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About this vendor
By Design means “as a result of a plan; intentionally”. This is the heart behind Amanda Blair by Design - homes, events, spaces, moments and relationships all created through intentionality. I love the Don Draper quote, “Make it simple, but significant.” That is exactly how I approach styling events and the mentality I walk into every client meeting with.
I pursue a style of effortlessness, or focused intentionality, that allows the complex to be made simple, and the extravagant to be made elegant. When form and function are woven together seamlessly, you leave space for authentic moments.
My dream is to help you create an experience that will last beyond your wedding day through meaningful details and thoughtful planning.
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5
out of 5.017 reviews
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There isn't enough complimentary words in the dictionary to describe this wedding planning company. Heather was not only my wedding planner, she is my twin soul. She is the most beautiful, professional, and talented person in this industry. While my wedding was an absolute dream (because of her), it also was a sad day because it was the last time I knew I would get to work with her. Heather is not just your planner, but she becomes an extension of your family. At least for me, she did. She is hardworking, knowledgeable, communicative, down-to-earth, real with you, helpful in ways to save funds, funny and just an absolute blast to work with. What's noteworthy is how flexible and compassionate they were during the pandemic, especially with payments. They took in consideration my financial situation during the time and didn't ask for anything, whilst still working hard for me. Working with this company will be the best decision you will make. We Love ABBD! We love and miss you Heather! There aren't enough stars to rate them appropriately, because it surely surpasses 5.
My husband and I got engaged on December 7th, and hired Amanda the following week. We found her through our venue, The Merrimon-Wynne. And we are so thankful that we did! Amanda guided us through the wedding planning process from day one, going above and beyond during a time when planning was (and still is!) nearly impossible for anyone. Our original wedding date was scheduled for June 6th and we ended up pushing our wedding to August 7th. The two months that we delayed the wedding were a rollercoaster with the number of decisions that had to be made, i.e., Should we move it all to next year? Should we nix the reception? Should we limit guests? And each time we made a decision, we thankfully had Amanda there supporting us and moving our plans forward. Over the span of our engagement, our wedding went from 125 guests invited to our ceremony and reception to us only having a ceremony and pushing the reception to next year. This final decision to only have a ceremony in 2020, was made two weeks prior to our wedding date. Amanda handled it all from beginning to end. She was a rock - making the hard phone calls to tell us news related to pandemic mandates, giving us thoughtful options, and she even sat on the phone with me once when I cried. Every vendor was notified and coordinated by Amanda as plans changed and she handled all of the contracts and logistics. Furthermore, I'm still in awe at how beautiful it was. I'd always dreamed of getting married in Italy, and Amanda made my vision come to life even with our new plan. She designed and implemented elements I never would have thought of. Amanda worked with every vendor to make sure the day was perfect. And it was!
While it certainly was a difficult decision to push our reception to next year, and "only" have our ceremony this year, it was the BEST decision we made (apart from hiring Amanda!). Our wedding day was perfection. There was not one thing that happened that made me feel like we were getting shorted in any way. My husband and I spent our entire mini-moon reliving the day and cherishing the fact that we remember it all. Leading up to the wedding, so many people told me "it will go by fast...you won't remember it all...try to stay in the moment." However, by having only our ceremony on our wedding day, we were able to remain focused on what our wedding meant – getting married. We were in the moment and there were no distractions. We had approximately 65 of our closest friends and family in attendance and Amanda creatively incorporated elements from traditional receptions into our ceremony, so our ceremony was truly a dream. Planning that would’ve been impossible without Amanda and her team. Our wedding day was the best day of my life thus far. I married my person in a dream ceremony that would not have been possible without Amanda Blair by Design.
I chose Amanda because I was told she was detail-oriented, organized, and responsive. I knew from the start that she would be intentional about every aspect of our day! We are still more than two months out from our wedding and she has already exceeded every expectation. She has helped me, and her other clients I'm sure, navigate COVID planning changes with grace and discernment, providing up to date and relevant information while also remaining warm and flexible. In making design and vendor choices, she uses her incredible eye for design to provide honest, helpful insight and feedback and is a strong advocate for her client. I could not be more excited to have her, and the entire ABBD team on our side going into our big day!
Amanda is truly the best. Booking her was one of the first and best decisions I made in the wedding planning process. Amanda is responsive, professional, and easygoing and fun to work with. I loved how patient she was with me as I waded through understanding all that goes into a wedding, and I loved that she gave me her honest feedback about style and vendor considerations. Amanda doesn't just yes you-- she's truly an expert and she works with your style and budget to get you exactly what you want. On the week of my wedding, when a vendor disappointed, Amanda called the vendor and advocated for me without me even knowing until after. It was such a relief to know she was on my side and I didn't have to deal with those hard conversations in a very stressful week. On the day of, Amanda was cheerful and fun when I saw her, but she did what she needed to do in the background. She is there when I needed her, but she spends most of her time coordinating vendors and family with ease and professionalism. I blinked and my entire venue was set up even better than I could have imagined. Without my awareness, she let everyone know where they needed to be. She truly does it all, and I could not have asked for more. Do yourself a favor, and book Amanda! Amanda, thank you for your hard work. You are incredible, and I recommend you far and wide! <3
Amanda is hands down an angel sent straight from heaven! She was the best decision we made while planning my wedding, no doubt in my mind. Because of Amanda, I never worried about anything and I was able to actually enjoy my day and the entire planning process. Even more important, my mom was able to relax too!!!
Amanda immediately understood my vision and she helped me achieve it beyond my wildest dreams. She connected me with amazing vendors, thought of every little detail that I would've never even thought about, and so much more! Words cannot even express how thankful I am for Amanda and her team!
Best wedding advice ever: use Amanda and her team! There is just simply no company like Amanda Blair by Design!!
Finding Amanda was truly a blessing! Being a teacher, I thought I’d have the planning process in the bag; I was so wrong! I was truly overwhelmed with all of the different aspects of planning once the school year kicked in. Hiring Amanda was the BEST decision we made. Amanda’s creativity, knowledge of design, thoughtfulness, and professionalism led us to have the most beautiful day. Just by looking at my Pinterest board and talking over the phone, she got a sense of my boho/eclectic style and completely elevated the designs for everything from flower arrangements to table linens. She also brought peace and relief to my mom, whose traditional preferences tended to clash with my style. In addition to that, Amanda was extremely helpful in keeping my husband and I organized and calm as we navigated the rest of wedding planning...especially towards the end. On the day of the wedding, she helped ensure that it was perfect. Not only did I see her keeping my wedding present (a puppy) calm on a leash during pictures, but she was a lifesaver for my husband who could not find the bourbon we buried weeks prior to the day. He must have been digging for nearly 10 minutes when Amanda gave him a break and found the bourbon on her first attempt! If you want your wedding to be the best day of your life, do yourself a favor and hire Amanda. Thank you, Amanda. We are so grateful for you!
All brides need an Amanda! Her and her team were one of the best wedding decisions I made. Throughout the planning process, she was so attentive to the many questions I had throughout the month and so easy to work with. She created a Google drive for seamless communication, attended our rentals meeting (she helped us find the PERFECT linens), communicated with all the vendors to have everyone on the same page. She takes your wedding vision seriously and has an amazing ability to support and enhance your details to bring everything to life.
On the day, Amanda and her team were professional, efficient, relaxed throughout the whole day. We loved the extra touches they added and the unexpected joy of seeing some items re-purposed. I was able to have my wedding day morning fully relaxed and in-the-moment.
While all weddings have their unexpected surprises and things go wrong. Amanda and her team kept our families insulated from the issues and we were able to fully enjoy the day and immerse ourselves in the things that mattered to us.
Finally, the clean-up was incredible. I wasn't there for this, but my parents didn't have to lift a finger. They were able to pack, organize, and send my parents off under an hour after our send off!
Amanda Blair By Design was our greatest investment and I highly recommend her in all respects. We couldn't have done it without her!
Ah, I don’t even know where to begin with Amanda. I came into planning a wedding with no experience or knowledge, and my fiancé and I definitely did not have the time learn. I have a demanding job requiring long hours and weekend work, and he is in the Army and is out-of-pocket often. Not to mention, neither of us are particularly great at design. We had three main goals for our wedding: (1) we wanted it to be laidback and fun, (2) we wanted flowers to be the highlight of our design, and (3) we wanted the planning aspect to be relatively stress-free. Amanda helped us accomplish all of these tasks and so much more!
I retained Amanda based on our initial conversation (I could tell she was organized and friendly from the get-go) and on pictures that she posts on her instagram and website (definitely take a look at her previous work). Amanda is incredibly talented, and I’m confident she can bring to life any dream wedding— I’ve seen her work on more traditional weddings as well as non-traditional. We opted for a less traditional wedding that had a mingly atmosphere and food stations in lieu of a sit down dinner. Amanda executed our (fragmented, ambiguous and I’m sure very confusing!) vision flawlessly, and she brought so much to the table that we never would have thought of. She offered really interesting and fun ideas, such as lounges, a greenery centerpiece that hung from our clear-top tent (with the help of Plume Events, who was also incredible to work with), and other great specialty rentals. During the wedding, she was very friendly and professional to our (pretty wild) guests, and to my knowledge everything went smoothly! Everybody told me that you know you have a good planner when you don’t hear about any hiccups or aren’t asked to handle anything — this was my exact experience!
Beyond her help on design, Amanda was also always incredibly prompt, responsive and professional.. I can’t tell you how huge of a deal that is! It’s really frustrating to not hear back from a vendor when you reach out, and I never had that issue with Amanda. She was a great sounding board for ideas and questions that I had as well as how to deal with personal, wedding-related issues that popped up in the planning process. She also recommended amazing vendors — I loved everyone we had the opportunity to work with! In fact, when my first photographer that I retained (the only person I retained that wasn’t recommended by Amanda) was first unprofessional and second ended up losing all of our engagement pictures, Amanda connected us with a phenomenal photographer ASAP who we LOVED (Jordan Maunder; the pictures attached to this review are from Jordan!).
Very grateful to have had Amanda plan our wedding, and I can’t recommend her enough. She is incredibly talented, professional and sweet — I hope you have the privilege to work with her
I honestly can't say enough amazing things about Amanda and her team! From my first meeting with her in a coffee shop to the last moments of my wedding, she was FANTASTIC. There was nothing that could stress her out, or anything she wouldn't do. The night of the rehearsal, she and her team stayed to help set-up, and ALL of my other vendors I spoke to upon arriving the day of the wedding told me how amazing of a person, how organized, and how much she was doing to ensure everything was PERFECT!
Amanda is SO talented and I would/will use her for any and all future event planning and design projects. Thank you, Amanda and team!!
We truly can't put into words just how amazing Amanda is. From the initial phone call to the end of our wedding night, Amanda was calming, responsive, kind, and so supportive.
Right from start, Amanda was able to turn my words and Pinterest finds into the perfect mood board and inspiration for our entire wedding design. She also referred great vendors and was always quick to answer questions and meet with us whenever needed.
A few days before our wedding, we came to terms that the rain was going roll in on our wedding day, and Amanda was able to reserve us the perfect tent on incredibly short notice! And on the day of the wedding, we were amazed by her styling abilities and were in love with how she transformed our venue with her impeccable taste. None of guests even knew our ceremony and reception spaces were our "Plan B" because everything looked perfect.
We can't thank Amanda enough. We are so grateful that she was recommended to us, and we plan to refer her to everyone!
I don’t even know where to start with Amanda. She was born to be a Wedding Planner. The first day I met her, I knew I wanted to plan our wedding with her. She has this calming presence about her that every bride needs around them during the chaos of Wedding Planning. I was not the type of bride that knew exactly what she wanted and had a vision of how she wanted the day to go, so when we started working together and she asked me what look I was going for, I had a hard time articulating it. I have no idea how she did it, but Amanda took the mess of words and pictures I gave her and made my discombobulated vision come to life. Actually, she made it even better than I had envisioned it. Amanda has built a great reputation in the industry and has relationships with vendors that are just as amazing as she is. 90% of the vendors that we selected were recommended by Amanda and I am so thankful for each and every one of them. They were amazing to work with and I knew if she recommended them that they were the best choice. I highly recommend using her for the full package. She is worth every single penny and more. Her attention to detail is impeccable and her knowledge of the wedding industry is extremely valuable. Thank you Amanda for making our wedding a day I will never forget!
Amanda designed and implemented a dream wedding day for my husband and I! It was so simple and elegant, with rustic and bespoke charm. She is very creative, organized and has a great eye for design and detail. She really went above and beyond for us on the day of our wedding- it stormed 30 minutes before our outdoor ceremony and her team switched over to our rain plan flawlessly. She was so organized and on point, I barely ever stressed throughout the entire planning process and day-of. I cant begin to emphasize how wonderful her design and recommendations are. She is also very personable and sweet. Highly recommend Amanda Blair by Design for your wedding!
Amanda was amazing! I first met her at an open house at my venue. I could tell upon meeting her not only was she sweet but that she was dedicated to making people’s special day go off without a hitch. I loved that she had different levels of design/coordination that you could choose from. I went with day of coordination and design (partly because I love planning things myself). Not only is she very reasonably priced compared to competitors, but she also had already worked numerous events at my wedding venue and had a good connection with their staff.
Amanda goes over and beyond to make sure that she’s got your back when the big day comes. She went with me to my rental appointment, set up a google drive and documents to store and share all wedding day details as they developed, maintained communication through email, set up a final run through meetings at the venue, contacted all vendors, had a face-to-face week before “do we feel good about everything” meeting, ran the rehearsal, coordinated the guest, bridal party, and staff on the wedding day as well as put up all of the decorations so that I (or anyone in my family) didn’t have to stress about any of it!!! This was amazing. She also helped after the ceremony/reception to make sure everything at the venue was back in order and all of my belongings were in my family’s possession.
Long story short, I highly recommend Amanda to any bride regardless of how much help you think you may or may not need for EVERYTHING involved in the wedding planning process. Believe me, it is worth every penny!!!
Amanda was absolutely wonderful!! We couldn't have asked for a more helpful coordinator. She was great throughout the entire process, from our initial meeting to sending us off at the end of the night. Amanda's simple, elegant style mirrored exactly what we were looking for our big day, and it truly turned out perfectly. We opted for the coordination + styling package, and I'm so glad we did - it was so nice to have her opinion and direction for the overall look for the day. Perhaps her most valuable role in our wedding, though, was how she handled the weather. The week of, the forecast was calling for rain all weekend long, and Amanda made sure we were as prepared as physically possible for it. She gave recommendations but was never too pushy, and though it did ultimately end up raining for basically the entire day, her suggested course of action worked out even better than I could have hoped! What was most helpful is that she was totally realistic and calm, even when both of us were kind of freaking out. We ended up loving our "Plan B" ceremony, especially her suggestion of the florals on the lattice - genius! Amanda and her team are truly just amazing at what they do, and worth absolutely every penny. We could not recommend her more highly!
Amanda was everything we needed for our wedding day coordination and more. She was recommended to us by a friend in the wedding industry and I am so glad she did. From beginning to end, Amanda was there to answer any question we had and anticipated things we didn’t even think to ask. Example of miracle work: about two hours before our ceremony, it was discovered that our suit company sent the best man the wrong suit. I don’t know how she did it, but since she had all of her ducks in a row at the venue, she was able to drive all over town and return with the right suit for the best man, saving the day. Although we mainly used Amanda Blair by Design for coordination services, she has an amazing eye for design and can meet your wedding planning/design needs as well! Thank you so much, Amanda!!
I cannot say more good things about Amanda! My mom and I decided to hire her after she heard good reviews from other vendors and after I coincidentally met one of her former interns/helpers. We used Amanda's partial planning and styling services and day-of coordination, as my mom and I had already hired many of our vendors by that time. We did start with her a little later than I would have liked (August 2017 for a January 2018 wedding), but she made us feel so at ease with the rest of the planning. Amanda made a couple of mood boards after we had discussions on how my husband and I wanted our wedding. She made so many great recommendations without overtaking the planning process. Amanda offered so many ideas that I would never have thought of. She has an impressive amount of knowledge of the wedding industry and local vendors which was one of the best parts of the process. She was connected to all the right people for our big day and made it a breeze.
One of the best parts of our time with Amanda was her understanding of tough family situations. Inevitably, there is always something that goes wrong during the planning process of weddings and I had a pretty big one with a family member and my husband and I were unsure if we even wanted to have a wedding ceremony at the venue due to that. We were thinking of going to the courthouse to get married but Amanda gave us several ideas and made us feel as at ease as possible.
Also, not in her job description but I am so thankful for it, Amanda unzipped me during a break from the reception so that I could breathe for a few! Those few minutes allowed me to enjoy the rest of the evening so much more, seriously! We just sat upstairs in the bridal suite and chatted for a few minutes away from the hubbub.
The whole day was just so perfect, and I owe that almost entirely to Amanda. She is worth her weight in gold!
Amanda and her team were absolutely wonderful to work with. So helpful, friendly, encouraging, and professional. I would recommend her to anyone! I don't have great attention to detail or strong design opinions- I know what looks good but it's not always obvious to me how to put the pieces together. ABBD took my vague descriptions of what I liked and just rolled with it- and it was truly perfect. I had so much fun at my wedding reception, and ABBD deserves a lot of thanks for that. I didn't have to worry about any of the logistics or behind the scenes details that make an event a success- they had it covered from start to end! ABBD also went above and beyond- picking up some things for my reception that I forgot on the day of and returning some of my decor the day after so I could relax with my family and friends- both were a HUGE help! Thank you thank you, ABBD!
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Apex, NC
Amanda Blair by Design
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