For Tatiana’s 22nd birthday (HA – more like 32!) we decided a boho beach birthday would be the perfect way to safely ring in the festivities with closest friends. With her favorite color palette being incorporated into the design, we knew exactly which pieces we were eyeing for the tabletop. Signature Party Rentals had the perfect blush and white heirloom plates as well as their new white dipped gold flatware. Third + Park provided the most breathtaking dried floral centerpieces to add texture and a soft, lush element.
Next came figuring out what guests were going to sit on! Blankets were the initial option, but then realizing that we wanted to elevate the look we opted for gorgeous pillows from Made With Jetaime Events! No boho beach birthday is complete without those Moroccan wedding pillows, are we right?! Just enough height for the low picnic table so you weren’t bumping knees – win win!
Next up those killer woven glasses and placemats. Once again our girl Alex at Third + Park came in clutch with these tabletop rentals that really sealed the table deal. And to top it off, she even added little souvenir ‘bouquets’ for each guest with a hand dyed torn silk ribbon.
Some advice for those of you looking to plan your own boho beach birthday – scope the beach ahead! We got there early to make sure we had the perfect spot facing the water with ample parking. We also made sure restrooms were nearby and that there were no stairs to maneuver with all the rentals being brought in. Guests supplied their own potluck dish and drinks and we brought a cooler packed with ice! Which leads us to the last pro tip: ICE! Buy more than you need and definitely rent cute umbrellas (which we did!) to shade everyone. This was so fun to put together and we can’t wait for more sunny picnics in our future!
I’m back with more planning details from my own wedding planning! I definitely took a break to enjoy the holidays and I’ve been a busy bee for the past few months catching up. I totally dragged my feet and admittedly broke my own rules for the order of booking vendors. So I’m here to update you on how it should be done and how I went about it!
Venue Booked, Now What?
I booked the venue by the end of August then took some time to explore exactly what I wanted. I immediately made a brain dump list of every detail that I wanted to be included in the wedding. As I thought of anything, I’d add it to the list. You have to dream big then come down to reality once you get quotes back and update your budget. I used our budget template we provide for all of our clients on our Client Access page and outlined estimated costs. I had a chat with my family and we were good to go to start booking. If you need preliminary budgeting advice, check out this blog!
My next step was to start reaching out to vendors and making decisions. I’m a researcher to my core and have to feel like I fully explored my options before I feel confident committing to a vendor. Don’t even ask Aaron how long it took me to buy a car. I found that there were a core group of friends and family who kept asking how planning was going and what I had done. I’m sure every bride has those few friends who push you and I appreciated it because it’s so much easier to focus on my clients than to make decisions for myself. It was time to jump in and tackle my list.
You Should Book Your Photographer
The most important on the list of booking vendors is the photographer. Venues, photographers and planners have limited availability compared to caterers, rental companies, and hair and makeup companies that have bigger teams. In photography you have to first determine the style you want. Is it light + bright, color saturated, or dark + moody? Most photographers will fall into one category or a combination of two. We always ask our clients which style they prefer before sending over a customized preferred vendors list. Having our whole list to choose from, I knew I wanted a combination of color saturated and dark + moody.
However, this is the moment I didn’t take my own advice. Oops! I have so many photographer friends and knew I was going to be picky about style and ability to shoot the details and not hurting anyone’s feelings. With all of this said, I procrastinated hard, but knew I needed to do something so I went full-force booking everything else. Doesn’t everyone move on to the easy stuff when they don’t know what to do about the hard stuff? No? Just me? Ok, cool.
But First, Champagne!
Anyone who knows me, knows that I love champagne. The easiest vendor for me to book was Vita Mielie, the cutest Italian truck transformed to champagne taps. Yes, a champagne truck was the first vendor I booked and yes, I obviously have my priorities straight. Although our venue comes with a bar, I wanted the interactive feel of the champagne tap to really create an experience for our guests. I factored this into the budget early on since I knew this was a detail I wanted included.
Booking Vendors
Being in the industry for so many years now, I absolutely knew who I wanted for my music. Kevin Miso is a friend and extremely talented Hawaiian Jack Johnson musician who does the most incredible mash ups while also being an epic DJ. He brings the best of both worlds when it comes to music and also is a fellow Long Beach native who went to my high school. He’s done countless friends’ weddings and events with me and it was an easy + obvious choice. He was chatting with his wife about a trip to North Carolina when my email popped into his inbox. Of course that’s fate!
I started doing catering research and reached out for quotes, but haven’t yet secured it. Aaron’s main priority is food so we need to make sure we get this right for him and include details that are unique to our preferences. I love it when couples customize each decision so that the wedding feels like an experience of who they are as a couple together. So I tabled this decision and kept going on the other things.
I knew I wanted to work with my dear florist friend Kelly of Color Fields. She’s not only a rad designer, but also a flower farmer. Kelly has the coolest varieties and colors of the typical flowers we’re accustomed to. I emailed her to make sure she was free and we’re locked in but haven’t started the designing process with her quite yet.
Design Details
After these vendors were booked, I took a break to enjoy the holidays. Tatiana and I started working on the moodboard, the first step to our design process. It encompasses all of the desert boho modern vibes I’m going for with a gorgeous bright fall palette. We opened my Wedding Design Plan slideshow and began dropping in our favorite images from my Pinterest board. These slideshows are typically about 40 slides for our Design + Coordination and Full Planning clients and go through all the details of the wedding with links to rental company websites or other websites for purchasing. These are our absolute FAVORITE things to do for clients but are definitely a labor of love. We knew this would take us a while so we scheduled a few phone calls to chip away at it little by little and would drop in more ideas as inspiration struck. To date, this is probably halfway done, but we’re getting closer to wrapping it up.
I’m getting there slowly but surely and doing it my own way to be sure of my decisions. The one thing still keeping me going in the midst of wedding season picking back up is that so many vendors are already booked. With COVID postponements, we’ve definitely seen more couples planning and booking vendors earlier than usual. If you’re procrastinating like me, let this be a warning that you need to secure vendors with limited availability stat!
Stay tuned as I continue through the process. I promise I’m picking up my pace taking you through the details of my planning!
Going DIY for your signage decor is a great way to personalize your wedding and save some money. If you and your partner are a crafty couple and are looking to customize your wedding with as little fuss as possible, these wedding SVG files are a great way to guarantee a stunning finished product.
If you’re unfamiliar, SVGs are design files for cutting machines like the Cricut or Silhouette. These files can be cut into a variety of materials from vinyl to leather, allowing you all of the creativity to make them your own. Dreaming of a glam wedding? DIY cut out vinyl lettering to turn an ornate mirror into your perfect wedding welcome sign. If you’re more modern and chic, try a foil cut placed on clear acrylic panes.
Whatever your aesthetic, you can choose the materials to match and try a variety of looks before committing. Check out these designs from for your ceremony, reception, and more to get started. It’s important to keep the signage and materials cohesive so that it all looks like a continuous design. By using files or templates like these you ensure that everything on your wedding day will match and look amazing in photos. For more wedding advice + tips for your big day, check out our other blogs!
This past weekend, we had the honor of designing a “Mamma Mia” themed bridal shower we can’t get enough of! Our client approached us wanting something personal and beautiful for her future daughter-in-law and we were thrilled at the opportunity. The bride Alexa is Greek and loves ALL things from the movie “Mamma Mia.” So we knew we had to incorporate fun colors and patterns into this design! Every detail of the bridal shower was so thought out and one of our favorite events to work with alongside an incredible team – also, we are totally obsessed with Benchmark’s private dining space which we rented for the event and think the blank slate was the perfect canvas. If you’re in need of an awesome location for your next party, definitely check them out!
Other details we incorporated were printed games, custom olive oil favors and the couple’s favorite pie flavors from a local baker With Love From Scratch. Fun fact – we have a whole board of bridal shower decor off Amazon we used to find the perfect purchases for the day-of too! We found adorable wooden risers for the pies and even managed to score sweet ‘advice’ cards as a shower game. Not to mention all of the dessert accessories – win, win!
Hey guys, it’s Chelsea here! As a newly engaged member of the Lucky Day team and a wedding planner for the past 6+ years, I’m excited to take you along the journey with me as we go through the process of (finally) planning my own wedding! We thought it would be fun to show you an insider look into each step I’m taking. We’re planning and designing my big fat wedding planner wedding! This will be the first post in a series of posts to show you our process. How I’m probably going to break some rules we have for our clients, while definitely adhering to others.
Before the Proposal
It’s funny to say, I was never the girl who had everything planned out. I never had my dream venue selected. Never really knew what it would look like, and for the most part just kept my options open. In hindsight that’s probably a good thing considering as a girl growing up in Southern California, I never dreamed I would end up living and planning my wedding in North Carolina. North Carolina is now home and I love it! Being a planner and anticipator of all things, I truly thought I would know more. I thought I would know where I was getting married, but still, I was clueless.
I had done all the things I could think to do to prepare for the proposal. Let’s face it, I had 6.5 years of preparing. Although stupidly, I didn’t get my nails done. I know guys, but it’s a pandemic and I was worried I would get them done, then I would hit the two-week mark of them looking sketchy and BOOM, proposal. So I got them done the next morning after we got engaged. Oh well! I did however prep in other ways. Found a few outfits I knew would be a good “go-to” look. I started working out a few months prior to make sure I would be happy with the engagement photos. Have you read my “about me?” Mac and cheese and champagne are my absolute favorites and it was time to make a change. I’m still using the Faster Way to Fat Loss program, if anyone was curious (shout out to Allie Janszen as the best coach).
Do you like online shopping? Start your registry!
Then most importantly in my online browsing obsession, I had made our registry. Throughout the years of things I came across and wanted, but knew I shouldn’t buy I just “pinned them.” I actually started on Zola, but switched it to Amazon when I realized they allow you to add items from different retailers. Highly suggest!
Creating the Guest List Before You’re Engaged
Years ago when we were on a long road trip, Aaron and I started a wedding guest list. We just went through family, the friends at different stages of life and jotted down everyone we could think of. I’ve held onto that list and finally typed it up into Google Sheets to see how many people we had. I was shocked to realize it was close to 200 people. I never thought I would have a big wedding. Two more years passed by though and we were closer to getting engaged, we revisited that list and found we could cut it down by quite a few people we had lost touch with to get it closer to 150 invites.
I would 100% suggest starting your wedding guest list if you aren’t engaged yet, but feel comfortable talking about it with your boyfriend or girlfriend. Pro tip: it helped us realize who we needed to call out of our friends to tell them we got engaged before they found out on social media. Then I knew right away what range of guests we would land at for the venue search.
Engaged, Now What?
The obvious first step after the guest list is finding the venue and setting a date. I cannot express how difficult this can be. I’ve said it to clients and now I’ve lived it. Choosing a venue is supposed to embody everything you are as a couple visually and experientially. It is finding a place that not only fits the logistics (guest count, location, flow etc.), but also FEELS like you. It’s like finding your home you want to live in for the rest of your life, but for the best party that everyone important in your life will always remember. A lot of pressure, huh?
So first, you’re narrowing down type of venue. Is it an old historic house, a mill, a funky hip newly remodeled warehouse, a gorgeous lawn adjacent to a beautiful hotel, the options are endless! For me, while I had worked at SO. MANY. INCREDIBLE. VENUES. I didn’t feel like I had quite found “the one.” We knew we wanted it to be closer to Charlotte for Aaron’s family and for the ease of the airport for my friends and family coming from California, but that was all I had. I liked something that had an indoor/outdoor feel being that open almost California vibe, but I loved the idea of something with texture and history. These charming Southern venues offer a lot of that and I knew I wanted to include it somehow.
Venue Tours + Finding “The One”
In August, Tatiana was flying out to North Carolina for a few wedding meetings. We took that time to explore more venues that prospective clients had inquired about. I had my eye on Providence Cotton Mill and was hopeful that I would love it. It’s sad to say, but some venues may look great online and then you drive up and you don’t realize the location is really terrible and it breaks the venue. Or the flow doesn’t make sense for what you’re looking for. There are so many factors and of course I’m picky because I just know too much behind the scenes logistics. Anyway, we went and met with the owner, Ethan and I gave Tatiana the eyes and a “yes” in our own secret business partner telepathic code, which told her to take all the photos.
As we finished the tour, I told Ethan that I was recently engaged and would love to get married at Providence Cotton Mill. He then switched his pitch from planner to client and showed me available dates. It was a COVID realization that stung just as badly as all the clients we had postponed. The calendar was so full with most Saturdays taken. We were over a year away too! In that moment I had to compromise and say ok, if I love it then it’s going to be on a Friday and that will just have to be good with everyone. I was definitely a little sad to not nab a Saturday, but got more encouragement from family and friends that it will now be a full weekend celebration. We signed the contract and officially secured the date for Friday, November 5, 2021!
More Coming Soon!
We’re about to kick off even more planning. Stay tuned, I’ll fill you in on the next steps as I’m still working on them in the next post! Hope you enjoyed this one. Drop a message in the comments with anything that surprised you.
Xx,
Chelsea
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