The nutshell: Our absolutely amazing wedding and ceremony were at a non-traditional location (we rented a 20-acre lodge with oversized barn/garage for our reception), located FAR away from the nearest city, and we pulled it off in 12 weeks. Because we hired Lori. 🙂 The story… My husband and I have too many projects. 🙂 April 2018: We reserved the lodge (since all official “rustic” wedding venues were already booked for October…) and a nearby church. Location was 60 mins from Cincinnati, and 120 mins from Dayton. October 6th – 5.5 months away. We loved the location! And knew we could have our dream wedding there – albeit more work because we were responsible for everything – no manager or organizer or “inclusive” packages to help… As I mentioned, my husband and I have too many projects… (at the time of the wedding, we were also coordinating 2 cross-country household moves, job changes, and more.) 12 weeks before the wedding we got down to business. It was when I realized we would have to bring our own water (well water, no catering kitchen) that I understood we absolutely needed help.. Or we’d get to the big day and major things would be wrong – like, having no water!! 🙂 Present: Lori. A facebook marketplace recommendation popped up that evening. I wanted someone creative and crafty who was used to dealing with unique situations and addressing them well. Across all of her reviews I found every point of complexity I could think of with our setup (quick turnaround, always responsive and great to work with, remote location, extra guest management, transportation, and a bunch of other things.) We talked the next day and I really appreciated when she jumped in right away to offer suggestions for ways the challenges could be addressed and ones I hadn’t thought of. She didn’t even try to sell me on the full planning package (which I clearly needed). In contrast, I had spoken to another wedding planner with an impressive book – but she offered nothing in the consultation and only tried to sell the highest package. But I didn’t need cookie-cutter “done it a hundred times”. I needed someone creative, flexible, who knew what to look out for, would know what “done” looks like, and how to fill in all the gaps to get there. Suffice to say, finding vendors for a remote location, in October, within our price range and matching our style, is difficult! With Lori’s help, we were able to have our dream wedding within budget and at a fraction of the price it should have cost… She just kept working at it until it fit. WEDDING DAY: It’s not ideal, but due to everything else we had going on at the time (incl 2 deaths in the family), I was not able to “plan” with Lori pre-wedding day as much as she (or I) wanted. She puts in so much work beforehand to make sure everything goes perfectly. She writes it down and pre-coordinates with *everyone*. And all the critical elements were done prior – timeline, flow, etc. But for ours, she had to wing a lot more of it and hear from me the night before / morning of (decorations and setup, final gaps). Which I’m pretty sure would scare the heck out of most planners. 🙂 She was 100% prepared. Everyone knew what they were doing. I gave a bunch of boxes of decorations, the basics of what I wanted, and left creative licensing for the rest. (Keep in mind, this was a “bare” property. We even had to set up our own lighting for pathways and the garage/barn. Our families helped set up the day before, but all the day of work and decorating was Lori and crew.) She had headsets for everyone to communicate. Split the staff between church and lodge to start. And GO! It was amazing. Everything went so well!! And it looked even better than I had hoped! Lori kept us on schedule and everything moving. We got in everything we wanted to and all that was important to us! Lori took special care to make sure the items we requested were all included and covered. All the way down to the Fireworks! 🙂 Behind the scenes, I found out later the Murphy’s Law components she had to deal with. There is no cell reception on the 20-acre property (e.g. no texts or calls). The headsets she brought (since no cell reception) also didn’t work across the property, so they had to talk / coordinate / pivot in person. One of her helpers had also become very ill (I had no idea – nobody saw anything). The rest of the staff picked up wonderfully and we never knew. And on top of all the day-of challenges, Lori had a very major family emergency earlier in the week (it was a real possibility she wouldn’t be able to be there). But she still made it work. Seamlessly. Her work ethic is second to none, she is extremely conscientious, and she will make your day or your event the sole focus of hers so you can live in the moment and truly enjoy it. The best thing a bride can say is “It was my perfect day!” And they may not know the detail that went into the day, or all the challenges behind the scene. But in this case, we do. We know and we greatly appreciate how amazing Lori and her entire team were! Both of our moms were amazed by her, guests (prior brides) told me she was wonderful, too :-). I was really lucky to find her, and actually miss not talking to her everyday now. Thanks, Lori! Our day was perfect, and our wedding was “us”, through and through. We, quite literally, could not have done it without you! We highly recommend Lori. She’s great and will make your event, your day, your moment, incredible.
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