Father-of-the-Bride Expressed Appreciation for Vendor

Photo by David Crigger/Bristol Herald Courier

Something rare occurred last weekend.  It was so rare, that I can say it has never happened to me.

My staff and I were working putting the finishing touches on the flowers and decorations for a wedding reception.  We had arrived early that morning and it was lunch time.  I always provide food for my staff, while they are working for me.  If we are working in the shop, I cook.  On-site, we send for take-out, or I take them to eat.It was close to noon, and the bride’s parents came into the ballroom.  After many oohs and ahs, the mother said, “Pamela, what you and your crew doing for lunch?”  I replied, “We are going down the street to Pop Ellis Soda Shop.” “Well, John (name changed) wants to buy your lunch.”  She was smiling as she spoke the words.  John opened his wallet and handed me a very generous amount of money for our lunch.  I had eight people to feed.   I was stunned!

This is a detail that doesn’t occur to the clients to take care of, and understandably so.  They are busy taking care of the needs of family and guests.  They never stop to think that the D.J., wedding planner, coordinator, photographer, or other vendor, has been there for many hours, with nothing to eat or drink. 

A good rule of thumb is that if a vendor has been on-site for 5 hours or more, a vendor meal should be provided.  This doesn’t have to be the seven course meal you are providing for your guests.  You can inquire with your event host, or caterer, as to what they can offer for vendor meals.

If that wasn’t enough to make my day, later I was finishing the ceremony site, spreading petals around the gazebo.  Once again, the father-of-the-bride approached me.  “I think I owe you some money.”  He said.  “How much do I owe you.”  I didn’t have the invoices in my hand, so I told him that I wasn’t sure, but I though it was such and such amount.  My daughter ran to her car to get the invoices.  I pulled them out to show him, but he already had a roll of money in his hand, bound with a rubber band.  When he handed it to me, it was $1,000 more than the invoice.  The tears welled up in my eyes.  ”Thank you so much”  He smiled and hugged me.   “I’m the one who needs to say thank you.  You made my daughter’s wedding beautiful.  You gave me and my wife the wedding we never had…I’ve seen how hard you’ve worked, and you’ve been so good to my wife and daughter.  I want you to have this.”  I was overcome with emotion.

Though all of our clients are appreciative and have written thank you notes, and given kudos and referrals, we have never had anyone treat us with such kindness and generosity.  We always go above and beyond, doing special and extra things for our brides, so it was a flow of emotion to have this gift spoken into my life at that particular moment.

I had been working 21 hours per day for nearly 3 weeks.  I was totally exhausted.  This meant everything to me…far more than the money, was the heart with which it was given; that of  a beautiful, generous soul.

In your rush to plan your wedding, take a few moments to plan for your vendors, too.  You will be gratefully appreciated, and never forgotten.  You can believe that you will be given glowing reviews.

Check our which famous person stopped in to Ellis Soda Shoppe for a milkshake.  Can you guess? Find out by clicking on link. http://tinyurl.com/nbslah

Fall Weddings Blossom

Fall weddings are among my favorites.  The colors are so vibrant and crisp.   In the South, the weather tends t to cooperate for these fall weddings, because it is normally drier than in the summer, so there’s less chance of rain.

There are so many flower choices for an October wedding.  The majority of summer flowers are in season, along with some fun, new ones.  Sunflowers, dahlias, seed pods of all kinds, berries, and purple foliage add to the colorful displays.  Incorporating pumpkins and colored leaves add to the decor.  The use of natural, plant materials fit in well with this theme.

Featured in the slide show below is a wedding that we did at The General Morgan Inn, in Greenville, Tennessee.  The inn is an historic landmark hotel.

It was October, 2008, and the day was perfect!  The temperature was comfortable, and there was a gentle breeze.  The ceremony took place on the rooftop of the hotel.  The fall-colored leaves on the trees made a spectacular backdrop.  The church and building in this small, rural town added to the ambience, of an intimate ceremony.

Marcy and Ro were a very sweet couple.  I thoroughly enjoyed working with them and Marcy’s parents.  The end result was fabulous! 

Marcy and Rohit’s Fall Wedding

Wedding Cakes European Style

One of the most fun parts of planning your wedding, is selecting your wedding cake.  The cake is a great way to personalize your style.  Many brides are opting for chocolate cake, as opposed to the traditional vanilla.  There are so many delicious flavors to choose from now that it’s hard to make a choice.  Most cake bakers will serve samples, so that you can determine the flavors you want.

 

Some brides have the baker make each tier a different flavor.  Guests like this, because they can choose their favorite flavor.  The filling can be anything from buttercream to mocha, to Italian creme.  Basically, any flavor you can imagine is a choice.

 

Keep in mind that if you choose exotic flavors, that your cost per slice will increase.  The same goes for intricate designs on the cake.  The more patterns, the more expensive it will be.

 

I came across this fabulous cake baker in the UK.  Maisie Fantaisie does beautiful work!  It’s worth a trip to the web site to see for yourself.   These cakes will have you drooling!

 

For the chocolate lovers, have a look-see at the first two cakes.  Yum!

Satin Stripes Wedding Cake

 It wouldn’t be good to leave me alone in the garden with this cake.  I wouldn’t be able to waddle myself out of it.  I’m such a chocoholic…

Chocolate Garden Wedding Cake

 This sunflower wedding cake is bright and cheery.  It makes me smile just to look at it.  Wouldn’t you love a bite?  Lemon flavored sounds good to me!

Sunflower Wedding Cake

 For the hopeless romantic, here’s an idea for you.  Write your future spouse a poem.  For a whimsical theme, you could write something funny.

Gold Poetry Wedding Cake

Doves are the  epitome of love and dedication.  They mate for life!  This is why they have always been known as “love birds”.  Terms like lovey-dovey orignate from the faithfulness of  doves.  Doves also symbolize peace, hope, and promise.  Before you are tempted to call your fiance a birdbrain, take a lesson from the doves and be kind.  I think we should all take a lesson from them.

Love Bird Wedding Cake

Not everyone wants a traditional, tiered wedding cake.  Some couples prefer cupcakes.  I adore these pretty little things from Maisie’s.   

 

Wedding Cupcakes in Sweet Pea and Roses

Which one is your favorite?  What flavors would you choose, if you could have anything you wanted?  Do you have ideas for a cake?  I’d love to hear those, too!

Come back in a few days to see some of the word’s most exotic cakes, and be sure to swing byMaisie Fantaisies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Save-the-Date Ideas

Save-the-date cards are fairly new to weddings.  The idea to let your guests know pretty far in advance about your wedding, is a great idea!  This enables them to reserve the spot on their calendars just for you.  Your out-of-town guests will have ample time to make travel arrangements, often saving them money on air fares and hotel accommodations.

Use your creativity, when designing your save-the-date cards.  Let your personality come through.  Your guests will enjoy seeing something a little different.  They aren’t up on the latest and greatest wedding ideas, so you can knock their socks off with your announcement.

Brooklyn Bride  had this cute STD idea on her blog.

If you like the ticket idea, Fabu-Luxe featured these darling ones: 

Or how about these tear-off cards from Carlson Crafts:

If you are planning a beach wedding, here are some cute ideas for you.  The first one is from Save the Date.

How about this one from Invite Artist?

And last, but not least, scratch-off cards can entertain your potential guests.  From Wedding Solutions:

Summer Weddings Are Hot

Summertime, outdoor, weddings are hot!  June, July, and August are prime getting married months.  These outdoor weddings are hot in more ways than one.  The temperature is on the rise, so it is of utmost importance that you do all that you can to make your guests comfortable.  Tents, canopies, and parasols are options to shade them.  Having water, lemonade, or other cold drinks available, will be appreciated by your guests.  It is miserable to sit baking in the hot sun, while perspiring on your dress clothes.  The comfort of your guests is critical.  You don’t want to have to call #911 for someone who has suffered a heat stroke.

Guest fans have been popular for outdoor weddings for years, as a way to stay cool.  You can be as creative with them as you want to be.  These double as the ceremony program.  The first one is from Creative Invitations.  The ribbon streamers are a nice way to add your wedding colors.

Fan with Ribbon Streamers

The Wedding Bee   is a great site with unique and diy friendly ideas, such as this fan.

 

Segmented Fan Wedding Program

 

For the bride who loves calla lilies, here is the perfect fan for you!  It’s from Concepts II Completion.

Calla Lily Wedding Program Fan

You can personalize these water bottles to go with the fans from Favor Shop.

 

Personalized Water Bottles

This table of various fruity drinks is lovely and refreshing.  I found this idea at Favor Ideas.

 

Fruit Drink Bar

Check back in a day or two for some ideas for Save-the-Date cards.

Bridal Bouquet in Clay

I enjoy perusing other wedding blogs and web sites.  It helps me to stay current on trends in the wedding and special event industry.  I discovered many years ago that no one person has a lock on all the good ideas, and that we can learn from each other.  It’s amazing how many creative people there are on the web.  Over the next few days, I am going to highlight a few of my favorite finds, so check back often to see what I have discovered.

Today, I an very excited to feature Petal by Petal.  This artisan fashions incredible bouquets from air-dried, polymer, modeling clay.  Notice the intricate design.  They look so real!  One trend that remains popular is a floral wedding cake topper.  Wouldn’t one of these be fantastic?  You would have an exquisite cake topper that you can keep for a long time, and she will customize it for you.  Each petal is made byhand, no molds.  You will find her at Etsy.

Lily of the Valley and Rose Bouquet

Rose, Freesia, and Hydrangea Bouquet

Rose, Crysanthemum, and Gardenia Bouquet

English Garden Bouquet

Cupcakes Dress Up

As a wedding and event designer, I do a lot of on-line research, looking for current trends, colors, and products to use in our designs.  I also network with other wedding pros from all over the world, so I have access to resources, experience, and expertise that wasn’t available a decade ago.  I read their blogs and follow them on Twitter and in groups.  Through these resources, I am constantly expanding my catalog.  I am excited to show you today’s find.

Since many brides and grooms are opting out of the traditional wedding cake, and going for cupcakes, I am forever searching for different and unique ways to display them.  While on that search, I stumbled across these darling cupcake wrappers.  I have pictured a few of them, but there are many more styles and colors to choose from.  You can find them at Accent the Party.  I will be using them at my parties, for baby showers, bridal luncheons and showers, and anytime I am baking a batch of my famous cupcakes.  I can see them doubling as candy holders, too.

Chocolate wrapper

Picket fence wrapper

Daisy cupcake wrapper

Black Filigree cupcake wrapper

heart cupcake wrapper

Monogram wrapper

Accent the Party has lovely cupcake boxes, in assorted colors.

Cupcake Boxes

Wedding In-laws and Outlaws

It is rare, in today’s society, to have only two sets of parents.  Most brides and grooms have multiple sets.  In fact, when a minister says, “Who gives this woman in marriage.”  an entire town could stand and say, “We do!”

In a fairy tale world, all blended families are loving and unselfish, but in reality, attempting to bring the negative forces together in one accord can be one of the major stressors of planning a wedding, and of living happily ever after.

It is hurtful for a mother to sit alone, while her ex-husband walks down the aisle with his secretary, twenty years his junior.  It’s difficult to swallow our pride and invite the step-parent who has been less than supportive, or against whom we harbor bad feelings, but it is often necessary to promote peace and good will.

It is not unreasonable to meet with these relatives and in a kind, but firm way, explain that your wedding is not the time to air differences, and that you expect from them model behavior.  Don’t be unkind to anyone.  If at all possible, swallow your pride and find some sort of common ground to begin to develop and grow a friendship with that step-parent.

Do not seat adversaries at the same table!  Allow each set of parents to host their own table.  There’s no need to invite trouble by placing them in an uncomfortable situation.  This is not the time to air grievances or seek revenge.

Discuss it with your fiance, if you are uncomfortable inviting ex-girlfriends and boyfriends, or ex-spouses.

If you are serving alcohol, you would be well served not to extend an invitation to a heavy drinker.  Not so much because of how much they might drink, though their welfare should be of concern to you, but because of their behavior when they become intoxicated.

One bridesmaid had a flask of spirits tucked in her garter.  Between taking puffs of her marijuana and drinking, she was ushering groomsmen to the parking lot to enjoy fringe benefits.  The photographer had to keep sending someone to retrieve her for pictures.  She looked terrible in the pictures, and was an embarrassment to the bride.

With a little compromise, and a long hard look at your guest list, you can avoid any unpleasant incidents that could spoil your day.

Wedding Reception Dog was a Hit

Congratulations to Tracy Lewis, who had the closest guess without going over.  She guessed 383.  There were 393 flowers on the dog.

I like to take time to get to know my brides and grooms.  I want to know how they met, what their hobbies and interests are, what they have in common,those kinds of things.  It is through this gathering of information that I can help them personalize their wedding.

My bride from this weekend works for a veterinarian.  The groom is over the community volunteer fire department.  For their favors, I suggested making cookies in the shape of a dog bone, an idea which they loved and adopted.  I told them I would come up with a way to display them.

As a surprise for them, I wielded an attempt at making my first dog from flowers.  My son-in-law, Joe, can do anything!  I called him on Thursday and asked if he would make a dog form for me to cover with flowers.  This guy made a huge block out of a lot of smaller blocks of oasis.  Then, he proceeded to carve this dog, complete with personality!  We were in awe!  It took him about three hours to make his part of the dog.  It took me about four hours to cover it with flowers. 

I owe a special thanks to my friend, and fellow wedding planner, Dawn Kelly, owner of Soiree Floral, for sharing her tips and tricks with me.  Dawn services the New England, Cape Cod, Nantucket area, so if you are in need of a top-notch planner, call her.

The first person to guess  how many flowers it took to cover this dog, will win a copy of my book, “99 Things You Wish You Knew before You Planned Your Wedding.”  Contest ends Monday, May 18th.  Please leave your guess in the comment box.  You will be notified by e-mail.

Here are photos of the dog: