Kindred Weddings and Events

08/18/2023

When Alex and Tom inquired with me, they shared feeling a bit nervous about the next steps in planning their wedding.

While both are organized and feel comfortable communicating with vendors, they thought "we’ve literally never planned a wedding before!" They knew there would be logistical elements they would be unable to foresee, and the overwhelm started to sink in looking all the vendor possibilities available in Los Angeles.

I shared with them about my Wedding Management package - it gives you some quality yet low-touch guidance to get you started. Includes high-level vendor recommendations across the board, a customized planning checklist to keep you on track, and tons of additional resources to help you feel confident booking vendors and communicating your needs.

Who wouldn't want that!?

So if you are excited to plan your wedding, feel comfortable making decisions, and want to celebrate in a way that is uniquely YOU - take a page from Alex and Tom's wedding planning playbook. After the wedding they shared this about working with KWE.

"Sarah gave us the framework to make sure we had all our bases covered and she had great vendor recommendations. She gave us the confidence to make sure we were on track for a wedding day that was organized, fun, and worry-free. Whenever we ran into questions, whether logistical or even etiquette-related, Sarah was quick to reply and so helpful. She made a very helpful client portal for us that included checklists, organizational tools, and lots of helpful reference resources."

"On the day-of, Sarah was calm, collected, and flexible. Working with Sarah gave us so much peace of mind and confidence going into our wedding day. You must hire her!"

If you are interested in booking a Discovery Call - and it's really just that, a call where we talk about your wedding plans and vision to discover if we are a good fit to partner together - you can click on the link in my bio for your free Discovery Call.
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Venue |
Photography |
Coordination |
Hair + Makeup |
Dress |

08/10/2023

Emma and Brett are both intuitive creatives who were ready to lean into their gut feelings and make bold decisions for their wedding day.

They just didn't know exactly what questions they should be asking!

Together, we discovered their biggest priority was creating a weekend experience that brought their favorite people together, and took them away from their day to day lives. Booking a boutique hotel for their event was the perfect choice, allowing them to customize experiences around it.

This included welcome drinks the night before in the cozy bar on-site. A quick dip in the pool the morning of the wedding. A late night gathering around the fire pit after the music and dancing had concluded. And a mobile coffee bar pick me up before their guests headed back home.

I remember watching everyone have the time of their lives dancing together! And even when the gatherings were more mellow you could still feel this hum of energy coursing through everything.

Your venue can really set the stage for an incredibly unique wedding experience. I encourage you to focus on the purpose of your wedding, like Emma and Brett did, to be the foundation of your wedding planning decisions.

This carefree, desert accented wedding was recently featured over on - link is in my bio to see more of this VIBE 🌵🌺🥂
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Venue |
Photographer |
Planner|
Catering + Bar |
Florist |
Rentals |
DJ + Photobooth |
Dress |
Suit |
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08/01/2023

Whether you are so ready to tackle your planning to-do list or slightly panicked at the thought of making big decisions here’s a step you don’t want to miss out on in making your wedding day a success.

Make sure you have the big picture talks with your fiancé and family members.

1. What sort of money expectations do you have?
Take your time to set up a budget that gives you a good amount of wiggle room for issues or last minute desires that pop up. And don’t be afraid to ask if someone will be contributing money towards a specific aspect of the day.

2. What sort of a guest list are you dreaming of?
An intimate affair can cost just as much as a big backyard wedding. So decide on a purpose for the celebration, make sure that everyone important is there and then build your event around that.

3. What do you want your wedding timeline to be like?
If there are any cultural traditions or religious rituals that are expected or important to you, talk about what that will look like as part of the day.

Having these conversations now, instead of when a misunderstanding arises later on, will help align expectations for the wedding decision making process from the start! Creating ease and confidence as you make your first decisions together as a family.
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Venue |
Photo + Video |
Planner |
Hair + Makeup |
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05/01/2023

Ever wish there was an EASY button for wedding planning?!

Even if you like making lists and checking things off, it’s hard to determine where to start and what path to follow as you make decisions if you’ve never done something before.

You don’t know what you don’t know.

Do I need to have a date before I look at venues?
Do my floral colors need to be based on the season?

You might feel like Little John in Robin Hood: Men in Tights thinking that you are drowning, but let me tell you a secret…

Are ya ready??

The water’s only 2 feet deep.
Here take my hand.
We can stand together.

You just need to start at the beginning when it comes to wedding planning.

Let’s start from the beginning of your relationship.

It may sound shocking, but you’ve been planning your wedding this whole time! Whether it’s been 3 years or 3 months, as you’ve created a life and a love story, you’ve been cataloging memories and emotional connections.

And that’s the bedrock of your wedding planning journey!

PS - wanna know more about making wedding planning easier? The Kindred Weddings and Events email club is where I dish all the juicy advice! Link in my bio to join and never miss out on the newest wedding planning resources.
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Photography |
Venue | Malibu Garden Estate
Planner |
Florist |
Rentals |
Catering |
Bartending |
DJ |
Hair + Makeup |
Dessert |
Transportation |
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04/28/2023

If you’re currently engaged 👆🏻 this will soon be you!

Although it might take a bit of hard work to get there - you don’t have to do it all on our own.

You wouldn’t try to DIY dry clean your favorite outfit at home right?? Would you consider ridding your home of termites on your own without a professional??

Please tell me that’s a BIG NO!

While you could go to the internet or take a class in either of the above scenarios to solve the problem and move on with life, you may do more damage than good. Making the problem worse so that it needs to be solved a SECOND TIME!

And this time by a professional. Ugh that frustration is the worst!

But you don’t get a second chance for a do-over with a wedding day. It’s one and done baby!

If you choose to DIY an element (or several *cringe*) you won’t get the chance later on when looking at the out of focus photos where you hold wilting flowers that make you feel drab to think “hey, I learned my lesson, so next time around I’ll leave it to the pros!”

A wedding is a once in a lifetime celebration, and yes there are a lot of expectations rolled into one day. Don’t leave any regrets on the table! Your time and energy are resources you CANNOT get back - you can ALWAYS make more money.

If it costs you your peace. It’s too expensive!
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Photography |
Venue |
Planner |
Dress |
Suit |
Rings & Jewelry |
Florist |
Catering |
Rentals |
DJ/Photo Booth |
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03/15/2023

You’ve found the perfect wedding venue, now it’s time to start planning your wedding. When your wedding venue is as beautiful as The Fig House, selecting your wedding decorations is that much easier. Check out the newest blog post to see how this couple was inspired by their wedding venue and created a stunning wedding day filled with bright colors and beautiful flower arrangements.



https://kindredweddingsandevents.com/the-fig-house-wedding/

02/24/2023

Our goal: putting your RELATIONSHIPS first!

Right now, you’re overwhelmed. Your wedding date is looming up ahead, but you don’t know what the right next step is. There are too many options available! 

You’re longing for a clear path forward and a way to make decisions effortlessly so that you can stop wasting time browsing the internet hoping to stumble upon the mythical “how-to” article that will solve all of your planning woes!

You’ve tried following online planning lists and searching through every Los Angeles wedding coordinator list on The Knot, but it just hasn’t worked. And so now you’re feeling burnt out and unmotivated to plan.

If one more person asks you a question about the wedding you feel like you might just snap from the overwhelm, and potentially ruin a precious relationship! I’ve been there and I know how that goes.

What if you could confidently plan the small wedding you’ve been secretly hoping for? And as a result, you could have more time and energy than you ever imagined possible to spend with the people you cherish the most?

Just image feeling confident knowing your wedding day was supporting all of your amazing relationships, all while setting up your marriage each and every day.

Your relationships are what makes you & your love story so unique.

This is why here at Kindred Weddings and Events, we focus on collaborative vendor partnerships & creative planning to craft a unique experience that reflects your truest self.

Our planning process gives you back your time to spend with the people you love most. Because we believe in the power of RELATIONSHIPS!
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Photography |
Venue |
Planner |
Florist |
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02/06/2023

Congratulations, you’re engaged! As you begin to dream of what your day will look like, there is one thing you should do first. Before you pick a date, location, or dress, you need to determine your budget.

Creating your wedding budget is a vital first step. It will affect every decision and purchase you make for your wedding day. It’s important to work out your budget so you have a realistic picture of what you can spend – and what you can’t.

It’s time to take stock of your finances, prioritize your wedding day must-haves, and determine what aligns best with your budget.

The First Step…

Figure out where the budget (aka the money) is coming from!

Before you start laying out your wedding must-haves, you need to take stock of your finances. Depending on your current financial situation, you may have already set money aside for your wedding day. Your personal finances are a great starting number for your budget. 

Believe it or not, money isn’t your only resource. You are also choosing how you spend your time and your energy. It’s important to think about the value you are receiving from a specific vendor or service. When looking at your resources, make sure you are balancing all your resources. 

And finally, consider if your parents or other family members plan to give you money for your wedding day. It is so generous of them to help support your wedding day dreams in this way. Before you accept the money, make sure you ask them about their hopes, wishes, and expectations for this money and their involvement.

I’m breaking this all down even more over on my blog, including the next 2 crucial steps on how to create a solid wedding budget that brings your vision to life! The link is in my bio.

If you are currently planning I’d love to hear - what was the first thing you did when you started planning your wedding??
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Planning |
Photography |
Venue |
Florals |
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02/01/2023

When it comes to creating a solid and functional wedding budget, a wedding planner is a superb ally to have on your wedding planning team. We are very familiar with navigating through vendor services to best advocate for your true needs. Both before and on the wedding day.

I've created this 3-step guide on how to approach creating your wedding budget using my 7 years of experience doing this with clients. I know wedding budgets are a difficult and ever-changing topic, but after reading this you'll feel more confident in how to create and use your wedding budget!

https://kindredweddingsandevents.com/how-to-create-a-wedding-budget/

01/30/2023

“This wedding feels just like them!”

When I heard Lauren and Doug’s guests say this to one another throughout the day I nearly cried happy tears!

As a wedding planner and designer who invests countless hours in partnering with my couples to make sure their day is a well-rounded and unique reflection of the two of them + their love story, that compliment is WHY I work in weddings. So couples have a chance of expressing themselves and their love in a physical + tangible way for their guests to experience. Defining a wedding is one of my favorite parts of the planning process!

After working together and seeing the wedding day come to life, Lauren shared the following…

“When it comes to wedding design, she asked us the most thoughtful questions to help us work through and discover our couple style. And to determine what elements, items, and colors were important to us, to ensure that they were woven throughout our wedding celebration!
  
Many of our family and friends commented that our wedding felt so “us” and that’s many thanks to Sarah’s planning style and support! My (now!) husband and I felt like we got to enjoy our wedding day, even with time to sit back and take it all in! That was definitely thanks to Sarah’s crafting a beautiful evening for us, and taking care of all the fine details throughout!”

You can now see their beautiful wedding day featured over on - and later this week I’m going to dive into their wedding design and the process we used to make that vision happen!
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Venue |
Photographer |
Videographer |
Planner |
Tabletop Rentals |
Catering |
Bartending |
Florist |
Makeup Artist |
Hair Artist |
Dueling Pianos |
Officiant |
Photobooth Bus |

01/02/2023

I often get asked….

How do I know I need a wedding planner and not just a coordinator?

Well I’m here to set the record straight!

If you are 8+ months out from your wedding and feel drained not energized about wedding planning, you probably have decision fatigue and it’s time to call in the big guns! I’m talking about hiring a wedding planner. If you have no idea where to start and want someone to coach you through which vendors you should book first and how to think outside the box when it comes to crafting your dream wedding, hire a wedding planner.

If you and your significant other are energized by making lists and checking things off, are ready to do some research and tour venues, and are willing to say “no” to the things that just aren’t you enough for your wedding day, give yourself some helping hands. Hire a wedding coordinator to manage things in the months leading up to the big celebration so you can focus on the important relationships in your life.

For 2023, I’m currently still offering both partial planning and coordination packages. But like I mentioned above - it all depends on your timing!

March - June: I’m only on taking on new management clients (this is how I phrase wedding coordination!) for the first half of 2023

June+: I have room on my calendar for 1-2 more partial planning wedding clients with limited availability in July, September, and October!! Also taking 1-2 more management clients for the second half of the year

2024: open and ready for your wedding celebration!
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Photography |
Florals |
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12/06/2022

It feels like all I’ve been doing lately is Discovery Calls and sending out wedding planning package proposals!

Hello engagement season 👋🏻

So so excited for all the 2023 (and 2024!) weddings coming up. If you are engaged and looking to hire a wedding planner or coordinator, here are a few questions to ask when you connect with one…

1. What is your favorite part of planning weddings?
2. What challenges do you see couples face most often while wedding planning?
3. What wedding planning tasks are not included in your services?
4. Can you share a time when you helped a couple solve a difficult problem?
5. Do you communicate with our wedding party and guests?
6. On average how many couples do you work with each year?
7. How collaborative is your planning and design process?
8. Can you share about a recent wedding that had a similar budget?
9. How often will we communicate with one another during planning, or for wedding management?
10. What is your vendor selection and communication process like?

If you are looking for a bright and focused go-getter wedding planner who loves collaboration and intentional wedding days - let’s connect! You can send in an inquiry over on my website (link in bio).
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Photo |
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11/30/2022

What does an invitation do?

Let’s start with the obvious. You probably know your invitations job is to communicate the who, what, when of your wedding details to your guests. But did you know it also communicates the how?

Your wedding invitations are your guests first introduction to your celebration. And they should communicate clearly how your personalities and unique couple style will be featured in the wedding ambiance!

Visuals give us cues of what to look for down the line. If you are having a classic wedding with a formal spin, you’ll probably stick with a traditional invitation suite. Planning something a bit more whimsical, like a wedding at a museum? You might incorporate visuals more daring visuals like a pattern or bright colors to convey your intended vibe.

Visuals like typography, illustrations, and wording give your guests a first hand look into how your wedding will feel before they even step foot into the venue!

With a casual coastal meets whimsical vibe in mind for J+ K’s wedding, we wrapped their overall design in hues of pink and blue as a nod to the beautiful sunset colors over the ocean. J + K chose a very timeless and simple design for their wedding invitations that featured a subtle ocean wave. It communicated a serene and peaceful vibe, which was perfectly in line with their down to earth wedding day that featured some beautiful and sentimental cultural traditions.
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Photography |
Venue |
Planner |
Florist |
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11/15/2022

SPOILER ALERT: I didn’t cry at our wedding!! 🤭😱

Not during our wedding ceremony. Not during the toasts at our reception. Not during our first dance.

Instead, I cried in our hotel room while eating fries and downing far too many glasses of champagne!

The wedding was finally over, and suddenly I realized I was feeling like a shaken up bottle of champagne… STRESSED OUT and ready to POP! I had been catching each little stress inducer and burying them underneath the surface so I could “enjoy” wedding planning and our wedding day.

Well it was a success… except now I was a blubbering mess on our wedding night. And it was not cute!

If you are planning your wedding right now you are probably feeling varying levels of emotions. One of which is stress. From wedding nightmares to strained relationships and binge eating, stress is a totally normal thing to experience when you plan a wedding.

But folks DON’T. BE. LIKE. ME!

Here’s how you can process and channel your stress positively prior to your wedding day:

1. Ask for (and accept) help… I had so many friends who asked if I needed any help - of course I did! I had no idea how to implement some of my ideas and how essential it would be to relieve that pressure through delegation. And don’t forget to hire a wedding planner or coordinator to take some of the stress off your plate, so you have more time to spend with the people you love (aka get that oxytocin)!

2. Focus on your relationship with your fiancé… It's so important to remember this is a day that begins your marriage! You want to make sure you are pouring in to each other (words of encouragement, spending time together, talking about what's going to change and your fears or worries) before that day arrives.

3. Pick your “I’m letting go” point… There’s always something (or a few things) that will not go as expected on your wedding day. If you’ve already accepted that fact and made peace with a little whimsy finding it’s way into your day, you will be ready to roll when things get shaken!

How can you give yourself a little stress break in the here and now to make for the best wedding day?

10/21/2022

Time to fall back in love with colorful weddings!

Excited to share more of Kristen and Peter's whimsical and bright fall wedding at The Lodge at Malibou Lake. I loved reminiscing about this day - these two have adventurous souls that don’t shy away from having a good time!

You can see more on the blog!

Take some bright and vibrant inspiration from Kristen & Peter's The Lodge at Malibou Lake Wedding, featuring a modern chuppah & rustic charm.

08/18/2022

Alright, I’m channeling my inner Adam Savage, Grant Imahara, and Kari Byron for this one…

It’s time to MYTH BUST some misconceptions about hiring a wedding planner!

MYTH: If I hire a planner I won’t get to plan my own wedding...

BUSTED: As a planner, I’m here to help you craft a team of vendors that bring your vision to life. To illuminate different approaches or solutions to tasks and ideas. And to be your confidant as things get stressful! I’m definitely NOT here to make decisions FOR you, but to educate you so you can confidently say yes!

MYTH: Hiring a wedding planner is just too expensive...

BUSTED: When you hire the right planner, they will show up for you in so many ways. Our job is to search the market & industry to make sure your dollars are spent wisely and on your top priorities. Each planner out there has a wealth of knowledge and can not only save you money, but also valuable TIME!

MYTH: We can totally plan things on our own and don’t need the help...

BUSTED: It’s super easy to get bogged down by wedding industry lingo, make rash decisions, and then forget to make a crucial payment on time! You DON’T have to do it alone. In fact you shouldn’t. You wouldn’t sell your house yourself, so you can rest easy trusting a wedding planner!

MYTH: All I need is a “day of coordinator”...

BUSTED: Couples, forget you ever heard this term PLEASE! It’s such a misleading phrase, creates a crazy time constraint, and can lead to so many unmet expectations, and possibly a let down of what was supposed to be the most magical day ever. Rest easy knowing, as planners and wedding designers we want to TAKE OUR TIME with you. Getting to know you, so you have full confidence that we have your best interests in mind every single second of the planning process.

Are you still feeling unsure about working with a wedding planner? I’d love to hear what is holding you back from giving yourself the wonderful gift of a well planned intimate wedding.
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Photo |
Venue |
Planner |
Gown |
Florals |

07/25/2022

Let’s talk for a minute about reframing your thoughts during wedding planning.

This is a crucial subject, and oftentimes is over looked during the planning process.

But your thoughts create your reality!!

So when you are steeped in overwhelm, negativity, and frustration, unless you focus on something else you will only create more of those difficult feelings.

So here’s a reminder that there is always a chance to change your perspective.

Change your perspective, and you can change your reality.
You absolutely have the power to fill wedding planning with…

ease
mutual partnerships
achievability
solutions

If all this post does is inspire you to change your limiting belief to “I have the resources necessary to plan this wedding and make intentional & confident decisions” I’ll be so so proud of you!

What reframing will you use to shift your planning perspective?!
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