A seasoned wedding planner has seen it all: The good, the bad and the ugly. While it may be tempting to trust your BFF to design your wedding, buyer beware. It takes more than a good eye to orchestrate a grand party, and you only get one chance at having a dream wedding.
True pros—including these Utah-based experts—execute ranch weddings without the hillbilly, city weddings without the traffic and winter weddings without the frostbite. What makes a wedding work and what doesn’t? Wedding planners Chris Lavoie, Amanda Hansen and Karley Parker reveal their secrets for wedding-day success.
Planner: Chris Lavoie
Company: Silver Summit Event Design
Bio: Originally from upstate New York, Lavoie boasts more than15 years of experience in the meeting and event industry. He began his career at Robert Redford’s Sundance Resort, then helped open the St. Regis Deer Valley and finally moved into event production full-time in 2010.
UB&G: What’s your favorite day-of wedding planner weapon?
LAVOIE: Windex wipes are great for getting rid of any fingerprints on glassware, charger plates, picture frames. dirty windows at a venue and just general cleaning up.
Safety pins are key. Ninety-nine percent of brides have forgotten how to bustle their dresses by the time their wedding rolls around. Safety pins have saved us on numerous occasions when trying to get our brides to the dance floor on time for their first dance.
Canned air cans are a fantastic way to remove debris from the table linens without rubbing it into the fabric. A quick blast of canned air and the debris is history.
UB&G: What is your favorite wedding from the past year?
LAVOIE: Abby and Max married June 26th at Stein Eriksen Lodge. The bride and groom live in Connecticut and hosted family from around the world for their destination wedding. I loved the richness we achieved by stacking texture, color and light. I also loved all of the small details from custom table names, custom toile napkins, Wed Libs (A wedding version of “Mad Libs”). We had over a thousand candles and built custom marquee letters of the bride’s and groom’s initials and a cake table specifically for this wedding.
