Mavinhouse Events — Local services in Ipswich

Let me preface this review of Mavinhouse & Lindsey by explaining that our 220 person wedding took place in June 2022 on a grass field with nothing on site (including no plumbing and no electricity) and everything from the tent to the generator to each individual fork, spoon, knife had to be brought on site. Booking with Mavinhouse was easily the best decision we made during our wedding. In the year prior to the wedding, Lindsey recommended vendors ranging from our incredibly talented and reasonably priced florist to our unique and editorial style photographer. Lindsey guided us towards vendors that are less easily discoverable, like the restroom trailer provider and the violin trio for the ceremony. Her guidance saved us thousands of dollars and made the planning experience worth it off the bat. Lindsey went above and beyond what was listed in our contract and provided input on so many different components of our wedding that I simply wouldn't have known to do without her guidance. She reviewed our invitations and wedding website, and edited every single word for clarity to guests. She spoke to our family friends hosting our rehearsal dinner, which definitely wasn't included in our contract. During our site visit, she worked with the caterer and the venue to identify anything we hadn't accounted for and went through details in an orderly timeline from the beginning of the weekend until the end. She advised on specifics related to rentals (how many guests can we fit at a 60" round?) and then in the final weeks combed through each item with the rentals company so I was stress free and could focus on my rehearsal dinner outfit and picking out accessories for the wedding day. We encountered issues with the venue, and Lindsey took care of every single one of them. Less than 6 weeks prior to the wedding at the site visit, the venue manager informed us the restroom trailer booked was too large for the site and an additional generator was necessary. Lindsey clarified their feedback and without me knowing resolved every single issue. 3 weeks prior to the wedding, our liquor distributor informed us that they could no longer provide us with liquor because of changing rules at the venue. Lindsey was communicative the moment we heard, worked with the caterer and venue manager on the side to obtain a special permit, and our wedding DID have an incredible open bar in the end. On the day of the wedding, the Mavinhouse team sent an assistant, and Taylor was invaluable in helping out with everything from keeping us on task during the rehearsal Friday to sticking with us during the day Saturday while me and my 10 bridesmaids and my husband and his 12 groomsmen got ready. She had an emergency kit of supplies that saved all of our lives multiple times over. Meanwhile, Lindsey took virtually every single responsibility imaginable from our hands - from inventorying the rentals to placing each individual escort & placecard and framing the dozens of items that we had across the cocktail hour and tent, she did literally everything. Lindsey quickly identified things that were out of place or not to my taste (i.e., a cream runner that was brought in) and took care of it. She changed me out of my wedding dress into my afterparty dress, brought the massive dress home, and then returned it to us the following day - above and beyond. In the days and weeks following the wedding, Lindsey and the Mavinhouse team seemed genuinely excited, posting and sharing content from our wedding which honestly makes you feel great and like the team enjoyed the experience. When you enter the experience of planning a wedding, the execution absolutely matters - but the vendors you choose have the ability to make your experience incredible. Things will inevitably go off course, and if you don’t have someone like Lindsey (a truly rare find) you will spend time, money and headspace where it shouldn't be on the most special weekend of your life. If you made it this far, I assume you already know there isn't any other choice but the team of perfectionists...

My husband and I just got married this past weekend (5/18) and worked with Sarah Lema to plan the wedding of our dreams at The Mount in Lenox, MA. We also worked with Jeankarla, who helped Sarah produce our wedding day. We don't have the formal photos back yet, but wanted to write this review now while everything was still super fresh and plan to update the review with photos once we have them to show the fantastic design.

Our thoughts can be summed up simply as: hire mavinhouse (and Sarah and Jeankarla in particular). It was some of the best money we spent and all the time, effort, and money we spent on our wedding would not have been as well spent without Sarah. My husband and I both have very time intensive jobs and knew from the get go that we wanted to work with a wedding planner. We met with three different planners. From our first meeting with Sarah, we felt really good about her. She was warm and friendly, thoughtful, and well organized (which appealed to my type-A personality). She asked us all the right questions to get to know us and the vision we had for our wedding day.

From there, we were in regular contact with Sarah. We emailed frequently to discuss potential vendors and began meeting regularly once a month over zoom. Sarah put together a thorough checklist that went through our wedding day so that we could see everything that we had to get done and when it had to get done by. A little under a year out from our wedding day we did a site visit with both Sarah and JK to go over how we wanted to utilize each different space at our venue. Sarah also attended our tasting with us, where we not only got the benefit of her professional opinion but also got to chat with her and get to know her a bit better. She's super fun and a great conversationalist.

Beyond being organized and thoughtful, Sarah is also creative and has impeccable taste. We gave her our general vision for the day and a few photos to convey that we wanted our wedding aesthetic to be romantic, airy, and classical with a whimsy twist. Sarah put together a vision board that perfectly captured the aesthetic and atmosphere we wanted to create. Sarah was then able to guide us as we met with each vendor to ask the right questions (Sarah was present for each call). Once we hired each vendor, Sarah took over all logistical communication with our wonderful vendor team, which was a huge help to us.

Sarah and Jeankarla were both present for our ceremony rehearsal the day before the wedding. There, Sarah expertly handled a series of last minute changes we had to make to the seating chart all while reassuring us that it was totally fine and not a big deal. At the same time, Jeankarla got everyone comfortable with the order of events for the ceremony.

On the day of the wedding, Sarah honestly felt like an extension of my bridal party. She was a joy to be around. She checked in on me while I was in hair and makeup and then went to go check on my husband (where she saved the day with last minute bow-tie struggles and put my husband at ease!) before going to the venue. Sarah was then by my side from the moment I arrived at the venue. Every time I asked her a question or had a thought, Sarah already had an answer and had already pre-empted my concern.

Never once in the entire planning process did we feel overly stressed or overwhelmed, and we knew Sarah and team would always be able to handle any issue that might arise.

I can honestly say we had the perfect wedding, and it was thanks to Sarah. 10/10 day, no notes. If this review doesn't fully convey our recommendation and depth of gratitude, we would both be more than happy to chat anyone's ear off as to why they should work with Sarah and the...

I hired Mavinhouse only a few months before our June 2022 wedding in Newport, RI which was postponed 3 times from August of 2020 due to international travel bans & border closures. Despite 3 years of planning, the last few months were jam packed with decisions and more decisions, and I needed someone with experience who I could count on to help guide us through. I first had a call with Sarah Crowell who knows the Newport area very well and was completely reassuring and excited to find out how Mavinhouse could deliver. Sarah designed a custom package for us to include everything that we needed for the last few months of planning. She paired us with one of the Mavinhouse planners, Kristina, who became our guide and rock over the months leading up to the wedding, and our literal hero on the wedding day itself. Kristina met with us almost weekly and made herself completely available to us to answer questions and help coordinate meetings and discussions with all of our vendors. She orchestrated all of our final calls with our venue, florist, transportation company, & band, and helped to make an extremely detailed timeline for the day down to the minute to make sure we could squeeze in every important dance, photo, & speech. I can't even explain how helpful it was to have someone behind the scenes getting everything done for us while we were extra busy at work, stressing about medical boards, and tied up with all sorts of other things. The week of the wedding itself, the weather forecast was all over the place adding even more decisions about rain plans. Not only did Kristina reassure us that she would figure everything out for us, she literally drove around helping to pick up umbrellas for us the day before the wedding to make sure that we had options. She then traveled out into a literal monsoon the morning of our wedding and delivered welcome bags to all of our guests because that's what the plan was and she wasn't going to let anything get in the way of that. The wedding itself was more seamless than I could have ever imagined, and every time I turned around I had Kristina over my shoulder checking in on me, making sure we were on time, and making the entire operation run so smoothly. There was even a point that she was behind the bar herself helping to make sure the line was moving. She is professional, so sweet, completely organized, and knows how to get things done. I was completely at ease my entire wedding day because I knew Kristina had my back and was doing everything to make the day perfection for us. Thanks so much Mavinhouse, Sarah & Kristina, we are so lucky to have worked with you and would recommend you to anyone! I don't know what we would have done...