Hi, I’m Anita!

Hi Friends! I am so very happy you joined me here!! My name is Anita Casano Kanellis, owner and principal planner of AK Brides, a wedding planning boutique based in Southern California where I grew up and have always called home and also the Southeast where I started this business and have spent a good part of my life. This year, 2019, marks 20 wonderful years of planning gorgeous and romantic weddings all over the country. I am so excited and truly honored to serve my clients, striving to surpass their expectations and maximizing the talents of every vendor I work with at each and every wedding I produce. Cherishing all the special moments during the planning process and on wedding day is very close to my heart and bringing a calm demeanor and years of experience throughout the planning process and especially on wedding day allows my clients to soak in all the details and really live and enjoy all those precious moments.

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what we do

AK Brides specializes in producing the most memorable moments providing full-service wedding planning and design with detailed expertise hosted at established venues and private estates across the country. We will help you carefully select and contract your wedding dream team including your venue, floral design, invitations, menu selection, caterers, photography and all other professional vendors who will make your wedding day exceed all of your expectations.

We understand how many moving parts are involved with a wedding day along with all the many logistical details. AK Brides strives to create a complete wedding planning experience and handle all of these details for you from conception and budget, design plan, floor plans and complete comprehensive time lines leading to the full execution of the wedding day. Our goal is for you, our bride and groom, to relax and enjoy all the moments created during your entire journey of planning and soak in every moment of your wedding day knowing AK Brides is leading the way!

“How do we begin to thank you for all of your hard work in planning Allison and John’s wedding? The best decision that Allison made was to marry John. The second best decision that she made was to hire you as her wedding planner. The minute that I met you I knew that we were in good hands. You made it all come together just as she had envisioned. We appreciate you so much. You are professional, organized, calm, kind and patient. Just what we both needed during the planning process and wedding weekend. You were always there to answer emails, texts and phone calls to calm us down and let us know that all was taken care of. You set us up with an “A” list of vendors. Thanks to you we were able to relax and enjoy the planning process and most importantly the wedding weekend.”

– Melinda B

“Where do we even begin? Thank you SO much for everything you did to make our day absolutely perfect in every way! I cannot imagine what we would’ve done without you! You are so professional, kind, and thoughtful. We have recommended you to every new bride we know because you were so incredible. Thank you again for everything!”

– Anna and Jason J.

“Thank you ever SO much for helping us plan and execute a spectacular event. We truly appreciate your commitment and your attention to all the aspects of the various stages in planning. We enjoyed you most of all, your calm and confident approach was noted and are grateful for all that you did!”

– Sangeeta N.

“Thank you so much for all you did to make our wedding day perfect! It was truly the best day and we will cherish the memories forever. We sincerely appreciate everything you did for us, big and small to ensure that our day was nothing short of perfect. If something went wrong, we certainly didn’t know it and that is such a testament to your organization, professionalism, and amazing team of vendors. You surely know how to put together the most talented and genuine “A Team”. But our smartest decision throughout the past 12 months of planning was hiring you! We loved being able to step back, relax and know that everything was being taken care of by the best. Our family and friends continue to comment on how wonderful and seamless everything was that day. You went above and beyond – Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts!”

– Allison and John W.

“I had to thank you again for all of your help with Katie’s wedding. You were definitely the most valuable player for the event, hands down! Your focus, attention to detail and problem-solving abilities are remarkable. I would happily recommend you to anyone at any time. Thanks again!”

– Bob W. (Father of the Bride)

“Our wedding was beyond our expectations! Your expertise was invaluable to us. We were so grateful to have your guidance in every detail. Everything ran so smoothly and with such ease. Our family and friends are still talking about how beautiful everything was and how much fun they had. All of our wow areas turned our spectacular! Hiring you to help us plan the most important day of our lives was the best decision. We will always remember your kindness.”

– Courtnie and Jonathan A.

“Anita, you were placed in my life for a reason and blew away anything I had in my imagination for my wedding. You went above and beyond anything I thought about a wedding planner, I’m glad we will be lifelong friends and will share this day together forever. There were so many people who worked long overnight hours to put all this together, I’m a lucky woman to have the best in the business.”

– Casey D.