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.

Travis DJ'd my son's wedding this past weekend and he was excellent! He was professional from…read morebeginning to end. He knew how to handle unexpected changes and he also showed the ability to read the crowd. He was fun and flexible. He helped make a special night even better. I have worked with DJ's before and I know how challenging it can be to find one you can count on. I'm so happy he was running this event. I'd recommend him to anyone that wants to have a great night run smoothly. Everyone had a wonderful time. Thank you Travis!

Travis was absolutely amazing, wonderful, pleasant, personable and just did such a great job! He…read moremade our reception run so smooth at Over the Vines. The music he played was exactly what I asked for and we had many compliments about it. The photo booth was a hit, they even put the extra photos with a message in a little book for our keep sake. Thank you so much! -The new Mr. & Mrs. Myers

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.

We recently attended a wedding here and were blown away by how gorgeous and well-thought-out this…read morevenue is! The setting feels completely secluded and intimate. The indoor barn space is super cute, and the outdoor ceremony area is stunning. They even set up a beautiful rustic wall that held prosecco for the cocktail hour, which was such a fun touch (and the wine was fantastic!). One of the biggest standouts was the staff. They were incredibly friendly and accommodating across the board. Even though the catering was brought in separately, the venue staff went above and beyond to figure out a plan for me to go up to the buffet early to avoid any cross-contamination. The layout of the property is seamless: there's a great space for the wedding party to stay and get ready, indoor bathrooms that were spotless, plenty of room for a digital photo booth, a great dance floor, and fun outdoor games. Plus, they are animal-friendly, so having pets as part of the wedding was incredibly special. The bride decorated with a lemon theme, which fit the rustic-chic vibe perfectly, and the in-house DJ kept the music fun all night. Highly recommend this hidden gem!

Exceptionally nice wedding venue and banquet hall in a bucolic country setting - just outside…read moreMadison! Beautifully decorated dining space inside the spacious "barn". Attractive grounds provide for spacious and shaded outdoor seating. Friendly staff.

When my husband and I started planning our wedding last year, we knew we wanted an outstanding…read morephotographer. However, we weren't interested in throwing a "typical" wedding or having "typical" wedding pictures: a bridal party jumping up and down, pictures of our rings in flowers, pictures of our shoes, etc. Our wedding was to include an Indian ceremony, a session of story-telling, a sign language interpreter, and a bingo game involving popcorn. Our wedding was far from traditional. So, what we really wanted were more candid shots that showed the important people in our lives during the event, their personalities, and how we interacted with them. All of the photographers we searched in Madison had wonderful pictures, but they were a little too traditional for us, so we started asking around. A family member had a friend named Max Wendt, a professional photographer who focused on the performing arts. We looked at his portfolio, were impressed, and contacted him. Unfortunately, he had never shot a wedding before. We explained to him what we were looking for, and he agreed. He said that if he were to shoot a wedding, ours would be the kind of wedding that he would like to photograph. We met with him while we were briefly in town, and he showed us an expanded portfolio that even included pictures he had taken of his own family. We negotiated back and forth quite a bit about the contract, the price and method of payment, and the event times (ours was a 2-day wedding). Everything was over email (and across the country), and we found Max to be professional, flexible, and very willing to listen to our concerns and suggestions. We modified the contract to a degree that satisfied all of us. As the wedding approached, Max began asking us questions over email. He had been to visit our wedding site, and had suggestions about the best place and set up for the pictures. His suggestions were great, and we agreed to many of them, but we didn't feel pressured to change things around if we didn't want to. Max showed up to the events on both days early, and stayed late. We wanted him to take a few posed pictures of the two of us, as well as immediate family, and he found a wonderful spot at both locations for those pictures. As a good photographer should be, he was discreet and we barely noticed him as he worked. Although a self-proclaimed "perfectionist," Max was extremely friendly, easy-going, and pleasant to work with. At our smaller ceremony, friends of ours actually struck up conversations and tried to take pictures of HIM, as if he were a friend we had invited to the wedding. That's when I knew we had made the right choice - because it just felt like he belonged at the events. A month later we returned from our honeymoon and met with him to see our pictures. Not only was the color and quality fantastic, but he had captured the event and the personalities of our friends and family so perfectly. Some of my favorite things about his pictures: facial expressions of our friends and family that showed their personalities; adorable photos of the many young children we had at our wedding, doing adorable things; the funny and sweet interactions between my husband and I; funny and goofy pictures of us and our guests that encompassed the relaxed and easy-going nature that we wanted to have at our wedding. This event was a learning process for both Max and us. There were a few things that I wanted in the pictures that I didn't even know I wanted until they were missing, such as different interactions with specific friends, and reactions from our crowd of guests at certain moments. But I could tell Max did his best trying to get everyone in the room - a daunting task. Max also mentioned that there were a few things that he would change, and had made a list of suggestions for each bride and groom in the future. I think these will enhance his photos even more. Max did exceptional work at our wedding that was just the right amount of "out of the box" for us, and we're really happy we chose him.

Sarah Brekke photographed a wedding for us at the Hilton Monona Terrace. We were extremely happy…read morewith with her both professionally and personally. Sarah is very creative and we had many very artful photos that have garnered high praise from our family and friends. Sarah was very good at getting people together and organizing them for group shots. Many people commented on the fantastic job she was doing. The bride and groom couldn't be happier. The pictures are wonderful. Thank you Sarah for preserving these moments for us.

Beautiful setting for a variety of events. The barn interior is a work of art and the view is…read moreoutstanding. A variety of events are hosted there - we attended a reading and panel discussion that was very interesting and informative.

Our wedding was September 5, 2015, so my review is a few months late, but I wanted to share with…read morethe Yelp world the wonderful experience we had with Isthmus DJs. Isthmus DJs was the easiest vendor to work with when my husband and I were planning our wedding. Our DJ Tien was a tremendous help throughout the entire process, from providing song check lists during the planning stages, to setting up back lighting for our wedding reception, to the music that was played throughout the night. I have been to many weddings, and there were more people on the dance floor the entire evening than I have EVER seen before. The music selection was an amazing mix of 90s music mixed with today's pop music. We also requested some ethnic music (Bollywood/Hindi and Hmong/Thai music), and Tien was able to accommodate all our requests. Tien played such awesome music that our wedding guests didn't want to leave the party! The uplighting also created the perfect ambience that we were hoping for, and the venue turned out even better than we had imagined. Tien and his team were friendly and professional, and so kind to take song requests from many of our guests. At the end of the night, they were able to quickly pack up and exit the building in time for closing. On another note, we misplaced a few items during the reception, and Tien contacted us early in the morning to let us know that he was in possession of some lost and found items. He was so helpful in every way imaginable. I DEFINITELY recommend Isthmus DJs for any type of event and only hope that I am lucky enough to use their services again in the future. Thank you so much for a memorable evening!

Tim and the team at Isthmus DJs saved us when our other arrangement bailed on us just a few weeks…read morebefore our wedding. They were responsive, incredibly helpful and absolutely great to work with. We had an outdoor ceremony and reception in two different locations within the park. They handled the tricky situation and acoustics without any issues. We barely had to provide any direction or instruction, they definitely relieved a lot of potential stress on an already busy day! We didn't want any flashy lights or MC and they were very accommodating. They even took the playlist we had created and used it. I would definitely recommend working with these folks.