Ellen Dubin is phenomenal…read more We chose her based on a referral from friends who've had her do their various bar/bat mitzvahs and weddings. There were several things that made our wedding planning rather challenging - an April wedding in DC with unpredictable weather, a wedding taking place at a private home requiring everything to be imported to that site, and a bride, a groom, and parents that were in three different locations in two different time zones. Ellen was very flexible and adaptable and cleared her schedule to make the most of the limited time we had with her when all three of us were in town. I think one of the best and most useful things about using Personally Yours was the access that Ellen had to various vendors - three things - the tent, the decor, and the food - were the most important part of this wedding and all three were phenomenal. Our wedding was on somewhat short notice - about 8 months to plan - and she was able to acquire Joel from Occasions and Jeffrey from Fox Ventures and Davis from Sugar Plum Tents. All three were exceptional and made multiple trips to our wedding site to plan and coordinate the event. All three had rave reviews about Ellen and it was clear that the people and vendors she surrounded herself with were all people very familiar with each other and worked well with each other. Ellen was able to provide experience, wisdom, and advice about the way we were trying to shape our wedding. She listened carefully and made significant efforts to understand what we wanted for our wedding. There were certain things she was adamant about that we had never really considered including the flow of the guests, the rhythm and scheduling of the band in conjunction with speeches and meals being served. How to introduce a WOW factor for guests when they stepped into our tent. And she paid close consideration to the theme and atmosphere we wanted to have. We wanted to go for a vintage chic / garden wedding that was intermingled with the natural beauty of the house where we were getting married. She advised us on the position of the tent, the dance floor, ways to accent the natural warmth of the home, and how to make sure everyone was fed and watered without any glitches. Ellen is experienced and has done what I'm sure are hundreds of weddings. Before hiring her we had concerns that since she does bar and bat mitzvahs too, that the wedding wouldn't have the perfect wedding feel- but that was not an issue whatsoever! Our wedding was a dream come true. It was perfect - like a work of art in motion. If wedding planners could be named artists she's a Van Gogh or da Vinci. She works so hard and is brilliant at it too! Ellen listens, executes, is efficient, and gets the job done. She is very much about business and there are some times when she might say some things are less feasible than others. It's not difficult to believe her because for most things she'll bend over backward to execute and have her staff work accomplish. But she is honest and will let you know when she disagrees with a suggestion or would like to tweak something and see if you'd like it better that way. The second place where her brilliance comes in is the day of the wedding and ensuring everything goes smoothly. The order of the ceremony, the flow of guests, collecting gifts, re-bustling my dress as she predicted the bustle would come undone, directing bridesmaids/groomsmen, getting the crowd onto the dance floor, and making sure shuttles are coming and going etc. Things were flawless! We wish we could go back to last weekend and relive it all over again! Thank you Ellen!

Ellen and her team at Personally Yours are absolutely phenomenal! She was the planner for our…read morewedding, and we couldn't be happier with how the event played out. First of all, Ellen was completely dedicated to making sure that the wedding reflected us: our choices, our vibe, our personality. While she has opinions about how to make sure you get the best vendors and the best quality service, she made sure that the event was about us: not about her, not about our parents, but about us. But boy, did she assemble a dream team! Her extensive experience in this industry means that she knows who the best people are, and everyone she chose, from the caterer to the florist to the photographer, were absolutely excellent. I really appreciated how she made a point of figuring out what our vibe was and what we were looking for, and then matched us with a top-quality vendor who could deliver that vibe. We also can't help but mention how organized, thorough, and patient Ellen and her team are. They thought of everything, every little wrinkle and nuance, and they navigated those nuances through a decidedly larger-than-normal planning committee of six people! Not only will Personally Yours deliver an absolutely amazing, personalized event, they'll do it in a way that can make you, your guests, and even your in-laws proud and happy. We can't recommend them strongly enough-: if you want a fantastic event, go with Ellen and her team.

Joyce was the officiant at our wedding in September. She was amazing! We had originally wanted a…read morefriend to marry us but were disappointed when we learned Virginia is very strict as to who can officiate a wedding in their state. However, after having worked with Joyce, I feel like a friend did marry us. I met her at the Washington, D.C. Bridal Expo and my husband (then fiancée), Joel and I met with her a couple of weeks later. We immediately knew she was the person we wanted officiating our ceremony. She is warm, friendly, and extremely prepared. She has mountains of resources to make your ceremony special and she worked with us to make our ceremony unique and 100% us! We are so impressed and appreciative of Joyce's hard work and professionalism. She was just as invested in making our ceremony memorable and heartfelt as we were.

We are so pleased that we hired Rev. Bill Cochran to perform our marriage ceremony! From the…read morestart, he was kind, helpful, and calm (an essential trait when working with stressed brides!). We loved the fact that we could tailor our wedding ceremony to reflect us, not just any other wedding. Bill gave us lots of information about different blessings, readings, how to write our vows, unity ceremonies, processional order, and gave us a nice copy of our marriage license to hang on the wall. He was always willing to answer any questions that arose while we were planning our wedding. Additionally, we participated in the one-on-one marriage counseling that he offers. Though we had been together for over 6 years before getting married, we found the counseling to be helpful in that he gave us suggestions for different ways to talk to each other when we might feel that we're stuck on an issue. We highly recommend that you hire Rev. Bill Cochran to officiate your wedding ceremony! You will be so happy that you did!

Other than deciding to get married in the first place, working with Ashly and B.Mingled might be…read morethe best decision we ever made. I mean this in total honesty: we could not have had the wedding that we wanted without them. They took care of details that we didn't even know existed. Things that could have surprised us and derailed us were handled quickly, expertly, and seamlessly by Ashly and her team. Plus, they're absolutely delightful people. When any of my friends, family, or loved ones in the DMV get married, I hope Ashly is available to work with them.

I truly don't know where to begin. I know when searching wedding vendors, many of them have 5 stars…read moreand it can be a challenge selecting which vendor is right for you. However, Ashly and her team deserve 10 stars! I have never in my entire life met someone as professional, organized, kind-hearted and caring as Ashly from B.Mingled. Let me start with the software B.Mingled provides, Aisle Planner. This software is a GAME CHANGER for wedding planning. Before I signed with Ashly, I was literally planning my wedding on various sticky notes. Aisle planner has EVERYTHING from your guest list, to contract uploads, to payment reminders, to a very detailed checklist that is organized by months leading up to the wedding, to the seating chart customized to your venue layout. And the best part? Ashly helps you manage the software. I am not sure if other planner/coordinator companies offer this software, but what I do know is that Ashly & her team are simply unmatched. I hired Ashly as our Day-of-coordinator, but she is so much more than that - she is ALWAYS there when you need her even months before the wedding. She was more like a 2-3 month coordinator with the emails, texts and calls and always happy to help with anything we needed (I know I had a ton of stupid questions and she was always more than happy to help). Ashly is extremely detail oriented. She provided a very detailed schedule to me and all of my vendors, which was amazing as it eliminated any confusion. I have been in many weddings where no one knows what is going on or when to be here or there. I shared this timeline with my wedding party and there was never any question of where people needed to be at what time, and that really made a huge difference for the flow of the wedding. And to be honest it was INCREDIBLE as the Bride to. not have to answer a million and one questions from everyone because every last detail was on the timeline. One thing I really loved about Ashly was that she told me she would not contact me for any reason on my wedding day. She took down our MOH and BM's numbers and contacted them all day if any minor issues popped up or if she was just checking in to see how I was doing. She did not want me to worry about anything, and it was so nice to just be able to relax and trust that everything was taken care of - which it was! On the day of my wedding, I was staying in a cottage onsite of the venue which is where I had my girls come for hair and makeup. Ashly arrived to the venue, made sure everything was going well, and then loaded up her car with all of our decor items for the ceremony/reception (multiple boxes) and transported them to the venue. I had a couple sticky notes on some of the decor with some instruction, but other decor items didn't and I trusted her to place them where she thought looked good and holy moly did she do an incredible job! My reception space was absolutely breathtaking because of her setup. Also, at the end of the night, I did not have to worry about A THING. Ashly and her assistant, Alyssa, carefully organized and packed up all of our belongings and transported all of my boxes back to the cottage at the end of the night. This is the best part. Ashly literally saved my wedding. Unfortunately, two of my other vendors were absolutely horrible and made me cry multiple times throughout the day/evening. Not only did Ashly have my back and stood up for me, but she made sure that I didn't have to deal with the vendors face to face and she took total charge in fixing the issues. It was so nice having someone go to battle for me so I could just enjoy myself and my loved ones. Not only that, but she always made sure I was doing great and always made sure I had a drink in my hand! Both Ashly and Alyssa were always there for me and supporting me. I never had to go and search for them, they were always nearby and ready to help with whatever I needed. I can imagine having to deal with the vendor crisis was chaotic, but you would never know as Ashly has this incredible calm and collected presence that fills the room. The fact that she was running my entire wedding AND STILL made so much time to check in on me and get me anything I needed is truly remarkable. Not only was Ashly an amazing coordinator, but she was an AMAZING FRIEND on my wedding day. I do not know what I would have done without Ashly. I truly cannot picture my wedding without her and I certainly will never forget her. She was hands down the best vendor we hired for our wedding. I truly believe she is the best coordinator in the game! If I could give you one piece of advice for your wedding, CHOOSE ASHLY/THE B.MINGLED TEAM AS YOUR WEDDING COORDINATOR. Trust me, you will not regret it.

I worked with a number of vendors that are a part of The Be More Inspired wedding team and could…read morenot be happier with everything! 1. The wedding dress: I got my Martina Liana dress from K&B Bridals and was comfortable every step of the way. This was honestly the thing I was dreading most. I suppose most brides are excited at trying on multiple dresses in front of their friends and family. This is not me. I initially felt very self-conscious about parading around in a fancy dress. Kate was AMAZING and really helped me through this. She listened to my preferences and got a feel for my tastes and was never pushy and always honest. 2. Photographers - Alysia and Jayson were beyond amazing. I could go on and on about them but will save this for another review. They made us feel extremely comfortable and we genuinely had fun with them. The day of the wedding, it was also unbelievably valuable to have their calm presence amidst all the chaos. 3. Faye Daniels Designs - I LOVED the custom jewelry pieces made by Randie and her team! What was very nice was having them available down the hall when I was picking out the dress. Randie came right over and we came up with the perfect rose gold hair piece with pearls and hand-made gold plated leaves to go with the dress. It came out beautiful! I also ended up getting earrings for the moms which were perfect wedding gifts. 4. Travelworks International - With all of the planning that already goes into weddings, I was SO thankful to have Kelly take one more thing off my plate and I could not be happier to leave this part up to her as the professional. I had a misconception that travel agents were also more expensive but this could not be further from the truth! We booked a very reasonable trip to Maui, she worked with us and our budget seamlessly, and it was unforgettable. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

From the owner: Be More Inspired Wedding Studio is a Collective of wedding businesses all sharing one space to help…read moreyou with all of your wedding needs in one convenient location. Home to: K&B Bridals, Moore & Co Event Stylists, Blush Floral Design Studio, Travelworks International, Faye Daniel Designs as well as over a dozen other partners including hair and makeup, photography, stationery, cake, and more. We're here to make your wedding planning and enjoyable and stress free process, helping you with all your needs, all under one roof.

My mother and I hired NoLo for my wedding recently. Nora was my planner and we hired her for the…read more"Month Of" service. The pricing was reasonable and my mother and I agree - WORTH EVERY PENNY. We both are high strung individuals so having Nora there in the last month leading up to the big day was super helpful. We tend to leave things to the last minute but Nora stayed on us and made sure she got everything she needed from us. Nora attended our rehearsal and helped choreograph the ceremony. The day of the ceremony she coordinated with the DJ for all announcements and music cues. As a control freak myself, I wanted everything to be perfect. Because I didn't have to yell, scream, or even think on my big day, Nora MADE my day perfect. One of the other reviewers said they had the ceremony and reception in the same place and were worried about space. SAME HERE. I was ready to help move our rental furniture around in my wedding dress after the ceremony. I was worried I'd have to tell people "Alright we do! Now everyone pick up a chair and take it over to a table..." but no such thing happened. Nora coordinated the catering staff and her assistant/husband to get the ceremony broken down and dinner set up during cocktail hour while the bridal party took pictures. The biggest rave I have about Nora is that about a week before my wedding I sent her a three page email (single spaced) with every anxiety, fear, and wedding nightmare I've had in the past year and a half. It was definitely an unhinged email. Nora gave me the most valuable wedding gift I could have gotten then: Peace of Mind. She sent me a reply that both validated my feelings and helped me calm down a bit. If I ever need to plan another wedding or help a friend/sibling plan a wedding, I'm strongly recommending Nora's services. Next time, though, I may just have to hire NoLo for the entire wedding planning package because I'm sure NoLo will plan a magical wedding!

I hired Nora and Lorinda (NoLo) a few months out from my wedding as I was realizing I needed some…read morehelp and the coordinator that came with my venue was not being as responsive as I would have liked. I just felt like I needed someone objective to keep me sane and help me with the little details. I met with the girls as they offered a "day of" package for a great price that was within my budget. It took about 5 minutes of hellos and small talk to know these ladies were THE BEST investment of my entire wedding! They reminded me of little details I forgot about and helped to handle those little details. I was immediately at ease and didn't worry about a thing from then on. They worked great with the on site coordinator and the day went as smoothly as it could have. If I started to think about something that may have been forgot, they just flashed me a smile to let me know they had already handled it. They were extremely professional but had fun as well because that is the only way I would have it! Even though it was a "day of" package, they took the time to meet with me a few times beforehand to go over things and offered to hold onto any decor I needed stored until the day. If i sent an email about something, they responded immediately. (And believe me, I sent quite a few emails haha). They truly were my little guardian angels that day and I can't thank them enough for all they did for me. I can say with 100% honesty that I had an absolute blast at my wedding and enjoyed every second of it and I truly believe that is because of Nora and Lorinda.

Jan was a HUGE help to us. We wanted invitations that were more traditional and were overwhelmed by…read moreall the options online and how much time it would take to design/order on our own. We also did not have a sense of everything we needed to provide all the information to our guests. Jan has exceptional patience to explain all your options and how the process works to someone who is not well versed in this area. She also provides you with direction on what exactly is needed for a seamless process. Overall excellent customer service. Jan is also meticulous and takes her time to make sure you get a beautiful product without over paying. I felt truly in good hands with having Jan assist us with this process. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

Jan was incredibly helpful through the entire process! She's so knowledgeable about every aspect of…read moreher business,while being very patient and kind!! We were so clueless and she really assisted us in realizing our vision! Our invitations are stunning and beyond anything we could have dreamed! Highly recommend Jan to any engaged couple!

We had a small simple ceremony due to COVID. Lal Moya did the most beautiful job of making our…read morewedding feel like a fairytale. They were so responsive and easy to work with. The arrangements were beautiful and so well thought out. The experience was worth twice what we paid and they will be my preferred event planner and florist in the future!

I was so grateful to find Moya through social media avenues. He was extremely responsive to us via…read moreemails and texts. He brought our vision to life and MORE! He gave us an incredibly reasonable price. He surprised us on the day of the event and even provided extra flowers and arrangements for our name card table. He has an eye for beautiful designs and elegant centerpieces and really listens to your interests. I gave him the chance to take the lead on our concept design for our wedding and he did a spectacular job. He made sure our day was stress free and even delivered our boutonnières to our hotel without question. My husband and I loved working with Moya every step of the way and he made our dream wedding come alive! Thank you to him and his design team, we will certainly recommend him to any and all of our friends and family in the future! He is a 5-star florist!

I'm not exactly sure what I would have done without Megan Pollard. Wedding planning has so many…read moredetails and we thought we could do it all ourselves but in the end we called Events in the City. From start to finish this chic is detailed and on-point. She directed the vendors, kept us on schedule, made amazing suggestions and in the end it was the perfect wedding. We had 170 people to coordinate, live entertainment, delivery of grooms by boat, and family speeches. Everything was so seamless I could not even believe my own OCD eyes. My partner has his masters in Event Planning (tourism something whatever) and even he said it couldn't have been more perfect. I throw parties at a nightclub several times a week - I'm telling you, this chic is everything. Jus sayin.

From the beginning, my husband and I knew we wanted to hire a day-of wedding coordinator to handle…read moreall the details, and (most importantly) any crisis that may arise. Given that we have both worked in events professionally, we know the kinds of things that can go wrong, and also the amount of work that goes on in the background to throw a great party - wedding or otherwise. We had to make the argument with our parents to not just assign these responsibilities to a relative instead of hiring a professional. It wasn't until the wedding day that they realized just how invaluable it was for us to have Katie there to support us and essentially run the show. In the words of my mother, "You were a God-send -- we would have been screwed without you there." After working for years for other companies managing events, Katie recently broke off to start her own wedding planning company, Pure Whimsy Events, so her prices are really reasonable. She also goes above and beyond for her clients, which is what we were told from an acquaintance who had hired her for their wedding in Fall 2013. Katie helped us keep everything organized and on time in the planning process, and referred several vendors to us including the transportation (which was much less expensive than others we'd looked into). While trying to keep everything straight and organized, I started feeling like I was losing my mind - but Katie was there to keep my head on straight (and in turn, my husband's). She reviewed contracts for us and called out anything that might seem abnormal. She created a detailed timeline for the day-of, was on time for ALL of our meetings (either one-on-one or with vendors), and of course made sure we had everything we needed throughout our wedding day - even offering to buy me coffee in the morning Unfortunately, she ran into several snags throughout the day but she still kept a smile on her face and got the job done. She even managed to get us an Uber car (the planned getaway car for us), which was really difficult on our wedding night considering it was the same night as the White House Correspondent's Dinner, and Uber was providing the transportation for them. Katie is sweet, enthusiastic, meticulously organized and hard working. It doesn't matter how simple your wedding is, I would suggest hiring Katie to help keep you sanity throughout the process and also so you don't have to worry about anything on the wedding day except enjoying it. She also knows when to crack the whip with vendors to make sure they deliver on their promises, which is not always easy to do. Thank you, Katie, for making the process that much easier and our wedding day so stress-free (for us)! PS. Her emergency kit is worth its weight in gold. There were things in there we didn't realize we needed until we did!

Katie far exceeded any expectations my wife and I could have imagined for a wedding planner. From…read morethe first meeting with her, it was clear that Katie was organized, experienced, and passionate about making sure our wedding went exactly how we envisioned it. Over the course of our roughly 18-month engagement, Katie could not have been more attentive to our needs. She laid out the schedule (managed through basecamp) for both our tasks and hers, and was always quick to respond to our questions. I would say one of her biggest strengths was in helping us fill in the gaps in our vision for the big day and knowing which questions to ask vendors and ourselves when it came to design preferences. She even made sure to reach out when it looked like we were starting to fall behind on our tasks, which we certainly needed. She always had stellar recommendations for vendors but never pressured us to actually take her recommendation. We learned quickly that when Katie recommends someone, they're probably the right fit for the job :) While I can't sing Katie's praises enough for her guidance in planning the wedding, she was unbelievable on the day-of. When we needed to resort to the rain plan- every bride's worst fear- Katie coordinated all the necessary changes with our vendors and made sure that set-up flowed smoothly. We have since had a few guests that thought the rain plan was our original plan all along! Of all the choices that went into planning our wedding, hiring Katie was the best decision we made, period. You will not regret it!

We were looking for a company to help with our wedding planning and Shawn was a godsend. My mom…read morefound this company through a friend who had used the services for their own wedding. Shawn not only helped us with the planning and decor, but also the uplighting, sparklers, photography and videography. Shawn and his team were phenomenal, making sure everything was to our liking. He met up with us in person several times leading up to the wedding and was present for the whole wedding day to make sure everything went smoothly. Our wedding day was perfect. I highly recommend this company.

I cannot say enough about my experience with Lotus Production! This was the most professional,…read morecaring, and organized event management I have ever experienced, thanks to Shamim for perfect communication and management. So many of my guests were asking about the catering. The food was excellent and the whole experience was beyond my expectation. Simply the best.