Chelsea and Black Tie Optional gave my husband and I the wedding day of our dreams! My relationship with Chelsea is unique because I have known her for over a decade when we met an...d became friends when I was living in Arizona. I always knew Chelsea to be a go-getter with incredible drive and skill at whatever she put her mind to, so when I got engaged, I quickly reached out. My pitch to her was also unique because we planned on getting married in the mountains of our home state of West Virginia, far away from Chelsea's wheelhouse in the Southwest. Always up for a challenge, Chelsea enthusiastically agreed to be our planner and navigate a whole new region of the country where we would mostly be working with vendors she had never met before.
I wasn't the slightest bit surprised to find that Chelsea was extremely knowledgeable with a wealth of useful resources at hand even without a local network of her preferred vendors to pull from. For example, Chelsea has created an absolute masterpiece for all aspects of planning - including budgeting, design, contact databases for vendors, and loads of resources for various elements of guest tracking - in the Aisle Planner system. I utilized this system thoroughly, and any time I had a question or issue, Chelsea was quick to guide me through my needs. As an incredibly hands-on bride, I opted for a partial planning package because I love being the decision maker and "driving the car, while BTO is the GPS" as Chelsea would say. We were a planning dream team! I eagerly looked forward to each of our planning calls. Even though we are personal friends, Chelsea was always incredibly professional, and she was the kind and encouraging person I already knew her to be.
Even though I was a West Virginia bride, I shared with Chelsea that I really wanted highly customized invitations and was having trouble finding someone in the local market who was creating the types of designs I was looking for. Chelsea was able to match me with a wonderfully skilled stationer who actually ended up being my favorite vendor we selected while planning! We ended up working so well together, we had her design all of our day of paper products and even had her design custom thank you cards after the wedding. I can only imagine how wonderful it would have been to have been able to have been an Arizona bride receiving all of Chelsea's wonderful vendor recommendations for various elements of our wedding. She is incredibly well connected and is a master at vendor relationship management.
When wedding weekend rolled around, we had a blast setting up together, and she pulled off a very productive rehearsal. Our wedding day, of course, was full of her positivity and perfect direction. While I live for being the boss, someone else needed to steer the ship that day, and Chelsea did so with ease. People will tell you that multiple things will always go wrong on your wedding day, but essentially NOTHING went amiss at ours. It actually went perfectly. It was truly perfectly planned. She also made me feel like I was the only bride in the world, the most special person to ever live, and she is the ULTIMATE hype woman. You want her cheering you on. You can FEEL her positive energy.
Even if you are a super planner like me, you would be doing yourself an incredible favor by hiring Chelsea and her team. Chelsea and her team are unmatched; there is a reason they are the best. We would choose her over and over again and can't thank her enough.