Cora Bella Weddings & Events

d have to see us through an extra year of planning due to our pandemic postponement. She held our hands through the planning process and made sure that we were getting exactly what we wanted! And sometimes we didn't even know what that was - we'd never planned a large scale event before, and she had to do so much patient explaining of what was traditional, what our more modern options were, and let us decide what would fit us best as a couple :) We wholeheartedly recommend working with Kristan, the sweetest, funniest, kindest, and loveliest event planner in the Bay Area! She made our special day absolutely perfect, and we can't thank her enough for all her hard work!

, thoughtful, reassuring, and instrumental in the planning process. She kept us on track in our planning meetings, and assigned us tasks that made all of the overwhelming details seem more manageable. As we were approaching our wedding date at the end of March 2020, we felt completely prepared for our big day. Fortunately, we had Kristan during our 2 COVID related postponements to help with all of the industry changes, restrictions, and safety measures. Kristan was originally our “month of” wedding coordinator, but she worked with us to be more hands on in the postponement process by contacting vendors and updating contracts when we didn’t have the emotional energy to do so ourselves. We did decide to have a small zoom wedding to make it legal last year (woohoo!), but we are soooo very excited to continue working with Kristan in the coming months, and we know we will be in excellent hands on our big day in September! We would also be remiss if we did not share about how comfortable we feel with Kristan as a lesbian couple. In our interview with Kristan, she treated us with so much respect, understanding, and knowledge. She didn’t bat an eye with some of our non-traditional plans and even took the time to update the pronouns and other language on her planning software to reflect our relationship (we use bride/maid of honor/bridesmaids and broom/best lady/broomladies). *This is our Post-wedding update for Cora Bella Events. Please also check-out our review 6 months ago for our mid-planning review* In the final lead-up to the wedding, Kristan gave us incredible guidance, recommendations, and answered our MANY questions with grace. It was also invaluable to seek her input when navigating some tricky COVID-related situations with family members. There was never any doubt that she always put us and our interests first. It truly made this very complicated process go so smoothly! During our rehearsal, she gave us so much reassurance and made sure we had everything ready to go for our big day. She also gave us two massive emergency kits that proved so useful! Without it, my wife’s mother would have walked her down the aisle without a sole on her shoe! It’s pretty unbelievable, but we actually had a good night’s rest the night before our wedding, since we knew every checklist item was crossed off, and we had full trust that Kristan would take care of everything. We built such a trusting relationship during our planning process, that we never had to worry about forgetting something or missing an important detail. It was so wonderful to have Kristan and a supportive team available so our family and bridal party didn’t have to take on that role. Kristan also set up the flow of our day and timeline in a way that went magically! She even re-worked our planned sparkler exit to be a bubble exit since our postponement moved our wedding to fire season. The pictures were incredible, and it meant the world to us that we had someone on our side who cared so much about making our day perfect! We can’t thank Kristan enough, and we feel incredibly lucky that she came into our lives at such a stressful time, to help us breathe a little easier. Thank you so very much!

lockdown in March 2020! We were so nervous and did not know what to expect at all as we saw businesses and events shutting down suddenly, within days of our wedding. I will never forget sitting in the nail salon the day before the wedding and watching the county shut down all church events/weddings on the news. I immediately called Kristan and she was totally calm and had already called all of our vendors and even the church and made sure everyone was still on and adjusted plans to make the event COVID safe! I couldn't have imagined any other planner/coordinator to help us with our wedding, she took the time to fully understand our vision and it showed on our wedding day. Kristan was beyond helpful throughout the entire planning process, has great relationships with every vendor we reached out to in the Bay Area, and her team was so well organized on the day of. My only regret is not hiring her for the FULL wedding planning/coordinating service!

ery step of the way through our planning, re-planning, venue change, 2 date changes etc. She was so knowledgeable and organized throughout the entire process even with all the roadblocks we hit. She has an eye for pretty and helped me make so many decisions. She knows all the answers to all things wedding. But it went beyond wedding knowledge. Kristan went above and beyond when it came to keeping me updated with all county restrictions / Covid requirements when it came to gatherings / weddings. She was 100% my go to person. She is cool, calm and collected and kept me the same. I ended up having my wedding in the mountains an cut my guest list by 75%, and unfortunately could not have Kristan be there for our special day. She still did not give up on my day. She continued to support me in any way she could. A true wedding planner hero!! I cannot recommend Kristan enough to be your wedding planner.

low so smoothly. Her attention to detail far exceeds any that I have experienced before. The care she provides to her clients and vendors alike is incomparable. Kristan truly makes the Cora Bella Weddings & Events experience unforgettable by bringing your dream wedding to fruition. I look forward to working with her later this year for a Livermore wedding at The Club at Ruby Hill. Do yourself a favor and contact Kristan NOW. I guarantee it will be the best decision you make for your wedding day!

We hired Cora Bella Wedding & Events to assist us with decor design and coordination for our big day. During our wedding planning process we felt completely relieved with Kristan at the wheel. She made herself available at times that worked for us and she met with us more than enough times to give us full confidence that our wedding day was completely under control all at a very reasonable rate. Kristan and the Cora Bella team executed our wedding day perfectly and went above and beyond to add additional design aspects that added even more beauty to our ceremony and reception spaces. I would highly recommend Kristan for any of your wedding planning and management needs. She is truly a gem and we are so thankful to have had her expertise.

th of planning, she helped us a lot more than just the month before the wedding. It was definitely a lot less stressful to have Kristan by our side and be our go to person. She kept us on track throughout the planning process. She offered her advice and expertise, but if we wanted to do something different than what she suggested, she let us make the final decision. We were able to have meetings in person and also via skype. The skype meetings were convenient especially on weekdays after work. Initially, my fiance/now husband did not see the value of hiring a coordinator. After he saw all the planning and work that Kristan did, he understood the value Kristan provided. We are both happy we hired her!

ssional! Better yet, hire Kristan, to handle the details. Even though I had been in the industry myself for many years, when my son proposed, I knew two things...it was going to be a fun yet stressed filled year and that even though all of us were completely capable of choosing the venue and hiring vendors, I knew there would be the time to hand all the details over to someone I trust. I remember first meeting Kristan at the ACPWC (Association of Certified Professional Wedding Consultants) and thinking to myself....when the time comes, she will be my choice! Kristan is on it! No "i" was left without a dot, no "t" was left uncrossed. Not only did she keep us organized, she also offered solutions to some of our vendor relationship issues. We did have to substitute out both our caterer and our florist close to the wedding day and she guided us beautifully to more appropriate (for us) professionals. But her true talent made its appearance the month of...keeping us on track! Kristan also managed the "excited" group of bridesmaids and groomsmen perfectly during the rehearsal and wedding day. It's only been one week since the wedding and I'm still not firmly planted back on Earth, but as the photos are making their way to social media, I am reminded that none of that "perfection" would have been possible without the help of the incomparable Kristan Shamus. She's my pick!!

r wedding went off beautifully, and many guests commented that it was the best wedding they had ever attended! We knew we wanted to incorporate Star Trek into our wedding, but we also wanted to maintain a traditional wedding feel. She talked to us about our likes and dislikes and what we were hoping to see at the wedding. Kristan took our ideas and flew with them at warp speed. She designed everything from the lighting scheme and linen colors to the physical layout and gobos. She introduced us to the perfect florist for our style, and she found us an amazing caterer who was able to make the entire reception gluten-free for our dietary needs. She even managed our RSVP list! We appreciated Kristan’s friendly personality, professionalism, and calm demeanor. She made our wedding as stress-free as it could possibly be, and the day turned out to be magical. The wedding and reception were elegant and still really felt like us. Kristan and her team exceeded our expectations, and we recommend her to anyone planning an event!

plates. She took care of all the decor and set up at the ceremony on the day of and during the planning process, she was very available and willing to answer any wedding related questions even about the reception (even though we only hired her for the ceremony). Kristan is very friendly and encouraging as well and put us at ease very early on.

lves because we thought it would be easy but even a brunch for 40 people at a restaurant needed a lot of coordination and knowledge that I just did not have. It started when I asked her to take a look at the the food and beverage proposal and right away she was able to see that we were being overcharged and she stepped in to manage that whole process. From there she took care of flower arrangements, managed our photographer, got the restaurant to create a Mimosa and Bloody Mary bar for us that was not on their menu, and arrived early/stayed late to set up/put away the decor. One of the things that stood out to me the most that day was during toasts. When she indicated to my FIL where to stand so the camera would see him best and the photographer gave her a grateful smile, I thought, “I would never have even thought about that”. This is what makes Kristan such a great planner - her attention to detail! We are so grateful to her for taking the weight of the planning off our shoulders and just letting us relax! And it was way more beautiful then we would have ever been able to do ourselves :)

cisions we made throughout the entire wedding planning process. Looking back, I'm frightened to think that we had once thought we could do it without a wedding planner -- ha! She was absolutely critical and we would have had a VERY different, nowhere near as magical wedding as we did without her help. One of the best parts was that Kristan was a top quality wedding planner but offered packages with a whole lot more value than other wedding planners we interviewed. I feel like we got a ton of value before Kristan is discovered as one of the top wedding planners or coordinators in the Bay Area! Highly recommend!

us in planning and keep us on track. We wanted a wedding planner to really help us out during our actually wedding, and she was the perfect person for that role. When we arrived to our venue, everything was set up just the way we imagined. She was very thorough down to every detail, and had a good vision of what we wanted our wedding to be. She was a huge help to us and made our day stress free. We would definitely recommend her to others!

to making our wedding day exactly what we wanted made all the difference in the world. I knew there was no need to stress over anything the day of our wedding because Kristan was there behind the scenes making it all happen. During the planning process, I really felt Kristan did a great job of listening to exactly what we wanted and expected for our big day. She is VERY organized and she made sure all the vendors were on the same page throughout the whole process. We also had some weather issues that brought some unique challenges but she had a plan B already mapped out for a worse case scenario. Luckily, the weather cooperated an hour before our outdoor ceremony so she didn't need to go to plan B (but at least she had one :) It was truly a wonderful feeling knowing we had someone at the venue in our corner calling all the shots. We really loved working with Kristan and we would highly recommend her to any bride looking for a day of coordinator!!