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Esselle Weddings & Events Reviews

Esselle Weddings & Events

Esselle Weddings & Events

Honolulu, HI
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Reviews

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17 Reviews
100% recommend it
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Awards

17
WeddingWire Couples' Choice Awards 2023 Winner
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    Tommy Sent on 02/07/2024
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    The Dream Team You Need For Your Big Day!

    Planning a destination wedding can be a daunting task, but our experience with Steph as our wedding planner in O'ahu surpassed all expectations. From the outset, Steph stood out among the local planners we met with her unparalleled helpfulness and proactive approach.

    Even before officially hiring Steph, she eagerly provided suggestions and feedback on venues. Despite an 18-hour time difference, Steph was consistently accommodating for Zoom meeting times and readily available for our inquiries. Her expertise became evident as she seamlessly guided us through the vendor selection process, explaining why each choice would best align with our preferences and vision. Steph ensured we met every vendor booking deadline, showcasing her commitment to our wedding's success. Most importantly, she went beyond traditional wedding planner duties, offering valuable insights into our DIY decor choices, advising on what would work logistically and look amazing in photos. The result was a wedding venue that exceeded our expectations in terms of execution and aesthetics.

    On our Big Day, Steph and her team's exceptional efforts made our wedding an unforgettable experience. While we had to execute a hectic tea ceremony schedule, the team proactively handled ad-hoc tasks and coordinated seamlessly with our photographers. After a stressful morning, we arrived at our venue to find our vision flawlessly executed, allowing us to enjoy the day worry-free. Everyone on the Esselle team executed their responsibilities flawlessly and communicated well with us, vendors and our guests who were also amazed by their services. The moments that really made us felt “wow” were when the team fed us water during the long group photoshoot and when they helped us wipe our shoes after a beach walk for sunset photos. Despite juggling multiple tasks, they never forgot the wedding-couple and genuinely care for our well-being. With their help, we really enjoyed every moment of our day with our family and friends.

    Without hesitation, we highly recommend Steph for anyone seeking a wedding planner in O'ahu. Her professionalism, attention to detail, and genuine passion for creating memorable events truly set her apart. Steph played an instrumental role in making our wedding day perfect, and we are immensely grateful for her outstanding service.
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    Chas K. Sent on 10/10/2023
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    Amazing Experience for Our Perfect Day

    Just WOW! From the moment my husband and I spoke with Steph on the phone, we thought, yup she's the one! She was sooo helpful. She gave us advice and suggestions even before we decided to work with her. That's how real and honest she is! I am so happy we were able to work with Steph and her team! Steph was very responsive in communication. She definitely calmed my nerves and helped me decide when I was so indecisive. Meeting her in person for the first time, I felt like we were good friends! She is so down to earth. She takes her work seriously, but is also able to have fun with us. We appreciated the balance! Her team is just as amazing! Our wedding day was so special and perfect to us! It could not have gone as well as it did if it weren't for Steph, Sarah, Syd!
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    Hannah W. Sent on 12/03/2022
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    Steph & Team were superstars!!

    I can't thank Steph and her team enough for how smoothly my wedding went!! They helped me think through many of the details for my wedding during the planning process. On the day of the wedding, they made sure everything went as planned. There was literally nothing I would have changed for my wedding day because they made sure it was magical. 100% would recommend Esselle Weddings!!
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  • Leschon
    Leschon M. Sent on 09/28/2022
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    Esselle Weddings SAVED our wedding!

    Stephanie and her team literally saved our wedding from being a disaster!

    Unfortunately, we had to fire our last wedding coordinator who ghosted us for 9 days with only 5 weeks left until our wedding. AND we still had to secure a florist, DJ and a new reception venue since the last venue was not going to fulfill some non-negotiable items. Steph was highly recommended by my friend and from her website, she was already fully booked for this year and not taking any more weddings. However, Steph knew we were in a real pickle and made an exception for us!!

    Steph was able to have just a few conversations with me and knew exactly how to pick up where my last wedding coordinator left off even without any knowledge transfer since our former wedding coordinator never even responded back. With only 4 weeks left until our wedding, Steph was hired on, secured a florist and a DJ and was able to secure an even better reception venue than we were expecting - The Moana Surfrider!! As a bride, I was freaking out with all these last minute changes, but Steph took everything in stride and was able to help me get through all the planning step-by-step until everything was done! She had an Excel spreadsheet that listed all the items that we needed to make sure was in place and it was our way of communicating details, so it wouldn't be lost in texts or emails. She was always responsive and even if she didn't have the answers right away, she would set expectations as to when she would get back to me - that's exactly the type of communication that was needed.

    Steph spoke directly with all our vendors and ensured they were taken care of vs. me having to coordinate anything which was such a breath of fresh air in comparison to my last coordinator. She was the one that uncovered the non-negotiable items that were not going to be taken care of by our last reception venue and advised me to switch venues - I'm SOOOO glad she did!! The Moana Surfrider was 10x's better than our original reception venue and she negotiated the pricing, so it even saved us money to use towards details we really wanted (wedding cake made in-house, signature cocktails and valet parking for our guests, cold sparks, Hawaiian entertainment, etc.)

    All the details we wanted for our fairy tale wedding, Steph was able to either find a vendor or make solid suggestions to make sure we were happy with the results. The ceremony and reception were well coordinated and the majority of our guests complimented that this was the BEST wedding they've ever attended! They could see all the details that went into the planning of this wedding and they would never have guessed that we switched wedding coordinators or reception venues within a month of the wedding! I think it was as seamless as it could be considering the insane circumstances!

    I highly recommend hiring esselleweddings.com as they clearly have a solid system of finding the right vendors and executing what needed to be done. As a Project Manager, I can say I was not the least bit stressed on our wedding day and I knew we were in good hands - that's how ALL brides should feel leading up to and on their special day!
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    Maristela J. Sent on 03/15/2023
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    The best wedding planning team ever!

    This review is LONG overdue. My husband and I can't even begin to express how thankful we are that we chose Steph and her team to plan and coordinate our special day. I first contacted Steph pre-COVID, so it had been a wild ride with date and venue changes, already. Throughout the process, Steph and Aileen were thorough with every detail (from timeline to decor), honest with expectations (budgeting both time and $$$), and patient with any of my husband's and my questions and concerns. They coordinated communication with all the other vendors seamlessly and anticipated our needs. During the day of, the entire team was incredibly attentive, ensuring that we enjoyed every moment. We can't recommend Esselle Weddings & Events enough!
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    Justine Sent on 06/02/2022
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    Must Have.

    I went back and forth a lot of whether I should have a day-of. Typical self confidence that I think a lot of brides have for some odd reason but thinking of the chaos that ensued and what would have happened if I didn't have Esselle Weddings there makes me giggle. Steph was such a pleasure, she is so responsive and such a problem solver. She is realistic with her thoughts and "no" isn't really something she says easily. Her goal is pretty simple and it's to make the couple's vision come to life and make sure they have the best day possible. She comes from a word of mouth recommendation after I had called almost all the wedding planners I could find on the island who pretended like they were interested in my vision and tried to stir me into a traditional format. Steph truly listens and even before we signed anything, she was already giving great suggestions and strategic plans that we can do to make sure the day goes smoothly. I thought I was a logistical person but Steph comes with a wealth of experience and quick and communicative on everything. I am thankful to have had her part of my day. I seriously can't recommend her enough!
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    Nathania D. Sent on 04/27/2022
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    Hiring steph was our best decision ever

    If you’re in doubt about hiring Steph, please look no further because Steph is absolutely the BEST wedding planner on Oahu!!!

    Steph is the kind of wedding planner that makes you want to throw another wedding all over again. I kept telling her this but my husband and I are genuinely very sad that our wedding is over because we can’t work with her anymore. Steph is such a kind, genuine, organized, thoughtful, and hardworking person and she really shows that she genuinely cares about all of her clients.

    On the first day after we hired her, she gave us this huge excel sheet to fill in to help us stay organized with our wedding. There were a lot of questions and things in that excel sheet that we would have never thought about which was super helpful.

    Steph always goes above and beyond to help us communicate with our vendors and answer all of our MANY questions and concerns (I’m pretty sure we exchanged over 400 emails… Sorry Steph!). Planning a wedding in the middle of the pandemic wasn’t an easy feat especially when the governor keeps changing the restrictions every two weeks. Steph was always there to reassure us that our event will run smoothly and to keep a positive attitude. Steph would always recommend QUALITY vendors and creative ideas within our budget and our wedding turned out to be an absolute dream. All of our guests wouldn’t stop saying how beautiful our event was. All of our groomsmen, bridesmaids, family members, and vendors wouldn’t stop saying how organized and professional she is, and said that she is the most organized wedding planner they’ve met. She also helped me execute all of my crazy wedding ideas (I’m a calligrapher and a huge creative so this was very important to me) and everything turned out so beautifully. Steph would also go above and beyond to communicate with all of our vendors on our behalf, and set up meetings with them even when we didn’t ask her to. Steph has always been really honest in sharing her professional opinion but always left the final decision up to us, which we highly value.

    Nonetheless, since Steph is pretty well known in the wedding industry, she works really often with a lot of high quality vendors on Oahu so she was able to negotiate some discounts for us.

    Also did I mention that Steph always goes above and beyond?? While my husband was on deployment last year, he was gone during our one year court wedding anniversary (C*VID couldn’t make us wait lol). My husband contacted Steph to help him out with surprising me. Then Steph helped him get me this beautiful handwritten calligraphed letter (I’m a calligrapher so this was super cool!), a bouquet of carnations that symbolizes the first year of marriage, and arranged a spa day for me and my girlfriends! All of this was arranged before my husband went on deployment which was 4 months before our anniversary. Even though this was outside of her scope of services, I’m forever thankful that Steph was able to help us celebrate our love from afar. It really shows that Steph genuinely cares about all of her couples!

    Steph is resilient, adaptive and carries herself with poise. The day of the wedding, unbeknownst to us, there were major shortfalls by one of our rental furniture vendors. First and foremost the rental company showed up late and many of the other vendors had to wait several hours to complete their setup while waiting for the tent to be pitched up. Secondly there were several items missing such as not enough plates and silverware for the guests and Steph and her team had to wash dishes to help accommodate our guests. Now mind you this is all happening in the background and none of the guests or even us noticed the mess that our coordination team had to deal with. Steph and her entire team continued to work out the day as smoothly as possible with the warmest of Aloha and grace with smiles on their faces to help accommodate for us and our guests. Following the wedding a couple of days later, Steph ensured she set the rental company straight by helping us get a refund, and made the management aware of the mishaps of the day and the complete ball drop that occurred on the wedding day leading to inconveniences that arose from it.

    I honestly think that we should have paid way more for her services given how Steph always goes above and beyond with everything that she does. We’re forever thankful that we had Steph as our wedding planner and we wouldn’t want it any other way. We love you Steph!!!
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    Leesa C. Sent on 11/22/2021
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    Simply amazing!

    Steph and her team at Esselle Weddings were amazing! We met and started working with Steph before the pandemic, unfortunately we had to postpone our wedding, but she was able to navigate us through the postponement and reschedule all of our vendors without me having to do a thing! That in itself was amazing because what bride wants to accept a postponement AND have to reschedule her vendors?

    Not only was Steph accommodating but her communication skills were top-notch, especially since we were planning our Hawaii wedding from the mainland. I wanted to be a part of the planning process and Steph welcomed all my ideas and shared her professional opinions along the way. I would (and will) recommend Steph to all future brides and grooms, she helped to make sure our wedding day was everything we imagined and more! We can't thank her enough!
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    Daniela Sent on 10/07/2022
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    Best planner ever

    Steph and her team were absolutely amazing, the months leading up to the wedding were quite hectic and but Steph was there to guide and make recommendations the entire time. Day of the wedding was amazing completely stress free. We had to wait 4 years for this day and they made it perfect
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    Sarah K. Sent on 10/13/2021
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    Hire. Steph. NOW!

    Hiring Steph was one of the first decisions we made in planning our wedding, and it was easily our best. We live on Kauai, but got married on Oahu in April 2021 and started planning our wedding in early 2020. I don't need to tell anyone that planning a wedding during all of the ups and downs of COVID was complete chaos, but Steph made us feel at ease throughout the whole process, and our wedding turned out absolutely PERFECT!! Keep reading for some of our favorite things Steph did to make our wedding day incredible.

    -Recommending QUALITY vendors. For each vendor we needed to hire, Steph provided us with a few recommendations and comments regarding the strengths and styles of each one. This was really helpful for a couple like us that didn't want to spend hours upon hours scrolling through Yelp and Instagram looking for the perfect fit for us. Steph's recommendations were always based on our preferences, and she was also very willing to reach out to other vendors who we saw on social media, or were recommended by other friends.
    -HONESTY. Whether it was deciding whether to book a vendor who was a friend, figuring out what to write on our pandemic save the dates, or deciding on a look for the groomsmen, Steph was always really honest in sharing her professional opinion with us. We really appreciated that whether it was good or bad feedback, she was willing to share her thoughts and the experience of previous couples, but that she always left the ultimate decision up to us.
    -FLEXIBILITY. We started with a 250+ guest list at a large venue, thought we might be limited to just 5 guests in the backyard, tried to plan a double reception (one for family first, then a separate reception for friends), and had to decide whether or not to livestream the wedding. We were fortunate that gathering size limits increased about 2 weeks before the wedding, and on short notice, Steph was able to seamlessly merge our dual receptions into one beautiful evening with family AND friends.
    -COMMUNICATION. Steph talked with all of our vendors on our behalf, but was also happy to set up meetings/phone calls with those who we needed to talk with directly. She kept us in the loop and was willing to work around our busy schedules.
    -VALUE. We booked the "Curated Planning and Coordination" package, and felt SO happy that we did. We tested our guests and vendors for COVID the day before the wedding, and are so grateful that Steph helped us to coordinate the testing on top of the rehearsal and the actual wedding. She let us borrow some of her own personal decor, came prepared with wrinkle-release spray on the wedding day, and helped us to negotiate with vendors when our circumstances changed due to the pandemic. Hiring a reputable planner/coordinator like Steph can also get you discounts with vendors who she works with regularly!
    -KINDNESS and COMPASSION. I don't think this is really emphasized enough with all wedding vendors, but Steph is genuinely a kind, thoughtful person. It is not about the money (we thought our deposit check got lost in the mail at one point, yet she still continued to provide the same quality of service), but rather the joy of creating magical wedding days that her couples will remember forever. She loves seeing her couples and their guests happy, and she went above and beyond to make every single person smile at our wedding. This is a trait that we think should be at the top of your list in looking to hire a wedding planner/coordinator, and trust us, Steph will NOT disappoint!
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    Eunice P. Sent on 10/02/2019
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    Simply the BEST!

    Stephanie is truly amazing! Stephanie was recommended to us by my husband’s close friend, who also works in the wedding industry. And I can confidently say that hiring Stephanie and her team was one of the best money we’ve ever spent! As a highly budget-conscious couple, we initially set out to plan and execute our intimate wedding on our own. After much hemming and hawing (because anything wedding-related costs so much $$$) we finally caved in and reached out to Stephanie for her day-of-coordinator services. From the very start, my husband and I couldn’t stop raving about how awesome Stephanie is! Our worries and concerns were immediately addressed during our first extensive meeting with Stephanie. She also provided us with very detailed timeline for our ceremony and reception, as well as suggesting and planning few wedding games to be played during the reception (which were a huge hit!). She was also able to provide creative solution to get our first dance pictures within the time frame we had hired our wedding photographer for, thereby saving us some $$$. Stephanie also ran our wedding rehearsal and provided some helpful tips on how to position our bodies, hold hands, when to stop and kiss for the photos, etc. (basically things you don’t really think about but are important in getting that amazing wedding shots). On our wedding day, Stephanie and her team kept things running on time and smoothly, and even my husband’s mother and my mother were impressed and happy with how things went on our wedding day. We can’t recommend Stephanie and her team enough, and we are forever grateful that she was able to be part of our big day!
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    Marissa Sent on 09/07/2019
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    The Best in the Business

    Stephanie is THE BEST wedding planner we have ever met. She’s such a wonderful person and really cares for her couples. She shows a true interest and listens to what her couples ideas of what their dream wedding is and definitely works hard to make it happen. From the first time we met her, we instantly knew we could trust her with planning our wedding and making truly “our” special day. Our wedding turned out AMAZING! Stephanie was so organized and had everything planned out perfectly. When we walked into the reception, my husband and I were just so taken back by how everything came together. She truly did make our dream wedding come true and we can’t thank her enough for all of her hard work, and most of all, her friendship. I highly recommend Stephanie and her team at Esselle Weddings and Events to help make your dream wedding come true.
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    Qing Sent on 10/02/2018
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    Stephanie is amazing! I thought i wouldn't need a coordinator and was planning to do everything myself but thank god my husband convinced me otherwise. We hired her as our Day of Coordinator but she was helping us out way before our big day! She is extremely helpful and sweet and made this whole process much easier for us. She will go above and beyond for you! We are so lucky to have her coordinate our wedding!
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    Emerald Sent on 12/11/2018
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    Organized and Knowledgeable

    Stephanie and her team coordinated our wedding at Koolau Ballrooms perfectly. My husband and I had zero worries on the day of and Stephanie answered all my spontaneous questions and concerns. My entire bridal party lives on the mainland, so it was nice having someone on the island to help me plan. Stephanie is super relatable and upbeat and brought great ideas to each meeting, while also maintaining our budget. I definitely recommend!
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    Eint M. Sent on 10/24/2018
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    Amazing experience!

    Stephanie was a huge help to our big day!! She had a clear vision of what we wanted and she was willing to go above and beyond to get us the vendors and the decor we wanted at reasonable prices. My husband and I are both very busy and it was a huge relief to have someone we could trust. Stephanie was there so fill in any of the gaps or problems I had. I would definitely book her again for any future events.
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    Rachel Sent on 10/02/2018
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    We are so lucky to have found Stephanie. She is a superstar - so experienced and professional, but also such a lovely and fun person to be around.

    She made it so easy for us - we knew we were in safe hands. She took care of every single detail and brought all our ideas together seamlessly. She'll keep you and everyone including vendors and guests on track (and she’ll make sure you actually have time to eat!). We never had to worry about a thing - we really enjoyed every minute and second of our day. No stress whatsoever.

    For every intricate detail so well thought out and executed to perfection, we have Stephanie to thank.

    Rachel & John
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    Nicki H. Sent on 09/23/2019
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    Excellence

    Steph makes our dream come true ! She is patient and thoughtful !
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