Friday, January 29, 2010

Engagement Pictures - Laura and David


Meet Laura and David. They are getting married this October and I cannot wait for their wedding. Remember the Autumn Night inspiration board I did, well it was for them! I had such a great time talking with Laura and I am thrilled they chose me to help them on their wedding day. Their engagement pictures were taken by the always awesome Becky of Becky Young Photography. (And thank you Becky for the referral! :) )Enjoy!!



Danielle
Boulder Wedding Planner

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Wedding Trivia

I thought do a fun post today about wedding trivia. There are definitely some interesting ones! Enjoy!!


Longest Engagement
Octavio Guillen and Adriana Martinez were engaged for 67 years

Oldest Brides
The oldest recorded bride was Minnie Munro, married at 102 years of age. Minnie, from Australia, wed a “spring chicken” of 82.

Britain's oldest recorded bride was just one day off her 100th birthday when marrying a man nearly 20 years younger.

Longest marriage on record
Sir Temulji Nariman and his wife Lady Nariman were married for a grand total of 86 years. They were both were aged just five when they got married.

Most number of vows taken
Richard and Carole Roble, a pair of New Yorkers, have taken their vows 55 times. To add variety they have had ceremonies in different locations, including all 50 states.

Largest Mass Wedding
In Seoul in 1992, 21,000 couples from the Moonie cult all got married on the same day. The event was also 'attended' by another 9,800 couples who took their vows via a satellite link.

Largest Wedding Attendance
30,000 attended a Jewish wedding in Jerusalem in 1993.

Longest Wedding Dress Train
The longest train for a Wedding dress was found in Germany. It measured 515 feet.

Married the most times
Glynn Scotty Wolfe, a former Baptist minister, has taken 28 brides - and divorced 27 of them.

The English believe a spider found in a wedding dress means good luck. Yikes!

In English tradition, Wednesday is considered the "best day" to marry, although Monday is for wealth and Tuesday is for health.

In Holland, a pine tree is planted outside the newlyweds' home as a symbol of fertility and luck.

Engagement and wedding rings are worn on the fourth finger of the left hand because it was once thought that a vein in that finger led directly to the heart.

About 70% of all brides sport the traditional diamond on the fourth finger of their left hand.

In the symbolic language of jewels, a sapphire in a wedding ring means marital happiness.

A pearl engagement ring is said to be bad luck because its shape echoes that of a tear.

Seventeen tons of gold are made into wedding rings each year in the United States!

Most expensive wedding ever? The marriage of Sheik Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum's son to Princess Salama in Dubai in May 1981. The price tag? $44 million.

The tradition of a wedding cake comes from ancient Rome, where revelers broke a loaf of bread over a bride's head for fertility's sake.

The custom of tiered cakes emerged from a game where the bride and groom attempted to kiss over an ever-higher cake without knocking it over.

In many cultures around the world -- including Celtic, Hindu and Egyptian weddings -- the hands of a bride and groom are literally tied together to demonstrate the couple's commitment to each other and their new bond as a married couple (giving us the popular phrase "tying the knot").

The bride stands to the groom's left during a Christian ceremony, because in bygone days the groom needed his right hand free to fight off other suitors.

On average, 7,000 couples marry each day in the United States.


Danielle
Colorado Wedding Planner





Source Source

Monday, January 25, 2010

What should I do now?!

Your boyfriend just proposed and he is now your fiance!!! Yipee! You probably have been waiting for this day for a long time and you are excited to begin planning your wedding. You have so many thoughts running through your head:

  • How many guests should we invite?
  • What day should we get married?
  • Who should I ask to be my bridesmaids?
  • What month should we get married?
  • What colors should we use?

Before you start making any decisions, you should sit down with your fiance and talk about what the two of you want for your wedding. Small or large? Formal or informal? Fall or Spring or Winter or Summer? Outside or Inside? This is about the two of you; make sure you are both comfortable with your plans for the wedding. Nothing needs to be set in stone, but it will be easier to plan the wedding when you have this conversation.


Then the next step to talk with whomever may be helping you out financially. This should be a frank and honest discussion about what the budget for the wedding will be. There is nothing worse than to start planning your wedding and find out you don't have the funds to match the places you are looking at. You can also discuss with them what you and your fiance spoke about as well, so there are well aware of what kind of wedding you want to have. During this discussion, there should also be some talk about what the guest list might look like (depending on who you are speaking with). This will be important when finding a venue - you don't want to end up with a place that only hold 100 if you are planning on 175 guests (unless of course, this is what you want for your wedding).

If you are planning on hiring a wedding planner, now is the time. You have discussed your wedding with your family and you have your budget, now you will be begin planning your wedding. It is estimated that planning can take upwards of 200 hours to plan, on top of that you might be working, finishing school, and other daily life happenings. With all of that going on, you may not have the capability to compare all the options. A wedding planner can save you time and energy because we have contact with many vendors around Colorado and we can help you select ones that are within your budget and style. You make all of the decisions, we just guide and assist you in make those decisions. Happy Planning!


Danielle


Colorado Wedding Planner

Friday, January 22, 2010

Favors

One of the most common questions I get is about wedding favors. Should I have them at all?What should I do? How many should I do?

My answers are:

  • Give one if you want to
  • I recommend something edible - otherwise they tend to get left (not always, but quite often)
  • One per couple (depending on what is it and cost)

Giving your guest a favor is a small token of appreciation for attending the wedding and, depending on what it is, can possibly serve as a souvenir from the wedding as well. In many cultures, there are specifics favors given and they have a meaning behind them as well.

  • Sugar-coated almonds are a traditional wedding favor in many cultures, particularly in Italian, Greek, and Middle Eastern. These treats, which are thought to symbolize the bitter and the sweet in marriage, are often present in combinations of three or five. Three almonds are said to represent the husband, wife and hoped-for child. Five almonds stand for health, wealth, happiness, longevity and fertility.
  • At traditional Armenian weddings, a godmother may collect money for the couple from guests, and in turn distribute gifts of dried fruit and nuts.
  • On the wedding day, traditional Chinese couples hold tea cermonies with their parents. Today, some Chinese-American couples give out delicate teacups or fragrant tea bags in a nod to tradition.
  • Guests are highly respected in Japan, where a bride and groom may spend $50 or more per guest on gifts, called hikidemono. Less pricey are the kohaku manjyu, round steamed buns with bean paste filling, which are often presented in pairs to guests, one red bun and one white bun.
  • Russian wedding guests generally receive thank you gifts, which may range in extravagance from candy to bud vases.
  • At a traditional Malaysian wedding, guests may be presented with fertility symbols in the form of decorated hard-boiled eggs.
  • In some regions of Switzerland, a godmother will distribute red handkerchiefs to guests, who donate coins for the couple in return.

That is just a few ideas. I love the couple that ties in their state where they grew up, like I had a bride do this awesome candy from Arkansas because that was where she was from. Make it about the two of you and not just some random meaningless trinket.

Danielle
Colorado Wedding Planner


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Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Autumn Night Wedding

I met with a bride last week and we spoke about what she planning for her wedding. Among the many things we spoke about, one thing we hit on was her color palette. She is planning an October wedding and wants to stay away from the traditional fall colors of red, orange, and brown. Instead, she is doing an Autumn Evening using blue, purple and silver. I love this and I can't wait to see it take shape over the next several months. I had some things in mind for her so I put together this board for her to draw some inspiration from. Here is what I came up with.


Danielle
Colorado Wedding Planner

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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Bride's Choice Award


Denver, Colorado – January 19, 2010
WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, just announced Something Classic Events has been selected to receive the 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards™ for Something Classic Events.

The annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ recognizes and celebrates excellence in quality and service within the wedding industry, as determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 500,000 newlyweds.

Something Classic Events is among the top five percent of all vendors in the WeddingWire community, which includes over 100,000 wedding professionals across the US and Canada. Awards were given to winners across 19 different service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers.

“We are excited to recognize and honor the success of the top wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “The annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program has given us the unique opportunity to highlight the best wedding professionals in each region as reviewed by brides and grooms who have utilized their services in the past year.”

We are happy to announce that Something Classic Events is among the very best Wedding Planner within the WeddingWire Network, which includes WeddingWire and Martha Stewart Weddings. We would like to thank our past newlyweds for nominating us for the 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards™.

For more information, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today.

About WeddingWire, Inc.
WeddingWire is the only online wedding planning resource designed to empower both engaged couples and wedding vendors. WeddingWire enables engaged couples to search, compare and book over 100,000 reviewed wedding vendors nationwide, from wedding photographers to wedding cakes. WeddingWire also offers an online community and a suite of cutting-edge planning tools, including wedding websites and wedding checklists, all at no charge. For wedding vendors, WeddingWire provides free online management tools creating the only market opportunity that gives businesses control over their clients, reviews, leads and performance. In addition, WeddingWire has partnered with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. (NYSE: MSO) to provide its network of local vendors and online wedding-planning tools in the Weddings section of http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/. For additional information, please visit http://www.weddingwire.com/.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

"Off-Season"

The “off” season.

The time between November and March. The time when the whole industry gets to take a breather. Suddenly the days upon days of meetings and walkthroughs, becomes a couple days a week instead of several. You have time to refocus and reflect on last season.

This time of year is definitely slower than the rest of the year. But there is still a lot to do. From meeting new clients, revamping packages and marketing materials to organizing the office, learning new techniques, and reconnecting with other vendors, new and old. There is no shortage of tasks that need attention.

My office has not been touched since last March, so there is a plethora of things to sort through and look at. Although, it is not one of my favorite tasks, it is fun in a way. I find all of the stuff from the weddings from the year - their timelines, my notes and the effects of their wedding. I am reminded of the day, the couple and all the people I worked with. I sit for hours and read all of the notes on each wedding and I remember how much I love doing this…and how thankful I am that I get to do what I love doing. I also try to think of what was difficult about the wedding, was there not enough time for one thing or how did the setup go or what could I have done better; I want to learn something from each wedding so I am able to better serve my future clients.

As I relive my year through timelines and notes, I can’t help but think “this year was amazing!” We had the pleasure of working with some remarkable couples and vendors. This was by far our busiest year and we are looking forward to continuing that trend as the year(s) go on.

Here are just a few pictures of the people we got to spend our year with. Thank you to all of our clients for letting us be a part of your wedding day. Thank you to the “off season” for reminding me how much I love doing this.

Sara and Scott - Karie McLain Photography

Stacey and Mike - Paige Elizabeth


Sue and Craig - Kokoro Photography


Katy and Bryan - Real Photography
{Their wedding will be featured in the Knot Magazine in 2010!}


Amanda and Mike - Dana Romanoff Photography


Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Wedding Trends of 2010

As 2010 begins, everyone is looking for what will be hot this year. Here are a few things I have seen around the internet and heard from other planners.

  • Keep an eye on details
  • Birdcage Veils
  • Mismatched bridesmaids dresses
  • Home weddings - backyard weddings, intimate settings and smaller guest lists
  • Buttercream for your cake instead of fondant
  • Personalized appreciation - have a favor or an out of town bag for your guests
  • Nearby destination weddings
  • Colors - monochromatic palattes, vibrant colors (pink, orange, green) and metal colors (gold, silver, bronze and pewter); black will also remain a trendy color
  • Greener weddings - make you wedding more eco-friendly
  • Landscape centerpieces
  • Amazing Dances - we have all seen the show "Rock My Reception", your guests love to see something unexpected and something that shows off who are as a couple
  • Knee length (or shorter dresses) for the bride
  • Shorter cocktail hour - think 30 minutes cocktail "hour"
  • Humerous photography - yes, you can still all of the traditional shots, but why not have some fun? The day is about fun, right?
  • Sharing your wedding on social media - how could this not be a trend?
  • Seeing each other prior to the ceremony
  • Individual cakes for your guests - love this idea! Can I get one too? :)
  • Wedding Website
  • Photo Booth - make sure to have a lot of props on hand!!
  • Capture the moments - spend money on good photographers and videographers

But whatever you end up doing for your wedding day, make sure that it is YOU! Make sure it feels right to you and that you aren't doing it just because it is trendy. Your wedding should be about the two of you, as a couple. Always keep that in mind.

Danielle

Sources: Here Here Here Here