Gracie Lou Events

Adrienne and Elizabeth are seriously the BEST wedding planners in all of New England and more! Hiring them as wedding planners was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, and really made wedding planning a breeze. So many of my friends would often ask, «How is wedding planning going?» And I’d say, «I’m not doing much!» and that’s really what it is like to work with wedding planners. I know it is a splurge, but if you’re super super busy, have a lot of things to deal with, are planning from a distance, I cannot imagine planning without wedding planners.
Here’s what the process worked like for me:
1) During the initial set up, Adrienne and Elizabeth went over with me all of the things we had to do during the course of wedding planning — which vendors to book, approximate milestones, etc.
2) I shared with them my vision for what I wanted my wedding to look like — black and white with touches of pink, and they really helped affirm a lot of my ideas! They even came up with the really really unique idea of having a black and white dance floor, which I didn’t know was possible. It was a great and unique touch to my wedding
3) GLE took care of all the contracts and back and forth with various vendors, which helped cut down on time on my end. They also found this great hidden gem of a venue for me that fit my vision — a grass field with trees, and a spot to have a tented wedding. I would NEVER had found this venue by searching on my own as they’re not frequently advertised in wedding magazines or in blogs. I was also planning long distance — from New York, NY, and couldn’t be onsite to visit vendors as often, so I relied on GLE to handle a lot of the Boston-​side things.
4) They’re always around to answer some of the questions that as a bride you just don’t know the answer to! Like… how much are you supposed to tip everyone? How many hotel room blocks should I be holding?
5) They did so many last minute things like… pick up a bunch of candy jars for me for my candy buffet, set up my escort card display, help me with my veil, inflate helium balloons and set them up at the entrance to my wedding ceremony, clean up
6) They also attended my tasting with my caterer (YUMMY) and helped handle several last minute issues that happened along the way of wedding planning. These things always happen! And if it weren’t for GLE, I would have had a much harder time figuring out how to troubleshoot things.
I had a BLAST at my wedding — I wasn’t running around trying to take care of things. On the day of everything that was under our control ran so smoothly (let’s face it, you can’t control the weather or a guest arriving late — but man, I had a perfect day). I had so much fun I slept so soundly the day after ;)
I can’t recommend them enough, and I’ve had several friends of mine use GLE as well for their wedding planners. I’m so happy to have them as my friends, and I would never hesitate to recommend them to anyone that is looking for a fantastic set of wedding planners!

Hiring Gracie Lou Events was one of the best things we had done for our wedding, hands down, especially since we were planning long distance. I can’t believe how hesitant I was initially at hiring a planner because of the additional expense! I vetted each of the wedding planners we were considering thoroughly and from the moment I met Adrienne and Liz I knew we would click. While they are consistently professional, they also are friendly and have a sense of humor, which was great since me and my now husband like to joke a lot. Liz and Adrienne kept us organized and communicated well from the start. The Gracie Lou duo also helped create our vision and reeled in their industry contacts during the planning process. A key thing was that Liz and Adrienne stressed flexibility — in terms of making themselves available, and to us as we plan– in that nothing was set in stone (I changed my mind on a whole bunch of things right before the wedding and it was ok!). They made planning feel like a breeze in comparison to what I have seen my friends go through without AND with planners. By the time our wedding rolled around I felt at ease, knowing that our day would be overseen by Gracie Lou Events. Trust is so important here. We felt that the overall wedding day had gone over smoothly– we had a blast! — though unbeknownst to us Adrienne and Liz did some damage control during and even after the wedding. They also made sure we followed the schedule and put up with all of our families and friends. We are absolutely pleased with the services that Gracie Lou Events provided during our year long relationship with them and would definitely recommend them to any couple.

When my husband and I were ready to plan our wedding, I wasn’t really sure where to begin and didn’t have a «vision» of what I wanted my wedding day to be. I knew of Gracie Lou Events (Elizabeth Dunderdale & Adrienne Mendonca) through some connections and decided to contact Elizabeth to see if I could benefit from having a wedding planner. We met up at a Starbucks to chat about what ideas I had (not much) and how her and Adrienne could help if we decided to hire them to plan our wedding. It was casual and I felt no pressure to hire Gracie Lou Events at that meeting. Based on their experience, friendliness, and professionalism I decided it would be worth our while to hire them as our wedding planners. I didn’t think the cost for their full service event planning was high, but my husband and a few other people questioned whether it would even be worth it. Well, it certainly was worth it. In fact, I believe their services paid for themselves because of their connections and negotiating powers with great vendors. I also didn’t want to stress out and waste a lot of time researching vendors and wondering if each vendor really was good or if I would be disappointed. They have a lot of great connections in bridal industry. We decided to get married in Newport, RI and it turns out they’ve done many weddings there. They researched a few venues that would fit within our budget and presented them to us at our house. We picked a few that we thought we might like and scheduled a day to drive down to Newport to check them out in person. We chose our venue and wedding date and the rest of the planning began! They helped me figure out what color scheme and vibe I wanted for the wedding and created an «inspiration board» for us. Things fell into place easily because they shared their advice and I trusted their judgement. Communication was great, they responded to all my e-​mails and calls in a timely manner. They hooked us up with amazing vendors (photographer, DJ, hair/​make-​up, florist, etc.) that I know we would not have discovered if it weren’t for them. They kept our budget in mind and made sure our wedding day would still be great even though we didn’t have a huge budget. They even helped us with making our invitations which saved us quite a bit. Many people plan their weddings for over a year, they were able to make the magic happen in a matter of months!
Our wedding day was such an amazing day and it exceeded all our expectations. I felt calm all day, no stress for this bride because I knew everything was being taken care of. All our guests were very impressed with how beautiful everything was and how much fun was had at our wedding. The people who questioned whether hiring a wedding planner would be worth it, they admitted that it indeed was and complimented how wonderful Elizabeth and Adrienne are. I can’t imagine how our wedding day could have been any better, even if we had an unlimited budget. These are girls know what they’re doing and they do it extremely well. They’re also super cool girls and I call them my friends. If I had to do it all over again I would hire them in a heartbeat and if you’re reading this review because you have a wedding to plan and are wondering if you should have a wedding planner then I strongly recommend that you hire Gracie Lou Events!

To put it very simply, hiring Liz and Adrienne was by far the best decision I made during our wedding planning process.
Like many couples, we were on a tight budget. I knew I wanted a wedding planner to help save my sanity, but the initial price tag was a hard sell with my partner. However, from our first conversation with GLE, we immediately knew that we’d found our planners, and couldn’t imagine planning our wedding without them.
Before I say anything else, if you’re debating whether the cost of planning services is worth it, let me answer with a resounding YES, it is! First of all, GLE saved us far more money than we spent on their services– they have a network of professional relationships with the best in the wedding industry, and they were able to leverage those relationships to snag us amazing savings. Also, their years of experience let them steer us in the direction of more cost savings by making savvy choices on anything from the menu to the bar choices to the attire. They let us know where we could save and where we should splurge and they ALWAYS worked to help keep our spending under control.
Further, we are VERY busy people. If you consider that ‘time is money,’ the
TIME they saved us also made it worth it. Instead of interviewing multiple vendors, making phonecalls, setting up appointments, doing endless hours of research, etc, the GLE girls did it all. They would recommend one or a few well-​chosen vendors, prep the vendor on what we were looking for and set up the appointment. We would narrow down from there, with their well-​informed advice. They would negotiate the final price, as well. This made the entire process FAR less overwhelming than it could have been.
Beyond all of that, I loved the fact that we were getting one-​stop-​shopping with these girls. Décor? They do that. Custom paper goods? Check. Etiquette advice? No problem. Budget planning and keeping an eye on the bottom line? Done! Etc etc etc. They truly went above and beyond and made the wedding the best night of our lives. I didn’t have to lift a finger– they let me do as much or as little as I wanted to do, and the night of the wedding, all I had to do was be present in the moment and enjoy my time with family, friends and loved ones.
Do not think twice– if you are planning your wedding and want it to be magical, well-​coordinated and make the most of every dollar you have to spend, hire these girls!!! You will not regret it!!!

Elizabeth and Adrienne of Gracielou Events do much more than your basic run-​of-​the-​mill wedding planning services. Just to briefly give some background, we interviewed over 20 New England based (Newport, RI focused) and Indian Wedding focused wedding planners. Our search criteria was primarily based on working with a team that would keep us focused, organized, fit our extremely demanding personalities and add value/​insight into our décor choices (color theme, linens, floral etc.). Through the hiring process they personally met with both sets of parents (at our request) to get them comfortable with the role of wedding planners (like many Indian families, our parents are accustomed to having family, family friends and siblings do all the heavy lifting). As a couple, we felt it was important to have both set of parents onboard with the idea of having full-​time /​super-​dedicated wedding planners (that were going to be in the middle of everything we did). Both sets of parents walked away from the meetings feeling that Gracielou would be the perfect conduit to keep communications lines open, research all possible options, find the best pricing (and then knock 20% off that!), ensure day of timelines were perfect and most important — confident that they were the right team to alleviate any stress that comes with planning for us. We hired Gracielou Events with the intention of working on two nights of events and potentially helping with a casual post wedding brunch. Our wedding turned into three days of events in Newport, RI and a total of 6 organized meals for all 300 guests. Elizabeth and Adrienne were very flexible with their services throughout the 12 months they worked with us. Despite the laundry list of deficiencies Gracielou was dealt with in working with us (lack of communication, insane work and personal schedules lack of decisiveness and a thousands of changes until the last minute), they were diligent, persistent and motivated to ensure we stayed on-​course, on budget, weighed all options and executed in the end. The categories in which Gracielou highly differentiated their services were with help in décor for our wedding ceremony, reception and Sangeet; execution of plan (including timelines, dealing with the surprises); personalization of services and vendor management.
* Décor
o Created inspiration boards for us to begin to think about tying things together
o Extremely creative in their approach and presented both mainstream and highly creative-​unique looks
o Negotiated with all our vendors ensuring that we were getting the most bang for our buck
o Led discussions with vendors to ensure creativity and aesthetics would be uniform and not compromised (linens, floral, furniture rentals, caterers etc.)
o Executed plan to perfection at the events by overseeing and managing the process
* Execution of Plan
o Got us to the events with all the planning and then worked 10x as hard during them to make sure everything was perfect
o Took on the responsibility of everything «has to be perfect»
o When things went wrong, got them fixed and made sure we (the couple) were not dealing with them
o Understood the hierarchy chain the family and who to talk to for what/​when
* Personalization of Service
o Extremely flexible meeting our demands and dealing with our insane schedules
o Constant dialogue which helped them get us to the place we wanted to be and that fit our individual needs (capacity, timing, money etc.)
o Worked diligently to win the support of everyone we wanted involved (both sets of parents and siblings) by providing feedback, updates, meeting in Newport on short notice etc.
o Kept everyone up-​to-​date and focused on the bigger picture
o Read books and met with Indian wedding vendors to better understand the culture and differentiated aspect to an Indian wedding
* Vendor Management
o Broad knowledge of Indian and non-​Indian vendors
o Negotiated with our vendors on our behalf
o Vetted vendors, did research, got pricing and then presented them to us
o Communicated with vendors regularly and kept us updated on everything
o Understood which vendors needed babysitting and which could be left alone in regards to executing
Overall, we cannot say enough positive things about the experience we had with Gracelou Events. We would recommend them to any couple looking for wedding planners and can guarantee that the their services will be above and beyond all expectations.

We couldn’t have asked for better wedding planners. Adrienne and Liz were more then we ever imagined. They were organized, full of ideas, and ALWAYS there when I need advice about anything. They truely go out of their way to make you shine before and on your special day. My family adored them when it came to the wedding day. They never met any two people so devoted and dedicated to their jobs and their clients. They made our wedding day something we’ll never forget.

Gracie Lou did a terrific job helping plan and coordinate our wedding this past June. Adrienne and Elizabeth are responsible, responsive and fun to work with. They are also incredibly creative and tasteful – they gave us some excellent design insight and money-​saving ideas! In planning our wedding, I was most excited about taking on the details (selecting the vendors, designing the paper products, creating the décor, etc.). They primarily helped us with the big picture: conceptualizing, scheduling, budgeting, and other logistics. Their advice was invaluable! The weekend of the wedding, Elizabeth and Adrienne were on-​hand at all times. They did a great job overseeing the setup and managing the day. We couldn’t have done it without them! Their consultation and coordination services were WELL worth the price. I highly recommend them!

There are so many details that can easily slip the mind of a nervous, excited bride-​to-​be but the sanity savers at Gracie Lou Events left no stone unturned. They were there from start to finish — ensuring a smooth execution of both the Cambodian wedding and the Western ceremony and reception. I was really impressed with their ability to communication my wishes. I was even more impressed with how warm and welcoming they were with our guests. The mini crisis we encountered on our wedding day was quickly and quietly resolved. Their calmness and confidence became an anchor for me whenever I started to come undone. My husband and I are so thankful to have them (Liz, Adrienne and Kate) part of our big day. Hiring a DOC was not in our initial budget but Gracie Lou Events worked with us. They were the best wedding investment we made because they gave us complete peace of mind. I say this because even at the end of the night, Adrienne drove us (I and my less than sober husband) to our hotel.

My husband and I truly recognize Gracie Lou as a «must have» in planning a wedding. Our daughter’s wedding went off beautifully because of these two amazing, organized women and their intern. Responsive, respectful and responsible describe their interaction with all involved with our fall wedding. If they could have, they would have ordered drier weather! You can’t go wrong by including them in your wedding planning. My husband, of all people, gives them the credit for helping to execute a fabulous time had by all.
M/​M J.A. Terranova
Rhode island