Words of affirmation is my love language. These notes from past clients mean so much.
Hiring Mary for my wedding in October was THE BEST decision I made throughout the entire wedding planning process!!!! She was my day of coordinator and took so much stress and worry off me so I could enjoy the day and not worry about setting up the venue and dealing with vendors. She set up all of my decor exactly as requested and had some ideas on how to make things look even better. She made sure to ask my opinion before changing anything and was so on top of everything happening the entire day. She went above and beyond the day of the wedding and even leading up to the wedding. All the tips and ideas she gave me in the planning process were so appreciated and she is such an awesome person overall. She ran through rehearsal with us the night before as well which was so helpful for everyone. It helped that she works with most of my other vendors all the time so everything flowed smoothly and went absolutely perfect because of how experienced she is. Her assistant Abby was also a rockstar and on top of everything. I cannot say enough positive things about Mary and would highly recommend her to anyone who is even considering using a wedding coordinator. She is fantastic and will make your wedding day go so smoothly. Thank you Mary for helping to make my day so perfect! 🙂
Shelby
Bride – October 2021
Mary Carlson is the absolute best at what she does. Over the last two years, Mary guided my wife and I through planning, postponing (due to COVID), re-planning, and finally executing the wedding of our dreams in the Duluth area. Simply put: Mary made it happen and we would not have been able to do it without her help. As an engaged couple living on the West Coast, we had no idea how to even start organizing and planning a wedding near our families in the Duluth area. When we found Mary, we knew we had found the expert we needed to pull of the wedding we were looking for. Mary intimately knows every wedding vendor and venue in the area. After getting to know our personalities and our vision, she connected us with vendors in the area who she thought would be a great fit. Boy, she nailed it! It’s all thanks to Mary that we found our photographer (@Alyssa-Lund Photography), our venue (@The Atrium in Solon Springs), our food (@Midcoast Catering), and our band (@Bluewater Kings). From working with our vendors, it’s clear that Mary has a fantastic reputation in the industry and clearly knows what she is doing. We purchased the complete wedding planning package and the cost was well worth it. Over the two years working with Mary, we found her extremely communicative and on top of every detail. We found it easy to schedule time to speak with her and she was quick to answer emails. We live in a different time zone, and Mary was willing and able to accommodate calls at a time that worked for us. Mary took the time to get to know us and asked great questions to get a sense of what kind of wedding we were hoping to have. Where we had uncertainty on how to proceed, Mary was quick to offer a suggestion but never forced anything on us. There were times when we said no to her suggestions, and Mary took it in stride, explained her rationale, and then dove in to make our decisions to make them a reality. On the day of the wedding, Mary was clearly in her element. Every detail was attended to and the entirety of the day went off without a hitch due to her planning, experience, day-of attention to detail, and wonderful personality. In summary: if you’re looking to get hitched in the Duluth area, Mary is the person you need on your team to make your dream wedding a reality!
Robbie
Groom – September 2021
Mary was exactly what we needed to plan our wedding! Mixing the viewpoints of different family and even ourselves is difficult and not something we had experience with doing before on such a large scale. Mary helped navigate that challenge in a professional but also personal way. She was available at all times for support both leading up to and on the day of the wedding, and it was the best day of our lives!
Matt
Groom – September 2021
WOWWWW Mary and her team are beyond flawless. I mean it when I say I would not have had a wedding day without them. Mary has such a creative vision to meet any bridal style you are going for. She was there at the drop of a hat to calm me down and offer advise in stressful situations, and even helped intervene and coach me through interactions with our venue. Mary brought my wedding dreams to life and I am forever grateful to her for that! Pure Event Planning is sooo top notch incredible! And with both planning and rental services through the same business you really can’t go wrong. Mary makes everything convenient and stress free. 10/10 will ALWAYS recommend!
Kelsey
Bride – September 2021
Mary is an amazing designer, organizational genius, and wonderful human being. She was extremely willing to meet / accommodate our weirder tastes, let us DIY the few pieces we wanted to take on, and was always ready to step in and take over before we did anything we’d regret. Instead of waking up in the middle of the night and being like “OH SHIT, FORKS,” we pretty much just got to taste wines, order pastries, and be fussy little babies about font choice. My one piece of advice to newly engaged folks would be this: weddings are expensive, and pressing “go” on a planner before you’ve even spent a dime on crackers can feel weird. The thing I realized during the process, however, is that our budget wasn’t just funding the day—it was funding the entire year-long experience of being engaged, which can either be super stressful, or (as it was for us) a damn delight. Thanks for facilitating such a great day (and year!).
Charlotte
Bride – August 2021
Where to even begin!? Mary is a literal angel & one of the best people I have ever met. Choosing to work with her to plan our wedding was the best decision we’ve ever made & we couldn’t have gotten through the big day without her. She never once complained about my constant stream of emails with endless amounts of questions. She answered each email, text, or call right away & always knew how to calm me down when I was stressing out. Mary took our vision of our wedding day & created something more magical than we ever could’ve dreamed of. Our day was seriously perfection & that was all because we had Mary to run the show. She took care of all the big & small details, while making sure our happiness was a priority. On top of being the best planner, I truly felt like Mary & I become close friends. She not only gives great wedding advice, but great life advice, too. Having a planner who takes care of everything and makes sure your day is about you & your spouse (no questions from relatives or vendors) is something that I will recommend to anyone & everyone who is getting married. And that planner is Mary—anyone in the Duluth area (and beyond) NEED to hire her for their wedding. She is simply the best!
Dakota
Bride – August 2021
Can’t stress enough how incredible Mary and her Team are! We had our wedding a few weeks ago and it was an absolute dream. Mary thinks of EVERYTHING and makes the whole planning process and wedding day enjoyable and stress-free. Thank you for all you’re amazing work!!
Claire
Bride – August 2021
My daughter got married at The Malting Building. Hiring Mary was the best thing I did. She was there with me through the entire year of planning. Helping us with every detail. I did not have to lift a finger! She and her team were fabulous! Thank you Mary, Madelyn and Jade! Best day ever!!
Mary Jo
Mother of the Bride – August 2021
Mary and her team did such an amazing job making sure our wedding went off without a hitch. From our pre planning meetings, to rehearsal, and all the way through the big day – every interaction with Mary and her fantastic team was an A+ experience. They put out fires and fixed anything that wasn’t going according to plan without anyone even realizing it. They truly helped make it the best day of our lives and we would partner with them over and over again. 12 out of 10 recommend!
Shannah
Bride – June 2021
I would highly recommend Mary and Pure Event Planning to anyone looking to work a helpful, resourceful, attentive and caring Wedding Coordinator. Mary became a huge resource and was amazingly helpful to my fiance and I. During the stress of planning a wedding during Covid and issues with our venue, Mary was a godsend who was level headed, helpful, and very giving of her time. She had great suggestions, lots of resources and other ideas to consider. She was very genuine and exactly the type of person you would want on your side for your big day. Thank you Mary!!!
Kristie
Bride – 2020
I literally can’t recommend Mary and her team enough. Mary was so helpful, responsive, and supportive during the entire process from day 1 signing the contract and even following up with us after the wedding to see how we are doing. Planning a wedding during a pandemic is not easy but she kept us updated with changing guidelines and restrictions and still made sure we could get married in the safest way possible. We would have been lost without Mary during our wedding weekend!
Kaitlin
Bride – October 2020
Mary was FABULOUS to work with. She helped us plan our perfect day in 6 weeks during a global pandemic. The planning was stress-free and fun! She had a great vision for what we wanted and it could not have gone any better! She also did an absolute amazing job as our officiant. Despite not having met face-to-face, she captured us as a couple and as a family perfectly!
Karen
Bride – August 2020
We hired Mary for our day of coordinator! My 2nd thing after finding a venue was hiring a person to help on the day! Mary went above and beyond our expectations! It was the best money we spent on our special day! Mary was the “go-to” along with her assistant! She started by getting the design of our day going, checking in on me constantly to see if I needed anything, making sure band, florals, food were all in check and stayed until the end of the night to clean up! We were not asked one question about anything the entire day and it went so smooth! Mary and I aligned a couple weeks ahead of time on my vision, timeline, and any questions/concerns I had! She made me feel confident everything would go great and it did! She is a realist, funny, and genuinely awesome to be around! I would 110% recommend hiring Mary 🙂 She is amazing and absolutely worth the investment! If you plan for your big day, why not hire someone to help you run the day? It’s your day to enjoy!! Let Mary do her thing!
Amelia
Bride – 2019
BY FAR The Best money we spent!! Mary and her assistant Lexi were beyond what we could’ve hoped for! From our rehearsal on, we were only the ‘Bride & Groom’, nobody was allowed to come to us with questions/concerns. We were able to enjoy every moment of our special day. Mary even brought us a couple of beers to relax, hide, & just be together right after the ceremony 🙂 She kept us on schedule all day, but also went with the flow if we wanted to adjust it a bit. She even tied up my bustle for me!! Mary & Lexi set up our decor at the ceremony & reception. Everything turned out more stunning than I had envisioned. They took my DIY boxes of goodies & turned it into Pinterest-worthy set-ups!! We highly recommend Mary & her service to ANY couple getting married! Trust us, they’re AMAZING!
Danielle
Bride – 2019
We are SO beyond glad that we had Mary and her assistant for our big day. At first, the cost seems expensive. However, the amount of stress that was off my shoulders immediately upon hiring her made it all worth it right there. Mary was available for emails and calls anytime I needed her. She helped me through some stressful situations and had ideas for things I was stuck on. TRULY, she went above and beyond to ensure that I was as stress-free as possible the day of our wedding. I know there were many things that happened that I didn’t know about because she had my back. THANK YOU! Of course, there were some hiccups and things that didn’t go exactly how I wanted, but ultimately they were small potatoes. Some of the flowers in my bouquet were browning before the ceremony and I’m pretty sure she sent her assistant out to find more and replaced them for photos and walking down the aisle! My bouquet was a non-traditional boa style and it totally fell apart before the ceremony. Mary was on it. She put it back together. I do not know what we would have done without her. My day was busy and hectic enough without having to worry about set-up and everything else that Mary and her assistant handled for us. Honestly, her services are priceless and she is just so much fun to work with. Thank you, Mary, for all of your hard work. I know some of my bridal party were being pretty needy and you handled them so well and professionally. You are the best and I HIGHLY recommend you!!!
Angie
Bride – 2019
Mary was, hands down, the best decisions we made in planning our wedding. We used Mary for complete event coordination, plus end of the night tear-down. Mary is exceptionally responsive. Mary is always positive and high energy. She is honest and straightforward. She communicates effectively with vendors, provides excellent support for wedding planning questions, and helped take a jumbled Pinterest board and turn it into a wedding I was so proud to invite my friends and family to. She took the stress out of the process at every turn, helped guide me when I was lost, and brought her creativity and experience to every aspect of the wedding. She is everything a wedding planner should be and more. I cannot thank her enough or recommend her highly enough.
Anna
Bride – August 2018
Mary from Pure Event was awesome. She helped us set up the venue for the reception the day prior to the wedding. On the wedding day, Mary and her assistant, Lexi, took over for me. We had an outdoor ceremony which they set up the chairs and put out the flowers for the ceremony. After their ceremony, they moved everything up into the barn for the dinner. During the day, they finished the set up in the barn and made sure everything was ready for the dinner and guests . It was perfect. I would recommend Mary for your wedding planner. She is great and worked well with what the bride wanted. She is very professional and friendly.
Laurie
Mother of the Bride – August 2018
Pure Event Planning and Design helped my husband and I experience our dream wedding weekend. Working with Mary was an absolute joy! Throughout the entire wedding planning process, Mary was incredible to work with. She was flexible with her schedule as far as meeting us and having phone dates. She was timely with her email responses. My husband and I live in Minneapolis and we planned a North Shore, MN wedding. Having Mary and her team help us along the way as we tackled a “destination” wedding was invaluable. Mary has so much experience in the wedding industry and had fantastic vendors to recommend to us; we went with all of her top vendor choices and we could not have been happier! When it came to our wedding weekend, Mary and her assistant Lexie exceeded any expectations that I had for a day-of-coordinator. Mary ran an efficient and informative rehearsal the night before the wedding, which set the tone for a smooth and fun wedding day. We had a large wedding party (25 people total, including 4 young children); Mary and Lexie kept us on schedule and made sure we were all hydrated and happy! Many unexpected questions and situations arise during a big event like a wedding; my husband and I were able to relax and enjoy our day knowing that Mary was behind the scenes taking care of everything. Mary is passionate about her job and is a natural at being incredibly professional and at the same time, so much fun!! My husband and I are so grateful to have been able to work with Mary and Pure Event Planning and Design!!
Lauren
Bride – August 2018
Mary was easily, hands down, the only reason my wedding day went so well. She went above and beyond the call of duty with keeping everyone on track with the schedule, and setting up all of our decor perfectly! Mary was communicative leading up to our wedding and I trusted her completely. Mary took care of everything at the venue on the day of. I thought I may have given her a bit too much decor to work through, but she handled everything perfectly! Everything was gorgeous! Mary had such a positive upbeat attitude, and all of our vendors mentioned how much they loved working with her. I can’t say enough about her! Would definitely recommend her to everyone I know!
Julie
Bride – July 2018
First of all – if you are debating a Day of Coordinator, good lord above you need to do it and hire Mary Carlson with Pure Event Planning & Design! Mary was absolutely phenomenal, professional, and incredibly fun! The new hubby and I are STILL talking about how organized Mary was, both before the wedding in helping us create a timeline, as well as the day of, when she was able to help set up and clean up the decorations, keep everyone on task and on time, took care of all of the vendors, and more importantly, be ready for anything! We were expecting rain all day at our outdoor venue and Mary was amazing at making me feel prepared and ensure everything would be taken care of, inside or out. She was great with communicating with me throughout the day, as well as keeping everything upbeat and fun! Everyone in the bridal party and our families loved her. She was by far an amazing life savor for our day and we could never thank her enough!
Jen D
Bride – June 2018
I absolutely loved working with Pure Event planning! Mary is fun and upbeat at meetings/consultations while planning and does a great job suggesting things that might make your day better! She was great about getting back to me within a reasonable time frame, which I think is super important when trying to plan a special event! At my wedding she made sure to come to me before making a decision about how I wanted decorations set up or if the flowers needed to be adjusted. She is well experienced and knows what to expect from a busy wedding day! One thing I liked is she made sure my husband and I took a few moments during the busy day for just ourselves! Most importantly for me at my wedding is Mary took away the stress and made it her job to take on any problems that might happen, which let me enjoy my day from start to finish! I would recommend Pure Event Planning/ Mary to my friends and family for their upcoming events!
Alyson
Bride – January 2018
We hired Mary and Tawny as our day-of wedding coordinators, and they were fantastic throughout the entire planning process. As a bride, you want to be able to sit back and relax on your wedding day and not worry about all the little things that inevitable go wrong. Mary and Tawny took care of everything for us the day of our wedding. They went above and beyond and even made a new boutonniere for one of our groomsmen when we ended up one short. Tawny stayed until the end of the night and picked up all of our stuff and brought it to the bellhop at the hotel we were staying at. They were absolutely fantastic!
Caitlin
Bride – November 2017
As a videographer and someone who has worked 75+ weddings, I know a good vendor when I see one, and Mary is not just good, she’s great. She is not only a consummate professional, but a stellar human being as well. Her attention to detail and loads of experience make her an amazing planner, but it’s her ability to make everyone feel comfortable, looked after, and relaxed that I think puts her over the top. She will not only make your wedding day 1000 times easier, but she’ll make it more enjoyable as well. Highly recommended.
Jasper
Videographer – Duluth, MN
Since having a wedding opens you up to unsolicited advice from strangers, let me add my two cents: you need to hire Mary Carlson. We hired Mary to plan and design our 200-person wedding in my hometown of Duluth. Though we lived on the East Coast, we wanted to put together a weekend that would be memorable because of the tiny, thoughtful details and personal touches for people who would be traveling from as far away as Alaska and rural Oklahoma. Mary managed our ideas impeccably. She held our hands as we figured out a design plan (ask Mary about her genius, money-saving tip on floral arrangements) and navigated touchy family issues that came out of nowhere (Mary had seen it all.) She came up with a stunning reception design plan for Pier B that complied with the bizarre parameters we invented for her (Kate Spade meets military proper but absolutely no pinks/reds, and to hell with burlap/mason jars). She edited my ideas—god knows how much stress I would have put on myself and my family if I didn’t have Mary talking me down. How much did she roll up her sleeves? You guys, Mary drove to my parents’ house and told us how many stripes wide our cupcake table runner fabric should be cut. I can think of so many examples that show her design skills and her knowledge of how to properly plan out the timing of the day. We said “Mary is a genius” so much during planning. The bottom line: it’s so much easier it is to confidently make decisions on the hundreds of small issues an outsider to the wedding industry could never imagine when you have Mary on the phone for guidance. Her execution of our ideas on wedding day was just as impressive. It’s hard for me to trust people I don’t know well, and for a wedding, you have to hire all these strangers and hope they show up/do their jobs so that you can be the effortless bride who society expects to be fully present at her wedding, despite that you’re simultaneously hosting the biggest party of your life (and the unspoken truth about a wedding is that it’s ALL about your guests of all preferences having a good time, right?) It’s a really hard charge. At every turn, Mary demonstrated that I could trust her with everything that day. Even though we had more than a year of built-up trust, I’m going to confess a very Type A thing that I did minutes before the wedding started. As I left my hotel room, I turned to Mary and asked if I could review a couple things. Of course, she said. I fired off a list: did the toiletry bin get into the bathroom? Did the last minute couple who needed a child’s meal get transferred to Table 8? Did the champagne glasses get onto our sweetheart table? What about the personalized gifts for special guests? Basically, I was a monster and checked ALL of her homework. And one by one, she answered yes to everything. It was COMPLETELY taken care of. And all of a sudden, I felt like it was time to get married and enjoy the party. I was in good hands. Post wedding: we have heard nothing but praise for how the day went. The family matriarch said it was the best wedding she ever attended, and some friends said they were energized by love for days afterwards. So many people said it was a thoughtful day—Mary was behind so much of this. I’m not sure I can ever commensurately thank her. If you are still on the fence, know that the decision to hire Mary will mean you’ve got help in making the hundreds of stupider ones that are coming down the pipeline. You will not regret this one.
Katy
Bride, September 2017
I love Mary and would not hesitate a moment to recommend her. Being a type A person who wants everything perfect and to go as planned I was super stressed out planning our wedding. I knew I wouldn’t be able to enjoy my wedding day if I had to be the one making sure everything went smoothly. After chatting with Mary, my husband and I loved her energy, organization, and accessibility. We really didn’t have money in our budget for a day of coordinator but Mary was “worth her weight in gold” – direct quote from my husband. Without Mary I would have been a ball of stress and freaking out about everything. But because of her I was able to just be a bride and enjoy my wedding day because I knew she had everything under control. She made our venue look amazing and better than I could have imagined. She made sure everyone was where they were suppose to be and that everyone knew what was going on. I had so many ideas and decorations I wanted to use and she helped me narrow down things to make it not so chaotic and more cohesive. She suggested I didn’t need 800 little things and she was right because really I couldn’t have cared less on the wedding day if one decoration was in a different place – I was too busy enjoying my wedding day. Numerous people at our wedding commented on what an amazing job she did with everything, singing her praises, as they should have been. She nailed everything. The best part of hiring Mary is you get a person that truly cares about you and your wedding. She makes you feel like you are her top priority even if she is in contact with other brides and coordinating other weddings and events. I always felt she was there to make sure our wedding was the best possible day ever and it absolutely was and it wouldn’t have been possible without her. If you want to truly enjoy your wedding I would not hesitate for a second to hire her. You will not be disappointed. She is a God send and I can not thank her enough for everything she did for us. She truly goes above and beyond.
Jenn
Bride – August 2017
Mary was awesome!!! We are SO happy we hired her as the coordinator!! It went so smoothly and she went above and beyond our expectations! Thank you for all your hard work Mary – the event was a great success!
Jodie
Mother of the Bride – September 2018
Mary was an outstanding event planner from start to finish! She is a cheerful, genuine, sharp, creative, professional and generous woman (and so much more), and she absolutely knows what she’s doing. Hiring her was one of the very best investments I made in our wedding because without her, it would have not gone as seamlessly as it did. I loved doing much of the planning and the diving into the creative, meaning making parts of our wedding, but there were plenty of aspects I was clueless about, having never done it before. Mary completely respected my vision, understood it and made sure it would come to life, while also bringing her expertise to the table whenever it was relevant (which was a lot!). Her approach was confident and reasonable, and her manner is funny and charming. And I completely trusted her, to see the pitfalls that I didn’t, and fix them before they were an issue. In a nutshell, this is what she did for us. She a) Made it work and b) Ensured that if anything wasn’t working (during our wedding weekend) that as the Bride, I had no idea. Her careful planning and hard work (very hard work!) behind the scenes, gave me the blissful luxury of enjoying every minute of our absolutely stunning wedding from start to finish. Mary was an essential part of the team whose contributions before, and on our wedding day, were absolutely priceless. I will always be deeply grateful.
Erin
Bride – July 2017
Mary is incredible . . . her attention to detail is unparalleled. The wedding was problem free – all vendors knew exactly what to do, when, and where. Mary was fabulous.
Anna
Bride – May 2017
Mary Carlson is simply THE BEST. Her services were gifted to my husband and I as a wedding gift from an amazingly good friend and she saved our wedding. She took as much planning stress off of me as she possibly could. She did everything from driving two hours to meet with me to helping create our place cards, calling every DJ she could think of to help us find a new one when ours quit on us two days before our wedding, she kept the entire wedding party on task while still having fun (which with those yahoos was a feat in and of itself). I could go on and on about everything and all the good she has done. I would recommend her to ANYONE.
Haley
Bride – August 2016
Mary is the best!! She truly made my wedding amazing from help planning a year in advance to the day of! It was so nice to be able to tell people to find Mary if any issues came up and feel 100% comfortable that she would take care of it! She was like a mind reader everything Iasked her she smiled and said already done 😊 Our family and guests couldn’t stop commenting on her professionalism but yet friendly ways! I would hire her a million times again and recommend her to everyone!
Maria
Bride – September 2016
We loved everything about working with Mary! She made our wedding day so stress free so we could enjoy the little things. Our wedding would not have been the same without her! I would recommend Mary for not only weddings but any sort of event. She’s very detailed and organized, has fantastic ideas, and will do anything to help you get what you want. We already miss working with her!
Jen
Bride – May 2016
Mary is so amazing to work with. From the very first day we met, I knew that she was invested in making sure our day was absolutely perfect – and it was! I can truly say that I put all my confidence in Mary and didn’t even think twice on the big day. She is professional, organized, sweet and will make you feel like her only client. Mary definitely has my highest recommendation.
Marie
Bride – July 2016
Mary was absolutely incredible on my wedding day. She handled every single detail of our day, so that I could truly enjoy myself. Everything from creating our timeline, to running the rehearsal, to helping with decor planning, to moving flowers, to coordinating the grand March, Mary did it all. I was skeptical about the importance of a day-of-coordinator at first, and now I will recommend Mary to any bride that I see! She is the best of the best!
Lauren
Bride – May 2016
I would never never plan or have a wedding without Mary at my side! She was my lifesaver! I am not into all the details and the stress of wedding planning, I just wanted to be a bride and a wife. Mary let me do JUST THAT! She handled everything! She was simply amazing. I cannot stress how valuable she was to our whole process from beginning to end. My husband and I still talk about how we can’d imagine how people get married without Mary.
Kristen
Bride – May 2016
Mary is always available to answer questions about anything from vendor recommendations, decor suggestions, and day-of logistics. She really knows her stuff. I really can’t overstate how valuable this is when planning your wedding – you need someone at your venue who cares about your wedding as much as you do, and genuinely wants to help make your day perfect. It makes everything so much less stressful.
Jaimie
Bride – July 2015
We’d work with Mary again in a heartbeat and her staff was phenomenal. We live out-of-state, so really depended on her to take care of business. Mary had our best interests at heart at all times and made it clear that she wanted our day to be perfect just as much as we did. And it was!
Max
Groom – May 2015
We were lucky enough to photograph Jordyn & Will’s wedding this past weekend and just wanted to reach out to sing your praises! Having been full time photographers in the area for more than six years, we have worked with countless vendors and can truly recognize a high level of customer service when we see it.
Scott