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!

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.

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.

If you want to have a Spectacular Event, release it to the Event Coordinator, know for sure you…read moredon't have to micromanage,... then you need to Choose Happenings!!! I am not a easy person to deal with... and Heather's relaxation made me nervous wondering if she could really pull this off without a hitch. Truth be told. Well, she and her staff most certainly did!! She told us where to be and when, Orchestrated our line up for all, lit all the candles, catered the food, arranged the set up template, fixed a couple of my decorating mishaps, made sure announcements were on time, music happened, the correct songs were played, and much more!!!! I, as Mother of the Bride, got to totally observe and be with my daughter and enjoy everything!!!! I just sat back and watched it all unfold!! It was a Beautiful wedding and could not be happier or more pleased. I made the decision to let her have it, and She ... Happenings.. owned it!!! It's sad that I only get the choice of 5 stars because she would get an endless amount!!!!" Thank you Heather and staff for a fun stressless day.. Never imagined I'd ever be able to say the aforementioned! So, if you want to relax and have fun on your big event day, Choose HAPPENINGS!!! Thank you so much for making my daughter have a Spectacular Day!! Grateful and Pleased, Ann M Stalbird

GREAT CATERING/AMAZING PEOPLE :) Heather at Happenings hooked our group up!! We were in town all…read moreweek with a work group and she and her team rocked our lunch catering needs each day! We had plenty of food each day and she worked with us on the menu which had lots of variety!! She made things SUPER EASY which is much appreciated and she did it all with a smile!! LOVE HER!!

My husband and I held our small wedding ceremony (less than 10 people) at Weddings on Wirt on…read more4/4/15. I was very lucky to have found this place (after several unsuccessful searches to find a small indoor venue for our hour long ceremony). Weddings on Wirt will hold up to 30 people. Although the space is the small, the little touches like the gold chairs (which are part of your hourly rental) and historical looking furnishings are a nice alternative to getting married at the courthouse (also looks better in pictures than a courthouse). Suzanne (the owner of Legacy Weddings and proprietary of Weddings on Wirt) is very accommodating. If you have a small event planned the space and add-ons available are perfect. (Although, the space is typically used for weddings. Suzanne is flexible (and told me) she has hosted other events at space, like baby showers). I loved the fact that Weddings on Wirt has wedding packages and gives their prices up front. We decided for example to add a small cake and sparkling cider toast to our hourly package after our ceremony was finished (we made this decision, a week before the ceremony, and Suzanne didn't mind the last minute decisions). In a nutshell, I recommend this space for a small gathering due to its flexible terms and affordability.

This review is for wedding planning services, and not the use of the Wirt House…read more A friend dropped Suzanne's name after we got engaged, and since I was going through some job issues I knew I needed a planner. We met with Suzanne and I liked her immediately. She's very kind and outgoing, honest but not harsh about anything. She listened to my wants/needs/ideas and was just as enthusiastic about them as I was. She threw out a name of a venue nearby and it ended up being exactly what we were looking for, and we went with it! To start, I loved the Wirt house, so charming! She was very factual and really knew her stuff. She pointed out a ton of things I hadn't even begun to think about, and I have NO idea what I would have done without her! I learned from this whole ordeal that I am a closet control freak, and I took on planning most of the wedding myself when I should have let go of the reins...but Suzanne was incredibly patient and understanding with me, even while I was having meltdowns throughout the year due to the combined stress of wedding planning and my ongoing career roadbumps. When my job became too difficult to attend some of the vendor meetings she went in my place and didn't miss a beat. As for the final wedding day, I'm convinced she's a superhero. There was SO MUCH going on, so many things to attend to and oversee, and she did it all completely by herself! No assistants or anything, I would have needed at least 3 to do all of that! And she did all of this while I had turned myself completely off a couple weeks before the big day. I simply had no more to give and she took it like a champ and was still smiling from ear to ear. I loved that she was, if not more, excited about the wedding and wasn't just looking at it like it was a job she had to get through. I have zero experience with weddings, never gave much thought to mine until I got engaged...so I have nothing to compare it to but honestly I have no regrets about using Suzanne. Thanks for making my special day seemingly flawless!

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.

Jackie is one of the most responsible and reliable people I've ever worked with. I truly don't know…read morehow anyone plans a wedding without someone like her. I'm forever grateful for her help and unwavering support throughout the entire planning process. She was always quick to respond and went above and beyond to bring my vision to life. What sets Jackie apart is how genuinely she cares. She doesn't treat you like just another client--she sincerely invests in you and your wedding journey. As a bilingual planner, she was also able to communicate seamlessly with my Korean parents, who absolutely adored her for her grace, professionalism, and thoughtful mannerisms. I also rented my dress and arranged my flowers through Wedding Story, and everything exceeded my expectations. Thank you, Jackie, and the entire Wedding Story team, for making my wedding experience so smooth and special!

Whether it's a wedding outdoors and indoors, whether you want white flowers or pink flowers, Jackie…read moremakes it happen. She kept us updated and was so quick on getting things done. When we asked her to get something she had it done within days. I felt so confident and was less nervous about wedding planning with her. I truly had the most perfect day because of her and her staff. They are professional and straightforward. Trust her in the process. She doesn't sugar coat to please, she gives her honest advice using her expertise and experience as a wedding planner. When I wanted to do something or wanted something for the wedding, she made sure she gave her two cents so that I could make a better decision for the wedding and it turned out to be flawless. I couldn't recommend her services more to someone looking for a planner. Truly went above and beyond. 100/10!