Jul 31, 2017 | Weddings
DIY allows you to express yourself. Photo by Allison Williams Photography.
If you’re on a budget (and there are a lot of budget weddings), you might try to save some money by having most of your decor be DIY. Or maybe you are just crafty and want to have your own artistic vision featured at your wedding. These are both good reasons to have DIY decor.
But let’s talk about the practical side of the matter: How do you get from concept to installed finished product–and how do you do it without sending your day-of coordinator into screaming fits?
There are some coordinators who hate dealing with DIY decor. There are others who charge extra because they know that it requires extra work on their part. When you hire a coordinator, be sure to ask them how they deal with DIY decor. It is good to know before you hire.
I don’t hate DIY. In fact, I think it is a lot of fun and makes for visually unique events. I also don’t charge extra–unless the decor requires that I put in extra hours or hire extra hands. But in my standard contract, you will find this one little sentence: “Decor design and implementation are to be decided and communicated to me in advance.”
The reason that sentence is there is because one too many times, I have walked into a wedding venue and been confronted by unlabeled boxes of decor items. In a limited amount of time, I have had to figure out where to put all the many objects and how to make it all look beautiful and intentional. Naturally, I can do this and make it all look fabulous, but it’s much more work and much more stress than is necessary.
So, what does this mean for how you handle your decor if I’m coordinating your wedding? It means you have to decide in advance what you want your tables (and walls, and bar, and….) to look like. It means you have to draw diagrams or take pictures and send them to me. It means you organize things in ways that make it easy to set things up. It means you label everything. And it also means that we have some detailed discussions in advance so I know what you want.
One exceptionally organized bride who had enormous amounts of DIY decor put all the objects for each table in their own boxes, so all I had to do was pull it out and set it up according to the pictures she had sent. Another included a list in each box with the name of the object and its location. Sometimes a bridesmaid or sibling has been designated to be the liaison and helper.
It doesn’t matter how you organize the objects and communicate your vision. All I ask is that you make it as easy as possible to set up decor, so I can also do everything else that needs to be done to make your wedding as wonderful as possible.
Jul 24, 2017 | Lace wedding accessories
I haven’t mentioned this in a while, but in addition to wedding and event planning (and a few other things), I also make hand-made lace. The kind I make (there are many, many kinds!) is called tatting. I’ve been doing it for years, and it’s a fun thing to do with my hands.
Tatting is a kind of lace that is made from hundreds and hundreds of tiny knots pulled into loops and chains. It takes hours to make a small doily or edging. But it cannot be replicated by machines. It requires the human hand to bring it into being.
I have a few pieces that I use as examples, but what I really like is creating custom pieces. If you see something here that sparks an idea for something you would like to have–for a wedding or for anything–let me know. I’d be happy to make something that would be a family heirloom.
Prices for custom pieces depend on the size and complexity of the work. Feel free to get in touch if you have questions.
Jul 17, 2017 | Weddings
I did full planning on a wedding that was featured on the blog A Bicycle Built for Two. It’s a blog that says it is “real wedding inspiration for lesbians, queers, and everyone else.” I love what they do! They show real people and their real choices for celebrating.
So, please check out the post about the wedding I planned. And take a look at their archives. There’s a lot of good stuff there.
Jul 10, 2017 | Weddings
I was at one of my favorite venues the other night, the Redfield Estate at The Grove in Glenview. It was a vow renewal ceremony for the couple, and they had a great time with their family and friends. Here are a few pictures that I took of the reception.
Jul 3, 2017 | wedding planning
The Shakespeare Garden in Evanston, IL. If you like the Bard, it’s a great place to get married.
Remember the film Shakespeare in Love? It appeared in a stage version in Chicago recently and I was reminded of one of my favorite quotes from it: “Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.” While this quotation definitely rings true regarding the business of theatre, it also has faint echoes when it comes to weddings.
Now, producing live theatre is actually a lot harder than wedding planning. (Trust me: I’ve done both.) It has some of the same elements, but there’s one big difference: A stage production has to maintain its illusion of reality at all times and at any cost, no matter what goes wrong or how badly.
The nice thing about weddings is that they are actually real and don’t have to maintain any kind of illusion. Sometimes people planning weddings are under the mistaken impression that they have to present an illusion of perfection (whatever that means to them), but I’m here to tell you that it isn’t true. Weddings and theatre both share an element of ritual, but that is about where the similarity ends.
So, if you’re busy planning your wedding and feeling as if you’re running into too many insurmountable obstacles or that you’re on the road to imminent disaster, try taking a step back and looking at the big picture. Will you end up married to the right person at the end of the day? Yes? Well, then you will have had a successful wedding. It’s nice if your guests are also fed and have someplace to sit and maybe a little entertainment, but as long as the main event comes off, you did it right. So, don’t sweat the small stuff.
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