Romantic Wedding Perfection

The dance space sizzling hot, with a trio of vine & 
leaf chandeliers and gobo patterns projected on the dance floor. 
The ceiling and walls were draped and back lit 
with LED lights that could be dialed to any color.

Crisp white linen, Classic fruitwood chivari chairs, 
Lord Ganesha crystal bells from India, chocolates from Switzerland, 
fine crystal, white china & silver flatware 
- an International setting sure to delight.

The ceremony mandap was covered in thousands of marigold flowers as is tradition.
Red rose petals created a welcome underfoot.

From Head To Toe

Even the socks and shoes coordinated perfectly at this fun event!

Ethnic Escort Cards

 Escort cards with "eternal loving" ducks from ancient motifs greeted guests upon arrival. Cards were "seated" in orange lentils displayed in a variety of vintage brass trays and containers.

Engaged and Excited

Engaged? Ready to start the planning of one of the most special days in your and your families life? The energy is flowing and you are reading every blog, looking at all kinds of magazines for ideas and inspiration? Do you feel like you could stay up forever doing research?

You are not alone. Most brides spend endless hours searching for the perfect location, talking to friends/family/co-workers about the celebration day upcoming...I say again, you are not alone.


What is the first thing an organized and level headed bride does to get the ball rolling? From my experience it is off to dress shops to find the "perfect!" gown. I think it is really important to go and see what lines look best on your body, what type of body improvement you might want as far as the gym and tightening up any loose areas the dress reveals.


In the past when social situations had us play dress up for imperial occasions you could see yourself in a full lengh party gown several times each social season. Now we are much more casual in dress when we go out to parties. And shoes, are they important or what? ...as most modern party gowns are not full length. Remember, in a wedding dress you need shoes that will support you for over 8 hours of standing. I repeat, keep your eyes out for the right shoes.

Get out there, look at yourself in the mirror and get a take on what the possibilies are. This is true fun. Also, an eye opener to know what a dress costs that makes you happy. Do you want to spend $1,000 or over $10,000 - available are dresses for many different price points. Are you an ethnic bride, where it may take travel to an exotic location to find your attire?

Then now let's settle in our chair, get on the computer and really start working, talking to trusted friends, and find a few wedding planning professionals to speak with - usually the first appointment is gratis so you can work out a relationship or move on - and get some meetings set up. Is your phone call returned promptly? Does whoever answers the phone seem to be interested in your well being? Wedding planning is such a personal job, and you want someone on your team that cares about you and is going to share time, materials and resources freely.


After you find someone you can work with, check, that is one budget consideration to put on the fire. Then start looking for locations. Your professional may have some great ideas and even be able to share a turn key budget from past experience to get you to a point where you can visit with your funding base about details. Do you need more flowers? How important is food to you? What are the top 3 most important aspects of your wedding for the bride and groom?


After you have your location chosen, there is a fantastic groundwork set so that organically you can work through details in a hierarchical order of importance. My big hits to get out of the way are: planner (of course), photographer, videographer, and entertainment. Most of these vendors can handle only one occasion per night, and there are only so many Saturdays in a year, but wait, are you a Sunday bride, so you don't have as much pressure to get Saturday vendors? ...so many decisions.


Now after you have your location you can really focus on a dress that allows for movement. Are you seen in a grand large ballroom? How do you look 300 feet away? Is there a special ceremony space with a long or short aisle? How long will the dress be seen from the back? Do you want to trouble yourself with a bustle or have a more manageable train? Are your dinner tables going to be close together or far apart? Check these details with your catering director or rental company for set-up details.


You are on the way. Many blessings to you. It is an honor to be part of so many special celebrations for families over the years. Take time to decompress, bride/groom be gentle with each other. It is not the only celebration in your life, so take it easy, it is just one of the most important and usually the first time you have entertained everybody all at once.

Wedding Experience

A wedding experience is different from a wedding celebration. An experience is something you get home from and can't wait to tell everybody about. A wedding is a nice time with lots of smiles. "Pretty." "She looked so nice." "The chicken was so tender." An experience brings forth the following comments, usually: "That was the wedding of the century!" "I have never had so much fun in my life or ever seen a wedding look like that before!" "I could not stop dancing all night long!" "Wait till they hear about what when on when I get home!"

What kind of wedding do you want to have?


A wedding experience takes into account your crowd, play to your crowd. Know what they are used to and give them a couple of "wow" experiences. Let them participate in something. Sometimes it is just having a bowl of freshly whipped sweetened cream by the beautiful cake a friend baked.


Sometimes, it is a pyrotechnic element that brings the house down. It depends on who your invited guests are as to how far you need to go to blow their minds, and how many times you want to blow them.


Playing to my crowd makes my life so much easier, as taking care of people and knowing what makes them happy, what will make them take stories home is what pays my heart. A fantastic wedding experience is something when thought about 10 years from now, a warm feeling comes over you, sometime you get tears, you remember. Always the most special times in our families and friends lives are something to live, and remember.

Music For My Wedding: I Want To Dance!

One of the most important things at a wedding is music. If your guests don't get to party, you don't get the right memories and everybody is looking for what to do next when the wedding is over.

I call the last 45 min. dance set of the evening "sweat dancing." You know where the guys take off or loosen their ties and the girls are barefoot or in flip flops? Everyone is dancing like crazy??? If you don't have this magic time happen, the party never really "gets off" so to speak. Your good DJ or band leader will know the crowd by then and should have everything pumping.


This needs to happen before any sound ordinance kicks in or before the hall needs to close with plenty of time to get guests out, etc. before any penalties are accessed. Your invite time is directly related to the time of your last dance set. The average wedding lasts 6 hours from guest invite to guest departure.


For example, if you are starting your last 45 min. dance set at 10 p.m. and ending it at 10: 45 p.m., you will invite guests for 4:30 p.m. for the ceremony. Don't forget any travel time that may exist between ceremony and reception space. That factors in as part of your party time.


If you want to have the music off and the guests out by 11:00 p.m., you probably want to close the bar at 10:30 p.m. Make sure and leave self serve water, coffee, etc. on or near the bar so people are not just literally cut off from all beverages. You may want to leave opened liquor bottles with mixers out and some of the cold beer on the bar. It softens the blow of closing the evening.


When choosing whether to have a DJ or a band, know one looks much more impressive than the other - of course a band looks more expensive. Yet can the band play covers you want to dance to? If not, you may be better off with a DJ. You can dress up a DJ by putting a backdrop behind him, putting him on a carpet or astro-turf covered riser and having him spotlit.


It is best to think about what your crowd's favorite music is, not just your favorite music, as an empty dance floor is a very lonely place when your favs are playing and no one is with you to get crazy. Let your DJ or band leader have a list of some "don't plays" and a list of "must plays" and get out of his way. His job is to make the party rock, your job is to have a blast and pass warm or cool towels to keep everyone fresh.

Let's Prepare A Guest List

One of the most difficult tasks, one of the first tasks in wedding planning is preparing your guest list. Much conflict can arise over not knowing how to accomplish this task. I have a simple formula that may make your life a bit easier when it comes to a wedding guest list.

Here is how I figure how many people each segment of the hosting committee can invite.

Break your hosting committee into four categories: bride's list, groom's list, bride's family list, and finally, groom's family list. Each category can invite 25% of the guests. That would mean for a wedding of 200 people, each category gets 50 names. Remember, each name constitutes a couple (Mr. & Mrs. Important Guest) so that really breaks down to 25 names.


Note, there will always be people declining the invite, so 200 invites should garner about 170 guests at the wedding. Later you can send out a "B" list and invite more guests...just make sure you print enough invites. It is suggested that you print about 30% more invites then you think you will need for your master list. (Invites to mail, invites to save, invites for backup, invites for guests you know can't come but must be invited)


This may seem like an impossible task....how do you break your entire world of friends down to only 25 names? The only way I think you can accomplish this is by taking a reality check when it comes to finances. Know that each individual guest breaks down to between $250 and $550, which means $500 to $1,100 per couple! You can easily realize you must keep your guest count down if your budget is important to stick to.


One of my rules of thumbs is: how many times have I been to Guest "A's" or Guest  "B's" house lately for dinner? How many times have they taken me out to eat? If a guest has not been in your home in the past year, it may be they don't need to be at an expensive event you are hosting. (It may be a bit like cleaning out your closet, if you have not worn it in a year, get rid of it.)


What do you tell the people you can't invite? It seems the only answer for their not being on the list is you are having a wedding for family only, or the hall won't hold guests as you would like it too, etc. Honesty is the best policy, you just have to be honest and let those who will not be invited that you will share photos with them and let them know everything that happened, etc. Good luck!