Sabrina and the J29 team were THE special sauce in delivering our multi-day, "Old Hollywood/Bollywood meets PNW cozy" Indian-Western fusion wedding that dazzled every guest. We are STILL getting cards and notes from guests that it was the highlight of their year. Originally I was looking for a planner that was organized, reliable, and could help bring my vision to life, who would ensure things went off without a hitch. Did I get those things? Absolutely. Sabrina had every detail covered, helped me delegate each task, and created the most comprehensive planning doc for every vendor. Thanks to her, we were 10000% present on our wedding day. All things that the How-To-Pick-a-Planner articles say you should look for - we got them in spades. But man, it's the things you don't realize you need that had me floored about working with Sabrina / J29. One was network. Sabrina, Shauna & J29 are clearly well-known in the community for doing what they do with zest, gusto, and style. Every vendor we interviewed had amazing things to say about J29 or was expressly eager to work with them. When we couldn't get responses to outreach emails, Sabrina had the connection that helped get things booked. She knows the industry expertly and saved us HOURS of research, giving us the perfect vendor recommendations. (I finally stopped asking for 5-6 recos because we always ended up narrowing to her original top two!). The team that we assembled was sheer perfection. We got a room block at a hotel that generally doesn't do them. The list goes on. All this to say, Sabrina and J29 are well-known, well-respected, and can get you the team you need and want while saving you time, stress, and headache AND making the process fun. What blew us away though - Sabrina herself. She is Superwoman. Kind. Funny. Endlessly energetic. Did I mention funny? She will get sh** done on your behalf. All my little neurotic worries -- Sabrina had already foreseen the details & had solutions up her sleeve. Whenever we worried we were being too fussy, she would lovingly remind us that WE were "the pie," and we deserved this day. Her energy is infectious. She was the perfect salve to my procrastination - I couldn't not pick up the phone because every conversation was so fun. Sabrina was also committed to making sure that both my personality and my partner's were well represented in the details, from napkin color to DJ choice. She talked us through our opinions, getting to the heart of what mattered to both of us and offering creative, beautiful compromises that felt greater than the sum of their parts. We felt like our wedding was truly ours and nobody else's. A final thing: cost, only because I found similar comments helpful in my own search. Hiring Sabrina and the J29 team was THE best investment in our wedding. We'd do it again in a heartbeat. We had no idea the incredible creativity, knowledge, and execution that we were signing up for, and it was worth every penny we paid and then some. If you have the budget and are waffling at all on hiring a planner, I am telling you that the ROI on J29 is huge -- you will not regret this choice. I could go on about Sabrina & J29 for hours (and my bridesmaids are probably sick of hearing me gush), so I'll simply end: I could never imagine our spectacular, multicultural celebration without Sabrina, her heart, and know-how. She really is the ride-or-die planner/friend that people ache for. She is our dear friend, she has our hearts forever. read more

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Words can't describe how grateful and fortunate we were to come across Sabrina and have her as our wedding planner/coordinators. My now wife and I had a vision to create a weekend getaway in Hood River for our guests, including ones that had never been to the Pacific Northwest and have multiple events that included a day of Indian wedding festivities (Mhendi and Sangeet), followed up a day of western wedding while still paying homage to Indian culture. Sabrina took on the challenge, coordinated, designed and planned events across the weekend and delivered above and beyond our expectations. Sabrina's strength is carefully listening on her client's vision, learning our communication style, problem solving in high stressful environments and bring proactive. Sabrina is easy to get along, very approachable and each time we meet with her made us more excited for the big day. Sabrina was great at getting early inputs from us on the vibe and feel for the weekend and events we envisioned, and brought her own design inputs which uplifted the theme of our wedding to create an incredible experience for us and our guest. This resulted in her recommended us to do the Indian events at the Society Hotel around hood river and helped us secure room blocks for accommodating our guest. My wife and I, being very literal, needed more visual cues to better understand how different designs would come together. Sabrina understood that and was quick at putting together design boards/decks to simplify brainstorming but then to see the final vision. Sabrina made herself available when we need and quick was taking out feedback and turning things around. After our initial meeting, Sabrina had a compressive plan in place, including a budget planner we followed that allows us to stay within our budge. As a groom, I was very much involved in the design process and what I appreciate about Sabrina was balancing inputs from my wife and I who at times had different design aesthetic. Instead of favoring one design input vs another, Sabrina was patient with us, dove into understanding what specific were important to us and figured out design blends that in the end were exceptional and satisfied both my wife and I. Her ability to turn a boring and empty gym at the Society Hotel into an incredible space with Indian wedding astatic was incredible to experience and more importantly was significantly better than we would have imagined. Something I really appreciated about Sabrina was having periodic check-ins that were quick and to the point to continue to make progress on items that required our input. She gently nudged us when needed to close on decisions and kept us on budget and found great alternatives when something we wanted would exceed our budget. Instead of given us too many options, she would curate vendor and design choices to 2-3 items that helped us avoid being overwhelmed with choices. Sabrina's problem-solving skills, coupled with her knowledge about the wedding industry, her designing skills, and network of vendors is an asset. For example, when we weren't satisfied with the existing lighting at our venue, she was able to put together a plan with one of her vendors even though initially it appeared that adding more lights would be difficult. Similarly, as we struggled to find an Indian caterer, Sabrina worked with the catering team for the non-Indian event to work with us to put together an Indian menu that was impressive. The pool of recommended vendors that J29 has in its portfolio is an important asset. Because of Sabrina's personal connections to various vendors, it felt that the entire vendor team was in-sync and knew each other's rhythm. Another strength of Sabrina is how well she is organized to where my wife and I were never aware of all the work happening behind the scenes during the events and everything were smooth and according to the plans Sabrina laid out well in advance of the events. Sabrina and her team managed and coordinated with all the vendors and it and ensured the event went on as planned with all the backup plans in place just in case they were needed without hassle. It was quite impressive to see them all curate each event. I would highly recommend Sabrina and the J29 team and will looking for more excuse to require their service in the future. Throughout this process my wife and I became great friends with Sabrina and were really grateful to have made the choice to work with her and the J29. read more

This review is long overdue. I originally contacted J29 about a year and a half prior to my wedding and interviewed several other companies. I decided to go with J29 and boy, was that a mistake! I was assigned Nicole as my planner. From the very beginning after our initial consultation, Nicole did not keep up with deadlines. I wasn't in any particular rush, but she would specifically e-mail me saying she would send over documents by a certain day and of course that day would come and go with no follow up e-mail. She was also not detail oriented in the least. I forwarded her correspondence from our ceremony site entailing fees and she would reply asking about things that were clearly stated in the e-mails I sent her. For instance, she HAD THE WRONG DATE for our wedding listed in our correspondence which is kind of a big detail, don't you think? I tried to shrug off her unprofessionalism and attributed it to her being busy. I scheduled an in person meeting with Nicole for Christmas weekend. My husband (fiance at the time) and I both lived out of state and specifically flew into Portland to meet with her. We were supposed to meet at a coffee shop on Sunday at 11AM. We were literally in the car on our way to the coffee shop when she e-mailed me at 10:31AM stating she was feeling ill and couldn't make it. I seriously could not believe that she had the audacity to do that. It's completely understandable to be sick, but giving such short notice when we both came from out of state and scheduled our vacation around our meeting was ridiculously unprofessional. After that fiasco, I e-mailed the owner Shauna letting her know everything that had happened and I wanted my deposit back. At first, Shauna offered to take over planning my wedding and expressed how upset she was with what had happened. I did not trust someone who would hire such an unprofessional planner to manage my wedding so I refused. I received a reply stating she would give me a refund minus work done. WHAT WORK?!! This is verbatim from Shauna's e-mail: "After looking everything over, I'll deduct $225 for the venue referrals ($200) and email communication/hours (normally $50/hr)." UMM WHAT?! At this point, Nicole had sent me a design board (a pitiful one actually that I could probably make on pinterest in 5 min) and sent me a list of venues. This is COPY AND PASTED from the word document that she sent me. The was the $200 list that she charged me for: Venue Selection The Leftbank Annex 503.928.6437 www.leftbankannex.com Castaway 503.224.4898 www.castawayportland.com Coopers Hall 503.719.7000 www.coopershall.com Union Pine 971.254.4395 www.unionpine.com Yale Union 503.236.7996 www.yaleunion.org Exchange Ballroom 503.334.8624 www.exchangeballroom.com All in all, I paid $225 to this horrible company but it was worth it for my peace of mind. I hired another planner who was AMAZING. She was detail-oriented, replied to my e-mails in a timely manner, and didn't try to nickel and dime me for fake work. My wedding was amazing, no thanks to this company! read more

Shauna was incredible to work with. We decided to have a destination wedding, booking everything sight-unseen. Shauna put me at ease throughout the whole process and helped weigh-in and direct me while still allowing my aesthetic to come through. She made the entire wedding a cohesive experience which our guests are STILL raving about and in fact we have two couples who attended, request our vendor names because they enjoyed the wedding so much. It was the best experience and as someone in the event industry who handles events and different vendor personalities frequently, I do not give my endorsement lightly but Shauna and J29 Events have gone above and beyond & absolutely earned it. read more

TL;DR: Our wedding would not have happened without the dedication, expertise and LOVE of Shauna and her J29 team. If you want to feel confident going into the biggest day of your life, and then have the best day of your life, hire them. We worked with Shauna for more than a year planning our dream wedding in the Columbia River Gorge. Her recommended vendors and style guidance was top notch, translating our vision into a reality and helping us think through things we never would have on our own. But just 6 days before our wedding, the Eagle Creek Wildfire began. Three days later, our venue and the town of Hood River where all of our 100+ guests were going to stay, was at risk of evacuation. Shauna, while juggling two other weddings, mobilized not only her team at J29 Events, but her incredible network of vendors to spin up multiple backup options in case we needed to move everything. Unfortunately, due to hazardous smoke conditions, we did have to relocate--but fortunately, our backup, lined up and executed by Shauna and her team, ended up being the most incredible wedding ever. In less than one week, she moved heaven and earth to recreate what we had planned for more than a year in a totally different location. Her logistical know-how, reputation, and sheer determination turned a nightmare into an absolute fairy tale. But don't take our word for it: ALL of our guests have said it's the best wedding they've ever been to... Which is no surprise--it was a J29 wedding. THANK YOU, Shauna and Michelle! read more

Planning a wedding in a pandemic was definitely not the ideal situation, especially when rules were changing almost daily. Shauna was so informed on local rules and regulations regarding COVID - we could definitely tell she had done substantial research. Her attention to detail is unmatched. In the end, we were able to have a beautiful wedding, done safely and respectfully. Our wedding day was everything that we imagined it to be thanks to Shauna!! Hiring J29 was the BEST decision! read more

Shauna was absolutely amazing! She planned a perfect engagement for me, during the pandemic, and I was 3 states away. I couldn't have been happier with the experience, responsiveness and professionalism. She is a class act and works with wonderful vendors. I can't thank Shauna enough for all her help and great advice! She def pulled off exactly what I wanted and kept it a complete surprise....not easy to do in general but given the pandemic, it was just awesome. Thank You! read more

Where do I begin with J29? From their detailed orientated minds, to their sweet personalities you cannot go wrong with hiring the J29 team for any event you may be throwing! I had the pleasure of working alongside the team while helping plan my sister's wedding. The wedding was nothing short of incredible! The correspondence with the team leading up to the wedding, the walk through meetings we had, rehearsal practice and the wedding day were incredible, and we owe a lot of that to the J29 team. Thank you J29 for taking the pressure off our family to help make the wedding as perfect as it was! It was truly a pleasure to work alongside you guys, I hope that more opportunities present themselves so we are able to do it again. Cheers! read more

You can NOT go wrong hiring Shauna and her team to help bring your wedding dreams to life. I worked with Shauna over the course of a year during my engagement - she was knowledgeable, responsive, friendly and excited about being a part of my big day. She recommended vendors, helped with design, worked tirelessly on our timeline and made sure everything the day of the wedding ran like clockwork. Our wedding was PERFECT and we are so happy J29 was a part of it! :) read more

We worked with Shauna for our elopement and I can't say enough how grateful I was to have found her. Shauna was always very responsive and extremely patient with me as the venue and date of the elopement changed many times. Shauna had amazing advice and knew how to coordinate services the day of so that my husband and I didn't have any stress. Shauna is professional and organized but truly I was left in awe of her talents with design and decor. She took the hodge podge of decor items that I had bought and transformed them into a cohesive and gorgeous venue and dinner space. Shauna saved the day multiple times and helped me get into my wedding dress. Needless to say I recommend J29 events wholeheartedly! read more

I cannot sing the praises high enough for Michelle Davis from J29 Events. To summarize - everything she touches turns to gold!! I cannot thank her enough for her support and leadership in planning for our daughter's wedding. Without exception the best decision we made in the entire process was to hire J29 and MIchelle as our partner! A few thoughts: * With my daughter and me working full time and being on separate coasts, Michelle was the catalyst that kept the entire process moving smoothly. I was so impressed with how responsive she was and the effortless way Michelle kept us on track and always moving forward was so helpful and kept all the stress out of the system. * I was constantly impressed with her command of all things Oregon wedding - the vendors, the do's/don'ts, the subtle touches that all came together. She listened to our thoughts and patiently allowed us to change our minds as we learned more. * She also created the "Dream Team" around us that did not let us down. The flowers, photographers, dessert vendors, hair/makeup, brew pub, transportation, hotel - all kept in line by Michelle's highly organized project management. * I was particularly impressed by her willingness to help us in any way she could - from recommending an outstanding dress maker to picking up and returning the signs for the wedding, there was no place she would not go to make our event perfect and stress free. The stress-free part that was as important as the actual event - she allowed our families to come together in a way that was magical. We were relaxed and well-rested without last minute details to worry about - because she had them all under control. * The day of the wedding was no different, as the rain began to fall for the first time as we were lining up to proceed, she just said we are going to "go for it" and we did. Michelle gave me great confidence and removed all need for making any decisions. * The wedding was only one event in a 4 day weekend - all of which she helped tremendously with. Our guests that flew across country were amazed at how they were welcomed to Portland. All with Michelle's fingerprints on the details. I would definitely recommend this group and Michelle in particular. read more

I don't even have enough good things to say about J29. Shauna and her team go ABOVE and BEYOND to make sure your wedding planning process is perfect. Leading up to the big day, she listens to your ever need, crazy thought and idea. She is available all the time and is so supportive. She is so organized and stays on top of every detail. The day of your wedding, she will make sure nothing bothers you. She will handle crazy in laws, parents, friends and family members. She will track down alcohol when your caterer runs out in the middle of the wedding. She will even figure out how to serve ice cream sandwiches to your guest in a creative way when your caterer forgets to put them in a freezer :) She solved every problem without even letting me know so that my guests had a great time and I didn't have to leave the dance floor. Wedding planning is a stressful and consuming process. I was so lucky to have Shauna by my side every step of the way. I truly don't know what I would have done without her. Picking J29 events to plan my wedding was the best decision I made. read more

My husband and I got married in Trinidad, CA on August 18th of this year. We booked Shauna for our day of wedding planner - but she was much more than that. We planned our wedding from out of state (in WA). I grew up in Northern California and my parents still live there, but Shauna was a huge guide to us even though we had family in the area. She helped us with all the details till the day of the wedding and was our SAVIOR on the day of. She kept everything on time for the ceremony and all the events of the reception. She made sure vendors were where they needed to be and on time. I think I told her 10+ times that I was so happy she was there on the day/night of the wedding. My husband nearly cut the tip of his finger off before the ceremony (she glued it up), my brother who was a groomsman ripped his pants 5 minutes before the wedding and she had everything needed to get us through the ceremony, and she even gave us her ring during the ceremony as our best man misplaced our rings. My MOH and I continue to rave about her to this day, she even made my MOH consider wedding planning because she is so impressive. Not only is she really great at her job, but she is a very genuine person. I highly, highly recommend J29 events for anyone considering help with wedding planning. read more

We signed a contract with this company, and Nicole specifically, for "day of" planning which entitled us to get in contact with her 2 weeks out and get her help planning our wedding day. When the time came for communication to begin Nicole was nowhere to be found and ignored countless calls, emails, and texts from multiple people in our wedding, including my bride, for a week before calling back and acting like her totally ditching us until a few days before our wedding was no big deal. She did nothing for us- literally not one single thing. She showed up on Friday night for the rehearsal dinner in gym clothes and looked unprofessional and totally inappropriate for a wedding. On Saturday highlights of her behavior included stealing the golf cart of a random family that was also staying on the grounds, refusing to drive anyone in the wedding party anywhere despite being asked, and literally disappearing to who knows where to hide so she didn't have to do anything. She also left before the end of the wedding - hours and hours before- and really didn't even say goodbye. Her conduct, attitude, and overall performance was so bad that this company is now banned permanently from the venue, and every single other vendor we hired gave us a written statement confirming Nicole was the worst wedding planner they've ever worked with. We tried speaking to the owner of the company on several occasions and she promised to make it right but never got back to us and also refuses to call back the other vendors who asked to speak to her so they could confirm just how bad it was. We are actually now looking into having an attorney sue her because she basically stole close from us to send an inexperienced planner to our wedding to drive aimlessly around the grounds hiding from having to do any work. We are appalled that someone would treat us like this and we're just thankful the on-site planner at the venue and our families stepped up to do her job or our wedding would have been a complete disaster. As a small business owner, the last thing I ever want to do is publicly chastise another small business as I know how hard running a company is but we gave the owner multiple chances to make this right and she refuses to communicate or even admit fault. Avoid at all costs! read more

Words cannot describe how lovely the ladies are at J29 Events. After a slight venue fiasco, Shauna and Nicole not only smoothed the problem over by providing alternative solutions, but they calmed my nerves which allowed me to enjoy our weekend. Their professionalism and promptness won me over from the beginning but ultimately, it was how excited they were about us and our wedding that made us feel like we were in great hands. Our wedding was beautiful and went off without a hitch thanks to the J29 team! We would confidently recommend them to anyone we know. read more

It's such a pleasure working with Shauna. She is both professional and fun! Her creativity is evident throughout her presentations and she really caters to the individual's vision. I will definitely be using her again to help plan for other events! read more

Shauna and her team are amazing to work with; they go above and beyond to make sure you have everything you want! They really took the time to understand exactly what I needed, and made me feel included and part of the process at the same time. They took care of every detail, as well as all the vendors involved too. I would highly recommend J29 Events for any occasion or wedding, and cannot thank them enough for all the hard work they did for me! read more

I was originally planning to have my bridesmaids and relatives help out the day of my wedding. However, once knee deep in the planning I decided that for my sanity I needed to hire someone for the day of. Therefore I hired Nicole from J29 Events. I originally talked to the owner who set up an interview phone call to ensure I would connect with the Wedding Coordinator for my area-Nicole. I had interviewed other Wedding Coordinators and I decided on Nicole because she seemed knowledgable, helpful and had a problem solving attitude to her. I was able to meet with her a couple times before the day of and had a a lot of e-correspondence in between. I have a hard time trusting, which is my own personal insecurity and I think this would come out as micro managing at times. Nicole would keep reassuring me that she had it. She delivered on her word and and really did have it. Came my wedding day on 6/18/16 and Nicole was timely, helpful and so behind the scenes that I didn't notice half the stuff that was going on. There were a few things that came up with vendors and she rode the ties to work it out. She even gave us rides between venues to accommodate the transportation hiccups. I wish I could say my wedding went perfectly. I had selected all my vendors and unfortunately they didn't all deliver quality or deliver at all. I think what made the difference was having Nicole because she was working hard to come up with solutions the day of. Leaving me to enjoy my wedding and mingle with guests. The day went by very quickly and I was on cloud 9 due to the love serenade of our family and friends. So all the little mishaps didn't matter that day. If I could do it over, I would still plan it myself because I enjoy details, I would just select vendors with a lot of experience and integrity and for sure hire Nicole. After I got back from my honeymoon, I had a debrief discussion with her about the logistics of the mishaps, and she even counseled me a bit and reminded me of everything that did go right. Which were a lot of things. If you are looking for a Wedding Coordinator to be there to bat it out for you, then I highly recommend J29 events. They offer several packages and pricing is reasonable. read more