Modern Glam at The Dav in Downtown Spokane, WA

Content heavy blog post coming at you today! Honestly, I put off writing this blog post more than others. Absolutely not because I wasn’t looking forward to writing it. More so because I have been so looking forward to writing about this particular wedding that I have had a hard time organizing my thoughts into coherent sentences, and not writing a novel. This was not my biggest wedding of the 2022 season when you look at the size of the guest count, but logistically, this was one of the most complicated of my entire career thus far, and I learned so much! Sunny + Scott came to me with big LA and New York style wedding dreams, and I believe I can proudly say, with the help of so many amazing vendors, we achieved the classic and old Hollywood look they were hoping for!

Sunny + Scott chose the Historic Davenport as the venue vessel, if you will, to bring their visions to life. And before moving on, I would just like to extend a HUGE thank you to the entire Davenport event & banquet staff. You guys worked so hard all day and night. I am grateful for everything you did to support me, my staff, and the other vendors. Alright, back to the story at hand… Sunny’s first must-have was to use and transform the Grand Pennington Ballroom for both the ceremony and reception. Not a big deal, right? Totally done that… in fact, I wrote another wedding blog post about that earlier this year. But Sunny decided to raise the bar on me. She wanted to get married underneath the chandelier in the middle of the room with a giant wall of candles as her backdrop & candles lining either side of the aisle. All of which would then need to be moved to become the backdrop & décor of their sweetheart table, with the dance floor underneath that same middle chandelier for the reception.

Don’t think I am joking when I tell you the idea of this gave me night sweats for months. Trying to logistically plan the best way to execute this flip made me want to ignore the problem all together and just hope that it worked itself out. These kind of details and worries are what Sunny hired me for so… I told her dream big and let me worry about the execution. When the final ceremony design came together it was comprised of a total of 340 lit candles. 240 of those made up the candle wall backdrop and 100 floating candles lined the aisle. See a small glimpse of that gloriousness in the first photo collage below. After all was said and done, we successfully moved the backdrop with A LOT of helping hands, good (loud) communication and only one broken vase. I was legit sore the next day.

**Interrupting this programing again for a quick shout out to Kristina with Arch and Elm Photography for absolutely NAILING the entire vibe with her photos, and truly telling the most perfect story through still moments in time.

Sunny’s biggest reception must-have was a champagne tower. Can’t go old Hollywood without popping some bubbly! This was going to be my first big champagne tower, so I needed it to be right because (not that I blame them) the Davenport staff made it very clear this was to be our (my) responsibility, not theirs. Few things I learned from this experience that I will carry on… 5-tiers is probably excessive. I know you want it to be large, in charge, and be a statement piece, but 4-tiers is plenty! Secondly, if you want the champagne to actually reach the bottom tier and (semi) fill all the glasses, set aside at least 6 bottles. Or even halfway fill the bottom glasses as you are setting the tower. That to say, each bottle did not go nearly as far as we anticipated. Thirdly, set the tower up slowly! One of my many helpers and I ended up setting the tower 3 different times to ensure it was stable and all the glasses were touching each other. Not every glass is going to be exactly level, so take that into account and set aside plenty of time to get this right. No one wants their tower to come crashing down mid pour. Two more thoughts… Find a clear plastic tray to put underneath the tower. Like I said, the champagne did not go nearly as far as we expected so we did not need the tray in this instance, but to not make a total mess of the table, something at the bottom to catch the excess champagne will be much appreciated by any venue & banquet staff. Lastly, please do not forget to smile! I remember Sunny mentioning to me that she kept consciously telling herself to smile so it didn’t look like she had a RBF on because she was concentrating so hard to pour the champagne and not tip over the glasses. (She accomplished her goal, for sure!)

Ultimately, Sunny + Scott wanted to create a wedding that felt formal, tasteful, polished, and elegant, but not stuffy. This feeling was captured with a lot of elements you can see pictured below. Dining by candlelight. The abundance of baby’s breath and white roses. The perfectly paired lounge areas on the outside of the dance floor. And of course, a party that knocked the socks off every guest rocking out until the wee hours of the following morning! Be unique and bring in a live musician to accompany your DJ. It is a vibe you never knew you needed.

I could go on and on about this day, but I think this is just enough content allowing you to go back to this day and be a fly on the wall in the Grand Pennington Ballroom at the gorgeous Historic Davenport Hotel. None of this would have been possible without the dedication and hard work from all of these amazing wedding professionals.

A+ Vendor Team:

Venue, Catering, Bar: The Historic Davenport

Planner: A Piece of Harmony Events

Photographer: Arch & Elm Photography

Second Photographer: Caleb and Britt Photography

Videographer: Ferguson Films

DJ: DRJ Productions (DJ Davey Dave)

Drummer: Josh Fry

Florist: McBride Floral Design

Furniture Rentals: Patina Events, Pine & Poppy Rentals, Artifact Rentals

Tableware Rentals: Event Rents

Paper Goods: Mango Ink

Hairstylist: SÉLON Cd’A

Makeup Artist: Birds Eye Beauty

If you are interested in learning more about my services head over to my contact page and let’s have a chat! And if you want to peruse more real weddings from A Piece of Harmony Events, check out…

Large Arbor Crest Winery Wedding with Modern Flare

Modern Wedding With Urban Vibes in Downtown Spokane

Intimate Lakehouse Winter Wedding on Lake Coeur d’Alene

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