The Opal Affair

27/02/2025

One of the great ironies in life is that the most important moments happen at the most innocuous times.

Think about it-

You find out about your dear friend’s biggest heartbreak over a cup of coffee in a quiet corner of your favorite cafe. You witness your child’s first steps while sitting in your kitchen on a random Tuesday night. You make a breakthrough in therapy while sitting alone on your bed staring into the Zoom call. You accept that life-changing promotion inside a bland conference room that was booked for an hour.

A wedding reception is actually just a wonderful celebration of all of the thousands of innocuous, important moments that happened between you and your partner up until that point. And we should celebrate. We should host big, raucous parties.

But we should also keep in perspective what a wedding is (a celebration) and isn’t (the be-all and end-all of important life moments.)

This year, I’m challenging myself to be more aware of the importance of the small moments. The importance of the tiny interactions I have with my loved ones and friends. I’m challenging myself to host more intimate gatherings in my home, invite more people for coffee, say “yes” to more invitations, and watch what’s happening around me with my eyes, not my phone screen.

And I’d like to extend this challenge to you, too.

🤍

03/02/2025

When the photog appreciates 🤌🏼 every little detail🤌🏼 of the historic venue and everything happening within its walls

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venue
florals
planning

30/01/2025

Something Blue 🕊️

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venue
florals
catering
cake by Julie Levy

Northern Michigan Wedding, Blue Wedding Florals, Tented Wedding, Outdoor Wedding, Michigan Wedding Planner

22/01/2025

To be a wedding planner is to be a border dweller.

No, I don’t mean that in some sort of controversial, political, or out-of-touch way. I mean that in the same way Safi Bahcall did when he wrote the book, ‘Loonshots.’

As a wedding planner, it’s imperative I consider myself the “leader” on any given project. I might not be making every single decision, but I’m providing insight and advice, gently steering people in the direction I think is best, based on experience.

But as any leader or manager knows, it can be painfully difficult to unite people under one common goal.

So back to the border dweller thing- where does that come in to play, exactly?

As a planner- a leader for my clients and the vendors we choose to work with- I must “equally wear and love” the two competing values of ‘Innovation/Creativity’ and ‘On Time, on Budget, on Spec.’

As Bahcall states, if a leader signals that one of these is more important than the other, it will de-motivate the other group.

Are you and your fiancé finding yourselves in a constant battle of wills? Or maybe your parents are generously providing funding for your wedding, but you’ve found it’s with strings attached?

It might be time to involve a planner. A third-party leader, negotiator, and mediator, perfectly poised to find the common ground between differing opinions.

Heres the thing about opinions, as I’ve come to believe, anyways- there’s almost always a little bit of truth in all of them, if you dig down deep enough.

Planning a wedding can be (usually is?) a tight rope balancing act. But you don’t have to do it alone. 🤍

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florals
venue

14/01/2025

The Wedding Planning Ins & Outs List of 2025

I think this just about sums it up….it’s time we all went a little more analog ⏱️

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10/01/2025

*DON’T ORDER YOUR WEDDING INVITES UNTIL YOU READ THIS*

For being an often-overlooked aspect of your wedding timeline, this one thing actually has huge impact on the flow of your reception.

✨Golden Hour✨

Don’t lock yourself into specific reception timing until you’ve Google-searched when sunset will be on your wedding date and discussed Golden Hour photos with your partner, photographer, and planner.

If Golden Hour photos are an important non-negotiable for you, they MUST be factored in to your reception timeline.

Two important reasons for this?
1. You and your partner *need* to give yourselves ample time to eat during your dinner service. (It’s an OPAL Rule that photogs cannot sneak our couples out of dinner for photos until they’ve had time to have a plate of food.)
2. You and your partner also *need* to be back from photos before your guests start to miss you! (Example: if you leave during dinner service, you need to return before guests are fully wrapped with dinner. If everyone is sitting around waiting for you to get back in order to transition into opening up the dance floor, the vibes will be ruined.)

So set yourselves (and your photog, planner, and DJ!) up for success by discussing Golden Hour options before you lock in timing on your invitations! It’ll save everyone a headache down the road.

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venue
coordination
glam

06/01/2025

At the risk of sounding hyper-specific, winter is officially Sunday Brunch Micro-Weddings in Greenhouses Season. ❄️☀️

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venue
coordination

Micro-Wedding, Winter Wedding, Greenhouse Wedding, Michigan Wedding Planner

27/12/2024

Getting married in the spring? Now is the time to finalize those addresses, as well as determine and order your invitation suites!

Standard recommendations are to send invitations 8 weeks prior to your wedding for local guests and 12 weeks prior for guests traveling from out-of-state or country!

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florals
venue

19/12/2024

An early Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Thank you to each and every OPAL couple for allowing me the opportunity to work for myself. It has afforded me the freedom to pick these two kiddos up from school every day, attend every field trip, parent helper day, class party, and stay-at-home sick day. It’s something I’ll treasure forever.

Thank you 🙏🏼🤍
love, Kirsten

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16/12/2024

Best Dressed 🤍

One of the biggest concerns heading into Nicole & Anibal’s wedding day was how Nicole would be able to maneuver across the bridge of the pool with the sheer size of her dress’s magnificent train (and veil!)

Of course, in the end, the weather decided for us and we had to move the location of the ceremony, but boy oh boy was it a gorgeous “problem” to have! 🤍

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gown

10/12/2024

Social media taught us that our Wedding Day had to be a perfect, viral-worthy day. It taught us wrong.

Planning your wedding can often feel overwhelming, filled with decisions that will shape what everyone from your mother-in-law to your least favorite coworker keeps referring to as "one of the most important days of your life." With so much pressure to create a perfect event, it’s easy to find you...

09/12/2024

Margaret Atwood is known to have said, “in the end, we’ll all become stories.”

I love that.

I love accumulating stories, don’t you? Complicated, multi-faceted, human stories. Stories filled with multiple emotions. Stories we tell to entertain. Stories we remember to learn from. Laugh-inducing, tear-jerking stories.

Your wedding will be a story.
And that’s important.
But also? It’s just one of your many stories.

photos by .jowett
venue
rentals
bridal glam

03/12/2024

https://www.theopalaffair.com/post/5-wedding-day-smells-you-need-to-consider-for-a-memorable-experience

The fragrances that fill the air on your Wedding Day can trigger powerful emotions and create memories that last a lifetime- good or bad.

25/11/2024

An exclusive peek inside the Shinola Hotel’s iconic event space.

Finding a space for your event that’s truly timeless isn’t easy. Incorporate the Shinola brand of also being high-quality, elevated, quiet, and effortlessly comfortable, and you’ve found yourself a real gem of a venue. 🫶🏼

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florals by

20/11/2024

Usually around this time of year I start in on my yearly existential crisis- ruminating on where I want the next year to take me personally and professionally, and thinking hard about what I want to leave as a legacy someday.

But this year? So many people have recently texted or messaged me asking if I’ve watched the Martha doc yet….and because of that, I decided that I’m gonna take a year off from ruminating. I’m not gonna worry too much about what people think of me or the work I’m putting out there. Martha would literally *never.*

Even if all I’m remembered for someday is loving Martha Stewart and listening to a lot of Jimmy Buffett, I guess that’s not a bad way to go. 😅

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13/11/2024

The People’s Princess, Mary Catherine 🕊️

A young fish swims up to an older fish and says, “Hey, I’m trying to find this thing they call ‘the ocean?’”

“The ocean?” the older fish says, “Well look around. That’s what you’re in right now!”

“This?” says the young fish. “This is water. What I want is the ocean.”

Just wanted to send out a heartfelt “thank you” to 2024’s OPAL clients. I’m doing exactly what I never thought I’d be able to do with my life & career. And it’s because of the clients who trust me. 🤍🫶🏼

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glam
florals

08/11/2024

friday musings

more than ever, we need community. and that’s not intended to be a political statement. it’s intended to transcend politics.

we hide behind screens and say s**t we’d never say to someone’s face. even I was guilty of it just a few weeks ago when I shared insensitive opinions on business ownership.

now more than ever, we need to gather. we need community. we need each other. we need our differences.

we need to hash out thoughts over beers in a pub with people we’ve never met before and will never meet again.

we need lively round table discussions about dusty old books and philosophers and economics with people who view things completely opposite from the way we view things.

we need to make art. slow art. slow content. not just content to be posted online for the rapid, rabid consumption of others.

we need to care. we need to be curious.

we need to relish being wrong.

and as I said elsewhere this week, we need to accept that there’s a little truth in everything, and a little error everywhere.

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florist
catering
bar

04/11/2024

A post to save as we head into Engagement Season 💍✨

Picking the right vendors is…kind of the whole thing. As in, it’s the most imperative part of any successful wedding.

And there are 5 questions you absolutely NEED to ask any potential vendors you talk with during the vendor inquiry process. Questions that any vendor worth their salt will be able to answer without batting an eye!

Feeling like you need more assistance with the curation of your vendor list? Inquire at the link in bio regarding cool, calm, vibey wedding planning services.

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venue