Charlotte Wedding Planner – Jackie Fogartie

Gabe and Ben: Late Summer Charlotte Wedding

September 6, 2017 By Jackie Fo Leave a Comment

Hi guys! Can you believe it’s the end of summer? I’m a little sad I have to say. If you follow me on social media (and you totally should), you know I’ve had a great summer. Here are a few summer updates from my life:

We went to Colorado for a wedding and it was just as amazing as I remember. If you can’t find me, I may be in Colorado. I can be outdoorsy…I think!
We spent a few days eating our way through Charleston. Dear Oysters and Shrimp – I’m sorry I ate all of you.
I still love the beach. That’s pretty much a given.
I did a wedding on beautiful Kiawah Island in South Carolina. It was amazing to do a destination wedding in such a gorgeous location. Lesson learned: Beach wind and pop up storms are no joke.

For some updates on the ole business, I’m gearing up for an extremely busy wedding season with 8 wedding before the end of 2017. Yup, 8. This includes a New Years Eve wedding which I am SO pumped for! I’ve been wanting to do a New Years Eve wedding for. like. ever. Finally, in some super exciting news, I’ve brought on two associate planners to help me with day-of-coordination packages and to handle weddings when I am already booked. It’s been a great learning and growing year for Jackie Fogartie Events and I’m rejuvenated about the future! Owning a business isn’t for the faint of heart, but it’s so rewarding at the same time.

Enough about me. Let’s talk about Gabe and Ben, one of the sweetest couples of all time. When you meet Gabe, you are first like WOW you have the best hair ever and also you’re SO nice and pretty. She is just a warm person that makes you feel like you are friends instantly! They were a total breeze to work with for their wedding at Byron’s South End. Let’s take a look, shall we?

All photos by the super talented Sarah Collier with Taken By Sarah Photography.

Full vendor list at the bottom of this post. Enjoy!

This was pretty much how happy Gabe was all day…and how happy she is all the time!

Gabe’s sister and cousin help her get into her beautiful dress!

The back of the dress is almost as pretty as the front!

I mean come on… GORGEOUS.

The bouquets and floral from Bookout Blooms are classic and beautiful. This color palette will never go out of style!

Gabe’s handsome groom, Ben.

And Gabe with her pretty mom – love her MOB dress!

I loved the mismatched bridesmaid dresses – this is great example of how to do this trend right! Using different shades of a neutral color, plus different patterns and necklines makes all of your girls feel comfortable! Most of Malone’s bridesmaids were her best friends from high school; including Malone whose wedding I did about 5 years ago! Hey Malone!

The beautiful alleyway at Byron’s South End is always a perfect spot for wedding photos. Gabe and Ben’s portraits turned out absolutely gorgeous! Sarah even made the rain puddles look pretty!

Delicious cupcakes from Cupcake Delirium closed out a sweet evening celebrating this happy couple!

If you can’t get enough of Gabe and Ben (and I don’t blame you!), check out their videography highlight reel from Tricia Coyne. It will give you all the feels, as the kids say.

Thanks to all the great vendors (listed below) who made this beautiful wedding happen, and congratulations to my now friends, Gabe and Ben! Now wish me luck – I’m headed full force in to Fall wedding season!

Pink Springtime Wedding: Byron’s South End, Charlotte, NC

April 27, 2017 By Jackie Fo Leave a Comment

Do you like beautiful flowers, happy people and lots of pink? Then you will LOVE the springtime wedding of Deirdre and Kevin!

Perfectly captured by my boo Lori with Capture Me Candid, I can’t wait to take you through the wedding day of Deirdre and Kevin. (Full vendor details at the bottom of this post):

A few things to know about the happy couple:

-They are from Long Island (and yes, that means there was tons of Billy Joel played and I loved every second of it) #pianoman4life

-They love Love LOVE the Mets.

-Deirdre knew exactly what she wanted and I loved that about her! As a planner, it can actually be really difficult if a bride doesn’t know at all what she wants.

-Deirdre loved the planning process (not always the case!), which made her an absolute breeze to work with. She was quite knowledgeable about wedding planning and it frankly seemed more like a partnership than a planner-client relationship. One of the keys to being successful at what I do is to take the “tone” of the relationship from the client. Some clients are more hands-off, some want to be involved in every detail, etc. In this case, the bride had her vision, I helped her execute it, and everyone was happy!

I will be supplementing this blog with some comments from my partner in crime, the bride herself, Deirdre!

I’m starting off with these SHOES because wow. Badgley Mischka, can I just say you really know how to craft a shoe.

Deirdre worked with a family friend who has a small invitation company, J. Elle Invitations. These invitations set the tone for her wedding with their pink accents and rustic glamour and elegance.

THE DRESS. I can’t even with this beauty. This picture is stunning, and just know that the dress was even more stunning in person! Originally an illusion neckline, the dress was altered to create a strapless neckline.

CJ with J Majors whipped up a custom bolero to match the dress for Deirdre to wear at the church. Dear CJ – I want to be you when I grow up. I loved the bolreo, and I love that Deirdre had two different looks for her day.

Deirdre has 2 sisters (and note – all have been or will be married within a few years of one another- wowza), and they selected one veil to share for all three of their weddings. I love sentimental touches like that!

Deirdre had this “something blue” patch ordered from Etsy sewn into her dress. I heart Etsy.

I love this shot with their bright dresses and the blue sky! They had excellent weather for their wedding day (which always make my job a bit easier!)

Reception centerpieces were extremely important to Deirdre. We chatted about it at our very first meeting. She was confident that she wanted to use her creativity to make the vases and accent pieces for the reception flowers. Within seconds of hearing Deirdre explain her concept, I knew this would be a successful “DIY” project. Deirdre was realistic in knowing that she didn’t want to mess with doing the florals herself, but she knew she wanted to create the containers. I let the florist know this was the plan, gave them the diameter and sizing of the vases and brought the containers to them the week of the wedding.

Deirdre had a plan to complete these over the course of her 1-year+ planning period and that’s exactly what she did! Deirdre is now my go-to example for how to do DIY right. You need someone who won’t procrastinate and will work on the projects over the course of months, not try to jam it in the last month of planning when you are already busy with your impending wedding! Another note about DIY – typically a florist will come back at the end of the reception and pack up all vases and votives the client has rented from them. If you are DIY-ing any of your centerpieces, you will need to make a plan for who will pack everything up at the end of the night and where they will go. Typically this would be your planner, a family member or friend – just make sure it’s figured out prior to the wedding day!

Here’s what Deirdre had to say about the centerpieces:

I am pretty creative, I love making things so I decided to make all my centerpieces and decorative accents. I accumulated my supplies over a 6 to 12 month period. I mostly got what I needed from Michael’s and Walmart with some bulk pieces bought online (save-on-crafts.com) as well as Etsy.

Also, if you plan on making any or all of your décor I highly recommend hiring a planner for at least for the month of. You don’t want to worry about setting up your wedding the days leading up to the big day. The weekend before my wedding I boxed up everything I made, labeled it and our planner picked everything up and brought it where it needed to be.

Truer words were never spoken! Thanks for showing us how to do DIY the RIGHT way! And the end result was AMAZING!

More personal touches were scattered throughout the wedding like these custom Mets cornhole boards (side note – cornhole in a wedding dress? I could get down with that!) ….

…and this personalized Mets jersey used as the guest book! I LOVE creative guest books. You’ll be much more likely to display something unique like this in your home versus a traditional guest book.

Instead of a traditional tiered wedding cake, this ice-cream loving couple opted for an Ice Cream Sundae bar and mini dessert shots. Everyone loved the adorable treats.

In a moment that had everyone wiping a tear away (including, ahem, myself), the Bride and Groom dedicated a song to the Bride’s parents. The happy couple was thrilled to share an anniversary with the parents of the Bride, and they surprised them with their very own dance to their very own wedding song. It was a really touching moment.

At the end of the evening, they snuck out for some skyline smooching and cigar shots with the Groomsmen.

One last word of advice from our Bride:

“Its your day, one of the few days you get to be truly selfish. Make your own traditions or bend the old ones to your own style. You can’t make everyone happy (PREACH), just concentrate on you as a couple and decide its going to be the best day of your life and then it will be.”

Some wise words from a smart lady! Deirdre and Kevin – Thanks for being a breeze to work with and I wish you a lifetime of happiness!

Full Vendor Listing:

Mint Green Springtime Wedding in Uptown Charlotte: Allison and Joe

February 1, 2017 By Jackie Fo Leave a Comment

Happy New Year friends! After a lovely holiday season in our new home (I hosted Christmas Dinner and it was amazing! But borderline more stressful than planning a wedding – HOW is that possible?!), I’m excited for my 11 weddings (plus always booking more!) weddings I have on the calendar so far for 2017. Last year was filled with so many beautiful weddings and I’m going to start blogging them NOW. First on the docket, Allison and Joe! Where can I even start…

Allison and Joe, in full disclosure, are friends of Mr. Fo and I. Joe works with Stu, and the four of us always have the best time together. When they got engaged in 2015, Allison asked me to be her planner and I didn’t hesitate for a second. While working with friends can sometimes be difficult, I knew just from Allison’s fun, kind and organized demeanor, she would be a total breeze. We had zero issues and became closer because of it. I loved helping them pull of their perfect day, and also loved that I was technically a wedding guest who got to somewhat partake in the festivities after my wedding “duties” were over. Stu was actually in the wedding as a Groomsmen, so I got to order him around which is always a plus in my book. (Just like at home, right honey? Hehe.) I truly enjoy watching all of my clients tie the knot, and having two friends do it on my watch? Well it was that much sweeter.

That’s enough chatting, let’s let the beautiful photos from Tricia Coyne do the talking!

A full vendor list is at the bottom of this post.

Custom skyline invites from Three Little Birds set the tone for a sweet wedding with tons of simple charm. Allie knew she wanted mint green to be a main color and we carried that throughout the wedding design.

This picture of the boys figuring out their pocket squares just makes me laugh. If you want to see a room full of well dressed men confused, watch them figure out how to fold a pocket square. Giggles. Don’t worry, I saved them from their misery.

Speaking of pocket squares and groomsmen, one groomsmen did happen to misplace (aka lose) his pocket square the morning of the wedding. Oh, that groomsman happened to be my husband. Of course. The look of fear in his eyes when he told me what happened was simply comical. Luckily the linen napkins were the same color as the mint green pocket squares, so I MacGyvered a new pocket square out of a linen napkin and took care of that in a jif. (Yea. It was pretty awesome if I do say so myself. #igotmadskillsyo)

Here are Allie’s bridesmaids reaction to the beautiful bride as they sent her off to her First Look.

Joe making a big ole show of waiting for his bride to arrive!

Here she is – what a beaut. They had their First Look at the Green in Uptown Charlotte on a perfectly lovely May day. She’s got that pure joy look on her face!

The Bridal Party joined the couple after the First Look for photos. This is one of the many benefits of a First Look – having tons of time for Bridal Party photos and not having to squeeze them in during cocktail hour!

Here come the boys!

And the girls with their pretty bouquets from Pink Petunia:

Another interesting fact about our beautiful bride? She’s a triplet. I. KNOW. So freaking cool. Here she is with her lovely sisters by her side:

The Bridal Party switched locations to get some photos in front of Panthers Stadium (back when we had high hopes for this season…Sigh). Allison and Joe are huge Panther fans so they most definitely dabbed on it.

Here’s Joe contemplating something serious while holding a football.

Now that we’ve taken the photos, it’s time to get hitched!

I think I recognize this handsome groomsmen! Hey honey!

Also, this adorable Bridesmaid? You’ll see Rachel this year when I coordinate her April wedding to the equally adorable Rob!

Allison’s sisters walked holding hands to get in place and watch their sister get married. I thought this was so sweet.

Here’s the bride walking out to meet her dad and cheesin’ at her soon-to-be groom.

As with a lot of Uptown outdoor weddings, we had some unpredictable noises – a verrrrrrry long train and a helicopter to name a few. The best part? The bride and groom were so locked in they didn’t even notice. This is my favorite picture from the whole wedding btw – how could it not be? It’s pure happiness.

Inside, the venue was decorated with mint green, gray and touches of pale pink and coral. Allison was originally anti-pink, but she ended up loving the touches of pale pink throughout the florals.

Allison’s friend Heather did a lovely job with the cupcakes and cupcake display. They turned out great and the display was exactly what the bride wanted!

Now it’s time to party:

Stu once again made an entrance into the reception and made me proud:

Allison danced her face off as did everyone else at that wedding. Once we passed out the giant glo-sticks, this turned into a Par-TAY.

Allison wanted a big group photo on the dance floor and Tricia delivered!

I was so excited to be a part of this wedding, as both a friend and a planner. I loved every second of it and wish my friends the very best! Love you both!

Gabe and Ben: Late Summer Charlotte Wedding

Pink Springtime Wedding: Byron’s South End, Charlotte, NC

Mint Green Springtime Wedding in Uptown Charlotte: Allison and Joe

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