Saturday, August 30, 2008

Did You Know?

You can bring nature and a more earthy feel into your home by changing just the accessories and a few decor points in your home! Our homes are our own personal signatures we establish in life, each one as unique as our voices and penmanship. In this day in age being green is a concept that has a large following and will most likely be here to stay so why not bring that green nature feeling inside for awhile? How can you bring something so vast as nature into your home you ask? It's not very difficult at all and can be easy enough for even the most low maintenance person that wants to connect a little further with mother earth.

Outdoor Elements




Bringing in some scenic elements such as a waterfall or setting up stones or shells in glass vases around to give the feel of a natural setting is a good way to start. Setting up a small area for plants either hanging or potted can give the feel of outdoors. Another way is to have fake branches in a tall floor vase displayed in a rooms corner or a whole fake tree can give you that indoor garden appeal.










Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Our New Logo!

Hi blog world! After two months of toying with ideas for our logo, and debating on whether or not we would design it or have someone else do it, we can finally say our new company logo is done and we designed it all by ourselves!

The logo design logo has the the concept of the dual women becasue there will always be at least two of us at any wedding or event and that vision was expanded on as I created the actual logo in Photoshop.

Now we are so excited to show our logo off to the world! It has been a true labor of love, so without further adieu...








Saturday, August 23, 2008

Client Praise!

Here is what one of our recent clients, who purchased one of our products from our Etsy shop had to say.





"I received the cones promptly. I absolutely love the pewcones. I am looking forward to using them in my wedding :). "


Thanks! - Brianne










Friday, August 22, 2008

Let Them Eat Cake


Why does it cost so much for a wedding cake if its only made with flour and water?? Truth be told it has nothing to do with the rising gas prices or the cost of eggs and milk nowadays. The reason why couples wind up spending between $250 and up for their cake of choice is because of your guests. That's right! Cakes are charged by the serving typically at a $6-$7 per piece.



















Once you let the baker know how many guests will be attending you get into the details, which is where the figures will change even more. A standard wedding cake is 3 tiers and anything above that will cost extra. Additional items such as pearls or flowers (either in between tiers or cascading down the cake) will raise the price depending on the time, size and type of flowers you want. Materials used to make these kinds of items vary from fondant to marzipan to royal icing and can drastically change the cost of cake. Don't be afraid to ask the confectioner how they make these items.











In addition to these extras there is the cake itself. Depending on whether you choose a sponge cake or pound cake or even cheesecake will alter the price as well. Adding liquiers, fruit, ganaches, icings and other filling will also increase your bill. Something else that people don't know is that square cakes cost more than round. This is due to the fact that they used special sized square pans to make these cakes. Covering a square cake takes more time as well due to all of the corners that need to be frosted. Anything that has the baker doing more work than the standard 3 tiers will cost you in the end.
Make sure you do research before you choose a baker and go over exactly what you want with them and how much ti swill total up to be. Don't forget to include tax and delivery charges in that estimate.
Don't go for the gusto if you really don't need too. Sometimes we want bigger to mean better but with wedding cake it means bigger bill. If you don't need a 4 tier cake for your 75 guests, skip it and use the extra funds somewhere else.
There is always the option to skip a cake baker and try your local supermarkets catering department for a cake. It may sound like something you'd never want to do but they may be able to offer you your dream cake at a lesser price. Don't be afraid to find up and coming cake designeres and cateres who's prices will be pocket friendly and can give you a stunning cake ala Sylvia Weinstock! (well maybe not exactly like Sylvia).








Tuesday, August 19, 2008

To Theme or Not to Theme...

















Being event and wedding planners it is always interesting to see what kinds of themes of feels our clients bring to us. We never know what they are looking for until that first meeting but then after that it's up to us to create an amazing vision to bring their wishes to life. On the other hand there are some clients that don't want a theme, they just want a simple chic party with appropriate colors and they are happy; either way both of these options are just fine with us. We look forward to creating new and interesting visions for our clients whether we've heard the theme before or not there is always a new way to twist it.

Celebrities have always had the means to throw a good party but these came up with a theme and went all out with it!



Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz went for an Alice in Wonderland theme wedding









Sean "Diddy" Combs and his Annual White Party in the Hamptons












Nick Cannon and Mariah Carey celebrated with family and friends in a Disneyland extravaganza!







Marissa Jaret Winkoker and Judah Miller wedded in "leyed" back Hawaiian style











As you can see these celebs decided to take their events to the next level making sure that every aspect played into their respective themes. I would like to point out that having a theme isn't always necessary for an event, just as long as you know what you want. Good food, great company and conversation and a wonderful atmosphere are all you need to create a great event.
















Destination Wedding Hair & Make-Up: What's a Girl to Do?

So you are a destination wedding bride. You are marrying the man of your dreams in an exoctic location but wait...what are you supposed to do about your hair and make-up? This is a question that gets asked a lot among destination wedding brides. Destination Wedding photo courtesy of Haskins Photography in Tampa Florida.








Don't worry, because there are plenty of options for destination wedding brides and although you may want to fly in your regular stylists and make-up artists from home the majority of destination brides do not have the budget to do that.

Option One:

If you are having a resort wedding, most of the resorts in the Caribbean, Hawaii and Mexico have made it easy for destination wedding brides. All of these full service resorts have their own salons with hairstylists and make-up artists on the property. Make sure you call ahead to book your appointment before you arrive at the resort.

Option Two:

If you don't want to use the resort's salon, you can always find local hair and make-up artists, which is what we did for Landra's upcoming wedding in Jamaica. Do searches on line and look in the local yelllow pages for your particular destination. In Landra's case the internet and Jamaican Yellow pages were extremely helpful! We found a local stylist that we are using for Landra and her bridal party in Jamaica that does airbrush make-up, lashes, extensions for hair, basically the works! Make sure you book in advance and bring pictures for your stylist of the look you are going for. If possible, arrive to your destination early enough so you can have a trial a day or two before the wedding.


Option Three:

You can always opt to do you hair and make-up yourself or have someone in your bridal party do it. If you are going to do your own make-up have a hair and make-up trial in your home location so that you can purchase the products. For make-up we would higly recommend MAC because they have a huge line of cosmetics in their stores and online and it is very easy to schedule a make-up trial with them in one of their locations.

But what if you want airbrush make-up which is the latest trend but you can't find anyone in your location that does it? Buy your own airbrush kit and do it yourself. You can buy an airbrush kit for a resonable price from Luminess Air, and it even comes with an instructional video.







With a little planning and effort, you can have beautiful hair and make-up for your unique destination wedding no matter where it is!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Wedding Cutoms: Part I


Have you noticed that there are unspoken rules that are associated to weddings and we never question why it is the way it is. For instance, why does the brides family have to sit on the left side? What is the real reason we toss the garter/bouquet? I have done a little investigating and found some interesting reasons for some of those "that's just the way it is" rules.
What's with the left side?
The bride and her family being positioned on the left side of the church goes back to Medieval times when men wore swords on their right side. In case they needed to draw their sword at any given moment this side would be free to protect hid betrothed.
The Juno Effect?
June is considered the luckiest month to wed because it is names after the Roman goddess Juno who was the goddess of love and marriage. Other stories say that June was popular because this was the brightest month for light and also women could give birth by the following spring and have enough time to recover for the harvest season.
Bachelor Parties and Bridal Showers.
Bridal showers began back when the man would send gifts to the bride to show he was an upstanding gentleman worthy of her affection and also able to provide her by sending livestock, fabrics, land and jewelry. Today they are to shower the couple with gifts to begin their new life together. Bachelor parties date back to ancient Sparta where the groom gathered and feasted with his friends to show his loyalty and friendship to them. It also symbolized saying goodbye to his former life.
The Garter Toss
Though it has always said to show who would be the next to wed it has been said that beginning in the 14th century that it was good luck to have a piece of clothing from the bride. Consequently the bride's dress would be destroyed so the tossing of the garter was a way to distract the guests from her while allowing them to have something of hers.
Here's To The Couple!
A french tradition that has lasted and repeated over and over is the wedding toasts. A piece of bread would be placed in the bottom of a glass that was then filled with wine and then passed around to honored guests. Words of praise and honor would be spoken about the couple and the last guest to receive the cup would eat the toast.
The Classic Custom: Something Old, New, Borrowed and Blue....
The full saying is "‘Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a silver sixpence inside your shoe". The 'old' represents the family and friends of the past for the bride. The 'new' is based on the hopes for the future for the new couple. The 'borrowed' should come from an already happily married woman so that her luck can be passed to the bride. The 'blue' is to denote the bride virginity and is the opposite of red. The 'sixpence' denotes wealth (in marriage and money) and financial stability for the couple. Note that the sixpence should be worn in the left shoe for optimal effect!