About this vendor
At Charmed Places we work with creative and dynamic clients seeking locations and services that reflect their personal style and vision. We love what we do and it shows in our work. We are based in beautiful Hudson Valley but have put our expertise to work wherever it’s needed. Please contact us!
Details
Planning
- Budgeting
- Full Service Wedding Planning
- Wedding Design
Wedding Activities
- Rehearsals & Parties
- Wedding
Reviews
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5
out of 5.021 reviews
We worked with Lydia for over a year to create our children’s wedding at our mountain home which was a challenging venue to work with. We found Lydia to be caring, responsive, thor...
ough and very professional. She worked hard to make our children’s visions for the wedding become reality through careful listening and did it with caring and connection. We recommend Lydia for any event large or small.
From the early stages of planning our outdoor Hudson Valley fall wedding, we knew we needed someone to help us tie it all together. Enter: Lydia. We didn't have to interview many p...
rospects to know that Lydia's depth of knowledge and experience with the uniqueness of outdoor weddings was going to be so important to help us pull together a full weekend of festivities. We cannot stress enough the value of her experience and relationships with the best vendors in the Hudson Valley (listen to her recommendations!) Lydia's ability to navigate our changing preferences and changing conditions (including a venue change) with the highest level of professionalism and clear-headedness was impressive! From vendor selection, to contract execution, to budget management, to final weekend logistics and vendor management, Lydia handled it all. It was the greatest gift to be able to just settle in to the joy of being together with our friends and family for the weekend and not worry about the details anymore, because we knew Lydia had it covered. Lydia's behind-the-scenes team of dedicated hospitality experts and event masters , including the more front-end vendors (photographers, florist, caterers, etc.) worked together seamlessly to create a wedding weekend beyond our wildest dreams. We are still getting feedback from our guests about the "electricity" they felt from every detail and how taken care of they felt throughout the weekend. Thank you seems too small of a sentiment to express our gratitude for Lydia and her team! We wish Charmed Places many years ahead of successful weddings and events.
Lydia was recommended to us by friends of our family. From the moment we got in touch, she was proactively thinking and researching on our behalf. Her expertise, professionalism, e...
ye for design, detail orientation, and sense of humor made our wedding more special, beautiful, and meaningful than we had even hoped for. Thank you so much, Lydia, for all that you did to make our wedding the most exceptional celebration of our lives.
It was a complicated affair of several hundred people over four days with multiple venues with an outdoor ceremony and additional constraints, planned during high season (from engagement to wedding in 5 months), in a state we don't live in... and with lots of input from well-meaning relatives :)
Our wedding weekend was magnificent, and could have happened without Lydia and her team. We unsure what we wanted at first... a backyard versus a venue, city versus country, etc. and Lydia crucially helped us to clarify what was most important to us, in addition to navigating us through the planning process, directing us on where to focus and when, and cultivating our best decision-making on each cascading step, week by week, month by month.
Lydia is honest, straightforward, flexible, and has excellent judgement, which resulted in a robust planning processes (timelines, agendas for 90 minute calls, and detailed emails) that made efficient use of our limited time outside of work, and thoughtful input on the pros and cons of a variety of topics large and small where we were clueless (merits of various venues, vendors, furniture, menu-picking, run of show, and 1 million more things etc.).
She also anticipates the unexpected. For people like us, who really wanted an outdoor wedding but were terrified of bad weather, she was ready with plans and contingencies we never could have thought of that ensured a fantastic outcome. Even with non-weather factors beyond her control (i.e., hurricane displaced a vendor, a key shipment was lost, etc.), Lydia handled each in stride, tackling them quickly to find and focus on the best solution and oftentimes we didn't know until the problem had been resolves, saving us a ton of stress and anxiety in the process.
Like Lydia, her team is hard-working, accommodating, and works well with the other vendors. During the weekend itself, with so much going on, they were always available to answer questions, assist with tasks, help our family or guests, and make the entire thing seamless and magical from our perspective.
Working with Lydia throughout a year and a half of wedding planning did nothing but elevate our entire experience. Having not just a planner, but having Lydia in particular, will b...
e the best investment you make during the process. She handled everything from A to Z behind the scenes and consulted with us on each important matter. Lydia always attended to any questions we had with action and follow through, which eliminated stress considerably. As someone who enjoys planning (Lydia you can attest to this! ha) I had considered coordinating the wedding on my own. All I can say about that is, Thank goodness I did not attempt it and found Lydia instead (My husband and I said this to each other countless times over the course of planning). It is hard to imagine the amount of work that goes into creating a weekend as seamless as ours, and I give all the credit for this to Lydia. I could go on all day about Lydia's attention to detail, communication skills, benefits of vendor relationships, and organization, but what stands out most to us after getting to know Lydia is her kind heart. Lydia made us feel so special during the process and most especially throughout the whole wedding week. Simply put, she is the best out there and it is an honor to work with her.
We really thought wedding planning would be a breeze but little did we know, there are so many details and decisions to be made throughout the many months of planning. We are extre...
mely particular and at times can be difficult to please but Lydia did not let us down. She was very open to our collaboration and more importantly helped us focus our thoughts and ideas and presented us with many incredible options.
Her excellent relationships with vendors proved to be extremely beneficial in helping us secure our first choices with everything. In turn each of the vendors were extremely complimentary about Lydia’s professionalism, organization and very pleasant and caring manner.
Our daughter’s June wedding was beyond perfect and we could never have wished for a more incredible day/weekend. There is no way we could have achieved any of this without Lydia’s help and we are extremely grateful to have had the pleasure to meet and work with such a lovely person.
We highly recommend Lydia. She’s the BEST!!!!
Liz/Richard 2018
Given that we reside out of New York State, we knew we would need a very skilled planner to coordinate the many elements involved with wedding event planning. Enter Lydia. Lydia ha...
s a keen eye for detail and beautiful taste, and she is a ferocious advocate for the people for whom she works. She gives honest and informed opinions as she helps you craft your event(s) into something magnificent. She has experience in the industry, so she is able filter out unsuitable vendors and offer her clients reputable and talented floral, photography, and music suggestions (to name a few). Our flowers were designed by someone she recommended, and everyone who came to our wedding is still talking about them three months later!
Our wedding was far from a simple affair. There were a lot of elements to juggle and the timing had to be impeccable. Lydia ensured that we had the experience we wanted to have and for our wedding and related events to flow smoothly and in keeping with our many requests. She managed everything down the the minute. It was impressive how she kept everything on schedule with such precision!
Hiring a wedding planner takes all of the grunt work away from you, allowing you to conceptualize and plan your event without being bogged down or distracted by the nagging little stressors that can come up. Lydia was able to filter out all of the noise for us, acting as a point person with vendors to ensure we got the quality and service we deserved while not troubling us with those interactions. What we initially did not foresee in hiring Lydia is that she has an artist’s eye. She is polished, classy, and refined. She was able to offer suggestions and feedback to help us stay on-theme and in keeping with the look and feel she knew we were trying to achieve. Both my husband and I can recommend Lydia as a wedding planner with pleasure and without reservation!
Lydia is a wonderful wedding planner whom I would recommend unreservedly. She took our ideas, concepts, comments, and wishes and assembled them all into a wedding that was simply p...
erfect. She listened intently to our input and gave us options so we could tailor every element of the ceremony and reception. Excellent organization, planning, execution. I highly recommend her services and have nothing but praise for her as a person and a professional.
Words cannot really express how great Lydia is. We did not want a cookie-cutter wedding, and as two city boys with plenty of opinions about our country wedding, we were not going ...
to settle for a cookie-cutter planner. Lydia knows the pros and cons of each venue, will source specialty goods and services for you herself (she found incredible granola for welcome bags and milk crates for a table number display), and will keep you and your vendors on task. She is incredibly organized and insists on everything running through her (which - trust me - saves both your inbox and wallet). Her mission is to execute your vision, but she is not shy to course correct where needed. Any vendor she recommended was excellent.
I cannot recommend her more highly. By the time our perfect wedding weekend was over, she truly felt like family. Whether you want to be hyper-involved in the process or let her run with your budget, if you are planning a wedding in the Hudson Valley (or NY/New England area more generally) - especially if it's an outdoor wedding - you cannot go wrong with Lydia.
Lydia is an AMAZING wedding planner! We had our wedding upstate near our country place and wanted someone familiar with the area. Lydia knew many vendors, usually suggesting 3-4 ...
possibilities based on what we were after; if we'd heard of someone specific, she always knew of the vendor and usually knew the answers to our questions. (If she didn't, she found out and reliably got back to us.) She has excellent taste and thoughtful suggestions. She was so thorough, kind, down to earth--a pleasure to work with. And going into the home stretch and the wedding, we were able to relax and enjoy ourselves ("be guests at our own wedding") knowing she had everything in hand. It was a beautiful event--thank you Lydia!
Lydia was the wedding COO we didn't know we needed until we found her. Patient, thoughtful and unerringly keeping us on the right path to a wedding that was a true and honest celeb...
ration of the important things in life - love, family and friends - she was the compass showing us north during a time of ample distraction. Her attention to detail, willingness to go far, far above and beyond the call of duty and open mind and heart makes her a resource that is often in far too short of supply. We are deeply grateful to Lydia for listening to us so carefully when we gave (scant) detail on what we wanted and for transforming what was in our minds and hearts into magical reality.
In working with Lydia you are not choosing a wedding planner, you are choosing a partner who is by your side every step of the way. She isn’t just planning a wedding, she is making...
sure the first day of your life together is everything you could have hoped for. She is kind, patient and understanding during the most difficult decisions and high stress. She has phenomenal taste and her relationships with vendors and venues is unmatched. She walks you through the process not as a business but as a friend. And she fights for you when you need it most, often going the extra mile because it’s who she is. She responds to the personal touches and your vision making them happen. She listens to you and responds in kind. She is also a calming voice when the unexpected happens. Vendors respect her and work hard for her which all benefits you. When the grounds person mowed over all of our electric lines the day before our wedding, the lighting vendor, who was on his way back an hour south, turned right around for Lydia and made it right. Our flowers, food, and music were all that much better because of her recommendations and the team she helped assemble. And her execution on the weekend was flawless, from an incredible rehearsal dinner to the day of. We didn’t notice a single thing wrong, though I am sure there was—but Lydia fixed it never letting on. We were beyond lucky to have met her, now consider her a friend, and anyone who works with her we know will feel the same.
Wow. Simply wow. Lydia was a consummate expert, professional, liaison and counsel on top of being a top-notch planner, producer and coordinator. She accepted and executed a huge ch...
allenge: a very large cultural/kosher wedding in an outdoor venue that required a lot of production, all on a six month timeline with two families involved. She balanced the needs from every direction and yet kept the focus and decisions with the bride and groom. We truly, deeply enjoyed our day/weekend from beginning to end because we trusted her implicitly to execute our vision and support us to the nth degree. She directed us to trusted vendors, artisans and heard our needs/concerns at every step of the way. She creates space for the bride and groom to be creative visionaries while, with a graceful touch, giving practical suggestions and guidance. She supported us and she was invaluable. Her care for the couple and her consideration for the gravity of the day spoke volumes - while shouldering responsibility for the logistics and production of our wedding, every step had personal touch/consideration. Lydia was more than an events professional to us during our engagement and we couldn't have - and wouldn't have - done this without her. Our gratitude for her is truly ineffable. She put an exorbitant amount of time and energy into our wedding - she was thorough with vendors and demonstrated keen and creative business and planning acumen. If you are lucky enough to work with Lydia, do not take it for granted. She is simply amongst the best in the country.
From the day that we started working with Lydia until after the last guest had left the morning after brunch, we were in great hands. A wedding is such a major event that we didn't...
know where to start. Lydia walked us through every step of the process. We never felt rushed into a decision. Lydia gently set boundaries and her impeccable timeline gave us the time to think about all of our decisions.
Not to say that the choices were easy. Whenever it was time to pick a new vendor, Lydia set us up with choices that were so incredible and amazing that we wanted them all. Lydia's choices met her standard of excellence. That standard was in every detail of our wedding.
Thanks to Lydia, we were able to go the most beautiful, flawlessly planned and executed wedding that either of had ever seen. And it was our own!
Lydia was absolutely fantastic to work with. My wedding day was the best day of my life, and I could not have enjoyed the day without the help of Lydia and her team. Lydia thought ...
of every detail and I had absolutely nothing to worry about the day of my wedding. I really hope to work with Lydia again in the future. She truly was amazing and planned and executed the best wedding I could have ever dreamed of.
We hired Lydia because we were planning our wedding by our weekend house and wanted to work with someone who knew the area and potential vendors better than we did. That certainly ...
worked out to be extremely careful, but Lydia simply thought of everything that goes into managing a big event with many moving parts - catering, venues, rehearsal dinner, after party, morning after brunch, guest accommodations, transportation, flowers, design, music, photography... everything. We started planning a year in advance and quickly realized that we would have been lost without her guidance. At times she suggested things that seemed less important or necessary, but in the end every single thought she had turned out to me far more important than had imagined, and the whole weekend was absolutely wonderful.
Lydia is professional, friendly, and she honestly thinks of everything. She has fantastic connections to every kind of vendor you could possibly imagine, and she organized the entire process over the course of a year in a way that kept our stress level amazingly low. Looking back, I can't imagine how we could have pulled it off without her.
Many thanks to Lydia for everything. We had a spectacular wedding weekend, and we were able to focus on the joyful parts. We knew we were in the best of hands.
Lydia was an essential part of our wedding day. She was extremely organized and well versed on all elements of organizing a wedding. We were able to enjoy the planning process so m...
uch more with her by our side. Highly Recommended!
Hiring Lydia was the best choice we made for our wedding. She saved me tons of hours of research by recommending the best vendors in fifteen different categories, who were all a pl...
easure to work with. As wonderful as the team was, having Lydia there to chase down answers, provide deadlines, synthesize the information coming our way into organized emails, and do the same with our comments back was invaluable for minimizing stress and keeping on track. Lydia was also incredibly supportive of my type-A need to have information on all available options, (to a really extreme extent!) and consistently good-humored about letting me make every minute decision myself, though she could have put together a perfect weekend without any input at all. We essentially had four separate events over three days in three locations, and three additional meals for 30 on top of that, and Lydia was tireless in dedicating the time needed to make each one unique and flawless.
After spending months on the nitty-gritty, we went into our wedding weekend with every confidence in Lydia to coordinate everything and everyone so we could enjoy ourselves. That peace of mind was probably the single most valuable service of the weekend. And of course, our confidence was borne out: I didn’t face a single problem or question in three days, and I can’t think of one element of the weekend that didn’t go exactly as we wanted. Not. one. thing. Amazing.
From the Groom: Lydia was exceptionally professional and well-organized. In particular, it was very reassuring to watch as she coordinated all of our vendors: she was always proactive and thorough about making sure each knew precisely what they were responsible for and what time and space constraints they needed to work with. As a result, they all worked together (and everything came together) beautifully.
I would also add that her “day-of” staff was great. Polite, patient and practiced. It was great that as little things came up throughout the event, Lydia was able to turn to trusted staff to take care of them.
Thank you so much for giving us the wedding of our dreams – in fact a wedding that exceeded our dreams. The whole event was so flawlessly planned and executed, down to every detai...
l, that as we joked to you that day, the only thing we were at risk of running out of was superlatives to describe it all. Even months later, barely a day goes by that we don’t hear from one or another of our friends and family how much they also enjoyed the wedding, though it’s hard to imagine anyone enjoying it as much as we did. (We’ve already had more than one request that we renew our vows as a reason to do it all again!)
We remember telling you early on in the process that by far the most important thing for us was that the event be special for our guests, something so completely inclusive and memorable that they’d gladly have travelled from across the country (or across an ocean) to the Hudson Valley to attend it even without the social obligation that came with it being our wedding. You absolutely managed that, and more. It’s really hard to imagine a more perfect combination of carefully considered precision, yet seeming effortlessness, resulting in an occasion that was both elegant and comfortable, and reflected deep meaning and fun.
And to think that at the beginning we had no idea how to even start the process! We had talked throughout our 8-year engagement about a wedding without ever taking any concrete steps, and then we took the first and by far the most important one (e-mailing you). Within a year, our wedding day went from the barest of rough concepts to utter perfection. So again: Thank You!
Chris and Jordan
Working with Lydia was the best decision we made regarding our daughter's wedding. Lydia was extremely professional, knowledgeable, organized, extremely detailed oriented an...
d assisted us with every aspect of the wedding. The wedding weekend was beautiful and everything went smoothly, allowing us to fully be present and enjoy ourselves. Our guests told us that this was the best wedding they had ever been to. We highly recommend Lydia. Our daughter worked closely with Lydia, and I, as the Mother of the Bride, knew I could trust Lydia and that we were in her capable hands. Anyone who is planning a wedding, would be wise to work with her.
My husband Jesse and I worked with Lydia throughout most of 2015.
We married on my parent's farm, and while we thought this would make things easier on us, we were mistaken.
...
There were a million things we didn't think of, but Lydia did. There were a million things we would have forgotten, but Lydia didn't.
We became a little family for 9 months. Talking, emailing, texting. Lydia was thorough, helpful and kind. She helped to steer us in the right direction throughout the planning process.
The end result: Incredible. The best and most beautiful weekend of our lives and we have Lydia to thank for it.
We recommend her 1000%. You will thank us after the wedding.
Their Wedding Planning Services Are So Helpful.
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Hudson Valley, NYC, Berkshires, Rhode Island, New Hampshire
Wedding Planners