Norma's Story

With think-fast smarts, infectious energy, and an eye for drop-dead detail, Norma Cohen is an industry trailblazer 35 years in the making. Since launching her first business fresh from high school more than three decades ago, she’s earned a place in clients’ families as their lifetime planner and friend.

Each Norma event has its own signature style designed to reflect the client, elevated always by intricate detail and spectacular drama. She specializes in tradition with a twist, reinventing the wheel and making it all look easy. Originality comes first, and Norma can transform the same venue to feel like the Garden of Eden or a Winter Wonderland, depending on the day. From historic New York landmarks to faraway ocean sides, Norma has seen it all and planned it all, fierce with foresight and quick on her feet — which are usually clad in six-inch heels.

Headshot photo credit: Dennis Kwan

Norma's Wedding

Let’s take a trip back to 1989 and revisit one of Norma’s earliest weddings — her own! Norma was just a couple of years into her career when she tied the knot at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, the scene of a picture-perfect wedding that captured everything ‘80s and opulent.

Big hair? Check. Big dress? Check. Michael, Norma’s husband, claims he married a lampshade with fringes. Big cake? Check. They even needed ladders to get to the top. Biggest of all was the couples’ entrance — thanks to a grand staircase built by the bride’s father himself, the couple arrived at the reception in the flashiest of fashions.

At the time, Norma’s father didn’t want his daughter planning her own wedding, though today he wishes NCP had been around to do the job.