I already started planning for our wedding when I hired Dolce Amica so I went with partial wedding planning. Karen was wonderful to work with. We started talking right away once I sent in my deposit. I lived in Canada and my husband was in New York so we were planning a wedding in Canandaigua, NY. Karen was SO helpful in recommending the best vendors and coordinating with them. There were a lot of little things that I never thought of that Karen brought up. She also made me less anxious overall with the planning and was so supportive leading up to the wedding. Our wedding day was honestly so amazing and so stress-free all thanks to Karen and her team. She made sure everything went smoothly and I am so thankful for her! I highly recommend Dolce Amica Planning!!

I had an incredibly positive experience working with Karen Hite of Dolce Amica event planning. She started working with me as soon as the deposit was submitted with my venue. Karen was thoughtful from the start. I was not quite sure what her role was going to be besides the day of coordinator that the venue hired her for as part of my package. As I reflect on the past year of wedding planning, I realize that she went above and beyond for us. Karen is very personable. She was consistent with emailing me for updates. When it was time to look at rentals, she met my aunt and I at Nolan’s rental and walked us through the process. It was clear she had worked with that company in the past and had developed a working relationship with them. The process was very streamlined, and she sent the Nolan’s quote to us fast. When changes needed to be made, she went ahead and contacted them to adjust the rentals. We did not have to do any of that which was a relief to me. Karen invited my aunt and I to her house to continue getting to know each other and talking about my wedding vision. She made me feel comfortable and confident that my wedding ideas would become a reality.

Another thing that was helpful to us was that she connected us with Christopher’s catering which was one of the preferred caterers that the venue recommended. She set up meetings for us and Paul to discuss food and bar. Again, she emailed me the quote for catering and helped adjust as needed. She acted as a good resource between I and the vendors that I was working with. On several occasions she held zoom meetings to work out any kinks and answer any questions we had. Then the unexpected happened. Covid 19 hit and our world was turned upside down. I fell into a deep depression thinking that my dream wedding was over. There were several weeks where I could not even fathom thinking about wedding planning. I was just too nervous to be heartbroken. Karen gave me the space I needed to brainstorm a plan with my now husband and family. Once I was ready to talk again, she reassured me that she would not be dropping me as a client but would continue to work with me no matter what happened. We talked on the phone about a plan B when I was on the verge of tears. She helped calm my nerves.

Karen stayed up to date on all the rapid changes of the wedding industry including restrictions being made by the governor. There was so much confusion and this feeling of guilt that I had as a bride who wanted to continue forward with my vision but still stay safe. Some people judged me for difficult choices that needed to be made. I was reminded that nobody planned for this and we were put in a unique situation. We held out hope for a long time that my venue was going to allow it and Covid would end. Then, in August (2 months out from the wedding) we were informed that the wedding would have to drop down to 50 people. This was crushing and Joe and I at this point had decided we were not going to wait another year to get married. We also did not want to cut back our guest list by that much so close to the day. We decided to email and try to cancel our venue. Unfortunately, our deposit was not going to be granted back to us so then we decided to move forward with 50 people because we could not afford to lose the money already put down. This period was an absolute whirlwind. Not only were close family and friends of mine starting to reach out wondering what was going to happen, but there was a sudden death in my family (not covid related) and I was ready to give up. Karen helped keep my spirits up when I started to feel like my wedding was meaningless in a world that was grieving.

Karen and the venue helped come up with a plan to do 50 people on Saturday night and then a different group of 50 for a “brunch with the newlyweds” on Sunday morning, since we had the whole weekend to celebrate and could stay socially distant. We decided to jump on this plan, so I quickly ordered more invites for the Sunday brunch. THEN, about a week later the plan changed back to the original plan but with 50% capacity. I was so tired of the back and forth but also happy. I was upset for spending extra money but now that things were back to normal there was a lot to get working on! Karen contacted me every step of the way. She was a godsend. Before wedding weekend, her and I already had the timeline in order. She knew when all my vendors were showing up, all the personal items I was bringing and my table layout. I had no doubt the day was going to be perfect. It was a literal miracle that we were able to pull this off together with all the hurdles we had to jump through.

Mine and Joe’s wedding day was a dream!! Karen organized the rehearsal, and then on the day of she worked so closely behind the scenes that I barely knew she was there. I heard from everyone else that whenever they noticed her, she was working hard on something. Karen delivered on all my requests which included bringing some of my personal items into the venue that were set up at the ceremony site. As the bride, I walked around my venue in complete Awe of how it turned out. The food was great, and they cleaned everything up for us as well. Masks and sanitizer were provided along with a safely distanced layout. I cannot thank Karen Hite enough for the time and energy she spent with us in wedding coordination while also living through the largest health crisis in history. I highly recommend her to other couples!!

Dolce Amica managed a large 500+ person corporate party for use with over 10 different vendors. The event was a big success and the event ran without issue, very professional.