Having dated since high school, Alana and Mike had always dreamed of their wedding day taking place at Alana’s parents’ home. With the help of the wedding planning team at A Moment In Time, the high school sweethearts had a glamorous backyard wedding, and it was most certainly one for the books! Black and white stripes, infusions of themselves (like lottery tickets and dice at each table, perfect for Mike’s love of poker), and chic 1920s inspired decor created a gorgeous day. We can’t wait for you to take it all in, thanks to the images captured by Meg Darket Photography!
What (or who) helped you most in your planning process and/or on your wedding day?
We are currently living in Chicago – which is where he proposed. After we got engaged I was a little hesitant about planning a wedding in a different state than where I was currently living but we go back and forth so much I knew it wouldn’t be too much of an issue. Once the craziness of the engagement had settled my mom and I knew we couldn’t do an at home wedding on our own and we contacted A Moment In Time to help us with our wedding planning.
I cannot stress how helpful our wedding planners were, my mom and I are both very creative and love to throw parties and events, however we knew that this day was not one that we would want to have any concerns or worries about. These women made it so that we could enjoy every second of that day and not worry about a thing. And that is exactly what happened, I did not know of a single thing that happened that went wrong. It was seamless and I believe that is 100% because of our wedding planners.
What was your inspiration for your wedding details and/or design?
Gatsby! I wanted champagne flowing and over the top everything — I wanted it to all just feel completely glamorous. I love all things 1920s and wanted to incorporate that into our day in a more modern way.
The whole time of planning I kept stressing how important it was for us to have a wedding in my parents backyard that wasn’t a “backyard wedding.” I wanted guests to feel glamorous and transported to another world. My aunt is a retired art teacher and she came up with the idea of stringing 1000 hand cut butterflies throughout the tent – it was truly an amazing sight. I wanted the wedding to feel like a Gatsby-esque, over the top affair, as well as personable only to us. Black and white stripes were a reoccurring theme for our showers as well as the wedding. My husband plays poker and I wanted that to be a part of the wedding too so we included scratch off lottery tickets in the envelopes as place cards at the tables and black and white dice and silver metallic playing cards as decoration along the greens that ran down the tables.
What is your best piece of advice for other brides?
Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy! Every second – even the stressful ones!! One of my best friends is currently planning her wedding and getting stressed out about the little things and I totally empathize with her, but it also made me a little bit sad that ours was over. The wedding planning process in your life is such a short blip and the time of being a “bride” and having a day that is so special to you is so short — it is totally 100% overwhelming but such an amazing feeling. The day of our wedding there was truly nothing but love surrounding us, between us and between all of our friends and family that were there. The feeling of so much love supporting our love is something I cannot describe and wish I could bottle up! Enjoy it and try to remember all these special moments that will be with you forever!
ALSO even though they can be incredibly pricey – get a videographer!! We did not and I knew we would regret it but at the time I just couldn’t justify it…Luckily we had such an amazing photographer to capture all of the days moments it would have been nice to have a few moments on video!
Vendors who made it all happen…
Photographer: Meg Darket Photography // Caterer: The Moveable Feast // Event Planner: A Moment In Time // Floral Designer: Jen House Design // Hair Stylist: Mi Amore Event Hair and Makeup // Dress Designer: Carolina Herrera //Jewelry: Baublebar // Dress Store: David’s Bridal // Shoes: Valentino
Lauren
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