The wedding planner

NICOLE GALLOWAY

Charlotte wedding planner Nicole Galloway, owner of NG Wedding and Events (right) with Kaddra Green-Hall and Darrius Hall on the couple’s wedding day reception.

A lot goes into wedding planning.

That’s why Kaddra Greene-Hall and her husband Darrius hired a wedding planner. The couple, who have been married for two years, met in 2017 at a Publix in Smyrna, Georgia.

“We had actually seen each other on three different occasions in the store,” said Greene-Hall, who works in diversity and supplier management at Atrium Health. “Third time’s a charm. The third time, he actually paid for my groceries.”

A month later, they met for dinner – and connected. Darrius, 38, proposed on Aug. 13, 2020, during Kaddra’s birthday trip to Key West, Florida. The small island was sentimental because it was the last place Greene-Hall’s parents visited before her father died from Parkinson’s disease in 2019.

Planning a wedding is not easy. There’s booking the venue, picking a theme, deciding on a color swatch for tablecloths, drapes, and decorations; wedding party attire, contracting a DJ or band and hiring a photographer. Then there’s the menu.

If you’re trying to manage a full-time job while balancing those tasks, you might need to hire a professional to keep your sanity.

“The main goal of a wedding planner is to get you down the aisle stress free,” said Nicole Galloway, owner and founder of NG Wedding and Events, a Black woman-owned, Christian-based planning company. The planner’s job of bringing couples’ Big Day to life is “very stressful,” she added.

“There's so many dreams, aspirations, visions, personalities within the wedding party, the bride and groom themselves—having to find a compromise for them,” Galloway explained. “Having to put your signature stamp on it as a planner and a designer, but also, making sure your clients feel like their voices are heard.”

After interviewing three wedding planners, Greene-Hall picked Galloway. “We just hit it off,” said Greene-Hall. “We had a great chemistry; the connection was genuine. She spoke a lot about her family and that really spoke to me because I'm family oriented as well.” Galloway and her team take on no more than 10 clients a year so they can “personalize each and every experience.”

The Halls were married on Sept. 19, 2021. The wedding ceremony was at Queens University of Charlotte’s Belk Chapel with about 180 guests. The theme was City Glam, consisting of white and pink roses and the colors green, black, gold, soft pink, mauve, and ivory. The reception was at the Ritz-Carlton uptown. For cocktail hour, guests were served pigs in a blanket, lamb chops, empanadas, and salmon tacos. Dinner started with salad followed by the main course of Tanglewood Farms chicken topped with lemon sauce with sweet corn and basil risotto and green beans.

“[Nicole] did a fantastic job,” Greene-Hall said. “They allowed us to do a reveal before anybody else saw it and it just left me in tears. My husband was speechless.”

Greene-Hall, 32, added that there is no way she could have worked her full-time job while planning a wedding by herself. The Halls went over budget for their dream wedding, spending around $100,000. They celebrated their honeymoon in Montego Bay, Jamaica, with 37 relatives and friends.

Regardless of budget, couples can most likely fit a wedding planner into your budget, according to Galloway. You can book a free consultation to help you along the journey. “If you just absolutely cannot have that service, I always recommend doing the next best thing —set up a consultation,” she said.

“Most planners will do a free consultation at the very beginning to see if you're a good fit, to see if they're within the budget that you're setting and stuff like that.”

Galloway added that you can consider doing a three-hour consultation with a planner if your budget is tight to help you figure out where to start when working out the details. If you are planning by yourself, websites such as Zola, The Knot, and Wedding Wire can provide tips.

Comments