Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Past Royal Wedding Details

We are less than 24 hours away from one of the biggest weddings!! It seems that people are either so excited or could careless and wants the hoopla to be over. Being a wedding planner you can guess which category I fall into. I will be having a royal wedding sleepover on Thursday night and getting up at 4 a.m with the birds. Our post on the party will be up on Friday... if I am awake. I did some research on some of the past royal weddings so grab some tea and enjoy!

In 1947 Phillip Mouthbatten married Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary (later Queen Elizabeth II) their 4 tiered cake was 9 feet tall and weighed 500 pounds!

In 1840 Queen Victoria started a fashion trend that to this day most brides choose to follow. Queen Victoria decided to go against a dress of color and choose to wear an extravagant all white gown.

How can we not mention the most famous royal wedding to date...Princess Diana. You can not talk about famous wedding dresses without thinking about Princess Di. The gown created by Elizabeth and David Emanuel was made of ivory silk, antique lace, and pure taffeta, with 10,000 pearls and sequins and of course their is the 25-foot train.

You won't be hearing Beyonce's "single ladies" at the royal wedding for the bouquet toss because their won't be one. This wedding tradition is not followed and instead the bouquet will be placed on the grave of a unknown solider in the Westminster Abbey cemetery the day after the wedding. This started with Queen Elizabeth II and is assumed that Kate Middleton will do the same.

A little fact about our future Princess is that Kate Middleton at age 29 will be the oldest bride to marry a future king. There have been brides older in a the kings second marriages but not by much, the oldest bride was Catherine Parr who was the 6th wife of Henry VIII who was 30 when she married in 1543.





Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Shoes Day Tuesday

Love the shoes, love the picture, and love Elizabeth Messina

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Cute Easter Treat

Peeps, cadbury eggs, solid chocolate bunnies, malted milk balls, jellybeans, chocolate marshmallow eggs and/or bunnies and the list goes on! I wonder when more sugar is consumed Halloween or Easter? Not that I am not going to be eating my fair share of sugar today but I also wanted to share this super cute and healthy treat. Hummus and carrots is a great healthy and tasty snack and could the presentation be any cuter? A great idea to take to your family get together, your child's class, or even just to make at home.
So enjoy your sugar but try and eat like the easter bunny himself and have a few carrots!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Love.Shop.Wed


Ever bride needs to check out the newly launched website http://www.aislenewyork.com/ It's easy to register for Aisle New York and gain access to the best in luxury bridal fashions from the world's most prestigious designers. This is not an online shop but more of a boutique with limited pieces from your favorite designers: Monique Lhuiller, Angel Sanchez, and much more. Once you register you will get an exclusive invitation each time a collection is posted.

The newly launched website has everything you are looking for; find your favorite dress, a dazzling accessory, a one of a kind runway piece, or an exclusive gown created just for The Aisle New York by your favorite designer.

It gets even better....The Aisle New York donates a portion of proceeds from every gown they sell to the charity of that designers' choice.

Already have your dress? No problem The Aisle New York can still be of use to you. On the site they have an online magazine for brides.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Shoes Day Tuesday

Um how cute are these J. Crew heels?!


Photo: Koko Rio Photography

Friday, April 15, 2011

Creative escort boards

Normally your guests come in and try to find their name among all those paper escort cards #1 it's difficult to find and #2 they can be a little difficult to organize and set up evenly. Solution= Escort boards!!
Thanks to ETSY you don't have to be Martha Stewart to have something unique at your wedding. The only work you would need is to find someone with beautiful penmanship. Here are a few of my favorite finds.




Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Shoes Day Tuesday X2

I was in the mood to post more

Photo: Amber Beckham Photography



Monday, April 11, 2011

NY International Bridal Week




Over the weekend, New York City was the playground for bridal retailers across the country. As a follow up to the October 2010 debut of NYC Bridal Week, the City welcomed designers from across the globe. As an elite exhibition, the event is not open to the general public, but instead an audience of mainly retail vendors. The weekend served as a window of style to the global vendors and their client market base. The collections ranged from chic and modern designs, to elegant and bold art work. Brides to be, stay tuned for some picture sneak peeks later this week!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Sada

My first picture of her

God has blessed me with a soft spot for children but specifically to those less fortunate in Africa. In 2007 I became involved in an organization called the Invisible Children. Something inside of me changed forever when I watched the documentary of the Invisible Children. A life long dream of mine is to one day visit Africa and serve in the children's ministry. Until that day comes I do my best to stay informed and help when I can. One way I decided I wanted to help was to "adopt" a child. I did my research and made sure I was giving my money to a reputable and trustworthy organization, I found that in Compassion International.
My most recent photo

In 2009 I "adopted" Sada Babu Mzalendo. She was born April 23rd 2003 and lives in Tanzania with her mother. She lives in an HIV/AIDS affected area so prayers are needed. It has been so fulfilling to write back and forth with her (although she has a translator that writes and reads to her) she draws me pictures and updates me on what she has been up to. By "adoption" I am able to pay for for Sada's school, health needs, and bible classes all for $35 a month. I know many people want to help but think they can't afford it but trust me skipping Starbucks for a week or going to the dollar theater instead is any easy way to make up something as little as $35. I encourage as many people as possible to get involved with this amazing Christian organization.

I have been wanting MMJ Events to be involved in something to give back, after praying about it I've decided that at the end of every year if we have reached our goal of 5 or more weddings we will adopt a child. We are also in the works of putting on a awareness and fundraiser for the invisible children at the end of this year, so stay tuned!

If you would like to learn more about Compassion International or the Invisible Children please check out these websites.
http://www.compassion.com/
http://www.invisiblechildren.com/homepage

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Shoes Day Tuesday

These lovely shoes belong to Mrs. Meryl Baskin and are by the fabulous Badgley Mischka!!
Photo credit to my favorite photographers at Henry Photography

Friday, April 1, 2011

Why wedding coordinators cost "so much" by Terrica

Came across this post by Terrica from Cocktails and Details and had to share it.....


I have noticed that many couples don’t understand the importance of wedding coordinators and some wedding planning professionals have cut wedding coordination out of their list of services altogether. As such, it seems that many brides and grooms fail to appreciate the role of a wedding coordinator and their costs– as I have heard things said like:



**“I only need someone for the day. Can’t you just come on the day of?”

**“I’m a type-A personality and highly detailed so I enjoy the planning, so I don’t really need a lot of help”

**“We’ve done all of our planning and have about $400 left for a coordinator”

Now, this isn’t the norm– but with the economy’s downturn, people had become very creative with their inquiries and excuses. So when they hear that wedding day of coordination could cost thousands, they are shocked. Let’s clear up some misconceptions:

First, no one is just “showing up” on the day of your wedding to coordinate it. That’s not day of coordination. That’s damage control. This is much like you going into a doctor’s office and saying, “I don’t need you to do any tests on me, I’m pretty smart and really detailed. So, what I’m going to need you to do is just show up at the operating room and do the surgery for me”. You basically want the doctor to do a procedure “cold”, without knowing anything about your medical history, predispositions, or the medical team of nurses, anesthesiologists, etc. you’ve secured. The same is said for clients who expect wedding planners and coordinators to do the same thing. It is expected that the clients want someone to appear a few hours before the ceremony, set up a few place cards, fluff the peonies, tell your grandmother when to walk and cue you when to cut the cake. That is truly the watered down version of what a wedding coordinator does. That is only what you see.

It takes more than one day to coordinate a wedding. Truth be told, it takes anywhere to 4 to 6 weeks to coordinate ONE day. Those weeks consists of pulling together logistics, reviewing the event team’s contracts to confirm responsibiities and obligations, contacting your bridal party to make sure they know their duties and needed locations, finalizing payments, scheduling load-ins and strikes, creating timelines, event layouts, seating charts and more. By the time your wedding day rolls around, your coordinator will have put in at least 8 hours on your wedding. I’ve heard many brides laugh and say, “Oh, I don’t need all of that”. I laugh right back and say “Of course you don’t. But your caterer and photographer does…” It’s your job to be the bride, so there are many details that you may not have thought of.

Think of it as major motion picture company finding the right movie director for their new hot blockbuster. While a movie producer finds the talent, supervises and controls the funding, and other important duties. The parallel would be your full service wedding planner. The movie director is the person who directs the making of the film. They control the artistic and dramatic aspects, and work to visualize the script while guiding the technical crew and actors in the fulfillment of that vision. That, my friend, is your wedding coordinator. You supply the vision, they make sure that everyone else is on the same page so that the vision can come to fruition. With something as important as a blockbuster movie, as an investment, the motion picture company would never bring in a director on the day of a final shoot. Directors are hired early enough to get a feel for the film so that they know it like the backs of their hand. This allows them to know which cameras need to be where, The location of boom mics, pans and zooms and so much more. Again, the same is said of your wedding coordinator. S/he is able to see your event before it happens, making it possible to avoid pitfalls, timing clashes between vendors and other important factors.

So this is why wedding coordination “costs” so much. The experience, commitment and savvy your coordinator brings your wedding is an asset and benefit to your event as a whole. I’ll tell you the same thing I tell my team before each and every wedding: there are no do overs. While you may be extremely detailed, a planner by nature or profession, or have a really good friend or Maid of Honor who can help you, wedding coordinators do this every weekend. You’ll only do it once. They know the ins and outs, what works and what doesn’t. What sounds good in theory, may not work at all for your wedding. Nothing replaces the ability of having your own personal event director/producer on your side to make sure that your vision happens while you’re enjoying your day.

Stepping off my rhinestone soapbox in the Ambertina Louboutins…

P.S.– Keeping in mind what I just described about what the weeks prior to your wedding could entail production-wise, beware of $200 “wedding coordinators” or “free” wedding venue coordinators. You get what you pay for, luxeling.

To check out more of Terrica or Cocktails and Details check out her blog http://cocktailsdetails.com/blog/