Your Wedding Colors Blog

I was lucky to make a recent forage to Seattle, Washington, and fell in love with the climate, the people and the seafood.
But what caught me the most was their Farmers Market in the Ballard Neighborhood. If you enjoy farmers markets you will be ecstatic with this one.

It was dual sided and two city blocks long. There was home-made beer, wine, cheeses and breads and the most beautiful vegetables I have ever encountered. But the icing on this experience was the Flowers. You could buy the most magnificent blooms right from the farmers themselves. I was in awe with every Dahlia bloom I saw. They were the size of my hand open wide and every one of them looked perfect. Everyone was walking about with the most luscious bouquets of fresh blooms that were selling for $5.00 each. It is a truly a wonderful experience.

Want to know more about flowers? Check out bridalblooms.com for Beautiful blooms for your event.

Do You Know NACE ? You should.

Did you know that a child is abused or abandoned every 8 minute’s.

Do You know about Jonathan’s Place?

Jonathan’s Place provides a safe, loving home and specialized services to children who have been victims of abuse, abandonment or neglect.

Did you know that NACE’s The Seasons Of Love Event on September 3, 2014, at Event Space 6500 benefits Jonathan’s Place. You can see the pre video produced by WFAA on the DFW NACE facebook page.

There were close to 300 people that attended this event.  It was pretty spectacular.  All the competing designers created amazing displays.  It was really difficult to choose the best tabletops.  The food  and beverage vendors were equally unique. Thanks NACE and all the great NACE partners for being a such a huge part of the DFW Event Industry and for being a generous supporter of Jonathan’s Place.

The following images are two tables done by Bridal Bloom’s & Creations, Ducky Bob’s Event Specialists, Bees Knees, Beyond and Alex Stein Events

Is Your Birthday In August?

Then you know: Your birth sign is either Leo or Virgo; Your birthstone is the beautiful green Peridot or Sapphire; And your birth flower is the Gladiola.Here are some fun facts you may not know: The Leo, symbolized by The Lion, rules by the heart. The Virgo, symbolized by The Virgin is kind hearted and faithful.

The Gladiola is also known as the Sword Lily. Gladiola means Sword in Latin In ancient Rome, Gladiators battled to the death and the victor was honored by Gladiola bearing crowds.

Gladiola with Long Tongued Anthrophine Bee

There are 160 Species of Gladiola, which is endemic in South Africa where it was discovered and originally pollinated by the Long Tongued Anthrophine Bee.

I am still learning about Blogging. Part of the fun for me is that it is a great way to share information.

In today’s blog I want to share with you my interview with Cameron Fox, owner of iEntertainment and possibly the best networker I have ever known. Cameron’s title could also be Relationship Specialist, because he is so great at establishing and keeping relationships with clients, event guests and with industry vendors. Cameron prides himself on creating an atmosphere that recognizes the mood of your guests and exceeds their expectations.

Please Read On

What is the first thing you tell a client when they come to you?

That choosing your wedding vendors in any category is a personal decision that no one else can make for you.  But even though it is personal  – you need to take time to research your vendors.  There are three things you need to ask every vendor for:

Proof of Insurance:  When a bride signs an agreement with a venue she isn’t just signing for herself.  She is signing for all of her guests and her vendors.  DJ’s can do a lot of damage to a venue.  If you don’t use tape to cover power cables you can cause a tripping hazard that a guest or banquet server can trip and hurt themselves.  Using the wrong tape can pull the finish off floors or permanently damage carpet.  Overloading a wall circuit can easily cause an electrical fire.  The vendors do not sign anything when coming into a venue.  So if these things happen – the venue will come after the client who signed the agreement – not the vendor.  So make sure your vendors carry at least a one million dollar liability insurance policy.  It protects the bride from her vendors.

References:  Hotels and country clubs see between 70 and 120 weddings in a year.  They see nearly every vendor in the industry at some point.  Their references are worth their weight in gold.  Ask any vendor for three to five venue references.  Then e-mail those references.  Even if you are not having your reception at that venue – a catering sales person will give you an honest opinion.  Don’t trust the reviews on a vendor’s website or even on The Knot or Wedding Wire.  You don’t know the relationship between the vendor and the bride.  It could be a sister, a cousin, or a co-worker.  Venue catering people a safe neutral source that you can trust.

Face-to-Face Meetings:  In the DJ area there are several ‘bait and switch’ companies operating.  A sales person will tell you what you want to hear and then you don’t meet your DJ until the day of your wedding.  Stressful. Insist on a face-to-face meeting or don’t choose that company.  It’s that easy.

The biggest trends of 2014 you are seeing…

Short lead times.  Brides are taking their planning process from 15 months to 5 months.  Can you plan a wedding in 5 months?  Sure.  But you are cheating yourself of being a Princess.  You are cheating yourself out of the journey.  That’s what a wedding is.  It isn’t one day in May or June.  It’s the 12 to 15 months of having showers, choosing invitation designs, tasting cakes, and playing with design patterns and floral arrangements that makes the journey fun.  You are the focus in a lot of lives from the moment you say ‘yes’ and that ring goes on your finger until you hop in the limo at the end of the reception and head off to your honeymoon.  Don’t cheat yourself from the experience by trying to plan everything in 5 months.

Your perfect entertainment scenario…

When a brides trusts me to take care of her and read her crowd.  People don’t realize that you can play between 60 and 70 songs in a four hour period.  The biggest fear of a bride is that the DJ is going to play something she hates – so she micromanages a play list of things she wants to hear.  Sadly, what we listen to in our car doesn’t always work on a dance floor.  Start a ‘do not play list’ instead of a ‘play list’.  Tell your DJ what you hate so they will stay away from that.  Let them read your crowd and find what works for your guests.  You ultimately want them to have a good time.  If your guests are happy – you’ll be happy.

What is the best part of your job? What inspires you and/or your team?

At the end of the reception my bride and groom walk up to me and hug me and tell me that they had the best night of their lives and I helped to make it perfect.  At this writing I’ve DJ’d  644 weddings.  Not my company, not my other DJ’s – me personally.  And there is nothing better than to feel the love radiating off a bride after a perfect reception. Nothing.

Do you take into consideration the other vendors and what is happening for the event when creating a plan?

You have to.  During a reception the front part of the night is dominated by catering.  Someone is preparing food for dozens of people.  Prep times, food temp, and banquet servers getting that food to guests is key.  A photographer taking too long at the Chapel by taking too long to take family pictures can throw off an entire reception.  A DJ not coordinating with the photographer / videographer and asking them where they want the couple to stand during toasting or where they want the bride to throw the bouquet from is important.  When your vendors (venue / entertainment/  photographer / etc) have all worked together before – that’s a good thing.  They know how the other works and that only makes your reception come together in your favor.

Tell us about your other ventures in the industry and how networking works for you, or doesn’t

Industry Organizations I Love:

Meeting Planners International

Society of Wedding Professionals

International Society for Event Specialists

National Association of Catering and Events

Association of Wedding Professionals

Perfect Wedding Guild

June Weddings Inc.

If this resume shows anything – I believe in a strong event industry.  I believe there is a place for every organization.  The point is – you out of the industry what you put into it.  It’s a tired old phrase but I can attribute tens of thousands of dollars in sales to nearly every organization I’m a member of.  Networking isn’t just to find clients – it’s to connect with them without selling them.  It’s to just hang out with like minded people.  It’s to relax and not just be on the job.  It’s to learn and grow as a professional.  It’s all of these things and more.

Any tips for the perfect party or event?

Trust your vendors.  They have done more events than you have.  They have seen and done more in the industry than you have.  Let them be your guide and trust their opinion.  You hired them to take care of you.  That’s what they want to do.  They built a company around taking care of clients.  If you don’t have that level of trust – then don’t hire them.  But yourself in their care and you’ll be glad you did.

We went to Santa Fe for a scheduled wedding and ended up doing 2 POP Weddings for a Grand Total of 3 Santa Fe weddings over July 4th weekend!
And ours were perfectly planned and executed.

See images below of what we did.
This article was from titled A Nice Day For A Flash Wedding on NPR written by
by DENISE A. STEPHAN on June 6, 2014. For more information or to hear the audio google POP Wedding NPR

by DENISE A. STEPHAN

You’ve heard of pop-up restaurants, flash mobs and other hipster happenings. Now comes a pair of entrepreneurs in Washington, D.C., offering pop-up weddings for those who want to elope, but do it with flair.

Locations are never booked ahead of time, planning is minimal and fingers are crossed that you and your partner don’t get asked to leave before you are pronounced husband and wife, or wife and wife.

PopWed Co., which started last January, procures the wedding license, chooses a creative location, takes the photographs and performs the ceremony.

The unusual venues are what make it fun, PopWed’s Maggie Winters tells NPR’s Linda Wertheimer. Some couples may not want to throw a big party. “They still want to commemorate the day in a really special way, but dial it back,” says Winters, so it’s just the two of them focusing on the moment instead of stressing out about a party.

Winters describes herself as the “tiny, technicolor half of PopWed” — a reference to her fuchsia, asymmetrical haircut. She started the company with her boyfriend, Steven Gaudaen, a management student at George Mason University.

Gaudaen is a secular humanist wedding officiant who performs the ceremonies. Winters, a professional photographer, takes the photos.

“We generally chat with [couples] about what they like to do, and how they met, to see where we should marry them,” Winters explains. As Washington natives, Winters says they know all the secret, trendy and colorful locations around the city.

They’ve held ceremonies at a church converted into an art gallery painted with the colors of the rainbow, and inside the pearly marble atrium of the American Art Museum. They also married a couple in one of the Smithsonian museums — the one with the Hall of Bones and an 8-ton African elephant.

“When I was really small, my parents would take me to the Natural History Museum, and I just remember feeling this sense of awe when I looked at that giant elephant,” Winters says. “I really wanted to find the right couple to marry [there], and when our bride told us she had just gotten back from a safari in Africa … it was perfect.”

But sometimes half the adventure is when things don’t go as planned.

“They did kick us out two-thirds of the way through,” Winters concedes, “so as we were walking out, Steven pronounced them legally married so we could put the Natural History Museum on their wedding certificate.”

PopWed Co. isn’t “trying to be a budget wedding option” but rather, “an awesome wedding option that happens to be less expensive,” Winters says.

How Much Should You Spend on a Wedding Gift?
The New Rules for How Much to Spend on a Wedding Gift

By Nina Callaway Posted on Yahoo News

It’s something every guest wants to know: How much to spend on a wedding gift? The old rules said to estimate how much the couple spent on hosting you – the price of your plate. But the new rules say to spend what you think is appropriate, depending on your relationship to the couple. And like every good rule, there are some exceptions. Confused? Read on.

Why the Price-Per-Plate Rule Doesn’t Work

Think about it this way: if your best friend were getting hitched at City Hall, you wouldn’t give her a $10 knickknack. Your wedding gift is not a ticket for admission, nor is it a financial exchange. It’s a present! This token of your affection for the couple is in celebration of their new life together. And why should the couples who can afford million dollar weddings get the best loot? Plus, it can be hard to know how much they spent on your plate. Looks are deceiving – that “casual” wedding may be more expensive than you think, and the luxurious wedding may have been put together with coupons and freebies. Also, I doubt that most people who’ve never thrown a wedding in New York City know that it commonly costs $250 or more per guest here.
So, Really How Much Should You Spend on a Wedding Gift?
• For Your Co-Worker or Boss 
$75-$100. You see them every day, and hopefully you’ll have a long working relationship with them.
• For a Neighbor or Other Casual Acquaintance
$50-$75 is totally fine. Spend more if you have it, but there’s no need.
• For a Friend or Relative 
$100-$125. These are people you love and want to celebrate.
• For a Close Relative or Close Friend 
$100-$175. For your dearest friends and relatives, it’s worth spending a little more. Think about lasting presents that they’ll look at 20 years from now, remembering your thoughtfulness.
Exceptions to the Rules
• I’m Broke! What’s the Minimum?
No matter who’s getting married, $50 is a good place to start. You’ll want to give something meaningful, even if they are just a casual acquaintance. If you’re bringing a date, add a little more as an acknowledgement of their hospitality. If you’re a poor student, and really, truly, absolutely can’t afford $50, then make up what you can’t spend in money with time and thoughtfulness. Check out our ideas for inexpensive wedding gifts.
• For a Destination Wedding
When a couple’s asking you to spend money on airfare and hotel, they’ll understand that you can’t spend as much on their gift. Nevertheless, you should still get them a present. If they’re a couple you’re willing to travel for, they’re probably pretty important to you and vice versa. Spend $50-$100 on their gift.

When You’re in the Wedding 
You’ve bought a fancy bridesmaid’s dress, attended the shower, the bachelorette, and even the engagement party. Your budget is tapped! But since they’re your good friends, price is less important than sentiment, and your good friends don’t want you to bankrupt yourself over their wedding. Find them a personal and creative gift like a piece of artwork for their home or a handmade quilt. Or, band together with the rest of the bridal party and give one larger gift, like a piece of furniture from their registry. Whatever it is, give it with love and pride.