Bomb-diggity Detroit Wedding Vendors

I'm going to crank out a list, if you want more info just email me (sara.heuvelman@gmail.com) and I will get you the specific contacts we worked with.  Please note I won't think you're a weird stalker because this is the best way to find a good vendor!  If you reach out to anyone PLEASE let them know I sent you--thx!

Dress:  Birmingham Bridal
Everyone here was beyond helpful and the selection was great.  Pricing was in my range and the alterations were decent (though mine weren't major).

Hair/Makeup: Todd's Room
Jan did my hair, it stayed all night and I thought it was the perfect mix of modern and elegant.  Loved how it turned out, we only did a minor tweak from the test run.  Marisa does my eyebrows and did my wedding makeup, again we just switched to black eyeliner and added lipstick under the gloss.  My face stayed on the whole day and I was amazed at how gorgeous I could look with the right makeup!!  Hand's down go see either or both of them.

Accessories: Nordstrom, Todd's Room, One in a Million & Simple Beauty
My cute Cole-Haan metallic gray shoes were from my old standby Nordy.  The flashy, dangly earrings were from Todd's Room:  stunning clear crystals and some smaller gray crystals--beautiful and less than $40.  Brooch was from One in a Million, the owners are absolutely lovely and BEYOND helpful.  My piece was actually a hair comb that they took to a jeweler and converted for me.  I had about 10 people ask me if my veil was passed down from a family member, I loved the simple lace detail at the bottom and it had a wonderful vintage look.  But nope, I got it for less than $60 from Simple Beauty on Etsy.

Flower Girl Dresses:  My Angelic Kids
There is such a creepy pagaent world out there!  But if you dig enough you can find very reasonably priced gowns for your little ladies.  This site had lots of options and we jazzed them up with poufy slips and yellow fabric rosettes.  Plus, Mark's mom made the pomanders they all carried by using these directions.

Bridesmaid Dresses: Miss Kate's Maids
Kate has an amazing collection of dresses.  Specifically the collections of Melissa Sweet, Vineyard & Priscilla of Boston--which is what I chose.  She has unusual hours and I would wager she works another job but she was super helpful and had great selections.  We had a mix up and she fixed it immediately and humbly.

Tuxedo:  Men's Warehouse, various locations
Everyone's worked out just fine. Enough said.

Stationary:  Various
Invites were ordered through Lasting Impressions, huge selection and they are very helpful.  We did our programs ourselves on Vistaprint.  Word to the wise: have your entire bridal party proof and then take it to 12 other people because it's not easy to proof online.  Place cards were from Papeterie, which is pricey but I found a great online deal.

Flowers: Westborn Market, Berkley
Nicole is a delight to work with and I thought my flowers were stunning.  Plus they were exactly what I wanted!  Westborn put together my amazing bouquet and all the girls.  The men's bouts came from there as well.  We ordered the stems and Mark's mom put the arrangements together for the reception.  There was a nasty snafu with that and Westborn graciously stepped in to assist.

Chiavari Chairs:  A Moment Forever
OK, I randomly found this vendor after search FOREVER to find a good price on these designer chairs.  Stacy is a sweetheart and you can tell she loves working with brides.  Plus they have beautiful chairs and a price you cannot beat in Michigan.

DJ: Mike Staff Productions
A wedding staple in Metro Detroit, we worked with Matt Candela and the dance floor was bumping even before Mark and I did the first dance.  It stayed jam packed the entire night.

Cake: Sugar's
Raquel recently left corporate life to run her own cake shop.  Thank goodness she did!  Hands down the most delicious cake ever. And I don't even like cake!  We had a lemon-lime cake with raspberry filling and chocolate raspberry cake with raspberry filling.  Both were topped with cream cheese frosting.  Mmmm. 

Limo: Grosse Pointe Coach
They have one stretch limo that worked perfectly for our small bridal party and Mark and I used a car to transport ourselves from reception to the Book Cadillac. Both drivers were prompt, knew where they were going and were SO NICE!  Plus it was the best deal we found in the area.  We were so pleased we added them to our day.



Reception Venue:  Grosse Pointe War Memorial
Gorgeous ballroom of a historic mansion.  Lots of rules and a few small extra costs but overall a reasonable price for an exquisite setting.  Cheryl is super helpful and the day of captain helps keep everything running smoothly.  It is a bit tricky to get a date if you're not from the GP but it's not impossible!

Church:  Fort Street Presbyterian
Another stunning historic place.  You do not have to become a member to have your ceremony there.  In all honesty the church is so beautiful but the only hiccups of the day were around the ceremony...which is sad because before we began the wedding process there we really enjoyed attending the services...

Rehearsal Dinner:  Vince's Italian Restaurant
Eat here.  It's the best food of all time.  The end.

And now MY TWO FAVORITE VENDORS!!!  Well in fairness to all my other helpful vendors I did spend the most time with these two :)

Coordinator:  Details by Laura
Laura, Laura, Laura...she seamlessly made the entire day perfect!  She was so organized, is an undercover comedienne and made herself available to me prior to the wedding to ensure we had all the i's dotted and t's crossed.  The day had scissors, bobby pins, straws for the drinks, appetizers waiting, stain remover for the dress and anything else you could possibly think of (those are examples of things I never thought of and definitely used!).  Her two assistants were hardworking and the reception venue looked beautiful.  I am so glad that I took the advice to hire a day of coordinator.  And like many brides, I truly wish I had worked with her from day one!

Photographer:  The Shooting Gallery
Yin and Yang. Cole and Haan.  Dionne and Joe.  Peanut Butter and Honey.  Some things just go together so perfectly.  Seriously, these two phenoms gave us minimal direction (well, we are practically models) and just went with the mood of the day.  They had scoped a couple of great locations and put together some very unique backdrops around Detroit.  Plus, it was fun.  Super fun.  I hate having my picture taken but I actually started to forget that was the purpose of the afternoon--I was too busy laughing and cracking jokes and nuzzling my beau while they worked around everyone.  From a few days before I met with Dionne to this day I stalk the blog and Dionne's Facebook on a regular basis.  Her work is breathtaking and so emotive. Actually, I'm a little in awe of her so maybe that's why I feel like a nerdy freshman and she's the cool senior with a bitchin' Sunfire convertible.  

busy, overwhelmed and SO excited!

OK, this is going to be so brief.  I'm up to my eyeballs in work things and have I mentioned before this little thing called THE WEDDING!?!

Quick updates in my favorite form--list!
1. "Details by Laura" was hired to do our day of coordinating (ceremony and, the biggest help, reception)
2. Shower time was fantastical on Saturday, I am still in awe over the turnout and amazing gifts!!  Grace hosted us at The Victorian Rose Tea House in Rochester.
3. Bachelorette party was a blast, can't wait to do it again...for someone else!  We did dinner at D'amatos, drinks at Coach Insignia & dancing at Deluxe.  Special thanks to Caitlin and Liz for pulling it all together

But everyone likes pictures, here are a few of my favorites from the weekend festivities :)

SHOWER:

BACHELORETTE "double vision":

33 days to go

But who's counting?!

I'm exhausted after a super fun weekend in Owensboro meeting all the Zuerners.  Well, a large majority of them anyway.  Mark's grandma (Mamaw as she is known) will be 80 in a month and her kids decided to throw a surprise party. There were lots of cards played and laughs shared.

Every 10 seconds someone was lamenting, "he's a Zuerner" or "it's a Zuerner thing" or "you're such a Zuerner," I'm not entirely sure it was always said in the best light but I think that goes with the jokester personalities.  I must say everyone was beyond nice and welcoming. 

No major wedding updates at the moment, I will definitely stick with the non skin cancer inducing spray tan (though I'm sure the chemicals, in the end, aren't that much better).  RSVP information is rolling in and, oh yeah!  I almost forgot.  We found someone to handle all the day of things.   Mark especially was feeling the pinch on the reception set-up and I was dreading all the final organization/planning steps.  We are happy to have that handled.  I will post up her information once she confirms the contract!

45 days!

The countdown is really on now!

We have wrapped up all the major contracts and are going to look for someone to handle the set-up at our reception venue.  Originally we were going to handle (OK family was going to handle) but there is an event in the ballroom before our reception so we can't get in to set-up any earlier.  Oh well.  We interviewed some capable coordinators earlier in the process that we will circle back with.  Other than that we just have final meetings with our vendors and the never ending debate about transportation.

Had my hair colored close to what nature intended last night; Mark's friend Vanessa recommended Michael Raboir (sp!?) who did a stellar job.  And, as a natural salesman/seasoned pro, whipped up a few rough ideas with bobby pins to show me some ways to do wedding hair.  I already have someone booked but I really appreciated it.  Maybe if the person who I hired sucks I can ditch them...! 

The next wedding shower, a bridal tea, is a few weekends away.  I updated my registry a bit to beef it back up.  Target seems to have the most stuff left on the registry--which is GREAT because Mark and I have been receiving a lot of Target gift cards (Christmas, birthday, Valentine's), I want to use them toward registry items we don't receive.  Mark wants a flat screen...so if you want to come watch movies/games at our house buy us stuff at Target.  LOL!

donde estas?

Hey everyone (assuming anyone is actually reading this)-

Apologies on the hiatus, work has been coming at me like a MAC, ahem GMC Sierra HD, truck lately. Can't complain when there are folks calling MARVIN but it takes away from my social time.

Let's see what is new with the planning....ah yes, we are pretty sure we have finalized our guest list. We received a quote from one planner and are awaiting the quote from another. Brides scope out (http://merrittrosenthal.com/ and http://www.momentsintime.biz/) for the two we've talked to.

Sending love and congratulations to the newly engaged Heather Longstreth and her fiance Ken. The lovebirds met at our engagement party...aww!

catching up

I spent the weekend in Allendale with Taylor and my grandparents—we had a great time and Taylor is on her way to being a serious Rummikub (Rummy Cube) contender! I saw my Grandma Carol’s TWO outfit choices for the wedding (weather dependent), both are beautiful and it’s an awesome feeling to know how is excited she is.

Since the last post I’ve also made contact with two planners and will be trying to organize meetings for next week. The guest list has been printed out but I think the Tigers trumped Mark actually going through it.

THIS weekend my friend Jo Lynn, who is also planning a wedding, got us tickets to the Bridal Expo at the Palace. Hopefully we come away with some good local people/contacts to help make our weddings stellar!

Signing off for now,
Sara

The Joy of Planning

Last night we accomplished making lists. Most of you know I love lists, however what I truly love is crossing things OFF the list.

Our new list:

1. Print the guest list so Mark can review
2. Set up appointments with DJs
3. Email a church (oh wait I DID this one, yay! But no reply just yet)
4. Email a professional planner

I read on a blog last night that you spend around 250 hours, or SIX work weeks planning a wedding. Um, about that...I already have work weeks; and on a good day I can take a full hour lunch, these good days come about once a week. So that means during normal business hours I need 250 work days to plan this bad boy. Um, about that....April 10 is 233 days away.

While I still have lots of fun ideas for our wedding last night Mark and I talked about our (ahem, my) rage level during the planning process. I currently have mild crabbiness at all things wedding. I would prefer to have zero crabbiness and actually focus on having fun. So with that Mark has offered to get a second job to pay for a planner...sweet but not necessary, I found a few local firms that should fall within our budget and help take most stress away. Too bad my handy dandy list is on the kitchen table. But hey, what's one more day?

;) Sara