I completely recommend Debra Thompson as a wedding planner/coordinator. When COVID upended our wedding plans this year, she helped us put together a wonderful alternative that made everyone happy -- including me, who used to think I didn't need a wedding planner! I initially didn't think I needed a wedding planner, rather someone to help guide me in finding a venue and vendors for our Micro Wedding. I am organized and felt I could manage the wedding once I had the venue and vendors secured. However, I had recently moved to the East Coast and had no idea where to start. Finding an elegant wedding venue for a 20-person event is much harder than one would think. I reached out to Debra to help, as I was quickly becoming disappointed and frustrated. When I first connected with Debra, I found her to be warm and welcoming, very knowledgeable about venues to accommodate our size and budget. 2020’s Pandemic turned our micro wedding into an 100% virtual elopement for our family and fr... Read moreiends. Debra researched with me how to have a Live Stream Wedding – to make it as intimate as possible given the virtual family attendees. But most importantly she helped me to find the video vendor with the knowledge, experience, and capability to make this a professional event, not just an amateur iPhone or laptop virtual event. Debra partnered closely with our venue and our vendor to create the virtual event we imagined. We planned our wedding from A-Z in 7 short weeks. She helped with all our planning, coordinated with all of our vendors the week of our wedding, developing a timeline for the day and made sure we did not worry about a THING. On the day of the wedding, Debra and her assistant helped in more ways than we anticipated, we did not need to think or worry about the small details of the day. My fiancé and I were excited, thrilled, and dazed by the day’s momentous events, and not in the best frame of mind to attend to details, but Debra was there for us. For example, I had forgotten I needed someone to zip me in my dress – but she did not and buttoned up each of those buttons by hand! Debra stayed well past the end of the wedding to make sure everything was cleaned up, vendors left safely, and everyone involved was good to go. Our wedding was perfect. Debra felt like an extension of me or a family friend, who organized and made sure everything was how I would like it and being in places that I couldn't be. Debra quickly became a close friend and a valuable confidant in the process. We needed help to plan for a Covid-time wedding, but after watching Debra in action, I am now a FIRM believer in a wedding planner for any type of wedding, at any venue, in any year. I cannot recommend Debra enough!

Debra took the time to get to know me and my fiancé and our style. She helped us plan a wedding, find our band, recommended the perfect venue (The Abbey Inn and Spa) put us in touch with our photographer and florist! Working with Debra made planning so easy especially if your an indecisive person like me! She took the pressure off and made the process fun and seamless. I feel safe having Debra looking over all of our plans and i know she will make sure our special day perfect. She cares more than any vendor I've ever worked with. Her expertise, patience and drive really impressed me. She is also incredibly responsive any day or time and she makes you feel like your the only bride in the world! I can't say enough good things about her, she really became a friend and i know i couldn't have done all this planning without her help. Having her as our planner was the best decision we made all year! i can't wait for out special day, thank you to Debra for piecing together our beautiful day a... Read morend you will not be disappointed having her by your side!

I echo the same as all the other brides here. Debra takes the time to get to know you, to make sure this day can be special for you and your future spouse. I wrote a really lengthy review on The Knot, but since there's a space limit here, I'll just say that hiring Debra was the best money we spent. She's such a lovely person, and we would not have had such a smooth lead-up and wedding day if not for her. I'm pretty organized, but there are SO MANY little things that come up that you don't expect. Debra sees ALL those things coming before they've started, and she tackles them head-on. She is prepared for everything and prepares YOU for everything. I cannot say enough good things about Debra and her team. Planning a wedding during Covid is no picnic, and Debra was the most incredible support. She's super responsive and you feel like you're her only client. I miss talking to her all the time! When Covid is over, we're definitely inviting her over to our new house :)

Deciding to work with Debra might have been the best decision my fiance and I made when it came to wedding planning! With the curveballs 2020 ended up throwing, plus my fiance being in the military and us planning a NY wedding from the West coast, I could not have been more grateful for having Debra by our side! She was beyond supportive and helped my fiance and I stay sane throughout the process. Although we ended up making the decision to postpone our wedding for the time being due to the pandemic, I can attest to her professionalism and expertise based on our year of working together. Debra is organized, creative, and honestly fun to work with! Our phone calls always left me feeling less stressed and with more clarity on what I should be focusing on next. From the get-go, we could tell Debra truly cared about getting to know us - she really listened to understand our likes/dislikes, priorities, and overall vision for our wedding day. We really appreciated her personalized app... Read moreroach and over the past year, Debra came to feel like family. When we decided to postpone our wedding due to circumstances with the pandemic, she made the process smooth for us by contacting all vendors and gathering details on their future availability. We haven't decided on our new wedding date yet, but when we do we will definitely be enlisting Debra's help again with planning!! Highly recommend working with Debra to anyone considering it :)

My wedding was wonderful, but it was also a logistical nightmare. Debra and her team were always patient, professional, thorough, thoughtful, compassionate and realistic throughout the entire process from planning to the day-of and breakdown. Debra liaised brilliantly with all of my vendors and turned my family property into a wedding wonderland. She was always available and her advice was always valuable. I would not have been able to pull this wedding off without Debra's magic! HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

Debra was more than a planner, she was our fairy Godmother. Debra and her team worked tirelessly for us, to make our every wish come true. Debra or someone from her staff were always available via phone or email. I knew my wedding would go fabulously with Debra heading it. I can't say enough about the dedication and attention to detail I experienced by Debra and her team.

Debra did such an amazing job with our wedding, that we contacted her again for a graduation party we were throwing. WOW! She never stops impressing! She knew how to create this amazing party that even the teens thought were cool. She came up with a bunch of creative touches that really impressed. On top of that she managed to make sure the evening went well so I could just enjoy myself. She had to manage some very tricky family relations. She was my unofficial psychologist too! I cannot imagine a party without Debra at my side!

My fiancé and I were married in June 2019 and worked with Debra for the year leading up to our wedding. To sum it up, hiring Debra as our wedding planner was the best decision we made in our wedding planning process. Throughout the year we worked together, Debra got to know us so well. She really took the time to understand our vision, our likes and dislikes, the over-the-top dreams we had (that she made come true), the challenges, the family dynamics, and, most importantly, who we are as a couple. Debra and I texted or emailed almost every day as she handled the communications with vendors and all of the logistics that accompany the wedding planning process. She is an amazing sounding board - always ready to hop on the phone, listen to new ideas and views, and offer her experience and opinions to guide you. She is incredibly responsive, organized, creative, and well-connected to the wedding business community. When we first decided to hire a wedding planner, my fiancé a... Read morend I were a little resistant to the idea. We knew we needed someone to coordinate the logistics of our day - we were inviting over 200 people, had multiple venues for the ceremony and reception, and wanted our event to be special and memorable in every way. But, we wanted to make sure our planner understood that we wanted to be involved in the process, that we wanted her team to work well behind the scenes, and that we wanted the day to appear effortless. Debra understood it all. Throughout this experience, she went above and beyond - even booking a BnB to be close to my family's home that I wanted to get ready at the morning of my wedding. Debra became more than a confidante, an advisor, and a coordinator. She has become a very close family friend. I can honestly say our wedding would never have been the same without her. The whole day ran so smoothly, and she gave us the gift of being able to be truly present rather than worrying about the logistics of the day. Thanks Debra!

Debra is extremely knowledgeable and business savvy. She understands every type of wedding and budget and is an absolute pleasure to work with. Debra and her staff are quite frankly the gold standard. #wortheverypenny

October 5, 2019 - My wedding day was everything I dreamed of and more...will always be remembered by my family and friends near and far as the best day ever! We could not have created this magical wedding day without the personal planning from Debra and her team, Shelley and Dean at Forever in Bloom and Ed Zissel at Tappan Hill! Debra's years of professional experience and relationships with vendors was so valuable to planning our wedding of 250 people. Debra was professional, poised, and funny when things needed to be lightened up. She could handle unexpected situations. Debra and her team made sure that on the wedding day the flow from the start of the early morning to the late evening was flawless. Debra was instrumental in making sure the Mother of Bride's worries were put to rest when last-minute details occurred. Debra took care of everything! We were so happy to have had Debra as our wedding planner and our forever friend! 

Debra is an event professional with a vast amount of knowledge and tremendous wealth of experience in every area of planning, coordination and production. Debra has always proven to be an invaluable resource to anyone planning an event of any kind. My background is in entertainment and we’ve worked seamlessly on countless events together from weddings and sweet sixteens to social and corporate events. I’ve also hired her as a consultant and production manager for high-end weddings, corporate affairs and showcase events in NYC for my company... the events are always a huge success due to her involvement. If you’re in need of a consultant or planner for any type of event, a call to Debra Thompson should be the first one you make!

I didn’t think I needed a wedding because this expense was not in my budget but boy was I wrong. I enjoy Every aspect of my wedding and so did my guest because of Debra and her team. She was perfect. Her attention to detail is impressive. She requested everything of me for the day and she was prepared. My wedding g was small but she was everywhere and coordinator every aspect of my wedding.

Without a doubt Debra’s team's services were worth every penny. It is the best money we spent for the wedding. I am in the events industry and thought I had everything under control myself and was originally looking for her to just help keep the day stress free so my planner brain wasn’t obsessed about the details. However, everything her and her team did leading up to the wedding was amazing. She makes sure that even if you’re elect to do the majority of the planning yourself, you’re not forgetting any of the little details and staying on track time wise. Since she does this every day she thinks to ask questions about things that wouldn’t have even occurred to me. They provided a recommended gratuity sheet and even pre-labeled envelopes with all of our vendor names on them. And then handling all of the moving parts day of let us really enjoy our day. From the wrangling of vendors to keeping transportation on track to managing timeline to dealing with a bridal party member w... Read moreho had a little too much to drink, to handing out vendor gratuities - they dealt with the stress so we didn't have to. They even kept on top of doing the dishes as we were getting ready in my home! The cleanup they did at the reception venue afterwards was phenomenal, delivering everything to our home and even arranging some of the flowers and other decorations in our living room and dining room beautifully, which was an unexpected surprise to come home to. It was great having trusted people handle all of the details and logistics. We actually got to focus on experiencing the day. Definitely book the Weddings by Debra team!

The amazing success of our event was entirely because Debra and her team took care of EVERYTHING - including keeping us focused, on schedule, and their attention to all the little things (and there are tons of little things) made all the difference. Our event was a 50th Anniversary fundraiser for a 501c3 charity, a huge endeavor in the public eye, and throughout the process I was constantly thinking about how awesome her weddings must be. Almost makes me wish I wasn't already married. :)