But if you can’t hire a wedding planner, here at South Bend Weddings our mission is to arm you with the knowledge to assure that your wedding dreams do come true and don’t end up like the friend bride of this bride:

…I was wondering if you had any advice to offer. My bff got married last August and when I started to plan my wedding, last May, she recommend that I hire the same floral designer she had hired, (name withheld). The floral designer when we met was very nice, and the pics of past events she had done looked good. We gave her a large deposit and I haven’t spoken to her since. My wedding is this July and I am in a near panic about using this floral designer. 

At my bffs wedding in August the centerpieces and bouquets were a major disappointment. The bouquets looked skimpy and many of the flowers were wilted. One of bouquets was falling apart when delivered. The centerpieces were worse, my bff had seen a centerpiece in one of the wedding mags and the floral designer claimed that she could recreate it. The vases were plastic, we were expecting glass. Her family had paid for live flowers and we noticed many of them were fake. Like the bouquets many of the live flowers were sorry looking. Everything was cheap looking.

I am in a near panic, I have been trying to figure out what to do, I want to cancel and find someone else but I am running out the time and the designer says I will loose my deposit… It’s more money than I can afford to loose. What can I do?

Sara

Sara, stories like this break our heart, we are sorry to hear your story.

Don’t panic, just yet there is a possible way to assure that you get the floral decor that you have dreamed of. We are not defending the florist but when it comes to silk flowers being used in the centerpieces, many florists have a clause in their contract that states in the case of an emergency they can substitute silk flowers for the real thing. Emergencies would be the greenhouse/wholesaler failing to get the flowers to the florist in time or shipping poor quality flowers. Your friend should go back and find out why the substitution but we have a feeling this is just standard operating with this floral designer.

To protect yourself and your wedding we recommend you contact the floral designer and demand a demo appointment. I don’t know if your best friend had a demo of her floral designs, but my guess is that she didn’t, since many florists don’t like to provide them due to their costs. The purpose of a demo is to hash out the exact look of your wedding floral, mainly the table centerpieces, but it can include the bouquets too. Before the demo, inform the floral designer what you are looking for in your design, if like your friend you have several pictures form magazine or the internet this is a good place to start. This will allow them to order in the supplies they will need for the demo.

Then at the demo, you hash out the exact look. If you don’t like what you are presented with initially don’t be afraid, tell the designer how to change it to fit your South Bend wedding vision and they should change it right there for you. When you are satisfied with the design you are presented with have the designer break it down into an addendum to the contract. The contract should list what goes into the arrangements to achieve the design, like glass vs plastic, live vs fake, etc. It should also include a cost breakdown so there are no surprises when presented with the final bill.

Also take a camera, something better than a cell phone and get pictures of the final agreed upon floral centerpiece, give a copy to the designer for their records and one for yours. This will give the designer a reference to work from, especially if your wedding is still months off.

Many florists are reticent to do demos because of the cost involved and you may find they charge for this, but in our opinion, this is money well spent. First it will tell you if your and your floral designer are on the same page. Second it will show if the floral designer is capable of achieving your vision. Third, the floral demo will give you a good idea what the final cost to you as the customer will be. Finally, if the designer fails to deliver as promised at your wedding you will have proof of what they promised and legal standing.

As for you Sara, demand the demo and contract addendum and don’t take no for an answer. It is the only way we know you can protect yourself. If the designer fails to meet your vision in the demo then you have a good argument for getting your deposit back. Floral is an art and we admire those who can do it, but we also have seen many that just can’t!

The images below have nothing to do with Sara, we took these several months ago and we think they can help educate brides in what to look for when it comes to poorly, crafted centerpieces.  We realize there aren’t many live flowers in this image but it details many of the problems we have seen with table centerpieces at events.

Yes this was created by a professional floral design company, who we won’t name. We could excuse it if it was some DIY bride but not when it’s a “professional”.

One of the things we have noticed with centerpiece is shoddy assembly. If it’s a floral arrangement, the floral clay or other material that the flowers are inserted into is plainly visible in areas. You can see that in the picture where the cloth folds meet below, the structure is visible.

You will also notice the cloth edges are at the top. We talked to a few designers while writing this response and none of them would have the cloth edges sitting on top of the base! We were told any cloth used should drape over the top with the edges hidden, the best they can be, at the bottom of the centerpiece. All of them said they would never fold a piece of cloth as shown in the upper left hand corner of the piece

We get the idea, it’s suppose to be beach inspired, but what a really poor execution, it looks like the ocean just vomited on the table. Quality designers are very exacting, nothing is placed without purpose or thought, this one just looks like the stuff was thrown around the centerpiece.

Another thing to note is that centerpieces should be scaled to the size of the table, not appear to be dwarfed by it. This one once the table was fully set up was dwarfed by the table size and sort of lost among the plates/silverware.

To give you an idea of what a well done similarly themed centerpiece could look like we found this:

Our newest featured wedding, provided by Kelly Burden at Contemporary Images, is the South Bend wedding of Jessica & at the Hilton Garden Inn in the Gillespie Center garden.

From Kelly: It was a gorgeous day in South Bend for an outside wedding on the campus of St Marys.  The wedding ceremony was held outside in the courtyard and we had plenty of time before and after for a fun photo walk around Saint Mary’s beautiful campus. The reception took place in the beautiful Gillespie Center Ballroom in the Hilton Garden Inn. The bride and groom had a candy table buffet as large as a candy store. There was also a photo-booth and a hot dog stand! This was easily one of the most entertaining wedding receptions I have ever photographed in South Bend!

Ceremony: Garden of the Gillespie Center in the Hilton Garden Inn
Reception: The Gillespie Center ball room
Photography: Contemporary Images

Wedding Reception Venue: Palais Royale
Wedding Planner: Celebrated Events
Wedding Cake: Rascia’s Creative Cakes

* Crystal Curtain
The Crystal Curtain can be hung along any wall or tent lining to create a unique color display, especially when lit with our LED lights that can be set at the color of your choice!

Michaelangelos The Event Company
South Bend, IN
(574) 271-7440

Mark & Molly were married at the Notre Dame Basilica o the Sacred Heart, with the reception following at the Palais Royale in downtown South Bend.

They also had a photo booth from Fun Zone Photo Booths. I love the fun you can have in a photo booth.

You can read more about the wedding on the Celebrated Events blog!


Ceremony – Basilica of the Sacred Heart, University of Notre Dame

Reception – Palais Royale

Wedding Planning & Design – Cynthia Basker, Celebrated Events

Floral & Decor - MichaelAngelos

Photography – Peter Thurin, Peter Thurin Photography

Papery – Cloud Nine Invitation Design, Emily Dionne Events and Nuptials

Hair – Emerald Salon and Spa

Photo Booth - Fun Zone Photo Booths

For your South Bend wedding your wedding cake should be a work of art and taste good. A cake that doesn’t taste good will be a cake that goes to waste. So when planning your South Bend wedding here are ten tips to find the perfect wedding cake!

1 Taste several samples of the baker’s cakes pay special attention to the taste of the frosting and moistness of the cake. The most beautiful cake will go to waste if your guests won’t eat it.
2 See the baker’s selection of wedding cake designs.
3 Discuss with the your cake designer what you want your cake to look like. Images of other cakes you like from magazines or other weddings are always a good way to illustrate what you want design wise. Your cake designer should also be able to give you input on various designs.
4 There are many alternatives to the traditional bride and groom cake toppers, jewelry, fresh fl owers, candy fl owers, mom and dad’s top etc. If you want something less traditional discuss it with your cake designer.
5 Reserve your cake designer/baker at least 6 to 8 months out. Like all other vendors they can only cover so many weddings a day, so don’t loose out on your favorite!
6 Get the price in writing! Included should be delivery, setup, rental fees for display bottoms or pillars and columns. Everytime you make a change be sure to get a new quote!
7 Square wedding cakes are becoming more popular, but not all bakers will do them, make sure yours does if you want one.
8 Popular cake fl avors are vanilla, yellow, chocolate, pink champaigne and strawberry.
9 Check your reception’s facility’s policy on cake cutting, there may be a charge for the staff to cut and serve the cake.
10 We don’t recommend saving the cake top for the fi rst anniversary, even frozen cake quickly looses its fl avor. Find another special time to consume the cake, like first day you move into your house together as husband and wife.

A. Outdoor weddings, in South Bend, can be beautiful, but always have a backup plan in case of inclement weather. High heels and muddy ground do not mix. If a tent isn’t in your budget, find a facility that can offer both indoor and outdoor settings. But be aware this may cost you extra, quite often the facility will book two events, one outdoor and one in if they have the room. I have seen one event on the island at Century Center and one in the Great Hall at the same time. Another idea would be to find a facility with an outdoor pavilion with a permanent roof erected, but in the local market I do not know of any such facilities except the Morris Inn, on the Notre Dame campus, which erects their tent for the summer every year.

An old saying that applies to South Bend and the surrounding area’s weather is “wait 5 minutes and it will change”. Exaggerated yes, but if you are planning to have a wedding outdoors in Michiana we strongly suggest having a tent erected in case of rain. With all the costs involved in a wedding even outdoors, tables, cloths, napkins, centerpieces etc even if your budget is tight, not having the tent could cost you even more money if you suffer a rain out.

The traditional or classic photo booth which uses chemicals to develop actual photographic paper with four pictures on it. The classic photo booth is slow to produce the strips, anywhere from 90 seconds to 7 minutes, which decreases the amount of photos and times the guests can enjoy the experience. The classic weighs anywhere between 300 to 900 pounds so transportation cost is a factor.

The digital photo booth is the modernized version of the classic. Portable, quick to set up and just as easy to use. Digital photo booths offer a lot of options their classic cousins just don’t have. Not only can you have the traditional vertical stack of four images, taken one after another, but you can have the sheet customized to reflect you or your wedding! The digital photo booth also offers the ability to print out a post card shape strip instead of the traditional vertical.

Is there a picture that you or some of your guests would love to have a 4×6, 5×7 or 8×10 made of? Most digital photo booths store the images for reprinting later on. Some rental companies offer montages, set to music of the images or the original digital files, on DVD.

Another advantage of digital photo booths is the ability to share with everyone on the outside what is happening on the inside! Some booths offer the ability to play back as a montage all the images taken as soon as they are taken. So you can see that crazy face your best friend made before the image is even printed to paper.

What to look for in a photo booth.

With the popularity of the photo booth increasing lots of people are calling things photo booths that just are not a photo booth! We all know what a photo booth looks like, every time we go to the mall there is one there. They are a box with a camera on one wall, a small bench on the other and most can fit 4 people comfortably. You step in, sit down and pull close the privacy curtain and hit the button to start the pictures. Limited space is half the fun! In college I and my girlfriends decided to see if we could get 15 of us into one picture in a two person photo booth. We managed to get 8 heads and a half in one picture. (Wish I could find my copy of that strip today.) That is what I consider a photo booth, not only are photo booths where you throw inhibitions to the wind and get funky, but where the challenge can be getting everyone in the picture! The memories of high school and college.

But today, to make a quick buck people are throwing the label photo booth on just about anything. Last year I saw a supposed photo booth, it was a section of pipe and drape (nothing boothy about it) against a wall and opposite it a camera hooked to a cheap printer. The photographer then stood there and told everyone to smile. Not a photo booth.

Then there was the ad I saw recently touting the “photo booth that can fit as many people as you want”. Once again it was pipe and drape, but this time at least in the shape of a rectangle and again a camera on a tripod with a cable run to a printer… Blah! Not a photo booth.

Then there is a company offering the “Open Air Photo Booth”, two boxes stacked, one with a camera, the other a printer, no “booth”. Just slightly above the camera on a tripod.

So if you are going to spend $1500 renting a photo booth, I recommend making sure it’s a real booth, hard sided rectangular with a bench and curtain and not something that should be hanging from your windows. Oh and the photo trigger at your touch, not someone standing outside with a laptop telling you to go “cheese” and clicking a mouse…

Digital photo booths don’t use chemicals and photo paper, but any printer that can interface with the software. So this means the photo strip can be printed by a laser, inject or dye-sub printer. Talking with a few photographers and doing some internet research it looks like a dye-sub printer will be the closest experience to chemical printing. Dye-sub is long lasting, comes the closest to looking like photo paper and truly prints a 2×6 strip of paper if you want the classic feel. All other options must be manually trimmed to feel like the classic strip. Also the dye-subs are very fast, approximately 30 seconds.

As with any service or rental you have on your wedding day, make sure you have a contract and that the vendor has liability insurance. Then step inside, pull the curtain close and get FUNKY and have fun!

Oh and still not convinced you should get a photo booth for your reception? The photo strips make fantastic party favors for your guests that they will treasure for a lifetime! Rent a photo booth for your South Bend wedding reception today!

music machine

Photobooth Rental

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