A Southern Soiree

There will never be enough words to describe how amazing this team at A Southern Soiree truly are. I was lucky enough to work with Lacey leading up to my big day, and then Lacey and Victoria the day-of and let me tell you something: they were MAGICAL. Every single detail was thought of---from the months leading up to the wedding to the actual day-of. They were organized, coordinated, calm, collected, and SO kind and informative. The day would honestly not have been the same without Lacey there at the Umstead running the show with the team. As a previous event planner I am here to tell you: hire them for your big day. It will be one of the best decisions you make FOR SURE.

Lacey of Southern Soiree was my day-of coordinator for my wedding day, and I don't think I can ever say enough good things about her. She helped me play out all of my ideas and create the wedding of my dreams. She was so professional, and had every detail planned so that we didn't have to worry. She made an entire timeline that was shareable for all family members so that they knew Anything that went haywire day of, she took care of to the point that I only found out after-the-fact. She was easy to communicate with not only with me and my husband, but our entire families and wedding party. Our families spent most of the next day telling us how seamless the entire day was thanks to Lacey. She could not have been more professional or easier to talk to. I could not be more thankful for Lacey and her help!

Elizabeth was the best! A bonus of booking our wedding at The Umstead, was that we also got to work with A Southern Soiree! Elizabeth went above and beyond, sharing her vast knowledge and wedding planning expertise for our recent wedding. She made sure our entire wedding planning process ran smoothly and made sure that nothing was out of place — everything looked absolutely perfect! Elizabeth continually worked with us and helped us create personalized touches, an amazing day, and truly unforgettable memories Elizabeth's attention to detail allowed us to be fully present throughout our wedding day. It was the best gift we could've asked for. We did not have to worry about one detail. Our wedding was truly the best day of our lives and we loved every minute of it!

A Southern Soiree definitely was the reason our wedding went off without a hitch (or at least us knowing!) Elizabeth was so great and easy to work with, all of our questions were answered and then some. I never felt like a bride out of control on planning because of her! Made the process so simple and easy which truly allowed us to enjoy our day. We couldn't have done it without ya'll!

I cannot say enough about Gina and this crew! My daughter got married last weekend and this team made her wedding such a wonderful experience. They are fabulous and I couldn’t imagine this journey without them! We loved everything!

Gina literally is Superwoman! I cannot thank her enough for all her hard work and dedication to help us pull off such a perfect event, which would not have happened without her help! She was available at any hour, even the late 1 AM emails (which we did not require but she blamed on her 3 month old son!) to cheerfully answer ALL our lengthy questions, even the ones we were embarrassed to ask! Our wedding day was meticulously planned down to every last detail and executed to absolute and complete perfection. She is absolutely FABULOUS with a capital F at her job and an amazing person inside and out.

The most wonderful and positive experience ever. Megan is an expert in her industry (probably one of the best in the country) and not only does she plan weddings, she also has a fantastic and informative podcast called "Weddings For Real" that every aspiring bride or anyone that is interested in weddings should listen to. She pays careful attention to every single detail, is very quick to respond to emails, and she simply will plan the best wedding ever. She caught a tiny mistake a couple of nights before the wedding and because of her attention to detail, we were able to iron out the issue with the vendor and make something work, and the addition actually added a nice, unexpected touch to our reception! I could go on and on about Megan and A Southern Soiree, but please consider going with her for your wedding planner. You won't be disappointed! :)

5 stars hands down. Gina was amazing and was there for us 100%. They are very thorough and very sweet. Highly recommend!

Gina with A Southern Soiree was the best decision we made for our wedding day. Words can't even begin to describe how amazing she was. She took care of every thing, big or small. We didn't have to lift a finger on our wedding day. The biggest thing we had to worry about was having fun. Even though we had a wedding planner, we still got to enjoy the planning process. Gina was always there to help us with the tough decisions and make sure we didn't forget about anything. On the day of the wedding, Gina treated us like royalty, giving us the opportunity to truly enjoy our special day. Everything started on time and Gina never missed a beat. We are so incredibly grateful to Gina and her attention to detail. She truly made our wedding day PERFECT!

I don’t know where to begin, but it has been over a week since our wedding and all I can keep saying is WOW! The Southern Soiree team truly hit a home run with our group. As a vendor in the area, it was difficult to choose our wedding team because there is so much talent around us. That being said, we ended up choosing A Southern Soiree for planning services because it was important to us that whatever planner we chose, that they would be able to meet and manage a few different obstacles unique to us and our guests. We were confident from the time of booking through day-of execution that the Southern Soiree team would be the ones to meet our needs, and boy were we right! First and foremost, we had a large bridal party (hello 21 groomsmen!) and almost all of our guests traveling from out of town, so the ability to wrangle our group was a number one priority. Knowing this about our group, the team made it a point to familiarize themselves with several key people in our group prior which was really helpful on the day-of. In addition, they had multiple team members on-site the day-of so we never felt that anyone helping us was ever being stretched too thin or had anything else to do other than tend to us and our needs - exactly how you want to feel on your big day! Gina, in particular, was also extremely receptive to my mom’s loving yet somewhat incessant emails during the planning process, which was so reassuring to us! My parents live out of town, but Gina made my mom feel like a huge part of the process and was so patient every step of the way. She kept us on track with reminders and took care of all of the little odds and ends so my mom and I could focus on the big picture. This included coordinating some vendor bookings, updating timelines, organizing our vendor team - and the list goes on! On the day-of, the whole team did a great job of keeping our group on time (Really - on time! All day!) but also let us relax and really enjoy ourselves with our guests which was the best part. In addition to being a helpful source to our guests, we had personally been looking for a creative planner that could also execute our vision well on the day-of, and we could not have been more impressed with the Southern Soiree team in that realm - it was incredible! As a calligrapher, I did almost all of the detail and design work myself, and it is hard to give that detailed control to someone else on your own big day; however, in looking back, I could not imagine giving that control to anyone else. The Southern Soiree team executed each and every detail PERFECTLY. I seriously could not believe it, and my parents still can’t stop talking about it! Gina was so helpful with making budgeting and execution decisions about the design, that would have been much more difficult for me to make on my own. She was so professional, had so much knowledge, and had a very practical approach to her opinions which I could not speak more highly about. I never felt that she was ever pushing me to book vendors or products or make any decisions other than what would be best for me, my groom and our wedding. It was a very personal experience that I could not have accomplished without her. From the bottom of my heart, I cannot thank the Southern Soiree team more for everything they did for our wedding. Our wedding will always be special to us, but now it will always be perfectly special because of them.

Gina was fabulous to work with! She was upbeat and encouraging throughout the whole process. She is very punctual and goes above and beyond to make sure the bride has a stress free day! I was able to fully enjoy my wedding day thanks to Gina and her team!

Gina was fantastic to work with! She was always punctual and very organized. She is super friendly and easy to work with. She made sure I had nothing to worry about on my wedding day. She put me at ease and made it all work out wonderfully! Highly recommend!

I don't even know where to begin. A Southern Soirée as a whole is amazing but I honestly can not say enough about how amazing Gina is! I knew in the first 5 minutes when my mom and I went to sit down with her that I needed her help to plan my dream wedding and that she did and surpassed all of my expectations! Gina made everything so easy and painless. She even made miracles happen, like get my mother and I to agree! She spent close to 2 years planning our wedding with us so it's safe to say she became an honorary member of the family and bumped to number 1 in my email list! I never thought it would be so easy to plan our wedding and I never thought I would say that our wedding day went on without a single hiccup! That's all thanks to Gina and A Southern Soiree of course! I hated seeing our wedding day come to an end not only because it was the best day of my life, but because I knew that meant no more fun meetings and always happy and peppy emails coming in from Gina. Thank you Gina for making our dream wedding come true.

Working with A Southern Soiree was hands-down the best decision I made in the entire wedding-planning process. I had a pretty good handle on how I wanted things to look, but we were planning from out of state and I knew I needed someone local to help guide me through the process. We were matched up with Kelley Ann for month-of coordination, and I cannot believe how lucky we were to have her help! Month-of was much, much more that just your typical day-of coordination, and Kelley Ann is just amazing. She gave me vendor recommendations that were spot-on and within my budget, (gently) guided us through the best way to order events, and navigated some tricky family politics with grace and tact. She explained every step in advance, was very responsive by email (my preferred form of communication since I live three time zones away), and checked in on me throughout the process. Our entire day was absolutely flawless. As Kelly Ann put it, her goal was to make me feel like a guest at my own wedding - and that's exactly what happened. I didn't stress about a thing the day of the wedding, and if anything went wrong I never knew about it. Every time I think back on our wedding day I can't help but beam with happiness. I am so grateful, and really cannot recommend Kelley Ann and A Southern Soiree enough.

I truly do not know where to begin in writing about how wonderful our experience was with Gina at A Southern Soiree, because I truly feel like the words that I could type won't do my experience justice (but I will try to)! The moment we met Gina we knew she was the right planner for us. She genuinely wanted to get to know Matt and I, who we were as individuals and who we were/are as a couple before digging into the planning. We gave her our ideas of what we envisioned, what we liked and what we didn't and she guided us through every single step of the way with us in mind. She helped us pick vendors that she knew our personalities and visions would work well with, which you learn is so incredibly important, not just the vision but the people with whom you entrust to make your visions come to life. One of the most important things Gina did for us was help us navigate the tenting process in order to secure our wedding date at the Chapel (true LIFESAVER)!! Gina never missed one single appointment that we had with a vendor, and she was always so quick to respond whenever I had a question or just needed to simply vent. When it came time for the wedding day, Gina made me feel so incredibly calm and that everything was taken care of (which it was). There are so many little details that go into a wedding, and Gina had every single one of them covered (down to babysitters for little kids). There was not one hiccup, and if there was I will never know about it. After the wedding was over all of our family and friends, said how this was truly the best wedding they had ever been to, promptly followed up with "We love Gina". It is safe to say that our wedding wouldn't have been what it was without Gina, she made our dreams into a reality. Without her, I don't know if I would have been able to enter the alternate universe that was my most perfect day.

I cannot say enough about Kailey at A Southern Soiree! She is a super-planner and made our planning and day-of carefree and fun! Kailey met with my husband and I two times before the big day and went over, in very great detail, everything we wanted our day to be like, from the flowers to the table setup, to the music, etc... I did not have to ask what I was doing at any part of the day because she told me when it was time to do what and what I needed to bring and who needed to come with me. A day-of planner is the best way to go for a wedding and Kailey and A Southern Soiree do a wonderful job :)

Gina was our wedding planner and she was the best! I could not have asked for someone more perfect to help my mom and I plan my husband and my wedding. She kept us sane and calm the whole time and was available to talk about whatever we needed to - whether it be about the wedding or anything that was stressing us out. Gina really became more of a friend then anything. Her and her crew made our day perfect! I highly recommend them--especially Gina!

UPDATE: Megan reached out upon reading this and offered to pay us to remove this review. We obviously declined. We are nothing short of shocked and disheartened by the treatment we received from A Southern Soiree. We were led to believe that Megan was a good planner and were excited to work with her. But four months into planning, Megan became unresponsive and unprofessional – once even rude. She ultimately quit because we asked her to vet vendors before recommending them – to make sure they were in budget and available for our date and location. She couldn’t or wouldn’t and so she quit, keeping half our deposit, and leaving us without help, 1000 miles away. Megan was in my opinion disorganized and unprofessional. She did not negotiate on our behalf and we felt she was unhelpful in securing quality vendors. Here is our story: We hired Megan full service to help us plan our out of town wedding in North Carolina. Megan really seemed to understand our vision and told us she had experience working destinations. At first everything was great – she had some good ideas and provided us with good feedback on venues we had researched online. We visited those venues together and she asked great questions to help us make a decision. She also gave us a budget and generic checklist to work from and helped us find a photographer. Soon though, things began to fall apart. Megan became unresponsive to emails (said she was having a problem with her server) and things were getting forgotten or not heard. I had to set up monthly meetings and create agendas for them in order to keep her on track and streamline communications. When it came time to choose our band, Megan sent us two lists of bands. Many weren’t our style (no big deal), but worse, most were way (30 percent+) over the budget she set or wouldn’t play on Sundays (day of our wedding). We gave her an extra $1000 and asked her to revise the list. What we got back were two addition bands – one we really didn’t like (country) and one that we did. But the one we did, it turns out, doesn’t travel on Sundays. When we confronted Megan about this and asked her to please weed out unavailable options before sending them to us as recommendations. She quit. In her email she said things like, “I am not sure that I am the right fit for you.” But when we followed up by phone she said things like, “I’m not enjoying planning your wedding” and “I’m stressed out.” Well, honestly, wedding planning is her job and jobs are sometimes stressful. I was deeply offended by this but offered to keep her on if she wanted to stay. She said she would let us know in two days. She never called back and when we followed up she got upset that we hadn’t called her, so she quit again. We tried to get our deposit back as her contract did not allow her to keep it, but she would only agree to refund half our money because she had to answer 128 emails (her contract says unlimited emails). She wasn’t even organized enough to protect her from herself. Now we are out an exorbitant amount of money and no better off. She claimed to have helped with our bookings, but we found and booked our own venue and officiant; she found our photographer but never booked him. Nothing else has been done for the wedding. Megan’s lack of professionalism and organization is unfortunate for wedding planner. I would NOT recommend working with Megan or her company, A Southern Soiree.

Kailey was our coordinator for our 31 January 2014 wedding day. I loved her from the first meeting! I'm a fairly artsy-crafty, DIY bride, but knew I needed someone to make sure I didn't forget everything and put me at ease the week of the wedding. Kailey was perfect. She is probably the sweetest person I've ever met and was always there when I needed her, and then some! She helped answer questions along the way and took care of everything the weekend of my wedding. She put a control-freak like myself completely at ease, and that's hard to do! I was deployed for six months of our planning process, and also out-of-state, but Kailey worked with me from afar, met with my Mom and other vendors when I couldn't make it, and brought the entire day together perfectly. I could not imagine going through it without her. I HIGHLY recommend a coordinator to anyone interested, especially from A Southern Soirée. They can customize and be as involved (or not) as you need - and up that worked out great for me. Thank you so much Kailey for helping make my dream wedding come true!!! One additional note - they are located in NC, not MD like it lists above...

Working with A Southern Soiree, namely Megan and Gina, was an absolute blast. They are supremely personable, professional, and knowledgeable about all things wedding-related in the area. I had a lot of random ideas that these ladies were so skilled in tailoring into a beautiful wedding ceremony and reception. I feel like Megan and Gina know EVERYONE! You felt like a VIP whenever they were around because every vendor in the vicinity would bend over backwards for you. I felt like the knowledge of these ladies, as well as their relationships, helped us craft a well-organized, masterfully-staffed, and flawlessly executed event…not to mention an absolute BLAST! They say the true value in a Wedding Planner is how much money they save you…well A Southern Soiree not only saved me money, they saved me time, stress, and my overall sanity! When we got closer to the big day, and my emails got more frequent, the ladies never faltered, but rather shined and outdid themselves on a daily basis. I valued the planning process with these ladies, just as much as I valued the day-of services they offered. I dropped off two car loads of items to decorate, distribute, etc. at our wedding and these ladies personally handled setup of everything. Not to mention, Megan and Gina were there when you needed them while we were getting ready, moving from venue to venue, heading out for the night, etc. I am a type A PLUS personality (it’s hard for me to give up the reins), and throughout this process I truly trusted these ladies. I knew they would go above and beyond, and get the job done beautifully. Can we plan something else together soon? Thank you both!

Adam and I have been working with Megan and her team for just over a year when we had our October 15th wedding. The number of wedding guest was large and the wedding party was very big, too. Megan and her team did a fantastic job! Everything was perfect and was an amazing reflection of both of us and both our families. We have heard over and over again that it was the best wedding and reception anyone had ever been to. Megan was wonderful to work with before the wedding with very specific lists of what we needed to do and how to get those accomplished. She also was able to work with our very busy schedules and get everything planned. The night of the wedding we had no worries at all (nor did any of our family members). Her team was where they needed to be and in control of everything. We would recommend Megan and a Southern Soiree over and over again!

Megan was wonderful to work with while planning our wedding on May 14, 2011. She was with me every step of the way offering her expert opinion on vendors, decor ideas, etiquette and, importantly, budget. As a result of her excellent guidance, I've had many guests call and email me since the wedding to tell me that it was the best wedding they had ever been to, from the venue to the food and dj. Megan is very organized and detail-oriented, and I never had one moment of stress because I knew I could count on her to pull everything together. She helped me prioritize budget items to make sure we were able to achieve the vision I had of my wedding day without wasting money or blowing the budget. She worked directly with the vendors we selected to ensure everyone was on schedule and she was invaluable the weekend of the wedding. The best thing about Megan, though, is her ability to make you feel like you're planning your wedding with an old friend. She is warm and friendly and so very easy to talk to, and always gives her honest opinion. I can't imagine having done this wedding without her.

I adore Cara at A Southern Soiree. I was planning my wedding from DC and she was beyond a lifesaver. Due to horrible snow storms, I was not able to travel to NC as often as I had needed to; Cara did so much legwork for me. She really held my hand through the drama, frustrations and smiles that come with planning a wedding. The end result was absolutely stunning. I had put a lot of pressure on myself to have the perfect wedding and she really helped execute exactly what I wanted. She was always a phone call or email away, even if it was something as simple as needing someone to tell me it will be okay. I cannot rave about her enough!

Cara Zuelkhe is hands down the best wedding planner around. We chose to use her for helping coordinate our entire event but she gives you the options to do full coordination, minimum coordination or "Day Of" coordiantion, She was always on time, prepared and extremely knowledgable. Cara is so sweet and so pleasent to deal with. She answers emails and phone calls promptly - but to be honest you won't be needing to call her every hour because she's really amazing at what she does. She has great taste and is friends with everyone in the wedding business - so you know that your vendors will be exactly matched with what you need. My wedding day was so perfect mainly because Cara was taking care of EVERYTHING. I didn't have to worry about a thing - and it was so great. While most assume that a wedding coordinator isn't a necessary thing to spend money on, I completely disagree. I promise that you will be every bit satisfied by Cara and her team and happy that you carved out a section of you budget for it.