Allison was a dream to work with. She was always relaxed and calm, ready with a joke, and put us at ease. She's done high end and small weddings, but I never felt nervous or embarrassed if I said there were little things I didn't feel like spen...ding money on or didn't care about. I could ask her anything wedding related and was so happy to have her advice. She's honest, thoughtful, and really fun to hang out with.
We went with the full planning package, and I have zero regrets. She really made our wedding so special. It felt personal, unique, and beautiful. I had general ideas about what I thought would look nice, so she was great at honing in on that and creating an incredible vision. It took my breath away to see the space on our wedding day. We were told by countless guests that it was the: nicest, most fun, and most beautiful wedding they'd attended. A groomsman went so far as to tell us the space looked "magical." High, and surprising, praise from that dude, trust.
Allison was really great at figuring out what we liked - things I had no idea to think about, such as what style of photographer we wanted. I only thought about wanting someone who would notice if we were too far apart, or someone was blinking in a great shot. But she sent me several different photographer's sites to demonstrate how different the styles could be, and to identify what looks we liked best. Little things like that made having a planner, and in particular having her as a planner, were so helpful.
She was really great at communicating as well - I could send her long emails with disorganized general thoughts, and she'd respond quickly and with great feedback. She also put together a dream team of vendors, and handled all of the details there.
As much as we tried to get everything taken care of in advance, of course with a wedding little things pop up. Our hotel we planned to stay in wound up not opening up on time, and we were told a week before the wedding. Instead of this being devastating and frustrating, Allison took care of it, and made sure we were more than taken care of and accommodated for the headache. My mom had already said countless times over the course of our engagement how much she loved Allison, and how grateful she was that she was able to enjoy the planning process (dress shopping, tasting) and not deal with any of the actual details. But it was at that moment that my mom, husband, and I were SO happy to have Allison. The fact that we didn't have to deal with any of it, and it ended up being *more* than OK in the end, was a dream. That's the thing I tell people when they ask if they should get a planner. Not only does she have a beautiful vision, know vendors, is able to handle the details, but moments like that when you have someone able to tell you "I got it, I'll call you when everything's fixed with an update," is priceless.