There is generous, and then there is over doing it.

I met with a potential client yesterday who has fantastic ideas for her wedding. It will be a beach wedding, so she wants to have parasols to shade the guests, program fans to cool the guests, and flip flops to keep their feet cool and comfy. Of course, there will also be welcome bags for all the out of town guests, which will include a custom photo cookie. And at the reception, a photobooth so everyone can take a picture home.Then at the end of the night, while everyone is out on the dancefloor, each place setting will be replaced with a mini wedding cake. I love all these things, every last one. So we talk about all the great things we have planned and then she says,

"So what should we do for the favor?"

Nothing. Absolutely nothing is my answer. I understand wanting to give your guests gifts. Me, I'm a big HUGE fan of giving gifts. But there comes a point where enough is enough. So with that said, think before every purchase. You don't want your guests to leave your reception with a shopping bag. Unless of course its a cool monogrammed one from Red Envelope. Just kidding!

Aren't you excited I finally figured out how to make these photo boards? Thank you to some fantabulous direction at Style Me Pretty. Seriously, I love her blog.

The End is Near!

Don't forget to enter the Telliegrams contest. Tomorrow is the last day!

Look who came today...

7lbs. 2oz. Janelle Marie! This beautiful baby girl belongs to Brandi & Julio
Congrats! I am so excited for you guys.

A smart woman once said

Isis, (who is a dear friend and absolutely fantastic wedding planner) at Posh Events in New Jersey put this so well, I had to share. For those who may be on the fence about hiring or at least consulting with a professional about their wedding...read this.

Forgive me, bear with me

I know, it's been forever since I've posted a quality wedding blog and I owe you at least 3 weddings and a baby shower of pictures. But its just because I'm trying to do some hurricane season cleaning (spring is way too busy here for cleaning). That means cleaning out my office, updating the website and blog, watch the 48 hours of wedding shows on the tivo and read the last 4 months of wedding magazines so I can be full fledged inspired. Oh, and of course- I'm in the midst of planning the next 8 weddings. I almost put a picture of the current state of my office on here; but then I thought, "Oh, that's a scary view. They'll never come back." So I'll just stick to the pretty pictures.

Lookie here...Woohoo...WIN some Telliegrams!

These have got to be one of the coolest new things I've seen lately. Totally unique, and downright cool. I also happen to like the fact that the designers name is Kelly. Turns out Kelly is as cool as her little boxes are and she's giving me a $100 Telliegram Gift Certificate to give to one of you! If you're a wedding pro, you can give the gift certificate to one of your clients as a gift or use it for your own business. Or if you're a bride, you can use the gift certificate yourself! My favorite is the lime green takeout box with the hot pink palm tree. Go figure.
To enter the contest, go to the Telliegrams website and find your favorite product. Then come back here, leave a comment with your name and your favorite product, and you'll be entered. You have until August 1st to enter. Want to increase your chances? Invite a friend to do the same and make a deal to split the gift certificate if she wins!

It's a win-win deal here- the coupon code above is good just in case you don't win the gift certificate. Be sure to enter though- someone has to win!

Vote on!

Being that I mostly plan destination weddings, I have clients all over the country. Turns out we have another connection to the Fox Philly Hotlist! Please vote for Urban Front Pilates Studio while you're voting for the Queen of Hearts Wedding Consultants.
DO you guys remember what happened last time I tried Yoga and Pilates?
I can pretty much guarantee that UrbanFront Pilates would have done me better. HA!

The Queen of Hearts takes the cake

So I have a good friend, Mark- the Queen of Hearts. He's an amazing wedding planner in Philadelphia. Well, I found out today that he has been nominated for best wedding planner in Philly by the Fox network. If you have a spare minute, vote for Mark! This photo is of Mark & I before dinner at a Wedding Planners Symposium last fall.

You can also hear some more about Mark the Queen of Hearts and his annual charity event, Let Them Eat Cake, by visiting the Wedding Podcast Network.
Click here to get to the WPN podcast on Let Them Eat Cake. Don't know what the wedding podcast network is? Well let me tell you! It's a site where you can download wedding talk radio. Yeah, I think its very cool.

Ana's back!

I am so completely thrilled I can't stand it. One of my dearest friends and best assistant wedding coordinators I ever had, Ana, has moved back to Florida! I officiated her wedding last March. I sobbed through the entire thing. That was the last time I'll officiate at a wedding (unless the officiant doesn't show- then I'll jump in of course).
This is me and Ana with our husbands. Gosh that was a great night. Weddings are great.
I wonder if she realizes we have a wedding Saturday? Hmmmmmm....

Momzilla

Yep. It has happened. More times than I can count on one hand. Moms and future Mother-n-laws who give more than 2 cents. More like $1.99. I kind of get why, and it almost...almost makes sense. As long as you've been dreaming of your wedding day- it goes double for them. So yeah, they want it perfect too. The problems usually arise when what you think is perfect, is most certainly not what she thinks is perfect. What's the best way to handle it? Play it it fair and be upfront from the get go. Invite the help where you do want it, and request where you don't want it. Really, you'll be so happy you did.

Oh, and when you ask your mom for help, make it special. Take her to lunch, talk it all out, and give her a nice gift. Emily Post just put out this new book, Emily Post's Wedding Planner for Moms. I think your mom and/or future mother-n-law will be tickled pink. Oh, and if you really want to impress her, show her that you got yourself the brides version. Even I use it- it does have answers to some tricky questions.

And the WINNERS are...

Here's the thing, the 1st name drawn was for a wedding professional. I felt like a bride needed to win too. So, we have 2 winners! Drum roll please...

Joyce of Murphy and Klein Floral Studio

AND

britnym87, whose favorite idea was the tissue paper poms from Martha Stewart.

Congrats to you both! I'll be in touch soon!

It's the last day to enter the Ultimate Inspiration Contest!

I'll announce the winner by the end of the day! Comment on the original post or send an email to WeddingTidbits@Gmail dot com.

New Look!

My dear friend Risa of Romanza events was cool enough to re-design the tidbits blog! I love it, and hope you do to.

This week I have a destination wedding that is taking me out of town too, so please bare with me if I miss a day or 2 of posts.

In the meantime, I could use some help. We're having our annual summer bash next month and haven't decided on the design yet. Check out BBJ Linens and let me know what you think would be cool. I'll post about what you all think next week.

A little stinky?

It happens, and really there isn't much you can do to stop it. Wedding dresses these days leave armpits exposed, and after hours in a satin, silk, chiffon, or tulle dress...deodorant can wear off. Believe me, I know you don't want to read this. But I am going to offer you a secret that will get you through your entire wedding without a worry about the "scent of a woman".
In your little bag, carry baby wipes and a trial size deodorant. The baby wipes totally get rid of any stinkiness and the fresh deodorant will keep your hands up in the air to boogie the night away.

Weddings by Socialites on CNN!

So I got some pretty cool news this morning. After I received dozens of emails this last week from brides who were referred to us from CNN, I got in touch with the guys over at Budget Travel and found out that CNN did a segment on destination weddings and my interview with Budget Travel was the foundation for much of the segment. You can watch the CNN interview here. And the link to the original article by David LaHuta is over on the sidebar to the right.

Every once in a while bigger is better

More often than not, I'll tell a client, bigger (or more, or longer, etc.) is not the way to go. This is because it is a rare occassion when something a little bit bigger or a little more of will make as much a difference as the cost is worth. However, there are times when this is not at all the case. For instance, in these 2 pictures from a mock up earlier this week. The reception is being held in a split level room, and to force the eye to the view of the water (it is an amazing view) on the lower level, we needed tall centerpieces- really tall centerpieces. We started with the trumpet vase, and it looked great, but then when we put a few of the orchids in the tall one (it's at least a foot taller and thinner) and placed it on the table...wow. On top of that, the flowers we're actually getting are being flown in from Hawaii and are about 12 inches longer and have lush white blooms right to the tip of the stem; so that meant that they were going to be much bigger, and cascade even more. Oh my gosh its going to look so great.

**Reminder! the "year of inspirations" wedding magazine contest ends in just 5 days, don't forget to enter!

Send someone flowers!

I just got a surprise at my door. Flowers! My friend sent them for absolutely no reason other than to surprise me. How nice was that? Can I just tell you how happy it made me? I'll tell you how nice. It was so nice that I decided to spread the niceness on and send someone these flowers. I ordered the snapdragons from MARTHASTEWARTFLOWERS.COM , just because they look so Martha Stewart pretty.

Ok- I promise...no more posts today. I went a little blog crazy.

The big red box with a bow

Yeah, I kind of love Red Envelope. It's a slight addiction. The thing is, they have really great stuff, the best sales, and quite frankly, the best gift wrapping ever. I've received 3 of their famous red boxes with the ivory grosgrain ribbon in the last couple years and I get sooooo excited when they arrived. Those boxes- I keep. They don't get handed to the next person with a birthday!

This week a new client asked me for help planning their "Be in our wedding party" Party! The couple and their friends are wine enthusiasts, so we decided a wine tasting party would be the perfect setting for the occasion. We found this wine tasting set at Red Envelope, on sale for $29.99

As an early thank you gift, each groomsmen is getting this tie case (with their wedding ties inside), also on sale for just $19.99

Each bridesmaid is getting this XO bracelet- again, on sale for $24.99.


I love sales.

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.

Today Throws a Martha Stewart Wedding

HUGE NEWS! By far, I'm sure this is going to be the best Today wedding to date. I am so excited. I logged on to the Martha Stewart Weddings website today (I usually do this about once a week) and found this really exciting news. Click here to get the scoop on how you can maybe be the lucky couple to win this wedding.

"TODAY producers and TODAY talent will also search for TODAY’S next wedding couple in Las Vegas, Miami, Chicago and New York. Talent, intellect, a good personal story and creativity will be sought out in the couples applying. Four couples will be picked and America will decide, by vote, who will be the next TODAY show wedding couple."

The application is online, and it does look really lengthy, but um- who cares? Totally worth it if you win! Really important- gotta apply by July 27th. That's right around the corner.

Contest Reminder!

Don't forget to enter the Year of Wedding Inspiration contest! It's just 2 weeks until we pick our winner!

Candle Challenge: Tall Tapers

I was challenged recently with a restrictive budget and a need for some tall candlelight (approximately 100 candles). Using candelabras was not an option as fire codes required all flame to be in glass. Pillar candles were also not an option because we needed too many and we would have been way over budget. Floating candles were also not an option because they really missed the mark with the tablescape I was trying to create. So I came up with this idea and it ended up saving us a huge amount of money. Boxed taper candles are very inexpensive (along the lines of tealight and votive candles). They're also very elegant. For this particular event (engagement party - dessert & cocktails), the colors were earth tones, so I bought a dozen bags of dry beans peas that were literally like 39 cents a bag, a couple bags of coffee (for the heavenly aroma). You could also use sand, rock salt, river rock...endless possibilities. Anyway- I filled the glass cylinders up about 3 inches with the beans and peas- just enough to hold the taper steady. Voila! Inexpensive, elegant, and fabulous.