Wouldn’t it be nice if you had some help to unload some of the wedding week tasks and stress? After all you’ve been strapped down with all that wedding planning for the past year! Deciding on every detail to make sure your special day is great. Now it’s time to start enjoying yourself so you can have some pleasant memories of your wedding. If you hired a wedding planner, hopefully you have nothing to worry about but if you didn’t here’s some advice.
Use your bridesmaids! Those close friends and family that you asked to buy a special dress and stand by your side at the altar aren’t just well dressed bookends to complete the look at the front of the church. And, since they are special people in your life they shouldn’t be offended when you ask them to help you out! Now this also goes for the groomsmen too! So get your fiancé on board to enlist their help. But in order to make their help worthwhile here’s what you need to do.
1. Plan out your wedding - your wedding is the coming together of a bunch of smaller pieces to make one almost flawless event, you hope. This requires planning, you are basically a project manager organizing a bunch of “sub-contractors” (i.e. the florist, the bakery, the caterer, the officiate, the photographer, the limos, etc.) to work together in sync to make your day flow smoothly. So, sit down and organize the flow on paper. Who shows up when, what will they need to perform their job, and what will be expected of them?
2. Break your plan down into manageable pieces - If you have four bridesmaids group the duties down into four divisions based on work load (division 1: florist, bakery; division 2: caterer, officiate; etc). You can assign 1 groomsman and 1 bridesmaid per division to oversee them in the days leading up to your wedding.
3. Let your bridesmaids know what is expected of them upfront – Don’t wait until a couple days before the wedding to tell your bridesmaids you need their help. Let them know the day you ask them to be your bridesmaid. Assign them their division at that time so they can become adjusted to the idea.
4. Get them involved up front – In order for them to carry out your plan, they need to know your vision. Bring them with you when you meet with your florist or caterer, etc. This way they know what is expected, plus you also get some more bonding time with your friends! This will also give you piece of mind that they know what you want and that they will be able to handle issues without you.
5. Enjoy your day! Hopefully, with all the pre-planning, all your wedding party will have to do is make sure the wedding professionals that you hired show up and do their job and maybe only answer a few questions for you.
Okay, delegating may be very hard for some people, remember you are not giving up control just giving up some of the stress. And, if you do your homework upfront hopefully you will be able to relax a little while your friends and family manage a small piece of your wedding for you!
- 43% of people involved a pet or plan to involve a pet in their wedding.
- 11% did not include a pet in their wedding but knew someone who did
- 47% only had humans in their wedding
I was surprised at how many people plan in involve a pet in their wedding!
This can be tricky, I know if it were my dogs there would be a lot of pandemonium and running around to keep them under control! So, if you are planning on including your pets you might want to think about how your pets will react to the new surroundings and the crowd. Plus, you probably would want to designate someone who knows and likes your pet (and someone you pet also is comfortable with) to oversee him/her before, during and after the ceremony.
Also, just as incorporating small children in the ceremony, you might want to make sure they are they lynchpin to your ceremony in case they have a melt-down when it’s time to perform!
Is anyone out there including their pets? Any advice or interesting stories?
You may have heard about the contest in which one lucky couple was going to win a wedding at the premere of the movie “Maid of Honor” on April 28th. The ads to enter were all over the place a couple of months ago. Well you may not have heard the specifics of what the winners were going to get! It wasn’t your everyday wedding by any means. The folks in Hollywood really put together a spectacular package of everything they needed and more. Here’s a rundown…
Mary Hart, host of “Entertainment Tonight,” officiated the wedding. Michelle and Shaun will have their first dance choreographed by ballroom dance champion Maksim Chmerkovskiy, a professional dancer who gained fame on “Dancing with the Stars.”
The bride’s make-up was done by David Evangelista and the bride’s nails will be manicured by one of the talented artists at Cornelia Day Resort. One of the nation’s leading makeup, hair, and fashion experts, Evangelista has been a contributor to The Early Show on CBS since 2002, bringing style, beauty, and makeover advice to millions of viewers each week. As host of the weekly series The Fashion Team on the TV Guide Network from 2006 to 2007, Evangelista gave viewers an inside look at the fashion world. He works with high-profile personalities including Julia Stiles, Eva Longoria Parker, Hillary Swank, Peyton Manning, Mandy Moore, Rita Wilson, Martha Stewart, Paula Deen, Steve Martin, and Kevin Kline. He recently opened his salon, David Evangelista at Cornelia Day Resort.
The bride’s hairstyle was set by celebrity stylist Oscar Blandi. Blandi’s many famous and glamorous clients include Jessica Alba, Kelly Ripa, Faith Hill, and Jennifer Garner among others. He is also seen regularly on “Live with Regis and Kelly”, and is often featured in the top fashion magazines, such as Allure, Cosmopolitan, and Glamour, as one of the leading hair stylists to the stars. Oscar Blandi is the owner of the Oscar
Blandi Salon in New York. The couple received their rings from the leading Italian fine jewelry house, Damiani. The his-and-hers rings are from the company’s D.Side collection, co-designed by Damiani and actor Brad Pitt. These are the same style of rings that are featured in the film.
The bride’s dress was by Selia Yang. Called “the best-kept secret in New York City … not for long” by ailycandy.com, Yang has brides from all over the globe eager to wear her designs. She brings a chic, fresh, and
luxurious approach to bridal and evening wear.
The groom’s and best man’s tuxedoes were Arnold Brant. The luxury brand to the stars — having dressed Forest Whitaker, Kevin Dillon, and many more — features flawless style that is sure to keep the groom looking
polished. Sold throughout the U.S. and Canada at Nordstrom and better specialty stores, Arnold Brant is manufactured in Italy. More information is available at http://www.arnoldbrant.com.
The wedding was photographed by Denis Reggie, hailed as the “hottest wedding photographer of the moment” by the New York Times. He has served as photographer at the weddings of John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Carolyn
Bessette, Vera Wang, Mariah Carey, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, and Tom Clancy, among many others.
Sylvia Weinstock, who has baked for such luminaries as Oprah Winfrey, the Kennedy family, the Vice President and Mrs. Dick Cheney, the Vice President and Mrs. Al Gore, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Ben
Stiller and Christine Taylor, and many others, provided the cake.
The bride’s lingerie was by Victoria’s Secret, the leading specialty retailer of lingerie and beauty products, with an emphasis on making its customers feel sexy, sophisticated and forever young. Under the Victoria’s Secret and PINK brand names in the United States, the company dominates with fashion-inspired collections, prestige fragrances and cosmetics, celebrated supermodels and world-famous runway shows. Through its more than 1,000 Victoria’s Secret stores, the catalogue and VictoriasSecret.com, customers can shop the brand anywhere, any time, from any place.
The bride’s and groom’s shoes were provided by Kenneth Cole New York, the renowned shoe company that is known not only for their fashion-forward men’s and women’s shoes but also for their thought provoking socially conscious advertising.
The bride’s bouquet was by Fleurop. Fleurop-Interflora — http://www.fleurop.com — delivers beautiful flower bouquets around the world, with floral gifts are available in more than 160 countries worldwide: North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia, Oceania, South America. Founded in 1927, Fleurop-Interflora is the largest floral company in the world, connecting approximately 58,000 North American and International retail florists, offering an international floral delivery network in over 160 countries. For over 77 years, Fleurop and Interflora have been recognized for the finest quality in floral products and excellence in customer service.
The wedding favors were provided by Ghirardelli(R) — Moments of Timeless Pleasure(R).
As a wedding gift, Patrick Dempsey, the star of Made of Honor, has chosen his-and-hers JEANRICHARD watches for the couple. Dempsey wears a JEANRICHARD watch in the film.
Michelle and Shaun have also received a special invitation to “A Catered Affair,” Broadway’s newest musical, at the Walter Kerr Theatre.
The wedding was webcast live on Crackle.com, and was covered the following day on “Entertainment Tonight.”
Following the wedding, Michelle and Shaun will celebrate their honeymoon, with a romantic six nights in Europe, visiting Paris and Venice, with hotel and transportation included provided by Fleurop. When they get home, the bride and groom will receive a $3,000 Bed Bath & Beyond shopping spree in the form of a gift card.
Shaun and Michelle are both teachers: he teaches photography at Cumberland Valley High School, while she teaches second grade at Grace Baptist School in Carlisle. They met after a Carlisle High track meet; Shaun had previously been the track coach, and Michelle had succeeded him. They have been dating for a year and a half and just got engaged on March 8th. Shaun’s best man is his college buddy Brit, and Michelle’s maid of honor is her friend Sarah, who, she says, she has known since they were babies.
It seems that the amazing Mindy Weiss is keeping busy and making a lot of headlines lately.Mindy is a celebrity wedding and events planner in
Beverly Hills and has worked with Gwen Stefani and Eva Longoria among others.Well here’s the scoop and how Mindy Weiss can help you.
First of all, Mindy Weiss has teamed up with Paperlime.com, a division of the Gap, as a guest editor.You can checkout her first bit of advice concerning the proper shoes to wear at your wedding here.
And finally, Mindy just recently started her own blog!If you want a bunch more advise from a celebrity planner check out her blog here!
Wait! That’s not all! Amazon also carries a bunch of Mindy Weiss wedding products. Alot of them you may find useful. Checkout this slideshow of all here products on Amazon.
I was that time again to go out on assignment. Ahh, the drudgery! All the cupcakes (thanks to the great Vanilla Bake Shop) and the free gourmet appetizers, it was almost torturous! Not to mention all the wedding information and top of the line Los Angeles area wedding professionals. As you can tell by the title, I had the pleasure of attending A Soolip Wedding this past weekend. I would put A Soolip Wedding easily in the top-5 LA area wedding shows. Everything was first class and professionally done. This year’s event was quite a bit smaller than last year’s and was a better fit for the venue. Last year things seemed a lot more crowded and harder to maneuver. They held A Soolip Wedding in Vibiana a beautiful old church in downtown LA (checkout the picture above). Also in the picture a couple of views of some cute cakes on a candelabra, a pretty cool idea!
The “Conversations with Experts” this year was a little scaled back with two of the presentations being basically the same as last years, which is fine for the audience of mostly brides that will change from year to year. My husband and I caught two great presentations.
1. Eric Stromer the host of HGTV’s “Over Your Head” talked about the Modern Bride’s Guide to Home Improvement. This guy is entertaining! What a personality. He talked about the basic set of tools that every bride needs to tackle minor projects around the house. You don’t have to leave it all to your new husband and he probably would love you taking an interest in home improvement!
2. Rene Delacueva from R. Jack Balthazar had a great presentation about a couple of beautiful weddings they put together. He passed on some unique ideas on how to add some creative elements to your event. I’m going to pass on some of his ideas this week.
I got to talk to some great vendors that provide some distinctive services. I’m going to pass on some information about them this week and next so make sure to check back.
Want to get the inside scoop from someone who planned over 5,000 weddings?Getting married is a big investment and you hopefully only get to do it once!So you want to make sure you do it right and make great memories that will last a lifetime.
So, here’s an affordable idea that can end up saving you a lot of money and stress.Susan Southerland is the owner of Just Marry!a wedding planning company in the southeast US with offices in Orlando, Jacksonville, Savannah, St. Augustine, Tampa and Atlanta.She has appeared on Style Network’s, “Whose Wedding is it Anyway?,” and The Learning Channel’s “Wedding Story” as well as numerous magazines.Now Susan has come out with a DVD called “Susan Southerland’s Just Marry! Wedding Planning Secrets”The DVD contains just that, wedding planning secrets she has learned over years of planning other peoples weddings.This way you can learn from their mistakes and hopefully save yourself some aggravation and money. It also has a couple of great reviews on Amazon.
Here’s what Susan said about her DVD:
“I want to bring my tips, industry secrets, and inside information to every Bride-to-Be. My new DVD will show brides that they don’t have to stress over planning their spectacular wedding. I explore information about making your bugdet work despite it’s size, secrets of working with vendors, little known secrets about wedding cakes, calenders, selecting a gown, and much more. More than 22 topic chapters, plus bonus material and more!” - Susan
Might want to check it out, to get the DVD just click on the link above!
Are you getting married in the Southeast US during hurricane season? In the Northeast US during the winter? Although the odds are fairly low that your wedding will be ruined by a weather disaster there still is that chance. Since you schedule your wedding around a year ahead of time it is pretty much impossible to avoid all of mother natures rages but you can help yourself out by avoiding the higher risk times of the year.
But even if you do your best, there is still that chance of a spring ice storm, tornado, or flood causing havoc. Then again if you manage to avoid the direct impact of one of these disasters there is also that possibility that your wedding reception hall winds up being uses as an evacuee shelter! Okay, you may be thinking I’m off my rocker by now! But these things have happened and now it’s your chance to benefit by the misfortune of others. (Isn’t that nice!) The Farmer’s Almanac website is running a Worst Wedding Weather Contest.” All you have to do is go to their website and read through the 10 accounts of real life wedding weather disasters and vote for your favorite and get a chance to win a cruise or a $500 LL Bean gift card!
UPDATE: The couple that gets the most votes will actually win the cruise and 2nd place will be $500 LL Bean gift card. (thanks Robyn for pointing that out!)
Today we have special guest bloggers Marley Majcher and Robyn from The Party Goddess in Pasadena California. Marley has orchestrated gigs for the season opening of the Hollywood Bowl, the Critics Choice Awards, celebrities she can’t mention, as well as exclusive dinner parties and corporate outings. She is also a professional wedding planner and even if your not from the LA area she is also willing to travel! So here’s Marley and Robyn!
In my recent quest for determining what makes a trend “trendy” and the reasons for these trends going from hot to not, I am currently examining the candy buffet. Some people refer to them as candy bars, causing momentary confusion with the rectangular chocolate kind, a la’ Snickers. Be it a buffet or bar, the candy craze is another one of those trends that for all intents and purposes has moved past its prime and yet still somehow continues to sustain itself. Bridal message boards are abuzz with how-tos and “unique” twists; monochromatic colored candy, classic nostalgic favorites, candies that match the wedding colors, Chinese take-out boxes, clever labels. Is this is a trend we will be seeing well through 2008?
Part of the appeal is that the candy buffet works double time as both reception décor and wedding favor. And while an impressive display requires A LOT of candy (and therefore money), one might rationalize the expense because the sweets kill two birds with one stone. It is much less about calculating a “per-person” amount and more about creating an amazing focal point, or as we event planners like to call it “The WOW Factor.”
The problem I have with candy buffets is that they’ve been around since 2005 – an ETERNITY in the party biz! So as an event planner, I have seen more than my fair share of buffets topped with sugar filled glass vases and bowls. People still love the candy gig but what’s the new, fresh twist on this popular creation? My job is not to rely on what’s already been done (or over-done!) but to conjure up something truly fabulous for my clients.
Of course there are several alternatives that do get me much more excited, like a cookie buffet or popcorn bar, for example. Both have been very well received by wedding guests, are beautiful and delicious and leave plenty of room for personal expression. But still, I get a steady stream of clients, brides especially, who have been waiting for the chance to offer their guests that ubiquitous smorgasbord of multicolored sugar in a cute little take-home containers. And in the end, my job is to be sure that the bride is happy and has the day she’s always dreamed of. How sweet it is and, can we make it even sweeter? Only time will tell!
Do you live in southern California? Do you want to plan an elegant wedding? Then don’t miss “A Soolip Wedding!” “A Soolip Wedding” is being held on March 30 2008 at Vibiana in downtown LA this year. Soolip is an amazing stationary store located in West Hollywood. It is the place to go for the Hollywood elite. In fact Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise got their wedding invitations there. Wanda Wen the owner of Soolip is the host for the “A Soolip Wedding” show.
I attended A Soolip Wedding last year and thought it was a first class event! The highlights were the Green Wedding event , the Conversation with the Experts sessions, and the Monique Lhuillier fashion show in addition to all the great vendor exhibits. The Green Wedding is a collection of green wedding vendors and resources to help you plan a green wedding. If you want to have a green wedding and you want it to be elegant, you can definitely get some ideas here. I also thought the Conversation with the Experts was incredible. Among several interesting expert talks, they had the editor of LA Weddings Magazines giving wedding planning tips and Celebrity Wedding Planner Jo Gartin author of Jo Gartin’s Weddings: An Inspiring Guide for the Stylish Bride giving tips on how to give your wedding a personal touch. I can’t wait to see who’s on the agenda this year!
So, if you are lucky enough to be in the local LA area on March 30’th try to fit it into your schedule. But, if you can’t make it, don’t worry! I’m going to provide detailed coverage of the event. I’ll provide summaries of the best Converstations with the Experts, The Green Wedding, and the Fashion Show. If you want to see last year’s coverage, just type “Soolip” in the search box at the top right side of the page.
If you want to go this year you can get tickets at the A Soolip Wedding website.
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Are you getting married in the Southeast US during hurricane season? In the Northeast US during the winter? Although the odds are fairly low that your wedding will be ruined by a weather disaster there still is that chance. Since you schedule your wedding around a year ahead of time it is pretty much impossible to avoid all of mother natures rages but you can help yourself out by avoiding the higher risk times of the year.
Do you live in southern California? Do you want to plan an elegant wedding? Then don’t miss “
giving tips on how to give your wedding a personal touch. I can’t wait to see who’s on the agenda this year!
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