Let me just start out by saying, Gina is AMAZING!!!!!! I cannot even imagine what my wedding day…read morewould have been like if I didn't have her on hand. I hired Gina as a Day-Of wedding coordinator, so we really didn't work together too much until the day of. In that package, I got two meetings with her prior to my wedding. The meetings are utilized however you like, and whenever you like. I used my first meeting to get an opinion on a lot of things I was undecided about, such as how to address our parents on our invitations since my parents are divorced and my dad is remarried, etc, it was very complicated. Gina was very helpful. She also gave me outstanding references for where to get invitations and also for my hair and makeup. The week of the wedding, she contacted all of my vendors and pulled together a timeline. Since I was extremely stressed out that week, I got very sick and could not get out of bed. Gina took over and coordinated all the last minute details for me- the trolley, the photographer, videographer, the DJ, etc. The DJ was something we were really worried about because he kept giving us a hard time about loading at our reception site. (Our reception was at the Crystal Tea Room in Philadelphia). Gina handled him perfectly. The day of the wedding, a lot of things happened- I needed someone to pin on a piece of my crystal beaded sash onto my bouquet- that was Gina's first task and she handled it with such ease, then my veil was too heavy for my hair, so it kept pulling my hair down and she kept re-pinning it for me, one of the buttons was sewn too loosely at the train of my dress so it became very difficult to bustle me, but she was able to pin it and then re-pin it later on in the night after my husband stepped on my dress, there was another wedding with a very similar sounding last name as ours who had a trolley at the same hotel as us, and there was a mixup with where our booze went, Gina was able to take care of that and contact the groomsmen to figure out what happened, got off the trolley and brought us a new case of beer. She was so wonderful and helpful, I couldn't of imagined a better wedding planner. My only wish was that I hired her as a full-time planner instead of a day-of coordinator because I moved to Paris two weeks after my honeymoon, so I was super stressed throughout the entire engagement. I highly, HIGHLY recommend Gina Sole, she is the best planner out there.

I thought the concept of being a guest at your own wedding was a myth. Yet, this was the best…read morewedding I've ever been to, and it was my own wedding. Gina knocked this out of the park. Exceeded all my expectations. I hired Gina for day-of coordination and 10 hours of wedding planning. It was perfect for me because I'm an intense planner, but I knew there were some aspects of the wedding I didn't care to do the heavy researching on myself. It was a huge time saver, and removed stress being able to reach out to Gina and say, "do you know a florist in my price range" or "where can we get our make up done in Philly that we can trust." I was planning the wedding from New York, so I don't know how I would have ever found a florist without Gina. My florist was incredible and did such a great job, and I'm so grateful that I had her to help me with things like that. She also recommended us our audio company who also were A+. Every recommendation she made was spot-on and perfect. The week of the wedding she called all my vendors and confirmed the timeline, I didn't have to worry about a single thing. Gina is really warm, friendly, really has it together, and she is a BOSS. My wedding had a lot of moving parts and a very unique timeline. Gina kept everything flowing smoothly through the day, and our ceremony started on time! One of my bridesmaids told me right before the ceremony started that she has never been to a wedding that has started on time. She works very well with other vendors, and is great with communication and making sure you have everything you need. On the wedding day, she showed up at my hotel room with smiles and greeted me and all my bridesmaids. She also has a pretty serious steamer that she brought with her to steam my intensely long veil and she steamed one of my bridesmaid dresses for one of my ladies who had a last minute dress emergency. Also, later in the day my groom realized he forgot to move his reception change of clothes to the reception venue, and Gina went back to the hotel to his room and rushed the outfit to the reception. Saved the day! The ceremony was beautiful and flowed perfectly. Everyone knew what to do and was in the right place because of Gina's direction. She even loaded the whole wedding party into the limo at the hotel, and helped all the groomsmen attach their boutonnieres. We had a grand exit with flowerfetti and parking vouchers for the reception that needed to be handed out that took place around the same time, and Gina did a great job organizing so that both happened in a timely manner without confusion. She also made sure she had a coordinator working with my guest buses so guests wouldn't be on their own as they boarded the buses to the ceremony. It really made me feel relieved that someone was managing that so I felt confident everyone would get to the ceremony on time and safely. During the reception, everything flowed great. My dad had parking problems so he was late to the reception, and she even offered to park his car for him even though I knew he would decline since he always follows the rental rules about who can drive the car lol. I really appreciated that she would have jumped in if my dad was willing to let someone else drive the car. She stood outside the venue until he arrived and helped him inside. She helped me and all the wedding party line up for our entrances, and she personally walked me to the bridal suite since I had no idea where it was and she didn't want me to get lost. Overall, my groom and I, and even my wedding party had a stress-free, joyful day. Everyone had the best time, and several guests told us after the wedding its the best wedding they have ever been to. It was so much fun that everyone is still talking about the wedding, sharing photos, and talking about going BACK to Philly soon. Some guests are even joking about moving from New York to Philly. Our wedding party is already talking about a wedding party reunion. Thank you Gina! I had a phenomenal time! I can't believe that was my wedding. Beyond what I ever dreamed for my wedding.

We were trying to do things on our own for my son's Bar Mitzvah and things got a little out of…read morehand. Jody was recommended to us and so glad we hired her. She helped my wife coordinate EVERYTHING, thought of things we would never think of and helped coordinate it all. And very reasonably priced! She is great and has amazing contacts that were very accommodating. We'd recommend her to anyone!

When we tell people we were having our wedding reception at Reading Terminal Market, they were…read morealways a little surprised and their next reaction was "that is going to be SO COOL!" And after we had our wedding, our guest did nothing but rave about how fun, unique and perfect the reception was. But just having a reception at RTM is not what I'd recommend it. It was so much more. It was having the incredible variety of foods - we had cheesesteaks, DiNic's roast pork, Chinese food, a salad bar, poutine and corn dogs, grilled cheese from Meltkraft, the list goes on. It was having a historic and unique setting that was transformed into a beautiful evening even with string lights, candles, table clothes, decorations and provided an ambiance it'd be impossible to replicate anywhere else. It was the servers who attended to our guests every need, kept the party going, the room clean and the people happy. It was every little touch that the planning team executed perfectly for us, that all happened without us realizing it, without any reminders or questions. The planning team at All About Events were the true heroes of the night - and in fact, the whole planning process. We met with them about 15 months before our wedding, and Christina, Stevie and Liam made sure that everything was easy, fun and exciting. Christina's emails to us were always clear and thorough, addressing every little question I had asked, and pointing out tiny things I never would have thought of. Stevie's communication with our vendors was so appreciated, including our Mummers and DJ! And every time we met with them, the meetings were exciting, joyful. Their personalities and kindness and caring for us and our events just SHONE. We could not recommend RTM and AAE more. They are a truly wonderful team, and a gem in the Philadelphia wedding scene. I hope that we get to go to another event at the market soon, and we will certainly keep them in mind for our 10th anniversary vow renewal!!!!

DO NOT USE LIBERTY WEDDINGS!!!!!!!…read more Anastasia (Staci) did not show up to my wedding. She cashed the deposit check that we sent her and never showed up on the day. I attempted to call and email her countless times on my wedding day, but never got a response. Since the event, she has continued to not respond to any communication attempts. No one should have to go through what I did on my wedding day. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!!!!!!!

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!! Save yourself the hassle. We…read morebooked Liberty Weddings prior to our wedding. SHE DID NOT SHOW UP ON OUR WEDDING DAY!!! She cashed our check! But Did not show up. Not even a phone call to let us know why or what happened. I tried calling numerous amounts of times the day of our wedding. She picked up once and as soon as I said my name she hung up on us. SHE IS UNRELIABLE!! VERY UNPROFESSIONAL!!! Please do not use this company!!!! Worst decision. Save yourself the stress on your wedding day!

We had such an amazing experience working with Sara and her team! My wife and I had been planning…read moreour wedding together from the beginning and we had a ton of amazing ideas that we wanted to make happen. Some of them we knew we could pull off and others we had no idea how we were gong to make them happen. Then, to make things more complicated and difficult, we had a series of difficult/unfortunate/sad events that occurred back to back that "took the wind out of our sails" and if it wasn't for Sara our big day would have never turned out the way we dreamed it. Sure it would have still be amazing because in the last few weeks before your wedding you turn into a super hero that deflects all negativity lol but in our case that super hero was Sara. Her and the rest of her amazing team swooped in to save the day and not only executed all the ideas we had but Sara had several amazing ideas and changes that we had never thought of, such as the lace table runners, our amazing DIY photo booth and during a last minute rain storm came to my wife's rescue by offering up her own rain boots! : ) Sara is super kind and truly a professional. I honestly could not image our wedding day without her and we are so thankful to Confetti & Co. for making everything go off without a hitch! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Confetti & Co. and the only regret I have is that we didn't have Sara helping us from the very beginning. WE LOVE YOU CONFETTI & CO.!!!

LOVED working with Sara and her team. My only regret is not having hired them earlier on! They…read moremade the last two months of my wedding planning (not to mention the very important day-off) so smooth and stress free and let's be honest, who is not going crazy while planning a wedding? Sara isn't, that's who!

They don't come any better! Our daughter's wedding was absolutely perfect and the reason is that…read morewe were lucky enough to find Jamie to help us coordinate it all. While the bride and groom live in Philly, both sets of parents are out of town, so this was a destination wedding for us and most of the guests. Thereby we knew we'd need very experienced "boots on the ground" to pull off the caliber of wedding we envisioned. We figured the best place to get verifiable wedding planner recommendations was to ask wedding coordinators at the venues toured: Lauren James Events was the first name suggested by most, and after our initial telephone conversation it was easy to see why. Jamie is delightful; knowledgeable, professional, experienced, well-connected, warm, and easy to talk to. Honestly, she left no stone unturned. Although our wedding was a year and a half out when we hired her, and in the beginning she had clients with more pressing needs than ours, we were always made to feel that we were a priority. Our wedding was on a holiday weekend and Jamie helped us to secure some of the city's most highly sought vendors promptly so we wouldn't be closed out. From the get-go, Jamie worked with us in establishing and organizing our parameters - number of guests, style of reception, and met with the bride and groom to talk about their vision and expectations. She listened so well that her recommendations always were spot on. She created meeting and planning timelines with our vendors, and maintained a meticulous spreadsheet of expenditures. She attended vendor meetings along with us, taking scrupulous notes, and worked with us to negotiate contracts. She advised us well as to where we should be spending money and did not hesitate to steer us away from the things we didn't need. She established wedding blocks at the most central hotels for out of town guests and kept track of the bookings, so we knew who was staying where. She also assisted in planning the other events for the wedding weekend. In the week leading up to the wedding we were talking several times a day to tweak additions, guest cancellations and ensure that everything we expected came to fruition. She produced welcome bags for out of town guests and delivered them to the hotels. She surprised the bride and groom by having their room upgraded to a phenomenal suite. When a few glitches arose that week (as they inevitably will), she resolved them and only afterward told us so we didn't have to stress over details. On the wedding day, Jamie never left our side - arriving in the bridal suite beginning early morning with the bridesmaids, orchestrating our hair and makeup people, the photographer and videographer, lunch delivery for everyone, rode the wedding trolley with the bridal party to the bride and groom's first look and off-site photo sessions, at the venue for formal photos, managed the catering staff and band so that the timing of everything ran smoothly. We actually had to beg her to take a break and eat dinner (I still don't think she ever did: we owe you dinner, Jamie!) . Throughout our entire process, she never once lost her cool and as a result, the bride and groom and their parents were able to relax and completely enjoy our family's special day, stress-free. Weddings are highly emotional occasions, but thanks to Jamie the only emotions we experienced were total elation and tears --of joy. It is truly money well spent, and we cannot thank her enough

From the owner: Planning an event and looking for an event planner whose ingenuity and attention-to-detail will…read moreprovide a stress-free experience? Owners and visionaries Lauren Lerner and Jamie Fishman have a combined 15 years of experience planning over 2,200 events and over 150 weddings. Their extensive background from The Ritz-Carlton also involves catering to Philadelphia's most prestigious companies and high profile clientele. Together they will bring your vision to life every step of the way. No milestone is too small to warrant a celebration or too big to expect attention to even the smallest detail!

Hiring Danielle was the best decision that we made when planning our wedding! From start to…read morefinish, Danielle demonstrated an exceptional blend of detail-oriented organization, professionalism, friendliness, and deep industry knowledge that made our wedding experience truly unforgettable. Danielle is incredibly organized and professional; no element of our wedding was overlooked. In the planning process, she guided us with a detailed schedule of the tasks that we needed to complete, which was perfect to help us figure out everything that we needed to do and when. She also introduced us to a "dream team" of vendors that made our wedding unforgettable. On the day of the wedding, Danielle and her team kept everything on-time and running smoothly. Their handling of the logistics of the wedding allowed us to focus our attention on each other and our guests. Do yourself a favor and hire Danielle! She has a wealth of experience and expertise, which was evident in the seamless execution of our wedding day. And check out her awesome podcast.

I am super surprised at all the good reviews for Danielle since my original post. I think it's…read moreawesome that other people have had good experiences. Wish I could say the same. We contacted Danielle by email to inquire about coordinating our wedding event. After several emails over the course of a 1 day. Danielle decided that we were not a good fit and referred us to another company. We never had the chance to speak with her directly, before she made this decision. She claimed that we responded in 1 sentence responses and because of that we were not a good fit. After being on her website we were excited at the possibility of working with her. We responded to her emails during our work hours and provided answers to questions asked. Very Very dissappointed and not a good start to our wedding process. Stress! Hopefully other wedding and event planners aren't so fickle.

Sweet Pea was wonderful. Shelby did a terrific job making Union Trust a beautiful place for our…read morewedding. The chuppah and all the flowers were amazing, and the centerpieces still look fresh today (two days later). I especially liked the way Shelby used the flowers to decorate the floor around the sweetheart table and several wedding guests mentioned to me how pretty that was. Having tall centerpieces, shorter centerpieces, and the rectangular table garlands with candles was also lovely. In sum, I was absolutely thrilled with the flowers and I really appreciate that Shelby shared so many creative ideas and also stayed within my budget.

I'm so pleased to be able to recommend Shelby and Sweet Pea. While they were a last-minute addition…read moreto our wedding when our original florist cancelled, I couldn't be happier with the flowers Shelby designed for us. She made wonderful suggestions, including that I ask for scrap fabric from our bridesmaids' dress vendor, and when they came through, she used the fabric to wrap the girls' bouquets. It was wonderful and so special. She also had exactly the right level of communication. She was attentive without being intrusive, and I always felt that I could reach her quickly if I needed something, or just wanted to check in. This was something that I found was unusual with wedding vendors, and she was absolutely perfect. You will be in capable, professional hands with Sweet Pea.

I had such high hopes of Cescaphe after being a guest at several weddings.... and I will never see…read morethem in the same light again. Maybe covid just brought out the worst in this wedding company but our experience was not one of butterflies and excitement. We originally booked The Lucy for 11/2020, when COVID started and things were looking grim I tried to be proactive and move the date-- I was told at that time to sit tight because they weren't dealing with us yet. So we did just that, then when it was our turn they offered us dates at the Lucy in 2022, or Feb 2021 which wasn't far off and felt unrealistic but I tried to be optimistic. We booked it for February to be optimistic and eventually ended up having to move it again. At that time we were offered even later dates at the Lucy or we could switch to their outdoor venue for October. We wanted to do right by Cescaphe and so we postponed again and this is where it all went downhill. We had to first pay additional fora park rental fee and the venue, which lacked so many things The Lucy had. We complied and moved forward. When we went to see the venue for the first time it didn't look like the stock photos-- the bar was broken, there was drapery thrown up on pillars haphazardly, there was a bridal suit that was a shed, the grass was over grown and there was bird poop on the floors so needless to say we were disappointed. We had many questions on that tour about what we could and couldn't do and every question answer was " we will get back to you." It often took weeks for them to get back Truthfully that is a horrible business model and they need to better educate the ones that are on site and helping clients. We ultimately hired an outside event designer to help elevate this space. She and her team were faced with so many obstacles from this venue. The owner, Joe Volpe was not easy to work with through the whole process. We ended up missing out on a few of our rental items because near the end of the planning process Joe wanted to be in control of the rentals, and then dropped the ball letting down the client. This is not how you run a business. He refused to let them set up early on the day of the wedding, although the space was empty but offered them to come on Thursday to set up. Mind you, my wedding was on Saturday, so the wedding on Friday was going to get all my decor ideas on my dime... again this just isn't how you run a business. When the class action suit came up in regards to Cescaphe, I was contacted and I wanted to stay positive and declined being involved and I regret that decision. They are a wedding pumping company, who has very little flexibility to their venues and ultimately only cares about the money. If I could do this again, I would have left Cescaphe completely out of my wedding day and used EVERY other vendor who worked with us to make our day truly special. Take a hint and prioritize the client, not the dollar signs.

*UPDATE* In an effort to be fair, I'd like to note that Nikki did email me again on 11/16 asking…read moreif she could show me any of the venues. I immediately emailed her back reminding her that she never got me the information promised on our first call and her response back was "I truly apologize I did reach back out and call you, and I'm sorry there was miscommunication" MAYBE but where was the voicemail or the return email? Still baffling to me. But I appreciated the apology. ------------------------------- I'm currently planning my wedding and reached out to Cescaphe because of their venue selection in Philadelphia. I set up a call with Nikki on 10/26 @ 11:00 am. We spoke for a few minutes and talked about my wedding size and their locations that could possibly work. Since I'm having a slightly smaller wedding than they typically host but have flexibility with the date, Nikki promised to chat with her manager about the minimums required for the Waterworks and get back to me. 13 days later, I haven't heard back from Nikki (no return call or email). She also promised to send additional package information via email which was never received. With full disclosure, I didn't reach back out because I'm looking for someone who can manage my entire event, and communication issues this early on are a huge red flag for me.

Was here for a wedding. The venue is beautiful and everything was so well done. Service was…read moreamazing. The cocktail hour was fabulous. There was a buffet plus catered apps. Plenty of staff kept everything flowing. The outdoor tent and the decorations were beautiful. Right on the water with beautiful views. Everything was first class!

Lovely venue with stunning scenery, great food and fantastic service!…read more Attended a wedding today including ceremony, cocktail hour and reception. The ceremony was held in their covered outdoor space which was remarkable! The indoor cocktail hour was great with indoor and outdoor seating and bars and plenty of varied food. Again beautiful views all around and outstanding service. The food was great, drinks were very good. They were not too sweet nor too strong yet not weak. Very well made drinks! The reason for my four stars are the bathrooms. The indoor restroom was located on the lower level with a very very long and steep staircase. With several ladies in heels and mature adults I saw it as a hazard. The reception was held in another room (open air ) but completely covered in a tent which was perfect! it was warm, decorated nicely and did not feel like a tent by by means. The views are absolutely breathtaking! The service was outstanding! The food was very good but my fav were the desserts. They had freshly made crepes and a variety of sweets, cookies, patties etc.

While this is not where I will be having my wedding, I cannot say enough great things about the…read moreArts and Taylor Hess. Taylor did an amazing job laying out what the day could look like and made us feel so welcome and comfortable. She is an amazing resource and I have no doubt that she would make anyone's dream wedding. Everyone was so willing to make accommodations if we needed them. The food selections available here are top notch and hard to compete with. This place is perfect for small-medium weddings.

I've been on the fence about writing this review as I see the owner/manager replies to bad reviews…read moreand I truly don't want to engage him, but want others to know the poor experience we had to help others. As was the case with countless others, I had a November 2020 wedding scheduled that was impacted by the pandemic lockdown. That's not anyone's fault. However. The client service from the manager/owner John is abhorrent. (The event coordinators are kind and very responsive.) We'd made deposits, and were scheduled to make another -- literally, I had optimistically send out save the dates -- but the city still had restrictions on how many people could gather in the space. My contract was for 130 people. When I reached out to Arts Ballroom to discuss the way forward, thinking that they MUST have some kind of action plan about how they were going to move forward with existing contracts and triage, there was nothing. No plan. No mitigation strategy. No flexibility to bump the date. Just an expectation of payment for my contracted amount. We asked to move the date to 2021. John told us no, because our Nov. 2020 date would be considered lost revenue because it's a date he could've sold to someone else. This was illogical -- if the city wouldn't let us gather in 2020, he wouldn't have been able to sell the date to ANYONE. That was the whole point -- we were trying to get ahead of what was very obviously inevitable: we weren't going to be able to host anything in 2020, and rather than proceed as planned -- spending all kinds of money on vendors and invitations, only for Arts Ballroom to call us THIRTY DAYS BEFORE to reschedule (yes, they were only alerting to reschedule 30 days out) we wanted to be proactive and get ahead of it. For those keeping score at home: you send wedding invitations 6 to 8 weeks out. Make it make sense. We even offered extra money to move the date for for peace of mind -- our primary concern was exposure to people who were at risk -- no dice. No dice and no action plan. But he did ask us if we wanted to just buy a new 2021 date! Ha. He then cockily talked through *his* obligations to the bank which -- I'm sorry, but I'm a paying customer. His business dealings are not my business--apply for small business pandemic support or something. His responsibility is to his customers, but I guess not. It's also telling that his business had no cash reserves so he had to hold folks' feet to the fire this way. Needless to say, we canceled and lost a significant deposit. In hindsight, it was a small price to pay to not have to work with his clueless arrogance. (He was very confident, despite saying he didn't watch the news, that the pandemic would clear up by our date.) I was walking a dog with a friend this weekend, and happened in front of the venue where I saw someone casually smoking crack on the corner across the street. I chuckled and took it as a sign.