Guest posts on A Practical Wedding

Quick blog post to update you all on a project I managed to squeeze in before Tallulah arrived. I'm super excited that I was asked to do some guest blog posts for my most favorite of favorite blogs, A Practical Wedding. I've been reading A Practical Wedding almost since it's inception years ago, back when it was on Blogger and was just Meg herself ranting about the wedding industry. It inspired my own wedding, and frankly, it inspired me to start this business. So getting to write some logistics blog posts about finding a venue and doing a venue site visit for them was a huge honor and thrill! The first one ran on February 3rd, Tallulah's birthday. So I was a little distracted and wasn't able to share in a timely manner! This post breaks down how to get started and choose a wedding venue.

The second one ran yesterday, and is all about the essential questions you should ask when doing a venue site visit

Enjoy! And big thanks again to APW for the opportunity! Now back to breastfeeding...

a new addition

I have a small (literally) announcement to make. Though I do hope to be adding more staff to The Plannery in the future, for now, we'll just be adding a baby girl to the Wannen family! Wanted to share the happy news that my husband and I are expecting a baby in January 2015.

And yes, this does mean some changes around The Plannery. I'll be taking a real maternity leave from January through April (except for those clients I have that are getting married in May! You, I'll be working with in April). In addition, though business in 2014 was booming (yay! and thank you!) I'm going to be cutting back on the number of weddings I book for 2015 for obvious reasons. I want time to settle in to this new life and enjoy being a Mom (while still being a business owner). I do plan on ramping things back up for 2016. But my availability in general will be much more limited for 2015 (so contact me now if you want me! I'm already quite booked up).

Looking forward to our new addition and some big but exciting changes!

60th Birthday Party

My Mom turned 60 last week. She requested a party so I of course stepped up to help plan it along with my step-dad and sisters. She specifically wanted to dance - she's an amazing dancer (has been her whole life) and so I knew this would be an important part of the night for her. Because of the dancing, we opted to go for a slightly more casual venue, but one where we'd have complete control and no noise complaints! We rented a local Lions Club - something everyone should always keep in mind when looking for affordable venues. They aren't always the prettiest, but they're very low-budget and they generally don't have a ton of rules! Using a private room in a restaurant won't allow dancing, and doing the same in a hotel means higher cost.

The Lions Club we rented had a lot of wood paneling - it's actually an old train station. We decided to work with the venue and not go super-high end with the decor - keep it simple and lighten it up with some flowers, christmas lights, ivory linens and silver votives. We were definitely on a budget - so we opted to spend our money on the food and drinks. We hired a local caterer to do one stationary appetizer (cheese and fruit display) and some tasty passed hors d'oeuvres. We also had them create a signature cocktail, "The Kendra" (my Mom), which was a ginger Tom Collins and was really delicious.

In all other aspects, this was very DIY - and I'll be doing some follow up posts to go into more detail about our DIY projects in the hopes that they help other people with their own endeavors! We strung christmas lights ourselves and created a christmas light clothes line where we hung photos of my Mom from throughout her 60 years. We also created a DIY photo booth - and it was such a hit. I know it's not as high res or high quality as what we might have gotten had we hired a professional - but everyone had a blast!

My sister and step-dad did a Michaels run and bought all the other decor items - votive candles, vases for our DIY bouquets, and other goodies. We ordered cupcakes from my Mom's favorite bakery and I created a fun DIY cupcake topper (more on that to come).

My husband and I labored over the playlist and I think we did a pretty great job. We got some requests from my Mom, and built a cocktail playlist for the first hour, then created a separate dance playlist for the next 2 hours. The crowd was a mix of young and old. We had my 87 year old grandfather there and my cousin's newborn! So we created a good mix of new and old dance songs - focusing on a lot of great 80's tunes mixed with some motown/oldies and current hits (for the record, Pharell's "Happy" is what officially got everyone on their feet. That song rules).

By the end of the night we were all a sweaty, happy, slightly drunk mess - in other words, very satisfied party-goers. Happy 60th MA!!

Happy Holidays 2013

I’ve been in full-on holiday spirit mode lately. We’re hosting my entire family for the holidays (they arrive this Saturday) so I’m decking the halls and enjoying every second.

The Plannery will officially be on vacation next week - I plan to give myself a real break from work and social media while the family is in town.

So I want to wish you all a wonderful holiday season before the family arrives and I’m off in the land of christmas cookie baking, present wrapping, and - who are we kidding - drinking and merriment. Enjoy your friends, enjoy your family, enjoy your traditions, your food, your decorations - relish it all. Wishing you peace, safe travels, and lots of holiday cheer!

Happy Holidays from The Plannery!

Here's to my anniversary

Today is my wedding anniversary.

It’s been a crazy year with lots of highs and lots of lows and I couldn’t have gotten through the hard and enjoyed the good without him.

So here’s to him. Here’s to my rock. Here’s to my favorite thing. Here’s to the best home chef I know. Here’s to the arms that make me feel safe. Here’s to the man who serenaded me on our wedding day and got the entire crowd to sing with him. Here’s to my adventurer. Here's to my laughter. Here's to watching in awe and ecstasy on your wedding day as your guy crushes his 80's dance moves to Poison. Here's to the man who made October 23rd my most favorite day. Here’s to my husband.

Happy anniversary from your Katie May

Happy Plannerversary!

The Plannery is officially one year old today! I want to thank the DC area wedding industry for being so bafflingly rad. When I moved here from Brooklyn I had no sense of the DC wedding community, how long it would take me to make connections and get new clients, whether this venture would even work. But I was immediately blown away by how friendly the wedding vendors were (and continue to be). I honestly never thought that within the short span of a year I'd actually FEEL like I was a part of a greater (and awesome) community - so thank you, thank you!

I want to thank the DC area engaged folks for (whew!) proving me right in wanting a wedding planner and coordinator who is down-to-earth and has a sense of humor. I took a big risk in my marketing - but at the end of the day felt it was best to truly be me and I hoped potential clients would see and understand that. It's been so wonderful to get such positive feedback on my website and my services. And I'm so glad I didn't scare too many people away with the fact that I get sh*t done!

I want to thank Maryland for passing their marriage equality laws shortly after I moved here. Having both DC and Maryland support same-sex marriage meant a lot to me personally and professionally - and it means I get to work with fantastic clients who are super-psyched about getting married (and don't take that privilege for granted). Now get your sh*t together, VA.

I want to thank my friends, family, and especially my husband, for being so garsh-darned supportive. Running bios, web design, pricing, and marketing ideas by you all helped make this happen. And I'm incredibly lucky to have a husband who wanted me to really give it my all - really do this 100% to see what was possible and see how The Plannery could grow (not to mention, he came up with the name so he wins).

Long story short, THANK YOU.

The Plannery still has tons of ways it needs to and can grow and expand. I'm really only getting started. But I'm proud of this first year and how far my little Plannery has come. Looking forward to many more years!

SubCulture NYC Opening Celebration

This past weekend I traveled quite a bit in the span of a few days. First, I headed up to CT to attend the engagement party my parents were throwing for my brother (and no, I’m not planning the wedding - I want to party, not work!).

Afterwards I headed to NYC to help two very old, dear friends with the official opening party for their great new space, SubCulture.

SubCulture is a subterranean music and arts venue - a place to bring eclectic yet accessible music and creative arts performances to the people of NYC. On top of that, I might add, this amazing space is available for rent - ie: someone needs to do a wedding here, stat, and let me plan it. Or a birthday party. Or an anniversary party. Just party here and let me help, ok? Seriously, though, if you're in the NYC area you need to check this place out - they have awesome performances lined up and it's a guaranteed fun evening.

This venue is actually quite similar to where I held my own wedding (a local music venue). It’s awesome for several reasons:

1. They put a lot of thought into the decor and design. It's industrial chic and you don’t have to do much to the space, just work with what they’ve already done. Even the bathrooms are cool (seriously, I swear). For example, check out this awesome installation as you walk down the stairs to the space - so hip:

2. Built-in bar, built-in amazing audio equipment, built-in lighting = easy and rad. Enough said. You don't need multiple vendors, the space has a lot of items covered for you.

3. The space is versatile and creative. You can have fun and get creative with your floorplan and set-up.

I had a great time helping their opening celebration take place. Big congrats again to the Kaplan brothers for making it happen - proud and honored to be a part of it. Now move to DC and open one here, please.

Sandhya and Steve's Alexandria, VA Wedding at Torpedo Factory

Sandhya and Steve were basically my first clients upon moving to DC and launching The Plannery. So I’m not gonna lie, I have a soft spot for these two. Sandhya was one of those brides that was convinced she was a bridezilla and was in fact my dream client: super smart, super savvy, super fun, super sweet and deeply in love (I’m a romantic, what can I say?). She and Steve were so much fun to work with - from tastings to photographer meetings to walk throughs to the day-of. Plus it didn't hurt that they lived near my neighborhood and frequented my favorite Mexican restaurant - so obviously they had great taste.

They got married in one of my favorite venues, The Torpedo Factory. The Torpedo Factory is in my hood (whassup Alexandria!!) and is modern, funky, non-traditional, and very fun. As you shall see. The day was captured by the ever-awesome Leo Druker.

Sandhya is half-Indian so while she didn’t do an official (epic) Indian wedding, she did want to incorporate elements into her ceremony and the reception and I thought she did a beautiful job. She wore the white sari her mother wore on her wedding day, and her uncle did a traditional blessing as part of the ceremony (those garlands… THOSE GARLANDS. sigh). And can we just say that my new favorite way to end a ceremony is with a high-five?? BEST.

After the ceremony they did some beautiful portraits in Old Town and by the waterfront.

Then Sandhya changed into her RAD reception dress (let’s hear it for non-white dresses, ladies!), and sat down for a great meal. After the speeches, her sister played a song for them on her violin - so lovely!

They kicked off their dancing with a ridiculously awesome first dance to Fly Me To The Moon.

Dancing and partying ensued thanks to Evan from MyDeejay.

And the night ended as only the most amazing wedding can end: with an impromptu push-up contest.

Sandhya and Steve's vendors:

Event Planning: Katie Wannen, The Plannery

Venue: The Torpedo Factory

Photographer: Leo Druker

Caterer: Main Event

Music: Evan from MyDeejay

I'm an animal when it comes to wedding planning

I'm off on a long weekend vacay with some family. But thought I'd share some fun and fabulous photos Sarah of Val & Sarah took recently. Val & Sarah (aka the most kick-ass photography duo the world has ever seen) are uber talented. As another coordinator recently said (and I wholeheartedly agreed), you basically want them to follow you around and document your entire life.

Enjoy!