Michaela and Josh's Beautiful Interfaith Wedding!

Mary Page Block who founded and operates Arioso Strings referred Michaela and Josh to me. Michaela's parents are neighbors of hers in Cary. Mary sat down with the couple in the Spring of 2010 and went through this blog to choose their venue and other wedding  vendors. I am really delighted that brides and grooms use this blog as a resource! I met with Michaela and Josh in May of 2010 to plan this wedding to take place on July 30, 2011. Michaela and Josh chose the beautiful Renaissance Hotel in North Hills. All the weddings I have done there have been done in the long narrow end of the ballroom. Michaela and Josh were expecting more guests than that could accommodate so they chose the wider configuration as shown below by opening up an additional segment of the ballroom: It is huge! 

The photo above shows the long narrow configuration for a wedding I did there on New Year's Eve. 

See how spacious this area is?

 

There was plenty of room for the Arioso Strings Trio headed up by May Page Block and our vocalists.

Valeri and Megan are relatives of Michaela and came down from Ohio to sing in the wedding. They sang "Hosea" which was sung at Michaela's parents' wedding. It was beautiful. I don't know which is which but the young lady on the left is also the mother of our flower girl, Lulani.

Josh is of Jewish heritage and Michaela was brought up Christian. They wanted to blend the two faiths in their wedding ceremony. We included the Chuppah under which we stood for the ceremony. Josh and Michaela constructed this lovely Chuppah and Michaela made the canopy covering the top of it. We had two prayers, the Wine and Seven Blessing Ceremony, scripture readings, and the breaking of the glass.

Behind the partition the band, Shine, was warming up when we arrived to set up my microphones. We also found the cupcake wedding cake by Cakes for a Cause.

Fresh Affairs did the lovely florals. Their theme was sunflowers. 

So, here we are standing around while the last guests took their seats. On the right is Josh's grandpa, Murray, who canted the first of the seven blessings in Hebrew. Josh and I are already in line and behind us are his best man, Justin, and his brothers, Dan and Adam.

Here come the bridesmaids: Anna, the maid of honor, is on the left and Michaela's sisters, Kateri and Lizzie, are on the right.

Okay....we are ready to go. Our director, Terry, a friend of Michaela's family, served as our wedding director and cued us in. In the front of the line are Grandpa Murray who graciously escorted in Michaela's Grandmother, Anne. Our ring bearer is Jacob, son of Josh's aunt and uncle.

Once the wedding party got inside, it was time for the bride and her parents and our flower girls to get in line to enter. Lulani did a great job walking down the aisle by herself and standing with the bridesmaids.

Terry is waiting for Lulani to make it all the way down the aisle before sending the bride and her parents, Denis and Connie.

 

And there they go! I was so delighted to see that Michaela had found a white carpet runner for the wedding. That is about the only type of runner that will work on carpet. It did tend to move a little bit with the nap of the carpet but it was not dangerous or wrinkled.

 

Michaela and Josh live in Atlanta. They met at Emory from where they did their undergraduate work. Josh is a teacher at a private school and Michaela is a speech therapist for the public school system. Theirs is a wonderful love story and I had the pleasure or sharing it with their guests during the ceremony.

These photos are really grainy. The room was darkened and the zoom feature left a lot of quality to be desired!

After the pronouncement, Josh stomped the glass breaking it the first time, we all shouted "Mazeltov," and then they kissed. Sorry, don't have a picture of the kiss! You can see David Teeter with Story Photographers zeroing in on the scene. Ashley Stephenson with Story Photographers was on the other side getting more good shots.

They were beaming as they recessed out into their new marriage!

Michaela and Josh, congratulations on your marriage and your wonderful wedding! Your hard work and diligent planning sure paid off. I wish you the best always!

Fabulous New Year's Eve Wedding for Stacy and Michael!

Stacy and Michael are such a fun couple and they wanted a really festive wedding so they chose New Year's Eve 2010 for their wedding celebration party complete with sparklers. They chose the perfect party setting, the elegant Renaissance HotelRenaissance Hotel in North Hills. We first met in June to start planning the ceremony. I helped them put together exactly the ceremony they wanted including telling their wonderful love story complete with the humor this couple love. 

When Marty and I arrived on December 31, 2010, the section of the ballroom for the ceremony was all ready to go. Aren't the pink up-lights nice? The chair seats were covered in a pretty mauve color. The pedestals and flowers by Kelly Odom Flowers were beautiful.

We peeked in the adjoining ballroom where the tables had been set up and were ready to be moved into the ceremony area when the guests left after the ceremony and the partition removed. Everything was really glittery and festive for a big party. The centerpieces were also by Kelly Odom.

And here is the beautiful cake by Sweet Memories! Even the cake is glittery!

Michael and Stacy chose the perfect party DJ, Ken Holmes, of Joe Bunn DJ Company. He told me that he had really been looking forward to this wedding because he could tell when he met with the couple that they wanted a really fun celebration. Ken and I have done many weddings together. He plugged my microphone into his system and the sound was just perfect.

Stacy's friend, Samira Collins, was tapped to be her wedding director and she sure did a fantastic job of rounding up these "ready to party" bridesmaids and groomsmen and sending them down the aisle. Here we are going over some of the logistics. Thanks, Samira!

The guests had to be shooed into the ceremony room from the hallway where they were signing the guest book and so full of excitement anticipating Stacy and Michael's wedding ceremony and reception. Everyone was so dressed up for the occasion. The color scheme for the wedding was black and silver so I am wearing black and silver, of course! The guys and I are ready to enter and get this ceremony underway.

Around the corner and out of sight, the mothers and their escorts, our Man of Honor whom you cannot see in this photo but will see later on, and the bridesmaids and our bride are ready to get started. That's Michael's mother, Pat in the foreground with her grandson, Andrew, who wanted to escort her in. Stacy's mother, Linda, is turning around to look at her beautiful daughter! Samira is checking with Stacy and getting ready to cue them in.

Stacy's dress was simply spectacular. It looks rather white in the photographs but it was SILVER! A beautiful platinum silver. I have never seen anything like it. It was perfect for a New Year's Eve wedding. Her father, Barry, had the honor of escorting her down the aisle.

 

Our photographer was Heather Swanner. She was everywhere getting some really wonderful shots. Stacy's eyes filled up with tears from the very beginning. She just could not stop them from rolling down her cheeks. I think we went through 3 tissues! I just kept handing them to her and when she finished with each one, Michael stuck it in his pocket! She told me later that she never thought she would cry like that but she just could not help it!

When I told the story of how Michael and Stacy met and got together, the guests' laughter filled the room again and again. They especially liked the part where Michael thought Stacy's name was Stephanie and how he tried to find her several months after they had initially met while dating other people. He knew she was a hairstylist so he made appointments with every stylist named Stephanie he could find, whether he needed a hair cut or not! They eventually ended up running into each other again at an after work get together with mutual friends. Michael was determined not to lose Stacy again so he swept her off her feet by whisking her away on a getaway weekend of shopping and fun in the sun and, well, she was hooked from then on!

 The big kiss! Michael proceeded to "dip" her as everyone was applauding and cheering!

Now they are married and so happy! They led the wedding party and parents to the lounge while I instructed the guests to go to the lobby, pick up a sparkler and line up outside the hotel for a "mock" exit of the couple for photographs. Michael and Stacy wisely knew that they would never get everyone rounded up for this at 1:00 AM after all the celebrating.

 

One of the little flower girls is holding Stacy's train while Michael's mother talks to her. Magnificent dress! I wonder if she will start a trend. Stacy told me it was the first one she tried on and she just knew it was THE one!

 

They are so happy to be married and all their hard work paid off in a beautiful wedding. That "thing" I am holding is the handle of the huge sparkler that will be lit when I go out to join their guests.

This is Scott, Stacy's Man of Honor! He was great but had been worried about fluffing her dress and not knocking over the flowers on the pedestals. Scott, you did it perfectly!!

The guests outside all lined up waiting for the bride and groom. Thankfully it was a balmy evening of between 50 and 60 degrees.How fortunate for Stacy and Michael as only a week earlier we had temps in the twenties and 8 inches of snow!

Here they come! 

After the mock staged exit was over, the guests extinguished their sparklers and proceeded to the mezzanine for cocktails before the reception. Those giant sparklers were about 3 feet long and rather a challenge to put out because the burnt part had to be bent in order for the flame to get stuck into the bucket of sand. Consequently you see here a bucket full of still burning sparklers! 

Michael and Stacy, you really did a fantastic job planning a fun, festive and fabulous New Year's Eve wedding! Congratulations to you both and I wish you every success and happiness in the world!

A Beautiful Wedding for Sibel and Metin at the Renaissance Hotel in Raleigh!

The Renaissance Hotel is a great place for your wedding and reception. Sibel and Metin thought so too. Their wedding celebration was July 3, 2010 at 5:30 PM. I arrived with my husband Dave at 4:45 to get my microphone plugged into the house sound system (so nice and easy thanks to Oz, the banquet captain there.). Dave was my "roadie" for this wedding because my usual "roadie" Marty was on vacation at the beach this weekend. The room was all set up and the runner was in place but not secured. After 11 years of doing weddings, runners are not my favorite items because they rarely stay in place when walked on, especially if they are on top of carpet, grass or concrete. Anna Bobbitt, the Renaissance Hotel Sales Coordinator in charge of this wedding, (Megan was off this weekend) and I pinned the runner down on each end with some corsage pins I had with me. The material is quite fragile and so the hold was tenuous even though we doubled the thickness. After about half the guests arrived and walked on the runner, it was a twisted mess, so I personally removed it. It is just too dangerous and invites tripping and falling. The room is very pretty without the runner. (The best runner I have ever seen is a strip of white carpeting, bound on all sides.)

Lining the sides of the aisle were beautiful tall containers of water with floating candles and rose petals and petals scattered at the base of each one. At the "altar" there were two pedestals with very pretty flowers.

Shelley with Expressions of Love Florists provided these gorgeous flowers including the centerpieces on the tables in the reception hall. Notice how beautiful the bride's bouquet is and that she thoughtfully provided a towel to dry the stems when it was removed from the vase of water. On so many occasions we are searching for paper towels or something to catch the drips from the bouquets.

What a terrific wedding cake! I forgot to ask who baked it but I will find out. It was also bedecked with flowers.

After a 15 minute delay to allow late-comers to be seated, we began. Our DJ, Eddie, was a friend of the couple and provided the music for the wedding ceremony and reception. Entering here are the father of the bride, Sukra, and his wife, Funda. Sukra circled back to escort Sibel in.

Charlotte, mother of the bride, was escorted in by our usher, Greg, friend of the family.

Metin was a little nervous and I had to remind him to smile! We are next to enter.

This is our pretty little flower girl, Olivia. She is the daughter of the bride's sister, Suzanne. The room with all the people in it sure looked a lot different than the empty room at the rehearsal and she was reluctant to go down alone. So, Denise, sister of mother of the bride, who was also our honorary director, walked with her all the way. Then it was time for the doors to be closed, the music changed and the entrance of the bride and her father.

Here comes the bride! Sibel was beaming and radiant in that spectacular wedding gown.

And so, the ceremony begins. Sibel's mother is American and her father is Turkish. Metin is from Turkey and his parents live there. Unfortunately they could not be with us for the wedding. Dave could not get really good photos from the distance but here are a few taken with the zoom feature.

Metin and Sibel, congratulations and best wishes. I loved working with you to create your ceremony and officiating your lovely wedding. I know you will have great happiness and joy in your marriage!

These two Renaissance Hotel employees are the ones who were behind the scenes making this wedding happen. On the left is Ihab Beshay, Banquet Manager, and in the center is Anna Bobbitt, Sales Coordinator. Thanks to both of you for all your hard work and coordination to make this wedding a grand success for Sibel and Mettin. 

I want to also credit our photographers, Todd and Kristen of KMD Creations who were busy taking tons of photos. Ray with Carolina Wedding Videos was busy recording the ceremony. Thanks to all of you!