Gabrielle Lennartz with Black Swan Events was so professional, knowledgeable, and personable. She supported us each step of the way, brainstormed ideas to create the wedding that fit us, thought of so many details, and handled vendors before and day of wedding to make it all go seamlessly. We got to just be immersed in the moment and didn't have to worry about anything. It was the perfect day. I would highly recommend Gabrielle to anyone planning a special event. She is also very reasonably priced, and makes herself completely available.

Gabrielle from Black Swan Events was an amazing guide to all that is needed to plan a wedding, especially one not hosted by a venue. From the other side of the country, she helped us find and coordinate the vendors needed to have our wedding at our own 253 year old farm house. She reviewed each contract and on several occasions kept us from spending extra money in areas where vendors overlapped such as glassware and linens between the rental company and the caterer. She also gave us a ton of great decoration ideas since we were starting with a blank slate in an open field, she threw everything that came to mind out there and we chose or modified her ideas to make a truly beautiful setting. Gabrielle is a go-getting, she gets stuff done! On the day of, she was way ahead of schedule and knew what to delegate to whom in the wedding party to get the decorations assembled, and the flowers from our garden arranged on the tables. Weddings can be stressful, and when we expected the morning to... Read more be the worst, we actually found ourselves relaxing with our friends and a drink because it was all taken care of. You only get married once, and we found the best planner for any wedding!

Gabrielle Dowding and Black Swan Events were crucial to our wedding planning and execution process. Gabrielle has so much energy, and she leverages that energy to drive many intertwined pieces of the wedding planning process. I appreciated her attention and availability every step of the way. I never realized how many details go into planning a single event, or even a single moment, of the wedding. Gabrielle’s expertise, skill, and efficiency led us to identify all the pieces we needed to make the wedding such a beautiful and everlasting memory.

Planning my wedding in less than 4 months was a breeze thanks to Gabrielle. She is quick on her feet, very articulate and easy to work with. My happiest day was bliss because of her amazing work. I had not a single worry in the world that day.

Gabrielle of Black Swan Events is the wedding planner of your dreams! She’s not only incredible at managing every technical detail of your big day - she is emapathetic and an incredible manager of people (from vendors to in-laws). She has the ability to anticipate everyone’s needs, especially those of the couple. Our wedding was a two-day affair, complete with multiple event sites and an overnight camp-out. When I first started planning, I was so overwhelmed and stressed out, I didn’t think I was going to be able to do it all. Once I had Gabrielle in my corner, all those worries disappeared, and all I had to do was look forward to getting married! Every bride should be so lucky! Book her while you can - her schedule fills up fast!

My wedding was this July 2018. At first, I thought I could do it all on my own, trying to keep things as simple and minimal as possible, while still trying to make it a special day. Gradually, thinking about all of the details, keeping track of everything, stressing about what I might be forgetting about....everything became so overwhelming! Gabrielle was the wedding planner for my sister 4 years ago, she did an amazing job with a huge 400 guestlist, 4 day Indian wedding extravaganza. Though my wedding was MUCH smaller, planning it myself was making it a day I was dreading. That's when I knew I needed help, and Gabrielle is the only planner I would trust. The day was one of the happiest of my life, it went seamlessly and that is all thanks to this amazing woman! I highly recommend her!

I have hired Black Swan Events for several private and corporate events. Without fail Gabrielle turns an average occasion in to a very memorable event both on time and on budget. She brings to the table unique ideas, decades of deep industry contacts and expertise and an attention to logistical detail that allows me to relax and have fun knowing she is in charge. I will never stop using her for my most important family milestone events. Bravo Black Swan!

We were planning a 300 person Indian Fusion wedding with multiple events in Portland, but we were living across the country in Boston. It is fair to say that it would not have been possible to plan our wedding with Gabrielle's sage advice and expert assistance. She saved us so much time by arranging all our visits with potential vendors, knowing which vendors to recommend in the first place, and already having well established connections with everyone we worked with so that everything ran smoothly without us having to think about any details. I can't even imagine how much more work all of this would have been without her invaluable expertise. The day of the wedding, I trusted Gabrielle so much, I knew I didn't have to worry about any logistics and I could focus on enjoying the day. That is a huge gift, and I couldn't recommend her more highly. Do yourself a favor and hire Gabrielle. She's worth every penny.

Gabrielle Dowding and Black Swan were amazing during our wedding. We had complicated fusion wedding spanning couple of days including Sangeet (musical evening), followed by Baraat (Groom comes on a horse for the wedding accompanied by people dancing on the streets), Indian wedding, American wedding and Reception. Execution and planning were flawless including all design ideas for decor, arranging all vendors and great execution and monitoring during the events. I strongly recommend Gabrielle and team for having a fabulous and flawless wedding!!!

Gabrielle and Black Swan Events made my wedding day dreams come true. My husband and I were married September 26th 2017 and, like lots of ladies, think of that day often. It was like something from a storybook; a picture perfect setting and I was the princess. Gabrielle helped make my wedding dreams a reality, and every person at the event raved about the beauty found in each detail. Her professionalism, calmness and experience was obvious as she worked hard for my special day. Her presence, and amazing skill set, brought me such peace that I was able to relax before and during the wedding. Thank you, Gabrielle. Even now, years later, people tell me that my wedding was one of the most spectacular weddings they have ever attended....and I agree! Truly, this event was made perfect by Gabrielle and Black Swan. Thank you, thank you THANK YOU.

A beautiful surrounding not only the yacht but the event in which was created around it. A short planned, inexpensive, expression of love to be forever. A man 60, a women 50 found in each others waters. Where they had been afraid to swim they now dive in. Bless a beautiful person for making our forever so BEAUTIFUL TOO!!!! John and Char

I have worked with Gabrielle on many events over the years ranging from a handful of people to our largest, with 850 people. Gabrielle is always professional, knows her client, their target audience and how to best appeal to them. She is articulate, knowledgeable and most importantly always get the job done and I look like a million bucks to my clients. Her expertise in event planning is second to none and I appreciate that no matter what my budget is, she creates something that meets my need. One of the most valued aspects of her is that when she tells you, "I've got this" you don't have to give it another thought and you know it will be perfect, that is worth it's weight in gold. I wholeheartedly recommend her for any event you are planning.

I was lucky to work with Gabrielle for 15 months in preparation for our July Saturday wedding. Gabrielle was an irreplaceable and critical part of our wedding. I feel grateful that we worked with her, and I cannot give a stronger recommendation for her services. No matter what aspect we talked about, Gabrielle always listened to me, smiled, and presented options. She was never judgmental or bossy. One by one, Gabrielle systematically helped us line up all our vendors. We only focused on one aspect at a time (venue, food, photography). First, Gabrielle always sought out our opinions and preferences. Then she would usually direct us to 2-4 options of vendors she had experience working with that she thought we would like/would meet our needs. From there, we made the final choice and Gabrielle helped us set it up. Her approach made it really easy for us to do a little research on our own, but from a narrower starting point. As the wedding got closer, we could be genuinely excited and ... Read morehappy because everything was already planned. We had a minute by minute timeline for the whole 36 hours before the wedding, so by the time we were that close we felt incredibly prepared and ready. Not that we didn’t experience some mishaps. I almost flipped out when my husband requested significant changes to the seating chart to accommodate new guests. Our best man got lost on the way to the rehearsal. Our florist got rear-ended on the way to wedding. The day of the wedding we realized not all of the tux rentals made it to the hotel. Gabrielle put out all the fires, kept everything running to schedule, and made sure my husband and I never broke a sweat. We were able to enjoy the day because we could trust that she was in charge. We were unconditionally confident that Gabrielle would make things work, and she did. I realize it sounds cliché, but it was the best day of our lives (so far!). I don’t know if we could say the same thing if we hadn’t worked with Gabrielle.

Hello, I can not thank Gabrielle enough for an amazing event that she helped with last week. In fact, I have never met Gabrielle, but would have no hesitation in giving her the highest possible feedback and rating on an incredible amount of assistance and service. In short, I was trying to arrange a special day for my father's 70th birthday, who had flown in from Australia. I was up against some very tight timelines with only a few days left, and yet after speaking to Gabrielle, she made our day wonderful. I was trying to source a boat to spend some time on a boat as it is what my father wanted to do. The usual boats were not available, so she sourced a personal friend, and asked them to take us out on the boat for the day! These people do not rent their boat out to anybody, and yet she asked them to help us out given how special the day was for us, and they obliged and were amazing hosts. She also helped us secure a personal chef to cook a meal in our home at very short notice. She di... Read mored not make any money off this event, but she spent a number of hours arranging it, just so that we could celebrate this special occasion for my father. What an incredible person, what incredible service and these are the type of people who make this world a better place. She puts the special into special events, and would be more than happy to recommend her to anybody. David Stevenson