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Madison, Milwaukee Wedding Planner

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Sarah Davidson

Bianca + Jeffrey: The Lageret – Stoughton, WI

January 20, 2021 By Sarah Davidson

Looking back now and knowing that destiny was only going to let me coordinate one wedding in all of 2020, I AM so lucky I had the chance for it to be Bianca and Jeffrey’s!

Scheduled for a Leap Day wedding, this adorable couple had their own set of wedding planning challenges they had to work through, even before Covid rocked our world. They were victims of the closure of Noah’s Event Venue in early 2020 and were left without a venue just three weeks before their wedding. Never fear though, as our event community is fierce when it comes to supporting our couples, and with a big thanks to Dana from Wedding Planner + Guide, they were able to secure The Lageret as a beautiful backup location. With the location change, I was honored to step in to make sure no other surprises ensued, so these two could finally relax, enjoy, and celebrate.

If there aren’t photos and videos to prove it – did it really happen? Good thing East Elm Photography as well as Sotography Productions were there capturing the memories created during my favorite wedding this past year.

The happy couple’s reception was professionally prepared and displayed by Upstairs Downstairs. Decadent desserts including a three-tiered wedding cake and assorted cupcakes were baked and designed by Mia Stav Cakes.

Rich, warm hues were an ode to this former tobacco warehouse with event decor provided by Event Essentials, highlighting the historical Stoughton venue. 

Saving the best for last, since what truly makes weddings magical is the community involved to create lasting memories. Bianca and Jeffrey’s family and friends came together to provide their ceremony coordination, grazing table, floral arrangements, and table decor.

Congrats Bianca and Jeffrey!

The Dream Team:

Wedding Coordination: HUE by Sarah Davidson
Photography: East Elm Photography
Videography: Sotography Productions
Venue: The Lageret
Catering: Upstairs Downstairs
Desserts: Mia Stav Cakes
Rentals: Event Essentials
Ceremony Coordination, Grazing Table, + Floral/Table Decor: Bianca & Jeffrey’s Community
Special Shout Out: Dana from Wedding Planner + Guide

Filed Under: Real Events By HUE Tagged With: ceremony, dinner, event planning, events, flowers, madison wedding, madison weddings, planning, Reception, rentals, vendor, wedding, wedding decor, wedding design, wedding planning, weddings, wisconsin, wisconsin wedding, wisconsin weddings

We Can Do This Better, Together

January 6, 2021 By Sarah Davidson

Earlier this week, the Wisconsin State Journal and The Cap Times each shared extremely well-written stories about what the Dane County event industry has been facing these past nine months, since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. We are grateful for this coverage. In writing these articles, I was asked to share my thoughts and observations on the situation, as well as an overview of our local wedding and events industry. There is so much to tell and obviously not every detail could be included, so today I wanted to share with you my full original response to these requests. I am so fiercely proud and deeply invested in our industry, and we need as many people as possible to understand what we are facing right now in order to maintain hope as we enter 2021. See below for the narrative.

Photo: Dutcher Photography

Small but mighty, vibrant but understated. The Madison and Dane County wedding and event industry is composed of many unique venues and vendors, capable of pulling off high-end events week after week, year after year. We take pride in our ability to create one-of-a-kind gathering experiences, and love working with event hosts to bring their vision to life. Having these two values taken away from us for these past nine months, the two main functions our entire industry is based upon has been extremely devastating.

Thanks to Covid and local messaging, the word “wedding” has now almost become a bit of a taboo in our county. People are hesitant to mention anything about planning to have a wedding or attend one, out of fear of being shamed for even considering such a thing. Data snapshots generalize how many cases have come from “weddings” without any further details such as location or circumstances. What was once one of the most joyful sectors of our local hospitality industry feels extremely heavy right now. And knowing what I do about our event community and what keeps us all in this difficult business, this truly is one of the hardest parts.

Photo: Thrive Photography + Films

Dane County has over 100 venues that host events and over 500 wedding and event vendors in total, made up of photographers, planners, florists, DJs, caterers, and dozens of other categories, that all team up hundreds of times together during normal years to deliver start-to-finish unique event experiences. Many of these vendors have made this their full-time career while just as many, if not more, offer their service as a passion project, in addition to still working a day job. A common thread for most though tends to be “stumbling into” the industry in one way or another. They weren’t necessarily seeking it, but once found, they’ve never wanted to leave. It can be exhausting, thankless, physically, and emotionally demanding, but the high of bringing people together has an energy that cannot be beaten.

From May-October, our local wedding season is in full swing. The reasons why someone wants to get married in Madison are endless, but most of them come down to the hosts’ connection to our beautiful city. We have everything they want, and they can’t wait to show us off to their guests. Many of our venues book up for the season and the average guest count is between 150-250 people. These people are not only here to attend these weddings, but in turn stay in our hotels, eat at our restaurants, take in our sights, and experience the city. While weddings still take place in our colder months as well, our offseason is filled with holiday parties and other local celebrations. We are ready to cater to any needs, any time of the year.

And of course, the same thing could be said for the many other different types of events that are hosted in our city. People fall in love with Madison and want to share it with others, so they chose us to host their shows, conferences, and sporting events here year after year.

Except this past year, and if something is not done quickly, possibly for years to come.

Photo: Tim Fitch Photography

Events take time to plan. The current lack of guidance on what a reopening plan will be for the events industry is already impacting us well into 2021 and will continue to do so, as we see things regularly drop off our schedules week after week. New orders being released with just 24 hours notice on a seemingly ad hoc timeline does not work for someone trying to plan any sort of event, let alone a wedding. These plans require communicating with guests, ordering perishables, and coordinating with multiple vendors. These factors have understandably led some couples to already make the decision to postpone their 2021 wedding, with that feeling like a more favorable option at the moment than a state of constant limbo. We vendors of course understand the position they’re in and do our best to accommodate because it feels like the right thing to do for everyone. But we also take a bigger hit each and every time this happens. With each postponement, there is both lost revenue from the originally anticipated event date, as well as the lost opportunity of new business that could’ve come on the new date. For many of the smaller, independent vendors, each and every booking can go a long way to make or break their business and personal goals.

Photo: K. Rosales Photography

Weddings are the main type of event that has still been trying to make things work through this, because they are so personal. All corporate type events originally on the books for venues, many held at the same location year after year, have essentially all been cancelled for the foreseeable future until things seem safe. It’s understandable why, but this again is all lost revenue that will never be recovered. And those planning large scale events from a distance are certainly considering right now if Madison is even a viable option for 2022 and beyond, given the state of uncertainty around how we will be allowed to run events well into the future.

I don’t say all this to gain sympathy. What’s done is done, but we must do something right now to stop this from getting much worse.

Photo: Audre Rae Photography

We are asking for the opportunity to work together with our local officials, to define a clear reopening plan for the events industry, to put into effect when the time is right. Safety is the number one priority and we know that large scale events won’t be realistic for some time. But we must start strategizing together today to define what our industry is capable of. We can have conversations of what appropriate metrics could be realistic to aim for, now that we know so much more than we did in July, when the original Forward Dane plan was released. We can have conversations about science-backed measures that are seeing success around the country and how we can adopt them locally. We can have conversations about the expected path moving forward, now that a vaccine exists. We must start these conversations now.

Doing this together would allow us to develop a plan that directly addresses public safety, while letting our industry begin to serve again. Instead of being caught off guard with every new order that is released, we could be better equipped to advise event hosts on what their event could look like a few months down the road. This would allow them to feel more confidence both in us and in their leaders. It would allow us hope to slowly come back. We in the world of mass gatherings can be a part of the solution, not the problem, if only given the opportunity.

Photo: Heather Cook Elliott

A secondary ask of these conversations would be for a further breakdown of the data that exists. Right now, “weddings” is the generalized term that is blamed for a number of local Covid cases. However, we need more details. Did that wedding occur at a commercial facility? Did it occur in someone’s backyard? Did it occur inside our county per our guidelines? Or outside the county, out of our control? Did it involve professional, licensed vendors? We ask all these questions because we believe there should also be a distinction made between mass gatherings at private residences versus commercial facilities. Commercial facilities can require a number of safety guidelines in place for their event, while those hosting events at private residences are less likely to take these measures. Commercial facilities have greater square footage and better HVAC systems at minimum, and we should be working to guide people towards those spaces for their gatherings, not away from them.

Photo: The Still Life Photo

Finally, more aid is needed. All of hospitality is suffering greatly, but the world of private events is being left in the dust. After seeing financial relief distributed to restaurants, hotels, theaters, and community spaces, our sector is the one remaining that seems to not have been seen. Venues that function specifically to host private events still have huge holding costs each month. Vendors that can travel, such as photographers or planners, have been forced to put themselves in unsafe situations this year and work weddings with loose restrictions, simply because they need to survive. No specific distribution has come to the private events industry, one that was the first to shut down and will likely be one of the final to reopen fully.

I share this all because our tight-knit event community, one that works year round to keep our city a vibrant destination, is suffering immensely. There is no perfect answer to any of these circumstances of the past nine months, but we know that we can do this better, together. Please give us the chance.

Filed Under: Lessons Learned, Practical Planning, Sincerely Sarah, Vendors We Love Tagged With: consulting, madison weddings, wedding planning, wisconsin weddings

Italian Inspired Styled Shoot: Harvest Moon Pond – Poynette, WI

October 5, 2020 By Sarah Davidson

I love creating impactful moments and bringing people together soooooo much. Like, SO much.

Well, when Covid-19 hit the USA in March of 2020 it temporarily put a damper on things like that. Personally, I went through a rough few months (as did many in the hospitality industry), stuck in this mindset that I just wasn’t going to be doing any events for a very, very long time. There was nothing that could be done, that we all just had to live through this, and also try to figure out how to survive until it was over.

By the time summer rolled around though and we realized this wasn’t ending anytime soon, I needed to shake myself out of it. It took a lot of watching and being inspired by industry friends seizing the moment, a lot of conversations with my business coach, and a lot of holding up the mirror to get through my head trash that nothing could be done. But finally I was able to get to a point like:

Loving this 2020 release from Ale Asylum

Right around that time is when I received my first message from Stephanie, one of the new owners of Harvest Moon Pond, a gorgeous venue in Poynette with a beautiful history. Somehow I had yet to have been to her space so she invited me out for a tour, along with Jason, Owner of Chance Productions, to get a lay of the land and brainstorm on ways that we could all work together. In this meeting we hatched the plan to collaborate on a styled shoot, meant to inspire in the current times, while showcasing parts of the venue that haven’t gotten as much love as the should. And voilà! Here we are.

While I enjoy a big, glamorous wedding as much as the next planner, I equally love creating a low-key yet personalized celebration. This sentiment served as the overall goal for this shoot, that a wedding doesn’t have to be cheapened by adding the term “casual” in front of it. Instead it offers an opportunity to define a very specific experience that a couple wants their guests to have.

  • Sal’s Tomato Pies.. enough said.

To pull this together, I would only (as I always do) trust the best. With the venue and rentals already on board, the next key members were those who could capture the entire project’s ambiance and the creative work of all vendors flawlessly. Enter Tim Fitch (photographer) and Paul Gero (videographer), who I trust over and over again to capture the essence of HUE – our approach, our style, and the end result we want. And they deliver every. single. time.

Once the vision is set, it’s time to talk details. My approach in this is to leave the finer things to the experts, giving each vendor a general scope what what I want the end result to feel like and then letting them run with it. As per usual with this particular dream team, they ran hard and took things to a level far beyond what was asked of them. For instance, can we just soak in these daffodil*parker florals for a minute?

  • Carnations are back people!

When I asked Kayla from DP to participate, she said “We’ve done so much with whites and greens, it would be awesome to incorporate more color into the palette! I’ve personally been really into rust, taupe, cream, beige, brown and pops of color that lean late summer.” With the shoot occurring in August, that was more than okay with me. We understand that casual couples prefer to lean into their surroundings, embracing the moment and everything that comes along with it, so floral and colors natural to the season in Wisconsin made perfect sense.

Delicate and personalized details have been the heart and soul of A LA CRATE Rentals for many years now, and there is no way the look could’ve pulled together as seamlessly as it did without key pieces from their collection. To some, the addition of something simple like a rug or vintage plates might not seem like that big of a deal. However it’s taken me years to learn that in the world of creating memorable experiences, these touches are everything.

These touches also include paper goods, which set the stage and put your guests in the proper mindset before they’ve even arrived. Kathy, Owner of Sugar Pear Design had a lot of fun for me on this one, designing an invitation suite poking fun at the time of Covid and leaning heavily into our Italian inspiration. You know, I love being a little extra now and then!

Geoffrey, the Owner of Celebrations Entertainment is another friendor of mine that feeds my “being extra” habit, which you can see from this particular shoot with the inclusion of his silent disco setup. Hosting an outdoor event and want to rock to the wee hours? Make sure to check these out for maximum party potential with minimum risk of noise complaints!

And finally, we could not have done this all without our amazing models! Carrie and Noah. From our first connection, to their trip to Moments to Cherish to be outfitted with Arlene, to being present on shoot day, they understood our vibe and were totally willing to go with the flow, enjoying these moments we had all created and helping our whole team forget about the pandemic for a little bit.

Thank you to all involved! Until next time!

The Dream Team:
Design, Planning + Coordination: HUE by Sarah Davidson
Venue: Harvest Moon Pond
Photography: Tim Fitch Photography
Videography: Gero Pictures
Arch + Rentals: Chance Productions
Vintage Rentals: A LA CRATE Rentals
Floral: daffodil*parker
Stationery: Sugar Pear Design
Catering: Salvatore’s Tomato Pies
Silent Disco: Celebrations Entertainment
Attire: Moments to Cherish Bridals
Models: Carrie Brick + Noah Hockett

Filed Under: Real Events By HUE, Vendors We Love Tagged With: backyard wedding, casual wedding, italian, microwedding, outdoor wedding, pizza, silent disco, weddings, wisconsin wedding, wisconsin weddings

Rural Wisconsin Styled Shoot: Blanchard Hall

July 29, 2020 By Sarah Davidson

What is my number one favorite part about being in the events industry? Vendor Collaboration! When I work with a couple planning their wedding, it brings me great joy to be able to pair them with a full roster of creatives who are ready to fulfill their exact dreams. And it equally brings me just as much joy to build strong relationships with those vendors far past just working one event together. I am constantly inspired by the amount of talent and opportunity there is my industry and how it is constantly evolving year after year.

The shoot below was the product of such a collaboration, especially meant to highlight that beautiful events can occur outside the Madison city-limits in locations you might not think to look. I had never been to Blanchardville, WI before I met Paul, the owner of historic Blanchard Hall, at a Summer 2019 networking event. However when he graciously offered for me to tour his venue I was excited to take an adventure outside of Dane County.

As I toured the venue I was immediately inspired by how comfortable I felt. If I were to host something in this space it could almost feel like I was hosting within my own home or backyard, and that’s what I chose to run with when pulling together the design. I wanted to lean into details that felt attainable, yet elegant, and that you didn’t need to search further than our own region to find (hello New Glarus and Wollersheim)

For our main lounge, I wanted a space that was attractive for guests to sit back and reminisce for an evening with old friends. My favorite touch to this was the afghans provided by Velvet Rentals, layered on top of the venue’s own furniture.

Photo: Tim Fitch Photography

Our sweetheart table was all about the Classic Wisconsin Supper Club. When I asked Brandi of Weddings by Blooms to help me dress this up she over-delivered, with bud vases so delicate and perfect I wanted to snag all of them home with me at the end of the night. I also would be remiss to not mention my intern Maggie when talking about this table, who put together the most beautiful charcuterie tray with goodies from The General Store.

Designing for weddings and events involves a lot of finger crossing that the final product and photos will turn out exactly as you envisioned them in your head. And even if you take every single necessary step to ensure that they do, you just never know!

BUT I can say with 100% certainty that this ceremony set is exactly what I had envisioned it would be, and I cannot thank Tim Fitch enough for that. He hung with me to get the lighting and angles just right for our most out-of-the-box setup of the evening. The venue had these amazing curtains that I just HAD to figure out how to incorporate, and I’ve been in “love” (ha) with neon signs for awhile so… Voilà!

We chose to end the evening on the adorable outdoor patio. Similar to the lounge, I envisioned what I would want when hosting my nearest and dearest in my own backyard. Great food, cold drinks, pretty blooms, and ambiance. Don’t forget to catch the cute little wooden six-pack carrier from Revel!

  • Photo: Tim Fitch Photography

By the way, how amazing does Taylor look in this gown from Moments to Cherish Bridals and styling through Styled by Melaney?

We were extremely lucky to have Caleb Jahr on-site with us, capturing and showcasing everyone’s hard work from a totally different perspective. If you’re unsure about hiring videography for your wedding, DO IT.

Thank you to our entire team that pulled this together. We can’t wait to do something again soon!

Sincerely,
Sarah

The Dream Team:
Design, Planning + Coordination: HUE by Sarah Davidson
Photography: Tim Fitch Photography
Videography: Jahr Wedding Films
Venue: Blanchard Hall
Floral: Blooms by Brandi
Rentals: Velvet Rentals
Catering: The General Store
Bridal Gown + Mensware: Moments to Cherish Bridals
Bride Styling: Styled by Melaney
Wooden Beer Carrier: Revel
Bridal Model: Taylor Boelkes

Filed Under: Real Events By HUE, Sincerely Sarah Tagged With: events, lgbt, lgbt wedding, rural, unique, wedding design, weddings, wisconsin

Joanie + Brandon: Memorial Union Wedding

July 2, 2020 By Sarah Davidson

I’m a sucker for a warm summer day. Even better if it’s one spent at the Wisconsin Union Terrace. Joanie and Brandon may or may not feel the same way, which likely had an influence on their June wedding at the historic Memorial Union.

This was our first wedding that we had the honor of working together with Caynay Photo, and WOW did she just nail it! Her work showed beautiful consistency starting with the delicate details, through the tradition of the venue, and of course incorporating those bright summer colors. What a way to relive things!

Speaking of those delicate details, we loved how Generations Wedding Flowers reminded us all how small pieces can have a big impact. Though the Great Hall may be grand, their table design lended to an elegant and intimate atmosphere, which was exactly what the couple wanted in the end.

Congrats Joanie and Brandon!

The Dream Team:
Wedding Coordination: HUE by Sarah Davidson
Photography: Caynay Photo
Venue, Catering + Bar: The Wisconsin Union – Memorial Union
Floral: Generations Wedding Flowers
Band: Bluewater Kings Band
Photo Booth: Phun Photo Booths
Hair + Makeup: Alan Koa

Filed Under: Real Events By HUE Tagged With: madison weddings, memorial union wedding, university wedding, wisconsin wedding

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