Beach Wedding

7 Years

3 · Jun 20, 2017 ·

When I was first married, my mother told me that the first 7 years would be the hardest. Yesterday, we officially hit that seven year mark. While I certainly don’t know what the next 7 years hold, I can say the past 7 haven’t been without their challenges. But with challenge comes triumph and these years have shaped so much of who we are today.

The past years have been full of newness; we bought a house, remodeled the house, sold the house and moved to a new city. They’ve been full of excitement; we’ve had two little girls and watched them grow. There’s been moments of anger, hurt and loss. New jobs, saying goodbye to old friends and making new ones. Leaps of faith, starting a business and sometimes living on a prayer. There have been times when one of us, if not both, have been tempted to throw in the towel and just give up. There’s been grief, as some of those people who starting this journey with us are no longer by our sides today. While there’s been much joy and celebration in these years, there’s also been trial and heartache. And anyone who thinks that they’ll wake up every single morning madly in love with the person in bed beside them, has a whole slew of lessons headed their way.

I firmly believe that it’s our reaction to these moments – the good ones and the bad – that build character. These are the times that define ourselves and our relationships. They can make us strong or sink us. It really is your choice each and every morning to choose love and move onward, together.

It certainly isn’t my business to be handing out marriage advice. Mine is so far from perfect. But I can say that year 7 is full of promise and today is filled more love than many days of the past.

Working in an industry that thrives on love is really interesting when examining your own lives and relationships. We can say that we shouldn’t compare ourselves, but let’s face it, it happens. Sometimes I look at the bride sitting in front of me with a newly engaged glow and I can’t help but be envious. I completely disagree with anyone that says that business isn’t personal. My business touches my personal life and tugs on my heartstrings every single day. Whether it’s the emotions that I share with a new client as she giddily tells me how he proposed or the thrill of excitement that rushes through me as I discover a new blossoming bush in our back yard or perhaps even the moment of frustration that sneaks in when a last minute email or project takes me away from being able to plan a walk in the park with my girls. It’s all personal.

Because my business is so personal, it felt really appropriate to share a little project that I’ve been working on during our anniversary week. This is the anniversary of when I really truly understood for the first time what weddings are all about. It’s not the centerpieces, the flowers or the venue. It’s what those things represent and the celebration and commitment behind it all. I’ve been working on rebranding, really defining my style and my ethics and honing in on what love really means to me. Throughout this week here on the journal and on Instagram, I’ll be sharing more of the mission and person behind the blooms, because to me it’s so much more than just a pretty bouquet of flowers. It’s all leading up to my brand new website launch on Friday (if life doesn’t hand me lemons before then!) So stay tuned and we’ll celebrate together.

Photography: Shannon Scott Photography

And happy anniversary to those two young babes up there – you have no idea what’s about to come your way!!

Real Weddings :: Becca & John

0 · May 19, 2016 ·

August has been on my mind a lot lately. It really is a beautiful month to get married in, although it’s also a reminder that summer all too soon will be coming to an end. Becca and John got married in August. It was the most picturesque day. The heat of summer was all around with the breezes to Lake Michigan there to keep it in balance.

St. Joseph played host the celebration, with the nuptials being held at his parent’s beachside residence that ended up only being partially completed by the big day. But in the end, it didn’t matter that everything wasn’t perfect. It didn’t matter that construction schedules ran behind. What mattered was their love. It was on this same property that he had proposed to Becca one year prior, in the town where both had spent the summers of their youth, so in the end, it really was perfect.

It was a Jewish ceremony with a custom made birch chuppah. It was brought to my attention that the four open sides of a chuppah represent open doors and hospitality. Becca and John’s home will always be a place of welcome for friends and family. I love the tradition of being married under a chuppah all the more now. And theirs was extra special as it was adorned with Becca’s grandfather’s pray shall. Don’t forget to add just a little sentimental value to your wedding day.

After the ceremony, the celebration continued at The Heritage Center, where guests were wined and dined and danced the night away. A live band, a cupcake truck and a sparkler exit complete with a pedicab driven by the best man for the getaway vehicle of choice. Warm summer nights like these will live in our memories forever.

You can also see this wedding featured on Style Me Pretty here.

Friday Flowers :: Spring Seaside Bouquet

0 · Apr 15, 2016 ·

Spring Beach Bouquet | The Day's Design | Ashley Slater Photography

As it so often happens, last spring I was eager to make something pretty. I wanted to stretch my wings and create. I needed to dust off my flowering skills. Editorial styled shoots are one of my favorite ways to quench this yearning.

The story was inspired by the sea. The tablescape was to appear as if it had just been washed ashore. I easily sourced driftwood and nautical touches but we all know that the flowers sometimes make the greatest impact in the overall design. You may remember the entire feature with Ashley Slater Photography here.

I remember putting the flower order together. When it’s been months since you’ve seen and touched real live blossoms, you can start to feel overwhelmed with the whole order process. I wanted it all. And I always make it a point to order something new, especially with styled shoots – that’s the perfect opportunity to try something new.

Poppies. That was my new source of inspiration. I placed an order for lots of Matilija poppies to be the star of my bouquet. There’s something about them that remind me of sea anemones. Their petals are dainty and paper thin. And in my imagination, sometimes I see them living under the sea.

The day before my flowers arrived, I was informed that my precious poppies were not available. A quick change of plans and I substituted Bowl of Cream Peonies and other gorgeous variety with a cheery yellow center – both flown in from California.

Eucalyptus is another favorite of mine to use by the beach. The blue green tinge compliments the water in the background so nicely. I’m always cautious of using too harsh of a green tone against a blue backdrop.

California grown Caramel Antike Roses (the beigey, gold garden roses seen above) are some of my go-to;s. You’ll see them in my work time and time again. The perfect neutral.

But the piece that really pulled this whole bouquet together was the blooming branches foraged from my own neighborhood. I stopped early morning to trim a few flowers and as soon as I started working with them, I realized I needed more and more. I sent my husband down the road with hedge trimmers and told him to grab as much as he possibly could. He returned a short while later with a massive pile of branches. I thought there was no way I would ever use that much, he argued that I had told him to get ask much as he could. Very true. I think I ended up using all but one small branch. They were amazing. I’m sad I don’t have a wedding the first week of May this year – although I’m not longer living in that neighborhood either.

I added gold ribbons that complimented the stamens in my peonies, as well as the touches of glimmer in my other decor, and blue ribbons to match Lake Michigan in the background. Silk ribbons are your best friends in the breeze. I can’t get over how they glide in the wind.

Shelby signature

Why You Should Consider an Unplugged Wedding

0 · Apr 6, 2016 ·

Do you ever just take a moment to sit in silence? Just stop what you’re doing, close your eyes, turn off the TV, put down your phone and sit quietly.

How do you feel? What are your emotions at this moment? Just breathe in and breathe out. Let your thoughts circle around you.

Reasons Why You Should Have an Unplugged Wedding | The Day's Design | Clary Pfieffer Photography

Photography: Clary Pfeiffer Photography

A few weeks back after the kids were to bed and while hubby was still at work, I experienced a moment of silence. After a couple of minutes of merely sitting on the sofa, I started to grab my phone and mindlessly scroll through Instagram. I thought about finding something else to watch on Netflix. But I fought the urge. I sat there without a sound, without a movement, for a few minutes more. I had to battle myself the entire time.

Prior to this moment, I had watched a sappy Nicholas Sparks movie. They get me every time. It made me smile, it made me cry and at the end I was a blubbering mess of emotions. When it was over, I wanted those emotions to disappear. I couldn’t feel the hurt and sadness anymore. After all, it was just a movie.

But instead, I embraced this rare moment in time and let myself feel things. I pondered exactly why this movie made these feelings surface in the first place. I took the time to sort out things that have been haunting me for years, but I’m always just a little too busy to stop and think about. I thought about love, I thought about life, I thought about family and past relationships.

Oddly enough, the following Sunday the message at church circled around the idea that people are so busy that they don’t take the time to properly grieve. They don’t take the time to feel things, embrace their emotions and understand what their senses are telling them. They become a tangled mess of a person who doesn’t know how to deal with life when something when it doesn’t go their way. In biblical times, when someone died they would find people to come cry with them. They would sit in a period of mourning and embrace their grief – for days, for weeks. Today, we encourage people to get back to work, get back to normal, stay busy. The hurt will go away.

But it doesn’t. It just gets buried under the busy of the moment.

We’ve created a generation of people who are hot headed and miss out on so much of life because they cannot properly channel their joys and sorrows.

It’s for this reason that I encourage you to have an unplugged wedding. There are arguments that iPhone cameras get in the way of photographers. Point and shoot flashes can be damaging to the venue’s natural light. And guests get in the aisle way and try to get the very best shot, therefore preventing the professionals from doing their job effectively. All very valid arguments.

However, I think by encouraging your friends and family to put down their phones/cameras, you’re actually doing them a favor. You’re taking away the pressure for them to get the very best shot and be the first one to post it to Facebook. You’re giving them the opportunity to be present with you and experience the joy and celebration that’s happening in your hearts during your union. You’re allowing an excuse to disconnect from the rest of the world and focus solely on what’s happening right in front of them. Let them inspect every flower that’s been so painstakingly selected. Enable them to smell the sweet scent of the fresh summer air. Allow them listen not only to the musicians, but the birds and the babbling brook in the background. Give them the opportunity to reconnect with family that traveled from afar to share this day. And encourage them catch up on life happenings with old friends. It’s your gift to them on your wedding day.

Shelby signature

Style Me Pretty Bouquet Breakdown :: Nautical Lake Michigan Wedding

0 · Mar 21, 2016 ·

Building a bridal bouquet is so much more than just gathering a handful of flowers and binding them with a silk ribbon. It’s an artful composition of design. It’s a process of sourcing the right ingredients, crafting the perfect recipe and then weeding out any blooms that don’t quite meet the cut. And then the labor of love truly begins.

I remember the day that Becca send me a gorgeous, white mounded bouquet with the caption “this would be a dream”. I would never copy another artist design – there are a number of logical reasons behind this, but for the most glaring of those is because I wouldn’t be true to myself, I would be relying on someone else’s creativity and it might actually rob not only the other artist, but also the bride of having a piece that’s a one of a kind treasure that’s designed solely for her. The bridal bouquet is an artist’s floral interpretation of each bride, their story written in flowers.

So I asked, “What is it that you love so much about the bouquet?” After a little thought, she determined that it was the way that it was white, and yet had the tiniest tinge of pink scattered amongst the petals. It was so subtle and barely noticeable, and yet, there it was.

Becca was a very elegant and chic bride, so her bouquet was designed to be a reflection of her. It was just a touch nautical, perfect for a beach wedding. The blue hint in the greenery blended with Lake Michigan’s shoreline and the wild dune grass which prevalent all around. Then a couple anemones were added to tie in the nautical navy of the men’s suits. I chose to make the clematis and its silky smooth petals, the star of the garden rose infuse bouquet. This provided a resting place of the eye to naturally fall and also nodded to Becca’s appreciation of simple, clean lines.

Photography: Clary Pfeiffer Photography

You can read more about the individual floral ingredients and inspiration behind the bouquet here, as it was featured on Style Me Pretty over the weekend. You can also see the full St. Joseph wedding here as well from its feature back in December.

The Sand & the Sea

0 · Dec 16, 2015 ·

December’s weather here in Michigan has been a little abnormal, to say the least. The amount of foggy and rain filled days have been unheard of and I’ve hardly had the need to put on my winter coat. This morning, once again, I woke up to a thick of cloud that hung in the air. It’s such a dense and gloomy feeling.

It actually made me think back to this day in May. The temperatures were oddly similar although this spring day was far windier. Ashley Slater and I had been dreaming up a beach shoot. We wanted it to be natural, ethereal and chic all at the same time. We wanted to combine a classic black tux and a streamline wedding gown with driftwood and other neutral touches found on Lake Michigan’s glistening shoreline. We dreamt of a very sun kissed, yet earthy and grounded day with the decor seeming as though it had been washed ashore from a shipwreck.

However, as it so often happens, the weather changed our plans. One of the biggest lessons I have learned it to just roll with it and let the story be a part of your day. Since this was a styled shoot, we had the option to reschedule when the weather was chilly and less than ideal. But we moved forward despite the misty and fog. And one of my favorite outcomes of the day was the moody tone that the beach set. The sky mirrored the muted watercolor lines of Wildfield Paper’s custom paper goodies. The whitecaps and the wind whipping through Caitlin’s hair were perfection. We decided not to fuss with curls, a tie and other formalities. It turned into a wild, barefoot and carefree celebration.

This shoot was also featured on Magnolia Rouge, you can see the post here.

Featured :: Nautical Lake Michigan Wedding on Style Me Pretty

0 · Dec 11, 2015 ·

On the sand in St Joseph, Becca and John said I do. From the flowers to the ribbons to the setting, the entire day was picaresque. Lake Michigan will always hold a piece of my heart, no matter how far my travels may take me. The soft tones and nautical touches were some of my favorites from this past wedding season. The fact that the celebration remained unplugged made nature’s beautiful shine all the more. And today you can see the entire celebration featured over on Style Me Pretty.

Featured :: Sand & Sea on Magnolia Rouge

0 · Oct 20, 2015 ·

It’s no secret that I love the water. The sound of crashing waves and beautiful beaches are so invigorating. It really is amazing all the beauty that God has put on this earth around us. Beyond the obviously picturesque days, I love those that are a little darker. Moody, overcast skies are so intoxicating. There’s a calmness as the wind rips through your hair, the sound of the sand dancing across the shoreline and then… bam, another giant swell meets it’s ending upon the shore.

This inspiration was born out of those overcast skies. A little bit of mist hung in the air and the sand was chilled with a dampness. It was not a day to fuss with curls in your hair or to bother putting on a tie. It was a wild, carefree and barefoot occasion – come as you are and let love prevail. And today I’m delighted to share it in it’s entirety over on Magnolia Rouge.

Silence on the Social Front

0 · Jul 22, 2015 ·

It saddens me that nearly a month has passed since my last post. I love blogging. I love sharing tidbits, advice and thoughts about weddings and life in general with all my amazing readers. So when busy takes over and I cannot find a moment to clear my head, write a sentence or much less format a post that’s worth reading, I find myself a little depressed.

It all comes down to priorities. I’m still dreaming of flowers, ribbons and foraging for the most perfect accents for each and every bridal bouquet. I am scheming up designs, laying out floor plans, creating flower recipes and timelines. But being a wedding planner is a selfless profession. It takes an enormous amount of dedication to each and every couple. It’s their needs that are put first, not my own. While I try to find balance in as many places as I possibly can, I always know that my clients come first. It’s their once in a lifetime experience that’s important, not my need to share what I’m up to with the world.

To the outside world, when things become quiet on the social media front it appears that we are doing nothing, we’re not busy and have little to share. To anyone in the wedding industry, we know that this is when we’re our busiest making wedding dreams come true.

Here’s just a peak at one of those dreamy days that we were honored to be a part of. Wishing the happiest of marriages to Hallie and Eric.

Photo by Bradley James Photography, from our wedding together last weekend in Ludington.

Happy Anniversary

1 · Jun 19, 2014 ·

On June 19, 2010 I said “I do” to my hubby — if only then I had realized the journey that we would sure to begin. It’s been full of struggles, laughter, the craziness of buying a house and meeting our beautiful little girl. A wild ride doesn’t even begin to describe it.

But today I thought I could share a little about my “fairytale wedding”, since it’s something I am quite frequently asked about. I think there’s this common curiosity about the life and romance of anyone who is involved in the wedding industry and perhaps even an expectation that somehow they’re destine to be more romantic, more thoughtful and have “better parties”. Please push all of these preconceived notions aside as I share my wedding day.

The ceremony took place at my grandparent’s house on Lake Leelanau. I was a crazy bride who felt like she had something to prove. I wasn’t yet an event planner, but I was on my journey to being one and knew that was my end goal. So I thought I had to do everything myself and I diy-ed my little heart out to the point of exhaustion, including my own wedding flowers — but that I wouldn’t have any other way.

Approximately 80 guests were greeted with a perfect, partly sunny, 75 degree day. We simply could not have asked for a nicer afternoon. And right there on the shores of Lake Leelanau I vowed to make Hubby mine, forever and always.

We didn’t write our own vows. We didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. It was a pretty traditional ceremony. And to be honest, I can’t remember all the details in perfect clarity, although looking through these pictures is definitely bring back some memories from the day.

I was determined to have great “exit” photos. So the guest threw birdseed. I had birdseed down my dress until I laid my head down on my pillow that night.

After the ceremony, we were fortunate enough to schedule lots of time for pictures which also allowed our family and friends to explore a little of Leelanau’s beauty before cocktail hour. It also gave us a few minutes of alone time which is so valuable on your wedding day. We took a trolley into Leland, which is where the reception would be held, and it’s so conveniently located to Fishtown and Lake Michigan – 2 must have spots for pictures.

The shores of Lake Michigan will forever own my heart. Leelanau is truly my home away from home, and it was so special to share such a sacred place with all of our friends and family and celebrate there. It now holds even more meaning and while I’m definitely a sentimental person, I would highly recommend to anyone host your wedding in a place the feels like home, that feels like where you want to be and where you want your forever to begin.

Catering by Kelly’s did an amazing job serving our guest a local feast. The Old Art Building was an absolutely perfect back drop for our reception. And a huge thank you is owed to everyone who helped bring our day to life 4 years ago.

But the details and memories fade. Some of the faces in these photos have now left us. Time moves forward. So I think we just need to remember to keep everything in perspective and always keep in mind the goal at the end of the day is to be married. To have that person that you want to spend the rest of your life with by your side.

It’s not about the cake, the dress, the decorations — which are all details I love. It’s about the one you can’t live without. The one you want to spend your forever with.

Photography: Shannon Scott Photography / Design & Flowers: The Day’s Design / Ceremony location: Private Residence on Lake Leelanau / Reception Location: The Old Art Building / Catering: Catering by Kelly’s / Cake: Dana Wilmer-Lucus / DJ: Moments in Time / Dress: Casablanca from Bridal Elegance / Men’s Suits: Macy’s

Happy Anniversary Hunny!!

Up North Living & Summertime on My Mind

0 · May 2, 2014 ·

Summertime. The word itself just brings a smile to my face. I think about sunshine, lemonade and long days spent at the beach. This is a little funny though, considering I rarely drink lemonade and I live a good 35+ minutes from the beach. Maybe I should substitute white wine and backyard grilling.

Growing up, I lived even farther from the beach. A lot farther. I would drive 4 hours to get to my Grandparent’s house on Lake Leelanau. It was a drive that was worth every minute. When I lived on the east side of Michigan, your options for going to the beach were a bit more limited. There were a couple meaningless, no name (or at least names I don’t know) lakes that may have been swimmable and then you could drive to Lake Huron. Now no offense to Mr. Huron – but that lake fails to even hold a candle to the light of Lake Michigan.

So into the car we jumped every summer to make the 4 hour journey to Grandpa and Grandma’s house. And when we arrived, summer could then begin.

Every time I see a picture of Fishtown or even Traverse City in my social media feed, I can’t help but feel a little jealously and longing. Can I please have another excuse to go Up North? Will you please let me plan your wedding up there??? (I’m not begging – I’m asking very nicely, with lots of urgency behind it!)

I still make that trip as often as possible, especially since it’s gotten a little shorter now that I live in Grand Rapids. And while someday, I hope to live a little closer to the lakeshore but still remaining in West Michigan, I don’t think that will ever stop me from traveling to Leelanau, which will forever be my home away from home.

Photo by Shannon Scott Photography {Smug Shots}, did you know that I was lucky enough to have my wedding reception in Leland, Michigan?

Beach Wedding

Footer

Instagram