We love when our Uniquely Yours clients think outside the proverbial box as it pertains to wedding entertainment. Interactive entertainment features are quite trendy. Over the last few years, photobooths have been a fun interactive option for wedding guests, and we have seen numerous models from vintage to completely custom themed. Most include an attendant, a printed keepsake photograph, and some type of guestbook. None of them, however, have the “coolness” and creative appeal of the newest “photobooth” now available for weddings and special events – PhotoMingle.
PhotoMingle has all the features of a typical photobooth, allowing guests to take photographs and record video messages, but goes beyond the typcial with an interactive display screen that allows guests to write personal messages on their photographs with the touch of a fingertip. Guests can also manipulate and view the photographs on screen. The Uniquely Yours team recently had an opportunity to preview the PhotoMingle in action at a local industry event. It was a huge attraction for all the guests in attendance, and we had a great time testing out the features.
That is Lindsay from AFR Event Furnishings on the far left with the stylish screen “stache”, UY Karry, UY Erinn, & UY Sara.
The professionals at PhotoMingle also offer a guestbook/photobook that features all the personal photos and messages your guests created. You can see a demonstration video of the PhotoMingle and reserve one for your event by visiting the website at www.photomingle.com. Future plans for the PhotoMingle include connections to Facebook and Twitter as well as an iPhone application. We look forward to watching our clients and their guests have fun with the PhotoMingle at future weddings and parties!
Photo Source: www.photomingle.com
Season Three of Get Married’s popular planning show on WeTV continues with seven new episodes starting on Saturday, July 3rd at 9:30 AM EST.
Show host and Get Married founder Stacie Francombe, spends time with real brides as she guides them through an array of bridal experiences and participates in inspiring challenges with wedding professionals and experts.
The line-up of new episodes unveils the hottest wedding trends and shocking surprises including a customized father-daughter dance song written by singer-songwriter, Edwin McCain.
We are huge fans of the show which offers a balanced blend of trendy, practical, and creative ideas as well as timely advice and tips relevant to today’s modern brides.
The incredible team at Martha Stewart Weddings has added yet another fantastic tool to their website – Plan Your Wedding By Color. They have brought together a beautiful array of carefully selected images and organized them by color, inspiring brides to plan and develop their wedding day design around a chosen color palette. Plan Your Wedding by Color is an easy to use interface found on the Martha Stewart Wedding website. Images have been organized by flowers, cakes, bridesmaid dresses, perfect palette combinations, decorations, and favors all accompanied by descriptive details and source information. Need some help organizing your thoughts around your desired color palette? Visit www.marthastewartweddings.com and find Color Palettes under the Inspiration tab.
From the Emerald and Aqua Color Perfect Color Palette
From the Pink Plus Perfect Color Palette
From the Pink and Poppy Perfect Color Palette
It is easy to become overwhelmed with all the product offerings available for your wedding, and purchase more than you need. But if you are smart with your design process, you can make smart decisions regarding the products you choose for your day. Build a cohesive design starting with your save the dates and work through your reception. Whether you are inspired by a particular color, theme, or motif try to find creative ways to weave your inspirational piece throughout your day to create a custom look that will be unique to you. Creating a custom look will require bringing in some custom pieces. One of our favorite sources for custom products for weddings and other special occasions is For Your Party. The celebration experts at For Your Party offer a variety of fun and trendy products in their online store. And unlike online favor warehouses, all their products can be customized with their user-friendly design interface or you may upload your own graphic design. They even feature a variety of designs from top stationery design firms such as Hello Lucky!, Delphine, and Cid Pear. Here are a few of our favorites all suitable for showers, rehearsal dinners, welcome bags, and receptions:
Coasters
Matches (available in a variety of containers)
Napkins (we love the idea of the signature drink cocktail napkin)
Invitations (available at their sister site www.beforeyourparty.com)
Stir Sticks
Bags (great for candy buffets)
Tags (attach to gifts or favors)
Want to see more? Visit the For Your Party website at www.foryourparty.com for more products and design suggestions.
Images Source: For Your Party
At Uniquely Yours, we believe your wedding should be a reflection of you – your tastes, your sense of style, and your personalities. Part of the fun in planning your wedding will be infusing the details of the day with your own personal touches. This week we bring you a series on products and resources you can use to personalize your wedding.
Image Source: Pamela’s Parasols
The cold weather we have been experiencing as of late has us dreaming of beautiful spring days that roll into the warm beautiful summers that Florida is famous for. One of our favorite resources for spring and summer weddings is Pamela’s Parasols. Pamela’s Parasols offers a variety of custom painted parasols perfect for your wedding. Whether you are getting married on the beach or having a unique outdoor engagement/bridal shoot, you can find a color and style to match your personal wedding design. The professionals at Pamela’s parasols can custom match your wedding colors, add a beautiful monogram, or embellish your parasol with diamonds, feathers, or pearls.
Image Source: Pamela’s Parasols
They can even attach your favorite posies. We think you will agree, a parasol can be that perfect extra something needed to complete your attire or that of your bridesmaids.
Image Source: Pamela’s Parasols
Note: This particular model has been discontinued, but more floral embellished styles are coming along with a veiled line.
Pamela’s also carries a line of parasols sized just for your flower girls or junior attendants. Want to offer your guests a useful and beautiful memento from your wedding? Offering all the ladies attending your outdoor wedding a lovely parasol would be a most thoughtful gesture.
Image Source: Pamela’s Parasols
You can see more of the custom options available to you at www.pamelasparasols.com. What are you doing to personalize the details of your day?
This past weekend, we had the pleasure of attending The Wedding Party at the Breakers in Palm Beach. This outstanding show was created and produced by Claudia Hanlin and Jennifer Zabinski’s Wedding Library.
We headed down to Palm Beach with eager anticipation to hear and meet some of the finest wedding professionals in the business. The morning started with champagne and bellinis upon arrival. Guests were then ushered into the beautiful Ponce De Leon Ballroom to hear from top wedding experts Darcy Miller of Martha Stewart Weddings, Donna Newman of Donna Newman Photography, Sylvia Weinstock of Sylvia Weinstock Cakes, fashion designers Mark Badgley and James Mischka, and Kleinfeld Fashion Director Randy Fenoli. Making your wedding uniquely personal was the theme that tied all of the presentations together. Documenting the day was none other than Abby Larson, creator of Style Me Pretty.
Sylvia Weinstock
Our favorite take aways included (and please forgive my amateur photography):
Darcy Miller – Find ways to make your wedding personal, thoughtful, and delicious.
Donna Newman - It is better to have fewer hours in your photography package in order to have a better photographer who will take better pictures. You are not going to regret spending a little more on photography.
Mark Badgley and James Mischka – Your bridesmaids should feel like they are walking the red carpet. Their dresses should be fabulous, delicious – ones that they will want to wear again.
Darcy Miller Interviewing Mark Badgley & James Mischka
Randy Fenoli – Your dress should be all about you and what you want to convey. Dimension and texture are going to be popular. Look for shredding, ruffles, and layers. Finding the dress is like finding the groom; there is always going to be another groom so once you find IT – stop looking!
Randy Fenoli of Kleinfeld
Following the presentation, brides were welcomed to the Gulfstream Room for a VIP Luncheon featuring Breakers Master Sommelier, Virginia Philip. At the same time, the showcases opened in the Venetian Ballroom. There was so much wonderful wedding goodness to take in, we spent the entire allotted time visiting each of the booths. Really, we could have spent the entire day in there…
Outstanding Entertainment To Greet Everyone
Beautiful Designs at the Kleinfeld Display
We loved the Kleinfeld brooch display – tres chic
Fun Favor Ideas
Tablescape by The Wedding Library
Tablescape by The Design Studio
The Design Studio
The Design Studio
The day was capped off with a bridal fashion show sponsored by Kleinfeld and The Wedding Library Bridesmaids. The dresses were both stunning and unique…
What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon in Palm Beach! We enjoyed every moment, made some wonderful industry connections, and came back with several fresh ideas to share with our clients. Congrats goes out to the team at The Wedding Library for putting together this top notch event.
This past weekend, we had the opportunity to attend the Wedding Party at the Breakers in Palm Beach organized by Claudia Hanlin’s Wedding Library (a post on this event is in the works). We had a fantastic time gathering ideas from the guest speakers and meeting new professionals whom we look forward to working with in the future. One of the featured speakers was Darcy Miller of Martha Stewart Weddings who reiterated what we tell all of our brides which is find ways to make your wedding personal and thoughtful. One of the creative ideas she shared with us was a wedding day crossword puzzle, though this certainly could be a great idea for showers or a post wedding brunch as well. Make it personal by using clues about your home towns, families, activities as children or as adults, wedding facts, and more. You can go to any number of online sites to create the puzzle. Then just take it to your stationer to lay out the puzzle and clues in a user friendly, yet beautiful format that compliments your wedding day decor and motif. We think this is a great way to involve your guests. What is the most creative favor or fun wedding idea you have seen recently?
Photo Source: Martha Stewart Weddings
Last week, Uniquely Yours planner Karry Castillo, was a guest blogger on the Adventures in Wedding Planning blog. We were honored to be ask to contribute to this ever popular planning blog which was created by the talented Melissa Margarita-DiStefano, owner of Masterpiece Weddings . Melissa is an outstanding planner and also a wonderful friend. Her blog is informative and full of creative ideas for wedding planning and entertaining. For our post we offered some ideas for fun, fresh Florida inspired favors. You can read the post by clicking here. Enjoy!
Photo Credit/Source: Cannonfire Photography & Uniquely Yours
Chic Yacht Club Wedding
Adam and Meredith were married at the beautiful Eau Gallie Yacht Club. The Uniquely Yours team worked closely with the bride’s mother as well as the bride to create a destination affair that was both chic and timeless, yet suited to the nautical atmosphere of the wedding venue.
The family created some of the cutest “beachy” welcome pails for their guests, complete with key lime cooler cookies and sunscreen! Also included were custom designed guest itineraries for the weekend which detailed all the fun activities planned the week prior to the wedding on through to the reception. The covers of the programs were designed by an artist commissioned specifically to create a modern portrait of the bride and groom.
The colors of the wedding day were shades of white and ivory. The talented floral mavens at Thallo Floral Design put together an amazing look that seamlessly tied the event together from the bridal party bouquets through to the reception centerpieces which were a combination of tall vessels bursting with dendrobium orchids and table lamps surrounded by low arrangements of lilies and hydrangea. The linen lines featured a beautiful gold bichon complimented by black lamour napkins, and black lamour cushion covers. The cake table was swagged in multiple layers of gold bichon, gold lamour, and ivory bichon. Event lighting provided by Sophisticated Gents Entertainment and Event Design set the mood with tones of amber that transitioned into pinks as the evening progressed.
Meredith and Adam pledged their vows outdoors on the lawn overlooking the intracoastal. The ceremony was a true family affair with members collaborating to officiate and entertain. Additional musical accompaniment for the ceremony was provided by Gail Collins and her amazing team of talented musicians from String Music Specialists. Due to the unpredictable winds and noise that often arise during waterfront ceremonies, we always recommend audio support, and professsional John O’Hara was there to make sure key personnel and musicians were properly outfitted with microphones and to make sure all the guests could hear both the vows and musical entertainment.
The dinner reception was held indoors and the menu did not disappoint as the Eau Gallie Yacht Club is known for its wonderful cuisine. Guests enjoyed their choice of salmon, filet mignon, and chicken entrees. The beautiful cake was designed by Something Sweet Cake Studio. DJ Kevin of Sophisticated Gents Entertainment kept the dance floor hopping through the evening. Guests also had a great time hamming it up in the photobooth, complete with costumes and props. The emotion of the day was perfectly captured and documented by the talented Jason and Sara Martin of Concept Photography. Meredith and Adam enjoyed a sparkler departure and left their guests with a sweet remembrance of the day with a box of custom chocolates from Chocolate Creations by Connie. We love the flavors they selected which included chocolate martini ganache, cappuccino chocolate ganache, dark chocolate caramel walnut cluster, and a black forest truffle. Thank you Meredith and Adam for allowing us to assist in planning and designing your beautiful wedding! Congratulations and best wishes as you embark on new adventures together!
The tradition of thanking your wedding guests and showing your appreciation through gifts of wedding favors goes back centuries. European nobility would provide their guests beautiful bonbonnieres as both a token of thanks to delight their guests, but also to symbolize the giver’s wealth and position. A bonbonniere was a small box often crafted of porcelain, crystal, or gold and encrusted with precious stones that would open to reveal confectionery delicacies. Sugar was quite expensive and being able to give such gifts at various celebrations was a mark of prestige. Over time the desire to show gratitude to attending guests has not changed, but the variety and type of favors available has significantly changed. Most brides seek out favors that will compliment the various themes of their weddings, and others look to bring in favors that reflect cultural traditions. In either case, it is important that you carefully consider the type of favor that your guests will appreciate and treasure. The planning team at Uniquely Yours hates to see brides waste money, and far too many favors end up in the trash can as guests depart the reception. Enter the chotzke favor. During a time period where we are all trying to be cognizant of decreasing clutter and waste, the last thing you want to do is spend money on something that could be considered chotzke and tossed aside as rubbish. As wedding planners we see a lot of favors come and go with the wedding trends. However, the most popular and treasured favors have been those that are edible (think candy buffets, treasured family cookie recipes, or boxes of custom chocolate), cultural and heritage linked, or those that reflect a passion of the bridal couple such as donations to charitable/non-profit organizations. Some couples opt out of giving a favor all together and instead invest their money in providing more food/beverage options or higher quality entertainment thus giving their guests a richer experience. Give as much thought to the favors you are offering your guests as you have to the other details you have planned. Your entire wedding should feel cohesive and well thought out. Remember to ask yourself when shopping or designing the perfect favor what you would like to leave as a lasting reminder of your wedding day.
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