another wedding story

Locked In For Life

Blue Bee Cider
09/30/2022

Sometimes in life you meet people and just click. When I met Kristen and Chris for the first time, it was like we had been friends for years. They had so many ideas for their wedding day that would make it unique to them. It was a little unconventional because they lived in Oregon and were planning a wedding here in Richmond, Virginia. They really trusted my vendor suggestions and recommendations from the beginning. Once every one was booked, then came the fun part of figuring out all the details! A small intimate ceremony on Brown’s Island, then a fun cocktail hour at Circuit Bar (where Kristen and Chris first met) followed by a reception at Blue Bee Cider. Multiple places and a flawless timeline would ensure this would work. A year of planning, meet ups when they came into town and many zoom calls later every single detail was completely planned out perfectly. Until Hurricane Ian decided to come to town…

The week of the wedding a new plan was created. I was able to secure a tent for the reception and really used the spaces they had booked to ensure a dry ceremony.  So with the new plan in place just two days before the wedding everything was coming together. The day of the wedding it rained, and rained and rained. To anyone else it might have put a damper on the day but not Chris and Kristen. They arrived smiling, and a little teary eyed because it was their day and it was perfect! I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect couple to handle this storm! The rain did not stop them from getting married, getting photos or even doing a confetti entrance! Even if I followed them around with an umbrella, it’s all part of the job.  Bunn DJ kept the party going the entire night and even had a few guests dancing in the rain. The dance floor was packed the entire time and everyone, regardless of the outside storm partied until the end! The day was filled with so many emotions but ultimately laughter and love.

You never know what issues can arise the week of your wedding, but having someone with experience to help make the BEST decision for your event makes a difference. The difference can be an “epic” wedding or a failed one. Thank you Kristen and Chris for completely trusting me from the beginning. I was so honored to be a part of such a memorable day and continuing following your journey!

MVP of our wedding, without a doubt. TL;DR - Worth every single penny, and would hire 10x over again, Karla was THE best money we spent regarding our entire wedding. We married in Hurricane Ian, after planning our non-traditional/hyper unique wedding from across the country. We had a lot of large day-of changes due to the Hurricane, and no part of our day would have gone smoothly without Karla. In hindsight, myself & the bride honestly believe that the only vendor we couldn’t live without was Karla. From initial planning & ideas, to problem solving, helping us through recommending vendors & rentals, and listening to us vent of our worries & stressed, Karla was the support that we needed. In practice she’s very frank & to the point; she made sure to say “that’s not going to go smoothly” or “I wouldn’t recommend that”, and it made it incredibly easy to remind ourselves that Karla & her team have done this before, we hadn’t! That straightforward professional wisdom & advice is absolutely invaluable, and made it so that we were constantly focused on the fun things in the planning process. We had an ice cream truck, a mobile bar-cart, and buffet-served bbq at a Cidery in Richmond Va, split by a happy-2-hours at a barcade where we’d initially met. Karla seamlessly helped time our day, our vendors, and our experiences. We came into town 3 days before our wedding, and had a final meeting + walkthrough at our locations, and Karla had already prepared contingency plans for the Hurricane, vendor switches, secured us a tent just in case, and moved our timelines accordingly. It saved us SO much stress, and we actually got to enjoy our time. For the day of, our wedding was epic, and it was largely epic because of her hard work in organizing our vendors and timeline, her Hurricane-disaster-planning, and her guidance. I was a high-maintenance groom, and Karla’s little encouragements/supportive role made an incredible difference in my day-of confidence & anxieties. My wife, too, found that Karla was “literally the best” (she said so 01737282x while we were honeymooning & reflecting on our day). Karla & her team were the best investment we made for our wedding, we wouldn’t have had the day we did without her. Forever grateful.
Christopher Dean