The Event Essentials

Hiring Kim of The Event Essentials was by far the best investment I made in my wedding. She is professional and her creative abilities impressed me time and time again. She is responsive and extremely good at taking your vision and turning it into reality. She also designed and created all of my stationary and each and every piece was complete perfection. My invitations, programs, menu cards, table numbers, and save-the-dates were all elegant and matched the decor of my wedding. You are truly missing out if Kim McDowell and The Event Essentials is not a part of your wedding day! I can't thank her enough for how beautiful my wedding was and her efforts in creating our the big day!

My wedding was Oct 10, 2009. I wanted to wait a bit before I decided to write my feedback. I hired Kim for her paper products and day of planning. I loved my invitations and the quality of the paper. I was very disappointed in her day of planning services. I hired her solely for the small things she promised me and a sense of security that the ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception would have a once over from someone else besides the hotel staff. Some of the things I was disappointed in: she emailed me last minute my final invoice. I explained 90% of my guest were coming from out of town, I will be at work on Monday and then they begin to arrive. Thursday we are having a bar b q from 2-whenever. She sent me text to check my email to check names for my seating chart and an invoice from pillars. This was 7pm. I already was several hours into my party and a few cocktails in. I responded to those emails and took care of my check for the pillars. I still had not received a final invoice from her. At my rehearsal I bring a check for the pillars and $1k check for her to be like I know I owe you money still and I think I should pay you something even though I didn't receive a final invoice yet. She calls me 40 mins after my rehearsal 5:30pm and asked me about her final payment. I said I never received the email. Apparently she sent me an additional email after I had already checked the 2 prior the night of my bar b q. I was having a family party and several drinks in I didn't keep checking my email. A phone call would of been nice because it is a large amount of money and I wanted to confirm my prices with my original quote. Needless to say I was on my computer at 11pm after my rehearsal dinner checking my final invoice. I had a few questions about prices and charges. I sent that email out. The next morning I needed to be at The Buttes for my girls hair and makeup. I pulled max out of the atm. At 10am I get an email, not a phone call, from Kim stating the final amount which was fine and I agreed on the charges. She wanted cash or paypal payment. Well, I am already at the hotel can't pull another $1k out of the ATM and she wouldn't take a check, even though she had already cashed the other one I gave her the night before. I was running around trying to use the hotel computer to create a paypal account and stressing about how I was supposed to pay my planner last minute on my wedding day. She finally said fine I can wait until after the wedding. She never followed up with me for appointments etc, she followed up with me to make sure I was going to pay her her final bill. She didn't even cash my down payment check until a month later, after I asked her to cash it. I agree in paying my vendors and had all my bills taken care by the week before because I didn't want any stress on my wedding day. My other dissapointments were the small things, lighter promised behind my memory candles and unity candle, my husbands god daughter burnt her finger with the matches. Food and beverages served to us during our pictures from our cocktail hour. A few appetizers were left on our table when we arrived at the reception. My leftover food boxed and placed in our room for later. She mentioned these things several times b/c we would be so busy and unable to enjoy our food. Thats why I hired her. No leftovers boxed and then she blamed the hotel. It wasn't their job. Our room decorated, not done. It was all very heartbreaking to have this all hapen on my day. Everything the hotel did was great and wonderful. I just tried to keep the disappointment of Kim on the back burner. I would never use Kim again, but I would only recommend her for her paper products but make sure you follow up with her to stay on your time schedule.

Vendor was great.

Kim is an excellent person to work with if you need help with invitations, DOC, getting creative or just in need of motivation. Kim, helped me in planning my wedding for 3/21/09- I can't imagine my day without her. She was wonderful to work with, very attentive to my needs, listened to all my requests and added certain touches to make my day go AMAZING!! If you have the chance to hire Kim at The Event Essentials - DO! She is amazing and you will be so happy you did!!

Kim at the Event Essentials was so wonderful to work with for my invitations and planning of my perfect wedding day!! My invitations were STUNNING and I received so many compliments on them and my save the date cards. She tied everything in perfectly from my invitations to my decor to my programs and my escort cards ect. All of my stuff was just my style and everyone was thrilled with how gorgeous my day turned out. I was never stressed that day as she took care of EVERYTHING for me. She made sure all of my vendors were on time and made sure everyone knew where they needed to be and at what time. She made sure all of my decor was set up perfectly and that my day was flawless for me. What a lifesaver she is for your wedding day!!! I highly recommend her services to anyone who needs beautiful, creative invitations and a phenomenal wedding planner! I couldn't be more thankful for her! THANK YOU KIM!!!

I couldn't have been happier with the products and services from The Event Essentials. Kim genuinely listened to our desires and really made it come to life even better than we could have imagined. She not only asked about our style, but talked to us about all of the other details that were a part of our day like our flowers, linens, and even china patterns. So many people were impressed how everything just tied together so well, including my mother who at times is hard to impress. I cried when they arrived because they made it official that my wedding was just 8 weeks away. Thank you dearly!

Kim was absolutely phenomenal! I could not have gotten through the wedding planning process without her! She truly has an amazing talent for listening to a client's needs and desires and putting together a cohesive vision for an event. Kim managed everything from the creative design of my wedding to invitations and stationary to day of coordination and managing all of my vendors. My day was more perfect than I could have imagined!I highly recommend her to any bride who is looking for a creative, detail-oriented, and experienced planner. Thank you Kim!

Event Essentials is a wonderful company to work with. Kim handled all the invitations and planning for my nephew's wedding and her work far exceeded anything I have seen before in both categories. I can't explain the detail work she did on the invitiations to do them justice. She has such a great talent for original designs that are even more than what we expected. Everyone commented on how beautiful everything turned out. She thought of things that would have never crossed our minds on the day of the wedding. They couldn't have done it without her. Everything went very smoothly and was wonderful. I would recommend her to anyone who needs any type of invitations for any occassion.

The Event Essentials produced beautiful invites for our wedding! Working with Kim was a breeze. She was much more creative than previous invite vendors that I had met with. We received a lot of compliments on our invites and it was so cool to have something that was one-of-a-kind!Kim was also our wedding planner and she went above and beyond! She was always available to chat either online or on the phone. She was very patient with my indecisiveness and 9billion ideas. She came up with so many creative ideas for us and was my wedding support system! On the day of our wedding she was a superstar. She made sure all the little wedding day hiccups were not apparent to us. You can't go wrong if you hire Event Essentials for your wedding design and planning.

Kim made wedding planning fun and stree-free. She had amazing ideas that made the day absolutely gorgeous!! On the day of the wedding, I didn't have to worry about anything because she was always one step ahead of me making sure everything was perfect. I loved her!!

As the Mother of the bride, I was given the duty to find lavish invitations, but ones that didn't break the bank and accommodated my daughter's budget. After searching through many options a friend of mine referred me to The Event Essentials website where I fell in love. All of our stationery pieces turned out absolutely beautiful and we are so thankful for the time we spent working with this company.

Kim was great to work with and thought of everything! She's very creative and always thinking of unique ideas.

Kim with Event Essentials is incredible! She has so many good ideas, and was able to turn my scattered ideas into a perfect wedding day! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Kimberly is amazing! She allowed me to actually be able to enjoy my daughter's wedding!

I hired Kim with The Event Essentials for all my paper products (menus', place cards, etc.) for my wedding and I can say that everything she made truly went above and beyond my expectations!! I had a italian wedding and she was able to incorporate my theme into all of my paper products beautifly. She is so creative and so wonderful to work with. She was one of my favorite vendors by far and I would definitely recommend her to other brides looking for invitations or other paper products that are truly custom and unique!!

Kim you are awesome!! Thank you for helping find the right paper and design for the invitations and the design of the monogram for Julie and LarryÂ’s wedding on 7/14/07.You have the knack and patience to help a undeceive bride on her special day. Your creativity and expertise shows in your work. We donÂ’t know what we would have done without you.Thanks again for making Julie and LarryÂ’s day special.Mother of the brideCarol Wells

When I first met with Kim, I was so nervous because I had just started planning and didn't know what to expect. From the moment I sat down, she put me at ease and it was like that throughout the entire planning process. I knew I wanted a monogram theme, but I couldn't have ever imagined how beautiful the piece would come out that she designed for us. Our invitations and all of the little paper items that came with it were better then I could have ever imagined! Our guests couldn't stop compliment us on how beautiful everything turned out. I'll definitely continue to use Kim at The Event Essentials whenever I'm in need of her creativity, whether its for paper products or event planning!

We were married on October 14, 2006 and for our wedding Kim designed our monogram In addition, she provided valuable advice as we planned our special day. Not only was she extremely professional, but she was very detail oriented and made sure the product was exactly what we were looking for. Even though our wedding was in Virginia and Kim was in Arizona, the line of communication was excellent. The difference with Kim and other vendors is that this is her passion and it is something she loves doing. She takes great pride in her work and it shows. Kim takes a sincere interest in making sure your wedding is top notch and everything you've ever dreamed of. Thanks again Kim for everything!Your VA Bride,Lindsey