Kiley's Planning Bio

This was one of the first decisions we made when we got engaged. We went back and forth on a couple different places and it was difficult to decide because the only place we had actually seen was the Livestock Exchange Building (since we live in California, touring the other options was not really a possibility!). We didn't feel we had enough guests for the large ballroom at the Livestock Exchange Building and didn't want our reception to feel empty, but I didn't like the smaller ballroom. Next was 1316 Jones Street. I really liked the idea of this place but after much thought, I didn't like the layout... much too narrow and I am always annoyed when I can't see everyone at receptions. Finally we decided on the Botanical Gardens. The coordinator there is really great to work with and has always accommodated us on anything we want. It fits the perfect number of guests for our wedding (320 - we'll probably have about 250) and I loved out bright and open it is. Plus we can take pictures out in the gardens prior to the reception and that was something I really wanted - outdoors casual pictures. Overall I am really excited about the venue! The ballroom will work beautifully with our colors (black, brown & ivory) and I think it's going to look beautiful!

We are going to have some short and some tall centerpieces. The short centerpieces are going to be amazing and I can't wait to see how my florist (The Flower Shoppe) completes them! They are going to have some really unique flowers - gerber daisies, ranunculus, spider mumms, etc. and they are going to be all ivory/white.

For the tall centerpieces we are going to do brown curly willow with white flowers interwoven throughout. My mom and her friend will be making these. Surrounding the base of the vase will be an ivory ribbon with a black-backed ivory tag with our logo. Picture of the test coming soon!

We are doing homemade angel food sheet cakes through a woman my fiance's family has used for years. They are soooo super good. I didn't want to skip the wedding cake altogether though, so we are having a local woman (Carol Rodewald) make us a two-tier red velvet and carrott cake with cream cheese frosting and chocolate pearls separating the tiers. Since we have a French bulldog, Stewie, who I love to death, we decided to honor him by placing a chocolate frenchie that I found on etsy.com (beascreativecorner - she can do other dog breeds too!) on the top of our cake. Love it! We'll take it out of the bag of course ;)