Greater Good Events Planner

As a close family friend at the wedding, I can say that Ellen made the event fun, beautiful, and appear seamless! It was a beautiful night, with so much less stress for all of the family involved. She handled all of the last minute changes with ease, having anticipated these far in advance. She was readily available throughout the entire week and was always a phone call or text away! Plus it felt good knowing that the wedding wasn't going to be wasteful, with any leftover food going to a good cause and using environmentally friendly practices throughout.

Ellen at Greater Good Events was a lifesaver! My husband and I had our wedding on July 10th at Waterloo Village in New Jersey and we used Ellen’s day-of coordinating service. A couple of weeks before the wedding I handed over all of my day of decor requests, vendor contacts, outstanding questions and biggest fears for the wedding day, and from that day on Ellen was in control and I got to RELAX. If you’re going back and forth on whether you need a day-of coordinator or if you’re just going to DIY the whole thing, I’m telling you right now that you do not want to be worrying about whether the cocktail hour signs have been placed right or if the florist has arrived on time while you are GETTING DRESSED IN A WEDDING GOWN. Having Ellen in your corner and being able to trust that everything will be taken care of is SO worth it. After the wedding, my in-laws just kept saying over and over that having Ellen there was key, that we couldn’t have done it without her. It’s so true – our wedding was a million times better because Ellen was there!

I contacted Ellen when I was feeling the most alone during my wedding planning process, when I felt so strongly that the event coordinator who was assigned to me by my wedding venue did not have my best interests at heart, and I’m so so glad I did! Ellen was that rock during the chaos of my wedding planning process, and helped me get together those last minute details that I just did not know to think of. Her day-of-coordinating service allowed me to have some peace the weeks leading up to the wedding day, and on the day of, despite the fact that we had a snow storm and the wedding had to be delayed, she was there to make sure everything ran smoothly. I am so glad that Ellen was there to take care of the vendors, to make sure that everything was as it was supposed to be, to take care of the little things during the day that in the whirlwind of the wedding, would have been impossible for me to remember or take care of myself. Having Ellen as our day-of-coordinator was one of the best decisions we made for our wedding day, and I can’t imagine what I would have done without her guidance!

It's safe to say that without Ellen, my wedding would've been a disaster. And that might even be an understatement. My wedding was essentially 2 events in 1 as we had a traditional Korean & Christian Aspect, as well as a themed after-party with what ended up being over 300 guests b/w both venues. Everything was handled with professionalism and a sharp sense of predictability.
But to take a step back, contacting Ellen and her team and just having the first sit-down with her sold me & my husband. What started as a chit chat between two strangers became extra cups of coffee and a conversation that left us feeling like we'd known each other for a while. Ellen's warm disposition and commitment to working with and for her clients is a valuable attribute that proved itself key throughout the planning process. I was, for a lack of better words, the laid back bride and my husband was a tad more invested in this. From theme, to decor, vendors and everything in between, Ellen had an arsenal of excellent teams for us to work with. And that's what it felt like: teamwork. Budget is obviously a big concern for wedding planning, but Ellen and her team kept us on track and kept us in check (it can be very easy to get caught up in the matching of linens and clothing). Everyone she recommended was also on point with budget-matching but still providing what ended up being the most breathtaking experience I could've asked for. The florist was a personal recommendation from Ellen and everything turned out GORGEOUS. On a bit more personal note, I want to emphasize Ellen's immense and endless sea of patience. From a bride's perspective, I just wanted it to happen already and ended up trying to please a lot of the people around me. But Ellen made sure to advocate for me and my now husband while finding happy middle for everyone involved. And there ends up being a LOT of opinions. I cannot praise her enough for exceeding our expectations and the resulting friendship that followed suit. Finding a wedding planner is an intimate and sometimes stressful process. But if you find this review, please at the very least call and have a conversation. I promise you won't regret it!

Ellen is super easy and great to work with. We hired Greater Good Events as our wedding planner and they were great with managing tasks and handling coordinating. Ellen personally was so fun and has an easy, soothing energy. We had a wedding of about 180 people at the Englewood Field Club! I'm SO happy we hired Greater Good Events, the day was amazing and Ellen & her team were with us the entire way. I highly recommend!

Hiring Ellen was one of the best decisions we made while planning our wedding! We hired her for month-of coordination. She helped us navigate the intricacies involved in creating an event of this magnitude. We came to her with all of our questions/worries/concerns and she was able to answer everything and dispel all of our stress! It was truly invaluable to us.
Additionally she was in contact with all of our vendors the month of our wedding (the most stressful time in planning a wedding) which allowed us to focus on finishing up the odds and ends that appear in the final stretch. The day of, Ellen’s assistant, Rachel, was there throughout the event guiding us through. We didn’t have to worry about anything, we could just be in the moment and enjoy our family & friends. I highly recommend hiring Greater Goods for your wedding!

As soon as we met Ellen, we knew she was the wedding planner for us. She immediately understood that we wanted an understated Brooklyn wedding and she had experience with Jewish weddings. Her warm personality was immediately apparent. Early on the in the process, our venue told us that they booked an event that would cut off the available time for our wedding, and after we freaked out on the venue, Ellen swooped in and saved the day, getting the venue to reschedule that event and giving us the time we needed at the venue. Ellen was responsive throughout the planning process, spending countless hours on the phone with us. The greatest testament to Ellen's magical powers is that if there were any problems with coordination of vendors or the service on our wedding day, we had no idea, because everything went so smoothly and we didn't need to worry about a thing. The venue was set up beautifully and we were struck by how transformed the venue looked with the full setup. Ellen made sure we remained on schedule and stayed until the very end to ensure cleanup as well. We appreciate her several treks from Jersey City to Brooklyn to meet us / look at the venue. We highly recommend Ellen for any event.

Our experience working with Ellen (and on the day of our wedding also with Rachel) was exactly what I needed to stay on track with a short (6 month) planning window.
Ellen was easy to work with - sane - and was able to coordinate our vendors so that I wasn't having to obsess about timelines, communication between vendors, or the general order of the day. I had interviewed other day-of planners and I'm so glad we decided on Ellen and her company. From encouraging compostable containers so our guests could take home leftover cake and cheese to having our flowers repurposed the following day instead of just throwing them away - her desire to rethink the waste associated with large events was evident. Living in Jersey City and hiring local was also something that was very important to me. So while our meetings mostly took place in Jersey City, our wedding at the Church of St. Francis Xavier and reception at the W Hotel - Union Square was just across the river in NYC. My wedding day was not perfect (a winter storm causing downed trees resulted in a last-minute location change for our first-look and a missing wedding cake) - everything was handled so that I hardly noticed a thing. I was able to relax and enjoy the celebration!