“Hi Carolyn,

First, congratulations on your upcoming wedding. It's a wild ride, but worth the outcome!

Ellen was a godsend. She offers full wedding planning, but we had done a lot of the leg work by the time we found her, so we hired her for "day of" services. My husband and I BOTH agree that she was the best money spent on the whole event!

You get a lot of advice (welcome or not) as you plan the wedding and I think one of the biggest complements I could give Ellen is that she's a master at balancing her comments and recommendations with what you have in mind for your wedding. She gave great advice and knows her etiquette, but is not pushy or suggestive if you feel the need to stray a bit. It's your day and she wants it to be everything YOU dreamed it would be.

Although we hired her for the day of, she did so much more! I met with her a few times in the months leading up to our wedding and as we made decisions, I'd drop her an email or fax her a contract so she could stay on top of our planning. She put together an extremely detailed timeline for the whole weekend that really us pull things together and orchestrate all of the logistics. She attended the rehearsal so she would know everyone and could help with the pre-wedding preperations. That also helped because all of the key players then also knew her and her role. On the day of, she did all of the running around - checking flowers, putting out place cards, even bringing snacks to us as the girls got ready. I sat back and enjoyed my bridesmaids and the day. It was wonderful. For the reception, she and her husband, Rick, were extremely professional and were there to the bitter end making sure everything went as planned and that Nate and I could enjoy our guests and each other. I couldn't tell you if there were any major issues with the evening as we were never bothered for anything. It was wonderful.

I hope this helps and is not overkill, but really, I'm not sure how we could have kept it together without her. And what was nice, not only did Nate and I enjoy, but our mom's did too! My cousin and his new bride used Ellen for their wedding in May and a similar reaction. Jenny said that people kept complimenting her on how calm she looked. She said it was because she didn't have to worry about anything!

Good luck with all your planning and feel free to email with any other questions!“

“Hi Carolyn,

My husband, David and I live in NYC, but were married in St. Louis last December. Even before we were engaged, we knew that we would need a wedding planner. We spoke with Ellen on the phone, and finally met with her a couple of months later when we were in town. What a bundle of energy! We felt so comfortable with her that we hired her on the spot. We started planning that afternoon! Ellen has a fantastic rapport with many, many vendors in the St. Louis area. We trusted her immediately to not only help us figure out what we wanted our dream day to look like; but also to make things happen. Ellen made sure to give us different options for each vendor, so that we would find the one to best suit our needs, both ideally and economically.

Ellen was also very helpful when it came to dealing with etiquette, family members, etc. I remember her saying "I work for you and David, not for so-and-so," when a relative had contracted her and wanted to make decisions for my husband and I. Ellen is very diplomatic, and deals with every situation that arises with sensitivity, poise and charm.

David and I had complete confidence that with Ellen in charge, our wedding day would be perfect. Ellen kept the planning process very organized and we could not be happoer with all of her work. She is competent, resourceful, and full of amazing energy and creative ideas. Ellen is every bit the professional; there is no one we would rather had to help us orchestrate our special day.

I hope that you find this helpful. Congratulations on your engagement, and please let me know if you have any other questions.

Thank you,“