Anniversary Time!

Selecting a cake is a top priority for most brides and grooms.  There are so many choices out there and ways to spend a little or a lot of your wedding day confection.

Tradition tells us to freeze the top layer of the wedding cake to enjoy on the first anniversary.

We're not big fans of that tradition because, not matter how you slice it, cake 12 months old just can't be good.

Our favorite twists on the tradition:

1.  Eat the cake on your 1 month anniversary.  Rarely celebrated but super fun.

2.  Cut the cake into 12 slices - 1 slice to share every month!

3.  Get a new cake - many bakers offer it for free.

4.  Skip the cake altogether and go to Hawaii.

Is your Mother insisting you freeze the cake?  Here's how:

Freeze It

1.  Freeze it before wrapping it to get the whole cake and icing nice and hard.

2.  Wrap it in layers and layers of plastic wrap.  You want to avoid any air touching the cake.

3.  Wrap it again in foil - again the goal is no air.

4.  Place the entire package into an airtight container.  This part ensures that the cake package doesn't get beat up in your freezer.

Eat It

1.  Take the cake package out of the freezer 1 day before you want to eat it and store it in the refrigerator.

2.  The morning you want to eat your cake, put it on the counter totally unwrapped to defrost.

3.  By evening the cake will be ready to eat with a glass of champagne.

The Best of Weddings - 2008

We're thrilled to have, once again, been listed as one of

The Best Event Planners in our region in The Knot Best of Weddings 2008 magazine.

It's always an honor to be mentioned-

and it's even better to be recognized by past clients!

Thank you to everyone who voted!

We Can Dream - They Can Build It

We had such a fun day yesterday visiting Capital Decor and Events.  Meredith invited to see all of their amazing props, furniture, and decor.

There were dozens of options for bars, lounge furniture, vases, escort card displays, chandeliers, and candle holders - just to name a few.  Their warehouse is chock full of event inspiration and they've promised to create anything we can dream up!

The wheels are turning!

Image courtesy of Capital Decor and Events

A Winner by a Landslide

Blue Orchid Designs posted this story on their website this morning.

Cicely Rocha-Miller from Life Design Event Planning and her team navigated their way through a real-life wedding hiccup. The night before their 342 person wedding in Arizona there was a landslide on the only road leading to the ceremony and reception site.

Cicely and her team jumped in with an alternate location and a little bit of charm to convince the police to let her vendors and guests pass the barricade to reach the location.

Another event planner success story. Great work Cicely !

Read the whole store here.

Sylvia!

We spent a lovely evening with Sylvia Weinstock - the famous cake designer from NYC - and about 175 of our friends from NACE (National Association of Catering Executives).

The event was held at the fabulous Five Farms Clubhouse of the Baltimore Country Club.  The food was delicious and topped off with our new favorite drink - the Pama Rita (recipe below).

The entire evening was inspiring and refreshing.  Sylvia's work is amazing and her attitude is down-to-earth and honest.

We have loved working with her in the past.  She's brought a number of cakes down to Baltimore for our brides and grooms and they're always fantastic.

Pama Rita:

2 oz Pama Pomegranate Liqueur

1.5 oz Tequila

.5 oz Triple Sec

Fresh Lime Juice

Splash of Simple Syrup

served over ice with a sugar rimmed glass.

We Love This Idea

There were so many highlights to Betty and Jarrett's wedding earlier this month.

One we wanted to point out was Betty's choice of bridesmaids dresses.

Betty worked with Mia at Garnish Boutique to give her girls options on color and dress shape to find the one that worked the best for their figure and skin tone.  In her colors of coral and pink she chose a few designers and a few colors and the dresses were created from there.  The effect was unified, yet unique and we know the girls will wear these dresses again!

Photos from Arthur Remanjon

Dazzle Me

Looking for a little sparkle?  Look no further.

Our friend Linda Blake from the Peabody Library and Evergreen House has you covered.

Check out her website: My Silpada

Two Left Feet?

Don't just want to shift from foot to foot during your "first dance"? We advise every bride and groom to spend a little time taking dance lessons before their wedding. At The Towson Dance Studio, they offer a "Wedding Survival" course which covers traditional rhythms (waltz, foxtrot, swing), and is a 4 week (1.5 hrs /wk) course. There are several "levels" for those who want to learn more and get better and better. The private lessons can be geared to a specific song, or for those who just prefer individual instruction.

Dancing is a man & a woman communicating with each other. Get the wedding off to a flying start by communicating on the dance floor, with your special song! Bring tears to mom's eyes...wow your friends and family and bring joy to your heart!

A Wedding to Remember

On March 8th we were thrilled to be a part of Betty and Jarrett's Wedding. Betty is a veteran of the event planning world having worked with Elizabeth for many years and she knew exactly what to do to create a stunning setting for the wedding and knew which elements to add to the reception to really spoil the guests.

The ceremony, cocktail hour, and dinner were held at The Walters Art Museum which was followed by dessert and dancing at the Intercontinental Harbor Court Hotel. The Walters is an incredibly beautiful venue for weddings and is managed by the always gracious Robert Zimmerman.

The ceremony held in the Sculpture Court was designed in the round and all wedding guests had a view of the bride and groom and the gorgeous chuppah designed by Victoria at Romance of Flowers. Crystal Strings provided three separate groups of talented musicians for the three segments of the event at The Walters.

After the ceremony, the guests walked up the center grand stairway to a fun cocktail hour with fabulous hors d'oeuvres like lobster tempura, seared tuna, black olive tapenade bruschetta, and slivers of duck on an avocado base with shaved parmesan. The very fun signature drink was served in a stemless martini glass and was (of course) the coral color of the wedding. All the beautiful rentals were provided by Party Rental Ltd. with the help of Rose Rabin.

After an hour, the guests came back into the Sculpture Court for dinner and were completely awed by the beauty of the table configuration and table decor.

A delicious five course dinner caterer by Linwood's (under the expert guidance of Linda Brown) was held at two long tables with buttery gold linens and crisp white hemstitched toppers from Table Toppers. The flowers were so beautiful and abundant in hues of coral, light red, and pink with candles throughout. Victoria and her staff of floral designers did an amazing job with the decor.

After the dinner the guests were swept away on mini coaches to the Harbor Court for dessert and dancing. The bride's mother created a gorgeous and delicious wedding cake which guests enjoyed along with an ice cream station by Cold Stone Creamery and an Espresso Bar by Greg Baker at Xpress. The fun photo booth set-up by Photo Illusion captured each guests in a strip of photos and the excellent rocking deejay from Creative DeeJays played until 2:30 am to an appreciative crowd of young dancers. Just so no one would go hungry, Harbor Court provided a late night snack of mini cheeseburgers and french fries.

The talented photographer Arthur Remanjon captured the memorable day for us.

See more pictures on Arthur Remanjon's Blog.

Prima - Baltimore's Premier Bridal Show

We are thrilled to, once again, be participating in Prima - Baltimore's Premier Bridal Show.

We can't wait to see you on Sunday, April 27th at Green Spring Station in Lutherville between Noon and 3.

There will be a variety of Baltimore's Best Wedding Vendors - including us!

Be sure to sign up at www.PrimaBridalShow.com soon, tickets are going fast!

Independent vs. Onsite Planners

We recently stumbled across this excellent post from our friend Kelly McWilliams of Weddings by Socialites in Florida. Since we loved her explanation of Independent vs. On-Site Planners SO much we decided to post it here for you to read.

Independent Planners vs. Onsite Planners

"I had 12 minutes before my clients were due to arrive at the florist on Friday, so I was really excited to take advantage of the time and read the new In Style Weddings. It's a great magazine, and their new wedding website is supposed to be launching soon. Anyhoo, I get to the etiquette section and here's what I read:

"I'm having a destination wedding at a venue that employs an in-house planner, and she hasn't consulted me on some decisions. How should I handle this?"
While the answer given was good, it was very much incomplete. Here's why; the answer didn't explain that perhaps what the bride was expecting the planner to do, wasn't at all her job. You see, an onsite (or in-house) planner is typically only responsible for things that happen onsite and that are relative to the site and its staff- and NOTHING else.
So, then what's the difference? I'm going to clear this up once and for all. The best way to find out what exactly your "included" planner will do...ask. Here are a few really good questions. And yes, the crazy seeming ones, I have actually had to do.
"Hello Onsite Planner (insert name here)! I have a few questions for you. Yes or no answers please."

"Will you...
1. Call all the vendors on your preferred vendors list and see if they are available for my wedding and in my budget? And if not, will you get me 3 more options who are?
2. Create a budget for me for everything wedding day related?
3. Write and hand out both wedding party and guest list itineraries?
4. Compile all the goodies for the welcome bags and make sure all the hotels get them just before guests arrive?
5. Give me stationary and etiquette advice?
6. Keep my mother at the cocktail hour, far from me during photos, with a full gin and tonic and away from crazy Uncle Steve?
7. Schedule and attend all the vendor meetings with me?
8. Review all the contracts I'll have to sign?
9. Prepare a detailed timeline for my day as well as one for all the vendors working at my wedding?
10. Go out and find my new father-n-law size 12.5 brown leather lace free yet wedding appropriate shoes when his sole falls off during the ceremony and make sure that you're back in time for him to be introduced into the dinner reception?
11. Call and confirm all the vendors have been paid, are going to show up, if they need anything further, and that they do in fact know not to say anything about the surprise grooms cake.
12. Find a replacement tuxedo for the best man the morning of the wedding when it arrives blue and not black?
13. Help me create design options for my wedding?
14. Research and find favors, a unique escort card display and super cool fun things for my guests to do at my wedding?
15. Help me plan a welcome reception, grooms outing, bridesmaids luncheon, and rehearsal dinner? Oh, and a farewell brunch too? Oh, but not all at your site of course.
16. Figure out all the rentals I'll need, order them, and then oversee the installation?
17. Stay for the entire wedding and then check under every single table for lost shoes and purses after everyone leaves?
18. Run the rehearsal?
19. Email me when you find flip flops on clearance at Old Navy and then fight with them until they agree to send all 775 to you, even if it does clean out their stock?
20. Have an emergency kit prepared for me and my bridesmaids?
21. Make sure there are hospitality baskets in the restrooms?
22. Politely explain to the make-up artist that my eyes look ridiculous so I don't have to feel awkward?"

Here is one thing I want to make perfectly clear- onsite planners or coordinators are wonderful and very helpful and are responsible for an enormous amount of work that you will never even realize. I just feel that its important to know that what an independent wedding planner such as myself does, is not what 95% of onsite planners do...2 different job descriptions. Picture above, me and Jen Dube (onsite planner for Casa Ybel- and she rocks.)

Oh, and the 775 flip flops- the UPS guy thought he had seen it all until that delivery. And my husband, well, he "pointed out the 17 boxes in my living room" every day until we were down to 12 boxes. Now, "Remember when we had 775 flip flops? The 600 left seem like nothing huh?""

Here it is on Kelly's blog.

Read All About It

One of our fabulous weddings from last year was recently featured in TheKnot Baltimore Magazine.  Unfortunately, due to an editing error we weren't included in the article.

The upside?  TheKnot just posted Lisa and Chris's Wedding as a Real Wedding!

See the posting:  Lisa and Chris

And our original post about their wedding.

Congratulations Lisa and Chris!

Green Out your Wedding Bands

Well isn't this neat!  GreenKarat is a really interesting way to involve friends and family in your marriage, not just your wedding.

You can collect gold from friends and family and GreenKarat will melt it down to create your wedding bands.  You're recycling, preventing mining for your new ring, and being ecologically responsible - plus you get the wedding band you always wanted!

Sounds like a match made in heaven to me!

Hotel Hospitality Gifts

Wonderful News!

We have developed a new line of Hotel Hospitality Gifts!

These gifts are designed to give your out-of-town wedding guests a taste of Maryland and the fabulous things about the Chesapeake Bay area while saving you the time and stress of creating the gifts yourself.

The gifts are filled with delicious treats and informative travel brochures and the wrapping is designed to match the colors of the wedding. Cute name labels and imprinted gift bags are available too. It is a wonderful "first impression" to your guests as they arrive in Maryland for your wedding weekend.

Hotel Hospitality Gift services are available to everyone! Our clients love them, and if you are working with another event planner or planning on your own, we can help as well.

The gifts may be delivered and distributed (our most popular feature) or you are welcome to pick them up at our office.

Interested? We're happy to send you a menu of choices with pricing information

- just drop an email to Christina.

Please place your order at least 3 weeks before your wedding date.

We've heard...

We just heard about a wonderful promotion being offered by The Classic Catering People for couples being married in January, February, July, and August.

Classic will provide a full open bar for just $6 per guest for a four hour reception. That's a huge savings! Drink up!

Eggplant and Coral

Credits: theknot.com, weddingchannel.com, brides.com

Turquoise, Peach, and White

We recently created this Inspiration Board for a client trying to get an idea of her wedding color palette. The wonderful thing about the Board is that it allows the Bride to adjust her ideas and see the direction the wedding decor is going towards. We can easily find new images and create a new design.

Credits: myrecipies.com, theknot.com, brides.com, weddingchannel.com

Every Bride Should Know #3

Every Bride Should Know

1. Favors should be edible. There are rare exceptions, but edible take home favors are always a good bet.

2. Check out the restrooms when you're searching for your location. It might play a factor into your decision-making.

3. Budget. Have your budget meeting with all of the financial participants at the beginning of the planning process. Talk about actual figures so you know how much you are able to spend.

Citrus Explosion

We put together this Inspiration Board for our citrus color loving clients getting married this summer.  We often put together these colleges of images to help our clients get a feel for what we're creating.  They can pick and choose images they love which help communicate with their other vendors.

Images from:

Brides.com, TheKnot.com, WeddingChannel.com