13 July

0

On Wednesday, I shared some summertime wedding inspiration as we are right smack in the middle of the summer and wedding season.  It has been a hot hot summer so far and we are only nearly half way through it!  Coming off the heels of a major heat wave here in the Washington, D.C. metro area, I thought about offering a few tips for couples choosing to have a summer wedding. Not only will you be happy but your guest will thank you as well.

1.  Reserve Your Date - The summer falls right in the middle of wedding season and it is also prime time vacation time for families. It is important that to send out Save the Dates to your guest as early as possible.  Many families plan their vacations at least a year in advance, so you will want to make sure that the guest that you truly want to attend know about your wedding in advance.

{www.weddingpaperdivas.com}

2.  Consider the elements – Guard your guest from the sun! Consider having fans and parasols available for your guest to keep themselves cool.

3.  Petite Faire – During the summer guest don’t want to eat heavy meals.  Try incorporating some petite and light savory selections into your dinner menu.  Take advantage of fruits and vegetables that are in season and try to buy local!  Ask your caterers to use fruits and vegetables from local gardens or farmer’s markets.

4.  Start your wedding in the evening – Starting your wedding during the height of the heat on a long summer day can be dreadful for your guest and yourself.  Do yourself a favor and start it later in the day.  Take advantage of a beautiful summer sunset.

{http://kansascityweddingpictures.com/?p=1946}

5.  Guard Against Bugs – Consider placing insect repellent in baskets and place  the baskets throughout the venue.  This will help your guest from being bitten by unwelcomed friends.

{http://www.evrimgallery.com/Portland-Wedding-Blog/edgefield-amphitheater-mcmenamins-wedding/}

6.  Keep the cold beverages flowing – Make sure that there is plenty of cold bottled water available for your guest.  You can use the galvanized metal buckets to store water in various locations throughout your venue.  Have your bartender prepare refreshing cold drinks like mojito’s, sangria or daiquiris.

 {http://www.pnpflowersinc.com/2010/06/lemonade-sunshine-party-party-day.html}

{Martha Stewart Weddings}

I hope these tips have given you some considerations for your upcoming summer wedding!

11 July

0

We are back!  The summer is in full gear and we have been enjoying it up!  I have missed interacting with you all. We have expanded over the past few months and our now offering our brides florals and rentals! We are very excited about this and will share for more information on this very soon.   This wedding season has been the busiest ever for us and we are enjoying the ride!  We have a little bit of a break this month but a very full end of Summer and Fall.  I’m currently working on new and fresh blog content including adding contributors that will help you with different areas of planning your wedding. I’m so excited about what is to come!

In the meantime, I’m sharing some fun summertime wedding inspiration!  Yellow is a lovely natural summertime wedding color and it makes me smile!

{photos:  The Knot, Wedding Channel, 100LayerCake, Beach-Theme-Wedding-Blog}

For more Summertime Wedding Inspiration, follow our Pinterest board, Summer Summer Summertime Wedding board.

22 June

0

Last month I had the pleasure and honor of planning and coordinating Karla and Jorge’s botanical beautiful wedding on Memorial Day!  When Karla reached out to us we had a mere 3 weeks to familiarize ourselves with her wedding vision, vendors and the venue.  It was fast and furious but in the end turned out beautiful.    It was a HOT HOT day on May 28th but it was an absolutely beautiful day for a botanical garden wedding.  The Meadowlark Botanical Gardens was the perfect backdrop to this lovely wedding.  Here are a few photos from the videographer duArte Image!

[...]

18 June

3

Today I’m excited to share some of our amateur photos from our Aubergine and Apple Green wedding this weekend.  When Tiffany and I met, we instantly clicked. She had completed a good portion of her wedding planning but turned to SED to pull it all together and get her to the finish line.  When she told me that her colors were Aubergine, Apple Green and everything sparkly… I knew we were a match made in heaven.  With just 8 weeks until the wedding, we designed and completed her florals (Farah, our floral designer is amazing) as well as provided overall assistance with pulling the overall design together.  It came out beautiful!  I can’t wait to share professional photos when they arrive.

Here I am having a little fun with the photobooth provided by mojo  Photobooth!

1 June

1

Happy Friday!

It’s been a whirlwind of activity here at SED!  I’m so sorry for the light posts recently but we will be back to our regularly scheduled program very soon.   I’m planning and designing many weddings, events and launching a brand new couture line of wedding stationery! Stay tuned!  We have also expanded and brought on a Associate Event Consultant and an Intern.  (I’ll be introducing them to you next week!)  Today, I’m back these beautiful wedding invitations that we did some time ago.  Our bride loves the chevron pattern and also ombre’ effect, so we incorporated both with a touch of sparkle.

This wedding invitation suite uses an open-pocket style (not to be confused with the pocketfold style) .  The invitation is place on one side of the invitation and the enclosures are slid into a pocket on the opposite side.  Beautiful shades of orange, paired with navy and glitter…. just gorgeous!

[...]

21 May

6

Hi I’m Stefani from La Belle Parties and I’m excited to be back today with some fun summer time ideas for decorating with grass.

1. Grow your own grass in a container. The grass by itself is a popular decoration for a table. For some added fun, you can insert your favorite treat on a stick to create a unique serving piece. I used chocolate covered marshmallows to recreate the look of a plant in my yard and flower cookies for a more whimsical look.

2. Did you know that a piece of sod is less than $4? You can use a piece of sod with so many summer time themes like baseball, pinwheels, BBQ’s or picnics. With a piece of red checkered cloth, a sack lunch and a pitcher of lemonade I created a simple backyard picnic table.

3. I Love adding words to a table, so this is my personal favorite. As you probably already know, the paper mache letters you can purchase from your local craft store are hollow. So I cut off one side of the letters, cut strips off of my sod and stuffed them into the letters! Now I will warn you, this is a super messy project but so fun. I love how they turned out!

I had so much fun trying to think of new inexpensive ways to add some summer pizzazz to my table. How would you incorporate grass into your dessert table?

15 May

0

Hi – I’m Jennifer from Double the Fun Parties and I’m excited to be here today on The Sparkle Spot to share some ideas for turning household containers into favor containers! (You can see the full tutorial for each item on my blog.)

1.    Takeout Container

I saved four of these containers after a trip to the American Girl Bistro. (A really fun afternoon with your daughter if you have a store locally.) Just wash out your container, and make a coffee filter flower and tag for the top.

Before

[...]

14 May

2

Happy Monday!  I hope you all had a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend.  Today, I’m excited to announce that I have achieved the prestigious designation of Professional Bridal Consultant^TM from the Association of Bridal Consultants, the oldest and largest group of wedding professionals in the world.  I am so very proud of this designation because it is a true reflection of all of the hard work and time that I put into SED and every single client.   I truly believe in that every professional should always want to continue to learn new and grow and I’m looking forward pursuing the next level of accreditation.

Member of the Association of Bridal Consultations agree to uphold the ABC Code of Ethics:

• Represent each client fairly and honestly, providing all agreed to services in a timely and cost efficient manner
• Establish reasonable and proper fees for services and provide written estimates to each client
• Use honest, factual advertising
• Deal with employees and clients fairly, in an unbiased manner
• Disclose to clients any payments received from suppliers
• Operate an establishment that is a credit to the community

With our wedding season beginning in just two shorts week, I’m so excited to be working with so many lovely and diverse couples.  I hope that they can rest assured and trust that their wedding is in good hands with Sparkling Events & Designs.