Elizabeth and Trent – A Truly Beautiful Spring Garden Wedding

There isn’t much more you can say about Elizabeth and Trent’s May wedding other than PERFECT.  Although there was a bit of rain that came thru right before the ceremony the skies cleared up and made for a great setting for a morning May wedding. We had the pleasure to handle the planning, the flowers and the decor. Elizabeth picked great colors, a great dress, and great locations.

On to the pictures courtesy of Ramblin Rose Photography, hope you enjoy and happy planning!

Angela Dacus, Memphis Wedding Planner                                                                                                                                               Southern Event Planners

A little spring bling!

Lauren and her Mom came to us about 2 months ago and they were looking for a little something different. She had everything done but the decor and flowers. Her colors and location were inspiration enough for us. Below is what we came up with for her spring wedding. We are so glad Lauren and her family decided to share her special day with us.

 

Enjoy and Happy Planning,

Angela

Amy and Chris’ Spring Brunch Wedding

I know I haven’t been posting much this month, but hey what can I say, if you didn’t already know…IT IS WEDDING SEASON. What a way to swing into the season than with a spring brunch wedding. This past weekend, I had the pleasure of spending my Saturday morning with a great couple, Amy and Chris. Although the morning started off overcast and rainy, the sun quickly came out and kissed the day for them. Annabella with Asian Bees Photography took some amazing pictures and made the most of the misty morning.

Amy and Chris wanted a beautiful, laid back, intimate, yet elegant brunch reception. Without a wedding party, Amy was open to colors and flowers. She pretty much let me take the lead in suggesting room layout and decor. Their one big huge thing that was hands down from the start mega important…FOOD. After interviewing just 3 caterers I knew we had a winner when during the tasting Amy told me it was “lights out good”. That is exactly what I needed to hear. With that we reserved Wade and Company and worked with them to create a menu that provided the guests with many choices to fill their bellies.

Almost as important as the food was the fashion. Amy had impeccable taste and it showed not just in her dress but particularly with her sassy bronze Jimmy Choo’s to her custom made bronze leather and pearl wrap bracelet and smoky quartz earrings.  She also choose the fabric for the suit and tie Chris had made. Hands down one of the most dashing dressed couples ever.

Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed the wedding.

Special Offer – Lounge Furniture Discount!

Looking for something to add that “WOW” factor to your next event? Let Southern Event Planners help supply you with that little something extra. For a limited time only, we’re offering 30% off of the rental of our fabulous lounge furniture!

If you’re planning an event during April 19, 2009 and July 31, 2009, keep reading!

 

Our lounge furniture pieces are 3′X3′ and can be arranged to fit any space. They are available in natural or black.

 

Pricing Options and Quantities:

 

4 Corner Pieces

     Regular Price: $80 each

     Discount Price: $56 each!

 

14 Chair Pieces

     Regular Price: $65 each

     Discount Price: $45.50 each!

 

10 Ottoman Pieces

     Regular Price: $50 each

     Discount Price: $35 each!

 

Other Rental Items Available to Accessorize:

 

5 Acrylic 20″ Square Cubes

     Price: $50 each

 

5 Ivory 5′X7′ Shag Rugs

     Price: $50 each

 

1 Black Leather 8′X12′ Shag Rug

     Price: $100

 

1 Apple Green 6′X9′ Fur Rug

     Price: $125

 

The Fine Print:

In order to receive the 30% discount on the lounge furniture, your event and rental of the furniture must be between April 19, 2009 and July 31, 2009. This offer is subject to availability. Furniture pieces are reserved on a first come, first served basis. A non-refundable 25% deposit will ensure your rental. Once a deposit is made, an order cannot be decreased or canceled; however, it may be increased if quantities are available. Offer not available for furniture rentals already booked. Offer does not include delivery and setup fees.

Call us at (901) 757-9339 to reserve your furniture from Unique Event Rentals or stop by our office located in Chickasaw Oaks Village, 3092 Poplar Avenue, Memphis, TN 38111. See you soon!

Bride Envy

We want to thank the Brides, Mom and Groom for attending our seminar, Secrets to a Successful Wedding, this weekend.

The brides that attended received these tricked out name tags, courtesy of Kelly, our in house craftster.

 Here is Sarah, one of our brides,  sporting her fancy tricked out tag. After the event Sarah said ” I really learned alot and you provided me with insider information and tips that I could not find in my research online or in the magazines”.

All the brides that attended received a swag bag that included right at $2000 of gifts and coupons. We are so thankful to all our vendors that participated. You guys are what makes you tops in the Memphis Wedding Industry.

 The contents of the bags included:

From the Peabody Hotel - 10% off of your event if booked by 03/15/09; 3 free months gym membership at the Peabody Athletic Club with a purchase a one year membership; a free drink at the Corner Bar; a complimentary dessert at Capriccio Grill or Chez Philippe; and a night stay for $139.

Travel Leaders provided us with $150 towards a honeymoon.

Tennessee Limo gave a 10% off discount on transportation, roughly a $50.

American Tuxedo provided coupons with savings up to $375.

Seize the Clay – offered 10% off any Bridal Party event of 10 or more painters plus a 20% coupon off a gift item.

Lisa Ann Byrd with Mary Kay loaded us up with some great samples from Mary Kay’s skin care line.

Wedding Cake cookies from Brown Baquette

Lemon Tree Paper gave the cutest set of notecards.

The Stoval Collection provided a coupon for 10% off invitations.

Southern Shows donated free tickets for the bride and guests for the Southern Women’s Show this weekend.

Southern Bride and Premier Bride of Memphis gave tons of magazines and books.

Arthur’s Wine and Liquors was generous with their selections of white and red wines.

We got a great hookup from Sephoria with samples of perfumes, lotions, face creams, etc.

Last but not least our gift shop, A Few of My Favorite Things, contributed hand made natural soaps, Mindy Weiss bridal gifts, Sniff Tissues, and cute Jelly Belly’s that coordinated with our cute polka dotted recyclable bags.

Just for Lunch provided us with a light lunch and the space to host our event. It was great fun and everybody asked some very informative questions.

Since we decided to keep the group small it allowed everyone an opportunity to receive one of the big prizes. Congratulations ladies!!!! A big thanks to all those vendors that participated also.

We really enjoyed putting this together and giving the brides an opportunity to learn some insider tips that they can apply to their own weddings. With the seminar being such a success we are already deciding when to hold the next one. Anyone who is interested in attending just shoot me an email and we will include you on our invitation list.

Happy Planning,

Angela

New Mother/Son Song – My Little Boy

Nashville songwriters Jan Linville and Dave Tough wrote a wonderful song that can be played during the Mother/Son dance at your wedding. It’s called My Little Boy.

They sent us an .mp3 of the song to pass along to those who are interested. Contact us at weddings@southerneventplanners.com if you would like a copy of the song.

Here are the lyrics:

My Little Boy                   © 2008

Tough/Linville

 

The moment he was born

I held him in my arms

And fell in love when he looked up at me

Barely three years old

He’d crawl into my bed

And I’d dry his tears from a scary dream    

 

Lunch box in hand, he climbed up on that bus

Heading off to first grade, looking so grown up

The day had finally come 

To send him on his way

Tears of sadness – tears of joy

No words can describe

The way I felt inside

He’ll always be

My little boy

 

In sixth grade he got glasses

And braces on his teeth

Saved up for his first guitar and pitched for little league

He passed driver’s ed

And when he turned 16 

Worked hard at his first job and aced his ACTs

 

When I took him to college, he hugged me ‘goodbye’

I saw the last eighteen years, flash before my eyes

 

The day had finally come 

To send him on his way

Tears of sadness – tears of joy

No words can describe

The way I felt inside

He’ll always be

My little boy

 

Dressed in black ‘n white

A tall and handsome man

Our family and our friends are gathered ’round

He kisses the bride

They cut the cake, we throw the rice

Their lives have just begun

I’m so proud that he’s my son

 

The day has finally come

To send him on his way

Tears of sadness – tears of joy

No words can describe

The way I feel inside

He’ll always be

My little boy

Sarah and John’s Winter Wedding

Sarah and John’s wedding was really special and intimate for them and their guests. After a touching ceremony at Hope Presbyterian Church guests enjoyed the frosty winter reception (even though it got up to 76 degrees that day) at Just Catering’s location inside Chickasaw Oaks Village. The space really transforms at night with all the twinkle lights. Just Catering did a great job on creating a menu that used organic winter vegetables and farm raised cornish game hens. 

The space was decorated with heavy silver beaded hand painted organza table linens. The centerpieces stood tall and proudly displayed snowflake swarovski crystals springing out as if they were frozen in place. The menu and placecards where designed with the tiffany blue color that had been selected for the bridemaids dress and the bride’s cake.

Sarah and John are avid horse fans both riding and competing since they were children. The crystal horse reflected their equestrian love as the sugar crystals glistened off of the Tiffany blue fondant covered cake. What winter wedding would be complete without a penguin on an iceberg serving host to the groom’s cake.

As the bride and groom exited the reception guests doused them with snow. Not the fake plastic snow…no this was wet and cold snow. Sarah got a head, and dress full, of snow as her father decided to take the entire bucket of snow and throw at them. Everyone died laughing, I had never seen such a drump of snow in my life. It was great fun ….. something that everyone will remember about Sarah and John’s winter wedding.

Enjoy the pictures!

Anyone wanna go to Bali???

As I am doing my evening web purusing  I came across the most amazing chapel to host a wedding. It is called the Infinity Chapel at the Conrad Hotel Bali.

The Infinity was designed by architecture firm Pt. Divi Tunggal Mandiri, Jakarta Indonesia. The building is described as “the building’s simple off set triangle shape represents a romantic angle towards the heavens, while its physical attributes of marble, glass and steel are each metaphors for the male and female bodies and their interactions with each other as a couple. The remarkable steel framed glass wall that makes up the north side of the triangle embodies the delicate and nurturing characteristics of the bride as she supports the equally impressive marble south side, the stoic groom”.  I don’t think I have ever read a more beautiful description that has such relevant meaning.  Now I want to get married in that building!!

So I dug a little deeper and found out that the guest rooms are really very reasonable, $200-$500 a night. Considering you pay that for a night at the Peabody Hotel, a lagoon side king size room in Bali sounds great! 

 We even checked out airfair from Memphis to Bali on NWA and the flight was $1700. Sounds like alot, but I have been quoted almost that for Paris and Italy.

So whether you are thinking of eloping or looking for a romantic exotic honeymoon I think this might be a place to consider.  And if you are thinking about a destination wedding – don’t forget about us. We wanna go!!!!

Angela

Wedding Recap – 2008

Wow, I can’t believe we are already in 2009! Who knew 2008 had wings and could fly as quickly as it did? This year has been incredible. We expanded our retail store. Destination weddings increased this year having us traveling over 7,000 miles for five different weddings. Our staff expanded to include a new office assistant and additional setup crew. Continuing education was a big focus as we attended three different educational conferences,  and a few members of our staff received floral design training.

One of our brides was selected as the “Featured Wedding” for the cover of the 20th Anniversary of Southern Bride. That makes four cover weddings for us! We also had ten weddings (count them, TEN) featured in magazines. We are waiting to hear if Grace Ormond is going to pick up one of the destination weddings, so that would make eleven. That is a record for us. We built new relationships with some amazing new wedding talents and rekindled some old. Southern Event Planners started blogging (after months of “should we/shouldn’t we”) and now we are addicted. It’s all we want to do – outside of planning the next wedding.

We have been blessed to have worked with so many great clients this year: an NFL player and his amazingly gorgeous wife, a Cardiologist (a real lifesaver) and his “should be a model” wife and their precious daughter, 12 teachers, 4 attorneys, 3 retail store owners, 2 speech therapists, 6 nurses, 3 marketing professionals, 2 chemical engineers,  2 human resource managers, 1 librarian , 1 hair stylist, and a slew of college students/new grads.

Since we started blogging late this year we wanted to go back and share with you some of the highlights. Hopefully you will find something to inspire you and make it your own. 

Enjoy!!!

 

 

Wedding Called Off

I found an interesting offer in the Sunday edition of the Commercial Appeal. It seems that a wedding for April 10, 2010 has been called off.

Okay I am sure you are thinking “why is she blogging about this?” Keep reading and you will soon know.

The couple had decided to have their wedding and/or reception at the Cadre Building in downtown Memphis, TN. The ad is for a $4,500 gift certificate for the Cadre Building. The seller is offering the $4,500 certificate for face value or better offer. If you are interested, the contact number is 901.461.4916.

There are no other details listed. If you decide this is something you are interested in, make sure you contact the Cadre Building, as well as the seller, to have a new contract written transferring the funds and details to you and your event.

Good Luck,

Angela

Awhh No He Didn’!!!

So we got an email from one of our friends the other day with a video link. It was simply titled “Best Man Ruins Wedding…MUST SEE!!!!!” We watched it because, after all, we ARE wedding planners.

Several different scenarios went through our minds as we tried to figure out what would happen as the video started. We never would have guessed it would have been this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxGaxn_9fpI

After our initial “OMG!!!! OMG!!!!OMG!!!!!” moments had passed, we began to think about what happened afterwards. We would like to think that the the groom jumped  in with her and said “Let’s get married”!!!! Ahhhh that would have been so sweet. 

Being the optimist, hopefully the ceremony went on (not as planned – but did go on) and they dried off and had one hell of a reception. So the question is…what would you have done????

Oh yeah, if there was any doubt after seeing this clip, I think we all learned not to get married on the edge (of anything).

Angela

Congratulations, You’re Engaged….Now What?????

According to TheKnot.com, 40 percent of engagements occur between November and February. If you are reading this, then you might be included in that 40%.

Dream Ring courtesy of Van Atkins

 

 

Since engagement season is upon us, I thought I would share a series of postings on how to start the wedding planning process: What to do before the I do’s.

Congratulations, you’re ENGAGED!!!!  You have called and text everyone you know and shared your exciting news. I’m sure you are already out the door to buy a small library of wedding magazines and look for a wedding dress. But hold up…wait a minute…you are crazy excited and want to get going on the wedding planning. There are a few things to do first.

The big question is “now what do I do?”

My first piece of advice is to talk to your cute and lovable fiancee and decide what kind of wedding you would like, while keeping in mind what time of year is favorable and checking each other’s calenders for unavailable dates.

After you have decided if you want a church wedding or maybe a garden wedding, the next step would be to pick a time of year. With a few dates picked out, consult both sets of parents and family and make sure there are no other conflicts (your little brother’s high school graduation or your Alma Mata having a huge game that weekend and you know you can’t miss that either).

The next big task (and I do mean BIG) is to start compliling names of the potential guests. Doing this early will help you in determining what locations and the type of  budget you will need. While making the list, start the budget talk and include all of the financial contributors. Make sure everyone is being honest and up front about who they want to invite and how much you will have to spend.

Armed with this ammunition, get ready to hit the bridal shows. January is the start of bridal shows. There is one almost every weekend in the month of January and they all differ, so it would be wise to check out at least two shows. You get to sign up for free giveaways, eat yummy cake samples, visit with photographers, look at wedding videos, check out the latest in bridal fashion and get ideas from florists and other wedding designers. Take a sheet of address labels to the show so you can easily sign up for any giveaways.

When you get home with your bag full of goodies, start sorting out which vendors caught your eye (you should have made a few notes on their materials) and start making yourself a wedding notebook of vendor information and magazine clippings of decor and gowns  you love.

Check back often for the next “What to do before the I Do’s”!

Happy Planning,

Angela

Samantha and John’s Fall Wedding

Fall is my very favorite time of the year! I love the colors in nature, the crisp air and the thought that the holidays are just around the corner.

When Samantha and her Mom, Cathy, came to me and said they were having a hard time finding the perfect location for the wedding I knew I could help. She wanted to get married out in the woods but the weather in November is pretty wet and cold, so having an outdoor wedding in the midst of trees without a tent or heat was going to be tricky to pull off. Pinecrest immediately came to mind.

After visiting Pinecrest, Samantha called to say that she loved it and it was exactly what she had in mind. The venue is made out of a knotty pine and has soaring ceilings with glass all around. With it being nestled in the woods you really feel like you are in the middle of the it all, but without the elements.

Samantha and Cathy were really into the little details to help make a difference from other weddings that they had seen.  As the guests arrived they followed the hand made wood signs directing them “this way”, “goin to the chapel of love” and “we’re goin to get hitched”. The approach of the building was decorated with hay bales, mums, signs and a walkway of shepard’s hooks with hanging lanterns, flowers and raffia.

The ceremony took place under a burlap and grapevine covered ceremony canopy in front of candle lined windows.

The cocktail time was on the side patio complete with adnirondack chairs and swings, hanging lights and we even designed a bar made out of hay bales stacked up with wood across the top. Guests were treated to a great meal of Thanksgiving type of food – turkey, dressing, greens, sweet potato casserole and cranberries.

For the reception the wedding cake was moved under the ceremony canopy and the guests were seated all around at olive colored draped tables with several variations of centerpieces. 

 

It was a great wedding that celebrated the season and the couple in great fall style.

Happy Planning,

Angela

New Custom Bridal Designer

I am so excited to share with you a great new wedding gown designer, Angela Muir. She really brings a fresh, fun flirty style to the wedding gown industry.

Angela is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and a daughter of a dear friend. I have known her since she was a sophomore in high school and all she ever wanted to do was be a wedding gown designer. It is so wonderful when someone embraces their dreams and works for what they want, then goes after what they want and makes it happen. You go girl!!!!

Here is Angela in her own wedding dress that she designed, photo courtesy of David Wright Photography.  I love it because it is so flirty and different from what you see in most magazines. A taste of the 50’s…count my words..you will be seeing this in Martha Stewart or In Style Weddings soon.

 Angela has recently launched her website with her 2009 Collection. Please check her out and if you have a friend or family member that would embrace this style please share Angela with them.
http://www.angelamuir.com

Enjoy and Happy Planning,

Angela

Cookin up a twist on the bridal shower

We were approached recently about putting together a bridal shower for one of our brides. I love to do something that is going to be memorable and interactive for the guests. During one of our vendor meetings, I remembered the mother of the bride and groom both commenting that neither of their children knew how to cook. So I thought, what would be more fun than an interactive cooking lesson/kitchen shower. It started with the idea of having the invitations wrapped around a mini rolling pin with a blank receipe card enclosed:

Guests will bring their receipe and share it with the bride. They’ll even stand up and give a little description about the dish. The lesson is a pre-planned menu that the bride will be able to make for her new hubby. The cooking instructor will have the bride and her bridesmaids (wearing wedding color matched aprons) stand up and prepare the menu items while the guests eat the premade items.

Photo Courtesy Greenbrier Cooking School

We are planning on the centerpieces being different kitchen items that will be given to the bride at the end – think canisters with whisks, spoons, spatulass, etc, and mixing bowls with  mounds of flowers – you get the idea! The tables will have kitchen towels as runners. It is going to be really cute!

Thanks to Squidoo for this photo!

Remember: Bridal Showers can be fun and very inventive and interactive for all. Let your mind wander and find your inspiration to build from.

Happy Planning,
Angela