A couple weeks ago Matt and I spent a lovely afternoon at A Perfect Event as friends, newly engaged couples and fellow vendors gathered to check out the latest new wedding trends hosted by the one and only Debi Lilly. Debi is constantly on the hunt for inspiration, traveling abroad throughout the year to bring back new and exciting ideas for her clients. Once a year, Debi throws her famous Wedding Trends event sponsored by CS Brides at her shop in Lakeview complete with yummy food and drink. This year we brought the Smilebooth along for some good laughs too. I made so many goofy faces that day I have to say I’m just a little embarrassed but you can see them here if you’d like. : ) Also thanks to our comrades Matt, Lori and Elan from I Do Films for creating the awesome video recap above. Hope to see you all at the event next year and be sure to check out all of the great folks below for some inspiration for you next party or event!

Planning/Design/Paper/Floral: A Perfect Event

Snacks and Sweets: The Salted Caramel, Kim and Scott’s, Lilly Cakes

Tables and Linen: BBJ Linen, Tablescapes

Chicago Bridal Magazine: CS Brides

Cinematography: I Do Films

Photo Booth: Smilebooth

Photography: Us!

One day while browsing some of my favorite blogs, I came across this post from one of our very favorite photography companies out in Southern California who had just built a booth for a bridal show they participated in.  I knew then that I had found our inspiration. Nate and Jaclyn Kaiser of The Image is Found are awesome photographers that we look up to and admire and are absolutely brilliant when it comes branding, design, innovation and so many other things.  They also represent the Smilebooth in San Diego.   Simply put, we love following their work and hope to cross paths soon at the WPPI conference in Las Vegas coming up later this month.

Before design can begin you need a concept.  Ours happened to be natural wood with white and natural wood tones for the base colors.  We could then treat this as our canvas and use other colors coming from our prints, albums and the Smilebooth backdrop to make it pop.  Matt came up with several designs using google sketch-up. (He was engrossed in the program for several days and came out with not only our booth design but a design for our future home… if it ever gets built we will definitely post these ; ).  Because of time and space constraints, after finalizing the design, we called on a good friend of ours to head up the actual construction of the booth. Matt popped in over a span of two days to make slight adjustments and marvel at how quickly Dan turned the design into a reality.  This seriously would have easily taken Matt a week to build.

Because we were building the booth off site we needed it to be easily movable and able to assemble and disassemble in under an hour.  Dan came to the rescue again with modular construction and all we needed was a few extra hands, clamps and a screw gun. We were so excited with the final product. It was a proud moment when we finally took a step back when it was completely finished to take the pictures below. Also, enjoy the fun video made by our pals at I Do Films!

credit for photo above goes to Jaclyn Simpson

So a huge thank you to The Image is Found for raising the bar for bridal show booths and showing us all how it’s supposed to be done! We also want to give a shout out to our amazing album company, Cypress, for creating all of our beautiful albums and boxes. They are the BEST! We had so much fun at the show and appreciate all of you who came out to say hi!

Here are a few pics from Matt’s concept and construction process. One of my favorite things about our booth is that we found a way to repurpose all of the pieces so none of it is going to waste.

Last Thursday, Avery House joined Room 1520 in hosting a launch party for their brand new event space, Aérée Loft. The other fabulous hosts and sponsors such as A Perfect Event, Finesse Cuisine and Art of Imagination, also pitched in to create “THE” party of the season. Hundreds of guests came to celebrate and share in the excitement of Chicago’s newest venue. Owners and friends, Steve and Leah, had an incredible vision a couple of years ago to turn the lower half of their commercial photography studio into a refreshingly modern and strikingly beautiful event space in the West Loop, perfect for hosting charity benefits, wedding receptions, fashion shows and more. We knew from the beginning that when their vision came to life it would turn heads all across the city. And we were right! If you missed it, NBC Chicago was so excited they made a great little feature about the party that you can check out here.

Throughout the evening guests mingled and enjoyed some delicious hors d’oeuvres and yummy treats from the amazing candy bar and chocolate bar. Of the two cocktails that were being served, my favorite was the Lemon Meringue Pie in the Sky Martini! An aerialist hung from the ceiling in the entry way and created an amazing silhouette and true show stopper from the outside looking in. The Smilebooth kept everyone entertained with trampolines and green apples for juggling. Fortunately we had no broken ankles although I came close one or two times. Jumping in heels is not the best idea. Check out all the Smilebooth photos here!

Anyways, thank you to all who came out and celebrated with us and a huge thank you to Haley of Room 1520 for being so wonderful to work with!

This Thursday, January 20th, Room 1520 will be holding their official launch party for their brand new event space, Aérée Loft. We are excited to be helping host the event as we are big fans of this beautiful venue and we can’t wait for all the awesome things that are planned for the party. I mentioned Room 1520 on our blog just a few weeks ago when I posted pictures of the Hamilton Family. If you are in the event or wedding industry or if you are looking for a place to host your next big hoorah, wedding, bar/bat mitzvah, etc., then come join us for all the fun! And if you haven’t yet seen what all the Smilebooth craze is about, then you’ll finally have a chance to try it out for yourself. Beware, it’s addictive and sure to make you smile. Everyone is welcome so we hope to see lots of you there! Just be sure to RSVP by either emailing us at contact@averyhouse.net or by calling 312-952-1520 and mention you saw the invite on our blog.

If you can’t make it out to see us at Room 1520, we’ll also be helping host a fun little event on Saturday afternoon, Jan. 22nd, from 1-3pm at A Perfect Event. You can read about all of the details here!

Tis the season for wedding planning and wedding shows. Many of you who are engaged and planning your wedding or who have “been there, done that” know that wedding shows usually aren’t the most exciting part of the process. Though they offer lots of helpful information, it’s not fun to have to fight your way through the crowd of people with only a hope of finding at least one good vendor who is offering what you are looking for. Thankfully, Kelly Maron of Paper Stories, recognized this need for a wedding show that features a hand-picked group of vendors that cater to couples looking for unique wedding products and services. Something a little less generic and different from what the more traditional wedding shows have to offer. This is how Indie Wed was born. January 2010 marked the very first Indie Wed which was an incredible success. We are honored to have been selected as part of this year’s show which will be held on January 29th, 2011 at the Ravenswood Event Center. We’ll be there with bells on next to I Do Films so be sure to stop by and say hi! Also joining us will be the Smilebooth! Woohoo! For more information on the event visit the webiste. If you are planning a wedding you won’t want to miss it!

To take advantage of a 40% discount on your ticket, click here and use promo code NEWYEAR (one word) until midnight on Friday the 7th. We also have a few more tickets left to give away so leave a comment with your email address and the number of tickets you need and I’ll send you the info. First come, first serve! Happy Planning!

••UPDATE!!••

We don’t have any more tickets to give away personally but there are still plenty available here! Go get ya some!

Engage 10 {Day One} from Cloud Nine Creative on Vimeo.

Engage ’10 {Day 2 + 3} from Cloud Nine Creative on Vimeo.

After attending Engage!10 during the first week of October in Palm Beach, FL I can confidently say that The Breakers Hotel is a perfect place to host your destination wedding. I was constantly impressed by their hospitality and the property lends itself to be one of the most relaxing places I’ve ever visited. A huge thanks to them for hosting this conference and going out of their way to make our stay nothing short of unforgettable. Engage is a luxury wedding business summit held twice a year where wedding entrepreneurs from all over the world gather to share ideas, network and hear the industry’s leaders speak on current trends, business practices and all sorts of other helpful information that motivates and inspires. Matt and I both attended the last Engage that was held in Grand Cayman back in June which you can see here. As I look over my notes from both of the events, I feel honored to have had the opportunity to learn from people such as Liene Stevens from Think Splendid, Bryan Rafanelli, David Beahm, Mindy Weiss, Cindy Novotny, Sean Low, Todd Fiscus and many others. Not to mention all the new friendships that were made over the course of event. Rebecca Grinnals and Kathryn Arce are the ladies to thank for it all. Their talent amazes me. I have to admit that it wasn’t quite the same this time without Matt there with me but I had a wonderful time with all of my girlfriends, old and new, who made the trip so fun and memorable. I can’t wait for Engage!11!
P.s. Bruce from Cloud Nine Creative shot the awesome videos above. I thought I would share them as well to give you an even better idea of what Engage is all about. Enjoy and Happy Monday!

Some of the conversations we shared with other attendees left us dreaming bigger than we ever have before.  Without big goals and dreams, we will never be able to fully grow into the person that we are called to be.  We also feel that while working with your spouse is great, it is an even bigger challenge to constantly make sure we are growing together and always open to respecting each other’s perspectives.

Taking time to travel and attend a conference like Engage is a great way for us to feel challenged and refreshed.   Thank you to everyone who made our experience unforgettable.  We’ll let the photos below tell the rest of the story!

A little video recap from our friends at I Do Films

engage!10 Cayman Islands from I Do Films on Vimeo.

This film was produced by I Do Films, LLC.

Visit these blogs for more Engage!10 recaps:

(if you want to add your recap to this list email me, contact@averyhouse.net)

• Lara Casey
• 14 Stories
• Momental Designs
• Bridal Bar
• Celebrations
• Jasmine Star
• Elegance & Simplicity
• I Do Films
• Splendid Communications
• Elizabeth Anne Designs

Beth & Nick from I Do Films on Vimeo.

We were honored to have the opportunity to film Beth and Nick as a part of Wish Upon a Wedding.

Beth & Nick from I Do Films on Vimeo.

One of our favorite services and a recent photography trend that we offer our clients is the “photo booth.” It is such a great way for guests to get involved at the reception. At our event on Sunday, Debi helped take the idea one step further to create a photo/sketch drawing souvenir for the guests to take home with them. The photos you see here were actually taken with a cool iphone app called Epson iPrint. Debi’s husband helped us out on this one. Mike Rowe from Write by Mike did an incredible job at making the cute little sketch drawings to compliment the photos which you can see below. We think this is a fantastic way to add some extra fun to any party and gives your guests something that they are excited to take away. Check out his beautiful calligraphy work here.

A HUGE thanks goes out to Matt from I Do Films for stopping by and doing some stellar video coverage of the event. We really love what this company is doing and encourage everyone to visit their blog. They are fun to work with and incredibly talented. Enjoy the footage that he captured below!

Wedding Trends, Tips & Treats from I Do Films on Vimeo.

This film was produced by I Do Films, LLC.

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