How to Pull Off A Holiday Themed Wedding Beautifully!

Did any of you attend any weddings during the holiday season? As 2013 comes to a close(tear)....I would like to briefly share tips with any brides and grooms who are thinking of having their wedding during the holiday season. 

Don't dismiss having your wedding during the holidays! If you share some of my concerns of having a holiday themed wedding, i.e. having your wedding reflect "Christmas", or fear of your wedding to reflect the typical "winter wonderland" theme and falling short executing it, then worry no more! 

We are very fortunate to highlight a beautiful, classical, elegant wedding that occurred during holiday season! This blog post is courtesy of Lauren Malone, a contestant on the TLC's network, Four Weddings. Four Weddings is a television show aired on the TLC network, that showcases four brides who agree to be guests at one another's weddings and judge which is best, with the winner flying away on a honeymoon trip with their husband! 

Lauren has agreed to share her wedding and tips with all you brides out there in pulling off a beautiful wedding during the holiday season. 

So listen up! Here is why we believe Lauren's wedding was executed so beautifully:

1) Beautiful Venue! 

Lauren's wedding was held at the beautiful grand ballroom of the Old Tappan Manor located in Old Tappan, New Jersey. Having an elegant ballroom such as this one, helps to bring your wedding into opulent elegance. Quite honestly, you don't really need to add much more design elements, with the existing chandeliers, marble floors, and sleek palette.  

2) Sophisticated Color Palette

As stated earlier, you probably shared my concerns with not wanting to have your wedding reflect "Christmas" in the form of the traditional "Christmas" colors of green and red. Lauren's wedding color palette of deep burgundy, black, and  ivory, proves to be a sophisticated, elegant palette, yet can be whimsical when combined with other decorative elements. 


3) Candles, Candelabras, Soft Floral Arrangements

To heighten an intimate event, simply add candles! Candelabras add elegance, and florals such as white hydrangeas, and light pink roses soften, and add whimsical flair. Also, notice the wedding incorporated red apples and cranberries for the color palette. 

4. Professional Expertise

Lauren's wedding design profile was executed with the talent of Jessica Malone Atkinson, Creative Director of Spark Group, LLC., a design, management and production company located in Katonah, New York.



So you see, you can have a beautiful winter wedding during holiday season!

                                                     Bride and Groom: Jimmy & Lauren Malone


Lauren always dreamed of having her wedding during the winter, and she shares her wedding with us that you can have your beautiful wedding without having the holidays overshadow it. She also shares that themes are a great starting point, but you don't want them to become so overwhelming that they take away from the true focus of the day, which is love and marriage. Don't let anybody convince you to steer away from your dream day.... you can mold your dreams into something that is feasible and affordable without having to give up your visions.

Cheers to Lauren and Jimmy on many more years of matrimony!

Thank you for sharing your wedding with us! Brides and Grooms take note!


What are some other elements one can add to having a beautiful wedding during the holidays? Share them below! 

Ciao,

N.Uche 

Pantone's 2014 Color of the Year: Predictions

So what did you think of Pantone's 2013 Color of the Year, Emerald???

                                



Did you see it in weddings this year?

As 2013 comes to a close in a little over a month, what color do you think Pantone will reveal next to be part of the 2014 year wedding trends? For those that do not know, Pantone Inc., a world renowned company is THE authoritative leader and provider on color systems. Industries including interior design, designers, architects, and wedding professionals look to Pantone for color palates and definitions. If you check out your local home improvement store, you will see a Pantone color swatch area in or around the paint section of the store.

How does this relate to wedding design?
Year 2014 Brides who are trendy along with their stylish wedding designers, look to design gurus such as Pantone, to utilize color as a tool to assist in their wedding design details. Color is a great way to help interpret a glamorous event, such as a wedding.

Pantone will reveal the highly anticipated

 2014 Color of the Year on December 5, 2013. 

I want to know your predictions!

Although I love colors "Tiffany Blue", turquoise, and mint (Two out of these 3 colors are Wed Becomes Her Wedding Planning & Coordination Co. colors, can you guess which two?), I personally do not think a color from that family will be the color for 2014, since we saw the color "Aqua Sky" and "Blue Turquoise" as the 2003 and 2009 (respectively) Pantone color of the year.

                         
                  

Based on this year's Bridal Fashion Week, the week of October 14 held in New York city, we saw lots of dresses that had various shades of soft hues. I am going to predict the 2014 color of the year as a blush pink or a color in the pink family. If I were to guess another color, I would say a color from the gray or brown family like Paloma. Now let's watch on December 5, I will probably be wrong, ha!

                                
                              Vera Wang Spring 2014 Bridal Collection
                              as seen at Bridal Fashion Week 2013

My predictions go against what others such as major style magazines have predicted what the 2014 Pantone Color of the year will be, which many have predicted the deep "Dazzling Blue". I wonder if they have inside information???
               
                        

Until Dec 5, we can still construct our Pinterest boards, and embrace Emerald for the little time we have left with it. However, it's time for a fresh color palate for a jump on year 2014 inspirations.

What are your 2014 Pantone Color of the Year projections, or popular color palates that may appear in year 2014?

Did you or anyone you know incorporate the 2013 Pantone Color of the Year Emerald in their wedding design? If so, please share in our comments section!

You can also check out our interpretation of Emerald via our Pinterest board here www.pinterest.com/wedbecomesher

For more information about our Wedding Day of Management company, please visit our website at www.wedbecomesher.com


Season's Greetings!

N.Uche

Our First Q&A Session: Wedding Planning Office Hour

On Saturday, November 16, at 10:00am EST we hosted our first Wedding Planner(Planning) Office Hour!

You are probably wondering,

"What is Wedding Planner Office Hour?"

I am so glad you asked! 

Think back to when you were in school, and your teacher set aside his or her office hours for you(student) outside of their normal teaching hours to teach, tutor, or spend additional time on material you didn't understand during normal teaching hours.

Wedding Planner Office Hour is loosely based on the concept of a teacher's office hours. More clearly, Wedding Planner Office Hour is a Question and Answer format geared to engaged brides and grooms who can have their questions about their wedding plans answered by a wedding planner live on a broadcast.

Although Wed Becomes Her Wedding Planning & Coordination Co. is an Atlanta based wedding company, our Wedding Planner Office Hour is streamed online for anyone to watch via the Wed Becomes Her Google+ channel, https://plus.google.com/+Wedbecomesher/ on the last Friday of each month at 8pm EST. If you are not able to make it to the session, don't worry! Our session on our Google+ channel is recorded to our YouTube channel, WedBecomesHer . If you miss the session, you will miss out on asking us questions, but you can watch our session if you are unable to make it to the session. To ensure notifications of new uploads of our sessions to our YouTube channel, make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Anyone can watch the session, but if you would like to ask questions you may need to have a Google account, i.e. a Gmail email.  You can also send your questions to us ahead of Wedding Planner Office Hour to our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/wbhweddings 

Last Saturday, at 10am EST we conducted our first session. Although, we didn't receive any questions, we provided book reviews on popular wedding planning books brides and grooms may come into contact during their planning process. Wedding Planner Office Hour is also an opportunity for Wed Becomes Her to discuss, talk about topics that may be of interest to those involved in the wedding planning process.

You may have noticed in the beginning of this post that "Wedding Planner Office Hour" had "(Planning)" around the title. We are playing around with the title, so that it can be more clear to those who have not heard of it. So moving forward for right now, we will call it Wedding Planning Office Hour.

We hope as a bride, groom, bridesmaid, members or parents of the bridal party can join us on our next Wedding Planning Office Hour, the last Friday of each month on our Google+ page. You can ask your questions during the session, or send them ahead of time on our Facebook page/inbox. Hope to see you!

The next Wedding Planning Office Hour is on Friday, December 27 at 8pm EST.

Did you happen to catch our first session? Would love to know what you thought.

Do you know of any brides and grooms who may benefit from our Wedding Planning Office Hour? Bridesmaids, Groomsmen, parents, guests of bridal party are welcomed too!
Please be sure to share this resource to them!

For more information about our Wedding Day of Management company, please visit our website at www.wedbecomesher.com

Till next time,

N.Uche

Wedding Feathers Inspiration-How to Incorporate Feathers Into Your Wedding Beautifully

Feathers are playful and can be incorporated into your wedding for a unique and whimsical touch! I am sure you have seen outrageous use of feathers at other weddings and events, you know the big, huge, outrageous centerpiece where you can't see the person sitting across from you! Quite simply, the way you incorporate feathers into your wedding beautifully is to use it as a complement and not as the "main event". 

                                       

Meaning, utilizing feathers minimally can provide great texture, as well as providing the "wow" factor to your wedding. 

Take a cue at our Feathers Inspiration above in our picture. For additional uses, check out our Feathers Inspiration Pinterest board on Pinterest, www.pinterest.com/wedbecomesher. 

You can have that high drama factor by wearing that bold feather dress if you dare, or you can use feathers as an accessory, such as a headpiece, or a bridal clutch. You can even incorporate feathers minimally in your bouquet to provide as a filler and provide some depth. Other uses of feathers can be incorporated at your reception as decor on the back of your reception chairs, as table numbers, or minimally in your centerpieces. 

Have you or known anyone to incorporate feathers in a wedding or special event? How did it turn out? We would love to hear your stories, share them here in our comments section! 

For an additional source of incorporating feathers into your wedding, such as headpieces, and feather shoe clips, check out our bridal accessories website at www.bridebecomesher.com

For more information about our Wedding Day of Management company, please visit our website at www.wedbecomesher.com

Ciao for now,

N.Uche

How Does The Federal Government Shutdown Affect Your Wedding Planning? If You Don't Know About Wedding Insurance,You Better Know Now!

   

OH MY!!! Have you heard of all the weddings that have been cancelled or suffered great strife due to the Federal Government Shutdown?!?!?!

Imagine your wedding planning is about to come to a close, everything seems to be falling into place just nicely. It is the week of your wedding, and as you arrive to the venue for wedding rehearsal, you are met with chains on the door. The venue is closed due to the "Federal Government Shutdown".
                 
Really, isn't that heartbreaking?! If your wedding venue is slated to be at a federal government building on or after October 1, 2013, as of the typing of this blog post, your wedding will not occur at that building.
                                           
                                                                       

The shutting down of the federal government has affected us in more ways than one! The federal government is the nation's largest employer with approximately 800,000 people according to CNN.com, who are furloughed, staying home without pay due to the shutdown. Indirectly, millions of us have felt the impact. Of those 800,000 employees directly affected, more than likely have families and dependents that depend on incoming household funds to run their households. Parks, museums, and federal buildings surrounding area restaurants and hotels will see a decline in revenue, due to the shutdown. Also, let's not forget that some of those employees currently out of work can not operate as a venue coordinator, staff member at your venue if you have a wedding at a federal building!

According to the Washington Post, there were as many as 24 weddings scheduled in the month of October this year at the ever so popular Jefferson Memorial located in Washington D.C.

24 couples received unfortunate notice that their wedding was not going to take place at their venue.

24 couples families and friends, perhaps paid money for flights, hotels, preparations for a wedding that may now not take place.

24 couples will now need to find an alternative venue for their wedding.

Brides and Grooms, how can you learn from the Federal Government Shutdown, and incorporate valuable strategies into your own wedding planning?

ARE YOU READY FOR THESE KEYS OF ADVICE???

Here Goes:
                                              

1. Relying on your trusted wedding planner coordinator would include keys of advice 2 & 3, but your wedding planner coordinator would have thought of a plan B venue much sooner than you receiving notice from your federal building venue that your wedding will not be taking place until further notice. A really good wedding planner coordinator also has a back up list of vendors they can contact in the event one of your chosen vendors is a "no show". These are are just some of the many benefits of hiring a wedding planner coordinator.

For additional information on the role of a wedding planner coordinator, click here to access a previous blog post on this topic.

2. This is an excellent tip we review in our our free e-book
 (15 Wedding Planning Insider Tips) you can obtain on our website, www.wedbecomesher.com. Always pay in credit card and not cash when paying for your venues and vendors. If your venue will not be available because they are no longer in business, or if your venue just so happens to be a federal government building and will not be open on your wedding day due to circumstances beyond your control, you would be somewhat protected by contacting your credit card company. When you inform the credit card company of this type of disaster, you may recoup your money back. Even if you have already paid your credit card balance in full, and you are faced in a situation where your vendor or venue did not deliver, you can file a claim with your credit card company. Our friends at Credit Card Insider, a comprehensive portal for consumer and business credit card resources informed us that under these circumstances, with the Fair Credit Billing Act, a consumer can file a claim to recoup their money back. When you file a claim, often times the money is immediately credited back to you. The caveat here is that the credit card company will do an investigation. If the credit card company finds that your vendor/venue is at fault, and did not provide you with a product or service then you keep the credited amount. If they do not find fault with the vendor or venue, they will take back the amount credited to you from the time you filed the claim.

3. If you do not know about wedding insurance, you better know now. We highly recommend you obtain wedding insurance as an added protection tool throughout your wedding engagement/planning period. Wedding insurance does more than what a credit card claim can do in the event you need assistance against unforeseen circumstances. Wedding insurance not only protects you against "no show" vendors, and closed venues, but also against inclement weather(hurricane/tornado forces a cancelled wedding), or it can protect you or your spouse to be in the event one of you falls ill. Do you think you will get your money back if you or your spouse to be falls ill days before the wedding; and you've paid in full without wedding insurance? Good luck in obtaining your money back; you may or may not be able to recoup it. Your wedding planner coordinator should be able to provide you with some resources of obtaining wedding insurance.  Policies are actually affordable, and you want to make sure you obtain wedding insurance from someone who has a license to sell you insurance.


We hope that you found this information helpful.

In addition to these keys of advice we forgot one....

You can always have Stephen Colbert(he is ordained!) to officiate your wedding on national television if your federal government building is no longer available due to the shutdown!

Stephen Colbert, political satirist television host, officiated a real wedding on his show last week to a couple who planned to get married at the Jefferson Memorial located in Washington D.C.

The couple could not wed at the Jefferson Memorial due to the shutdown, but married on The Colbert Report show, hosted by Stephen Colbert.
    
   photo source credit: PEOPLE Magazine
   http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20741828,00.html


Resources

1) Credit Card Insider
 www.creditcardinsider.com 
Credit Card Insider is a plethora of information for your planning needs for ensuring you put measures in place for establishing sound financial decisions and resources for establishing great credit. They just released a neat wedding budget calculator that helps breakdown the different components of your wedding in the appropriate dollar amounts.
Try it now by accessing their calculator here: Wedding Budget Calculator

2) Wedding Insurance Agent
Ms. Kamarah S. Angus
www.kalydaskope.com
info@kalydaskope.com
Kalydaskope is a full-service wedding and special events planning firm that provides wedding insurance. Kamarah Angus is a licensed wedding insurance agent, and owner of Kalydaskope.  Her firm will be able to provide you the proper coverage for your wedding day needs. 

3) CNN.com
 http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/30/politics/shutdown-showdown/index.html

4 ) Washington Post
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/government-shutdown-threatens-romantic-wedding-by-the-jefferson-memorial/2013/10/01/1310011c-2a15-11e3-8ade-a1f23cda135e_story.html

5) PEOPLE Magazine
 http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20741828,00.html

6) WBH E-Book
 15 Wedding Planning Insider Tips; Keys of Advice You Need To Know Before You Start Planning Your Wedding


Are you or do you know anyone affected by the Federal Government Shutdown as it relates to your wedding planning? If so, we would love to hear your experience at info@wedbecomesher.com

Again, we hope that you found these keys of advice helpful. If you believe others may benefit from this information, we encourage you to share this info with them. Until next time...

For more information about our Wedding Day of Management company, please visit our website at www.wedbecomesher.com

Ciao for now,

N.Uche

Venue Coordinator vs. Wedding Planner Coordinator, So What Is the Difference? Is There A Difference?

 As you go through the wedding planning process visiting venues, you probably have come across a lot of vendors, and particularly quite a number of event professionals.

You've probably even heard people introduce themselves to you either as a wedding planner, wedding consultant, event manager, venue coordinator, bridal consultant, event coordinator, or a wedding coordinator, do I need to keep going?

You get the picture. The options are endless isn't it?

 Today, we are going to focus on two significant but different roles that you may come across during your wedding planning journey...

The Venue Coordinator and the Wedding Planner/Coordinator 

Let's breakdown these two roles shall we? This is by far one of the most common question, or topic that I hear from engaged couples when they are deciding to hire a wedding planner. Often times the discussion goes like this:

Bride and/or Groom: Our hotel comes with a coordinator that is helping us with our wedding, why do we need you?

Wedding Planner & Coordinator (Me): Venue Coordinators are NOT wedding planners. In fact, I will work with your venue coordinator, but you should know they are only limited to the interaction of their in-house vendors and venue the day of your wedding. 

Furthermore, I go into an in-depth analysis and provide the advantages of having a wedding planner & coordinator versus the disadvantages of having just a venue coordinator, which I will share with you now.

Venue Coordinators

First, venue coordinators are a great resource. When you visit with venue coordinators, they should they be able to provide you all the answers you need to know about your venue and provide you with their preferred vendors list of vendors. The preferred vendors list is a list of vendors that have proven their expertise with the venue, by showing a history of successful work at the venue through previous events and weddings at the venue.

Now let's get to the venue coordinator's role. Venue coordinators' bosses are to the venue first, the bride and groom comes in second place. Their primary job is to sell you their space in the form of a venue rental. If the venue is a full-service venue, your venue package includes meal service, a cake, etc. The venue coordinator will coordinate your menu options, and meal tastings. They may even be able to provide you with basic decorative options based on what they have in their inventory, such as linen and seat covers for your tables and chairs. It should be noted that venue coordinators do not coordinate with your outside vendors such as florists setting up centerpieces, and they do not set up your venue such as placing your guestbook, unity candles, or toasting flutes, and guests favors. They also are not responsible for handling any gifts or monies that may be given to the bride and groom the day of the wedding. Venue Coordinators are limited to what they can do for you because their scope is limited to what the venue can offer you. 

• Venue Coordinators do not assist you with selecting a vendor that meets your specific needs and wants or prepare/represent you when you attend vendor's meetings.

• Venue Coordinators do not review and/or negotiate your contract terms with vendors

• Venue Coordinators may not necessarily keep you on budget, but bust your budget with add-ons 

• Venue Coordinators may or may not conduct a wedding rehearsal. If the ceremony is at a place of worship, usually there is an in-house coordinator to conduct the rehearsal.

• Venue Coordinators may or may not provide a limited wedding day timeline to the bride and groom

The Venue Coordinator you work with throughout your planning process may not be the same person that will coordinate the venue's activities the day of your wedding. The venue coordinator's job usually ends when meal service for your wedding ends. If the venue is at a big venue, or a hotel, the venue coordinator may leave for the day after meal service ends. If the venue is at a smaller venue, the venue coordinator usually stays or assigns someone to wait until all the guests leave, so they can secure, lock up the venue for the night. 

Wedding Planners & Coordinators

Wedding Planners primarily serve as your consultant, and lay the "ground work" for your wedding. They take your wishes & dreams, and aim to package it into a beautiful reality, all while staying within your budget! Wedding Planners are able to align you with vendors that are specific to your wants and needs, and often this information of preferred vendors of the wedding planner is not freely given out until you hire the wedding planner.  More than likely, you will receive special benefits that may result in services at a discount compared to those who seek out the same services without being represented by a planner. The planner is able to pass on these discounts to their couples because of the relationship they've built over time with vendors who have proven their expertise by working with the planner at previous events and weddings. 

Wedding Planners may also serve as the Wedding Coordinator for the day of your wedding too. There are also wedding professionals who specialize and only provide wedding coordination on the day of the wedding.  The common term you may hear is called day of coordination service, but more like month of coordination (which is another topic, that we will discuss later, I PROMISE!). Wedding Coordinators' primary role is to manage the flow of the day with all your vendors, so that you can enjoy and relish in the moment of your wedding day with your dear family and friends. You are not worrying whether or not your cake and flowers arrived, or what time car service is coming, or what happens if the bride and groom see each other before the ceremony, or who is going to "man" the gift table? The beauty of the wedding planner & coordinator is that you hired them, they work for you! 

• Wedding Planners provide you with a customized list of vendors based on your style and budget

• Wedding Planners & Coordinators review and/or may negotiate terms of your contracts

• Wedding Coordinators can be zany and geeks about lists and logistics. They create a production schedule for ALL the players in your wedding(vendors, bridal party, family & friends), and provide you and perhaps even people in your bridal party a timeline of what happens from the time you wake up, to the time you wave good-bye to your guests on your way to your get-away car

• Wedding Planners & Coordinators conduct the wedding rehearsal 

• Wedding Planners & Coordinators are not salesmen/saleswomen at heart, but are truly passionate about weddings and aim to provide you a whirlwind experience throughout your engagement

• Any hiccups that arrive on the wedding day whether they are venue related, vendor related, or guest related are managed by the wedding planner & coordinator, because you are their primary vested interest.

The Wedding Planner & Coordinator usually is one of the last to leave the wedding to ensure everyone has left safely, and to ensure the venue space is not left in disorder, and that gifts and monies are transported to its destination. 

Bottom Line: The venue coordinator's allegiance is first and foremost to the venue, their employer. The wedding planner and/or coordinator's first priority is always the bride and groom, which is their employer. 

I hope you found this breakdown helpful. 

If you know someone who will benefit from this information, please share this information with them! Also, I would love to hear what you think below in our comments section of some of your experiences with venue coordinators, wedding planners & coordinators.

For more information about our Wedding Day of Management company, please visit our website at www.wedbecomesher.com

Ciao for now,

N.Uche 

Wedding Planning Advice 101

HELLO! HI! I am so excited to be joining the Blogger-sphere! As you already see as the name of my blog, All Things Wed, I  am a wedding planner who absolutely loves everything that is involved with weddings. I hope to share with you information that will help you on your wedding journey, as well as share my wedding planning business journey with you.

Fourteen months ago, I seriously started planning out how to launch my very own wedding planning business. Like most brides preparing for their wedding within 12-18 months of being engaged, I too created checklists, spreadsheets, and numerous lists! Although, I function much better with them, checklists, spreadsheets, lists, lists, and lists are all means to an end.  To all the brides out there, my first key of  wedding planning advice is to obtain a good organizational system, whether that be spreadsheets, checklists, and/or a good wedding planning book. Stay tuned, for we will share our personal favorites in an upcoming post! Having a functional organizational system will alleviate some of your planning stress, and will be able to bring all your ideas together, and lets not forget helping you stay on track during your wedding planning process.


                                                          

This blog will be able to show you a glimpse of my raves, rants, trials & tribulations, and my success as it relates to my wedding planning and coordination business, Wed Becomes Her. If you are a bride-to-be and/or a wedding fanatic, I invite you to subscribe to our wedding blog. This is definitely a wedding blog you want to add to your list! Catch us at least twice a month as we dish on all things wed.

For more information about our Wedding Day of Management company, please visit our website at www.wedbecomesher.com

All the best,

N. Uche