Beard & Broad Do Marriage

As you may have gathered from a few of our previous posts or from our social media, we’ve had a busy year. We were planning a wedding and then finally got married on July 15! Then we were off on our honeymoon. This is the main reason our posts were few and far between for most of the year. Planning the biggest day of your lives is a little time consuming and a tad stressful. We thought we’d do a post about our special day because we met and worked with some of the best vendors in the Cleveland area, and maybe we can offer some useful tips to those getting hitched in the future. Plus, you can get to know us a little better 🙂

*WARNING* This post is lengthy because we couldn’t help gushing about our favorite vendors!

We planned our wedding together, this was not just Broad’s job. Beard was involved every step of the way and it was awesome. We don’t really understand why couples don’t plan together, it’s a special day for both of you!  We also hired a planner, Denise at McPherson Events & Design to make things easier on us. We wanted to incorporate our vision and designs and wanted to pick out our own vendors (we had a ton in mind). But we also wanted someone who would help us out with whatever we needed, would do stuff we really didn’t want to do, and most important, make sure the day went as smoothly as possible. She was amazing, like a fairy godmother.

We also had a theme. Is this a thing other couples do? We don’t know. We’re not talking “rustic elegance” or something like that. We chose “Where the Wild Things Are” because we are children at heart and we had a lot of creative decorating ideas to go with it. Luckily, our vendors were excited for all of our ideas!

The Venue
Venues book up in Cleveland (and probably everywhere else) very quickly. We’re talking a year or more in advance.  We knew we didn’t want a typical banquet hall or hotel ballroom. We wanted something less formal, open and different. We toured a bunch of barns and outdoor spaces, then we realized the logistics of decorating and guest transportation would be a nightmare. Plus, though it might have produced some great pictures, barns aren’t really our thing. There had to be something else. So, while on vacation in Mexico Broad did a little research on industrial spaces and found a few. She booked tours for the day after we returned from our trip. We loved both but really fell in love with Ariel International Center. Located in the industrial area of downtown Cleveland, the recently renovated 100 year old rustic historic brick building hosts fantastic panoramic views of the Cleveland skyline and Lake Erie. The rooftop is available to rent as well as the third and fourth floors of the building. The interior has high wood beam ceilings, elegant chandeliers and exposed brick. Just our style!

We chose to have the ceremony on the rooftop along with cocktail hour. The reception was inside on the fourth floor. It was July so we wanted to enjoy both the outside and be in the air-conditioning to cool down. We loved the big open space concept. We did not have a seating chart (more on that later) and had a mix of high tops and round tables. The windows on the fourth floor were large and you get the views of both the Lake and city.

TIP: Find a venue that makes you comfortable. Get EVERYTHING in writing ahead of time. While we were happy with our venue, there ended up being a slew of “hidden costs” that were not disclosed at the beginning or when we signed the contract.

Photography & Videography
The minute we booked our venue, Broad contacted our photographer Kayla from Kayla Lupean Photography & Cinema see if she was available. She had followed (stalked is maybe the best word) Kayla on social media for a while and just knew we needed her to capture our day. Luckily for us she was available. We met with her and within the first few minutes we knew she was perfect for us. She is laid back, personable, funny and smart. Included in our package was an engagement session. When we told her our Wild Things theme she ran with it. We also brought Murray Pup, and some friends to help wrangle him. For the wedding day, we had her for 12 hours and an additional photographer. We didn’t want to miss a thing. She made our bridal party, family, and guests feel so comfortable! She took us to the best locations and captured everything we could possibly want. In addition to taking the photos, she did our videography (she is a modern day Super Woman). We were hesitant if we wanted video and she didn’t pressure us. Around two weeks before the wedding we connected and we decided we needed to add the video. Best decision ever!

TIP: Do your research and be realistic with your budget. We knew exactly what we wanted, but also knew how much it would cost. There are so many different photography styles and package prices. There are also many different levels of experience amongst photographers out there too. You get what you pay for! Also if you are on the fence about having a videographer, do it! You will not regret it.

The Food
We knew we wanted stations of food. We are both not fans of plated meals. Most of the weddings we attended in California had stations and it just seemed like the best idea. The first caterer we talked to and ended up choosing was Taproot Catering. We’ve had their food before and were very impressed. Brian (the owner) invited us to an event where he had stations set up and we were able to sample basically everything he was capable of. He worked extensively making sure we had what we wanted and didn’t judge us for our choices. We wanted our favorite foods, plain and simple.  We chose the following stations: taco bar, macaroni and cheese bar, mashed potato bar and chips and salsa. When you have stations there is no reason to have a seating chart so we were happy to eliminate that stress.

Taproot also prepared an assortment of desserts. We’re not big into sweets (well Beard is) so we didn’t want a huge cake or a ton of desserts. Brian prepared just the right amount and we had Kiedrowskis Bakery make our cake, along with their famous Snoogles. Though we weren’t passing out the cake, we still wanted a small one for the awesome custom cake toppers we found on Etsy.

We also had to have late night food. We figured we wouldn’t be able to eat a lot during the wedding (our friends were right, you don’t eat) and we knew most people would be drinking heavily, so we wanted food available towards the end of the night to help prevent those hangovers. We picked Smash the World’s Great Food Truck to set up outside the venue and serve gourmet style personal pizzas. They were a huge success!

TIP: It’s YOUR day so we strongly believe the menu should be whatever YOU want. Want a taco bar, ice cream bar, and chicken paprikas station? Go for it. Having our favorite foods made the day even more special. If your crowd is a heavy-drinking bunch or your day will be long, we HIGHLY recommend late night foods! Whether it be pizza, sandwiches, etc. your guests will thank you!

The Drinks
This may have been the most important part of our wedding and the part we spent the most time on. At Ariel, you purchase the alcohol from them. The good part about this is that you get to keep any leftovers. We of course had an open bar. But we didn’t want to have a FULL bar meaning we didn’t need every type of alcohol. So we focused on what we like (remember, its YOUR day). Beer. We needed a lot of beer. Our friends love beer as much as we do. We had some of our favorite craft beers from Platform Beer Co., and we stocked up on our three favorite cheap beers: Miller High Life, Pacifico and Coors Light. For liquor we chose our favorite gin in the whole world (Watershed Distillery, more on these guys in a later post), whiskey, vodka and scotch (to go with the late night cigar). We chose one type of red wine and one type of white wine (no one cares what wine they’re drinking) and bottles of bubbles, of course! Our choices seemed to go over very well with the guests.

TIP: When searching for a venue make sure you find out all the details of the alcohol policy because each venue if different. Ask lots of questions! Some let you bring your own in, some make you buy from them or an outside vendor. There are many things you can do: open bar, cash bar, beer/wine, no alcohol, etc. Choose whatever is best for you!

The Attire
Broad Attire
Broad had one place in mind when shopping for a wedding dress: Something White Bridal Boutique in Independence. Why? Something White hosted the bridal show where Beard proposed, and we wanted them to be further involved with our wedding planning. The shop is owned by Rebecca and Karin but Broad only worked with Rebecca. The whole experience was perfect, especially after a horrible experience at another local wedding shop (that story is for another day). Rebecca made the dress buying process as easy as could be and made Broad and her squad feel right at home. In addition to having the most gorgeous dresses, they had a Watters dress Broad had her eye on for awhile and the most perfect blush, lace and tulle Christos dress which she ultimately fell in love with and decided on.

Beard Attire
If you haven’t noticed, Beard has a very specific, and frankly quite awkward body shape: super wide shoulders, very lanky arms, very small waist. He may photograph well, but finding a suit to fit him is damned near impossible. He’s never had a suit that’s ever actually fit him, so he decided he was going to get a suit custom made for the wedding. He’s always wanted a suit that truly fit him, and what better occasion than our wedding to finally to get one.  After some research (and a recommendation from our super fashionable friend), he went with Basil Bespoke based in Columbus. It was one of the coolest experiences ever and we HIGHLY recommend them if you’ve ever considered purchasing a custom suit or shirt. The owner, Ryan, came to our house (he tries to visit every new client personally to take the measurements, no matter where you’re located in the country) and took over 30 measurements of Beard’s weird body. About a month and a half later, Ryan arrived at our door with a suit that will only ever fit Beard. Perfectly.

TIP: Definitely have an idea of what you want to wear but be open to other possibilities and suggestions. You are working with professionals. A good stylist will get to know you in a short period of time and be able to help you find the most perfect outfit.

The Flowers
Did you know that Broad doesn’t like flowers? She never wants to get them as a present and we have no flowers planted outside. She does however like succulents and greenery. We wanted the bridesmaids to have bouquets and we wanted to incorporate greenery into the venue space. We knew that Kevin and his team at Off Broadway would be able to deliver.  We told him what we liked and disliked, we showed him pictures and he went above and beyond our expectations. The bouquets were made of champagne succulents, dusty miller, annisa roses, willow, etc. Kevin also made the archway we were married under out of recycled pallets and succulents. The centerpieces were made of succulents and dusty miller in wooden boxes and he incorporated all the ceramic cats we collected. Yup, for the past year we collected vintage ceramic cats from antique stores, eBay, flea markets etc. Ridiculous. We also had ivy and string lights hanging from the ceiling in the reception area.

TIP: Flowers can be expensive but they are worth it because they will be in so many of your pictures! As with any other aspect of your wedding, set a (realistic) budget. There are also so many great alternatives to real flowers such as crochet or paper flowers. Be creative!

The Rings
Ok, we have SO MUCH to say about the rings and our jeweler! We’ll be writing a separate post about the process with Wanderlust Jewelers and Wes. They’re amazing!

Hair & Makeup
Ok, so we know we’re not a beauty blog but Broad wanted to give a shoutout to her glam squad because it’s not often she gets made up like a queen. Broad met Maggie from MKleinman Artistry during Pure Barre classes.  She saw her work on social media and just had to book her. In fact, as soon as we booked the date, she booked Maggie. Broad was on the hunt for a new hairstylist and Maggie provided a list of her recommendations. She contacted Haley at Lather A Salon in Rocky River and scheduled her for the wedding. She also decided to make her her official all the time stylist and she has never been happier with her hair (seriously, just ask Broad about her hair color and how hard it was to achieve before meeting Haley). Continued read more about skincare products.

Bridal Party Presents
Being in the wedding party is a lot of work and can be expensive. We both had destination bachelor/bachelorette parties (we of course didn’t pressure anyone to go) and we had people traveling to our wedding. We wanted to show them our appreciation with at least some good presents!

Broad had the cutest Wild Things bags designed from one of her bridesmaids’ very talented sister, Coray  (she is seriously so talented; she also designed signs for our shower and wedding). Broad contacted our friend Shibani who owns Bombay Taxi Boutique for the bridesmaid earrings. Her shop motto is “affordable luxury” and her shop carries limited edition pieces handcrafted by artisans in India.  The robes were ordered from Etsy and Broad threw in adorable animal face masks and eye pads (she swears by both) so the girls would look and feel their best the next morning.

Beard collected vintage rock t-shirts from eBay and other places online as gifts for his groomsmen (think Bowie, Queen, Talking Heads, etc). He also got them whiskey barrel cufflinks from Tim’s Wood Designs on Etsy and different floral and paisley purple ties. We wanted them to all have a unique look.

(Special shoutout to Taylor from the The Daily Tay, one of Broad’s favorite blogs. She designed these perfect koozies and this Chill AF Bride tank. Check out her shop for other amazing shirts. You’ll probably notice Broad has almost all of them. Bonus: she donates 20% of the shirt proceeds to animal shelters!)

Welcome Bags
Since we had so many people coming in from out of town we really wanted to do as much as we could to welcome them and make them feel appreciated for traveling so far for us!  We had items from some of our favorite CLE places such as koozies from CLE Clothing, popcorn from Campbell’s, beef jerky from Saucisson, and then some next day necessities such as pedialyte, advil, water and homemade cookies.

TIP: If you’re on the fence about whether or not you should make welcome bags, do it! You can buy pre-made bags online or from Etsy, but you should really make an effort to make them yourselves with your personal touches.

The Invitations/Decorations/Signage
Oh man, did we luck out in the super-creative-awesome friend department. Hailey Sebahar (also one of our flower ladies) designed our invitation suite and they were more perfect that anything we could have ever imagined. We told her what our theme was and that we wanted our family on the invites (meaning us and the 5 fur babes) and she nailed it. Kyle Holten designed our signs and some of our posters. We had an instagram sign, a favor sign (we donated to the Cleveland APL in lieu of favors), drink signs and song lyric posters.  We gave him little directions (Wild Things, animals & Bowie). Again, we were blown away. He particularly knocked it out of the park with the sign for our custom beer. Our friend Renee designed our guestbook which was a large canvas poster. We got the idea from our friends’ Caitlin and Nathan’s wedding. For them, she designed a large canvas poster with a colorful Cleveland skyline. We told her our Wild Things theme and she did the most incredible design of one of our favorite scenes from the book. We loved the idea of doing a different style guestbook and having something we could display. One more shoutout to ZCreateDesign for making all of our gold glitter signs, including a custom Beard & Bride sign for the head table.

TIP: If you have talented friends, utilize their skills! We’re so lucky that we have such amazing friends who didn’t hesitate to make our special day even more personable. And if you like the way our stuff looked and need some help in that department, reach out to our people!

The Music
We thought this might be a tricky thing for the wedding. We are very particular about music (especially Broad). We don’t really listen to new music and we definitely did not want typical wedding music or a typical cheesy wedding DJ in a flashy red vest and bow tie (sorry if thats your thing). We wanted someone who would play ALL the songs we wanted, be laid back and not cheesy. We found our perfect match! We found the Music Faire after we met Reena at the bridal show and immediately needed more info. She put us in touch with Ryan and Chris and we knew they were the right fit. Chris ended up being our DJ for the night and he didn’t judge when we said we wanted a Bowie, Talking Heads, Arcade Fire, Macklemore wedding. We sent him a lengthy playlist for the wedding and he incorporated all of our favorite songs, added some amazing ones and refused to play the songs we said absolutely do not play.

TIP: Meet with potential DJ’s before you hire them or at least do your research. You want to be comfortable with whoever is in charge of one of the most important aspects of your wedding. People tend to remember the food, booze and music. Also, start a Spotify playlist right when you get engaged and then just add to it at your leisure. We didn’t have to stress over music days before the wedding since we’d been adding to a playlist for over a year.

Final Thoughts

• Anytime someone asks us for any type of wedding advice, our go to answer is “IT’S YOUR DAY!” Do what will make YOU and your significant other happy. You should not be worrying about what other people will think of. Sure, we had some creative, unique, even weird things at our wedding and didn’t have a lot of the traditional aspects, but guess what? If someone didn’t like it we didn’t know and it looked like all of our guests had a great time. It should be the best party of your life that you happen to get married at.
• Have a budget and stick with it! A firm budget will keep you on track. Know which areas you want to spend the most money on (for us it was photography and food).
• If you’re not having a planner (we highly recommend having one!), at least designate to keep you on track the day of. You really don’t want to be bothered with anything when you’re trying to get married.
• Guys, be involved. Yes, it’s “her” day, but you’re both getting married. Ladies, don’t assume your guy doesn’t want to help out. Planning a wedding is a lot of work and it’s way easier when both of you are doing it. It’ll also bring you closer together and ensure you BOTH have the time of your lives.

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