Monica and her team excel at getting to know couples in a very brief amount of time and creating an incredible vision for a very personalized wedding. MRE was able to take a few minor suggestions and likes/dislikes of ours and design an incredible wedding reception completely from scratch. By incorporating different themes from our family's farm, MRE managed to make our day truly unique, right down to the menu cards and welcome boxes. The team's attention to detail the day of is unparalleled and made for an extremely low-stress day for our family and guests. We highly recommend the MRE team for the Hudson Valley wedding of your dreams!

I guess it makes sense to begin with the following: When my husband (then my fiancé) and I began to talk about planning a wedding, I never (never!) thought I would hire a wedding planner. I even remember joking about the idea. I think most people who know me would say I’m a smart, organized, capable person with a good eye for detail who makes difficult decisions all of the time. All of which is to say, when I started this process, hiring a wedding planner struck me as a superfluous expense.

Here’s the truth though: it’s not.

Unless you are planning a wedding at venue where everything is taken care of, you need a wedding planner. This is all the more true for those of us who consider ourselves smart, organized, and capable. For one, you are probably spending a lot of your time using your intelligence, organizational skills, and capability on other things for other people, and planning a wedding will feel like yet another fulltime job. On top of that, because you have high standards and (unless you yourself are in the wedding industry) you probably don’t know anything about planning a wedding, you will not have a clue how to fully realize the wedding day you have envisioned. You have no idea what lighting you need, where to rent tables, how many red and white wine glasses to order, how to set a wedding timeline so that your portraits don’t overrun your ceremony time and you miss the sunset, or how to find a third bus last minute when you realize you don’t have enough shuttles from the hotels. Or, you know, something else. You can’t even imagine what you don’t know about this process, and there will be what seemed, to me, to be an infinite number of things you don’t know, because this is not your area of expertise.

It is, however, Monica’s area of expertise. All of it. This woman is seriously an encyclopedia.

We interviewed a few wedding planners, all fantastic people, but Monica stood out. She is not your typical wedding planner. Sure, Monica has an incredible eye for details and knows how to plan a stunningly beautiful event (indeed, many of our friends and family shared with us that ours was the most beautiful wedding they’d ever attended). But she is also all business, and honestly, that’s what you want on your wedding day, because if the day does not run smoothly, no one will be able to appreciate the beautiful details.

There are a few things that really stand out to me about Monica that I’d want to know if I were a bride (or groom)-to-be hiring a wedding planner:

1) Monica is incredibly accommodating: I am a young healthcare professional who works very long hours, is on call, etc. Monica didn’t bat an eye at this. She made herself extremely available at times (frankly absurd times) that could accommodate my schedule. For example, on my one week of vacation over the summer, which was about the only week where I could dedicate a significant chunk of time to finalizing a series of important wedding decisions, she scheduled multiple hour-plus-long calls with me... at 7 AM! She also helped keep me on track, giving me appropriate deadlines (and just as significantly, helping me to figure out what didn’t need to be done yet so I could put aside the countless other to-do’s that were not urgent).

2) She is multiculturally competent: My husband and I had a multifaith wedding, and while neither we nor our parents would consider ourselves observant, we wanted to plan a wedding that incorporated certain traditions. Although Monica is not of the same religious heritage (at least I don’t believe so), she was extremely knowledgeable. She knew exactly what traditions to ask us about including in our timeline, and made sure we had gathered all of the items we needed for the wedding ceremony. When I forgot something important (a light bulb to break at the end of the ceremony), she had a spare on hand.

3) Monica is detail oriented not only when it comes to aesthetics, but to logistics: My mom uses a cane and one of my biggest priorities on my wedding day was that my mom be happy and comfortable. As my wedding ceremony was outside on a hill, Monica made sure I knew the transport plan for my mom to the ceremony site and back down for the reception. She never once batted an eye when, in the midst of talking about aspects of the wedding, I brought up my mom’s mobility.

4) Monica works with vendors who are as incredible as she is: Every single person to whom Monica referred us was not simply talented at what they did, but genuinely kind and enthusiastic about being a part of our wedding. They made our day personal and special. It was apparent in my interactions with the vendors she recommended that Monica prioritizes developing strong relationships with the vendors with whom she partners in service of her couples. At the same time, Monica was always honest with me about her opinions if she disagreed with a decision, and if my husband or I disagreed with a something related to a vendor, she always went to bat for us.

When it came to new vendors (as we’d hired some before hiring Monica), Monica went out of her way to get to know her collaborators in order to make sure the wedding would go seamlessly.

5) Monica is an incredible listener and has great people skills: Throughout the time I was working with Monica, I really felt she was listening to me. On a number of occasions, I found myself feeling overwhelmed with decisions and confused, and each time, if I shared with her that I was feeling overwhelmed or asked her what she would do, she gave me an honest response. She never forced her opinion on me – indeed, when I’d ask for it, she often initially told me that I should do what I felt was the right thing – but when I reiterated that I wanted her expert guidance, she gave me sound and conclusive advice, which was what I needed to move forward with the planning. She was also very thoughtful in her interactions with my family and in-laws (though, appropriately so, she deferred to me and my then-fiancé for the final decision on anything, prioritizing our vision for our wedding day).

Monica did all of this on top of making sure the day was exquisite. And, down to the most minute detail (e.g., invitation stamps with a custom illustration of our wedding venue – yes, that’s the level of detail), it truly was.

I could say more, but to put it simply: Monica is the best you could ask for in a wedding planner: part designer, part director/producer, part emotional support, part fairy godmother.

Hiring Monica and her team was, without a doubt, the absolute best decision I made related to the wedding (except for the decision to marry my husband, of course!) After getting married in October, my husband and I still look back on our wedding as the most magical, beautiful day of our lives. Certainly, there are many reasons for that – I married my partner of over twelve years on a hill covered in foliage in the country, surrounded by our closest loved ones, and no matter where we were or what happened, it would’ve been a special day. The thing is though, I was able to take it in and enjoy it because of Monica and her team; without them, I have no doubt my wedding day would’ve been overshadowed by trying to make sure everything went according to plan. Because of Monica, I was not only amazed with every aspect of the day, but I didn’t have a single worry; my husband and I just got to enjoy ourselves, which is what you want on your wedding day.

If you are wondering whether to hire her, don’t think twice, just do it!

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My husband's review: "My wedding was perfect because of my amazing wife – but Monica was a close second! Monica addressed all of our wedding needs and concerns expertly and diligently, not to mention quite a few we hadn’t even thought of. Monica was a point person to email when issues came up, a scheduler who could help us to put together a timeline, and a repository of wedding knowledge who knew who to talk to to find anything we needed. Truthfully, Monica was totally indispensable for us, especially given our busy schedules. I entered wedding planning with little knowledge and even fewer preferences, but Monica helped me to be a more engaged and (hopefully!) useful partner in wedding planning. She made this daunting process exponentially easier for me. I can’t recommend her highly enough!"

We wholeheartedly recommend Monica for her fantastic wedding planning skills, attention to detail, and ability to take an idea and turn it into an amazing weekend! We are so happy we hired Monica about a year and a half before our wedding to plan and implement all aspects of the weekend. She helped us find and book amazing vendors, make all types of decisions, and coordinate a truly unbelievable wedding weekend in Hudson, New York. Monica was by our side throughout the entire planning process, keeping us sane and ensuring that we were on track. With Monica and her team, we were able to plan and flawlessly execute a beautiful and fun 300-person black tie wedding in a venue in which we were required to bring in every single thing. We simply could not have done it without Monica. Monica is creative, well organized, and compassionate. She has a great eye and incredible attention to detail. Monica thought of everything we could ever imagine and anticipated potential hiccups. She is an amazing problem solver and quick on her feet. Monica’s team is also amazing – every member of her team made us feel special and comfortable throughout the entire weekend. Thanks to the Monica Relyea Events team, we were able to really enjoy our wedding weekend, and to not worry about anything other than having the best weekend of our lives with our friends and family! If we could do it all over again, we would 100% pick Monica to plan this special event.