Let me introduce you to Elliott & Rachel May! Rachel and I first met while we both worked for Oakland University Housing and when I told her that I wanted to start my own event planning business she was super supportive and helpful in getting the idea from dreams to action. It certainly didn't hurt that she had recently gotten engaged and was willing to be a guinea pig for me as I got my footing in the business. 

One a chilly but luckily mostly rain-free Saturday, Elliott and Rachel put all of their Detroit Wedding plans into action. And wait until you see the rest of these pictures! You guys, Detroit may be considered rough, but when you see these photos, you are going to want to get married in The D!

Rachel had excellent vendors for her wedding. All of these pictures are graciously shared by Cassie of O'Photography. Cassie has an incredible eye for composition and her editing made it so hard to choose color or B&W photos for the post. She also caught all of those tiny details and emotional expressions that you hope you get to see in your wedding photos. Keep scrolling, friends, gorgeous!

The ceremony took place at Old St. Mary's Church. This was probably the most beautiful and awe-inspiring church I've been too. Absolutely beautiful, and that alter chock full of flowers, they couldn't have been more perfect for accenting the already stunning architecture. 

These two pictures are a perfect example of how gorgeous Cassie's color and B&W work is. I really couldn't choose a favorite. The gold of the box office is beautiful, the black and white is so romantic. I'll let you decide which you prefer!

707 East was the location of the reception and dance party. It was extra convenient that it was just across a parking lot from the church. Here's a tip that I think is pretty great and cost effective. If your reception venue offers dessert--take it! This cake here was a whopping $38 from whole foods and they still will do the fancy fillings and decorating. I set this cake up myself and while, yes, I was a little nervous, it was pretty easy to do. Everyone got yummy cake, the couple got to save a couple of hundred bucks, that's a win in my book!

Last but not least, all flowers were arranged by Linnaea Floral Design. These were stunning and every single tall arrangement was taken home by guests at the end of the evening! Lisa was awesome to work with, she is based around Grand Rapids but travels to the Metro Detroit area for weddings on a regular basis. You should book her now if you want her though, because I'm sure her schedule fills up fast. 

How cute is that for the last photos of the night? Love it!

I can't believe that what we had worked on planning for over a year has come and gone! There is truly nothing better than planning out all of the details and only kind of knowing what it will all look like together and then seeing it in person and thinking "wow! we really did it!"

Elliott and Rachel, thank you for letting me be a part of your big day! What a beautiful start to a wonderful marriage! 



Vendors:

Ceremony: Old St. Mary's Church, Detroit
Reception: 707 East, Detroit
Photographer: Cassie, O'Photography
Make Up Artist: Jamie, Makeup by Jamie
Florals: Linnaea Floral Design

One of my favorite resources while planning my wedding, and before I was planning a wedding, and I still read them now that I am not planning my own wedding but hopefully am helping with YOURS, is A Practical Wedding. Meg's book was the first wedding book I bought, and the only one I read cover to cover and referred back to repeatedly. I could sing them praises all day long. They get it. The understand that not everyone can spend on their wedding what they would spend in 30 years paying off a mortgage. They understand that weddings don't fit into a perfect little cookie cutter form. And they are a large part of why I want to be in this industry.

I want to work with you, not because I want to throw some lavish party on your dime, but because I want to find an affordable way for you to get hitched and have a wonderful time doing so.

I don't believe in the nonsense that you MUST. HAVE. EVERY. LITTLE. DETAIL. PEEERRRFEECT.

Yesterday I had a meeting with a couple I am working with and their potential caterer. This was the first time I was meeting the groom so I asked him what was important to him on his wedding day. He said first that his dog was there, and second that he just wants it to be a fun party with good food. He then made a great point that often when you are planning for a party for a long time it becomes this hyped up thing that you think will be amazing, and yes it's fun. However, the best parties always seem to be the ones where a friend calls you at 5 o'clock and says, come over, let's have a party! 

As your wedding planner, I want to help you to not over-think yourself to death in the wedding planning process. Let's see what we can do to save you some cash and throw an amazing party to celebrate your lifetime commitment to another person.

And because, what's a blog post without pictures? Here's some of the pretties I've been drooling over lately (click on the images to go to the sources):

P.S. Happy Halloween, eat your favorite candy guilt free today, your dress will still fit, don't worry about that! 

So normally I post on Tuesday and Thursday, but obviously today is Friday so that didn't happen yesterday. That's because I've been busy meeting with vendors, sending off loved ones to Alaska, creating new content for this here blog, and also creating marketing materials for the business. It has been BUSY. But next week, I promise I'll be back to my regular twice a week routine. 

But for today I'll leave you with a couple of images from around the web that I've been drooling over! 

I can't be the only person that thinks this table runner is to DIE for, right? From Style Me Pretty.

Would you believe they used spray hair color to achieve this? From A Practical Wedding.

Love this aisle lined with giant red balloons! From Offbeat Bride.


What have you seen online this week that you loved? Have a good weekend!

Last April I co-hosted a wedding shower for Arianna & Zack. As soon as I started thinking about this shower I knew that a Pink, Glitter & Gold theme would be super girly and fun for Arianna, and well, Zack loves Arianna, so he'd love that she'd love it. We had a pretty tight budget (who doesn't?) and a lot of ladies that we were inviting. We ended up having about 80 ladies attend in the end. So we came up with the idea of serving soup, salad, and bread sticks and then having a decadent dessert table. Here's what I came up with!

I have to say that I had a ton of help with the shower. Vince helped me cut down rolls of glitter wrapping paper to be skinny enough for table runners. My sister-in-laws Miranda and Michelle came over and helped bake and package all of the cookies (no pictures of them, but we did white chocolate filled snickerdoodles and strawberry frosting filled sugar cookies both in a whoopie pie pan so they were big and soft and yummy). Michelle also came over and crafted the centerpieces with me--who knew a tin can could look so cute. 

Since we had a large crowd we had to adjust the games so that people could be engaged and not bored. The game we played took place during gift opening and was as easy as setting a timer for random intervals and when it went off the person who gave the gift that the couple was currently opening got a door prize. We also had a mad lib for wedding advice at each seat which I just finished crafting into a scrapbook for Arianna and Zack along with photos from the shower and from the DIY photo booth we set up. 

And that's who you throw a girly pink bridal shower! I offer shower planning as part of my services. Need some help figuring out where to start or just want to have your brainstormed ideas come together without too much effort on your part? Besides, as a host, you still need to be able to enjoy the shower you are throwing! Contact me and we can set up a meeting to discus how I can help with your next bridal shower.