The Wedding Experience
JMT Eventology hosted their first Wedding for Stacey and Rob at the Bridal Spectacular on Saturday January 21, 2012. It was an amazing experience and we are honored they allowed us to be a part of their special day. While our team has assisted with a variety of other Weddings this is the first official Wedding with design and coordination.
HOW IT STARTED
The idea for the Wedding Experience booth started a couple of years ago when a group of Wedding Professionals were talking about how to better present their services at a Bridal Show. We came up with an idea of creating a collaborative booth to showcase what we do for an actual Wedding. And so the Wedding Experience idea was born!
MOCK WEDDING EXPERIENCE
To bring the concept to the next level we knew we needed a Wedding couple who would represent a more contemporary look and feel. As the demographics of the country is always changing we wanted our Wedding couple and party to be more representative of the 20-something generation. When soliciting input our friend Teresa Meli of the Enchanted Florist mentioned Stacey and Rob would be perfect. The couple worked with her and definitely represented the youthful and energetic persona we were looking for. With the couple in place we were able to find a Wedding party who were fun, hip, and cool with the help of Adam Trujillo, Natasha Gonzales, Yvonne Drake, and Mark Justice.
DESIGN AND COORDINATION
Design. The design stage of the process was about a year in the planning as we had some basic ideas and began to further develop them as the date approached. We selected shades of purple and tangerine as the colors for the Wedding and wanted a modern yet romantic feel. We created a style board to help develop the vision and give ideas to each of the Event Professionals involved in the process. In August of 2011 we approached Bridal Spectacular to offer a location to present this concept. With their support we put into motion the plans to launch JMT Eventology with the Mock Wedding Experience!
Floral. We enlisted the assistance of four of the most prominent florists in Las Vegas to help develop the idea. Enchanted Florist was on board from the beginning and offered their support and assistance in developing the idea. The staff of Enchanted always offers something new and different so they were a perfect fit for the Ceremony. We also requested Julie Reed Events to create her stunning contemporary personal florals. Julie is involved in a variety of floral organizations including the local Las Vegas School of Floral Design. For the reception, it was a collaboration of Flora Couture by Floral 2000 and Naakiti Floral Design, both of whom we knew would help interpret our Wedding vision. Flora Couture has years of experience in the Las Vegas community and created four lamp centerpieces with submerged lilies which offered the perfect fit for the focal point of the reception. Naakiti corresponded with a complimentary centerpiece with her own interpretation of a simple yet elegant arrangement with submerged lilies and purple crystals.
Coordination. In order to arrange a production of this magnitude including over twenty event professionals we requested the assistance of our great friends and creative partners, Arlene of Sound Fusion and Semper Fi Events. I met Arlene a few years ago and from the first meeting I knew she was an amazing individual who truly embraced the spirit of collaboration and creativity to make this event successful. We really need to give a great deal of credit to Arlene who was an integral part of the process lending her support and allowing us to share ideas for feedback.
Music. The next step was music. For us a song can inspire an entire event and for the Wedding Experience we had three song inspirations: Enya, “Only Time”; BT, “Emergency”; and Rihanna, “Fading Away.” The enchanted lyrics of Enya gave us the idea to make the Ceremony lighter and more ethereal rather than our original idea of a Rockstar inspiration. The track of “Fading Away” made a perfect entrance for the processional. The notes in the first few moments were very methodical and built anticipation for the Bride’s arrival. Finally, BT’s “Emergency” was a modern-day love song to celebrate the couple uniting as one.
Putting together three very unique songs into a composition for live entertainment was not an easy task. This brought us to the Cynthia Harris of Classical Entertainment. Cynthia is an amazing musician and has the resources and skills to bring this musical presentation to life. And to transition to a party style reception with the exuberance to match this young couple was the collaboration with Sound Fusion. DJ Stefan has the musical wizardry from working in clubs to bring the party to the reception!
Décor.
We arranged accent pieces including draping from Quest Drape and JW Marriott; tables and Chiavari chairs from RSVP Party Rentals; and mirrors and black and white fabric from our personal collection. The linens were extremely important as they needed to be rich and vibrant to match the rest of the design elements. Jovani Linens spent a couple of hours with us to create the right palette and accents to create a stunning reception and soft accents to the reception. With faux fur chair caps and dazzling overlays the reception was rich in color and design. The extra touches included small brooches on each chair and beautiful glittering napkin ties. To add a little more to the setting we invited 1st Impressions to creating signature welcome card to celebrate the Wedding of Stacey and Rob. Cathy offers custom creations for every event and we knew that with just a little guidance for color and concept she would create something incredible!
While the florists provided crystal beads, glass, and manzanita branches the accents of purple light from LED Unplugged made the Ceremony and reception that much more awe-inspiring. If you have ever set up for an event you know the last thing you want to deal with is taping down wires throughout your Ceremony so their assistance was integral to the process!
Cake andChampagne.
Every celebration needs a cake and Gimme Some Sugar came through with a black and silver creation with jeweled fondant and a decadent chocolate cake with cookies and cream filling. For something even more amazing the Marie Antoinette strolling table by Champagne Creative Group offered sparkling cider. The guests were amazed as we pulled back the curtains to the reception to be greeted by this beautiful creature to offer a toast to the couple’s new life together!
Attire, Hair, Makeup.
Every bride and groom may spend time looking online and through catalogues for their formal attire but it is not always as easy as finding something that looks as good as it does on the model. We learned our lesson during the tuxedo fitting when we spent an hour finding the right look after we had pre-selected an outfit the week before. The staff of Tuxedo Junction was patient and fortunately has a full selection of attire on site to make sure that we were able to dress our men. We pieced together the tuxedo with a few different styles for a modern retro look that was both comfortable and made them rock!
For the women, the task was also a bit challenging finding the right look. Our bridesmaids were relatively easy when we went to Bella Bridesmaid as Jamie brought us to two fashions that were each a unique representation of our visions of purple. Finally, Couture Bride worked with our Bride to find the dress that fit her to a tee! We had discussed a Vera Wang in gray but, again, picking a dress isn’t about what is pretty on the hanger or in the magazine but is going to make your bride feel beautiful and they delivered because our bride was radiant! With the assistance of Amelia C, our bridal party transformed from pretty to amazing within hours. Amelia and her staff took our vision and made every member of the Wedding party simply stunning!
Photo/Cinema.
While digital cameras give the novice a little edge it does not substitute for years of experience! Las Vegas has a variety of talented individuals and we called on them to offer their talents to accent the day! DIG‘s Studios was the first in line to help us in creating a promotional video that captured not only the moments setting up the event but also the spirit for which the Wedding Experience was created – a collaboration of ideas and perspectives. We knew their team would have the right outlook and they captured both the interviews as well as the moments with a great attention to detail.
For day of photography we spoke to a crew of our friends with Alt F, Studio ATG, John Morris, and Artistic Imaging. If you have had the chance to meet this talented group you know that they are all very different in perspective, personality, and presentation. What John Michael Cooper, Trish McMillan, John Morris, and Adam Frazier all have in common is a resounding passion for their craft and willingness to step outside the box. With this in mind we wanted to have them participate in a unique concept for the bridal party arrival at the show. With the gracious assistance of Las Vegas VIP Limousines the bridal party arrived at the front door in a stretch limousine to be greeted by the Paparazzi! Our photographers gave them a celebrity welcome to add a bit of excitement to the onlookers. And for day of we had Lighten Films assist with cinema to capture the details. What we love about Terrence and his wife Suzi is their quiet and unassuming dedication to their craft. We knew Terrence had just the right disposition and caring personality to help the couple shine.
Twist!
So the one element to the story that we did not share was a casual conversation during the tuxedo fitting. Rob and Stacey were actually engaged and have a beautiful son, Ace. Like many couples they are always on the go and working to build a life for their family. As we were chatting I mentioned that this was great practice for their big day and that they could even get married as we had an officiant to preside over the Ceremony. On Tuesday, January 17 Rob gave me a call and said he considered what I said and decided they were going to get married if that was alright with us. While I have worked with hundreds of couples over the years this phone call will be one that I will remember for the rest of my life. We had only briefly met them both but we felt like we knew the most important part of their story – they were in love and really wanted to get married. To be asked to help them plan their real Wedding day completely changed the dynamics of what was originally a mock Wedding to an actual Wedding Ceremony! We decided to proceed with telling everyone this was just a mock Wedding experience to allow the couple their privacy to share this with their friends and family – and the day of would announce that this was really their Wedding day!
The Wedding Experience.
As with any Wedding day there are a few last-minute adjustments to the schedule but the day turned out amazing! As Adam from Artistic Imaging is also President of the local chapter of Wish Upon a Wedding we knew that his compassion made him the ideal candidate to offer day of photography and offer the couple photos to share with their friends and family. Reverend Phil York has a wonderful presence and demeanor that was perfect to preside over this Wedding. We also enlisted the assistance of Aleksandra Tregub, a recent graduate of the International School of Hospitality, to help with coordination with our Event Professionals.
The production was amazing and both their guests as well as the attendees for the Bridal Spectacular were there to witness the unity of this wonderful couple. We can account the success of this production to some of the most talented and amazing individuals in the Las Vegas community that we are proud to call our friends. The efforts of all of our creative partners was incredible but, mostly importantly, we are excited that we could be a part of helping Stacey and Rob celebration their Wedding day. We would like to thank everyone who assisted us and we wish the best for Rob, Stacey, and Ace!
