We hired Martha Coughlin (of Bliss Coordinating) as our Day-Of-Coordinator for our wedding in July…read more2017 and still believe it was one of THE best decisions we made along the way in our wedding planning! We began looking for a Day-Of-Coordinator after realizing that some of our ideas which were unique, personal, and important to us also would require a lot of D.I.Y. last minute work and preparation leading up to our Big Day. Martha not only took on the jobs of setting up our ceremony and reception decor and facilitating the arrival and organization of our vendors, she also ensured that the day went off without a hitch, all while sticking to our timeline. Martha is extremely organized and well prepared, as well as genuine and thoughtful. Unlike other Day-Of-Coordinators we had previously spoken with and considered, Martha truly cared about what OUR vision of the day looked like and respected our style and what was most important to us, rather than trying to change it to follow more mainstream or traditional ideas (as other coordinators had). She took the time to tour the wedding venue and meet with us on multiple occasions prior to our wedding in order to ensure that she clearly understood how we wanted the day to look and feel, all while offering thought-provoking questions and ideas along the way. We truly cannot say enough positive things about Martha or our experience working with her. She is fun, creative, energetic, reliable, and helped us to create the beautiful and unique wedding day we had envisioned! Her services are extremely well-priced, however her work was worth it's weight in gold to us! Thank you for everything Martha - your professionalism and ingenuity are unparalleled and greatly appreciated!

Working with Martha was without a doubt the best decision we made during the wedding planning…read moreprocess. If you are looking for a day-of wedding coordinator in the Madison area, she's it! We planned our Madison wedding while living out of state, and Martha helped us make sure that every detail was attended to leading up to the wedding. When we arrived in Wisconsin, there was nothing left to do but enjoy time with family and friends. Martha arranged her schedule to meet us in person for coffee while I was home for a summer visit leading up to the wedding. She instantly put us at ease, asking thoughtful questions about our venue, special family members, and logistics of the ceremony. I thought I was fairly organized leading up to that point, but after our meeting I realized the benefits of working with a professional coordinator like Martha! Planning from afar was easy with her as she utilized Google docs for sharing purposes and emailed just to check in. It was evident throughout the entire process that Martha's kind hearted personality would make for a wonderful wedding day experience. She contacted all of our vendors in the weeks leading up to the wedding and attended our rehearsal the night before the wedding. Our family and friends loved Martha as much as we did! She used her creative and organized talents to put together a beautiful space at our venue, and took care of small details -- from thank you cards for our vendors, to making sure our cards were delivered to our hotel room after dinner. With Martha's help, our wedding was a day we'll never forget. We cannot recommend her enough! My only regret is not hiring Martha sooner!

Are you excited to fret over what flowers are going to be in which vases at the reception? Would…read moreyou rather dedicate all your waking free time to chasing down rental and florist contacts, or would you rather sleep? Fretting and chasing are not things I enjoy. So I had an EXPERT do them for me. Except for Sarah Sarbacker, those things are not fretting and chasing - they are thoughtfully planning and cheerfully contacting. Thinking about the BIG DAY, I did NOT want to be the one in charge. I wanted to enjoy and relax with my family and friends. And I forsaw the difficulty with a family member being in charge of all the details. That person wouldn't get to enjoy the day! Unless they were a regular bossy-pants, in which case I would not enjoy taking direction from them in the first place. Let me also tell you this: 15 minutes before our outdoor ceremony, clouds were gathering and the wind started to blow. Sarah happily and confidently crawled into the back of our car (where my MOH and I were staying warm) and asked to start the event a few minutes early because the clouds were threatening-looking. Oh a more pleasant woman I couldn't have heard this from! She even took a few minutes to tell a funny personal story and get my mind off THE WALK DOWN THE AISLE. She was a sea of calm. She projected absolute certainty and helpfulness. She does not dominate - she takes direction from what you suggest. She is a wedding FACILITATOR. I believe she is truly gifted in dealing with all different sorts of people, and yet she has a perfectionistic tendency (to get the chairs just right, to get the table centerpieces just right, etc...). She is polite, cheerful, and nothing seems to throw her for a loop. It was a perfect day. And Sarah Sarbacker was a huge part of making it so.

Literally can't say enough amazing things about Andrea!! She is truly the absolute best! Our…read morewedding would never have happened without her. I decided I wanted to get married on our family farm, a daunting task that she truly brought to life. She thought of every little detail (needed a generator, bathroom trailer, lights, mosquito treatment, valet, etc) and was extremely organized and thorough. She laid out a very easy to follow timeline, checked in each month with the tasks to focus on every month, gave suggestions of professional experienced vendors, but was also willing to go way outside anything she had done before and find new options. For example we wanted really adventurous food with a mix of thai/peruvian/mediterranean/vietnamese/indian and somehow she found the perfect caterer who could make it happen. Andrea is simply the best and you will be lucky to have her, I thank my lucky stars she was available on the date we wanted. She is worth way more than she charges. I cannot recommend her more highly.

I hired Piece of Cake Consulting to plan and coordinate my wedding. I was pleased to find that the…read moreowner, Betsy, is also whom I worked with throughout my experience. She was a on top of every detail, which really helped me with my stress level. At times I felt she had a better grip of what was going on than I did. Betsy was helpful, organized, caring, and professional from my first consultation with her until after my wedding, when she followed up to make sure I was pleased with her services. I would highly recommend Piece of Cake Consulting for wedding and event planning! The price is well worth it as Betsy's services provide peace of mind as well as an amazing and beautiful experience!

We just returned from our honeymoon (we left the Monday after the wedding) and one of the first…read morethings we had to do was to review Piece of Cake Consulting and its owner, Betsy. Our wedding was exactly what we wanted, in no small part because of Betsy's hard work. From our first meeting, Betsy really listened to what we wanted in our wedding and inspired confidence that she could make it happen. We both liked Betsy's style - a nice balance of flexibility but also asking good questions about our ideas to make sure we had really thought things through. Betsy took it from ideas to reality. She provided recommendations and references for vendors, but was not pushy about it. She worked well with everyone involved. The week of the wedding, Betsy really took over, confirming (and re-confirming!) all of the details with the venue, vendors, etc. By the time the wedding came, everything was in place and it went so smoothly. (We suspect many things were going on behind the scenes, but Betsy and her assistant took care of everything and we never saw any snags or issues.) Betsy is organized, detail-oriented and can take control when needed, but also super easy to work with and, not unimportantly, she made wedding planning actually low stress and fun! We HIGHLY recommend Piece of Cake.

If I could give 10 stars, I would. Being in the event industry, I have high standards in all…read moreareas...communication, design, detail and even how the vendor carries themselves the day of an event. Master Works Design Group rates high in all of these categories, I couldn't ask for a better vendor. (honestly!) From the beginning planning stages through the execution of an event, the communication is fantastic and quick, the design and detail of the floral/event design is out of this world and he's the type of person you want around on the day of your event. The owner's personality is humble, kind and calm which is ideal to work with on such a special day/event. He is organized, keeps an extremely clean work area when prepping at the venue prior to the event and is phenomenal at what he does. He will also work within your budget whether it's budget friendly or sky is the limit. I've worked with Master Works Design Group on my personal wedding, my own home landscaping, a family funeral as well as several other events through my job and now, wouldn't work with anyone else if it was always up to me. I could go on and on about this company...100% hire them, you won't be disappointed!

From the owner: At Master Works Design Group, our approach is to provide our clients with an enjoyable, engaging…read moreevent planning experience without sacrificing efficiency or effectiveness in the process. We start with the idea...then collaborate to expand our client's vision to achieve their goals and objectives. With that mission in mind, we help our clients accomplish their objectives fully and completely, by combining our extensive accredited resources with years of tried and true event design and production experience. Master Works manages all aspects of your event or project, from the initial concept through execution and production, by incorporating a superior, charismatic team of event professionals to manage and produce a superlative event that achieves detail, quality and measurable results. Our clients value our event expertise and professionalism, creative vision, and ability to understand and translate their event into something bigger and more successful than imagined... a resounding message that is original, visually stimulating and altogether memorable.

My wife and I have been to many weddings with fun crowds, expecting a great time and fun dance, but…read morebad DJs left us disappointed. We decided to work with C'est La Vie after several friends told us about them, and how they had kept the dance floors packed all night long at other weddings. From day one with Komlan, he was amazing! With great rates, flexibility, and prompt communication, we had no worries about our DJ even while planning everything from across the country. As soon as the First Dances were over, Komlan and Bobby had the dance floor full the entire night! They exceeded our dreams of throwing the best party we could imagine, and many of our guests have told us the same.

C'Est La Vie DJ service was fantastic! We had them for our DJ service, and they did a great job…read moreselecting music and keeping with everything we wanted! The ceremony was well done, and the rehearsal was great! They did a great job selecting music and screening out requested music (subtly) that fell into the categories we didn't want played. Overall, great job!

Sarah is amazing! She is well organized, and she gets things done! She knows so many vendors in the…read moreMadison area which makes it so much easier to find what I'm looking for at my events. She is calm, cool, and takes so much pride in her work. I've been to a few of her events, and they are always so fun and memorable!

We used Harmonious Union Events (Sarah) for a 1980's themed 50th birthday party for my…read moresister-in-law in September 2016. We could not find vendors for the party due to being in a remote location in Wisconsin. After hiring Sarah, everything came together quickly. She was very organized, had great ideas for the party and had established vendors that she trusted. Sarah booked all vendors, assisted me with payment to all vendors and handled most of the decorations herself. The two night event went without one single problem. The catered dinners, D.J., bartenders, decorations, rental equipment/tent and restrooms were first class. If you are looking for a professional and organized event planner, look no further. Sarah at Harmonious Union Events is the answer to all of your event needs. I could not have been happier with her service. A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++.

Visited for a library conference. Rooms had great acoustics, fully furnished, and lots of space. Be…read moresure to check out the awe-inspiring artwork by DarRen Morris in the hallways on the first floor.

Horrible service that left me extremely uncomfortable and embarrassed, in a rather professional…read moreconference setting. At a conference, in the buffet line, I had gotten salad and the server was getting ready to swap a new bowl in. I held onto the tongs to try and make that task easier for him, but he told me to "give me that," so I did. I moved on in the line, and heard him ask "You think that's funny, huh?". I asked for clarification and he repeated this, to which I responded that I was just trying to help. He then said "I don't need your help, don't need your help." I left it at "Sorry," but once I was a few meters down the line, I looked back and he yelled at me, asking "Why you looking at me? Don't look at me!". He repeated this a few times, I told him that I hoped the rest of his day would be better, and he said "My days are always perfect. You're the problem, you're the one having a bad day."

Such a special delivery!!! I pulled into my parking spot and I noticed a gentleman walking up with…read moreflowers. I got out of my car and he asked my name and said he had flowers for me. We had small talk and then I opened the card in front of him. Turned out the flowers were from my granddaughter asking me to officiate her wedding. Of course I started crying, and Alex (the delivery guy) gave me a big hug, congratulated me, and said what an honor it is for me to be chosen to do that for my granddaughter. He shared how he spoke at one of his family members wedding and how important it was to him. I wish I would have taken my picture with him to add to their memories. At any rate, thank you Surrounding Events for sharing in a beautiful moment and that your driver was able to share it with me.

I had a very frustrating experience with Surroundings. I had ordered flowers for my wife to be…read moredelivered on Mother's Day. There was an option for delivery for the actual day of Mother's Day (May 10) but the flowers were not delivered. When I called the next day to see what happened, I received a half-hearted apology. They offered to do a refund which I accepted. However, they did not initially refund the $18 delivery fee, so I had to call yet again to get the delivery fee refunded as well. There really was no explanation why the flowers were not delivered. I realize mistakes occur, but what especially was unacceptable was that during the phone calls, the man I spoke to sounded very annoyed as if this whole thing was my fault somehow. I try to support local businesses but will be reticent to do business with Surroundings in the future.

Jenny was fantastic to work with for our graduation party! She was incredibly responsive and…read moreprofessional leading up to the event and knowledgeable about our venue. The day of she was prompt, prepared and helped set up and clean up. Our guests loved chatting with her. Definitely book Jenny and her team for your next event!

Jennifer and her crew were amazing! Nothing but positive reviews from our guests for how friendly…read moreand helpful they were. They were excellent at communicating with us, especially figuring out what we needed based on how many people we had attending, since we were purchasing the beer/wine/spirits/mixers ourselves. Would highly recommend them for wedding or any other reason you'd need a professional bartending crew!