Abby & Bobby Urbana, IL, Rehearsal Dinner
Vendors:
Full Service Planning and Design - 618 EVENTS, Maggie Farchmin
Venue, Catering, Bar - Silver Creek Restaurant, Urbana, IL
Photographer - Rebekah Albaugh
Rentals - Herriott’s Rents, Tents, and Events
Cakes - Fairytale Sweets
Flowers - Flowers by Kristine
Abby wanted to show up to her rehearsal dinner at Silver Creek Restaurant in Urbana, IL, without having to worry about how her vision would come to life. She also didn’t have time to plan and purchase all the items necessary to bring her inspo board to real life either. That’s where I came in. She first inquired with me for day of wedding coordinating services. When she heard that I also can add on rehearsal dinner services, she was SOLD!
Abby is a BUSY lady! Her fiance, Bobby, is a professional race car driver and is constantly racing all over the USA. Abby herself works in sales and is busy traveling for work, also all over the USA. She had a really specific aesthetic vision for “the night before” and enlisted my help.
I got to work right away by creating a form that allowed me to pick out actual items that I’d buy and put together a mood board of those actual items with pricing estimates. I like to do this for clients because it gives very real expectations. I add as many details in as possible for the full picture.
Abby wanted wicker charger plates, mismatched China, gold flatware, vintage embroidered napkins, crystal water goblets, lace details everywhere!, basket flower arrangements, candles for added warmth and ambiance, and bud vases with florals in a pink and yellow theme. Her wedding day the next day was all white flowers so she wanted to lean away from any whites in the flowers for the rehearsal dinner.
I recently attended my sister’s wedding in Germany and it was SO fun (more on that in a separate blog). But Germans don’t typically have a wedding ceremony so they don’t have a rehearsal or rehearsal dinner. I will say, that is one tradition they are definitely missing out on! I know from my own personal rehearsal that it’s SUCH a special time with your closest friends and family. It’s way more intimate than the wedding day and when people share stories about the couple it is just so fun and touching. Anyway, all that to say, I’m a BIG fan of rehearsal dinners.
Back to the fun details. Abby had actually done a good chunk of research herself for the items she wanted but got overwhelmed so she had sent some links of items to purchase or rent and then I did the remaining shopping. After I sent her the proposal, she made some edits and once we nailed down everything I got to ordering and shopping. It was so fun to see the packages come in and all the pieces come together.
One element that I love about Silver Creek Restaurant is the raised platform in the corner. I always like to do a “WOW” moment in that area because it becomes a focal point. Abby already had some twinkle lights but we purchased a white pipe and drape and neon sign that read “It Was Always You” to hang on the pipe and drape. We ended up deciding to use the floral baskets on either side for a big WOW moment. It was stunning! This also doubles as a fun photo op too.
Abby had some really personal items such as family members’ wedding photographs and momentos from their relationship so we added a welcome table for guests to look through these special items throughout the night.
I did attend one meeting at Silver Creek with Abby and Bobby’s mom to go over service details and menu. I always like to be involved in that side too to help ensure no detail is left behind. I can help the client think through service flow and overall evening flow since they’ve maybe never planned or hosted an event like this before.
Around two weeks before the event day, just like always, I contacted each vendor to confirm details and ensure we were all set. The biggest vendor I worked with was Silver Creek since they handled venue, catering, bar, and room set up. The room set up was relatively simple but there was some specifics we didn’t want missed.
On the event day, we only had one hour to set up! That is the quickest turnaround time I’ve had, so I enlisted 2 helpers and we still weren’t as done as I’d like to have been once guests started arriving. We faced a little snafoo with the neon sign. It was too heavy for the pipe and drape so we ended up rigging my easel behind the draping on a small table. It turned out OK…I wasn’t super happy with it but we didn’t want the neon sign to be wasted and no one else knew what the original plan was.
The easel was original to be used for this welcome sign that Abby created with pictures of her and Bobby when they were young. Luckily the welcome table was set up against a wall so we leaned the sign up there and again, no one could tell it wasn’t how it was supposed to be since they didn’t know the original plan.
I didn’t end up staying for the duration of the dinner that night because there was nothing for me to actually do during the event. For smaller and personal events like this, sometimes this is the case. With Silver Creek’s service staff I would have just been in the way of such a personal evening. I helped set up and returned for clean up. That way Abby, Bobby, and their families could just leave and not worry about that before such a big day tomorrow.
It was a BEAUTIFUL evening- not just in decor and design but also in touching moments. Abby and Bobby gifted their mom’s special gifts; kind words and fun memories were shared about the couple; they had personal cakes designed for dessert…It was the perfect beginning to a wonderful wedding weekend!
One last note…the floral baskets were so stunning to just be sitting at someone’s house all weekend so we decided to use them in some way the next day at Pear Tree for the wedding day. I was so glad because they truly were STUNNING and too pretty to just sit after only one evening. We love a good reuse of decor!