L | D Finds : Charles & Marie Champagne Flutes

Um, I - must - have - immediately!

Charles + Marie Champagne Flutes are designed by New York-based design studio byAMT, mouth-blown from clear borosilicate glass, and they are inside out - stirring up the common perspective of what a drinking glass should look like! Besides the visual beauty, there is another extremely important feature of the glass: your drink simply doesn't warm as fast as it would in a normal champagne glass as you are not touching it at all. And if you really want to have a cold glass, you can pop them in the freezer to chill and create an amazing visual presentation… 

I can not think of anything that I have seen lately, more worthy to be included in L | D Find section that Charles + Marie's Inside Out Champagne Flutes. Now, which LDE is up for adding these babies to the program!

Ask Lauren

Since I opened my company, my inbox gets frequent visits from people from all over the place asking me all sorts of different questions.  Whether it's one of my own brides or grooms, a potential bride or groom, a mother of a bride or groom, or just a random  person - they've all got questions or need some sort of guidance.  And the flattering part is they want me to help!   Fortunately, it's in my nature to want to help, which is a pretty good thing - after all, I am a wedding planner and it's my job to fix problems and guide my clients along on their planning journey.  And from this was born: ASK LAUREN.

Q.

"Why won't the photographer give me every single picture from my wedding?"

A.

This is a question I get asked all the time.  ALL THE TIME.  To be honest, I have an elevator speech that features a whole spiel of a bunch of different reasons to explain exactly why the photographer does not and never, ever will give the client ever single picture from their wedding day.  But, I'm not going to give you my elevator speech or get into all of the reasons why because I read the best post ever on this very subject matter, courtesy of Solstice Visuals.  And let me tell you, they perfectly illustrate exactly what my response is. However, it isn't really so much a post but an image, one single image, which has captured my sentiments on this hot topic and I've re-posted it below ... !

I believe this perfectly sums it all up!

The "funk face" shot; the "I cannot believe I can actually look this terrible" shot; the "no one can ever see this picture" shot.  Each and every one of you has seen a picture like this and most likely you've got one, maybe two, of these photographic gems of yourself hidden away in a sub-sub-sub folder on your computer.  What's worse, someone you know might have a picture like this of you hidden away in a sub-sub-sub folder on their computer!

Now ask yourself: "Do you want this type of picture to exist with you in it?" NO!  "Does a photographer want to attach their brand to a pictures like this for other brides to see?"  NO!  I can personally guarantee you, all professional photographers will give their clients all of the photographers that best represent their work featuring your wedding.  They don't want to stash away their product, they want everyone to know how awesome their work is!  Especially their clients.  So rest assured, you will receive all of the images from your big day that you will want to look at.  And make peace with the fact that the photographer left the bogus images on the cutting room floor.

Have a question?  Need some good advice?  Don't know who to turn to?  You're in luck!  Email asklauren@laurendaversa.com and let us help.

Photo of Lauren Daversa answering all sorts of wedding and special event related questions is courtesy of Jessica Lorren Organic Photography.

TOTW : Spotify to Clarify

The ticket to paradise!  

A custom save the date to one of LDE's recent 

destination wedding extravaganzas! 

This is a great TOTW for all my destination brides : Spotify to clarify! 

What? 

So ... you are planning a destination wedding - and FYI, when I type destination, I mean outside of the US destination. Okay, back to business, you are planning a destination wedding ... how totally exciting! You've got your Pinterest board, you're venue, your dress. You are on a roll. What's next?  Why it's time to pick out your entertainment and, Houston, we have a problem! Why? Well it's very simple.  You want to walk down the aisle to an acoustic version of Squarepusher's Tommib Help Buss and during cocktail hour you want to hear a variety of Boyce Avenue and Straight No Chaser and during dinner you want  a mix of Buble and Sinatra and other crooners all leading up to an awesome mix of pop music to close out the night.  Yeah, try explaining what type of music Squarepusher makes to someone who does not speak English very well.  Not an easy challenge to do if someone is not well versed in your particular poison and does really speak English. 

What to do, what to do? 

As is the case with all destination weddings, you have two choices for the vendors : domestic or imported.  You can of course fly in a team of pros to get exactly what you want for the big day.  Along with covering their hotel, flying all the equipment in, and other expenses! Cha-ching.

Or  you can stay domestic.  And why not?  Support the local talent and interject some cultural flair into the wedding! After all, it is a destination wedding ... why on earth would you go to the extent of planning a wedding out of your own country but not want to celebrate on an international level! Okay, so maybe you don't want the entire wedding to be all samba music, which is why you need to Spotify to clarify. 

Create a virtual play list for your DJ to hear firsthand the genre of music you are looking to incorporate into the wedding.  And better yet, select certain songs (the exact version you like) that you want to hear so they can download them directly and add them to your wedding day play list.  The best thing is, as the DJ listens to the songs you've selected, they will really become well versed with your tastes.  As they understand your likes, they can enhance them with an awesome global mash up just for your wedding!  Hello ... now you've just taken your wedding to the next level!  Seriously, this is the perfect (and very foolproof) way to get everyone who is involved in the musical portion of your event all on the same page.  So Spotify to clarify!

Photos of a very happy + oh so in love LDE couple,  courtesy of Lindsay Hite of Readyluck  and snapped on location at Hotel El Convento  in San Juan, Puerto Rico during one of LDE's recent  destination wedding extravaganzas!   And yes, they did Spotify to clarify.

Featured : Junebug Weddings : Gretchen + Erick

This past May, LDE coordinated a one of a kind wedding for one of our most graceful and beautiful brides to date. Gretchen + Erick were married at St. Francis De Sales Catholic Church in Miami Beach. The reception immediately followed the ceremony and was held at Kampongs Botanical Gardens in Coral Gables.

Breathtaking.

This is the only word needed to describe both the couple and their wedding. Now if I had to describe the behind the scenes in one thought, a LOT of logistics and a SMALL time frame to pull it all together. But no worries here, TEAM LDE of course brought the magic + completely made it happen.  It is, after all, what we love to do and we just do it so well!!! Check out Gretchen's beautiful review of LDE on Wedding Wire.

On a personal note, this was a particularly fabulous day for me because I had the pleasure of not only working at one of my wish list venues, Kampong Botanical Gardens but also of working with one of my wish list colleagues, Maloman Photographers.

Back in they day, when I first moved to Florida, I lived in Coconut Grove. I actually lived right down the street from Kampong Botanical Gardens in this adorable cottage where peacocks literally roam the property!  But I digress ... so on my nightly runs, which were few and far between, I would run down Main Highway and get lost on the local streets.  One night, I passed by this beautiful, enchanted garden and thought to myself, "Wow, imagine getting married here!"

Fast forward, seven years later, and I got to live out my own dream,  vicariously through Gretchen + Erick of course!  And not only did I get to produce a wedding at Kampong Botanical Gardens but  Maloman Photographers documented the experience! Um, hello ... Ah-Ma-Zing!

Even Junebug Weddings thought so and decided to publish this splendid collaboration.

Now that I'm reflecting on this, I think I actually experienced some sort of awesome / full circle / serendipitous life moment with this wedding! Even nature was in on this, because G + E were married on the night of the spectacular "Supermoon".  And to top it off, it was Cinco de Mayo.  Thus proving, beyond a shadow of a doubt, this was a destined night in my life!

A very big thank you to  Junebug Weddings for sharing Gretchen + Erick's wedding! Visit their site to see the full feature, check Maloman's blog for more images and here's to more awesome / full circle / serendipitous life moments in 2013 for everyone!

And Stephan + Candace ...  LDE will see you soon at our upcoming and for sure to be amazing Vizcaya wedding for Paige + Calvin!