Small Shindigs
About This Vendor
Specializing in small & intimate celebrations.
Small Shindigs is an intimate wedding planning company in the Greater New York City area including Brooklyn, Hudson Valley, Westchester and the Catskills, as well as New Jersey. When I work with a couple, I am focused on bringing your wedding vision to life, while communicating with you every step of the way. I specialize in intimate weddings under 100 people and truly believe that big moments happen in small spaces. I offer wedding management (also known as month-of management), partial planning, and full-service planning, all designed with smaller guest counts in mind. I'd love to hear about your wedding and see how Small Shindigs can help make your day special and memorable.
Details
Business Attributes
Woman-owned Business
Planning
A la Carte Wedding Planning, Budgeting, Day-Of Coordination, Full Service Wedding Planning, Wedding Design
Wedding Activities
Rehearsals & Parties, Rehearsal Dinner, Welcome Party, Wedding, Ceremony, Cocktail Hour, Day After Brunch, Reception, Rehearsal
Awards and Affiliations
Pricing for Small Shindigs
Get in touch for details about pricing.
Curious to learn more?
Small Shindigs Reviews
5 out of 5.0
26 reviews
5 Star
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We reached out to Sarah about completely re-working our wedding after cancelling our original plans due to covid-19. Sarah was so wonderful to work with, and she helped us still manage to have a dream wedding day! While we still retained some o...
f our original vendors, Sarah helped us quickly find what we needed to make a backyard wedding happen in a time crunch. Sarah always gave us options and was great about being in touch whenever we had a question or concern. On the weekend of the wedding, Sarah was so helpful - present for rental drop-offs and set up and overall made the day run seamlessly from beginning to end. We are so grateful to have worked with her for our Small Shindig wedding!
I booked Sarah for month of coordination, and it was one of the best decisions I made for my wedding! She stepped in to give me advice and guidance even before the "month of" coordination officially started. Once we got closer to the wedding, s...
he seamlessly took over all the final parts of planning and coordination to make sure my then-fiance and I were as stress free as possible in the lead up. She anticipated all my needs, and even coordinated details I hadn't even thought about. On the day of the wedding, Sarah and her team flawlessly executed everything in my plan. Everyone told me no wedding was perfect and to anticipate small issues, but I can honestly say that every part of my big day went perfectly, and it's all thanks to Sarah. Do yourself a favor and hire her!
Sarah was an incredible wedding coordinator! Our event went so smoothly thanks to her hard work and expertise in how we could make everything flow. She fit in special touches that we asked for, made sure no details were missed, and offered us g...
uidance when the decisions seemed overwhelming. 100% recommend her for your event!
Any questions?
We found Small Shindigs when we needed to cancel our larger destination wedding in favor of a smaller, local celebration. Sarah helped us recreate our 50-person wedding in 9 months, making great suggestions on vendors and other items, and handl...
ed any issues for us as they arose. She even helped us find a brunch place that would accept a large group 3 days out from the wedding, which our guests were very appreciative of.
On our wedding day, she kept us on schedule and made sure everything went on without a hitch. We decided not to do bridesmaids/groomsmen and Sarah was always there to assist if I needed something, such as helping me unbutton my dress when it was time to change. Thank you, Sarah - you allowed us to have the most magical wedding day!
Sarah knows how to get things done while maintaining a calm atmosphere for the bride and mother of bride. Her attention to detail is excellent, her ideas creative and her coordination of all aspects of the actual wedding day is done seamlessly...
. She listens to what you want and offers suggestions as needed. She never forgets that it’s your day and supports you through the process. I recommend Sarah for any shindig large or small!
Diane S.
We were unsure or not whether we wanted to try and have a wedding at all until we met Sarah. Sarah made this supposedly anxiety-filled preparation/day into probably the calmest day of our lives. Sarah was extremely responsive, explained all of ...
our options/next steps, and made sure we understood everything. I couldn't recommend Sarah more to everyone. We were terrified at the begin and her warmness and willingness to help and make our day perfect settled our nerves so much. She was so on top of everything that everything was done before I could even worry about it. I probably wouldn't have had a wedding at all if it weren't for Sarah and it ended up being absolutely perfect. Sarah is a gift, she is so amazing! Thank you Sarah!
We spoke to a total of one wedding planner, and Sarah was it. After I reached out to Sarah, she scheduled an introduction call quickly; from the beginning, I could tell that she is methodical and organized but more importantly, she is warm, fri...
endly, and approachable.
My now husband and I must have looked at every restaurant and local venue in town (we were incredibly obnoxious and could not make a decision); Sarah brought us tons of ideas and patiently visited venues with us. Once we finally decided on the venue, Sarah worked with us every step of the way to set up vendors, design our ceremony space, and pretty much handled everything.
In addition to planning our wedding day, Sarah is just an awesome person that you want in your corner -- short story: leading up to the wedding, I was getting anxious after being asked a ton of questions by our relatives; Sarah responded to my panic emails immediately -- on a weekend, at night -- when she did not have to be working.
Sarah really did everything to ensure that our wedding would go smoothly. And it did! Our wedding day was perfect. We are without a doubt, hiring Sarah again to handle our post-pandemic wedding reception when it is safe to have gatherings again.
Sarah was a phenomenal wedding planner. She worked with us every step of the way, always with a thoughtful suggestion or an idea we didn’t even think of. Whenever we emailed her Sarah was always prompt with her responses. You can’t go wrong hir...
ing Small Shindigs. Sarah is amazing.
My fiance and I gave ourselves just 3.5 weeks to plan a small backyard wedding in NJ after spending months waiting out Covid-19. Once we set a date one of the first things we did was hire Sarah for 'month of management' -- and boy did she deliv...
er! Sarah was great to work with, helping us manage our timeline and keep us on track when both of us were super busy. She helped us think through how to keep our 20 guests safe and socially distanced. And she helped us pull together all of the little details that made our wedding feel special and elegant -- from connecting us with an amazing wedding photographer to suggesting little favors we could give our guests (blankets, masks, sanitizer!). On the day itself Sarah set up our tent beautifully and helped keep everything on schedule amidst all the craziness. Overall it was such a beautiful day and we are so grateful to have had Sarah's help in pulling it off.
Hiring Sarah was one of the best decisions I made when planning our small wedding. It was a stressful process cancelling our big wedding due to COVID and starting from scratch, but after I hired her I felt peace of mind. She had such good idea...
s that I never would have thought of, and helped every moment run smoothly on the day of. Everything from coordinating the staff, to helping my florist, to telling the bridesmaids when to start walking, she was there. I'd recommend her to anyone planning a small event, worth every penny!
Sarah was amazing to work with! She pulled together a stellar team of vendors to bring our photoshoot to life. Super creative, easy to communicate with, and a sweet soul. I would definitely recommend Small Shindigs!
Sarah was absolutely perfect for us! She was so kind and honed in on our vision very quickly. We were planning a small elopement from out of state, which was proving to be quite difficult. Sarah had so many great ideas all the way from vendors ...
to small details. I honestly can't stress how kind and caring she was though. It made our wedding that much more meaningful to have a wedding planner than really, really cared. Thank you so much, Sarah, for a perfect wedding and sorry for the review literally one year late. :)
Response from the Vendor on 04/27/2020
Thank you so much Erin! Loved working with you and Z too!!
I really can’t say enough about working with Sarah. Our wedding is fairly small and we found Small Shindigs as we were looking for a “day of” coordinator. Sarah definitely became much more than “day of”. From the start she was proactive and com...
municative, and her attention to detail with all facets of the plan made me feel so comfortable and confident throughout the process. A month before the date of our wedding, COVID-19 (coronavirus) became a very real global pandemic and San Francisco quickly began to ban gatherings, restaurants and hotels were closing their doors, and air travel was being strongly discouraged - it was starting to become clear that our wedding was not going to go as planned for us or our guests. Sarah stepped right in with professionalism to communicate with all of our vendors and keep us ready for the worst case scenario, while also helping me keep my poise and spirit high in dealing with such a curveball. Ultimately, our wedding has been postponed to later this year and sadly, we will not be able to work together again as she has moved on to her next chapter and taken her life back east to New York. I HIGHLY recommend Sarah to anyone in New York looking not just for a “day of” wedding coordinator but a trusted associate throughout the roller coaster that wedding planning can be - her presence cannot be overstated. All the best to you and your family, Sarah. We are lucky to have been able to work with you!
Working with Sarah at Small Shindigs was nothing short of amazing. I knew from our first consultation phone call that she was the perfect person to help us get down the aisle for our destination wedding in San Francisco! I originally talked thr...
ough some of my budget concerns for planning services and how my husband and I planned to do the front end work and were looking for someone to hand it over to the last month or so. We wanted to be able to relax and enjoy our big day, and be able to trust whomever we hired to take over and run the show. Sarah was that person!!! Sarah was great with reaching out and connecting all of our vendors, guiding me in the creation of our wedding day timeline, and offering wonderful vendor recommendations like hair, make-up, etc. We ended up changing our transportation vendor a few weeks before the wedding, and Sarah was on top of it all.
In hindsight, I should have let Sarah run the whole thing from the beginning and saved myself a lot of stress and anxiety! She has a calm and relaxed presence about her that is so comforting to a stressed out bride. I knew from the moment she was in charge that I could let go, relax, and absorb every little sweet moment of our wedding.
Thank you so much, Sarah!!!
Response from the Vendor on 04/27/2020
Thank you Haley! Your family is the sweetest. So happy we got to work together.
Sarah and her team are truly incredible. As a vendor (floral design), I have a lot of questions leading up to a wedding or event. Sure, there are design considerations to collaborate on: mood board, theme, and budget. But, there are also a lot ...
of logistics. What time can I come for set up? What time do they need personals for first look? When do I have to be fully set up? Will there be a ladder on site? Etc. Etc.
Small Shindigs is not only super responsive, but SO organized. Sarah is confident and decisive - everything you want in a planner. And everything I want in YOUR planner.
I've worked many events with Small Shindigs and each one has been a seamless experience for me. I've come to recognize "seamlessness" is Sarah's signature.
I can't say enough about how great Sarah is! She was responsive and helpful - giving advice, but also listening to what I wanted. She was awesome at providing links and nice easy to use spreadsheets. On the day - I couldn't have asked for more!...
She was efficient, discreet and made everything run smoothly - it was a dream. Thank you sarah!
Sarah was the best! I had a small wedding, however, I had three different locations for the ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception, so it proved to have its own challenges. Sarah was there to help me every step of the way and was professional. ...
There were some spontaneous and unfortunately unavoidable hiccups that happened during the wedding, but I didn't even notice them the day of my wedding and didn't know about them till afterward because Sarah took care of it all. I will be forever grateful to Sarah for that, not just for being the best wedding planner I could ask for, but also for being a supportive person that every bride-to-be needs before and on her wedding day.
Sarah is an extremely good local resource. For us, we began planning our wedding while living in Poland, so this was invaluable. When terrible circumstances caused our original bartender to be unable to deliver, Sarah found us another company ...
with barely a month before the day of. She recommended several of our vendors and we were extremely happy with all of them. She was very organized on the day of and was a lifesaver in helping us organize a wedding which by necessity included a fairly large number of small children. Although things inevitably went according to a different plan than ours (the doughnut fryer, for instance, suffered a minor electrical fire and was unable to cook the doughnuts for dessert) Sarah did her best to deal with as much as she could without worrying or distracting us from having a good time, only bringing major decisions to our attention. All in all, she is a very good resource to have while planning your wedding.
A dream to work with! Sarah is super organized, has amazing vendor recommendations, and you feel calmer just being in her presence! Would absolutely recommend Small Shindigs !!!
Sarah was SO amazing to work with! From the moment I contacted her to the day of our wedding, she was so responsive, thoughtful, and attentive! She understood exactly what I was looking for and made the whole process so easy for me. I could ...
not image having my wedding without her. Even though my ceremony was an intimate-family event, Sarah was able to take all the work off my plate and make it so easy for me to enjoy the day.
Response from the Vendor on 05/15/2019
Loved working with you Dora!!
I can't say enough great things about Sarah. We brought her on month-of to take over vendor relationships (got to be too much for us!) and execute logistics (i.e. day-of run-of-show, welcome gifts, florals, etc.) She seamlessly came in, took ou...
r vision, and turned it into reality - all within budget. She was the perfect complement to my Type A personality - proactively on top of everything and incredibly communicative. We couldn't have pulled off our wedding without her coming on-board (we didn't realize how much of an undertaking it was to plan everything ourselves!) If you're looking for someone who can "bring you the final mile," it's her.
We cannot thank Sarah enough for planning our wedding. She made the entire process seamless! She coordinated everything from our vendors to our venue, and she communicated everything with us step-by-step along the way.
She was crucial in crea...
ting the fun, intimate, and incredibly beautiful event we will remember for the rest of our lives. And we were under budget!
Thank you SO much to Sarah for the most perfect wedding I could have ever imagined!
We worked with Sarah and Small Shindigs for our wedding in Sept 2018 and she was a LIFESAVER! She made our day completely seamless and stress-free, and I trusted her wholeheartedly. Don't know what we would have done without her!!
Her calmness...
was contagious and somehow she figured out how to solve problems before they even became problems.
Highly recommend!!
Sarah made the entire planning process so easy and worry free, she took care of every single detail. I got married on a farm in upstate NY and had to book nearly everything a la carte; I would have been so overwhelmed if Sarah hadn't stepped in...
! Thanks so much Sarah for making my big day so special!
Sarah is THE BEST! I wasn't necessarily planning a "small" wedding (our guest list was 200 people) but it didn't matter - Sarah was easily able to help with my larger party as well. She helped me with budget templates, prioritization of what ve...
ndors to decide on (and in what order), suggestions on where to splurge and where to save, etc. We were having a hard time trying to keep the budget down but she was able to help me find vendors that fit within our constraints that we are still super excited about. I originally thought wedding planning would be really easy to do on my own, but I quickly realized how many small details there are that you don't think of and Sarah was able to help me stay on track to avoid any unnecessary stress. Thankfully, wedding planning ended up being really fun! Overall, highly recommend.
Hiring Sarah was the most practical, most responsible, best decision we made in our wedding planning. We had an intimate, 20-person wedding ceremony with cake and sparkling wine toasts at Jack London State Historic Park in Sonoma, and pulled it...
off in less than four months. We did the planning ourselves from another state, and we also knew we couldn't execute on all the logistics of the event and enjoy our wedding at the same time. When I saw the name and details of her company, Small Shindigs, I knew Sarah was the right choice to help us make our wedding a reality, with practical pricing we could actually afford.
From our initial communications, Sarah brought me so much relief. She had vendor suggestions in areas where we got stuck--we greatly appreciated her recommendations for photographer and ended up hiring one--and also had helpful tips for overlooked parts for a more DIY wedding. She connected with key vendors as we neared the day of, and made herself available as a point of contact for them and for family, just in case. Sarah was the first to arrive to our venue the day of the wedding and set up our space per instructions I had cobbled together the day before. But she was also flexible and responsive, and adapted to sort of on-the-fly changes to the setup, even mid-wedding. She was the perfect presence, knowing when and how to step in to help with something or give reminders on timeline.
Sarah was just what we needed and exceeded our expectations. We are so fortunate to have had her at our wedding!
Response from the Vendor on 10/31/2018
Thank you so much for the kind words Jen! It was such a pleasure working with you.
Contact Info for Small Shindigs
New York, Brooklyn, New Jersey, Hudson Valley, Catskills
Meet the Team
Sarah Carroll
Owner
I've had a passion for planning for as long as I can remember.
Over the years I've worked on weddings and events from 10 to 1,800 people. While the types of weddings have varied, the common thread has always been the people. To me, the most important aspect of weddings is bringing people together to celebrate love.
I am super detail-oriented and organized, which means I'll take care of all the logistics so you can focus on having fun!
My goal is to bring your vision to life and create a day you will never forget.
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Starting Cost: $$ – Affordable
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