I cant believe the day has finally come and gone. After months of hard work, planning and preparation - Michelle and Doug are married. I'd been working with this couple, their family and vendors since early this year, and it was starting to seem like this day would never come. After many meetings and discussions with the florist, photographer, linens and other industry professionals we pulled it off and everything looked phenomenal!

The wedding and reception took place at my job, with the ceremony on our front lawn and the reception on our tented pool patio. Michelle and her family wanted a really grand tent and after several discussions with the rental company. the resulting tent was stunning and beautiful. Another breathtaking sight was the Chuppah which was simple and elegant, but it was the icing on the cake.

The great thing about working with Michelle was that she was not a bridezilla, but she knew exactly what she wanted and would settle for nothing less. She was very enthusiastic, always greeting me with a hug. The overall concept for the wedding was old world romance, using warm golden colors like sand and champagne and accents of peach and rosy pinks. Michelle also found some great pearlised sea shells that she wanted to incorporate into the theme, which also really tied into being on the marina.

The end result left everyone speachless. When everything was complete it was truly a sight that left you lost for words. All the guests kept commenting on how great everything looked, but to be honest the wedding would have been nothing without the individual vendors who worked as a team to bring everything together:

Floral: Blooming Designs

Chuppah: I love Chuppahs

Photography: Amy Williams Photography

Tent: Pico Party Rents

Linens, Chiavari Chairs: Designer Specialty Linens

Entertainment: Red Shoe LA, Rossi Music

Videographer: Kolkey Productions

 Recently, my job hosted a wedding for an multi-cultural couple - the groom was Indian and the bride was Chinese. The wedding (one of three) was a combination of ethnicities, heritage, and culture. They catered in Indian food while the ceremony and reception consisted of dark reds that paid homage to the bride's Chinese ancestory. Even more interesting was the mix of guest's traditional garb. Beautiful saris and extravigant pien-fu (Chinese dresses) were all over!

i was able to snag some photos of the wedding that took place at my job yesterday evening. i have to say the color scheme and decor weren't my favorite, but I did like that this couple was very budget savvy and a little DIY. Another thing i like was that the wedding and reception had a central theme which was the "Gerber daisy" and they incorporated it into every aspect they could.

The colors were black, white and pink. The couple used pink daisies for the centerpiece arrangements and in other areas of decor. I think part of the reason why i didn't care for the color scheme was because they had to many variations of pink going on. Hot pink, baby pink, powder pink.... but it doesn't matter what i think, if they bride was happy that's all that counts.

For the wedding favors they gave out little flower seed packets and their wedding cake had little pink frosted daisies all over. I also like the bride and groom's ceremony play list, which really reflected their personality. The bridal party marched to "a crazy little thing called love" while the grandfather gave the bride away to "you are so beautiful to me." For the recessional, the bride and groom picked "i feel good" which was fun and everyone got a laugh out of.

Take a look at the pics:

Last weekend, my mother and i hosted a bridal shower for my sister, Frances, in my parent's Orange County home. I had fun making up bridal games and activities, planning the menu, and making the decor.

I chose the Flirty French theme because, from first to sixth grade Frances attended a magnet school that taught French, and France and the French language has always been something that she idolized (plus, the word "France" in Frances). Once we met a woman from Quebec in a restaurant, and Frances spent hours conversing with the woman in French.

Anyway, I had a very small budget so much of the decor was DIY. I printed clip art from MS Word and framed the images. A quick google search gave me a list of romantic sayings and phrases in the French language, which i printed on clear lables, stuck on place cards, and used as part of the decoration. I also used things from around the house like my Mothers Party Lite vases and candles.

The theme colors were pink, black and white. I bought individual packets of colored M&M's, circles of tulle and ribbon to create the party favors. I made a mistake when purchasing the balloons - i accidentally bought purple instead of black! Of course, the store wouldnt switch for the right color unless i purchased more balloons...so i had to keep purple. booo!

 For about $3-$5 you can download and print great games for any occasion at Purple Trail. but I decided to make my own (with Word, of course), but i dont think anyone really noticed that they were homemade. We played Bridal Pictionary, using movie titles and love songs, a Love Song - Movie Match-up (where they match the love song to the movie), and a game I made up where all the guests got in groups and had to make a veil using only the materials supplied (similar to the toilet paper wedding dress game). Frances chose a winning veil and had to wear it for the remainder of the day!

The menu was great. My mother made a cold Chicken Pasta Salad, I baked a Stawberry Pie with coffee, made pitchers of Cosmopolitins using a store-bought mix, and a friend brought in Croissant Sandwiches and Cookies. I thought it would be cute to serve fruit on skewers and that was a big hit! Its very inexpensive, easy to make and it looks classy!

All in all, we had a great time and the bride-to-be enjoyed herself. Ok, time for pictures!

Recently, I attended the opening of the Event Studio, and it was quite an experience. Firstly, The Event Studio is a genius idea made reality by Beth Helstetter of Beth Helmstetter Events and Mary Sushinski of Occasions. Both run their seperate event planning business out of this space but, they also have an open space that they rent to other event professionals to meet with their clients. So, wether you're a photographer, wedding planner, or part-time pastry chef, you can arrange to meet with your client at the Event Studio instead of Starbucks (or your living room). Great Idea!

And it really is a beautiful place. The open house was very nice, although a realized that when it comes to networking I have no idea what im doing. When Taliah couldnt make it at the last minute I decided to go alone, but since this was my first real networking event I didnt know any one there. I had abosuletly no idea what to do with myself and felt extremely self-consious.

Good thing the drinks were free! After my first glass of wine, I mustered up the corage to approach a few gals and say "Would you mind if i took a picture for my blog?" I exhaled the biggest sigh of relief when they not only agreed to pose for a picture, but invited me into their conversation and wanted to exchange business cards.

I'm now motivated to start attending more networking events but I also think i could use some tips on how to attend a party or networking event alone!

Okay Okay, Here are the pics!

So i've managed to grab a few pics from the industry mixer that my job hosted last week (the one that i was not invited to). There are two large banquet rooms (one indoor, one outdoor tented space), a small private dining room and an outdoor ceremony site. Each of the spaces were extravagantly staged to look like a reception, ceremony, or private party. All of our vendors came in (free of charge) to showcase their work and when I left at the end of the day, I have to be honest, the place looked fantastic!

I especially love the floral arrangments. The woman (dont wanna name her) does a fantastic job each and everytime she comes, but she really went over the top this time. I mean, she came in at 8am and worked straight through until 5pm...and then stayed for the party. She also did the complete set-up of the wedding chuppah (the canopy on the lawn) it was so beautiful. ok, enough jibber jabber....