CLEVELAND — As a little girl, Allison Wellens always had a vision of what her wedding would look like.
“That moment, I guess, the doors open and all of these people are turning and looking at you and then Addison seeing me for the first time.”
But she and her now-husband Addison could never envision what their May 2020 date would bring with it.
“I think the frustration just started hitting whenever we found out that we weren’t going to be able to have that wedding that we really want,” he said.
They postponed their 300 person wedding and decided in order to be safe to just celebrate their marriage with 20 of their closest family and friends.
“We were at that point just thinking we are going to have a dinner and stand up and stay some legal vows and sit down and eat dinner,” said Allison. “We found the Kimpton and they actually had a brochure on micro weddings.”
Nicole Bakker is downtown Cleveland’s Kimpton Schofield Hotel’s experience specialist.
“I am a planner. I want someone to come to me and say ‘Help me do this,’” she said.
It’s her job to make sure couples like the Wellens feel like their micro wedding wasn’t the last resort, but a first choice.
“We are able to accommodate where other places are not able to accommodate,” she said.
The hotel offers a micro wedding package with big personal touches.
They can create a custom menu with the hotel’s restaurant, Betts.
“We had a full food tasting with the chef at Betts, personally, sitting with us, eating with us, and helping us brainstorm what food we wanted to serve,” said Allison.
They can have custom florals, utilize various spaces in the hotel and add personal touches they may not have been able to do with a large-scale wedding.
“They can still have specialty craft cocktails, but guests aren’t allowed to get up and go over to the bar, so we have a bar cart that will come to the tables and mix handcrafted cocktails table side for them,” said Bakker. “We want any bride to feel special, no matter how many guests are attending her wedding or no matter what kind of pandemic is happening.”
For Emily Kramer and her husband, their micro-wedding, planned two weeks in advance, was more than they could’ve hoped for.
“Everything about it was us, and our personality, and our personal touch,” she said.
The Wellens agree, it may not have been the picture they had dreamt of, but it was picture perfect.
“The day turned into a really great memory that we have with our immediate family and our best friends.”
