Company: Plan It Event Design and Management

Planners: Christine Avery/Lauren Nourse

Bride and Groom: Jesse and Valery

Fortunately, our job as event planners allows us the pleasure of working with so many wonderful people at very special (as well as stressful) times in their lives. Jesse and Valery are no exception. As their day-of coordinators, we helped them pull together the final details for their romantic wedding that took place at the Mission Inn Resort & Spa, Howey-in-the-Hills FL, surrounded by rustic Spanish-style architecture. Their ceremony took place in the courtyard overlooking the golf course.

The bride and groom wanted their guests to experience a romantic yet still spectacular Spanish-themed evening, and they nailed it! They used black & white accent splashes all over a room flooded with red LEDs. The end result was simply breathtaking. Each table sparkled with candlelight provided by a five-stick candelabra and tea lights. Their 158 guests were greeted with table names that reflected memories that were held dear to the bride and groom and the stories behind them. We loved this!

From then on the night was full of surprises. First, the bride and groom treated guests to a stunning tango for their first dance. A flawless and jaw-dropping performance! Then, during the maid-of-honor's speech, a flash mob broke out on the dance-floor. The bride had orchestrated the entire surprise and had many of the guests front and center, dancing perfectly in time with one another. The MOH then began rapping a song written by the groom. He was stunned and overcome with emotion as he stood watching his friends and family basking in their victory of surprise. And finally, Valery's uncle popped the question (again) to his wife of over 25 years! Of course, she said yes.

Whew! It was a fabulous evening to say the very least. To top it all off, we were especially excited about this event because Valery and Jesse were our first celebrity couple!

Company: Cocktails and Details

Planners: Terrica Skaggs

Here's my client, Sophia, telling the story of her wedding in her own words:

"We loved working with our wedding planner when planning our destination wedding. We live on the West Coast and were having our wedding on the East Coast, so with our busy schedule and time differences, I just knew planning would be a disaster in trying to get a hold of vendors, researching and keeping track of everything. I was so happy when we hired Cocktails + Details, who made everything a dream with video conferences and an online wedding planning workbook.

Together, we were able to manage our budget and ever-growing guest list, keep track of what we needed to do and share pictures of ideas we were considering for our wedding. What made it really great was that she could suggest vendors to us and all their info would pop up into our Workbook! The system was really easy to use and for us, it was perfect because it was available 24/7. We weren't expecting something so innovative when we hired our planner, but this in combination with her "planning phase system" made her the best planning decision we made!"

Company: Erganic Design

Planners: Sojourner Auguste

Bride and Groom: Meredith and Jonathan

We met Meredith in the fall of 2009. She had just gotten engaged to Jonathan during the Thanksgiving season and had always wanted a November wedding. Originally she was thinking she would get married in November 2011. After she officially hired us, she let us know that she couldn't wait that long and wanted to plan for a November 2010 wedding in New York City. We quickly started planning her wedding - with less than a year to go!

Meredith is from Toronto Canada (where her family still resides) and planning a wedding in NYC was an emotional process for her. Because her mother was all the way in Canada and not able to attend most of the appointments, we scheduled many conference calls and shared many emails. This helped her mom to feel more included in the process, which was important to Meredith.

When her mother was able to visit NYC, we made sure to schedule really important (and fun) stuff to make those moments memorable for them both. We did the decor table mock up with her - that was a great time - and both mom & Meredith loved the centerpiece design.

After 11 months of intense and laser-focused wedding planning, Meredith became like a daughter to me. I felt protective of her, especially after having the opportunity to get to know her mother and her future mother-in-law. Everyone was so full of love and support. And this is the stuff great weddings are made of.

On the day of the wedding, just about every moment was simply magical. We designed and planned all these great details, so it was important to my team that we were able to witness their reaction to key moments throughout the wedding. When Meredith saw the room for the first time, her smile said it all. We felt like we truly captured her vision for her wedding.