One for the Books Events - Weatogue, Connecticut

Alexandria McGowan

Where do I begin with this review? Evan is the most amazing human who I had the pleasure of working with (didn’t seem like work). The moment I got on the phone with her, I knew she would be the best decision I made on my wedding planning. Evan took care of everything and more! She is thorough, detailed oriented and delivers to perfection. She truly wants to deliver your vision and you tell she cares for each of her clients. Our wedding was the best day of our lives and she made it effortless. She took care of everything with the vendors, mishaps, etc. she made the planning process stress free and fun. We had our wedding in New York City and she exceeded all expectations in executing our vision. I cannot recommend a more passionate wedding planner in the industry. I love her so much and she gets a 1000/10 in my book!

Ted Zimmerman

Evan is hands down the best wedding planner you could ever work with!! She goes way beyond just being a wedding planner as we look at her as such an integral part of our lives now because of who she is!
We cannot even put into words how amazing our wedding was because of her. Not only was Evan on the ball with every detail and every vendor leading up to the wedding, but she also took care of all last minute communications leading up to the day, which gave us more time to enjoy every part of our wedding.
The day of our wedding went seamlessly because of Evan. She is so kind and caring and loves love! Everyone who crossed paths with her loved her as much as we do. We had a special connection as she had also planned a perfect wedding for a sibling 6-years ago. So, she has the experience needed to think of every last detail and go above and beyond to make YOUR day special! Evan is so talented at what she does, and so enthusiastic and warm hearted, you will feel like your best friend is helping to make your special day perfect. Evan is an absolute delight to work with, and we cannot recommend her enough!

Noalle F

Working with OFTB was a DREAM! We are so incredibly grateful for the care and energy that Evan and her team put into supporting our wedding day. Evan and Tiff joined our wedding planning 3 months prior to the date when we were still figuring out a wedding day timeline, details for the ceremony, and an overall layout of our reception space. Evan and Tiff immediately put us at ease and helped us navigate these very important details. I honestly don’t think we could have done it without them! Evan’s experience and professionalism is truly unmatched. It was a big plus for us that she had experience planning a wedding in the same venue we were using. Her familiarity with the space helped us so much when planning out the timeline. Evan and Tiff were communicative, organized and so thoughtful. My husband and I honestly couldn’t believe how amazing and stress-free they made the last few months before our big day. On the day of the wedding, Tiff and Jess went above and beyond to ensure the day ran smoothly. Thanks to them, we were able to fully enjoy the day with our friends and family. We cannot recommend Evan and her team enough!!

Michelle Mahmood

We couldn't imagine having had our wedding day / weekend go as smoothly as it did without Evan's help! We are forever grateful to her, and so glad we took our friend's recommendation to use her for planning services. I am a type A bride who is very organized but wedding planning is a LOT to take on so my partner and I enlisted Evan's help for planning + day of coordination. She was a life saver and really made it so we could fully enjoy our special day when it came and not have to worry about a thing - she handled it all and kept everything running smoothly, coordinated with our many vendors along the way and helped create a timeline that we were able to stick to so that us and our guests had an amazing wedding experience that we will cherish forever! There are SO many other things she helped us with along the way - I couldn't even list them all out here, but she was truly someone we relied on during our planning process.

Not to mention her ability to handle a very non traditional wedding with grace and compassion, we had a fusion Pakistani / Persian / American wedding with so many unique aspects to our weekend. She took the time to really understand the different customs and traditions and make sure we could incorporate the things we wanted and that were important to us!

Trust us when we say you will NOT regret hiring Evan / One for the Books to help you with wedding planning and day of coordination services! A true gem and so worth it to fully enjoy your special day! <3

Preeti Sandhu

To be honest, if it wasn't for Evan and the support of her team, our wedding would not have become one of our most cherished memories! Evan took the vision shared by both my husband and I and helped to execute every detail, providing us guidance, while still making sure we felt we were at the center of our event. I became easily overwhelmed and she easily guided me through the details so I could actually enjoy the steps! She made sure to allow us time to be with each other while still be present for our guests, which was important to us on the day of. She prioritized all of my needs and her day of services were outstanding! Evan has not only been our wedding planner, but has become a dear friend and we could not be more grateful for her warmth, kindness, and expertise! She made our wedding! We appreciate you!-J & P

Lisa Barglowski

Words can hardly capture the magic that Evan brought to our special day. From the moment we began working together she infused joy into every step of the planning process. She went above and beyond our expectations, ensuring that every detail was not just executed but elevated to create a truly unforgettable experience. Her meticulous attention to detail was evident in every aspect.

Evan's ability to navigate unforeseen challenges with grace and poise, she helped me stay calm during the day of my wedding, and quickly turned my outdoor ceremony to indoors due to rain. Her calming presence, wonderful warm energy, and her knack for making tough decisions made our wedding day stress-free and truly enjoyable. I cannot recommend her enough to say the least.

Evan, thank you for making our dream wedding a reality!

Keely Johnson

If you are looking for a wedding planner, your search is over. Look no further than Evan Chestnutt and her team at One for the Books.

My husband, Eric, and I planned our coastal Connecticut wedding from afar. While I grew up in Connecticut, we were living in Pennsylvania while planning our wedding and quickly realized we would need someone with knowledge of the local vendors & the ability to coordinate & execute the events of our wedding weekend. It was really important to both of us to work with someone who aligned with our values - frankly, this was the case for us across all of the wedding vendors we chose to work with! We desired to work with hardworking individuals who take pride in what they do and operate with integrity. These are strong values for us and we felt strongly that we wanted to align with others who upheld them as well. After interviewing several different planners/coordinators, it was clear that Evan was different and we had met our match.

We worked with Evan under her Partial Planning package and it was the perfect fit! We started working together around 9.5 months before our big day and at the time, we had our date, our venue, our photographer and videographer, but nothing else. Evan helped us work through the remaining vendor selection, as well as the design vision for our day! She was incredibly thorough & diligent and always broke things down into bite-sized chunks and kept us on track as we approached the wedding day. We also ended up hiring Evan and her team to assist with the execution of our Welcome Dinner the night before our wedding. Both events were flawless and went off without a hitch - so much so, our guests are asking for Evan’s name!

I would love to note that in addition to being extremely well-connected and well-respected working with other vendors, Evan was also incredibly respectful of our budget. In fact, in many cases she saved us money by using her vast experience and expertise. We would often have “real conversations” about what would matter/be impactful vs what would likely go unnoticed and just add extra cost. All this, while maintaining our vision for the look and feel of the day - and if I do say so myself, it turned out beautifully!!

Last, the logistics - The night before, Evan ran a flawless rehearsal for our large parties (11 groomsmen & 9 bridesmaids, plus family), all while her team and our vendors worked to set up a gorgeous Welcome Dinner for us and all of our guests at a different location 20-25 minutes away. Additionally, our wedding ceremony was a Catholic mass held in a chapel 30 minutes away from our reception venue and my husband and I did not want to do a first look, so we had a 2-hour “Catholic gap” between the end of the mass and the start of the reception. Evan took this in stride, supporting our more traditional wishes, and helping us to navigate the logistics to ensure our guests were taken care of during the gap. This allowed us to take beautiful family portraits both at the site of the ceremony and at the reception venue and we couldn’t have been more grateful for how she helped us navigate all these logistics and coordination - including a third location - the hotel where we got ready, without us seeing each other!

It’s hard to put into simple words what working with Evan is like, but we’ll try: seamless, organized, and absolutely fun! We loved planning our wedding with Evan and never grew tired of the process or details! We are so lucky to have found & worked with Evan and consider her a friend for life - we hope we are fortunate enough to work with her again!!

Joelle Labossiere

Hiring Evan was by far the best decision we made during wedding planning! She truly enabled us to actually enjoy all of the special moments that happened during our engagement and planning process and wedding day rather than stressing about logistics and back and forth with so many vendors.

For our wedding we decided on a church ceremony and reception at a second location. Evan seamlessly coordinated all of the details from the hotel for our guests to stayed at, to transportation, to both venues, and evan made possible some special photo opps that we dreamed of. During the day plenty of things went wrong but Evan resolved all of them without us ever knowing there was a problem! Two days before the wedding our transportation company cancelled and Evan didn't miss a beat. Immediately she started contacting other companies and found two other options for us. We ended up booking one of them the day before the wedding and everything was seamless the day of.

From setting up our decor to getting our bridal party food during the day Evan was on top of every single detail. At the end of the night she even packed up everything so that we didn't have to return to the venue the next morning. Beyond the wedding day Evan helped us to arrange our rehearsal dinner, welcome party, and farewell brunch. When we got to brunch on Sunday we saw she had taken all of the centerpieces from the wedding and set them up so they wouldn't go to waste! She truly handled every detail of the weekend so that our family, bridal party, and us could all just enjoy and take in the weekend.

If you truly want to plan your dream wedding and then actually be able to enjoy it hiring Evan is the best decision you could make!