Monarch Weddings - San Diego, California

Baejamin Novak

Keli and her assistant’s professionalism and experience made the day-of our wedding run incredibly smooth. She had a handle on every planned piece of our wedding day and skillfully worked around the more spontaneous moments. We were really impressed by her coordination and direction as we transitioned from the ceremony to photos to cocktail hour to more photos to our grand entrance. Keli politely kept everything on schedule while ensuring that we had time to enjoy and celebrate with family and friends! At some point during the afternoon, a button fell off my tuxedo and Keli’s assistant (I believe her name was Alena), sewed my button on before we took the next set of pictures. Incredible!

After the band’s second musical set, Keli asked us if we wanted to move up the cake-cutting and bouquet toss earlier in the night to give people more time to dance and party. This really impressed us because she read the flow of the evening then offered us a way to keep our guests on the partying on the dance floor! After we gave her the go ahead, she communicated with all of the vendors, including photography, videography, the band, and catering. The transition wasn’t even noticeable to our guests and this decision really kept the energy high!

We would recommend Monarch Weddings, particularly for the level of service we received day-of. Thanks Keli!

Frances Soni

Keli is a highly experienced wedding planner and made our wedding day truly stress free. She helped us navigate all our vendors and coordinated the wedding day seamlessly with the venue. We greatly appreciated her analytical approach to planning, from Google Sheets to Aisle Planner, we got an inside look at all the pieces that would come together, with her guidance, to make our day perfect. We felt incredibly supported during the planning process and especially during the wedding day events where we didn’t have to worry about any of the details. She led our family and friends through the ceremony rehearsal with ease. Our loved ones were complimentary towards her professionalism and coordination. During the wedding day, as the bride and groom, we never had to worry about the schedule because she and her team led us through every step. We highly recommend her for any wedding planning services.

Lisa V (Lisa)

Keli, owner of Monarch Weddings, was amazing in helping our wedding be the magical day that it was. Her knowledge and experience were what made our day perfect and magical.

During our planning, Keli was always professional, accommodating, and insightful something I so appreciated seeing as I live out of state. Keli's knowledge and working relationship with many vendors was so helpful. She went out of her way to help set up meetings with vendors when I came into town, sometimes with little notice. She understood my vision of what I wanted our day to be, and it was executed to perfection. We sprung a few twists to our wedding, and she was on board with them, helping us ensure that they were carried out exactly how we wanted.

Without Keli’s experience our wedding would not have been as perfect as it was. All our guest said it was the BEST wedding they have ever been to. I would 100% recommend Keli and Monarch Weddings, you will be thankful you hired her.

Kristi Neal

Still riding our wave of bliss after having a wedding that exceeded all expectations on June 1st, my husband and I can honestly say that hiring Keli Christenson at Monarch Weddings as our Wedding Coordinator was the best decision of all and truly the smartest use of money in our wedding budget. I truly cannot imagine going through the planning process without her, nor the thought of what the end result may have been without having Keli’s direction, advice, suggestions and basic stress level management throughout the months leading up to our big day. A consummate professional paying attention to every detail, Keli and her team brought our vision to life with flawless execution. There were so many details and questions to be addressed, many that I had/would never even thought of but luckily didn’t need to worry about because our experienced, masterful coordinator handled it all. Keli was always on top of things and also several steps ahead.

Some of the reasons why we loved working with Monarch Weddings…

- Communication throughout process was perfect, timely responses always and excellent follow through.
- Represented us as a couple in a professional, friendly and respectful manner with other vendors and venue coordinators (“a pleasure to work with” was mentioned by all).
- Always had our best interest and vision in mind, never felt as if Keli was pushing own agenda. Frequently offered suggestions that would help us to stay within budget or ideas where we would get “most bang for our buck”.
- Added client benefits resulting from Keli’s strong professional relationships within the industry.

Our wedding day was absolutely perfect. Alena, my designated Bridal Assistant was outstanding, taking care of anything I needed. The confidence that we had in Keli and her team allowed us the ability to truly enjoy our entire wedding day and have the BEST time at our reception as it should be!

My husband and I wish we knew more people getting married soon simply for the opportunity to refer Monarch Weddings! We will happily and without reservation, sing our praises of Keli and her team to any couple planning a wedding, confident that they will receive the same outstanding service and experience.

randy savarese

Keli created the most magical and perfect wedding ever for my son and his fiancé. Every imaginable detail was given her attention and the entire weekend went off without one single glitch. If you need an event planner, I cannot recommend
Keli highly enough— a dream to work with! By the way, this was a destination wedding in Sayulita (Puerta Vallarta, Mexico) and Keli selected the most beautiful venue and fabulous vendors.

Rosemary Khoury

More than anyone or anything else, Keli made my wedding day what it was. And it was amazing, from start to finish!

She recommended all of my vendors (all of whom did an incredible job) and made sure they were available for my big day. She gave me inspiration for a table honoring my mother who had passed away. Heck, she even found me a newer, better, and still reasonably priced venue when we determined the one I'd chosen wouldn't work!

The day of, we were dismayed to see there was an 80% chance of rain, and indeed it did rain. We'd planned for an outdoor ceremony, and I was pretty upset that that wouldn't be possible... that is, until I saw the set-up Keli had arranged inside. It was gorgeous, it incorporated the circular floral arch we'd decided on, and the guests were shielded from the cold and rain. As I walked down the aisle, I couldn't imagine a more perfect setting.

The final performance element of my wedding was the first dance, and although my husband and I had practiced it, we had not done so with my dress on. I was saddened to find that the bustle I had gotten make the dress too long for me to walk backwards--which was one of the basic steps of our dance! Keli stepped in like the pro she is and created a shorter french bustle with pins in a matter of minutes--and the dance went off (set to the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows") without a hitch.

Several guests told me that it was the best wedding they'd ever been to, and I chalk this up to Keli's meticulous planning. The day of the wedding I received a schedule from Keli that had every photo set and event planned to the minute. On your wedding day, the last thing you want to stress about is not getting everything done on time, or making your guests wait too long while you take pictures. Keli really put my mind at ease, and as a consequence, I had an amazing time at my own wedding with almost no stress--which was totally invaluable.

I am so thankful that I had Keli to plan my wedding. I could not have picked anyone better!

Ivone Falk

Words cannot express the magic Keli created at our wedding! We were married at the Prado in Balboa Park, San Diego in November 2018 and had the most incredible wedding weekend! Keli did such an unbelievable job! Everything was literally perfect. The whole weekend and wedding went seamlessly and flowed so smoothly. She allowed us to be guests at our weeding and have a blast without having to worry about a thing! The ceremony area and ballroom were stunning. I was so overwhelmed by the beauty that I actually cried the moment I walked in. She brought it all together perfectly, precisely - and melted, wowed, every person who stepped in the room. Person after person have told us it was the best wedding experience and most beautiful wedding they have ever been to (3 months later, people are still talking about our wedding). We truly had a blast and wouldn’t change it at all. She wowed everyone (including my husband and he is rarely wowed) She helped give us the most fun and best day of our lives! I truly felt like I was in a fairytale! Not only is she fantastic at her job, but she is an extremely enjoyable person to be around (we actually missed her after the wedding). Hiring Keli/Monarch was the best decision we could have made! -IF-K

Husband's review:We live in Philadelphia, but had our wedding in San Diego so we knew planning would be a challenge. Our very first conversation with Keli put us at ease. We described our vision and she knew exactly what we were looking for and helped to inspire even more. Her organization and attention to detail were exceptional. She did not push us to make choices outside our budget, but rather gave us options. She had a vendor suggestion for every single need from napkins to the band. She was easily able to work with us even though we were in Philly. We had one pre-wedding in person meeting weekend and she had everything expertly ready for us to review.

Her eye for detail made our wedding look like what you see in a magazine! Her ability to effortlessly work with vendors was extraordinary. BUT The cherry on top with Keli was her unbelievable ability to put a room together and make every single guest, from all different backgrounds and ages walk into the room and say HOLY S&%T!!! Let me repeat that, your guests will literally walk into the room, stop and say out loud, HOLY S&%T (I watched them do it!)! Guest after guest told us that they never saw such a beautiful room. Of course it wasn’t just the room. She over delivered by allowing us to have a truly rockin’ fun wedding. We were able to relax and not worry about a thing during the wedding, the weekend of the wedding, and the weeks leading up to the wedding. She was fun and easy to work with, we had a lot of laughs (she kept laughing even though I was a major pain in the butt) and we already miss talking to her and plan to keep in touch! -MK

Carol Irwin

Kelli Christenson is a magician. Our granddaughter hired her for their wedding. Due to circumstances, we needed to make 3 changes before finding the perfect venue ( which she found for us). Kelli was right there with us all the way, assuring us we would work it out and it would be perfect and indeed it was, in spite of many challenges.

On the day of the wedding, rain was forecast for 90% at the hour of the wedding, which was planned for outside. My granddaughter was very disappointed and near tears, believing her day was going to be ruined. Kelli to the rescue. By the time we all got to the venue for pictures, she had the staff move 19 tables that already been set up for the dinner, had set up 180 chairs, the florist had brought the “arch” inside and set it up inside in a beautiful position right in front of full windows overlooking San Diego Bay, and she even went out of her way to contact one of her colleagues to bring a runner for the bride. Everybody was blown away by how beautiful everything was on such short notice and they didn’t have any idea she was responsible. She was always behind the scene making sure everything was workkngEverything went perfectly and all had a great time.

Thanks, Kelli, you are an amazing genius.