AliceJ's reviews

Less than 1 month before our wedding, we realized that there were simply too many things to coordinate the day of our wedding and that if we wanted to enjoy our day, instead of juggling cell phones and putting out fires, we needed someone reliable who could be in charge. That's when we found Elaine. With so little time before our wedding, she immediately got completely up to speed, spending 2-3 hours with me that week to go over exactly what I had planned so far and what still needed to be done. She contacted all of our vendors ahead of time to let them know who she was, so if they had any questions or needed to be told where to be, Elaine was on it, not me (although she cc'ed me on emails so I was still in the loop). She went to our wedding venue (a garden in Staten Island) with me ahead of time to review the plan and get a sense of what the venue was like. She also made a separate trip to the garden without me to meet with the DJ and figure out how he was going to set up his equipment. I really didn't like our venue manager (he didn't share any wedding details with us unless we pushed him, and he and I had argued about details and costs, etc.), and was so incredibly thankful to Elaine who volunteered to be in touch with him, so I didn't have to be. That in particular alleviated a lot of stress. And she came out to the garden 2 days before the wedding again, to help us hang up lanterns in our tent.

But when I felt the most gratitude for Elaine was the day of our wedding. She brought along an assistant (at no additional fee to us) and between the two of them, everything went perfectly smoothly. The tables were set just the way I told her, the vendors all arrived on time and did what they were supposed to do, and any last minute trouble shooting was done professionally and without any commotion. For example, the cellist in our string quartet was supposed to be taken by bus to the ferry terminal so he could get back to Manhattan, but the bus was nowhere in sight. I found out later that Elaine asked her assistant to drive him in her car to the terminal. Also, our florist didn't bring the orchids for decorating our cake, but Elaine improvised and used extra flower petals and candles to make the cake and the cake table look beautiful.

My Mom told me after the wedding that deciding to hire Elaine was the smartest decision we made for the wedding. She could relax and just have a great time because she knew that we could trust Elaine to take care of everything. Elaine gave helpful suggestions, but also really listened to what we wanted. She was always available to me, prompt with email replies/returning my phone calls, and bent over backwards to accommodate us. I would definitely recommend her to any bride who wants to enjoy her big day without having to worry!!