Ceremony Timing

We get a lot of questions about timing so I figured a blog post (or two) on the subject might be helpful.

"Prime Time" for ceremonies in our Gazebo is the early evening hours so that guests can go straight to cocktails and then dinner without a gap in between functions. We block one hour in the gazebo and actual ceremonies usually only last about 20-25 minutes. So if you block the gazebo beginning at 4pm, this is how that hour looks:

4pm: Start your music. This is the time you have listed on the wedding invitations, so guests should be arriving a bit before and, invariably, some will come a few minutes late.

4:10pm: Bridal procession starts.

4:40pm: Recessional. Guests will be directed by the officiant to the cocktail area and leaves about 20 minutes for pictures in the Gazebo.

If the bride and groom have done pictures prior to the ceremony, they should be able to wrap up the family pictures fairly quickly and join the reception in plenty of time to enjoy themselves.

I'll leave you with a great shot from Courtney and Elmer's wedding here on September 4th. Courtney wanted to make sure she had a picture of every single person at their wedding, so Matt got up on the balcony and this was the result. Great idea, Courtney!

Rain Back Up

We always have to have a back-up plan in case of rain. We've pulled more wedding ceremonies this season than any since I started here in 2008, but of 40+ weddings so far we've only pulled 4 so that's still pretty good.

This past weekend we had FOUR weddings on Saturday (and two on Friday, but who's counting?) and we had to pull the earliest one inside. The weather was still iffy from the morning storms when we started to set up and with the ground soggy and the temps in the low 60's, we decided the guests would be a lot more comfortable sitting in the Harbor Ballroom with a lovely view of the lake. Here are a couple of pictures...

It's definitely not my favorite thing to have to tell a bride we're pulling in her ceremony, but unfortunately this is Wisconsin so there's always a chance of that happening. For brides who are NOT ok with the possibility, I suggest they get married in a church. Thankfully the bride this weekend was very gracious and everything went well in the end.

Real Wedding September 4 - Part Two

I'm so incredibly excited to share these images with you from Saturday night. The Harbor Ballroom looked AMAZING and Matt Mason captured it in all it's glory just before the wedding guests entered. Thanks, Matt!

The bride had a vision of a "Roaring 20's" feel with lots of feathers and black and white. The only flowers were the girls' bouquets which sat on the head table, so the centerpieces on guest tables by Gia Bella Floral were made of either feathers or candles.

Our AV department really outdid themselves on the lights. There were 16 "uplights" all around the room and an additional 10 under the head table. They also had a GOBO on the dance floor in Courtney and Elmer's monogram.

We had white chair covers on all the chairs except for the head table, which had black covers. All the chairs had black and white ties. All guest tables had our house white table cloths but rented black napkins.

There were two square family tables at the front of the room. We created the rectangular shape using our conference tables and then special linens were rented. We chose to do those in black to really set them apart from the rest of the tables. Because there is a seam down the middle, we used a runner that matched the chair ties to hide it. These tables looked appropriate using the house white napkins.

Ah, the head table - this absolutely took my breath away! They had two tiers with seating for 8 on the riser and 10 on the floor. The linens matched the chair ties and then we had the black chair covers behind them. To really set it off, we did black draping behind the table and lit both tiers from underneath.

The crisp whiteness of the cake atop the black cloth really looked amazing, don't you think?

Real Wedding - September 4, 2010

Yesterday was one of those days that makes September so incredibly popular for weddings. The beauty of the blue skies over the lake was surpassed only by the beauty of this incredible bride, Courtney. She was a joy to get to know over the last few months and I will truly miss working with her to create what she called her "dream wedding."

Below is where their "first look" happened. Courtney and Elmer wanted to get most of the photos out of the way early in the day so that once their friends and family gathered, they could give them their full attention. They met at the end of the Fontana Pier...

All photos courtesy of Matt Mason Photography.

I'm hoping to get some pictures of the Harbor Ballroom, which many people said has never looked better so stay tuned for that. It was quite a party!

Best wishes to Courtney and Elmer! Congrats!

FIRE!

In case you haven't heard, there was a fire here at The Abbey on Saturday. Not to worry, the resort is still standing. It took them a while to find the source of it so the entire hotel was evacuated for about two hours beginning at noon. Turns out there were magazines and towels near a hot duct in a maid's closet and that's what was smoldering. It could have been a lot worse.

For me, it REALLY could have been a lot worse since I had a wedding that day. Going into this weekend, I knew Lacy was wonderful to work with and asked her many times to write an S.O.P. for future brides but on Saturday, she was AMAZING! She and Alan were right in the middle of their couple's massage, just 5 hours before they were to say their vows when all this happened. They stood on the lawn in robes and flip flops and even posed for pictures next to the fire trucks. They made what could have been a disaster, FUN! What great stories they will always have!

In the end, the ceremony and reception went off without a hitch and I'm currently stalking the photographer's blog to have the pictures to prove it. Congratulations to Alan and Lacy and a big THANK YOU for being so wonderful on a weekend I'm sure I'll never forget!

Real Wedding - July 31, 2010

We had a GORGEOUS wedding here this past Saturday with an equally GORGEOUS bride, as you'll see from the pictures below. Tia and Mark were mostly concerned with making sure their guests had FUN, so they actually had a late ceremony (7:30pm) followed by cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, and of course cake.

All photographs courtesy of Kristin La Voie.

I took some very amateur pictures of my own that I hope to post tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Real Wedding - July 10, 2010

It's been quite a while since I've had a chance to post anything - summers are really busy around here, which is a very good thing! But when I saw these photos on Bella Pictures' website, they were too beautiful not to post on the blog.

The area near the spa is a favorite for photographers.

This is the best moment at a wedding - all the stress is behind you and it's time to just relax and have FUN! Congrats to Jodi and Mike!