Unveiled - A Wedding Magician Reveals Her Tricks
Forecasting A Fantastic Day
“The secret to a simple wedding is minding the details”, says Karen Lenahan of Karen Lenahan Designs. Go behind the scenes to see how she helped one couple create the elegant barn wedding of their dreams in the Hamptons.
For Karen Lenahan, the key to making sure a wedding comes together exactly the way the bride and groom want it to is by having plenty of one-on-one time with each couple. As the owner of Karen Lenahan Designs in Bridgehampton, New York, Lenahan makes a point of spending lots of time getting to know each couple she works with, even traveling two-plus hours to meet them at the New York City flower market before the ceremony to scope out available blooms.
Lenahan came up with a plan to give the barn a classic, vintage feel that wouldn’t look overdone.
It was Lenahan’s personal approach and her respect for their budget that drew Bonnie Campbell and Tell Metzger to procure her services for their wedding at the Hallockville Museum Naughes Barn in Riverhead, New York. Bonnie and Tell envisioned an elegant, relaxed barn wedding. “We didn’t want a hoedown, but we didn’t want a standard vineyard wedding either,” Bonnie says. “Karen really understood our idea of what elegant was — not fussy and extravagant but warm, natural, and minimalist.”
To create the atmosphere Bonnie and Tell were looking for, Lenahan met them at the barn the winter before the wedding to make plans together. Drawing on the couple’s ideas and her own experience, Lenahan came up with a plan to give the barn a classic, vintage feel that wouldn’t look overdone. Lenahan’s husband and partner, Daniel, put together a lighting plan that turned some of the location’s challenges into assets, tucking spotlights behind draped ivory linen to turn the hidden barn loft into a dreamy, glowing space.
Shortly before the wedding, Lenahan made the trek to Manhattan to meet Bonnie at the New York flower market, where they checked out seasonal flowers. After they decided on the specific flowers and plants they wanted for the ceremony and reception, Lenahan headed home to send Bonnie and Tell a revised proposal, outlining the specific plans they’d just put together.
Lenahan was happy to have the chance to work with some of her favorite fellow Hamptons vendors for the wedding, including Sperry Tents and Food for Forks. Lenahan loves the resources for weddings in the Hamptons. “All the vendors out here are so wonderful. There is never a need to spend more money on people coming from out of town,” Lenahan says.
The wedding day itself went absolutely smoothly, thanks to all the advance planning. Lenahan carefully labeled the boutonnieres for the groomsmen and bouquets for the bridesmaids so that no one had to worry for even a moment about having the right flowers. “Little details like that really made our wedding day completely stress-free,” says Bonnie.
{Karen Lenahan's Expert Advice}
Be realistic about your budget. If you already know that you’re going to splurge on a photographer, be up-front about how much money you have to spend with other vendors. It’s frustrating — not to mention a waste of everyone’s time — to ask a vendor to come up with a plan for a budget that’s not realistic.
Don’t spend too much time choosing a vendor. Make phone calls to chat with a few vendors and share your budget, but you shouldn’t need to meet with more than two people to make a decision. Once you’ve narrowed it down to a couple with good recommendations and references whom you “clicked” with on the phone, it’s just a matter of choosing the person who can best execute your wedding vision.
Consider hiring a wedding planner for the wedding week. Even if you want to do the planning and coordinating for the wedding yourself, explore the possibility of bringing on a professional to help organize things for just the week of the wedding. That last week is full of last-minute details that can add up to major stress, and having to worry about where the band should set up or what time the flowers are supposed to be delivered can kill
wedding-day pleasure.
Look at pictures together. The more images you share with your planner, the clearer vision she’ll have of what you want your event to look and feel like. Words can mean different things to different people, so the more you can communicate your needs in images, the better.
