How Cute Are You!

I know you have seen me write about the too terribly cute graphics that friend of the Dish Holly Hatam over at Tear Drop Weddings creates for her stationery line. Well now is your chance to be just as cute.

Like any good designer, Holly is looking for inspiration and who better to inspire her than all the lovely brides and groom out there in Wedding Dish land.

Holly is looking for 20 brides to inspire her. All you need do is tell her your story about how you met your fiance, how you fell in love, your creative ideas and details for your wedding. Then she will choose the 20 brides that inspire her the most and design an invitation around that story. And in return, you will receive a custom designed invitation, but for the price of a design that you would choose out of her ready made collection! That is a savings of $1500!

I love that: Couture at Ready to Wear prices.

Hop over to the blog at Tear Drop Weddings and tell my girl Holly your story: then you can be too terribly cute too!

On another note; congrats to Holly. The boy just popped the question. I can’t wait to see those invitations.

Franklin Bridal Ball

Last night was The Franklin Bridal Ball. I was there to see what was up and catch any trends I could. As you can see I was in great company. Those are two really good friends of the Dish, Vicki Sanders of Branching Out Event Florists and Ashley King-Carter creator of Ashley’s Bride Guide. Yes, we apparently all got the memo: Green is tonight’s color!

There were many beautiful things there but I was inspired by some of the tabletops and centerpieces. It seems that ‘Shiny” is in!

I'll have more dish on the people and things for last night in the days to come. Stay tuned.

Wedding Jewelry Inspired by YOU!

Good friend of the Dish, Mandy Greenan is at it again. This time she is designing a line for her company Tigerlilly with YOU in mind.

Mandy is looking for 20 brides to inspire her; send her your story and your ideas and you may just be one of them. Ladies if you are at your wits end finding the right pieces to garnish your wedding day look, here is your chance to have one of the best custom design your dreams.

I find inspiration everywhere - in nature, music, fashion...
But one of the things I enjoy most and find most inspiring is working with you.
Brides have so much passion and excitement,
I just love to collaborate and come up with custom pieces that are the perfect
accent for you, your style, your day.

With that in mind, let me introduce the first season of the Inspired Collection,
a group of 20 designs that are created for 20 brides. Tell me about you, your
wedding, your gown, your style, your dream accessories, send me pictures,
and we'll come up with your signature piece.

You'll be part of our first ever Inspired collection - you help me design it,
name it, and even model it if you'd like!

We're starting this collection with 20 designs, 20 brides. If you'd like
to be a part of it, please email me at mandy@tigerlillyjewelry.com!
We're working with all budgets, and we're looking for a wide
variety of designs, from simple to over the top statement pieces!

I can't wait to hear from you!

So give Mandy a shout and tell her I said Hi.

Wedding Cake Topper to Make You Go awwwwwwwwwwwwww

As a former cake decorator I have never been too keen on cake toppers. Most of the one I have seen are tacky. Then of course there are the new breed that are just offensive. I always tended to lean toward using sugar sculptures to match the rest of the artwork on the cake. But this one just makes me go awwww. I would actually use this. In fact now I want to design a cake to go with it.

Let’s see. 3 tiers in fondant with classic curved top edges. Make the fondant on the base tier the faintest robin’s egg blue, fade the middle tier down to almost white and make the top tier a pure white to match the birds. For a base border, in a dark straw/light tan combination pipe random woven bits with maybe a number 4 round tip to resemble a band of birds nest. Do a board to match in just the next shade darker robin’s egg blue and add maybe a tuft of grass or a two as an accent on the base.

Inside, hmmmm…oh I know! The vanilla pudding pound cake I used to make with a passion fruit ganache filling; add a touch of Le Grande Passion liquor to the soak and the butter cream base coat. Oh drool. Love it. Almost makes me want to bake again

Pretty Hair Jewlery

I received an email update from Lonni Tanksley to highlight these adorable new hair coils. Wouldn’t they look like tiny stars tucked into an updo? The coil design will see that they stay there no matter how much you dance the night away.

Lonni is an indie artist that with a shop on etsy.com. If you haven’t checked out her work you really need to give it a look. Her pieces are so light and airy that they make a perfect addition to not only your summer wedding look but for any time you want to add a little sparkle to your day.

DIY Cake Stands

A pet peeve of mine is seeing a beautiful wedding cake sitting on an ugly cake base. Oh come on, you’ve seen it: a board covered in aluminum foil that some poor florist has had to try to hide with greenery. Yuck Oh!

Well not any more! Martha has come to the rescue with a fast easy solution that you can do yourself and just take to your cake designer to use on your cake. You can find all the details here. I do have one caveat: add an additional foot in the canter of the stand. Wedding cakes are very heavy and if that board bows at all it can destroy your cake. Been there done that---been scrambling to find something to support the center of a sterling silver cake stand. Thank God for chefs that love me!

You have just got to love the people at MS Weddings; they come up with the best ideas

Wonderful, Whimsical Invitations

I don’t often talk about one of my clients on the Dish but Tear Drop Designs has me so tickled pink I just have to share!

The wonderful Holly Hatam has created the most unique line of stationery products I have run across in a long time. An artist in the true sense of the word, Holly creates for her couples wonderfully whimsical caricatures for their stationery. Adorable little couples that her clients become so taken with that they want to keep them for ever.

In talking with Holly I encouraged her to let them do just that. Today she has launched a whole new idea called LifeCycles. Holly will take your characters and create invitations and announcements for all the moments of your life.

“At TearDrop we realize that your wedding is just one experience in your cycle of life. That is why we have carried our character designs from our invitations to our baby announcements. Now you can carry your illustration of you and your spouse into the next cycle of your life! We will customize the characters to follow your unique personality and physical changes throughout the years. We make customized changes like adding glasses, making your hair shorter or longer, even adding a cat or a dog. We want our designs to totally reflect you and follow you throughout your life.”

Way to go Holly! I think you have a winner.

Angel Sanchez

One of the things I love about where my career is right now is the opportunity to meet some very wonderful people in a more intimate setting. Such was the case Monday at the bloggers luncheon hosted by Brides.com to celebrate the launch of their blog Wedded Bits.

Michelle Preli, Editor-in-Chief, invited Angel Sanchez to join us. Unlike meeting him at market or hearing him speak from the Runway, in a setting like this his true passion shines. Angel began designing bridal strictly as couture, one on one with each of his bride. He would most often attend the wedding. Hearing him tell about how he would watch the groom’s face as his bride walked down the aisle was amazing. Here is a designer that is in love with each of his brides and wants to make their day the one they have dreamed of.

He is passionate about fabric, hating satin; loving instead silk gabardine for its softer more subtle shine. Rather that lace, he prefers embroidered organza, calling it his favorite fabric. A true romantic, he favors veils over tiaras; saying “A veil adds the aura of bridal to a look.”

Some other things that have Angel excited are the upcoming move to his new 7200 square foot studio and show room as well as the launch of his new line Angel by Angel Sanchez for October 2009.

Enjoy the slide show of the Angel Sanchez collection for Spring 2009

The Truth behind Floral Décor: Arches

I had the privilege of assisting on a truly beautiful wedding this past weekend. You would have loved it: outdoors at a wonderful botanical garden on the grounds of the Cheek mansion. The florals were bright, happy, perfect for a summer day and quite extensive. There in lies the bugaboo.

Saturday in lovely NashVegas was 92 degrees and possessed of all the humidity for which the south is famous. Now the wedding didn’t start until 7:00 and by that time the temperature had improved a bit and the breezes had picked up, but at 3:30 it was a bear.

The arch you see above had to be done completely on site. It began with a ladder, a green garland and 5 buckets of flowers. Two of us spent 2 hours in the afternoon sun climbing and cutting and placing and misting to achieve the results you see. I am not telling you this to complain, I am telling you this so that you are aware of what goes on behind the scenes of your big day. When we stood back and looked at our work we were as in love with it as I hope you are. It was most definitely worth the effort; but wow, was it ever hot!

The floral décor was by Branching Out Event Florists. The wedding was held at Cheekwood. If you would like to see larger images of the images above, visit my Flickr Photostream.

Treats for Your House Party

Come on. You all know how much I like swag. Nothing beats a fun creative swag bag as a way to remember an event, double score when the bag is a cool as the swag in it.

At last weeks conference in Celebration, Fl, Rebecca pulled in a favor from a friend from the neighborhood to put together the fabulous swag bags for the guests. WOW. Cindy Folak has created Tulla Belles as a one stop destination for posh presents and trendy swag.

Tulla Belles has some of the most beautiful bags from the b.happybags line. On top of that they will source your swag and fill your bags for you. One less thing you have to think about amid your busy pre-wedding schedule.

The bags we received were the Victoria Bag shown above with the addition of cute little monogrammed luggage tags. Lovely.

As you start to think about how to tell the girls in your house party how truly wonderful they are, pay a visit to Tulla Belles for some equally wonderful swag bags to put it all in. While you are there, check out the too cool hostess aprons Cindy has. Ooooo, I covet them.

Flower Friday: Preston Bailey and Marcy Blum

I had the chance recently to be part of an Inside the Designers Studio with none other than Preston Bailey and Marcy Blum. Instead of doing their standard conference presentation, Rebecca Grinnals had set up a more intimate discussion with Bailey and his oft times partner Marcy Blum.

What a treat. Together they shared with the elite group of wedding professionals gathered their take on weddings today and a bit of the philosophy that has led them to be trendsetters.

The one thing that really sets them apart is that each event they do is an individual. So many décor designers today seem to rehash the same successful event over and over. Not these two. When asked if he ever reused design elements, Bailey said there may be a tiny bit of a recurring theme over the course of a season, but only because it is a trend. At the end of each season he guts his storage and starts over anew.

What you should take away from this is a way to think as you begin to choose your wedding planning and décor professionals. If you go through their portfolio and there are only 2 or 3 designs that keep getting repeated over and over in various colors, they aren’t really designers, just technicians. Your wedding should be unique to you, your location and the level of formality. If you are interviewing someone and they just keep showing you pictures of past work and never pull out a sketch book, move on.

Be sure to pick up Preston’s new book, Inspirations. It is jam packed with yummy event photos and, hallelujah, no two look alike.

While you’re at it, be sure to check out Marcy Blum’s entertaining column on The Huffington Post. By entertaining I mean both that it is about entertaining and that in itself is wildly entertaining. Ms. Blum is a character of the first order and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute she spoke. To hear her and Preston Bailey bounce thoughts and ideas back and forth off each other tells me that anything they design and plan together is going to be amazing.

Get Married

I just got back from a fabulous conference in Florida with some of the top trend setters in the industry. Over the next few days I want to go indepth on some of the people and products I ran across. So let’s get started.

I rode in from the airport with the darling Stacie Francombe, CEO of Get Married. Stacie and I have met on other occasions but this trip gave us a chance to really connect. If you aren’t familiar with GetMarried.com you should be. What a great site.

Get Married is supported on the air waves with a daily TV show on Lifetime at 7:30 AM, EDT. TIVO it or better yet just watch it on line. I could spent hours watching the archived goodie on GM.

My favorite things on the site are the video quick tips. I could literally spend hours. The videos are beautifully done and not just fluff. The information is cutting edge and detailed. Click on the Planning tab and select Expert Advice from the drop down. Get comfortable, you will want to stay for a while. The Quick Tips are as billed, quick; there are just so many great ones that you will keep on watching. Yes, sadly I have found one more habit to consume my time. At least this is a good one.

Tomorrow for Flower Friday I’ll share what the amazing Preston Bailey had to say.

Flower Friday: The Carnation

Some times the simplest things can have the biggest impact. Take for instance the humble carnation. We have all seen the old fashion, boring flower arrangement with a few carnations and a bunch of green filler or even worse the single green carnation in the bud vase tied with paper ribbon. I think we can all agree on Yuck! That is where these easy to use, sturdy and inexpensive flowers got their bad rep.

Look at what happens when you use them in mass! Think pave in a single color on an interesting shaped floral foam base. That humble little flower becomes transformed into something very modern and sculptural.

Lightly scented and wildly ruffled; they add a fresh alternative to the over used rose. So when your floral designer mentions the word carnation, do not run for the hills, hear them out. You might just be surprised.

$1000 Tigerlilly Jewelry Giveaway

WooHoo! My favorite jewelry designer, Mandy Greenan is giving away $1000 of her fabulous bridal jewelry to one lucky bride.

Tigerlilly is looking for its Bride of the Season for summer. Not only will the winner receive a gift certificate for Mandy’s beautiful bridal and bridesmaid jewelry and hair accessories; she will be featured on the Tigerlilly website complete with pictures and details about her wedding. How great is that.

To enter, brides should visit www.tigerlillyjewelry.com/seasons.html and tell Tigerlilly a little bit about themselves, what designs they would choose if they won, and why they are Tigerlilly's Bride of the Season. The winner will be announced on Monday, June 2.

If you are not familiar with Tigerlilly, they are a couture jewelry design house that has been featured every where from the Knot to Modern Bride to Lifetime TV to Mercedes Benz Fashion Week at Bryant Park. Mandy’s unique designs set her apart in the bridal industry. These are most definitely NOT your mama’s tiaras.

Since I am obviously not eligible, I certainly hope one of you win it. I just know you will love her designs as much as I do.

Read more here and here.

Rose Petal Monogram

If you follow the Dish then you know I have had my share of stories about rose petals; good, bad and hysterically funny. Whether it’s keeping my head down while the planner and the church lady argued over their very existence or traipsing through the pouring rain and lightning to collect them off the grass, they seem to be ever present. For some reason when I stage with my friend Vicki I always end up on rose petal detail.

The newest trend I have seen emerging is the rose petal monogram. We always place it at the end of the aisle right in front of where the couple stands to take their vows. With so many couples incorporating a monogram in their décor this is the perfect way to carry the theme into the ceremony site. Make sure it is allowed by your church, temple or synagogue first; see aforementioned church lady; then just go for it. Provide your floral décor team with a copy of your monogram and you should be good to go.

If you are going to DIY this, lay out your monogram in sidewalk chalk (concrete or stone), ribbon (carpet) or corsage pins (grass) first then just start adding petals until your design suits you.

The above monogram was done by Branching Out Event Florists at Gaylord Opryland Hotel.

Wedded Bits

Laura over at Brides.com just tipped me off to an online survey they are running about the central question in the Sex and the City movie: Will Carrie and Big tie the knot and is she ready for marriage? It seems that the brides-to-be that were polled think that they will indeed do the deed. If not, they want our favorite sex writer to skip back to that darling little Aidan. (my personal fav, but that is a long story) Vote and check out the rest of the details for yourself at the Brides.com blog, Wedded Bits.

If you haven’t subscribed to Wedded Bits yet you really need to check it out. It’s a wonderfully newsy site with lots of celeb updates and style. It struck me as sort of People meets InStyle with Brides pulling it all together. Pretty fun concept and a new must read for me. With the power of Conde Nast behind it, they are able to get interviews and other inside dish that is beyond we mere mortals.

Thanks for the heads up Laura.

Mad about Green

Maybe it’s the season, but I am suddenly mad about green. A pretty place to start to pick the colors for your wedding is to choose a base of one or two related greens, then add cream and an accent color for pop. You can almost not go wrong. This works especially well if you are planning an outdoor wedding.

For more inspiration, go to COLOURlovers and type green into the search box.

Centerpieces for a Casual Wedding

Last weekend was busy, busy. I wanted to share with you some shots from Friday night’s rehearsal dinner.

The goal was to have a casual country feel to the event. It was held in a beautiful location, the carriage house at Belle Meade Plantation. I know you wouldn’t think that using burlap for the table clothes would work for anything but in this setting it was spot on. Combined with the black chairs and black napkins it looked easy yet elegant. What do you think?

Vicki at Branching Out, along with the mother of the groom gathered a massive assortment of blue glass bottles and rustic lanterns. The vases were filled with simple individual stems to evoke a very ‘wildflower’ look and the lanterns withstood the strong breezes to add a bit of candle light. It was just perfect.

I particularly liked the use of mason jars for water glasses. I completed the look to give everyone a casual vibe to enjoy the late spring evening before the more formal events of the next day.

Oooooooooooo! Candy

Are you having a candy buffet at your wedding reception? I think they are a lovely idea and I just ran across Candy Warehouse. What is cool about this site is that you can shop by color. Pink and orange wedding? No problem.

The secret to having a gorgeous candy buffet is for it to look abundant, like Willy Wonka set it up himself. Uh, ya…that can get pricey. Here’s a few tricks that might help.

Take a cue from the pros that do gift baskets, use fill on the large containers. Those pretty tall glass cylinders hold a heck of a lot of jelly beans but not if you take a smaller, shorter glass cylinder and place it inside, upside down first. Then you only need candy to fill around and above it. Unless you have 300 people at your wedding they would never have reached the bottom anyway.

If you are using baskets fill the bottom 1/2 with leftover Easter grass then put a piece of cardboard that you have cut to fit and wrapped to match on top before you add the candy. Remember, you are going for the look of abundance, not the real thing.

Group your containers close together and use lifts under them to add height at various levels. You can either wrap sturdy boxes in pretty fabric to match or drape all your lifts in tablecloths like caterers do. That helps with the look too. (Next time you are at a catered buffet sneak a look under the linen. You are likely to find such unlovely things as dish racks and milk crates)

Add some large things like Lollis and ribbon candy to expand the look. You won’t by any means need one of these for every guest, think of them as accents.

Use your guest containers as a part of the display.

If you happen to order any PixiStix or Sour Patch Kids you can always send me your leftovers. Teehee

Design Center

Check this out.

That is the Monumental Affairs Design Center.

“Located at Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, this newly designed boutique offers a unique location for anyone -- from the newest bride-to-be, to the most seasoned Washington DC event planner -- to make the necessary selections of china, linen, floral arrangements, invitations, entertainment and more for their catered affair, in one convenient location. The rich décor of the room showcases the most current linen styles and china patterns, in a colorful and inviting setting”.

Well, it about time! Why should you have to run all over town to put together the pieces of your wedding? A meeting at the linen vendor, followed by one at the rental firm, followed by one at the florist … but wait, will the flowers work with the linen? Back to the linen rental. Oh hell…I give up!

I have seen a couple of enterprises like this start up in the last few years. There is a lovely one in Marquette, MI of all places called the Wedding Emporium.

What a concept, event and wedding planning in one relaxed comfortable place. Shouldn’t it have always been this way? I mean, aren’t you busy enough without spending hours every week traipsing from appointment to appointment?