The Whitney Wedding

My first WEDDING…I’ve always known that I love event planning. I have planned many birthdays and showers, which I love, but this was my very first wedding. If I ever had any doubt about my true passion, it is now 100% confirmed… This is what I was made to do, I absolutely adore every aspect and I can’t get enough! Stressful??? At times yes! But it is a priceless feeling when complete strangers approach me telling me how amazing the event was and what a great job I did. Better yet when people ask for my business card because they have an event they’d like me to coordinate (funny, I don’t have business cards, I don’t have a business YET…fingers crossed for someday)…Just-having people acknowledge my time and hard work makes any stress endured worth it and having them ask me to coordinate their event, there is no better complement. I owe a thank you to my husband, kids, parents, and family for supporting me with this dream, I realize when I get stressed they are often the unintentional receivers of my frustration. They have also been recruited to help with projects and most of the time are so willing to help, I love my family. Also, having the most terrific sister-in-law who is not only an amazing photographer but also my right-hand girl helping me with every aspect, I couldn’t have done it without her. There is not a thank you big enough to express my extreme gratitude to her. Thank you Heather for being so wonderful I love you!!! Last but most defiantly not least thank you Mr. and Mrs. Whitney for trusting and believing in me enough to coordinate your big day with complete artistic freedom.

Wow…I just realized this sounds a bit like an award acceptance speech (I’d like to thank the academy)…LOL…only my wrap it up music would have started after the first two lines. I just want to make sure that everyone knows how much their support means to me! Now to the Whitney Wedding….

Modern Rustic Elegance ~ Budget Friendly ~ DIY would be the best way to describe the Whitney Wedding.

The venue for the Whitney Wedding was Green Villa Barn & Garden www.greenvilla.us a historical building built in 1928. Used as a dance hall during Prohibition, this ageless building gives a rustic charm that is felt as soon as you step inside. The barn has been transformed into a lovely building restoring the magic it once held. With style, elegance and charm it was the perfect place for the Whitney Wedding! The ceremony took place in the center of the barn with the guest tables surrounding the bride and groom. After the ceremony this area was used as the dance floor providing a unique and intimate setting for everyone to enjoy! Most of the items for the centerpieces were rented to help keep costs within the budget: linens, napkins, mirrors, cake stand, and votives with led candles were rented from Crossroads Fine Linens & Party Rentals www.crossroadslinenrentals.com The vases, punch bowl, and cake serving set were rented from A to Z Party Rental www.atozpartyrental.com. I contacted a local produce stand Morrow & Sons who gave me a discount on 300 limes. The fuchsia silk flowers and styrofoam for the centerpieces were purchased at Michaels www.michaels.com. The programs were designed using www.picnik.com and printed at www.costco.com and the amazing photos of the décor were taken by Heather Frakes www.hmfphotographs.blogspot.com

The tables and centerpieces:
All 25-guest tables were covered with white linens (I chose white because the chairs that the venue supplied were white and plastic, I wanted the chairs to blend in as much as possible since renting chairs or covers was not in the budget). Then I placed a black napkin and mirror in the center of each table. A votive was placed on each corner of the mirrors (4 per table) and a 6” square vase filled with sliced limes and fuchsia silk flowers added the perfect pop of color to each table.

Each place setting (8 per table) was decorated with a program, buffet menu, glitter, and a homemade (by me) red velvet cake pop labeled: having you in our lives is a real “treat”.

Keeping the kids quiet and the parents sane… have you ever been to a wedding where the kids are noisy and restless…have you ever been the parent of these angels that are noisy and restless? It can be stressful and disruptive for everyone. Because we’ve all been there I created activity books and an entertainment bag for each child (or parent) attending. The book included wedding coloring sheets, word search, and blank pages for artistic freedom. What’s in the bag? Crayons, pencils, stencils, stickers, and fake rings. This was a fairly inexpensive element and a huge success (and if your husband is like mine at weddings it keeps him busy too).

As guests arrived they were greeted, asked to sign the photo matte, and then instructed to be seated at any table that was not marked reserved. We had 4 buffet tables reserved for the wedding party and four of the 25 round tables reserved for specific family to insure they didn’t miss anything. The reserved signs were just 4x6 photos created on picnik, we glued the photos together so they could be seen from any direction and then they were placed in name cardholders.

To decorate the wedding party table we kept with the same theme white linens, black napkins, mirrors, vases, and cake pops but instead of using the fuchsia silk flowers we had the bridesmaids place their bouquets in the vases such an inexpensive and easy decorating idea. The bridal bouquet was placed in a fancy vase on the cake table; this added just the perfect pop of color and a nice addition to cake table photos.

By far one of the greatest hits of the evening was the Photo booth…I would recommend this feature for all receptions. In the photo booth you could choose black & white or color, when your photos printed there were two copies one for the guests to take with them as a memory that said Shawn & Tina May 29, 2011 and the other copy to put in the guest book with a place to write a personal message to the newlyweds. This was so much fun and at the end of the night Mr. & Mrs. Whitney were given a fun book they will treasure forever…but wait, there’s more…The Whitney’s were also given a CD of ALL the photos taken in the booth, yep, even the ones that guests thought no one would see…crazy, hilarious, memories for life!!!

For the departure of the bride and groom we decided to use birdseed instead of bubbles, it seemed like a more cost effective option at the time…the time and mess is so not worth it, choose bubbles…lesson learned! None-the-less we created a birdseed table including a picnik-edited photo saying please throw the seeds as the newlyweds pass your way.