YOU MAY NEED A WEDDING PLANNER IF…

• You’re planning your wedding from out of state or out of town…
• You have a demanding job or hectic schedule….
• You can’t find the perfect venue…
• You want to make the most of your budget…
• You are so stressed you cannot enjoy the process of planning your wedding…
• You don’t know how to get started…
• You’re planning your wedding in a short time-frame…
• You’re struggling to define the look and feel of your wedding style…
• You need a “go-to” person for your wedding day…
• You are concerned that the planning process will cause family stress…
• Your wedding is being held at a non-traditional venue or on the beach…
• You want to plan an incredible event while staying stress free and enjoying your engagement!

If you feel like you could use some help, you don’t have time to plan the wedding you’re dreaming of, or that the planning process is overwhelming you, set up a consultation with a professional wedding planner.  A professional planner will be more than happy to talk through your issues and concerns to determine if planning is right for you, and what level of assistance would be the best fit to ensure your day is fabulous, and you remain a stress-free, beautiful bride on your wedding day!

More Posts in This Blog Series:
WHAT Does a Professional Wedding Planner Do?
WHO hires a wedding planner?
WHEN should I Reach out For Help?
WHY will hiring a wedding planner make my wedding day better?

Check out this beautiful destination wedding shot by Ben Pancoast Photography!  I’m not sure that you can beat those beautiful mountains as a backdrop for a gorgeous outdoor wedding ceremony! The wedding was held at Devils Thumb Ranch in Colorado, and you can check out all of the beautiful pictures and details at the Ben Pancoast Photography blog!

If what you’re looking for is ideas for your wedding, then your friends and family can be a great resource (so are bridal magazines!). But if you’re looking for more, then a professional wedding planner can offer you the kind of assistance that will make planning your wedding enjoyable and manageable!  Your cousin probably had a great florist, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that that florist fits your style or budget or can cater to what you are looking for.  There’s a reason there are a ton of wedding vendors out there, and it’s because every vendor is not a perfect fit for every bride—each one brings their own style, strength, personality and pricing.  A professional wedding planner has connections and working relationships with vendors of all styles and budgets, and can help connect you with the vendors that will get you the most for your money. So while your family members may point you to the florist who is well-known in your area and will do a fantastic job (for a pretty penny), your wedding planner can direct you to a florist who can create what you need within your budget, saving you hundreds, or even thousands of dollars. A professional wedding planner can also take your style into consideration, and isn’t just pointing you in the direction of their favorite things.

When the “fun stuff” is done, your professional wedding planner will be there to figure out the flow of your reception setup, handle the logistics of shuttling your guests from one location to another; put together time lines so your family, bridal party and vendors know where they’re going and when; negotiate with vendors to ensure your orders are correct; troubleshoot any issues that arise; and will, at all times, make decisions that are best for you, and go along with your overall vision for the day.  And those are just a few of the things a wedding planner can handle for you!

Planning vs. Coordination

Day of Coordination
This is for the bride that wants to plan the wedding herself, but would like the assistance of a professional to ensure that everything is executed properly on the day-of, to oversee the vendors, assist with the ceremony and reception flow, trouble shoot any issues that arise and generally, be the go-to person making sure that your wedding day is wonderful and stress-free for the bride & groom and their families!

Full-Service Planning
This is for the bride who wants to sit back and enjoy her engagement, while a professional wedding planner walks her through every step of the planning process.  From finding a venue and matching you with vendors that match your budget and style, to helping create every detail that will make your day shine, a full-service wedding planner is your partner in creating an amazing wedding!

More Posts in This Blog Series:
WHO hires a wedding planner?
WHEN should I Reach out For Help?
WHY will hiring a wedding planner make my wedding day better?

Katy+Ken from All Star Productions on Vimeo.

MORE WEDDINGS AT THE HERITAGE CENTER:

Ken+Katy Photos from their wedding at Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame and The Heritage Center in St. Joseph, Michigan

Yana+Brannon at Shadowland Pavilion and The Heritage Center in St. Joseph, Michigan

Kate+Mitch at Shadowland Pavilion and The Heritage Center in St. Joseph, Michigan

Earlier this summer we posted a few pictures from the Michigan wedding of Megan+Greg, the first wedding at Mill Creek Barns in Watervliet! I wanted to share some of the amazing professional photos we received from their fantastic photographers, Two Pair Photography, and I hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed planning this fun Michigan wedding!

Mill Creek Barns has a beautiful outdoor ceremony area, but a traditional catholic wedding was very important to the couple, so the ceremony was held at St. Bernard’s, and we utilized the outdoor ceremony area for a fun and beautiful cocktail hour, complete with an outdoor bar featuring Michigan beers and wines, delicious passed appetizers by the always-delicious CK Catering, and a lovely iced tea and lemonade bar, complete with mini mason jar glasses.

MillCreek Barns has so many beautiful details throughout, making it such a unique and lovely venue to host your Southwest Michigan wedding. The grounds, which feature another barn as well, have so many areas to take beautiful photos, you can stay right on the property and still take some fantastic photos!

Each table was named after the location of an “adventure” the couple took, complete with a picture of them—Megan+Greg are quite the adventurers considering there were 20+ tables! The escort cards were planted in tins of grass with a hand-painted sign reading “find your own adventure.”  Check out our post on more creative table numbers we loved this season!

Centerpieces were created by Stella Event Design, using Hydrangea stems, and accented with stock and branches re-purposed from the pew arrangements created for the ceremony. Half of the tables were adorned with the large mason jar and hydrangea centerpieces, while the other half  featured candles made with small mason jars tied with raffia and paper flowers. The wood chargers used as centerpiece bases were purchased from a local artisan and are available to rent from Stella Event Design.

Montage, out of Kalamazoo, rocked the barn and the dance floor was literally packed all night long! Guests came armed with boas, hats, and silly masks to create their own fun on the dance floor—it was an incredibly fun party and celebration of this fun couple!

MORE 2009 WEDDINGS IN SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN:

Ken+Katy at Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame and The Heritage Center in St. Joseph, Michigan

Lisa+Bart at the Blue Dress Barn in Southwest Michigan

Yana+Brannon at Shadowland Pavilion and The Heritage Center in St. Joseph, Michigan

Kate+Mitch at Shadowland Pavilion and The Heritage Center in St. Joseph, Michigan

Stefanie+Jim at Santaniello’s and Weko Beach in Bridgman, Michigan

Jessica+Bryan’s beach wedding and reception at The Veranda at the Whitcomb in St. Joseph, Michigan

First, let’s clear up a few myths on WHO hires a wedding planner—Hiring a wedding planner does not mean you are disorganized, it doesn’t mean that you are uncreative, or that you don’t know what you want. It also doesn’t mean that you need to have an outrageous wedding budget, or that you will lose control of your wedding. Most of our brides are extremely organized and have a very clear vision of what they want for their wedding day. It always surprises me how many people ask me , “are your clients like those crazy brides on tv?” It makes me laugh, because season after season the brides we work with continue to be some of the most fun and kind ladies out there!

Stay tuned as we cover WHO hires a wedding planner, WHAT a wedding planner or coordinator can and can’t help you with, WHERE you will and won’t find help planning your wedding, WHEN to reach out for help, and WHY a professional wedding planner will make your wedding a day you can enjoy!

Posts in This Blog Series:

WHAT Does a Professional Wedding Planner Do?

WHO hires a wedding planner?

WHEN should I Reach out For Help?

WHY will hiring a wedding planner make my wedding day better?

I absolutely love how our comfy consultation area turned out! And our sitting area filled with bridal magazines, books galore, linen swatches and custom invitations will be an amazing resource for southwest michigan brides! Below, my personal work space, filled with pink loveliness! I am so excited to plan some amazing 2010 weddings here!

A huge thank you to everyone who came to visit our new space and celebrate! It was a wonderful night of catching up with friends, family and vendors who have helped to make these last 2 years at Stella Event Design possible! The Design Studio has open office hours this week from 10-5:00 if you’d like to stop by to chat, read magazines and check out the new space, and will normally be by appointment! And lastly, a few pictures of our open house, visitors and sweets table!
Snapshots provided by Stella Event Design

If you’d like to join us at our Open House on Monday, October 26th from 6-9 you can find us at 314 State Street (upstairs) in downtown St. Joseph. The entrance is between La Dee Da Children’s Boutique and Beachside Cafe. There will be wine, delicious treats from our beach-inspired sweets table, and time to mingle and celebrate our new space! We would be thrilled to meet some of our blog readers in person, so I hope you’ll join us! We’ll also be giving away an awesome Wedding Day Emergency Kit to one lucky bride who stops by to celebrate with us on Monday! There is no purchase necessary, no pressure, just wedding fans having fun in our new space!

When it came to picking my own wedding music 2+ years ago, it took me a fraction of a second to identify my ceremony music, and months and months to find that ‘perfect’ first dance song. My husband and I were living in different areas, so one night we sat on the phone, on our respective computers, and sent each other a list of songs. For each song, we would go online (to Rhapsody.com, to be exact) and would listen to the others choices. They were songs we googled, songs from “best first dance” lists, songs friends suggested…

In the end, we chose “You and Me” by Kenny Chesney, and the thing I regret about that, is the fact that I had to sit and think about that just now as I typed it. It wasn’t one of our personal favorites, or something that narrated a moment in our relationship.  I’m one of those people who listens to every word of a song, so I focused on the story of the song, the lyrics, which is perfect to narrate a first dance. I would be perfect as one of those radio hosts who hears a listeners story and then perfectly correlates it to a heartfelt song. However, if I could go back and re-do it, I’d choose a song that held some sort of personal connection to us, regardless of the lyrics, or even the genre. If I could do it again I would choose a Bon Jovi song, for the multiple concerts we went to when we were dating or the love song that came out when we first started dating (It was ‘True’ by Ryan Cabrera, if anyone even remembers him anymore!) or a song from the Jack Johnson cd we listened to together while working on our respective class projects.  I remember our first dance like yesterday…but the song, not so much!

Today I was dreaming about a steamy cup of cocoa to go with this chilly weather and I immediately started thinking about all of the fun ways I would garnish it for a party, and you could do the same for your wedding! Start with some delicious gourmet hot chocolate, and then provide as many delicious garnishes as you please!

Tasty Topping Options:

• Peppermint sticks
• Cinnamon sticks
• Homemade marshmallows
• Ginger snap cookies
• Chocolate chips (or mint chocolate chips, even better!)
• Marshmallow fluff
• Rock candy sticks
• Homemade biscotti
• Chocolate dipped spoons
• Whipped Cream
• Nutmeg, cinnamon and other spices to dust on top
• Candy crumbles: toffee crunch, peppermints, candy bars
• For the adults: Peppermint schnapps, Kahlua or Baileys

I think a fabulous assortment of cookies would be the perfect accompaniment to this table, and you could even create some “take home” mugs for guests to enjoy later. Include a keepsake mug, hot cocoa mix and a chocolate spoon, and wrap it beautifully. Your guests can enjoy hot cocoa at your reception, or opt to take a mug to go!