants; you give it to her, set limits, guide her and then she takes off. You can show a child the way to an unbelievable destiny. What is remarkable about a wedding, and it certainly was so with ours, is that it is ‘birthing’ and growing up compressed into a very short time. The role of an experienced and intuitive guide is necessary and critical- looking back I am astonished at how completely and successfully Alexis Alexander held our hands, protected us, turned on the spotlights only where they should shine, and made luminous our passage into this future we have been destined for. I now see and understand that it was our destiny all along that Alexis Alexander should meet us on the way, pull us up our gigantic step, with kindness, honesty and grace, and set us atop of the mountain of married life. With the perfection of her wind in our sails, we are cruising into the wondrous wide world unfurling before us. So it is written in the stars, and so it must be told.

he was great in the beginning. We clicked during our first phone call and she seemed super helpful and knowledgable. But once we made it official, she got lazy, uninterested and clearly prioritized brides who paid her more. You’d think $7k would be enough to make someone want to have some pride in their work. I couldn’t have felt more neglected and the money I spent on Cole Drake was by far the biggest waste of money of the entire wedding. I live in New York and came to California maybe 3 times to plan. The first time I met with her in person to plan she was in a rush to get done with me. She had an attitude towards my mom and sister as well and did not seem fit to deal with multiple opinions and personalities. I find it hard to believe this is out of the oridinary for brides and their families. Many details that she was responsible for executing on the day of came out wrong. The flowers and design elements were different than the photos I sent. The lanterns that were rented were not what I asked for. She ordered us an extra bar table and didn’t make sure it was set up at the venue so we were one bar short the entire party. She did not attempt to save me any money and waited until the very last minute to do everything. I had to hound her to get my rentals taken care of and by the time she decided to work on it, we had to rent from multiple vendors because everything was sold out. She wasn’t active in any of my conversations with vendors and I basically handled everything myself. She rushed our rehearsal because she had somewhere to be. On the day of the wedding, she was nowhere to be found. She didn’t help at all with the makeup/hair coordination. She did not direct guests where to go after the ceremony. She didn’t congratulate me or my husband on the day of or email or call after it was over to follow up and see how it went. My friends were shocked I even had a party planner because she did not exist that day in their eyes. We also ordered flipflops for our guests and she didn’t bring them out until the last 20 minutes of the event. I wish there was some remedy for this but unfortunately we paid her in advance before we could express our true concerns. Big mistake. I did however send a long-winded email during the process with more details if anyone would like to chat more. At this point all I can do is help other brides-to-be. Feel free to reach me for follow-up if you have any more questions! This is a big decision and a pricey one. Don’t get sold. These vendors are all getting kick backs from each other and look out for themselves and only themselves. I don’t have many complaints about my wedding but hiring Alexis at Cole Drake was a full blown scam, waste of money and the worst decision I made for the wedding. Beware.

ie is a planning machine, a force of nature. From the biggest decisions to the smallest details, she is a master of execution. Our day-of timeline was nearly 20 pages long. So many little, and not so little, things went wrong over the months we were working with Stephanie, but you would never have known it, because she handled each challenge with grace and poise. She kept us holding our heads high through so many tears - a few bad (like when our wedding band unceremoniously disbanded several months post-contract), but so, so many more of them happy. Our wedding day was perfect, exactly as we dreamed, and it was because of her. Stephanie will surpass your every expectation, every time. I had never met Stephanie before hiring her as our planner, but I now proudly consider her my friend. Besides saying yes when my now-husband got down on one knee, hiring Stephanie is the single best decision I made with respect to my wedding. I urge you to make the same fantastic choice.

s feel so special on our big day. If you're getting married in wine country, definitely give Sarah a ring!