Stella Event Design::Michigan Wedding & Event Planner »

(lvl photography, claire+chris 5/08)

This picture caused quite a stir at the bridal expo and at least 20 couples asked me about this venue, so I thought I would post some information to point everyone in the right direction…

Barker Hall is part of Trinity Church and is located in Michigan City, Indiana. It’s an absolutely gorgeous wedding venue complete with a balcony on one end (where this picture was taken from) and a stage with a beautiful tapestry backdrop at the other. It’s beyond ideal if you’re planning on live music and their in-house catering is fabulous!

Check out the Barker Hall website here!

If you’d like to do something to make your wedding fun+exciting, I suggest you consider live music! I can’t remember the last time I attended a wedding (as a guest) with live music, but it’s always a hit at weddings I’ve coordinated! My favorite of 2008 was Me and the Boys, an eight piece swing orchestra out of Northern Indiana. They were absolutely incredible, and everyone was blown away by their fun, retro style that kept everyone dancing!

In 2009 we’ve got at least five weddings using a variety of live music, and I’m excited to hear them all in person and pass along recommendations to all of you considering live acts for your 2009/2010 celebrations!

*Photo by LVL Photography

I absolutely adore the quaint chapel on Morris Farms where Megan+Scott hosted their October nuptials! The building had so much charm and character, and it was absolutely adorable! Plus, there was an old fashioned school house on the same grounds that was a great spot for some unique post-wedding pics with the bride and groom!

Don’t forget to investigate your ceremony location, reception venue, or local area to locate some fun and unique places to snap some post-wedding pics! Grab your fiance and make a date day of exploring fun photo locations, and you’ll save a ton of time on your wedding day and have some amazing photos!

*Photos by Chad Bosma

(Mill Creek Barns, opening May 2009)

Last weekend I had the chance to stop by Mill Creek barns, the new venue from the owners of the Blue Dress Barn. It was just as lovely as I thought it would be, even though it’s not fully completed just yet. I shot a little video with my Flip Video, so I’ll post that soon (that is, if I get the courage to hear my voice broadcast over the internet!) It has all of the beautiful details I expected, and I can’t wait to post pictures of the inside when it’s completed.

(outdoor ceremony location nestled between the barn and the woods)

There’s a beautiful ceremony area, TONS of natural light in the dance hall, and too much charm to mention. There’s also tons of opportunities to utilize the outdoor beauty including several french doors in the dance hall, several patios and bonfires to cozy up to at the end of the night.  Definitely look into Mill Creek if you’re seeking a beautiful venue with rustic elegance. It is so far from a cookie cutter hall, I guarantee you’ll love it! It’s opening in May of 2009, and I’m excited to have a couple tying the knot there on the 16th! I’ll update as our planning goes along, and as it nears completion you can expect more lovely pictures!

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting with Dave Krock, one of the owners of the Whitcomb building in downtown St. Joseph. They are opening their outdoor veranda to host events in 2009, and the view is absolutely gorgeous.

(views from The Veranda at The Whitcomb on the bluff)

For those of you unfamiliar with the local area, the downtown area of St. Joseph is on a bluff overlooking the lake and the river and it’s filled with quaint shops and delicious restaurants.The Veranda at The Whitcomb overlooks the lake, with a beautiful view of the lighthouse and river. It’s literally across the street from the Bandshell, which I’ve blogged about before, and is a wonderful ceremony location. The Veranda at The Whitcomb can seat up to 250 guests. As you can see from the picture below, the venue is open-air, but has ample covering in case of inclement weather. There are also beautiful gardens on the far side, perfect for a garden-style cocktail hour, bridal portraits, or mingling with guests.

(a community big band dance hosted at The Veranda at The Whitcomb)

The on-site catering and beverage service is provided by CK Catering. They recently revamped their website and included a ton of great pictures. They do beautiful presentations and are amazing to work with. The combination of CK Catering and The Veranda at The Whitcomb is one I’m very excited about, and I was thrilled to hear about some of their upcoming plans to expand the events area, which sound absolutely incredible. If you’re in the market for a reception location, you can check it out at the corner of Port Street and Ship Street!

(an excited picture for an excited post, courtesy of Chad Bosma)

The Smart Planner is one of my favorite resources for savvy business tips specifically for wedding & event planners. I’m so excited to be featured today, so go check it out, and if it’s not already on your blog list, be sure to add Blue Orchid and The Smart Planner to your daily reads!

Check out the Fall edition of Martha Stewart Weddings to see Southwest Michigan’s very own Blue Dress Barn! The October 27, 2007 wedding of Kelly & Jeremy is featured, and this brides beautiful diy’s are something you just have to check out!

We’re coordinating several 2009 weddings at the Blue Dress Barn, and I’m excited for the rustic charm and beauty that it lends to a wedding. Each and every wedding I’ve seen at the Blue Dress has it’s own personal style and touch of creative flair—it definitely attracts the creative, unique and detail-oriented bride!

Mill Creek Barns is the sister property of the Blue Dress Barn and is located in Watervliet, Michigan in Keeler Township. We planned several 2009 weddings at Mill Creek Barns and love the natural charm it has. There are fun details throughout the property including vintage items, original artwork, a beautiful outdoor ceremony area, and white paper lanterns above the dining area.

Brides getting married at Mill Creek may consider Day-of coordination services to help with set-up, coordinate the ceremony (and moving guests from the ceremony to cocktail hour), assisting vendors with deliveries, coordinating catering & bar services, and tearing down decor at the end of the night. Mill Creek brides have the opportunity to bring in their own catering, bar service and other vendors which can be a great budget-saver, but entails a bit more work for the bride and family! Stella Event Design can help design services that fit your budget and will allow you to enjoy your wedding! Full-service planning is also available to help you create the amazing rustic-chic wedding day you’ve envisioned, from start to finish!

What one Mill Creek bride says about working with Stella Event Design:

“Stella Event Design saved my sanity! There were parts of my wedding that I really wanted to have control over and othe parts that didn’t matter to me at all. Jessica at Stella Event Design was able to accomodate me with a “partial planning” package that fit perfectly with my needs. She is quick to respond to emails and phone calls and is flexible with times to meet in person. She is very familiar with the local area and its vendors and helped me stay on budget. When it comes to above and beyond, Jessica was awesome. She returned all of my rented items for me the next day as well as my alcohol that we didn’t use. I ordered wholesale flowers and she was able to put them together to create my centerpieces and they looked beautiful. I really can’t rave about her enough. She’s calm in chaos, super organized, and obviously loves her job! I would recommend her service to anyone.”

-Megan, Married 5.16.09, from Chicago, Illinois

MORE MILL CREEK BARNS WEDDING PHOTOS

All Photos by Two Pair Photography

Is it just me, or was Saturday the most beautiful day for an outdoor wedding ever?! Look at that amazing water! I may be a little biased because it was my last outdoor wedding of the year, and I was so absolutely thrilled that we shook off the rain from the week before and came out with a gorgeous day for a wedding on the shores of Lake Michigan! While we patiently wait for the pro pics from the talented Kelly Powers, here are a few I snapped of the ceremony and the little details we put together for this special day! I’m always so happy to see the end results of our full-service weddings and how it all pulls together…they are some of my favorites!

The Setup:

Beth and I arrived at the beach at 11:00 to setup chairs and put the final touches on the ceremony setup. Kelly was so fun to work with, and really gave me a lot of room to flex my creativity on this wedding which was a lot of fun, and it was so awesome to see her love everything we put together for her! We wanted to keep things simple and natural since we had such a gorgeous backdrop, so we did some simple gerber daisy and dune grass arrangements on the chairs, made a focal point at the front using driftwood and dune grass, and lined the back of the chairs with more dune grass, which is hard to see in pictures (sorry!) All of the gorgeous flowers were provided by Crystal Springs Florist.

Even though Kelly chose a fall palette of dark reds, oranges, yellows and greens, she fell in love with a bright pink bouquet, so we made the entire ceremony area bright and cheery using pink, and incorporated her fall color palette into the reception. The pink really popped on the beach, and I loved that there were sailboats all over in the background! At 3:00 Kelly+Russ said ‘I do’ in front of 54 of their closest friends and family, accompanied by beautiful harp tunes provided by Carl Payne (by the way, harp music is just perfect for the beach!) The ceremony was conducted by Kelly’s brother in law and was very personal and touching!

Some details:

Monogram: we based all of our printed materials off of a monogram created by April at Blu Sky Designs and we couldn’t have been happier with it! We incorporated it into the table numbers, favor tags, and even dropped the flowers into the menu cards!

Favors: Caramel apples from Kilwins were wrapped up with orange and green ribbon and raffia and set out on cake plates for guests to take home. These were a huge hit and I ate mine today—so delicious! Kelly also bought adorable light house ornaments for each family (you can see it in the box in the lower left pic) which was a really cute idea in honor of their beach wedding!

Kids’ favors: Small tin buckets filled with Legos (the couples favorite toy). Each bucket contained the pieces to make one car, and the couple put it together ahead of time and took a picture (rolled up in the scroll of paper) so the kids could see what they were making! The kids LOVED this, and had so much fun sitting at their table and making their Lego cars!

Cake: Cupcakes! There were cupcakes covered in large daisies in red, orange and yellow and they were delicious!

My pictures don’t do this beautiful wedding justice, and there are so many other fabulous things from this wedding I just can’t wait to share (but I will) so more to come! Thanks Kelly+Russ for being an absolutely AMAZING couple to work with! I was so happy to help create and share this special day with you both!

Don’t forget to comment here by midnight tonight for a chance to win the MissNowMrs.com gift certificate!

A month or two ago, I was contacted by Shore Magazine BRIDE to contribute to an article on post-wedding tasks.  Contibute? Me?! Yes, please! I love to write, and I love helping out brides, so I was very excited to lend some help! I’ve been anxiously awaiting the magazine to come out, and today I finally got a copy in my hot little hands! Sorry about the grainy image, but the pages are glossy and my scanner was not liking it at all!

(click to enlarge)

If you haven’t checked it out before, this magazine is great, and you can get it at most of the local retailers in downtown St. Joseph as well as Northwest Indiana and the Chicago area. It features everything wedding-related and fabulous along the lake shore and they always offer some beautiful pictures and inspiration for the local area!

So, to keep with the topic of post-wedding tasks, next week we’ll have a series of giveaways (yes, free stuff!) to help you with your post-wedding to-do list! We’ve got some great prizes lined up, so make sure to check in next week!