For almost two years, Karen Brown firmly stuck with me throughout the whole long process of making…read moremy wedding a reality. My husband and I got married on a perfect weekend last April in Brooklyn. The wedding went on without a hitch, and it was better than anything I imagined. Our guests keep saying that it was one of coolest weddings they've ever been to, but judging from that you wouldn't think that there was a long backstory involved to make it happen. Karen is a master in keeping the plan on track, and she coordinated all possibilities no matter what happened the entire time. Something new always seemed to pop up, from an unexpected wedding date and location change, to me suddenly having to move to a completely different city 300 miles away, to ceremony changes, and to us considering starting from scratch to do a city hall wedding midway (which we didn't).
AND she seriously saved the day when our photographer couldn't show up at our wedding. Karen Brown's crisis management skills are the sh*t. We would've had to make do with someone's iPhone pics if it weren't for her finding another photographer at the last minute! We couldn't have been more grateful for having her as our planner that day. I thought she took care of that amazingly well: the original photographer called her the night before explaining he couldn't come, and Karen then immediately contacted another photographer, who was thankfully available, and booked her that same night. Karen handled the crisis on her own before she told me on the morning of the wedding so that I didn't have one more thing to worry about. I was completely stressed out in the days leading up to the wedding. If she called me the night before about this I would've lost my mind.
So I was engaged for a long time but kept putting off wedding planning since I was always too busy. Karen got me started, making it easier for me by preparing a neat folder of all the info I needed and discussing the big picture. All my husband and I really wanted was a small casual party with good food, and Karen helped us develop a creative concept that fit our budget, which was also small. Being a former interior designer, she knows how to design good-looking events well. In working with her, I felt that she really took the time to really understand us and our needs to give us ideas that spoke to us, using her extensive knowledge of wedding places and people in the NYC area. Karen also had a great way of helping me see answers more clearly when I'm indecisive about things in the process, and that was great since being the decision maker on most everything was pretty stressful.
Most importantly for me, since I had so much going on in my life, was that Karen created a personalized month-by-month checklist of what I need to do prior to my wedding date and followed up with me regularly for more than a year to make sure I created a guest list, bought my dress, sent out the save-the-dates, etc. When we were looking around for a venue and vendors, she took time out of her day to come along with us and asked them important questions that I didn't even think of. She also formulated a timeline for the wedding weekend scheduling each happening by the minute and sent it to all the vendors and the wedding party to keep them in the loop. Having everyone on the same page just made everything run much smoother.
One of the best things I remember about Karen was that one day she mailed me a letter that was stuffed with exclusive sales at local wedding and accessory shops. She collected these from a recent wedding planner's gathering and thought of me. I was pleasantly surprised and so touched!
Not only is Karen the most organized person I know who can be trusted to cover all the bases, she's also very conscientious in everything she does, and she's so pleasant to work with on top of all that. I had quite an exciting adventure with Karen Brown and can't believe we finally pulled it off so nicely! Needless to say, I've recommended her to everyone and will definitely get her on board for my next big party!