Moxie Bright Events: Straightforward Wedding Planning in Southern California

Last week, when we were at the The Bold Italic’s indie wedding expo, Love/Make, I got to run the advice booth for a few shining moments while Meg took a much-deserved lunch break. During my brief stint as a professional-advice-giver, two couples came up and asked me what I thought about hiring a wedding coordinator or planner. My answer is always the same: If you can afford to hire someone, a wedding coordinator is money well spent (and sometimes planners even pay for themselves in money-saving advice). And if you’re planning a wedding in Southern California, then Moxie Bright Events is money very well spent. Here’s why:

There’s something extra special about businesses that are born from APW. For starters, they get you. Renée Dalo, #girlboss and owner of Moxie Bright Events, isn’t just aligned with your values. Her whole business is built on your values. Renée says:

I found APW years ago (like before it had a fancy logo), when I was single and planning weddings for all my friends as a hobby. I remember thinking, “These are my people!” When I decided to take my hobby and make it my profession, I knew I would want to work with APW couples. I get them, and they get me. Everything I read on APW is relevant to some part of my journey as a woman, and then as a bride, and now a wife and business owner. I find myself day after day, nodding my head in agreement as I read.

Working with APW couples makes me a better wedding planner because together we throw away the rules, and make up our own—wedding by wedding. There is no “this is what I usually do” anymore, and I love it!

But more than that, APW coordinators and planners get that wedding planning isn’t your full-time job. (It’s theirs. You probably have your own full-time job that isn’t wedding planning.) Which means Moxie Bright Events is never going to talk down to you because you don’t know how to organize a seating chart, or expect you to just understand how much it costs to rent a tent, or bully you into having a seated dinner just because that’s how she prefers to do things. As one of Renée’s recent clients put it:

Most event planners I know are pretty rigid when it comes to their work and they take themselves very seriously. To me, that can add stress to the already stressful process of planning a big, important event. Renée approaches her work with such infectious humor and positive energy that the process gets imbued with zeal and ease from the beginning. She enjoys what she’s doing. She takes her work seriously without taking herself seriously. She turns the planning process, which usually sucks, into something enjoyable. She’s riotously funny with a wicked wit, and she’s fun to be around and stellar at her job.

Sometimes knowledgeable people communicate in a way that is alienating because they either lack tact or they lack the ability to be direct. Renée is INCREDIBLY knowledgeable and she shares her wealth of knowledge without mincing words or beating around the bush. She doesn’t force opinions upon you unless you ask her to, but she tells it like it is in a way that puts you at ease. She establishes herself as someone you can trust. It put a lot of things into perspective when she said, “Make every decision as though you were a guest at someone else’s wedding. Your wedding is for you, but your reception is for your guests. Would you enjoy this as a guest?”

The bottom line: When planning an event of magnitude, it really doesn’t get any better than Renée.

Given all that, it doesn’t surprise me at all that the photos in this post read like a who’s who of APWers (that’s longtime APW friend Dana LaRue of The Broke-Ass Bride grinning like crazy in the first photo in this post, and APW intern Eve having a pillow fight with her daughter right after that).

In an industry that’s all about hiding the ball, Renée is super up front about Moxie Bright’s pricing and services, so that you can focus more on the awesome-wedding-having and less on the how-much-does-this-cost part. Renée offers three packages, with real names (no trying to discern the difference between the “Gazebo Package” and the “Rotunda Package” here), and the pricing is simple. Here’s what’s available, in Renee’s own words:

ELOPEMENT PACKAGE ($995): I just started offering this package this year because I have so many inquiries for elopements! This package is for a ceremony only with twenty or fewer guests. It includes full planning from venue selection to day-of services.

MONTH-OF COORDINATION ($1195): You are probably more familiar with the term “Day-Of Coordination.” But honestly? That doesn’t really exist. Any wedding planner worth her salt will tell you all good day-of coordinators start thirty days before your wedding (which I do). I organize all the elements you’ve already put together, and we make it sing!

Partial Planning ($2395): Maybe you have your venue and an officiant, but nothing else. Let’s fill in the blanks together. No matter where you are in the process, I will become your support system, providing you with a detailed checklist to map out the process and help stick to your budget.

Full Planning ($3495): You come to me with nothing but a “Yes, let’s get married” and we figure all the details out together, from the very start. The word “overwhelmed” will no longer exist for you.

All packages include unlimited emails, plus ceremony rehearsal the day before. And while Renée is physically based in LA, Moxie Bright Events travels to Palm Springs and Santa Barbara for a flat rate of $350.

So if you’ve been looking for a Southern California-based wedding coordinator (or planner) who will get what you’re about, not treat you like a walking dollar sign, and be your advocate and ally throughout the planning process, then Renée Dalo of Moxie Bright Events is your woman. You don’t even have to take my word for it, you can just go off the dozens of APWers who have already hired Moxie Bright Events as your proof.

And because Moxie Bright Events loves APW readers so much, Renée is offering a special $100 off any Partial or Full Planning booked in March. So, Southern California, contact Moxie Bright Events right here to get started.