TOTW : Beyond Personal Flowers

Don't forget your floral budget needs to account for all of your event, not just the boutonnieres, rose petals and centerpieces. Flowers are utilized so many other areas of an event that are often put on the back burner. For instance, does your venue have light sconces on the wall that don't fit your scheme? How about unsightly vents, occupancy signs or outlet boxes you'd prefer to have covered? Think a further outside the box...could the bathrooms use a little flower power? Are the doorways in need of a garland? Is the driveway leading up to the venue dark and uninviting? Would uplights or pillar candles covered by hurricanes do the trick? And how about cocktail hour? Are the servers passing goat cheese tarts on silver trays? Wouldn't placing the delicate bites on top of banana leaves be a nice touch? And dinner - how will the food be presented on the buffet?

Many couples plan an elaborate event yet they don't budget funds to cover this portion of the decor. Unfortunately, they realize the need in the eleventh hour and have to increase the funds to maintain the look throughout the room/event or be left with incomplete look to their event.

Quality linen, flowers, leaves, branches, wheat grass, moss, rocks, acrylic pedestals, custom tables, fruit, silver or gold serving sets, personal pictures, books, mirrors, frames - I could go on for a long time - can be incorporated into the design of your event to add depth, fill in the space and accent the surroundings. But before adding on, check with the caterer to see what type of decor they will include in their pricing.

Don't be discouraged if you are working with a tight budget. Compromising on your budget does not mean you have to compromise on your style and decor! There are a lot of creative avenues to take to add nice touches, which can also cover the venue's sore spots. Working with a wedding planner is a fool proof way to maximize your budget while ensuring that you dot your i's and cross your t's - and don't get left with a bare buffet!

Photo courtesy of Martha Stewart

Current Music : Melody Gardot

As I sit in my office, preparing for not one but two weddings this weekend, I am being softly serenaded by the sultry, jazzy, soulful blues of Miss. Melody Gardot. The song Worrisome Heart is so up my alley on the eve of my amazing weddings! Perfect for a stylish event, dinner party or working late on Thursday evening.

L | D Finds: Disney Princess Gowns

What to dress like a real life Disney princess on your wedding day? Well it's absolutely possible, with a little help from Alfred Angelo! Disney recently announced the two have paired up and will debut their first Disney Princess inspired bridal gown collection, titled Disney Fairy Tale Weddings by Alfred Angelo, at the National Bridal Market in Chicago on October 2, 2010. The collection was inspired by the essence, style and personality of seven iconic Disney Princess characters: Ariel, Aurora {Sleeping Beauty}, Belle, Cinderella, Jasmine, Snow White and Tiana. And now, for all of you Disney princess lovin' brides, dreams do come true!

Kristina + Rob

Not too long ago, I received an inquiry from a bride in NYC - yay NYC! - looking for help to plan her spring of 2011 destination wedding here in Florida. Even thought we only spoke via phone and email, we clicked right away.

As I started putting together options for their big day, the bride shared with me that her big sister is a photographer and she would be doing their engagement shoot. Furthermore, the concept behind the e-shoot was going to be cake baking. LOVE IT! Here are a few of the shots from their shoot courtesy of the bride's big sis, and very talented photog, Emily Renee.

You had to know it would end this way!

Do they have chemistry or what! Can't wait for their beautiful wedding this spring at the Colony!!!

Adorable-ness

If you are interested in having Emily Renee Photography capture your wedding, be sure to email her: emilyrearick@gmail.com.

TOTW : Diacritical Marks

This week's TOTW is a fun tip to help relieve a small amount of stress from our brides + grooms who don't know how to format diacritic marks in excel. Okay but what's a diacritic mark? The answer is diacritical marks are ancillary glyphs found in many international names and addresses. For instance in the Scandinavian languages, characters with diacritics include ä, ö and å.

Great, and why do you need to be able to format them in Excel? Well, since I am sure you are all organizing your guest list in excel - is it is the preferred format for most every printer - you may find that you have a guest with an international name or address. Ahh, now you see why you need to know how to incorporate diacritic marks into Excel!

Don't worry, the answer is SO simple because you can type any character from the ASCII character set. Hold down the ALT key while typing in 0 + the number of the character you want. For instance, you can enter a German umlauted u (ü) into a cell by typing ALT 0252 followed by ENTER. See, I told you it was simple.

Where would you find this magical list? Well, there are tons of character sets available on the Internet. They will list all the ASCII characters and their corresponding numbers so you can painstakingly format all your fabulous international names and addresses for your DIY invitations. Enjoy and happy planning!

Photo courtesy of Michael Ciancio via I Love Typography