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Amanda and Matthew planned their wedding from New York, so I didn’t meet them until the rehearsal! They are the sweetest couple, so happy together and so wonderful to work with! The wedding and ceremony were both held at the Guardian Building in Detroit, which is just a gorgeous location! The orange, blue and gold colors they used were stunning in the space, and went very well with the building itself. Stay tuned to their photographer Jessica Johnston’s blog for pictures, I am sure they will be amazing!

I arrived at the Guardian Building at 2:20pm, at which point I grabbed the personal flowers from the florist and dropped them off to Amanda and Matthew at the Omni Hotel in Detroit. Because of the bad weather, the florist had not received a shipment needed for the bouquet stem Amanda wanted, but other than that they were beautiful flowers! One thing I will definitely remember in the future is to bring extra boutonnière pins, sometimes one is not enough to hold them steady!

After dropping off the flowers, I headed back to the Guardian to make sure everything was set up and ready to go for the ceremony! A few things were moved to allow for the best possible pictures as Amanda walked down the aisle, and some last minute decor details were put in place, but overall it was not a ton of work to do setting up since they did a lot of it themselves the night before (I do not recommend doing this, you want to relax the day before your wedding)!

The cake arrived on time, but the Guardian was warm and the chocolate “fan” on top of the cake started melting a bit and falling over, so that was something I had to fix before the photographer got there for pictures! It ended up being a shorter fan with more pieces, and I don’t think anyone noticed! My emergency kit came in handy as well, as both the bride and groom had a headache (if you read this and have not yet gotten married - bring grapes! They make you feel full, keep you hydrated, and don’t make you have to pee!)

The ceremony went exactly as planned, just a few minutes behind schedule to allow for people to get there in the snow. They took a group shot in the lobby of the building and then did the receiving line on the way back up to cocktail hour. Somehow, the caterer’s contract stated food was to be ready immediately after the ceremony, while the final timeline had dinner ready at 7:30 (an hour difference!). This is something I will definitely be confirming in the future, I was told everyone had the same timeline I did but that was not the case! It didn’t matter too much in the end, the food was great and stayed warm, and the caterers were phenomenal to work with as well (I have been very lucky with the vendors I’ve worked with so far!).

They used a guitarist for the ceremony and dinner music, and an iPod for dancing. I have seen an iPod used twice now, and both times it was a huge hassle and very stressful for the couple. Unless absolutely necessary, I highly recommend a DJ! You never know what type of cord, setup and logistical issues you will run into the day of the wedding…

One thing they did that was such a great idea was a photo booth, set up with a large sheet and a camera on a tripod! Matthew is a photographer so he had a very good camera to use (it might not work as well with a point and click), and the guests just loved standing there and coming up with different poses and different combinations of people, it was fun just watching them all! Hopefully they put those up on a Shutterfly site for guests to look at later!

It was an early night, everything was taken down and packed into cars by 11:15! There were candles, vases, table numbers, extra programs and cake, branches used for the escort tree (they hung escort cards from mini-trees, so cute!), framed pictures of the couple at their bridal session, gifts, the top of the cake, cake knife and stand and a few other items to get out of the building.

Congratulations Amanda and Matthew, and good luck with everything in your future! Thank you for allowing me to be part of your wedding day!