For two decades Alchemy Events has provided event coordination & design from their home base in New Orleans, producing events for clients who are looking for something truly unique. Whether it's a classic, over the top look to wow your guests or a non-traditional wedding that pushes the envelope, Alchemy Events produces events unlike any other, often incorporating breathtaking production elements & custom made installation pieces.
Featured in many publications & international blogs as both a contributor & with their client's weddings being featured, Alchemy Events owner Rena Sweeney only accepts a limited number of clients per year to make sure you are truly their focus. An expert in her field, she hasn't just been involved in multicultural or belief specific weddings, her unmatched expertise means she intimately understands & guides you through the planning process. This includes Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Assyrian, Celtic, Latin, Japanese, Lebanese, LGBTQ+, vegan, pet friendly weddings & more!
Alchemy Events does not offer set packages, as we have found that each client has needs unique to them. We offer a complimentary consultation after which a proposal for our coordination & design services will be sent. Day and month of event management is available on a limited basis with day-of being open for booking within 60 days of the event date. Rena also believes everyone should be able to benefit from a coordinator's advice so she also offers a one of a kind Master Plan package for clients who don't feel they need a full coordinator but would like vendor recommendations, advice, planning tools & more. This fantastic package is offered at just $500 to help get your planning off on the right foot!
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Frequently Asked Questions
Do you limit the amount or type of communication? No, we believe the more communication, the better, so each client is given Rena's cell number and can call, email or text at any time. Working with clients in many different time zones means we are also sensitive to working hours or time differences so we are flexible to meet our clients needs, whatever they may be.
Will you personally be at my event?Yes! I am personally on-site, hands-on with each event I produce and while I have staff that work alongside me, I am always the lead on each and every event that Alchemy Events produces! I don’t show up as you walk down the aisle or leave you in an associate’s hands after the first dance, I am there from start to finish.
How many weddings do you plan a year? I am dedicated to giving you the experience of a lifetime! As such, I typically plan no more than two events per month, however, that number is dependent on the scope of each event. I never book more than one event per weekend, ensuring you are my sole focus!
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Services Offered
Alchemy Events provides an extensive array of services including:
Event design
Full planning
Client Portal
Complimentary Wedding Website
Guest list Tracking
Vendor Recommendations
Contract Negotiations
Dance choreography
Floor plans
Timelines
To-do lists
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About Rena:
Rena has worked with weddings, private events, corporate & non-profit clients for two decades during which time she has both owned her company & also been the in-house coordinator for several New Orleans venues. She has also consulted on the building, design & staff training for another local venue. Rena was recently asked to be the Creative Director for New Orleans Weddings magazine. She is also on the Board of Directors of the Humane Society of Louisiana, where she is involved in fundraising, festival/event production, animal rescue, fostering, disaster relief & animal rights legislation.
Rena and her staff at Alchemy Events will go above and beyond your expectations. Rena began working with us a year before our wedding and it began with a consultation. She wanted to hear our vision and see how she could bring it to life. We talked with her for about an hour, sent over our engagement photos and it was a quick partnership from there. Through the planning process, Rena checked in regularly, came up with ideas, sent mood boards and asked for our input, connected us with vendors, and overall made the out of town planning process seamless. We even had a hiccup with the second line license and she was able to figure out an alternative smoothly. For day of planning, again Rena ensured everything was seamless. Our day was literal perfection and I know so much of that was due to Rena, her staff and the vendors she partnered us with. They got awesome behind the scenes pics too! We were able to actually enjoy our day and not stress because we had complete trust and faith in Rena and knew she had everything on lock.
If you have an event you need help planning, Alchemy Events is the best of the best. Rena has positive connections with so many vendors and professionals and is not afraid to stand ground for her clients if needed. She has such a sweet Southern nature with a badass, culturally-aware twist that is unmatched and she and her staff will not disappoint in planning any kind of event. We were scared we wouldn’t be able to find someone who vibed with us and our vision but Rena took our ideas to the next level and brought them to life.
Thank you Rena and Alchemy Events for joining our journey and making our day absolute perfection. Y’all will always hold a special place in our hearts and if we ever plan an event in New Orleans again, y’all will be first on our call list!
Sent on 11/16/2019
Alchemy Events's reply:
Renee, thank you so much for having us as part of you & Richie's wedding day! It was such a huge pleasure working with the two of you & I felt like we clicked from the get go too! It was a beautiful day for two beautiful people with beautiful souls & I feel so honored to have been part of it!
Rachel Young
· Married on 05/10/2019
5.0
Quality of service:
5.0
Responsiveness:
5.0
Value:
5.0
Flexibility:
5.0
Professionalism:
5.0
Best wedding decision we made!
Rena was AMAZING! I don’t know what we would have done without her. From the very beginning, she was always the most pleasant person to work with. We planned a cultural fusion wedding incorporating traditions from Indian, traditional American and New Orleans weddings. Her knowledge of all three was impressive and she never questioned us when we proposed an idea that involved combining multiple cultures. She always found a way to make it happen. She was particularly helpful in the last couple of weeks leading up to the event. We had to completely change our transportation plans last minute and she was on top of it reaching out to vendors before we even knew of the problem. She even found me a licensed and insured babysitter for the wedding at 10pm the night before the wedding! She has a great reputation within in the New Orleans wedding community, with multiple vendors telling me (unprompted) how much they enjoyed working with her. That’s how you know someone works hard, is dependable, and a professional, when others in the industry compliment her work. She also worked with our budget and helped us find vendors within our price range and come up with creative solutions to help us stay close to our budget.
Rena also has a great design eye. I didn’t have a very specific vision of what I wanted the décor on the tables to look like and I felt comfortable allowing her to create the table arrangements herself. Everything turned out so much more beautiful than I ever could have imagined! When we were looking at different venues, she suggested ways we could design and plan things, which was very helpful to me.
Rena and her team allowed us to enjoy our wedding without stress. Whatever issues came up (problems with the bustle), Rena had a solution. She fielded questions from friends and family members and allowed us to point them in her direction. At the end of the event, even my father-in-law (who can always find a problem with everything) was very complimentary of her and her staff. We were so happy with our decision to hire Rena for our wedding. Best decision we made during the wedding planning process!
Sent on 10/20/2019
Alchemy Events's reply:
Rachel, thank you so much for the wonderful review! I loved working with you & Jimmy so much & the kind words your father-in-law gave me at the end of the night meant a lot to me as well. I'm so glad to hear that you heard great things about me from other vendors as well! It's so nice to hear that everyone was complimentary and on the flip side, all of the vendors loved working with the two of you as well! Thank you so much for selecting me to be part of this journey with you; wishing you many more years of love & happiness!
Vanesha
· Married on 04/20/2019
5.0
Quality of service:
5.0
Responsiveness:
5.0
Value:
5.0
Flexibility:
5.0
Professionalism:
5.0
Rena is amazing and I recommend her 100%
TL/DR Rena is amazing and I recommend her 100%
I started working with Rena after having difficulties with a previous planner. By the time I approached her, I already had 25% of the main wedding details like venue, hotel, and some vendors finalized (although I wish I had worked with her from the get go, then lots of red tape that we came across would have been a lot easier). When I first reached out to her, I was frantic, desperate, and extremely stressed. As most brides, I have a very demanding job, very tight budget, and absolutely no time. Planning a New Orleans wedding from New York City started to feel like an extremely daunting task.
As soon as Rena signed up, everything seemed to start falling into place. She took charge but also made sure that all my dreams and wishes came true, she listened to what my parents had to suggest, and what my husband needed, all while staying in my budget! She helped me make decisions by breaking everything down in the simplest of manner and she was extremely respectful of my time and schedule (even though she was planning MY wedding!). I'm not going to lie, my budget stretched like chewing gum, but that was mostly because I wanted what I wanted. Rena did an amazing job of always presenting me with all my options in a range of prices, and ultimately everything was my decision. Even when she found me very affordable vendors, they did a pretty amazing job and I have no complaints with any of them. There was one major issue where one of the biggest vendors quit a month before the wedding, I was in complete panic mode, but with Rena's help, we were able to find alternative options with whom I was extremely pleased.
Not only was Rena a wedding planning life saver, she went so much beyond that. There were times when the stress started getting to me and it started affecting my personal life, I remember calling her and asking her help in making some decisions that felt very difficult to make that were causing an impasse between my husband and me, or my parents and me, but she was able to walk me through the decision making process and give me guidance that made a real difference.
There were some day-of issues that I'm sure all weddings have. I think if we had gone through the sequence of events and what was important and what was okay to skip in case of time delays, we would have been slightly better off, but ultimately, all I remember from my wedding weekend is being extremely happy, laughing my butt off, and being the most carefree and relaxed bride I could be. I had complete trust in Rena and her ability to handle all the details, and she did not disappoint. As I mentioned earlier, I recommend her 100%, not just as a wedding planning service, but as a true partner in making your wedding dreams come true.
Sent on 10/14/2019
Alchemy Events's reply:
Vanesha, thank you so much for this review! I loved working with you & Shajib to create the beautiful weekend of celebration for you & your families! I hope you have many more years of love & happiness together and always look back on your New Orleans wedding fondly. Thank you for selecting Alchemy Events for your wedding!
