Part 1: Kerry

It was the spring of 2012. I had just gotten engaged to the boy next door. Jeff and I were neighbors in college and we couldn’t wait to begin planning our wedding in Northern Michigan.  After buying every wedding magazine available at the newsstands and saving hundreds of images on Pinterest, I was completely overwhelmed. I love design and planning, but I was in need of guidance and someone to hold my hand throughout the process.

Enter A Day in May Events… One fateful morning, my mom and I went to meet Alicia (AKA Lish) for the first time. At a local coffee shop, we sipped our lattes and began to get to know each other. After Lish showed us her portfolio, images of beautiful tented weddings and lush floral centerpieces danced in my head. I was amazed at Alicia’s immense talent. She has incredible vision and a can-do attitude that makes you feel like you can take on the world. Every event she showcased was one of a kind and each detail was tailored perfectly to the couples’ unique story.  I knew she was the person to help us design and plan our wedding. We went home and signed our contract. I was officially an A Day in May Events bride!

It is important to note that my husband and I are quite different. I am a visual person and a dreamer. I was eager to plan an outdoor affair for our wedding day to showcase the beautiful surroundings in Northern Michigan. My husband, being the more practical one, wanted to have the event indoors to ensure our guests would be comfortable. So we compromised… the ceremony would be held at a local vineyard that would allow guests to enjoy the Traverse City scenery, followed by a reception indoors.

Cue the search for an indoor reception venue that would accommodate our guest count… Finding a reception space that will accommodate 200 people and also looks beautiful aesthetically can be a challenge.  Thankfully I had the A Day in May Events team by my side to help me see the potential at the interior spaces we visited. We found an indoor venue that with some help from “Pipe & Drape”, would create the warm, romantic space we dreamed of!  

During the design process, A Day in May proposed full perimeter draping that would conceal the grey walls of the conference center that felt quite cold and detached.  We added a dreamy pergola structure in the center of the room to create a focal point. Add in lush floral center pieces, long tables toppling with pretty baubles and gold chandeliers…and our plan was in place. The remainder of the planning process moved along seamlessly. We created stunning letterpress stationery, attended a rendering with our amazing floral designer, and enjoyed the most delicious buttercream at our cake tasting. 

Before I knew it, our wedding day arrived! When the ADIM team pulled back the drape and allowed us to step into our reception space for the first time, I was speechless.  The transformation that took place was truly incredible.  It was like stepping into a dream. Everything we had planned and talked about for months was before me and it was better than I ever imagined. To this day, it is one of my favorite moments. My mom, who rarely cries, immediately burst into tears.  It. Was. Awesome.

Before…

After…

That’s the beauty of ADIM…They make the magic happen. Your dreams are transformed into reality. A lack-luster conference room can become the most beautiful space you’ve ever seen. Who would have thought?! When I got engaged, I knew I would get to marry a wonderful man. What I didn’t know was that my amazing team of wedding planners would become beloved friends and that (thank my lucky stars!) I would get to join the team and take part in all the fun! 

 

Part 2: Alicia (AKA “Lish”- as in fish, delish, relish… hey, I like pickles and needed another word that rhymed with Lish because I like odd numbers better than even numbers!)

When people ask what I do for a living I tell them that I’m in the business of relationships. Each and every day we work to create some of life’s most precious moments for our clients, leaving a mark, a memory, that lasts a lifetime. We get to create new families, celebrate milestones and pay tributes to legacies- in my book, it doesn’t get much better than that! Over the years we have served, worked alongside and played with more than 150 families and there is nothing more special than being a part of their lives.

I am a people person and I love meeting with prospective clients for the first time; especially those we get to meet in person! That discovery process is exhilarating and I love people’s stories. There’s a certain energy in the air- excitement, nerves, enthusiasm, etc. When I met Kerry and her mom for the first time in 2012 I fell in love! These two beautiful ladies were so genuine and all around fun- not to mention their style and sense of fashion was on point! (What do the kids say these days, “on fleek??”) We talked about how Kerry was marrying the man of her dreams and that there was no better place than her hometown to ring in the nuptials. Our mutual love of flowers was evident in between the giggles and I was starting to envision, letting my imagination carry me, what her and Jeff’s wedding day could look like if they chose to work with us.

Flash forward a couple of months and Kerry, her mom Nancy, Tana, Emily and I were knee deep in planning! When we settled on the venue we knew we had our work cut out for us. Kerry loves tents and always envisioned dancing the night away on her wedding night but our location wasn’t an outdoor venue and didn’t quite have that warmth Kerry was picturing. Although the venue was one of a handful located on the water in Traverse City, to achieve the look Kerry and Jeff wanted, Tana and I recommended that we divide the room in two, separate dinner from dancing and cover the water view entirely. For those of you who haven’t been to our ‘city by the bay, ‘ that’s like getting married in Paris and saying you don’t want to see the Eiffel Tower! Bold. We know.

As the guest RSVP’s rolled in, final details confirmed, and Jeff’s recommended song list for our DJ grew to a dangerously high level (hey, what can we say, we love a man who loves to get down!) we were anxiously waiting to bring this vision to life. Thanks to the trust from Kerry, Jeff and their families, along with a great team of vendors and a little luck from Mother Nature, their wedding day went off with only one hitch- the two of them as husband and wife!

The end of a journey is always bittersweet especially one where you have spent so much time and energy with people whom you grow to love- you are sad to see the moment end. At the brunch the day after the wedding we told Kerry’s parents that just because her dad had to give her away the day before doesn’t mean we were going to part with her that easily! Flash forward two years later… we are lucky enough to have Kerry, our bubbly-kind-sweet-beautiful-charming-talented former bride, as a part of our team right here at A Day in May Events!

 

Part 3: A Day in May Events

While this is one small story (we promise there will be lots!), it has helped lead us here to this moment. The moment when we decided that it’s about time the world knows a bit more about what we do day in and day out. What inspires us. What motivates us. What our go-to resources are. What we are up to and what makes us, Us. We hope you will join us on this crazy ride we call life! Now… drum roll please. Welcome to “Pipe & Drape,” a blog brought to you by the Ladies of A Day in May Events!!

Contrary to popular belief, we cannot control the weather. But, we can however control what we put out in the universe and how we share it. Enter, the blog. For those of you wondering why we named our blog “Pipe & Drape?” Quite simply, it’s a huge part of our world:

Pipe & Drape creates! It allows the magic to happen and defines an environment filled with beauty and new creations.
Pipe & Drape reveals! That moment of surprise when you pull back the drape, you experience the excitement of the unknown.
Pipe & Drape conceals! It’s the separation between craziness and perfection. It’s what’s necessary behind the scenes and what allows the beauty to unfold. 
Pipe & Drape supports! The pipe supports the drape. And just like our team (that includes our clients, vendors, friends and family), we can’t exist without each other. 

We hope you follow along as we share our story. It’s one whose name is unspoken but told over Time. It’s one of deep delight and shared under starry skies…

Xo,

Lish, Tana, Emily & Kerry