Hello my loves! I feel like this week is full of awesome announcements, I love when exciting things are happening!! In the State of the Blog, so many of you wanted to know more about my family and the behind the scenes things of my life. I thought it would be fun to loop you in on the big project that is happening right now!
My gorgeous sister Miranda is getting married!!! She has been dating her fiancée Rob for the last 8 years and they are finally settling down and we could no be more excited about it!
Planning a wedding is not something that I have ever done (not even my own) so we are in for a special treat!
They are getting married in the Draper Temple (you can find out what that means here) and have opted to have a small luncheon instead of a reception.
The vibe that she wants is sort of a romantic modern with a little vintage. Which fits her perfectly!
This is what we know so far:
They are looking at a few locations but would really love an industrial loft space.
All of the bridesmaids are going to be wearing Blush, and all of the groomsmen are wearing Taupe.
Miranda wants a lot of copper and gold metallics. But the main color is going to be white.
For flowers we are using succulents and Babies Breath. I love this picture on 100 Layer Cake.
Thats about it.
I am going to be DIYing all of the decor, so keep your fingers crossed for me!
The best news is that you wont have to wait too long to see it, they are getting married on March 28th! Time to kick it into high gear, are you nervous for us?
One problem that we are running into is that I am 4 hours away and long distance planning is a little hard. I thought that maybe you could help me? If you know of any photographers, florists, loft spaces, cake decorators, basically anyone that does anything involved with a wedding, we neeeeeed you!! They must be in Salt Lake, and they must be amazing! (You can leave a link to their website in the comments if you want to share!)
The other thing that I am a little nervous about is that I have never planned a wedding!! So I need all the advice that you can give me! What did you do right and wrong? Lessons learned?
I just got married in May, and my husband and I planned our wedding remotely (we live in DC; the wedding was in Florida). A couple of things I would recommend:
1) Plan a couple of planning trips to look at venues, meet vendors, etc. I think my husband and I made 4 trips, and that was sufficient. I did a lot of on-line searching for vendors, selected a few of each type (a few DJs, a few caterers, etc) and met with them for each trip. We also asked our favorite vendors for recommendations–our DJ came from our photographer, and he was fantastic. I expect you’ll have fewer vendors, so you might not even need that many trips.
2) The most valuable advice my bridesmaids (or bridesmatrons–they’re all veteran brides and party planners) gave was to choose vendors that I thought I would enjoy working with. For both our caterer and DJ, we made choices about comparably priced, comparably reviewed vendors, and in both cases we went with the vendors whose personalities best matched ours–people that we wouldn’t mind hanging out with even if there weren’t money involved. It was a great choice and made the execution of our wedding day that much easier.
3) I’m sure others will tell you this–don’t skimp on the photography.
3) Utilize local family, the wedding party, etc. Tell them your vision and specific needs so that they can help fulfill them. My cousin (in Florida) found our centerpieces while out thrifting one day, and her husband printed out the agendas that I passed out to the wedding participants for where they needed to be. My bridesmaids who arrived early helped with the last minute crafting. It made everything feel organic and full of love.
4) Other useful advice–not sure if this is more for your sister or for you–a friend told me to save one meltdown for family issues. It’s inevitable, she said, and she was right. Incidentally, does your sister already have her endowments? At the risk of being overly intrusive, I would recommend splitting up the two experiences. And don’t fast. I passed out at a wedding once, and it was highly embarassing (and I wasn’t even the bride).
5) And for you, enjoy the fact that you’re planning a wedding for someone that you love that’s not you. The planning is actually really fun, and I suspect it’s a little easier to avoid stress if it’s not combined with the fraught reality of an eternal commitment and family drama that’s centered on you.
That was really long. Good luck!
I loved all your suggestions. Funny thing, I too passed out at a wedding, my sisters. I wasn’t drinking enough water so add that to your list.
I don’t know anyone in Salt Lake…but I do know that I ordered my flowers for the reception, which were baby’s breath, from fiftyflowers.com and they were really reasonably priced and super great. They arrive two days before the wedding, and you just put them in water so they perk up. I orderd 20 bunches and I had soooo much. We were running out of places to put them. And it was under $200!
I did a ton of DIY stuff for my 160 guest wedding at my parents home just over a year ago. I blogged about it a lot, including some of my tips for other brides. My humble advice if you want to check it out:
https://kilobravoinspired.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-recycled-wedding-part-1-or-tips-on.html
Hope some of it helps and congrats to your sister!! Wedding planning can be so much fun!!!
One of the things I’ve found most helpful-besides theknot.com–is creating a spreadsheet of places I’ve contacted, what their prices are, what category they’re under, etc. This way I can pull it up and immediately look to see how many photographers I’ve contacted, when they got back to me, and any prices they’ve quoted. The spreadsheet is definitely helping make me feel less crazy!
Shared Pinterest boards are great! You can both pin things there, it gives a great ‘general feel’ idea because they’re the images you like, and you can send vendors the link if they want to see too!
And sometimes a phone call/ in-person meeting with a vendor can answer the same amount of questions that 10 emails can–so it can significantly speed up some things. Now if I can only bring myself to actually make the calls..
Good Luck and Congrats to the couple!
Abby
I have no idea how far out this place is booked or what it costs, but it would probably be exactly what you are looking for in a venue!
https://www.pierpontplace.com/index2a.php
I got most of these from “Martha” (yes, that Martha) years ago when i planned my wedding.
1. set your budget first. stick to it.
2. whatever happens the day of…roll with it. You’ve planned all you can and there’s not a lot you can do to fix it.
3. order an extra boutennier (sp?) for the groom. the first will get smashed during the receiving line.
4. take 5 minutes alone together in a corner to stand back together (your sister and her husband) andtake it all in…
5. leave early. watching the waitstaff tear town tables is depressing (trust me…I learned the hard way)
Wedding planning is so fun! Good luck!
The Salt Lake City Hardware building! People have weddings there all the time. This late in the game it could already be booked but it’s exactly like the space you described.
https://www.facebook.com/SLCHardware
My favorite Utah photogs are Tessa Barton (https://www.tessabarton.com/) and Jessica (https://jessicajanaephotography.com/)
That’s great news! you must be so excited!
If they need a photographer, hit me up. I travel anywhere!
Wedding planning is so exciting! And stressful! And chaotic… It’s kind of a bi-polar experience.
I got married in Las Vegas in May & we came back to have a big reception in our hometown at the DoubleTree (the whole “all-eyes-on-the-bride” thing freaked me out, so we opted for a destination ceremony with close friends & family).
I know we did some things pretty wrong with our reception, but we did others very, very right. The whole reception was SO laid back, with no expectations. It was so easy on me & everyone. We chose a venue that coordinated everything & even handled cleanup and transported the gifts to a secure location for us. That was probably the absolute best part.
Food is VERY important – I had never really thought about it, but our venue required us to spend a specific $$ amount on food/beverage as part of our rental, so we ended up going with higher-end offerings than we had intended. Everyone kept commenting on how fantastic it was.
Something we kind of slacked on was music – we just got some speakers & hooked up a spotify playlist, but it wasn’t a great mix of stuff for ALL our guests to enjoy (mostly just us and our friends). My family specifically complained about that one… ALSO, our dance floor was kind of off to the side of the room, which made less people inclined to dance. Nobody could really even see our wedding dance, which was upsetting. Major FAIL.
We ended up ordering our cake & flowers just from the local grocery store chain & they turned out fantastic! I am glad I went to the flower shop the day before the reception to look at the arrangements, though, because they made them with no filler so they were tiny & too symmetrical. I told them to add some greenery & make them more organic, which made all the difference and they came out gorgeous!
Also, if outdoor wedding party photos are going to be taken, take note of the weather and plan accordingly – we were running around town (me in my giant poofy dress) in 100 degree weather with 95% humidity and IT. WAS. MISERABLE.
Good luck with everything, I’m sure the event will be brilliant. There’s no way it couldn’t be 🙂
My sister-in-law just had her reception in the SLC county building…on the third or fourth floor. The architecture is gorgeous inside and outside. It would word well for a luncheon.
My sister does flowers in Salt Lake City. Her website is trishflowers.com. (I know, it sounds like a porn star site) Tricia really does a great job and while the pictures on her website are mostly traditional, she is good at thinking outside the box.
How exciting! Congrats to your sister and her fiancee – that’s so exciting!! I love all your ideas.
http://www.lifeisjustrosie.com
Exciting!! Alisha at Oakstream Photography is crazy amazing! Link below to the blog (with vendors lists and the whole shebang to give you ideas!) and link to her website. I love that Alisha doesn’t do boring. She really captures your personality and works with you to create something unique. She is very busy so I don’t know if you would have luck with such short notice. You might run into that with a lot of vendors/photographers.
https://oakstreamphotography.com/blog/?cat=6
https://www.oakstreamphotography.com/
Check out Jadie Jo Photography! She does amazing work and is awesome to work with. You can see lots of examples of her work on her facebook page or her blog/website .
https://www.jadiejophotography.com/
P.S. Tell Amy I say hi 🙂
I had two little sisters get married last year. It’s almost more exciting than your own! The one piece of advice I would give is to delegate as many of the responsibilities for the day of the wedding/reception to people who are not in or attending, so everyone (yourself included, but especially the bride) can really be present and enjoy the beautiful day without stressing about details.
Everyone’s tips are fantastic. Julie’s #4 item is one thing people don’t mention (meltdowns), but plan on at least one. My future sister-in-law pulled her son out of our wedding a few hours before the wedding and I had a bridesmaid do a total meltdown on me because of something I wouldn’t do (the request was ridiculous and out of line). Fun times!
For cakes, check out Sam’s, Costco, Walmart and Target. I have tasted wedding cakes from all of these places and they were amazing. I am a huge cake snob and I was very impressed. Costco and Sam’s are my favorites.
I have been married for many, many years, and weddings have changed quite a bit. I agree with everyone’s suggestions. Hopefully these tips will make the planning process easier for you and your sister. Main thing is to have fun.
Just adding that succulents are BRILLIANT for a bouquet!!! So beautiful and unexpected!
You have to look up Justin Hackworth photography. He’s the BEST. He has the best eye, the best personality and he’s the best at capturing small moments. We used him for our engagements and would have used him for our wedding if we had married in UT. He’s located in Provo. I’m so excited to see all your wedding stuff! I’m pretty sure you should include “love your guts” somewhere into the decorations. 😉
I’m getting married in September. I can say by far the best decision we made was the location-we chose a ranch. Because a ranch is by nature imperfect I feel absolutely no pressure to go all OCD with everything. Since she’s obviously not going for a ranch style, I just recommend going into planning with the idea that it’s just a big family gathering where, hey! someone’s getting married, too! Everything will come together, just get started on the creating now so the fun can be had later 🙂
yay! so exciting. here’s what i learned from planning and decorating my own wedding this september and my best friend’s 2 yrs ago: everything costs a ton more than you realize. I spent hundreds at Michaels for paper, ribbons, etc. so start early and go daily to use those RMN and store coupons! also, try your decorations out early if you are doing your own centerpieces etc. That helped a lot so we could tweak. For my own centerpieces, I used spray adhesive to stick awesome paper from a craft store to plain dollar store vases. Also, flowers were crazy expensive so I ordered from sams club online, they delivered 2 days before and were gorgeous. I also used my local whole foods who worked with my budget and did beautiful work. lastly, I had the help of a free wedding coordinator who we knew and offered her services in exchange for using our pictures on her website. as a diy-er, I thought this was totally unnecessary, but seriously, the day of is so crazy and so many things to think of and do, that it was so wonderful to have her there to take care of every last detail, so I (and my bridesmaids) could just have fun and be in the moment!!! good luck, cant wait to see!
OK, try Carol’s Cakes and Pastry Shop in Salt Lake for the cake (https://www.urbanspoon.com/r/54/1621362/restaurant/Sugar-House/Carols-Pastry-Shop-Salt-Lake-City) and Sunshine Creation Floral in South Jordan for flowers (https://www.sunshinecreationfloral.com/) Good luck!!
I had a great photographer for my wedding. She lives in somewhere in SLC. Val Dahlin owner of Valory Jean Photography. I would recommend looking at her shoots to see if it is the style your sister is looking for. But there are like a million photographers in Utah Co. to choose from. Best of luck. – First time I’ve commented- “Hello Friend!”
Too bad we can’t help! You’ve already gotten some great advice above!
#1. Hire a day-of coordinator to set up and style the wedding for you – it will make everyone feel way more relaxed! I promise you’ll be glad you did.
#2. Make a to-do list of DIY projects/crafts and try to get one thing done each day and get everything done at least 1 week before the wedding to allow you time to handle any unexpected hurdles.
#3. I saw this above but don’t skimp on a photographer! Check out Chantel Marie, /www.chantelmarie.com. We’ve done a couple of things with her here in Las Vegas and her photography is so unique, love!
Best of luck!
Oh how exciting!! My brother recently got engaged as well, and they have asked me to be matron of honor, as well as the wedding planner. Like you, I’ve never done it before (other than my own with the help of my mom), but I’m just diving in head first! It’s so fun!! The best advice we got for our wedding: “Let it breathe.” The wedding will take a life of its own and kind of go in a certain direction….let it. It may not be exactly what you envisioned, but it will be perfect. Just let is breathe! 🙂
I would very highly recommend Jessica St. Thomas https://stthomasfloraldesign.com/ or Megan Dunford https://www.facebook.com/pages/Persimmon-Floral/103721218193 I have worked with them both for years and trust them completely to do an awesome job for a really fair price. I am florist myself and would only recommend others I know are awesome.
There are so many good photographers in that area! Here’s one off the top of my head: https://www.unlostphotography.com/ Good luck!
Wow, thanks for the referral! 🙂
Mandi. Settle down. Set-tle down! You are undoubtedly THE most talented creative BRILLIANT girl out there in the blog-a-mania. I have 5 coming into my email, including VR. My sweet – also talented – girl friend who got me into this bloggy world, started blogging a few years back. We worked together in a Design/Build here in Sacramento, where I am still ensconced, so I know design. (She will always be one o my 5.) You are such a natural. Your fertile mind and it’s extension hands, humble me. (And I believe whole heartedly that I am a very talented designer.) You will have all of us sighing in awe over this lucky lil’ sisters wedding. I for one, can not WAIT! (Uhhh, really Mandi, no pressure! you can and will do this!) Hugs Lady, Ellen
I would 100% recommend Jonathan Canlas as a photographer. He is pricey but unbelievable!!
You’ll do great! Do what you can yourself, don’t skimp on the photographer or the entertainment…you’ll only have the photographs when all is said and done and people will remember how good or bad the entertainment was. Keeping food good over fancy is best on a budget. A great sandwich wrapped in butcher paper is much better than a cold or low quality cut of meat.
How exciting! I’m curious to know who planned your own wedding?
Jessica Kettle photography. She’s freaking amazing. And would TOTALLY fit that style.
here blog: https://lookthroughmylens.blogspot.com/
I would highly recommend Heather Nan at heathernanphotography.com!!! She was amazing to work with and the pictures turned out beautifully!
My brother and sil had their reception here https://www.facebook.com/SLCHardware. It had an amazing industrial feel but is still super elegant and chique. Your picture above reminded me of it.
One thing I learned from planning my wedding is that you really need to be able to accept that every little detail does not have to be ‘perfect’. If you focus too much on getting every single bow tied perfectly, or every paper cut perfectly square , you are going to run out of time, and fast, especially with a wedding that is so close. I learned that I had to accept help as it came, and let go some of the control, knowing that everyone else may not be as much of a perfectionist as I am. At the end of the day, when everything was put together, it WAS perfect, and no one but nitpicky people like you and I would notice anything different.
On another note, this seems a no brainer, but be as organized as you can before that day, so that when that day comes, you have a game plan, you know where everything is, and you have it organized in such a way that others can help with setup and you can get everything done quickly so you don’t miss out on getting ready with your sister. For example, we had all the table decor well organized in advance, and that day, my mom and I set up one table completely, then explained where everything was to our helpers, and they used our example to set the other tables. I was amazed how quickly setup went that way.
On a side note for your sister, the only thing I regretted was not having a video of the wedding. Even if it’s just a family member with a video camera and not necessarily a videographer, make sure someone gets it on tape.
My husband and I had a day wedding with tan dresses and gold and silver accents! It all sounds beautiful and I wish you and your sister lots of fun planning! A suggestion I have are lawn games for entertainment. We had corn hole boards painted white with our face silhouettes (his on one, mine on the other). We also vintage bocce ball., horseshoes and croquette. Our guests seemed to really enjoy them and it made for great pictures!
Good luck! Sounds fun! If you need any help, I live in SL county and would be happy to assist!
My only suggestion would be for the cake. Dippidees in American Fork does beautiful and yummy cakes!
Oh wait, maybe look into Costco for flowers. I heard that you can order flowers through them (especially bulk babies breath) and the quality and price is exceptional. Don’t know for myself, but I’d definitely check into it.
I am planning my own wedding at the moment. With pretty much the same ‘vibe’ I would love to see the projects and DIY decor you come up with ! So exciting !
If you want an industrial vibe then Pierpont Place in Downtown Salt Lake is a beautiful venue. My cousin had her reception there and it was gorgeous.
I also have a HUGE collection of vintage white milkglass vases that I’m happy to rent to her if she’d like!
(I also design wedding/bridal shower invites if you’re interested)
Laura Hildebrand
[email protected]
Holy smokes it will be a beautiful wedding!! And a wedding that gorgeous will want to be saved with amazing pictures by amazing photographers. Check out Brody Dezember Photography. I’m telling you now, that’s the area NOT to skimp on the budget with. It’s the only thing left after it’s all over. That’s my only recommendation because I see it as the most important.
hi Mandi!
Excited for your sister and anxious and excited for you!
I have followed your blog along with many others for many years, so you could say i’m a little bit of a photographer snob, so to speak. The best one i have seen lately and for a KILLER price is Shannon Elizabeth Photography (https://www.shannonelizabethphoto.com/index2.php#/home/). I didn’t use her for mine when i got married in 2011, but i so wish i had known about her so i could’ve! Her pricing seriously rocks and her editing is unreal!!!
Although, if price isn’t a huge issue and she is willing to spend more on a photographer, HANDS DOWN my all time favorite is Rachel Thurston (https://www.rachelthurston.com/), no contest!
My other word of advice and the only thing i regret not having was a videographer. Obviously, good photos are great and there’s nothing like them, but a good videographer can make you fall back in love all over again so fast. I feel like all i do when i see wedding videos is fall in love with the couple in them.
Good luck and hope that one of the photographers works for you!
i can’t believe i forgot this too, but for and up and coming florist that is SOOOOO reasonably priced and her work is stunning, look into Merit & Vine by Ashley Nackos (https://www.meritandvine.com/). Her and Shannon (as mentioned above) work together a lot and i’m telling you they would be right up your alley, style and personality wise.
don’t be talking like march 28th is right around the corner…that’s my due date!! can’t wait to see what y’all come up with though. just describing it sounds beautiful.
Salt Lake Hardware building is a MUST. Love that place!
The websites that helped me the most when I was getting married were A Practical Wedding and Offbeat Bride. On my blog I wrote posts about a DIY Photo Booth, DIY Votive Jars and DIY Personalized Hershey Kisses. I hope this helps! Planning a wedding is really fun, especially if it is not your own!
Title
I actually found out about your website from your mom. I live in the same neighborhood and I am so glad she told me about your website because I am in LOVE with it. I love my engagements and bridal pictures SO much. I would totally recommend Becca Lund https://rdlphoto.blogspot.com/ She does such an amazing job and is so creative!
https://wmelondesigns.blogspot.com/2013/07/loverbird-wedding.html
I totally understand! I DIYed my whole wedding too! We did it to save money because we had an extremely tight budget. We did a mid-day wedding with a light lunch/dessert buffet instead of a party all night kind of wedding
I ordered my own flowers on wholeblossoms.com and did my own floral arrangements, bouquets and boutonnieres. With the help of my family I also made a custom lace ribbon backdrop and I made my own dessert stands for the dessert table. You can check out more info and pictures at my blog! http://chocolate-coveredlove.com
Good Luck!
Florist: Ashley Beyer of Tinge Floral (tingefloral.com) She’s hands down the best in my eyes
Photographer: https://lookthroughmylens.blogspot.com/ or
https://ciara-richardson.com/blog/
Good luck! I’m sure whatever you do will be amazing!!
https://www.jonwoodburyphotography.com/
He is amazing…his wife does beyond stunning flowers as well.
Ohh how exciting, I love weddings! I planned my sister’s wedding 5 years ago and DIYed a lot of it, it was so exhausting. Forget about cutesy favors and too many homemade decorations–simple is the way to go. If you have an amazing space for the luncheon, then flowers is all you’ll need. My cousin used this florist for her Draper temple wedding and I just about died at how gorgeous everything she did looked. Honey of a Thousand Flowers:
https://sarahwinward.com/flowers/
Also, I’d recommend doing the bridal portraits before the wedding so everyone isn’t standing around waiting for the happy couple for two hours after the ceremony. Takes the stress down a notch for everybody.
The only thing I would suggest (and this comes from experience after planning my and my 2 sisters weddings) is to be sure that you have someone (not family) you trust to be in charge of the event on the day of the wedding. It’s okay if you want to be sure that things are put in their proper places and set up to your liking however, you will be plenty busy as the sister of the bride posing in photos and enjoying her day as well that you will not want to miss out on stuff or end up being crazy sweaty and flat haired in all the pictures and during the event because you wanted everything to be just perfect so you busted your but and realized too late that you didn’t have enough time to make yourself look good or feel rested to enjoy the day yourself. (Yep, that was me at my sister’s wedding and almost at my own.) Luckily I learned my lesson and when my baby sister was married I got to plan and be a part of making it beautiful but I enjoyed the wedding and didn’t have to work the day of!
Hi Mandi – I’ve been a long time follower of your blog (silently! I’m a terrible commenter!) But I thought I’d throw this out there for a venue: the BTG Wine Bar in Salt Lake City. You don’t even need to drink/like wine! It’s an incredibly cool space though pretty small so it may not accommodate a big guest list, but it’s got that loft-like feel you might be going for! (photo here!: https://www.utahbrideblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/UBB-Winter2013_455-3.jpg) (Venue here: https://btgwinebar.com/)
Other small, loft-like places you might consider would be Pallet (https://eatpallet.com/) or The Rose Establishment (https://theroseestb.com/)- they DEFINITELY have the look you’re going for but I’m not sure if they do private events!
As for photography, I’m actually a wedding photographer downtown and I would love to talk to Miranda more about her day 🙂 I actually see someone else on here already recommended me which is so sweet! My website is here: (https://unlostphotography.com) and my blog is here: (https://photography.stayunlost.com) You or Miranda can email me any time at [email protected] if you’d like! Again I’m a big fan of yours so it’d be an honor 🙂
xo!
Daryl
Unlost Photography
How exciting! What a wonderful time to spend with your sister! I’m sure every creation you come up with will be fabulous and I can’t wait to see it!
I’m currently in the middle of coordinating/planning/DIYing my way through my 8th wedding (including my own)! It’s basically been non-stop weddings for the past 2 or 3 years and the thing I tell every bride or person heavily involved in the planning or creating of weddings is take a breath. Everything will fall together perfectly on time. And if it doesn’t…or something goes wrong the day of, no one will even notice. Unless of course you make a big deal about it. But guaranteed, if you let it go and remember why everyone is there and what the day is about, NO ONE WILL EVER NOTICE! Don’t sweat the small stuff for worry about everything coming together perfectly. Something will probably go wrong but no one else will notice! They will never know the difference. All they’ll see is a beautiful wedding.
Happy planning and DIYing! Can’t wait to see it all!
One of the best things I did when my hubby and I got married was to create a wedding website to help us keep track of important information and communicate with our bridal party and guests. We got an account with weddingwindow.com and I absolutely loved it! It was very user-friendly and it allowed me to manage my guest list and RSVPs electronically–I was even able to give guests a code on their RSVP cards that allowed them to RSVP online instead of having to mail back the card! SO many of our guests commented on how convenient and neat they thought that was. We were also able to post information about the hotel accommodations we made for our out of town guests, links to our gift registries, information about our venue and vendors, etc. We also added some nice personal touches, like a photo album with pictures of our engagement, a “How well do you know us?” quiz and some cute puzzles (I was so surprised to hear people say how much fun they had playing with those puzzles–go figure!). It was really fun to create and even more fun to share! I ordered the keepsake CD so that even after the website was taken down, I could still look back at it and see everything, especially the sweet notes left in our guestbook. I highly recommend it!
My sister helped plan (read: did almost EVERYTHING for) my wedding and it was such a wonderful bonding experience for us. Enjoy every second! Best wishes to the bride-to-be!
Hi Mandi! So excited that you are planning a wedding. I read nothing but design and decor blogs (I used to be an interior designer), yours is one of my faves of course, but I am a full time wedding designer and planner who would love to help you guys out! If you need help with design, coordination, anything really…I would love to help! I’m assuming since this is being overseen by you it’s going to be awesomesauce so I would happily do everything for FREE in exchange for the awesome images I’m sure this shindig will provide, just travel to salt lake, which wouldn’t be bad maybe a couple hundred? I know you probably aren’t even looking for a planner since you are such a DIYer, and you are probably wondering why this crazy person (me) has hi-jacked your comments, but you should definitely consider getting a coordinator to set everything up- so you and your sis can actually enjoy the wedding day! I swear I’m not crazy, just a big fan of yours who would be tickled pink to collaborate with you 🙂 Check out my website http://www.jenniferlauradesign.com
Congratulations! Years ago, I did all of the flowers for my sister’s wedding. My big mistake was scale to the venue. What seemed big in my home appeared small in the giant space of the church and reception room. I lived 3 hours away. At my wedding, my sister went around acting like my emotional body guard. She took care of problems before I knew they existed. Including rounding up all of the items needed to completely wash, dry and restyle my professionally done hair about an hour before the wedding. (My trusted hair stylist made me into Sally from Charlie Brown. Maybe I shorted her tip once? I have no idea.) So to recap, make to scale decorations and protect the Bride!
I planned and designed my own wedding.
https://wendyjamesdesigns.com/get-creative-with-reception-seating/
https://wendyjamesdesigns.com/create-natural-outdoor-lighting/
https://wendyjamesdesigns.com/pretty-simple-centerpieces/
https://wendyjamesdesigns.com/make-your-own-invites/
The advice that I can give you is to hire a day-of coordinator–maybe a friend of a friend? The reason I stress this is so that you can enjoy your sister’s special day. I basically designed everything, wrote out instructions, handed it over to my day-of coordinator, and totally relaxed and enjoyed the day. If problems arose, she handled it. If something didn’t work quite as I had envisioned, she took care of it. My mom and I didn’t have to worry about a thing. It was honestly the best money we spent!
Good luck. I cannot wait to see what you do!
dude, you know the best cake decorator in SLC already!!! Succulents, blush and metallics? you know how GORGEOUS that cake would be? check out my cake pinterest board. (and my sister is a rockin photographer)
Congrats to your sister and steady as she goes to you as the wedding planner. My daughter was married last August in a destination wedding in the Florida Keys (she lives in D.C.). My best suggestion is to get a ring binder and page protectors, the vinyl slide in from the top ones work best. Here you will put EVERYTHING related to each phase of the process. Copies of pictures of anything you like, colors, proposals, notes of conversations with vendors, business cards, etc. Because you will not remember where you saw something, print out a copy of it if on the web, or take a picture of it and print it out. When you begin to finalize things, put the contracts in there and remember nothing verbal, every little item or request must be in writing and signed by the vendor. That keeps there from being an misunderstandings later. Carry your wedding “bible” with you when you are working on things and you will have anything you need at your fingertips. This little bit of organization was what kept my daughter’s wedding the PERFECT day that it was. Good Luck and God Bless.
Awww!! Congrats to them and good luck missy to you , you’re gonna be BUSY!!!
All the best
Shannon
Hire a day-of-coordinator and someone to run the reception/luncheon!!!!!!!!! It’s the best money you will spend!!!!!
I just got married 13 months ago. 160 people, light dinner buffet, tons of flowers. All for about 10k.
https://thedomesticlady.com/my-wedding/
oh and take all the family/bridal party photos before the wedding. It makes the day run SO much smoother!
We used Pepper Nix for our photos (peppernix.com) and she is 100000000% amazing. Her packages include an engagement shoot, she is the funnest person ever, and her photos are beyond gorgeous. She is able to capture not only the moments but the EMOTION and personality of every person there! LOVE HER!
Oh, and yes, that first photo that pops up on her website (the couple on the beach) is me and the hubby. I didn’t even realize that until I went to her site just now.
An awesome photographer is Christy at CheapShots! Photography. She has an incredible sense of humor, is great with groups or just the bride and groom shots, knows her way around the temples here, and is so much fun to work with.
https://www.cheapshotsllc.com/
(And the blush color makes me think of Steel Magnolias-“My colors are Blush and Bashful.” “Your colors are pink and pink.” They will be beautiful!)
We DIY’d our wedding decor, flowers, centrepieces, hairpieces, cake, etc and it was essentially a long distance planning event (we were having the wedding in my husband’s home town 2.5 hours away).
My tips:
Keep it simple, too much stuff and it’s going to be a pain to transport and set up.
Get family and friends to help, my mom & cousin made the cake, my mother in law helped with making the tablecloths, Lot’s of people came to help set up etc.
Big Rubbermaid tubs are the best for organizing & hauling.
Have a planning board all set up for the reception, how are your tables going to be set up? Plates? Hanging decorations? If you have something visual for helpers to see it makes delegating tasks much easier.
If you have a venue that will allow it try to book the day after for takedown. We didn’t and it’s a pain to take down a wedding reception at 3am when you are exhausted.
I really recommend checking out offbeatbride.com because a lot of the women there DIY’d their weddings and there are lots of really good tips and checklists for things to remember.
Don’t get caught up in perfection. There will be lot’s to do and definitely not enough time to do it.
As several other people mentioned, Do Not skimp on the photography. We did and it is the thing I regret most. After all the dust has settled those photos are what’s left.
We used a lot of succulents in my bouquet and as the cake topper, which we then re-rooted and got to keep! My mom has an exceptionally green thumb, so she takes all the credit for the re-rooting. But I was pleased with my idea about the cake topper, so that I could keep those moments alive… literally!
https://www.tupelopix.com/Weddings/Leif-and-Emily-Lacey/25944854_9czTGG#!i=2155930848&k=kx2Nx5C
https://www.tupelopix.com/Weddings/Leif-and-Emily-Lacey/25944854_9czTGG#!i=2155940086&k=vwhPCLG
My mom also got a few flats of baby succulents which she planted into 50 year old tiny pots that she had, and that’s what we gave away to our guests. They adored them and many of them still tell me they’re alive today!
https://www.tupelopix.com/Weddings/Leif-and-Emily-Lacey/25944854_9czTGG#!i=2151593016&k=WHhVP72
My all time favorite photographer: https://nicolespixiedust.blogspot.com/
She is amazing!
Also, never discount lighting.
Good luck! I love the decorating aspect of events.
I got married this past summer and my dear sister helped me with all of my wedding planning. I live and got married in Indiana… and she lives in Texas. Needless to say, we relied SO MUCH on email and FaceTime. 🙂 We made our own invitations, decorations, food, everything. My wedding of almost 300 guests with a sit-down dinner cost less than $3,000! I did not want anything extravagant, so we went relatively simple with the decorations (especially because the church is so beautiful anyway, it didn’t need much added to it!). Thankfully we had so many talented friends and family that pitched in to make our day a success. My husband’s aunt designed the invites, his uncle made all the desserts including the cake, several ladies from church who are amazing cooks helped prepare all the food. Enlist help from your friends- they’re a great resource! 🙂
So I know you said they had to be in Salt Lake City, but my best friend’s photographer was AMAZING and she travels. (The photog lives on the East Coast and my bf in Texas). She even met them in NYC on their honeymoon and did a day of pics with them in the city! Her company is Popography (popography.com).
My bf also did a completely DIY wedding…down to the flower girl dresses and ring bearer suspenders! Her wedding was featured on several blogs and turned out so beautiful! Here’s a link to one of the features: https://thereddirtbride.com/2013/10/21/love-in-the-trees/
P.S. I made the cupcakes and I’m really proud of how they turned out! 😀
Hey Mandi! Congrats to your sis! I’m a Utah photographer! I’m a little late in the game, but if you’re still looking for someone, my prices are reasonable…check out my blog for recent work and send me an email if your sister is interested! It would be a dream if she chose me, because I know you’ll do a fantastic job planning her wedding! You have such great taste!!
I second the spreadsheet comment, and the food comment! We got married at a hotel with restaurant attached. The restaurant is known in the area for their happy hour selections – but we liked that it was pretty well furnished, went with the overall vibe we were going for, and all we did was add candles and flowers to the tables. It was perfect! More than three years later, people still rave about the food & atmosphere. My favorite thing, though, is that we can go back on special occasions and relive the night 🙂 Also, don’t underestimate the power of a good DJ. I didn’t think about it at all – we went with a good friend’s recommendation – but he ended up being the glue that put it all together. Some people don’t do DJs, especially for small weddings, and I think you can still have a great event as long as you have someone that is willing to play emcee for a while, and someone who is willing to take requests. A preset playlist is a good starting point, but sometimes the vibe is different than you thought it would be at different times, so requests or adjustments will definitely be made /)
We rented a photobooth. At this point I’m sure its a well known thing and may have been a bit cliche or expected. But we loooved it. Seriously I couldve just had a dress and the booth because it was amazing. I had a CD of all of the photos so I could print them out whenever. My guests got a keepsake and they had a TON of fun with it. THere was a constant line and people still say to me how much fun they had!
K, so photography. So not an area to skimp out on. I used to do photography… got featured on a few blogs but then decided I didn’t like the pressure of clients. That being said…I still belong to a photographer forum of some of the most talented photographers in the state. One of my favorites is alyssia b photography. Another one is jacque lynn photography. If i we’re getting married again i would choose alyssia or Kristina Curtis photography… She’s another one that is amazing. Videographers would be roz photography and videography and krissi cook productions. Good luck!
The Salt Lake City Hardware building is the perfect loft space!
Mandi, I’m so excited for you (oh yeah, and for your sister too). Planning a wedding is a lot of fun and a lot of stress. I planned a pretty crazy/intense wedding at my Grandparents farm in Maine back in 2011. We had to do a ridiculous amount of work (which I happily did) only to have Hurricane Irene ruin everything the weekend before. We ended up using our “Plan B”, thank God we had one! If you want to read about that whole disaster, please check it out: https://dibride.blogspot.com/2011/11/wedding-part-i-preparations-fri-tues.html – so my advice to you (and to your twinsie sister Miranda) is this: things will go wrong. The important thing to keep in mind is that at the end of it all, you pledged your lives to each other – and that kind of love and dedication is mind-blowing, and far bigger than any stupid Hurricane that totally ruins inland Maine. Best of luck and Congrats!!
Get a 3 ring binder numbered tabs and sheet protectors. Use each numbered section for each element of your event, ie reception, flowers, dress, etc…keep all your documents related to the event in the sheet protectors filed in the appropriate catagory. Carry this with you when visiting vendors. Will need someone not directly involved on the day of to keep the event progressing as planned, ie photos,cake cutting, first dance etc. Enjoy
I had my wedding reception at the Alpine Art Center. Not super industrial like the picture, but a total cool vibe. I loved it. Alpine is not too far from the draper temple (Just over the mountain)
not sure if it’s already been recommended, but check out wheelerfarm.com!
whoa, the website makes the place look cheesy! But they have this amazing, wide open barn that when paired with wedding decor is absolutely stunning. Perfect space to do what you want with.
My good friend Rebekah is an AMAZING photographer. She would be perfect for your style. https://www.rebekahwestover.com/
No one has mentioned catering yet? I am a little surprised but I would say that as a foodie I think the food is the most important! It keeps guests entertained and sticking around. No one likes a reception where people grab some fruit and then leave. Splurge a little on the food!
I have been to a wedding before catered by Savory and they are AH-mazing. Their food is all hand-made and so so tasty. They had these beef tenderloin bites with some cheese-y sauce, and some out of this world sweet potato cakes that were so so so good. And they served a mocktail in cute martini glasses while everyone arrived. My friend was very happy with their service and willingness to make her day HER DAY. You have high expectations for a wedding so you want to make it special.
http://www.SavoryEventCatering.com
Sarah Winward of Honey of a Thousand Flowers is RIDICULOUSLY talented and wonderful to work with! We got complimented on the flowers over and over again throughout the day.
http://www.sarahwinward.com
My SIL is Tara Winsor, of Winsor Photography. She is AMAZING and works wonders with a camera. I thought that before she was my SIL, just in case you’re wondering.
My husband and I opted for a luncheon instead of a reception and it was great! I felt stressed about everything, but not nearly as bad as a full blown wedding. In fact, I can’t imagine planning a full blown wedding! I’m convinced that a luncheon is the way to go.
Check out http://www.kalefitchfilms.com he is the best for video!
Try SL Hardware Co – I went to a wedding there and it was really cool – loft hardware type location. Near Gateway downtown SLC
Only a month late, but I will praise Samantha Kelly Photography til the day I die. She’s the best. Also she and her husband do videography together so win win!