Tag Archives: Utah wedding reception center

Beautiful Celebrations, Real events, Receptions

real utah wedding Samantha and Kade 10-11-2018

October 4, 2019 Wendy Pettit Leave a comment

Fall in love all over again as we remember this beautiful Utah wedding celebration of Sam and Kade. Their reception last fall was one of our most favorite events. What a lovely true-love couple with two beautiful families, as you will see in the photos.

True-Love Waits

First, this couple had some extraordinary patience before they finally tied the knot! In the summer of 2014, Kade and Sam met at Sevens Peaks Water Park. Only two days later, Kade departed on his LDS mission. For two years, they kept in contact through letters. Upon Kade’s returned home, they dated for a month before it was Sam’s turn to serve her 18-month mission. Once again, letters were their form of constant communication. Sam completed her service, and dating resumed. They were married eight months later. Now that is true love!

Inclusive Utah Wedding Reception Venue

For the desired elegant look, Sam chose three different base colored linens – slate blue, celadon, and navy blue. White topper toppers draped over each table with a crown centerpiece of the Ivy House standard candle hurricane with their boxwood wreath. Ivy House has several real candle options to choose from or the bride may bring her own. Ivy House employees set up tables, chairs, linens, and centerpieces before the wedding party arrives. One hour before the event, the families added a touch of twinkling mini-lights around the wreaths. That was it, simple, dainty, and elegant. Sam accented everything with other aspects of her dream wedding – red roses, burgundy and navy attire on immediate family, and mint green on the bridesmaids. One of Sam’s dear neighbors Julie Giddings, created the floral arrangements. It was all stunning as you can see from the photos.

Utah Wedding Caterer and Baker

Delicious sliders were provided by Black’s Sliders Food Truck, who source everything local, antibiotic & hormone-free, and fresh! Sam’s cousin Megan Hall created the stunning cake. As head pastry chef at Naborhood Bakery in Gardner Village, Megan does incredible work; likewise, fresh and delicious tarts and other sweets delighted the guests as well.

Idea for Little Ones

Here is a fun dual purpose idea for the little ones and older ones alike. Provide for your guests shot glasses full of M&M candies. These were a hit for the small children at the celebration. Plus they kept busy counting, sorting, and eating while their parents also enjoyed the little tribes. Many fun memories with cousins and friends will be remembered.

Traditional

This adorable couple chose to do the traditional wedding activities of tossing the bouquet (love those photos), finding and flipping the garter, cutting the cake, and the first dance. Then the entire wedding party broke out into a lot of dancing to the bride and groom’s chosen playlist over the impressive Ivy House sound system! Everyone had a great time, as demonstrated in the photos.

The Perfect Utah Wedding Dress

Sam found her dress at The Perfect Dress in Holladay, Utah. The sweet baby’s breath tucked into her hair was the perfect accent to her perfect dress. Sam made her bridesmaid’s headbands with silk flowers from Michaels. How creative is that! The couple’s rings are from the E-Wedding Band jewelry store in Provo. Kade’s ring is cobalt with rose gold, and Sam’s is rose gold with a glistening black sapphire.

Utah Wedding Photographer

If you are looking for a unique and exquisite photographer, check out Parker from Pure Light Photography. Romance was abundant as Sam and Kade danced, backlit with their shadows across the wood dance floor. His work is crisp, and he loves capturing the unique point of view.

We wish Samantha and Kade many years of joy and happiness as they begin their life’s eternal journey together. Thank you again for letting Ivy House Weddings and Events be part of your Utah wedding!

Photographer: Parker from Pure Light Photography @purelightpho

Videographer: Jenny with Happily Ever After Video in Sandy

Catering: Black’s Sliders Food Truck @blackssliders

Cake and Tarts: Megan Hall – Naborhood Bakery in Gardener Village

Flowers: Julie Giddings

Wedding Gown: The Perfect Dress @theperfectdressbridal

Rings: e-Wedding Bands @eweddingbands

romantic lighting at utah wedding reception — Notice the simple baby’s breath adorning Sam’s hair.

Ceremonies, How-To Tips, Planning your event, Receptions

Ten Basic Flower Tips for Celebrations at Wedding Venues in Utah

October 1, 2014 ivyhouseblog Leave a comment

Flowers are an important focal attraction of a wedding celebration. Many wedding venues in Utah require brides to use their in-house florist for the event’s floral needs; however, Western Garden’s two wedding reception centers do not require but only recommend their favorite wedding florist. As a courtesy to our brides, we recommend Hillside Flowers. (Click to see their sample pricing)

Whether it is Hillside or other chosen florist, or even if you do your flowers yourself, here are 10 basic tips to know and remember.

1) The Bare Basics include: bride’s bouquet, groom’s boutonniere, corsages for each mother, boutonnieres for each father.

2) Additional flower needs for the wedding party – Maid of honor’s/matron of honor’s bouquet, bridesmaids’ bouquets, best man and groomsmen’s boutonnieres, hair piece for the flower girl and rose petals for the flower girl to gently toss down the aisle.

3) Wedding reception flower needs include: table centerpieces, customary bouquet that the bride throws, flowers on a gift/guest attendance book table, and cake flowers. Flowers for a food buffet table may be considered.

4) The wedding’s theme and colors can be incorporated in the flower selection process. Consider the types of flowers, flower colors, ribbons, greenery and accents to be used. Your flowers can be a beautiful reflection of your personality for all your guests to witness. A bridal bouquet reflects the final touch of the bride’s gown and is an accessory that completes the attire. Flowers also help capture the theme of a wedding albeit romantic, elegant, rustic, modern, antique to simple. Exotic orchids to timeless calla lilies, your flowers can tell your guests a lot about you.

5) To keep the flower budget reasonable, it is less expensive to select flowers that are in season and locally grown if possible. You may need to improvise and coordinate colors and flowers around certain seasons, but this means you may be able to afford more flowers. Being open-minded and willing to work with your florist so you don’t have to import flowers will save you a lot of money.

6) Consider your reception venue. Utah reception centers that already have some greenery, won’t need as much floral decoration as those that have none, containing only walls and hard decor. Brides that book at Ivy House and Atrium find that they don’t require as much floral design as other Salt Lake City wedding venues.

7) Coordinate with a florist that can accommodate you for both the wedding venue for the ceremony and the Utah wedding reception center for your celebration. This will help you deal with one single florist who can create one cohesive theme for your entire day. These professionals are able to provide guidance and advice to you about what flowers will work best for your needs. Sometimes they can even supplement flowers in bouquets and centerpiece with more greenery, feathers, pearls, or artistic elements.

8) Inquire about vases. Does your florist rent them to you? Are they purchased by you as part of the cost of the arrangements? This is important to know. You will want to know if you can send floral arrangements home with guests as a gift?

9) Does the florist set up the floral pieces? Does the florist take down the pieces at the end of the reception if the vases are rented or do you do this and return the vases? These little details are important to know ahead of time.

10) Many brides want their bouquets professionally preserved. Some florists provide this service. Inquiring ahead of time will help save you significant time and help to preserve the bouquet while it is still vibrant and fresh.

Flowers are a vital part of your wedding celebration. Whether you choose one of the many Utah wedding venues that require the use of their in-house florist or use one of Western Garden’s two wedding reception venues in Utah where you can choose your florist or do it yourself, take heed to these 10 tips to have your flowers be the final accent to your beautiful celebration.

Beautiful Celebrations

Saying It with Photos at Wedding Reception Centers in Utah

November 6, 2012 Wendy Pettit Leave a comment

This bride was very effective at expressing her style at her wedding celebration at Ivy House Weddings, one of Western Garden’s wedding reception centers in Utah. She used several photos to demonstrate her and her beau’s personalities for their guests. A favorite photo was one showing only the bottom of the couple’s shoes with the written words “I Do…Me Too”. Another photo showed the couple with their hands up in the air configuring their fingers to create the word “Love”. Very clever and definitely relayed the camaraderie this couple enjoys together.

Jungle green was the bride’s primary color, but she accented the Utah wedding venue with leopard prints in a throw rug for the wedding line and linen toppers for her table centerpieces. Even the groom’s cake was decorated with the leopard motif.

Uniquely, this bride had her guests put thumbprints on a large poster with a tree drawn on it. With different shades of green, the thumbprints became the leaves on the tree. By the end of the reception, the tree was full of greenery wishing the newlyweds a healthy fruitful life. Just so you know, moist wipes were provided for the guests to wipe the ink off their fingers.

Also, can you imagine the smile on the groom’s face when he entered the groom’s room to prepare himself for the evening. There he found on the counter, a photo of his bride staring at him and one of her high heels strategically placed by the photo. This scene was worth a thousand words.

The bride chose our preferred cake designer Carrie’s Cakes to create her green and white masterpiece. This is one of two cake designer partners at this Utah wedding reception center. Magelby’s was the caterer serving sandwiches, fruits, and vegetables. Her photographer was Kristina Bath and Videographer was Taylor Allred. Garden Elegance was her florist.

Bride’s Mother wrote: “The staff is very helpful and accommodating. We loved everything. It was just beautiful!”

Beautiful Celebrations

A Wedding Reception Utah Celebrated with Love and Fun

May 23, 2012 Wendy Pettit Leave a comment

A beautiful wedding reception Utah will long remember took place at Ivy House Weddings at Western Gardens Downtown. This fun vivacious couple had lots of twinkles in their eyes as they celebrated their new union. To begin the evening, guests were greeted at Ivy House entrance by two sweet family members dressed in adorable white dresses and green satin sashes. Their big smiles welcomed all to the celebration.

The bride chose simple green and white as her celebration colors. Simple glass vases were adorned with satin green ribbons and filled with beautiful lacy white hydrangea blossoms. The cake also was simple yet elegant. White with white pearls were complimented with sweet bouquet of white roses and white hydrangea blooms on each of the three tiers. The bridal bouquet rested at the base until the traditional bouquet tossing occurred later in the evening.

The only blue item in the room was the groom’s cake; a massive flat cake of a New York Yankee stripped baseball uniform shirt topped with ball cap and ball, all made with fondant icing. It was spectacular and definitely displayed the obvious love the groom has for this baseball team. Everyone was excited to see not only the cutting of the traditional cake, but also of the groom’s baseball cake, especially the young children.

Guests enjoyed chocolate dipped strawberries, salad, and finger foods including cheese garnished tomatoes and a delicate white cookies topped with pastel green frosting. Refreshing lemon and strawberry water was enjoyed as well.

Tossing the bouquet was a lot of fun. The bride chose to toss from the balcony of this Utah wedding reception center’s inner room. The groom also flung the garter from above to those singles waiting below.

Wedding receptions in Utah are beautiful in Western Garden’s new Ivy House Wedding venue.

How-To Tips

Do you need a Wedding Program During the Ceremony?

November 10, 2011 Wendy Pettit Leave a comment

The details are what make weddings more special. You can actually do without them but they do add a little something to your wedding. One of these details would be a wedding program.

To do or not to do?

Do you actually need a wedding program? It really depends on what type of ceremony you want but here are some reasons to include this in your to-do list:

– Wedding programs tell the guests what to expect in the ceremony.

– Wedding programs can be used as a way to explain certain ceremonies you opt to include in your ceremony. There are some ceremonies that may be grounded in you or your fiancé’s culture and will need some explanation so that guests can fully understand the significance of such a ceremony.

– Wedding programs are a great way to thank and acknowledge people who helped.

– Wedding programs make great mementos for your scrap book!

What does a wedding program contain?

So if you have decided to make wedding programs to be given out on the Salt Lake City wedding venue, the next step would be to determine what these programs will look like.

– The Paper and overall design. There are a lot of stationery stores that sell quality stock paper that you can use for your program. Choose paper that matches your color motif or your theme or will be a good backdrop for designs that match your motif. There are also a lot of websites and computer applications that help you design your wedding program as well as other printed accessories for your wedding.

– The Cover. Try to also go with your theme. For instance, if you are having peacock feathers for your overall look, incorporate peacock feathers on your cover design to tie all your wedding accessories together. The cover should contain the names of the bride and groom, the wedding date and time, as well as the wedding location. You may also want to incorporate your photo and other design elements.

– The Order of the ceremony. The program should contain the order of the ceremony. This gives the guests on idea of which part of the ceremony is underway. The order of ceremony includes when the following will happen: prelude, processional, honoring of parents, officiant’s welcome, readings, charge to the couple, exchange of vows and rings and so on. The program should also contain the names of the bridal party. For each item of the program (where applicable), it is also best to name who is doing that part of the program. This is especially applicable to performers (the band, singer, or readers), as well as the title and composers/authors of the piece they are performing.

– Explanation of special ceremonies in your wedding. You may opt to have an explanation of the special ceremony you want to incorporate in your wedding, especially if you have guests that are not familiar with you or your spouse’s culture. For instance, one unity ceremony that has African roots is the jumping of the broom, where the couple takes hold of a decorated broom and has to jump over that broom. People from other cultures may not understand the significance of the ceremony so it will be helpful to explain it to them so that they, too, will appreciate that special moment in the program.

– Acknowledgements. This lists the names of the people you wish to thank who helped you prepare for the wedding. You can also acknowledge loved ones who have passed on or who are unable to come but you still wish to remember on your wedding day.

– Reception directions. It will also be helpful to include directions to the wedding reception location and the time they are expected there.

Other reminders.

– Before you print out a large batch of the programs, make sure that you like the overall look of the program. You can make several samples and decide on the one you like best. You can also explore other media and get creative. You can incorporate the program into a fan that the guests can use to cool themselves during the ceremony, you can roll up the program like a scroll and so on.

– Be sure to print-out one copy for proofreading.

– Carefully check that spellings (especially of names) are accurate.

Beautiful Celebrations, Ceremonies, How-To Tips, Receptions

Wedding Planning Shortcuts for a More Relaxed Bride

August 14, 2011 Wendy Pettit 16 Comments

Planning a wedding is no simple matter. The moment you said “Yes” to your man, you will have to face a long to-do list complete with timelines to ensure that everything comes out “just right”. To tell the truth, a wedding is one big production that has a lot of elements that you will have to book, decide upon and check up on. You are actually managing a lot of mini-projects within this one big “project” – your wedding.

Often, you will find in wedding planning websites tables, charts, to-do lists and timelines. Yes, you will find these helpful as you plan your wedding – so that you don’t forget a single important item and you keep track of the progress of each element.

Here are some of the important things you have to remember or do to prepare for your wedding:

– Get out your calendar and select the date of the wedding

– Inspect the wedding ceremony and reception center

– Book the church and wedding venue for the desired wedding date

– Discuss the wedding budget, who contributes for which item and for what amount

– Choose and order the wedding rings

– Select motif or theme of the wedding

– Select and order gowns – for the bride, mothers of the bride and groom and the rest of the entourage. Arrange for fitting and altering of the gown.

– Arrange for suits or the wardrobe of the male members of the entourage.

– Announce the engagement

– Send out wedding invitations

– Select menu and caterer

– Select bridal cake (or also groom’s cake) and baker

– Discuss floral arrangements with selected florist

– Book musicians and decide on songs and music

– Book officiant and discuss the wedding ceremony details

– Process legal documents required for the wedding

– Decide on decorative elements of the wedding (centerpieces, linens, gazebo, etc.)

– Book videographer and photographer

– Have hair and makeup trial and book makeup artist

– Schedule honeymoon and arrange travel and hotel details

And mind you, this is just a start of that list. And each element of this list has its own considerations and requirements. You may also need to read and sign contracts for the vendors.

As you can see, a wedding will not just make demands of your finances but also your time and effort. Even with the simplest of weddings, you still need to make arrangements to arrange for everything and ensure that the wedding is just as you wanted it to be.

The good news is, you don’t have to go at it alone. One, you can hire a wedding coordinator to take away much of the stress of the planning and implentation from you. Two, you can also consider a Utah wedding reception center that provides much of what is already in your to-do list so that planning becomes easier on your part.

Most wedding venues in Utah provides a lot of help in that it not only gives you the perfect spot for your wedding ceremony and/or reception, it also offers packages that incorporates a lot of the key elements you need for your wedding.

For instance, The Ivy House is a wedding venue in SLC, Utah which provides value-added services such as linens, catering, floral arrangments, contacts with photographers and videographers as well as an experienced baker for the wedding cake.

With the combination of The Ivy House’s unique ambiance, the presence of a host on the day of the wedding and a lot of amenities at one convenient location, you can enjoy your wedding day to the fullest. You can be a radiant and relaxed bride with the peace of mind that everything you wanted in your wedding is in place.