Elizabeth and Adrienne of Gracielou Events do much more than your basic run-of-the-mill wedding planning services. Just to briefly give some background, we interviewed over 20 New England based (Newport, RI focused) and Indian Wedding focused wedding planners. Our search criteria was primarily based on working with a team that would keep us focused, organized, fit our extremely demanding personalities and add value/insight into our décor choices (color theme, linens, floral etc.). Through the hiring process they personally met with both sets of parents (at our request) to get them comfortable with the role of wedding planners (like many Indian families, our parents are accustomed to having family, family friends and siblings do all the heavy lifting). As a couple, we felt it was important to have both set of parents onboard with the idea of having full-time / super-dedicated wedding planners (that were going to be in the middle of everything we did). Both sets of parents walked away from the meetings feeling that Gracielou would be the perfect conduit to keep communications lines open, research all possible options, find the best pricing (and then knock 20% off that!), ensure day of timelines were perfect and most important - confident that they were the right team to alleviate any stress that comes with planning for us. We hired Gracielou Events with the intention of working on two nights of events and potentially helping with a casual post wedding brunch. Our wedding turned into three days of events in Newport, RI and a total of 6 organized meals for all 300 guests. Elizabeth and Adrienne were very flexible with their services throughout the 12 months they worked with us. Despite the laundry list of deficiencies Gracielou was dealt with in working with us (lack of communication, insane work and personal schedules lack of decisiveness and a thousands of changes until the last minute), they were diligent, persistent and motivated to ensure we stayed on-course, on budget, weighed all options and executed in the end. The categories in which Gracielou highly differentiated their services were with help in décor for our wedding ceremony, reception and Sangeet; execution of plan (including timelines, dealing with the surprises); personalization of services and vendor management.
* Décor
o Created inspiration boards for us to begin to think about tying things together
o Extremely creative in their approach and presented both mainstream and highly creative-unique looks
o Negotiated with all our vendors ensuring that we were getting the most bang for our buck
o Led discussions with vendors to ensure creativity and aesthetics would be uniform and not compromised (linens, floral, furniture rentals, caterers etc.)
o Executed plan to perfection at the events by overseeing and managing the process
* Execution of Plan
o Got us to the events with all the planning and then worked 10x as hard during them to make sure everything was perfect
o Took on the responsibility of everything "has to be perfect"
o When things went wrong, got them fixed and made sure we (the couple) were not dealing with them
o Understood the hierarchy chain the family and who to talk to for what/when
* Personalization of Service
o Extremely flexible meeting our demands and dealing with our insane schedules
o Constant dialogue which helped them get us to the place we wanted to be and that fit our individual needs (capacity, timing, money etc.)
o Worked diligently to win the support of everyone we wanted involved (both sets of parents and siblings) by providing feedback, updates, meeting in Newport on short notice etc.
o Kept everyone up-to-date and focused on the bigger picture
o Read books and met with Indian wedding vendors to better understand the culture and differentiated aspect to an Indian wedding
* Vendor Management
o Broad knowledge of Indian and non-Indian vendors
o Negotiated with our vendors on our behalf
o Vetted vendors, did research, got pricing and then presented them to us
o Communicated with vendors regularly and kept us updated on everything
o Understood which vendors needed babysitting and which could be left alone in regards to executing
Overall, we cannot say enough positive things about the experience we had with Gracelou Events. We would recommend them to any couple looking for wedding planners and can guarantee that the their services will be above and beyond all expectations. read more
