Ana is an excellent coordinator and an absolute joy to work with! Our wedding could NOT have happened without her.
We hired Ana halfway through the process--6 months after we'd picked a
venue, and 6 months before the big day. My (now) husband... and I live and work in NY, but we had our hearts set on a rustic fall wedding in his hometown, Boston. We found a beautiful venue and happily signed the contract, intending to plan it all from out of state. We'll make monthly weekend trips up, we told ourselves!
As we soon discovered, we'd gotten in way over our heads. We booked our caterer and photographer, but then realized we had no clue as to how to pick everything else. Our venue (a working farm) was extremely DIY, and while our contact person there helpfully answered questions about the farm, it was up to us to figure out all the services needed to pull off a 90-person wedding. How would the sound systems work if we wanted a ceremony on a hill, background music for a tented dinner, and dancing in a barn? Would two bathroom stalls be enough for all guests? How would we handle chilly fall weather if we couldn't put heaters in the wooden barn?
To complicate things further, my husband and I had busier work schedules than originally anticipated, limiting our opportunities to go to Boston. Wedding planning turned into a stressful task that we dreaded.
Finally, 6 months from the wedding, we knew we had to reach out for help, since we had so much left to do. After interviewing several planners, we knew we'd struck gold with Ana. From the first time we chatted with her over Skype (while she was in Vietnam with her family!), Ana was like a ray of sunshine--she was warm, reassuring, calm, knowledgeable, and extremely competent. She wasted no time helping us find the remaining vendors, like our DJ, stationer, photobooth service, and tent rental company (all wonderful). We introduced her to the vendors we'd already hired, and she worked with them seamlessly. We did a walkthrough with her on the farm, where she told us her vision for the event and went through our timeline/to-do's for the next few months. (After this meeting, we started sleeping better again.)
Ana took care of the questions we had, thought of other potential issues that we hadn't even considered, and then solved those problems, too. When last-min things came up--like changing tablecloth colors, or me remembering a week before the wedding that we needed soft armchairs in the barn for elderly guests--Ana handled it like a pro. She was fantastic at finding multiple options for us without being pushy for one vendor over another.
The day of the wedding, Ana was an all-star. We cannot emphasize enough how GREAT of a coordinator she is. Our venue was very "spread out," with many logistical issues, and though it was Ana's first wedding there, she made sure it was all set up beautifully and that everyone moved from the ceremony to cocktail hour to dinner to dancing in an organic, on-time manner. All of our family, friends, and vendors loved interacting with her--our caterer asked my husband, "Where did you find Ana? I haven't worked with her before but I'd love to work with her again!"
In retrospect, it's obvious that putting together our big day without Ana would've been impossible, and we should've hired her even earlier than we did. She is cheerful, upbeat, hardworking, and just lovely to be around. Picking Ana was one of the best decisions we made--thank you for making our day perfect!