When hiring someone you want to know that you’ll be treated with respect and care! When you’re hiring your wedding vendors, you want to know that you’re going to get a high quality of service, that’s going to be worth the money spent. For this very reason, we are so grateful when we receive reviews from our past clients! Over the past few months, we’ve received reviews through emails, thank you notes, facebook and WeddingWire.com. We’d like to invite you to visit Wedding Wire to view our reviews, here, as well as the Toast section of our website.  What sparked this post, was actually an email that Rachelle received recently from a past client. Please read on to hear what Lizzie had to say about her planning experience!

Lizzie & Andrew [9.11.10] - Photo by Paul Rich Studio

From Lizzie, to you- the Bride to be!

“As a bride-to-be, I knew what it was like to be inundated with well-intentioned, but unsolicited wedding advice. So I’m careful to give only two pieces of advice to friends about to get married. First, don’t get so caught up in details and pleasing everyone that you forget to enjoy being engaged. And second, call Rachelle at Champagne Wedding and Event Planning. The expense of a wedding planner was, far and away, the best money that I spent on my wedding. The value far exceeds the price!

From the beginning, Rachelle steered us in the direction of vendors who were worth our time. It can be overwhelming to see how many vendors are out there. Instead of dialing at random from lists provided by questionably reliable sources, and wasting days and weeks of my time meeting dead ends, Rachelle gave us the names of a few wonderful, reliable, creative people who were (and this is key!) available on our day. It cut our field of dozens down to just one or two choices instantly! It’s hard to describe the look on a vendor’s face when you tell them you’re working with Champagne. They are relieved and excited, knowing that there will be no headaches on the wedding day, that everyone will be well-organized, and the event will be classy and fun. They love to give glowing recommendations for the ladies at Champagne, too, saying that they have worked with them many times before, and they are the best event planners in Portland.

The next step in the planning process was the conceptualization piece. Rachelle seemed to read our minds, summoning ideas that so perfectly matched the vision in our head that we were barely able to verbalize. It was such a relief to have someone instantly understand the vibe we were trying to achieve with our party, and to have brilliant ideas to make it even better than we could have imagined! It felt frustrating, before we met with Rachelle, to wonder how we could possibly make our wedding feel like it was our own when there are so many weddings that feel the same as the last. Rachelle made those worries disappear instantly! We felt understood and listened to, and that she was using her enormous gifts to craft our wedding day according to our wishes, not anyone else’s agenda.

Rachelle was so attentive and detail-oriented, keeping things organized, and at the same time maintaining the sense of joy and excitement. She never lost focus of the love that was making this day possible, and never made us feel the weight of worry or that the considerable work she was doing was ever burdensome. The countless times I was asked a question by my mother, my mother-in-law, or my friends, that I wasn’t able to answer, I felt confident to say, “I don’t know, but Rachelle will.” Or, “Rachelle’s taking care of it.” That freedom helped me maintain my sanity and actually enjoy the process of wedding planning. If I found myself getting overwhelmed with questions and details, one email or call from Rachelle made me feel like everything was more manageable, and that the idea of having a wedding wasn’t completely nuts after all!

Finally, the value of having someone there the day of the wedding, making sure things flowed easily was such an immeasurable gift! It allowed our families and friends to simply be present and enjoy the stunningly gorgeous day without being distracted by tasks or adhering to the schedule or by putting out fires. If there were fires to be put out on the day of the wedding, I was oblivious to them. All I remember of my wedding day was the profound joy, serene happiness, and abundant excitement and goodwill as our favorite people in the world came together to celebrate our union. Since our wedding, guests have freely told us that it was the best wedding they’ve ever been to, that the day was gorgeous, and that we’ve totally ruined all other weddings to come because everything was so charming, joyful, and unfussy … exactly what we wanted! I always give credit to the guests themselves, who helped us celebrate the spirit of the day, and to my enormously loving and adorable husband.  But I never fail to give credit where it’s due. “Thanks to Rachelle!” I say, because it could not have happened without her colossal gifts and massively great attitude! Please do yourself a gigantic favor, and contact Champagne!”

To view Lizzie & Andrew’s slideshow, click here! Photos by Paul Rich Studio

Thank you, Lizzie, for sharing about your experience with Champagne! Also, a huge thank you to all of our clients [Past and present], as you allow us do what we love every single day!! We hope that you, the bride-to-be, will make sure to hire vendors that are the right match for your personality and budget!

Happy planning!

Cheers,

The Champagne Team