Social Hour Events

Dani was my wedding planner August of 2015. I felt like my family and I did most of the work. I understand I didn’t have full planning with Dani. But I really didn’t feel like all the money I payed her was worth what I got. I really disliked having to pay her for making a phone call to someone I found on the internet just as easily. I just really felt like I did not get my money’s worth here. I couldn’t find Dani during most of the wedding, I felt like there was no communication, she wasnt even there for me when we were going to down the isle, no one was in order, it was a mess. My mom kept asking her when she was going to do things and my mom was the one who ended up announcing the cake, and pretty much everything. I think she is a great person, but honestly I felt like my wedding was very disorganized, and I payed a lot, to have an organized day. I’ve waited a long time to right this review but I just simply wasn’t happy with how things ended up going.

I talked to Dani about a last-​minute, very small vow renewal in Portland on behalf of a family friend, who didn’t speak much English. Dani picked out a perfect venue for them and was very accommodating of their schedule. She and the minister even looked up a few phrases in the couple’s native language to use during the ceremony, which I thought was going above and beyond. During the planning process, it was obvious that Dani was experienced, organized, well-​connected, and thought about even the smallest details, some of which we didn’t even think of. She listened to the couple’s wants and concerns and addressed them well.

I would give 10 stars if I could. Dani began working with us over a year ago with my daughter’s wedding in October. We had major concerns about the industrial look of Union Pine (and yes, my husband walked out) when we first saw the venue. She knew our vision and both Dani and Union Pine and everyone else nailed the look that we were going for. We were speechless when we walked in and saw the amazing finished look and attention to every detail. We wanted to spend more time before the wedding looking at each and every special space that Dani and her team captured. Everything ran so smoothly from beginning to end. This is the wedding planner to call if you want your special day to be exactly what you invision it to be. Dani… Thank you !!!

Dani was our wedding planner for our Fall wedding and she was phenomenal! I can’t thank her enough for making the day so special and stress-​free. We started working with Dani from day one of our wedding planning, which was a little over a year ago, and she helped out with everything. The best thing about working with her was that she knew exactly what we liked which made life so easy when choosing vendors. She’d send me a list of three florists and say, «this is the one you’ll like». I’d visit that one and she was exactly right. Only needed to visit one caterer and she got that right too. Same with the decorations. When it got closer to the date, we trusted her so much that we just let her pick stuff because we knew she’d get it right. When my parents were unhappy with our venue choice for being too industrial, Dani talked to them and assured them that it would be transformed for the big day. I wish I could show you their expression when they saw the final layout. The alter was jaw-​dropping and my parents were speechless. In conclusion: Dani is professional, calm, creative, and supportive. All the things you want a wedding planner to be. I highly recommend her!

When we were planning our wedding, we thought we would do everything ourselves – until our floral designer strongly suggested we hire Dani as our week-​of coordinator – and we are SO glad that we did! Dani did an absolutely amazing job at making our special day so laid-​back and memorable. A week prior, Dani jumped right in and coordinated with all the vendors, and asked us all the questions that we hadn’t asked ourselves, which was really necessary because we realized how much we hadn’t figured out. Dani even gave us a really wonderful idea of a sweet way to remember our close family members that had recently passed, which made our day even more personal and special. Even on the day of, we still hadn’t figured out the dinner music right before the reception, and Dani took care of it. Dani and her assistant also decorated the reception venue, it looked so beautiful! I had just given her some sketches and she ran with it and when we arrived, it was better than I had imagined it. We didn’t know when who would toast, when we would cut the cake, etc. etc. but Dani knew how to make everything go smoothly. I could go on – there were so many situations where things could’ve gone wrong, or things would have really been missing, but Dani was there to take care of it.
If anyone is debating whether to get an event coordinator for your wedding, please do it! And hire Dani! Dani has a calmness to her (which helped calm me) and simultaneously is very professional and has a lets-​do-​this energy. Thanks to Dani, my husband and I were really able to be in the moment with each other on our wedding, and not have to worry about all the tiny logistics. Thank you Dani, for helping us make such a special and memorable day for us!

Dani did a fantastic job as the wedding coordinator with managing all the details leading up to the start of the outdoor wedding ceremony at the «Resort at the Mountain,» near Mt. Hood. As musicians in the wedding ceremony, Dani communicated by phone in advance of arriving our at the Resort and made sure the Vancouver String Quartet knew exactly where to go, when to play, and simply took good care of us during the wedding ceremony! The entire wedding ceremony went without a hitch, with many thanks to Dani, the wedding coordinator. The outdoor reception area was beautifully set up and the wedding guests had a wonderful and memorable time. I highly recommend her to you!
Matt Mandrones, Vancouver String Quartet

If you want to have a good wedding you need a wedding planner, it is a fact you must accept. My partner and probably knew about 10% of what goes in to a wedding which is why we hired Dani to plan our wedding for us. She did an amazing job from start to finish. She took our personal vision for a wedding and made it a reality, it was incredibly impressive. Our wedding was so stress free because of Dani it just kind of felt like it happened to us, we just got to sit back and have an amazing time with all of our friends. The vendors she brought on were incredible (honorable mention to the photographers, they really went way above and beyond). Honestly I couldn’t believe the level of detail that went in to it as a lot of time we would just toss out vague ideas like and styles that we liked.
There were SO MANY little things I had no idea about that she took care of, she even made sure that we had plenty of food and drinks on the day of.
Dani really has a gift for what she does. Thanks to her we can look back at our wedding as an amazing totally stress free celebration that we will remember for the rest of our lives.

We’ve been photographing weddings for 12 years, and seen a lot. When you have a good support team, you don’t even notice things transitioning or going wrong. Something will always go wrong, but the difference is with a professional, no one will know. They’ll just handle it, because that’s their job. It shouldn’t be your bridesmaid’s job, a mom, or someone else that should be free to laugh, cry, and get drunk with you at the reception. Let them enjoy the day, and let these gals handle the logistics.
Proud to say we’ve worked with Dani on a few weddings. She’s like a tour guide that can navigate you through the forest of Pinterest porn. (You don’t have to glue-​gun burlap to mason jars if that’s not your thing.) Like a good DJ, you may not even notice her, as she’ll handle the questions. We’ve seen so many brides trying to be present, get dressed, enjoy a conversation with a childhood friend, grab a second to make-​out behind a building; when someone comes up to them asking where the candle holders are for the cake table.
Your future selves will thank you for allowing them to enjoy the wedding. Dani’s so much more than a list-​checker. She may be the only one with common sense that day and can’t recommend her enough. We really notice when she’s not there.

On my honeymoon right now and we can’t stop talking about how incredible Dani was. Our wedding had some annoying logistics, lots of rentals, and a bunch of crazy awesome family members. Dani handled it all so beautifully. Low key, organized, kind and firm. She thought of everything. She seemed to disappear, but then reappear quietly to check in and make sure we stayed basically on track. Absolutely nothing went wrong as far as we were concerned (and we’d heard horror stories about that…) She even gave me some much needed reassurance/​therapy during the planning process (my now husband had told me to just call Dani instead of stressing, and he was very right). She’s also a true artist who turned an empty room into a gorgeous living room, party room, dance floor and flower-​ful haven of fun. Thank you Dani!

Everyone told me, even if you think you don’t need a wedding planner — you do. And they were right. For example, I had no idea that the top tier of my cake fell on the floor. No idea, until the wedding was over. I thank Dani for that. Oh and when the skirt of my wedding dress (my dress had a detachable skirt) was too big and kept slouching causing me to trip over myself, Dani brought me Arnold Schwarzenegger strong tape that carefully and securely held my skirt up and in place. WHO would think of that? Dani. I thank her for that too. Or how about when I had an issue with my veil and she loaned me a long gorgeous and expensive veil for no charge at all? That was pretty awesome.
I hired Dani for a week-​of (more like month-​of) planning with a couple of other add-​ons. That’s what’s so cool and unique about her services is that she offers very specific add-on’s to help you along the way. So like, if suddenly you realize your seating chart is way too overwhelming to complete, Dani will take care if it for you and you pay for that service solely.
You should also know, she is super down to earth. She’s not going to tell you what to do or how to have your wedding or roll your eyes if you suggest something extravagant. She GENUINELY wants your day to go smoothly and so during the planning process she will make sure she’s clear on what you want. Additionally, I can attest to the fact that even around my obnoxious family, she maintained a professional and calm demeanor while simultaneously making it known that she is in charge.
There are so many things that go into planning a wedding. SO many things you just DON’T think about. Dani will help make sure you have all of your bases covered. Then, WHEN (I don’t say «if» because their certainly will be) there are those unforeseeable emergencies she will be there to save the day. And you wont even know about it. That’s what she is there for.
I cannot stress having a planner enough. If cost is a factor, which it is for most, please please please set aside a portion for a PROFESSIONAL and EXPERIENCED planner (like Dani) and skimp on literally anything else. Because I promise you, when the florist has an issue with your order on the day of your wedding, you don’t want your aunt Sue bothering you about it while you get ready with your bridesmaids, let alone making the decision to order alternative flowers. Plus, Social Hour is by far the most reasonably priced wedding planning I’ve come across in Portland.
I’m so happy I went with Dani. She really does go above and beyond what her services entail. She was always prompt at returning my e-​mails/​calls. She even checked in with us to make sure that we were happy with our wedding. She was undoubtedly the best investment we made for the wedding. Our wedding turned out perfect!!!
P. S. Don’t be alarmed that her reviews are based out of California. She moved here and expanded her business. And even being somewhat new to Oregon, she knows her stuff and plenty of vendors to seriously help you out.

I photographed a wedding this summer & my clients hired Dani as their event coordinator. My clients had a vision for their wedding day that was not that of a typical wedding, and Dani did a marvelous job of making that vision come to life. She was so on top of things & made the day run smoothly for the bride & groom, as well as all the wedding vendors. I’ve photographed hundreds of weddings & worked with many event coordinators, and I consider Dani to be top notch. Her calm demeanor and «get it done» drive are what amazing coordinators like her are made of!

I was a fairly organized bride and had planned the majority or our wedding elements in advance; we simply needed someone to come in on the day and execute «the plan.» Dani and her assistant were extremely prompt, capable and calm, in short, they brought their «A» game. It was a perfect evening and I didn’t have to worry about a thing other than drinking champagne, dancing relentlessly and re-​applying my lipstick! Thanks ladies, LA’s loss is Portland’s gain.

We had our dream wedding, all thanks to Dani at Social Hour Events. After trying to plan an elegant Los Angeles wedding on our own for almost year and feeling incredibly frustrated, we finally met with Dani, and in just one hour she changed our outlook from discouraged to elated. Dani’s calm, collected and positive attitude made us feel at ease. We were working within a very specific budget, and she was able to explain to us right at that first meeting exactly how we might be able to have the wedding we’d always wanted while sticking to our budget and not overspending. The smartest decision we made was hiring her and Social Hour to be both our wedding planner and day-​of coordinator.
Dani was AMAZING during our entire wedding planning process — she helped us design a unique «save the date» that was very beautiful and personal to us, she showed us how the venue we really loved could work for us within the budget we had, she set up meetings with all kinds of vendors, even took meetings for us when we couldn’t go because of our work, and brought back a great variety of options and quotes for us to choose from. Dani has great taste, and we trusted her to be our style guide for bringing the entire look and feel of the wedding together.
Dani and Social Hour brought a top-​notch team of vendors to the table who were all totally great to work with and willing to help us achieve a design that was both unique to who we are as a couple and often even better than anything we ourselves could have imagined. On the day of our wedding, we had so many compliments from guests about how stunning the venue and décor was, how smoothly the whole evening ran and how special all of the little touches were that made the wedding personal to us. Our wedding was planned perfectly from beginning to end. If there were any little problems on the day, which I’m sure there were, Dani took care of them and no one was the wiser. Best of all, we felt so supported by Dani and her team that we were actually able to relax and completely enjoy our wedding day!
Not only do we recommend hiring a wedding coordinator to any couple who is planning a wedding (especially in a city like Los Angeles, where the choices and price ranges for services are numerous), but would steer anyone who wants the same kind of unique and memorable wedding experience that we had straight to Dani and Social Hour Events! You will not find another events company and owner who are more organized, creative, stylish, fun to work with, and dedicated to realizing your vision than they are!

Dani, from Social Hour Events performed as day of coordinator for our wedding, and the day went so smoothly! All throughout the event, Dani was by my side when I needed her, and acting as both logistical point person, and also as an emotional supporter. Weddings are overwhelming times, and Dani there as a friend, on top of her coordinator duties, with a calm attitude, smiling face, and spirit of fun and ease did a lot to calm my frazzled nerves. Also, Dani was a master of the event behind the scenes. Once the reception was underway, I was hardly ever bothered with logistical matters. I never had to leave my guests to see to things, because Dani was there dealing with vendors, the venue, payments, (prepared in advance), and problem solving all without any help from me. Dani also has a list of some fabulous vendors up her sleeve. Though Dani was only my day of coordinator, she guided me to my florist, and to our officiant, and I believe it was her recommendation that helped get a lower price. Dani, and Social Hour Events helped to make our wedding pretty much exactly how I had envisioned, and I would not only recommend the necessity of having a coordinator, but would steer anyone planning their wedding to Dani/​Social Hour. I’d tell anyone that they’re the best, most efficient coordinating service for the money. (Not to mention friendly and very fun to work with.)

I worked with Dani from Social Hour Events for my recent November wedding at Carondelet House, and I enthusiastically recommend her as a top-​notch event planner… and so much more: she was my wedding GURU! My wedding day was a breeze because I had complete faith in Dani. No detail was missed (and if you’re a bride you know how easy it is to get bogged down in the details.) From event design to schedule management to dealing with vendors and everything in between, she is a total pro. Do yourself a favor and call her. She’ll handle the tough stuff while you enjoy a special day with your brand new husband or wife!

Dani and her team were so great to work with. They were on time, on point and kept everyone feeling like «getting married is an easy process» :-)
I remember about an hour before the wedding started, I asked Danielle if she needed help with anything and she said no. They were already totally set up and ready for the ceremony and reception. That is rare! These girls are great!
I have already recommended Social Hour events to a handful of people and each of them has had a terrific experience.

As a cake-​maker we’ve worked with Social Hour on a couple of events now, and love their friendly thorough style! Their design sensibilities are spot-​on and they really know how to tap into the unique details of a bride’s vision and bring it to life. Go Social Hour!

I worked with Social Hour Events for a wedding in Burbank and they were above and beyond! As a vendor, I work closely with the event planning staff and Social Hour was so helpful and reliable in all of my interactions. The wedding itself was absolutely beautiful. It was clear that a lot of attention had been paid to the little details, it made such a difference! I highly recommend Social Hour for any wedding or event.

Social Hour Events helped with a wedding I did at Carondelet House in Los Angeles, and were so incredibly enthusiastic, accessible and well-​connected it made every detail easier. Dani’s creativity and impeccable taste translated over everything, from make-​up to music to layout. It was great having her to handle all the small details, as well as to pull in her own contacts. Plus she was lovely and hilarious, a great presence to have by your side during an event.