WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards 2011 for Wedding Planning

We are happy to announce that Grand Jour Events is among the very best wedding planners within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Martha Stewart Weddings, Project Wedding and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for nominating us to receive the Bride’s Choice Awards 2011.

Grand Jour Events is in The Knot Michigan Spring/Summer 2011 Magazine

In the latest The Knot Michigan magazine The Knot has a new section called "Planning Secrets". They contacted me asking me who some of my favorite vendors are and planning secrets. I am featured as a Lansing Planner. I am so honored to have been asked to help with this article. I love that I am able coordinated weddings from Lansing to Detroit and back to Ann Arbor....plus everywhere inbetween.

 Here I am on page 30

Your Reception Site Manager/Coordinator IS NOT Your Wedding Planner!!!!

Recently I’ve had several brides inform me that their reception site told them they do not need to hire a planner because their in house coordinator can offer the same services as an outside coordinator. I love my job as a wedding planner/coordinator and will do everything in my power to make sure my brides and grooms have a stress free perfect day but it’s very upsetting that these sites are trying to talk my brides out of hiring an “outside coordinator”.

Your reception site in house coordinator may go by one of the following names banquet manager or hall coordinator. Basically they are the “go to” person for the reception site.
It’s very disappointing that some site managers don’t see the benefit of having an outside wedding planner because I have worked at so many reception sites where the mangers are excellent and appreciate having an extra set of hands. They understand that we have all been hired for the same purpose and that is to make the brides/grooms dream wedding come true.

I just had a potential bride tell me how excited she was to work with me and would be mailing out the contract shortly but the next day she spoke with her site manager and informed her she was about to hire a planner. Well the site manager did not like the idea of an outside planner and in return the couple decided not to hire me because they believe the site manger would perform the same duties as I would without paying having to pay the extra cost.

I think this is very unfair to the bride and groom because I am not just there for the reception. I work with my brides for months leading up to the wedding. We meet several times prior, we create a detailed timeline of exactly how the entire day will go, not just the reception portion. I have never met a site manager that goes to the hotel to make sure the guest can find the shuttle, that calls the limo if they are late, or that packs all your reception items up at the end of the night then packs them up into a assigned vehicle. I once had a groom that ran out of cigarettes and I went to the store and bought him more...I can guarantee that the site manager would not do that but since I’m working for the bride and groom I will do whatever it takes to make sure my bride and groom are taken care of no matter how silly it may sound.

As a reception site manager they may feel like it’s not necessary to have an outside planner and they can handle everything on their own but really I’m just trying to make their job easier. My assistant and I are they to help with all the set up or whatever else needs to be done. I’m not there to take over.

Maybe the reception site manager has worked with a poor planner in the past but it’s really unfair for them to tell brides not to hire a planner when some planners, like myself love what we do and we strive for the best and accept nothing less.

I hope this has helped a little for the brides that are still debating whether or not they should hire an “outside” wedding coordinator.

Hong and Mark 12-31-10

Hong and Mark had their ceremony at St. Andrew Dung Lac in Lansing. Their main reason for hiring a coordinator was to make sure everything went smoothly at the reception site since the reception was over an hour away. Their reception was held at Cheery Creek Golf Club in Shelby Township.

Cherry Creek is beautiful! I LOVED the reception room. Just look at all the windows. It was picture perfect.

Their table numbers were adorable.  I loved seeing all their pictures and I even saw guests walking around to the different tables to check out all the pictures.

The cake was provided by Nancy’s Creations. It was gorgeous and tasted wonderful! This was the first wedding that I have had that had a cake from Nancy’s Creations but I highly recommend them! The sugar flowers on top are amazing!

 Close up of the flowers

The centerpieces. I am so excited that not only Hong loved he centerpieces but so did the guests…why…because they are from Grand Jour Events : ) I love working with flowers and I am very excited to  now be offering this service to my brides!

 Hong had two different centerpieces which I thought looked great in the room.

 The candy buffet. No other words can explain it other then amazing!

 The kids loved the BIG candy bars!

 And we can't for get about the chocolate fountain. Plus their late night snack was carnival food. They had elephant ears, hot dogs and soft pretzels...yummy! There was so much food! The guests defiantly left full.

 I loved that Cherry Creek set up a projector to broadcast the ball dropping.

Hong and Mark had some great vendors including Sean from All Night DJs. He was awesome and kept the dance floor packed all night long. They also had an amazing photographer, The Camera Chick. Not only is Sandy a great person but her work is wonderful! Below are a couple of sneak peaks that she sent over.

 In the picture below you will see the bride Hong on the bottom left had corner. Yup that's her in the blue dress : ) I loved the blue dress. The guest in the picture are all the guests that made it until 2011.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Congratulations Hong and Mark!!!!

Meghan and Justin 11-6-10

Meghan and Justin were married on November 6th. Their ceremony was at Royal Oak First United Methodist Church in Royal Oak. Meghan and Justin main concern for their wedding day was set up and clean up at their reception. Instead of attending the ceremony I focused on setting up at Lafayette Grande in Pontiac.  The Lafayette Grande is so gorgeous and the staff was great.

Their DJ was Shea Sounds. I love the grand entrance that their DJ coordinated. The dance floor was packed all night long. I highly recommend Shea Sounds.

Meghan's bouquet was absolutely beautiful! Bouquets were provided by Fortino's Flowers.

 Guest tables. I loved the centerpieces and the carmel apple favors!

 The room looked wonderful all set up but I do want to warn all future brides and guest that the room was freezing but once guests started to dance it warmed up a little : )  

 I loved how Meghan had the "love bird" detail in several areas of her wedding. Here you can see it on the table numbers.

 The cake topper. The cake not only look perfect it tasted awesome!

 Close up of the cake topper that was made by a friend of the bride.

 Here are the birds again in the seating chart.

 The entrance table

The sand from the sand ceremony at the reception was also placed on the entrance table

 The guest book

Other key vendors include their photographer E. Angala Photography. Limo was provided my Entertainment Express and hair and make up was done by Shades Above.

Congratulations Meghan and Justin!!!

Collette and Kevin 10-10-10

Collette and Kevin had a beautiful outdoor ceremony at Cranbrook House and Gardens in Bloomfield Hills. The weather was amazing! Collette and Kevin had a string trio provided by The Panache Group. They did an excellent job and I highly recommend The Panache Group.

 Here is the view from the top of the stairs. I loved the view!

The reception was at the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham. The Townsend is a gorgeous hotel! They are know for their celebrity clientele and below you will see what celebrity crashed Collette's and Kevin's photo booth : )

Below is the escort card table.

 Centerpieces were from Viviano Flower Shop.

 I loved their card box! Surrounding the card box are engagement photos.

 Their favors were carmel apples which were a huge hit.

 I loved the moss covered letters that went in from of the DJ table. Their DJ was Matt Hanchan from Mike Staff Productions. Matt did an excellent job!

 Collette and Kevin head an adorable sweetheart table.

 The cake was from  the Townsend Hotel.

 I added the floral topper. Flowers were provided by Viviano's also.

 Outside of the hotel there were Zombies just walking around. Come to find out they were returning from doing a charity walk in Detroit for hungry. Collette and Kevin were nice enough to invite them in : )

The Zombies even agreed to dance to Thriller for the guests. The guest thought it was staged but it defiantly was not, lol.

 The lighting isn't the best since this was shoot on a camera but here is a video of the Zombies dancing.

And lets not forget that Iggy Pop stopped by. The photo is small since I borrowed from Shutterbooth's website. He was really nice and took pictures with several guests in the photo booth.

Other wonderful vendors included their videographers from Joseph F. Bauer Studios and their photographers from Toole Art Photography.

Congratulations Collette and Kevin! Your wedding was wonderful!

Jennifer and Jeffery 10-2-10

Jennifer and Jeffery had a ton of setup but thanks to her mom Cheryl set up went extremely smooth. Cheryl had a checklist of everything that had to be set up plus she included pictures of how things should look once set up and she labeled each storage container with what was it and where it went. Although all my brides do a great job with labeling their items Cheryl went above and beyond which was great for my assistant and I.

Our day started by arriving at the St. Mary Cultural Center in Livonia to set up for the reception. I left my assistant to finish setting up while I headed to the ceremony site. Their ceremony was held at The Little Wedding Chapel located in Heritage Park in Taylor. Although it was a rainy chilly day Jennifer and Jeffery were able to get some fantastic pictures around the area with their photographer Amber from Amber Lights Photography.

Here is a picture of their sand from their sand ceremony. This vase was placed next to the cake at reception so all their guest could view it.

The room after set up was complete. Chair covers and linens were provided by Chair Covers and Linens.

The centerpieces. It took some time setting up all the centerpieces but they looked fantastic!

Head Table

A big thanks my wonderful assistant Stephanie  for folding all the napkins : ) Above the menu is a favor box that had a really cute popcorn key chain to go with their movie theme. There is also a Rose chocolate that Cheryl made for each guest.

 Not only did the guests receive a rose and a key chain they also had some yummy treats at the candy buffet to choose from.

 The cake was provided by The Pastry Palace and it was delicious!

I loved the escort cards! Each guest received a personalized movie ticket that was in a cute star picture holder. If you’re counting that is favor number 4 for the guests : )

I loved that my table was "The Wedding Planner"

Table numbers. Each table had a name of a different movie.

 After dinner Jeffery played a song he wrote for Jennifer. He is very talented!

Congratulations Jennifer and Jeffery.