True Emerald Styling & Planning

Amy is the magician behind the scenes solving problems before you even knew they were a concern. If you want to lose your sanity and pop the love bubble you have with with your partner go ahead and try to plan a wedding by yourselves. If you want to walk around glowing and focus on the love and guests all around you, call Amy. I am a phenomenal party planner. I dominate orchestrating large events and staying calm and I still needed Amy! All over the place! From knowing when to send invites, to how much to tip the band, to how many cups to buy, to reasonably priced rentals and caterers, Amy knows it all.
Amy found caterers that did a fantastic job for all our dietary restricted people and it was hot, fresh, and delicious… Not often found in combination at a wedding. She found us a gorgeous venue and added those fun little details like lawn games that really helped with the tribe of small children that attended the wedding.
She is there from start to finish on your big day with all the details carefully accounted for in advance. She also gives you a schedule with all the details in advance so you can carefully envision how things will run to make your day exactly how you hoped. She and her staff are professional, warm, prompt, and dressed well for the occasion. They seamlessly blend in! We didn’t even notice the transition from food to giant beautiful cake and pie display!
Amy also coordinates with all the vendors in advance to make sure they are ready for the day of and clear on all the timelines. It is little details like these that fall off your to do list and she just makes it happen.
Also, trust her people. She suggested that her staff could make the signs and they did a beautiful job! She also suggested that her intern could do my hair and make up. This may initially make some nervous. Nope! Alex came for a consult appointment in advance with the full air brush make up system and every possible hair accessory. She did such a good job that my hair was still curled and looking amazing the next day and well into the night. On the day of, Alex took no more than 1 hour to do all my hair (I have a lion’s mane) and my make up. She worked around the morning chaos and participated with positive energy and calm. Hopefully she will start her own wedding make up business in time, until then, ask Amy :)
Overall, I am still glowing, my family and my husband are still glowing and we could not be happier with our big day. Thank you Amy, Andee, Jim and Alex. You are all amazing!!!

I’m a local floral designer who has collaborated with Amy on a number of weddings, and it’s clear to see that she was born for this– to make events roll out without a hitch! Regardless of the issues that inevitably arise with big productions, Amy is pleasant, calm, and whirs around behind the scenes, making problems disappear and making her event magic happen.
Not only is she organized and manages numerous details with ease, Amy has a very likable warmth and wonderful sense of style. She really is a gift to the world of weddings.
As a fellow event professional, I highly recommend Amy & her team at True Emerald.

My experience with Amy has been nothing short of perfection. She helped me plan and style my wine country wedding. While I have distinct taste, Amy was able to edit this, turn it into something that was attainable and execute it.
My now husband and I met with Amy roughly 6 months before our wedding. We knew she was an excellent fit when she came prepared with questions, fabric swatches, vendor lists and ideas. Her enthusiasm was unmatched and her respect for our budget was much appreciated.
Our wedding was nothing short of magical, with an a cappella group, a wine cave decked to the nines in white and gold furniture dedicated to champagne and many many more amazing details. It was actually featured on a wedding blog (link below)
From the big picture, to every little detail, Amy was on it. She made my special day an absolute joy for both myself and husband and our guests.
I would recommend Amy to any bride out there looking for a great planner and stylist. She’s the BEST!

Amy is FANTASTIC. Like other reviewers on here, I heard about her from another coordinator. She said she would have Amy coordinate her own wedding.
I met with Amy and it was clear that day that I wanted to work with her. This was about 3 months prior to our wedding, which was October 2014 at Carmel Valley Ranch. My husband and I have very busy jobs and lives, and we don’t have time to be indecisive. So, we needed someone who:
— brought great options (but not too many) to the table the 1^st time around
— listened to our budget,
— understood our style (or lack of)
— was responsive to both if us
— worked nicely with other vendors and our venue
— no bullsh**
— consistently communicated with everyone involved
— had a laid-​back attitude throughout (including wedding day!); otherwise we would have been stressed out ourselves.
This is admittedly an exhaustive list, but she checked off every single thing. Most importantly, our fear was that after attending some pretty impressive friends’ weddings, our wedding would feel cliché. Turns out our wedding was anything but cliché. Amy and her wonderful assistant Andi incorporated extremely personal touches that everybody noticed and appreciated. This included some DIY projects of Amy’s, and will be featured in our new home for decades to come.
Furthermore, Amy flawlessly navigated day-​of obstacles like rain the morning of an outdoor wedding, timing speeches intermittently during exciting innings of the SF Giants World Series playoff game, my grandmother’s limited mobility, giving out tips to all vendors, and a shuttle that showed up late to bring the bridal party (and bride!) to begin the wedding.
Late that night, my husband arrived back in our room to find a thoughtfully-​ordered charcuterie platter and wedding cake slices that we hungrily devoured while reading her sweet note.
I can’t recommend Amy enough. I’m already excited to have another occasion (albeit not another wedding!) that I can call on her for.
Best of all, she’s just a cool chick that I have fun hanging out with.
Not everyone deserves Amy, but if you’re lucky enough to, you’ll have one amazing wedding/​event/​friend.

I simply can not put into words how incredible it was to work with Amy Lovlien at True Emerald Styling. This girl is one hell of a wedding planner and a true life saver! She listens, collaborates, advises, plans, decorates, keeps everything on track… she does it all. With a full time job and trying to planning a wedding on my own, Amy stepped in at the most critical times to lend a helping hand a follow through with things I simply did not have time for. The day of the wedding was absolutely seamless (I still hear this from my wedding party and guests). When I walked into the venue and saw everything we had worked on actually come to fruition… I was speechless. It surpassed all my expectations… it was more than perfect. I owe that to Amy because it was her help in putting together my vision and orchestrating the timeline with all our other moving pieces (i.e. multiple vendors, etc.).
I can’t wait to plan my next event, large or small, just so that I can have the pleasure of working with Amy again and see her creativity come to life.

My husband and I went away to a concert in Sonoma and totally relaxed the weekend before our wedding? How was that possible you ask…
We hired Amy!
She has a great ability to take fragments of a vision and turn it into a great event. My husband was not convinced at first that we needed a planner and he is now the first to say that it was worth every penny.
I didn’t know exactly what I wanted, but I knew a lot of what I didn’t want. Amy was patient and organized and helped my fiancé and I spend almost no time worrying about anything.
She came up with great ideas and made things all flow together for an event that was fun, unique and (mostly) on budget. We had 20 kids under 10 at the event and Amy made sure that there was something for everyone.
The team she brought for set up and clean up was awesome. We had some issues with stuff not being delivered correctly to the wedding and I was not even aware of it until the next day. Her recommendations for vendors were great and saved me from endless hours trying to figure out from websites which caterer, photographer, etc. would make sense.
I highly recommend Amy and her whole team!

Words do not exist to explain how much of our amazing wedding was due to the insane amounts of love, care and creativity Amy poured into our special day and the months leading up to it. I found Amy because the wedding planner a friend referred me to was booked. I asked her if she had any suggestions of other planners in the area and she said, «If I were getting married, I would hire Amy to plan my wedding.» In my mind, that was about as good of a recommendation as you could get!
Before I met Amy, we already had a pretty defined overall vision and a good number of our vendors booked. While I knew we needed someone to help coordinate the schedule and all the moving parts of our big day, I was really worried about entrusting a wedding planner with anything related to design. It sounds ridiculous, but I’m a bit of a control freak so even the idea of me potentially not being there to set up the space the day of our wedding scared the crap out of me.
Enter Amy. After meeting Amy and spending a couple of sessions with her, she just got it. She got it in a way I never could have imagined. She has an unbelievable talent of deeply understanding her clients, and she knew exactly what we were looking for as far as the mood and aesthetic went. She had great ideas and creative solutions and all of her recommendations were spot on. As we got closer to the wedding, and the tasks started piling up she was able to take so many things off my plate. I totally trusted her and she rocked it. Having the peace of mind that everything would get done and be amazing, made Amy worth her weight in gold.
As far as the logistical details went, she was awesome. From the big things (like the set up of the space or the day-​of schedule) to the small (like what fork and napkins we should rent), she had excellent recommendations, was ridiculously organized, and on top of everything. She coordinated directly with our vendors, so we didn’t even have to think about it. She had an amazing wealth of wedding knowledge and was always super responsive and accommodating when I had questions. She was always so sweet and friendly, even when I texted her late in the evening with another question or I just needed to get something out of my head.
Ultimately, Amy played the role of so many invaluable players along the way – task master, creative director, organizer, orchestrator, master crafter, therapist, air traffic controller and ultimately friend. Come wedding day, the entire thing went off without a hitch. The set-​up and space (which thank god I wasn’t there for) was beautiful and more lovely than I ever could have imagined. Our guests had a blast. We had a blast. It was true perfection!
We feel so incredibly grateful for everything Amy did for us, which was far above and beyond what we actually hired her to do. She clearly loves her job and her enthusiasm for what she does is infectious. She was the perfect wedding planner and we couldn’t have asked for more. Thank you, Amy! We love you!

I went on the hunt for a «day of» wedding coordinator about halfway through my wedding planning experience, when I realized that although I wanted a chill, non-​fancy wedding, and although I was on a strict budget, and although I wanted to DIY everything, things were just not as easy as I’d hoped they would be. My anxiety was getting the better of me, family members were getting the better of me, and planning in general was getting the better of me. Thank God I found Amy. From my initial meeting with her, I felt much more relaxed. She was warm and friendly, super knowledgeable, incredibly organized, and clearly passionate about her work. She was flexible and understanding with my budget, and created a contract for services that fit my specific needs. She met with me a handful of times throughout the experience, and was always quick to respond to my emails. She really listened when I explained my and my now-husband’s «vision» for the wedding, and would be honest when we had an idea that could be, lets say, improved upon. She also had a seemingly endless amount of creative ideas to add of her own, which flowed really well with what we were going for. I had already booked all the vendors, but she took over most of the communication with them, and planned all the little details and timeline with them. She also worked really well with all of my DIY decorations, and then added a bunch of her own based on what I wanted… the end result was honestly more beautiful, fun, and, well, perfect, than I had hoped to imagine.
On the day of the wedding, my husband and I really got to just enjoy ourselves… because Amy and her assistants were there to handle EVERYTHING. I got compliments left and right on all the little details of the wedding, and the smoothness of the whole thing, and I know I could never have pulled it off without Amy. Hiring her was the best thing I could have done, and I don’t regret a single penny. Thank you, Amy!!!

Amy helped guide us to a smooth, fun, and beautiful wedding despite my finishing grad school and starting a new job (with significant travel) within a few months of our Berkeley wedding. Amy took on the role of managing our other vendors, from making sure they knew what time to show up on the day of the event to passing out their tips, which was a big help. She led our rehearsal and remained calm despite late arrivals and other issues. And she had lots of creative ideas that made our wedding feel special. For example, we had a 1920’s feel to our wedding, and she found an old vintage wire balloon which she hung up with flowers near the guest book. She also made a vintage chalk board menu for us and put various products for guest use in the venue’s bathroom. At times the staff at our venue left something to be desired, but Amy always made sure everything worked out. I experienced next to no stress on our wedding day and this was all due to Amy!

Amy is terrific! She was the lead assistant to our wedding planner and herself organized and led us through our wedding rehearsal — perfectly — and then was on-​site for the whole day of our daughter’s wedding. Amy is a pro! She provides an unobtrusive, loving and caring presence to all the wedding party and also manages to move large crowds of people through the cocktail hour, to dinner, dancing and beyond. wow! We were so impressed and felt so grateful for her assistance in making our wedding day just perfect. I recommend her wholeheartedly! You will be lucky if she is available on your date!

Amy is AMAZING. We got married over the summer of 2012 and Amy was integral in making our wedding something we will always remember fondly. Where do we begin? Let’s start by saying that it seems like Amy was born to plan weddings. She loves what she does and it shines through in her work, from her great ideas and creativity to her professionalism and reliability. We had worked with her for about eight months (initially from out-​of-​state and then in-​person for about two months prior to the wedding) to plan an outdoor, non-​traditional multicultural wedding.
During the wedding process, you want a person who just «gets it,» someone who understands your needs and desires, and, most importantly, someone who can make the real wedding match our idealized, dream wedding. From the start, she was completely on-​top of things. She became our therapist, wedding planner, and wedding designer all rolled into one. She worked outside the box, bringing in beauty while working within our budget. Another aspect that we wanted to highlight is her emotional maturity. She was able to navigate between our different families, both of which have several strong personalities, and get things done efficiently, both with class and with charm. But don’t let that beautiful smile fool you– when it comes down to it, Amy gets things done! In fact, she was willing, ready, and able to be our officiant if things went awry on the day of, and she almost was when the priest was 45 minutes late. She had back-​up plans for everything, which helped the both of us relax and focus our energy on other things.
Some memorable tidbits and stories:
–She arranged special tables for us with our mementos and flowers and it was just lovely. She really has an eye for details, beauty, and design.
–She suggested a color theme that worked very well with the dark interiors of our venue which pulled our wedding together. She could pick up on any of our hesitations and was great at suggesting things that we never would have thought of.
–During the reception my necklace broke, so she went off and cut some wire that she had used to hang up our frames to hinge the necklace back together. Amy is very resourceful and calm under stress!
–Everyone at the rehearsal and wedding thought she was so charming and good at what she does. Our families are difficult to please, but they were pleased with her!
–My husband and I were running a little behind our schedule with all of the dress changes and she made sure our guests were comfortable and entertained.
Enough said, she’s an all-​in-​one wonder woman with an artistic eye, adaptable and reliable work ethic, intuitive and creative mind, and an indefatigable endurance. All these qualities make her an ideal wedding coordinator! We were both kind of sad after the wedding that we wouldn’t be meeting with her regularly anymore, but also happy that she can share her talent with the future couples that are in the process of getting married.
In summary, Amy SAVED OUR WEDDING and was absolutely invaluable to the process. We both whole-​hardheartedly recommend Amy because you simply cannot find a better wedding coordinator than her!

Amy has the perfect combination of resourcefulness, attentiveness, good taste, and professionalism that you want in an event planner. She also has qualities that would befit a good therapist, which make her an ideal fit for the job of a wedding planner :) She is very comfortable handling stressed-​out brides and families without making anyone feel like they’re being «managed.» She calmly guided me through the chaos of wedding planning and was pretty much entirely responsible for making our wedding day go remarkably smoothly. Throughout the process, she listened attentively and was dedicated to my vision of things, so I always felt like I was in control — just a much more organized, calm, and productive version of myself! She knows how to suggest a few good ideas and leave the important decisions entirely in your hands rather than being controlling or making you feel rushed or pressured. She was also always very respectful of our budget. She exudes competence and it is clear that she really cares about doing an excellent job. I’m certain our wedding would not have been such a success without her tireless efforts.

My daughter was married in the bay area last March and Amy’s help throughout the entire process from start to finish of the event, was awesome! My daughter was planning long distance from Chicago and Amy made everything and every detail work perfectly. She was always calm, pleasant, friendly, and no request was ever met with anything other than a «can do» attitude. The event was perfect and all the guests raved about the wedding.

I planned my Berkeley wedding from Chicago with the help of Amy and I can honestly say that she is a complete rock star. We had already secured some of our major vendors (venue, dress, cake, photographer, invites), but we needed help with additional vendors, timing, budgeting and the rest of the details we didn’t even know we had to think about. That’s where Amy came in and provided excellent recommendations for vendors that would fit our style and budget. We found some amazing people through her. She worked closely with our floral/​décor vendor to make sure that she understood the look we were going for and it turned out beautifully. Amy is extremely on top of things, highly responsive and knows every detail about your wedding inside and out. She is extremely energetic, friendly, detail oriented and has an extremely high level of professional standards. She will make sure your wedding is absolutely stunning, no matter what.
Amy is an absolute doll, super sweet and most of all, incredibly organized. Amy had all of our little details memorized the week before the wedding — she knew who got the well done filet and which table he was at, the order in which the bridal party would be announced at the reception, and on and on. Everyone at the rehersal and the wedding could not stop telling me how lovely and helpful Amy was.
My husband and I both loved working with Amy and will gladly recommend her to all our friends. There is no way that we could have gotten through the wedding planning process and the actual wedding without her. She is an investment that will pay back twenty times over.

There is one thing you can’t afford not to have at your wedding and that is Amy! My wedding was flawless and it is all because Amy was on my team. It was like she literally took a 100 pound weight off my back and placed it on her shoulders. She took everything off my plate and my husband and I didn’t have to worry about a thing during our wedding. We enjoyed our family and friends and Amy took care of everything. She coordinated with our vendors, bustled my dress, brought us champagne and appetizers during our photo’s, directed family, lined everyone up, made sure the setup was correct even to the last detail and even had an emergency kit ready with sanatizer, needle and thread and tide sticks. My husband got a headache during dinner and she had advil and a glass of water within minutes to our table.
She made timelines for all my wedding party and family members so no one had any questions about when hair appointments were or when pictures began, it was all taken care of. She even talked with my hairdresser about how to remove my veil without messing up my hair, talk about detailed. Everyone in my family made a comment about how organized she was and how coordinating must be in her blood. The best was when we got back to the honeymoon suite and Amy had made sure all all of our gifts were in the room, 2 left over pieces of cake and rose petals scattered on the bed and floor. It was breathtaking. An unexpected delight.
We still have family members talking about how our wedding was the best wedding they had ever been too and I know it’s all because of Amy.
There are so many choices when you are planning a wedding. Make the right choice and hire Amy. It will be one decision 50 years down the road you will be saying, «i’m so glad we hired her»