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Posted by admin on April 13, 2010 · Leave a Comment
By Cynthia Sally
Professional Makeup Artist, www.cynthiasally.com
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- Hand-painted Aisle Runner with names/Monogram – great photo opp!
- Gobo Lighting with names/monogram – your initials will look great on the dance floor.
- Wedding cake – top your wedding cake off with some personality!
- Hang decorated letters on the church doors of your initials – your guests will be impressed before they even get through the door.
- Have your unity candle or sand ceremony containers personalized – they will make a great keepsake for years to come!
- Put your monogram on all your stationery – invites, save the dates, programs, menus, etc.
- Caricatures or painting – display at your escort table to wow your guests.
- Favors – make a donation to your favorite charity or have a candy buffet with your favorite sweet treats.
- Centerpieces – ask your florist for non-traditional alternatives.
- Unique table numbers – use pictures of the couple or creative themes.
Filed under Wedding Advice, Wedding Ceremony, Wedding Décor, Wedding Reception, Wedding Tips, Wedding Trends · Tagged with Chicago, Chicago wedding, Chicago wedding vendors, Wedding, Wedding Advice, wedding newsletter, Wedding Planning, wedding professionals, Wedding Tips, Wedding Trends
Posted by admin on April 8, 2010 · Leave a Comment
By Cynthia Sally
www.cynthiasally.com
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Your wedding day is essentially one big photoshoot that may last from the early hours of the morning into the wee hours of the night. Commercial makeup does not withstand all of the sweating, tears, hugs and kisses that you will endure throughout the duration of the wedding day. Hiring a makeup artist is essential in making sure that your makeup looks flawless in person and in photos. Read more
Posted by admin on April 6, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Making Your Wedding More You
By Lindsay Sally of Big Day Boutique
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Once you sit down to start planning the details of your wedding, it can become overwhelming and confusing. You have read countless magazines, seen a hundred different styles and it can be difficult to know where to start. A way to tie it all together is by using a custom monogram. You can incorporate your colors, names and even a unique design that can be used in all the details of your wedding. It can be something as simple as the initials of the bride and groom or you can make it more elaborate with a design such as damask.
Where to use
There are countless ways to use your monogram, or a version of it, throughout all the details of your wedding. If you are sending out Save-the-Dates, this is the perfect time to use your monogram. It sets the tone for your event and gives your guests a chance to see your wedding colors and style. It can be printed on magnets, pictures, etc. Next, you can incorporate the monogram into your rehearsal dinner invitations. Remember, it doesn’t always have to be the exact same throughout. If you use your name, the groom’s name and the initial of his last name, you could use just the last name initial on certain things but in the same font.
For the ceremony details, one of the hottest trends is a hand painted aisle runner. You can have your monogram painted on the front of your runner and it will be a personalized welcome as your guests take their seats. Once the day is over, it can also be a great keepsake for you and your new husband. A few other places that you can add your monogram to are your programs and unity candle. As discussed before, it can be a simpler version of the original design, but it serves as a way to tie everything together and add a personal touch.
The reception is another great place to add your monogram. You can add it to menu cards, signs leading the guests to the reception room, candy buffet containers, favors, table numbers, slideshow screen…the possibilities are endless.
Using a monogram on every detail may seem a little extreme, but if it’s done in a simple and subtle way, it can create the perfect look to your special day.
Where to find
Once you’ve decided you want to use a monogram, you can search the internet for companies that offer this service or you can find a graphic designer to create one for you. A fun and inexpensive option is to create the monogram yourself. Whichever you choose, have a few different examples created so you can find exactly what you are looking for.
Creating a unified look using a monogram
Where to begin
Once you sit down to start planning the details of your wedding, it can become overwhelming and confusing. You have read countless magazines, seen a hundred different styles and it can be difficult to know where to start. A way to tie it all together is by using a custom monogram. You can incorporate your colors, names and even a unique design that can be used in all the details of your wedding. It can be something as simple as the initials of the bride and groom or you can make it more elaborate with a design such as damask. Read more
Filed under Wedding Décor, Wedding Invitations · Tagged with Chicago, Chicago wedding, Chicago wedding vendors, Wedding Advice, wedding DIY, Wedding Monogram, wedding newsletter, Wedding Planners, Wedding Planning, wedding professionals, Wedding Tips
Posted by admin on April 6, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Announce Your Wedding In Style
By Lindsay Sally of Big Day Boutique
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You’ve set your wedding date! Now it’s time to let all your family and friends know to mark their calendars. Save the Dates are the perfect way to share the news with your guests as well as let them see your wedding colors and style. Read more
Filed under Wedding Advice, Wedding Invitations · Tagged with Chicago, Chicago wedding, Chicago wedding vendors, custom, invitations, magnet save the date, s-t-d's, Save The Dates, Wedding, Wedding Advice, wedding newsletter, Wedding Planning, wedding professionals, Wedding Tips, Wedding Trends
Posted by admin on February 4, 2010 · 1 Comment
By Mike Dodson of MDM Entertainment
info@mdmentertainment.com
Choosing the Right Music for Your Wedding Reception – The Do’s and Don’ts
Being a wedding entertainer I see first hand on a weekly basis how much impact the music has on the success of a wedding reception. The following article will help you plan out the perfect mix of music for your Chicago wedding reception.
First and foremost, the music for your wedding is the soundtrack to one of the most important days of your life! You should put some thought into it. The music should be memorable and reflect your personal taste and style while at the same time creating an enjoyable atmosphere for you and all of your guests.
Even though your wedding day is probably still months away you should start making up your request list now.
Here are some do’s and don’ts for selecting music for your wedding reception:
DO
§ Have a frank discussion with your potential entertainer about the music. They should listen to your input; it is your wedding. You should listen to their input; they do this for a living.
§ Keep a pad of paper handy at your desk and in the car and jot down song ideas when they pop into your head. They will be gone by the time you get home if you don’t write them down right away.
§ Play songs that you would like to hear but that aren’t great dancing songs during cocktail hour or dinner.
§ Try to remember songs that were meaningful to you and your family and friends. List songs that you use to sing along to with everyone when going out for the night or hold special memories for you and your fiancée. Dedicate these songs to your friends and family at the reception!
§ Make sure the entertainer is aware of the significance of your dedications and the appropriate people are present when the song is played.
§ Keep the number of requests at a reasonable amount! For an average wedding reception you will be lucky to get 3 hours of full dancing time. This is about 45 songs in total or 15 per hour. If you have a talented DJ or band they will be able to mix the songs together so they flow seamlessly from one to the other and instead of playing the full version you will hear maybe half or three fourths of the song before it blends into the next one. This will allow more songs to be played throughout the evening. At MDM Entertainment we structure our music request system in a way that allows the bride and groom to have their favorites played while still allowing the entertainer some flexibility in programming and for guest requests, if that is okay with you. Contact us for more information on how we handle wedding music request lists.
§ Pick songs that you like from different genres of music that will appeal to the different age ranges of your guests. You should want everyone to dance and have a great time at your wedding.
§ Play to the older guests early. A good rule of music programming is to play more for the older guests at the beginning then progress into the newer styles later on in the evening. Everyone likes the older styles of music (Sinatra, Big Band, 50’s and 60’s, Motown, etc) to some extent. If you get the older guests dancing and having a good time they will be much more likely to stay the whole evening and by the end of the night they will be dancing to everything. If you break out the hottest current dance music too early in the night it will probably discourage them and they might even leave early.
§ Allow guest requests. You may not have a good handle on what the majority of your guests do or do not want to dance to. By allowing the DJ or band to take requests they are able to get direct input from the crowd. A good wedding entertainer will of course filter these requests and won’t play anything inappropriate, songs on your “Do Not Play” list or songs that won’t fit in with your own personal preferences.
§ Remember that everyone may not share your taste is music. If you hire a professional band or disk jockey they should be available to help you plan out the music for your reception and incorporate your style into the day while still playing a good mix to keep all of your guests happy and on the dance floor. That is one of the true benchmarks of a great wedding entertainer, understanding and being able to incorporate the bride and groom’s more eclectic musical tastes into the day while at the same time keeping all of the guests entertained.
§ Submit your music lists at least two weeks prior to the wedding if you are using a DJ, this will allow them plenty of time to compile the music and acquire any songs that they do not have in their library. If you are using a band you will have to get your requests in months ahead of time to allow them ample time to learn and practice new songs that they may not have in their repertoire.
DON’T
§ Hand the entertainer a list of 100 songs and demand that they all be played and in that order. Don’t laugh, it happens. Of course you should be involved in the selection of the music for your wedding day but if you do this you are severely limiting the entertainers ability to “read” the crowd and play the right song at the right time. A good entertainer will understand your musical tastes and incorporate that throughout the event in a way that will still keep your guests happy and on the dance floor. On those few occasions where a bride has held fast to her list and her order, they have always come up to me half way through the event and realized their mistake and end up giving me free reign. You are hiring professional entertainment for a reason; trust their experience and skill.
§ Say I want all this type of music and nothing else. Some brides and grooms tell me they love Hip Hop and that is what they want to hear all night. Take into consideration your guests enjoyment of the evening as well. Don’t you want them to have a wonderful time too? Grandma and Grandpa just might not like Hip Hop. Ultimately it is your night and the entertainer should do exactly what you ask of them but take into consideration the wide range of age ranges and musical tastes of your guests when making up your play list.
§ Run up to the entertainer and say I want this song next! Again, it is your wedding and they should do what you ask but the entertainer has put a lot of thought into the selection of songs to get to this point in the evening. If your song fits in with the current genres being played NEXT is probably a great idea. If you are requesting a techno track be played next and the dance floor is full of grandparents dancing to swing maybe you could ask that the song be played soon so the DJ has time to progress into that genre instead of scaring the living daylights out of the older folks on the dance floor.
If you follow these do’s and don’ts and hire professional wedding entertainment your reception will be an evening of dancing and socializing that all of your guests will thoroughly enjoy and talk about for years to come!
Being a wedding entertainer I see first hand on a weekly basis how much impact the music has on the success of a wedding reception. The following article will help you plan out the perfect mix of music for your Chicago wedding reception.
Read more
Filed under Wedding Advice, Wedding Entertainment · Tagged with Chicago, Chicago wedding, Chicago Wedding Band, Chicago Wedding DJ, Chicago Wedding Entertainment, Chicago wedding vendors, DJ Entertainment, Wedding, Wedding Advice, Wedding Entertainment, Wedding Music, wedding newsletter, Wedding Planning, wedding professionals, Wedding Tips
Posted by Patti on February 4, 2010 · Leave a Comment
By Patti Herioux
With Love, Event Planner
1. Church – The obvious choice would be the church you attend. If you are not an active member of a congregation, your parents’ church could potentially be an alternative. Chicagoland provides many options, from grand cathedrals to bible chapels.
Read more
Filed under Wedding Advice, Wedding Ceremony, Wedding Tips · Tagged with Chicago, Chicago wedding, Chicago Wedding Ceremony, Chicago Wedding Planner, Chicago wedding vendors, Wedding, Wedding Advice, Wedding Ceremony, wedding newsletter, Wedding Planning, wedding professionals, Wedding Tips
Posted by admin on February 4, 2010 · Leave a Comment
By Cynthia Rensink
Everlasting Elegant Wedding
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10. We save you time! Your time is valuable. On average a wedding takes at least 1200 hours to plan start to finish. How many hours do you and your fiancé have left in your day after working your full-time job? With a planner, your wedding becomes their full-time job, dedicated to making your day special.
9. We offer advice and guidance! There are many vendors who offer many different options with their packages. Since this is the planner’s job, we will look at the whole picture of your “wedding day” to make sure that the right vendor and the right package are selected.
8. We save you money! We have established relationships with many different vendors who will “work with us” to ensure you stay on budget. Some will even offer you a discount because of our referral.
7. We organize your entire event! From choosing your save-the-date cards and invitations to the bridal gown, church and reception (venue). We are with you every step of the way.
6. We take your dream and make it a reality! With countless options available for your decorations and style, your planner can help you narrow down an option that will be cost-effective and fit within your budget while still giving you your dream wedding.
5. We bond your puzzle pieces (vendors) together! With the countless hours and money that is spent in planning a wedding, we will make sure that every puzzle piece will fit together smoothly. We make sure there are no missing pieces. On your wedding day, we make sure that all of your puzzle pieces (vendors) will stay on track and in place to make you your beautiful wedding day picture.
4. We manage the manners! There are many ways to plan a wedding, but one thing that is a factor in every wedding is etiquette. Wedding planners have experience and knowledge necessary to advise bride and their family on how to invite guests, on how to deal with difficult family issues, on how to create a processional order at the ceremony, to assign seats at the reception, and when to send thank-you notes, and so on.
3. We provide you with security! Hiring a wedding planner means less risk of something to go wrong or be forgotten. We will make sure that all your bases are covered.
2. We remove the stress! When you have a planner, it is like having a life insurance policy. You can sit back and enjoy the planning of your wedding day knowing that every detail will be covered without disturbing your joy.
1. We provide you with peace-of-mind! We become your wedding day investment broker. Your wedding day is a huge investment in you. There is nothing better than knowing that the investment you made in your wedding day was well worth every hour and dollar spent. We will make sure that your investment will give you many years of joy and happiness so that when you look back at your memories, you will remember that you were not stressed and enjoyed your wedding day to the fullest.
Filed under Wedding Advice, Wedding Planners, Wedding Tips · Tagged with Chicago, Chicago wedding, Chicago Wedding Planner, Chicago wedding vendors, Wedding, Wedding Advice, wedding budget, Wedding Budgeting, wedding checklist, wedding newsletter, Wedding Planning, wedding professionals, Wedding Tips
Posted by admin on January 21, 2010 · Leave a Comment
“Real smile or Fake smile?”
Photojournalism vs. Traditional Photography
By Brian Kinyon
Brian Kinyon Photgraphy
Photojournalism is defined as “the art or practice of communicating news by photographs.” Weddings are certainly newsworthy, and capturing what’s happening – the way it’s really happening – is what drives most wedding photojournalists, myself included.
The idea that you want photos of the way you, your friends, and your family really, honestly look when they’re just simply being themselves (which believe me is always better than when you force a camera smile), that’s photojournalism. Capturing a candid moment when your maid of honor is on the verge of tears watching you kiss your husband on the altar, or your father when he sees you for the first time in your dress, that is photojournalism at its best. Even the simpler parts of your day, say before you even have your dress on and everyone’s just sitting around talking about the night before, also great photojournalism moments.
Now by contrast, the formal posed group photos after the ceremony, or the two of you standing arm in arm smiling into the camera as the sun goes down behind you, those are examples of traditional wedding photography. Most wedding days include a certain amount of traditional photos, but very often there is a much stronger emphasis on photojournalism because of the feelings it more effectively conveys, the reality and “trueness” of the events that are taking place.
Just to confuse things a little, there can also be a certain amount of pseudo-photojournalism, wherein your photographer may suggest that you do certain things on purpose just for the sake of getting a great picture, but with a slant on it that still lets your real personality shine through. For instance taking you onto a beautiful, picturesque bridge and telling you to simply stand comfortably and talk to all of your friends who’ve gathered around you, “forget about the camera!” With the right photographer, those shots can be every bit as compelling as a truly candid moment.
Before looking for a photographer, and especially before sitting down to meet with them, decide what balance of photojournalism and traditional feels right for you. That allows you to talk confidently about that balance with prospective photographers, and they in turn can give you their opinion on how they envision the role they feel they can play in your wedding, and ultimately, whether they’re a good fit.
Of course the most important test is simply seeing a photographer’s portfolio, and counting how many times you feel your heart melt as the images scroll by..
Photojournalism vs. Traditional Photography
By Brian Kinyon of Brian Kinyon Photography
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Photojournalism is defined as “the art or practice of communicating news by photographs.” Weddings are certainly newsworthy, and capturing what’s happening – the way it’s really happening – is what drives most wedding photojournalists, myself included.
Read more
Filed under Wedding Advice, Wedding Photography · Tagged with Chicago, Chicago wedding, Chicago wedding vendors, Wedding, Wedding Advice, wedding newsletter, Wedding Photographer, Wedding Photography, Wedding Planners, wedding professionals
Posted by admin on January 9, 2010 · Leave a Comment
By Cynthia Rensink
Everlasting Elegant Wedding
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Which type of style are you looking for?
There are three types of wedding ceremonies: formal, semi-formal and an informal wedding. There is also the style of the wedding to consider: traditional or non-traditional ceremony. How you decide which one is best for you? The best way to decide is by the location of the ceremony, the number of guests you want to have and the time of the day you want to have it. Read more
Filed under Wedding Advice, Wedding Ceremony, Wedding Planners · Tagged with Chicago, Chicago wedding, Chicago Wedding Ceremony, Chicago Wedding Officiant, Chicago Wedding Planner, Chicago wedding vendors, Wedding, Wedding Advice, wedding budget, Wedding Budgeting, Wedding Ceremony, wedding newsletter, Wedding Planners, Wedding Planning, wedding professionals, Wedding Tips
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