Monterey County as a destination. Prices are expensive, and there are some places where you can have a beautiful wedding for about $50,000, but there’s so much more that goes into it. You need to be able to define details such as: How many people do you have? What sort of things are important to you as a couple, such as, is the food and beverage really important or is a band/dancing really important? There are some cases where $100,000 is a great budget, and there are some cases where I will tell people that your $500,000 budget isn’t enough for what you are describing. At the end of the day it really depends on what the couple really wants. Can you cite a wedding that’s memorable for you? Ford: I had a beautiful wedding this summer at a very difficult, large property out in Carmel Valley. It’s big and sprawling, and the weather was hot and windy, and it was challenging in every way. The wedding itself was only about 80 guests. But over the course of three days, I had over 200 professional vendors coming in and out to put that wedding together and take it down. It was physical labor to put this wedding together, and most of them were never seen by the guests. Borgia: There was this couple from England that came all the way here to get married, and they brought family and friends. They only had 10 people at their wedding, so it was really small, but they were just really nice, genuine people. And they were there because they wanted to celebrate their love in a special way. Starr: My two sons’ weddings, because I was not only the wedding planner and the florist, I was also the mom of the groom. There was so much more emotion and love that goes into your child’s wedding than anybody else’s wedding because (in my business) it’s so easy to fall in love with a couple and to miss them after the wedding is over. As much as I love a particular couple, I know that our time together is going to come to an end, even though I still follow them on social media. ASK THE EXPERTS MICHAEL DADULA 20 THE BEST OF MONTEREY BAY ® WEDDING GUIDE 2026-2027 EVYNN LEVALLEY PHOTOGRAPHY MICHAEL DADULA ask-the-experts_26.indd 4 2/18/26 4:31 PM
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