Sneak Peek ~ Stacy & Danny's Real Wedding

Stacy and Danny hired me 18 months in advance to plan, coordinate and execute their wedding day to be held at the First United Methodist church in downtown Jacksonville, Florida. I assisted them with everything from selecting their ceremony venue, reception venue, and rehearsal dinner venue to managing their budget, selecting their table linens, and all their top notch vendors, as well as coordinating their beautiful wedding day. Now, that it's all done, Stacy, Danny & I have become wonderful friends!

It is with great joy that I bring you a few teaser images from their wedding day.

Thanks to Cassandra Cherneski and Jim Labranch for providing the images. :)

Full blog post to follow on Monday....so stay tuned!

















until next time.....

EASY WEDDING PLANNING!

Savannah, Georgia for Destination Weddings

A week ago, I made a trip to Savannah, Georgia to scout out locations for weddings. I was pleasantly surprised. I visited with a couple of full service venues, quite a few beautiful parks, and also checked into some fine dining and transportation options.

First there was The Gastonian Bed and Breakfast. The Gastonian has 17 beautiful guest rooms. One of these is the carriage house, which is a free standing room with a brick wall interior. While I was in Savannah, I actually stayed in The Gastonian. The staff are extremely helpful, very attentive and they aim to please.

The room that I stayed in is the Jean-Pierre Lafayette. This particular room was a recommendation of Lara's, she's the concierge (ooh!), and, I don't know what I would have done without her. It has huge 12 foot ceilings, and a chandelier overhead.

Lara helped me with everything from transportation, dinner choices, and, of course, where to go to sight-see.

Every evening from 4:30-6:00 pm, they do afternoon tea with hors d'ouevres & wine, then from 8:00-10:00, they have desserts and cordials. And, of course, there is breakfast! It was magnificent. Vanilla cinnamon french toast, orange juice, coffee, scones, muffins, omelets (of your choice), fruit topping, AND, you can either eat in the dining area, or they will deliver it to your room, on a silver platter. It was wonderful. I tried both & am not sure which I preferred. It was nice to meet the other guests, yet sometimes, it's even nicer to stay snug in your very comfy bed!

oh, and, I would be remiss if I didn't let you know that the honeymoon suite has a huge jacuzzi tub in the middle of the bathroom! It's not in a corner, not up against any walls. How very romantic....((sigh)) okay, okay, so I didn't stay in the honeymoon suite, but I was tempted! It was booked already :(

The second meeting I had was with Angela Sheets at The Mansion on Forsyth Park. This place is stunning! They have a beautiful bar area, a fabulous chic outdoor marble garden courtyard/pool area (perfect for cocktail hour) and a magnificent ballroom. When I was there, the room was set for 120 wedding guests with a sweetheart table and a grand piano! The tables were covered, dance floor was in place, it was just gorgeous. Angela is very helpful. She was in the midst of setting up seating cards when I arrived for our appointment.



In addition, The Mansion has a beautiful restaurant known for its eclectic, artsy, yet elegant dining experience. They have a wonderful lounge as well, Casimir's, which has a marble rooftop view of the park.


Angela has offered me special pricing for my clients, so....if you are considering a destination that offers an elegant, southern environment like The Mansion does, let me know and I'll begin negotiations for you!

until next time.....

HAPPY SOUTHERN WEDDING PLANNING!

Selecting a Venue for your Wedding Reception

Many times when I meet with a potential client, they have not yet determined where they want to celebrate their newly married status~~a/k/a their wedding reception.

To help my clients develop a clear vision of what they want their guests to experience at their wedding reception, I have developed a series of questions. Usually these questions help my clients to develop their vision.

Some couples know the answers immediately and others need time to think about them and turn the options over in their head, but most of the time, when we're finished, I have a clear direction to go, when developing the design for their reception.

It is very important early in your planning stages to develop the parameters of your vision. Where you want, what you want, what you want to see, what you want to hear, what you want to taste & last, but definitely not least, how much money you want to spend.

Here is the first part of my time proven, pretty easy system. Let me know what you think! Also, share with us how you developed the design for your reception.


Important things to know:

1) what is your budget? There are facilities that rent from $750-$3,000 that provide no catering at all, and there are hotels who have menus that range from $40-$80 per person easily and restaurants that can serve anything on their menu, the price is dictated by what you select. Please think about what your budget is.

2) What type of location do you want? Would you prefer:

A traditional location (hotel ballroom/banquet room/country club)

A non-traditional location (Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, San Sebastian Winery, White Room, the loft over Burrito Gallery)

a neighborhood venue (a garden club or a womens club)

This is just the very beginning, but I hope I have given you some food for thought!!

Until next time.....

EASY WEDDING PLANNING!

Winners Announced!

Well, I was going to wait until tomorrow to give you the details of the Jacksonville Magazine's huge wedding giveaway.... BUT I decided to go ahead and let you know tonight.

We had a wonderful evening at the beautiful Serenata Beach Club.

There were four finalist couples.

1) Kathleen Holland and Brian Triggs
2) Monica Mia Hiday and Ryan Ketterman
3) Lauren Brooks and Ryan Imhulse
4) Nita Sinden and Ian Hurley

The four finalists competed in the NearlyWed Game. They answered some tough questions about each other. The deciding question was when the women were asked "How will your fiance' fill in the following sentence?: A good wife is one who _____________" Nita and Ian's answer was "loves" How sweet!

I'll give you more details tomorrow later, but for now........

Our very lucky winners are Nita Sinden & Ian Hurley. I'll be tending to the details leading up to the wedding, so I'll keep you posted on the progress.


until next time.....

EASY WEDDING PLANNING!

Slacker!

Okay, Okay, I'm sooooo very sorry for being such a slacker! Thanks to Lisa for letting me know! She asked me when I was going to start keeping up with my blog again....
How embarrasing!

Well, I've attached an article which kinda explains what I've been doing....



I know, it's no excuse. Thank you for calling me on it. To those of you who enjoy receiving my newsletter, I've also kinda slacked on that one too, haven't I? I promise that next week things will return to normal....

Well, maybe. Of course, the Christmas season kinda prevents normal, doesn't it?

I'll write you a quick story later on this week to explain something that happened to me that reminds me of the spirit of this time of year.

until then.....

EASY WEDDING PLANNING!