Sep 21, 2015 | Weddings
Do you have your planning notebook handy? Courtesy of sprungphoto.com.
Getting married is often stressful and time-consuming. Unless you’re eloping or having a very small wedding, it’s a big, huge project. Why do we do it this way?
Is it just because the wedding industry marketing is so good? Is it because we follow tradition blindly? Is it because we want to feel rich and special? Those may all be part of it, but I don’t think that’s the whole story.
I think a big part of it is that if you’re inviting a lot of friends and family members, it seems the civilized thing to do to feed them a special meal and show them a good time, as long as they are making the effort to come to your wedding. You have to have room enough to fit all your guests and enough food and plates and forks for everyone to have dinner (or breakfast, or whatever). And you don’t want anyone to be bored. Besides, if you like to dance, you want to celebrate on the dance floor with your friends and relations. And then you might want to make the location look festive.
With just those few things in mind, all of a sudden you need to rent a venue, hire a caterer, find a good DJ or band, and get a florist. And then you probably want a photographer to document all your hard work! And maybe you need to hire transportation to get your wedding party and your guests around. If you don’t already have a lot of these resources, suddenly you’re up to your elbows in work and stress–and that’s before you even have an officiant and something to wear.
Are there ways to make wedding planning less stressful? Yes, of course. For one thing, if there are traditional things you don’t want at your wedding, you can leave them off your to-do list. You can aim for simplicity, even when it is out of fashion.
And, of course, you can hire a professional planner to help you. With a planner, you have excellent resources at hand and a calm head to help you put all the pieces together. If you want, you can hand off all the decision-making to your planner and just show up at your own wedding. That’s what I call stress free!
Sep 14, 2015 | Weddings
Photo by Magical Moments Photography.
It’s toot-my-own-horn day again on the blog. (If I don’t do it, who will?) I love getting reviews from clients, and here’s a really nice one on The Knot:
“We absolutely love Lisa!! She was really easy to work with and it was so nice not to have to worry about dealing with all the details on our day of. She also is one of the only wedding coordinators in our area that can offer tangible tips about greening up your wedding.”
If we’ve worked together in the past, please take a moment to write me a review. Good or bad, I love feedback!
And if you want to see more things people have to say about me, check out my reviews page.
Sep 7, 2015 | Eco-Friendly Events
To have favors or not? Courtesy of sprungphoto.com.
You may be considering how to handle favors at your wedding. While lots of people like to give more traditional wedding favors, some people prefer not to give a tangible gift for fear it will end up in a landfill. (And, let’s face it, a lot of wedding favors are destined for just that.)
One interesting alternative to the chocolate or knick-knack is to make a donation to one or more charities in honor of your guests. This can take various forms. You can spend the funds from your favor budget line by donating to a charity and then informing your guests that a donation has been made in lieu of favors via cards on the table. Or you can let your guests choose among your favorite charities. Offbeat Bride had an article about a cute way to do this earlier this year. There are also organizations that will help you coordinate your donations and create the announcement for you.
Whether it’s because you prefer not to have physical favors or because you want to donate to causes near your hearts, charitable wedding favors are one option among the many you have.
Aug 31, 2015 | Weddings
Elizabeth-Anne Stewart officiated at this lovely wedding I worked on. Photo by Peter Coombs.
There are a lot of very good wedding officiants available and I have featured some of them before here. Recently, I’ve had the pleasure of working a few times with Dr. Elizabeth-Anne Stewart, and I thought she is someone you should know about.
With a PhD in theology and broad experience in counseling and life coaching, Elizabeth has the credentials to help you create your wedding ceremony. She is also an warm, lovely person who seems to be able to make people feel comfortable easily. The weddings I have been present for when she has officiated have been beautiful ceremonies. She’s also not afraid to help you make your ceremony personal, even when that means going outside the usual bounds.
There are lots of options for good officiants. Elizabeth is one I recommend consistently.
Aug 24, 2015 | wedding planning
As I mentioned last week, there are a lot of body issues that come up in connection with weddings. While there is already an unreasonable standard of perfection for women’s bodies in the culture at large, that standard seems to be magnified about 1000 times when it is focused on a wedding.
For example, there is an entire sub-industry dedicated to weight loss for brides-to-be. The bridal magazines also uphold the idea of the size zero bride. And the wedding fashion industry preys on the fears suggested by the magazines by encouraging brides to order a wedding gown four sizes too large “just in case”–so they can charge hundreds of dollars for unnecessary alterations.
I call BS on all that. As part of my wedding planning practice, I want to encourage body positive weddings. I was inspired recently by reading an article in the Guardian titled, “My wedding was perfect–and I was fat as hell the whole time.” The author analyzes many of the issues involved in being a fat bride and makes beautiful sense of them. She’s also an inspiration for how to get married in a body positive way.
I remember a client of mine confiding in me the night before her wedding that she was afraid she wouldn’t be beautiful enough at her wedding. I was glad to be able to reassure her, as I would truthfully be able to reassure anyone, that she would be gorgeous. No matter who you are, if you’re happy to be getting married, you’ll be beautiful on your wedding day.
Every body is beautiful–especially on their wedding day. Photos by Sprung Photo, Happy Buddy PhotoArt, Agnes Malorny Photography, MWD Photography, and christytylerphotography.com.
Aug 17, 2015 | wedding planning
Is this a non-traditional wedding? You decide. Photo by Allison Williams Photography.
I talk to my clients a lot about non-traditional weddings and I have information on it plastered all over my website, but you might be wondering what, exactly, a non-traditional wedding is. In my experience, it means different things to different people.
Here’s my philosophy on non-traditional weddings. For me, wedding planning starts with something very basic: In Illinois, if you want to get married legally, all you need is a marriage license and someone to sign it. Everything else is optional. Everything. To me, weddings are a blank slate ready for your personal imprint, and I am always willing to question the conventional wisdom.
The concept of non-traditional also extends to the people getting married. Same sex weddings are still considered non-traditional by some people. And there are a lot of body issues that get caught up in weddings. I’ll write a whole separate post about body-positive weddings because that’s a bigger issue.
I’ve noticed that the aspect of weddings that seems to be the most changeable is the processional. Almost everyone feels free to mess with tradition there. At the other end of the spectrum are things that almost no one changes, like the form of the ceremony. And there are lots of variations in between.
Decor, venue, clothing, type of party–all of these are things that a couple might scrutinize when planning a wedding. Whatever you decide, you should know that I am open-minded about your choices. As I said before, almost everything is optional.
Aug 10, 2015 | Parties and Special Events
This is still one of my favorite stories from my years of event planning. It was also the first of many last-minute events. I do like to have adequate planning time, but in a pinch, I can do things at the last minute. Here’s the story:
There were roses everywhere.
On a Monday afternoon, I got a call from a business man from the East Coast. He was coming to Chicago to take a lady out on a date, and he wanted to do something amazing, something unheard-of. He suggested a yacht, private dinner in a gorgeous location, a helicopter tour, private entertainment. It all had to be first class, exceptional, and, as he put it, “over the top.” Money was no object, he said. Oh, and this date was to be a week from that Wednesday. I had another event to work on for a few days, so in less than a week, and with the invaluable assistance of the events staff there, I was able to put together for him a private, candlelit dinner for two in the Sky Theatre at the Adler Planetarium, with skyline views of the city projected on the dome and a private sky show after dinner. A black stretch limousine brought the guests to dinner where a string quartet played while they ate. There were flowers everywhere, and the dining table looked like a Victorian valentine. When I spoke to him the next day, he said that everything was “spectacular.”
Aug 3, 2015 | Weddings
I have the professional photos from Becca Heuer Photography from the wedding at the Garfield Park Conservatory earlier this summer. This is the one that was all about simplicity. Enjoy the photos!
The happy couple in the conservatory. Photo by Becca Heuer Photography.
Photo by Becca Heuer Photography.
The ceremony in front of the fountain. Photo by Becca Heuer Photography.
A toast during the cocktail hour in the Show House. Photo by Becca Heuer Photography.
Dinner tables in the room where the ceremony was. Photo by Becca Heuer Photography.
Dessert was a pie buffet. Photo by Becca Heuer Photography.
Everyone enjoyed the pie! Photo by Becca Heuer Photography.
The Show House lit up after dark. Photo by Becca Heuer Photography.
Dream House Productions kept the dance floor hopping. Photo by Becca Heuer Photography.
Jul 27, 2015 | vendors
Drapery and lighting by Art of Imagination. Photo by T & S Hughes Photography.
There are two kinds of party/wedding planners: the ones who do logistics (me) and the ones who are decorators. It’s not that I can’t make your party pretty; I can do that for you. But some people are really, really good at decorating a party venue. When I need someone to do that for me, I call Deborah at Art of Imagination.
Deborah and I have worked together more than once, and I like what she brings to the table: an elegant design sensibility with enough creative imagination to make a wedding or a party look unique. She also has a warm and thoughtful presence that makes working with her a pleasure. Best of all, she has the very specialized skill of hanging things up: lights, pictures, draperies, disco balls, and so on. Believe it or not, that’s a tough job, and not everyone can do it and make it look effortless.
If you’re looking for a planner who knows a lot of vendors and can guide you through all the details of event planning, be sure to give me a call. If you also want fabulous decor, you know who I’ll be calling.
Jul 20, 2015 | Family Parties
I do a lot of weddings, but every so often I’m lucky enough to help a family with something like an anniversary party. I really enjoy this sort of job! A couple of weeks ago, I helped a family plan a 40th anniversary party in their backyard. This was one classy affair. They put up a tent in the yard; Art of Imagination decorated it; FIG Catering provided a terrific dinner; and the band Get Back played 70s covers until late in the night.
Here are a few photos I took of the fun.
Guests gathered on the patio for cocktails.
When they sat down to dinner, it looked like this.
The theme for the evening was psychedelic 70s.
Art of Imagination hung disco balls over the dance floor.
Even the highboys were a little psychedelic.
A nice touch was the chalkboard welcoming guests to the party.
A quiet corner of the yard was transformed into a secret garden.
70s cover band Get Back kept the guests on the dance floor.
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