Touch of Elegance Events & Designs

ere familiar with each other enough that we could pull it off. I was very wrong. Carrie's positive points are that she is very creative and has a great network of vendors. The negative is her lack of communication throughout the process which results in days or weeks of not hearing back from her. During this 10 months, it always seemed we were really pushing her to stay on task. Especially the 90 days ahead of the wedding. In most of our meetings, she was distracted multitasking with other clients or her child. It was unsettling throughout. It felt like we were getting little scraps of her time and that she wasn't really into it. Tasks that her assistants were supposed to be doing we not done so I just did them myself. It was as though she relied on planning software more than real communication. As a result of this, my daughter rarely knew what she needed to be doing and she took on many tasks that she never should have had to with a full time planner. It added constant stress and unnecessary confusion.Fast forward to 10 days before the wedding and Carrie went totally dark. (No calls, texts, emails - nothing). We realized that many of her tasks were not done, even though we were told they were. Four days ahead of wedding we finally received an email from an "offshore automated assistant" that could not make phone calls that was supposedly responding to her emails. He was no help at all. The same day, her mom texted us that Carrie was under the weather. Her mom actually asked ME for a list of what needed to be done! 3 days out and Carrie didn't answer her phone. I was told that a woman named Marian was going to be the lead planner w/ 2 other people there. I spoke with her the next day. She didn't show up at rehearsal the next day. I had to run the rehearsal myself! My daughter was in town from out of state for wedding week and at this point we had taken over everything, and had been working day and night trying to do what the planner was supposed to have done. What was to be a fun pre-wedding week was a chaotic mess. On the wedding day, Marian showed up w/ another woman. They knew ZERO about anything to do with the wedding. She couldn't even access the event planning software from her phone to see anything. I spent my daughter's wedding day completely stressed out and angry working on all of the details/setup, answering questions constantly - doing Carrie's job - instead of enjoying my daughter's wedding. My daughter had a similar experience as the bride, answering questions all morning she did not know and should not have had the answers for. Though other vendors stepped up, so many important details we had well thought out were missed! More importantly though, the lack of genuine care, consideration and professionalism from the one person who was supposed to be guiding us along the way, was something we would have never expected in a million years from ANY wedding planner. It will be hard to ever remember that day with complete fondness because of how disgraceful of a situation we were put in. This is very difficult for me to write because Carrie is a sweet woman, but this should never happen to anyone else. We still have never heard from her since 10 days prior to the wedding.

the package of 60 days service with the idea that the planner will start the job 60 days from our wedding. We have not heard anything from Carrie at the beginning of the service date. After the start of service date, we had to call the office several times before we got a hold of her assistant. Her assistant stated that she will call us back when she is available. After a week, she contacted us. We provided her the info for all of our vendors and her job was to coordinate time and plan out the wedding with the venue, she never did that. We planned the whole day ourselves. The week of the wedding, Carrie disappeared on us again, this time is was due to a medical emergency. We found this out because our venue coordinator never heard from her and reached out to her via email. Which then Carrie assistant emailed us back 3 days prior to our wedding stating Carrie was ill. The night before our wedding rehearsal, Carrie's assistant (new wedding planner) Marian contacted us to gather information on our wedding and wedding rehearsal. We gave the vendor list to Marian and gave her the plans for the big day. Marian was so lost! She repeatedly told us she assisted Carrie with weddings and has been a wedding planner for over 10 years. On the day of the rehearsal she was very unprepared. She didn't know the order of procession or vendor setup. Marian had another event to work the day prior to our wedding so she did not contact any of the vendors. THEY NEVER CONTACTED ANY OF THE VENORS. Marian and her assistant Evelyn struggled to coordinate our entire wedding day. We never heard from Carrie herself to follow up about our wedding day or reach out to apologize /explain what happen. WE DID EVERYTHING OURSELVES!! They are a waste of money and we should have went with someone else.

paying them. I paid my deposit in January, my wedding is in October and I have NOT heard from them. I WANT my money back! I tried to contact them via emails and phone calls but no reply. I even filed a complaint via BBB-they we’re also unsuccessful reaching the company. I will be taking legal action.

events were so smooth and Carrie’s cool and calm manner was exactly what I needed as the bride. She anticipated everyone’s needs and had things done and taken care of before you could even ask her for it. The big parts of the wedding coordination were completed flawlessly but more than that, she helped with minor details including getting me white nail polish after my nails got stained!! She also helped with last minute edits including our board seating chart the night before the wedding! Carrie is honest and really makes sure that what is important to the couple gets completed. She was always available to us throughout the entire process, 24/7. She and her team were just nice and friendly people, a real pleasure to work with! We highly recommend this team if you are planning any kind of event!

know our day would not have happened if it wasn’t for them!

ight away she would always follow up letting us know she was still working on it. She was so helpful when it came to finding certain vendors and was always fighting to get us the right and fair price. The day of our wedding she was amazing from dealing with all our vendors, the venue and making sure that I (the bride) didn't know about the small hiccups happening throughout the night. She was amazing along with her assistant! We had the night we have been dreaming of for years and it is all because of her! If we could do the wedding all over I would hire her and her company in a heartbeat!!

ions and planning came out so well. Guests were telling me how this was one of the best weddings they have been too! Carrie was there from the night before helping set up, to early morning the day of the wedding and stayed until the very end to make sure everything was perfect! If you are looking for a planner/day of coordination look no further! I am one satisfied bride 😊

ision and was constantly reassuring that it would all come together. And it did! Wedding planning was so stressful but it truly was the best day of my life and I owe all my thanks to Touch of Elegance.

and exceeded all expectations. Carrie was kind, professional and was always a step ahead in preparation. Our big day went off without a hitch and I owe most of that to her. I highly recommend A Touch of Elegance to anyone looking to make their big day run smoothly and look beautiful.

alls answered in July or August - we had never planned a wedding before so didn’t know what was expected. Dismayed, we told her we must part ways. We asked for 50% of our deposit back- which Carrie Gentry agreed to. We never saw the $3200, despite hiring an attorney who sent her two demand letters. The whole situation was upsetting and disappointing. I can’t believe she is still in business. In the end we hired a new wedding planner who was extremely professional and made the day a beautiful experience - Luna Soiree Events

and ended up choosing TOE because of Carrie’s convincing experience and that she happened to be a former classmate of my husband so we assumed we were in good hands. She connected us to a number of wonderful vendors who were absolutely amazing, however, approximately 6 weeks prior to our wedding Carrie went radio silent. Despite multiple emails, texts and voicemails we heard nothing and had to move forward with changing all of our schedules around to plan and coordinate things on our own. Approximately 3 weeks prior to our wedding, we received an email from Carrie stating that she was sorry she had been MIA but didn’t have access to email or a phone but was ready to work. At this point though all of our vendors had already stepped up and finalized details with us. We notified her of our disappointment and violation/termination of our contract and requested arefund which she agreed to. Over the course of the next month we sent multiple emails & texts following up on the refund and received no response. We sent a final email explaining that if we did not receive our money back in 48 hours we would report her to the BBB, no response. I filed the complaint and an hour later she “refunded” the money to my mother’s credit card. After waiting 14 business days per Square’s policy we saw that the money was still not refunded. We went back and checked Square’s policy and if a refund request is submitted 120 days after the transaction Square will not refund it. We followed up again with Carrie after this and have still not received any follow-up. I would SERIOUSLY CAUTION anyone considering working with TOE, as it is clear they have now on a number of occasions potentially ruined one of the most important days of couple’s lives adding undo stress and burden to an already stressful but should be joyous time

up by email one day about 3 weeks before the date & said she had been sick with no access to phone or computer! When we cited breach of contract, she agreed to refund our deposit but still spins stories of how the funds are coming. Very disappointed. Extremely unreliable.

ons I could have needed. Our wedding was beyond perfect, and went off without any issues. That is impressive for a 425 guest outdoor wedding - at our house! Professional and personal, Touch of Elegance is a fantastic company. I highly recommend them for any event planning!

ant. My husband and I had to plan a wedding in MI from Boston, MA and the whole time she was easy to get in touch with and super kind when I had dumb questions. Carrie made sure our vendors were all synced up and helped with the small decoration details. I highly recommend Touch of Elegance if you're interested in some planning help.

o is considering hiring a day-of-coordinator for their wedding. We were married on June 8th, 2019 at the Belle Isle Boat House. The venue is unique and beautiful, but difficult in many ways - you have to bring in everything from tables and chairs to decor. We booked the venue before hiring Carrie, so on our second visit to the venue, we began to get very nervous about our ability to pull off the wedding ... but then we met Carrie. She had solutions to ALL of our questions and concerns. Moreover, even though we only hired her as a day-of-coordinator, she gave us lots of tips during the planning process. On the day of the wedding, the outside of the Boat House flooded. That's right, flooded. AND the elevator was broken. But once again, Carrie and her team led the charge to save the wedding. We sent all of the groomsmen to be her minions and she put them to work. She re-jigged the ceremony layout, got as much of the decor set-up as possible, and honestly saved our wedding. Our friends and family are still talking about how awesome our wedding was - thank you in part to Carrie and Touch of Elegance.

mer wedding this year. Got the partial planning package. At first meeting, Carrie seemed exceptional. She was kind and attentive. Seemed very organized. Most of her reviews seemed positive as well. We went ahead and signed the contract. That's where the positive experience ended. As time went on, Carrie was not responsive at all. My fiancee and I ended up doing most of the leg work. She would respond later with "sorry for the delay" and then still would get nothing done. At one point, Carrie said she couldn't make a meeting with one of our vendors and sent her "assistant" which was literally her dad in sweats. He had no idea what was doing and the meeting with the vendor was poorly led and embarrassing as a result. We brought this up with her immediately and she assured us that she would switch assistants. The next meeting she brought Gale, who I believe is her mother as the business is family run. She was much more professional. She assured us she would be bringing Gale from now on and that Gale would be assisting at the wedding. We received multiple reassurances like that after things went wrong or didn't get done during the planning process. However, no matter how many reassurances she gave, nothing was delivered. My fiancee and I had to meet with most of the vendors and do a lot of leg work close to the event. Her timeline was horrible and I had to create my own timeline too. Eventually, after so much hardship, I thought that as long as she could do the day of coordination, I'd be happy. But guess who showed up at our wedding?? Her dad in sweats as her "assistant." And Carrie in sweats and boots. It was ridiculous but it was too late to do anything at that point. During the wedding, Carrie disappeared multiple times throughout the day "to get things" and our family had to take over things like organizing pictures. We had discussed with her many times how important it was that she run family pictures so things could stay on track. Why she couldn't send her assistant to get things will always be a mystery. Thankfully, the day ended up going fine overall and we got many compliments. This was surprising and likely due to our hard work beforehand, our separate venue coordinator who was phenomenal, and the open bar (lol). For some reason, we ended up tipping her which we now really regret. I would NEVER recommend her to anybody. Be wary of the older, positive reviews.

lt what I thought was a connection. I won't lie she talked a good game and the reviews I read were positive but unfortunately I didn't get that experience. I should've known early on when it was too difficult to get in touch with her that there would be an issue. I was super excited about "doing the work" as one of her assistants stressed but doing the work shouldn't have been me asking how long it would take for my personal page of the planning pod site to be ready did it? Doing the work shouldn't have been vendors calling me the week of my wedding asking for the itinerary for the wedding should it? Doing the work shouldn't have been me going to meet vendors, negotiating deals, and creating timelines for my wedding by myself should it? Several phone calls and emails went unanswered for months and when they were returned it was always "I was getting ready to respond or Sorry for the delay" True enough I didn't select a full service planner, but with the partial planning I figured we would've at least received what was listed as a service. Aside from the website and throwing out a few suggestions for vendors (which we didn't use) I received Day of services. And even thats up for discussion because I honestly feel like she left my wedding. I saw her at the beginning and at the end of the night when she was ready to go. I had more interaction with her "assistant" than I did with her. I don't know if that tv special gave her too many clients or if she prefers to work in other states (one excuse for her not answering calls/emails was because she was doing another wedding in another state), or if partial planning (whatever that means) isn't her specialty but I feel I wasn't properly compensated. I didn't even want to pay the remaining balance but my husband said we had to because we signed a contract. Had it not been for him she WOULD NOT have gotten paid. I WILL NOT be recommending her services to anyone but I do wish her well.

ery helpful with different ideas for venue locations. This was all even before hiring her. After shopping around I decided Carrie was a great choice from her reviews and like I said, instant connection when speaking. I hired Carrie for Month/Day of coordination and I was so excited. After making my deposit I didn't hear from her. She never reached out to check in, never provided a checklist or any sort of assistance I can follow along on my own leading up to the wedding. She did tell me about the planning pod website she has for her clients but when I logged on there was nothing for me to do on it. I thought.. ok well I'm only hiring her for month of so maybe that's when she really starts to help? Well by December, I thought I should check in to see if I'm on track and to figure out this planning pod website. I emailed and called and didn't hear back. Giving her the benefit of the doubt that it was around the holidays and she may have other weddings she's working with, I let it go. After the new year I reached out again asking for a phone meeting which we had. During the meeting we went over a loose timeline I had already figured out with my photographer and she also talked me through the planning pod website which suddenly had things for me to do. I asked her if I was using it wrong and she said no she hadn't set it up yet. So little frustrating because this is stuff I could have been working on when I had free time. As we started getting closer to the wedding and I still hadn't heard from her. I met with my florist multiple times and during that time they asked me about my planner and how things were going and when I said we were 2 months out and I still hadn't heard from Carrie she said I should start calling. I called and emailed and no response. I got to one month out when Carrie's contract started and I did not hear from her until I emailed first. She replied with "She was in the process of emailing me." I think at one month out we should have had a meeting scheduled. We didn't. She said she would be in touch and she wasn't. After multiple calls and emails from me I FINALLY got in touch with Carrie. I was 3 weeks out from my wedding at this point and freaking out. I was extremely stressed and wondering where my planner was. Feeling very frustrated that Carrie was so hard to get in touch with and had done nothing to help me at this point I decided to go our separate ways. I was able to find a day of coordinator right after and immediately I was sent checklists, guidelines, spreadsheets, things they told me they send to their clients the day they book, which for me would have been months ago. Luckily I happen to be organized and figured stuff out on my ow but these tools could have alleviated a lot of my stress. Carrie also told me should would give me a full refund and send it immediately. 2 weeks passed and I had not received my refund. After numerous calls, emails, and mention of reporting her to the BBB she offered to VENMO me the money...so unprofessional and more stress that was added on so close to my wedding. I just want others to be aware of what your money can actually get you and what you deserve. It doesn't have to be as difficult as it was for me.

ve fun! I really appreciated their help with packing everything up at the end of the night, we were exhausted and so happy to have such excellent help. Initially (during the planning) there were some communication difficulties, but once I figured out that text message is Carrie's preferred method of communication that was much better.

e and groom. Our only regret is that we didn’t use her even more - if we had to do it again we would have hired her for more hours and not taken on as much on our own. We enjoyed working with Carrie - she will do whatever it takes to make your wedding day perfect.

ou will need someone that is very much so on top of things please chose a different company. I've read other reviewers and I can agree with the negative comments. Carrie is not as responsive as she should be. Initially after hiring her she was MIA. I called and emailed for a couple weeks and nothing. I later learned she returned my calls after my good friend sent her a not so nice email. As for my invitations she recommended a company she assured me she worked with many times before. The plan completely fell through. She said the company would send the invoice and proofs and it didn't happen. I was getting down to the wire so I went with another company I previously ordered samples from. We had plans for weekly meetings. The same day each week. There were times she didn't call at all. Or I would get an email 30 mins before the meeting asking for a time change. Even with asking for a time change she didn't call!!! The week of the wedding we made arrangements to drop off my decorations. She gave me the impression she was in the office and was stepped out for lunch so I tried to give her a little time. I even waited around hoping to see her in person to explain the decor. Never saw her and fast forward to the day, the things I wanted to explain were obviously wrong. During the ceremony and processional the music i gave her was played wrong. The pastor didn't have any direction when to pause during the ceremony to allow a musical solo. These things weren't noticed by the guest. As for the Reception she told me she would communicate to the DJ a change in one song and a certain tribute we wanted to do for our friends and family. Nope!! I told her 2 weeks if not more before the wedding. While we were on the floor for our first dance he played the wrong song. In the process of our first dance I had to go to the DJ booth to tell him the right song. And that special tribute yeah he knew nothing about that. Lastly, Carrie made no attempts to look decent for my wedding day. Her hair was pulled into a messy ponytail, leggings, a sweater and ugg boots that saw much much better days. I was ashamed when my family and friends pointed it out to me. The best thing I got out of carrie was an amazing Florist, Photographer and linen company she recommended. As for the rest of her services in my opinion its over priced for lack of response, missing meetings and phone calls, not paying attention to details and overall what I believe is someone needing more experience along with a real team of assistants and not her parents. Overall our day turned out beautifully. the great thing is people didn't know what to expect so they don't know all that was wrong or went wrong to get you through that day.

t worry once because they handled everything with grace and ease. I cannot recommend them enough, and wish Touch of Elegance nothing but continued success!

went off without a hitch. If I were to do everything over again, I wooof hire this crew without a doubt.

re planning process. She was happy to give me recommendations for many vendors. I found my amazing flourist and make up artist through her. I can’t imagine my wedding day without Carrie and her team. She organized the reception decor and favors. She kept everyone organized and on schedule. She handled so many issues for us - like calling our hotel because we forgot to check in! She also saved our whole box of gifts and cards when it was accidentally left behind. Carrie has a calm friendly demeanor, having her by my side on my wedding day gave me such peace of mind. I will happily recommend Touch of Elegance to anyone!!!