I can't say enough great things about Bird Dog! We worked with Emily, Mel, and Ryan to plan our…read moreAugust wedding and they were exceptional partners in the planning process. August is a challenging month to plan in Austin because it is "off-season," but Bird Dog was up to the task. From the very beginning, they were attentive, responsive, and incredibly reliable, making the entire process feel effortless, especially in light of the short timeframe we gave them. They got to know us and our style and preferences. They took the lead on helping us map all the key details and logistics, especially the tiny elements of the day we would have surely overlooked. They were able to guide us in working with a selection of trusted vendors, which simplified the stress of lining up all the key building blocks for the big day. Their communication was consistent and clear, and they anticipated our needs before we even had to ask. Throughout planning, they handled every detail with impressive efficiency and organization, which allowed me to relax during the processes. On the wedding day, they executed everything seamlessly--from coordinating vendors to managing timelines. It reduced stress levels for everyone on the day, and our family and friends were so grateful to have Bird Dog as a resource and support. Thanks to Emily, Mel, and Ryan, our day was smooth, beautiful, and absolutely stress-free. They are a pleasure to work with and you can tell they love what they do! We would recommend them wholeheartedly to anyone planning a wedding (or any event really), especially if you need a team that can deliver flawlessly under pressure!

Monica and Emily are simply AMAZING! We booked them before / during COVID and they planned the most…read morefabulous wedding celebration ever. We were by no means easy clients, abs they delivered big times for us - Toward the end of the planning process I was even comfortable deferring to them on most decisions as their taste and execution is impeccable. All of our guests said it was the best wedding they've been to. Already planning to have anniversary parties and use BDW because we loved them so much!

Highly recommend Pearl Events! Jennifer Seals was our planner from Pearl; she perfectly balanced…read morestepping in when we needed support (flowers, lighting, draping) and letting us take the reins on things we wanted to handle. Our wedding was last night, and I really don't have words for how supported we felt. Jen was there every step of the way, making sure we were prepared, calm, and even that we had food and drinks any time we needed them. She managed all the vendor setups, and the execution was perfect. Truly, our day was amazing and we could not have done it without Jen!

Incredibly disappointing experience…read more My fiancé and I had gotten to the point of finalizing a contract with Madison at Pearl Events for them to only tell us at the point of signing they could not take us on a client because they booked another client the night before. They waited until the meeting to tell us, meaning my fiancé and I both took time out of our work day for something that could have been an e-mail. They offered to provide recommendations, they were unable to confirm any availability. All in all a disappointing experience and poor business etiquette.

I generally don't write reviews but for Johnell I think she definitely needs an appreciation!…read more We reached out to Johnell for my 3 year old's birthday party recently. We hardly had two weeks for the event day and Johnell worked day and night to get everything planned and coordinated according to the theme of the party. She provided great suggestions like the claw machine, face painting and a magician. It was tough to get a magician in that short time period but she did her magic to find the best one for the event and it was great! All our 50+ guests who attended the party raved about how well the planning and coordination was done for a 3 year old's birthday. It wouldn't have happened without her! She also helped with my baby shower back in early 2020 when Covid didn't hit us yet. My husband worked with her to throw me a baby shower and it was amazingly done. That baby shower event has made us reach out to her again because we knew she will do an excellent job and can trust her because she puts her heart in every event that she takes up. Thank you so much Johnell for all the efforts and an outstanding work even with such short time that you had.

I write this in case it's helpful for others. I sincerely wish I'd have known what I was getting…read moreinto before I entered into a contract with Johnell. If you're not inclined to read the entirety of this lengthy review, I sum my experience up in the last two paragraphs. My wedding was only 1.5 months away. I chose the full package option. As a full-time professional & graduate student, the idea of a wedding planner sounded like heaven. Her reviews were phenomenal. I thought we'd get timelines, help with our vision, several vendor options with differing price points. Instead we got snarky eye rolls when we'd ask about details, sarcastic jokes about us needing to book marriage counseling, disinterest in getting us what we actually wanted, and extremely abbreviated access to her at her convenience. Honestly, it was devastating. The most stressful part of our wedding planning became my interactions, and oftentimes lack of interactions, with Johnell. Price points and vision would continuously get lost in translation. The pattern: Time would pass despite our requests for input on selecting vendors (for example, 3 weeks for florals) and then we'd get an almost finalized contract from a single vendor we hadn't vetted. In the case of florals, at a price of $11K when we'd explained our floral budget was $3K. She was extremely dismissive. Even requests for a quick 15 minute check in call could go ignored. Her preference most of the time was to send emails during peak work hours. And her emails, most times, left things unclear. We explained several times that a weekly 15 minute call was what we needed. But she was extremely resistant. We had, at max, 2 to 3 such calls and then she refused to participate in any others. It was maddening with our 6 week timeline as we felt like our hands were tied about really understanding the status of and options for things. My fiancé and I defaulted to doing the legwork ourselves. When we did, vendors were LOVELY. Bending over backwards to assist us. Supplying us with multiple options and ideas. They took the time to hear us and ask about what we did and didn't want for our day. I was overwhelmingly grateful for their support and availability. I was stunned when Johnell sent an angry email chastising my fiancé for calling a vendor. She reminded us that we'd have to pay her even if we were doing the work. I reiterated to her that this had nothing to do with payment. We'd started doing the work ourselves because we felt handcuffed and limited w/ her at the helm. Over and over we'd discover her "no, that's not possible" would become "sure, we can do that, and here are several other options too" once we'd finally talk to a vendor. The most important thing for me: the wedding to have our unique imprint and flair- were in direct odds with Johnell's priorities. Her priority was the path of least resistance, what's easiest & most convenient for her. Things came together beautifully. But it really was in spite of and not because of our planner. With the vast majority of vendors, we elected to go with others that we'd vetted. This brought on its own drama as we then witnessed Johnell being cold and dismissive with these individuals when they'd attempt to ask questions or share options. I made several attempts to explain to her how poorly we felt we were being treated - via several emails and voicemail when she wouldn't answer or return my call. She would eventually respond in an email days later with a dismissive, "everything will be fine" one-liner. The last straw was her denying us a 15 minute phone call the week of the wedding. Four days after we requested the brief call with her, she emailed, "No, I've done my job already. See you at the wedding on Saturday. Email me a list if there's changes." This transpired despite her contracted description of "unlimited phone calls and emails" and us only having had at most three direct phone calls with her. At that point, we decided to cut ties with her completely. It was an extremely high sunk cost. One that benefitted her (she was paid in full despite not working the week of or day of the wedding) & would cost us greatly. It was worth it though as the thought of this, in our experience, truly unprofessional coordinator running our special day was too disheartening. In sum, I felt trapped in this working relationship. I wound up having to expend more time and energy on fixing things vs had I not had a planner to begin with. All the while being made to feel like a huge annoyance during the brief times when we would have access to her. Her communication style is one tailored to meet her needs and convenience rather than the client's. In hindsight, I never should have hired her. It was the poorest decision of my wedding planning process.

Wow! My husband and I could not be happier with Spike's services. From day one of speaking, Spike…read moreinstantly made us feel so comfortable, reassuming me and answering my many questions. She helped craft the perfect ceremony speech that truly felt like us. Spike responds to emails very quickly and gives the best advice! She greeted me before the ceremony and gave me all the details to help the ceremony run smoothly. The ceremony was beautiful and had everyone sniffling. I would absolutely recommend her a million times over.

Spike was an excellent choice for our small private wedding, she made everyone feels so comfortable…read moreand made me and my husband feel super comfortable as well. The ceramony went so smooth with her, and creating it was a nice experince. My husband and I worked with spike remote, we met her the day of the wedding because my husband and I had to planned our wedding while we were apart. AND spike made it extremely easy and gave me so much confidence for that day. While my husband was waiting for me at the alter with spike, he told me he felt so comfortable with her ( mind you this was our first time ever meeting) so we knew we made the right choice. I would re-live my wedding day again. She brought so much peace to the day, her rate was very fair as well! Overall we loved spike! And if we repeated the day, we would do it with her again

There aren't adequate words for how awesome Heather is and how thankful my husband and I are that…read morewe booked Vintage & Lace for our wedding last month, but here goes! We were already leaning toward hiring a coordinator but then our venue (Ma Maison) required us to have one so we contacted their entire list of preferred vendors for coordinators and we are so glad we did because that's how we found Heather from Vintage & Lace!! Of all of the planners and coordinators we talked to, I was just immediately drawn to how warm, friendly, AND organized she is. Heather is an absolute pro with countless weddings under her belt, but still so kind and easy to talk to. Then, despite planning our wedding from another city, Heather made it SO easy and smooth. We technically only booked her for day-of coordination (with full communication/access the month prior) but from day one, she was still always available via call, email, text, whathaveyou, no matter when or what kind of (ridiculous, I'm sure) questions I had. We didn't actually meet Heather in person until our rehearsal the day before our wedding, and she was an absolute ROCK STAR the entire weekend. She managed to wrangle our large wedding party (14 bridesmaids and groomsmen) and all of our family (including bilingual and non-native English speakers, as well as divorced family) with both grace and authority. It's also worth noting we had several extras (a Chinese tea ceremony before our wedding ceremony, two large shuttles to transport our guests to and from Dripping Springs, getting Whataburger delivered to our venue for a late night snack) and Heather handled EVERYTHING seamlessly. Anything I thought of or had concerns about, she handled before I even voiced them to her! If anything went wrong on our wedding day, I have no idea what it was, because Heather was ON it. She was also incredibly thoughtful and adaptable, from my mom wanting to move the cake-cutting earlier, to making sure all of our belongings were packed away and that we had plenty of snacks and drinks in our getaway car. Her day-of assistant, Jasmine, was also so helpful and sweet. They both made the entire weekend just a wonderful, fun, amazing experience where we got to fully enjoy getting married and celebrating with family and friends. I can't recommend Heather and Vintage & Lace more highly -- BOOK HER NOW! I won't say "you won't regret it," but rather, you'll regret it if you don't! Heather, thank you thank you thank you SO much for all your hard work and support in making sure our wedding was an amazing, dreamy, unforgettable experience!

Six weeks before my wedding, I panicked and contacted a multitude of wedding planners and…read morecoordinators. Due to COVID, I was exhausted from cancelling an overseas wedding and dealing with two reschedules; I could no longer handle all of the logistics. Enter Heather. She was quick to respond and schedule a meeting with me and my then fiancee to discuss details. She was calm, interested, and prepared. She assuaged my panic and let me know that 6 weeks for a 30 person wedding was easy peasy. I cannot recommend Heather enough! With my hectic work schedule, she contacted me via email as my preference. We are based in Philadelphia, and while we didn't meet until the day before the wedding, you definitely couldn't tell as everything went off without a hitch. Well if there was anything wrong during the ceremony and reception, we had no idea. She handled all of our vendors seamlessly and made everyone feel safe during the pandemic. I definitely know now that we couldn't have pulled it off without her!

Cheryl and her team made our wedding feel so seamless and smooth! I truly got to just enjoy my day…read moreand not stress about anything because they were so on top of things. They kept us fed, took care of the logistics, improvised when needed, managed guests-- everything!! Couldn't be more grateful!

Cheryl, Rohit, and Simran are such amazing planners. We hired them in the middle of our planning,…read morejust four months out from the wedding. We had tons of open tasks and many unfinished decisions to make. Cheryl's project management skills were invaluable, not only for getting things done but also for keeping us organized and helping reduce our stress. Cheryl, Rohit, and Simran are a wonderful team to have by your side. They're always honest and caring, and they genuinely want the best for you. It wasn't just the planning leading up to the event that was superb; on the day of, they were on top of things. I was truly never aware of any hiccups or mishaps; they would simply fix issues before they became problems. If you want a team who dots every 'i' and crosses every 't', if you want a team who will keep you accountable for all the tasks that need to be done, and if you want a team who genuinely cares about you and your family's experience every step of the way, hire Cheryl, Rohit, and Simran.

i highly recommend NOT shopping at winnie couture in austin!! i went with a friend of mine for her…read moreto try on wedding dresses and from the moment we walked in, it wasn't a great experience. there was only one other group in there at the time, but by the time my friend entered the dressing room, they were gone. the store is very small, which is fine, but when we walked in there were two female employees standing behind the desk, neither of which greeted us. there was a very small selection of dresses and we were told to pick what she wanted to try on. once it came time to try the dresses on, my friend was not offered any help whatsoever so myself and our other party guest had to go into the dressing room, which was very small, to help the bride. my friend absolutely fell in love with a dress and asked for a few different veils to try on and as she was putting them on, both employees stood behind the desk and laughed at her to the point that one of them was squatting down to try and hide. this made her immediately feel uncomfortable and she wanted to leave. she tried on one more dress and they again, laughed while behind their little desk. unfortunately, this led to my friend not wanting to buy a dress that she loved and when i asked the two employees if there was a manager i could speak to, i was told they were not allowed to give out that information. as i spoke to them to let them know why what they did wasn't okay, they just shook their heads and didn't speak. winnie couture is not a welcoming environment at all and i don't suggest any bride go there to try on dresses.

From the owner: Winnie Couture specializes in couture bridal gowns known for exceptional structure, flattering…read morecorsetry, and refined, fashion-forward detail. Brides come to us for elevated silhouettes, artful finishes, and a truly personalized styling experience. Each appointment is led by a dedicated bridal stylist who helps refine your options with confidence, ensuring every detail supports the final look—so you leave feeling certain.

If I could give more than 5 stars I would!…read more Do not plan your wedding (or event) WITHOUT the help of Yellow Umbrella Events! My wife and I considered doing this on our own and I couldn't imagine how much stress this would have added to our wedding planning. We got married this past weekend at Xcaret Hotel Mexico and had 56 guests that Yellow Umbrella took care of all the rooms and logistics for. Shea, Mia, and the team made it so easy for us and all of our guests every step of the way. They took care of all our guests, booking, correspondence, deadlines which allowed us to fully focus on our wedding. In only a few days after our first meeting with them, we had an incredible website set up for our wedding with every possible detail for our guests. The room booking experience was seamless and we literally didn't have to worry about any of it. What a relief! On top of that, they went ABOVE & BEYOND in making sure we had not only the best wedding experience possible but as well as our week stay afterwards. Not to get into all the details but we had a few communication issues with the venue and Shea and Mia went WELL beyond their scope of work to get things handled for us. Many of our guests have been messaging us this week telling us that it was the best wedding they've ever been to and that makes us so happy. I highly recommend you at least explore a conversation with the Yellow Umbrella team. I will certainly go with them for any group bookings we do in the future!

Amazing team, so lucky we found them!…read more My husband and I cannot say enough good things about Cheryl and Shea. They are seriously the dream team of wedding planning (and really any event). We had essentially a 4~ day destination wedding in Hawaii and they helped plan a day for rehearsal and welcome party, and the actual wedding. The other two days were one for family where they suggested the event and a beach day after the wedding that we handled. We started planning our destination wedding in Hawaii in September 2019 to get married in January of 2020 and it was no easy feat but we were lucky to have the best help to make our special day incredible. We first heard of Cheryl and Shea through my friends whose wedding they planned in Austin. While planning our own wedding, I commented to my friend that I wanted to find a team as great as hers and lo and behold we found out they specialized in destination weddings. We originally interviewed 4-5 local planners as we wanted someone on the ground but after speaking with Cheryl, we knew they were the perfect fit. Cheryl was incredibly helpful, responsive, and easy to work with on our realatively short timeline. Did we mention we also left the country for a monthlong, pre-wedding honeymoon?! Cheryl and Shea helped us source vendors in Hawaii, managed the relationships and timelines, and was there whenever we had a question or follow up. Here are some of the highlights they helped us with; -Suggest a fun family day event (from 12-9 PM!) -Source our amazing hair and makeup artist -Find us a bartender who made bespoke cocktails to service in freshly shucked and cored coconuts and pineapples -Source a hotel for our guests and get travel planner rates. -Managed difficult vendors and made it look effortless -Deal with my difficult mother and helped me deal with it (honestly this can't be emphasized enough) Don't hesitate to book Yellow Umbrella Events for anything you're planning, they're amazing.

I can't speak highly enough of Melanie at Something to Celebrate. We had an extremely poor…read moreexperience with another Wedding Planner in Austin and began working with Melanie in the midst of postponing our wedding because of COVID. Our wedding should've been completely planned when Melanie took over but little did we know that there were some major issues with our big day. I can honestly say that without Melanie, I don't know what our big day would've looked like... she literally saved our wedding!! She is attentive, detail oriented, more organized than I ever thought possible, funny and just an absolute joy to work with. I wish we would've gone with Melanie and Something To Celebrate from day 1 because it would've saved us so much stress and worry!! I'm beyond thankful for Melanie and consider her a friend after all of this. My husband and I would recommend her a million times to anyone looking for someone to help make their big day the best day ever!!

We hired Melanie Richardson to coordinate my daughter's December wedding in Dripping Springs and it…read morewas the absolute best decision we made! Not only was Melanie professional and organized, but her laid-back personality and sense of humor made her a joy to work with. She was very easy to communicate with, and was always prompt in responding to our many emails and phone calls. She listened to us and created exactly what we wanted, but because of her years of experience, she was able to give us many ideas on how to make the event flow smoothly. We are not from the Dripping Springs/Austin area, so we hired most of our vendors based on her recommendations. Every vendor we went with provided excellent service and we were extremely pleased. Her attention to detail is amazing, and because of this I was able to relax and enjoy the day of the wedding. When the groom's cake was delivered and it did not look exactly as ordered, Melanie was very calm and professional and quickly thought of a quick solution. None of the guests realized there had ever been a problem with it. Melanie proved her organizational skills the week of the wedding when we had to make the decision to move the ceremony indoors due to inclement weather. She spent countless hours on the phone with the florist and caterer to discuss these last-minute changes to ensure that everything was perfect. On the day of the wedding - everything looked gorgeous and the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception were just as we had envisioned them. Not only did the majority of our guests comment that it was the most beautiful wedding they had ever attended, but also stated it was the most fun they had ever had at a wedding. Everyone had a fantastic time! Thank you so much to Melanie and to Something to Celebrate for making my daughters and son-in-law's wedding absolutely perfect! I have two younger daughters, and will not hesitate to hire Melanie to coordinate both of their future weddings!

As a wedding photographer, working with a great planner makes such a huge difference. Rosa is…read moreorganized, calm under pressure, and genuinely cares about creating a seamless experience for her couples and vendor team. From detailed timelines to beautifully designed events, she handles every part of the day with so much thought and intention. That allows me to focus on capturing the moments!

Overall, I wouldn't recommend Austin Wedding Planners. We went with the wedding advisor package. We…read morefound them generally unwilling to provide opinions (I would ask questions about something and all I'd get back is "well every vendor does things differently"). They were overly pushy about preferred vendors (for instance, I heard from our venue who were contracted to provide our table settings that Austin Wedding Planners tried to get them to use one of Austin Wedding Planner's preferred vendors without talking to me about it) and they made some expensive oversights with the vendors that they'd recommended. For instance: They insisted a florist they suggested would not give us an a la carte (vs. full design) package. They did. We reached out to a florist AWP recommended with a minimum for full design. When we got that quote back it was clear they were struggling to get to that number and were suggesting more florals than we actually wanted. I saw they also offer a la carte options. I asked Rosa to ask about it. She said no, that that was only for elopements. I was really excited about them so I emailed them directly to ask if it would be an option. They immediately agreed. After I told Austin Wedding Planners the florist would do a la carte for us Rosa called me stressing out. Who would set up and break down the flowers? I said we would figure it out after our call with them. It turns out they were able to do both for a modest fee. Another instance, Austin Wedding Planners said our tenting company would not allow our venue to set up lighting in the tent. They did. I asked our venue which had string lights if they'd be able to set up lighting in our tent (our rain back up plan). The venue said yes. Rosa said no--that the tenting company wouldn't allow it. I followed up with the tenting company (who were not on the call). They said our venue could set up the lights. These two things would have cost us over $4000 if we hadn't followed up. Is it possible these vendors gave me different answers than they gave Austin Wedding Planners or they changed their policies recently? Sure. But given the premise of the advisor package is that you have a relationship with these vendors you should be getting me better deals not worse ones than if I negotiated on my own. Austin Wedding Planners have clearly been doing this for a long time and I think if you needed a day of planner this could still be a good pick for you.