My mom hired Vicky as our day-of wedding coordinator. It was the best decision we made during the…read moreplanning process. Vicky was communicative, responsive, and helpful in every way. She helped us with a ceremony script, venue and vendor communications, and with general guidance. Thank you Vicky!

Vicky was my wedding planner, and I really can't say enough about her. Let's just start from the…read morebeginning... I interviewed two planners, and I knew I wanted Vicky right away because I was confident that she could get the job done. She didn't want to be my best friend--she wanted to help us achieve the wedding of our dreams while staying under budget. When we were deciding on what services we wanted her to take care of, she showed us this very detailed list of services, kind of like an a la carte menu. We wanted to keep our wedding planner services at $3000 I think, and so we basically picked and chose which things we wanted her to do. SO SIMPLE. No negotiating necessary. After that, she made it feel like our wedding was the only wedding she was working on. Such attention to detail, with a balance of her suggestions and getting our input so that it would still be our wedding. She was honest and straightforward about what she thought were bad ideas, which made us trust in the things that she was excited about and thought were great ideas. Vicky just has so much experience that--really--every little tiny detail was taken care of, so that on the day of our wedding, all we had to do was get our hair and makeup done and show up at the wedding. (My husband and the groomsmen were actually bored the day of our wedding!) The weeks before the wedding, my friends--who know that I get stressed out managing dinner reservations--were amazed to see me so stress-free! Lastly, and maybe I should've opened with this, as soon as we booked all of our vendors, I knew that the cost of having Vicky as our wedding planner paid for itself. The money and time we saved using Vicky's contacts (especially DJ, caterer and florist) was significant. SIGNIFICANT. Please consider Vicky for your event planning services! She is amazing!

Jodi officiated our wedding at The Carlyle House in Old Town Alexandria. From the moment we met…read moreher, we knew she was who we wanted to have preside over our special day. In addition to being extremely professional, Jodi is warm, kind, and caring. She truly puts her heart and soul into making your wedding day special. Our friends and family also loved Jodi and we received so many compliments about her from our guests. We could not have asked for a better officiant! Cheers!

We had our wedding ceremony at the Carlyle House in Alexandria VA, our officiant was Jodi Johnson,…read moreshe is amazing from the start to the end! We recommend her anytime, if your planning your wedding and really want someone that can make your moment special, you need to have Jodi as your officiant, very responsive, always follow up, and at the ceremony make you feel so special, thank you Jodi, you will be part of this precious moment for us.

I got my makeup done for my wedding and honestly, I'm so happy! The makeup artist really listened…read moreto what I wanted and created a perfectly polished and natural look. The foundation, eye makeup, and lips were all flawlessly blended. My makeup stayed fresh all day, and I got compliments from everyone. I would definitely highly recommend them!

Christin is amazing! She's super professional, fun to talk to, and knew exactly what I needed for…read moremy makeup. I will definitely use her again!

It's been 7 months since I married my husband, but my appreciation for the work my wedding planners…read moredid only increases as time goes by. Amber Karson and Emily Butler--who are twin sisters, by the way--took this ADD bride by the hand and created the most spectacular, meaningful wedding day imaginable. They were helpful for the entire year of my engagement, but they morphed from mere mortals into something truly mind-boggling on the day itself, shepherding every vendor, guest, and detail in the schedule. Since our wedding, a lot of our guests have come up to us and said something along the lines of the following: "I usually just say this to be polite, but in your case I'm serious: that was the most fun I've ever had at one of these." I'd like to pretend it was because my husband and I are just awesomely magnetic people who create instant fun in a 90-foot radius, but ha ha, no, it was entirely down to Karson Butler Events. Hire them.

My wife and I were traveling to D.C. to get married and were starting from scratch with the…read moredetails. We quickly realized we couldn't manage the process on our own and were so very blessed to have found Karson Butler Events. We loved every second of our perfect day and are so grateful to Amber and Emily for all they did to make it so special. They listened to us and were able to create an event that reflected who we are as a couple. We both agree that we wouldn't change a thing about our day and we have Amber and Emily to thank for that. If you are looking for a wedding planner, we highly recommend you call these two. Once you talk to them, you'll want to choose them to share in your day.

Tani helped me to plan my wedding that took place on November 11, 2018 in the DC area. She was the…read moremost responsive wedding planner I had reached out to and immediately began helping me plan the day to make it special and memorable. She helped me find vendors and design the wedding based on my preferences. Along the way, she also tried to help me find the lowest, but quality services. I'm very thankful for her help and would recommend her to other brides looking for a right hand in their planning process! Thank you Tani!

I had the best experience getting my hair done. My hair stylist was very punctual, professional and…read moretalented. After finishing my style, I noticed a few locks of hair did not feel secure and my stylist was very receptive towards my concern and fixed it immediately. I was very satisfied with the end product.

Oh my goodness, Andrea was incredible!! We hired her as a partial planner and she surpassed our…read moreexpectations and then some. We realized around 7 months out that while we had booked some of the major things, we were overwhelmed and in over our heads, and she really saved the day and made it all possible - planning a wedding is a lot y'all!! Especially from out of state, whew! She helped us with finding quality vendors, keeping us on track/organized through her super helpful portal (which had sections for design planning, vendor contacts, budget, seating charts, to-do list, advice, etc), with a number of scheduled video calls and by checking in via email. We used zola for our website but I regret not going with her option to build a website for us because zola had a lot of frustrating limitations (couldn't even add links or bold things where we needed to). She had a helpful assistant through the prep process and an amazing, kind wedding day team who helped assemble my dream design elements. I'm a designer and made mockups of how I wanted things to look and uploaded pictures to the portal design studio, and they followed my vision so well!! And they even made one part look more tasteful than I had planned - loved it! Maybe more importantly, Andrea and her team basically made everything run smoothly, including packing up all the stuff we gave them to set out at the end of the night and dropping it off at my husband's dad's house since our venue was strict and needed everything out ASAP. What a relief to just show up to the wedding day (and leave) knowing all of those little details were being set up and taken care of - it was awesome! On the day-of, Andrea and her team were connected with the vendors with headsets, making everything run smoothly and communicating with the DJ about who was coming down the aisle for the songs to line up. She also helped us and the rest of the staff adjust and pivot after our ceremony went way overtime (we should've known, our rabbi loves the poetic details, which was beautiful in the moment, and my husband & I probably should've planned for more time knowing that lol). She helped us calm down after realizing how behind we were because she stayed so calm and collected, and calmly walked us through deciding what to shift for the rest of our timeline (we packed a lot of rituals in there). She also swooped in to help when I was having trouble with my makeshift dress bustle (she had worked at a bridal shop in the past - so amazingly helpful!) Andrea is so kind, calm, organized, approachable, and just nice to work with. She talked me through a few anxieties when I was overthinking things and in general, she was super patient with our moments of indecision and neurosis lol. I'm going to miss our rapport and check-ins, it was so nice knowing she had our backs throughout this whole process. Wedding planning is an overwhelming process, so having someone there for us like she was was a total game changer. I wish I knew more people in the area to recommend her - if you're on the fence, definitely hire her! She's amazing and you won't regret it!! (Waiting for our official photos but sharing a few of what we have for now)

She's the best! Andrea and the Entyse Lyfe team are simply the best. All we started with was a…read moredress and two months before the wedding date. Andrea turned it into the wedding of my dreams. From the beginning Andrea was professional, organized and full of ideas! She asked us what our must have wedding details were and found a way to make sure that we had them in the wedding. I appreciated all of the vendor recommendations she provided. They fit in perfectly with the style and tone of the wedding. She was there every step of the way and alleviated all of the wedding planning stress that she could. Andrea had a solution for everything that came up through the process. Even down to the end, like not having a cake stand for 2 of the cakes a day before the wedding. She came up with a substitute that was beautiful, matched the decor and no one was the wiser. The day of the wedding she was there with her team and the magic happened!! It was a beautifully arranged room and better than I imagined. The days events went along smoothly. But, it was Andrea and her team working hard behind the scenes to ensure that all we had to do was enjoy ourselves! And, everyone enjoyed themselves. The best decision I made other than my husband was hiring Andrea as my wedding planner.

Went to one of Chef Tav's couples cooking class we got on Groupon. From the moment we arrived I was…read moreunder whelmed. To start with you had to enter from the side which is fine but it was not clearly marked so everyone was waiting in their car because the front door was locked. We started late and when we got settled discovered that they were not setup for the number of people they had. We had expected that each couple would have their own station but almost every station was shared by two couples and I think one or two stations had to be shared by three; so six people working one cooking station. As we got to cooking you couldn't hear anything the Chef was saying if you weren't right in front of him and what you could hear was not helpful. The first course was a grilled chicken Caesar and I was hoping for some instruction on how to make a proper Caesar dressing or the best way to cut chicken or something but you would have gotten more direction from an amateur YouTube video. They also passed around a beverage of the alcoholic variety while you were working which was little more than weak iced tea with cheap vodka. I must admit as a bartender of many years I was a little insulted. I was not expecting something amazing but it would not have taken much effort to have come up with something more interesting, again I would refer you to a number of great online or YouTube resources better suited for learning. All in all to be fair I saw potential in what Chef Tav and his "Team" we're offering and I won't deny that once I got over the disappointment my wife and I had a good time. For some one that claims to be a Celebrity Chef I would have hoped for something more. I hope Chef reads this review because it would not take much to really step up his game and make his class worth while. For now though I would say don't bother their are better classes out there.

Destroyed all the scallops. Then laughed about it like it was a big joke. He puts too much vinegar…read morein his dishes too. Definitely do not recommend this guy.

the dress I ordered was to big. took over two months to get. I asked for a refund and they stopped…read moreemailing me. this place is a scam to say the least.

Now that I'm more a year out from doing battle with the wedding industrial complex, I can finally…read moreput pen to paper about how much Pollyanna Events helped us with our big day. As a person who has experience with event planning, I knew I just needed someone who wasn't me or my spouse to coordinate some of those last minute details and to keep track of all of the pieces that go into a event (it also helped to have a professional to talk my wedding crazed spouse through stuff and stop bothering me about it). I am NOT one of those women who have been planning their wedding day since I was a little girl, so it was refreshing to talk mostly logistics and best practices without feeling like a bridezilla (I'm looking at you, Macy's registry who kept trying to register me for frilly plates that I didn't want). Sarah met with me for coffee to walk me through the range of day of coordinator versus full wedding planning packages, and I felt instantly comfortable with her. Since we were approximately six weeks out from the wedding, we did end up going with day-of coordination. Sam was my day of coordinator (with an assist from Kate), and they did such an excellent job. Prior to the event, Sam definitely talked me through one of my freakout moments when the venue "unapproved" our seating chart the day before and wanted to exile a table to 150 feet away from everyone else. Sam ensured that we stayed on schedule and that I had food, and remained professional and calm throughout the whole event. Seriously, I cannot recommend Pollyanna Events highly enough! Note: Pollyanna Events explicitly states that they're feminist on their yelp business description, and their literature with their package pricing was literally one of the first wedding industry items where I saw LGBT couples, interracial couples, and older couples. I was also determined to try to direct my wedding business to women owned or minority owned businesses, and I'm so happy I found such an excellent one.

Mick is an angel! I called her about two weeks before my party, and she texted with me back and…read moreforth for a few days while she brought my little sketch of a balloon arch idea to life. I was going for a coastal Italian theme, and she made a mood board to ensure that the colors matched my other accessories. She showed up promptly and cheerfully, and put the entire thing together gorgeously. The arch got so many compliments and really elevated the party. Thank you Mick!

I ordered a beautiful balloon bouquet for my daughter's birthday. I ordered last minute for same…read moreday delivery. They designed, delivered and sent me a picture of the balloons within about two hours. I am so grateful. I enjoyed working with them and I will order from them again.