I love working with couples who are busy professionals. Most of my clients have successful careers that keep them focused. They don’t particularly have the time it takes to plan a wedding or prefer to leave the details to a pro. I appreciate working with couples who value my service and place their complete trust in me. Personality-wise, I’m a straight shooter, open and honest and authentic. I want clients who allow me to speak into their planning process educationally and realistically. I don’t expect you to know everything since this is likely the first time you’re planning a wedding. I want to be approachable and welcome all your questions. I will listen to you, be real with you and plan the wedding of your dreams. I also want you to keep “the main thing the main thing.” You are getting married and making a monumental commitment. That’s the only reason we’re throwing this shindig. While I love all the detail and beauty surrounding a wedding, realistically, it’s all fluff. Awesome, fantastic fluff, but your wedding day is about more than that.

Absolutely! Your wedding is 100% about you and your fiancé. You’re my muses. You can be as involved or uninvolved as you want. I work with couples who say, “I like pink and want a band, now do the rest” and couples who want to be a bit more involved in the process. Ultimately full-service wedding planning results in a concierge-type service where you are served up some options and you just have to say, “this, not that.”

Nope! If you look at my portfolio, you can see that all the weddings look different. They have different styles of venues, décor, photography and couples. This is intentional. I don’t want to do the same wedding over and over. Each wedding should be specific to the couple and not just my aesthetic. Therefore, I do all styles – elegant, traditional, eclectic, modern, themed, boho, rustic, you name it, I can plan it.

Altar Ego Weddings is intentionally a very small business. I, Jen Ashford, am the owner and only wedding planner, so I’m not going anywhere. You work with me from start to finish and will never be handed off to someone else. I also pride myself in giving loving, but realistic advice to my couples. You can count on me to be honest with you about what you’re looking for and how to make it happen. While this is a one-woman planning show, I work with a team of talented, attentive assistants on wedding days. Also, check out my answer to the style question above. I love design and am an award-winning designer, but my passion and focus is making sure your stress is reduced and you get to experience your wedding day. I want to help usher in your marriage in a joyous, celebratory way. We are only doing the party to honor the marriage commitment you’re making. One other cool thing is that with my coordination package, you get access to me via email from the moment you book to ask questions. You don’t have to wait until a month prior to your wedding.  

Absolutely! The majority of my clients and their guests don’t live in Austin. We have a hot wedding destination market here. We work with couples from all over the country. Having a wedding planner is very beneficial in this situation since you won’t have “boots on the ground.” The truth is most of your wedding planning can be done virtually. The only things you really need to do in person are tour the venue and taste food. Most of our communication is done via email to respect my and your schedules and for documentation purposes.

Because I provide different levels of service from coordination to full-service, my clients’ budgets vary, but generally start at a minimum of $50,000. My clients’ average spend is up somewhere between $60,000 and $90,000 and I do a handful of six figure weddings every year as well. Austin is an expensive place to get married, so please plan accordingly.

Couples come to me at all points in their planning. Some book as soon as they get engaged and don't have a venue yet. Some book the venue and then realize they're in over their heads and then hire me. Others come in the middle of planning when they've booked some of their vendors, but realize they need a bit more guidance on certain aspects. If I’m available, you can even book a month out. It’s ideal to book as soon as possible because that’s how you’ll get the biggest benefit. I include vendor recommendations and an online planning portal chock full of tools and resources in all my packages. I book coordination up to a year out and partial and full-service up to 18 months out.

No, but I’ve spent years developing relationships with the vendors I recommend. I’ve seen them in action multiple times and am willing to stake my reputation on them. I definitely prefer for you to use vendors I recommend, however, there are other great vendors out there. Please ask if you find a vendor you’re in love with. Chances are I know of them and I will be comfortable working with them because my trusted colleagues have experienced their work. One of my main goals is making sure you have a cohesive team of vendors who know how to work together and deliver a good experience every time. 

Short answer – maybe. Ideally yes, but many churches prefer for their staff to coordinate the rehearsal and the ceremony. We completely respect church policies and in that case feel my time is better spent at the reception. We can spend your rehearsal hour allotment on an additional hour at the venue or extra consulting time.

I’m usually there up to 9 hours. This is 2.5 hours pre-ceremony, 5.5 hours event time and 1 hour for breakdown. There will always be exceptions, mostly for full-service clients and/or complex installations, but in general, 9 hours fits the bill.

Possibly! There are hundreds of venues in the Austin area, so there’s no way to have worked at all of them. However, I’m a regular at several, including The Driskill, Ma Maison, Camp Lucy, Addison Grove and Pecan Springs Ranch. If I haven’t worked at a venue before, I’ll visit to meet their representatives and take a tour. I love working at new-to-me venues.

Somewhat. My job as your wedding planner is to plan and coordinate. While I am happy to set up a few of your ready-to-place items like table numbers, seating chart, photos, programs, etc. on your wedding day, my focus must remain on ensuring everything is running smoothly. Therefore, I recommend hiring a full-service caterer to handle all food aspects along with setting up tables and chairs if the venue requires that and a full-service florist who is responsible for all their setup, breakdown and any movement of floral from ceremony to reception.

No problem! Just ask and I can add on additional a la carte services or consulting hours.

Take a look at THIS blog post I wrote on this topic. Long story, short, the venue coordinator is responsible for the venue and I am responsible for you and your wedding. His/her job is to make sure the lights are on, the toilets are running and everyone gets out of the venue on time. My job is to execute your wedding according to our plans, make sure you and the vendors have everything they need and to ensure the day runs well so you can enjoy it.

HERE is another great blog post for you to read. In summary, we’ll have an initial consultation via phone or Zoom to discuss your needs, my service levels and ascertain exactly what you need. If you want to do most of the legwork in planning, but need some guidance and a planner in your back pocket to consult as needed, you’re a good candidate for coordination. Don’t want to do any of the planning and just yea or nay on decisions? You’re a full-service gal. Need something in between? Maybe you’ve got an engineering brain and have organization on lock, but struggle with the creative vision. Let’s do a custom partial package of coordination plus design. Partial planning is a good option when you are confident in some areas of planning and not in others.

The answer is NO. Real “day of” coordination is not a thing. It’s an outdated term that is no longer relevant. HERE is another jam-packed informative blog post. Basically, it’s impossible to execute a wedding day with no prior knowledge of the wedding. One cannot just show up to a wedding and run it. My coordination package includes access to me from booking to ask questions. While I won’t be digging too much into the nitty-gritty until about a month prior to the wedding, you will have the online planning portal, vendor recommendations and that access from the beginning.