I have been following Chad's work for years. I was well aware of the unique and dazzling work he has done. The experience of having him do the flowers, décor, print materials, and generally advise me through my own wedding, though, was almost indescribable. (See Shades of Berry on his blog.) From our first planning conversations to the actual day of the wedding, I felt wowed every step of the way.
Even though he has his finger on the pulse of all things wedding, Chad is in many ways, an 'old pro' at this. This expertise aside, however, he and Bethany really listened to all our thoughts. So in addition to providing tons of great ideas, he strove to understand what would make our day special and perfect to us. (This understanding is perhaps best typified by his statement, "So I'm thinking we'll make your bouquet look like we just walked through a field of wildflowers on our way to the garden ceremony and this is what we came up with. It could be just slightly cascading down and have natural elements to it." Truly, I could never have verbalized a more perfect version of my dream bouquet.)
You can also see from looking at his blog that, no matter what type of location you select for your ceremony and reception, Chad will transform or enhance it to create YOUR perfect vision. Sometimes during our planning sessions, we got a little carried away with ideas for the big day, but then we'd go back to our budget, talk to everyone else involved in the process, refine the vision, make it phenomenal, and move on to the next task! And the bottom line is, he created a theme for us and carried it through from the save the dates, to the invitations, to the bouquets and boutonnieres, to the centerpieces, to the escort cards, to the flowers on the cake, down to the most exquisite programs I have ever seen.
And I KNEW it would be that way because of the myriad events I've seen him do...but you will feel the same way when you see the images of the countless weddings he's done. You gain a genuine trust for his quality of work, so even though some of it looks EXACTLY like what he sketched out (so close it's scary) and sometimes it looks a tad different, you KNOW the final product will be outstanding. That level of trust is critical as you get closer to your big day and things get stressful because it's a GIVEN that not everything will be perfect -- Chad and Bethany will help you through the last minute decisions, and make you feel good about it. For example, when we were just a few days away, he did more than just patiently listen to my questions and double-checking even though he's done this a million times...he ended one of our final phone strategy sessions (before we were meeting for the rehearsal) by saying, "You know we're going to knock this out of the ball park, right?" That's just what I needed to hear and that's just what he did. I will be thanking him (and Bethany!) for years to come. read more
