Karine Brighten Events

I’ve had a great experience as a vendor at Karine’s events. They are always well-​organized and consistent.

Karen is not only an awesome successful person, but also an amazing person to work with! I have volunteered with her multiple times over the past couple of years, and have learned so much from her. All of Karen’s events are great! you can really tell all the hard work she puts in to them. My favorite event is Berkeley Vegan Earth Day (BVED). If you’ve never been, seriously you should go. You WILL be inspired and have a lot of fun :) so I def. give this woman 5-​stars! keep up the good work Karen

I was planning a west coast wedding from the east coast, and thought a planner would lessen my stress. Unfortunately hiring Karine ended up being the biggest mistake I made in wedding planning. I hired her to help me with finding vendors and month of planning.
After hiring her, she then told me most all of the vendors she could recommend were well out of my price range, or out of the area. We found most all of our vendors with no input from her, and no help in negotiations.
She had promised the month of that she would take over coordination with the vendors, and create checklists to keep me on top of deadlines and payments. Despite in person meetings with her, nothing that was promised was ever delivered.
She had promised that she or her assistant would attend meetings with vendors. But the night before the most important meeting between my caterer and venue, we got an email saying that she would not be able to attend. She ended up going only after we called her and demanded she find someone to attend.
In the weeks leading up to the wedding, I began getting calls from my vendors who were confused by the directions they were getting from her. Several of them complained about her, that she was difficult to work with.
Things got so bad my husband and I had to schedule a meeting with her in which we laid out all of our complaints, and the areas which we expected her to take charge of overseeing. But even after the meeting, she still continued to fail to take initiative. Most times we brought up a problem, she would state that the vendor was at fault, and never accept any part of the responsibility.
When my photographer called wanting to change the timing of our photos two days ahead of time, Karine again gave me no input after looking over the schedule I made, and things ended up being scheduled with too little time between events, something you would expect an experienced coordinator to recognize.
The icing on the cake was our wedding day. Unfortunately our minister had written the time for our wedding down wrong, as Karine had not verified it with her, and she ended up being almost an hour late. Karine it turned out didn’t even have our ministers phone number, I had to call to find out where the minister was after my family informed me she wasn’t there. Karine rushed our minister in, and because things were rushed, Karine’s assistant forgot to cue the organist. So my bridal party and I walked down the aisle to only background music, instead of the wedding march.
During the cocktail hour both our photographer and DJ came to us multiple times with questions about the timing of events, finding family members for photos, etc. All issues you would expect to be handled by the coordinator, but as we later found out, she was off in a side room taking a break.
When she approached us as soon as we sat down for dinner for her final payment, my husband and I ended up asking her to leave right then and there, given her continued incompetence. Our catering manager ended up taking over coordinating, and the rest of the reception ran much more smoothly.
Instead of my dream wedding, I ended up with a nightmare, and have yet to ever receive an apology from Karine for the mistakes she made.

I’ve worked with Karine at many weddings and events. She is always pleasant and hard at work coordinating with the other vendors to make for a beautiful and punctual event. I recommend her to all of my clients and would hire her in an instant if I was in the need of a planner. I’ve worked with 100’s of wedding planners and can say she is the real deal. You won’t be disappointed if you hire Karine.

Karine did a solid job with our wedding. I thoroughly enjoyed working with her from the initial meeting through the hand-​off and the on-​site execution. She was professional, upbeat and helpful. A lot of the Bay Area wedding planners charge exorbitant fees but Karine’s pricing was fair and she delivered quality work. She’s an overall pleasure to work with and has an upbeat personality. Weddings are not an easy business but she seems to truly love her work. I would recommend Karine to anyone looking for a solid event planner or for your wedding month-​of services.

We hired Karine to help us the week leading up to and on the day of our wedding. She did a terrific job. She knows exactly what she’s doing. You can tell she has a ton of experience because she is able to anticipate any issues that may arise and has the resourcefulness to swiftly prepare for and handle them. She communicated with all of our vendors so I didn’t have to. Her presence on our big day was warm, cheerful, and unobtrusive, as she held everything together and made sure it all went smoothly. On our wedding day, my husband and I didn’t have to worry about anything because we knew Karine had it all under control. If you are thinking about having a coordinator help you with your wedding (and you seriously should) I wholeheartedly recommend Karine Brighten.

I’ve worked with Karine on publicizing and promoting a number of events. It’s always easy because she’s quick to respond to emails and very organized, with outlines developed at the outset. She is also really creative with the types of events she produces; they are always really fun topics (health expos, cooking challenges, green festivals) with really fun elements (speakers, contests, games). She’s especially good at juggling a lot of moving parts at once, from speakers to vendors to media — all while managing the budget. She’s also very cheery and positive, so interactions are a pleasure. I’m looking forward to our next collaboration!

I hired Karine to be my wedding planner back in February 2013. My now husband proposed in January 2013 and we decided to have a wedding in early September the same year. We found Karine through Unilocal.At our first meeting, we felt very comfortable talking to her. She brought her portfolio as well as an assistant to the meeting, so we sensed that she was experienced and well organized. We also liked her because she understood our anxiety and suggested a lot of options right away to help ease our concerns. Overall, we were very happy with Karine and her work.
We were conscious about the cost of her full service initially, but also worried about not getting enough help if we only hire her for the month of. Karine showed flexibility by customizing her service and proposing a reasonable package for us to meet in the middle.
She was pretty thorough during each of our planning meetings, reminding us things we hadn’t thought about and providing suggestions. I guess because my husband and myself are both self-​organized person, we didn’t utilize Karine too much until pretty close to the end. She was most helpful during the rehearsal and on the wedding day. I was entirely occupied on the day (other than being the bride) to take care of my families, I couldn’t spare a single moment to check on things. However, when we were on site, Karine and her assistants have already made sure everything was in place. The wedding went on very smoothly. We gave her a big thank for that.
Karine was able to meet most of our specific needs. We had a western wedding with a large number of non-​English-​speaking guests. Originally we asked her to help find a bi-​lingual officiant. She wasn’t able to find one, but did try hard. In the end, we decided to hire just an English speaking officiant. Karine agreed to bring a Chinese-​speaking assistant on the wedding day.
The Chinese-​speaking assistant turned out to be not so helpful. We felt that she was inexperienced. We asked her to help gather guests, but she seemed irresponsive. My mom also asked her to help explain what the officiant was doing to my non-​English relatives, she didn’t say no, but didn’t do anything either. We expressed our disappointment about the assistant to Karine after the wedding. She apologized and said we should have told her our expectations of the assistant. I agree, but I nevertheless think it is reasonable to assume the assistant would help on ad-​hoc requests and assume that Karine would prepare her assistant.

Karine was an outstanding wedding planner in every possible way. She was calm, organized and willing to please. She shared some wonderful ideas with us. On my wedding day, I do not know what we would have done without her and her assistant, Christine. She orchestrated the entire ceremony and made sure everything ran smoothly and on time at the reception luncheon. I highly recommend her to everyone! You will be completely satisfied in every way.

My friend won a free hour-​long consultation with Karine, and generously gave it to me. I met with Karine to get her feedback on a fundraiser event that my organization is hosting.
She was wonderful. Very friendly, relaxed, and engaged. If I were putting on an event that I was stressed about, I would definitely want Karine around — her calm and in-​control demeanor was very reassuring.
She methodically went through the many different aspects of event planning to make sure that we covered all of the important topics. She offered lots of helpful tips, both for this specific fundraiser and for future events. I could tell from her thorough and systematic approach to this one-​hour consultation that she is very dedicated and well-​organized.
I hope that I get the opportunity to work with Karine again soon!

Karine helped to organize my book launch party, and I am so glad I hired her! It doesn’t get better. She was organized throughout the planning phase, relieving me of so much stress. And she was responsive — not the type to get back to you days later. Professional, personable, responsive, organized, it was an utter pleasure to work with her. And her staff at the event made sure that everything ran smoothly. One of these days when one of my kids gets married, I’ll have to hire her for the wedding!

Karine is an organized event planner — I thoroughly enjoyed working with her on the Berkeley Vegan Earth Day last spring — and she has done a lot to organize other vegan-​oriented events (like speed dating). She’s smart, professional and personable — diplomatic and resourceful. I highly recommend her for any event planning needs you may have!

We hired Karine to be the event planner for three California premieres of our vegan documentary, Vegucated, including a red carpet première in LA, and she was great. She managed the events smoothly so that we could sit back and just enjoy our big nights. She’s detail-​oriented, professional, and has a grounded, friendly energy that is perfect for high-​pressure situations.

I had Karine plan our wedding and it was the most magical experience. She understood exactly what we looking for. Because of her organizational skills we were able to have a worry-​free event and cherish these special moments. She even let us borrow her Vitamix! I would recommend her to anyone.

Karine has a passion and a gift for event planning. Whether it’s a corporate launch, a tradeshow, or your ‘Big Day’, she has the vision, drive and attention to detail to make it a huge success. Karine’s characteristic positivity, focus and experience allow her to handle fundraisers, film screening, and social networking events for corporations and non-​profits alike. To boot, Karine is charming to work with and dedicated to making any event spectacular and stress-​free. Of course I love that she is dedicated to being environmentally friendly and recogizes that that includes being vegan. I adore her personally and professionally and highly recommend her for all event needs.

If you are looking for a Green Certified Wedding and Event Planner, look no more! Karine is great at what she does, not only is she professional and well educated in consulting or planning, she is easy going, and a very approachable industry professional!
Karine helped planned our monthly event at the Marsh in Berkeley. Our event was a Vegan event, from the wines to the hand passed appetizers, the meal, even the centerpieces of asparagus, apples, eggplants, watermelons, and gorgeous flowers which were made by an amazing local florist (who I am Unilocaling next!).
Our meal was 100% vegan and yummy, and Karine was an overall superstar on this event! I look forward to collaborating with her in the near future. Another great find in Berkeley! I am sure she travels, she is so worth it!

Karine was a fantastic month-​of planner for my wedding in Berkeley in October 2010. It would be really easy to go on and on about Karine’s easy disposition, organization, listening skills, and willingness to work with even the most difficult vendors. Those things are all true and they make Karine fantastic. She even went nose-​to-​nose with venue managers who had veered from contract, and she offered to bring in her own vendors when one of ours failed to respond to a series of messages. There’s a tremendous amount of value-​add right there!
However, what I liked best about Karine were her commitment to green and her commitment to fairness. When it comes to green, there are tons of services in the Bay Area that promise to make an event more «sustainable» or «eco-​friendly.» In my opinion, it’s really easy to drive up the cost of an already-​wasteful large-​scale event by using luxury-​priced «sustainable» paper goods and tchotchkes, but that’s not truly green. Karine’s commitment is such that she only works with clients who already have a commitment to green: vegetarian/​vegan menu, locally-​sourced goods and services, low travel requirements, etc. Once those commitments are laid out, Karine helps to make it all a reality by coordinating with vendors and by aiding in the difficult decision-​making process. Although we only worked with Karine during the month prior to our wedding, we would have benefited from her judgment during the early planning process, since she would have been a great advisor on what to include and what to cut and how to achieve goals with low impact and at low cost.
Moreover, because the commitment to sustainability and lowering impact is already laid out, that actually allows Karine to charge according to the services she’ll be providing. This is a tremendously fair and relatively novel approach! This attitude is much different from the traditional wedding vendor strategy, which allows service providers to charge more because a green event is sufficiently distinct from the norm, even if it requires less work and less expense. Karine’s pricing structure made it so that we could actually afford the other services that were most important to us (and minimize spend and focus on the services that were not a priority), since part of being green is a willingness to pull the reigns and not go overboard.
For all this, I’m tremendously grateful to Karine. Needless to say, we had a fabulous, fun wedding that my wife and I really enjoyed and of which we were truly proud. Karine not only helped us make our wedding day everything we dreamed it could be, but made sure we were able to relax, focus on the important stuff, and rock out!

Karine is a phenomenally dedicated event planner. I had the opportunity to work with her when she produced the San Francisco Vegan Fashion Show, and saw first hand her passion for not only creating great events, but also for making them successful. Karine is highly attentive to her clients, easy to be around, and fun to work with. I’d not only love to work with Karine in the future, but I’d also be glad to recommend her to anyone looking for an event planner.

I recently worked with Karine as a volunteer for the Women Entrepreneurs Showcase in Berkeley. She was a pleasure to work with. This was a great opportunity for me to learn how a trade show was run from beginning to end. She’s a very positive & upbeat person and made my first experience working at a trade event very memorable. I was able to meet alot of amazing women.
I would definitely love to work with Karine again for future events!

«Because of Karine’s sweet personality and the incredible job she did organizing Farm Sanctuary’s Walk for Farm Animals, we asked her if she would be interested in planning our wedding in June. So far she has been doing an excellent job with staying on top of things as well as suggesting vendors and ideas. Not only is she a fantastic business woman but she is now becoming one of our good friends. I would highly recommend her for any event.»
****
Now that our wedding is over, I would like to add how smoothly everything went! I didn’t have any problems the day of the wedding whatsoever. Karine managed communication with all of our vendors very well and offered ideas and suggestions we didn’t think of.
We hope to hire her again to help organize our storefront grand opening next month!