Bellwether Events Reviews
Reviews
We're all about trust. Our community relies on honest reviews to help you make those big decisions with ease.
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![Ella]()
Ella Sent on 01/09/2025We loved Bellwether Events!
My husband and I found Janice through her blog and were drawn to her transparency about an industry that can often feel opaque and hard to navigate. We met with two other potential planners, but we decided to follow our initial instinct and put our trust in Janice. She did not disappoint! Janice kept the entire planning process incredibly organized and did an amazing job of finding vendors that aligned with our (sometimes very specific) vision. Anytime we started to feel overwhelmed, Janice was ready with a detailed timeline, polite-but-firm reminder emails, and a very encouraging attitude. Janice was also very receptive and enthusiastic about helping us incorporate important cultural elements into our day that she had not had experience previously (ex. A Japanese kagami biraki ceremony). Most importantly, Janice was extremely reliable. For example, my bridesmaids and I were supposed to get our hair and make-up done at a hotel the morning of the wedding, but after we woke up to a power outage and alerted Janice, she immediately jumped into action arranging a new location and updating the beauty and photo teams about the change. She then raced over to the hotel to help me and my MOHs pack up my wedding dress, shoes, accessories, and bridesmaids gifts and convinced the concierge to let us use the emergency freight elevator so that we wouldn’t have to run down 15 flights of stairs. Her husband drove us all to the alternate location and, miraculously, all of the hair, make-up, group photos, and dressing were completed with a whopping 15 minutes to spare! Despite the early morning switch-up, the rest of the day went off without a hitch and we knew the wedding couldn’t have gone as smoothly as it did if it weren’t for Janice’s work (both in the planning and the day-of coordination). We are so glad to have hired Janice and 100% recommend Bellwether Events. -
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![Jessica]()
Jessica Sent on 06/17/2024Totally Seamless Experience
We worked with Janice for a year planning our April 2024 wedding and it was the best first decision we made - we knew immediately she was the right fit for us! Janice was clearly experienced, seemingly knowing everything and everybody needed to make the day just what we wanted. She was extremely organized and kept everything and everyone moving during the planning process. Janice struck the right balance of listening to what we wanted, but didn’t shy away from making recommendations based on her years of experience - and she was always right! She also handled so much behind the scenes with the venue and vendors that we often didn’t even know about until after the fact. Not only was Janice fantastic, but she introduced us to the most amazing team of other vendors and worked with them to make the entire wedding day absolutely perfect - it was all totally seamless, which is the first word we told her early on when describing what we wanted from the day. -
Christina Sent on 06/07/2020
You guys. Janice is seriously the best! Work with bellwether events
Let me just start this review by saying that this review is long — but only because Janice is 100% WORTH the word count. Second, FYI my (now) husband I both STRONGLY dislike planning "social" events. As two busy young professionals living in NYC, we are great at managing work-related projects, but for some reason, completely fall to pieces when tasked with organizing birthday parties, or even something as simple as a casual happy hour with friends. As such, the thought of planning our OWN WEDDING (a super important life event, btw) seemed overwhelmingly daunting for us. Don’t get us wrong; we obviously enjoy going to parties, and have attended a number of weddings over the past few years — all of which were lovely and fantastically executed. For some reason, however, the thought of planning our own wedding just felt so…unattainable … … …
ENTER JANICE CARNEVALE - who swooped in like an ABSOLUTE BOSS to save the day (and our sanity).
Just a few things we love about Janice, and why you should work with her:
* Her professionalism & proactiveness; we had a ton of anxiety about kicking off the wedding research process but Janet made us feel at ease right away. She came to our first meeting super prepared with concrete guidance, but also a willingness to truly listen to our concerns and needs.
* Her knowledge of the industry; she knows the ins and outs of the business and has also built solid relationships with great vendors in the area — makeup, flowers, music, photographers, hair, caterers, etc. We worked with her for over a year and trusted her guidance and expertise throughout.
* Her flexibility & responsiveness; I grew up in the DMV and had my heart set on getting married in the area, despite me and my husband living in NYC. That meant we had to do a ton of “virtual/remote” planning online + over the phone, which we at first, expected to be challenging…but Janice made the whole experience easy and stress-free. She was also incredibly patient with our (my) indecisiveness and never pressured us to make premature decisions.
* She has fabulous taste; her style is on point and she provided awesome guidance throughout the wedding design process. At this same time, she knew how to work with our personal styles, and made thoughtful and creative suggestions. Sounds cheesy, but she managed to successfully translate our abstract ideas and rambling thoughts into a beautiful reality.
* Her willingness to go above and beyond; Janice was technically only responsible for managing the “main event”, but she willingly lent her support and expertise to helping us plan other wedding events. — including welcome drinks and morning after brunch (which were also perfect, btw). She also personally assembled all of our guest welcome boxes — a task I was really dreading.
* Her honesty and candor; we really needed a wedding planner who was willing to work with us, but also manage our expectations in terms of budget. Janice kept us in check and managed our expectations, but still delivered a wedding that fully met our standards.
* Her general personality; Janice is fun to work with and has a sense of humor. She takes her work very seriously, but knows how to empathize and relate to her clients. Wedding planning is stressful, and she gets that.
* Her project management skills and ability to deliver; needless to say, our wedding went off without a hitch. Janice orchestrated the entire schedule for our big day, and kept our entire wedding party (disorganized family members included) on track/schedule for the main event. We were so nervous leading up to the main event, but our wedding day was gorgeous and absolutely PERFECT!
* Oh, and totally NBD, but she got us on the COVER of a freakin’ MAGAZINE…I mean, COME ON…enough said (But seriously, though, Washingtonian Weddings, Winter/Spring 2020).
In sum, BRIDES AND GROOMS: WORK. WITH. JANICE. WORK. WITH. BELLWETHER. EVENTS. We promise you, you won't regret it!
XOXO
Christina + Sam -
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Chris Sent on 04/18/2020
Fantastic Experience
Janice and her team took care of us from beginning to end and were an indispensable part of our successful wedding weekend for 275 guests. She was always accessible; had a huge, collaborative vendor network to tap into; and generally made everything easy for us. Highly recommend! -
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![Whitney]()
Whitney Sent on 04/13/2020Janice is excellent and efficient
I highly recommend working with Janice if you're able. We used Bellwether for the coordination process. After our intro phone call, my husband and I were relieved to have found a wedding planner who was straightforward and incredibly efficient. Since we were planning from another city, her expertise during our walkthrough was especially invaluable. We are grateful that her team made our wedding day so smooth! -
John Sent on 04/08/2020
Bellwether/Janice batted 1000 for our big day!
We chose Bellwether Events after reviewing quite a lot of positive online recommendations, and only afterward learned that she had planned one of the most amazing D.C. weddings that we had been to at the Hay Adams a year earlier. We went with "day-of" planning services which actually encompassed quite a lot more meetings and preparations leading up to the big day, than just day-of. Janice batted 1000 for our wedding!!! She made sure that everything - *everything* - including the stuff you'd never think of, were planned down to the last detail, and ready to go come our big day. We had a 150 person church ceremony, followed by a reception at Sequoia in Georgetown, with over a dozen vendors/moving parts (from photo booth, to cake, to 10-person live band, to Ice Luge), so not small by any stretch of the imagination. Everything went off completely seamlessly with 0.0 issues and I chalk that up to Bellwether/Janice's excellence at what she does! All we had to think about was enjoying the day. Where Bellwether/Janice truly excels over other planners is her friendly but no-nonsense approach to getting things done, and done 100% correctly, the first time. Even with only day-of service, I feel like we got extra value as if we had a full planner because of how great of a job she did. I can only imagine how seamless her full planning service would be. Go with Bellwether with 110% confidence and enjoy the big day! -
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![Emily]()
Emily Sent on 01/21/2020Authentic and awesome planner
Janice was on top of things every step of the way. From selecting a venue to managing parents to day-of details, Janice was extremely organized and got things done. Would definitely recommend her wedding planning services. -
![Karema]()
Karema Sent on 12/24/2019Putting your big day in Janice's hands is one of the smartest decisions you'll make.
Janice is the first wedding planner that we talked to and was with us for the entire process, from budget planning and venue selection to bustling my dress and the sparkler send-off. She was a referral from a colleague who told me about her impeccable service. Janice is one of the most responsive people that I have ever worked with, and that includes colleagues and co-workers. She is prompt, communicative, clear, and very detail-oriented. She's also an expert at her craft. Janice will ensure that your wedding/event is a success and runs seamlessly. She is also flexible. We first engaged her for a venue search under what was already a tight timeline. We then engaged her for a wedding planning package, which she customized based on our needs and concerns. Her work and assistance were invaluable. Janice even helped us stick to our budget when we started to wander. Her vendor recommendations were spot on and, because we were planning so many things so close to the actual wedding day, she was able to help us get good deals. She doesn't necessarily have a warm and fuzzy approach, but she will get the job done impeccably. There were frustrating moments during the planning process, but I wouldn't change a thing. I knew the day-off that I could let it all go, relax, and enjoy with Janice at the helm. I trusted her 100% to ensure that my day was flawless, and it most certainly was. I recommend Janice wholeheartedly to hold your hand and walk you through the process. Putting your big day in Janice's hands is one of the smartest decisions you'll make. -
![Kimmy]()
Kimmy Sent on 11/15/2019Professional, insightful, and so organized!
Initially, when starting wedding planning, we honestly were not considering a wedding planner, in attempts to save some money during the process. The venue we selected required a coordinator, and in hindsight, I’m so glad they did because we found Courtney at Bellwether. Courtney is so professional and organized, and her expertise provided insight throughout the whole wedding process. She was so patient as we worked through the timeline and vendors, and she provided answers to questions we didn’t even know we had. I can’t imagine what we may have missed if we didn’t have Courtney to walk us through it all.
On the day, Courtney kept us on schedule, with patience and a calm demeanor. She actively participated in the set-up of our venue, making sure every little detail we planned was included. When things went awry (at no fault of her own and because it happens no matter how hard you try), she solved the issues without causing panic (mostly for me). She even had a Tide-to-Go in her bag for when I got grass stains on my dress during photos and ran after my veil for me, when it flew off literally seconds before I walked down the isle. I strongly recommend Courtney and Bellwether Events for your coordinating needs! -
![Rachel]()
Rachel Sent on 09/23/2019Made Everything Run Smoothly
We hired Janice for her "month of coordination" and she was fantastic. Janice met with us a month out and again a week before the wedding. She made sure that all of the little details that we hadn't thought of were covered.
At one point, we had meant to get a welcome sign made for our wedding and we completely forgot! But Janice didn't! She got a sign that she already had and had it done by a contact of hers.
On the day of the wedding, she and her assistant Courtney ran the event so smoothly that nothing went wrong. At one point Courtney called my now husband to make sure that he didn't come in to the venue at the wrong time and see me in my dress prematurely.
Janice was just perfect. We highly recommend her to anyone looking to hire her.
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![Megan]()
Megan Sent on 12/25/2018Best of the best.
In a nutshell, Janice of Bellwether Events is a wedding mastermind and stopped at nothing to make our wedding the most amazing without batting an eye. Although there are many instances we can think of, the one that stands out the most is our wedding venue switch less than 3 months before our wedding day. Our original venue in DC was set to open in April and our wedding was in October. After we sent out the invitations, the original venue told us (in July) that they would not be open by our wedding date. While we were freaking out, Janice pulled together a list of venues STILL available in DC on that same date (DC was a destination for our guests) within 10 hours of us hearing the news. We immediately booked a trip down for the following week and Janice scheduled back-to-back tours with each of the venues we were interested in. Still in shock that we sent out invites and need to change venues, Janice helped us find the best option in a incredibly timely manner while keeping her cool. We confirmed a new venue within 2 weeks and she helped us roll out all the changes we needed to make. And of course, the wedding turned out stunningly thanks to her help. We cannot thank her enough for going above and beyond. -
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![Sara]()
Sara Sent on 11/26/2018Janice is the absolute best
If you are even contemplating a wedding planner in the DMV area, you must hire Janice!! My mom interviewed 35 planners in the area before telling me Janice was the perfect one for us. I don't admit this lightly, but mom was right :) Janice is the most creative, organized and helpful planner you will find. Both my husband and I are super type A people but Janice kept our stress in line and we trusted her implicitly to run point with vendors, keep our budget on track, and on the day of, make sure everything ran without a hitch. She both helped us craft a big picture vision for the day and find the perfect fun details that made our wedding so special -- and uniquely us. From the little things -- like making sure we had snacks after the ceremony to making an extra trip to a rental place to ensure our place-settings matched the plates we picked -- Janice went above and beyond every step of the way and made our experience incredibly fun. She's the absolute best and I can't recommend her more highly! -
![Ed]()
Ed Sent on 08/28/2010Janice was on top of our wedding from the day we met. She didn't let any small detail pass. Her communication skills are the best. We thoroughly enjoyed working with Janice and highly recommend her services. -
![Carla]()
Carla Sent on 05/06/2010We hired Janice as our wedding planner for our backyard wedding in September 2009. Because of the logistics of having it at home we knew we could not do it alone. We were new to the area and didn't know where to start. Upon first meeting, Janice impressed not only me, but my husband (which is hard to do). She came prepared with photos, ideas, and also gave us a realistic view of what to expect with a 85 person at home wedding...did I mention with a 6 month planning time frame.
Janice spent the next 6 months helping us find professional/reliable vendors, shopping for flowers with me, getting permits for the tent, meeting with fire inspectors, and keeping us on track. The day of the wedding it rained all day. We were too cheap to spring for a walkway tent from the caters tent to the main tent so Janice personally escorted each of the servers to the tent so that the plates would not get wet (I tried to convince her that it was ok for the plates to get wet, but being the true perfectionist that she is she could not stand to see that happen). We had a blast and didn't even notice the rain, but we did notice Janice's dedication to making our day special. Hiring her was one of the best decisions we made. -
![Kaitlin]()
Kaitlin Sent on 07/08/2019A complicated wedding ran smoothly
To put it lightly, my wedding was not an easy one to work. There were a lot of big personalities and a million curve balls. Poor Janice had to deal with so many last minute things being thrown at her. She had to deal with everything being done completely last minute. She had to deal with a family of very big personalities and a lot of opinions. She handled it all beautifully.
The wedding day itself went off completely smooth and it had about a million moving parts. As the bride I did not feel any stress at all and that is all a bride could ask for. Janice did a beautiful job handling all the curve balls that were thrown at her and this was not an easy wedding to plan. Literally the day of the wedding I ran up to her and told her "we need a 6 foot table next to an outlet for the late night food delivery...oh ya and we didn't pay them yet!" She just nodded and said she would handle it without making anyone feel any sort of stress.
Her team of assistants were also amazing and kind and lovely.
Needless to say Janice does NOT have an easy job and our wedding was far from simple. We are very grateful for Janice and how she helped make our wedding day run so smoothly. -
![Courtney U.]()
Courtney Sent on 10/22/2013Janice, owner of Bellwether Events, is a straight-shooter. Her personality is very direct and she is quick to offer her thoughts and opinions when it comes to the logistical and sequential structure of a wedding ceremony & reception. With that being said, I was very pleased with the service Janice provided in the months and weeks leading up to my wedding ceremony and reception. Above all, I will credit Janice for being INVALUABLE on wedding day. She created a timeline depicting each minute of the day, she decorated fabulously and improvised when the inevitable wedding day mishaps occurred (including leaving 3 floral centerpieces at home). Janice is the true definition of a powerhouse business woman. She knows what she wants and how to get it.
My advice to brides choosing Janice as their event planner and/or day-of-coordinator would be not to let Janice’s ideas trump your own, but to also be open minded to the suggestions that she makes. She has worked many weddings at many venues and she has developed a knack for knowing whether an idea will transfer in a cohesive manner.
I can say with 100% certainty that my wedding reception would have fallen apart at the hands of our caterer had we not hired Janice Carnevale. She is the glue that held our vision together while my husband and I enjoyed the biggest party of our lives. Janice and her team at Bellwether Events is worth every penny! -
![bposniak]()
Beth Sent on 07/12/2009I do some event planning for work, and was initially not interested in having a Day of Coordinator because I was sure that I was well organized and could handle everything myself, along with family and friends. I was having a pretty laid back wedding and trusted my vendors. However, as we got close to the wedding, I was dealing with buying a house, work craziness, and normal wedding nervousness, and just wanted someone else to pull together the detailed timeline, take over for the last few days, and handle things day of. Janice was perfect. She is extremely professional and organized, positive without being overly perky and annoying, and understood the vision and laid back nature that I wanted. She was also willing to flexible about pricing because of the location and simplicity of the wedding. I am sure that she would also work well for brides/weddings who have more complicated (or high maintenance) visions---and she strikes me as being excited about all kinds of weddings, and incredibly competent. I would very much recommend her for any type of event planning service. -
![Lelia]()
Lelia Sent on 06/25/2019Nice backyard wedding, very abrasive social media presence
[Original review from 2019:] Janice knows EVERYTHING you need to pull off a backyard wedding. She knows the ins and outs of generators, tents, tent floors, bathroom trailers, and all the subtle things that aren't necessarily sexy but which you NEED to pull off a functional event in your backyard. She is also very organized and has great leadership skills to get everyone in line to do what they are supposed to do. Our event was amazing and perfect largely thanks to Janice's organizational skills. Thank you, Janice!
(Photos attached to this review are by Bokeh Lane Photography)
[UPDATE from 2026]
Since our 2019 wedding, I have followed Janice's business account on social media. It is notable that she uses this *business* (not personal!) account to re-share snarky leftist political memes. I mostly agree with these, so I wasn't bothered -- until she argued that physiologically male people should be able to compete in women's sports purely based on self-identification. Some might see this opinion as woke; others might actually see it as a misogynistic step backwards for women's sports.
As a lifelong woman athlete, I have opinions about this issue, so I politely pushed back in a direct message. Janice rudely insinuated that I was "Republican" and stopped responding. In other words, she doesn't even have the intellectual seriousness to defend the opinions that she airs so freely online, nor the courtesy to disagree respectfully.
Next time, I think I will choose a vendor with a more professional social media presence. -
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![Susan]()
Susan Sent on 05/13/2025Only if you wanted added stress.
I am the mother of the bride and I believe Janice from Bellwether accomplished two things: she made referrals to some great vendors (Well Dunn catering, and Abby Lindsey at Kir Tuben photography, in particular) and “designed” a beautiful reception based mainly on photos my daughter provided, not on Janice’s own creativity. Otherwise, she was extremely difficult to work with. She didn’t stick to the generous budget she agreed to, so the bride and groom kept having to reign her in, she didn’t answer their questions in a timely or satisfactory manner throughout the process, leading to months of unnecessary stress. We hired a planner to prevent stress for this couple who work in challenging public service positions, not to add another unreliable person for them to manage. In my one dealing with Janice, regarding hotel rooms for the immediate family of the bride, she was terse and minimally helpful. We considered firing her midway through the planning, but her contract required that we cite specific items she didn’t attend to and that was hard to pin down since she flaked on so many things. When the couple then sent her a list of all the things they expected going forward, she took a little money off her fee and cooperated for a couple of weeks, then went back to her haphazard ways. She neglected to put the task of “get wedding rings” on the to-do list. She neglected to order all parts of the rental bar. She ordered the wrong sized tables. She snapped at the bride during the venue walk-through! At the last minute, she said the bride and groom had to go through an involved process with the city of DC to secure parking for vendors and when the couple told her that she should have 1) handled it herself, and 2) put the permit costs in the budget, she decided the parking permits weren’t necessary after all (sorry vendors!). And so much more! We considered firing her a second time, but we worried that action would affect service from the vendors she has relationships with and we didn’t want to risk that. Thankfully, Janice was not available for the wedding day and sent her associate/partner Courtney, who was kind and mostly competent, though she had to be prodded to advocate for the bride when the wrong bouquet flowers arrived, she felt the need to tell the bride about a reception issue immediately after the wedding, when it could have waited for the next day or been shared with me, and she neglected to remove all the alcohol from the premises as required by the venue, despite the bride reminding her to do so. The other assistant on the wedding day wouldn’t allow friends to carry the veil during outdoor photos so it dragged through debris, then she had to roll the dirt and leaves off with a tiny lint roller, which was all Bellwether brought despite the contract promising an “extensive” emergency kit. In closing, Courtney was nice. I would never recommend hiring this company.
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