On August 12, 2023, one of my favorite days ever happened! My sister Izzi (who is also an Event Producer on our team) married Cole Young at Common House Richmond under a beautiful blue sky, with their favorite people surrounding them. It was a dream day, even though Iz had a sinus infection (which you cannot tell in photos, am I right?). Amoxicillin and Excedrin won the day!
Iz and Cole knew Common House Richmond was the venue for them even before seeing it in person, because as a true older sis and consequentially, a wedding planner, I informed the two that out of all the venues I’ve worked at, this would be the one for them. Common House is a social club in downtown Richmond (there are others in Charlottesville, Chattanooga and soon to be New Orleans) that houses four floors of workspace, coffee and food spots, conference rooms, artwork, and more. It is the perfect venue for a couple who loves music, art, and unique spaces, and these traits describe Iz and Cole perfectly. Similarly to their relationship, when they saw it, they just knew!
We were working with a five month engagement, which may seem short, but we swiftly got to work and everything fell into place. Their photographer, Ellie Richardson, was also a premeditated decision – Ellie is one of my closest friends and the photographer our team collaborates with the most, so we knew she was the perfect person to capture the story of Iz and Cole’s day. Their videographer, Josh Quigg, was another referral from a friend, and we began working with Ida Mae Florals to cast and execute the floral vision. Catering and bartending is in-house at Common House, which makes a five month engagement even easier to work with!
One of my favorite parts of the process was finding a day of coordinator. We knew we wanted one of our team members to run the day, but everyone was already involved in the wedding somehow. Enter Lexie – we coordinated her wedding at Common House in May, and we fell in love with her personality, organization, and most of all, her wedding binder. After her wedding, we asked her to not only join our team, but to run my sister’s wedding day. We officially had our whole team at the wedding and it was so special and fun!
The overall vision for design was one Iz had planned for a while – she knew for quite some time that black would be the primary color of the day, followed by white and emerald green. Together, we discussed keeping the overall vision timeless and elegant while still including fun elements (the Taylor-Swift themed find your seat display, for example!). Every aspect of the wedding was unique to Iz and Cole, from their “this must be the place” welcome linen to their personalized crossword puzzle for guests that hung at cocktail hour.
I could write about this day probably forever, but I’ll wrap it up by saying it was just the best. So much dancing, wonderful food and drinks, lots of laughter – the whole package. Doing what I love to do for one of the people I love the most in this world was so special, and I can’t wait to relive the memories again and again.
xx, Erin
Vendors:
Full Planning & Design | Erin Cleveland Events
Venue, Catering & Bartending | Common House RVA
Photographer | Ellie Richardson
Videographer | Josh Quigg
Florist | Ida Mae Floral Design
Officiant | Ross Cleveland
