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Ask The Expert: Most Stylish Places To Get Married In Detroit

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Choosing a place to have your wedding is no easy to-do in the Metro Detroit area. A bride may have trouble deciding where her wedding should be because there are so many beautiful and sophisticated locations to choose from. Along with five of the most stylish places to get married in Detroit are five tips for planning a beautiful wedding from an expert wedding consultant.

Jennifer Charles

Something Fabulous
(248) 608-8820
www.somethingfab.com

Picking out just the right place to have your wedding is an important first step in planning your big day. An expert wedding consultant in the Metro Detroit area is Jennifer Charles, the owner/founder of Something Fabulous with her sister and co-owner/founder Kimberly Allen. These two sisters, along with their top-notch staff, have planned weddings and events for such celebrities as NFL's Leon Hall, Donald Trump's daughter Tiffany and NBA's Rashid Wallace. Charles has 10 years of experience as a wedding consultant and event planner. She gave CBS News Detroit an exclusive interview to help brides know where some of the most stylish places are to get married in the Metro Detroit area and five important tips for planning a fabulous wedding that a bride can count on for one of the most important days of her life.

Tip 1

The first step in planning a wedding is picking out the venue, which will help a bride determine the theme for her wedding. Picking an expert wedding consultant, either for a full or partial service, is important so the bride can discuss her goals, budget and best vendors for her wedding. One venue Charles recommends is the Fox Theatre in downtown Detroit. "It's amazing and one of the oldest theaters in the country," Charles said. "The cocktail hour can be on the theater's balcony and dinner can served on the actual stage."

Tip 2

Picking up a really good wedding planner at a well-known bookstore is important for a bride to understand all of the things needed to plan for a wedding. She said the planner will include a checklist and timeline to help a bride stay right on track. Making sure to hire an expert wedding consultant that knows all of the A-list vendors around Detroit for things like the wedding cake, invitations, flowers, DJ, band, videographer and rentals is crucial to the success of a bride's wedding. Another great venue Charles recommends for the event is the Westin Book Cadillac Detroit hotel in downtown Detroit. Charles said the hotel is rich in history, has timeless elegance and has just undergone a $200 million restoration.

Tip 3

Staying within your budget is imperative. "When brides come in to see me, they don't know what things cost," Charles said. "So we break it down and give them a realistic map as to what everything costs so the expenditures don't mount up and they spend money on things they don't really want or need. The last thing I want is for a bride to say at the end of her wedding she wished she didn't spend money on something that just didn't work." Another great location Charles recommends is the Bay Harbor Village Hotel in Bay Harbor, which is nestled along the shores of Lake Michigan. The hotel offers both indoor and outdoor wedding facilities surrounded by the soothing water of the bay which makes for a very picturesque wedding.

Related: Best Bridal Shops In Detroit

Tip 4

Try to give yourself at least a year to plan your wedding and make sure the wedding consultant you hire understands the logistics it takes to pull off a successful wedding. "We understand the turnaround times such as loading in the day before the wedding," Charles said. "We also know how the property works, so being on the same page as the vendors the week of the wedding when we call them is very important." A hotel Charles said offers a beautiful glass atrium for a wedding, a nice menu for the reception and several wedding packages is the Royal Park Hotel in Rochester.

Tip 5

According to Charles, the most important aspect of the wedding process is making sure a bride's wedding has its own story and is personal for the bride and groom. "It's the details that I think matter most," Charles said. "When you begin a design experience such as picking out a theme, for example 'A Midsummer's Night Dream,' or want to include brownies in the shape of a football like NFL player Leon Hall did, your wedding becomes more personal when you incorporate those kinds of things." Another beautiful place for a wedding is at the Detroit Yacht Club. The wedding facilities there are exquisite with gorgeous chandeliers in the ballroom and so many more amenities.

Related: Best Wedding Registry Spots 

As a news reporter for 25-years and an online writer for various publications, Rebecca Kelley is passionate about being a journalist. She currently resides in Michigan and writes exclusively for online publications. Her work can be found at Examiner.com.

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