Seattle Wedding Planners - My interviews and impressions

[Sparkalicious]

My FI and I have interviewed several Seattle Wedding Planners recently and since I was frustrated at the lack of feedback/information available for Seattle brides, I thought that I would share my experience.

I believe that we had the good fortune or did a good job researching because we had the pleasure of interviewing 5 excellent prospective candidates!! We were amazed at how pleasant, personable, professional, experienced and qualified they all are.

Ultimately, we selected Janel Schlitt with Occasions, LLC because she has a phenomenal reputation, seemingly very strong vendor relationships and competitive pricing, in addition to being incredibly flexible - i.e., accepting credit cards (no additional fee) and variable payment schedules. Also, Janel has a partner with whom she works who would be able to seemlessly step into our wedding planning process and be there to help us with our planning needs and on our day if for some reason, Janel was unable to do so.

In addition, after our first meeting she went above and beyond to contact a floral vendor I am interested in for me and arranged a consultation with her - no expectations - just because she could and she knew that I wanted to meet with her. I thought that this was terrific customer service, especially considering she had not received any payment and had no guarantee that we would be securing her services. Janel also has great follow up and keeps in close touch with me.

Okay - so that was number 1. We interviewed 4 more! Each one was special and uniquely qualified. Sounds cliche but we were genuinely impressed with them all. The following details our impressions/thoughts.

Stephanie Solomon with Solomon Event Planning, http://www.solomonevents.com/

This woman is sheer wedding planning perfection. She is amazing at what she does and portrays the image of the quintessential wedding planner - professional perfection. Given her reputation, her fully qualified team of people supporting her and extensive experience, I would have opted to go with her had her flat fee not been exorbitant for my meagre budget. Believe me, I tried to justify the fee but just couldn''t. People who can afford her are spending their money well. Even people who can''t necessarily "afford" her - if you need full service and want everything done for you - Stephanie will get it done and make sure that it is FAB! Sell a kidney if you have to ... she''s seriously that good. Why didn''t I, you ask? FI wouldn''t let me.

Katy with VOWS, http://www.vowswedding.com/

Katy is experienced and fully qualified as well. She has a terrific personality and great sense of humor. She has an incredible portfolio, is serious about wedding planning and focuses on attention to detail. Had her business strategy been a little more flexible re: pricing and extra chrgs etc, I would have loved to have her plan our event as well. If you have a median budget $3,000 - $5,000 and want more than just "day of coordinator" services, I would definitely recommend Katy. I plan to keep in touch with her allow we didn''t decide to go with her as our planner.
Melissa with Lush Parties & Events, http://www.lushpartiesandevents.com/

Credentials, anyone? Melissa is qualified beyond belief! She used to be a lawyer, however, she now channels all of her energy into her true love - wedding/event planning. Melissa gave us a portfolio filled with glowing references, a resume and she even burned some CD''s for us with slideshows of events she had planned. Everything was professional and I could just tell how super organized she is. She has a great personality that is easy to get along with and is filled with great ideas on how to make your day perfect.
Aleah with Fine Line Management, http://www.threedreamsent.com/

Nick and Aleah are a husband and wife wedding planning team. I never had the opportunity to meet with Nick, however, Aleah is so sweet and always professional in her correspondence. Their pricing is at a lower price point that the above mentioned planners and I think that this is a good opportunity for brides out their looking for wedding planning assistance. I needed someone with strong vendor relationships who would be able to help us save some money in that regard and since this team seems to be a little newer on the scene and less well known by various vendors, going with them wasn''t right for us, however, they come with a few years of experience and are committed to their clients. This was evidenced by the fact that we were unable to meet with Nick because he was off on a vendor site visit because a vendor was possibly going to default on a contractual agreement. It all worked out in the end and the wedding they were planning went off without a hitch and is now beautifully displayed on their blog.

These are just my thoughts but since it was such a process for us to try and figure out who was "good", I thought that I would share my 2 cents in an effort to help out someone else who might be in a similar situation.

Good luck Seattle brides and I hope that my feedback helps you out in some way.

If you have any questions, I am happy to answer!

Sacha