Happy Valentine's Day!

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Valentine's Day!!


Here's some of my favorite "romantic" wedding pics from past clients! :)

Why I'm partial to February 5th

Sunday is one of my favorite days of the year… February 5^th!   Why, you ask?  Well, there’s multiple reasons.

As much as I’d like to say that I remember ALL of my past client’s wedding days, in reality I’m getting enough “past clients” under my belt now that it’s becoming really hard to remember all of their anniversaries.  However, I will ALWAYS remember February 5^th as the day that Emily & Dave tied the knot.  Other than being a loving and memorable couple, Emily & Dave’s wedding was really special for a couple of reasons.

1.    They were the fourth generation in a row married on February 5^th.  What a cool tradition!

2.    I met one of my favorite photographers, Shannon Schwabe of Clicking Through Life that day.  She’s amazingly talented and is someone that I just truly enjoy working with!

3.    Snowpocolypse…. That’s right, Emily & Dave’s day was highlighted by a crazy, nearly unexpected snow storm that dumped somewhere near a foot, foot and a half of snow on us… in about 5 hours.  It started lightly when I was arriving at the bride’s parent’s house, got stronger through the ceremony and was a blizzard by “I Do”.  However it made for amazing pictures and helped me learn an important lesson…wear pants to winter weddings I work in Michigan (luckily, I had that thought the morning of their wedding and thus was prepared for snow shoveling… yes, I shovel snow for my clients, lol)

4.    Lastly… not only do Emily & Dave share their anniversary with three of Dave’s family members…they also share it with me and my husband! 

That’s right, I was truly blessed to be married to my best friend, Phil, on February 5, 2005.   And because he is everything to me, I knew that I needed to dedicate at least half of a blog post to him, lol.

Our wedding day wasn’t the snow filled affair that Emily & Dave had but the snow was a guest.  Our snow fell one week before the wedding day, nearly a foot of it, and was still glistening when the morning of our wedding broke.  The day was amazing – nearly 40 degrees with a clear blue sky and one of those amazing winter suns that reflects off the sheets of snow and totally blinds you while you’re driving.

We were married at St. Clement Catholic Church in Romeo surrounded by family and friends. The reception began shortly afterwards at the stunning Addison Oaks – a facility that is truly one of my favorites for winter weddings.  It’s an old Tudor mansion that features loads of rich woods and a whole bunch of fireplaces.  Coupled with the white Christmas lights still present, it was a stunning environment!

Now I wasn’t a planner at the time of our wedding but it was this event that helped inspire my love of the industry.  I found that planning the wedding was something that I loved doing.  And let’s face it, anyone that plans a wedding for 333 guests (cool final count, isn’t it!?) and includes an 18 member bridal party (aka our “parade”), has gotten some good experience.  Because of this, February 5^th will also always represent the day that I really realized just how much I would love my future profession!

So here’s to one of my favorite days of the year… February 5^th!  May Emily & Dave have a wonderful FIRST Anniversary.  I hope your first year was amazing and it’s followed by about 100 more! 

And to my favorite person, my Philly, thank you for giving me 7 years of unconditional love and support, a beautiful little girl and a second one on the way!  I can’t wait until our family is complete in May and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life watching our girls grow up with you by my side!

So let’s all raise our glasses to February 5^th  and of course, to Life, Love, Laughter…and Happily Ever After! 

Stephanie & Sean

(Please ignore the “quality” of photos in this post – they’re from my camera phone.  I wasn’t going to include them but the wedding was so amazing that I wanted my readers to get a visual of what I was seeing!)

This past Saturday I had the privilege of being involved as day-of coordinator for the wedding of an old friend from high school, Stephanie.  What an AMAZING event it was!

Stephanie and her husband Sean were married in the historic Masonic Temple in Detroit.  The venue was incredibly romantic, featuring rich colors, dark woods and the unmistakable feeling of a historic atmosphere.  The décor of the ceremony was simple – white kissing balls on tall glass vases and an aisle highlighted by white petals.  Let’s face it…when you’re in Masonic, you don’t NEED anything else!

The couple held their reception at the beautiful Roostertail, also in Detroit.  The wedding was one of the more unique ones I’ve done because the couple had the entire building upstairs and down.  They began the evening with drinks and appetizers upstairs, music from Elite Entertainment’s DJ George Munger, followed by an amazing dinner served by the Roostertail staff. 

After dinner, the party moved downstairs to the lower area that was setup with a nightclub feel.   George went downstairs with all of us, but there was also a full 9 piece band waiting to entertain guests!  The band and DJ rotated playing music throughout the night and kept the dance floor hopping!

The bride and groom started the dancing with a very touching dance to Etta James’ At Last, highlighted by the floor raising up during their first dance (if you haven’t been to Roostertail, it’s a really cool feature on the downstairs dance floor!).  The evening was full of fun, dancing and the AMAZING dessert table provided by the facility.  Guests also enjoyed using Elite’s Photobooth to capture fun memories from the night.

 

So on this, almost one-week anniversary, I’d like to wish the new couple all the best!  May you have years and years of a loving marriage and be very blessed in everything you do! 

What A Year!

Wow!  What a year we have had!

I just received notification that Beautiful Day Planning has received one of the 2012 Bride’s Choice Awards from Wedding Wire!  This award is given to the top 5% of professionals listed on their site and is based on the feedback and ratings from past clients.  I feel very honored to have received this award and can’t thank everyone enough for all of their support this year.  Thank you to my past clients that took the time to rate the company on the site, and thus get me this award, and to all of my friends / family and supporters that helped us achieve our other awards!!

What a year 2011 was for Beautiful Day Planning, LLC!  I’m looking forward to keeping up the momentum in 2012!!

2011 / 2012 Beautiful Day Planning Awards:

2012 Wedding Wire Bride’s Choice Award

2^nd Place, 2011 Detroit A-List Best Wedding Planner

3^rd Place, 2011 Click on Detroit 4 The Best, Best Wedding Planner

BDP On Wedding Wire

Beth & Patrick's Fairytale Production

This summer, our blog begin anew with the post “How About A Wedding?!”.  The entry featured the stunning nuptials of Beth & Patrick, who were married in downtown Detroit.

At this event, I had the privilege of working with the VERY talented crew of Fairytale Productions.  Although I had never worked with the company before, I was immediately blown away by their professionalism, how friendly they were and what I envisioned for the footage they were capturing.  It turns out, the end product was more than even I was expecting.

The company captured the true essence of the wedding and the exact feel of the bride and groom – from their completely heart-felt vows that left few with a dry eye, to their fun-loving attitude and absolute devotion to each-other.

Don’t believe me?  Why not have a look….

Fairytale Productions

Happy New Year! And Happy Birthday BDP!

I wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a HAPPY 2012!!

I am also VERY proud to wish a HAPPY THIRD BIRTHDAY to my company, Beautiful Day Planning!!  Hard to believe we’ve been “official” for three years now… You know what they say, time flies…

This year is going to be a very exciting time for us.  I am thrilled that the company did so well in our competitions last year – earning 2nd place in the “Detroit A-List “ Best Wedding Planner competition and 3rd Place in the Click on Detroit 4 The Best competition!  Both are huge achievements and I couldn’t have gotten there without all of your support!

We are also going to be moving the office into a new dedicated space in a few short weeks!  Although the office will still be located within my home residence, I am THRILLED to finally be getting a truly dedicated space – free of baby toys and other miscellaneous personal items.  It will be GREAET to begin our fourth year with a place all our own!

And of course – the weddings!  We already have a number of wonderful 2012 weddings lined up – beginning with Stephanie and Sean’s nuptials on the 21^st of this month and culminating with the busiest month in our history – September 2012!  However we still have PLENTY of openings so please contact BDP if you’re interested in hearing more about our services!  We are also already booking 2013 events, so please pass on the word!!

To everyone – Happy New Year!  May 2012 bring you everything you want – Life. Love. Laughter.  And, of course…Happily Ever After!

A Spring-Time Girl!

What’s the best way to begin the 2012 peak wedding season?  How about a baby?!

I am pleased to announce that this planner will begin the peak of next year’s wedding season by adding another member to our family.  My second daughter is due in May, just in time for wedding season to heat up!  However, she was thoughtful enough to make sure to work around all of the prior weddings I had already booked, how nice of her, right?!

Of course, details of my “maternity leave” will depend on the actual date of this little girls’ arrival, but I will not be taking on any weddings occurring in April, May or the first two weeks of June next year.  But my current clients can rest easy – work will continue until this baby makes her appearance and will resume via computer after a short break following her birth!

I have to take a second to make an observation.  How nice, to be blessed with two little girls when you’re a wedding planner… this means two weddings to plan for my own daughters!  Do you think it’s too soon to begin?!  ;)