I hired Piece of Cake Consulting to plan and coordinate my wedding. I was pleased to find that the…read moreowner, Betsy, is also whom I worked with throughout my experience. She was a on top of every detail, which really helped me with my stress level. At times I felt she had a better grip of what was going on than I did. Betsy was helpful, organized, caring, and professional from my first consultation with her until after my wedding, when she followed up to make sure I was pleased with her services. I would highly recommend Piece of Cake Consulting for wedding and event planning! The price is well worth it as Betsy's services provide peace of mind as well as an amazing and beautiful experience!

We just returned from our honeymoon (we left the Monday after the wedding) and one of the first…read morethings we had to do was to review Piece of Cake Consulting and its owner, Betsy. Our wedding was exactly what we wanted, in no small part because of Betsy's hard work. From our first meeting, Betsy really listened to what we wanted in our wedding and inspired confidence that she could make it happen. We both liked Betsy's style - a nice balance of flexibility but also asking good questions about our ideas to make sure we had really thought things through. Betsy took it from ideas to reality. She provided recommendations and references for vendors, but was not pushy about it. She worked well with everyone involved. The week of the wedding, Betsy really took over, confirming (and re-confirming!) all of the details with the venue, vendors, etc. By the time the wedding came, everything was in place and it went so smoothly. (We suspect many things were going on behind the scenes, but Betsy and her assistant took care of everything and we never saw any snags or issues.) Betsy is organized, detail-oriented and can take control when needed, but also super easy to work with and, not unimportantly, she made wedding planning actually low stress and fun! We HIGHLY recommend Piece of Cake.

Are you excited to fret over what flowers are going to be in which vases at the reception? Would…read moreyou rather dedicate all your waking free time to chasing down rental and florist contacts, or would you rather sleep? Fretting and chasing are not things I enjoy. So I had an EXPERT do them for me. Except for Sarah Sarbacker, those things are not fretting and chasing - they are thoughtfully planning and cheerfully contacting. Thinking about the BIG DAY, I did NOT want to be the one in charge. I wanted to enjoy and relax with my family and friends. And I forsaw the difficulty with a family member being in charge of all the details. That person wouldn't get to enjoy the day! Unless they were a regular bossy-pants, in which case I would not enjoy taking direction from them in the first place. Let me also tell you this: 15 minutes before our outdoor ceremony, clouds were gathering and the wind started to blow. Sarah happily and confidently crawled into the back of our car (where my MOH and I were staying warm) and asked to start the event a few minutes early because the clouds were threatening-looking. Oh a more pleasant woman I couldn't have heard this from! She even took a few minutes to tell a funny personal story and get my mind off THE WALK DOWN THE AISLE. She was a sea of calm. She projected absolute certainty and helpfulness. She does not dominate - she takes direction from what you suggest. She is a wedding FACILITATOR. I believe she is truly gifted in dealing with all different sorts of people, and yet she has a perfectionistic tendency (to get the chairs just right, to get the table centerpieces just right, etc...). She is polite, cheerful, and nothing seems to throw her for a loop. It was a perfect day. And Sarah Sarbacker was a huge part of making it so.

Literally can't say enough amazing things about Andrea!! She is truly the absolute best! Our…read morewedding would never have happened without her. I decided I wanted to get married on our family farm, a daunting task that she truly brought to life. She thought of every little detail (needed a generator, bathroom trailer, lights, mosquito treatment, valet, etc) and was extremely organized and thorough. She laid out a very easy to follow timeline, checked in each month with the tasks to focus on every month, gave suggestions of professional experienced vendors, but was also willing to go way outside anything she had done before and find new options. For example we wanted really adventurous food with a mix of thai/peruvian/mediterranean/vietnamese/indian and somehow she found the perfect caterer who could make it happen. Andrea is simply the best and you will be lucky to have her, I thank my lucky stars she was available on the date we wanted. She is worth way more than she charges. I cannot recommend her more highly.

We hired Martha Coughlin (of Bliss Coordinating) as our Day-Of-Coordinator for our wedding in July…read more2017 and still believe it was one of THE best decisions we made along the way in our wedding planning! We began looking for a Day-Of-Coordinator after realizing that some of our ideas which were unique, personal, and important to us also would require a lot of D.I.Y. last minute work and preparation leading up to our Big Day. Martha not only took on the jobs of setting up our ceremony and reception decor and facilitating the arrival and organization of our vendors, she also ensured that the day went off without a hitch, all while sticking to our timeline. Martha is extremely organized and well prepared, as well as genuine and thoughtful. Unlike other Day-Of-Coordinators we had previously spoken with and considered, Martha truly cared about what OUR vision of the day looked like and respected our style and what was most important to us, rather than trying to change it to follow more mainstream or traditional ideas (as other coordinators had). She took the time to tour the wedding venue and meet with us on multiple occasions prior to our wedding in order to ensure that she clearly understood how we wanted the day to look and feel, all while offering thought-provoking questions and ideas along the way. We truly cannot say enough positive things about Martha or our experience working with her. She is fun, creative, energetic, reliable, and helped us to create the beautiful and unique wedding day we had envisioned! Her services are extremely well-priced, however her work was worth it's weight in gold to us! Thank you for everything Martha - your professionalism and ingenuity are unparalleled and greatly appreciated!

Working with Martha was without a doubt the best decision we made during the wedding planning…read moreprocess. If you are looking for a day-of wedding coordinator in the Madison area, she's it! We planned our Madison wedding while living out of state, and Martha helped us make sure that every detail was attended to leading up to the wedding. When we arrived in Wisconsin, there was nothing left to do but enjoy time with family and friends. Martha arranged her schedule to meet us in person for coffee while I was home for a summer visit leading up to the wedding. She instantly put us at ease, asking thoughtful questions about our venue, special family members, and logistics of the ceremony. I thought I was fairly organized leading up to that point, but after our meeting I realized the benefits of working with a professional coordinator like Martha! Planning from afar was easy with her as she utilized Google docs for sharing purposes and emailed just to check in. It was evident throughout the entire process that Martha's kind hearted personality would make for a wonderful wedding day experience. She contacted all of our vendors in the weeks leading up to the wedding and attended our rehearsal the night before the wedding. Our family and friends loved Martha as much as we did! She used her creative and organized talents to put together a beautiful space at our venue, and took care of small details -- from thank you cards for our vendors, to making sure our cards were delivered to our hotel room after dinner. With Martha's help, our wedding was a day we'll never forget. We cannot recommend her enough! My only regret is not hiring Martha sooner!

When we first met Jenny in April, we were nervous b/c we wanted a 9/12/15 wedding. She assured us…read morethis was doable. We sent our deposit in around May 15. After 2 weeks of not hearing back, I checked in via text on May 28. I did not hear back until June 4, when a mass e-mail was sent from Jenny to her clients apologizing for her absence and listing days in June that she would be unavailable. I continued to wait to hear from her, hoping she was doing work behind the scenes. On June 28, I again called and texted since I hadn't even sent out RSVPs b/c we still didn't have a venue. I did not hear back. On July 7, I sent an urgent e-mail requesting that she contact me. On July 11 (Sat), I received a response: "Hello. I apologize for my absence. I will be in touch Sunday evening." I did not hear from her until July 15 (Wed), after calling and leaving another msg. With less than 2 months to go, I received an e-mail from Jenny, who said that her work had been affected by personal and professional issues and that she was "putting systems in place to get everything on track." She offered us two options: Plow ahead or get our deposit back. She ended her e-mail with "I am so sorry for how I have handled this." We asked for our deposit back. It is hard to express how deflated, frustrated, and betrayed I felt, especially since my fiance and I had a hard enough time convincing ourselves to hire a planner in the first place. Further, after our initial meeting in April, we had our work and vacation schedules made around a September wedding, which now seemed like a pipe dream. I understand that wedding planners are human, and life happens. Still, Jenny should've contacted us as soon as she knew she was in trouble to give us the out so that we could hire someone else. Waiting 2 months and ignoring a client's many attempts to reach you is NOT how you run a business, especially when your business is helping to create one of the most memorable days in a couple's life.

Jenny at Lavender Hill Events made our wedding perfect. She handled all the details prior to the…read morewedding and made the planning process fun and as low stress as possible. She kept our wedding day running smoothly and took care of every question, concern, bump, and detail so that we didn't have to worry and could just enjoy our day. She was extremely accessible through the whole planning process and provided us with great vendor references and contacts that saved us a lot of money and provided great service. I can't say enough about what an awesome experience we had working with Jenny and would recommend her to anyone planning their wedding.

Awesome experience, from start to finish!!…read more Marilee is amazing! She listened carefully to exactly what we were looking for and went above and beyond in helping us to negotiate all the ins and outs. Marilee's marvelous organizational skills, creativity, and complete knowledge of the industry made our event flow incredibly smoothly. The best decision we could have made, to take advantage of Planned Spontaneity's expert advice. SO worthwhile and such a positive experience!! Highly recommended!!

I should have done my research before hiring Planned Spontaneity because it turned out being the…read morebiggest mistake and regret of my wedding. The team she hired to set up the venue was clearly inexperienced and even made comments to my family members saying, "I'm not sure what to do I've never done this before." Time was severely mismanaged and the coordinator/owner was visibly overwhelmed. Marilee does not care whether or not you are happy with her services. After the wedding, I tried contacting Marilee privately to express my dissatisfaction and try and find a compromise on the amount she billed us for (which she was unwilling to give any details or itemization of her invoice) and she ended up ignoring my emails. She took no accountability, was disrespectful and made rude comments about my wedding, and showed no willingness to compromise...she never apologized and immediately was defensive and threatened legal action. After trying to contact her 3 times and being ignored, she filed with small claims. The judgement ended up being dismissed. After having such a horrible experience and doing more research, I found out the business was dissolved in 2014 and is no longer legally operating under its LLC.

WAIT. Hold up. How had I NEVER reviewed this amazing place?! *headdesk*…read more Let's back up to 2015....when I used their services for our wedding set at a barn in Poynette. I rented two windows for our buffet menu and seating chart. I could've rented more things, but I really had to do my best to hold back because they have a TON in their inventory that I could've used. Alas, the budget did not allow such a splurge. Don't get me wrong - they're not absurdly expensive. Personally, I would've spent too much because I don't know when to stop sometimes.... I opted out of the custom writing as I wanted to do it myself with my BFF/MOH as a fun project. Even though we didn't request their custom writing services, they did provide suggestions on what to use, which was super helpful! Staff was just overall very friendly and pleasant to work with. Pick up was super easy - it took maybe 5-10 minutes from driving up to getting it loaded. Drop off was even easier. I'm not sure when we'd use them again, but I do recommend them to friends who are seeking a vintage look for their special events.

My wife and I held our outdoor / tent reception wedding in northern Wisconsin and were having a…read morevery hard time finding a tablescape we were satisfied with. Then we found A La Crate and their amazing wood tables and everything fell into place. Tablecloth linen rentals are astronomical in price. For almost the same cost we could rent amazing wood tables from A La Crate (we took 18 of them) and didn't have to worry about packing up a bunch of tablecloths after the reception to ship back to the rental company. A La Crate made the drop-off and pick-up insanely easy. I highly recommend you visit their shop because, while their web site features useful photography, there's nothing like seeing everything with your own eyes. They have so much great stuff. We found additional things we didn't know we needed (great assortment of dessert serving trays and tiers) and fancy bride and groom chairs that set our spot out a bit from our guests. And it was all reasonably priced of course. I can't recommend them highly enough. I'm so grateful we found them, I honestly don't know what we would have done had we not.

Blue Fancy (BF), unfortunately, did not meet our expectations. I don't think it's necessary to go…read moreinto detail listing all of the things that went poorly, and I, of course, want to give them credit for the things that did go well. Context: we are both from Wisconsin, but are currently living out of state with stressful, time-consuming jobs, which is why we wanted to hire a planner. Our budget was lower than what I'm guessing BF is typically used to working with (less than $60,000), so I'm not sure if that was a factor. We got married in Fond du Lac and most of BF's contacts/experience is in the Milwaukee area. We had a backyard wedding at our family members' homes (a small ceremony at one location and a larger reception at a second location) over a holiday weekend. We hired BF 1.5 years prior to our wedding date leaving plenty of time. Pros: -BF was very helpful with providing structure (a to-do list, timeline) and recommending vendors. -They were insightful when finalizing the rental company contract in terms of backyard wedding details that we would not have thought of. For example, generator needs, water hookups, etc. -Day of set-up. They provided us with 3 team members, which was incredibly helpful with setting up chairs, tables, a few decorations, etc. Cons: -All together, we had a total of 3 planners. Our first planner quit and our second planner had to take a step back due to a serious personal matter. This resulted in poor communication, confusion, and stress. It was often unclear who was taking lead on what and we felt the team did not have the bandwidth to actually manage our wedding. We constantly felt like we had to double-check everything and take care of things ourselves because it was unclear who was doing what and we did not want things to fall through the cracks. Despite this, things did fall through the cracks. For example, we did not finalize our catering contract until 1 month prior to the wedding, which ended up being $8,000 more than we originally agreed because we had no other choice. Additionally, the band that BF recommended pulled out 6 weeks prior our wedding. This was not their fault and they found a replacement within one week, but this was still stressful . -They seemed to take a 'copy and paste' approach as in they just replicated what they did for previous weddings instead of really listening to what was truly important to us. More of a you fit us instead of we fit you. For example, although they provided recommendations for vendors, we ended up having to find some on our own because their recommendations did not align with our preferences/budget. Examples: photographer, videographer, and hair & make-up team. When we mentioned wanting a videographer within a certain budget, we were told this was unrealistic and received no help. We did find a videographer within our budget and he did a great job! So happy we found him. -Poor attention to detail. This was pretty concerning and prevalent throughout the process. A couple of examples: (1) they neglected trash removal and only had solutions for the Milwaukee area when we brought it to their attention. We ended up coming up with a creative solution on our own; (2) at the rehearsal dinner, the lead planner did not know the location of where to tell the hair and make-up team to go the following morning (day of). In sum, we're hoping our experience was abnormal. Nonetheless, we never received an apology, acknowledgment, or a thank you for using their service or any sort of contact after the wedding, which we find unprofessional. We were extremely sympathetic to the series of events that were out of their control, but ultimately, the way it was handled was subpar and the planning process/day of execution was stressful. We wish them the best and hope things are improving.

My husband and I are still both VERY happy that we hired Blue Fancy Events for our wedding and are…read moreforever grateful to have had Jan as our planner for our 150+ person wedding in Lake Geneva, WI. Out of all of the money we spent on this wedding, the one thing that honestly was the most worth it was hiring Jan/Blue fancy as our full service planner. ..We were a covid wedding (8.8.20) that had to be postponed to this year (8.21.21h and Jan took SUCH good care of us (mostly me, who had questions and meltdowns frequently) through it all. She did all of the heavy lifting with the vendors, came with me to my rentals and florals appointment for support, texted and called me whenever I needed her for advice or a question, reminded us of payments and even scheduled appts for us with our vendors and decorated/helped clean up our wedding amazingly with her team day of! Jan was just a great person to have around during this past crazy year and a half and I'm so thankful to have had her as our planner. She made me feel so comfortable right from the start and I felt like she was a friend. If you're on the fence about getting a planner and you're in WI, hire blue fancy and ask for Jan!! You will not regret it! Thank you Jan!

Ben is so great to work with and great at communication. Instead of doing a guest book we did a…read morephoto guest book which Ben provides. He was great at rounding up our family and friends and getting them into the booth to get their picture taken and sign the book with well wishes. We also had some props that we wanted to bring as they were meaningful to us and he was so kind and said "of course". Our wedding venue space where the photo both was going to go was small and Ben was accommodating and said he'd make it work and he did. He even took our request to leave one side of the booth open so everyone could see what other wedding guests were doing for poses. Ben really worked with us for our event and I highly recommend him.

Ben and his staff were great to work in arranging and running the photo booth during our wedding…read more They created a nice guestbook for guests to sign with their photo strips, and everyone got copies of their pics.