Honest Review
We hired Kim and her team for our wedding and chose the day-of coordination package. Based on the services brochure, we were expecting unlimited email communication, 3 hour-long consultations including a meeting about timeline creation and details and a final walkthrough, set up and tear down of personal décor items, access to their rental décor inventory, and her team being POC for all vendors, family, and bridal party during the week of our wedding. I thought Kim was very pleasant and kind, but I did not feel like we got what we paid for as listed above. We barely had any communication leading up to the wedding and I had to reach out to schedule both the timeline meeting (which was pretty late in the process and never got finalized until the week before the wedding – making things very stressful for me as the bride trying to coordinate all the vendors and events for the wedding day) and the final details meeting. We were about 2 weeks out from the wedding and had barely talked to Kim at all, so I was extremely stressed and worried, not having any confidence that my vision would be executed on the wedding day.
A few days before the wedding Kim reached out to me with a scheduling conflict and asked if I would be okay with another planner helping with my wedding. I completely understand that complications can arise and she approached the situation with kindness and understanding as well, letting me know it was my choice, but I felt that it was inconsiderate of me, the bride, who now has to make that decision a few days before my wedding, and it did not make me feel like an honored client during one of the most special weeks of my life.
On the day of the wedding, we had less than ideal weather as the ceremony was outside and it was very windy. There were many decorations that were meant to be set up outside that were difficult to accommodate with the wind. Though I don’t expect the team to be able to fix the weather, I do expect that a team of people that have planned and coordinated many weddings would be adaptable and prepared, and would be able to at least make sure that some of the decorations could be set out and secured. Instead, hardly any of the decorations got set up and my mom, who spent countless hours and hundreds of dollars making our floral arch we were supposed to get married under, had to argue with the assistant to get that set up so we could use it. I was so upset to find that out and really disappointed with how the ceremony space looked. It was so empty and hardly any of the decorations I wanted were set out despite my friends and family trying to help. I also learned after the fact that many of my helpers were trying to set things up both outside and inside, and the planning team said they would finish up, and then never got around to it. What was frustrating is that the decision to not use certain items was never brought up to me, so I didn’t realize until I was walking down the empty, undecorated aisle. I would have appreciated at least knowing what to expect.
At the end of the day, I just don’t think that the planning team was equipped to handle as big of a wedding set up as we had, which is shocking because we had a fairly average-sized wedding (150 people) and nothing excessive décor-wise. We had at least 15 friends/family members at any given time helping to set up, plus Kim and her assistant, and still there were things that were not set up/used or things that were rushed. We were not able to rehearse in the ceremony space, so the rehearsal was very rushed the night before. On our wedding day, the ceremony had many glitches and was the most disappointing part of the day for me, which is so sad as I was looking forward to it the most. Despite it being a truly wonderful day, there were some parts that really stick out to me in moments that I will never get back, and I feel like they could have been avoided.
I honestly feel bad not leaving the best review because I do feel like Kim and her team tried their best and worked extremely hard on our wedding day, and I do really appreciate that and have to give them props for helping with such a chaotic day. I was hesitant to write anything because I wasn’t sure if maybe my expectations were excessive based on the fact that we only booked day-of services. But I have to be honest as well, and the fact is that I was often very frustrated in the planning process and was expecting a little more support than I got. I also experienced some significant disappointments on my wedding day as things didn’t go to plan that could have easily been prevented. I try my best to be as kind and accommodating as possible but I felt that it was important to leave this review in hopes that the team can work on some of these things so future brides don’t feel the same disappointments that I did.