Laura and Dean, October 17, 2009
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:
