Dear Jennie

We could never thank you enough for making our wedding such a success. It was the best day of our lives and you made it perfect and flawless. Thank you so much for all your hard work, and for ensuring that we got to enjoy our day with no worries.

Thank you for everything!

Curtis and Jaime Park

 

Dear Jennie,

This letter is to thank you for a fantastic job of coordinating my wedding rehearsal, ceremony, and reception. Thanks to all of your help in coordinating the events, everything ran smoothly. Your professionalism was very much appreciated when dealing with all of the different personalities of my vendors and members of my wedding party. You had a “take charge” attitude, and that was something that I was looking for in order for my event to be a success.  

All of my wedding reception activities were right on schedule, and you kept the party going so that everything was done within the allotted timeframe. Your experience with coordinating events was demonstrated by the way that you managed my vendors and coordinated schedules weeks prior to my event; and you developed a rapport with them. 
In my opinion, you have a strong future in event planning and coordination, and I wish you the best of luck. 

Truly yours, 

Shoshanna McDougle
 

Thanks, Jennie, for offering so much help in planning this crazy thing. I really appreciated your advice and support throughout the whole process. You have to come visit us in New England…Thanks for everything!

With love,

Cat and Jeff
 

Dear Jennie,

Thank you, thank you, thank you! You did so much for us, from the rehearsal, to the setting up, to helping the wedding go off without a hitch. It wouldn’t have happened without you. You’re the best!

Love,

Sheryl and Dinoo

To Whom It May Concern:
Given the emotional issues that having a wedding is bound to bring up, having a good wedding planner/coordinator is a must for this stressful ritual. We have recently returned from our honeymoon and reflected on how lucky we were to have Jennie O’Connor as our wedding coordinator. Her abilities helped to ease the stress in bringing our event together.
From the very beginning of the process Jennie was open to our vision while still offering valuable input. She was there to turn to in making decisions about etiquette and we found her advice to always be creative and tasteful while still being detail oriented and thorough.
It was a complete joy to work with Jennie as she always thought of us and our “moment” first. She was there for us to conduct the ceremony rehearsal the day before the wedding, when the stress of receiving out of town guests was upon us. Also, she put in long hours with the staff the day of the event, where she really took charge and made sure everything came off as we were expecting it too. The look and feel of the ceremony and reception were excellent and Jennie played a key role in making it all work. We are eternally grateful for her service to us. It is something we will remember for the rest of our lives.
Sincerely yours,
Rachel and Ryan Boley
 

Dear Brides & Grooms,

It is our honor and sincerest pleasure to share with you our recommendation for wedding planning and organizing services provided by Avant Event Production, and more specifically Jennie O’Connor, on our wedding that occurred on April 22nd, 2006. To preface, our wedding was definitely more complex than usual because of four factors:

Dual Ceremonies. We wanted two ceremonies one immediately after the other – one Hindu and one Roman Catholic. This required additional planning with two priests, procedures for two completely different rituals, outfit changes for the bridal party, and photographs with guests for each ceremony.

Jennie was instrumental in seeing this process through before and on the day of the wedding. Months before the wedding, she helped us to create a step-by-step timeline of every required activity during, prior to, and in between the two ceremonies. The night before the wedding, she took away all our stresses and led our entire rehearsal, choreographing guests, priests and our required routines. On the day of, she and her assistant moved guests seamlessly from one ceremony, to a short break with cookies and lemonade, and on to the second ceremony. She is unquestionably organized, proactive, and professional. She helped us to get organized so early that the ceremonies ran smoothly and effortlessly on our day.

Out of Towners. My husband’s family was coming to LA for the wedding from Ohio and India, and my family, from New Jersey, Italy, and the Philippines. We had no more than eight guests from the local LA area. The majority of the 150 guests were flying in from out of town and because of this, we wanted to make sure that we had accommodations, welcome packets, maps, and other local and tourist information prepared for their stay. We also wanted to charter three 56-passenger deluxe buses to shuttle guests from their hotel to the ceremony site, as to avoid anyone getting lost or hurt after a night of celebrating.

We asked Jennie to take the lead on securing a vendor for the buses for us. She reviewed our requirements and came back with three potential vendors. In the end, we chose a reputable company that competed very well on cost. Jennie had them draft a contract for us, and all we had to do was sign it. She also asked us to list which guests belonged on which bus, to ensure that family members that needed to be at the site early could be there for support. The buses came in ahead of the required time, which helped get our guests to the site safely and on schedule. She had her assistant, Lindsey, coordinate which guests belonged to which bus, to ensure the earlier arrival of our very large bridal party. Lindsey did a fantastic job ensuring people were where they needed to be and that no one was left behind. In regards to shuttling guests back from the wedding site to the hotel, Jennie also recommended that we have one bus leave half-way through the reception, and then all three buses leave at the end of the night. We were worried that this could cause confusion and that too many guests would leave early, but Jennie took the initiative to communicate to guests that were leaving that there are other buses at the end of the night and that they should stay for the remainder of the festivities. Only a handful of people (elderly, those with young kids, etc.) left on the early bus, while the rest of our friends and family stayed to celebrate and dance with us. In the end, I think this idea was great because it accommodated all of our guests to ensure no one would feel “stuck” at the location for the long night.

Non-Traditional Wedding Theme. Most importantly, we wanted our wedding to be a reflection of us as a couple down to the every last detail. In most Catholic and Hindu weddings, the décor and theme are usually overly extravagant and more ostentatious than our personal tastes desired. My husband and I wanted to bring the air of romance and simple, modern design into our wedding, and share with guests our love of the sun and the ocean. So, we chose an outdoor garden location on the coast of Malibu. We also had many ideas of incorporating one of my husband’s paintings into our invitation design, cake design, and linen layout. This was so untraditional, modern, and customized that, for example, it meant moving away from standard white cakes to getting a tri-colored cake with white bamboo cascading along the side. We also wanted lots of candles and rose petals scattered throughout the location. Because of this desire to have customization down to the last detail, my husband and I were very involved in the planning of the wedding.

Jennie not only understood our untraditional and even unorthodox style in our very first meeting, but she embraced it. She made sure to work with us to get everything that we wanted. She had to work with multiple vendors to ensure we had what we wanted (e.g., florist, caterer, party rentals, custom invitation maker, site manager, DJ, airbrush makeup artist, hair stylist, bus company, priests, etc.). She called up every vendor prior to the wedding to review details and resolve any outstanding questions. On the day of, she met with every vendor and took charge from the start. I did not have to meet with a single vendor or review any detail. Jennie ensured that we were enjoying the moment and she took care of the rest without us having to get involved in anything. I felt as if the party were being thrown FOR me instead of BY me. In the end, I received comments from guests telling me how beautiful and personal the wedding was, and how it was truly a reflection of our new, modern family. Jennie worked so hard to get us everything that we wanted and to make the day special, personal, and a true reflection of us, as opposed to a cookie cutter wedding that some “all in one” packages may provide you.

First born, first married. In addition to being tasked with joining two cultures, my husband and I were the first in our families and circle of friends to tie the knot. As a result, we had tons of people trying to give us input on what needed to be done. This was very stressful; both sides wanted to inject as much of their own culture and traditions into our wedding; but if we had done it all, our wedding would have honestly lasted seven days.

Since we too were very inexperienced, we often turned to Jennie for advice on what couples in Catholic and Hindu weddings traditionally do. We also asked her how they have tried to modernize and condense ceremonies in the past and how some couples have tried to fuse them with more romance and love. Jennie was great at sharing her knowledge from her prior experiences as a wedding coordinator. For questions she did not have the answer to, she sought information from her colleagues. Her unbiased knowledge helped us to make the right decisions about which rituals to keep, which to update, and which did not appeal to us. We are grateful to have had her advice, rather than to stick through the stressful conversations with parents and family members. Having an outside party there to act as our sounding board really helped give us the confidence we needed to make our choices on our own.

As you can see, we were very pleased with Avant’s services. We emphatically recommend Jennie as a wedding coordinator, particularly for the day of your wedding. She is a self-starter, experienced and polished, and her bounce-back and move forward attitude aided in alleviating our stress and getting our wedding organized to the tee.

Regards,

Mr. Sid Patwa and Mrs. Cristina Magno Patwa