A Christmas Wedding of Red & Green Vol 2.

I promised more photos from this darling Christmas wedding, and so here they are.  One of the things I most loved about this international destination wedding weekend was that we did not fight the Christmas season, rather we embellished it!  All the places we had events were already decorated for the holidays, so we just added what we needed to make certain that it still felt like a wedding celebration.

The Rehearsal dinner at Kings Crown Dining Room (South Seas Island Resort)

The Wedding Reception at The Sanctuary Golf Club

A wedding embellishment to the bride & grooms chairs

Simple stunning tables with gold chivari chairs. Centerpieces of red roses, Christmas Greens and berries. Place settings were completed with the glass gold beaded chargers and champagne menu cards.

Cocktail hour on the greens behind the club

With such lush landscaping, a large centerpiece isn't necessary

The Sanctuary Clubhouse

Pretty little cocktail centerpiece. A Rose bloom, Christmas greens, and Hypericum berries

Vintage car for the bride & groom. Could you just die over the classicism of this?

I just love this photo of their wedding day car. classical antiquity (I looked that up on google.  Sounded pretty fancy)

The brides White bouquet.  Quite delicate, as the bride requested!

CD favors of all the bride & grooms favorite songs that were played at the wedding.

The menu cards really were beautiful with their champagne paper and charcoal ink.

Thanks again to the awesome talents of Impressions Photography and Floral Artistry!

A Christmas Wedding of Red & Green

It's so hot right now that as I went through all the photos I had a difficult time believing that it was in fact cold during this destination wedding!  This classic and very traditional wedding was traditional only by the fact that there was a ceremony and a reception. What?  Yes, I know, quite confusing.  The bride was from Switzerland, the groom from Ohio and their guests...name the country, we had someone from there.  So the traditions and etiquette we followed while planning were "tradition" as it was known in no less than 5 countries.  We dealt with hats, and high tea and imported cheeses I still can't pronounce, no borders on stationery, when to capitalize a "D" and when not to (depending on your royalty)...I never learned so much in all my years as I did with this one wedding!

Red Rose Rehearsal Dinner Centerpiece with Christmas greens, Hydrangea and  Hypericum berries

Bridesmaids bouquets of White Roses, Christmas Greens and Eucalyptus

Classic Ceremony Programs tied with champagne ribbon

The bride & Groom at Saint Isabels altar

Each lady of the bridal party chose her own dress, to match her hat.  The hats were the most important part of the attire as I now know.

I adore this image of Swiss bride & groom taking a moment to themselves between the ceremony & dinner reception. Sanibel is so incredibly beautiful.

All these photos were taken by Impressions Photography.  Krista and her team worked tirelessly for 4 days straight, and was wonderful enough to share these images with us. Flowers by the always exquisite Floral Artistry (go to their shop if you can- it is stunning!).  More images in tomorrows post!

If you don't love it, don't do it.

I think everyone knows that I'm all about doing that little (and sometimes alot) extra when you can.  It's the details (large and small) that make your wedding your wedding.  But here's the thing I've noticed as of late.  Having, doing, planning, buying extras that you don't looooooove, just because you think you like it okay.  Or you're seeing it everywhere else.  Or even worse, because someone convinced you to- so you're going to add it.  My advice is simply this.

"Say no".

Why? Something that you really do LOVE could come up later and then that "um, yeah, I think I'll do this is already in place and now LOVE doesn't get to happen. Blech.

Just because I like posts with pictures; I LOVE this:

Not hanging though, perfectly placed clusters (piles) sitting on the grounds of a great lawn.  LOVE it.

WeWed Summer 2010

In case you haven't heard...

This is an event for industry professionals that I host a couple times a year.  The summer gathering is June 15-16.  Click here to find out more!

10 tips for a great welcome reception

Southern Sweetie Bride was kind enough to let me "iphone photograph" her welcome recpetion for this blog post.  The reception at the Gasparilla Inn Beach Club was the perfect example of what a welcome reception should be- a casual event to kick off the weekend celebration.  Welcome receptions are the perfect opportunity to introduce all your friends and family to each other, so that by the time the wedding comes around- everyone knows everyone.  When guests bump into each other on the island (or where ever your destination wedding is), they'll be excited to see a friendly familiar face.

1. Do something unexpected.  This is Southern Sweetie with her Groom.  One of my priorities the entire length of this wedding planning was finding this dinghy for the welcome reception.  Hands down the best "bar" we've ever had!

2. Have a few great games if you've got the right crowd for it!  We had Bocce, Volleyball, and Cornhole.

3. Always a great idea if you're doing a beach event- provide flip flops for your guests.  They can use them again at the wedding reception for dancing shoes.  Oh, and no worries brides, you can still get "good" shoes to arrive in (you know, the shoes)...

4. Big tip: HAVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHERS THERE!  This is a great night for candids & group photos

 These almost always turn out to be some of the best pictures because everyone is just so relaxed.

 This is Lauren gathering everyone for what I think is going to be one of the best laughing shots ever.

5. Provide seating for just chatting it up.  This may be the 1st time your guests have seen each other in a while- it's great to have conversation areas.

6. Hire a wedding planner so that when your dress literally starts to fall apart, she can sew you back up and get you back to the party.  Yes, this happened tonight.  No, it wasn't the 1st time. Yes, I confess I sewed right through my finger at one point.  Nothing a little nail polish can't fix.

 

7. Have your photographers take detail shots of everything, before they get "messed up" This is the firepit.  Why a firepit in Florida, at a beach welcome reception with an 80 degree temperature?  See below.

 

8. That would be for dessert.  Smores anyone?  Or if smores aren't your thing, perhaps a sundae bar is.  Complete with sprinkles in your wedding colors.

9. Serve food; welcoming food.  Serve the kind of food they can't get at home, but make sure there's something for everyone.  Tonight the biggest attractions at the dine around were the mini Snapper sandwiches, the Coconut Shrimp and the Schettani Sangria.

10. Have fun.  If your guests see you smiling and having a blast, so will they.