Be Unique! 10 tips and trends to customize your wedding!

Happy New Year all! With the new wedding season in full swing, it is only appropriate to share some new and inspired ideas with you to make your wedding day unique!  Here is my top 10 list of trends to look out for in the 2010/2011 wedding season!

10. Old Hollywood Glam Wedding Dresses: always vintage inspired, look to dresses taking you back in time to the days of Hollywood’s favorite A-listers, Katherine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and of course the timeless Marilyn Monroe.  

photo courtesy of Jenny Packham

 9. Custom Birdcage Veil: Etsy is one of my personal favorite places to finding these beautiful and often unique designs on this returning trend.

Photo courtesy of YJdesign 

8. Unique Seating Card: With couples embracing the DIY accents to their weddings, why not forfeit the typical, names in slotted cardholders and come up with something more unique and creative!

 Photo courtesy of Cross Roads Cottage

7. Purses instead of Bridesmaid bouquets: I love flowers don’t get me wrong, but I love creativity a little bit more! A nice clutch purse adorned with florals is so chic, and of course practical;)

 Photo courtesy of Mollusa Wedding Art Design

 6. Recycled Tin Cans tied on the back of your car: 

Vintage, vintage, vintage! I love the old tradition of tying cans at the back of the car and off you go… luckily this trend is on it’s way back and I, for one,  couldn’t be happier!

 Photo courtesy of Maria McBride

5. Butler-passed desserts: forget the candy buffets; allow your guests to feel pampered like royalty instead of a herd storming a buffet. Butler-passed desserts are elegant and really give that added touch of quality.

Photo courtesy of Culinary Crafts 

4. Fruit Centerpieces: Since intimate, homestyle weddings seem to be the direction we are heading this season, give your wedding a homely feel with endless colour combination's and the fragrance of wonderful fruit! Bonus feature: it's edible! Enough said;)

Photo courtesy of Martha Stewart Weddings 

3. Handwritten Wedding Invitations: Couples are really looking to create that personal style these days!  Hiring a Calligrapher or Hand writer really shows your invited guests that you've gone that extra mile for them!

Photo courtesy of Design and Ink 

2. Fabric or button bridal bouquet and boutonniere: in an age where eco-friendly weddings and recycling are a priority, get creative with these lovely alternatives to flowers.

Photo courtesy of Princess Lasertron 

1. Wedding Pies: Cupcakes. Cakes. Cupcakes. Cakes... Imagine instead, the smell of delicious, flaky, fruit-filled pastry, with my personal favorite trend: Pie!

Photo courtesy of Pie & 

Overall, I truly encourage you all to do two things: first, think outside the box and bring forth your combined personalities, the thing that makes you, well, you! Second, don't forget about your guests! They are going to be there to celebrate the two of you and they deserve an exclusive and fabulous experience!

 

 
 

Dee's Show Stopper Alert!

One of my favorite things to do is research the net looking for things that are trendy, chic and that inspire me! Basically, things that I can share with all of my readers and newly engaged couples!

Last night I was on Etsy (secretly one of my favorite places) and came across this beautiful necklace that is simply fabulous! For all you Tiffany inspired brides out there, this necklace by Kirsten Ann, appropriately named the Miss Tiffany Necklace, is sure to be a show stopper!

Three Myths debunked about hiring a Wedding Planner

Congratulations to all you newly engaged winter couples! Surely the joy of the holidays and the excitement of your upcoming nuptials have you and your fiancé exhilarated!

With the new wave of wedding shows upon us and the plethora of information and ideas available online & in magazines, you are sure to get overloaded and confused about what to do and when to do it. In most cases, you may even lose track of what your initial vision for your wedding was to begin with!

It’s really sad when I see so many couples lose track of their vision! It’s even worse when I see the amount of stress a couple will endure to avoid paying a professional to help them out! Unfortunately, there are too many misconceptions when it comes to hiring wedding planners!


Following, I’ve put together a list of the three most common myths debunked about hiring a Wedding Planner!

Myth #1 “A Wedding Planner is too expensive and we need to stick to our budget!”

Even if you want to plan it all yourself a wedding planner is invaluable. A reputable planner will help you create a breakdown for your budget as well as maximizing the services you receive without breaking the bank!

For the price of a planner, you will likely end up saving 2 or 3 times that cost, simply from the vendor referrals and contacts that they can offer you. For example, a recent couple that hired me for 10 hours of consultation and day-of for their wedding ended up saving over $5000.00! I also booked their Sandals honeymoon at no cost! You can’t get better than that!

Myth #2 “I know exactly what I want and I can do it best on my own! A planner won’t understand my vision.”                         
                                                          
Although it may be fact that you can do it yourself, you need to be aware that you and your fiancé will need an extraordinary amount of time off from your jobs to visit venues, vendors and to handle any DIY projects. You will be using any and all spare time to tend to the planning and the stress levels will be unlike anything you have ever experienced. It takes a couple approximately 250 hours to plan an average wedding. Most people don’t have that kind of time.

As for your vision, your perfect planner will not only understand your vision, they will feel it too! They will be able to make various suggestions that are on par with your ideas. Your ideal planner should have a personality that clicks with yours and that of your fiancé; after all, you need to feel comfortable with them.

Myth #3 “A wedding planner will only refer me to expensive vendors that they get kickbacks or referral fees from!”

The top reason to hire a wedding planner is for you to get the most trusted and skilled vendors within (or under), your budget! For good planners, referrals solely match the clients needs, not our pockets! We value our clients and would never betray the trust they have in us.

Unfortunately however, just like in all industries, there are many unethical ‘professionals’ that ruin it for the rest of us qualified planners. Regrettably, some do take kickbacks and are not looking out for the best interest of their clients.

Fortunately, that is not the rule! To avoid bad referrals and dishonorable planners, search for a WPIC (Wedding Planners Institute of Canada) certified wedding planner. It is completely prohibited for us to take kickbacks as we can be stripped of our certification, not to mention our reputation!

All in all, hiring a planner is definitely the way to go! With so many decisions to make, why not have a professional guide and assist you along the way! It’s the most important decision you make to begin planning your big day!