Apologies for the long long long gap in between blog posts. There is a reason why, I promise! Anyway, here is a great post for you. Sarah and Nick are planning their Detroit wedding for next year, and LoveintheD was able to interview them about their planning process! Sarah is also blogging about all the steps in her planning process – check it out here.

Sarah and Nick, tell us about your engagement! How long have you known each other? How did the proposal take place?

We met when we were 16 while camping in Port Huron and found out we lived only a few miles from each other. We became instant friends, and continued to keep in contact throughout college. It wasn’t until we were 21 that we started dating, and found out that we’d secretly liked each other the whole time. Two and a half years later I convinced him to conquer one of his greatest fears and go skydiving with me. He is currently attending medical school in the Caribbean so we had to plan it during one of his breaks between semesters. This poor guy flew home all day Thursday and Friday, and less than 24 hours after landing was sent on another plane to jump out of.

We strapped in, ascended, and leapt from 10,000 feet in the air – and had the most exhilarating experience! Nick had jumped first, and when he landed was struggling to take the ring out of his pocket. His harness made it impossible, and he wasn’t able to ask me when I landed. 
Once we broke free of our harnesses, Nick asked to take a little walk to the top of the hill next to the field. I’d assumed it was because he needed to walk off his adrenaline rush. It wasn’t until he started babbling at the top while holding my hands that I knew – and he dropped to one knee with the ring of my dreams. I said yes and pulled him back up to kiss me!
It’s hard to believe that the day we went skydiving, it wasn’t jumping out of a plane which was the most exciting.

Why did you decide to get married in Detroit? What does Detroit mean to you?

Location was actually a difficult decision for us. With him currently in medical school, we could be anywhere in the country next year. It came down to the decision of having either a small wedding with our guests traveling to us, or a bigger wedding with us traveling to our guests. Family and friends are the most important things to us, and we decided to keep it where they are. And that’s exactly what Detroit means to us – family and friends.

How has supporting local businesses factored into your process of exploring vendors so far? What have been some challenges?

Local businesses have been a huge part of planning for us. When exploring vendors, it seems local businesses are the only ones that have something truly unique to offer! We have yet to book with anyone yet though as we are still hashing out venue details, so I can’t speak to challenges quite yet. But here are our considerations:

• Nick and I have some weird/unique hopes for what our wedding will be, so we have been searching for vendors that can help us along with that. Him and I are both big nerds, so for the shower (themed all things geek) we’ve found someone who actually lives down the street from my parents who makes amazing and elaborate cakes.
• We’re also looking into a student videographer who has amazing talent but still needs to build their portfolio for life after graduation. We’ll be reaching out to CCS as well as other local colleges to help our search.
For music, we have our hearts set on a live band (but have yet to pick one). We’ve started countless Google and YouTube searches for local bands and, once we have the location/date set, will be reaching out to a few.
• The ceremony/reception venues up for consideration (and are currently speaking with) are rooftops in Downtown Detroit. We’re hoping an indoor ceremony in the building, with the reception on the rooftop. Our song since we were 16 has been “Rooftops” by LostProphets, so we have hearts set on making that dance a magical moment.

What other socially conscious elements are you hoping to incorporate into your Detroit wedding?

Neither Nick nor myself are religious people, so we are looking for an officiant who will take the focus away from religion and bring it to the promise between the two of us. We will also have my gay friend standing in our wedding, so it’s important the officiant supports that lifestyle as well. We also do not care about the gender, race, religion, etc. of our vendors – so long as the quality and price align with what we want, we will support any business.

Hooray for blogging! How did you decide to start a blog about your wedding process and how is it going so far? Any update on your venue search?

There were multiple reasons I decided to start a blog! First, I wanted some way to document this whole process; as I’ve heard over and over about how much effort it takes and how quickly it flies by. Second, I realized that Nick and I would not be having your typical church-hall wedding and thought my planning experiences could help anyone going through the same thing. Third (tacking on to the second point), since we would not be having a typical wedding, I knew we wouldn’t be having typical vendors. My blog could help them gain some business for the future, and I loved the idea of being able to help them out. Lastly, blogging is a great way to connect with a close-knit community and I’ve always wanted to be a part of that.

And so far, I think it’s going pretty well! I only have 10 subscribers so far, but I’ve caught on really quickly with the design capabilities and the voice I want to have. I’ll admit, my posts are pretty long and no-good for our Twitter-snippet information processing these days, but I’m proud of them. I try to incorporate pictures, memes, and gifs anywhere I can – all of which are my favorite part of any blog.

So what’s the update on the venue search?

The choices are now down to the Detroit Opera House or Music Hall. Both offer theater weddings and the rooftop reception we want. After tomorrow I will have met with both, and we will start the comparison process to see which is our best fit.

For anyone else looking at rooftops, we’ve checked out a bunch and found most won’t accept the wedding business. One was residents only, one was corporate only, one didn’t take private weekend events, one even specifically didn’t allow weddings.