About this vendor
For over two decades Alchemy Events has provided full service event planning & design from their home base in New Orleans, producing events for clients who are looking for something truly unique. Whether it's a classic, over the top look to wow your guests or a non-traditional wedding that pushes the envelope, Alchemy Events produces events unlike any other, often incorporating breathtaking production elements & custom made installation pieces.
Featured in many publications & international blogs as both a contributor & with their client's weddings being featured, Alchemy Events owner Rena Sweeney only accepts a limited number of clients per year to make sure you are truly their focus. An expert in her field, she hasn't just been involved in multicultural or belief specific weddings, her unmatched expertise means she intimately understands & guides you through the planning process. This includes Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim weddings & more.
Alchemy Events offers a complimentary consultation after which a proposal for planning & design services can be sent.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Do you limit the amount or type of communication? No, we believe the more communication, the better, so each client is given Rena's cell number and can call, email or text at any time. Working with clients in many different time zones means we are also sensitive to working hours or time differences so we are flexible to meet our clients needs, whatever they may be.
Will you personally be at my event? Yes! I am personally on-site, hands-on with each event I produce and while I have staff that work alongside me, I am always the lead on each and every event that Alchemy Events produces! I don’t show up as you walk down the aisle or leave you in an associate’s hands after the first dance, I am there from start to finish.
How many weddings do you plan a year? I am dedicated to giving you the experience of a lifetime! As such, I typically plan no more than two events in the same month at the most. I never book more than one event per weekend, ensuring you are my sole focus!
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About Rena:
Rena has worked with weddings, private events, corporate & non-profit clients for over two decades during which time she has both owned her company & also been the in-house coordinator for several New Orleans venues. She has also consulted on the building, design & staff training for another local venue. Rena is the Creative Director for NOW Weddings magazine & serves on the board of the Humane Society of Louisiana where she helps with festival/event production, animal rescue, fostering, disaster relief & animal rights legislation.
Details
Business Attributes
- Woman-owned Business
Destination Weddings
- Destination Wedding Planning
Planning
- Budgeting
- Destination Wedding Planning
- Full Service Wedding Planning
- Honeymoon Planning
- RSVP Tracking
- Wedding Design
Wedding Activities
- Getting Engaged
- Engagement Party
- Honeymoon
- Rehearsals & Parties
- After Party
- Bachelor Party
Reviews
Your trust is our goal. Our community relies on honest reviews to help
you make those big decisions with ease.
5
out of 5.010 reviews
I cannot say enough good things about Rena. She is amazing at what she does, and truly made my dream wedding a success. She was responsive, professional, provided great recommendat...
ions for my other vendors, and was always extremely insightful & helpful throughout the planning process (around 2plus years!). The day of my wedding she provided that calm energy I needed, especially when unexpected things happened, and was able to executive new suggestions from either me or my husband. She is the best of the best, and I highly recommend her for whatever wedding coordination anyone may need
I can't even begin to put into words how amazing Rena was! I've spoken to many event coordinators when I started planning my wedding, but Rena topped all of them. Rena made sure sh...
e hit all the aspects to from my wedding. Everything from decorations to budgeting, Rena handled and kept me in the loop. Rena just all around is such an amazing person! I was so stress free on all the days I had events. I would recommend her for all types of wedding planning, big or small, especially indian weddings 😊 Thanks for making our day so memorable for not just my husband and I but also our guests!
I do not know where to start, we are so blown away by Rena and Alchemy Events…they are INCREDIBLE!
We were a COVID couple (having to cancel our wedding in NYC twice before deciding...
to do a destination wedding in New Orleans) and met Rena by accident while touring a venue we ultimately decided not to use. We immediately hit it off! Rena listened, gathered information and delivered! It was the first time in the long, stressful planning process that we had complete relief. Within a few days she sent us a huge packet, complete with inspiration photos, venue and vendor options, etc. Since we lived out of town we picked a weekend to return to New Orleans and Rena had an entire weekend mapped out of venues and vendors. In one weekend we had the venue and every vendor booked. She is organized, unbelievably creative, patient and kind. It was so nice to have her as a single point of contact for every vendor. She has a solution to every problem, and handles everything with professionalism and grace…even when my dress ripped open on the way to the church. She was waiting for me with needle and thread in hand to sew me in before my walk down the aisle!!! We were floored with how the design of our venue came to life. It was above and beyond everything we hoped for! I cannot sing her praises enough…do yourself a favor and hire her!!!
I can’t say enough good things about Rena. She was so helpful and knowledgeable about the wedding industry in New Orleans and her creativity is top notch. We had planned the most u...
nique theme for our wedding day and then the pandemic hit and Rena didn’t miss a beat when we decided to completely strip back our wedding plans from a ceremony and reception of 100 people down to a backyard ceremony with three of our closest friends as witnesses. Rena negotiated with all of our vendors and make sure we were taken care of, and that we still got the special touches we had hoped for (and even some we didn’t know we were missing)! All in all, Rena is the reason we will remember our wedding day so fondly for the rest of our lives. It may not have gone how we had originally hoped, but it was perfect despite the situation.
If you are looking for a wedding planner in New Orleans, you can do no better than Rena Sweeney and Alchemy Events. We live in St. Louis, but were married in New Orleans. We knew p...
lanning a wedding on our own would be difficult enough, and it would be that much more complicated from 700 miles away. From the moment we spoke with Rena, we knew the process would be a breeze.
Alchemy Events has the experience, expertise, connections, and creativity to make your wedding uniquely, perfectly yours. Rena listened to our wants and needs, and skillfully brought those ideas to life. At the same time, she knew when and how to step in and guide us, either when we weren’t sure what we wanted, or when we thought we wanted things one way, but she saw a better way to make our vision a reality. She was conscious of our budget, and was able to recommend appropriate vendors that allowed us to execute our vision without sacrificing the important details.
On the wedding day, Rena and her team of coordinators worked tirelessly to deliver the most memorable day of our lives. To use the word stress-free would be an understatement. From set up to tear down, every detail was taken care of; and we were able to focus on ourselves, our guests, and most importantly, on each other.
We can’t imagine our wedding had we not retained the services of Alchemy Events. The value delivered far exceeded the cost, and couples would be wise to include them when budgeting for their special day.
Rena and her staff at Alchemy Events will go above and beyond your expectations. Rena began working with us a year before our wedding and it began with a consultation. She wanted t...
o hear our vision and see how she could bring it to life. We talked with her for about an hour, sent over our engagement photos and it was a quick partnership from there. Through the planning process, Rena checked in regularly, came up with ideas, sent mood boards and asked for our input, connected us with vendors, and overall made the out of town planning process seamless. We even had a hiccup with the second line license and she was able to figure out an alternative smoothly. For day of planning, again Rena ensured everything was seamless. Our day was literal perfection and I know so much of that was due to Rena, her staff and the vendors she partnered us with. They got awesome behind the scenes pics too! We were able to actually enjoy our day and not stress because we had complete trust and faith in Rena and knew she had everything on lock.
If you have an event you need help planning, Alchemy Events is the best of the best. Rena has positive connections with so many vendors and professionals and is not afraid to stand ground for her clients if needed. She has such a sweet Southern nature with a badass, culturally-aware twist that is unmatched and she and her staff will not disappoint in planning any kind of event. We were scared we wouldn’t be able to find someone who vibed with us and our vision but Rena took our ideas to the next level and brought them to life.
Thank you Rena and Alchemy Events for joining our journey and making our day absolute perfection. Y’all will always hold a special place in our hearts and if we ever plan an event in New Orleans again, y’all will be first on our call list!
I honestly cannot say enough fantastic things about Rena and her team. Right from the beginning, she was happy to meet for a drink and discussion, working me and a friend into her ...
busy schedule. Being an out of town bride, I would have been lost without her guidance and stellar vendor recommendations. She truly set our wedding up to succeed with the fantastic team we put together. When I had trouble communicating with one of the vendors (an email mixup), Rena made sure to step in and communication went smoothly. Weekend of, Rena was tireless, making sure everything was in place and exactly how we had planned it. Finally, I trusted Rena with the fact that there was some awkwardness between some of our family and guests, and Rena kept a firm grasp on the situation, arranging people as needed and stepping in if needed to ensure everyone behaved appropriately. She was such a professional, and I know that there would have been no way I could have pulled off an out of town wedding without her. Highly recommend, without hesitation.
Rena was AMAZING! I don’t know what we would have done without her. From the very beginning, she was always the most pleasant person to work with. We planned a cultural fusion wedd...
ing incorporating traditions from Indian, traditional American and New Orleans weddings. Her knowledge of all three was impressive and she never questioned us when we proposed an idea that involved combining multiple cultures. She always found a way to make it happen. She was particularly helpful in the last couple of weeks leading up to the event. We had to completely change our transportation plans last minute and she was on top of it reaching out to vendors before we even knew of the problem. She even found me a licensed and insured babysitter for the wedding at 10pm the night before the wedding! She has a great reputation within in the New Orleans wedding community, with multiple vendors telling me (unprompted) how much they enjoyed working with her. That’s how you know someone works hard, is dependable, and a professional, when others in the industry compliment her work. She also worked with our budget and helped us find vendors within our price range and come up with creative solutions to help us stay close to our budget.
Rena also has a great design eye. I didn’t have a very specific vision of what I wanted the décor on the tables to look like and I felt comfortable allowing her to create the table arrangements herself. Everything turned out so much more beautiful than I ever could have imagined! When we were looking at different venues, she suggested ways we could design and plan things, which was very helpful to me.
Rena and her team allowed us to enjoy our wedding without stress. Whatever issues came up (problems with the bustle), Rena had a solution. She fielded questions from friends and family members and allowed us to point them in her direction. At the end of the event, even my father-in-law (who can always find a problem with everything) was very complimentary of her and her staff. We were so happy with our decision to hire Rena for our wedding. Best decision we made during the wedding planning process!
TL/DR Rena is amazing and I recommend her 100%
I started working with Rena after having difficulties with a previous planner. By the time I approached her, I already had 25% of th...
e main wedding details like venue, hotel, and some vendors finalized (although I wish I had worked with her from the get go, then lots of red tape that we came across would have been a lot easier). When I first reached out to her, I was frantic, desperate, and extremely stressed. As most brides, I have a very demanding job, very tight budget, and absolutely no time. Planning a New Orleans wedding from New York City started to feel like an extremely daunting task.
As soon as Rena signed up, everything seemed to start falling into place. She took charge but also made sure that all my dreams and wishes came true, she listened to what my parents had to suggest, and what my husband needed, all while staying in my budget! She helped me make decisions by breaking everything down in the simplest of manner and she was extremely respectful of my time and schedule (even though she was planning MY wedding!). I'm not going to lie, my budget stretched like chewing gum, but that was mostly because I wanted what I wanted. Rena did an amazing job of always presenting me with all my options in a range of prices, and ultimately everything was my decision. Even when she found me very affordable vendors, they did a pretty amazing job and I have no complaints with any of them. There was one major issue where one of the biggest vendors quit a month before the wedding, I was in complete panic mode, but with Rena's help, we were able to find alternative options with whom I was extremely pleased.
Not only was Rena a wedding planning life saver, she went so much beyond that. There were times when the stress started getting to me and it started affecting my personal life, I remember calling her and asking her help in making some decisions that felt very difficult to make that were causing an impasse between my husband and me, or my parents and me, but she was able to walk me through the decision making process and give me guidance that made a real difference.
There were some day-of issues that I'm sure all weddings have. I think if we had gone through the sequence of events and what was important and what was okay to skip in case of time delays, we would have been slightly better off, but ultimately, all I remember from my wedding weekend is being extremely happy, laughing my butt off, and being the most carefree and relaxed bride I could be. I had complete trust in Rena and her ability to handle all the details, and she did not disappoint. As I mentioned earlier, I recommend her 100%, not just as a wedding planning service, but as a true partner in making your wedding dreams come true.
Finding the perfect vendors for our wedding seemed like the impossible task. I was planning a wedding out of state and as much as I like to try and do EVERYTHING all by myself (and...
I definitely tried for too long), I just needed help. After searching and meeting with several different coordinators that I just din't mesh with, we were introduced to Rena through our florist. It was an instant hit and I knew my wedding vision and ideas (and there were MANY) were all in great hands! Rena seriously knows her stuff. She worked great with all my family, friends, and other vendors. She was able to give invaluable advice on who to go with and sometimes who to avoid. She even went to bat for us when some of our vendors got a little shady. She was so awesome to work with and I cannot say enough good things about her and our entire wedding experience. She really went above and beyond to make everything I wanted happen the day of my wedding (including running around trying to make a projector work for a surprise music video for my husband during our first dance). I could honestly go on and on about Rena but I’ll wrap it up by saying you won’t find anyone better… I guarantee it!
Contact
New Orleans & Worldwide
Alchemy Events LLC