Working with Jessica Ashley Events (JAE) was the single best wedding planning decision that my husband and I made. 20/10! We worked with Jessica and her team for 18 months and engaged them for full planning, including venue selection, design, l...ogistics, day-of coordination, and more. It may seem like a large upfront cost, but paid off tremendously over the course of the planning process and saved us 100s of hours of our own time and worry.
Jessica, Sarah, and the team are hands down amazing. They orchestrated a seamless, low-stress, and memorable wedding weekend for us. In particular, JAE:
- Designed a cohesive, beautiful, and very “us” aesthetic for our wedding and Sunday brunch send-off events. The team took our feedback and iterations well, and the final result was stunning!
- Listened to and concentrated on our priorities, which were “guest experience” and “easy on our families” (i.e. good logistics). Jessica led with this in every call and clearly prioritized what we asked for throughout the process.
- Communicated proactively and professionally throughout the entire 18 months, to include constant email communications and regular video conferences (weekly as of a month out). Jessica never made us feel rushed during these check-ins and always took the time to fully answer our questions.
- Introduced us to and facilitated top-notch vendor connections that we otherwise would not have found or had access to. JAE and their preferred vendors work together like a well-oiled machine, and our stress levels were very low as a result! We had full faith in Jessica’s recommendations, and our vendors delivered!
- Advocated for us and always had our best intentions - and budget - as their priorities. We truly felt JAE was “in our corner” and not “just” doing business with us. JAE was invested and wanted to achieve our vision for the wedding. We completely trusted Jessica’s recommendations and guidance, which helped create a smooth, fun weekend.
- Delivered masterful logistics: Sarah and Jessica crushed all logistics, from the shuttle schedules to vendor management on the day-of, to timing and more. For me, their spot-on organization and logistics are the X-factor that make JAE great. When you hire JAE, you will never have to sweat the small details, as the team has it all covered. They make otherwise extremely difficult situations (e.g., inclement weather, last minute RSVPs, vendor turn-over, etc.) incredibly easy, which allowed us to focus on each other and our guests. Not having to worry about what was happening behind the scenes on our wedding day (e.g., vendor staging, handing out tip money, ensuring shuttles were on time, who has the rings, etc.) was tremendous.
We highly recommend working with a planner from start to finish, and JAE is THE planner to work with in the DC/VA/MD area. Our wedding would not have been nearly as beautiful, effortless, and enjoyable had we not worked with them. Love Jessica and her entire team!