Posted on June 07, 2023 by Lisa A. Flam
As a bride-to-be, Kelsey Lannon was completing a demanding medical residency and was short on time to plan her wedding. She knew she wanted to incorporate the colors burgundy and apricot but needed design ideas and a creative vision for the event.
After she booked her dream estate-style venue, Park Château in East Brunswick, Kelsey turned to a full-service wedding planner to bring her color scheme to life and plan all the details of her wedding.
Jenny Orsini, of Jenny Orsini Events located in Berkeley Heights, helped Kelsey negotiate with vendors, designed her entire big day, created an itinerary and managed the wedding. “It really just took the weight off of a lot of the nitty-gritty details and the technical portions of wedding planning,” says Kelsey. “She really helped me create a wedding vision.”
In the time leading up to Kelsey’s 2020 nuptials, the Covid-19 pandemic forced the couple to postpone their wedding until 2021. Three months before the new date, the couple moved to California. Jenny stayed with Kelsey every step of the way, helping to secure all the same vendors, keeping everything on track and making the extended planning process special for Kelsey.
For comprehensive planning and design clients like Kelsey, Jenny will assist with everything they may want help with. Each wedding plan is customized to the couple’s needs. While some brides opt for day-of coordination or partial planning packages, full-service planning is, “the crème de la crème. It’s for the bride that needs help with everything, all the bells and whistles,” says Jenny. Although fees vary greatly, we’ve been told that pricing can range from $5,000 to $20,000 for full-service planning.
“We are providing assistance with every element and aspect of the wedding planning process, from soup to nuts, while alleviating all the stress so the bride can enjoy the wedding planning journey,” Jenny says. “It’s those logistical, headache-inducing, stress-causing things [that brides] don’t want to handle on their own or they don’t have the experience or knowledge [to do].”
Jenny adds, “Anything your guests will see, touch, feel, smell or taste—and that includes menu items—we are part of that process.”
On the big day, Jenny is there to quarterback the event, so the bride doesn’t have to. Jenny says her brides enjoy peace of mind and feel relieved when they walk into the wedding of their dreams.
That was the experience for Kelsey. She credits Jenny with making her day “truly beautiful.”
“[Hiring a planner] allowed me to take a step back,” says Kelsey, who had 142 guests. “I wanted to go to my wedding and get married and enjoy it with my family and friends, and I did because I had Jenny. My wedding would not have been what it was—in any sense of the imagination—if it wasn’t for Jenny.”
Another bride, Elizabeth Anderson, and her mom had many ideas for her big day, but they weren’t sure how to execute them. After all, her family had never planned a wedding before.
Elizabeth worked with Joan Glenn of 6 Degrees of Celebration located in Westfield and Rumson, who planned and helped design every aspect of Elizabeth’s 240-guest wedding at Hamilton Farm Golf Club in Gladstone on July 9, 2022.
Among other things, Joan recommended vendors, attended meetings, created a detailed timeline and ran the event. Throughout the process, Elizabeth says Joan was reassuring and made her feel comfortable, reducing stress for her and her mom.
The wedding was “jaw-droppingly beautiful,” says Elizabeth, and went off without a hitch. Working with a full-service planner allowed Elizabeth to live in the moment on her wedding day.
“Joan orchestrated everything with extreme attention to detail and knowledge of the industry and everything was perfect,” Elizabeth says. “Hiring Joan was the single best choice we made for our whole wedding.”
