Christina Baxter Wedding + Events, the best wedding planner in Charleston. Over the course of a…read moreyear, Christina and Dana became like family to us. From the very first interview, we fell in love with Christina's infectious personality and limitless enthusiasm for making our vision Gullah+Jamaica+Cinderella wedding a reality. We'd interviewed other planners, but Christina's warm spirit and instanteous ideas sealed the deal. Indeed, it felt like we were excitedly planning with an old friend and not our planner. Christina soon introduced us to her Senior Event Coordinator, Dana, who worked with us every step of the way to make sure the details of our wedding were set and mapped out. They were a full service team, helping us with every detail from the invitations to the centerpieces. And when our 325-person wedding ballooned into a 400-person affair 3 weeks before the big day, these two did not miss a beat. They re-designed the entire reception layout and coordinated with every vendor. This was a particularly massive undertaking because we got married at Middleton Place, with an original plan to use some of the site's tables and other settings. When the numbers increased, we had to move everything outside and everything, and I mean everything, had to be adjusted to accommodate the new plan. Despite the abrupt change, the wedding was magical. Every bride I know talks about the meltdown she had on her day or the mishaps that occurred. I had none. Christina and Dana masterfully corralled our nearly 50-person wedding party through wedding prep, pre-wedding pictures, and the wedding precessional. This included hiring a personal assistant to travel with me for most of the day until the reception. Not only was that person amazing and friendly, but as a former pageant consultant, she was able to keep all my girls on schedule, help me get ready, and served as the liaison between myself and Christina and Dana. It worked out perfectly. Their wedding staff was great, with individuals stationed at various points on the grounds to direct my party and the guests. In the end, everything was on time and consistent with our detailed schedule. 400 people moved seamlessly from one part of the grounds to the next. Musicians (including a trio, steel drum band, and singers) were on time and prepared with their necessary cues. Post-wedding pictures were handled quickly, leaving us time to hangout with our guests at cocktail hour. Our reception was exactly what we asked for - a massive party. And it was made possible by Dana's recommended DJ (there's a reason why DJ Natty Heavy is consistently voted the best DJ in the area - he was fantastic). They kept the party going and made sure we were in position to leave on schedule in our fabulous getaway car. In short, from the amazing design to masterful execution, they did a phenomenal job. My family, wedding party, and guests couldn't stop talking about our planners and how they helped us bring "Hollywood" to Charleston. In one instance, a dear friend of mine who is an event planner and once coordinated events for President Barack Obama, took me aside and told me that my planners were top-notch and doing an impeccable job. You cannot go wrong with these two. This team created a wedding day better than we imagined, they listened to us, and invested 200% in executing this event. Our only regret was not having a bigger budget so they could have handled the entire wedding weekend. Thanks Christina and Dana!

As a negotiation expert, consultant, and trainer who trains Fortune 100 executives on the art of…read morenegotiation and has hosted events worldwide, I was skeptical about the need for an event planner and only considered several at my daughter's insistence. Having now worked with Cibi events I know that I was completely wrong - Cibi's choice of vendors, ability to obtain discounts from them herself, and efficiency with our time meant that we were ahead financially and personally, making her fee mute. We could never repay Cibi and Dana at Cibi Events for all that they did to make my daughter's and new son-in-law's wedding everything they dreamed of and more. It was the any of us have ever attended (an opinion shared by our guests despite the fact that many of them had weddings that were 5 times the budget ). Clearly Cibi provided additions and improvements that we did not pay for (surely coming out of her own pocket) to make the event even lovelier. Cibi and Dana are truly the ultimate professionals, with a remarkable eye to detail, exceptional ability to grasp the vision of their clients, impeccable taste, continual focus on service and truly unmatched ability to create an event that far exceeds one's expectation or imagination. And with all of that said, they are pure joy to work with, leading one to hope they might remain as friends.

Just as a backstory, my husband and I live in San Diego and got married in Charleston. I work 40…read morehours a week and am on-call an additional 40 some weeks. My demanding work schedule made calling vendors hard, and then when you add the time difference from east to west coast-- impossible. After some google searching, I found Sweet Peach Planning. I think their familiarity of working on both the east and west coast made me confident they'll be able to work with my schedule, and it did. We decided on a modified full planning package offered by Sweet Peach Planning and it exceeded every expectation of mine. Megan had great organizational skills. She brought many different contracts and other paperwork to our zoom meetings that were relevant to each topic of discussion. This made me feel present in the planning process even from 2,500 miles away and being unable to see things in person. Everything was thoroughly explained so I was informed of all the small but important details of my wedding day. Megan knows Charleston well, so she was able to find the most perfect vendors for our wedding theme/vision including rentals, a florist, hair & make up, and a cake. She printed out our signage and also made different personal touches, like a hand written mirror and our cake topper. Megan is friendly and easy to talk to. I always felt comfortable expressing my opinion to her even if it was something I wanted to change or didn't like. She was a very calming presence and I never once felt overwhelmed with the wedding planning process. She made sure we stayed on track with my timeline the entire day, which was super helpful since it felt like time was moving so fast that day. During my wedding ceremony and reception, the team made sure everything ran so smoothly. Madison was a great help all day/night. She was able to generously run to the pharmacy for me and also kept my phone and personal belongings safe. She took some candid photos on my phone so I had immediate memories of the night, which are some of my favorite pictures to this day. There were two additional associates who helped set up the venue and organize group photos, which were fabulous. A bunch of my guests even told me they never saw such a well organized event! Thank you so much Megan and Sweet Pleach Planning!

If I could go back in time and give one recommendation to my partner and I about wedding planning -…read moreit would be to have hired Sweet Peach Planning for full planning services early in the process. Megan was the absolute essential ingredient to making this wedding happen and be the most beautiful day we could have imagined. First and foremost - we knew we loved Megan right away from how honest she was with us. When we booked her, we wanted to hand everything off to her as a planner. She explained we were so far along in the process and had booked so many of the main vendors that she wouldn't want us to waste our money - but she'd recommend her coordination services instead. Megan went above and beyond everything I expected to have in a coordinator. She helped us with decisions, brought up questions for us to ask or suggestions to tell vendors about things we would have never thought about. She was available whenever we needed and even joined us for a few vendor meetings to ensure everything went smoothly. She even offered many of her own decor items (table numbers, windows, and candles). It is very obvious that Megan has tons of experience. Our photographer and venue both commented about how great working with Megan was and how she is so organized and experienced - so it isn't only on the client side, but the vendors she works with that also see how amazing she is. Very last minute we decided to book a videographer. We sent his website to Megan, who raised some concerns about something feeling off about the website and she explained it felt like a scam. Like dummies, we booked them anyways... only to get scammed because this videographer wasn't real. It all turned out okay (we got our money back, etc) and Megan handled it all beautifully. But, at the end of it - we wished we would have just listened to Megan's gut! She really knows her stuff and has a great ability to spot a good vendor vs. a fake one :) The day of - Megan was a rockstar. She directed family members, vendors, the bridal party, and anyone that had questions - all with a smile on her face. She was such a calming presence and we were so relaxed knowing Megan had it under control. We are so incredibly thankful for Megan and her Sweet Peach Planning team and honestly could not have pulled this wedding off without her.

Betsey is amazing! I was in charge of planning a bachelorette party for 8 girls in a city I have…read morenever been to. Thank god I found Pop the Bubbly! I purchased a bunch of decoration and bachelorette stuff (shirts, straws, etc) and I mailed everything to Betsey about two weeks before the trip. Betsey decorated our AirBnB before we arrived with all of the decorations I sent her, she found an amazing balloon artist who did the coolest champagne balloon arch, fully stocked the fridge and planned a great boat day for us. Betsey was available to answer questions before and during the trip. I couldn't be more grateful to Betsey and Pop the Bubbly. She made the trip amazing and memorable for the bride and the whole tribe!

Betsey at Pop the Bubbly helped me plan a fun and safe way to celebrate my 11 year wedding…read moreanniversary. We chartered a sail boat for three hours and had a private chef come to the house to cook a Thai dinner for us. Everything was amazing and went off without a hitch! The planning and payment process were all seem less. Betsey was great at communicating with us and sent us detailed emails and confirmations. She also keep us in the loop on rules and procedures due to the pandemic. I will most definitely be using Pop The Bubbly's services in the future!

When I started planning my wedding in January, I felt like Ooh Events was going to make my life…read moremuch easier. By the time the wedding came around, I couldn't wait to be done working with them. Here the key reasons I'd avoid working with them if I were planning: 1. My original planner was sweet but disorganized and lacked follow-through. I had paid for the design and coordination package, and she wasn't delivering on the design elements. And it's not like these packages are cheap! 2. That planner either got fired or quit, but that was news to me until I showed up in Charleston for my tastings and tours. I texted her only to find out then that she was no longer with the company. No one at Oh Events had reached out to me. When I called them to see what was going on, they played it off and tried to place all the blame on the old planner. When I emailed the owner Lisa, she did not take any accountability for the situation and again tried to play it off. The one saving grace was Carissa, who seemed to know what she was doing and tried to be helpful. 3. After that whole debacle, I had a few different people working on the wedding. The lead was Amanda and she was definitely an improvement. She was good with follow through and responsive. During the wedding, she seemed to keep things moving smoothly enough and she even gave us a ride at the end of the night. I would have liked her to be reaching out to me more proactively but I got the sense that she was overworked and newer. 4. The one place where Amanda dropped the ball is with our cake at the end of the night. We had discussed having the top tier sent home with my in-laws. On Sunday, I asked my mother-in-law if she got the cake and she said she never got it, so I asked Amanda what happened. That's when she told me she hadn't been able to get the cake, so I asked her to contact the venue to see where it was. Again, I had to be the one to follow up a few days later to see what happened with that. That's when she told me that they couldn't find it but that I was welcome to call the venue and sort it out. It's not my job to sort that out and again they should be taking responsibility for losing our top tier. I have yet to hear back on what they will do but don't expect they will do anything bc that is the type of company they are. We also used them for rentals and florals. Kaitlyn from florals is a bit terse over email but Susanne was lovely in person. The flowers were nice though the bouquets weren't fresh and starting to wilt already when we got them. Not sure what happened with the florals at the end of the night. Rentals were fine but a bit pricey. They also have weird fees added on (flip fee for example) and we had to pay extra to the venue since the rental team wanted to be there early. Overall, Ooh Events seems to be all over the place and I wouldn't recommend them to a friend.

I have used ohhEvents previously and always had a good experience. This was my first experience…read morewith Curated Events after they acquired ohhEvents and it was the complete opposite. I rented table and chairs over the Christmas holiday. The items I received were in terrible condition. The chairs and tables was both filthy and the chairs were missing manny of their end caps forcing me to go to the hardware store to purchase covers so they would not damage my floors. I returned the items and followed up with the representative. I was responded to saying that my message was being sent to management on the 29th and I would hear back soon. It is now the 8th and no response yet.

I reached out to Pure Luxe Bride for a quote for my wedding to see if they could work well with us…read more When we told them our budget they immediately shut us down saying that we would need a minimum budget of $100,000 to "be sure that when a client chooses to work with us that they are getting the style of weddings we produce and not something out of left field with vendors we won't typically work with or recommend" I found this extremely discouraging and not within the best interest of the client. In my opinion they should ask about our vision and consider what we would like our wedding to look like rather than putting a price tag on it. Therefore we went with another planner.

The ladies of Pure Luxe Bride are just on another level. Their designs are truly stunning and I…read morecould not have chosen a better wedding planner. One thing I really appreciate is how they make sure they are a good fit for a couple before working with them. Pure Luxe only takes a select number of weddings every year to ensure that the finished product is exceptional. I really appreciated that aspect of the planning process because I knew every step of the way that the attention to detail was a focal point and having experienced my dream wedding, they did not miss a beat. Pure Luxe Bride is a top tier wedding planning company and they do work with higher end budgets and book up quickly so inquire early! I wanted my wedding to be a show stopper and it was just that and more. If you are able to book them for your wedding it will be the best decision you ever make. I could not have been happier!