Save The Date Magnets – A Must For Your Wedding

Personalize your wedding from the start with Save The Dates.  For just .95 each you can find a style to suit your theme.   Whether your wedding is local or in a tropical paradise, you will want to send Save The Dates because they  allow your  guests to have enough time to make plans for your wedding and get them excited for your big day (especially knowing how busy everyone is these days).

Using a Save The Date Magnet makes it a convenient reminder, and can easily be placed on the refrigerator or a filing cabinet.

1- Choose a design that will set the tone for your wedding and express your personalities.

2- Make sure you send one to everyone on your guest list as soon as you set the date.

3- Your Save The Date can reflect the style of the invitation to come, but don’t be afraid to mix and match styles of the Save The Date and your invitation.  For example, you can send a fun, trendy Save The Date and follow it up with a formal invitation.

Your Save The Date can be sent out a year or so before your wedding.  Your invitation should be sent out 8 weeks before. If you have a personal wedding website, include your URL on the Save The Date so your guests can be informed about getting accommodations, etc. especially  if you get a block of rooms.

Now for your inspiration:

Aisle Style – Decorating Ideas For Your Wedding

The first thing your guests will see as they arrive is where they will sit, the decorations on the arbor, and your aisle.  Whether it’s traditional or exceptional, this is the first time your guests will witness your wedding day style.

View your aisle as your runway and when you walk down it all eyes will be focused on you so it should look fabulous.  Here are some ideas:

1- Decorate the chairs down the aisle.

2- Typically rose petals are used and sprinkled down the aisle.  Why not be creative and instead of sprinkling them straight down the aisle, how about doing something more creative?  Could a diamond shape of petals be created every few feet?  A wavy “S” design of petals?   For something unique, if you’re having your wedding at a home or where there’s a lawn, consider mowing a design into the grass.

3- If you’re wedding is on a beach, sprinkle flowers to give the sand some color.

4- If you’re wedding is in a garden, you can use potted flowering plants creating a colorful visual landscape down the aisle alongside the chairs.

5- Monogrammed  aisle runners are also a growing trend.

Make sure you check with your venue to make sure it doesn’t have restrictions regarding an aisle runner or decorations on the chairs.  Safety is always a concern and they want to make sure you, your bridal party or your guests don’t slip on something.  Taping or weighing  the aisle runner down will avoid a lot of problems.

Image: Wedding Jeanie

Aisle Planters: Frank Events

Chairs With Orchids & Starfish Wedding Jeannie

Image: Enchanted Florist

Martha Stewart Fall Wreaths for Chairs

Falling in Love With A Fall Themed Wedding

There was a time when all brides thought the summer was the perfect time for their wedding.  However, Fall has become a very popular time of year and for many good reasons.

If you’re guests will be traveling to your wedding, the Fall season will be less expensive since, as we all know, the airlines and gas prices always go up in the summer.  Also, hotels and reception sites will be more readily available.  Since most tourists head home after the summer, hotels will welcome your business and this can be reflected in their banquet facilities as well as the rooms for your guests.

I love the Fall because of the beautiful colors of that season.  Think of your wedding pictures with the beautiful, rich fall colors as a backdrop.  If you’re doing the wedding yourself, decorating can be so much fun using gourds, fall leaves, pumpkins, apples, etc. and the warm glow of candles inserted into these items as candle holders are wonderful for your banquet table or centerpieces.

To make candle holders from apples, tiny pumpkins or gourds, simply make an indentation in the fruit deep enough to hold your votive, taper or battery operated candle.  Also, you can cut out pumpkins and gourds and use them for serving dips, soup, dessert, etc.

I hope you’ll enjoy these inspirations:

Fall Bouquet

Image La Partie Events

Image Jennifer Wahlquist

Image: Tapestry Flowers

Image: Skye-Blu-Photography

There are Fall Theme Save The Dates and lots of wonderful Fall Theme Favors that will tie in beautifully with your wedding.

Wedding Place Cards Do You Need Them?

Ever wonder what the difference is between a Place Card and an Escort Card?  An Escort card tells your guests what table they are assigned to.  A Place Card has the guests name on it and is placed on the table so your guests know which seat is theirs.  This is very helpful to the servers if your invitation included menu cards with different meals offered and your guests got to choose which meal they prefer.  The Place Card can have the meal choice printed on it so the waiters don’t have to interrupt the flow of conversation to ask the guests what meal they are having.

Escort Cards  serve an important function at your reception.  Most brides  have family members or friends you know will want to sit with each other.  Even though your invitation states what time the festivities begin, people arrive at varying times, and it’s possible others will fill in the tables that would otherwise be used for those who want to sit with each other.  This is where Escort cards become a very useful tool. It helps things to be organized and convenient for your guests and should definitely be used if your wedding has 100 guests or more and if it’s a formal affair.

True, it does take a lot of planning, organizing and then re-shifting as you learn some guests won’t be attending, but it’s worth the trouble.

The Escort Table is the first thing your guests will see when they enter the reception hall or before they enter the hall, so why not  make your Escort Cards and Table “Numbers” fabulous as well as functional.

1- Figure out how many guests you are inviting and whether you will be using a table that seats 8 or 10.  Sometimes the table sizes will vary, depending on your guest list.  There are programs that are designed to help you do your seating chart, however, I simply made a large drawing of the reception room with circles representing the tables and used little post-it notes with the guests name printed on them.  This made it easy to rearrange the tables as I learned some guests weren’t coming, or Aunt Sue is no longer talking to Cousin Jill, which I didn’t know when I originally made the seating chart.

2- To help make your seating arrangement “fabulous” think outside the box for your table “numbers”.  Choose a theme that reflects both of your personalities.  Examples can be places you’ve visited together, artists you especially love, movies you love, flowers that are your favorites, names of sea shells or beaches if you’re having a beach theme wedding and either use postcards as your “table numbers” or create your theme from pictures or on the computer.  Coordinate your escort cards to match your “table numbers”.

2- Put your escort cards in alphabetical order on the table so your guests can find them easily.

3- Putting your escort cards into picture frames or place card holders serves as a favor as well and your guests can use them for a wallet size photo afterwards, a helpful tip for those on a budget.  Frames and Place Card Holders come in a wide variety of themes and styles from sophisticated to whimsical, so you’re sure to find exactly what will work with your reception decor.

Work of Art Antique-Finish Photo Frame

Beautifully Beaded Photo Frame and Placeholder

Shell Design Place Card Holders

Autumn-Inspired Candle Favors

4- If you’re having a DIY reception, you can purchase Table Number Holders or use any tall Place Card Holder.

Thought you’d like to see some imaginative “Table Numbers” to inspire you:

Image: Brittany Photography

Honeymoon Destination

Favorite Cities

Number with Picture Image: The Flower Alley

Wedding Reception Decor Ideas & Tips

Whether you create your own  centerpieces, or have a florist do them for you, making sure  they fit your style will ensure your wedding to be one to remember.  Designing your reception decor is a wonderful opportunity to express yourself.

Start by creating the big picture then decide on the style that shows your personality.  Then add the details.

1-  What colors are you attracted to?

2- What season is your wedding?

3- Bring in different colors of candle holders to compliment your color scheme. Some may hang from the centerpiece, some on the table.

4- Whether simple or extravagant, consider the size of your reception space.  If your space has high ceilings, you need to bring in height to the centerpiece.  You don’t have to have all of them high, you can do high on one table and low on the other.  It brings more interest to the room.

Simple Centerpiece

High Centerpiece

Low Centerpieces

Image: Laura Davis Events

Image: Simply Blooms

5- Using  square vases is a way to do your centerpieces yourself with minimal flowers and a lot of elegance.

6- Always test your design ahead of time.  Especially if it’s a DIY.  If you are using a floral designer, ask that they make up a sample to be sure you are happy with the final results.  This way you don’t have to imagine what it’s going to be like, you can experience it.

Idea:  If you’re doing it yourself, keep it simple and elegant and bring in color with candles.

DIY Wedding & Bridal Shower Decorating Ideas

Decorating a wedding or party can be great fun if you have a vision and pictures to help inspire you.  I love the challenge of  “decorating on a dime”, while at the same time having the event look like a million bucks.  For those of you who enjoy doing it yourself (or with your family and friends), these will be some helpful ideas.

Flowers usually take up a large part of the budget when decorating an event.  There are alternative centerpiece ideas that can be equally as elegant while bringing  in the color palette you desire to give your event that Wow! factor.

1- One way to accomplish this is with Pillar Candles. Finding candles in your color scheme, in various sizes and widths and grouping them together so you have a nice presentation on the table can look gorgeous.  Choose one color for all the candles.  Use a strong contrasting color in your color scheme in satin ribbon in two different widths, and wrap around the candle at two levels.  Depending on the size of your tables, I would suggest you use an odd number of candles per table ie.,  3, 5 or 7.

Duplicate the look with added flowers at base of candles and make the arrangement of the candles more horizontal for  the buffet table, escort card table or sign in table.  To keep the flowers fresh, use those little tubes that contain water and put the stems in them (the tube can be hidden from view)  If your site doesn’t allow open flames, simply use LED tea lights and embed them a little in the top of the candle.

Image: La Premier

2- Vases can be costly if you are having a large reception, so when I saw what Colin Cowie  did with glass vases, I immediately thought of an idea you can use for a fraction of the cost.  Now, stay with me here…don’t think this is too silly until you try it.

Start saving your milk cartons (orange juice cartons will work too).  Use both the quart size cartons as well as the 1/2 gallon size.  Rinse them out well and start stockpiling them.  You should figure on 5 per table if your tables are large round ones.  Since these cartons are obviously already used for  a liquid, you know they will  hold water for your arrangements.

Your objective is not only to have different width cartons, but you’ll want to cut them down so you have different heights.  Once your happy with the different heights, measure them and cut all of them the same way.

Practice on your different size cartons with inexpensive fabric so you can make patterns from a paper bag  for the fabric you will cut up.  Allow room at the top and bottom to iron a little “hem”  so the ends are finished on both ends.

Choose a beautiful fabric.   You can even be extravagant in your choice of fabric because it won’t take much, and most fabrics come in very wide widths. Once you’ve made your patterns you can figure out how much fabric you will need.

Simply wrap your gorgeous fabric around the container and hot glue the seam together (being careful to use the glue sparingly so it doesn’t seep out the edges when you press down.  When placing the vases on the table, make sure the seam side is facing inward so all the guests see are nicely wrapped containers.    Add a contrasting ribbon to top and bottom and fill with flowers that are easily arranged (see my tips on arranging flowers in a previous post).

If you feel your container needs more weight for the flowers you are using, place a glass of water in them to hold the flowers and this will give additional weight and support.  The containers pictured here  are filled with lots of roses, however, if you use a large bloom, you don’t need as many flowers.  Experiment with your flowers to determine how many you will need per container.  Make sure whatever flower you choose you do a “mound” design of them making sure the bouquet covers the top of the container  to make the arrangement look luxurious.

Fabric Covered Container With Ribbon

Fabric Covered Containers Grouping

Fabric Covered Containers With Colored Votives

A crystal rose favor, if you’re using roses, would be a perfect remembrance gift for your guests.

If you use this idea, I’d love to see your pictures.  Send them to eileen@yourweddingwhisperer.com and I’ll post them so everyone can see your creativity.

Outdoor Wedding Decorating Tips

An outdoor wedding is beautiful because the scenery in itself adds to the decor.  However, you need to keep the comfort of your guests in mind when you are planning the reception and a perfect solution is a tent.  Not only will it help shade your guests, but it adds sophistication to the outdoor space, where it might otherwise look very casual.

To add more ambiance to the tented space you could do the following:

1- Swag white twinkle lights from the center of the tent out to the edges.

2- Hang chandeliers and use battery operated votives or candles in place of real candles.  Adhere them with wax dots used to hold a taper in place in a candle holder.

3- Pull back the sides of the tent so foliage and outdoor charm can be seen.

Rain or shine the a tent provides shelter while still giving the ambiance of nature.  Many tent rental companies also have designers who will swag the tent with fabric and use lighting to bring in color and drama.

Tent with Lights & Chandelier

Image: Linda Howard's Sensational Celebrations

Viewing Linda Howard’s Sensational Celebrations will give you inspiration.  What a wonderful designer, and you can see she gives a lot of attention to detail.

For your guests, a beautiful candle in line with your theme would make a perfect favor, and a lovely picture frame would be nice for your place cards.

Wedding tips on Creating A Dynamic DIY Reception

Flowers aren’t the only way to create a dynamic look for your reception.  Color can also be brought in by draping your tables and chairs in bold colors.  Renting gorgeous linens will turn a DIY reception into a dynamic reception.

Using fabric on tables and chairs gives you unlimited possibilities to make your wedding one of a kind with color and style.

Image: Wildflower Linens

Image: Wildflower Linens

Image: Wildflower Linens

Image: Wildflower Linens

1- For a DIY idea, choose a fabric for the base of your cloth and a sheer fabric for a topper. Hot glue silk petals or silk flowers to the topper  for a special look.  You can purchase a bunch of flowers at your local craft store.  Pull the flowers off the stems and then pull the plastic stamen out of the flower.  This will leave you with flat petals with a hole in the center where you can place a crystal, pearl or bead in a coordinated or contrasting color.  Or, you can make a “flower template” for different size “petals” and cut out fabric with your template in a contrasting color from the table cloth.  The beauty will be in the fabrics you choose.

2- This idea would also work well to decorate your chairs.  Make a short “pillow case” to go over the tops of your chairs.  The whole chair doesn’t have to be covered to give a very elegant spike of color to the reception.  If you’re really crafty, adding some crystals to the center of the flowers would give them added dimension.

Chair Covers With Flower Appliques

Flower Applique with Crystals

Chair Cover With Beads

I just love the pizazz chair covers can bring to a reception.  The above is more elaborate, however,  if you’re doing it yourself you can skip the lacing up detail and just add the beads to a rectangular short “pillow case” made of a beautiful fabric that fits over the chair.

Notice how much more festive this table looks because of the added color on the chairs (easily done with tulle in your color), and a colored napkin.

DIY Color on Chairs and Table

3- Tie a scarf made of sheer fabric in organdy or nylon around chair top and tie into a bow or sash at the back.  For added drama have beads dangling from them.

4- For an outdoor beach wedding, make a scarf and cover it with beautiful shells.  For an elegant look, use  all white shells with  soft beige toned shells. Put ribbons on each end of the scarf and attach to the back of the chairs.  If your location is extremely hot, make sure you use glue sticks that have a higher melting point, or use a fabric glue that dries clear.

5- Use your imagination. Take into consideration the overall look of your reception.  You can use tassels on your “pillow case” or fringe, or silk daisies.  Whatever will fit in with your theme.

6- Color can also be brought in with your wedding favors.  Whether they’re black and white, exquisite jewel tones , or in your color pallette.  Of course, silver or  gold favors will  go with any color pallette.

Wedding Reception Decorating Ideas

Colin Cowie  is my hero!  I have followed him for years on Oprah and various other shows I’ve seen.   I  have been awestruck by the incredible designs he comes up with.  So today, when I sat down to write my blog of useful and helpful information for your wedding, I digressed to look at some pictures of his work and decided to give you a taste of his remarkable talent.  We can all dream, can’t we????

Feast your eyes on the pictures so you’ll have lot’s of happy thoughts to think about for the weekend.  We’ll get back to the practical things on my next post.

Courtesy of Colin Cowie

Courtesy of Colin Cowie

Courtesy of Colin Cowie

Courtesy of Colin Cowie

Courtesy of Coline Cowie

On a practical note (can’t help myself), I do think you can glean ideas from these pictures for your reception.  I hope you enjoy looking at these as much as I do.

I think the perfect favor to go with this very elegant reception would be a beautiful candle.

Wedding Flowers Tips and Advice

Flowers play such an important roll in your wedding.  To really make a personal statement, choose your favorite flower that is meaningful to you.  Start by identifying your flower and the color palette you will be using.  The flowers you choose brings in color, sophistication and romance which all adds to the look of your day.  When choosing flowers, consider the location and season of your wedding.  Keep in mind the flowers you especially love might not work for the season of your wedding.  For example, Peonies, one of my favorites, is  mostly available in May.  Tulips, will not do well in the heat.  Roses, on the other hand, are an excellent  choice.  They are less expensive than some flowers because they are available all year and they mix so well with all kinds of flowers in the same tones or a variety of colors.  Here are some tips to think about when ordering your flowers:

1)  If you get a quote for your bouquets, ask how many of each flower you will be getting for the price.  You may get a lower quote elsewhere, but not as many flowers.

2)  If you are on a budget,  use a lot of one type of  flower in the room for  high impact.  When you are doing flowers yourself, this can be what makes the difference between a “home made” look and a professional one.

3)  All roses in high and low arrangements with lots of candles fills the room.

4)  Focus your flowers toward particular areas of the wedding such as the wedding ceremony.  This is a place where you really want to feature flowers. Your guests will be sitting and waiting while the place fills in and for the ceremony to start.  Having something beautiful to look at while they are waiting will give them a lasting impression.  You can use these flowers again by having them moved into the reception site and placed strategically in the location.

5)  If you are having a sit down dinner, your guests will be looking at the centerpieces for hours.  Pick a stunning look that’s unique to you whether it’s in the  color or style of the arrangement.

6)  Lots of color makes your wedding a “party”.  Hot pink flowers are a very popular choice right now.

7)  Bringing in color with flowers  to an outdoor wedding can add more to the already beautiful site. I love how this was done by Jeannie Ward an event planner, at a beach wedding recently.  With a gorgeous backdrop like the ocean, blue skies and beautiful beach, the simple addition of the orchids for some “pop” , the starfish for dimension and the lovely, simple arch are perfect for this wedding decor and one that can  be done by a DIY bride.  Notice how beautiful the orchid aisle looks  against the sand.  Here is the inspiration:

Courtesy of: weddingjeannie.com

Courtesy of weddingjeannie.com

Courtesy of weddingjeannie.com

I can see Jeannie’s idea carried inside to the reception where the backs of the chairs can have a scarf of tulle tied around the top of the chairs with a starfish and orchid to bring in the beach theme and add more color and texture.

For an additional beach theme idea for  the reception you can use  natural shell placecard holders, which the guests can then take home and use for a wallet size picture.