Rocket Science Weddings and Events

I cannot believe it has been almost a month since I blogged! Good thing I have an intern starting soon so I can focus on blogging more (or make her do it!).

I did this with Emily and Tracy's (award-winning, hearten-featured) and Katie and Nick's weddings, and I thought it was cool. Maybe they did too... Anyway, here are a few of my favorite Instagram photos I took for Soraya and Kevin's wedding a few weeks back. It was such a beautiful day! I cannot wait to see the pro pics by Roee Dori, but I will have to wait a bit longer. In the meantime, enjoy my amateur photography skills.

Well, this blog post is only about a month overdue! This year I had the privilege of being the Design & Decor Chairperson for the STAR Awards. The ISES STAR Awards is Minnesota's way of recognizing top wedding and event professionals. Basically it is our industry's Grammy's or Golden Globes. But besides the awards part of the party, it is a time for the whole industry to come out and let loose. This year was no exception! The party was a blast and I had so much fun with my fellow ISES members planning it. 

Here are some photos from the event, but I thought it might be interesting to see how the design started. I have included the ideaboard pages first followed by the photos from the event that relate to it. Kind of a "before and after" or something like that.

Enjoy!

The theme this year was "Bootlegger's Ball" and we found the perfect venue, the Nicollet Island Pavilion. Mintahoe and their staff were amazing to work with, and didn't say no to any of our crazy ideas!

Everyone knows that there is always a secret entrance to get in to a Speakeasy, and ours was a Laundromat. Thanks to our friends and family, and Saver's for donating all of the clothes. We had over a 1,000 pieces of clothes hanging up. Accent Store Fixtures and Bauer Bros. supplied some key elements such as the vintage commercial dryer and countertops. 

Because of the size of this party and our crazy ideas, there wasn't room for our "laundromat" inside the Pavilion. We had to put up a tent with a 60ft walkway to create this area. Midway Party Rental supplied all the tenting. It sure would've been cold to have registration outside!

The award nominees got their own little swanky registration area and lounge, complete with specialty cocktails, hors d'eouvres and a DJ (provided by Level 11) mixing current tunes with 1920s music. We called this space the Zebra Lounge and the nominees had to give the bouncer at the door a password to get in.

Thankfully I had met Amanda of Lime Canary Vintage Rentals before we decided on doing a 1920s party, otherwise I don't know how we would've found all of the great vintage furniture we needed. She supplied everything for the Zebra Lounge and elsewhere. Chandelier is by Event Lab, linens by Connie Duglin Specialty Linen, Zebra Lounge graphic by Gretchen Berry Design Co., and printing by Signarama.

The non-nominee guests hung out in the Speakeasy. Since the Speakeasy was going to be in a white tent, we had our work cut out for us to change it. So many yards of fabric! Thanks to Avant Decor, Perimeters Group, BeEvents, Event Lab, Cort and Sassfras Floral & Garden Design for transforming the tent.

We ended up also having casino games for the after party, thanks to Mintahoe. They were a big hit with the guests, especially my dad.

Probably one of my favorite spaces was the Distillery. We utilized the Pavilion's built in bar and brick walls to create this space that we used for drinking (naturally) and photos of the winners with their awards.

Who knew that all these barrels could be found at Midway Party Rental?! The super cool conveyor belt came from Event Lab, lighting done by AV for You.

The main part of the event, the awards ceremony, was in the Cabaret.

Linens provided by Connie Duglin, table lamps by Apres, chiavari chairs by Ultimate Events.

Our craziest idea of the whole party was to build a wall inside the Pavilion creating separate spaces. A plain pipe & drape wall just wouldn't do, we wanted it to look like an interior wall of a building. The look was achieved thanks to some amazing graphic design work by Chris Medower and printing by Big Ink. I think this was the part people talked about the most. The wall looked like real wallpaper, and we created moulding and entryways (and even wall sconces) printed on one long piece of fabric.

Lamps provided by BeEvents, end table by Bungalow Six, and couch by Lime Canary Vintage Rentals.

After the party, is the after party! The rooms on the other side of the wall we created opened up after the awards ceremony was over. One of the rooms was the Black & White Bar.

How cool is that wall of 1920s movies?! MetroConnections did all the furnishings in this space. Sassafras Floral & Garden Design did the centerpiece.

The other after party space was the Dessert Den...

Behind the wall of "taxidermy" and frames was the tarot card reader! I waited in line while eating many many bite sized pieces of cheesecake by Muddy Paws. The vegan taxidermy was made by Amy Terry.

Vintage dresser from Lime Canary Vintage Rentals, vintage undergarments supplied by Rocket Science Weddings & Events. The gorgeous chandelier came from Apres, along with drapery on the tent frames creating the two smaller spaces inside the Dessert Den.

Furniture from BeEvents and Cort. Throw pillows from Cort and Bungalow Six. Rug from Rocket Science Weddings & Events. Uplighting in the Dessert Den was done by Bellagala.

Final spaces, small but important!

Graphics by Gretchen Berry Design Co. and furniture provided by Lime Canary Vintage Rentals.

Okay, so that is it for the party! Just one more photo...

Me WINNING! Best Wedding and Volunteer of the Year. 

Well faithful Cylinder Thursday fans, we are back! Sorry for being MIA, busy with an amazing event, the ISES Minnesota STAR awards and some other things. But I shouldn't abandon Cylinder Thursday, no matter how busy I am!

My son turned one a few weeks ago and this post is inspired by him.

Technically it is Friday, but yesterday I was unable to post a Cylinder Thursday due to my amazing Bridal Book Club. Champagne and blogging do not mix well! Anyhoo... here is Cylinder Thursday, a day late. This inspired design was thought up by the talented team of Sara(h)s at Sassafras Floral Design. These ladies are amazing, and constantly surprise me with delightful, unusual combinations of flowers. This little tablescape they whipped up for in(dy)spire: the independent wedding fair that took place at the Hotel Ivy the other weekend.

I LOVE the pussy willow. It reminds me of my childhood. It has a great chocolate brown color with the warm grey fuzzy pussy willow paws. (Grey and Brown - so hot right now!) The look is natural and modern at the same time. Throw in some other flowers, rocks, candles and plants and you have a striking tablescape for not a lot of money. They make it look easy and effortless don't they?!

So enjoy compliments of Sassafras Sara(h)s!

Shameless plug for a beloved organization! The Independent Wedding Association is a compilation of amazing, local, independent wedding vendors. I love being apart of this association to get to meet and work with like minded people in the wedding industry, it is a group that knows how to have fun (and produce awe-inspiring weddings of course)!

This weekend, Saturday to be exact, is the launch of the rebranded wedding fair, in(dy)spire. This wedding fair is unlike the others, it is small, low key and super informative. No other fair offers Wedding Workshops where you can get tips from the pros. I am honored to be presenting one of the wedding workshops alongside some other brilliant vendors such as Sassafras, Renee's Royal Valet, Studio Laguna, just to name a few.

There will be food samples from the delicious Chowgirls Killer Catering, Hotel Ivy and Cocoa & Fig. Plus a bagpiper, can't beat that!

The fair is from 11am - 3pm at the Hotel Ivy. Tickets are almost sold out, but I have a pair in my hands for the first couple who emails me and tells me why they deserve this hot commodity.

More information can be found at the Independent Wedding Association's website. Hope to see you there!