The Garden on Millbrook is Open for Weddings Again!

Sisters' Garden and Catering, located at 2400 E. Millbrook Road in Raleigh, has recently changed ownership and is now called The Garden on Millbrook. The staff has been retained so you can expect the same excellent quality of service and amenities they have been known for for many years.

I am especially glad that Marc Dabagian has remained at The Garden. He is so great to work with and a master at coordinating weddings there. Yay, Marc! I am happy to help them put out the word that they are open for business and their 2012 calendar is wide open for weddings and other events.

This venue has been one of my favorite wedding spots throughout the years and I love officiating weddings there. There are many weddings on this blog at this site. The Garden on Millbrook has a lovely courtyard type garden setting where you can have an outdoor ceremony surrounded by lush foliage with or without a tent. If the weather becomes adverse, Plan B is right there as the spacious ballroom will accommodate a large number of guests for the ceremony and the reception. They can provide the catering or you can choose from their list of approved caterers. They also continue to do off-premises catering as well.

Contact : Adelaide: 919.872.2100 adelaidestallings@gmail.com

                Marc: 919.656.8010 gardenmarc@aol.com 

Alexxis and Anthony's Fabulous Wedding at Sisters' Garden!

Alexxis and Anthony met with me last September and we began working on their ceremony for their wedding at Sisters Garden on May 29, 2011. When Dave and I arrived that Sunday afternoon, everything was ready to go. Alexxis was with our photographer, Terri with Carolina Mediastar, his assistant Sarah, and his son who was videoing the wedding. They had it covered! Here is a link to their blog where you can see more photos of this wedding!

 

The day was a pleasant one weather-wise and the tent shielded us from the sun. 

The chairs had these beautiful and fragrant star-fire lilies on them. Wait until you see Alexxis' bouquet! A Ming Rose Florist did all the florals.

This pedestal holds their wedding box into which they will put their love letters to each other during the ceremony.

Here is the runner, all ready to be rolled down the aisle after the last bridesmaid has entered and before the bride comes in.

Marc at Sisters' has this procedure down pat. The ushers roll it down the aisle to the other end where Marc is waiting with scissors and tape.

This beautiful cake is by Cake Dreams by Sally. It really fit in with the color scheme of fuschia and black.

The banquet room was ready for the reception and the DJ was setting up.

Our DJ was Joey Minner with JSA Entertainment. We had not worked together before but he expertly plugged my wireless receiver into his system and we crossed our fingers that the signal would travel through the closed glass door! And it worked perfectly.

We were ready to begin and the grandmothers were escorted in, then (above) Anthony's mother, Bethanne, and his father, John, entered.

Our Man of Honor, Antoine, escorted in the mother of the bride, Jirapa. Anthony and his men followed me in from a side door and the bridesmaids began processing in. There were 4 attendants on each side.

The runner was laid out and secured then Alexxis and her father, Cliff, entered.

This is about all of the ceremony photos Dave was able to get with my camera except the one below of the kiss!

I know Terri got a lot of great photos. You can see him crouching down in the aisle for this shot!

Alexxis and Anthony had a very special recessional, one I had not seen before. After I announced them to the guests, instead of them exiting, they hung back while the attendants walked down the aisle and stopped on both sides of the aisle where there were rose petals waiting for them. Then the couple walked down the aisle flanked by their attendants who threw the petals on them. I could not see much from my end of the aisle but I bet it was pretty!

Then the attendants paired up and recessed out.

Would you look at that gorgeous star-fire lily bouquet! And Alexxis' dress was simply gorgeous and very well suited to her. Anthony and Alexxis are such a handsome couple!

Alexxis and Anthony, all your careful planning sure paid off in a beautiful wedding. It was so special and the colors so striking like the two of you are. You seem very well suited for each other and I congratulate you and wish you all the best life can offer!

Time for some Professional Wedding Photos!

Sarah Barnett of Carolina Mediastar Photography sent me a bunch of wonderful photos of a couple of weddings she and Terri Lillich, the head photographer with Carolina Mediastar, had done together this spring with me. So, I picked out a few to show you what real professional photos look like in contrast to the ones you usually see on my blog done with my little Olympus Stylus 7010.

The first wedding was that of Dawn and Bob on April 30, 2010 at Sisters' Garden in Raleigh. Here they are. This was such a wonderful wedding and one of the prettiest.........

Hanging out with the guys before our cue to enter. They were so much fun. Terri was handling this wedding solo so he took all these photos.

Bob is sooooo tall!

Dawn has been married before. She managed to snag Bob who thought he was a confirmed bachelor for life! They are so happy together!

The next wedding was Angela and Corey's wedding on May 14, 2010 at historic Crenshaw Hall. Terri and Sarah were both on duty for this large wedding. 

Hanging out with the guys again before getting our cue to enter. We were ready to go. 

Great shot by Terri.

Love this shot! Love the way they "photoshopped" the wrinkles off my neck!

Wonderful Wedding for Wendy and Jason's at Sisters Garden!

Wendy's mother, Debra, contacted me in early November to see if I could officiate Wendy and Jason's wedding on May 15, 2010 at Sisters Garden. Wendy and Jason live in Wilmington NC, and Debra was handling the wedding arrangements on the Raleigh end of things. I actually did not meet Wendy and Jason or any of their family in person until the wedding rehearsal. We made all the arrangements via email and US mail. I emailed all the ceremony material to Jason and Wendy and they chose the parts they liked. They wanted some thing simple and said they did not want to write their own vows but they could not resist putting in special words for each other and their ceremony was very unique. Their guests loved it. The atmosphere was jubilant! 

Wendy's mother, Debra, was escorted in by father of the bride, Gary, and he circled back to bring in Wendy. See the pretty bridesmaids in their very colorful kelly green dresses with yellow and white flowers.

Marc, with Sisters Garden, is our director (as usual and thank goodness!) and is waiting for me and the guys to enter before sending in the bridesmaids. As you know from this blog, Marc and I do a lot of weddings together at Sisters. He is really on the ball and we tend to think along the same lines on wedding processionals and recessionals. I don't have to worry when Marc is in charge.

Daddy and Bride...ready to make the grand entrance. Just look at that gorgeous wedding gown and how slender Wendy is.

When the music faded, I asked "Gary, as Wendy’s father, do you and her mother, Debra, bless and support her as she comes to join in marriage to Jason?" He was supposed to say "Yes, we do." but he caught us all off guard by saying something like "I'll have to think about that......." The guests roared with laughter. He finally transferred Wendy's hand into Jason's and gave Jason's arm a big squeeze.

Wendy and Jason faced each other holding hands and our Matron of Honor, Kate, sister of the bride, fluffed the wedding dress train.

We were under the big tent out in the garden of Sisters. It provides nice shade when it is sunny and shelter if rain comes our way. We were free of rain and the temps were pleasant.

The best man, Phil, read to us the funny poem "Falling in Love is Like Owning a Dog" which we dedicated to Jason and Wendy's two dogs at home wishing they could be with their two most favorite people in the world.

This photo might have been snapped when they were exchanging vows. They chose for me to ask them questions and for them to answer "I do." Here is where they put their own special touch on the vows and I asked "Jason, do you take Wendy to be your wife, knowing that she will always be your one true love, your best friend and your partner in life? On this special day, do you promise to always stay faithfully by her side, to be patient with her and support her in all her loves and endeavors no matter how crazy they are, when life is a day at the beach and when it is a stressful drive in downtown Boston, in good dogs and in bad, when your love is simple, and when it is an effort? Do you promise to travel to new places with her, cook with her and laugh so hard you lose control, to speak to her with words of encouragement and never allow her to say the words 'I can't'? Do you promise to love her without limits, to honor and respect her, and to cherish her always for all the days of your life?" Of course he said I do.

Then I asked "Wendy, do you take Jason to be your husband, knowing that he will always be your one true love, your best friend and your partner in life? On this special day, do you promise to always respect him, be honest with him, to have his back and always support him when life is an easy jog in the park and when it is an uphill marathon? When love hands you lemons will you make lemonade and when love hands you ground beef will you make cheeseburgers? Do you promise to always communicate with him even when it’s not easy and to always treat each day like a spontaneous adventure in your new life together? Do you promise to love him without limits, to honor him and to cherish him always for all the days of your life?" And of course she said I do.

The rings were exchanged, pronouncement and kiss done, and out they went!

Just one more kiss!

It's all over. A grand success of a ceremony; the guests loved it and Wendy and Jason can relax and have a great time with all their friends who had traveled far and wide to be with them on this day. Wendy and Jason, I think you are a great couple and I know together you will go far and have a wonderful life together.

Our Vendors:

Sisters Garden is such a great wedding venue. It is so pretty, so well organized and operated, the food is exceptionally great, and I love doing weddings here. Marc, thanks again for running the show! I have seen you now for 3 weekend weddings in a row! Will miss you next weekend as I will be doing 3 weddings at Duke Gardens, one at the Carolina Inn and the last one at Angus Barn.

Kent Bloms of Joe Bunn DJ Company was our capable DJ and I loved the music that Wendy and Jason chose. It was upbeat and non-traditional and that was a nice personal touch for them.

I was remiss in getting the name of the bakery who made this adorable cupcake wedding cake. These cakes are becoming more and more popular these days. You can vary the flavors and the colors.

Our photographer for the day was Chris Lang of ChrisLangWeddings. He usually does weddings in the Wilmington area but was happy to come to Raleigh to capture Wendy and Jason's big day. Thanks, Chris.

I also failed to get the name of the provider of this fabulous ice sculpture. It was unwrapped while we were doing photos outside and Marty and I spotted it on our way out. See the great reflection in the mirror behind it? The huge tray of ice it was sitting on was supposed to have colored lights coming up from the bottom. Marc checked it before the sculpture was put in place and it worked fine. But later when the sculpture was unveiled, the lights would not come on. That would have been even more spectacular.