A Delightful Day - Event Planning - Blog

Fresh Ideas for a First Dance

Every bride and groom wants to choose the best first dance song, one that's personal and fun! We all know the new trend of brides and grooms choosing a song to do a choreographed dance to, but many brides still love the elegance of a meaningful and traditional dance. Here are some fresh new options for your first dance with your new husband, the dance with your father and his mother, and also cake cutting! Hop onto iTunes and do some listening and find a song that you both love!

First Dance Songs:

Jason Mraz- I"m Yours

Colbie Caillat- Bubbly

Plain White T's- I'll Write You a Song

Justin Timberlake ft. Beyonce- Until the End of Time

Ryan Cabrera- True

Jesse McCartney- Beautiful Soul

Carrie Underwood- Inside Your Heaven

Jon McLaughlin- Perfect

Taylor Swift- Our Song

Natasha Bedingfield ft. Sean Kingston- Love Like This

Adam Sandler- Grow Old With You

The Pixies- La La Love You

Jack Johnson- Banana Pancakes

Bob Dylan- The Wedding Song

Van Morrison- Sweet Thing

Mother/Son Dance:

Sheryl Crow- Sweet Child of Mine

Suzanne Vega- Gypsy

Father/Daughter Dance:

Carrie Underwood- All American Girl

Paul Simon- Father and Daughter

Cake Cutting:

U2- The Sweetest Thing

Cake- Love you Madly

Sarah McLaughlin- Ice Cream

I hope these songs will inspire you and find the best songs for you to dance the night away!

~Mary Alice  

New bridesmaid's find- dresses they will wear again!

As bride's you always have, well most do, that nervousness that your bridemaids are going to hate you for all eternity for the dress you made them wear, and that they're never going to wear again. My neighbor turned me on to this site and it has the new innovation in bridesmaid's dresses. I had heard of it before, but hadn't found the site for it. It is by twobirds and it is a jersey spandex and nylon blend that you're able to create 10 different dresses with, finding a style that fits you. It is a one size fits all, sizes 0-16, and it is perfect for pregnant women as well. You've got to check it out and it comes in colors that are with the hottest trends. I absolutely love it! So chic, sexy, and fun! It also has a how to on the website to show you all the different ways you can wear it! And to top it all off, they have ties and wraps in the exact same colors to match your bridesmaids. Check them out!~ Mary Alice

Getting creative: Guestbooks

Guestbooks are such a staple at weddings. They serve the purpose of seeing who attended your wedding as a guide to sending your thank you's for attending. For years brides have used the standard spiral bound "bridal screaming" guestbook with the lined pages for guests to sign. I personally, along with a lot of other brides today, find that way so boring and non-personalized. I love to encourage my brides to come up with another option to serve as a guestbook, something that will serve a purpose in their decor at home. Something that represents them in their own way. It doesn't have to be elaborate, but could be anything from a scrapbook with photos of your childhood and then dating lives together, which is what I did :), to a more traditional signing mat that can be placed on your wall with a photo from your engagement or wedding. Here are some other fun ideas to creating that record to represent who was at your biggest day ever!

If you were having your wedding take place at a vineyard or if you and your husband to be are wine or champagne lovers, choose a bottle of wine or champagne that will be served at your wedding. Have that serve as your guestbook with a special pen available for guests to sign their names and well wishes to you and display that in your home.

Have your guests pen a note of well wishes to you and the new Mister and put these notes into a scrapbook for others to look through. These are fun to read through when you arrive home from your honeymoon and are unwrapping gifts as well. You would be surprised the funny, and inspiring, notes you'll receive. Great stationary for this can be found on many websites, including Paper Source for stationary with motifs or colors to match your theme.

Document your guests with a photo. Whether it's from a poloroid being carried around by several designated friends or a photobooth set up, it's a great momento to represent who was at your wedding and attach this to a guestbook for them to sign a message into. Photobooth Nashville is a resource we use very often. They bring in a photobooth to set up and an attendant is there all night as your guests are going in and out of the old fashioned photobooth, to take their pictures and compile them into a scrapbook with well wishes. Guests love it!!! It also can double as a favor because the guests get a copy of the pictures they took as well.

Another fun thing to do, that many photographers are doing now, is creating a mini album of photos from your engagement session, and even bridal session, and having your guests sign on opposite pages. This serves as a great display for your photos, as well as something more appealing to look through than just pages of signatures only. One of A Delightful Day's favorite photographers, Dove Wedding Photography, offer this as part of most of their packages.

Another great tip I've seen is forgo the traditional written guestbook all together and have your videographer take messages from your guests. It allows for more personalization, tears, and laughs!

Whatever your style is for a guestbook, make it personalized! Guests love those little details that make your wedding your own! 

Invite Etiquette

While I'm on the Invitation and Paper kick, here are some invitation etiquette answers to your common questions!

• Q.How far in advance should you send invitations? What is the proper date to ask for the reply card?
  A. Ideally, invitations should go out eight weeks before the wedding -- that gives guests plenty of time to clear their schedules for the day and make travel arrangements if they are out-of-towners. It also lets you make the RSVP date a little earlier -- say three weeks before the wedding date -- so you can get a final head count and start making a seating chart (if you'll have one) before the final-week-before-the-wedding crunch begins. At the very latest, guests should receive invitations six weeks in advance, and you should get responses back two weeks before the big day. You will have your few stragglers that don't get in their RSVP's until the week of, so always allow for a few extra in your headcount when it is given to your caterer, just to make up for those. It's better to have a little more than you need versus not enough.
• Q. We're in a tizzy over announcements versus invitations. The groom grew up in a very small town 2,000 miles away from the wedding city. We're afraid that feelings will be hurt if we don't invite everyone from his hometown, but we know the trip will be impossible for 95 percent of them. Help!
  A. Even if you're pretty sure certain guests won't be able to attend the wedding, it's a nice gesture to invite them -- who knows, they might decide to attend. And if not, they'll feel good knowing that they were invited. Announcements should be used to let friends, family, and possibly professional colleagues who were not invited to the wedding for whatever reason -- budget constraints, etc. -- know that the wedding took place. Invitations are sent to those people whom the families want at the wedding. Let the recipients decide on their own whether they can attend or not. If you're right and most of them can't come, you might consider having a second reception or party in the groom's hometown after the couple returns from their honeymoon.
• Wording is always a question as to who belongs on the invitation. Here are some suggestions:

*** This invite implies that both families are hosting, therefore paid, for the wedding:

Tina Maria Smith
and
John Michael Douglass
together with their parents
Barbara and Robert Smith
and
Bob and Jane Douglass
request the honor of your presence

*** In this situtation the parents are being honored, but the bride and groom have paid for the wedding:

Jane Marie Darling
and
John Michael Rooney
together with their parents

• Q.We are getting married at a local hotel located on the beach. The ceremony will be held outside, with the reception following in a banquet room inside. It seems almost silly to have a separate reception card with the same location, but I have no idea how to put it all on the wedding invitation. Any ideas?
  A. All you have to do is add a single line to the bottom of your ceremony invitation: "Reception to follow." It's invitation parlance for "The reception is in the same place." Just make sure your ushers know where to direct guests after the ceremony, so they're all taking the most convenient route to the reception area.
• Q.Do couples who live together but aren't married receive a single invitation or separate invitations?
  A. Unmarried couples who live together receive a single invitation because they are a couple. Address it the same way you'd address the invitation of a married couple with different last names -- alphabetically, on separate lines on the outer envelope:
  Ms. Janine Myers
  Mr. Richard Stevenson
  
  The inner envelope would read:
  Ms. Myers and Mr. Stevenson
  or
  Janine & Richard
• Q.My parents' friend called to say that her daughters and their husbands have not received invitations to the wedding. They didn't receive invitations because we didn't invite them. Should we? We invited them both to the engagement party and the shower. Are we obligated to invite them to the wedding even if we aren't close to either daughter?
  A. If they were present at your shower, you really should invite them. Shower guests should always be only people you're planning on inviting to the wedding. Here's why: The shower is, by definition, a gift-giving party -- an opportunity for your closest friends and relatives to help outfit you for your new home and life. If you invite someone to the shower but not to the wedding, they may feel as though they were only invited to the shower (and engagement party, for that matter) because you wanted gifts from them. These are your parents' friends' family, so these guests probably should have been on your parents' section of the guest list. This decision is now up to you -- if you don't invite them, you (or more likely, your parents) may face conflict with them.

Hope these suggestions help you in sticky situations that invites bring! Emily Post or Crane's Blue Book is always a great etiquette reference for more invite questions.

Invitation Trends

Your invitation is what sets the mood for your guests for what type of event to expect. Whether you're having a black tie affair with a very formal invitation with formal fonts and paper to an informal affair with a theme, your paper is an important element in your wedding planning. The average amount of your budget spent on paper is 2-3%, sometimes more for those who have invitations as a high priority on their list. Here are the invitation trends for 2008 and what we're seeing as a change in paper styles.

• Pinstripes are a hot look right now whether it's horizontal, vertical, multicolored, or in shades of your wedding. Use a formal Script font with this fun stripe and create a elegant combination of classy with contemporary.
• Bejeweling your invitations with rhinestones, pearl-toned beads, pearls, mini-swarovski crystals make a simple invitation automatically classy and elegant, with a touch of bling! I'm a scrapbooker, and those fun rhinestone buckles you can find in the scrapbook section of stores make a great addition to invites as well.

• Going bold with color, only this is with white. Taking a dark hued, bright cardstock and using white typesetting. This is a beautiful alternative to a white cardstock with a dark hued type.
• Pockets are very much in style. Instead of having to worry about what goes into the envelope and in what order, choose to use a pocketfold style and don't fuss over what order the pieces go in and supplying tons of envelopes. Another big trend saving money and envelopes is RSVP Postcards. They're fun and they save money!

• Paper flowers are popular now on invites. That's a great thing to those us who are scrapbookers. This adds an element of natural to your invitations.

• Unique textures are fun for invites as well, using fabric, stitching, acrylic, even invites burned into wood for a nature themed event. Check out Modern Letterpress for some beautiful, textured invites.
• Modern Motifs are taking over having an allover pattern, using your dress as an inspiration even.

 

• Modern Monograms are great for personalizing your invites and you can use this monogram everywhere in your event. Carry it on with your lighting, on your dancefloor, favors, save-the-dates, program, need I go on! This invite shows carrying out your theme with the monogram design.

• Last but not least, Designer envelopes, the first thing your guests see. Splurge for those envelopes that have your motif, metallic envelopes in your color, or go for an elegant calligraphy.

No matter what your invite choosing is, use something that's unique to your wedding. You can have invites that are customized to your wedding, without the "custom design" price. Have fun with them. Paper is one of my favorite elements of a wedding! Happy planning! 

Birthday Parties

We are so excited that we are planning a Sweet 16 party and are dreaming back to our Sweet 16 days when we didn't get the huge party that all girls want! So... out of the fun of what the Sweet 16 represents my birthday party posting inspiration comes from a very swanky Sweet 16 that was featured on The Knot's sister site PartySpot. I love the details of this event and come on... if I could go back to Sweet 16, this is the way I would celebrate! (If funds were no issue)

Whatever event you're planning, make the invite entice people to want to come. This invite set off the tone for aquas, Miami Beach vibe, and a lounge feel.

I love taking a theme, like crystals, and using them in all spots possible.

Use your colors in all ways possible, especially with lighting. Lighting has such an incredible look and creates pictures with depth.

The trendy photobooth at the events!

Even though it's a Sweet 16, bartenders created "mocktini's" for the teenagers. You could carry that over into your wedding or event where alcohol will not be used. It creates a fun vibe and you can incorporate your favorite flavors or the events colors.

Fun favors like the Candy Bar are always a hit! Invite your guests to go home with a little momento of their evening.

No matter what type of event you're planning, birthday party, shower, wedding, always personalize. It lets your guests know that you're celebrating who you are and allowing them to be apart of it!

Bridal Beauty

It seems as though more and more brides are showing their natural beauty and glow. More and more you're seeing in magazines that brides aren't overdoing their looks now, but creating an understated elegance to their hair and makeup. Investing in your look for your wedding day is money well spent. Choose a makeup artist and hair stylist wisely, and make sure to get at least one trial with each, fine-tuning your wedding day look. Here are some modern hairstyles that are making the runway and onto brides everywhere.

I love the idea of replacing your veil after the ceremony and formal photos with a flower from your bouquet or a silk flower.

Loose waves, feathers, and netting is becoming a trend in wedding photos. Brides are being more of their natural selves on the wedding day rather than walking down the aisle unlike their more normal selves and grooms being afraid to touch with you with all the makeup and hairspray. You don't want to be plain jane, just a more glamourous version of yourself.

Brooches are an elegant addition to a low chignon or bun. There are many resources to find brooches, like www.pugster.com, Ebay sellers, and department stores.

Pair your natural gorgeous hair with natural elegant makeup.

Be only a more elegant version of yourself ladies! You don't want to not recognize yourself in your pictures. Natural beauty is delightful! 

Save the Date

Save the dates have become such a popular paper that brides are looking for them right after their wedding planning begins. This choice sets the tone for the type of event that you're going to have. Many brides question when to send. When you're have a destination wedding or a holiday wedding, it is best to send the save the date at least 9 months to a year in advance. If you're having a local wedding, 6 months is usually time enough. This allows for out of town guests plenty of time to make arrangements for their trip. What do you need to include with a save-the-date?

• Accommodations information, making hotel suggestions that are around your wedding site or letting your guests know of wedding room blocks at certain hotels that you have arranged for them. Make sure with those you include hotel name, phone number to call to make reservations, code name, cut off date, and if needed pricing information.
• Travel information is good to have to let them know what airports are around as well as any car rental facilities and shuttle information.
• Planned events are great to let guests know about, so that they can come in in time to participate. Also, if they're making a weekend trip out of it they know what to make preparations for.
• Make sure to include date and if available location!!!

Make the wording on your save-the-date either formal, informal, or fun! Here are some suggestions from The Knot.

Formal Notice
Jack and Jill
are getting married on
July 5, 2005
San Francisco, California

Fun & Flirty
He proposed ... she said 'Yes'!
Jack + Jill
will tie the knot
July 5, 2005
Chicago, Illinois

Totally Carefree
We're taking the plunge!
Hope you'll be there to celebrate our flight.
Jack & Jill
say "I Do"
July 5, 2005
Nantucket Island

Some other tips when choosing your save the date:

• Choose a paper that reflects the wedding colors that you have chosen.
• Use a motif that you want to include in your wedding like a monogram or a design.
• You could choose something as simple as a postcard to a magnetic puzzle that they put together that creates the save the date. Be creative and personalize, personalize, personalize!
• The refrigerator magnets are very popular now because guests can put it on their frig and won't forget! Also, the save the date stickers for the calendar are popular as well.

One last tip to remember, don't send save-the-dates to guests that won't be receiving invitations. This is bad etiquette. We don't want angry friends and family! Sending the save-the-date is only the beginning of planning fun! Plan a delightful one!

Favors

More and more brides are saying thank you to their guests by giving out favors. Favors are a fun gift to give, but I believe they need to be something that your guests are going to enjoy and not another trinket to put in their drawer. Some tips to help you decide on what type of favor to choose for your guests include:

• Do your homework and gather information and pics from magazines, see what's in style and trendy, and also choose something that will be relavant to your event.
• Personalize your favors in some way by using a motif, create labels with your monogram, incorporate pictures of the two you, etc. Bring some of your life into your favor.
• Decide on a fun way to package your favor. Whether it's a cute favor box and ribbon tied with your wedding colors, a cellophane bag with a monogram sticker to the front, chinese take out boxes, organza bags, wooden boxes, or tin canisters, create a new packaging for your favor if it's something that you've purchased to make it personalized.
• Present your favors right. So many guests walk out without a favor, and then you're stuck with so many of them. Place them in a spot that guests are going to notice as they exit your reception. Group the favors in masse for the guests to take on a fun cake stand, in a tin pail, use the favors as your table numbers or place cards, or stand at the door at the end of the night and present them to your guests and say thank you for attending your wedding day.
• Some great resources for favor ideas: www.theknotshop.com, www.bellaterra.net, www.containerstore.com, www.foryourparty.com, www.iomoi.com, www.katespaperie.com, www.mjtrim.com, www.myjeanm.com, www.orientaltrading.com, www.paperpresentation.com, www.paper-source.com, www.weddingthings.com, www.wonderfulgraffitiwedding.com.   

Here are some fun suggestions and photos from the knot that many brides have sent in:

Create a CD of you and your groom's favorite songs, or songs that are played at your wedding for them to take home and celebrate again everytime they listen to it!

One fun favor that I had seen was the caricature that was drawn of the wedding couple.

For holiday's, doing something related is fun! Giving out a beautiful ornament as your favor is something useful and will be enjoyed for years to come!

Edible favors are always a hit! Whether it's cookies, chocolates, or the trendy candy bars, you can never have enough sweets!

A wonderful favor that gives back is making a donation to a cause that is close to your heart. Make sure that you give a description of the donation that you gave and why.

Doing the candy bar is a fun way to incorporate your wedding colors!

Don't forget the kiddies at your wedding!

No matter what type of favor you do, coordinate it with your theme and something that means something to you and your groom. It makes a statement to your guests and let's them know that you cared about them being a part of your special day! 

New Palettes

Oh my goodness! I was on Martha Stewarts website today and I absolutely had to post about the new palettes and cute ideas they have on there! I am a sucker for Martha Stewarts do-it yourself approach and i had to share these with you! The first palette, Aqua and Red, such a perfect compliment:

These program Pockets are absolutely precious!

Emerald and Aqua makes a surprising, yet preppy, combination:

These cute bouts bring out the aqua in the ribbon:

I'm sure there will be more beautiful creations!