We’ve made no secret of our support for hiring a wedding planner. It is a MUST for ensuring maximum enjoyment of your wedding day! Our favorite choice is to hire a full-service planner, but at the VERY least, you should hire a “month of” coordinator to manage your vendors and timeline so that you can focus on the most important part of the day: getting married!
If you are tying the knot in Santa Barbara, Montecito, Carpinteria, or Santa Ynez, here are our suggestions for some super-talented wedding designers + coordinators in the area. Without further ado, and in no particular order, our list of the best Santa Barbara wedding planners.
VANESSA NOEL EVENTS // I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Vanessa long before either of us were working in the wedding industry; it was kismet that our style preferences aligned so well from the very beginning. I know that us being friends makes me a little biased, but Vanessa Noel Events is a stellar designer and such a talent when it comes to graceful execution of every wedding day detail. For some of Vanessa’s design work, check out Sammie and Dave’s wedding at Greengate Ranch, or our shoot at Kestrel Park.
WILD HEART EVENTS // We first met Jaime through her crazy-rad event The Jam wedding showcase in 2016, and we’ve been obsessed with her ever since. Her creative design choices are always rocking our world. One of our favorite weddings EVER was with Wild Heart Events at Holland Ranch and will be featured in The Knot magazine this coming summer (so excited!). This iridescent inspiration shoot at El Encanto was pretty bananas, too (in a good way, duh).
ONYX + REDWOOD // We adore Jessica — she is SO fun to work with and she comes up with delightful style and design concepts for her clients. Jessica and her team are known for their infectious energy, hard work, and high standards for great client and guest experiences. We got to work with Onyx + Redwood on this stunning wedding at the Four Seasons Biltmore in Santa Barbara (which also appeared in California Wedding Day magazine!).
WEDDING KATE // We’ve had the pleasure of working with Katie on several stunning weddings and beautifully-produced styled editorials (like this one for Santa Barbara Life & Style Magazine). Wedding Kate is a hands-on, full-service planner and designer firmly rooted in romance and classic elegance. We can’t get enough of this wedding with her at Villa Verano!
EVENT OF THE SEASON // Kelly and Cassidy are incredible planners and designers specializing in elegant, luxury Santa Barbara wedding celebrations. Established in in 2005, Event of the Season was named Top Wedding Planner in SB and Ventura County by California Wedding Day magazine in 2017. This Fess Parker wedding with them was one of our faves of 2017!
AMAZING DAYS EVENTS // Sophie and Kelsey are wedding ninjas and are a no-nonsense team ready to tackle the million little details that make up a wedding day. We know that an event with Amazing Days Events will always go off without a hitch; they are incredible (okay, amazing) at executing dream weddings envisioned by their clients (like this beauty at Villa della Famiglia last spring!).
MAGNOLIA EVENT DESIGN // Some of our favorite weddings EVER have been in collaboration with the lovely Lindsey of Magnolia Event Design. Lindsey has been growing into her role of wedding planner since she was a little girl, and her unflinching attention to detail and luxury design sensibilities have produced some of the most stunning events we’ve ever been lucky enough to photograph. We’re also pretty obsessed with this engagement party shoot with her last spring.
SMITH + MURPHY EVENTS // Our first collaboration with Krystle was a breakfast wedding at the Narrative Loft in Santa Barbara, and it was magic! This babe is so good at her job and such a pleasure to work with. I’m looking forward to working with Smith + Murphy Events + Design House on our wedding at the Bacara this summer!
For more of our favorite vendors in Santa Barbara and all of Southern California, check out our recommendations here! AND, pick up our FREE planner for interviewing and selecting your wedding vendors (everything from florists to venues to wedding planners). This PDF is ready with questions you should ask and space for taking notes during consultations with multiple vendors in each category; it will be your bestie for tracking the best candidates for your wedding vendor team. Sign up for our newsletter to get access to the download (we e-mail you about once a month at the MOST — we hate spam too, promise!).
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