A Fresh Event Reviews
Reviews
5.0 out of 5 rating
5.0 out of 5 rating
46 Reviews
100% recommend it
Awards
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![Elizabeth]()
Elizabeth L. Sent on 08/23/2021Above and Beyond!
There are quite literally no words to express how thankful we are to have had AFE by our side to plan our wedding. Jen was five steps ahead of every decision that needed to be made and her knowledge of the planning process and local vendors was immeasurably helpful. After we had already contracted all of our vendors, Jen helped us reschedule the wedding for the next year due to the pandemic with very little work on our end. Jen is not only incredibly prepared professionally, she is so fun and has become a friend throughout this process. Her excitement was genuine and we always looked forward to our catch up meetings. This is the second time our family has worked with AFE and we would recommend them to absolutely everybody. Thank you Jen and AFE! -
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Rocio A. Sent on 11/02/2019Best. Day. EVER!! Thanks to Jen :)
Echoing the reviews before me: I cannot say enough about Jen Henderson!! She is like your cool cousin, meets Oliva Pope. She just HANDLES things. I've been a corporate event planner for nearly 10 years in Chicago, and a promotions coordinator for a few years before that. As such, I have a very high bar when it comes to event planning and coordination, and was very worried about handing off the biggest event in my life to a stranger. Jen almost instantly became a friend, and her planning and execution blew my expectations out of the water. When the day came I didn’t worry about a thing! It was the first event I’ve ever planned where I didn’t have to worry or stress about a single thing (well, aside from my vows of course ). My *now* wife, Katherine, is my polar opposite when it comes to event planning. She's analytical and science minded, so she needed a lot more hand holding through the process. Jen was always patient, supportive, and more than willing to answer questions three or four times if need be. Jen has the personality, passion, and organization skills every wedding planner should have. Seriously, if you can book her, do it now! Don't wait! -
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Callie S. Sent on 01/01/2020The Best Decision - Jen!
Jen Henderson is the VERY best! She is the best decision we made for the entire wedding! Everyone kept warning us how stressful wedding planning was, but Jen made is manageable and truly enjoyable. If you are on the fence about a planner, just do it. You won’t regret it. Let’s start with HER. Jen is SO fun! We were so excited for our meetings with her. Her energy is contagious, and from day 1, we were confident she would help us plan a beautiful party. I’m a Type A planner (and so is my mom and husband), so initially I didn’t know if we needed a planner. However, my friends encouraged me to look into it. We interviewed 5 planners, and Jen stood out among the others. It was as if I hired a best friend to plan with. Her organization skills matched mine, and she used Google for all her planning materials which made collaboration easy. We never felt like our questions were an annoyance. She answered our emails early each morning with thorough and informative answers. (I loved seeing her name in my inbox!!) Every single vendor she recommended was top notch, and she made the selection process seamless. We honestly ended up with the A-team in my opinion. ALL of our vendors I actually wanted at the reception because they were that bubbly and fun (not to mention talented!) Another reason to hire Jen? She helped mediate a lot of our decisions. Planning can get tricky with everyone’s opinions within the family, and Jen was a great resource to get honest feedback and someone I felt comfortable sharing my personal opinions with. We are so excited to have Jen as a lifelong friend. She helped us pull off the most beautiful day, and we are forever grateful. Hire A Fresh Event!!! It’ll be the wisest decision you make! -
Michelle S. Sent on 04/01/2020
We would of been completely lost without Jen & her magical team!
We absolutely loved working with Jen and her team! We would have been completely lost without her. Jen’s bubbly personality was such a joy to be around and she made the planning process a breeze. We had no concerns and were able to enjoy our wedding day while she and her magical team handled everything. Jen is so fantastic, that my Maid of honor loved her so much she is using her for her wedding in November.
It’s pretty simple, if you want one of the most important days of your life to be prefect... you need Jen and her team! -
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![Brittani]()
Brittani Sent on 11/03/2019Jen is the queen of Chicago wedding planning.
I thought ... “I can plan my own wedding” and I’m so glad I did not listen to myself.
Jen is the prefect balance of professional and personal. She makes planning a wedding such a wonderful experience...
Communication is easy through her shared spreadsheets, her couple meetings never feel like work, and her vendor recommendations do not fail!
I’ll never forget my now husbands and I first look- it started drizzling and I turn to see Jen sprinting with two umbrellas ... she is always ahead of the game- she ensures every moment matters and is just what the couple wants.
You will share tears, laughs, and many personal emotions with your wedding planner so make sure it’s Jen... she is so genuine and honest. She is the queen of Chicago wedding planning. She is the best at what she does.
Sounds cliché ... but Jen helped me create the wedding of my dreams. -
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![Heath]()
Heath B. Sent on 09/11/2019Competent is an understatement!!!
I simply do not know where to begin with Jen & Michelle!! These two humans are the most caring, organized, ahead-of-the-game people my wife and I have ever met in my life! From day one upon meeting with them, they were taking care of things that we didn't even know needed addressing. This continued through the big day! Jen and Michelle were in constant contact with our venue, the florist, the hotels, the caterer, the limo service, and were always one step ahead of us! They created amazingly detailed timelines, walked us through ideas, organized meetings, phone calls, and negotiated prices on our behalf and without us ever having to ask first!! I could go on with more examples, such as emailing the hotel that the bridal suite needed chairs, extra full-length mirrors, valet services, gave the hotel a list of vendors that needed room access, etc.... Did we know we needed to do ANY of this? No. Did Jen take care of it before we even had to stress about it? Yes. If that's the one thing you take away from this review, then it should be that. You will not even know things need to be done, and Jen will have them done already. If anything isn't to your liking, she will take care of it. If you have a question because your dad won't stop bugging you with questions, she'll answer it AND address any additional questions he has. From the second we hired them, we could breathe again. A load had been lifted from our shoulders, as they took over the whole planning process. I do want to be crystal clear and state that they never ONCE made us feel like we weren't in control. They simply acted on our behalf. After we hired Jen, I could see the difference the most in my wife, she was back to being her normal friendly, bubbly persona, she became herself again. For you and your partner's personal sanity, PLEASE hire A Fresh Event, you will thank yourself for the rest of your life!! Every single time we emailed Jen about ANYTHING during the 8 weeks leading up to the wedding, she had already taken care of it. Any time we told her "Ok we have to talk to ______ and get back to you" she would volunteer to contact them herself and do the work for us. I can't put into words how incredible the feeling of safety is that Jen & Michelle give you and your partner. They never once left us wanting for more, they never once let us drown, and they never once let any hiccups get in the way of our special day!! (My favorite LOL memory might still be Michelle standing behind our sub-par DJ for nearly the entire reception to ensure he did NOTHING without her explicit approval) Jen and Michelle were truly THE deciding factor to whether or not we were going to have a good wedding vs an UNFORGETTABLE wedding!! I can not thank them enough for the hours of work they put in, and absolute gargantuan undertaking they performed for us! Jen & Michelle you two are an incredible team, and one that we can only hope continues to help thousands of other couples to have the wedding of their dreams! -
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R Sent on 09/02/2019Working with AFE was the best decision we made!
Hiring Jen at A Fresh Event was the first and BEST decision we made when planning our wedding! I am a person who is extremely Type A, and knew if I set about putting our wedding together without an experienced planner, I would absolutely exhaust myself by researching every vendor in Chicago and second-guessing myself constantly. Thanks to Jen, we put together a team of incredible vendors for our day and were extremely secure in every decision we made.
Jen provided immense value to us from the moment we hired her, as she first put together a budget tailored to our specific circumstances and narrowed down our venue search to options that fit our style, needs, and budget. Venue is one of the first and most impactful decisions to make about your wedding (budget and otherwise) and after we had gone through that process with Jen helping us make our choice, it was clear that bringing her onboard was the best money we were going to spend on this wedding. Through the next year and a half, she saved us so much time and stress by creating monthly tasks lists to focus our planning, narrowing our vendor selection, always being available for any questions we or our parents had throughout, and being consistently clear and timely with communication.
Jen and Jondra ran our rehearsal and our wedding day seamlessly, including coordinating personal items (family heirlooms in the ceremony, personal décor at cocktail hour, etc.) throughout the day and getting them back to us afterwards. I was a more-nervous-than-anticipated bride, and Jen and Jondra's steady and calm presence all day helped me stay anchored and reassured me that even if I need to take a moment to step away, everything else was proceeding as planned, so I could focus on myself and my husband-to-be.
Jen also made planning our wedding an extremely personalized experience. She got to know us and our families and gave great advice on any unanticipated roadblocks we hit along the way, going above and beyond to take action where she could to take a load off of our shoulders. She earned our trust to make day-of decisions in our best interest without consulting us, since we knew she was looking out for us at all times.
Above all else, planning with Jen was FUN! She has such a great sense of humor and is a delight to be around. She wants her couples to be unapologetically themselves on their wedding day, and you can tell how much heart she puts into her events. Wedding planning is such a special time for you and your partner, and having Jen there to help us was one of the most magical things about it! -
![Nicole]()
Nicole P. Sent on 08/05/2019Incredible
Our team with A Fresh Event was INCREDIBLE to say the least. From the moment we first spoke with our coordinator Jen, we knew that we were in good hands. Their team is very experienced and is dedicated to making your wedding day the best it can be with lots of helpful suggestions and ideas along the way! Jen guided us through the whole process and helped plan every detail. She was so accommodating in the planning process and for me as someone who knew nothing about planning weddings, I needed a lot of guidance. Like I said, she had helpful ideas and lots of vendor recommendations and truly made the planning experience so much easier. When we had questions, Jen was always prompt to respond and help us find an answer, and so patient because we had a lot of questions! By the time wedding week arrived, Jen had helped put together a perfect schedule of events and we were all ready to go!
When it came to wedding weekend, our team of Jen and Jondra were all over it!! They made me feel so much more relaxed and ready to soak in every moment of the wedding. If anything went not as planned, I had no idea!! They were ready for anything and made us feel so ready to just enjoy the day. On top of that, Jen and Jondra were so fun to hang out with and made our day so much more amazing! We are truly so lucky to have had them on our team. HIGHLY recommend Jen and Jondra! -
![Eric]()
Eric L. Sent on 07/11/2019What a great help!!!
Jen was amazing to work with. She made sure we stayed on track with all of the wedding preparations. Her timelines to get things done was extremely helpful. We can honestly say that if it wasn’t for Jen, our wedding day wouldn’t have gone so smoothly. -
Susan Sent on 08/05/2019
You can stop looking for a wedding planner now.
Jen Henderson with Fresh Event will make your wedding perfect. She is organized, charming and respectful. Jen's timeline is critical to any wedding event. She was able to coordinate all of our vendors and come up with a flawless day for us. She is poised and focused and handles everything with such ease, it's truly amazing. And she's really fun! Whenever I emailed or called her she was gracious and always made me feel like I wasn't bothering her. Jen's team keeps the day running smooth. At the end of the night when we went up to the suite she and her team had organized everything and had packed everything up for us so it was ready to go. You are in good hands with Jen. I wish I had her in my life all the time. -
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![Anna]()
Anna B. Sent on 07/31/2019Best Decision I Made
Jen & A Fresh Event was the best decision I made in my entire wedding planning process. As a type A planning person myself, I was worried about handing everything over to someone else but Jen's no-nonsense, positive, and light-hearted attitude at our first meeting put me at ease. Jen is incredibly organized, thoughtful, and generous. She made me feel from beginning to end as though everything was under control - because it was! I was able to thoroughly enjoy the entire planning process and the wedding because Jen kept me so calm. She is fun to be around, takes your budget seriously, and is genuinely one of my favorite people I've ever met. I've already recommended her to multiple other brides! -
![Jennifer]()
Jennifer M. Sent on 12/10/201810 Reasons You Should Hire Jen
10. She makes really good spreadsheets that give you all the information you need.
9. She loves grandmas. She will treat your grandma like a queen.
8. She takes care of so many things behind the scenes that would be absolutely overwhelming if you had to do them all yourself. She took care of setting up all meetings, vetting all vendors, and a million other things I can't even name.
7. She will help you realize your vision. I had a very specific, unique look I was going for, and she was on board from the beginning. She had awesome ideas to add, but she never steered us away from exactly the look and feel we wanted.
6. She knows all the best people. If you can give her a general idea of what you want in a photographer, venue, cake, etc. she'll send you a selection of great choices and I guarantee one of them will be exactly what you're looking for.
5. She has great relationships in the industry. People clearly respect her and love working with her. All the vendors we worked with told us how lucky we were to have Jen, and we agreed!
4. She is prepared AF. She literally whipped out a sewing kit and fixed something on my dress 30 minutes before the first look. One of my favorite getting ready shots is of her sitting on my bed with my dress in her lap and a needle and thread in her mouth.
3. She's great with families. She worked specifically with our moms on some things and just with us on others. She helped everyone keep a level head and get along throughout the whole process. Example: my mom wanted to go sweep the street in from of the venue on the day of the wedding, and Jen gently convinced her that that was weird and unnecessary.
2. She will take care of you. I wouldn't say I was a bridezilla, but I had a couple meltdowns/crises of confidence, and she was there to listen to me, talk with me, and stand up for me.
1. She is a lovely, fun person to be with and someone you will want to keep in your life long past your wedding.
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