A Dazzling Day...Weddings by Darcie WEDDING PLANNER

We got married in Oct. 2022, but are just now writing this review because we did not want to relive and reflect on the negative experiences we had on our wedding day. We hired Darcie for the full wedding planning service, but we did not get that at all. It ended up being us who selected and communicated with all our vendors. And the vendors she recommended were not within our budget, so we had to look for our own. We should have seen this red flag from the beginning. Her communication with us could have been better. The emails she sent were all over the place, unclear, and disorganized. She has poor attention to detail, as evidenced by her poor communication with us and the lack of coordination leading up to and on the big day. Our wedding day coordination was very subpar, and it seemed like all the planning we did was a waste. So many things went wrong, and it could have been prevented or mitigated by her. To name a few, she was not present in the retreats while getting ready, and we could have used her direction as to where to go or what to do. It was complete chaos with us and our small bridal party of 4. We also had tri-tip as an entrée, but she didn’t even think of letting us know to rent knives. A majority of our guests, including her, ordered tri-tip and they complained at how difficult it was to cut the meat since they were using the venue-provided butter knife. She didn’t even have the initiative to ask the venue to give steak knives. In addition, we were served AFTER our guests, and Darcie sat there eating her food while we didn’t even have our food yet. Isn’t she supposed to be advocating for us as our planner? Her attire was also unprofessional, as she wore a sundress and sandals to our semi-formal event. There was a lack of communication between her and our venue coordinator. We even asked if we can debrief with her the day after our wedding to provide our feedback and perhaps get some explanation on what transpired, but she simply was not interested and said she was unavailable. She didn’t even leave it open for us to coordinate a date/time where she was available to talk. We wrote her an email instead looking for clarity and provided feedback, and the only reply we received was “thank you for your feedback”. We feel that this could have been handled more professionally with a debrief after our wedding. We feel that if we hired someone else, our wedding day could have run more smoothly and without these preventable errors. Overall, we strongly DO NOT recommend hiring her.

Unfortunately I wouldn’t recommend. She should have stayed retired. This was by far the worst experience with a wedding planner. She was great for some things, I will say, however as far as a “team of wedding professionals” to help with the day, absolutely BS. She had my groom and his groomsmen the DAY OF the wedding in the HEAT, in their suits, moving everything around for her while she stood there and pointed and yelled at them. She told me 10 minutes before i walked down the aisle after telling her I forgot one drink sign, that “this is why You don’t do things last minute” while scoffing at me and my mom. She didn’t organize any of the transportation, I did it all. I organized all make up and hair. All transportation. All busses and shuttles to venue. I did the caterer. She lost all of our stuff the day of and expected everyone else to find it, our cake topper, guest book, etc all things that were given to her. THEN to top it off, even though there’s more to that, we paid extra for her and her “helper” to come and clean up the next day as it was at a private venue.. My husband and I got there and NOTHING was taken down, all the $5000 worth of flowers still up, trash EVERYWHERE, alcohol and food all over the ground.. and her response was “I didn’t know we were supposed to throw the trash in the dumpsters..” the desserts were still out not thrown away, cake wasn’t saved just left out, garbage EVERYWHERE so instead of enjoying our first day married and packing for our honeymoon we spent 4+ hours cleaning up everything that we paid her extra for… it was absolutely such a horrific experience. She doesn’t do anything she promises except getting the settings from Celebrations and doing the seating chart. Everything else was up to me, the bride.. and OUR GROOMSMEN AND MY GROOM! She even came up to me at the reception and said “if you want the flowers moved from the ceremony, your groomsmen need to do it” and I finally told her to leave me alone.. then to top it off too she didn’t put out any of the wedding favors we gave her and spent $300 on and hours putting together, she just said they weren’t important and didn’t put them out. So I got stuck with that cost too. It was horrendous and she was at one point asked to leave the property given her behavior and how she was acting, yet she will claim it was all everyone else. When everyone has the same opinion on ONE person, it will show who the actual problem is. She was entirely a waste of money and I’m extremely disappointed. The wedding was beautiful and we just ended up ignoring her which made it better, but she was just not prepared like she claimed. She made our guys do EVERYTHING. She had NO helpers. Nothing. It was a shit show and then to scoff at me and give me shit 10 minutes before I walk down the aisle, was absolutely ridiculous. Instead of making me not anxious and helping me, all she did was make me more anxious and more nervous on MY day. I wouldn’t recommend her to ANYONE and there are several people and vendors I’m sure who would say the same. My dad ended up texting her after saying she was horrific. Because she was & the fact that we had to clean up for hours after paying her EXTRA, was beyond us. “Didn’t know to put the trash in the dumpster” just left it on the ground. I was crying for hours just so overwhelmed the day after. We told her we would pay whatever it takes to not do anything, yet we still did everything. If you hire her, just know you’ll do it all yourself.

Darcie was amazing!!! I highly recommend her- she was helpful throughout the whole process and was very detailed in her work.

Darcie helped me so much with every aspect of my wedding. She thought of things that I had never thought of and she handled anything that came up. I literally had to show up the day of the wedding and just be present in the moment. She is amazing!!

We are so thankful to have hired Darcie to help with our wedding. We enlisted her help after recognizing we did not want to gamble with a DIY approach. Her experience, access to industry professionals and her by-your-side approach was INVALUABLE. It saved us so much time, gave us much needed peace of mind and most importantly our wedding was better than we ever expected. We, too, were pleasantly surprised at how affordable her service was. Without a doubt, the investment was worth every penny!

Darcie volunteered her expertise and materials to our non-profit organization for our First Annual Signature Event. Darcie maintained fluid communication through the months leading up to the event. She also was was a fountain of knowledge for local catering, bakery, party supplies and anything party/event related. Darcie was organized and very detailed oriented but most of all she maintained an optimistic and happy attitude throughout the event. She maintained calm and assured that everything was running effectively so that we could all enjoy the event. I can honestly say that thanks to her, we had an incredibly successful and beautiful event. I sincerely recommend Darcie for wedding/event planning.

My Husband and I honestly can’t give enough praises to Darcie Wagner Swedelson and her Company, A Dazzling Day. Once I found Darcie she hit the ground running. Literally! We had limited time to plan and a limited budget to work with. Darcie managed to pull it off successfully! She created a lovely garden wedding for us. She took my vision and made it real. For our special day she completely transformed a space. Darcie is a warm and vibrant person. Her demeanor made all the difference for me in planning such an intimate moment in my life. Having her there took all the stress away from me. I was able to really enjoy my wedding day. In the end I found a true friend in Darcie. I highly recommend her. She is great at what she does. Please don’t hesitate to contact her for your special day.

Our big day could NOT have gone any smoother. When you think of your big day you really want it to be the best. When you book with Darcie you will get the best. She made every transition so smooth and made our wedding the most memorable day ever. Sounds cliche, i know. But its the truth. I wouldnt recommend anyone else. Thanks Darcie!! We love you.