Savannah Wedding Dreams 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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![Jacquelyn]()
Jacquelyn Sent on 10/24/2024We couldn't have done it without our wedding planner!
We hired Jodi for Full Wedding Planning and she was a pleasure to work with. Immediately after meeting Jodi, you can tell she is a very warm, caring individual who genuinely wants your wedding experience to be beautiful and what you always dreamed of with the least amount of stress. She was very attentive to our needs and was always quick to reply through email, text or phone call. She made miracles happen with some of our vendors and was there for us every step of the way. She took full control during the month of and made sure we didn't have to worry about anything leading up to wedding day and we were both so at ease on the day of knowing she had taken care of everything. We truly can't say enough good things about Jodi! We are so thankful for her and our day wouldn't have been as special as it was without her help. -
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![Kimberly]()
Kimberly Sent on 05/19/2024Jodi is a lifesaver!
Jodi made me who I am today as a wedding planner. She taught me everything I know about the wedding industry and coordinating and planning weddings. She was kind enough to coordinate my wedding as well! There is nobody I would trust more with my wedding day than the person that taught me everything I know!
Jodi went above and beyond for our wedding! She assisted me in ways that I didn’t even know that I needed! Throughout the planning process of my own wedding, she continued to teach me!
The day of my wedding, Jodi was a miracle worker and allowed me to truly relax on my wedding day, which is not an easy thing to do as a wedding vendor!
One of the miracles that she pulled off was when there was an issue with the wedding cake. Jodi went above and beyond and figured out what happened and ensured that my cake would be there for my wedding day! While ensuring that my cake arrived at my wedding, she also saved four other weddings cakes that were improperly filed!!!
I happened to walk by after the cake was delivered without knowing what it took to get the cake there, and she was decorating it with flowers (which was not originally in her job description)! When this issue arose, she could’ve panicked and told me about the cake, but she handled it with grace and professionalism, and I am so grateful for her!
Every single one of my friends and family members have expressed to me how much they loved Jodi and appreciate her hard work on our wedding day! I agree with them wholeheartedly! My wedding day was absolutely beautiful and went off without a hitch and a lot of that has to do with Jodi! Thank you! 🤍 -
Autumn Sent on 01/23/2019
Necessity!
I was planning a destination wedding and had interviewed a few planners/coordinators over the phone that honestly did not seem that professional or took on more than one wedding a day. Then I spoke with Jodi and I immediately knew I wanted to hire her. You could hear the genuine interest in her voice. She only did one wedding at a time to ensure you got her total attention the day of and she specialized in destination weddings so dealt with brides not being local and offered her time in assisting with meeting with vendors, taking pictures of venue, recommending other vendors, and letting me ship boxes of decor to her house. My wedding weekend came and if there were a few mishaps I didn’t really know of them because Jodi constantly was on it and made sure everything flowed perfectly. The mother of the ringbearer forgot the sign so she ran out and got a new one hours before the ceremony, she made sure the grandparents were okay all throughout the reception, she assembled and distributed my welcome bags (my guests were spread all over downtown Savannah), helped with my decor for my rehearsal, the list is endless. The best part was how much i got to enjoy my day bc i fully trusted that’s jodi had it under control. I couldn’t have imagined my day without her and highly recommend her! She is the sweetest and works very hard to make your wedding dreams come true! Thank you Jodi!!! -
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![Nicole]()
Nicole Sent on 12/21/2018Thank you for helping on our magical day!
I am a wedding planner in the wedding and recently was married on December 15th, 2018. Having worked so many weddings I knew I needed someone behind the scenes to help with the final touches of my big day and am so glad I hired Jodi! I would not have been able to pull it off without Jodi. She was accessible and was able to pull together the final details of my big day that were important to me. She helped coordinate the ceremony and it went so smoothly. She was there when I needed her but not in my face, which was exactly what I wanted in a coordinator. She is so kind and sweet and I am SO SO SO happy I hired her for my big day!!!!! Thank you Jodi!!! -
![Tori]()
Tori Sent on 08/30/2017Where do I begin? Jodi has been an absolute joy to work with since I first reached out to her. We planned our wedding from start to finish in 4 months and hired Jodi as a day of coordinator; even prior to the wedding, Jodi was always available and prepared to share her honest advice, review contracts with us, suggest vendors, and more. We truly couldn't have done it without her!
Before the wedding, Jodi contacted and managed all vendors. She asked the important questions we didn't know to ask since we were planning a wedding for the first time. She walked all of our friends and family through the wedding traditions during the rehearsal. During the wedding, Jodi made sure we stayed on schedule, completely set up and cleaned the space, and paid attention to every detail. Her assistants were just as caring and vigilant-- they were so kind and helpful, and everyone worked seamlessly as a team throughout our big day. Jodi and her team absolutely wonderful and ensured that our day was perfect!
Additionally, for my fellow brides on a budget, Jodi's services are an excellent value. I was so pleased with the quality of work and assistance she provided for the same cost or less than local competitors. I would hire Jodi one million times over, and could not recommend her more! My guests even commented that this was the first wedding they'd attended without anything going wrong. If you want your wedding day to go over without a hitch, hire Jodi and the Savannah Wedding Dreams team! Jodi, thank you so much for helping us take this huge step in our relationship in such a beautiful way! -
![Hope]()
Hope Sent on 06/12/2017Do yourself a favor and hire Jodi.
From match-making us with the best caterer (Simply Southern) and the best photographer (Sweet Peony) and the best venue (Savannah Station). She is simply the best. But wait there is more....
Every step of the way, Jodi was there. At the rehearsal, she made one of my bridesmaids promise her to make sure I ate before the wedding. She knew how I was feeling before I did. When my sister was having a hard time getting alterations on her dress, Jodi was there. When I wanted a certain centerpiece but our budget had been cut (due to a job loss), Jodi had a plan. When the bridesmaids try to steal the show (and they will), she was there. She came to my hair appointment, to our rental house, my "get ready" house before the wedding, to my rehearsal dinner. She checked on me every step of the way and made sure I was okay.
Jodi is honest, caring, kind and most importantly protective of her brides and believe me when I say, you will need her by your side on your big day.
Jodi, we love you and you now have new friends for life. We promise to keep in touch. We miss you already and are sooooo happy that you made our Savannah Wedding Dreams come true.
Thank you for everything we could not have pulled off all this without you!
Guests comments include: it was flawless, seamless, stunning, the best wedding they've been to, even the toughest of guys were in awe of how beautiful the tables were.
Can't stress it enough, she's the best! -
![Debbie]()
Debbie Sent on 05/03/2017There are not enough superlatives to describe Jodi at Savannah Wedding Dreams. Planning our daughters destination wedding was easier than imagined simply because we hired an exceptional individual. Jodi went over and above in arranging and working with the venue and all the vendors. She was always available to answer any and all questions we had during this process, and believe me, there were many. Her kindness and patience was an added blessing for this mom and daughter who live several states away! She and her team were a pleasure to work with the day of the wedding, they kept everything running smoothly and on time. We highly recommend Savannah Wedding Dreams for local or destination weddings. -
![Christy]()
Christy Sent on 05/16/2016Jodi was a true blessing on my daughters wedding day. My daughter thought that me and her could do everything by ourselves the day of the wedding as we had already done all the planning prior to hiring Jodi. I inquired to Jodi about 6 months before the wedding day and we connected instantly. Even before hiring her and we didn't actually hire her until about 3 months before the wedding, she would email me periodically asking how we were doing on the planning and if we needed anything. She was always so nice and willing to give me helpful information even before she was hired. Finally, one day in February my daughter gave me the okay to hire her. I remember it was about 10:30 that night and I emailed Jodi asking her if she was still available and of course within about 15 minutes she responded and said yes. We couldn't have done everything she did on that day. She was there for us for the rehearsal and on the wedding day. She's very pleasant to work with and always returned my texts, phone calls and emails immediately. Thank you Jodi for everything you did for us!! I would highly recommend Savannah Wedding Dreams. -
![Ashley]()
Ashley Sent on 10/05/2017Jodi is literally the queen bee of wedding planners. When I found her, I was close to my wedding and my previous wedding planner did pretty much nothing. I was stressed to high heavens. She immediately got to work. She was exceptionally communicative, kind, flexible, and she kept me together every time I fell apart. Our day was perfect because of her. You're out of your mind if you pass up her services. -
![Lara]()
Lara Sent on 10/05/2019Bad Decision
Married at the McMillan Inn on September 22nd, 2019. Jodi, our planner, borrowed tables, linens, and even flowers from the Inn. Our guests were served food on Publix trays and out of plastic publix jugs. Was shown a 2-tiered cake and received a cake barely big enough to feed our 15 guests. Learned later that out of the $2300 we paid her, $1500 was just her FEE!! Buyer beware! -
![Chelsea]()
Chelsea Sent on 10/28/2018Poor responsiveness, no professionalism, & other errors.
I really, really, REALLY hate to leave negative reviews, and this is the ONLY one I am leaving for my wedding because everything else was perfect, but I have to in this case.
Jodi was not worth the $1,200 we paid for month-of services. AT ALL. For starters, it took MONTHS for me to get a countersigned contract from her, despite numerous e-mails that went without answer and multiple text responses of "Sorry, yes, I'm working on it," etc. The only excuse she gave me was that she was in the process of moving and needed to set up her printer. (Does that actually take three months?) I let it rest for a little while since it wasn't technically the month of my wedding yet.
When we hit the four-week mark, I did not hear from her. I expected to get a phone call, e-mail, or text saying, "We're a month away. Let's get started!" ANYTHING to indicate that she was aware that we'd hit the month-of mark and needed to get this process going. I ended up reaching out to her myself, and she said she would get the timeline together. We had multiple drafts of it, and I think only one was ever sent when she actually said she would send it (so I had to text her to find out about the status of the others). The timeline itself was just odd...It was a single page that looked to be an Excel spreadsheet with not a whole lot of information on it. I've seen other wedding timelines created by planners, and they are multiple pages, very extensive, and VERY detailed.
Night of the rehearsal dinner (which was held at my parents' house about twenty to thirty minutes outside of the city we were having it at), she is late. I call her, and she got the time wrong. WHAT?! We'd texted about the rehearsal dinner MULTIPLE times, and I said the start time MULTIPLE times. Still shows up about 45 minutes late, looking very frazzled and just very unprofessional. We go through the rehearsal (only takes about 10-15 minutes), and I will say that that part went fine.
The next day is the wedding. Jodi looked more professional that day, thankfully. She sent me pictures of everything that had been set up (which I was very grateful for), and I noticed that our "Happily Ever After" sign had been placed so that it read "Happily After Ever." Her reasoning was that she was running around and things were a bit crazy. Okay, but...you're a wedding planner. It's going to be hectic no matter what, and there should be plenty of cool-headedness and calmness here. She got it fixed regardless, but my mom and I were just thinking, "Seriously?"
Ceremony itself goes great, and we get to the reception where we're sitting down and eating. My husband and I had decided on a Polaroid guest book, and we'd set it up with instructions and everything on one of the tables in the back of the room. Jodi takes the camera and starts going around taking pictures of everyone at the tables while they're eating. NO. I don't want my guests having to pose for pictures while they're trying to eat. AND, the camera was for the guest book, not for random shots of people eating their food! I asked her to please leave the camera for the guest book, and she said she was "showing people how to use the camera." Okay, fine. Whatever. HOWEVER (and this is probably what irritated me more than anything), when we looked at the pictures later, more than half of the ones in the guestbook where taken horizontally. We'd set up the guest book so people would hold the camera upright and take VERTICAL pictures. She was showing people how to use the camera wrong, so now we've got all of these sideways pictures in our guest book that look ridiculous. (Maybe I'm being a little harsh here because I'm pretty OCD, but it just annoyed me SO much because it just wasn't supposed to happen that way.)
At the end of the night, she didn't help us get everything together. All of the stuff we had (a few leftover favors, the guest book, card box, etc.) had to be put together by my parents to figure out how to cart everything home. She really didn't help at all. Additionally, my mom had brought a blanket and pillow for some elderly family members to sit on during the ceremony, and that was nowhere to be found the next day. I asked Jodi about it, and she said to ask the venue where it might be. OK, I understand that her services technically ended that night, but it was the next day, and I was being forced to figure all of this out. Really?
The last thing that really irked me is that we got no follow-up from her whatsoever. No e-mail, no phone call, no text...NOTHING saying, "I loved planning your wedding with you. Thank you so much for letting me help you," or anything similar. All of our other vendors reached out to us with a "thank-you." It was like she disappeared after the wedding was over and never asked us how everything went or if we needed anything else.
This is a really long review, but my husband, parents, and I were so irked by this entire thing and sorely disappointed in her services given the money we paid. So, I felt it necessary to write all of the details out. Additionally, I wanted to point out that I did most of the ACTUAL planning myself, so maybe that was part of the issue (i.e., there wasn't a whole lot for her to do since I'd done a lot). Still, the lack of responsiveness and professionalism alone was enough.
I noticed that other reviewers had a great experience with her (except for one other really negative review I saw), so I'm not sure what happened in my case. But, I would never, ever recommend Savannah Wedding Dreams for wedding planning. Find someone else. -
![Molly]()
Molly Sent on 11/08/2019How Did It Go So Wrong?
My husband and I had our wedding on April 6th of 2019. It was a beautiful day full of wonderful memories that I will never forget. However, if I had to do it all over again, I would not hire Jodi. While she’s great as a person and would probably be good at helping plan a very small wedding, so many things went wrong at our wedding that shouldn’t have. So here I am…seven months later…writing this review, in hopes of helping out a fellow bride.
When Marcus and I got engaged, I had no interest in hiring a wedding planner except for maybe “day of”. My mom, knowing I would eventually wish I had one, did some research and found Jodi. They hit it off right away! Jodi said she really liked my mom and would give us her full service package for the price of the destination wedding package. Amazing!! So a few days later, Marcus and I met with Jodi. She clearly knew her stuff and suggested a reception venue to us that ended up being absolutely perfect. Her exact words in this meeting were, “You won’t have to do a thing. You just need to show up.” Burden. Lifted.
Not long into the wedding planning, I started to notice Jodi wasn’t reaching out to vendors when she said she would. She would tell us that she would be sending out emails, whether to us or vendors, “the next day” or “this weekend”, and after days or a week had passed there would be no follow through until my mom or I messaged her again. It was especially frustrating when this occurred with the DJ. Had my mom not reached out to the DJ herself, we would have missed out on what ended up being an INCREDIBLE DJ. We waited a week after Jodi told us she was emailing them “the next day” before my mom emailed the DJ company. A week after that, Jeff reached out to us stating they were getting requests for our date but wanted to give us a chance to secure it first….and he still had not heard from Jodi.
We let many things go because we knew Jodi had a lot on her plate, between her very sick grandchild and we knew I wasn’t her only bride. I even came to her defense countless times when Marcus would ask, “Where is the wedding planner? Shouldn’t she be doing this?”
Now to get into our wedding day…
We assumed that since she had an assistant, that one of them would be right by our side at all times so that we wouldn’t have to think about what time it was or where to be next because she would be there keeping us on track. This was not the case and the afternoon was full of constant confusion.
The whole week leading up to our wedding, the forecast showed rain. As part of our contract with our musicians (a cellist and violinist), we were to have a canopy at the ceremony even if there was the slightest chance of precipitation. So we bought 2 canopies just in case. The day before the wedding, Jodi remarked to my parents that she hoped it didn’t rain because she didn’t want to have to put up the canopies because it would take an hour.
Did it rain on our wedding day? Yes.
Did Jodi put up the canopies? No.
Did I then have to walk down the aisle on my wedding day in absolute silence, choking back tears? You betcha.
The musicians had their instruments out in the rain as long as they could before having to put them away due to water damage.
For after the ceremony, we envisioned our guests being carried to the reception venue on the beautiful white & gold “Old Savannah” trolleys. We were very specific about what trolley we wanted when talking to Jodi. We looked at the contract and it says “Wedding Transportation – Standard Trolley”. As we have no experience with the trolley service, and Jodi was approving contracts, how did this go wrong? Our guests were not picked up in the white & gold trolleys. They were picked up in the green & orange tourist trolleys that I find absolutely hideous.
Why was the ring bearer pillow at the reception venue and not brought to the ceremony? Why did the fathers not get their boutonnieres? It appears most of the boutonnieres were wasted, as my mom looked over on the way out and saw there were about 10 left in the box, as well as some corsages.
My parents went well over budget, willingly, to make the extra things happen that were important to me and Marcus. So much money and hard work went into this so we could have the wedding of our dreams. Yet ultimately, we feel that Jodi wasn’t willing to put in the effort to make sure our vision was fulfilled.
I feel that things got away from Jodi and she needed more help. Jodi is so sweet and caring and we really liked her as a person. But we trusted her and she let us down. We have expressed all of this to her in an email and she told us that she learned a lot of things from our wedding. I hope this is true, for the sake of all her future brides.
We got married 7 months ago and it has taken me this long to sit down and write this review because I just couldn’t relive the heartbreak of all that went wrong. I hope no other bride has to go through this. -
![Peter]()
Peter Sent on 03/11/2019Over promised and under delivered!
It’s been almost a year since our wedding and if I’m being honest, it’s taken me this long to decide whether or not to write this review.
Before booking Jodi as our day of planner, we looked at all of her reviews on all of the wedding platforms and were quite impressed. We also had numerous phone conversations and 3 in person meetings before the weekend of our wedding. She even told us that one of her couples was chosen to be on an upcoming reality show on CMT and asked if we wanted the opportunity. Needless to say, we thought were in good hands!
It wasn’t until about a week prior that I had a feeling something was off. She hadn’t been returning emails and phone calls about time sensitive issues. I also received numerous emails from vendors asking if we had a day of planner or saying that they hadn’t heard from her. In her contract she agrees to take over all communication with vendors a week prior.
Some positive things that Jodi helped us out with:
Since this was our destination wedding in Savannah; we purchased most of our linens and centerpieces ourselves. Jodi let us store all of these boxes in her garage and storage closet at her home. She also transported all of these boxes and more to and from the venue on the day of. This was a huge help.
We also had our ceremony rehearsal on the afternoon the day prior. You could tell that she’s done this before because she kept our rather large wedding party in line and on schedule. The rehearsal ran very smoothly.
Now for the negatives…
The Mackey House (our venue) uses the website All Seated to arrange tables, chairs, specific placement, etc. It was a great help. Not only was everything organized on there but I also printed out copies to make sure the venue and Jodi had prior. When we arrived with our wedding party – none of the high top tables matched for the cocktail reception. We noticed this and had the venue fix the issue.
Also there were extra chairs on one of the sides and we didn’t notice. This resulted in all of our pictures having empty seats on my husband’s side. It’s quite frustrating every time we see the pictures.
As mentioned early, a week prior Jodi was supposed to send out a timeline to all of our vendors and take over all communication with them. Not only did she not contact anyone until a couple days prior (this was after us confronting her about it) – she finally sent out an email to most of them. This included our specific day-to-day itinerary I made for our entire weekend including our specific plans days prior. This was only for Jodi to see. She sent this EVERYONE and worst of all it was an outdated copy (times were off for our reception timeline).
That being said, our DJ had one of these outdated day-to-day itineraries. At around 8pm during our reception, my husband and I were doing table touches after dinner saying hello to our guests. The DJ tapped me on the shoulder and told me that we were 30 minutes behind schedule and the Mother son dance/ sibling toasts were supposed to happen at 7:30pm. Jodi was absolutely nowhere to be found. Because of this, we lost 30 minutes of dancing.
Linens/ Napkins
On our last visit to Savannah we mentioned to Jodi that we had purchased all of our white cloth napkins for the reception and were going to iron them ourselves, fold them prior and bring them to Savannah with us. She insisted that we ship them to her house; she would iron and fold them the way we wanted. We were delighted. The next week I shipped them to her and sent her the exact napkin fold that we were thinking. Trust me – this was not a complicated fold. Fast forward to our guests arriving to the ceremony on our wedding day. Napkins were nowhere to be found. After digging through boxes they were found still in the packaging. They were not ironed and didn’t have time to be folded so they were laid flat underneath the dinner plates.
Jodi also told us on that earlier visit that she had a good connection to steam linens for an inexpensive price. We told her that was great and to let us know how much it was and we would pay. She told us at our rehearsal on the day prior to the wedding that the company quoted her $300 to steam them and that was too much. She then said that she was going to do them herself that night. We are talking over 30 linens. Why did she wait so long to tell us and why didn’t she ask if we wanted to just pay? At that exact moment we had so much going on that we just trusted she would get it done.
Fast forward to our tables getting set up on the day of as guests are arriving. The linens were being taken out of the package and thrown on tables. Not having been ironed or steamed like she promised. One of the staff members from The Mackey House asked why they weren’t steamed prior and she replied by saying “because they didn’t pay me to do that!”
Lie upon lie upon lie.
Flowers
Lastly, we decided to do all of our flowers ourselves. We picked them up from the wholesale florist in Savannah the day prior and pre-cut ALL of the flowers. This included all of the flowers for our reception centerpiece vases and the additional vases around the venue. As we did appreciate Jodi coming to our house to pick the buckets of flowers up that morning – when we arrived to the venue with the wedding party nothing was in vases.
I wrote out a detailed list of which flowers go in which vases, the number and which exact table they went on. We only had 3 different varietals of flowers. She agreed that she’d be able to handle filling vases with water and putting the flowers inside. But once again, when we arrived to the venue none of this was done. As guests were arriving one of our other vendors saw the pure look of STRESS on my face and asked what was wrong. I informed her that none of our reception tables had flowers on them yet and our ceremony was starting in 20 minutes. She then took charge and made it happen.
There were also tables still being set up during our guest arrival in the garden area. This was just unacceptable.
When all is said and done, a lot of these details probably weren’t even noticed by our guests. But every time we see pictures of our wedding day we notice something that Jodi undelivered on. Whether it’s wrinkled linens, empty ceremony chairs, misplaced decorations, or the complete feeling of stress throughout our professional photo shoot at the venue.
I tried to make everything as easy as possible by making detailed lists for Jodi, labeling every single box including placement of all of the components in the boxes, as well as drawing a detailed map of the venue and listing where everything needed to go.
Jodi had 3 weddings that weekend and it’s our assumption that she overpromised and under delivered for our wedding. We just wish that she didn’t lie to us and was truthful about what she had time to do. The entire reason we hired her as our day of planner was to eliminate all the stress of executing the details. She did quite the opposite and is a negative cloud when we look back on the day.
After our wedding we had a phone conversation with the venue to let them know about our experience with her. They tried numerous times to get in contact with her but she never returned any of their calls or emails.
Use caution when thinking about hiring Jodi and Savannah Wedding Dreams for your special day.
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![Caitlin]()
Caitlin Sent on 06/01/2017I don't tend to write negative reviews (I like to get it go and lift up excellent businesses), but I would like to fully warn anyone thinking about hiring Jodi. She was a total disaster, stressed out, overwhelmed and made my wedding weekend stressful for myself, my groom and my family. It started with the heinous welcome bags she put together, when she told me time after time she would get my approval first, she never did and they turned out terrible and NOT worthy of what I paid her…I am pretty sure she bought everything at her workplace as well. Seeing them made me so frustrated that I cried, my wedding planner made me cry on the outset of my wedding weekend. This was just the beginning. She had no concept of alcohol, how to keep it, how to work with the bartenders to have it come out as we pleased, and NEVER brought me a drink or asked what she could get me the entire evening besides bringing a few waters before the reception started. She caused a huge scene when my mom sat on the wrong side after coming down the aisle, which made many uncomfortable, including my mother. She kept asking my groom for cash (throughout the wedding) to go out and get more ice/pick other things up, when I would expect she would have the funds to purchase and then reimburse. In addition, she came into the bridal suite with a story that all of her brides get pregnant within the first year after their wedding, it was so unnecessary and uncomfortable - we may not want to have kids!!! Overall an awful experience NOT worth 1 penny, if this was a product and not a service I would demand my money back.
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