Grand Rapids Wedding Photography

We sat down with Michelle from Events by September’s Bride last week to talk about wedding planning! For the past 6 years, Michelle has been helping brides plan their dream wedding, and will celebrate her one year anniversary with “Events for September’s Bride” this May.

Frequently brides ask us if we think they should hire a Wedding Planner. Of course we love Wedding Planners…they help the wedding day run so much smoother for us! We love having a planner taking care of the details of the day so the bride can relax, and enjoy the wedding she’s spent a year or more preparing for! We decided to find out Michelle’s professional viewpoint about everything a Wedding Planner can offer a bride. She told us the most common misconception brides have is that Wedding Planners plan the entire wedding, or only do extremely large weddings. While Events by September’s Bride does offer full wedding planning and coordinating, they also offer many other options for brides, including partial planning or coordinating just the wedding day (managing the schedule and dealing with vendors for the bride). Planning Packages begin at only $600! That is definitely money well spent to ensure a smooth wedding day!

You can read Michelle’s detailed descripton about everything a wedding planner can do for you here. If you think it’s too late to hire a planner for your 2011 wedding, you’ll be surprised to learn that you can bring on a wedding planner up to 6 weeks prior to your wedding day…read this for all the information.

September’s Bride is an upscale bridal boutique located at 56 East 8th Street in Downtown Holland! It’s known as “the most beautiful bridal store in West Michigan”. We were curious about the name, so we asked Michelle how Tami Parks (the boutique’s owner) came up with the name “September’s Bride”? Michelle explained that Tami was married in September, and coincidently Rachel (the boutique’s manager), and herself were also married in September… so September’s Bride is the perfect name! Their dress collection is exquisite and the boutique is surprisingly expansive inside. You’ll notice the attention to detail throughout the beautiful historic building, located right next door to Tip Toes (Baby Boutique), Kilwin’s Fudge Shop, and JP’s Coffee House is across the street. We suggest brides visit the boutique in person to fully appreciate all September’s Bride has to offer!

Today you can tune in to WOOD TV’s EightWest at 11am (Monday May 2nd) to watch September’s Bride present “A Royal Inspired Wedding…Michigan Style”, then visit the boutique between May 3rd-14th to see the “Royal” display in person! You can register to win a night at Tesoro Inn on Old Mission Peninsula in Traverse City, and a gift basket filled with their favorite romantic drinks, chocolates, and surprises! Visiting September’s Bride in Downtown Holland sounds like a perfect day trip for a bride and her bridesmaids in May! ~Kari and Jayne

I stumbled upon this cute little store in Ada yesterday.  I saw the outside of the building, and it seamed to be calling me inside!  When I went inside, I was very impressed! What I loved about it is the originality of the products that were for weddings!

Two products especially caught my eye.  The first was a blessing bowl.  You can have it customized and hand painted to match your wedding.  They will match it to your invitation or your colors, or you decor.  You can have a special saying or Bible verse put on it… it is totally your choice!  The blessing bowls were originally created to receive thoughts of wisdom, hope and love at milestone events in life.  So, the idea is to put it out at your wedding, and let your guests fill the bowl with little pieces of paper with their “blessings” to you written on the papers.   The bowl is alos a wonderful, food save piece which you can use for years to come.

The second product I loved was the bouquet holders.  These were so original!  You have your bouquets made to go into the bouquet holder, then it is a gift to your attendants after the wedding.  The bouquet holder comes with a ribbon so it can be used as a wall piece after the wedding.  Your attendants can hang it on the wall, and fill it with dried or fresh flowers after the wedding.

I thought I would just throw a shout out to a great company that I worked with this summer… The Photobooth Company!  Anna and John used them at their wedding last summer.  I have to tell you, it was the hit of the reception!  There was quite a line up outside the door!  It was so fun, because it was just like an old fashioned photo booth.

These guys had a riot posing for the photobooth camera!

Everyone was excited to show each other their pictures!

The cool thing is that you get two copies…. one copy for you to keep yourself, and the other one goes to the bride and groom.  You put it in a book and write a message on it, and the bride and groom have that to keep forever!

So, two thumbs up for The Photobooth company!

I just wanted to give a big SHOUT OUT to Julie of “The Invitation Place“.    The Invitation place is a locally owned company, that is owned and operated by Julie Armstrong.  I feel very strongly about keeping as much business in the West Michigan area as possible (need I say why???).  The designs that Julie has are very unique and elegant, so I am sure you will find one that suits your style!

The Invitation Place offers multiple product lines to give you the largest selection available.  They offer invitations for your Wedding, Bridal Shower, Rehearsal Dinner, Save the Date Cards and many other wedding related items.  

Most of the personalized paper products are printed using Thermography, a process which provides a beautiful raised lettering effect.  Make sure you click on the link above to visit the Invitation Place website for more information!

They will be at the Wedding Affair Bridal Show, hosted by Grand Rapids Bride on Friday, October 16.  Make sure you stop by to see what they have!