Here's the thing, dear review reader. Brevity is the soul of wit and I hope you will find this review both succinct and informative. Then you can promptly book Holly so that she may, for a time, shine her light on a special moment in your life.

If I could give six stars I would. Holly is like a 3-star Michelin chef but her kitchen is your venue and your event is the dish she carefully and lovingly crafts with all your favorite ingredients. Not just my partner and I were blown away by the creativity, attention to detail, and professionalism that Holly brought to our wedding--but our guests shared in that sentiment as well. Many claiming it was "one of, if not the best wedding" they've ever been to. You can't put a price on that. And if you read any of these other reviews, you will see this feedback is common. Talk about consistency!

Lastly, I want to state the obvious. Not only does Holly bring the above noted qualities to the table but she also carries with her an impressive catalog of world-class vendors who can assist in elevating your event into the stratosphere. When it comes to creative, uniquely you events - do not make the mistake of hiring anyone else.

Holly is enthusiastic, visionary, and can-do. She assembled a top-flight team of vendors for our LGBTQ wedding, all women- or LGBTQ-owned. She went to bat for everything we wanted and then some. Her generosity and good cheer knows no bounds. And she created an elegant, unique look for our wedding and had everything planned to the minute, while remaining calm and flexible. A joy to work with.

Hiring Holly was the second-best decision we made when it came to our wedding – second only to our decision to marry each other! Not only is she a wedding planner, but she’s also a wedding designer, and WOW did she design a gorgeous wedding for us.

We are a couple of nerdy people whose interests lie in tabletop and video games, fantasy, and sci-fi… but our tastes are also upscale and trendy. We weren’t sure how to combine those to make our wedding feel like us, which we expressed to Holly several times over the course of our initial design phase. Holly assured us she would design something that felt perfect for us, so that when guests entered the space, it would feel like it couldn’t possibly be anyone else’s wedding. We literally got that feedback from our guests, word-for-word! You get a truly unique wedding when you work with Holly, uniquely you!

As a same-sex couple, it was important to us that our vendors were queer-affirming. It’s also important to us to spend our money with small businesses, and the fact that Anything But Gray Events is a small, woman-owned business meant we were aligning our spending with our values. She also works exclusively with queer-affirming vendors, so having a list of vendors to choose from that are prescreened to not only be within the budget range we expressed, but also would align with our values, was a huge weight off our shoulders. Planning a wedding in LA makes the vendor options seem endless (in a completely overwhelming way), so having Holly to guide us through the process made things so much easier and saved us a massive amount of time and stress.

The whole time we were planning this wedding with Holly, we kept reiterating how grateful we were to have her. We got to make the fun and creative decisions, still have a ton of input, but not have to spend time and effort on the discussions about things like the distance between the DJ setup and the nearest outlet at the venue. Plus a million other little things that we never had to know or worry about. She also helped us navigate through mishaps we would have had no idea how to fix; she was always quick to find a solution to anything that came up.

One of us worked as a production manager on commercial shoots for many years, and the other one planned large scale events at a university. We could see the similarities between those experiences and planning a wedding, so it’s understandable that for some people, there may be a temptation to plan your wedding on your own because the skills are transferable. We’re here to tell you that they’re really not! Every decision seems so important and personal, you’ll feel much more supported when you have an actual wedding professional to guide you. No amount of internet wedding checklists and tools can replace the experience, talent and support of a professional like Holly.

So many of our guests said ours was the best wedding they’d ever been to, including their own! No detail was out of place, and the experience was seamless and perfectly encapsulated us as a couple. If you want a wedding planner who’s a kick-ass problem solver, an inspired creative, and a wonderful person who lives her values, you need to hire Holly!

In an age of self-checkout and self-service, Holly Gray offers a complete and comprehensive event planning service. Holly makes a concerted effort to immerse herself in every aspect of an event, ensuring that it is a wholly complete and thoroughly thought-out and amazing affair. My partner and I were lucky enough to hire Holly to handle the event planning aspects of our wedding. We believe that wedding and event planning is an absolute art. While sometimes the finished product and the artist can be worlds apart; in the case of Holly Gray, both she and her events are incredibly similar. If you haven’t yet had the chance to meet Holly in person, she is elegant, stylish, refined, adaptable and collaborative, yet she is be fun, funny, witty, and always professional and incredibly original. My partner and I would suggest that our experience in working with Holly for our incredible wedding weekend was and is a reflection of her as a person and as an artist! She gave us her all to make our wedding weekend a resounding success that we will recall and look back on fondly for the rest of our lives. In the weeks and now month since our wedding, guests still contact us and tell us that we had the most amazing wedding that they’ve ever attended. It is such a joy to hear such kind compliments. However, a lot of the credit should go to Holly and her team. In fairness to Holly, my partner and I are not the easiest of clients. We both have a history of event planning and hosting events for clients as well as hiring and working with vendors. Therefore, we were likely more opinionated and fastidious about certain details than other clients. To Holly’s credit, she embraced this and made quick work to collaborate and work with each of our vendors. In addition, we believe that this is a testament to Holly’s talent and her superb organizational skills, as well as ability to be flexible and to do what it takes to get the job done. Although many aspects were pre-selected by us, there were many things that only someone like Holly with her industry and vendor connections could handle and execute. Moreover, Holly was able to sift through the hours of discussion and a sea of options to help my partner and I decide on a theme(s) for our events. Holly paid close attention to details with the specific issues of our wedding venue and the nature of the area helped ensure that our wedding looked beyond great. As anyone who has has hosted a special event will attest after the countless hours of work, preparation and attention to every detail, there comes a point that one must hand over the reins to fate and to the people you’ve entrusted to assure that everything will run smoothly. When you are fortunate enough to work with Holly Gray, you can rest assured that you are in the most capable of hands, that details will be and/or are being handled with the utmost care and consideration. Indeed, we would work with Holly again! We highly recommend her to couples and organizations looking to plan an event that requires finesse and originality, elegance and refinement, but that is thoroughly fun and unforgettable!

Wedding planning involves a lot of details, a lot of work. One can easily get lost in the weeds of things, forget what the big picture is all about, and totally miss out on the moments big and small leading to and on the day itself. Luckily, we had Holly with us every step of the way! As a one-woman force of nature who has surrounded herself with an amazing growing network of vendors who equally just “gets it,” Holly made the wedding planning process generally enjoyable and stress free. We are very busy folks and so while we wanted to pay attention to the wedding planning, we did not want it to take over our lives for an entire year. With Holly leading the charge, we were able to put together a concept, iterate, and turn it into reality with all the logistics it requires without spending hours upon hours worrying. The best way to describe the process: we only had to think about the wedding planning when Holly asked us to. Honestly, that there, is worth having Holly in your team.

We had a seemingly quirky prompt of “bricks and bamboos; Legos and pandas” that we knew will baffle many run-of-the-mill wedding planners. Not Holly though. Having worked with other couples from the LGBTQ community before, Holly understands what “queering” weddings mean. We draw from while also question standards; we revere while also provoke traditions. Holly’s portfolio reflect these and we are glad to add a splash of Mondrian, panda bears, Lego bricks, and Filipino pride to the mix.

She heard us and made sense of our ideas. She creatively explored options while also recognized our uncertainties. She pushed when needed but always made sure we were comfortable. She was professional while also being fun to be around. She translated & tempered our expectations, and coordinated & cared for our team of vendors. She assuaged our concerns, gave us time, and delivered as promised (and then some). She. Just. Gets. It.

A week before our wedding day there was barely anything left to do or worry about. Our friends kept on asking us if there’s anything else they can help with leading to the wedding and we just responded with a shrug. Many were flabbergasted that we were so calm, not running around checking in on details or working on last minute stuff. A big reason why this is the case is because Holly had things covered since Day 1. Having built trust with each other through the months of working together, we knew everything will go well. If ever things go astray (which, btw, they did not), we knew that Holly and the rest of the team will smoothly roll with it and deliver. If like us you would rather focus on spending quality time with friends and family right before the wedding and not worry at all about the big day, then Holly’s got your back.

On our wedding day, we remained calm allowing us to really savor each detail, each beat, and every single moment. Holly made sure everything ran smoothly. She made sure that we the couple, our guests, and our team of vendors were taken care of. The evening was filled with overwhelming love, sheer joy, and absolute fun. Every single detail that Holly worked on enabled all of us to focus on celebrating together as a community.

Holly’s colorful orchestration created not only an event, but a space that spoke to and of us. It was a space that felt safe and welcoming. It was a space that enabled us to celebrate love in all its shades. Thank you, Holly!

You will make hundreds, if not thousands, of decisions about your wedding. The absolute best decision we made was hiring Holly of ABGE as our planner, and doing it early in the process.

Every other choice stemmed from Holly’s base of expertise, creativity, organizational skills, and network. She listened to our ideas and vision, and made them better than we ever could have hoped, in a way that felt fully, uniquely, and unmistakably us. Holly does not do cookie-cutter weddings!

Over the course of more than a year, Holly got to know us, our personalities, and our tastes. She broke down the intimidating process into digestible tasks, spread out over key time periods, so we were never overwhelmed. We are an LGBTQ+ Jewish couple, and she incorporated our traditions and kept the whole experience inclusive, meaningful, and fun.

With Holly comes a legion of inclusive professional relationships. She makes tailored recommendations on floral designers, photographers, stationers, beauty experts, clothing designers, and more.

By encouraging us to be true to ourselves with every creative choice and hired vendor, Holly crafted the elevated, colorful, romantic fairytale wedding of our dreams. Simply put, she made magic happen.

It would be enough to recommend ABGE by saying the end result was, according to our guests, the “best wedding ever” and “the Met Gala of weddings.” Our officiant, who has decades of experience, said it was the best he’d ever seen. And it was those things.

But Holly was also a shoulder to cry on when life threw curveballs at us, and she was a steady hand to guide us through the emotional process of wedding planning. Her empathy was as essential as her creativity in making our wedding as special as it was.

You can’t do better than Holly, seriously.

Holly is everything you want to help make your wedding day truly magical! We started planning with Holly prior to the pandemic, which pushed our wedding date several times. This made our wedding date 2 years later than planned. Nevertheless, Holly continued to work with us and made planning our engagement photo shoot and wedding simple and easy; she broke down everything that we needed to do in an organized manner. We love Disney and wanted to have a Tower of Terror theme. We were blown away at her ideas and the attention to detail that were intertwined throughout the ceremony and reception. It was so much fun getting to brainstorm ideas with her during our planning sessions. Her final vision helped to transform the venue into a spooky, run-down hotel that included our guests checking in at a registration desk. Our guests are still talking about how impressed they were with the all the details and theming. The multitude of vendors that were recommended by Holly are top-notch. The invitations, flowers, and a working elevator that was used for our grand entrance as well as a photo booth, were works of art. Know that if you have the opportunity to work with Holly you will not be disappointed!

Okay, I'm gonna cut to the chase right from the jump: HIRE HOLLY GRAY!!!! Holly helped us, for over a year, plan a nearly 200 person wedding that was at a BEAST of a venue and never once did she bat an eye. She is capable of everything you throw at her and more. She leads her business with endless kindness and joy. She will take your ideas and vision and create an EXPERIENCE for your guests. She comes from being a stage manager and she treats the whole day like it's a big show. Truly, the majority of my guests told me that our wedding was the best wedding they've ever been to. As much as my wife and I would love to take sole credit for that, it was all Holly Gray and her team of incredible vendors. Someone literally said "Did Steven Speilberg direct this wedding?" No, even better. Holly Gray did. Now, what are you doing reading this review?! Go hire her!

Holly Gray Events Review

Where to begin with sweet Holly Gray! From start to finish, Holly had our best interests at heart, with advice and suggestions to ensure we were choosing the right vendors and making the right choices for our needs. She brings a big, fun energy, with a professionalism that gets the job done! Even though we had a very clear vision with what we wanted the aesthetic of the wedding to be, Holly helped us refine the details, knowing the space, and what would work best to achieve our dream wedding! She collaborated with our vendors and came up with the perfect creations for us. She was considerate, and caring, and took time with us. Holly kept us well informed of the ongoing changes and challenges 2021 brought to the wedding industry, and communicated with our venue and vendors with every aspect of the wedding. Holly provides this incredible support that you don’t realize you need until you’re in the thick of planning your wedding! Once the big day arrived, we had the most spectacular day, and are still talking about how magical every little detail was! We truly could not have managed every aspect of our wedding with the style and grace that Holly did. We cannot recommend enough that you all get yourselves a Holly Gray for your big day!

From the bottom of our hearts - Holly, thank you for everything.

Listen, I wish my review could just be me reaching through your screen, grabbing you by the shoulders, looking into your eyes and intensely whispering, “HIRE. HOLLY.” I already knew she did good work since she planned my sister in law’s wedding, but I had no idea just how far above and beyond she’d go to give us our perfect day.

From the first meeting, she was professional, fun, and really LISTENED to what we wanted. There were a few aspects of our wedding that we were really picky about, but mostly we had no idea what we were doing. I don’t have an eye for design, but I know what I like. We were able to describe the general vibe we were going for, and she NAILED IT. From the design to the rentals, to the venue itself, everything was spot on.

At the beginning of the planning process, she would send us a list of vendors for us to interview, we’d make our selection, and she’d do the dirty work of declining the others and sending me the contract. Every referral was so good, by the end of the process she’d just suggest a name and I’d say, “Book it! I trust you!” For the things we were picky about (like food and drinks) she’d work with us and go through every detail. For the things we cared less about (like florals) she’d suggest a vendor, choose the design, and just send us the paperwork for approval. We were as hands-on or hands-off as we wanted to be, which allowed us to focus on the fun parts of planning.

Our wedding was originally booked for October of 2020. When we made the tough decision to postpone, she reached out to all our vendors, cross-referenced their 2021 availability dates, and sent us a list of all the dates that would work. The woman basically COPIED AND PASTED our wedding on a new date. We didn’t lose a single vendor! Better yet, she kept in communication with the vendors, got the new paperwork, kept track of any additional payments/deposits, and kept everything organized for us.

Holly also had some great suggestions when we needed advice. For example, I wanted a way to honor my late father without bumming everybody out. She arranged to have the catering company (who were serving tacos) make my dad’s famous salsa recipe, and had our paper goods vendor create a sign board with his recipe printed on it. When my sister took a bite she exclaimed, “This is dad’s salsa! They nailed it!” I never would have thought of such a fun and touching way to honor my father; it was perfect.

The day itself went off without a hitch. If there were problems, we didn’t know about them! Every vendor showed up on time, everything was high-quality, and it was a blast. Our guests couldn’t stop talking about how cool the venue was, how fun the event was, how everything was so uniquely US. My uncle later told me he’d never seen a bride so relaxed on her wedding day. I told him, “It’s because I didn’t have to worry about anything!” And I truly didn’t. Yesterday my husband asked me, “Would you have done anything differently?” My honest answer was, “I wish I would have asked for more salsa and cilantro on my tacos.”

Having Holly with us through the process allowed us to focus on celebrating and enjoying our wedding. Thank you for being our superhero!