aRay of Events LLC

My daughter and I contracted for Day of Coordinating with Shauna Jackson, the owner of aRay of Events. The bride and I are both from Kansas City but with the wedding located in St. Louis, I needed a coordinator from the St. Louis area as we were planning the equivalent of a destination wedding. From day 1, Shauna offered any help she could give. Particularly, suggesting local vendors who she knew would provide great service for reasonable pricing. Although the bride and I designed and planned the entire wedding ourselves, Shauna jumped in several times during the lead up to help me find draping, suggest florists and sent emails with reminders of things that needed to be done each month. When it came to the week of the wedding, everything ramped up. Shauna was willing to receive three different UPS shipments as they were delivering as we were leaving Kansas City for St Louis. She received ALL off the rental linens (and sent them back for me!), a tiered cake stand that wasn’t going to make it in time and some photos that we wanted to display at the wedding reception. Shauna just takes everything in stride. A last-minute need for a specialty sized blackout curtain for the reception caused me some trepidation but Shauna just came up with it out of nowhere and took care of it. The bride and I chose to contract with aRay of Events because they have a large team and can bring in the numbers of people needed to complete any task as requested. I had a U-Haul van full of décor that I had amassed over the prior year. Shauna had someone at the venue when we arrived the day before the wedding to unload the van. This was unexpected as we assumed we would be unloading the van but so appreciated as there were so many other things to get done. The venue setup took 5-6 hours with 5 aRay of events staff including Shauna. I had given her a substantial document with descriptions and photos of where everything should be placed. They asked me maybe three questions and I, frankly, disappeared on them completely once I had to be at hair and makeup. The set everything up perfectly and what I didn’t have detail for, they set up beautifully. Shauna ran the rehearsal and it was so organized and efficient. Anything I had spent weeks trying to remember to tell the wedding party, Shauna told them in the first five minutes. She is such a professional. The wedding day was absolutely perfect. At least, it felt perfect. If anything happened that wasn’t supposed to, I still don’t know about it – Shauna is that good. Shauna and her staff did everything. Got the bridal party where they needed to be, took the bridesmaid’s luggage to the hotel for us, set up all of the décor, pinned flowers, greeted and directed the other vendors and just overall took everything off our shoulders. And then made sure the couple and parents all had drinks if we needed them all through the night. After all of that, Shauna and her staff somehow managed to remove all of the décor that had taken so long to set up, break it down, pack it up and get it into the U-Haul and a little over an hour. The venue gave us one hour to remove everything so this was an amazing feat of efficiency. If you are looking for a Wedding Planner or Day of Coordinator, I cannot recommend aRay of Events enough. The are professional, efficient and caring. Shauna probably got tired of hearing me tell her all night what a great party it was and just the best day. It was a great day just because of the wedding but Shauna and aRay of Events made it flawless.