Hiring Karen at New Sunrise Events was the first thing that my fiancée (now wife) and I did when we started planning our January 2010 wedding.

We met with Karen to give her an idea of what we had in mind for our wedding. Our main hope was to have a relatively stress-free engagement period and wedding day so that we could focus on our vows and enjoy the time we had with our guests.

With Karen as our planner, this goal was met.

The planning:
Karen helped us find our church and reception site by contacting each site and arranging visits. As we found our other vendors, we emailed Karen often to ask questions. Karen also acted as the liaison between us and some of our vendors. Whenever we had a question for one of the vendors, Karen contacted them and quickly got back to us with an answer. Some of our friends helped out with the cake, centerpieces, and flowers and Karen worked well with them all.

Karen responded to all emails very promptly. (She is also available by phone.) We were in contact with her constantly throughout our 9-month engagement. She kept us on track with what we needed to be working on. She is attentive, professional, open to feedback, and easy to work with.

A month before the wedding, we handed all vendor contact information over to Karen and she took it from there. She confirmed with them all and made sure that all details were taken care of. We didn’t have to worry about the vendors from then on.

We thought that we would be really busy the week before the wedding, but since Karen was taking care of all of the details, we didn’t have anything else to do besides enjoy time with our guests who were arriving from out-of-town.

The day of the wedding:
Karen created a Timeline for the day of the wedding. I had a copy of the Timeline, but didn’t look at it at all. Karen and her team took care of all of the logistics, everything ran smoothly, and I was able to enjoy the day without thinking about vendors, details, or timing. I was able to focus on my vows and enjoy the company of my friends and family.

Overall, without Karen, our wedding planning process and wedding day would have been very different and, I imagine, much more stressful. Hiring Karen so early in the process was the best decision we made and the best money we spent.