My Best Friend’s Wedding

A few weeks ago, I was able to participate in my best friend from college’s most happy wedding day. It was pretty amazing.

Last week, Hubs and I took her and her new husband to the airport for their honeymoon.

Monday, we talked for a half hour next to our cars after yoga.

And last night, we got to have dinner with her and her husband and another of our lovely friends!

All of this is to say that I have some great photos from the wedding on my phone that I didn’t share here. As my mom pointed out, they’re all from the back! Well, as the wedding planner, that’s usually where I am. ;)

A few friends made her “Sassy Bride” cape for the bachelorette party and it made an appearance at the rehearsal too.

I absolutely love SLU’s College Church. So beautiful.

While the priest was giving the blessing before dinner, I saw the groom put his hand on the small of the bride’s back. It was the sweetest moment. Most couples can’t keep their hands off each other during the reception but this was so simple and innocent and sweet, I had to take a picture of it. It made me tear up during the prayer because it just shows their faith in the very simplest of gestures.

 

I love weddings. :)

A Weekend Full of Celebration

Well, I have been surrounded by wedding celebrations for the past few days.

Last Thursday, Husband and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary. We had dinner at a lovely local steakhouse, thanks to a Groupon we had purchased weeks ago, and spent the night at a great hotel. I love sleeping in fancy hotel beds! They’re the best.

The next morning, I woke up veeeeerrry early to cry during the lovely Royal Wedding. They say it’s going to affect wedding trends for the next twenty years. I just hope it brings back modest wedding dresses – because it’s so desperately needed! The dress, the flowers, the pageantry, it was all so wonderfully perfect. A real life fairy tale.

Once we got done with that wedding, I headed out to B’s wedding cite. B is a friend at work who asked me to help her coordinate her big day – and I was so happy to oblige! We had to set up the tables and centerpieces and sketch out exactly where the rows of chairs would be for the ceremony site.

I was able to corral the wedding party of 18 (including the bride and groom) and all the parents quite effectively. I have this “You Must Listen to Me” voice and somehow, I got everyone’s attention. ;) We had a great rehearsal and then they went off to the rehearsal dinner, while I went home to rest. It was an early morning, after all.

The next day, I was out at the site, to get the flower and cake delivery while the bride was getting dressed upstairs.

Her flowers were a beautiful wild flower mix – it was one of the biggest bridal bouquets I had ever seen, but B is a tall lady and we wanted to make sure the bouquet matched her.

B’s wedding theme was “love birds” so she found these adorable little birds on Etsy and had to have them. They were so cute on top of the cake!

B’s roommate is a master cupcake baker and so we had to have some of them at the wedding as well. The “F'” toppers are for her new married name.

  

My view of the ceremony was perfect. She had all her paparazzi there, of course. The whole event took place at Klondike Park and we set up the ceremony for the cliff in the background. It was so picture perfect – not a drop of rain the entire day! We had kept our fingers crossed for weeks.

My favorite part of the decorations, which I don’t have pictures of yet, are the wicker pomander balls that we tied up with purple polka dot ribbon and added it to the end of each row. SO cute. I’m hoping the photographer got some detail shots.

I plan events for a living but there is something about planning a wedding... The stakes for my events are always high (I want to do a great job for my employer, of course), but a wedding – that’s the day that the bride, groom and all the families will remember forever. And I want every detail to be exactly right.

This bride and groom told me afterwards that they loved every minute of the day and it was perfect. That’s all I can ask for!

Wedding Planning, Here I Come!

You may be asking yourself, Self, isn’t Jessica already married? Why would she be planning a wedding?

Well, I can answer that for you. :) I worked my first wedding as a coordinator this past weekend. This is M’s sister, the one whose wedding I helped with back in July. She asked for my help a few weeks ago and of course I said yes.

M’s sister got married at the Shrine of St. Joseph – one of the most BEAUTIFUL churches in the St. Louis area. It was absolutely gorgeous and the people running the Shrine are the nicest people to work with! I would love to work more weddings there, for so many reasons. If you’re looking for a venue, I would highly recommend it!

I mean, look at these pictures:

  

 

Those candle holders and decorations come with the rental if you want! Aren’t they pretty? :) 

After the excitement of the ceremony, I sent the bride and groom off with the limo and their bridal party to get pictures around the city and I headed to run some errands before the reception. It’s a good thing I got there early, because there are always so many details to attend to!

This picture was in the lobby of the Holiday Inn at Six Flags – such a beautiful hall to have a wedding reception! I don’t feel comfortable sharing any other pictures that show the bride up close, because of privacy issues, but I thought you all would enjoy that one…

And this one. :) Love those exposed beams and chandeliers in the Great Hall!

Now Husband and I are working on creating a business plan and incorporating and all that fun stuff that comes with a small business. We have a few ideas for names, but there’s a lot of research that has to happen before moving forward with those.

One of my favorite names (All in the Details) is apparently chosen by a mother/daughter team somewhere in another state. Plus the Secretary of State’s website indicates the name is already taken in our state. So that one’s out.

My latest favorite is Pixy Productions. Those that follow me on Twitter may recognize that first part of the name – Shortpixy has been my online handle since back in the AOL/AIM days. I think it would be a fitting tribute to use that as my company name, don’t you?

Husband has promised that he’ll help me work on the business paperwork soon and we’ll get things moving. It’s so exciting, because it’s actually happening! Yippee!