Reviews of Laurel Elise Events, LLC (Event Planner)

Molly Beauchemin

Elise was hands down the best and most professional wedding hire we worked with for our massive, 2-ceremony, multi-cultural wedding in Charlottesville. Her warmth and willingness to go above and beyond the standard of duty helped alleviate so much stress and potential hiccups along the way, and we would absolutely recommend her to anyone in need of wedding coordination and/or wedding planning. We found out after the wedding that some of our *other* vendors had made some mistakes during the wedding that could have caused issues, but Elise identified them before they could manifest, fixed other peoples' mistakes while still maintaining her own duties and executing them to the fullest, AND she managed to keep any possible problems away from us so that we didn't stress out about them in the moment-- and everything turned out beautifully. We never even knew anything had deviated from the plan, and neither did our guests (it was mostly behind-the-scenes stuff with catering that could've gone wrong, but Elise never let it get far enough to be a problem). People keep telling us that our wedding was "the best wedding they've ever been to"-- I'm sure everyone gets told that about their own wedding, but either way, Elise deserves recognition as part of that praise. We can't gush about her enough! FWIW-- she also has an amazingly friendly, can-do attitude that makes her perfect for this role. We love that she was always available for a text or call when we had questions about something urgent in the lead-up to our wedding. She also has a way of speaking that instills confidence-- exactly what you need on your wedding day when there are a lot of moving parts. 10 out of 10 we'd work with her again! (And we're excited to stay friends with her in the future!)

Stephanie Warren

We hired Elise about a year before our Charlottesville wedding. We’re based in North Carolina, so we thought hiring someone from the area would be a help for us as we planned our wedding. We opted for the full service package with the understanding we’d be fully supported in the planning experience. Unfortunately, we found Elise was not up to the task of helping us plan our wedding to our expectations. We felt she was very good at telling us everything was fine and taken care of, but if you dug deeply into the details or asked additional questions it was clear things were not figured out or taken care of. Problems and inconveniences ranged from small to large with Elise. Booking hotel blocks took a month longer than we thought it would, her initial budget for us in her financial planning platform was a couple thousand dollars higher than we told her it could be, and she was unavailable to us two days before our wedding as she worked on other projects. We hired her as we were looking for someone to take control of our budget and event and guide us in the right direction. Instead, we found ourselves needing to come to our own conclusions, complete a lot of the projects on our own and continue to remind Elise of deadlines and decisions that needed to be made. About midway through the process we brought to her attention we were unhappy with the service we were receiving and expected things to improve, but unfortunately, we never saw that improvement. The week of our wedding we were disappointed with Elise’s help. As mentioned above, she was unavailable to us the two full days we were in town early before our wedding. The day of the wedding we ran behind schedule with our photos (because of the unpacking issue), and the Uhaul we had brought with us to the venue the day before (full of décor, signs, candles, alcohol, etc.) was left unpacked in the heat until three hours before the ceremony (until the groomsmen finally unpacked it), despite being told Elise and her team would handle it – and the reception area never got completely set up before she ran out of time. Elise didn’t arrive to the venue until noon, when the ceremony began at 5:30. To be fair, this could be standard for wedding planners, but it gave us both added stress, and hours ticked by and the venue wasn’t completely set up. We had bought our own linens for the wedding and Elise offered to iron/steam the wrinkles out of them a few months prior– but at the rehearsal she decided she did not want them early after all, then the afternoon of the wedding we were told the wrinkles couldn’t come out, and we’d need to rush rent new linens for $400. Once the event was over, we found a lot of the items we brought for the celebration went unused (candles, signs, etc.). Additionally, our Uhaul and car were packed haphazardly, with some items becoming damaged. The combination of items/signs not being used and other items getting damaged truly bothered us, as it seemed like our wants were not fully executed for our special day. Elise did a good job of connecting us with local vendors and her planning tool was helpful for payment reminders. Overall, we felt we were not a priority for Elise throughout the entire planning process. We understand Elise had other clients, other professional development opportunities and a personal life, but we hoped for more attention to detail and care in our wedding planning, especially for the cost associated with the Full Service Package.

Grace S

Elise planned and executed our BEAUTIFUL wedding at Montfair Resort Farm in Charlottesville. We benefited so much from her insight and experience—from recruiting amazing local vendors, to keeping everyone aware of the evolving plan for our wedding day (hurricane Florence posed a very real threat to our outdoor ceremony plans), to bustling my wedding dress like the expert bridesmaid a bride could only dream of actually having in the wedding party. Before we were referred to Elise, we met other planners who made us feel like they were basically brokers for high-cost wedding vendors, pressuring us to commit to something more elaborate than we wanted. But Elise is NOT that kind of wedding planner. She operates as more of an advocate for the couple—negotiating contracts, finding vendors that are comfortable with your budget, and connecting you with people you would never otherwise know about (google and wedding wire can only get you so far on your own!). She's definitely someone you want in your corner to look out for your interests every step of the way. Finally, I want to add that a lot of the responsibilities Elise took over for Day-Of Coordination were such a relief to my closest friends and family. She handled everything from the rehearsal to the reception with professionalism and grace, giving everyone involved in the wedding the chance to actually *enjoy* being there. When I talk to my mom about my wedding, I'm so happy that she can actually remember things about it—details! conversations she had with people!—and not just running around the venue, fielding questions from vendors, and frantically trying to keep things moving on the timeline. We owe that and SO MUCH MORE to Elise! We loved all our vendors, and even then both of us agree Elise was truly the crown jewel. Don't pass up the opportunity to work with her!

Elizabeth Barnes

Hiring Elise as our wedding planner was the best decision we could have made. She is an EXPERT in the field with a wealth of knowledge, experience and resources. We had a tight budget but desired an elegant wedding that us and our guests would remember for a lifetime. She made this dream come alive. She was the driving force in finding vendors that would keep us in budget without sacrificing our desires. As a result of her efforts she made the wedding process stress free and enjoyable. If I were to go through all of this again I would 100% hire Elise and I can not recommend her enough. You will not be disappointed! You will also love her personality, she was a joy to work with. Elise and her team also did our floral arrangements and OH MY GOSH they blew it out of the park! The arrangements were STUNNING!! The entire bridal party was blown away!!

Jessica Simon

If you're looking for the best wedding planner, who is super detail-oriented, incredibly thoughtful, hardworking, and just a joy to be around - hire Elise! I honestly don't know what we would have done without her, and she was absolutely worth every penny. She made all of our wedding dreams come true, and she was incredibly resourceful with local vendors, knowledge about weddings and resources, etc. Not only were her relationships invaluable, but she truly went above and beyond in every way and took initiative when we needed it the most . We would recommend Elise 10 out of 10 times! We cannot say enough good things about her - HIRE HER!

KMD

We hired Elise of Laurel Elise Events as a partial planner for our wedding in Charlottesville, Virginia. The wedding ceremony was held at the UVA Chapel and the reception was at the Darden School of Business. Elise did an amazing job coordinating with our vendors and talking through all of the steps involved in the planning process. She also shared planning software with us that made planning, coordinating with vendors, and creating timelines (for vendors, family, etc.) a breeze. She would always respond promptly with the information that we needed. Even when we ran into obstacles with vendors, she was ready to dive in and do what was necessary to make our day a success. Up until the week of the wedding, we were still adding some finishing touches. Elise not only had stellar creative additions to our design, but also had no problem incorporating our last-minute details. It is worth mentioning that our wedding was particularly difficult to plan because we were not only coordinating between multiple venues, but my husband and I were also planning the wedding remotely (… and the wedding ended up falling on the weekend of UVA’s basketball national championship celebration and Thomas Jefferson’s birthday – a particularly busy time in Charlottesville!!). Elise went above and beyond to make sure that our wedding ran smoothly. My favorite part of working with Elise was her personality. While she was very organized, she was always creative and calm. She got along with everyone and our guests and vendors loved her. Elise is extremely knowledgeable and it was clear that she was well respected by all of the vendors that we worked with. Our wedding day was seamless and we had a blast. Thank you for making it possible for us to have an absolutely beautiful wedding, Elise!

Chloe Hall

Where do I start!? It was truly an HONOR to have Elise as our Wedding Planner for our wedding at Veritas Winery, right outside of Charlottesville, VA. I don't think I will ever be able to praise her enough! Elise was beyond what we could ever imagine in a Wedding Planner. She is truly superwoman and handles the craziness of wedding planning with so much class and elegance. She naturally makes you feel like you can trust her with anything and she without a doubt has a heart of gold. Before I found her, I started planning a lot on my own and became overwhelmed planning everything from Charlotte, NC, however, when Elise took things over, my stress washed away. Looking back, I wish I just booked her for full planning rather than partial. She truly listens to your vision and takes it to a whole different level and will blow your mind. She knew I loved candles and gold and brought our reception into a candle lit dream and tied my love for gold in perfectly! The room looked so timeless and it was thanks to Elise's creativity and attention to detail. She is so personal, we even call her family now. From my own experience, she is very well connected in the Charlottesville area and well respected. She also made a point to save us money where we could which I loved about her. All the vendors we booked that knew her raved about her as well and the ones that worked with her for the first time due to our wedding, had positive feedback about her as well. She is extremely organized and has so many resources to keep you on track with your timeline of due dates (which I needed, since I am not the most organized but she was so patient with me). Her online portal has a huge checklist of everything you can think of which I could easily access whenever. She also sent us multiple floor plans she created to help us envision everything. Within her portal she had additional resources like creating timelines for your family and wedding party so everyone had all the details they needed. Her communication is incredible! I always heard back from her within 24 hours but most of the time I heard back from her within a few hours, if not minutes. She took care of putting together our invitation suite to mail out which had quite a bit of details and it looked beautiful! I sent her items in the mail that she had set up for our HUGE wedding party (11 bridesmaids & 16 groomsmen/ushers) which we appreciated so much! It was so nice to walk into our wedding party suites at the venue the day of the wedding and see all of the goodies displayed so beautifully for our wedding party. Everyone loved Elise that had the chance to meet her - Our wedding party was raving about her as well and said she was so helpful when they needed something! Our parents communicated with her a lot as well and she was so accommodating to their needs. Naturally with 250 people at our wedding, I imagined there would be a few hiccups but Elise always reassured me she had things under control and she did. She gave both my husband and I a sense of peace, that most people dream about leading up to their wedding day. Everyone had a fabulous time! If you have the chance to work with Elise, do not look any further! I cannot stress enough how talented Elise is. She makes things happen and will truly make your dreams come true! Thank you so much Elise for all that you did for us!

Julie Anne Stern

Elise is fantastic! She was super fast to respond, communicated clearly, and put together an awesome timeline of events. I handed everything over to her a month before the wedding and didn't have to worry about any planning details or communicating with vendors. I am super budget-conscious and all about DIY, but it was so worth it to have someone help us with the coordination and planning. My fiance and I didn't have to worry about who would set up decor, or who would be responsible for what. Elise also helped us make decisions regarding things when we were uncertain what to do. 100% recommend!

Katelyn Sandy

Elise and I have worked multiple weddings together (I'm a wedding florist), and we tend to draw in the industrial, modern brides which I LOVE. Every event I work with Elise is painless, lovely, and executed brilliantly. I've been with her at venues where problems arose, and she handled them with grace and skill. I constantly recommend her company because I know things will get done and be set up beautifully. She treats every wedding like her own and has even told me in person how much she loves her clients. Highly recommend this lady for your planning needs!!