Wedding Wednesday: It's in the Details

This was probably my favorite part of wedding planning... picking out all of our decor!

I searched and searched for the perfect decor. I knew in my mind what I wanted, but I'm not always the greatest at putting that into words so others can know what my vision is, and I'm certainly no artist, so I couldn't draw it for them either.

I really loved the idea of having a dark and romantic reception, and I LOVE all things baroque style. We went with dark purple, black and grey/silver as our colors... all of these elements combined created my vision and with the help of the wonderful ladies at Events by I.candy and Molly from Maxe Designs  my vision came to life.

Our reception venue provided standard white table linens with black or white napkins. To save money I went with them, and added a little spice to our table by using a table runner, chair covers and a sash from Sitting Pretty. I chose a black table runner, with black spandex chair covers and a dark purple sash. I think it really pulled everything together and I love the way it turned out.

I purchased black and silver charger plates from Hobby Lobby for 50% off to add a bit more class and had our wedding mad libs placed in the napkin folded "menu style" placed on top of the charger plate.

We had two different center pieces, one was a black candelabra with beautiful crystals hanging down, they other was a beautiful black cut out vases, one with magnolias and the other with a LED candle inside. They were placed on a mosaic mirror charger plate, and then we placed three black sequenced votive candles around them. We also had our table numbers placed in a small black baroque style frame. I also had our ispy game displayed on a stand in the center of the table.

We had a table at the entry into our reception that held a welcome sign and all of our table assignments (escort cards). 

Here is a shot of our place cards - We had the guests name on one side, and their meal selection on the other to help the servers keep everyones meals in order and to make it all go smoothly. 

That sums up all of our reception decor. 

- M

All of our paper decor (invitations, table numbers, place settings, escort cards, ispy etc was done by Molly Axe of Maxe Designs). All of our center pieces and frames were done by Jill and Alicia of Events by i.candy.

Pretty in Pink {and Grey} - A Nursery Story

I found out in January that the baby I was expecting would be a GIRL! I was shocked and thrilled! I was secretly hoping for a girl but thought for sure we would have another boy. I would have been happy either way, but I was delighted that I was able to finally shop for all the cute girl things.

I couldn't WAIT to start on her nursery. When I was pregnant with my son all I could do was look at the girls bedding and clothes and accessories, frustrated that the boys stuff wasn't "as cute". Now looking back, I think I just wasn't sure how to decorate for a boy, since I grew up in a household where it was just me and my Mom.

I immediately started to look at all things GIRL! I searched and searched the internet for the perfect bedding. I already knew that I wanted a white crib and furniture for this nursery and had been planning on doing a grey and turquoise nursery if it were a boy (weird thing is, with baby no. 2 I knew exactly how I wanted the nursery to look for a boy). I searched for days and was becoming increasingly frustrated because I just couldn't find the perfect bedding. I wanted it to say girl, but not scream baby! I wanted it to be a classy and not full of butterflies.

If you know me, then you know that I am OBSESSED with all things damask. While searching through Etsy for bedding, I stumbled across the most beautiful damask bedding I had seen since I started my search. Mellissa's Boutique does beautiful work, and I love that my baby girl has hand made bedding. It took about 8 weeks "production time" and another few days to get to me after she shipped it. She was a great seller, and I'm beyond happy with her work.

I ordered the bumper and ruffle duster, and purchased my sheets from Buy Buy Baby. I had her blanket made from another Etsy shop, I wanted it to be a blanket that she would actually use and not just for decoration.

Her nursery is still a work in process and has quite a bit more nick nacks and decorations up than shown in these pictures. I guess I'll have to do an update post in the future.

-M

Wedding Wednesday: My first Post - Finding our Reception Venue

When I first started wedding planning, I didn’t know which way was up. I didn’t know what “theme” I wanted for our wedding. I had started planning a beach wedding at my in-law’s  lake house. It sounded like a great idea at the time. We were going to do our wedding on a friday night, and then have a HUGE party the next day. The more I thought about it and the more I started planning it, the more I realized that it wasn’t me AT ALL! I don’t even like the beach, I’d much rather be at a pool instead of in the sand.. weird I know. Once I figured out that I was planning a wedding that was someone else’s dream, it all fell into place. 

I’m a city girl at heart. I LOVE a good concrete jungle! Don’t get me wrong, I do like the beach, in that it makes for a pretty back drop. I grew up in a town along Lake Michigan and I LOVED going down to the boardwalk and watching the sunsets, and the boats in the channel, but that’s it. I really don’t like sitting in the hot sun in the sand. 

I started researching reception venues in Grand Rapids. I was OVERWHELMED by the amount of venues there were, and also at the price tag on most of them! Tim (my now husband) and I were paying for this on our own, and trying to stay on budget. I wasn’t in LOVE with any of them, but knew that Frederik Meijer Gardens was a beautiful place for a reception, and they had space to hold the ceremony too! I fell in love with the space.. but not the price tag! The cost to use the space we wanted that would accommodate the number of guests we would have was nearly 1/3 of my total budget! 

On the hunt again, I stumbled upon McFadden’s Restaurant and Saloon. McFadden’s wasn’t new to me, I frequented this bar many, many times when I lived in Grand Rapids in my early to mid-twenties. I knew some of the managers and my brother knew their event planner. I knew that I already loved the interior decor of McFadden’s and while they only could accommodate 150 and our list was well over 200 and growing, I sent an email anyway. 

Erin, is the event coordinator at McFadden’s, and she. is. AMAZING! She quickly responded to my email, and I was absolutely FLOORED when she told me the cost to renting The Pearl Room. $500 for a Saturday wedding and $300 for a friday!!! I couldn’t believe it! I thought she had a typo! I emailed her back making sure she didn’t make a mistake, because I just couldn’t believe a venue in downtown Grand Rapids could be so affordable! She made no mistake! They actually did rent out their space for an amazing price! They didn’t have the Saturday date we wanted available. So, Tim and I looked at the calendar and realized that our 4 year – “meet-aversary” was on a Friday. I booked the space for Friday July 27, ASAP! 

Once I knew I had our reception venue locked in, my creative juices really started to flow and the rest of my wedding planning was so fun.. more on that later! 

Sorry, I know it's not the greatest (or most fun) picture, but it's all I had of our venue without giving away all of our reception decor (that will come in a later post). 

Thanks for checking out my blog! 

- M