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.
Chelsea (a strategy consultant originally from Ohio) and Tim (an IT director hailing from Massachusetts) met shortly after they moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. “We were introduced by mutual friends at a rooftop party on a beautiful September day,” Chelsea recalls. Two years later, Tim proposed one “magical” October day. “He got down on one knee during a walk on Russian Hill at the spot of our first kiss,” she says. “He had arrived just an hour earlier on a cross-country flight from Boston, which included a secret Ohio layover to ask my parents for my hand in marriage.” Currently, Chelsea and Tim are planning to move to Park City. 
The skiers and mountain adventurers set their sights on Utah. “Living in California and having families and friends spread across the country, we wanted someplace unique that our guests could get to easily by plane.” Park City offered a centrally-located town for guests to explore, enjoy and savor. “Many of our guests had never been to Utah before and now many of them can’t wait to come back,” Chelsea says. “When we saw Blue Sky, we knew it was exactly the mountain wedding venue we were looking for.” Autumn was the season of choice. “We chose October because we both love the fall. The foliage is beautiful, and the temperature is perfect.”
The weekend reflected the couple’s love for mountain-chic elegance and good ol’ fashioned fun. “We wanted all of our wedding elements to complement the beauty of the mountains, yet add a flare of elegance and sophistication,” says Chelsea of the décor boasting shades of navy, copper and magenta with accents of yellow and mixed metals. “We viewed our wedding as two distinct parts: ceremony and reception. We wanted guests to leave the ceremony with love in their hearts and tears in their eyes. And we wanted them to leave the reception saying, ‘That was the best party ever!’”
“We picked a menu that showcased the season and mountain cuisine that we love so much for our family and friends who were coming from out of town,” Chelsea says. Jalapeño corn bread and a winter green salad kicked off the meal. Next up, guests enjoyed “Stream and Prairie” entrees of pan-fried Utah trout and Niman Ranch New York Strip steak, both served with smoked root vegetables. Sweet treats finished the mountain-chic menu. “We both love chocolate chip cookies and found a great local bakery, Midway Country Kitchen, to supply them. We also had a dessert bar with s’mores and apple fritters provided by High West.”
Dinner music ranged from Frank Sinatra to the Fugees. To satisfy Chelsea and Tim’s desire to have “the best party ever,” the DJ blasted popular tunes from their high school and college days through today, ending with an “epic” rendition of Journey’s famous “Don’t Stop Believing.” Bruce Springsteen’s “Happy” serenaded the newlyweds during their first dance. “We both fell in love with it the moment we heard it together and knew it was right for our first song,” Chelsea says. 
“The walk down the aisle,” says Chelsea. “Walking with my dad, Pachelbel’s ‘Canon in D’ playing, all my family and friends before me, the mountains in the background and all of the details from months of planning seen out of the corner of my eye. But as I rounded the corner, everything else faded away, and it was just Tim and me together in the world.” 
