LeslieJames Events

free as she could have! If there's one thing you should do for yourself during the wedding planning process, it's to HIRE KELLY!!!

service. At the beginning of the process, we were very lost, since we were the first in both of our friend groups to get married, but Kelly made the process extremely stress-free! Kelly took us on venue tours, based on some preferences we gave her, as well as paired us with vendors within our budget. We had our vendor list locked up almost a year in advance of the wedding thanks to Kelly! As the day of the wedding grew nearer, my wife and I became more and more stressed, as it seemed like there was a never-ending list of things to do, but Kelly really eased our burdens at this time by turning everything into a finite list of doable tasks! We even started saying to each other at this time, "it'll be okay, Kelly won't forget" to all of the things we were stressed about! Finally, on wedding day, Kelly and Jillian were everywhere to make sure things ran smoothly! We constantly referred to them whenever we didn't know what to do or where to be. Despite all of the wedding horror stories we had heard from others, our wedding was never behind schedule, never had any mishaps, and all-in-all went as smoothly as possible! For the amount of stress we saved, my wife and I would both confidently say hiring Kelly was the best financial decision we made in the last 2 years!

in connecting me with the right person after seeing my vision. Within a week of letting her know I needed help with this specific choice we had an appointment and checked that decision off the list.

ve that Kelly’s heart is in the right place and she has a good soul / intentions for her clients, but she seemed to take too much on, leading to a stressed and not good version of herself at the actual wedding (and to some extent leading up to it). There were some major mishaps, including the temporary loss of my grandparents’ wedding bands, that caused stress. Perhaps due to such stress, she and her assistant brought a negative energy that multiple people commented on and that my husband and I felt. As a result, we did not feel that she fulfilled her primary role to us as emotional support and a trusted confidant on a very important and vulnerable day. Although we really enjoyed our wedding day, it feels like it was despite the challenges caused by LJE. Weighing LJE’s contributions with the challenges that we experienced, I would not make the same choice again. In my opinion, we did not see the calm and composed version of Kelly on the wedding day that we had expected to see based on our initial meetings. This was not an easy review to write, but I feel it is only fair to write the review I wish I had read before making a hiring decision. ___ The positives - we had a great time at our wedding and felt Kelly added something to our day with her very detailed timeline, her thoughtful ideas for signature items and her help executing certain things. She cares very much. In the planning process, she remained focused on the substance/meaning of the day. Until about a month and a half before the wedding, we enjoyed our interactions and felt she didn’t add stress. She did a good job creating the schedule and putting together welcome bags for us for the weekend, and she did a beautiful job setting up the room for us for our weekend events. If I had to sum up what happened, I would say there was a mishap (more below) and she lost her cool and couldn’t quite recover equanimity. We enjoyed her support during the weekend and the energy that she brought to our weekend events, and if she had carried that through to the wedding itself, we might have been able to overlook some of the downsides in the pre-wedding planning period or even the mishaps on the morning of the wedding. I felt the costs were reasonable for the services provided and the time Kelly gave us. We had a Jewish wedding and Kelly acknowledge a lack of familiarity with the customs, but then took great initiative to buy and read a book about it. We appreciated this and felt it showed a real investment in being there for us on our day. Kelly provided good time management of our vendors on the day of the wedding. The challenges - there were key ways in which I felt communication breakdowns negatively impacted the day, particularly in light of my expectations/ hopes out of the relationship (essentially, management of the day and a calming, supportive presence). It would have gone a long way if she had recovered a better attitude towards us and our guests on the day of, or to apologize / take ownership for some of the mistakes we felt she made (perhaps she did not feel responsible, which is where we would disagree). ⁃ Leading up to the wedding, things took a downhill turn a few weeks before the wedding, when we realized there had been a mishap with the flowers. Kelly had handled a final design meeting with our florist; somehow there was a major miscommunication and color/other preferences were not communicated. We still don’t know what happened, as when we showed the florist exactly the communications we shared with Kelly, she understood that the color scheme we wanted was not what she had designed. It took a few days and conversations before we got back to a good place with her, and give what we felt was a second chance. In terms of the florist, we ended up having to pay over ~$600 more to add additional flowers and although objectively beautiful, it was still not what I had envisioned. ⁃ There were several major issues on the wedding day. The biggest one was probably that Kelly and her assistant took ceremony items from the hotel suite (where I was staying and getting ready) before the wedding but did not perform any inventory (although I asked if she wanted to run through everything, she or maybe her assistant said “oh we’ll figure it out”). As a result, they couldn’t find the wedding rings (family heirlooms) for a few hours - they turned out to be exactly where my fiancé has said they would be (in a box) but it set us up for a morning of stress, and falling behind schedule that we didn’t recover from until the ceremony. It seemed like a simple check list of all ceremonial items removed from the room would have resolved this and I’m surprised this didn’t occur, nor was there any acknowledgment of responsibility of how this was handled (her assistant basically ran into the room while I was in the hair and makeup chair and exclaimed “we can’t find the rings!”). My bridesmaids felt she was snippy and rude to them, as they ran around the hotel trying to help her find the rings. I was trying to get ready with my hair and make-up while Kelly and her assistant were running around my suite looking for the ring - which she had in her possession. As a result, I was not present emotionally for that part of my day, and I really regret it. I tried to recover from the moment once the rings were found, but I felt our relationship went downhill from there, to the degree that she decided not to come with us to the photos saying “I was going to come for moral support and it’s clear you have other people for this.” I believe this was intended to be helpful/ give space, but I was surprised by the comment and it set a certain tone for the rest of the day, at least through the ceremony. ⁃ There were other small ways in which she under delivered or didn’t take the initiative I would have hoped to ask us questions to get us to the right place, including regarding the wedding ceremony (she sent me down the aisle at a moment when my fiancé was putting on a ritual robe, and so he did not see me walk down the aisle - we should have discussed this ahead of time). She had discussed with us how she would take us aside before the wedding ceremony and remind us to re-center. This was very important to us and I knew we wouldn’t remember to do this ourselves. This moment didn’t happen as in my opinion, Kelly was even more stressed than we were. ⁃ Overall, Kelly seemed stressed and overwhelmed with our wedding in the weeks ahead and in my opinion, took on more than she could deliver, noting a few times that she had a lot going on and asking us for relatively last minute design decisions that contributed stress and unnecessary time pressure to our planning (for things we felt could have been planned much further ahead, like signature cocktail napkins). We ended up catching certain errors on things like duplicate names on table chart or mismatched font sizes or, on cocktail napkins, failure of vendors to use the text we provided - all ultimately fixed but in our opinion, things that should have been caught by LJE and not us. This general approach extended the time it took to handle such tasks and reduced our confidence in LJE’s attention to detail, leading us to micro-manage more than we intended. If you decide to hire Kelly, I would stay more involved to ensure you get exactly what you want. Given weddings are her area of expertise, in my opinion, there are additional questions that she should have asked to understand our preferences (e.g. we should have talked more about the ceremony and other pre wedding details). Kelly spared us logistical challenges and helped make the day special, however her team also added a level of stress that was upsetting to us. I do not doubt that her heart is in making these days special for clients and she gives it her all, which is probably why she took us on so much. I am grateful to her for all that. But I felt disconnected and upset with our relationship by the end of the day and stressed leading up to the wedding by the last minute questions from her about things we could have resolved weeks ahead (i.e. table numbers). I can’t forget that I didn’t have any time getting ready when there weren’t people frantically running around the room looking for a ring that Kelly herself took out of the room. And my husband and I harbor some regrets about how key moments of the day went (i.e. ceremony), things we would have stayed on top off if we hadn’t delegated them out. I would hesitate to recommend her without ensuring that you have many more conversations about details and realistic ability to deliver on what you need. I know Kelly worked hard for us, but not necessarily in the ways that we needed to reduce our overall stress leading up to and on the wedding day.

. And the end result was absolutely gorgeous.

ather allowing us to know all our options to make the day something out of our dreams. She is personable, passionate and extremely accommodating and we could have never had the most perfect, relaxing wedding day we had without her.

r day would have been so beautiful beyond our vision and cleanly executed from start to finish. Kelly is so kind, thoughtful, and detailed orientated and you won't regret working with her and her team!

ination and ultimately decided I wanted to be present for the wedding and wanted someone else to do the worrying for me. I had a hotel Wedding and was worried the on-site event coordinator wouldn’t have time to really help me personalize the details. Kelly did so much more than manage the day-of. We met with Kelly several times in the lead up to the wedding and were in constant contact over email. She helped me pull off surprises, incorporate different cultural features and completely handled everything related to the vendors. She was a sounding board, muse, occasionally my therapist lol, and quickly became a friend. Our wedding was PERFECT thanks in LARGE part to Kelly and her team. Hiring her was the best thing we did for our wedding and we would give her 100 stars if we could. #worthit

ble job. I learned about Leslie James events by accident… I was on the phone with another vendor who I didn’t end up using, but he had nothing but wonderful things to say about Kelly. He said that whenever he looked around she was doing something to help out the team. And I knew that’s what I needed, a a leader to help my wedding team in the final stages of my planning, a team to remind me of things I was forgetting, and a team to help make the best day of my life run smoothly. Kelly was the captain of that team and I cannot thank her enough. I feel so lucky that she was recommended to me. We had several meetings, phone calls, email exchanges, and texts leading up to the big day. She was always available whenever I needed her - even for all of my crazy questions! Kelly was in contact with all of my vendors. She helped me organize final payments. She created a minute by minute plan for the day. Kelly helped run my rehearsal. The day before the wedding she handled all of the craziness of tracking down last minute rental additions and making sure everything would be perfect. As a bride, I worried about everything and Kelly told me to trust her. She came through with everything we had planned and it was truly the best day ever - I wouldn’t change a thing. Kelly is a person that goes above and beyond and helped me with way more than I originally expected. On the day of there was a family emergency and she was the one who drove my uncle where he needed to be, without me even knowing about the situation! Kelly is timely, professional, detail oriented, friendly, personable, and an expert at what she does! It was an absolute joy to have her as our coordinator. I am so grateful to have found her and so appreciative of everything she did to make my wedding day perfect! Thank you Kelly!!! And thank you to your team - Jillian and Haley!

day and helped us have the exact wedding we wanted. Kelly is so responsive and professional. Our meetings with her were an absolute delight and she managed to make planning a wedding be stress-free, fun, and really enjoyable. Her knowledge of local vendors was incredible. She helped us stay within our budget while never once making it feel like we were cutting corners or compromising on quality. It is so clear that Kelly loves her job and that enthusiasm is infectious. Her team with LeslieJames Events was awesome. Not only did she make the wedding plan fun and easy, she and her assistant made sure that the wedding day was amazing. If there was a single hiccup on the day, we were (and still are!) completely unaware. We were able to be fully present with each other and our guests because we knew that Kelly had everything handled. We cannot recommend LeslieJames Events enough! She is a Boston must-have for weddings!

o is incredibly well organized. We enjoyed the time we spent working with her. She immediately put us at ease. Her favorite saying" I've got you" and she did have us. Thank you

essional and we would highly recommend her!

y, positivity, and willingness to make your dreams a reality, were just a few of the reasons why we would recommend LJE for your future event! Our wedding day was absolutely perfect and all of our vendors commended Kelly for making it possible.

recommend Kelly enough - you will have a coordinator, a get stuff done-r, a listener, a supporter, and a friend in Kelly.

dding, and without Kelly there’s no way we would have managed to coordinate among all our vendors to get the timeline and details worked out and consistent. I was so relieved knowing that Kelly had a system in place to manage and keep track of everything! Plus she made sure I ate lunch and drank water the day of the wedding :) I would absolutely recommend working with her!

ics to keep our kids entertained while the adults enjoyed a 6-course meal from a personal chef. She is incredibly responsive and easy to work with. 1000% recommend!

ery much quickly saw the light when Kelly was able to come in and asking about all the details we weren't thinking of and working with all of our vendors to ensure a frictionless wedding day. Kelly was even kind enough to help clean up the day after and honestly she's just an amazing human overall. Can't recommend Kelly and LJE enough - absolutely superb, caring people who are looking out for your best interests.

d manner. I can't tell you how often we said, "how would we have done this without Kelly?".

throughout all of our questions, and truly made our wedding better than we could ever imagine. Thank you so much Leslie James Events/Kelly for absolutely everything, we look forward to getting together for dinner soon and know if we need any party/event planning services going forward who to reach out to! ♥️♥️♥️

me all throughout this process of moving dates, changing plans etc. She was 1000% onboard and engaged in my wedding. Kelly stepped up the whole wedding weekend from rehearsal to day of. Kelly, is a hardcore professional with a fun side that is always on the side of the couple. She was boss during issues with the reception venue and handled it like a pro. I love Kelly!!! Couples out there if you are struggling, feeling overwhelmed and a little (lot) lost please reach out to her for help and guidance. Kelly- thank you for a beautiful day!!

ng the bridal party drinks on command, and bustle the most complicated of dresses, and make it look easy. Kelly planned the most beautiful wedding we could have asked for!

er clients and wants to make all their dreams come true for their special day. I would highly recommend Kelly to help you with your special day whether it’s a wedding ,birthday etc. It will be amazing if Kelly is involved!

sts). We interviewed 5-6 other wedding planners and easily chose Kelly because of her enthusiasm, attention to detail, and our instant connection. Our new wedding was planned in about 5 weeks. Kelly had every detail mapped out and organized, and did an amazing job of interpreting our dream. Kelly has so many amazing assets that make her perfect for this role; she is creative, determined, attentive, passionate, thoughtful, friendly, and truly listened to our desires and concerns. She was incredibly easy to communicate with, and we appreciate her professionalism and the relationships she maintains with other vendors. Kelly went above and beyond on so many occasions and we feel so lucky to have found her! Kelly was more than just our wedding planner, she was our advocate, support, and new friend. Cutting out all extended family and friends from our wedding day was very difficult for us, but we are so glad that Kelly was one of the few individuals in attendance. Our wedding was very different than what we had originally planned, however, it reflected the romantic, holiday fun that we always hoped for. We spent the entire day smiling and enjoying ourselves, and truly could not have pulled it off without Kelly. We would hire her again without hesitation! Anne & Jeff 12.12.2020