Oct 13, 2011 | Day-of Coordinating, Weddings
I coordinated a wedding on Saturday night for a most original couple. They were able to plan this wedding in about four months because they knew exactly what they wanted, and it wasn’t like what anyone else wanted.
Everything in place for the ceremony.
They wrote their own vows, which were both humorous and sincere. The flower girls strewed heart-shaped confetti cut from the pages of books. They skipped the cocktail hour entirely and went straight to the reception, which meant they had plenty of time for a great party.
Tardis card box and dictionary guest book.
Being “Doctor Who” fans, they had a Tardis card box. (I understand that fans of the good Doctor are doing this all over.) Their guest book was an unabridged dictionary. The guests were invited to circle a word and write something next to it.
Literary centerpiece.
And, because they are literary sorts, they had centerpieces that were Gerber daisies, votive candles, more of the heart-shaped confetti, and some of their favorite books. There was the Kurt Vonnegut table; the poetry table; the Shakespeare table; the books-we’ve-never-finished table; etc.
The Vonnegut table, my personal favorite.
The best thing was that they managed to put their own stamp on the festivities while keeping everything in very good taste. Beautiful and unique was the watchword of the day.
Sep 28, 2011 | Weddings
Nice spot for a wedding, huh?
I traveled to the East Coast last week for my cousin’s wedding. I had offered a little advice to him and his bride while they were planning the wedding, but I was not their planner and did not co-ordinate their wedding for them. This gave me the opportunity to sit back and look at their wedding as a guest.
The nicest, sweetest, most surprising thing they did was when the groom picked up his violin (carefully concealed by his sister, his attendant of honor) to play the portion of the processional that was for his bride. She didn’t know this was going to happen, and she was visibly surprised and moved by this gesture, as was everyone else there.
The groom had two female friends and two male friends as his attendants. The bride had four female friends as bridesmaids. I’ve had people ask me if it would be “weird” to have attendants of the “wrong” gender. I found this arrangement appropriate and normal for this wedding. The groom and his sister are very close friends. No one else would have been right for the job. His other female friend who stood up with him is practically a member of the family. It would have been wrong to exclude her. Choosing honor attendants should be a matter of personal choice, not just custom.
The thing that really surprised me was how little I noticed the decor as a guest. As a professional, I made a point of looking at their decor choices and how they were executed. (Everything was beautifully done and with excellent taste.) Once I was done with my observations, though, I went back to being a guest and discovered that I barely saw any of the things that had been done with so much care. I was too interested in talking to people, in eating the delicious food, and in dancing to notice whether the flowers all matched or what kind of decorations had been provided. Some of this was due to the fact that the wedding was in a historic house with a view of the Atlantic Ocean that was magnificent even unadorned. But it makes me think that your average wedding guest does not pay much attention to all the decorative things that brides and grooms spend so much energy on. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t decorate. It’s just a reminder to keep it all in perspective.
Perspective was what it was all about last weekend for me. I got to go to a wonderful wedding. I got to see what a wedding looks like from a guest’s point of view. And I got that view of the Atlantic!
Jul 26, 2011 | wedding planning, Weddings
Just Married! Photo by Magical Moments Photography.
A client asked me today about the rules for name changes after marriage. I couldn’t recall the law in Illinois right away, so I went and looked it up. The law was changed in Illinois sometime in the last several years to allow either party in a new marriage to change their last name to that of their spouse. Until the law was changed, only women could change their name upon marriage without going through the courts. Now, the law is more egalitarian.
The client who asked wanted to know whether he and his fiancee could combine their names to make a new name. It looks to me as if the law doesn’t account for that possibility, but I would guess that there would be nothing to stop them.
If you’re going to change your name, remember to do all the paperwork. Alert your employer, the DMV, your banks, the post office, your insurance companies, the utilities, the Social Security Administration, credit card companies, your mortgage holder, and anyone else who needs to know. You’ll need extra certified copies of your marriage license (not photocopies) for some or all of these. There is a good summary of the steps necessary on Ehow.com.
Jun 18, 2011 | Weddings
May and June are very busy months for a wedding and event planner. I’ll have to give an update later on all I have been doing during this busy time. For now, here are some photos from yesterday’s wedding. It was a lovely day!
Outdoor summer wedding in yellows and greens.
The lemonade stand.
Banquet tables set for dinner.
The round tables.
The tent and the lodge.
Place cards clipped to a wagon wheel.
The gift table.
The guests arrive for dinner.
May 22, 2011 | wedding planning, Weddings
Buy a dress that fits you well. Photo by Magical Moments Photography.
I just heard a horror story about a wedding dress from the mother of a bride.
Her daughter found a beautiful dress she loved at a bridal shop. But the people at the shop had her buy a dress several sizes too large for her. It was so much too large that they had to clamp it onto her so it wouldn’t fall off. But they insisted she buy a size 12, instead of her usual size 6, “just in case.”
The dress itself cost around $1,500. The required alterations cost another $1,000.
I can see a few problems with this scenario. First, why buy a dress that clearly doesn’t fit? Second, it’s cruel to play into a bride’s fears about her weight and size. And third, that’s a lot of extra money to pay for buying a dress the wrong size.
So, beware of the traps in buying a wedding dress. Don’t feel pressured to buy something just because you’re talking to an “expert.” Trust your gut. And buy off the rack, if you can. There’s nothing magical about bridal dress alterations. They can be more complicated than your average dress, but a good seamstress with experience should be able to take care of you.
May 7, 2011 | Weddings
I’m a geek at heart, and so I got quite a few chuckles from this blog post: 25 Geeky Weddings (that are just as fantastical as the royal wedding). They are nothing if not creative. Check them out. Maybe you’ll chuckle, too.
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