November 7, 2015 Central Presbyterian Church and Georgia Freight Depot Wedding in Downtown Atlanta

I got to know Grace and Ben about 2 months before their November 7 wedding in Downtown Atlanta. They were in the final stretch of their wedding planning and I was hired as their wedding coordinator.

They told me they wanted someone who is bilingual in Mandarin Chinese and English and that happens to be my cultural background. We met once so that I could understand the details and draft the wedding day timeline for the bridal party and vendors. I also went to the final site visit with them to meet with the venue manager and the caterer. In between the meetings, we had many email exchanges and a few phone calls to clarify things. Before we knew it, November 7, 2015 was here!

The ceremony was held at Central Presbyterian Church in Downtown Atlanta. It was a very beautiful historic church.

Grace and Ben had their first look inside the church:

The ceremony was attended by more than 300 friends and family members:

After the ceremony, the guests went straight to Georgia Freight Depot for the reception. I love this photo of the couple coming to Georgia Freight Depot after the ceremony:

The couple did their first dance right after the grand entrance:

Dinner was a 10 course traditional Chinese banquet (lobster dish photographed below):

The tables all had simple centerpieces so that there will be enough space for all the food:

After the first few courses were served, Grace changed into her Qi Pao (traditional Chinese dress):

Here is Grace and her Dad during the Father and Daughter Dance:

And here is Ben with his Mother for the Mother and Son Dance:

After the formal dances, the Matrons of Honor planned a surprise flash mob that involved a lot of the guests, including the Parents of the Bride:

I had to keep the plan of the surprise flash mob from Grace and Ben while coordinating with the Matrons of Honor and the DJ but I think their reaction was worth it:

The couple and their guests had a blast on the dance floor throughout the night:

At the end of the reception, we had a magical sparklers send off in the rain:

Congratulations to Grace and Ben! May God bless you in your new marriage!

Vendor Team:

Caterer: Happy Valley
Ceremony Venue: Central Presbyterian Church
Cinematography:  Cinema Weddings
DJ: AAA DJ Services
Florist: May Tsai
Photo Booth: Robot Booth
Photographer: Anna and Spencer Photography
Reception Venue: Georgia Freight Depot

Why do you need your own wedding coordinator?

A lot of couples enjoy planning their own weddings. I did too. However, I did not choose to run the show on my own wedding day because I did not want to be that bride who is worrying about her timeline been followed or finding seats for the extra guests who show up unexpectedly.

Every wedding needs a point person who can direct the shows, take care of incidents, answer questions from vendors, guests and bridal party, as well as making sure what you had planned are actually executed accordingly.

Sometimes you have a relative or friend who will tell you that they could do it for you but this really means your relative or friend will not get to enjoy your wedding day as a guest (if he/she is actually doing the job of trying to coordinate your wedding). Also, they may or may not have experience in handling the emergency situations that arise at big events like a wedding. I would say every wedding I still learn something new as there is always a different incident that I had not dealt with before. It is hard to say I had seen it all because there is always some "surprises" at each wedding!

Some people choose to use the coordinator from their wedding venue alone to help coordinate their weddings. I have certainly worked with a lot of great venue coordinators and they are a great resources to suggest the best setup for your event because they are most familiar with what works and what does not work at their venues. However, their main concern is with the needs of the venue they work for.  For example, it is not the job of the venue coordinator if your baker had not shown up on time.

I had also counted many times where the set up was not done correctly despite multiple reviews of the setup diagram before signing off the final version for the venue to set things up. When I walk the venue to check on the number of seats by tables, I almost always have to make a correction somewhere. One time I also found a chiavari chair without any cushion on it and another time I found broken glasses on the floor that was not cleaned up properly!

When hiring your own coordinator, you really want someone who can think on his or her feet to come up with creative solutions. One time we realized the printing company did not print 8 to 10 guests' place cards but we need place cards for each guest because it was a seated dinner that requires place cards on tables so that the servers can serve the correct entree to each guest. We happened to have some guests who did not show up so I cut up half of their place cards and used the blank side to hand write the names of the missing guests and their entree choices.

I also think it is important that you hire someone who really cares about getting things done for you.  I know I put a lot of thoughts into creating the timeline when hired as someone's coordinator because I want the couple's day to flow well. I double check with other vendors and wedding day helpers to be sure everyone is on the same page. And on the wedding day itself, I consider myself someone who goes to bat for you.

It is not an easy job but it is a highly satisfying job for me when I get couples as well as their friends, family and vendors telling me that I had done a good job coordinating the day for them.

A photo of me before we started the setup at Freight Depot - a historic Downtown Atlanta Venue

Logistical Planning for Weddings

Photo Credit: Atlanta Artistic Weddings Photography

One of the most important aspects of wedding planning is logistics.  It is not a pretty thing to do like picking out the flowers or linens. It is not something really fun like food tasting and finalizing menu. In fact, it is often overlook by the couples until it is too late.

Towards the end of the planning process, I normally have a meeting with the couple and one of the questions I ask is how is everyone in the bridal party going to get to the venue(s).

This question is especially important if there are out of town bridal party who do not drive. If the bridal party is big and nobody intends to drive, it will be a great idea to hire a transportation company to shuttle the bridal party.

Sometimes the bride and groom assign their groomsmen to be the drivers for their bridesmaids and family members who are not driving which is perfectly fine but I would suggest assigning specific passengers for each driver so there is not a chaos when everyone is trying to leave the house at the same time and avoiding the case where someone is left behind! (True story I heard: one time a bride was the one left behind as no car was assigned to pick her up and all the cars left the house.)

I also try to steer the bride and groom away from driving themselves on their own wedding day. Seriously, if there is one day when the bride and groom should be pampered, this is the day. So I always advocate for a responsible friend to drive the bridal car even if the couple is not hiring any transportation company.

You may also be surprised to learn that there are actually times when someone in the bridal party would tell me that they had no idea where the venue(s) are despite getting invitations from the couple (In this case, I discreetly inform them without letting the bride and groom know so the couple will not be upset). In my opinion, it is not a repetitive effort to print out the addresses of all the places that your bridal party needs to be on the final itinerary that you hand out to them. This can include the salon address, rehearsal dinner venue address, and of course reprint the ceremony and reception venue address.

You have spent a long time planning every detail of your wedding and this is the time to make sure everyone gets where they need to be on time to start the ceremony and that nobody gets lost on the way to the reception for the party to begin!

Atlanta Wedding Venue Spotlight - Berkeley Hills Country Club

I worked at Berkeley Hills Country Club last December for an intimate wedding of 30 guests.

One of the biggest challenges at the initial planning stage was for me to find a venue with less than 2 months' notice that will not feel overwhelming for this 30-person guest list as well as ensuring that my client would be able to meet the food and beverage minimum imposed by most venues for banquets.

Berkeley Hills offered us tremendous flexibility for last minute booking and the space was just right for my client's intimate guest list!

Since the wedding took place 2 days after Christmas, the club was already decorated:

On top of that, Berkeley Hills offered their house centerpieces if you choose to use them. Customization of the house centerpieces would have been easy if one wants to add flowers to it but we chose to keep it as it was:

The ballroom can accommodate 100 guests on round banquet tables. If the ballroom doors are opened, it can accommodate an additional 50 guests but we closed the doors for this particular wedding. Berkeley Hills offers a choice of silver or gold chiavari chair. We chose silver chiavari chairs to keep within the winter theme.

The food quality at Berkeley Hills was also top notch. We choose to serve a sit down two course lunch and here is the salad presentation but the entree was eaten before been captured on photo. :)

Other than catering and beverage, we were able to use any outside vendors we wanted.

We used The Baking Ground for the 2 tier wedding cake:

The bouquets were done by Peachtree Petals:

Complimentary champagne toast was included in the catering package and here is Berkeley Hills' amazing catering manager Ms. Angela Howard bringing some of the champagne out herself:

 

I totally enjoyed working with Ms. Howard for this wedding and I would not hesitate to bring another client back here for the quality service that they provided! 

All Photos are by Libby Photo

Atlanta Restaurant Private Room Spotlight - Bangkok Station

I am a big fan of using private rooms at restaurants for small parties and even wedding reception (if the guest list is small) because it offers great savings opportunities: (1) Generally there is no site fee if minimum food and beverage spending are met or if there is a site fee, it is normally minimal and (2) The restaurant provides flatware, glassware, chairs, tables, napkins etc. which means less expenses for the person planning the event.

Today's Atlanta Restaurant Private Room spotlight features a new Thai restaurant in Buckhead area called Bangkok Station.

I was there for dinner with a friend and noticed the beautiful private room they have:

After dinner at the main dining room, we went inside the private room to take a look. By my count this room can fit 20 people for a seated dinner. The traditional plates that decorated the wall of the private room reminded me of the plates used by my late Grandmother in Malaysia when I was a child growing up there and it sure brought back fond memories of my Grandmother who was a super talented chef.

The food at Bangkok Station was very good and I love how they presented the Larb Tod (Fried Pork Ball):

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Here is a photo showing the two entrees (Thai Boxing Noodle - famous noodle dish from a Thai Boxing stadium and Train Station Bird - a chicken dish) we had and the restaurant served the sticky rice in the white packet on the side:

I can definitely see the use of this private room for a bridal shower, bachelorette party, rehearsal dinner, or if you just want to host a birthday party.

If you have a bigger party, you might want to consider using the outside patio and maybe even a section of the restaurant because both spaces are beautifully designed.

 Images above are from Bangkok Kitchen website

Parking for the restaurant is at the back of the building and I wish they will install better signage pointing the people to the restaurant from the parking lot. I almost missed the entrance from the back of the building because there was no sign telling me where to enter the building (I thought I needed to enter from the front of the building). Luckily a guy waved at me from inside of the building and when I opened the door, he told me that was actually the entrance to the restaurant.

If you are looking to check out a new restaurant for hosting a private party, Bangkok Station's private room is definitely worth considering.

Sardis United Methodist Church and Georgian Terrace Wedding

I am honored to work with Ada and Alan for their wedding on July 25, 2015.

For the ceremony, we chose Sardis United Methodist Church. The historic church on top of a small hill in Buckhead area is a hidden treasure. We visited several churches while hunting for a ceremony venue but once I took Ada and Alan to visit Sardis United Methodist Church, the decision to book it was easily made.

The church size (maximum capacity: 250 guests) is perfect for their 100 person guest list. Because of the intricate stained glass windows, we chose minimal decoration on the aisle:

Prewedding photos were done outside of church before the 11am ceremony in order to avoid the hot summer heat of Georgia (but honestly it is better to have sun than rain on wedding days):

Here is a close up look at the bridal bouquet:

The traditional church ceremony took place inside the historic sanctuary:

A great tradition at Sardis United Methodist Church is for the couple to ring the church bells after they walked down the aisle as newlywed so Alan gave it a try:

The send off from church as the couple exited:

The bridal car was Alan's own ride which we put to good use:

For reception, Ada and Alan chose the gorgeous Georgian Terrace Hotel:

Head table was decorated with the bridal bouquet and the bridesmaids bouquets:

We chose centerpieces with fluffy Hydrangea (Ada's favorite flowers):

The favor boxes were bought by Alan's Mother and brought all the way from Taiwan. The boxes were made to represent miniatures "Chinese Carriage" used in ancient times by the brides and filled with candies.

The wedding cake kept to the theme of the bride's simple and elegant style:

For the grand entrance to the reception, Ada chose to honor her Chinese heritage by wearing the traditional Chinese QiPao:

The couple did their first dance immediately upon entry (which Ada told me was one of her favorite wedding moments):

Later on during the reception, Alan also took his Mother out on the dance floor for a spin for the Mother and Son dance which was a super sweet moment (and I will encourage all grooms to do so if possible):

The happy couple and their bridal party also took photos all around the hotel:

I wish the couple many years of happiness!!!

All Photos are by Christopher Helm Photography

Vendor Team:

Reception Venue/Catering: Georgian Terrace Hotel
Florist: Lauren's Floral Art
DJ: Ted Crowder from Atlanta Wedding DJs
Photography: Chrtstopher Helm Photography
Wedding Cake: Frosted Pumpkins