Jen and Paul: June 19, 2009

When my college friends, Jen and Paul Chambers, agreed to share their amazing day with Wed Michigan, I was thrilled! Are you ready for how we're all connected? Paul and I are friends from freshman year at Michigan State- and Jen went to my rival high school, Portage Northern! They met at MSU, and the rest is history! Paul runs Core3 Solutions in Birmingham and also owns Dale and Thomas Popcorn located in Royal Oak. Jen is an energetic elementary school teacher, and together these two make one awesome pair. They both have some serious talent and are so much fun! Their energy always lights up a room and I knew when they started planning their wedding, that their big day was going to SPECTACULAR!

Congrats to Jen and Paul and thank you for sharing your details with Wed Michigan!



Lighting
Paul was convinced we needed lighting. To be honest I was just thinking, "How much is that going to cost?" We found The Lighting Guy and they truly transformed our room. When we walked into the reception I was in awe of how it all came together. With the room being as large as it was, the lighting added a whole other element. It was soft and romantic and as the sunset they added stars to the ceiling. It was beautiful and well worth every penny!



Photobooth
We wanted our guests to have fun and were so excited when we found Shutterbooth! I think it may have been more popular than us. I know there are other companies out there but you have to look at Shutterbooth before anyone else. They helped us create our monogram for our photo strip and were willing to help us make our day perfect! We used their picture frames as place cards. The guests walked into the room and upon entering and found a table holding picture frames with their names and a question. Guests had to find their name and then the answer to their question, the answers were on the tables and how our guests found their seats. It was a great way to get people mingling trying to remember things like; Where did Jen grow up? or What does Paul want to name their first child? The guest then got to take unlimited photos in the photo booth and house them in their frames. Two attendants came with the booth who were incredibly personable. They instructed our guests on what to do and made sure they added one of their photo strips to a scrapbook which became our guest book. It has been a great keepsake and everyone has enjoyed seeing all the silly shots!



Popcorn Bar
Now we may be partial but the guests LOVED our popcorn bar from Dale and Thomas Popcorn, located Downtown Royal Oak. We had two attendants with five different, unique flavors. It was displayed in beautiful glass jars of varying sizes around a chocolate fountain (the fountain we got from the venue). Each guest found a small tin with our monogram on the top at their seat. They were able to fill their tin with as much popcorn as they liked!



Videographer
Our videographer also came from Mike Staff Productions. They were with us starting before the ceremony and well in to our reception. They captured comments from our guests as well as moments where still photos would never do justice to! When we sat down to watch the finished product, there were so many things we remembered and others we were excited to see because we had missed them. Their professionalism and ability to caputre the shot with out being intrusive was amazing. They offer a great price and truly get more than you paid for! Take a peek here.



Cake
Our cake was made as a gift from our family friend Ron Fetch, who owns and runs Sweet Endings Pastry in Bloomfield Hills. His cake is the best tasting cake I have every tasted! We chose two flavors, chocolate with raspberry filling and yellow cake with Black Currant filling. We kept it simple with butter cream frosting topped with our monogram and gerber daisies.



Men's Attire
All of the tuxedos came from President Tuxedo in Birmingham. Jeff was so easy to work with and helped us find what we wanted for a very fair price. Though they don't have stores across the country, all our out of town men had to do was call in their sizes. It was wonderful because the warehouse is located here so on the off chance alterations were needed they were able to get them quickly. The quality was great and the boys looked wonderful in their black textured vests and hot pink ties. They matched the bridesmaids dresses perfectly! Paul wore a pin striped tux with cream colored vest and tie.



My Dress
I loved my dress! The staff at Bella Bridal in Bloomfield Hills was fantastic. They were very accomodating and allowed me to come in and see/alter my dress as many times as I needed to be at ease. I bought the dress during a trunk show for Casablanca, it was part of the Diamond Collection. My jewelry and hot pink shoes were also from Bella Bridal and recieved rave reviews. The veil was the same one my sister wore and we are hoping it will become a Smith family tradition.



The flower girl dresses were also purchased at Bella Bridal. They helped us over what could have been a huge hurdle! The original style dress we finally picked out was no longer being made due to the beading, and there was a lead time scare! They notified me as soon as they got the call. I went in the next day and they helped me pick out a dress that was close in price and offered to pay for rush shipping if necessary! Bella Bridal was amazing through the whole process!



{All images by The Shooting Gallery}