If you want a wedding planner who will actually roll up their sleeves and run the traps on all of the nitty gritty details of your wedding from start to finish, no matter how complicated things get during the planning or on the day of your event, and who will do it with grace and professionalism, you should hire Cathy. If you want to leave all of that up to chance, hire someone else, but I promise you will regret it. My husband and I were in no position to take on the complexity of our vision on a 9 month timeline and Cathy was honest with us at every turn about what it would take to get things done. On the day of my wedding when a forecasted squall threatened the evacuation of our tent, Cathy calmly came to find me during hair and makeup, helped me appreciate the options, and then personally moved heaven and earth to make an alternative cocktail hour plan happen as the storm passed.

Cathy is a hard-working, honest, experienced planner. She knows every vendor in the Hudson Valley. She chases people down and will not rest until there's an answer (e.g. given a very bad peach harvest this year, how will I source 250 peaches to achieve my client's vision?) When you’re writing check after check for your wedding and the thought crosses your mind — “can I even trust this person?” Um, yes, I would trust Cathy with most anything. She is not the wedding planner you see on TV or that your friends lament “didn’t even do anything”. Oh, no. Cathy will keep you on track week by week, organized in GoogleDrive, and even on top of things she’s not contractually responsible for (e.g. have you selected accessories yet? How is honeymoon planning going?), and then, when cocktail hour is going swimmingly and the first rain drops start to fall, she will just APPEAR with an umbrella over your head like she is ACTUALLY MARY POPPINS. She excels at the knowledge work, the hard work (turns out this can be a very physical job!) and is very service-oriented with families and guests.

I was perhaps the happiest I have ever been on my wedding day and I know that having a trusted, experienced planner like Cathy (and her team!) — who genuinely cared about us, our families, and our friends — gave me the freedom to enjoy my day to the maximum. There is no greater gift to give yourself.

Cathy Ballone is, hands down, the very best of the best. You hear horror stories about some wedding planners, so we went into our own planning journey with low expectations. But working with Cathy makes us want to do the whole thing over again (and again!), because yes, she’s that good.

Words cannot convey how fortunate we are to have found Cathy, and that she was willing to take us on with such little notice. Our first venue unexpectedly fell through with only months to spare, and she literally saved the day. We were recommended Cathy’s services while searching for a new venue, and needless to say, our wedding quite literally would not have happened without her incredible professionalism and stellar attention to detail.

Hiring Cathy is like having a new best friend who is on call, 24/7, to help you achieve the wedding of your dreams. She’s warm, she’s funny, and she strikes just the right balance between keeping your nerves calm while gently nudging to make sure deadlines are met and vendor agreements are finalized on time. We had weekly planning phone calls in the months leading up to our wedding, which we genuinely miss having. During these calls we ran through a multitude of meticulously organized checklists (that Cathy provides, via Google Drive) which helped to keep everything on track, ensuring that every task item was completed on time and that there was plenty of buffer space in case contingencies arose. But outside of planning, Cathy always took the time on every call to ask how we were doing and how life was going, which was an added personal touch that made the process much more enjoyable and much less formal than you would expect.

Additionally, no matter what time of day or where she was, Cathy was available (and promptly replied) to every inquiry and question we had, regardless of how small. This was especially impressive given all the other weddings she was simultaneously planning, and made us feel like our wedding was the only one she was focused on. Very few people on this planet have that kind of energy (she wakes up every day - naturally - at 4 AM!) or knack for high-level multitasking, but Cathy is truly blessed with both. Truly a white-glove service experience.

Following our weeks of planning together, we went into our weekend with full confidence — not only that things would go smoothly — but that our vision would be realized. But nothing could prepare us for just how great the weekend went and how beautiful everything turned out to be, from the seamless vendor coordination to the flowers & decor to the venue setup, with all credit going to Cathy (who was equipped with, along with her team, a wireless comms system, not unlike an NFL coaching staff orchestrating your very own Super Bowl). As an added bonus, Cathy – a fan of many things outside of planning, including birding and meteorology – has her own weather forecasting spreadsheet (containing formulas she developed herself!) that kept us calm about the forecast in the days leading up to our date. Her weather predictions ended up being spot on, and even though the official NOAA forecast was calling for rain, it ended up being -- as her spreadsheet had predicted -- a perfect, cloudless, sunny weekend. Talk about going the extra mile!

All in all, we cannot more highly recommended Cathy Ballone to anyone looking to plan a wedding in the Hudson Valley area and beyond. No one does it better than her. With Cathy on your team, you are in the best of hands.

Working with Cathy was truly one of the best decisions we made for our wedding! She partnered with us for over a year and a half, guiding us through every step — from the venue search and vendor selection to decor, design, and all the tiny details in between.
Cathy is the most organized person you will ever meet. She kept us on track with regular calls, detailed timelines, and comprehensive documents that made the entire process feel manageable and stress-free. Beyond her impeccable organization, Cathy was always our biggest advocate — whether negotiating with the venue, communicating with vendors, or helping navigate delicate family dynamics, she always had our best interests at heart.
Her vendor recommendations were spot-on, and she was endlessly patient when we wanted to talk through every little decision (no matter how small!). We always felt supported and heard, and on the wedding day itself, everything ran seamlessly thanks to her meticulous planning and calm presence.
We truly can’t imagine going through this process without Cathy! She’s professional, thoughtful, and genuinely cares about her couples. If you want someone who will make your wedding vision come to life while keeping you sane throughout the process, Cathy is the one!

Cathy planned our wedding in September of 2025 and we are so happy and thankful that we had her leading our event! We would 100% recommend Cathy to any couples interested in hiring her and her team.

Cathy’s communication from our first call through the wedding day was best-in-class and she was always available to answer any questions we had. In the wedding planning process, it can be daunting to even know where to begin, but Cathy made everything so clear for us and set us up for success by using her deep experience and knowledge of local vendors to simplify the decision-making process. From there, Cathy did an incredible job of keeping us on track with bi-weekly calls and a running to-do list for us to tackle, while behind the scenes working with all of our vendors to allow for everything to come into place.

When it came to wedding day and the weeks leading up, Cathy made everything so smooth for us, our families and our wedding party. On the wedding day, we were able to just focus on enjoying the day knowing that Cathy had everything handled!

Cathy was a wonderful and thorough wedding planner at our son and daughter in law’s wedding. We teased her that she had a “Mary Poppin’s purse.” For example, one of the groomsmen’s tuxedo arms were too long. Cathy had a supply of safety pins in her purse and was able to fix the tuxedo before the ceremony. Cathy was around and available at all times but wasn’t in the spotlight. We highly recommend her.

We knew Cathy was the right fit for us as soon as we got off the first call. We needed somebody to bring structure, experience, honesty, and attention to detail for an 7 month planning process. Cathy gave off that first impression and delivered in spades.

To illustrate an example of Cathy's approach that worked well for us: Cathy set up a shared Google Drive, budget, timeline, and biweekly calls, where we only focused on the decisions / discussions that had to happen at that point in time and didn't needlessly worry about the rest. We were in a very busy season at work, and this allowed us to direct the limited mindshare that we had to the right things at the right time.

Furthermore, Cathy has experience working with the best vendors across the Hudson Valley. We trusted her to give us honest advice and a range of options that honoured our preferences and price points - particularly helpful for a couple based in Brooklyn and could not always visit vendors ourselves. She also knows the best sandwiches in town for when we did visit.

Finally, Cathy worked tirelessly behind the scenes during our actual wedding weekend to make it truly more than we could have hoped for, while we got to be carefree and present (seriously, we went jogging through the trails and had bagels the morning of!) She monitored the evolving rain situation all day, with backup plans in place. She translated every detail from our conversations to execution (including pulling off adapted Chinese / British tea ceremony, and making sure we both had change of clothing for the after party in case of rain or sweat). And she coordinated with our vendors and wedding party, so we didn't have to field any questions.

Thank you, Cathy! We strong recommend her planning services.

Cathy is excellent. We felt a connection with her on our very first call, and we thoroughly enjoyed working with her throughout the entire 15 month-long process. She is organized, methodical, and was our partner and advocate every step of the way. Cathy brings expert knowledge and special thoughtfulness to planning. She knew the best vendors in the Hudson Valley to work with to execute our vision of a lush and vibrant summer wedding with our guests’ experience at the forefront.

She advised us through decisions large and small, listening to our ideas, spending countless hours working through the details with us, making expert recommendations. Cathy built and managed thoughtful, detailed timelines for the planning process and our wedding day. We came to rely on her as our trusted advisor, and felt assured that she cared as much about the finer details as we did. In the end, all our hard work together paid off. We had an absolute blast on our wedding day, and knowing Cathy was in charge played a key role in our enjoyment.

Moments before the ceremony began, Cathy discovered that Christine’s veil had been forgotten, and Cathy took off running to recover it. Another planner might have overlooked a detail like this, but Cathy took notice and immediate action to ensure our wedding went according to plan.

Heavy rain was on the forecast for our wedding day. Cathy diligently monitored the weather conditions during the weeks prior, and ensured our rain plan was in place the week of. The morning of the wedding, the weather appeared to have stabilized enough for us to proceed with our original ceremony plan. Nevertheless, Cathy remained prepared and had golf umbrellas at the ready for us.

We absolutely loved working with Cathy and would hire her again in a heartbeat. Along the way, vendors who had worked with Cathy in the past spoke highly of her work and genuinely seemed relieved (on all our behalves) that we had chosen her as our partner in bringing our dream wedding into reality. So are we!

We recommend Cathy’s planning services highly and without hesitation.

We cannot recommend Cathy highly enough. From our first contact with her, it was clear that we were over our heads planning a wedding, but the solution was simple: Cathy. Cathy immediately worked with us to create a vision board that made sure we all were talking a common language and had a singular vision. From there, biweekly meetings made sure we were making the progress we needed. Even better, between those meetings, Cathy was always available (both quickly over text and for in-the-weed phone calls). No detail is missed, because Cathy won’t let it be missed; she creates a masterfully organized Google Drive to make sure we are all working with the same documents and that nothing gets lost. We cannot emphasize enough how much easier life is with Cathy! I wish we could hire her to just run our lives forever.
If all the planning, contracts, vendor work, and tough love wasn’t enough, Cathy took it to the next level on our wedding day. In the midst of a torrential downpour, Cathy dug irrigation trenches to prevent our ceremony tent from flooding and got a friend to bring a tractor to help move a tree that was down and blocking the driveway to our venue. Then, because my wedding dress wasn’t bustled high enough, Cathy did emergency stitch work, while I ate dinner to make sure I could cut up the dance floor. Those are no hyperboles; Cathy literally did hard manual labor and on the spot seamstress work to assure we had the perfect day. And the best part, we had no idea either of those near catastrophic events had occurred. Nope, Cathy made our wedding day seem effortless and perfect, when without her it would have been the opposite of both.
In summary, Cathy has the organizational infrastructure to make your wedding planning seamless, a deep rolodex of vendors to make sure you have the right ones on your day and has seen it all. If you choose Cathy to work with you on your wedding day, you will end up wondering how you could have done it any other way.

Cathy is the most organized person I may have ever met! She was on top of every aspect of our wedding from A-Z. She helped me stay organized with spreadsheets, files, and even let me mail items directly to her to bring to the wedding so I didn't have to worry about setting things up myself. She provided a level of organization I didn't know I needed, and the whole day ran completely smoothly. She was a lifesaver! Highly recommend!!!

Cathy was friendly, flexible, accommodating and professional from the very beginning. I couldn't recommend her more. Anything we threw out there as far as ideas or thoughts was well received without any judgment or pushing us to go in either direction. I felt very taken care of, heard and she followed through on every part of the planning we needed. Cathy's organization was something I have not seen before- extremely reliable and always following through on tasks not only on her end but made sure we did our job as well. I felt like she really cared about our happiness for the wedding weekend and not that it was just a job to her. I was very impressed and would hire her for anything in the future.