About a week ago, Genevieve Nisly and I held the first Northeast Ohio Bridal Soiree!  The night was planned as an inpirational cocktail hour for brides to gather ideas and meet wonderful wedding professionals, held at Brookside Country Club.  We partnered with Neil Leeson of Neil Leeson Decor and Floral to design 4 distinctly different weddings.  We paired his designs with linens, paper products, wedding dresses, and wedding cakes to create a complete look. 

We worked with some of Northeast Ohio’s absolute best professionals to create the evening.  Laura Woofter of Paper Allure, Dean Ross of Event Lighting, Abbott’s Bridal, West Side Bakery, Lnique Linens, Jerry Bruno Productions, 2nd Mile Productions, Canton Chair Rental, Be Seated, and ELM Rentals. 

Shall we plan another one?!?

Enjoy these pictures, taken by the phenomenal Genevieve and James Nisly!  And to see more, check out Genevieve’s Blog!

Neil Leeson mingles and answers questions with Brides!

Tricia and Genevieve welcoming guests!

Many of our professionals conducted mini seminars for Brides to gather additional information.

Brian Morris, of 2nd Mile Productions discusses videography trends.

Genevieve Nisly discusses how to get the most from your photography!

For months, Genevieve Nisly and I have been planning a one of a kind event for Brides.  Our Bridal Soiree will be held on Wednesday January 27th, 7:00 pm at Brookside Country Club  in Canton, Ohio!  We have teamed with the areas top wedding professionals to showcase area talent and create a relaxed, fun evening for Brides. We are creating four different “weddings” – tablescapes, florals, lighting, cakes, linens, couture paper products, etc.  Brides can mingle with the areas best while enjoying refreshments.  

 Take away ideas, tricks of the trade, or just have a fun night out.   Some of the professionals joining Genevieve and myself for the Soiree – Neil Leeson Decor and Floral, L’nique Linens, Paper Allure, 2nd Mile Productions, Scott Jones from Jerry Bruno Productions, West Side Bakery, Abbotts Bridal, Event Lighting, and Be Seated Rentals.

This is an exclusive night that you will NOT want to miss.  More information on how to register will be published in the very near future, there will be limited attendance, so check back often!  Genevieve has also blogged about our Soiree, so check out what she has to say!

Now you may be curious why I would post on my blog about another coordinator….I am not worried about competition, never have been.  I was the person at bridal shows that would go up to other coordinators and instead of posing as a bride to steal their information, I would introduce myself….ask them to go to lunch and form a friendship.  I can’t do every wedding…..in fact, I am not a coordinator that wants to take on even dozens of weddings a year.  I take on several great clients each year, produce fantastic events for them and make sure that they feel as if THEY are the ONLY bride that I am working with. 

So yes, I become friends and recommend other coordinators.  One of my dear friends, Emilie Duncan, moved to Columbus a few years back.  When she lived here, we worked weddings together and learned from each other….I miss her but know she is very happy in Columbus with her business.

This past spring, I had the pleasure of becoming friends with a relatively new coordinator to our area, but NOT new to the business, Brandi Hammerstone of All Events Planned.  Brandi and I have little girls (2 year olds!) so we have a lot in common!  We now plan playdates and I even had Brandi help me at a wedding in August that was just incredible (I cannot share pictures at the request of the family).   And then she graciously coordinated my sister’s wedding as well in October!

Brandi is not afraid of competition either….and I think she thinks pretty highly of me and my business.  She recently did an interview of me for her blog….. her it is:  Brandi’s Blog!

My little sister, Laura, was married this past weekend!  She met a wonderful man and I was thrilled to be part of their beautiful day!  Assisting in the planning of a relatives wedding is somewhat different than planning for a “stranger”.  When someone hires me, they look at my services as “the expert”….when your sister is planning with you, she looks at you as “the sister!”  So I hope that she was happy with all the little details! 

The wedding took place at the Lodge at Geneva-on-the-Lake.  It was a great place to have a wedding as many of our family members were able to stay for the weekend! 

She was surrounded by some of my favorite wedding professionals.  It was very difficult for me to help her choose her vendors as I work with so many wonderful photographers, florists, videographers, bands…etc!  I was able to provide her with people to look at and allow her to make her decisions! 

One of my newest favorite wedding professionals is Laura Woofter from Paper Allure in Canton, Ohio!  She is something else!  What a talented lady.  She helped Laura and I design all of the paper products – from the beautiful Dupioni Black silk invitations to the blinged out placesetting chart.  Lots of pictures of these gems below!  She is amazing!

The Decor for the day was designed by the one and only, Neil Leeson!  Neil is about as talented as they come and more so, one of my very good friends!  He can pull ideas out of anyone’s head and that is what he did with Laura – he helped her create the day from start to finish!  We of course had lighting from Dean at Event Lighting and beautiful linens from L’nique Linens and chair covers from Sitting Pretty Linens!  The Beautiful Chargers Plates and cake plateau was from one of my favorite rental companies – Elegance by ELM….Thanks Eileen, Leslie and Magita!  And what a band….we had Redline, a Jerry Bruno Productions band, and they were phenomenal.  And one of the best things about Redline was they were not “too loud”….so many people commented on how they could still talk! 

The Bridesmaids dresses and my mom’s dresses were purchased at Abbott’s Bridal in North Canton, Ohio.  What great service we received from Barb and her staff.  Classy place, great selection….even worth a few extra dollars because there was not a worry to be had as there may have been at other locations!

The ceremony was my favorite part of the day!  I truly believe that the wedding is the most important part of the day and I wanted to help Laura create a ceremony to remember.  The music was awesome!  We had Mark and Kathleen Lyda as our organist and solist.  They are the music directors at St. Francis Assisi Parish in Mayfield Heights and they are so talented…seriously, we have nicknamed him “Josh Groban!”  We also had the Regis Bookshar Trumpet Ensemble, of Special Productions - nothing like Trumpet Voluntary with a fanfare.  And we ended the ceremony with a bagpiper, Donald Willis.   Laura had our Neice and Nephew do the Prayers of the Faithful - as you can see from the pictures below…this bored my neice Maggie to pieces! 

Since I was the Matron of Honor at the wedding….and I was also trying to make sure all the details were tended to….I decided I absolutely needed to call for reinforcement!  I am the type of coordinator that is not afraid of competition…there are plenty of weddings to go around.  And so I have thrilled to have become friends with with Brandi at All Events Planned!  She is bubbly, outgoing, detailed and just plain “good!”  I felt so relaxed on the wedding day, knowing that the details were in the hands of Brandi and my “normal” wedding assistant Laura Palmer!  Thanks ladies for taking this detailed day and crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s!

One of my favorite “wedding people” is Brian and Suzy Morris with 2nd Mile Productions.  They were our videographers for the day and they are so great!  They surprised Laura and Dean with a Same Day Edit that only they can put together!  Enjoy:

http://www.2ndmileproductions.com/blog

So would you like to see a few pictures?!?!  We had one of my favorite photographers with us all day.  Jonathan Koslen from New Image Photography.  He has more energy than I do…and for those that know me, that sometimes is hard to beat!  Below are some photo’s from the day from Jonathan , an absolute great guy: 

So in Cleveland, we have a YEARLY contest with Fox 8 for the best in our area – they have pizza places, bars, and wedding professionals.  I won the contest in 2007, came in top 5 in 2008 and am on the list again this year.  I have not solicited ONE vote this year and it shows, I am sure I am in last place!  I really don’t believe the contest truly tells you anything other than being a bit of a “popularity contest”…..but the competitive nature of my personality thought I should at least put it on my blog for anyone that wants to have the link to vote!  So feel free to vote…I will say, the comments that people leave for me are quite nice….I look at them on a bad day and realize why I love my job so much!

http://fox8.cityvoter.com/always-eventful-inc/biz/57307