Brilliant Event Planning

I don’t even know how to find the words to express my gratitude, admiration and love for all things Brilliant Event Planning. Before I ramble about how amazing Sarah and the team were, I will get to the point in case you don’t have time to read this whole review – hiring Brilliant Event Planning is THE BEST decision you will make about your wedding – other than saying “Yes!” of course! From day one, working with Sarah was seamless, organized, and incredibly enjoyable. She is not only a fountain of information and ideas herself, but she has an incredible talent for listening to your vision and then making it all come true better than you could have even imagined. She handles everything impeccably - from the nitty gritty of contracts to the creative landscape of serving ware. And she handles everything with a radiant personality that makes her a joy to work with through it all. Everyone says to enjoy the process and with Brilliant Event Planning it’s impossible not to! Admittedly, I wasn’t the easiest bride – I had crazy ideas for how to make everything personalized! – and Sarah was up for every challenge I put in front of her. I’m so immensely grateful for how hard she worked to not only execute on our ideas, but to also ensure we enjoyed the planning process. And then, when it came to wedding weekend itself, somehow Sarah continued to wow and impress us. It’s hard to even understand how she possibly accomplished all that she did in those 48 hours. Somehow the wedding of my dreams materialized around me and the greatest gift I was given through it all was not having to worry for a single second about any of it! Words don’t exist to convey how magical this was. The wedding goes by so quickly and I was so wonderfully overwhelmed by love and joy the entire time that not having to spend any time or energy checking to make sure the logistics of the event were running smoothly was incredible. Perhaps something went terribly wrong in the background of our event – I wouldn’t know! –Sarah and her team made sure that my husband, all of our guests and I spent the entire time celebrating and having fun. The event was everything I had ever imagined and more! I’m forever grateful for Sarah for being the greatest wedding planning partner I could have ever imagined and would say “Yes!” to her over and over again. I keep joking that I might have to get remarried because I’m so sad to not be working with her still, but an anniversary bash might just have to suffice! If you have the opportunity, give yourself a Brilliant wedding and you will be smiling from it for the rest of your life.

The best decision I made (aside from choosing my husband) was hiring Chelsea as a month-of coordinator for my wedding. She could not have possibly been more helpful. In the month leading up to the wedding, she stayed on top of coordinating with all of our vendors, she was incredibly detail oriented and prompt in all responses to my questions (of which there were many). On the day of the wedding, Chelsea came with two members of her staff. Her calm presence and can do it attitude allowed me, my mom and my mother in law to fully enjoy ourselves (and truly relax and have fun) on my wedding day as she so clearly was competent and in control of every single detail. I am so grateful to Chelsea as she was truly the MVP of our wedding. There's no way it would have been the special and memorable experience that it was without her attentiveness and professionalism. As my dad said during his wedding speech, he has two words for anyone planning a wedding "Hire Chelsea!" I couldn't agree with this sentiment more.

Chelsea and her team were amazing! I hired them for 6 weeks out planning at the recommendation of our vendor, The University Club of NY, and couldn't be happier that I did. Chelsea's experience made her an invaluable sounding board in my planning process. She also brought a lot of important thoughts and ideas that I would not have considered on my own. She was available at all hours by email or text, responsive and proactively managed our timeline, vendors and to do's so it was clear where everything stood and who owned. She has a very calm, detail oriented and "get it done" demeaner that made her a pleasure to work with day of - she kept things unbelievably on track and broke our her sewing kit when my bustle came undone. I cant imagine the lead up and the day without her and her team.

Chelsea single-handedly ensured that my wedding got off without a hitch and remained hassle and stress-free throughout. Her team was absolutely fabulous, so kind, detailed-oriented, and they executed everything at the highest level. Admittedly, I hired Brilliant Event Planning at the 11th hour leading up to my wedding, right at the two month point when everything started to become overwhelming and all-consuming. Chelsea jumped right into action, handling most everything from that point forward. Hiring Brilliant Event Planning, and more specifically Chelsea and her team, was one of the best choices I made and I cannot recommend them highly enough.

Brilliant event planning was amazing. Sarah was the perfect planner and created the perfect wedding.

Sarah and the rest of the Brilliant Event team were instrumental in creating our dream wedding. Working with Sarah in the year leading up to the wedding was wonderful. She is incredibly experienced and knowledgable, while also being relatable and fun. Sarah was on top of everything from the moment we first met. We were all able to relax and be present on the wedding day, everything was taken care of and expertly handled by the professionals. My husband and I really wanted our wedding to represent us as individuals, this is where Brilliant Event Planning really excels, they do more than just create a beautiful party (although they do that exceedingly well), they incorporate the things you love and value into the perfect wedding. Sarah worked relentlessly to make our crazy ideas come to life in a realistic and budget conscious way. The attention to detail and commitment to clients truly sets Brilliant Event Planning apart.

We worked with Sarah Glick who was very responsive, flexible and a lot of fun! The wedding day was seamless and it was great to have Sarah and her team on board to handle everything!

I used Brilliant Event Planning for a rehearsal dinner and welcome party in New York City on October 6th and I could not have been more pleased with the beautiful job Chelsea and her staff did. Everything from finding the venues, to ordering the invitations, to addressing the invitations, to finding a band for the wedding, to setting up, designing menus, doing table seating charts, finding a florist and ordering flowers, and greeting guests as they arrived at our events was wonderful and so stress free for me and my husband. It was the smartest money I ever spent and I cannot thank Brilliant Event Planning enough!

Sarah and Chelsea are a dream team! The first thing that drew me to them was their warmth, professionalism, and—despite having thrown many beautiful, high-end weddings— their lack of pretension. It's clear their mission is execute a couple's dream wedding, not plan weddings that align with their vision/portfolio. They offered up lots of creative ideas, reviewed contracts with a fine-tooth comb (saving us $$ in the process), and were able to transition from being sensitive to tough depending on what the situation called for. I also found that the vendors they know and work with are of the same caliber. I was initially hesitant to hire a wedding planner because of the cost, but looking back at how much they did as well as how much stress they took off our plates, I can't imagine having planned this wedding on my own. Hiring this team was one of the best decisions we made!

There honestly enough stars to fully articulate how amazing Chelsea and her team are, and how big of an impact they had on making our wedding truly the day of our dreams. We hired Chelsea 6 months before our wedding as a day of/month of coordinator - we planned a full weekend event in the Catskills with a tented wedding reception ( involving renting literally every single thing from several vendors) at a somewhat non-traditional venue and as organized and detail oriented as my husband and I both are, we realized eventually that we were, for a number of reasons in way over our heads . We spoke to a number of wedding planners and knew immediately Chelsea was the one for us - she listened to our points of concern/stress and immediately impressed us with her calm, no nonsense attitude and ability to put us at ease and make us believe that it really was going to work out. Beginning the month of, Chelsea took over what I can only imagine were the literally dozens of emails across several vendors ( many of whom were difficult to work with, non responsive, etc.) and made sure that everything was delivered on time and went smoothly, and more so that the stress and back and forth stayed off our plates so that we could really focus on enjoying our last few days leading up to the big weekend. All that being said - where Chelsea really shines is the day of the wedding. She and what felt like an army of assistants ( who were all also amazing) arrived at our venue right as my bridesmaids and I were sitting down for hair and makeup, and from there it was game on - Chelsea was running the show and all my husband ad I had to do was relax and enjoy our day. Even little disasters along the way Chelsea handled like it was no big deal - from tracking down a runaway bridesmaid to literally hand-sewing my train back to my dress when my bustle broke, to dealing with the million questions that bridesmaids, groomsmen, parents, guests and the venue had at every step along the way that would have otherwise been directed to me. Chelsea ran interference and kept everyone on task and focused on having the most fun possible. I should also mention that Chelsea's eye for decor and event design really helped bring my vision to life - she was able to seamlessly move ceremony pieces/florals to the reception tent and re purpose in ways that really elevated the space, without adding any additional cost to our bottom line. I could write a novel honestly about how amazing Chelsea and her team were but i'll leave anyone reading this review with this: there are going to be many, many times throughout your wedding planning process where you ask yourself "do we really need to spend this money?" and of all the things that we spent money on, Chelsea and Brilliant Event Planning are the one thing we could not have lived with out- every thing else at the end of the day is secondary to actually being able to enjoy your wedding and having Chelsea and her team enabled us to have truly the best day of our lives.

Wow, where do I begin! We worked with Brilliant for our engagement and then for all our wedding events. They did an amazing job throughout. Our wedding was across the country and Brilliant planned everything from a distance, which was very impressive. No detail was left unnoticed as well on our special days and even in the planning process- my husband and I were always so impressed how organized, excited and calm that they were. Not only did we have a wonderful experience with Brilliant but our families loved them as well. It was important for our wedding that our family felt very welcomed and Brilliant went above and beyond to make sure that happened. Most importantly, my husband and I felt listened to throughout the process, taken care of and that Brilliant had our best interests at heart. Because they are so awesome they sourced awesome vendors for us (photography, videography, etc) so we have nothing but amazing memories when we look back on our special days. As a bride, you want to make sure that you have good people on your team the day of and during my wedding I was so relaxed and at ease because I knew I was in such good hands with Chelsea and Sarah. Hiring Brilliant was one of the best decisions that we made throughout our planning process and we have no regrets! You won't either if you decide to hire them.

Chelsea and her team were incredible! They helped us get organized in the months leading up to our big day and anticipated everything we needed and handled all of the key logistics. On the day-of she and her team helped move the whole day along seamlessly so that we had an absolutely perfect day and did not have to be worrying about ANY details. She was an absolute pleasure to work with and we would highly recommend working with her!!

Where do I even begin?! We first started planning with Sarah about a year before our wedding and let me just say - the BEST decision we made during the entire wedding process was to hire her. Sarah walked us through everything and was always so organized and 5 steps ahead. She listened to every comment, question, concern and always got back to me in a timely manner. Even on her days off including her birthday she would shoot me emails to keep me updated. Communication was never an issue - I always looked forward to her emails and our coffee dates! Sarah really makes a big effort to make sure that everything is set well beforehand so that even the week leading up to the wedding is stress-free and it really was. The wedding day was absolutely FLAWLESS thanks to Sarah and her team at Brilliant Event Planning. They were with us from first thing in the morning to the very end of the reception. While getting ready, I realized I didn't have my veil which was still at the bridal shop and Sarah told me not to worry and was on it right away. I didn't even stress as I got my veil well before the ceremony even started. They made sure all the vendors were there on time, that everyone was on schedule, that all the bridesmaid/groomsmen and parents dresses/tuxes were all steamed and most importantly that we were all enjoying the day. Throughout the whole day she made sure my husband and I were comfortable, hydrated, had enough food and she was always there to reapply my lipgloss! All our belongings including those of our parent and bridal party were always transported to the right room and right time, I don't know how they do it! To this day our families and bridal party all rave about what an incredible job Sarah and her team did. Guests were even asking us for Sarah's contact info during the wedding because they were so impressed. Sarah and I spent a lot of time talking about the vision and design for the wedding and she surpassed all our expectations. Every detail from the flowers, the table setting, escort cards, was so thoughtfully executed that I couldn't even tell you if anything did go wrong. Most importantly, the whole day was completely stress-free for us, our families, bridal party, so that we could enjoy everything to the fullest. Because of how helpful and amazing Sarah was leading up to the wedding, we also asked her to help with our rehearsal, rehearsal dinner and brunch which were all executed perfectly. There really aren't enough words to describe how grateful and lucky my husband and I are to have met Sarah and for all the hard work she and her wonderful team put into making our wedding weekend the best weekend of our lives. The saddest part about the wedding being over was that we were going to miss working with Sarah - she wasn't just our wedding planner, we really built a great friendship and I'll still email her to go for coffee :) We will definitely be planning more events with them in the future. Thank you Sarah and Brilliant Event Planning for making our dream wedding come true!!

“Sarah and her team at Brilliant Event Planning listened to our vision and then created our dream wedding on the beach in Antigua.  The wedding was beautiful-complete with sun, sand, palm trees, sailboats in the background, dancing on the beach and fireworks.  Everyone had a blast for the entire weekend.  Our friends have described it as “epic, magical and a bubble of love.”  Sarah thought of every detail in advance, and she and her team executed to perfection during the wedding.  Sarah is incredibly nice, professional and attentive, and most importantly for anyone thinking of planning a destination wedding, she is very knowledgeable about island culture and practices. We couldn’t be happier, couldn’t have done it without them and can’t recommend her highly enough! Corissa and Dan”

Sarah and her team at Brilliant Event Planning listened to our vision and then created our dream wedding on the beach in Antigua. The wedding was beautiful-complete with sun, sand, palm trees, sailboats in the background, dancing on the beach and fireworks. Everyone had a blast for the entire weekend. Our friends have described it as “epic,” “magical” and a “bubble of love.” Sarah thought of every detail in advance, and she and her team executed to perfection during the wedding. Sarah is incredibly nice, professional and attentive, and most importantly for anyone thinking of planning a destination wedding, she is very knowledgeable about island culture and practices. We couldn’t be happier, couldn’t have done it without them and can’t recommend her highly enough! Corissa and Dan

I cannot sing Sarah’s praises highly enough! She is THE BEST. Aside from being warm, communicative, and full of helpful advice, she and her team are coordination masterminds. I worked BEP for month-of wedding coordination and couldn’t have felt more at ease. They are professional, organized, calm, supportive, and FUN to work with and if there were any hiccups on our wedding day, neither myself, my husband, our families, nor guests had any idea about them. Work with the BEP team and you will be very, very, VERY glad you did!

I could not have gotten through the last month of wedding planning without Chelsea and her team at Brilliant Event Planning! I opted for the month-of-coordination as I already had the majority of my vendors in place and I needed a team to help me with the last steps and day-of-coordination. Chelsea and her team went above and beyond what I could have ever expected from a wedding coordinator! Everyone kept noting how calm I seemed on my wedding day, and thanks to Chelsea I truly was. I knew I had nothing to worry about with her team! When I first met with Chelsea about 6 weeks prior to my wedding there were still some vendor details I needed help with (gifts/late-nigh snack for guests, wedding programs, etc.) and Chelsea helped me with all of the last-minute vendor bookings and contracts! Chelsea and her team put together a perfect day-of schedule and was in touch with every vendor several times before the day of the wedding so that everyone knew exactly where and when they had to be somewhere. Chelsea and her team were all so kind, calm, and organized, it truly left me with nothing to do the day of my wedding but show-up and get married!!! I can not recommend Brilliant Event Planning enough!!!!!

The BEST team in the industry! Sarah and Chelsea are so professional, warm, and CALM to work with. We had a very complicated wedding with many moving parts crammed into one day. I hired Brilliant Event Planning for Month of Coordination for my wedding at The Pierre. I was so stressed about the day running smoothly and when the month of coordination kicked off I was immediately relieved. It was such a gift to have a team I could trust take care of every detail. It gets so overwhelming towards the end of wedding planning and it was such a relief to hand off those details. Chelsea and Sarah were a huge help in deciding critical details that are hard to decide on when planning a wedding since it's the first time going through it. They've done hundreds and know almost all NYC venues and vendors so can really help advise and point you towards the best decisions for your budget and vision. As if this all wasn't enough....I later learned their best asset is their help the day of the wedding. They kept me and my family SO calm. My husband and parents loved working with them. Everyone warned me that the wedding day would fly by in a flash, but because I had their team I didn't have to worry about anything and was therefor able to be totally in the moment. I'm so greatful for the entire team. They're all so professional, calm, gracious, and have great energy. I highly highly highly recommend.

“Very organized” and “timely and seamless execution” are words that don’t come close to capturing what Sarah and Chelsea have done for my wedding weekend, which included a rehearsal dinner, the wedding ceremony and reception, and the day-after brunch. Without them, my husband and I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy any of it. Though we’d contracted for their month-of coordination services since we’d made the major decisions by ourselves very early on, our one piece of advice to future brides and grooms would be that the BEP team are absolutely crucial in pulling off your wedding! There were so many things that they did, which looking back, we would never have thought of beforehand. But such things all went a long way to making the day more comfortable and extra special for the both of us. In between the ceremony and cocktails, they set aside food for my husband and I to enjoy in private as well as a bottle of champagne. They knew my feet were hurting early on in the day, so they placed a pair of my favorite loafers under my chair at the dinner table. They fixed everything in my wardrobe that I had problems with, from getting a bracelet to securely clasp to pinning my train repeatedly throughout the evening. They can talk AV technicals with the sound guys while finishing off by their expert hand last-minute calligraphy on table cards. Nothing is too large a feat for Sarah and Chelsea to tackle!

Jennifer was an absolute pleasure to work with! She had a staff of 3 to assist with everything. BEP is extremely organized and handled all problems without letting me know that there was an issue. I had gotten a spray tan several days before the wedding, and it rubbed off on my wedding dress. Jen carries an emergency kit, in case anything happens, and she was able to cover up my stains without any problem. I would recommend BEP to anyone in the NYC/tri-state area! They truly handled all the "little" details so I could enjoy my wedding day. FANTASTIC!!

Sarah was so so so wonderful to work with. She was beyond competent and on top of everything, but not in an anal, judgmental, "oh you havent done this yet??" way. She was supportive and warm from the very first email, while also totally professional. She thought of lots we hadn't thought of, and pointed us in the right direction on several fronts. The day of was incredible. Everyone--from the bridal party to random guests--commented on how smooth everything flowed, how seamless it felt. I can't imagine what it would have been like without Sarah and her team.