Caitlin Arnold Weddings and Events

As a type A, high-​strung individual who has never been accused of being easy-​going, I was calm and fairly relaxed the entire wedding day, which was shocking to the groom and even more shocking to me, and that was without the benefit of heavy drinking. This Zen state was almost entirely attributable to Chelsea and her team.
Originally, we decided to hire a wedding planner because we figured that a professional could provide insider information and help with recommendations for how to contain costs. Chelsea and her team did that in spades; they provided amazing insights and experience that only seasoned veterans could know and that Pinterest could never provide. They provided the best recommendations for other vendors who were amazing, super cost-​effective, and were compatible with our personalities. Throughout the wedding planning process, the team did an amazing job of quarterbacking with other vendors and the wedding venue itself, which really alleviated a lot of stress for us.
Also, they kept us engaged and chugging along throughout the wedding planning process, which was especially important because, for us, wedding planning was a marathon, during which time we became fatigued and bored repeatedly. They were the cheerleaders that we needed to persevere.
On the day of, Chelsea and the team were outstanding at keeping everything on time. Slow-​moving guests who assumed that the wedding would start late were embarrassed to be racing to their seats because everything was run like a well-​oiled machine. Then, when the groom discovered that the venue had misspelled my name on every printed menu, Chelsea had the venue reprint every menu within 30 minutes in time for the dinner reception.
Chelsea and the team really kept an eye on everything. Chelsea even made sure that I had my flip flops for the dance party when my feet were about to fall off. After the wedding, the team made sure that every item and every gift were back in our hotel suite and ready to go.
Wedding planning was amazingly intricate and detailed, and every time you complete one task, 3 more come up. A wedding planner won’t make the decisions for you, unless you pay them to, so you still have to make those decisions, but having the right wedding planner is like having the best strategic advisors on your side who will not only arm you with the best expertise but will advocate for you and stand by you through the best and the worst of times.

My husband and I were hesitant about spending the money on a wedding coordinator… we wanted something pretty low key and didn’t know if it would be worth it. I can honestly say that this was one of the BEST things we spent money on for our wedding. Chelsea was simply wonderful and took all of the stress out of planning. She really listened to what we wanted and asked us questions to help us figure out what we wanted. Even though she was working on a few weddings at the time (we got married in prime-​time wedding season), she was incredibly organized and on top of everything that needed to get done. She responded to our emails quickly and thoroughly. Her advice and recommendations for vendors saved so much research time for us.
On the day of our wedding, Chelsea and her assistant Sarah were there every step of the way. I am typically the type of person who doesn’t trust anyone to get things done the way I want so I end up doing it all myself. But with Chelsea, I was never worried. She took care of it all, fixed problems with our hotel and our shuttle and everything went smoothly. I could not imagine doing it without them! So if you are thinking about getting a coordinator, just do it, it will be worth it. You will get to enjoy your wedding so much more knowing that everything is in their capable hands.

I did not have much experience in the wedding planning arena when I became engaged over a year ago. My fiancé gifted me a coordinator as I was graduating from graduate school and taking board exams during our planning process. The first meeting we had with Chelsea Hudson — we knew she would be both invested in our wedding and incredibly professional.
Our wedding was everything I could have hoped for. Chelsea listened to the requests that we made and prioritized those requests. Where I felt that Caitlin Arnold Weddings and Events (CAWE) was worth their weight in gold, was the month leading up to the wedding and on the wedding day. I am generally a Type A person — but I gave full control to Chelsea and she did not disappoint. I never once felt stressed on my wedding day or in the month leading up to the wedding. Multiple guests commented that «our wedding was the best they had attended» and I can attest much of this is due to the seamless efforts by CAWE.
Thank you Chelsea! You gave us a fairy tale day.

My wife and I are writing this from our honeymoon road trip but we wanted to get this it there as soon as possible. Look no further than Chelsea Hudson for the best wedding planner in the Bay!
We had a medium-​sized Chindian wedding at Thomas Fogarty, so lots of moving pieces and cultural elements involved. We did an exhaustive search for a wedding planner, and Chelsea an her team were everything and more.
Not only was Chelsea insanely well organized with vendors, the site, and the day of, we could tell she went the extra mile to make our day, well, our day. From ensuring that we had food set aside at the perfect times during the madness (we did not go hungry) to making sure that someone was always around to help out, we could not have asked for more.
Serious kudos as well to Michaela, Chelsea’s assistant, and the third person whose name we unfortuately can’t remember who were all extraordinary.

Chelsea was absolutely amazing. I can’t stress enough how easy she made everything. Of all the things we spent money on for our wedding, this is the one thing that was definitely worth it. If you’re not sure if you want to get a wedding planner, trust me you do. Chelsea helped us plan everything to the minute, and remove all the stress from the day of your wedding. I’m sure the other planners working for Caitlin are just as amazing. Thanks again.

Caitlin and her team are simply FANTASTIC. We came to Caitlin very early in the planning process when I was overwhelmed as to where to begin and had done very little in the planning department. I was referred to her by a possible venue and we had a wonderful telephone conversation that immediately put me at ease.
When we agreed to meet she came fully prepared for our consultation with a ton of information, took the time to genuinely get to know more about us, and was willing to tackle our wildly different visions and strong desire for something completely unique and unexpected.
Caitlin spent a TON of time with us to locate our venue, close to 8 months, which meant moving our wedding date entirely, and even dual tracked venues in two entirely different locations and directions. At one point we talked about running off to Greece and that became part of the vision for a short time.
She never made us feel like we were driving her crazy with our indecisiveness and always communicated that she wanted us to be 100% happy with our decision, which we truly felt and believed. A lot of our decisions were driven by budget and she always made certain to come back to the budget whenever a new idea floated to the surface.
In the months leading up to the event she was in constant contact, ready to answer a question, refer and work with our vendors, and allowed us to bounce numerous ideas off of her, no matter how small the detail. When our venue changed ownership and almost backed out 4 months before the wedding we almost threw up our hands and eloped.
Caitlin and her team instead took the massive bump in the road and made sure they honored their commitments, helped us renegotiate the contract and scramble for new vendors due to the loss of all support from our venue. She even found areas where we could save money due to the misfortune. Without her our perfect wedding would have never happened.
Chelsea took over a few months prior to our wedding and while I was worried information would have been lost the transition was amazing. Chelsea was organized, prompt, empathetic to our delicate family situations, and made sure everyone stayed on task. The day of I was able to relax as I knew that everything was taken care of. She read my emotions and knew instinctively when to check in and to ask if there was something she could take care of. The attention to detail and timing was like nothing we’ve seen. My only complaint is that we won’t get to stay in as much contact now that our wedding is over.
Ultimately our guests were blown away by our affair. One of my husband’s senior partners told him that our wedding was the «gold standard» for how things should be done. The vendors delivered an elegant, fun, and absolutely stunning wedding. Many friends have asked if anything didn’t go right on our day and happily we can say thanks to Caitlin and Chelsea, no.

Caitlin is amazing. Hire her.
I am an extremely detail-​oriented person who also does a good job of thinking through the big picture and possible contingencies. This is why I knew I had to get a wedding coordinator. If I didn’t, I was sure I’d become obsessive when I wanted to be having fun. It takes a lot for me to hand over the reins, but from the moment I met Caitlin, I trusted her completely.
And so planning our wedding was incredibly fun! Caitlin got me in touch with vendors she’d worked with previously and was able to educate me on the many intricacies of wedding planning about which I knew nothing (floral arrangements, table linens, et cetera). The planning process was breezy because of her help.
Caitlin really shone, however, when it came to the month leading up to the wedding. She took over communication with the vendors and did an absolutely fantastic job keeping them all on track and providing them with up-​to-​date, intricately detailed timelines of our wedding.
Of course, those timelines became complicated when the bus carrying me and my bridesmaids to the venue broke down after driving completely off course, leaving us to hitchhike to the wedding (seriously). It’s a testament to her grace and prowess that not only was she able to keep us on track but also that she completely hid any irritation she felt about us hitchhiking after she’d already left on her way to pick us up from where we were stranded. She even managed to keep the whole snafu from my husband, who would have worried himself sick over it.
She enabled us to spend the day enjoying ourselves and our guests, completely free of worry. Her job was so huge to our experience of the wedding but virtually invisible to our guests, the mark, I think, of an excellent coordinator.
Book Caitlin. She is probably the most capable person I have ever met.

From the moment I met Caitlin and her team, I knew that these girls were amazing. They seemed to completely understand what I was looking for the day of my wedding, and they asked a lot of questions to see what was important to us. We ended up going with the day of coordination package, and from then on I almost exclusively worked with Chelsea.
Chelsea is just simply amazing! We corresponded through email for months leading up to the wedding, and she was so extremely helpful and friendly. She recommended vendors, she looked over contracts, and most importantly always checked on me to see how we were doing, and if we needed any help with anything. She finalized our wedding timeline that blew our minds. It was so organized, it really impressed a Type A like myself! For being just a day of coordinator, we felt like Chelsea went above and beyond for us and exceeded our expectations.
When the wedding day came, I was so calm and relaxed! I knew Chelsea was on top of everything, and our wedding was planned to perfection. She made sure everything ran smoothly, she kept us on time so nothing dragged, and she packed up and cleaned up everything afterwards so we didn’t have to worry about a thing. We had several guests tell us that it was the most fun and beautiful wedding they had ever been to, and we owe it all to Chelsea. It was the best day of our lives, and we are so thankful for Chelsea’s hard work and Caitlin’s fabulous team!

My husband and I cannot express how phenomenal Caitlin was from start to finish, but here’s an attempt.
The sheer quantity of tasks involved in planning a wedding is so much more than you can imagine. Having Caitlin onboard dramatically reduced the work we had to do, which let us concentrate on what was most important. It also helped keep me from stressing too much (this is HUGE).
It was pretty clear from day one that Caitlin was going to go above and beyond to make sure our wedding went exactly as we wanted it to. Her sample timeline was a true masterpiece of planning and organization.
Along the way, she provided recommendations for vendors (including discounts!) who all ended up being excellent and professional. Through her personal training program, she helped my husband and I reach our desired body goals — I looked amazing, and my husband reports feeling damn good himself. Even better than all this was the fact that at any point, we could go to Caitlin with our problems, and we knew she’d have a resourceful answer for us.
During the rehearsal and the wedding, Caitlin crushed it. On the surface, our wedding was a beautiful, fun-​filled dream. Behind-​the-​scenes, it was a well-​oiled machine with Caitlin behind the wheel. If anything went wrong, my husband and I still don’t know about it.
We got the wedding we wanted; it was seriously perfect. The compliments have been rolling in weeks after. So stop reading reviews and just contact her.

Caitlin was a wonderful coordinator. We had an absolutely beautiful wedding and it was a pleasure working with her and her team. We had Caitlin help us make our dream wedding happen while living out of state in Illinois. We’re originally from the Bay Area and we were set on having our wedding somewhere in the Peninsula. Caitlin helped me find just about everything I needed, she supported and understood my vision all while keeping us on budget; Caitlin truly relieved us of unbelievable amounts of stress. We avoided having any issues, she helped us with anything that came up. When I needed her she was there for me by phone, email and text. Especially the day of the wedding, my now husband and I felt the day was completely perfect. It was extremely helpful having Caitlin’s organization and knowledge to create our wedding. I would highly refer her to others and hire her again for any of my future events in California. She has a great aesthetic and is very professional. I enjoyed working with her and all her vendors. I highly advise you to hire her.
«Imagine how crazy we would have been if we didn’t have Caitlin!»
— Straight from Mr. R’s mouth after our wedding and still to today.

We used Caitlin Arnold Events, interacting with both Caitlin and Chelsea and assistants, for the last month before my son’s June 2014 wedding. The «month-​of» contract included several meetings along the way during the year prior. Caitlin and Chelsea were amazingly good to work with. I have done many events for non-​profits, and helped with my other son’s wedding, and I still found Caitlin and Chelsea’s help and experience to be invaluable. They kept us on track, gave us such a detailed timeline for the events themselves (rehearsal dinner, wedding) that nothing could go wrong, and they were on-​site (Caitlin and Chelsea for rehearsal dinner; Chelsea and two assistants for the wedding), making sure nothing did. I was able to relax and enjoy the events themselves. The whole wedding weekend surpassed my expectations — due in large part to terrific wedding planners.

I am writing as the Father of the Bride, and I was only an outsider to everything that was going on with my daughter’s wedding. First off, I am a wedding hater because family seems to always get sucked into lots and lots of tasks. My daughter started off without Caitlin’s company and it seemed like the wedding was ready to jump the train tracks. Lots of family tension, arguing etc.etc.etc. My daughter and her soon to be husband hire Caitlin Arnold, and all of the tension seemed to start to disappear immediately. After talking with my daughter week after week, she had become much more relaxed and couldn’t tell me enough how happy she was that she was using Caitlin’s company. Fast Forward to the wedding, and I was absolutely amazed and how calm the Bride was and how organized all the events were. Dress Rehearsal, Dinner, Wedding and Reception were all perfectly planned and executed. We had some bumps due to people showing up that did not RSVP, but Caitlin and her crew were able to organize right around it and accommodate without having to tax the Bride with all of the decision making.
I am very thankful my daughter came to her senses and hired up a Wedding Event Planner, and Caitlin’s organization did an A++ job!
Thanks Caitlin and Crew!!!

I am a crazy person and originally though I could pull off a six month engagement plus a new job all at the same time. I thought «oh, I’m an organized person, so I can totally do all this myself». When I finally came to my senses, I researched and interviewed tons of wedding coordinators, but I ended up picking Caitlin and Chelsea.
Over the past several months, I kept finding myself saying to my fiancé «isn’t it great how Chelsea and Caitlin are handling this?» or «Isn’t it nice not to have to worry about such and such?».
On the day of my wedding, I didn’t have to think of any of it at all– I just literally sat back and enjoyed spending time with my family and friends. And things were definitely going wrong behind the scenes — stuff got lost, family members who never RSVP’d showed up, etc. but Chelsea and Caitlin were handling it all with sophistication and ease.
My fiancé and I invested a lot of money, energy, and time into our wedding, and having Chelsea and Caitlin allowed us to make sure that we got to do the «fun» parts of the planning, leave the rest to them, and to make sure that the day went how we had always envisioned it in our minds.

The hardest part about working with Caitlin was not posting this review a year ago. Our wedding was this past weekend, but Caitlin has been a fantastic coordinator and essential sidekick throughout the entire wedding planning process! I wanted to rave about her from the first month of our partnership, but now you can be assured of her excellence from start to finish.
We booked Caitlin’s Come Alongside package for day-​of coordination, but we got SO much more than day-​of or month-​of assistance. Caitlin is extremely organized and incredibly fun. She was always available to answer questions, provide referrals, and discuss anything with us. She never made us feel like we were bothering her or overstepping our bounds, even when we asked lots of questions and sent her tons of vendor contracts far in advance of our big day.
Our wedding went flawlessly. We were able to relax and be in the moment with our guests, actually eat dinner (& cake :), and visit all of our guest tables. Caitlin put together an amazingly detailed timeline and handled all vendor (and bridal party) questions leading up to our big day.
You can’t beat Caitlin’s enthusiasm, organization, and experience. Stop reading this review, and book her now!

I didn’t use Caitlin as my coordinator, but I did have a meeting with her. This review is purely based on my short encounters with Caitlin.
If Caitlin was available on my wedding day I probably would have used her, but she wasn’t and only her associate was. Her associate was very nice and I’m sure she would have done a fantastic job, but we wanted Caitlin for her experience.
Throughout my wedding planning I would email Caitlin questions that others couldn’t answer, or questions where I felt that Caitlin would have the most honest answer. Even though I wasn’t her client, Caitlin always thoroughly answered my questions and never asked for anything in return.

Caitlin is all around awesome. I have now attended two weddings planned by Caitlin Arnold Weddings and Events. Both of which, were executed flawlessly with style and grace. At one wedding, the weather forecast showed rain and the ceremony was planned to be outdoors, yikes! However, Caitlin seamlessly orchestrated a complete transformation of the indoor space to accommodate the ceremony. It was as if the ceremony was intended to be indoors all along.
If your wedding day goals are to enjoy every moment with your friends, family and fiancé in a stress free, well organized, and seamless environment… you’ll want Caitlin on your team.

Our wedding ended about 3 hours ago, and I already want to write this review.
1) Caitlin also does personal training, and who knew being forced to stick to a plan would yield results? Everyone who saw me in my rehearsal dinner romper was like, #damngirl
2) Caitlin is the best. I had no stress month of the wedding.
3) My dad interacted with Caitlin for about an hour total prior to his reception toast, and the first thing he did was thank her and staff in his speech.
4) She introduced us to amazing vendors.
5) Just hire her already!

I found Caitlin about 6 weeks prior to our August wedding through a web search. I hadn’t thought about a coordinator but my mom and I got to thinking about all the nitty gritty details for the day of and decided the price was worth our sanity and the ability to enjoy the day.
From our first Skype session in which she outlined her services and her vision for helping the wedding come together to her flawless production and flexibility for the rehearsal and wedding, I can’t imagine the wedding without her services. She is incredibly detail oriented and helped coordinate things that I would have never thought about. She was the point of contact for all our vendors and it took a lot of pressure off of me in the few weeks before the wedding.
She ran the rehearsal and without that I think our ceremony would have been rather bumpy. My grandmother was sick just before the wedding and for the rehearsal, she pushed things around to give me time to go to the hospital and even brought me a coffee. For the wedding itself, she timed everything perfectly and I am sure there are things that went «wrong» but she really protected me, my husband, and my parents from knowing about it. I highly recommend her!

Kim S and I attended Caitlin’s bridal bootcamp last weekend when a friend won a session (see more detailed explanation in Kim S’ review —
). I’ve never been to bootcamp before though I see them all the time in Dolores Park. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew it would be challenging but would my instructor be screaming at me? would it be fun? would I be too self conscious to get into it?
Luckily Caitlin really knows what she’s doing. Yes, there’s a circuit of exercises but between each set we would regroup and do something «fun». I put that in quotes not because it wasn’t fun, but it was still an exercise disguised as fun. Those group fun breaks turned out to be the most physically demanding part of bootcamp. I didn’t feel like it at the time but the next day I was sore from some of our relays and races. Caitlin was also a good instructor — correcting our form and telling us to push harder. But in no way was she a mean drill sergeant. Her advice was very gentle and friendly — it was always like she was just helping us get what we wanted out of the session. Afterwards she also answered lots of general health and exercise questions — something I appreciated because I’m too cheap to pay for a personal trainer and wanted to know if I was on the right track with my self invented routine.

Caitlin came up to SF to conduct a boot camp for my friend who won a session through a raffle. I had done a boot camp before with another company, so I was scared — so much so that I told my friend that there was no way I was going to go.
Somehow I got talked into going, and I am so glad I did! It was awesome! I never, ever, ever, never have had fun doing exercise like this. Never… until now. Caitlin expertly and thoughtfully planned out a session complete with stations and props to fulfill my friend’s request to have fun and promote weight loss. And she did all this planning even though she wasn’t getting paid for the session (remember the raffle) AND she had to travel from Mt. View!
Caitlin had a super organized course set up for five of us, along with some fun activities interspersed throughout it all. Everything we did was creative, fun-​but-​not-​too-​silly, and definitely rigorous. Even my most fit friend (who is really, really fit) felt the benefits of the exercises we did the next day. The time flew by, which I can’t say about any sort of physical activity in which I participate, unless it’s lying on my back in yoga.
Caitlin thought of it all! She allotted time so we could ask questions. She brought extra water (which I needed!). She even had hand wipes (which I needed too!)! She is a detailed oriented professional who deserves a lot of praise!

I don’t know how we could have done it without Caitlin. My husband & are originally California and moved to Pennsylvania last year. We were trying to plan a wedding in California but it proved to be a hard and stressful experience being that we are thousands of miles away, do not know anything about weddings, and cannot take time off from work to travel and plan things out. I remembered a wedding planner from the last wedding I attended who referred me to Caitlin. Let me tell you, we are so grateful for Caitlin. Caitlin’s personality, passion, and drive kept us moving in the right direction. She knows her stuff and knows a lot of people in the industry. She was able to work with our budget and put together what we envisioned for our wedding (a modern classic type of feel). My ceremony was beautiful and she also made the cocktail hour & reception beautiful, as well. I LOVE the vendors she connected me to. Our guests keep calling to let me know how much fun they had at our wedding and how cute everything was.
Caitlin did a great job keeping the vendors and family members in the loop with our timeline. She even accomodated our last minute changes (which I was felt bad about but was very grateful for her patience). And being that my family members are natural procrastinators, we did run into a problem (my mom knew about the toast she was going to make months in advance and forgot that she left the speech that she just wrote in her room right before her grand entrance) but Caitlin was so professional in dealing with it.
Also, Caitlin prepared a survival bag for our wedding party that included drinks, snacks, pins, tissues, and makeup! We used those materials during our photo shoot.
After the wedding, Caitlin and her assistant Aliza decorated our room and placed a bottle of champagne near our bed. She also included instructions for our marraige license.
Ken & I had such a great time at our wedding. I wish I could do it all over again. I can’t wait to watch my video to relive the day. I don’t think it would have turned out well without Caitlin.

Let me preface this review by saying that I never even entertained the idea of having a wedding coordinator for my wedding until I met Caitlin– I plan events for a living (I’m in PR), and I’m extremely detail-​oriented and wanted complete control of the vision I had for our wedding. I didn’t feel that I needed to spend money having someone else do all of this when I could do it myself. Having gotten married last week and having the newly gleaned wisdom of a bride who just went through all the motions of wedding planning, I have to tell you this: you MUST have a wedding planner as part of your wedding process. And if you can get Caitlin to play this role for you, I can guarantee you will be sane enough to actually ENJOY and REMEMBER the fun and beauty of your wedding day.
After a very helpful initial consultation (during which Caitlin immediately tapped into the «anxiety areas» of my wedding– things that I was a bit nervous about or that were already causing me stress), I started meeting with her about 6 months before my wedding. Extremely detail-​oriented (I thought I was on my game with the wedding details– she put me to shame!) and effortlessly professional and poised, she did ALL of the vendor communication and confirmation starting about a month out so I wasn’t scrambling to confirm details. She worked flawlessly with all of my vendors, including my venue’s dedicated day-​of coordinators, to ensure that all of the details of our day were exactly how I wanted them. She even made these killer, UBER-​detailed timelines that were customized for our vendors, wedding party, and my fiancé and me– down to the very last minute (they were about 8 pages long). It helped everyone get on the same page and we had very few questions from our family and wedding party because Caitlin had prepped them so well.
The most stressful part of our wedding process was the few days leading up to our wedding itself– we were so stretched in a million different directions trying to spend time with our wonderful guests that I couldn’t imagine having to carve out additional time to call each one of our vendors to go over details of the services to be provided or confirm exact times/​places they were supposed to show up. I am SO thankful that Caitlin did this for us and I could rest easily knowing that she was taking care of all of the moving pieces in the final hours.
Initially I thought I couldn’t afford a wedding coordinator (and I thought I didn’t need one because I tend to be extremely detail-​oriented and I partially plan events for a living), but I found the money by cutting some other things out and now my memories of my wedding day revolve around my husband, our guests, and how much fun we all had– instead of vendor mishaps and the stress of trying to set up for our own reception.
Caitlin was, by far, the best decision we made regarding our wedding and I could not recommend her services highly enough.

Caitlin is absolutely wonderful! I utilized her personal training services that she offers in her Bridal Bootcamp package to help me get into shape for my wedding. Being a fairly recent bride herself at the time, she knew exactly what exercises would target those «wedding dress arms» perfectly. Caitlin offers great work outs that address all of the problem areas that brides want to firm and tone for their special day. She is so encouraging and really helps to push you in a positive way to achieve your desired results. I was beyond happy with how I looked for my wedding, and I seriously would not have been able to do it without Caitlin’s help. Having someone so knowledgeable, professional and supportive to help you get fit for your wedding is a must, and you will find all of those qualities and more in Caitlin.
Thank you SO much Caitlin! I seriously would not have been able to get in shape for my wedding without you! You are AMAZING!!!