We live in the Washington D.C. area and wanted to ...

We live in the Washington D.C. area and wanted to have a destination wedding (2nd marriage) in Sonoma. The prospect of arranging an event over 3,000 miles away from home was a bit scary... and my (happily now) wife talked to a couple of wedding planners in an effort to enlist some help. Be warned! All wedding planners are not built equal - the first planner (not Blissful Events) that we talked to was extremely inflexible and basically wanted to upsell us with a set of pre-configured services (no doubt with a significant kickback).

Working with Samar was completely different... she LISTENED to us and then worked to build an absolutely fantastic dream wedding. Multiple guests commented afterwards using words like "magical" and "memorable". We had the service and reception at The General's Daughter... and here a few highlights:

- I wanted to sing to my wife at the reception (with my 2 adult boys)... Samar arranged for us to rent a piano and sound equipment...
- We were very particular about wine (it was in wine country after all)... and we were able to pick out our own wine for dinner.
- Decorations, decorations, decorations. I can't speak enough about the gorgeous flowers, candles, and little touches that we had throughout the property.
- We had hand crafted signs with quotes from our favorite songs...

I could go on and on, but I think you probably get the idea. And while the final event was incredible... the fact is that working with Samar to craft the event was also a joy. We toured MANY properties before settling on TGD... Samar was very patient and was always available on the phone with my wife and me to talk through different ideas.

I actually tried to hire Train (no kidding) to sing "Marry Me" as part of the service... and she was able to get to the agent to have a discussion. The cost was a bit prohibitive, but the point is that Samar got us to a point where we had the conversation. She's extremely well connected and every vendor - photographer, DJ, musicians, flowers, FOOD, etc... overperformed expectations.

I cannot recommend Blissful Events and Samar highly enough. Hire her and you will have memories of a lifetime and the photos to prove it.