Zakiya was the absolute best decision I made for my July 2025 wedding! I initially reached out to Zakiya in November 2024 thinking I only wanted day-of decor help, being that I was a (mostly) DIY bride. However, I quickly realized that Zakiya's partial planning services would be much needed in the months leading up to my wedding, especially given that her rates were competitive given her experience. From our very first screening call to the follow-up on the days following my wedding, she executed everything perfectly. She is organized, detail-oriented, professional, and a great leader. She has professional experience in the event planning industry that shows in the work she does for weddings. I received so many compliments from my family and friends about her! Our planning meetings were productive, and our rehearsal and wedding day went off without a hitch thanks to her perfect day-of timeline and her direction and leadership of my team of vendors. She also has a great eye for design and helped make my DIY visions come to life, both with design guidance in the months leading up to the wedding, as well as physical set-up and break-down on the day of. While wedding planning can always be stressful, it was a lot less stressful after I hired Zakiya. I truly could not have done it without her. I could not recommend Zakiya and Event Z enough!

Zakiya made our wedding day truly amazing. She helped us feel so organized- she thought of both the small and big details that made the day run smoothly. She brought us so much peace of mind the day of the event, which allowed us to relax and enjoy the day. She spent so much time with us before the wedding to make sure everything was coordinated and ready to go. We cannot recommend her enough!

I am so so glad we hired Zakiya to guide our wedding. My then fiance and I had an idea of how we wanted the event to feel but no clear path for how to make it happen. Zakiya listened to what we wanted and helped us to pull the event together in an enjoyable and cohesive way. Additionally, she kept us on track in terms of hiring vendors, planning decor, and staying on budget. I loved meeting with her, sometimes it felt like the most productive 30 minute meeting of my week. The other vendors enjoyed working with her so much that our wedding venue asked if she would be open to planning their non wedding events for them. I would highly recommend hiring Zakiya to plan or coordinate your wedding regardless of wedding size or budget.

I was looking for a day-of wedding planner for my daughter’s wedding in November 2024. The planning was a bit complicated because neither the bride or groom nor I live in Illinois, but Zakiya thought of every detail and made the day seamless.
I interviewed several wedding planners and found most spent time telling me how the wedding should look, a cookie cutter version of weddings they’d done in the past. Not Zakiya! She asked what my daughter’s vision was and then discussed how we could make that happen. My daughter’s vision involved over 500 candles, and Zakiya didn’t bat an eye. Set up 300 candles before the ceremony? No problem! Set up and light another 200 candles during the cocktail hour? No problem!
Zakiya also established the timeline, worked with our vendors, and kept the day running smoothly. We were on schedule all day but never felt rushed. She thought of every detail, and was actively involved with rounding up people for pictures, encouraging people to sign the guest book and leave a message on the audio guest book. Zakiya worked hard to make sure all the guests had rescue slippers, dance floor props, bubbles and bubble guns for the bride and groom’s grand exit. We encouraged the guests to take as many candles home with them as they wanted, Zakiya was right there with boxes for people to use to carry their candles home at the end of the night.
We had many wonderful individual vendors and a stunning venue, but the day only worked because Zakiya pulled it all together and got them all perfectly synchronized. And her efforts did not go unnoticed! In fact, I’ve had several family and friends comment specifically on Zakiya’s hard work, organization, and professionalism.
Best of all, Zakiya is easy and fun to work with. Having her as our day-of coordinator was one of the best decisions we made!
Laura S. (MOB) November 2024

We are so thankful we worked with Zakiya to help plan and coordinate our wedding! Zakiya is very detail oriented and ensured that everything went smoothly on our big day. There were literally zero issues on our wedding day, all thanks to her! In the months leading up to our wedding, she provided us with clear “to dos” to ensure we were on track and she was very communicative throughout the whole process. I cannot thank her enough for the hard work she put in to make our wedding perfect, highly recommend!

I had the pleasure working with Zakiya, who owns EventZ. As a videographer filming over 4,050 weddings and events, you meet a lot of fellow vendors. Zakiya's wedding and event planning services are top notch. Her attention to details, kind communication and leadership are a standard to her clients and other vendors on the team for that day, I highly recommend EventZ for couples in need of planning services. A must hire!

I loved working with Z on an intimate but detail-filled wedding at The Grove Redfield Estate. Z worked her tail off to make sure that every detail was in place so that when the guests arrived, everything was calm and lovely. There really were a lot of details on this wedding and although I saw how hard she and her team were working, the guests and couple never would have known it. And that is the key to a successful wedding day! Good coordination and planning can make zen out of chaos and Z has got the talent.

She was also super fun to work with and as a vendor, a good and fun team makes what is often a hard and stressful day way more manageable and enjoyable.

Thanks, Z for taking such good care of your clients and your team!

Julie Mikos | Photographer
www.juliemikos.com
IG: @juliemikosphotographer

My husband and I recently had the pleasure of working with Zakiya (Z) as our day of planner, and I cannot recommend her highly enough.
Z went above and beyond just planning for the day itself. Despite her busy schedule, she took the time to accommodate our needs, even though we were planning from overseas, as we live in the UK. Her dedication to working around our time zone and her willingness to engage in frequent communication made the entire process seamless and stress-free. She also was always super speedy to respond, even on weekends.
From start to finish, Z demonstrated exceptional organisational skills that truly set her apart. Her meticulous attention to detail ensured that every aspect of our big day was executed flawlessly.
She also thought of everything and brought up many points we would have missed without her help and had a plan A, B and C already prepared just in case an issue would have arisen - in our case there was a semi-rainy forecast and Z thought of everything we needed just in case it rained.
If you're looking for a wedding planner who combines strong organisational skills, a keen eye for detail, outstanding communication, and a willingness to go the extra mile, Zakiya is the person you want by your side. She turned our vision into reality and made our wedding day truly unforgettable.

Zakiya was an amazing wedding planner! She was the partial planner for our wedding this past April and had been planning with us for the past 2 years. We had our wedding at the Piedmont Community Hall in Oakland. The venue is pretty bare bones, only providing tables and chairs, so we had to coordinate everything else ourselves - including drop off catering, waitstaff, rentals, silk floral & decor rentals, DJ, photo/video, drop off alcohol, and more! There were a lot of moving pieces and Zakiya really helped us pull it all together.

She couldn't be there in-person on our wedding day, so we had Miriam (Pinsky's Planning) as our Day of Coordinator. Zakiya put together a super in-depth guide for the waitstaff since she couldn't be there, and Miriam and Zakiya worked really closely together beforehand and the day of our wedding to make sure everything went smoothly. We really didn't have to worry about a thing on our wedding day - all thanks to them both! Zakiya is super affordable and I really couldn't ask for more in a planner. Highly recommend!

Zakiya is the best. Helped me make sure my day would go smoothly. She is very attentive and truly cares that you have the best day. She is very knowledgeable and give good advice and recommendations!