Run, don't walk to hire Miranda for planning/coordinating your event!
I want to start this review by saying that I only hired Miranda and her team for day-of coordination and I wish I had hired her for full-service planning! She made everything in the last week of our wedding go SO smoothly that I cannot imagine how much easier the planning process would have been if I had just brought her on board earlier. Suffice to say, you should certainly consider her full-service planning package.
That said, where can I start with Miranda? We could not have made our day work without her support.
A few weeks before our wedding, Miranda set up a call to go through all of the details - a list of vendors, important people, our preferred drinks (important!), the timing of everything from makeup start to final dance - everything! From there, she built a timeline that she reviewed with me to make sure was correct, and we were off to the races!
She even went out of her way to pick up everything we needed for the day of the wedding (centerpieces, card box, signs, masks, etc) the day before the wedding. This helped our whole bridal party and family relax, as no one else was responsible for loading things into or out of the cars in our nice clothes.
Before we arrived, Miranda and her team were hard at work putting our centerpieces together. They only needed a bit of assembly, but the results were absolutely stunning. This is one thing that you don't always get with a venue-supplied coordinator, so it was worth every penny we paid Miranda to have that taken care of. Her team went above and beyond to use our extra materials in unique ways that I don't think a florist or venue coordinator would have thought about.
Miranda ran our day-of rehearsal like a pro. She's clearly done this for a lot of weddings, and it was nice to have someone on-site who could wrangle everyone and get a bit of practice in. It made me feel even better that she was the one cueing us to walk down the aisle just a few hours later - a nice bit of comfort in a moment of high anxiety.
I had also asked Miranda to do something extra for us, which she handled with no issue. We wanted to stream our ceremony on Zoom for those who couldn't join in person (#covid), so I gave her my phone and some instructions to get everything set up. She got the Zoom running without a hitch in the best possible location (good viewing for our virtual guests without obstructing the photographers at the event).
During the reception, Miranda checked in with us occasionally just to make sure everything was okay. She brought us some drinks at one point (it's so hard for the bride and groom to get away!). One thing I loved is that she was able to re-purpose some leftover roses from our cake flowers to make a toss bouquet (something I NEVER would have thought of!) so we didn't have to destroy our gorgeous flowers from Conway Floral Design.
The nicest thing about all of this is that we just really had to show up on the day of and flow from one event to the next. She had even taken the time to print off small versions of our timeline and have them stashed in the bridal suites for everyone to review and have. She took care of distributing all of the gratuity envelopes to the right person and collected any important items for us (venue invoice, marriage license, etc.) and safely secured them until we were ready to leave.
Speaking of getting ready to leave...when the event was over, I went back to the bridal suite to change out of my gown and into something more comfortable for the car ride home. When I left the reception space, everything was still on the tables - vases, candles, flowers, etc. I got held up for maybe 15 minutes talking to a few guests, and when I returned EVERYTHING was put away. The venue was even putting away the last few tables by that point! As promised, Miranda had started loading what she could early on, and it was all done so fast that we barely had time to think about it. I've heard horror stories about bridal parties spending hours after the end of the wedding loading stuff into their cars, but that didn't happen here - all because of Miranda.
If there were any problems on the day of, I certainly didn't hear about them. This is Miranda's goal - she wants to be the person to hear and solve the problem without bothering anyone during the event. I felt a lot more secure knowing that she was running the show.
And this brings me to a really important point: even if your venue coordinator says they can do all of these things, I would still consider hiring a day-of coordinator (specifically Miranda Madison Events). Here's why: when you hire Miranda and her team, they are there to represent YOU. They are your voice to all of your vendors. You probably wouldn't represent yourself in a court of law, so why do that on the day of your wedding? We felt so much better knowing that Miranda was there to be OUR advocate, above all else. We loved our venue coordinator (Duke is a pro!), but we still wanted to make sure we had someone who could take care of things that Duke couldn't. That's where Miranda came in.
Miranda does really incredible work in all facets of her business. I have firsthand experience with her balloon arch and wall creations, and she clearly has an eye for creating a lovely and cohesive event. I regret not hiring her for full-service planning, as her prices are really reasonable and she clearly has a knack for putting events together.
Whether you need full-service planning, day-of coordination, or something in-between, Miranda and her team are the ones you should call. Hiring her was one of the best decisions I made for our wedding.
The photos included are intended to represent the magic that Miranda's team did for our tables - they took our vision and made it even more luxe. The linens were from Southwick Linens, but the vases, floating candles, and eucalyptus were all ours. Notice how around the sweetheart table, Miranda's team added additional rose petals, eucalyptus stems, and vases to really up the ante for the table. I don't think anyone else would have done this. It was more perfect than we could have imagined.