The Traveling Planner

Planning Your Day to Perfection

Portland, OR

Services in OR, WA & CA

Service area

5.0

Praised by couples for:

Stress-free planning

Understanding the Couple's Vision

Professionalism and Attention to Detail

Vanessa was amazing for our wedding day!! Her calming presence and attention to the details and vision made me feel relaxed and like I could just enjoy my wedding day and she would take care of the rest! She was super helpful and knowledgable about the industry. She set up everything better than I imagined it. I highly recommend her for really anything you need with your wedding day!! Thank you Vanessa!

Brooke S.

5.0

Vanessa was organized, thoughtful, kind and cool as a cucumber on my wedding day. There was so much that I enjoyed about Vanessa, but I have to say her calm energy is the one thing I will never forget (it was much appreciated!). I think my biggest regret is that I didn't hire her to plan the entire wedding. I just hired her to help with the day onsite, and looking back I would have loved to have used her wedding planning skills in a bigger way. Do not hesitate to book her. She is amazing!

Christine M.

5.0

Vanessa McDowell

OWNER

AWARD WINNER (2X)

Thanks to recommendations from couples on The Knot

The Traveling Planner is a wedding and event planning company based in Portland, OR. Owner Vanessa McDowell delights in working with couples from all walks of life to curate special celebrations that reflect their one-of-a-kind love stories. From full-service and day-of planning packages to customizable options, this business offers a range of services to fit diverse needs and budgets. Vanessa is passionate about helping couples plan and prepare for their special days. She loves meeting to-be-weds to discuss their wedding visions and orchestrating milestone celebrations to ensure that everything runs smoothly. With over five years of experience in the industry, she has seen many different wedding themes, aesthetics, and cultures. The Traveling Planner offers several planning packages to align with each couple's unique needs. To find a package that works best for you, Vanessa invites you to meet with her for a consultation. This planner also offers coordination services for wedding showers, luncheons, and engagement parties.

Woman-owned Business

4+ years in business

Details

Destination Weddings

Destination Wedding Planning

Planning

A la Carte Wedding Planning

Budgeting

Day-Of Coordination

Destination Wedding Planning

Full Service Wedding Planning

Wedding Activities

Rehearsals & Parties

Bachelor Party

Bachelorette Party

Bridal Luncheon

Bridal Shower

Couples Shower

Wedding

Ceremony

Cocktail Hour

Reception

Rehearsal

Awards and Affiliations

2-Time 'Best of Weddings'

2026.2023.

Join couples who chose award-winning vendors for their wedding

Meet the team

Vanessa McDowell

Owner

Hello & welcome! I’m Vanessa, the owner and lead planner behind The Traveling Planner. With over 8 years of experience in the wedding industry, I’m passionate about guiding couples through every step of the planning process and ensuring they feel confident, prepared, and excited for their big day. What I love most about this work is getting to connect with couples from all different backgrounds and bringing their unique wedding visions to life. Beyond planning and coordination, I truly value building meaningful relationships with my clients and becoming a trusted resource they can turn to for advice, support, and reassurance throughout their journey. It would be an honor to be part of your special day and help create an experience that feels seamless, intentional, and unforgettable.

5.0

out of 5.0

24 reviews

Your trust is our goal. Our community relies on honest reviews to help you make those big decisions with ease.

Review Summary

This AI-generated summary is a snapshot of this vendor's ratings and feedback.

Vanessa is an exceptionally calm, organized, and communicative day‑of coordinator who made multiple weddings run seamlessly. Reviewers praised her attention to detail, vendor coordination, and ability to relieve stress so couples could fully enjoy their day. She’s affordable, goes above and beyond, and comes highly recommended.

Search reviews

Brooke S

9/05/2026

Vanessa was amazing for our wedding day!! Her calming presence and attention to the details and vision made me feel relaxed and like I could just enjoy my wedding day and she would...

take care of the rest! She was super helpful and knowledgable about the industry. She set up everything better than I imagined it. I highly recommend her for really anything you need with your wedding day!! Thank you Vanessa!

Christine M

2/07/2026

Vanessa was organized, thoughtful, kind and cool as a cucumber on my wedding day. There was so much that I enjoyed about Vanessa, but I have to say her calm energy is the one thing...

I will never forget (it was much appreciated!). I think my biggest regret is that I didn't hire her to plan the entire wedding. I just hired her to help with the day onsite, and looking back I would have loved to have used her wedding planning skills in a bigger way. Do not hesitate to book her. She is amazing!

Any questions?

Brooke C

12/07/2025

Vanessa was everything we could have hoped for in a wedding planner and then some. She was organized, had great communication, and made us feel at ease from the very beginning of t...

he planning process all the way through our wedding day. She recommended vendors she’d worked with before who matched our style, which made that part of the process so easy. And every vendor we picked from her list turned out great! We truly can’t say enough wonderful things about our experience with her. Thank you, Vanessa, for bringing our vision to life so beautifully and exceeding our expectations in every way!!

Alissa O

11/18/2025

We worked with Vanessa as our day of coordinator for our wedding this September and could not be more grateful to have had her on our team! She is such a joy and treat to work with...

as a person, and she truly made our wedding day seamless, easy and completely stress free. I had full trust in her executing our vision and she exceeded all expectations. She is extremely communicative, intuitive, thoughtful and kind, our entire wedding party that interacted with her keep reiterating to us how amazing she was! We would choose to work with her time and time again if we could, and we cannot recommend her highly enough!

Lacie H

11/13/2025

Working with Vanessa was truly one of the best decisions we made for our wedding! Thanks to her incredible organization, calm energy, and clear communication, our day went off wi...

thout a single hiccup. Because Vanessa had every detail and timeline handled, I was able to stay completely present and grounded- something I’d heard from other brides can be so hard to do. We were able to focus entirely on each other, enjoy our guests, and really take in every moment. Vanessa understood my vision perfectly and ensured everything flowed effortlessly from start to finish. The entire day felt intentional, joyful, and relaxed- exactly what I hoped for. We’re so grateful for her support and would highly recommend her to any couple who wants to truly enjoy their wedding day! ~ Lacie & Shane

Steven E

10/03/2025

Vanessa was professional, clear, and organized. Our meetings with her were not only productive, but fun. She allowed us to really share what we wanted while adding her expertise wh...

en solicited. A seamless relationship and would work with her 10/10 times. Thank you so much for going above and beyond!

Macy H

9/29/2025

Vanessa was absolutely amazing in every way! She made me feel supported and relaxed on a stressful day and I couldn’t have done it without her!

Lauren R

9/26/2025

Vanessa is a true professional and made our wedding day flow completely seamlessly! From our first planning call with Vanessa to our big day, she went above and beyond to help ever...

ything run perfectly. She's extremely communicative, timely, and anticipates all potential hiccups in advance. We didn't have any surprises or forgotten items all thanks to Vanessa, she thought of everything. We're so lucky to have found her, and since our wedding I have recommended her to all of our family and friends. If you have the chance to hire Vanessa, take it!

Kendra O

9/26/2025

Vanessa was absolutely incredible. Our wedding day went absolutely perfect and seamless because of her. I only hired a day of coordinator because my venue required it but I quickly...

realized how much stress she relieved. She was reasonably priced and worth every penny. If she is available just stop right now and book her!!!! I’m so so so blessed she was apart of my big day

Khamry K

9/09/2025

I cannot describe enough in words how wonderful and important it was to work with Vanessa. From the moment we met Vanessa’s open spirit, workable nature and kindness made our weeke...

nd the most special. We had a lot of asks in our wedding weekend and Vanessa superseded all our expectations. As the bride I truly felt she had control and understanding and when I got to my venue I felt like it was the most beautifully and specially crafted version of our wedding that we dreamed of. I highly recommend working with Vanessa. Her professionalism is unmatched, her hard work is rare and she made our Wedding as special as we hoped for. Her assistant for the day of coordination worked so well with us and we enjoyed her as well. It was a pleasure to work with Vanessa and she’ll make your wedding a dream come true like ours.

Danny X

8/14/2025

Vanessa was my sister's wedding coordinator 2 years ago. I really liked how much help she was that I said to myself that one day when I get married, I would love to hire Vanessa as...

my wedding coordinator as well. My day finally came and I was for sure that I wanted Vanessa as my wedding coordinator. Communication with her was great, she was very attentive, easy going and checked-up constantly. At the reception, Vanessa and her assistant, Ashley, made sure everything flow smoothly and they did such an amazing job cleaning up at the end of the night. I am really grateful to the both of them for that. Thank you, Vanessa, for lightening some weight off my shoulders! Don’t think the day would’ve ran as smooth without you.

Madyson L

11/21/2024

Vanessa was the best wedding planner we could’ve ever found!! We asked a daunting task to plan a wedding in 3 months and she killed it! Not only is she organized but she also broug...

ht our vision to life. Every detail was perfect and everything thing remained on time with no hiccups! Not to mention she is cool, calm, and collected at all times! We were comfortable with Vanessa from the first call and with us being from out of state she helped connect us to some really amazing vendors. We couldn’t have asked for a better wedding planner, we would recommend her to anyone and everyone!

Lauren C

7/09/2024

We hired Vanessa for our wedding that was this past weekend. All I can say is that besides choosing to marry each other, Vanessa was the best thing that happened to our wedding! I...

f you are on the fence about who to book - it's Vanessa. She was so organized, kind, and intuitive. She corresponded with all our venders and made sure they knew the timeline, she knew exactly what questions to ask of us and our day was so smooth. She was worth her weight in gold. I just asked my new husband if he wanted to add anything and he said "500 stars for Vanessa!"

Danielle O

11/13/2023

Vanessa was such a blessing for our wedding. I told her that we were having our rehearsal dinner Thursday and our wedding on Saturday—she told me she would come and be there for th...

e entire weekend for anything that I needed. She also moved across the country after booking her and still kept the same price which was more reasonable than anyone else I had looked into. She did a great job of communicating with all the vendors and took care of everything to make for a stress free bride! She even takes special videos and pictures, I felt like she could double as a videographer! Thank you Vanessa for going above and beyond any expectation I had—you’re a rockstar!

Sue Y

10/25/2023

I am very lucky to have found Vanessa and I am so glad that I booked her for day of coordinator. She was affordable and provided all the services I needed. I live in Sacramento and...

my wedding was in Gresham, so it was definitely hard to plan a wedding from out of state. We had two video calls, but she was very great at communicating. She asked questions that did not even occur to me to consider and she would always review everything with me to make sure we were on the same page. I had grabbed ideas from Pinterest to show her my vision and I didn't think it was even enough for her to go off of. My own bridesmaids couldn't see my vision. But, Vanessa understood and pulled it off beautifully. She took care of EVERYTHING. She was the point of contact for all my vendors and made sure everything was running smooth. She was willing to pick up supplies and materials from me that needed to go to the venue. She researched and reached out to waiting agencies to get quotes. I feel that she absolutely went above and beyond. She is amazing and I can't believe she pulled it off with only the help of one assistant. I would definitely recommend her.

Leah M

9/26/2023

My husband and I hired Vanessa for day of planning for our our wedding. We could not have done our wedding without Vanessa! We deeply appreciated her calm and kind energy. She was ...

always a step ahead throughout the whole process. The day of the wedding went so smoothly and Vanessa took a huge weight off our shoulders the day of. We didn’t have to worry about anything and could really enjoy the day :) We highly recommend hiring Vanessa to plan your event !😊

Audrey C

5/29/2023

Vanessa is amazing! She really made sure our day ran smoothly and checked in on us to make sure everything was how we wanted it. She was perfect!!!

Zoe W

9/30/2022

Vanessa is truly amazing. She was so helpful. She truly made our day stress free. I couldn't recommend her enough. Thank you, Vanessa! xoxo

Linda O

9/06/2022

Wow, one of the best decision we made concerning the wedding was hiring "The Traveling Planner" as our event coordinator. Especially in the last few weeks when we were trying to e...

nsure all the other vendors were lined up and ready - she just took command and ensured a perfect wedding day. This took a lot of last minute stress off the shoulders of the bride and mother of the bride. On the day of - she ran point and ensured the bridal party and parents could relax and live in the moment. She established a great rapport with the venue coordinator (from Loch Aerie Mansion) - and ensured the "little touches" concerning decorations, timing, pictures, etc. were taken care of per the bride's requests. We would not hesitate to recommend "The Traveling Planner" for your next event - she is an absolute pleasure to partner with on such an important day!

Cindy C

9/02/2022

We found Vanessa about a month before my daughters wedding and she was fantastic!! Vanessa jumped right in and helped with the last minute details and is super organized . The day...

of the rehearsal she was so confident and helped with the flow of the rehearsal. The wedding day she was fabulous. Worked so well with the venue , kept the flow of the wedding day in organized in motion , and just helped relieve the stress of the day. Vanessa was able to help set up the venue to perfection and even throughout the day was checking to make sure my daughter the bride and myself had had a chance to eat! At the end of the reception she packed up all the items we needed to bring back home in record time. Vanessa is Very organized very sweet very confident in her role and very professional and calm! I highly recommend Vanessa and so happy my daughter decided to hire Vanessa . Thank you for helping to make my daughters wedding a beautiful stress free day! Cindy C.

Bailey G

8/27/2022

Vanessa was the #1 reason my wedding went so smooth. As soon as I booked with her, she answered all my questions and was available 7 days a week! When we got closer to the wedding ...

she helped with my timeline as well as contacting A-L-L of my vendors prior to the wedding to confirm ! Vanessa made my wedding rehearsal seamless, took charge from the beginning & went through 2x with us to ensure we were ready to go! The day of, she took care of me but also setting up my entire wedding. I was lucky enough to spend the day being pampered while Vanessa made sure the venue was ready to go at 5pm sharp!!! She was SO kind to all my family & friends… sometimes they are a lot but Vanessa was completely professional while answering all their questions ! All of my friends want/will be using Vanessa in their future weddings 🤩🤩 I am so sad Vanessa lives on the other side of the country as us, but we are SO grateful to have met her 💗 We hope to cross paths at future weddings 💍💍 You will NOT regret hiring Vanessa, she is amazing! My husband and I recommend her to all our friends & family 😁

Margaret M

8/25/2022

Vanessa was a life saver. She helped my Son and Daughter in law’s wedding dreams come true. Vanessa is so efficient and thinks of everything. She helped us at the rehearsal and at ...

the wedding and reception. Thank you Vanessa for letting us enjoy this special time while you flawless orchestrated the rehearsal and the big day! Kind, thoughtful, efficient, thorough, Vanessa is such an elegant hardworking lady. I can’t imagine not having her there to help. It was delightful to have the privilege of relaxing and enjoying the day while Vanessa handled the details. Thank You Vanessa!

Elyssa O

6/30/2022

She was so awesome to work with ! Literally made all of my wedding stress go away. She did everything she said she was going to and more . It 100% made a difference having her ther...

e. There is no way my wedding would have looked as beautiful and went as smoothly as it did if it was not for her . I actually got to have fun at my wedding knowing she was there. She was very professional, friendly and just an amazing person to work with . Not only with me (bride) but , with all of my friends and family . She welcomed them with open arms. They can not stop raving about her. I recommend her to everyone having a wedding .

Response from The Traveling Planner on 07/02/2022

Elyssa, Thank you so much for your kind review! It was such an amazing experience for my f...

irst wedding in Texas- and thank you to you, Sean, your families & wedding parties for welcoming me 🤩 I’m so glad that I got the opportunity to coordinate your day, and I’m so happy to hear that I made such an impact on your special day 🤍 Best wishes to you & Sean on this new chapter of life! ✨💍 All the best, Vanessa

Rachel T

2/02/2022

If I could give Vanessa 1000/10 stars I would! She was absolutely incredible. We decided we needed a day or coordinator last minute and she jumped right in and helped us with SO mu...

ch! Plus was super nice & thoughtful through out the whole process! I would recommend her to all my family & friends.

Response from The Traveling Planner on 02/03/2022

Rachel, It was such a pleasure getting to help prepare & assist you for your special day! ...

You, Jose & your families all made my first time in Washington a memorable experience. And I’m so glad I got the opportunity to go out there & celebrate such a perfect day! I wish you & Jose a lifetime of love, laughter & happiness! Best Wishes, Vanessa

Service area & Contact info

9385 SW 82nd Ave, Portland, OR

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Services in OR, WA & CA
Typically included in the starting cost

(908) 303-9712

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The Traveling Planner

Vanessa McDowell

Owner

The Traveling Planner's photos

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The Traveling Planner

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Review Summary

Service area & Contact info

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