Happy Vowentines Day!
My now husband and I got married five days ago, on Valentine's Day 2026. At the recommendation of one of my oldest friends, who had hired Kayla for her own wedding last September and LOVED working with her, I cold-called her in early January. She picked up on the third ring, and our magical journey of working together began!!!
Kayla saved our wedding. We had been doing it ourselves up until then, and I only regret not bringing her on sooner as our day-of coordinator. She is a genius, and it was a real joy to get to know her and spend so much time with her.
In the month before our wedding, Kayla attended our final venue walkthrough with us, the museum event staff, and our caterer; she held weekly planning/touchbase calls with us; she was available by text and email; and she was on-site for our rehearsal at the venue the afternoon before, and was at the venue from 3 p.m. - 12 a.m. on the day of our wedding (our ceremony was at 6 p.m.) She was a perfect emcee and got along soooooo well with all of our vendors. She answered all our questions (how much do we tip our vendors? what actually happens during a rehearsal? how long should each speech be?) and also floofed my dress before I walked down the aisle so it would be photo-ready.
Another key is that Kayla is the best person to have in charge during an unexpected emergency. A few folks—both venue staff and our guests—smelled smoke on the first floor, and after a thorough initial search by the staff where the smell lingered but the cause was still unclear, they called the fire department. And as such, 20 minutes before our wedding was set to end, we all had to evacuate the building. And WOW, what a great person to make that announcement, keep all 100 of our guests calm and on task, and make sure everyone got outside safely, where they either hopped on board the bus to take them back to our hotel, or came back inside for one or two last dances before calling it a night. We are so lucky that the firefighters (so brave! so strong! so handsome! they took a picture with us!) were in and out within a few minutes, we are so lucky that there wasn't a fire, and we areso lucky that the venue prioritized our safety and our loved ones' safety, knowing that they might make us angry/annoy our guests in the process. We are confident that they made the right decision to call the fire department. But even in the best case scenario, which is what we had, this required a lot of on-the-spot action and reaction, and Kayla handled it like a total pro. Calm, cool, collected, and authoritative without being forceful or aggressive. And as a result, I, the bride, was barely aware of what was happening. "Oh, it's time to go outside now." "Oh, the fire department is here." "Oh, good, they're giving us the all clear." Also, our DJ brought out a boombox and played "Hot to Go" for us in the courtyard, and we all danced. So it ended up being epic.
Also she made sure no one bothered us while we were eating dinner. She let us hide out during the cocktail hour. And she helped with set up and break down and everything was so perfect and well organized and executed.