The nutshell: Our absolutely amazing wedding was at a non-traditional location (20-acre lodge with oversized barn/garage for our reception), located FAR away from the nearest city, and we pulled it off in 12 weeks. Because we hired Lori. :-)
The story... My husband and I have too many projects. :-)
April 2018: We reserved the lodge-60 mins from Cincinnati, 120 mins from Dayton. 5.5 months to go. We loved the property! And knew we could have our dream wedding-albeit more work (responsible for *everything*).
12 weeks before the wedding we got down to business. Upon realizing we'd have to bring our own water (well water, no catering kitchen) knew we needed help.. else miss something-like, no water!! :-) Present: Lori. Across all of her reviews I found every point of complexity I could think of with our setup (quick turnaround, always responsive and great to work with, remote location, extra guest management, transportation, and a bunch of other things.) When we talked, she jumped in right away to offer suggestions and didn't even try to sell me on the full planning package (which I clearly needed). In contrast, I had spoken to another wedding planner with an impressive book - but she offered nothing in the consultation and only tried to sell the highest package. I didn't need cookie-cutter "done it a hundred times". I needed someone creative, flexible, who knew what to look out for, would know what "done" looks like, and how to fill in all the gaps to get there.
WEDDING DAY:
Due to everything else going on at the time, I was not able to "plan" details with Lori as much as she (or I) wanted. She puts in so much work beforehand to make sure everything goes perfectly, writing it down and pre-coordinating with *everyone*. Most critical elements were ready-timeline, flow, etc. But for ours, she had to wing a lot more and finalize night before/morning of (decorations and setup, final gaps). Which I'm pretty sure would scare the heck out of most planners. :-)
She was 100% prepared. Everyone knew what they were doing. I gave a bunch of boxes of decorations, the basics of what I wanted, and left creative licensing for the rest.
She had headsets for everyone to communicate, split the staff between church and lodge to start. And GO! It was amazing. Everything went so well!! It felt and looked AMAZING! Lori kept everything moving, making sure to fit in everything that was important to us, all the way down to the Fireworks!
Behind the scenes... headsets didn't work, no cell/text reception, one of her staff became very ill. And Lori had a very major family emergency earlier in the week. But she still make it work. Seamlessly. Her work ethic is second to none, she is extremely conscientious, and she will make your day or your event the sole focus of hers so you can live in the moment and truly enjoy it.
The best thing a bride can say is "It was my perfect day!" And they may not know the detail that went into the day, or all the challenges behind the scene. But in this case, we do. We know and we greatly appreciate how amazing Lori and her entire team were! Our moms were amazed by her, guests told us she was wonderful :-) I was really lucky to find her, and actually miss not talking to her everyday now. Thanks, Lori! Our day was perfect, and our wedding was "us", through and through. We, quite literally, could not have done it without you!
We highly recommend Lori. She's great and will make your event, your day, your moment, incredible. read more