Where do I begin?…read more When I started planning my wedding a year ago, I looked into prices for planners to organize the whole event. At that time, I found the quotes extreme and saw no reasons why I would not be able to plan it myself. As the wedding got closer, stress levels were elevated, drama was added to the table and everyone's threshold for patience dramatically dropped. It was about 4 or 5 months to the wedding that I realized I DEFINITELY need a planner for the Day-Of Coordination at least because I did not want to go through the same chaos on my wedding day. I met with another very well-known local planner. We met and then she disappeared on me after I had mailed her the cheque. She did not respond to my calls or emails for a whole month, later claiming that she thought I was uninterested in her services and was lying about the fact that I had mailed the cheque. I thanked God EVERY DAY after having met Sarah Shore from DreamGroup that things fell apart with the other planner. In our culture, it is customary for the elders in the immediate family to be in charge of the day and having a day-of coordinator was slightly surprising for some and many including my own mother believed that it was unnecessary. My mother is now Sarah's NUMBER ONE fan. She absolutely loved how having Sarah manage the day allowed her to actually enjoy the wedding. Every time that I or anyone in the bridal party was stressed, all we had to do was just talk to Sarah for 5 minutes and we would all forget why we were even stressed. The way that she is so calm and collected is inexplicable. All our guests are still raving about how everything was well planned and organized and it could have NEVER been possible without the help of Sarah. I have said this to Sarah many times that I could never do what she does for a living considering the amount of stress she has to deal with and yet manages to remain soooooooooooooooo calm. I used to think quotes for planners were extreme, now I think they cannot charge enough for the work they do. Seriously, without a doubt, even the thousands of dollars you might end up spending on a planner is worth EVERY penny because otherwise you will not enjoy all the other pennies that you spent on everything else since you will be too stressed out. I will not recommend anyone else as a planner for any occasion. DreamGroup is seriously your dream vendor.

Didn't even take the time to respond to a voicemail. Doesn't bode well for the time and attention a…read morebride deserves for her wedding day. Clearly they only want to work with some clients and if you do not fit the bill then they will not even respond. I would proceed with extreme caution. There are many other vendors out there, do your research.

I hired Filosophi as the 'day-of' coordinators for our wedding. I think it was one of the best…read moredecisions we made!! The ability to be stress-free on such an important day is invaluable. The girls were a huge help, even from a month out. They recommended reliable vendors, gave us great advice for do's and don'ts, and used their copious amount of wedding experience to help us choose a timeline that made the most sense. And, when it came time for them to take over communication with all of our vendors, I was so relieved to let go of the reins and just take time to relax. No follow ups, confirmations, problem solving, coordinating, just relaxing. I was a fairly organized bride with very clear visions of the decor set up... I found it SO comforting to know that every detail would be looked after on the day-of, and that none of my friends and family had to worry about doing anything either! We wanted to throw a great party that everyone could enjoy, and the last thing I wanted to do was assign tasks to everyone. There were a few hiccups throughout the day, some of which I didn't even find out about until the day after (sign of a great, calm coordinator!) I.e when it came time to go to the ceremony site, Margaux said there were a few more people trickling in, so let's have another mimosa and wait until everyone's ready. Turns out that it was the groom's parents and our ring bearer that were 30 minutes later than the agreed time! I'm SO glad I didn't know that. The photobooth was also an hour late, and Margaux took control of that - I never had to deal with it. She managed it so well that we ended up getting the 2h booth time for free! These girls are skilled at what they do, and they're extremely helpful and accommodating. There wasn't anything I threw at them that they didn't take in stride :-) They were worth every penny and I'd highly recommend them to anyone!

We were so absolutely glad that we hired Angela to help plan our wedding. Normally I wouldn't have…read moreconsidered hiring a wedding planner. But my mother wanted a slightly more elaborate wedding than I would have planned, and I was in an unfamiliar city, and having trouble finding resources. She helped me pull the wedding together in two months, with a very satisfactory price tag in the end. Now I think that if you can find a good wedding planner to work with, nearly every wedding should have a wedding planner. After all it's a fairly complicated event, with so many things that can go wrong; and by definition the couple planning the wedding usually have little experience with planning weddings. First, Angela is an enthusiastic, down to earth, sensible, real person. I got the impression from other interviews I did that among event planners, these are valuable and somewhat uncommon traits. Still, of course, she's got that glamorous side. She's amazingly effective, with a great sense of style of her own, and also very able to work with your style. She's well connected and excellent at digging up new resources, including those with good prices. She takes your budget seriously, and with her ability to comparison shop you get more bang for your buck. I really do believe that the money she saved us paid for her fee, and of course her help went far beyond resource and bargain-finding. Absolutely worth it. My only complaint was that she was stretching herself a little thin. I would have rather paid more, and gotten more of her undiluted focus and energy. But that was in retrospect--of course when we first hired her we were skeptical of the whole thing, and her affordable fee was reassuring. Also if you can hire your wedding planner further in advance of your wedding than we did, I'm sure that would make everything smoother! Our wedding was a fantastic, fun experience--not everyone can say that--and it was in large part thanks to Angela.

From the owner: "Throw out any ideas of "rules" when wedding planning and find out what is important to you as a…read morecouple". This is your special day, make your wedding about you and the memories that you are going to have for a lifetime.

Nicole and her team are absolutely fantastic!!!! Nicole was the lead planner and my goodness I…read moredon't know what I would have done without her help and guidance. Wedding planning is a full time job and it can be quite stressful but Nicole was always there to offer advice and calm my nerves. She is so personable, sweet and professional. She will always go above and beyond to make sure you are not overwhelmed. We chose to save money and not hire a decorator so Nicole and her team used the items we bought to decorate in the morning of the wedding day. The wedding day went smooth and they made sure to keep everything running on a timely matter. I could not recommend Nicole and her team enough and I would not hesitate for a second if you are looking for a planner to help you on your wedding. Thank you Nicole and team! We love you!

From the owner: Located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Above and Beyond Event Planning is a company that…read morespecializes in high-quality wedding and event planning services for couples looking for original and creative designs for their big day. Our team offers a hands-on approach to creating a wedding celebration that represents your vision and stays within your budget.

Shing weddings is an absolute delight to work with, Lisa is the wedding planner of your dreams, she…read moreis passionate, hard working, and always determined to turn your wedding dreams into a reality. If we could give Shing weddings a rating of 100 stars we would, they are the best that there is.

From the owner: The Shing Weddings team has successfully planned 300+ weddings and events. Known for their…read moreexcellent service, support, extensive knowledge of the hospitality and wedding industry. They will carefully plan, confirm all wedding details prior to the wedding day and on the wedding day, their Principal Planner, experienced team members and a Bridal Extraordinaire will be by the couple's side from start to finish Shing Weddings is a preferred planner for many of Vancouver's venues and vendors. Their work has been featured in the following publications: Real Weddings, Wedluxe, Burnett's Boards, Style Me Pretty, Love and Lavender, The Luxe Pearl, Wedding Chicks, Style Me Pretty, Wedding Bells, Cultural Weddings, The Source Newspaper, World Journal, Ming Pao, Gusto TV's show Where to I Do. Most recently, Shing Weddings was voted Vancouver's Top Wedding Planner in 2019 by Top Choice Awards Being in being diverse Vancouver, Shing Weddings is experienced in planning all weddings especially Asian weddings (Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Filipino, Japanese) and BONUS! they are fluent in verbal Cantonese, Mandarin and Vietnamese

Pearl was great in helping my daughter select a dress for her grad ceremony. Peal was patient and…read moretook the time to help my daughter alter her dress until it was just right!

Future brides! Do not go here!!! I ordered a wedding dress…read moreand it looked really bad. They are made in China and I don't know what kind of factory they use but it looked really cheap and the bust part wasn't even look the same. One part is pointier than the other part and they don't care about my dress either. Always same answer came back. "Nothing we can do about it" Horrible customer service and all they care is get the money from you. It is not handmade for sure and comparing the price I paid I could had bought much better looking dress from bhldn shop for cheaper price. There are so many much better bridal shops for dresses than bello in Vancouver or online shops. Choosing Bello was my biggest mistake and this place has given me lots of stress when you need to deal with other stuff to do. And also I tried to cancel my order the very next day and of course they refused. I strongly recommend not to go this place so no more upset brides because of this place.

Jordan with Fairy Godmother Weddings planned our wedding for us in June 2013 and I have to say,…read moreJordan and the entire team there are absolutely amazing! The number one thing I would recommend to any bride or groom who has a wedding to plan - large or small - is to work with a planner and to find somebody good early. We were referred to Fairy Godmother by another planner who couldn't work with us because of our budget (too small!), so we felt we were on good footing. We also heard great stuff from a friend who had worked with Jordan for their wedding the summer before, so again, the signs were all great from the start. Jordan's approach is fantastic and my husband and I both felt that she took the time to get to know us, and provided us with just the package and support we needed. She always had helpful ideas and suggestions when I needed some direction, and built on the vision we were creating for our big day. On the day itself, Jordan and her assistant Robyn were pure godsends. They helped smooth over family drama by providing 'professional' direction and advice to family members when needed (basically helping me keep things the way my husband and I wanted them without having to start any kind of family fuss because we could say it was all just being 'professional'), and they helped supervise all our friends and family who were helping out with various tasks. They dealt with vendors arriving and leaving and picking and dropping all the various items, and they even made sure we had food in our room at the end of the evening. I know I haven't even covered off all the things they did for us to make sure we had the most amazing day of our lives - all I can say is I had the most relaxing, fun-filled and stress-free day of my life on my wedding day - and I know not all brides can say that!! Thank you Jordan and the whole team at Fairy Godmother Weddings. I would highly recommend anybody work with you guys on planning - and executing - the wedding of their dreams!

They are now Smitten Events, and based on how they handled my wedding I think they need to…read moreseriously rethink what they take on. They promised us a perfect day and then proceeded to screw up royally on several fronts, most notably the decor and the day of coordination. Devon tried really hard but was in way over her head, Julien forgot all the important details and just did whatever she felt like instead of what we asked her to do, and Robyn was rude and incompetent.

Dear Marsha, Thank…read moreyou for helping us plan and execute such a beautiful destination wedding. The resort exceeded our expectations in every way. While there were a few bumps with the transfers that were a bit hard on some of the guests, they were small in comparison to the incredible memories created for all of us. Alexi and Travis had the best time of their lives, and so did we. We truly cannot recommend your wedding planning services enough. Having Harumi travel with us made such a difference, and I honestly believe the wedding ran so smoothly because of her coordination with the hotel's wedding team. Her calm presence, organization, and attention to detail helped make the entire experience seamless and enjoyable for everyone. Thank you both for helping create a wedding week we will never forget. Denean and Rob Lederer

Grand Sunset Princess, Mayan Riviera, Mexico…read more "My husband and I decided on a destination wedding in May 2011. We chose a travel agent who specialized in weddings to help us make the arrangements, due to our busy schedules and lack of knowledge when it came to wedding destinations and weddings as a whole. Despite that we live in Alberta, we wanted to utilize a knowledgable travel agent; someone who we could trust and rely on for our big day. We provided our travel agent, Marsha Steeves, with our vision, our budget and preferred dates. She made a few suggestions based on our criteria and the final destination was selected: The Grand Sunset Princess Resort. It was an amazing, well kept, massive and classy resort. We couldn't have been more pleased. We opted for her wedding planning service and she arranged everything right down to the table decorations. We didn't have to worry about a thing. It took all the stress away from planning a wedding. All we had to do was sit back and pick options sent to us. Marsha provided us with typed up itineraries planned down to the minute; the welcome dinner was arranged and personalized signs were set up; my bridesmaids and I all had hair, nail and makeup appointments scheduled and of course, served with champagne. The ceremony was held in a romantic gazebo right on the beach with the water as the backdrop; the cocktail hour and reception went without a glitch....and we lucked out with fantastic weather. It was the perfect wedding due to her organization and attention to detail. If we had to do it again, we wouldn't change a thing. Thank you so much Marsha Steeves Destination Weddings, Chris & Sonia