An Out of the Box Wedding - Cynthia Bailey of Real Housewives of Atlanta

Brides.com

Ok, I admit it. My dirty little pleasure is Real Housewives. I watch them all, Atlanta, Beverly Hills, OC, Washington DC. It’s a little like a train wreck that you just can’t help but watch. If you are like me and have been watching RHOA, then you know that model Cynthia Bailey has been planning her wedding. I liked watching this, because she had a definite idea of what she wanted and even though it was out of the box and not approved by some of her friends, she stuck with it.

One of her out of the box ideas was the non traditional wedding dress. She wore a platinum silver dress by Rubin Singer that I thought was beautiful. Of course you would almost have to be a model to pull it off, but Cynthia looked beautiful.

Also, like most of America right now, they were having financial problems pulling off this wedding. They had to find places to cut in the budget. They cut the alcohol down to wine, champagne and a signature cocktail to save money. This is a tip that anyone could use to save money on their wedding day.

I think she looks stunning. What do you think?

A Blush and White Wedding

I’ve always loved color at weddings.  I’ve never been overly excited about all white weddings.  But lately, I have really had a thing for white, blush, gold and silver at weddings.  I’m loving the soft white wedding dress with the blush or champagne colored bridesmaids' dresses.  I have also discovered a new love for the soft blush roses mixed with whites.  It’s all so elegant and upscale and nothing says elegant more than silver candelabras on white linens. Here’s an inspiration board I put together with just those colors.  Now all I need is the bride that wants to do it.

Simone Carvalli, Kathy and Company, azulshara.com, Bill Levkoff, blog.karentran.com

Just The Thing For Your Wedding Theme

Now here is something that could be a bride's best friend.  Japanese masking tape that comes in just about every color or pattern you can imagine.  Just think of all the uses.  You could decorate inexpensive votives and make them match your color scheme.  You could decorate vases, favor boxes, cards, and labels.  You could even run it down the sides of your aisle runner,to change an inexpensive runner into something spectacular. Typically costing about $5.50 a roll this could be just the idea to make that wedding theme motif appear just about everywhere you needed it.  You can find this tape at Happy Tape.

Vera Wang Arrives in David's Bridal February 11th

Mark your calendars, the Vera Wang White Collection arrives at David's Bridal stores on February 11th.  You can see the designs at Davidsbridal.com.  The gowns will be priced between $600 - $1,400 and are available in size 0-14.  There is also a line of accessories available to go with the dresses.  David's Bridal promises a 15 week delivery on the dresses.

These Kinds of Thank You's Are Why I Do What I Do

I received this email from the father of the bride.  You know when the father of the bride writes a thank you note, you have done something right.

Susan, Richard, & Gals,

Thanks for EVERYTHING! I had several comments from our close friends about how organized
the whole reception flowed. Nobody seemed to miss a beat. Tatia was/IS SO HAPPY!
Sabrena and I are both ESTATIC over how you and your team handled the event..from the
smallest Tic Tac to adjusting the kids exit due to the cold.

Dave & Sabrena

Tatia and Jason's Wedding - Part 2

 

As promised here are pictures we took at the fabulous reception held this past weekend for Tatia and Jason.  As you can see, everything was just beautiful.  Done in the bride's favorite colors of varying shades of purples, fuchsia and white (also my favorite colors) with silver and sparkle accents, it really gave the winter wonderland feel to the room.

The linens were purple pintuck overlays over white linen tablecloths. This was accented with white linen napkins.  Chivari chairs were brought in to replace the normal ballroom chairs.  Here and there throughout the room uplights were used to highlight arrangements and the cake.

The Speciality Coffee Bar.

Dinner at the Embassy Suites was a sit down buffet that consisted of salad, cheese tortellini salad, citrus crab salad, green beans, cheddar potato gratin, grilled chicken with honey lime cilantro and grilled sirloin steak with merlot demi. For dessert guests had wedding cake along with a specialty coffee bar.

The wedding cake was beautiful, done in white with silver accents. The bride and groom on top were turned just slightly to show the bride was giving the groom a little pinch on the behind. Too cute.

Favors were packs of playing cards with the bride and groom's name on them.  There were also coloring books for the children that were made special for Tatia and Jason's wedding. 

The coloring book favors.

Packs of Playing Cards Wrapped and Waiting For Guests

Family Pictures were displayed in the pre reception area for guests to enjoy.

The Grand Entrance



Parents Welcome



First Dance.

The Cake Cutting.



One really sweet thing that took place was during the father/daughter dance.  They had the DJ call for all fathers and daughters to please come and join the dance.







Glow sticks were given to guests to wave as the bride and groom left at the end of the night.

Vendors:

Flowers and Decor:  Memories by McMillan

DJ: Life of the Party

Venue:  Embassy Suites

Cake:  Kathy and Company

Photographer:  Blue Mountain Photo Works

Wedding Planner:  Willrich Bridal and Special Events

We Won Bride's Choice Award for 2011

We are happy to announce that Willrich Bridal is among the very best wedding and event planners within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Martha Stewart Weddings, Project Wedding and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for nominating us to receive the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011.

We received the announce below today:
WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, is thrilled to announce Willrich Bridal and Special Events has been selected to receive the prestigious annual WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 for wedding and event planners.

Recognition for the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 is determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 750,000 WeddingWire newlyweds. Our past clients are among those that shared their experiences on WeddingWire, the largest wedding review site in the nation.

Willrich Bridal stands among the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire community, representing quality and service excellence within the wedding industry. Awards were given to the top wedding professionals across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, and were based on the overall professional achievements throughout the past year.

“WeddingWire is honored to celebrate the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire community,” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “With the annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program, WeddingWire has the unique opportunity to recognize the best wedding professionals across the US and Canada. We applaud Willrich Bridal and Special Events for their professionalism and dedication to enhancing the wedding planning experience last year.”

For more information on the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011, please visit www.WeddingWire.com.

If you're a past bride and you haven't reviewed us on weddingwire, please do.

Tatia and Jason Get Married

Tatia in her beautiful dress.

You just know when the daughter of a wonderfully talented florist gets married the wedding is going to be gorgeous. We were lucky enough to be hired to help with just such a wedding. This past weekend Tatia and Jason were married at Mitchell Road Presbyterian with a reception held at Embassy Suites.

The outside of the church.

The wedding flowers were done in shades of purples, whites and pinks accented with silver and crystals. The bridesmaids wore deep purple dresses. Groomsmen’s tuxes were accented with two tone shoes.

Inside the church.

This bride and groom chose to see each other before the ceremony, so a very beautiful reveal was set up where the groom saw the bride for the first time. After that the majority of the pictures were taken.



The groomsmen, notice the shoes.


 

The Groom

 

The big reveal.

Today we’ll look at pictures of the ceremony that my group took. Come back tomorrow to see the
fabulous reception. As soon as I have the professional pictures I will share those too.

The Truth Behind "Day Of" Coordinations

Two of Willrich Bridal's planners setting up for a reception.

I just ran across the article below in the Event Solutions E:NEWS January 2011. I thought it was really informative.  The only small adjustment to it, is the cost for a "month of" planner. In this area the cost is in the $1000 range, not as high as quoted in the article.

WIPA Publishes White Paper Clarifying Roles


Brides-to-be often encounter a confusing world when it comes to hiring a wedding planner. For one thing, there’s no clear consensus about the differences between a wedding planner, wedding coordinator or wedding consultant.

To add to the confusion, some professionals call themselves wedding architects, producers, designers or stylists. But perhaps the most confusing term is the “day-of” planner.

To help remedy this situation, the Wedding Industry Professionals Association (WIPA) has published a white paper titled “Debunking the Myth of the “Same-Day” Planner.” The paper was researched and authored by the WIPA Certification Committee under the direction of Carol Rose, and included Linda Alpert, Brooke Baglietto, Paula Laskelle and Lindsay Longacre.

The paper’s bottom line is that there is no such thing as a “same-day” planner, according to Joyce Scardina Becker, CMP, president of Events of Distinction and founder of WIPA.

“This term is widely misunderstood and misleading because no wedding planner of sound mind, experience and education would simply show up on the day of your wedding and expect everything to flow flawlessly,” she says.


In her book, Countdown to Your Perfect Wedding, Becker defines the differences in the nomenclature and clarifies what a “day-of” planner really means.

At a minimum of 30 to 45 days before the wedding, she explains, the planner should:

• Review all vendor contracts
• Inspect the ceremony and reception site
• Develop a detailed timeline and floor plans to be sent to wedding vendors two weeks before the wedding
• Prepare a separate, abbreviated wedding party schedule to be sent to parents and all attendants two weeks before the wedding
• Reconfirm logistics with all vendors
• Oversee wedding rehearsal and be on-site the wedding day
Providing this service usually requires 30 to 45 hours of a wedding planner’s time, Becker says, considerably more than just showing up on the day of the wedding. And brides should expect to pay $3,000- $6,000 for a qualified professional.

For more information and to read WIPA’s white paper, go to www.wipausa.org and click on “For the Nearly-Wed” tab. And if weddings are your business, be sure to catch the WIPA education sessions at the 2011 Event Solutions Idea Factory. You’ll find them in our conference brochure, marked with a WIPA logo.

A 2 for 1 Bridesmaid Dress

I was looking at bridesmaid’s dresses and I ran across this one by Bari Jay (www.barijay.com).  I have to admit, I sort of love it.  Your bridesmaids can have the long elegant gown for the ceremony, and then remove the detachable skirt and party all night long.  Since I’m a little old school about bridesmaid’s dresses and I really do love the long lengths, especially for the formal ceremony, this works for me.  You know it could even work for a really “cool”, young, mother of the bride.  You go girl….

We Are Looking For a New Member of Our Fabulous Team

We are currently looking for a part time wedding day assistant to work with us at Willrich Bridal.

This person will be a contract employee and paid on a per wedding basis. Must be available Friday evenings and Saturday.  You would work on an as needed basis.

Qualifications:
Must be able to sew
Know how to use basic steamer, iron
Know fabrics
Be a people person and team player

If you are interested please send a resume and cover letter to info@willrichbridal.com.  No phone calls please.

A Willrich Video Showing How We Plan a Wedding From Beginning to End

Our Booth at the Bridal Show

We had a great time at the Wedding Festival show on Saturday. The turnout was great. The brides were really interested in just what a planner can do for them. My team and I had a great time explaining the value of a planner and just why you need one.

One of the things we had in our booth was a slide/video following the planning of a wedding from beginning to end. If you didn’t get the chance to see it, here it is.

What To Do???

OK, for those of you that don’t know, we will be at the Wedding Festival Show at the Hyatt on Saturday. We have been working like crazy to come up with a new and exciting booth for the show. I don’t know if you know this, but it’s hard to come up with a great booth for a wedding planner.

We’re what is known as a service provider. We hire vendors, we set things up, we organize the day for brides and grooms; we don’t sell an item. So, the question is what do you put in a booth to represent what we do. The even bigger question is how do we make it eye catching and interesting.

If I was a florist I could fill my booth with flowers or if I was a rental company I could fill my booth with furniture, tables and linens. If I baked cakes I would fill it with cakes. Get my point. To me it seems silly to fill my booth with those things if they are not what I do.

So……after a lot of thought and effort we have changed things up this year and we are going to have a new and exciting booth. Be sure to stop by and let me know what you think. Also, we will have show discounts available for brides that set up appointments at the show. See you there…