Real Wedding - August 14, 2010

I know I'm reeeeeeally late with this one, but it took awhile to get the pictures of Lacy and Alan's wedding from back in August. Remember this post? Well after spending several hours outside in their bathrobes, Lacy and Alan were able to get back into their rooms and fixed up for their beautiful summer wedding....

Lacy is the only bride I've had so far who's been brave enough to make her grand entrance from the 2nd floor - so dramatic! She met her father at the base of the steps and then proceeded down the aisle toward the Harbor Gazebo.

Full disclosure: Lacy did a "dry run" down the stairs in her shoes a few weeks before, just so she'd feel more confident that her entrance wouldn't be THAT dramatic!

The reception was in the Tent and she did a great job working out the colors and lighting. She did a mix of two different shades of blue for both the accent linens and the paper lanterns hung from the ceiling.

Alan, being from England, needed to have a proper traditional English wedding cake. (This was a supplement to the larger American wedding cake.) Inside, it was similar to a fruitcake, but we affectionately called this the "boozecake" because it was marinated in brandy for several weeks prior to the wedding. They also had English truffles on the dessert table, which was the first thing Alan asked me about when I saw them during the fire: "Are the truffles ok?" I thought that was so funny!

Photobooths are so fun! This one was provided by MiPhotoBooth.

All images courtesy of Dean Thorsen Photography.

Congratulations to Alan and Lacy, one of the most fun couples I've ever had the pleasure of working with!

Real Wedding - October 9, 2010

Jacque and Niko got married in Greece this past summer but planned a reception at The Abbey to be held on a beautiful fall day. It just doesn't get any better!

After cocktails on the Waterfront Patio, guests headed into the Harbor Ballroom for an elaborate buffet dinner.

The gorgeous floral was provided by our favorite florist, Renee. She always does such a beautiful job!

All images courtesy of Ideal Impressions.

As you can see, it was a great party! Congrats to Jacque and Niko!

Real Wedding - October 10, 2010

Michelle and Jim got married on the PERFECT day: 10-10-2010. Their wedding was unconventional, yes, but infused with so much personality I challenge you to NOT want to see more....

A traditional ceremony in our gazebo, but not exactly your traditional bridal gown.

First look at the end of the pier...you can tell how much he loves her in that dress!

I love that the photographer captured the essence of this couple, don't you? And he also captured the emotion....

Congratulations to Michelle and Jim and best wishes for many fun-filled years together!

All images courtesy of Matt Mason Photography.

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!