Not being religious and with my parent's backyard venue in mind, my husband and I wanted to hire an…read moreofficiant for our September 2012 wedding. We googled and compared reviews of local officiants. We wanted to hire someone that was affordable and able to direct a rehearsal. We got paired with Cara Tollefson through Minnesota Officiants. We had a sit down to meet Cara at a location that was convenient for the three of us. When we met Cara she gave us a lot of information and answered all of our many questions. We instantly got a good vibe from her. Although the cost of services was a little more than we had budgeted we recognized it was due to the fact that we wanted rehearsal time to be added in there. Cara didn't once pressure us to pay any kind of deposit but instead simply explained that if we wanted to pursue her services that we just needed to mail in a signed contract and a deposit. After we sent the deposit within the week she sent us a ceremony planner. This walked us through all the elements of the wedding with many options of each. With this planner we were able to pick and choose our readings, ritual, opening/closing remarks, etc. There was plenty flexibility to get as traditional or unique as we wanted. We opted for a simple and short non-denominatial ceremony. Cara was very responsive and helpful via email and even offered to meet in person as needed. Cara was absolutely fabulous!! The day before at the rehearsal we walked through everything and that was VERY helpful. I appreciate that she was willing to rehearse with us. She did a fabulous job of directing everyone. The ceremony felt so personal and everything she said was heartfelt. I'm sure she does a ton of weddings and it meant so much that she was genuinely happy and excited for us. She had an amazing energy and many people commented on what an wonderful job she did. Our wedding day was so special, it meant so much to have Cara there! I'm so happy we trusted our guts with our first meeting. She was absolutely fabulous and facilitated a beautiful and meaningful ceremony.

My wife and I were married at Mill City Museum this past August 2009 and we were fortunate enough…read moreto happen upon Jim Albani early enough in our planning process to secure his services for our wedding date. Our first meeting with Jim was at The Wilde Roast in NE (his recommendation) and we knew within five minutes that we wanted him to officiate our wedding ceremony. He was well-organized, amicably professional, and listened to our thoughts/concerns while providing great feed back. Exactly what we needed. We were looking for someone who seemed capable of delivering a seamless presentation. After only meeting a few times before our wedding day and without any prior rehearsal, Jim exceeded our highest expectations. He eliminated any and all worry from the entire process - allowing us to relax and focus on each other. Through thoughtful prepping and communication, he helped us to create a beautiful ceremony that accurately represented us as a couple and we couldn't be more happy with the results. Thanks Jim!

Sydney helped me plan my destination wedding in Cabo, and I truly couldn't have asked for a better…read moreexperience. Booking with Sydney was hands down the best decision we made! Not only were we planning a destination wedding, but Sydney is based in Minnesota and I'm in North Carolina. Through weekly calls, we tackled everything together. She was kind, attentive, timely, and everything you could possibly want in a wedding planner. We quickly became so close, and she made the entire wedding planning process much more bearable. She was the perfect sounding board, honest, supportive, and always kept us on track. The day of our wedding, she was the perfect calming bestie. We absolutely loved having her by our side. I received numerous comments from guests about how "on top of it" she was and how incredibly nice she was. It was so reassuring to know everything was being handled seamlessly. Sydney also recommended the photography/videography team we ended up choosing, Lollipop Media, and they were truly one of the best vendors I've ever worked with. I would recommend them 100 times over and completely trust Sydney's judgment when it comes to vendor recommendations. You are in great hands with Sydney, and we truly couldn't recommend her more.

We were so lucky to have Sydney as our day-of coordinator for both our wedding and our post-wedding…read morebrunch. She did an incredible job managing all the moving parts--coordinating with vendors, cueing our ceremony, troubleshooting our slideshow during the reception, and even setting up and taking down our floral photo display. Everything ran smoothly thanks to her calm, capable presence. Throughout the planning process, Sydney was responsive, professional, and always eager to help. Her attention to detail and kind, thoughtful nature made such a difference--she even sent us Christmas cookies last year, which was such a sweet and personal touch! If you're looking for a planner who is not only on top of her game but also genuinely cares about her clients, I can't recommend Sydney enough. She helped make our wedding everything we hoped it would be.

Simply Elegant Bridal Consulting is amazing! They go above and beyond! I'm a wedding photographer…read moreand recently worked with Kristin on a wedding. The venue was a large hotel and there was a lot of running around, scrambling at the last minute to make sure everything was perfect! She put together all of the centerpieces-and they were stunning! Kristin probably ran 10 miles that day to ensure everything was in place and to make sure the day was stress-free for the bride and groom! She was a complete rockstar!

Wedding Day Coordinator does not begin to cover all that Kristin did for us. Even if you go DIY on…read moreeverything else for your wedding, make sure you hire a Simply Elegant coordinator. The day felt like it went off without a hitch. I'm sure there were hiccups, but Kristin took care of them all before my husband and I ever heard anything about them. By the time we got to the wedding day, I was so comfortable with Kristin. We had emailed, talked a dozen times, and met in person as well. We lived out of state, and Kristin was very accommodating, often meeting when we were home around holidays. My husband and I are very organized, but it was wonderful to have someone with experience to bounce ideas off of and take a second look at plans. And all of this was before we even got to the wedding day! I loved having Kristin as a coordinator because she happily and promptly took care of anything we asked. On top of that, she ran interference and let us enjoy the day. Right before we sat down for dinner, Kristin let us know that she swapped two of the tables so a family member could plug in his oxygen tank. Kristin saw this need, took care of swapping the tables and informing the caterer, and then filled us in when we had a free moment. All of these little things throughout the day could have meant time my husband and I (or our close family members) would have had to take away from enjoying the event, but Kristin covered them all. At the end of the reception, I had asked my sisters to help my parents stay behind and clean up. Again though, Kristin had it covered, letting my exhausted parents go home to bed and my sisters out to party further with friends. The next morning, Kristin let us know that one of the groomsmen had forgotten to grab his suit when he left, and she offered to take it back to the rental store for us. Even though we did not hire them as a full wedding planner, Simply Elegant was there from the moment we hired them until the week after the wedding, always one step ahead of our needs.

THE BEST PLANNING BUSINESS. The folks are all very caring, transparent and honest. It's clear they…read moreLOVE their job and passion is in every detail. Our guests were all treated TOP CLASS! We are so happy to have worked with this excellent team of professionals!!

Symone and Jamie are amazing. Very supportive and treat a small wedding as if its a huge one…read more Every detail was discussed and every option presented. The outcome was just wonderful. Feel confident they will do a great job!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING - I FOUND YOUR…read moreWEDDING DAY OFFICIANT! Shawna Orwoll with Away We Go Weddings is one of my favorite humans. I stumbled across her webpage when met with the daunting task of finding our officiant. I loved her warm feeling and words on her page. I feel in love with her instantly. I read up on reviews and they also beamed endless positive and amazing reviews. It was clear that Shawna loves everything LOVE and warm fuzzy feelings. Within moments of connecting with her, it felt as though I was catching up with an old friend from years ago and no time had passed. We met up in person for champagne and snacks! We got to meet her husband and got to know her better too! We spent 2 hours all 4 of us just talking! HAHA! It was a fun memorable meeting that definitely didn't feel like a "meeting"! Shawna picks up details you don't realize you communicate. She really got to know us, chatted with us like we were close friends and she is just.... Real. She's so much fun and knows how and when to poke fun wand joke with people to loosen them up and get people giggling! Our rehearsal was actually a fun experience and she worked well in a time-crunch we had. She was graceful and kind while dodging the many questions shot at her by family and the wedding party at the rehearsal, which she would eventually answer, had the question askers just held their pants on for a minute! LOL And without giving too much away, just know that she shocked every one of us at the ceremony with the most epic reading and personalized ceremony!! I had tears of laughter!! I'm so thankful that she did that before we read our vows to each other because I was SO nervous and trembly for some reason, but that laughter loosened me up and it got out the jitters so I was able to speak clearly and didn't shake or stumble/cry when I read my vows. We had so many guests tell us how much they enjoyed our fun and light hearted wedding ceremony as opposed to other ceremonies that can sometimes feel stuffy and boring. Our guests felt involved in our ceremony, laughed with us and will never forget the unique ceremony that Shawna put together for us. We love Shawna and Away We Go Weddings!!! Don't go to anyone else!! Hire her and thank us later!!! We now have, formally, "our song" now because of Shawna ;)

THREE CHEERS FOR AMY ZAROFF AND HER EXCEPTIONAL TEAM!…read more My younger sister got married last weekend and for the past 9 months or so the gals at Zaroff have taken care of her, and my family's, every need and executed a huge 400+ person wedding without a hitch and really added to the positive experience for the bridal party and my sister, the bride. These girls think of everything and they execute A+, 100%. From detailed hair and makeup schedules to the actual set up of an event, if you work with Zaroff you know that everything will be taken care of and you can really experience your event as a guest -- without worry. From small garden parties to bar/bat mitzvahs, individualized stationary and invitations or large scale events I wouldnt hesitate to strongly recommend Amy and her team for anyone throwing an event or needing design help in the MPLS/St Paul metro.

We cannot say enough about how amazing Allie was on our wedding day. She literally handled…read moreeverything. No task was too big or too small. From set-up, to the flow of the evening, she kept us on track and allowed us to enjoy ourselves at our own wedding. Thank you for everything!!

We thought, "we don't need a wedding coordinator, we've got this." The venue comes with a day-of…read morecoordinator; they said we didn't really need our own. We hired experienced vendors for a reason. Why would we need a separate coordinator? We needed our own day-of coordinator. Dana was perfect. (Special thanks to our photographer, Adrian Steinbach, for recommending her.) She'd have been an excellent full coordinator if we'd engaged her earlier, but for us, it was great to bring her into the planning ~2-3 months before our wedding. She ended up providing day-of coordination and some bonus last-minute vendor coordination and planning documentation in the several weeks beforehand. She thought of all the little things we wouldn't ever even know to think about. Made sure the aisles were packed at our ceremony. Suggested fair tip amounts/standards and distributed them to vendors day of. Made sure vendors were all in the right place at the right time. Shared planning templates with us. On the day of, we didn't need to worry about anything. We just trusted that Dana would guide us through, and she did wonderfully. As a bonus, she brought in her sister the day of the event for additional support! And she made sure we had safe Hora chairs so we didn't fall off. We trust our vendor team. They do this all the time. We do this once. Trust experts. Put them in a position to take care of you and they will. Dana was fantastic.

Dana works magic. I called and spoke with her approximately two months before our November 11th…read morewedding in a bit of a panic - knowing that we needed help as the person who had been initially helping us had been unable to continue. Dana was calm and "can-do" and jumped in and did an amazing job of handling the finalizing of our 250 people wedding/dance party. She directed set-up and brought with her a team that handled the prep, decorating, clearing tables, and taking every worry and responsibility off of my groom and me so that we could completely enjoy the fabulous fun! I cannot stress enough how wonderful Dana and her team were. Dana and Keyed Up Events will be my go to for any future large parties/events. She is completely reliable, knows what she is doing, does it perfectly! Thank you Dana & crew! Matt & I cannot thank you enough!

We could not be more thrilled with our wedding video. As you can see by the videos on her website,…read moreAlison truly possesses a genius craft in her storytelling abilities. She has a way of capturing us, our family & friends as well as the atmosphere of the weekend in an authentic, yet stunning and truly exceptional manner. Her work beyond the final product is equally impressive. Alison is incredibly professional, resourceful, organized, and can command the crew when necessary amidst the wedding day pandemonium. At the same time, she is adaptable, extremely imaginative and fun loving addition to the day. Several people in our wedding party didn't know she was the videographer, which speaks to her ability to work in a completely unobtrusive manner, and fit in with the flow of the weekend. Alison is passionate about each couple and each video she creates which is evident in the final product. Booking Alison as your videographer will be your very best wedding present - a remarkable gift that only appreciates with time.