Monarch Wedding Planning

My daughter had a destination wedding in Santa Barbara, CA on 7.22.23. We hired Monarch Wedding Planning to help us navigate this milestone event for our family. I am not sure I have the words that can adequately describe how amazing Alison was to work with. We simply could not have pulled off the most magical wedding if we didn't have her helping, guiding, and organizing us each step of the way. I love how she would give us opinions and options but in a way that was not pushy or over bearing. Alison was very professional especially when working with our other vendors. Every time we would visit Santa Barbara to do wedding stuff, she always made us a priority. We absolutely loved working with Alison and are truly going to miss her.

We had a great experience with Allison from Monarch Wedding Planning. She was professional, easy to talk to, organized, and knowledgeable about vendors in the area. She was absolutely invaluable on our wedding day and we highly recommend working with her. Our wedding was at a private residence which required a flexible approach. Allison was patient and never discouraged us from pursuing this non-traditional (and challenging at times) path. She provided big picture guidance and helped us translate our unique vision for our wedding into reality. The wedding was amazing and we have a huge amount of gratitude to Allison for making it possible. Our experience began with a video chat with Allison. She provided feedback on our ideas and information to help us decide if she was the right fit. After we hired Allison, we arranged for her to visit the wedding venue (a private residence). We were unable to visit the venue in person (with or without Allison) prior to the wedding, so this visit was very important. She went out of her way to make this happen. From that point we had phone/video meetings about every two months up to the wedding. In all the ways that mattered, Allison was on top of the timeline and in sync with our progress. She kept us on our toes which is the most important thing a wedding coordinator can do. You need to stay organized and Allison will make sure you do. As part of her services you will have access to Aisle Planner which is invaluable for staying organized and coordinating with Allison. Use it early and often. Also be sure to retrieve any information from the website soon after the wedding because your access will be limited. Allison provided a good balance between clearly stating her professional opinions and accommodating our unique ideas for our wedding. There were no major conflicts between her advice and our vision, but if there had been, we are sure Allison would have given us her honest opinion with our best interests in mind. She offered many valuable insights, especially about local vendors. It was clear she had a good relationship with the caterer we selected, which is critical because the caterer plays a big role in the experience of your guests and the overall success of your wedding, and you definitely want things to be seamless between your caterer and your coordinator. I imagine the same would be true if you hire a venue. The week or two leading up to the wedding and the wedding day itself is where Allison absolutely shines as a top notch wedding coordinator. Although much of the wedding will be planned several months ahead of time (with Allison’s guidance), the week leading up to the wedding largely determines how much you actually get to enjoy your wedding day (you will be stressed out!). Allison was there for us during this time. She helped with set up, timeline, take down, and coordinated everyone involved in every aspect of the wedding (main job!). Apart from your coordinator, you will be relying on your friends and family during this time, especially if your wedding is not at a wedding venue. We received feedback from some of our closest friends and family that Allison was on top of things and helped them keep track of what they needed to be doing and when. We could not have done it without her, and nothing was left undone. In short, we have nothing but good things to say about Allison, and we are very thankful to her for helping us make our wedding dreams become reality. Thank you Allison!

We Couldn't Have Said "I do" Without Monarch Wedding Planning! What can I say except WOW! Working with Alison was incredible and 100% necessary! Not only did she know the right questions that we didn't know to ask our venue, vendors, etc...she was always so helpful and understanding of all of the moving parts and itinerary changes. I adore Alison and her team at Monarch Wedding Planning!!!!

Working with Alison was phenomenal. She was worth every penny, she made our planning experience so much less stressful, even when we were buying a house at the same time! Her recommendations alone were worth the money. Catering, Photographer, DJ, Florals, Rentals, Hair/Make Up - she had multiple stellar references to give us, so all we had to do was go with the company we clicked with best and fit our budget. Being able to pick from vetted options took the stress out of the process and made us confident early on that our wedding was going to be amazing. She was highly respected with every vendor we worked with, any time we mentioned her as our coordinator they would relax and say, “Oh she’s great, she’s really on top of things.” There were a few hiccups with our venue (which we selected before we met Alison), however she noticed quickly and resolved this for us. We also were from out of town so most of our planning was over the phone, with a few in person meetings for venue walkthrough, cake tasting, and catering tasting. She was very responsive to emails and texts (and probably calls but we saved that for meetings haha), and her planning website was AWESOME and really helped us track everything we were working on and helped her see where we were at as well so she could prompt us if we were falling behind on anything. I love how it laid out everything we needed to do since there was a lot we’d never thought of but was important! Day of (August 2022) she was more in the background making sure everything ran smoothly with the vendors, but checking in with us once in a while as we got ready to see if we needed anything else. Because of her perfect planning, we didn’t! But I’m sure she would have figured it out if we did. In fact maybe she did and she solved something without us even knowing… Highly likely. If I could give one piece of planning advice I would say hire her first, then figure out the rest. It’ll be much easier.

Alison made sure to check all the little boxes, and helped us make sure our wedding day went off without a hitch. There are so many important but non-intuitive details that you'll want to get right when dealing with vendors and Alison made sure we got them right. The day of our wedding was so easy with her handling everything :)

Alison went above and beyond all expectations! She touched base with us regularly to make sure I wasn't missing any important details and I was where I was supposed to be in the planning process. She made sure to schedule many phone calls getting closer to the date so she could get to know our wedding details just as well as us! On the big day, she handled everything and didn't need to ask me for help with a single thing. Our day truly would not have gone as smoothly without her, thank you Alison!

Our wedding was in Santa Barbara, CA, which was a destination wedding for almost all of our guests. We worked with Alison as a day of coordinator, and starting a couple months before the big day, we were in close communication, with more regular communication closer to the day. Because I was a full time grad student and my partner works full time, she was super flexible and responsive when it came to communicating and scheduling calls. A couple weeks til the wedding, she had every finite detail planned and ready to go, contacted all the vendors, and day of, everything was absolute perfection!!!!! Alison did so many things in the background, most of which I feel like I still don’t know!! Alison and her assistant Karen were completely professional, respectful, gracious and kind, and worked so hard to make sure our day went smoothly. She was such a calming presence and helped to melt away any stress I had leading up to and the day of. I absolutely cannot recommend them highly enough. You should have zero hesitations when it comes to working with them!

We began working with Alison in late December 2019 before our initially-scheduled wedding in San Luis Obispo in April 2020. Unfortunately, our big celebration was twice postponed because of COVID, finally landing in March 2022; but Alison was with us throughout the process. She also kept us optimistic and relaxed when we felt that the wedding may not happen and was incredibly kind and caring over the few years we worked with her. As we neared March, Alison helped us incredibly by checking in bi-weekly, communicating directly with vendors, and also stopping by the venue to check on items needed for our big day. Our big day also went perfectly because of her organized list of vendors and timeline keeping both us, guests, and the vendors on track. So many of our wedding guests felt like this was the best wedding they'd ever been to and we are grateful to Alison for her professionalism and support throughout the event planning. We couldn't recommend her more for wedding planning in the Central Coast: she is responsive, insightful, and incredibly capable.

I hired Monarch halfway through my wedding planning process and they were the best choice for us! Alison answered all my questions and paired me with Karen, who I worked with for the last 5 months of my wedding planning. She was such a pleasure to work with. She was fun yet had a calming presence and was very professional. She had great guidance and was always open to making my ideas come to life. She was so flexible with all my little changes I made along the way. My vendors were happy to work with her and my family and friends enjoyed working with her on the wedding weekend. I would highly recommend Monarch, especially Karen!

We initially didn't plan on getting a coordinator but our venue required us to get a day of coordinator and we are so glad we did! Alison did an incredible job! We had to postpone due to Covid and she helped keep me organized and stayed in touch during our one year postponement. Our wedding day felt like it went so smoothly and I know Alison is to thank for that!

Thank you for all your guidance in the process of planning our wedding!

Alison and Karen were awesome! They were well organized and professional. We had multiple meetings to confirm that everything was set for the events and they helped make sure everything ran smoothly.

There were many people that helped make our wedding day so special. Alison Martinez  with Monarch Wedding Planning was our amazing wedding planner that helped from day 1, all the way to the very last moment on our wedding day. She went above and beyond to make sure everything ran smoothly. She helped manage every detail that led up to our day as well. She was easy to work with, very accommodating, and extremely thorough. Alison made sure that all of our vendors were on the same page. Brett and I were able to enjoy our day that much more knowing that Alison was in charge! We didn't have to worry about a thing. All of our energy went into enjoying our day. Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication. 💜

Alison was our wedding coordinator for our July 24, 2021 wedding. We had originally planned to get married in September 2020 but had to postpone due to COVID. Alison was a huge help to us throughout the planning process and was patient with all of the last minute changes that we had to make. She is very professional but still personable and fun to work with. On the day of the wedding, she ensured that everything went according to plan and the timeline. My husband and I didn’t have to worry about a thing on our wedding day other than showing up where we needed to be. We received many compliments from our guests about our wedding and how everything seemed to flow so well. I highly recommend Alison!

Alison was a pleasure to work with. Very responsiveness and listened to our wants and needs. She kept the wedding on schedule without being overbearing. She knows her job and knows it well. She definitely made the whole day a lot easier for the wedding party and the parents. She helped load gifts in the car and had things neatly packed in the bridal suite and that made easier for us to load into our cars. Thank you Alison for assisting with the welcome table; cake table, etc. Alison worked together with our caterer, baker, and our florist to ensure a beautiful setting.

Alison provided great insight and made the wedding run flawlessly.

After researching various planning agencies, I made the decision to hire Alison of Monarch Wedding Planning for day-of coordination, and now I have no doubts that was the best I could have done. She is very kind and patient - especially for sticking with us after we had to postpone in 2020 for over a year. She even connected us to a great caterer when our prior one wouldn't postpone with us. Thank you, Alison, for all of your help in making our wedding possible!

Alison at Monarch Wedding Planning is incredible! You will not have to stress or worry about any of your wedding planning if you hire her. My daughter's wedding day was so enjoyable for all of us because Alison had everything under control. Her assistant is also very helpful and professional. Thanks to Alison and her assistant for making my daughter's wedding better than I even imagined. It was a perfect day.

So we talked with and or met a few coordinator/planners before deciding on Alison. Her personality was much more calm than some of the others without being over the top and overwhelming. We didn't feel exhausted after talking with her which was a true delight! (This happened after a few in person meets & calls with others!) Although Alison is calm she is still excited, interested, and on-it. Who needs more stress while planning a wedding, not us! So glad we found Alison and clicked! Even for a rather small wedding we unfortunately had to change venues. I felt as if I had searched and searched for a replacement that fit us and a date we were good with and nearly gave up and started looking back in our home town although Paso is our home away from home. A few days after our call on the subject of almost giving up, Alison came through after taking with her contacts with a HUGE list of possibilities and a little bit of insight on each one so we could narrow the pool. While on the phone I fell in love with our new venue and soon after we were back to planning our day! It was refreshing while working with Alison to plan our day we didn't have to send multiple follow up emails or wait for several days for a response with Alison, she was very prompt. We had several check in calls leading up to the day, more frequent as we got closer. She had great reminders, little ideas, or to-do’s we hadn’t thought of yet and pointed out what our next priorities should be. No call or to do list that came from it was ever to overwhelming because we took it on bit by bit together. As we got closer to the big day, in addition to the timeline after she reviewed contracts she confirmed the game plan with us and then with the vendors making sure we were all on the same page. She was my backup checklist for sure. It was reassuring to have her checking on what we had planned. We wanted someone to pull our months of planning and ideas together help us confirm/refine then and execute, she did just that! The day before the wedding we did an inventory of all we had brought and where it was going. She didn’t just want to see the box and figure it out later we looked at each item and she took notes, I was a bit surprised but very pleased. The day came, we honestly had very few questions the day of from any vendors, I suppose that goes to the planning and Alison being there taking charge. Would definitely recommend her to a friend or fellow bride!

Alison is the absolute best! She goes above and beyond what her duties entailed, met with us as many times as we needed to make our event happen without any extra charge, and called/facetimed us as many times as needed to make us feel comfortable with our wedding plans. Due to covid, our wedding kept changing, and she took all the changes with stride, was able to execute a safe, socially distant intimate wedding beautifully and made us feel so at ease with all our changes and ever evolving plans. Seriously, couldn't have asked for anyone better- she is the best!

Alison is an excellent wedding planner. Very caring and responsive. Most importantly, Allison listens to understand the unique needs and wants of her clients. Allison was very adaptable to our ever changing vision due to the Covid restrictions and kept us grounded and what was important when we got discouraged . She was honest every step of the way and insured we were getting the absolute best price from our vendors. Allison also created a phenomenal timeline and kept it up-to-date as COVID-19 was a very fluid and ever-changing plan. All in all we would rate Allison five stars .

Alison was truly amazing! I loved working with her and she did such an amazing job keeping me sane and organized throughout the wedding process. And then the day of, I kept feeling like I didn’t see her, but it’s because she was running around handling everything and making sure everything went so smooth, and it did. I didn’t have a single worry on my wedding day because of her! She’s amazing!