Brooke and Tom met while attending University of Michigan. Brooke is from Saginaw, MI and Tom is from Bay Village, OH. After college, they moved out to San Francisco together! We started working together in December of '07 while they were on the hunt for a unique locations in Cleveland. We went to art galleries and museums, and eventually decided on a private mansion that my friends Kathy and Michael own. Kathy is an artist and has the most amazing collection of her own and other's artwork you can imagine. She did a special display for this wedding of her own, but guests also got to enjoy the largest collection of Frederick Hart sculptures, displayed throughout their front and back yard.

We designed the wedding with a French cafe and wine theme in mind. I think it turned out to be absolutely beautiful, especially since I personally love the color red! And Brooke was the absolute cutest, don't you agree?

This wedding took place on Saturday, September 13. Our original plans called for holding the ceremony outside and Brooke walking down the circular tower staircase. It was raining all day long, and my team and I were SOAKED while setting up, so we planned on our "rain back-up plan", and we were set up for it. At 5:30pm, the rain had held off for an hour, the radar was clear, and Brooke and Tom asked me if we can hold it outside. With all of the catering staff and groomsmen's help, we moved EVERYTHING outside (chairs, decor, string trio, cocktail tables, etc.). with 10 minutes to spare, everyone remained calm and happy (including me) and it went off perfectly.

It was an absolutely beautiful ceremony. It was truly one of those magical wedding moments that are impossible for a human to create, they just happen on their own. Tom, the groom, told us at the end of the night that 5 people told him it was the BEST wedding they had ever attended! I agree.

Congratulations Brooke and Tom! I can't wait for you to move to Cleveland so we can go to dinner and hang out!

These beautiful images were taken by Kimberly Potterf. Kim and I were Alpha Gamma Delta sorority sisters at OU together and reconnected within the past year through the wedding industry! Check out her work - it's fabulous! I was so happy to work with her and can't wait for more weddings to come!

Kirkbrides has been nominated for the Best Wedding Planner in Cleveland for 2008 on the Fox Cleveland hotlist! If you would be so kind, I would really appreciate it if you would take the time to vote!

Click here to vote!

Please tell all of your friends to vote for Kirkbrides too! Thank you so much for your support.

Preview from September 13 French Cafe themed wedding below... If we get more votes soon, I'll post the rest!

I worked on planning every single detail of this wedding with Ron and Natasha (who live in Columbus) and their wonderful parents. We discovered that we shared mutual friends and I got to spend time with some familiar faces over the extravagant weekend! Anyone who knows Ron can understand when I say that he is one of the most entertaining clients I have ever had, and I feel extremely confident in my abilities now after pulling off a wedding that he was very happy with! I do have to also mention how stunning Natasha looked. I didn't stop hearing comments about how beautiful she looked the entire day and night. I can't wait until they move back to Cleveland so we can hang out!

My good friends at Easywind Studio, were the photographers, and provided me with all of these images from the amazing day. I have to say that everything went off without a hitch and it was one of the most beautiful, lively and FUN weddings I have ever done! Because both families are from Russia, we designed the wedding with a loose Russian Ice theme, noting the white and silver accents and the ice sculpture setup at the caviar station.

A big thank you goes out to my wonderful friends Bernie and Andy at Grande Designs for all of their hard work throughout the day and night in making the wedding chuppah and flowers look so beautiful.




A little background on Ron and Natasha:
Natasha was born in Zhdanov, Ukraine. When she was five years old she and her parents immigrated to the United State traveling through Austria and Italy. On their way to the United States, they encountered a friend of the Ron's father, who requested that they pass along a package.

When they arrived in Cleveland, they looked up Ron's father to give him the parcel. Natasha was just 6 years old and Ronald was 9 the first time they met.

In 1996, Natasha's mom completed her Residency and and joined Ron's father's private practice internal medicine group. The families celebrated by going to dinner together yet Ron and Natasha did not know yet what was to come.

Finally, on December 24, 2003, Ron's mother invited Natasha to attend a family dinner to thank her for her hard work while Natasha interned at her dermatology practice. Little did Natasha know, but Ronald was home for Winter Break after his first semester of Law School and was also invited to attend dinner that evening. That same evening Natasha fell in love with Ronald’s beautiful blue eyes and confident persona. Likewise, Ronald was drawn to Natasha’s smile and easygoing personality.

After dinner, Ronald invited Natasha out to ZaZa, the only bar open on Christmas Eve. After a few drinks, the couple’s chemistry was even more apparent…and the rest is history!!!




















Lastly, I received this e-mail from Natasha a few days after her wedding:

Val,

You were a part of the most important weekend our our lives! We just wanted to take an opportunity to thank you for your hard work.

Our wedding was absolutely amazing and we couldn't have done it without you. The vendors were all amazing....we are in rome now! We return to cleveland september 12th and I hope to give you a call that weekend to thank you over the phone.
We are thrilled!!!!! thank you so much....truly from the bottom of our hearts!!!!

ron and tash

Hi Valarie!

I tried to leave a message on your blog but it wouldn't let me, so I'll do my best to recreate it here:

Where do I even begin???

I just had to say thank-you for all the hours, labor, thought (and patience) that you put into our wedding! You truly captured what Jeff and I wanted which was a fun, lively, unique wedding where people felt they could let loose and have a good time.

Every detail was perfect and what I find interesting is that so many people caught those little details, the naming of the tables, the programs, the rose petals, the bold color, the place cards - so many people appreciated those little details and told us!

We hope that you and your team had fun too! The band was fantastic and our hearing is finally back to normal (always a sign of a great band). Thank-you for all the fabulousness that you incorporated into our wedding! We will recommend you to eveyone we know!

Most Sincerely

Tracy Choma

On a particulary hot Sunday morning in early June '05, Tracy had decided to run a local race. Afterwards, all sweaty and gross (definitely not the type of look one goes for when meeting their future husband) she decided to go grocery shopping. She spotted a good looking guy who looked pretty athletic and she hoped that he would start a conversation with her. She still had her race number pinned on her and she felt that would be a great way to break the ice. He didn't take the bait. Not one to back down from a challenge, Tracy came up with a great opening line and while standing in front of the Gatorade display, asked the cute boy to explain the difference between all the different types of Gatorade (laugh if you want). She learned his name was Jeff (although, because of nerves, this would eventually slip her mind). Her genius opening line started a wonderful conversation between the two and then....

Absolutely nothing happened.

As fate (or destiny, or serendipity, or any of the other words we named the tables at their wedding) would have it, a couple days later while attending a meeting for a local running group Tracy saw the cute boy from Heinen's at the same meeting!! Her heart leapt into her throat as he came over and talked to her (and told her his name again - phew!) and they talked about their race plans for the season and then....

Absolutely nothing happened.

Over the next few months Tracy and Jeff would see each other at the local running group's organized runs and they became friends. They ran a race together in October of '05, hi-fived each other at the finish line and then....

Absolutely nothing happened.

A few days later Tracy had made up her mind...This was going to be the day she asked Jeff out. If he was not going to do it after that evening's run, by golly she was going to do it. So they ran together and afterwards stood by their cars and talked. To this day Tracy could not tell you what the conversation entailed because she was too busy trying to work up the nerve to ask him out. She took a deep breath and was about 30 seconds away from asking Jeff out when he FINALLY asked her out!

Yahooooo!

And on August 23, 2008 they got married!




Tracy is one of the classiest girls, not to mention beautiful, and I can see why Jeff fell in love with her! We worked together for many months designing and planning the entire wedding from start to finish. Tracy wanted lively and dramatic decor, so that's what we did! And how cool are the tan suits that the groomsmen wore?!

Truly one of the most amazing and dramatic photography companies I have ever worked with shot this wedding: Genevieve and James from Genevieve Nisly photography. I have to say that they captured the wedding perfectly. I'm amazed at how much emotion comes through in their work. This was the perfect photographer for the perfect wedding!

My post would not be complete without mentioning the awesome first dance, choreographed to "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" by Queen! Our 80's band kept the reception fun and lively all night, playing some of MY favorites like "Don't you Forget About Me", "She Bop" and "Your Love" (originally by the Outfield).


Congratulations Tracy and Jeff! What a sweet couple. I am so happy for you!


















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