What Happens When Your Wedding Venue Has Never Hosted a Wedding Before?

When Scott and Edgar brought Signed & Sealed on 8 months before their wedding for planning support & coordination, there was one small logistical challenge we had to work around:

Their venue had never hosted a wedding before. And it was still very much under construction.

The couple was planning to wed at the Webster Community Center, a really neat historical school building in Pontiac, Michigan that was undergoing a major renovation. The space had tons of character and potential, but no sample wedding floor plan to pull up. No tried-and-true vendor load-in process. No established place for the DJ to plug in.

We were starting from scratch. But 8 months later, Scott and Edgar became the first couple to get married in the space - we made it happen!

The Vision: A Wedding Full of Surprises

From the beginning, Scott and Edgar cared a lot about creating a unique guest experience. They wanted guests to be entertained, surprised, and immersed.

When guests arrived on wedding day, they could tell that the historic building was still undergoing renovations. But when they stepped into the reception space, the atmosphere changed completely. The historic gymnasium was transformed with candlelight, orchids and lanterns into something that felt a little more like a hidden speakeasy, with seasonal fall touches.

One of my personal favorite moments of the day was opening the reception doors after the ceremony to reveal a live mariachi band playing inside. It took a ton of coordination, but it was exactly the kind of reveal that Scott and Edgar wanted: unexpected and fun!

But First, We Had To Plan It

This is the part of wedding planning that guests don't see. Because Webster had never hosted a wedding before, there was no existing event layout, infrastructure or plan for us to plug into. We worked closely with the renovation team throughout the planning process to figure out logistics as the space continued to evolve.

What floor plan would work best for 150 guests with a nice-sized dance floor?

How could we manage a taco truck dinner?

How much decor did we need to transform the space into something elevated?

Those questions became part of our monthly planning support meetings, and ultimately became custom floor plans, a detailed timeline, and thoughtful shopping lists.

Coordination Galore

There were a ton of moving pieces for this wedding day. Dinner came from a taco truck, a mariachi band performed during cocktail hour, and a drag queen was part of the entertainment.

There was also a surprise that the couple did not even know about. Edgar's mom had secretly arranged a traditional Mexican dance performance for the couple. I worked with her behind the scenes to figure out where it would fit into the reception, coordinated the logistics, and got everyone into place - all without spoiling the surprise.

For the couple and the guests, it was one incredible moment after the next during a reception like no other.

For me, it was a lot of line items on a very detailed timeline. And that's exactly how I like it.

Bringing It To Life

I'm so proud that Signed & Sealed got to help make this wedding happen. It was such a fun challenge to take on as a planning support consultant & coordinator.

Signed & Sealed offers wedding planning support virtually nationwide, and wedding coordination throughout metro Detroit. Are you our next fun project? :)

-Kelly

Photos in this post by Samantha Kay Photography, who was so wonderful to work with!