Square Mile Events

We worked with Joanna for day of coordination and partial wedding planning services throughout — and had a great experience every step of the way. For Day-of coordination: With almost the entire guest list traveling from out of town to get to our wedding, I knew we’d need the help of a wedding planner. I’ve been to so many weddings where members of the family or bridal party were responsible for a lot of the clean up (either at rehearsal dinner or after reception) -- making sure center pieces, gifts, display/decor items got home safely. Our goal was to make sure our families didn’t have to worry about anything other than getting back to their hotel at the end of the night. Joanna and her assistant Em took care of literally everything for us - and the entire reception ran smoothly from start to finish. It was a huge help to have her on site to answer questions both at the rehearsal and the reception, and to be the main point of contact for all the vendors since our ceremony and reception weren’t at the same venue. For partial wedding planning: Overall I’m a very organized person and I have experience planning some events for work, but even so I opted for partial wedding planning which ended up being a big help. Joanna was available to look over contracts + pricing and offer recommendations on vendors. She helped us find a last minute lighting vendor, recommended the limo service we ended up choosing and also had a hand in helping us find our DJ (her recommendation was booked, but he helped us find who we ultimately chose). Also, we got married in January so a ton of wedding decisions and payments had to be made right around the holidays (Nov/Dec). Joanna kept us on track (and also kept some of our more unresponsive vendors on track) making our lives so much easier given the busy time of the year. If you’re on the fence about whether or not to book a wedding planner, I’d say to do it. If you’re in the NY/NJ area and considering working with Joanna - I’d highly recommend choosing her to help with your big day.

If you're looking for a super-star wedding planner, look no further, you've found the best of the best, Joanna. Joanna made planning a backyard wedding as easy as it can possibly be with her attention to detail and cool, calm and can-do approach to everything. I'm not the easiest bride (who is) as I'm pretty unorganized and had a bit of a unique vision for what I wanted. Not to mention, the family can be a bit all over the place too. Joanna met me where I was and built spreadsheets, was available to chat whenever I needed her so that we could stay on top of everything and ensure the day was as perfect as I could ever imagine. Not only was Joanna incredible in the planning process, but she was also critical to ensuring the big day went without a hitch. She handled issues as they came up without missing a step. She also provided me with recommendations for the best vendors and managed their needs without needing to involve me or my family which was a big deal for us with tons going on. If you need a wedding planner, Joanna is your perfect person. My day was perfect, and with Joanna, yours will be too!

HIRE SQUARE MILE EVENTS. I had been following Joanna’s work for a few years, so when I first began wedding planning, I knew I wanted to work with her. My now husband and I chose her Partial Wedding Planning package which is described as “for the creative bride who has a clear vision of her wedding design but needs a little extra help with logistics.” Joanna and her team far exceeded our expectations. She gave us extra time and leant us all of her expertise throughout our planning. She was responsive from start to finish. A few months into working with her, my mom decided to hire her for my bridal shower as well. Joanna is talented, knowledgeable, and runs events like a boss!!! Our wedding came together perfectly in huge part to her and her team!

My (now) husband and I aren’t planners. We are more of the show up and dance kind of people. Joanna helped us focus/plan/execute + add those thoughtful little details. Our family and friends were blow away! We had the most perfect, stress free wedding.... and we were truly able to just show up and dance.

Joanna did full service planning for our wedding and crushed it. Joanna is very on top of it, knowledgeable, and really pleasant to work with. So 1) Joanna is on top of it: I can’t tell you how many times I babbled on about something or sent a random one-off email three months ago only to find all of that neatly memorialized in a google doc. She responds to emails almost immediately. And the email she sent to our friends who officiated is already legendary among our friends for being extremely detail-oriented. 2) Joanna knows her stuff: If you wanted to just give Joanna a vision and let her plan your wedding from start to finish, she could probably do that in her sleep. If you wanted to collaborate (as we did, because I wanted to be involved), she is a joy to work with (see below) and had an answer to every question I had. 3) Joanna is really pleasant to work with: I interviewed a bunch of full-service planners. A lot of them had a great deal of ego and were clearly going to “run the show.” Joanna, on the other hand, is going to run the show but without making a show of running it. On calls with vendors, Joanna would let me talk talk talk (because that’s who I am) and then, when I finished, ask 20 more questions that were actually useful. In general, she was accommodating, extremely responsive, and fun to chat with. And it’s not just me that liked working with her--we had a team of caterers, a venue manager, etc. that she navigated very well.

I have nothing but amazing things to say about my experience with Jo at Squre Mile Events assisting me in planning my wedding. It 100% would not have ran as flawless as it did with out her guiding me every step of the way. I would recommend her to anyone and everyone who is looking to make the experience of planning a wedding as smooth and easy as possible. Not once was a stressed and I credit this to her. The BEST in the market. I HIGHLY recommend.

I have told multiple friends this… hiring Joanna as our month of coordinator was one of the best decisions we made for our wedding day. We both knew we wanted someone to take the reins and make sure the day went off without any hiccups (or if there were any we wouldn’t know about them) and I can tell you Joanna totally exceeded our expectations. From the moment I met Joanna I knew she was the best planner for us. She is extremely organized, on top of everything, and made sure not one detail was overlooked. I met with Joanna a few times prior to the wedding. Each time she gave me a list of things I needed to do , told me what she would do. Coming from someone who like to be in charge of everything (at all times), Joanna made me feel so secure and comfortable that everything would get done in the vision I wanted. We hired Joanna as our month of coordinator but she went way past that. She was our personal consultant! Any question I had, Joanna was quick to respond with an answer. She came to walkthroughs, tastings, and bridal events with us. The day of, she had a treasure chest of goodies and whatever you needed she managed to have available for you. Even as the night was ending Joanna made sure everything we brought made it back to our house. Our wedding would not have been so perfect without Joanna and her team. Joanna allowed us to enjoy our wedding and know all the details were in good hands and we didn’t need to worry at all! I would definitely recommend Joanna to anyone looking for the most organized wedding planner around!

I cannot recommend Square Mile Events and Joanna more highly. Joanna was the BEST to work with! We hired her as our day-of-coordinator, despite also having a venue coordinator, and it was the best decision we made. She was so incredibly helpful in the final stages of wedding planning and also helped make a lot of recommendations for some great vendors we hadn't yet booked when we asked for some assistance. In the months leading up to the wedding, Joanna and I had check-in calls and she provided timeline checklists and overall guidance; she really went above and beyond the "day of coordinator" classification. Having her and Tori organize all of our other vendors and executing the details of our wedding day was so helpful and made the wedding day a breeze. Everything went perfectly. An added plus, she is awesome to hang out with! I couldn't recommend her more.

Honestly I can not say enough wonderful things about Joanna. I am actually not a bride, I am an in house coordinator for a venue and Joanna and I partnered on planning a wedding and worked hand in hand through the process. Her attention to detail, prompt responses and happy disposition at all times blew me away. I have worked with many planners before and Joanna was by far the most professional and hardest working I have seen. If you are looking for a planner, you will not be disappointed! This girl will make your wedding dreams come true!

Hiring Joanna as our month-of coordinator was one of our best wedding planning decisions. Even though our venue had a coordinator, I knew I wanted to have an outside source to go to for my specific wedding vision, as well as someone to watch over the venue coordinator/employees and the wedding day logistics. Joanna went above and beyond our month-of package. She attended tastings with us, offered countless suggestions from transportation vendors to aisle runners, and made sure each vendor was where they needed to be promptly on wedding day. She was always responsive via email/text. Joanna's spreadsheets, timelines and checklists were essential as we got closer to the wedding day, making sure we didn't miss a thing. I especially valued the google calendar reminders for what was due to vendors and when. My husband and I wanted to enjoy ourselves at our wedding and have a great time dancing and mingling with our friends and family; Joanna allowed us to do exactly that without worrying about a thing. Our wedding day was nothing short of perfect, thanks to Joanna and Square Mile Events!

Joanna was a godsend. Even if your venue has a coordinator, you NEED her services. On your wedding day, do you want to be setting up decor, dealing with the inevitable hiccups and running down the street to pickup the forgotten decor item -- or do you want to be drinking champagne with your girls and celebrating with your husband? I am a type A, get it done kinda girl, but there is no level of bride that can execute her own wedding. We used Joanna for the month-of package (as I learned from her, there is no such thing as day-of coordinating really!) and I'm sure when my sister gets married we'll hire her for the whole planning period. As I sat down with my new husband and closest friends at our afterparty -- while Joanna and her team loaded all the decor items, wedding cake, bags, and more back into our house, leaving my family and friends free to celebrate with me -- I knew that hiring Joanna was the best decision we made in all our planning.

You might be the most organized, type-A person on Earth, but no event will test your planning skills as much as your wedding will. The #1 reason why I hired Joanna at Square Mile Events is because I did not want those closest to me (i.e. my mom and dad) to do anything but enjoy my wedding weekend. Joanna reminds me of Olivia Pope - “It’s handled!” No matter what crazy idea I threw at her, Joanna handled it seamlessly. Of all the wedding vendors I had, I am most thankful for her because of her astute sense of design, her responsibility, dependability, and because she is a visionary when it comes to making your event unique and truly representative of you and your fiancé(e). I always thought that I could plan my own wedding; however, less than a week after I was engaged, I immediately hired her for full-service wedding planning to plan my April 2017 wedding. I knew she was the only person who could take my binder of endless magazine clippings and rein it all into the true vision of what I wanted - a classic dinner party that blended me and my fiancé’s Southern European heritage with an edgy, urban vibe. Joanna and her team offer a variety of planning services that are customizable to any bride - everything from full planning to day-of. Her comprehensive full planning and design services includes attending bridal industry events, visits with all vendors, and design meetings with her and her team. I am so happy that I went with full planning and design because at first, it was difficult for me to really pin down my vision. From the moment I chose my venue (Battello, Jersey City, NJ), all of our conversations centered on how my vision would look in the space. She often sent me design ideas and inspiration, invited me to go with her to visit with vendors, and we attended some industry events that inspired several of my wedding details... and, of course, there were countless FaceTime calls! The moment I hired her, she sent me a timeline, budget tracker, and month-to-month checklist that was leaps and bounds better than anything I could find in a magazine, and she made sure I stuck to those as my vision came together. I’ve been to many New Jersey weddings - in my experience, once you’ve been to one, you’ve been to them all. I wanted an event that would really highlight me and my now-husband (who, ironically enough, Joanna introduced me to!), and showcase who we are as a couple. I had the vision of a true dinner party, complete with delicious food, live music, and an event that no one would ever forget. Joanna was able to show me how to make the highlights really stand out so that my guests would be wowed. For example, my escort cards were personalized tiles that, together, would make a huge mosaic. Joanna helped me brainstorm how to best design and display them so that they would be a focal point of the night. She also showed me how I could tweak the floorplan of our venue to make our seating arrangements unique. There are many small design details that are too numerous to name one by one but, nonetheless, would have gone to the wayside without Joanna’s help. She was honest with me when an idea was outdated or wouldn’t work with my vision, or when a design element was just ‘too much’. She is an industry expert when it comes to making your guests feel special, as well as anticipating design trends so that your wedding stands apart from the rest. Without her creativity and organization, my wedding would not have been as perfect as it was!