YourEvent is an expert wedding planning service that exudes professionalism, calm, warmth, and…read morecare. Paula Smith is nothing short of your personal Mary Poppins - magically taking care of anything that might come up. We all know that weddings are crisis machines - from weather, to vendor personalities, to unexpected health issues, or a sudden change in headcount - things WILL happen. Paula is the person you want by your side to navigate those things.
***Deep Respect & Warmth***: Paula leads with respect, warmth and care in all of her relationships. This is especially important in her deep relationships with a variety of vendors. Because she is such a pleasure to work with, vendors are often willing to help her clients out with small favors - taking on a role they normally might not, setting up a little early, joining a walkthrough call they didn't really have to be on. These are things that you usually cannot pay extra money for - they are professional courtesies that Paula's clients receive because she is so well liked. This respect and warmth of course is a major reason why her clients are so happy and cared for as well.
***A Bespoke Experience***: Paula is curious - about you, about your culture and customs, and about how to meet your every hope for your special day. At the same time, she also manages your (and your parents'!) expectations to ensure you're planning for a day that can be achieved within your budget and your goals. Once the vision is set, she begins going about creating. She is a beautiful creator. She created something SO special for us within our goals - so much so that we got comments like "this was magical, ethereal and the best wedding we have ever been to". People felt that the event was not over-engineered, but just magically flowed from one moment to the next. We knew, this was Paula's doing - to guide the event with a light hand that was imperceptible to most. Wow. Just wow.
***A Swiss-Army Knife Multipurpose Friend***: What you get with Your Event and Paula is an incredibly versatile team. Paula is a wonderful planner, but throughout this process she also served as a therapist, friend, aunt, stylist, decorator, artist, craftsperson, logistics savant - and so much more.
***Calmness***: This was the biggest event of our lives. A lot of money was involved for us. A lot of relationships we treasure, and several that are fragile. This creates anxiety. Out of all the planners we spoke to, we had a sense that Paula would guide us through with calm, joy, and practicality. The fact that she could easily work with both us (the couple) and family members with compassion, and yet a stern hand when it was needed allowed us to delegate even the most tenuous negotiations to her. She was simply a source of calm for us during the process.
***Contingency***: It turned out that we had beautiful weather for our weekend. However, a hurricane hit the mid-east coast during the week prior (AND the week after!) meaning that the weather forecast was changing minute-to-minute for the week leading up to the event. Paula was prepared for anything. You know when the same 3 tennis players win all the tournaments on grass courts, clay courts or turf? Paula is like that - while she only ultimately deploys one particular strategy on the weekend of the wedding, she had to prepare 5 or 6 in advance - which you know she has ready, and so while we would have been disappointed with rain, we know it still would have been beautiful, and we would not have had to do much different ourselves.
***Organization***: We had never planned a wedding before. Paula's team was prepared with timelines, rubrics, and tables that we could fill out in advance. She let us know what was expected of us at the 1 year, 6 month, 3 month, 1 month and 1 week marks. As the day got closer we had less and less to do, so we could focus on things at home and with our family members. It was really helpful so the actual day was as calm as could be.
Overall, Paula is a gift to any couple looking to plan an amazing event with the most magical vibes while remaining calm and level-headed throughout. We cannot recommend her highly enough!
