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"Week of Weddings" with Mrs. Mo's New Jersey & NJMyWay.com
We've been bringing you wedding trends with tips and ideas from New Jersey Wedding specialists. This "Week of Weddings" is in collaboration with writer/blogger Hilary Morris from Mrs. Mo's New Jersey and editor of the widely popular NJ newsletter & web site, NJMyWay.com. We rounded up feedback from many NJ wedding specialists to bring you an entire week of trends! Each day we've been sharing a different tip or trend and included the business name, owner and website to make the one-click connection easy for you! Here is the schedule for the week: * Monday: Popular songs and favorite reality tv shows For more information about NJ Weddings, visit NJWedding.com or you can follow on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/njwedding or here on our facebook page. You can also view these posts on Mrs. Mo's New Jersey blog at http://www.mrsmonj.com/ or on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mrsmonj "Week of Weddings" is a collaborative effort between
Week of Weddings (Day 1): Popular wedding songs and reality TV shows 15 Popular Songs (recommendations from brides, wedding vendors and entertainers like DJ Ken Stone in Aberdeen, http://www.njweddingdj.com/) "Then" by Brad Paisley Top 5 Wedding Reality TV Shows (voted on by wedding experts and vendors) 1. We TV's "My Fair Wedding" with David Tutera Week of Weddings (Day 2): Green Weddings Joshua Turchin A-1 Limousine is 100% green. We are partnered with www.carbonfund.org to create an industry leading carbon use/offset program for our entire fleet to attain a true carbon neutral position. All Trips are assessed a nominal fee to be included in our company wide contribution to help ensure a carbon free world for future generations. Kara Thorson & Laura Bianco Having an eco-friendly wedding is a top priority for many brides today. There are dozens of ways to do so efficiently and here are just a few of our favorites. For starters, donate leftover food rather than throwing it out. By finding a local shelter or soup kitchen, you'll be cutting back on unnecessary waste while simultaneously putting your extra food to good use! Another simple consideration to make: minimize the amount of driving your guests will have to do by keeping your sites close together, and/or arrange for mass transportation for them between the ceremony and reception sites. When it comes to wedding flowers, choose a florist who utilizes organically grown, in-season, local flowers. This will remove the need for long distance transportation of your blooms and also cut back on use of imported flowers (these are often grown in developing countries where pesticide use is high and labor wages are low). You can also buy fresh flowers at your local farmers market, use silk or dried florals, or even grow your own bulbs if you feel like investing time and creativity! The most obvious way to keep your wedding "green" is to make use of local vendors and organic goods. Bill Zolna Recently I have seen a movement towards making weddings more eco-friendly. One thing I encourage our bridal clients to do is choose flowers that are in season, organic and from a local florist. Couples can also opt to use the bridal party bouquets as decorations at the reception. Another great idea for center pieces is using the couples family & friends wedding photos. This idea is not only memorable but sentimental to those attending your wedding as well. Janna and Kyo Morishima Photographers now have the ability to print large wall portraits on eco-friendly papers. For instance, we can offer our clients portraits printed on bamboo paper, which contains 90% bamboo fiber, an environmentally responsible fiber. Rachael Citron and Heather Balczarek There are a lot of green trends that are beautiful, unique, and also preserve the environment! We love hemp wedding dresses, which sound like they'd be rough, but are actually incredibly beautiful and more or less indistinguishable from less eco-conscious fabrics. Also, plantable invitations/escort cards/paper favors (recycled paper with seeds embedded inside) are not only pretty, but when your guests take them home and plant them, they're a lasting reminder of your wedding and your love! Using potted plants instead of cut flowers is also smart - not only do they give a nice, natural look to your wedding, but your guests can enjoy the plants long after your wedding day. Giving baby trees or bulbs as favors is another great way to keep the love growing. Jewel Georgieff One of the options we give brides wanting to make their weddings a bit more And adding our "two cents" to the green weddings equation, here is something from NJWedding.com's co-publisher, Erik Kent: I feel that being “eco-friendly” is a trend that’s here to stay. With the popularity of “Earth Day” (which began on April 22, 1970) and the understanding of how our smallest efforts have an impact on our community, people are more likely to make choices to save (rather than harm) the environment, and if they can do that within their wedding planning efforts, then they are helping to make a difference. Decisions such as shopping locally for food, flowers, handmade favors and other wedding items, using glassware and silverware instead of paper or styrofoam and basically reducing your “carbon footprint” by having your wedding closer to home is something that is taken under consideration for a couple planning a wedding today. And by being “green,” there is an opportunity to save some “greenbacks” which is important for these challenging economic times.
Week of Weddings (Day 3): Getting the Best Bang for Your Buck! Kara Thorson & Laura Bianco When it comes to getting more bang for your buck, there are definitely certain aspects of your wedding you should splurge on, but others you can afford to keep simple in order to cut costs. Every bride has a specific element that is most important to her (the food, the flowers, the photography, etc). For this reason, she should examine from the get-go what matters the most to her and her fiancee, and not "skimp" on that portion of the wedding. To save and add extra meaning to your special day, make a donation to a meaningful charity in lieu of cheesy party favors (editor's note: that are not useful, decorative or edible). It will probably end up being more cost-effective and definitely more worthwhile! Esther Cohen Small intimate weddings are really trendy these days. They not only provide a "bang for the buck" so to speak but the most important people in your lives are the ones that are present. So instead of a photo album 10 years from now filled with people whose name you do not remember, or who have divorced the spouse they are sitting with in that picture, your album has pictures of your families and closest friends. Many of our wedding couples book all the rooms in the inn for the weekend providing an opportunity for families and spend to spend some quality time together as well. We often have a casual rehearsal dinner for our bridal groups on Friday night followed by the big event on Saturday. Want more bang-book during the holidays for a themed wedding? The inn will be decorated in Victorian Christmas style so costs on centerpieces and arrangements are taken care of. You can use an iPod or CD full of Christmas songs as your music and order a red velvet cake! Jennifer Bunce, Chef & Owner Here are a couple of cake trends in regards to getting the most for your money: 1. When shopping for your wedding cake, since most bakers charge by the slice, simply tell your baker a smaller guest amount. You'll still get a beautiful cake but it will be just be smaller. Then you can have the caterer serve mini desserts on each table, family style to complete the meal. Most caterers throw in this option at a very minimal cost. 2. If you do want the cake to serve the entire party, then just get a simple cake without 400 handmade sugar flowers. The extra design details like sugar flowers, figurines and toppers, tend to increase the cost. Rachael Citron and Heather Balczarek The best advice we can give is to figure out what means the most to you as a couple. Don't spend a lot of money on something that might impress everyone else - do what makes YOU happy! Are you both music lovers but couldn't care less about flowers? Put more money into the band, hire a string quartet, and go with silk flower arrangements. Are you big foodies who love to cook and sample exotic dishes? Splurge on an amazing caterer who can do both "comfort food" and new taste experiences. Don't really like fancy clothes? There's no rule that says you have to go super-formal with your dress and tuxes. Get something pretty and inexpensive, and spend much more on things like favors or photography! Danielle Nutt, Owner If you are shopping with an eye for a designer gown but don't have the designer pocketbook, here's what you can do. Research a designer that offers custom design changes. We offer a mid price point bridal line called Casablanca (retailing between $600-$2200). This designer will change or modify any gown to your specifications. Fabric, embellishment, silhouette you name it and they will do it and at a reasonable price! The custom options from the designer also provide the bride a unique opportunity to order the dress to her measurements instead of picking a size from a chart. Custom cutting a bridal gown to the body shape and height of the person wearing it reduces the amount of alteration significantly and in some cases it eliminates them altogether.
I think most brides are certainly looking for something trendy, unique and eye pleasing for their dessert at their wedding. Cupcake towers certainly fit the bill there and are very economical for couples, while at the same time they offer guests more options than a single slice of cake. By going with a cupcake tower, couples can offer guests more than one flavor of cake. Typically with a wedding cake, the waitstaff/serves will deliver each guest the same type of slice. Cupcake towers offer more variety by offering guests several different flavors. In addition, they are typically much cheaper than custom designed wedding cakes. My cupcakes start at $2.00 a piece and specialty toppers are an additional .50 cents. For just $2.50 per person, brides and grooms can treat their guests to a tasty, beautiful, unique dessert! I'd say this is a great way to get more bang for your buck. Choosing cupcakes at weddings has become very popular and a nice alternative to traditional costly wedding cakes!! We specialize in putting the cupcakes on beautifully decorated towers to coincide with the theme/wedding palette of the special day! Marielle Wolf Always splurge on the photography; a professional is going to be more willing to get those shots that you wouldn't think to ask of family or friends. Save on your centerpieces, you can do something really nice with a bowl, some candles and flower petals or stones (all available at local craft stores and dollar stores). These simple but classy centerpieces are a nice elegant and romantic touch for all weddings! Tara Clapper I see more and more brides buying flowers locally and trimming them themselves. It makes for a good get-together the night before the wedding. The bridesmaids can help her cut flowers and wrap ribbon around them. This is a great way to save money and support a local greenhouse. Andrea Lockhart, Principal If you’re already interested in an indoor ceremony and reception, you can save substantially by booking your favorite venue during non-peak seasons. This means getting married during January thru March or November through December. Many fine venues offer discounts during these months and generally Friday and Sunday weddings are less expensive. You may balk at first at the colder months, but consider that once you and your guests arrive at the venue, you’ll be there for the rest of the day and really won’t care what the weather’s doing outside anyway. Additionally, venues are currently offering value dates for the balance of 2010. Since we’re halfway through the year and they’re not guaranteed to book dates for the rest of the year, these venues are willing to give a nice discount on most dates thru year-end. It doesn’t hurt to ask. Week of Weddings (Day 4): Gift ideas for the wedding party, bride, and groom Gift ideas for the wedding party, bride, and groom Tara M. Clapper, Atlantic City Wedding Planning Examiner Handmade jewelry is something that all of my friends are doing (I did this, too). Either the bride makes the jewelry herself or hires a friend to make it. This also minimizes the cost that the bridesmaids need to spend on their attire because they won't have to buy new or matching necklaces. If the guys are wearing something unusual, it's common courtesy for the groom to purchase the accessory as a gift (our guys were in kilts so my husband bought the skih dubhs or knives). Photo jewelry makes a beautiful and very personal gift. We can create a charm bracelet with pictures of all the members of a bridal party, or a necklace with a picture of the bride for the mother of the bride, or a keychain with pictures of the happy couple for the father of the bride – there are many possibilities. Kate Stevens, Catering Sales Manager For my sister's wedding, they gave us cute tote bags with our names ( which came in so handy for the day of the wedding) , flip flops for beach photos, a necklace to match our dresses and also paid for our hair. They were personalized and practical-great for bridemaids! The guys got " Maui Jims" designer sunglasses-great for wedding photos on the beach! Wendy Taffet Edible wedding favors, like chocolate, make an impact on wedding guests and are now more popular than ever. We make our gourmet chocolates to match the theme of any wedding. They are a guaranteed conversation piece both at the reception and for years after. Edible favors show that you appreciate your guests without giving them something that will cause more clutter. Carla Richards Couture Envelopes developed specific products as a result of surveying event guests. We found they wanted to feel more welcomed and appreciated when they attended a wedding, especially if they decided to stay overnight! To support brides & grooms, we design individualized keepsake envelopes (and inserts) for welcoming guests, reminding them of a brunch, buffet, and all wedding "happenings" as well as area highlight information. The theme and party mood TRULY come to life as soon as guests enter the hotel and, it remains that way! Not only does each individual feel special but so does the bride and groom. These one-of-a-kind "communiques" enhance the total hotel experience by creating a strong connection, emotion and enthusiasm. For the groom Kim Noel I specialize in Boudoir Photography, and have tons of brides to be come in to give their groom a sexy album of them for their wedding. A boudoir photo shoot makes an amazing gift for brides to give to their grooms. The grooms are always pleasantly surprised! I have found that while girls set up a session with their hubby to be in mind, they leave feeling beautiful, sexy and confident. What bride does not deserve that! Planning a wedding is a lot of work and a bride deserves to be pampered a little. KNP Boudoir is about real women seeing how beautifully they really are. The photos are sexy, but sophisticated with a little bit of sassy. Boudoir sessions also make a great girls night out which is great for a bachelorette party. For the bride & groom Jane Cammarata Something I have been using for quite a few Christian weddings lately: Creating Treasured Memories with "The Gathering Bowl": The "Blessing-Gathering Bowl" allows wedding guests to share their with the happy couple. Placing the Gathering Bowl at the entrance to your reception, your guests are asked to write a personalized "blessing" for couple. The blessing is written on a small scroll, and is tied with a ribbon and dropped in the "Gathering Bowl." The couple will have their guests well wishes and blessings long after their wedding day, a treasured keepsake. Week of Weddings (Day 5): Advice from the wedding experts Marielle Wolf * Remember this day is all yours, this is your wedding to your spouse and no one can take that away from you. Vieno Wurret Keep your sense of humor- this is a wonderful time! Create a budget and do all you can to stick to it-you'll be amazed at how creative you can be! Which leads to a third piece of advice- be flexible (Rev.) Carmela Vuoso-Murphy The one most valuable bit of advise I can give to any couple getting married is that regardless of all the input they get from everyone aound them, they need to remember that it is their wedding and they need to remain true to themselves and what they want in a wedding. I've seen couples anguish over making sure everything is perfect and everyone else is happy, that they lose sight of what is true and what is real - their love, their commitment, and the joy it is to share this most wonderful day with those they love! Denise K. Smith Don't settle when it comes to your wedding cake. A wedding cake should be the ultimate reflection of a couple's lives together when they say "I do." Be sure to take the time to interview several cake designers and taste their cake. While you may not necessarily see the cake of your dreams on the cake designer's webpage or portfolio, look for elements of the designs that are appealing and reflect your style. A good cake designer will be able to make your dream cake happen, while working within your budget. Never skimp on taste! Taste and good design are equally important. Be sure the cake designer uses the freshest ingredients, not prepackaged or frozen products. Lawrence Maskin Designate someone other than the bride and groom to help gather friends and family for pictures. It is a huge imposition for the bride and groom to have to chase after their relatives who have wandered off to the cocktail hour. It becomes stressful for the happy couple. So let someone else do the heavy lifting and find those missing people for their formal photographs. That way the bride and groom can relax while others do the running Rachael Citron and Heather Balczarek We've had many people tell us that they really could have used a Day-of Coordinator. Couples only have one chance to make sure all of the details come together, and the pressure that comes with that can really ruin their day! Trying to do everything themselves, or laying the burden on family members or bridal party members, is a risky and stressful proposition. We've heard from many brides that despite their best intentions, important details didn't get done right and they were so busy making sure the guests were happy and everything flowed that they didn't have time to enjoy their wedding (or make good use of all of the money they spent on the wedding itself!) Christine Gromadzyn You CAN do things cheaper. This is a recession. Every aspect can be rethought to make it special, yet smart. You still can't have a "wedding on a dime"...but, you can get creative. What we are spending on one day...well, some of your guests won't make that this year. Remember this is about having those close to you there for your big day. I know this is rare coming from someone in the wedding business. I do want your business, but reminding you that you don't have to go into debt for it (or put your parents into debt). Kathy and Brian DeLorenzo Choosing the right photographer to capture your wedding is a very important decision. For many couples, it is the only link to this momentous occasion that lasts long after you say “I do”. Unfortunately if you don’t make the right choice, you will have to live with it for a very long time. Please read on to find five things to consider when choosing a wedding photographer. * Experience – Does your photographer do this for a living or is this a side job or (even worse) a hobby? A true professional photographer has a lot more incentive to deliver than someone who takes pictures for fun. Plus, you should expect better results from a trained and experienced photographer. If you follow these five easy tips, you should have no problem choosing the right photographer for you. Kara Thorson & Laura Bianco As professional planners, our most valuable piece of advice to the happy couple would be to NOT underestimate the amount of time, work, and commitment that planning a wedding involves! If your budget permits, utilize a wedding and event planning firm (like My Bellissima). We are experts in the bridal industry, so we know how to help you stick to your budget, get all of your "To-Do's" done in a timely fashion, aid you in getting the best quality vendors for the amount of money you'd like to spend. Though some argue that wedding planners are not necessary and are "just an additional expense," using one is an investment that can help you save on overall costs - so don't underestimate what we can do for you! Gerald Fierst, Civil Celebrant There are no wedding police, so feel free to let your inspiration and imagination roam. Simple actions say a lot. Do a signing of your marriage vows with a second sheet at the reception for all your guests to sign as witness. More meaningful than a simple guest book, this idea comes from the Quaker, the Jewish, and the Muslim tradition and beautifully decorated documents can be found on line. The most memorable moment should be the words you say to each other. Most people take the ceremony for granted, but a good officiant can write a ceremony that will be the heart of your wedding and will send your guests home thinking that the ceremony, not the party, was the highlight of the day." Kathi R. Evans, PBC, President NEVER EVER book a vendor based solely on price. There’s a reason they’re so much lower than the established vendors in the same category (Transportation, Entertainment, and Photography come to mind immediately) and it’s usually not good. If you find a vendor you think you want to book based on price do some more research – get references, scour the message boards, see about watching them in action. Price should be ONE factor – it should not the ONLY factor. Jenny Orsini, President/Creative Director I've been seeing a new trend...couples choosing more obscure/unknown songs as their wedding songs. Back in the day, you couldn't go to a wedding without seeing the newly married couple dance to "From This Moment" or "Unforgettable" or something ridculousy sappy! But lately couples are choosing songs that are special to them, but not necessarily mainstream. I love this idea and as a former wedding singer who has sung them all...i welcome the opportunity to hear fresh music! I always advise friends, family and potential clients that is important not to "skimp" on their wedding photography. Just as you invest time and money into finding the perfect dress, venue, and food, you should expend that same time and energy into finding a great photographer. Some key questions to consider when searching for your photographer: * Can your photographer provide you with samples of their work, which reflect various lighting situations? The aptitude of a great photographer is their capability of shooting in dim light, such as a church or reception venue, using simply the lighting within the venue. Editor's Note: We hope you have enjoyed viewing our "Week of Weddings" and found this information helpful. Thank you to the professionals and industry experts throughout New Jersey, NY & PA for such interesting contributions and for sharing your knowledge and expertise to the members of the wedding community, brides, grooms and their families. Many thanks to Hilary Morris of Mrs. Mo's New Jersey and editor of NJMyWay.com in compiling this information and sharing on her blog - http://www.mrsmonj/ - throughout facebook, twitter and beyond...
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"Everything" by Michael Buble
Kati Angelini, owner
Janna Morishima
Cindy Jackson
