Piece of Cake couple, Stacy and Matt chose our complete wedding planning offering for all-inclusive, detailed planning and design expertise. This post takes you along on our planning journey and their wedding day.

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Stacy and Matt are such a kind, fun-loving couple! They love food, drinks, their friends and family, having a good time, and wanted to encompass all of these elements into their laidback wedding day! However, when they started to plan, it became clear to them that the details were too overwhelming, and they were being too indecisive to accomplish things on their own. They started to look for a wedding planner to help them throughout their planning journey, and became very interested in the complete wedding planning package when they saw how much guided help and expertise they’d have throughout their entire engagement.

Their Story

Stacy and Erica had their first meeting two years before her and Matt’s wedding day. Yes, two years! Stacy was in dental hygiene school and wanted to finish school before her wedding. This also kept her very busy – another reason she was interested in the complete wedding planning package. This package includes all-inclusive, detailed assistance from day one until you say “I do.” i.e. We help you with pretty much everything, and you have a partner throughout your entire journey! At that first meeting, we heard all about Stacy’s vision for her wedding day, and discussed the things that were important to her and Matt. Complete planning includes monthly status calls to discuss upcoming action items, and we help keep you on schedule with all planning items, including dress shopping, invitation ordering, website creation, you name it! These calls switch to every other week beginning three months prior to your wedding, and weekly calls beginning six weeks prior to your wedding. Needless to say, we had a lot of calls! We create a wedding checklist personalized to your wedding date at the beginning of the process, and the calls serve as a touchpoint to discuss and move forward with upcoming items on the list. Because we started planning with so much time before Stacy and Matt’s wedding, we also encouraged them to enjoy their engagement, and we slowly tackled to-dos as Stacy had time around her school schedule. We also took advantage of her school breaks, and planned accordingly to get a lot done during those months. Knowing her tastes may have changed in two years, we also encouraged her to hold off on major décor decisions until we got a bit closer to the wedding year. She was grateful for this, and her tastes and decisions did switch a couple of times!

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The complete wedding planning package includes personalized vendor recommendations that fit your needs, wants and budget. We began to book Stacy’s vendors in order of importance to her and Matt. Since we had time to play with, we tackled one or two vendors at a time since many don’t even book more than two years out. We began with her venue to help set the tone of their wedding day. They decided on Cannon River Winery in Cannon Falls, Minn. This gorgeous venue includes an outdoor ceremony setting in the vineyard in the framework of an old barn, and the reception takes place in town at the winery. Their venue choice set the tone for the rest of the vendors they selected. We joined them for a few consultation meetings, as requested, and reviewed vendor contracts for clarity and accuracy. When we were one year out from their wedding date, all of their vendors were booked, and they were feeling great! At this time, we also planned a visit to their venue to meet with the onsite venue manager. At this meeting you get to look at your venue with fresh eyes (very different from when you’re “venue shopping,”) and we confirm all of the necessary venue details for your big day, which sets us up for a successful planning journey.

The complete wedding planning package also includes style, design and décor assistance. About 10 months before their wedding, we met to discuss their wedding vision and what type of décor they wanted to have for their special day. This meeting took about two hours, which is what you can expect, and we bring inspiration ideas and ask you a lot of styling questions! Stacy wanted to accentuate the winery ambiance for her décor. Using that meeting as our guide, we then prepared an electronic mood board with ideas, colors and décor options for her consideration. Stacy loved having these options presented to her, and she was able to quickly make décor decisions from there, and started crafting with her bridesmaids! We even went with her to Hobby Lobby to look at some options in person. She also wanted to have signs throughout her wedding featuring love quotes, so we joined her at a wood shop and chose pallets for the signs. We pulled together multiple wording options, so she’d be able to choose what she wanted all of the signs to say. We also assisted with wording for their programs, invitations and wedding website, providing a beautiful and cohesive feel throughout their wedding celebration.

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We’re talking with your vendors throughout the entire planning process, but six weeks prior to your wedding, we have an in-person meeting to deep dive into your timeline and vendor updates. This six-week meeting usually takes two hours and it’s details galore! YAY! This timing is really perfect. We’ve found if we create the timeline any earlier, things are still too up in the air to begin to lock down details, and it also changes many times. And any closer to wedding day, we’re cutting deadlines too close. We talk about primary timeline items many months in advance – ceremony time, cocktail hour, dinner – so you’re able to plan accordingly, but this is when we discuss the details that paint a picture for your wedding day! We met Stacy and Matt at their home for this meeting, which was so welcoming and inviting, and fun to see them in their natural element. From this point on, we’re working with your vendors to confirm any final details. We also create and send personalized timelines to each vendor, as well as your family and wedding party. This ensures everyone knows the plan, and where to be and when on wedding day! It’s the planning we do ahead of time that actually sets us up for the most day-of success.

In the final weeks of planning, we help you finalize your reception layout as your guest list is final. Stacy and Matt wanted a large, communal head table in the center of the room with their guests surrounding them, so we worked with their venue to design a custom layout. As final, we assigned wine table names, and they just had to group their guests accordingly and let us know how many were assigned to each table. We help to make this process as simple as possible, and confirm that we don’t forget anyone in the final counts! In the week prior to your wedding, we also discuss your décor in great detail to ensure we have full understanding of where you want everything setup and if you have any specifications of how you want it to look. Stacy had specific ideas of how the centerpieces should be arranged, but then gave us creative freedom for the rest of the tables, which is fun to create a gorgeous room for you to walk into on your wedding day! We also attend and lead your wedding rehearsal. Due to another wedding being at the venue Friday evening, we weren’t able to access the venue for Stacy and Matt’s rehearsal. We recommended a rehearsal at the restaurant where they were having their rehearsal dinner; it was an adorable restaurant with a private room. We had sent a list of restaurant options to the mother of the groom, and Vivo Kitchen in Apple Valley was an amazing selection! Their lead planner, Erica joined for the beginning of their evening and ran everyone through the ceremony so they were ready to go for wedding day! We’ve done this numerous times, and it works quite well as an alternate option if we’re unable to access your ceremony venue. The rehearsal took about 30 minutes and then everyone continued to enjoy the celebration!

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Wedding Day

It’s wedding day! We worked so closely with Matt and Stacy for more than two years, and everyone was so excited that their special day was finally here! Our complete wedding planning package includes 12 hours of coverage from a Piece of Cake lead planner and an assistant for 12 hours as well. We are there making sure every detail is covered and perfect, so you get to relax and enjoy! The lead planner’s primary role is managing the timeline, communicating with all vendors and touching base with the couple, family and wedding party to make sure they’re all doing well and enjoying the day! The assistant primarily manages décor setup, and jumps in to help where ever he or she is needed. Stacy and Matt’s wedding day had us moving between the hotel where everyone got ready, the winery for the reception, and the vineyard for ceremony.

By creating the master timeline, we have a general guide for the day that everyone is working from, but we also build in buffer time to allow for flexibility and time to relax. But like all events, day-of questions and unexpected things always pop up, and we’re there handling everything so you don’t have to worry about a thing! Some coordination highlights of Stacy and Matt’s day include: The power went out in a portion of the hotel on wedding morning, so we played room swap to find multiple rooms with power for hair and makeup, all while making sure the bride and groom didn’t see one another! The makeup artist was set to arrive at 7:30am. When she wasn’t there by 7:35, we called, and she had overslept. We got on the phone with our network of wedding vendors and got a second makeup artist to come as well, so that we stayed on time with hair and makeup. This solution with the second artist coming was already in place before the bride even knew what was going on, keeping her stress level as low as possible. The side of the bride’s dress tore, and we sewed it up with the sewing kit we always have in our wedding day emergency kit. We communicated with the buses bringing guests to the ceremony to let them know when they had the all clear to arrive onsite. Then one of the guest buses parked behind a central photo location. We noticed this and kindly asked them to move so the bus wasn’t in the background for pictures. It was a very hot, late-September day, so we made sure to have water out at the ceremony for guests and encouraged everyone to stay hydrated! Following the ceremony, we helped corral four large groups of people for extended family photos – not an easy task when everyone is happy and wants to keep chatting! Once we finished photos, we got everyone back on the buses to head to the reception. The reception ran beautifully, and everyone was laughing and dancing all night. We cued all of the toasts and connected with their DJ throughout the evening for announcements. We also were in touch with the end-of-night bus driver, making sure all guests who were taking the bus back to hotels didn’t miss the final trip. And of course, we tore down all décor so family and friends could keep dancing and enjoy the entire celebration! After all of the planning, the day goes so quickly, and we want to make sure you’re present for all of it!

At the end of the night, we hugged and thanked an extremely happy couple, which is always so gratifying and wonderful to see! We hit the road for the drive back home, still on the wedding day high. Needless to say, it was a wonderful and busy day, and we love to do it. You shouldn’t have to worry about all of the details that pop up on wedding day, and throughout the planning journey. Let us expertly handle it for you, so you and your partner, as well as your family and friends, can be fully present and enjoy!

Each wedding planning experience will vary slightly, as we work with our couples to create an enjoyable experience that centers around them, their wedding and their personalities. Hopefully this glimpse into Stacy and Matt’s beautiful day gives you an idea of what our complete wedding planning package offers, and demonstrates the importance of having a professional planner on your side for your big day!

“Words cannot express how grateful I am that we had Erica to help plan our dream wedding! At first, I thought I could plan our wedding on my own, but once I got started, the details were too overwhelming for me. Then Erica came to the rescue! She is the most detail-oriented person I’ve met. Those specific details that Erica perfected are what made our wedding day so amazing and effortless for us. We were able to enjoy every moment without a worry! She was also a huge help when it came to making homemade centerpieces. She made a mood board with detailed examples so I could visualize them better, and I just had to pick which ones I wanted. Her knowledge of the wedding business is immense, and I trusted her with every detail of our big day. Also, she is super responsive, which is definitely what you need in a wedding planner. Thank you, Erica!”

— Stacy and Matt