“The Short Version: Allie and her team with Grey Cardinal Events did an exceptional job helping us take a very limited set of goals for our wedding and turn them into the most perfect day for the two of us. Several guests commented that they’d never been to a wedding that felt more like the couple being celebrated. Professional and understanding every step of the way from initial meetings to vendor selection to the day-of coordination, we could not have asked for a better guide in our planning journey. The Full Story: When we first started thinking about what we wanted at the wedding, we only had two things we had decided on: we wanted pizza for dinner, and we wanted to craft or thrift a lot of the decorations ourselves. That was it. We had a loose budget estimate but didn’t even have a very clear number to give her right away. As a result, much of Allie’s early work was just to fill us in on what we needed to think about, which she did with grace and understanding. She put together a list of tasks for us, broken down by when they needed to get done. As we got closer to do the day, she also helped with weekly reminders about the top priorities. She was open to our input along the way, as we stumbled upon a venue she wasn’t familiar with and she set up a tour with them all the same. Allie was very encouraging throughout the process of our nontraditional and often oddball ideas, embracing our spirit as a couple and providing the structure to balance our goofiness against what makes an enjoyable wedding for everyone involved. Our planning process was further complicated by some health-related challenges and changes to the budget, both of which Allie embraced and worked with us on. Allie was very open to conversations about where we wanted our priorities to be spending-wise, talking through choices about where to cut and where we could spend a bit more than generally recommended (e.g., our photographer was a priority, so we trimmed some other places without sacrificing overall event quality). On the wedding weekend, Allie was all business, running us through our rehearsal, making sure everything was ready for the day-of, and finalizing plans with our venue. The day-of coordination was just as exceptional. She coordinated all our vendors, was on top of it when a marker exploded on one of our wedding party members (blue on blue, thank goodness) and tablecloths, and turned our assortment of crafted decorations, thrifted glassware, and mismatched flowers into gorgeous decorations at each table. She made sure that dinner came out on time, that desserts were ready, and made sure that we got to all of the places we needed to be throughout the day. Even once celebrations had concluded, she gave us a clear rundown of what she had done with cleanup and what we had left to do the following morning (we had the venue until Sunday afternoon) as far as packing up. We came into the planning process with no real plan and little understanding of how much went into a wedding. Allie’s expertise and caring guidance allowed us to craft exactly what we wanted: a relaxed celebration with all of our family and friends. Guests said that it fit our vibe perfectly, the venue owners said it was the most chill wedding they’d ever seen, and we were never worried throughout the weekend. We got to have dinner, we got to dance, we got to have beautiful mountain views, and it was all thanks to Allie’s guidance. We cannot recommend Allie and Grey Cardinal Events enough.”
