Pretty DIY tablescapes

I got together with Impressions Photography and AMC Video to produce this short video of some tablescapes several weeks ago. Here is my honest opinion when it comes to DIY. It is not easy and it is very time consuming, and isn't always less expensive. However, if you are having a very small wedding, perhaps just a table or 2, it can be worth your while and really fun. For these tablescapes I picked up all the candlesticks, cylinders, and vases from Homegoods. The roses are from Sams club, which you can order online.

If you aren't going the DIY route, looking at DIY projects you've found online at places like Wedding Bee, Style MePretty, and Snippet and Ink can be great to bring to your florist, wedding planner/designer, and stationer for inspiration!
Oh my gosh, I nearly forgot the amazing cake! Kakes by Karen let us borrow this modern creation from her studio bakery. I have to admit, I had a very difficult time trying to pick just one cake. She's so talented. And NO, I do not recommend DIY wedding cakes- ever!

How a wedding planner is a financial investmentand a giveaway too!

Anyone can tell you easily that having a wedding planner just makes things easier. Obviously, that's probably one of the main reasons you're considering having one. That's because before you got engaged, you already had a pretty full schedule. Adding a +200 hour project to your plate is probably not going to fit in easily. Well, maybe it would if you could plan it one hour a day for six and a half months. Not possible; wouldn't that be something though?

Okay, so besides the time saved, let's talk a bit about some things that are a benefit financially. I always get asked,

"Exactly how can you save me money?"

My answer is the same,

"I can't guarantee any specific savings, but I can tell you some things that seem to be pretty consistent"

With that said...
1. Wedding planners, especially those who also do design work, often have "stuff". Stuff left from previous weddings. What does that mean to you? That means that the rehearsal dinner and/or welcome reception (that you forgot to budget decor for- oops) might actually turn out to be amazing because your wedding planner happens to have some custom linens that a previous bride didn't want, a dozen very cool lanterns that would make perfect centerpieces, about 100 luminaries to light the path. So when interviewing your potential wedding planner, ask if she has "stuff"! Note: I am in no way saying that you should only hire a planner who has "stuff". It's just a nice little budget booster if she/he does.

2. Wedding planners know the key to contracts is not the fine print, it's the missing print. Everyone knows to read the fine print. If you don't know what is missing, you don't know what you'll be paying for later down the road. It's a planners responsibility to draw your attention to these things. Example: Let's say you are having an outdoor welcome reception in the evening. An event for which you are paying a $500 site fee. Your contract says that this includes the space, chairs, tables, linen, set-up and breakdown. Sounds all inclusive right? Wrong. There's a list of at least six things that I can think of off the top of my head that you are going to need for this event. And nope, they aren't free. So what is going to happen? A couple weeks before the event, you'll get a call from your venue saying,

"Did you want to get _____? Because you're going to need it. Yes, we can provide it at a cost of $$$$$"

Every professional planner should be able to do this for you.

3. Your wedding planner knows when to call it a night. How many weddings do you go to a year? Your wedding planner goes to lots of them. Because we've experienced it so many times, we can tell when your guests have just about had all the fun they can. So when you've been able to enjoy all the champagne, and you're having a great time on the dance floor, we're watching the door, and who is walking out of it- we know what the sign is. The time has come when we walk up to you and say, it's time for the last dance per your contracted end time. Well, you're still having a great time, and you turn around and see there are still 30 people having a great time. So perhaps you say,

"No way wedding planner, we're still having a great time, look at the dance floor!"

It's at this moment that we're going to save you $$$$. Because we've seen "the sign", and know that the cost for you to add on that additional hour to the bar, band, and venue is going to be $$$$ for just an hour. And if you were to extend that hour, within 15 minutes, there will only be 8 people left. So basically what it comes down to is that we're not going to let you make a rash decision that will cost you a great deal money that you could be spending extending your honeymoon 3 days instead! So drink your champagne, we'll watch your back (and your wallet!).

4. Myth: Super small or "intimate weddings" (under 20 guests) don't need wedding planners. Myth with a capital M. While many people are having small weddings because they like the intimacy of it, many people are doing it because it is just so much less expensive. Here's what I can say- it's the small weddings that planners are often able to get the best deals for their clients. It's these weddings where we can pull from different resources that we can't do for larger events. Why? Just one reason: because we can do so much of the work ourselves instead of having to outsource. This is just one reason, but boy do I have a list for this one!

5. Believe it or not, not all the really good and well priced vendors are where you are looking for vendors. An established wedding planner knows many many professionals, beyond the current popularity list. You're going to have to trust us on this one- but this is usually the Ace!

This is just a short list of benefits, but I thought it would be a good time to share this kind of information.

How about I save you $5 right now? Send a comment, and we'll draw 3 names to send the current issue of Destination Weddings & Honeymoons to! I'll announce the winners on Thursday.

Party for the Brides!

It's been a long summer and we're finally ready to party with the brides! Our new planning studio & brides library officially opens this Wednesday at 10am. But before we open for business, let's have one last party...just for the brides.

We hope you'll stop by to have a glass of champagne or wine and see what the excitement is all about. While you're there, you might as well put your name in to win one of our grand opening prizes. We going truly grand with this one- so we figure the drawings should be GRAND as well. What does that mean? It means that at least 1 of our prizes will be worth several thousand dollars. Hint: Photography, Wedding Planning & design, invitations, and more! The list of prizes is growing, so who knows what else is in store.
Okay, you talked me into it. One last little hint at just one of the prizes: Julie Goodacre Photography

Consulting with the floral designer

So you're ready to go to the florist and pick out your wedding flowers! Very exciting. Me, I love the floral consultation. It's the meeting where it all seems to come together. Often, brides go to these consultations with an open mind, and pictures they ripped out of the magazines. If you want to make the most out of your consultation- go prepared! Take the time before your consultation to flip through wedding amagazines and books, browse the wedding websites, and look for things you like and don't like. Take what you can: rip-outs, print outs, swatches, pictures of the sites you'll be marrying in and where the reception will take place, etc. It's not necessarily that you want to duplicate those photos; its so that the floral designer can get a sense of your style. Oh make sure that you bring a picture of your dress- it helps the designer offer his or her best suggestion for bouquet style and size.
And don't hesitate to walk in there with Preston Bailey's Fantasy Weddingsor Colin Cowie's Extraordinary Weddings or Southern Weddings (my personal favorites and I think must reads for the bride who wants it all). Even though you may not have the budgets to pull some of those looks off- your designer might be able to offer suggestions to get you close to that point without breaking the bank.

Jen got married!

This weekends wedding was a special one. You might recognize the gal in the photo with me, its Jen, the wedding coordinator at Casa Ybel Resort on Sanibel Island. We've worked many weddings together over the last few years. It was an honor to be able to work with her on her very own wedding. Click HERE to see her photoshow. These are snapshots I took- the professional photos will be a few weeks...

Extraordinary Weddings

As I've mentioned before, I'm somewhat of a wedding book junkie. I finally got my hands on this one last week. Extraordinary Weddings they are! The book is really just stock full of beautiful pictures and great ideas. I have to hand it to Colin Cowie, the guy really knows his stuff. A few posts ago I wrote about being inspired. Books like these can really help you when you're trying to figure out what kind of wedding enviornment you might want to have. And its totally okay to bring these books to your wedding designer/planner and say, "I'd like to start here". A $500,000 budget isn't required to pull some of the elements into your wedding...it's just a matter of substitution and being creative.

Wedding design: How I am inspired

The other day I was having a consult with a bride and we were at the beginning stages of designing her wedding. I brought out all the wedding books of course. She brought a picture of the dress she was going to buy and the colors she wanted to use. I explained to her that its easier for me to create a wedding for her on her budget if she explained to me what she wanted if the budget was unlimited. Is that what she described to me? Nope. She was holding back and I knew it. So we just sat and talked and flipped through books, I wrote down notes that I knew were useless, until she said it, "I had always dreamed I would get married in a castle in Ireland". She said this not even knowing she said it- and that in one word, she inspired her entire wedding design. That was what I was looking for. "castle!" Between the colors she gave me and that one word, I knew exactly what direction to head in. Ivory, champagne, gold. Dim, candles, candelabras, fancy iron work, heavy draping that puddles, tassles.
Only thing was- her dress did not match the design. Not even a little. So, without saying anything about it of course, I made some slight changes to the design so that the dress wouldn't seem out of place. Because you just don't mess around with a bride and her dress! And I admit that I had a little bit of wedding designer nightmare about it. But don't you know, not 12 hours later did she email me to say, "I changed my dress, and I love it, now it all goes together"
So how am I most often inspired? By my clients. It's usually one word they mention that pulls it all together. Whodathunk?

Cupcakes.

I know, I already posted today, but I'm on hold... I hate being on hold.

I totally bought this book just because of a friend of mine. The thought of a tea party, is so darling. I haven't been to one- ever. But I plan on doing one. As soon as I find time. Yeah right, spare time. Anyway, I was out shopping today for a wedding later this month and I found this book while I was in line. And I was like, "Aw, how cute, cupcakes." I started skimming through it and I came to this page and said, "ok, now I have to buy it just so I can show Risa." Risa owns The Partea Planner out in California. She's also a wedding planner & designer- one of the best wedding designers I know. Check out her website if you want to see why I want to have a tea party.

Running a little behind

I know, I know. It's been a very long time. No excuses other than I've been rather busy planning a dozen weddings and sending my kiddies off to school. Wahoo! I also managed to move and reorganize the WBS storage unit. I had no idea how much wedding decor I had accumulated over the years. It took me 2 entire days to move and reorganize. Now it is all nice and neat and the next time I need a 3x10 hurricane- I'll know that I have 12, but I need 9 pillar candles. Everything is organized in a detailed list (3 pages worth) and a photo of each item. Let's see if I can keep it that way through the fall season though! A girl can dream.

Hopefully you're all enjoying a nice end of summer. We survived another Hurricane Charlie anniversary (wonderful thing in these parts). Last weekend I held my 2nd Wedding Anthology. It's a small wedding showcase I started last year. I did an even smaller one this year; basically to prepare for a really big one in the late winter. I'm posting a link to some of the wedding ideas champagne reception photos. Can you believe I actually have all this stuff in my inventory? I had a difficult time deciding how to decorate the tables. Limiting it to these few was an awful task!
At the Anthology I focused on invitations. A big trend right now is the pocketfold invitations. They are really neat packages aren't they? A couple things to consider about the. They are pricey. Pricey to purchase, pricey to mail, pricey to print. You're best off going to a custom designer if you really like these invitations. Printing them yourself, you'll most likely end up spending just as much time and money on bad prints; smeared ink, off center margins- you name it. To mail these suckers is a whole new ballgame. The odd size and number of inserts you have, the heavier the paper, the higher the cost. I've yet to get one out for 63 cents.

Consider perhaps sending a beautiful traditional invitation and then, once you get the "yes " RSVP's send those folks the fancy expensive pocketfold with all the inserts. You could literally save half the costs!