Blog

What a fun wedding at the Troy Marriott! I started off the day setting up a few ceremony items, delivering the personal flowers to the bride and groom’s rooms and helping pin on bouts, explaining usher duties to those unable to attend the rehearsal the night before, and providing emergency kit items to the bridal party.

Nevra’s family is Turkish, so several elements of the wedding reflected her heritage. One of these was the evil eye ceremony during the wedding ceremony, in which evil eyes (pictured below) are handed out to each guest (I placed them on each seat). Guests are then instructed during the ceremony to place a blessing on the evil eye and then place it in a glass bowl for the couple to display in their home!

Nevra and Paul hired Paul Kubek to photograph the wedding, and their wedding day was the first time I met and worked with him! He does phenomenal work, captures so much emotion, and I would absolutely like to work with him in the future! All the floral as well as the decor for the ceremony was provided by Breath of Spring Florist - it looked amazing! The centerpieces were beautiful, and the ceremony was truly transformed.

The ceremony went very smoothly - a friend of the family officiated and a family member played the piano, both should enter the wedding industry! After the ceremony guests went directly across the hall for cocktail hour while the bridal party took photos, signed the marriage license, and did some touch-ups before the grand entrance!

The flowers on Nevra’s place cards indicated guests’ meal choices, so they each grabbed one on their way in to the reception. They also changed the table numbers to names, indicating a location that the couple had visited, lived etc. The only hiccup happened on the way to the reception, as nearly 200 guests had to move from the cocktail area to the reception area while passing through a Schreiners meeting that was not exactly happening according to schedule… but they made it there, and I did get all the drink orders before the grand entrance!

Pronto Bakery provided the cake, and although I didn’t get to try any I heard it was amazing! Fun spring colors were carried throughout the decor, and the reception also featured an ice sculpture! Dave from Mike Staff was the DJ for the evening, and he did a wonderful job keeping people happy and dancing until the party ended! They also provided the videography services!

Nevra and Paul had me set up a memory table in honor of family on both sides that could not join them on their wedding day. Guests passed it several times throughout the night, remembering.

Congratulations on a beautiful wedding day Nevra and Paul!

I am so excited to see these photos! I actually haven’t even met Jen and Emmanuel yet (that’s coming up soon though!) but they have booked me for their 2010 wedding and were recommended to me by the wonderful Dionne Haglund of The Shooting Gallery! So when I saw their engagement photos on her blog, I had to share!

These guys look so great together in pictures - I know the wedding is going to be phenomenal! Here are some more to enjoy:

I like favor containers, because that means you can put something edible inside! Guests will appreciate the snack if dinner is taking its time, and the jars can always be re-used! These are from my Kate Aspen favor shop, and the sticker or ribbon that may go on the front is completely customizeable!

Yesterday (yes, tax day!) was NACE Tabletop WOW at the Book Cadillac Hotel in Detroit. This is an annual competition put on by NACE at which members can sign up to create a table that reflects the nature of the competition as well as the personality of the company and/or designer. My favorite table of the evening, pictured above, belonged to Bill Hamilton at Fabulous Events - it was called “It’s all about Me!”.

My second favorite table, pictured above, was created by the Book Cadillac and Gerych’s, which owns a shop in both Fenton and Birmingham. I love the long line of wheat grass across the length of the table and the colored water that the floating candles are sitting in! This table won the award voted on by attendees.

The Judge’s Choice award went to the above table, featuring a live centerpiece!

This table was Detroit inspired, created by Chair Covers and Linens as well as MPE Events (floral). It was a fun event, the mimosas were very tasty, and as always it was great to see so many familiar faces from the insudtry!

 

Natalee just picked up her bouquet painting the other day, so I had to share it! The 12×12 is one of the more popular sizes at Curly Art, and I love square shapes so I think it looks great! Natalee loves jewel tones colors, so the flowers that turned a bit gold and the eggplant swirls go great with the white and green!

Saturday, I had the privilege of accompanying two couples to their tastings at the Gandy Dancer - since I have two back-to-back June weekends at the restaurant! I thought it would be fitting to post a little about the site since I spent so much time tasting their amazing food! Also, the photos used for this post were taken from the blog of the wonderful Marcin Harla!

They do offer packages for the “standard” couple, however, they love to do things custom to your desires! The first tasting included 3 varieties of vegetarian meal choices -vegetable curry with jasmine rice, stuffed red pepper with ratatouille, and vegetarian lasagne with wonderful fresh grilled veggies. The curry was everyone’s favorite!

The second tasting included Asian-inspired dishes to reflect the bride’s heritage; ginger encrusted salmon with jasmine rice and veggies, teryaki glazed steak with wasabi mashed potatoes and veggies, and a chicken dish will be served. Appetizers will be tray-passed, and so will the cupcakes and mini desserts!

Amanda Williams just posted a few sneak peaks from Carey and Jason’s wedding, and I had to share! I absolutely LOVE this shot from the back of the church!

Kids always make for some great photo ops…

The train station in Detroit is an awesome backdrop for photos if you’re looking for something unique!

Congrats again you two!

Liz and Jason were married last weekend on a beautifully sunny day at Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church in Farmington Hills. They wanted a candlelit ceremony, but even with a later (6:30pm) start time, there was still quite a bit of sunlight coming through! It was gorgeous with all the candles everywhere, and the ceremony itself went very smoothly. Their photographer was the amazing Amanda Williams (who sent me the sneak peak pictured above), and a family friend caught it all on camera as well.

The reception was held at the Atrium at St. John’s, which is just a breathtaking room! Linda, our contact there for Liz and Jason’s wedding, was great to work with and handled the last minute changes very well! Linens were rented from Fabulous Events in Waterford, and the purple added an amazing pop to the room, complimenting the candlescape centerpieces very well. The addition of greenery was conceived by the bride and her mother, bought from their florist Merri-Craft in Livonia and set up by myself and my assistants with the rest of the decor.

The ceremony and cocktail hour musicians were also family friends, they did a great job throughout the evening. Song selections are usually one of the harder things to decide on in the planning process! The reception music was provided by the phenomenal Kurt Cologne from Mike Staff Productions - who kept the dance floor packed until 1am when the party ended!

The cake was provided by Cakes by Stephanie out of Monroe - their cake tastes amazing! Extra slices were placed in the coffee, favor and late night snack room for guests to enjoy seconds (or thirds), and the remainder of the cake was packed up for lunch the next day.

Liz wanted to do something unique with the place cards, so instead of a traditional table, she hung strands of beads on tension rods, and my assistant Shawn hooked the cards to the strands! I love when people do things that are a bit different, just make sure there is someone there to explain it to your guests!

The captain’s table is a favorite of mine for placing the bridal party and their dates around the same table in the center of the room. At St. John’s, this looks amazing under the gazebo! The purple vases you see on the table housed the bridesmaids’ and bridal bouquet once they had made their grand entrance. The menus tucked into each place setting were made by Liz and assembled by her and her family the week of the wedding - they did a great job!

The last surprise of the night was the arrival of Sparty, so appropriate given that the wedding took place the night of State’s win to put them into the NCAA finals! The cocktail area space had been decorated by Liz’ brothers in honor of the game, so of course the bridal party needed a picture with Sparty in that room!

Congratulations on a beautiful wedding Liz and Jason, it was so much fun working with you over the past year!

At the last bridal show I attended, I met Dorota from Indigo and just loved her work! I wanted to put up a post just on her to encourage people to check it out! Especially for the bride looking for something completely different, you really should meet Dorota! She also speaks Spanish, German and Polish for anyone bringing in guests from those regions - she is more than willing to help break the language barrier!

In Pasadena, CA there exists a wonderful florist and floral shop called Jacob Maarse. They (of course) loved my mom’s work and requested a sample for their shop - pictured above! She is quickly booking for 2009, so reserve your painting! The website is www.curly-art.com, and she can be reached via email at betty@curly-art.com.