Union Across the Pond

Congratulations to Debbie & Neil!

Debbie and Neil live in San Francisco so I didn't get to meet them until the week of the wedding. Planning from a distance is very manageable. I've done it twice now and have had no problems.

Although we had a cloudy day, it was a wonderful celebration at the Stephen Decatur House at Lafayette Square. Festive Foods catered yet another elegant event. I love working with Lauren Levine and her new supervisor, Khoa. Both are ultimate professionals. Kudos to the bartenders for handling the extremely happy crowd. You see, Neil is Welsh and so are many of his friends and family. Apparently, everybody had a rousing night at the rehearsal dinner :)We finished all the wine and beer; and practically had to tear away the glasses from the guests' hands! Growing Wild Floral Company did a great job with the personal and decorative floral arrangements. Our guitarist, Phil Mathieu, set the mood during the ceremony and cocktail hour. To get the crowd into partying mood, our fabulous DJ Vern Shird of DJGreyhound got the party started with a Tom Jones tune (another Welsh export). Sugarplum Tents is the exclusive provider for Decatur House and they provided a tent attendant throughout the night. I would highly recommend spending the money on this because if the weather had turned for the worse, he would be there to put up the sides of the tent, turn on the heater, and deal with anything else that might come up. Our photographers, Ed and Lori from Classic Creations were super-easy to work with.

The placecard table with personal photos and Barbara's arrangement.

The guestbook table -Debbie and Neil chose the polaroid guestbook option. It was great fun and everyone had a good time taking photos and writing a few words for the newlyweds.

The tables were named after Welsh towns, which are impossible to pronounce! The favors were chocolate Decatur Houses! Very cute and yummy.

Debbie had a great idea of providing flip-flops for the ladies when their feet got tired from all the dancing. Very cute!

Sorry for the blurry picture (apparently, I have shaky hands). The tent w/ a rose color wash.

eaTip: If you are using a tent for your event and it is held during the time of year when the weather can be unpredictable, consider having the tent company provide an attendant available throughout the event. That way, if the tent walls need to be taken down or put up, someone who is familiar with the mechanisms can manage. Contact us and we can help you ensure that your guests will be comfortable!

Not quiting my day job!

So back in January, I had attended one of the classes conducted by Petals Edge, hoping that I can learn a trick or two. We had blast and I learned how to make an emergency boutonniere! (Ironically, I had to make one the following week at a wedding).

Rebecca showing us the way.

Mine is the one in the square vase in the lower left side of the photo. See how lame it is :)

Lucky #13

Congratulations to Don and Alisa!

It's nice to have a Friday evening wedding for a change and we had the only nice day out of the whole weekend. Don and Alisa had their wedding and cocktail reception at the American News Womens Club (also known as the Cranford House) on Embassy Row. It's a beautiful French Revival townhouse built in 1906. This is a charming venue for cocktail receptions (we had 60 people) or a small sit-down reception (about 40). It is like getting married in your own home back in the early 1900s. The new club manager Jacque Jones was great to work with.

Alisa was my first 'partial planning' client and I have certainly learned a lot through out the past 10 months working with her.

Being that it was during the cherry blossom season DC, Alisa naturally wanted a cherry blossom theme. Her bridemaids dresses were a pale pink and she found a ton of cherry blossom items. The other theme we worked with was Friday the 13th. Not only was this their wedding date, but it was also the date of their first date! Not one to be superstitious, we found a list of important events in history that occurred on Friday the 13th and put them on tent cards. It turned out great and the guests loved walking around the house checking them out. (see pictures below) Don also surprised us as he serenaded Alisa and the guests with 2 songs - he sounded great! In his tux, he looked like he could be one of the Rat Packers!

We really had a great vendor team. The always fun Stacey Blomstrom of Labor of Love Photography documented the day along with one of her new photographers Sarah. Kirk Rubley of Kirkabees DJs kept the dance floor packed. Barbara von Elm of Growing Wild Floral Company once again did her magic and was able to get some decent looking cherry blossoms in the arrangements (the cropped had not being doing so well because of the freezing temperature). R&R Catering with Michelle Kalski as supervisor and Natalie Seng as sales manager did a great job putting up with all our changes and managed to work around a very tight and logistically challenging venue.

To keep the cocktail tables uncluttered, we decorated them with pink candles and 1 of the above tent cards. One side had an important Friday the 13th event in history; and the other side had a vintage postcard of DC during the cherry blossoms. The postcards were purchased on eBay and the tent cards and cherry blossom stamp were from Paper Source.

The guestbook table, along with their ceremony program, a few engagement photos and another Friday the 13th tent. Alisa also used some extra postcards for the guestbook.

The setup for the ceremony in the front parlor with approximately 60 white chairs decorated with a pink ribbon on the chair backs. A little something to pump them up.

Two lovely and fragrant arrangements flanked the center french doors where the couple would later stand for their ceremony.

The buffet setup in the dining room.

Ideas for a 'Green' Wedding on GMA

Good Morning America did a segment this morning on having an eco-friendly wedding.

Free Bonus Bag of Customized M&Ms

Found this coupon in the paper.
Free bonus bag of custom printed My M&Ms order. Minimum purchase required. Offer expires 5/6/07. Enter promo code FREEBAG7