Andréa's Occasions

I was really frustrated with a lot of the planning experience with Andrea - I felt like she didn't really get to know me or my priorities and wasn't really on top of sending me options or booking vendors and I ended up having to reach out to her to when I wish she had been more proactive in managing my wedding timeline. It was also unclear what parts of the wedding planning process she thought were my responsibility versus hers, for example I would have expected input on hair and makeup vendors but she gave me no guidance on this. I did feel she did a good job on the day of the wedding keeping everything moving and on time. She did have an emergency kit on the day of the wedding which we used.

Andrea did an amazing job helping us plan ahead, organize, and keep calm for our wedding. She took our ideas and executed them perfectly, and I knew things were getting taken care of when she would come find me throughout the night with a big smile on her face, asking how I was doing. If you’re on the fence about getting a planner, do it! It will help put your anxious mind at ease and Andrea did a phenomenal job!

Hiring Andréa was the best decision I made. She keep my wedding day stress free. Her entire team was a pleasure.

Do not book Andrea if you are LGBTQIA+ or an ally. Unfortunately, she is homophobic and let my sister know that she could not plan her wedding because “same-sex marriages do not align with her values.” The cherry on top of it all is that she planned our cousin’s wedding last year; my gay sister was his best person and they had a drag queen and king at the reception. So it seems like Andrea is okay with queer folks if it’s for entertainment purposes but doesn’t take them seriously enough to celebrate their marriage. It’s disappointing to see a Black woman refusing to support a fellow marginalized community member. And that we are still seeing homophobia in freaking 2022, especially in a liberal city like Columbus. It’s also ironic when your entire business stands for helping to spread love and joy for others but then do not accept a group of people because of the folks they choose to spend the rest of their lives with. I’m not here to judge or hate but to inform others of what Andrea stands for before you book her for your next event as it’s not listed on her website that she won’t plan gay weddings. Instead of simply saying she was not able to help my sister, she had to write a long email about how she wouldn’t be able to give her “typical 150%” if she had hired her. Andrea, maybe you should take that extra 50% and educate yourself on the amount of persecution queer folks have to endure on a daily basis just to live authentically in the world. And how it affects their mental, physical and emotional health as human beings. I’ll be praying for you in the meantime.