Northern Michigan Wedding Planner

Featured :: Style Me Pretty Michigan

0 · May 14, 2015 ·

Talk about sweet surprises, I knew this day was coming but I didn’t know when. So when I saw this gorgeous wedding pop up in my feed it just took my glum morning and turned my busy frown up side down! I LOVED this wedding. And I know that I’m not supposed to play favorites, but this one totally has hold of my heartstrings and seeing it again today on Style Me Pretty makes so so excited for all the lovely in store for this coming wedding season.

Kelly Sweet captured the romance with absolute perfection and the video from Coastline Studio is not to be missed. Northern Michigan, I can’t wait to come back home!

Here’s the feature which shows full vendor credits and I’ll also be sharing more in the future… this is a beautiful blog post in the making.

At the Heart of Business

0 · Apr 3, 2014 ·

There’s a line at the beginning of Dirty Dancing where Mr. Houseman is bragging a little about his daughters (if you’ve never watched Dirty Dancing – you can stop reading this right now, we are no longer friends!)

“My Baby is going to change the world”

“And what are you going to do?” (referring to Lisa)

“Oh Lisa is going to decorate it.”

Seems pretty shallow and materialistic, right? Baby is going into the Peace Corps, and Lisa will decorate. Sometimes I feel like Lisa. I sit around all day looking at pretty inspiration, flowers, dresses and linen samples. I dream up cake ideas and research invitations options. Am I simply feeding an attitude of discontentment and always wanting more? Am I contributing to this sour mindset that seems to drive the wedding industry causing people to spend insane amounts of money on ONE day? And does what I’m doing actually matter?

It’s the motivation behind what I do that actually matters. So yes, what I’m doing matters. But the key is not to lose focus on what makes you get out of bed each day, makes you talk to another bride and then add some gorgeous blooms to a vase. I am certainly not trying to get rich and I want people to be a peace with their spending decisions.

Meet Gretta. She’s the reason I need to pay the bills, work from home and find balance between wedding work and life.

Photo by Ashley Slater Photography

But even before she came into existence, I knew that I wanted to be a part of the wedding industry. So what’s so special about the wedding industry, you ask? Everything – it’s magic. As a little girl I dreamt up endless wedding scenarios for myself, purple flowers, sheer tents, little white chapels and dresses with puffy sleeves (hey, I’m a product of the 80’s!). My mother and aunts kept me surrounded by paint swatches, fabric samples and all things interior design. So naturally, creative energies surrounded me, they bring me home. There’s nothing wrong with adding beauty to your surroundings.

However, as I’ve grown, it’s also this concept of “home” that drives me. My family is amazing, crazy, but amazing. Not everyone gets to be a part of something like my family and I feel sad for them. If you’ve ever watched While You Were Sleeping, that crazy, overly involved, obnoxiously loud but always has each other’s back type family is the closest I can come to describing mine. This mashed up conversation totally hits home. So in the same way, I want to help create the start of family. I love being a part of the wedding celebration because it’s the beginning of something new, a new family, a new journey and it should be a happy (somewhat stress free) one. Being a part of that is awesome!

And after my own wedding, I knew the importance of my job even more. I was one stressed out, frazzled bride who was barely able to enjoy her wedding day. I simple cannot handle the thought of you making the same mistake. The beauty in the wedding day is the vows, love and commitment shared with family and friends.

It’s easy to become obsessed with the publicity, competition, Facebook fans and making each event better than the one before. But sometimes we need to step back, stop the comparison, and focus on what matters most. This is the heart of my business.

Venue Coordinator vs. Wedding Coordinator

0 · Mar 18, 2014 ·

This scenario has replayed itself several times in the past couple weeks and I’m starting to see a little pattern here. First a perspective bride contacts me and asks about pricing, availability and general services and business information. We happily chat about her dream day and it looks like I might have a potential wedding to add to my lineup. Then she chats again with her venue and Venue Coordinator. It’s at this point that something happens and she decides that she does not want to move forward with booking my services.

While I know this isn’t new information to be found out there on Mr. Internet, I do think we need to gain a little perspective on this situation. It’s my unhappy guess that the venue coordinator ensured said bride that all off her needs will be met and that my services are not needed. Why do you need a wedding coordinator and a venue coordinator?

Before it get into this whole debate, I would first like to remind you that I NEVER want you to spend more than absolutely necessary for your wedding. Budgets are extremely close to my heart, and I understand that not hiring a planner can be a money saving move. Secondly, I have been both a venue coordinator and a boutique wedding coordinator – I just want to make you aware of my experience.

Photo by Eliza Jean Photography

Venue Coordinator:

At your wedding venue there is more than likely a person there with the title Event Planner or Wedding Coordinator. This person works for the venue. They manage every party, event and dinner that is hosted in their facility. They know common room layouts, timing in the kitchen and pretty much have your wedding down to assembly line science. They work with the chef, the bartenders and the service staff making sure that their facilities looks spic and span and service is top notch. This ensures that their venue looks great, receives rave reviews and you’re a happily married couple at the end of the night.

Now here’s where things get a little fuzzy. Each venue is a little different so this is a generalized statement (as is some of the above, since not all venues have their own in-house catering). When you meet with the venue for the very first time, most likely you toured the property/event space, asked lots of questions, were given a packet of information and perhaps even a list of preferred vendors. You were probably told that they’d help you set up {if they have time}, you can decorate the day before {if there isn’t another event booked}, and they will help with all aspects of the event – which you assumed to mean directing vendors, guests and completing set-up {if they’re scheduled to work during those arrival/set-up times}.

Here’s what they might not be telling you. Turnover in the hospitality industry is extremely high; the Venue Coordinator you originally booked with at your venue might not be the same Venue Coordinator that actually runs your event. Did all of your notes get transferred? And can the new coordinator make sense of them? Ask your Venue Coordinator if they’re actually on-site during the event. A surprising number do not actually work weekends and just leave notes in the hands of their Banquet Captains. Again, is the Banquet Captain provided with all the details about your wedding?

{Boutique} Wedding Coordinator:

There’s a sentence up there says “help with all aspects of the event” – but what it really should say is “help with all aspects of the event happening within their facility”. Because that’s the truth. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, it’s simply stepping outside of their event space is not part of their job description.

The individual Wedding Coordinator that you hire is going to be your right hand man. True, how involved they actually get might vary depending on what you hired them for (day-of, partial or full planning, decorating, styling, etc.), but they work solely for you. Your Wedding Coordinator will help you with anything you need from the moment you get out of bed on your wedding day until the moment your head hits the pillow again as a married woman. If your transportation doesn’t arrive, she may jump in her Tahoe and go pick up the wedding party. If your photographer doesn’t show up, she’ll go to her list of contacts and find a backup, ASAP! You can go to your wedding coordinator with questions regarding timelines, etiquette, vendor referrals and difference of opinions with your new mother-in-law.

Another bonus? You can contact 1 person to make it happen! Your Wedding Coordinator can handle all of those various vendor relations for you. This means that you won’t have to type an email on your IPhone during your rehearsal dinner because there’s been a change of plans. Venue Coordinators don’t generally get that involved.

If you should happen to host your wedding a location that does not have a coordinator on-site at all then I dare say you NEED to hire someone. Leaving a rental company to show up at an empty space to set up chairs is a nightmare. Just expecting that the DJ or band will know where they should set up is asking too much. Oh the chaos guest could arrive and see!

My biggest piece of advice I can offer is to plan for the unexpected. Something WILL happen. Big or small, something that is not in your wedding plan is bound the take place. Having both a Venue Coordinator and a Wedding Coordinator is like an insurance policy, two heads are defiantly better than one!

I am 29!!!!

0 · Mar 6, 2014 ·

I just had that “Holy crap, I’m 29!” realization. Now here’s the thing, I’ve been 29 now for almost 2 months but suddenly I feel like I’m 29… and next year…{gulp} I’ll be 30.

So what does this mean? I’ve been out of high school for over 10 years. I can’t even pretend that I understand “today’s teenager” or that I can even come close to competing with their technology and pop culture understandings. I sound like an old lady. And while I might try to improve upon this a touch, I’m still going to jam to my oldies radio.

On the plus side, I’m finally starting to get comfortable in my own skin. I have figured out my dream job and while I’m still tweaking it a bit, I’m on a good, solid path. I still love fashion – but fashion my way. I’m a mom. That doesn’t mean I’m going to pull out the “mom jeans” anytime soon, but it also means that I don’t feel like I need to adhere as much to the “Mean Girl” practices of high school. And I’d like everyone to like me but that’s really not realistic. So just stick to your guns and be who you are – I know I’m going to make someone mad along the way, they’ll get over it.

At age 29, I still don’t know everything. Even though when I was a teenager I thought I had most of it figured out. This morning I had to Google what an ampersand is… all I can say is thank goodness for Google, where were you when I was in school?

If only I could have told myself 10-15 years ago that all the weird, quirky and unique traits that I had would come in handy today. Maybe I wouldn’t have tried so hard to bury them and “conform”. Oh the lessons learned!

So here’s my 29 year old self, making some pretty for an event – or at least supervising while Rachel does all the work! Thanks for the laugh, Eliza Jean Photography!!

Northern Michigan Wedding Planner

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