I have always loved bringing people together to celebrate and make life long memories. After college, I got into corporate event planning and made the transition into wedding planning about 5 years later. I made the transition because I wanted to take my love for events and put it to use serving people, and making their life better in some way.
I started Your Perfect Bridesmaid in 2008, smack in the middle of the horrible recession. I was seeing couples struggle and I was seeing how stressful navigating the wedding planning process was on them. I just knew there had to be a better way to plan a wedding, so I launched YPB in hopes of helping couples by creating that "better way". Fast forward to today. I have spent the past 11 years pouring my heart and soul into our clients and their wedding day, and I am so thankful to still be here, doing what I love every day.
At YPB, we are driven by our beliefs. They are the backbone of our company and they guide us in how we do things. We feel it is these beliefs that stand us apart.
We believe every couple - regardless of budget - deserves the peace of mind that comes with having an experienced team of professionals by their side. We work hard to keep our services accessible to couples.
We believe the planning process, as well as the wedding day, should be fun and enjoyable. Our goal is that all of our couples feel relaxed and calm from “Yes!” to “I do!” knowing that they have an extraordinary team of planners and coordinators behind them every step of the way! Wedding planning doesn’t need to be stressful. In fact, it can (and should) be exciting and fun! Our goal is to give our clients an incredible planning experience and to make this entire process as enjoyable as possible.
We believe every wedding should be personalized and unforgetable.Our goal is to incorporate as much of your personality and personal style into your wedding day as possible so that your wedding feels like a beautiful representation of who you both are as a couple, rather than just a pretty “cookie-cutter” wedding.
We believe that having an amazing team is one of the keys to a successful event. We have spent the past decade developing close relationships with some of the best wedding vendors in the Portland area. With our "little pink book", we provide our clients a customized list of vendor recommendations based on their unique needs, style and budget.
We believe in transparency. We know wedding planning can be confusing enough that you don't want to any vagueness
We've got your back! We put a lot of heart and love into our clients' weddings. You become a member of our family and we fight very hard to deliver the absolute best for you. We wear many hats thru the wedding process. We are your cheerleader, your idea generator, your team captain, your etiquette adviser, family mediator, stationery proofreader, your nerve calmer, your sanity checker your go-to listener and re-assurer. We’ll support you and advocate for you as we guide you thru the entire planning process. We will also manage the wedding day from set up to tear down to ensure every detail is just as you envisioned!
Laurel Smith of Your Perfect Bridesmaid was of invaluable help to us in our wedding planning process. She was so calm, patient, measured, and organized, which was exactly what we needed. She was a great communicator, always responding to emails, texts, and calls at all hours. On the day of our wedding, she was putting out fires that we were not even aware of! Overall, we could not recommend her enough- it was the best money we spent on our whole wedding.
Hiring a day coordinator was probably the best decision I made throughout the entire planning process. From start to finish, Lexi with YPB was extraordinary. Whatever worry I had in the back of my mind she was able to address and minimize or completely dissolve altogether. Originally we only hired a coordinator to move our florals around after the ceremony, so we could repurpose them, as our families/friends would be too busy doing other things. But Lexi and her team took on this duty plus more, so that our guests and wedding party didn't have to lift a finger. This resulted in more free time for us and our loved ones to focus on just having a good time. Having Lexi and her assistant guide us through the day felt like royalty. We are so impressed with their service, and if we could do it all over again we would, simply because we had help! As a bride and groom, you have to remember you're the guest of honor and Lexi truly made us feel like it!
Your Perfect Bridesmaid and specifically Nicole Reese were amazing from the start. We built a great relationship with Nicole and she helped guide us through every step of the way. Nicole was calming and present and took calls from me when I was anxious about any other vendor. She answered my questions and provided more than one resolution to any problem that arose. She was proactive when it looked like rain was in our forecast and set up an extra meeting to go over any potential rain changes. Luckily we got to have the outdoor wedding of our dreams. As far as we know, not a single thing went wrong at our wedding and thats exactly how it should be! We cannot recommend Your Perfect Bridesmaid and Nicole enough!
My wife and I worked with Sam at YBP for about a year, and we were thrilled with her highly detailed, yet somehow unstressed approach. From the very beginning she brought a structure to everything that just made sense. The amount of work she did on the backend - coordinating with our different vendors, creating timelines, etc - directly translated into an unbelievably smooth wedding day for us, and took tons of stress off of our shoulders. She is a terrific listener, and absorbed not just our vision for the day, but also our general vibe as a couple and worked that into her approach for the day. With Sam, we were able to really experience the day itself, and not get bogged down in logistics. There were also lots of small, last-minute details on the day of that her team handled for us (like flowers and the seating assignment display, along with others) that were just above and beyond. We HIGHLY recommend her and her team.
Hiring Your Perfect Bridesmaid was probably one of the best choices we made when we started wedding planning! My partner and I decided we wanted to have a destination wedding at Treehouse Point. When I realized I would be planning from across the country, I knew I needed help. I felt comfortable handling a lot of the vendor outreach, design planning, and detail work but I wanted someone familiar with the area who would also keep me on track. We hired YPB under their “Signature Package” for day of coordination but it is so much more than that. We were partnered with Kara and she was absolutely amazing!!! She went above and beyond for us throughout the process. Kara dealt with my ten million questions with patience and grace and after every check in with Kara, I felt like I had it under control. She helped me to keep track of where I was at with planning and where I needed to go, which was so appreciated throughout this process. And beyond the value of a wedding planner, YPB provided a plethora of useful planning documents, FAQs, and worksheets that became my lifelines leading up to the big day. On the day of, she helped coordinate vendors, setup/breakdown decor, and keep our timeline running smoothly. My partner and I were truly able to enjoy the day with our closest friends and family without worry and you can’t put a price on that. Thank you Kara and the YPB Team!!
Ashley Wittwer with YPB was the best wedding planner we could've ever asked for. She went above and beyond to walk us through every step of the process. Without Ashley providing her insight and knowledge to such a high degree, we would have been much more stressed and anxious about all the planning and scheduling. We had a large wedding with many DIY elements and extra steps/ processes. Despite that Ashley was a complete rockstar who handled everything with a professional efficiency that provided us a lot of comfort and ease as we prepared for our special day. She is organized, thoughtful, empathetic, calming, honest in her advice, all while being open and receptive of all of our requests. I would recommend Ashley for any wedding no matter how big or small. Her professionalism the entire process was off the charts, yet we were still completely blown away by how amazing she was as our day of coordinator on our actual wedding day. She perfectly executed all of our plans, and navigated any complications in stride without putting any of the burden on our shoulders as the bride and groom. Thank you Ashley! Love, J&J