Mar 4, 2019 | Eco-Friendly Events
This could be you at the Great Wedding Recyclery!
The party is over, the wedding is a happy memory, and now you have 300 votive candles in your possession. What’s an eco-minded person to do? Rent a table at the Green Wedding Alliance’s The Great Wedding Recyclery, of course, and sell them to someone else who needs them for their wedding!
Or maybe you are still planning your wedding and looking for gently used decor on a budget. Where should you go? Loft on Lake, 1366 W. Lake St. on Sunday, April 7, 2019. First Pick access from 11:00-11:30am is $15 (available only at the door); and general admission from 11:30-1:00pm is $5. You can buy general admission tickets here.
This is at least the fifth time the GWA has sponsored this fabulous and sustainable event, and it is always a big hit with everyone. I have personally seen some amazing bargains on beautiful, whimsical, and useful items. It’s also a fun way to spend a Sunday morning. There is usually music and a party atmosphere; sometimes there are small bites.
Best of all, though, it’s an easy and fun way to keep wedding items out of the landfill. The wedding business can be very wasteful, and this is one way to make it less so. Check out the Recyclery, and green your corner of the world just a little bit.
Feb 11, 2019 | Other Events
I got photos from J. Hollander Photography from the bar mitzvah I worked on in December. I want to share some of the fun with you!
This was a family who described themselves as not being very fancy. For their son’s bar mitzvah, they decided against an upscale Saturday night party in favor of a casual, laid-back, sports-themed party, with lots of fun stuff for the kids and a good time for the adults. This one was not at all about how it looked; it was all about the experience for everyone.
In keeping with the low-key theme, they rented out the Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center in Evanston, a family-centric location with a community room and adjoining gym.
The community room was where people gathered and had dinner. But the real attraction was in the next room where Playground Games had set up their inflatable games, along with attractive lighting and fun music.
We mustn’t forget dinner, though! Marcello’s did their usual fine job with the pizza buffet (and plenty of other food, too).
Their dessert buffet was a big hit, too.
In the community room, there were plenty of fun things to do. There was a selfie-station with lots and lots of sports-themed props, a large Connect Four game, and a cornhole game.
But the center of the party really was in the gym. The kids played the games, the adults watched, and, sometimes, the adults joined in the fun.
I’m not quite sure what this person is doing, but I think they were having fun:
And finally, a few photos of the details. First, centerpieces that the father of the bar mitzvah boy designed and created. He even designed a logo!
And the “guest book.”
And the party favors–perfect for a winter event!
Feb 4, 2019 | Eco-Friendly Events, wedding planning
Popcorn wedding favors? Yes, please! There were none of these left at the end of the night.
Here is one fairly easy way to make your wedding (or other party) more eco-friendly: Think about your wedding favors.
The greenest thing you could possibly do with favors would be to have no favors at all. After all, if there’s no favor, then there’s no waste. But that is not the way everyone wants to have things. So, if you are going to give favors, here are three things to consider: the type of favor, the place of manufacture, and the quantity to buy.
Probably the least sustainable type of wedding favor is the small object imprinted with the couple’s name and wedding date, especially if it is something plastic. Obviously, there are exceptions, but these types of things are the things that most people throw out after a while. It’s a lot of waste. A small object that is recyclable, compostable, or growable is a step in a cleaner direction. Something consumable or really useful might be even better. Food and beverages probably won’t go to waste–although you might want to give some thought to the type of containers they are in. Plastic cupcake boxes or nylon almond bags are likely to generate waste. Glass bottles are more likely to be recycled. Donations in lieu of favors sidestep the issues of waste entirely–and you could give money to an organization that works on issues of sustainability, if that is your wish. There is a whole range of possibilities here (and others I’m sure I’ve missed) that allow you to make your celebration more eco-friendly.
If you do decide to give your guests a small token, consider where and how it is made. Things that are cheaply made overseas have to be shipped here, which is a lot less sustainable than things made locally. You might also want to consider the ethical issues of cheaply made goods: They are generally made by people (sometimes children or prisoners) who are paid less than a fair wage. While it often costs more to buy from a local producer, at least you can verify the conditions of manufacture to be sure the creators are being paid fairly.
The other thing to consider is how many things to buy for your guests. In my experience, there are almost always favors left over at the end of the night (unless it’s a very popular food item). Often, guests will take one favor per household, rather than one per person. Some people just don’t want them. When you are deciding what kind of favor to get, take this fact into account. If you buy one per guest, you may well have to figure out what to do with the leftovers. You might want to purchase fewer than the number of guests so you don’t have to solve that puzzle. Or be sure to buy something that is easy to donate or resell.
While there are much bigger things you can do to green your wedding, this one is fairly easy and can be inexpensive. It’s something within the reach of many more people than, say, serving only organic local food. So, if you want to have a more sustainable celebration, you can start here. It’s always better to do something than to do nothing.
Jan 28, 2019 | Weddings
Sometimes I get really, really lucky and I am hired by clients who are doing something that is out of the ordinary and lots of fun. No offense to all the other wonderful weddings I am fortunate enough to work on, but the quirky, original ones are my very favorites. I have the photos from one of those from last summer, and I have to share them with you. I’d love to hear your thoughts on them!
It was a small wedding in a very simple setting, at the Winnetka Community House, with catering by Catered by Design. Stitely Entertainment provided the DJ, and Vanilla Video took the video footage. Bridal party hair and make-up are by Beauty by Jaide. And the lovely photos are all courtesy of Geneva Boyett. Now, here’s the backstory:
The groom at this wedding is enormously fond of movies. He used to be a film editor and still has a great love for all things Movie. He also loves Legos. And is a talented DIY guy. The bride is into all those things, too, but in this case, it was the groom doing a lot of the decor. They both have tremendous senses of humor and never started to take themselves too seriously in planning the wedding.
The ceremony was in the outdoor courtyard garden at the WCH.
Here is a close-up of the lush floral and greenery arch provided by MilleFiori.
And now for the unique part. Remember how I said the groom loved Legos? Well, the couple decided that, instead of having a unity candle as part of their wedding ceremony, they were going to have unity Legos. I have to say, when I first heard from them about this, I had to wonder exactly how that would work. Here are some photos of the unity Legos in the process of being assembled, with the groom in the background looking on happily (description follows the photos):
The bride and groom put in the final piece together:
In case it’s not clear what is going on there, this is what it is: The groom started with a photo that had been taken of the two of them; he blew it up broke it down into its pixels; and then he made a Lego portrait out of that picture. The final piece is about 30 inches square. Once he had created the entire piece, he broke it down into 11 segments that could be fitted together again to create the whole picture. Then, as part of the wedding ceremony, 10 special people plus the bride and groom came up to each fit a piece into the picture. And here is the final result:
Ever seen anything like that? I hadn’t! And now they have this piece of artwork that was part of their wedding to keep forever.
And then there was the movie theme of the reception. It started with the place cards. Each one is a movie ticket, with the guest’s name and the name of a movie on it (along with the time and date and “Admit One,” just like a real movie ticket).
Each guest then found the table themed to match their “ticket.” As I said, the groom is a DIY guy, so he also made the centerpieces. Each one represented the movie that was the name for the table. The place cards in the photo above name some of the movies: Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Star Wars. Here are the centerpieces. See how many of the movies you can name!
Unfortunately, the photos don’t capture the best thing about these centerpieces: They light up! My photos are not nearly as good, but here are a few showing how these looked once the lights were on.
Isn’t that fun?
And, of course, the bride and groom wanted to take the centerpieces home with them, so they had to request that the guests….
In the end, as always, it was a day about two wonderful people. And these two had a sense of humor. Here is the silly part of their first look–first the groom’s humorous reaction to the bride and then the bride’s funny take in response:
But here is how they really felt about each other:
And here is how much fun everyone had that day:
Jan 21, 2019 | Day-of Coordinating
I have some photos to share with you! You may have seen some of these on social media, but I want to share the stories that go along with them here. My sincere thanks to Artisan Events for sharing their beautiful images.
This was an absolutely amazing, multi-cultural wedding at the Morton Arboretum last summer. The bride’s family is Catholic, and the groom’s family is Hindu. The couple did their homework and had a beautiful celebration that honored both sets of traditions.
The bride had had her hands (and probably more that I didn’t see) decorated with henna. But she was in a lovely white gown for both the ceremony and the reception. The groom wore a suit. But many of the guests wore saris or sari dresses, making the assembled crowd very colorful when they gathered in the Arboretum’s Hedge Garden for a late afternoon ceremony.
The ceremony itself had elements both from the bride’s tradition and from the groom’s. A Catholic deacon welcomed the guests and performed the first part of the ceremony. Following that, a Hindu priest performed an abbreviated (very abbreviated!) Hindu marriage ceremony.
And then, it was time for a party. And, I have to say, the people at the Morton Arboretum really know how to throw a swanky celebration! The room has a gorgeous view of a pond, but it was made even more beautiful by the artistic talents of Persephone Floral.
I have absolutely no idea what was so funny during the cake cutting, but you know what they say about a couple who laugh together.
The groom’s sister gave a pretty funny toast, too.
Or maybe that last one was during the toast given by the bride’s father.
Finally, it was time to dance! The David Rothstein Band kept the dance floor hopping all evening long.
It was a beautiful wedding day, one where everything ran smoothly and the guests enjoyed themselves. And another lovely couple started their married life surrounded by friends and family, beauty and fun.
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