For our wedding we wanted a venue that was cheap, beautiful, intimate, and undeniably Detroit.

The Scarab Club is steeped in Detroit history. The building is over 100 years old and has long been a haven for the arts. It was started as a club for arts and literature (many famous writers have carved their names into the second story beams) and continues to host art exhibits, poetry readings, and special events.

The indoor gallery holds about 100 people for a cocktail party, which is essentially what we wanted to have, and the lovely artdoor garden can accomodate another 80. It was perfect for our 100 guests.

Staff was very accomodating, they had to move all the seating indoors when the skies opened up 10 minutes before our outdoor ceremony and then put it all back when the rain stopped. The price was also excellent – we got a package deal on the liquor or about $15 per person for 5 hours of open bar. I think our total was about $5000 for rental of space, tables, chairs, linens, and the liquor. The only downside is that there is no air-conditioning so a wedding there in the height of summer is not a good idea.

The food here is described as upscale comfort food. Service can be hit or miss but the food is excellent and the atmosphere is lively. We had them cater our wedding and they did an amazing job on everything from sushi to petite beef wellingtons. The service was excellent, they were so easy to work with, and the price was very reasonable.

Don’t be put off, as I was, by the fact that this is a huge fancy looking jeweler in Grosse Pointe. Don’t let the slick advertising and impeccable service make you think you can’t afford to buy jewelry here. Because, despite the quality and beauty of the jewelry there carry (some designed and made in house by the lovely Pam), their prices are quite reasonable.

Yes, they have stones valued at over $100,000, but for those of not living in mansions on Lake Shore Drive, they have many other beautiful things that the rest of us can afford. Oh and a huge table of coffee, chocolates, and cookies. And that’s important…’cause if I’m buying some pricey jewels, I’m gonna need cookies.

When I was getting married I knew two things about my dress: I didn’t want to spend a fortune on a dress that I most likely would not wear again, and I didnt want anything poofy, lacy, sparkly, or bedazzled in any way.

I went to Bella Bridal based on their boast that they carried a wide selection of non-traditional informal gowns. While the majority of the store was still awash in blinding satin and crystals, I did find about 15 dresses that fit my criteria to try on.

After 3 dresses, I found the perfect one. And at only $650, it fit into my small budget. Simple alterations (just hemming a small bit) were pricey at about $195, but the job was well done.

Staff was really friendly and helpful and very accomodating dealing with arranging my fittings when I was in town.

My husband and I are very particular about music, and wanted our wedding music to be special. We wanted to stay away from anything we deemed cheesy or too traditional for our special songs (our first dance was to Bright Eyes ” First Day of My Life”) while still playing some fun classic rock for the older guests to dance to.

We consulted with Mike Staff, pretty much the only option for a DJ service in Detroit. We weren’t completely sold, but the representative assured us that our assigned DJ was very familiar with what we wanted. We were running out of time so we figured we could just give the DJ a list of what songs to play and not to play.

When our DJ starting saying things like “I’m a professional, I know what people want to hear”, we should have been worried.

He wasn’t awful…but for $1000 for 4 hours, we were hoping for much better. My husband had to talk to him about the music and remind him of the list several times, such as wehn he played Blister in the Sun (and the whole dance floor cleared). Upon watching our video later we also found out that he played “I’ll Be” by Edwin McCain as people were filing in, followed by Norah Jones and then some classical when we had specifically asked for upbeat eclectic music. We wanted things like the White Stripes “Apple Blossom”. It’s one of those things that guests probably didn’t notice, but we were dissapointed with.

I wanted to save some money and do my own wedding flowers, except for my bouquet because it was bound to be photographed a lot. I purchased 200 white tulips from Westborn for $200, and paid $40 for a beautifully done bouquet of white tulips tied in black ribbon. The process was mostly done online and was simple and easy. I highly reccommend them for bulk flowers, or for a quality low-cost bouquet.

We used Stephen Stanwicki as our wedding officient and were very happy with the service, or rather performance, because let’s face it – that’s really what it is.

He was super easy to work with, had some great suggestions for non-religious ceremony wording, and was more than happy to incorporate our ideas. He was reasonably priced at $400.

The only issue we had was when he was saying our vows, he said “trust and fatality” instead of “fidelity”. No one else noticed, we quietly cracked up, and moved on.