Happy Halloween

Mother of the Bride Dresses

Finding the perfect Mother of the Bride dress can be a challenge. Recently, I observed as a friend frantically searched for a dress to wear to her daughter's wedding.  It was a morning wedding. The dress needed to have that lovely just below the knee length - not too long and not too short.  

Color was also an issue. My friend had studied too many wedding photos where the Mother of the Bride or the Mother of the Groom wore brightly colored dresses that distracted from the overall photo.  A softer color was desired.  Elegance was a priority.

We spent hours searching the internet for dresses.  Dozens of speciality shops were consulted. My friend eventually found her dress in Montgomery, Alabama at Chantilly Boutique.  The dress was made by Mon Cheri. 

Tips for Finding a Mother of the Bride Dress:

• Consult with friends whose daughters have recently married.  Where did they find dresses?  Visit those stores.
• Use the internet to find the style(s) you like.  
• Print pictures of the dresses to show shop owners so they will know for what you are looking. 
• Start early.
• Get your daughter's approval. 
• If all else fails, email me.  I can help you look.  

Happy hunting,

Suzanah

ahandwrittennote@gmail.com

  

Hi Everyone ... I'm Fine

Hey everybody -

Thanks for all the well wishes gals (and guys). I am so sorry for my absence these last few weeks. Things just got pretty crazy and overwhelming, so I needed to try and take a blog breather.

And not to worry, I have not been hiding under a rock this last month, instead, I have:

- Seeing Bailey perform as Elle Woods in one of her last performances of Legally Blonde on Broadway. LOVE. THIS. SHOW. I was singing Oh My God, Oh My God You Guys the entire time I was in NYC.

- Hung out with my in-laws for a week in Duck. We stayed in an awesome neighborhood AND I got to stop here for a fro-yo flurry on the way there and on the way home.

- Found the perfect fall dress. In leopard print. For 20 dollars. Warning for you gals who wear larger than an A cup, this dress makes your girls look huge!

- Am almost done planning my 10 year high school reunion. We're having a party on Saturday here and a picnic in our hometown that's kid friendly on Sunday. Anyone want to drive over to my house to help me stuff 30 grab bags for the kids on Sunday.

I promise to bring you some wedding/fall/preppy inspiration in the coming days, I just wanted everyone to know I was ok.

Oh and one more thing, I need help lovely readers. As you know the preppy pooches, Dempsey and LuLu always make a costume statement on Halloween. I am totally stumped this year. I haven't seen anything cute at my normal go-to places (target and old navy). Suggestions?

Think small to save big

One of the major costs of a wedding is the reception. And food takes a huge chunk of the reception budget. A very clever way to save on costs is to think small. Bite sized is best.



A sit down dinner can run as much as $75 per person without the wine. That means a guest list of 150 is going to run a tab of close to $12,000. Instead of dinner consider a buffet of bite size appetizers, or even better those appetizers passed on trays by servers. People have a tendency to fill up a plate at a buffet wasting a good portion of the food or stuffing themselves. They're much less likely to chow down in front a wait person or clear off their tray.



It takes a good 15 minutes after you start to eat for your brain to tell your tummy that you're getting full. It takes longer to consume food if you have to wait for the server to come back with another portion.



Little appetizers are very fashionable right now. Served creatively and elegantly your guests won't even realize you're cutting back on costs. Here are a few suggestions:



3 tiny shrimp served on mini rye toasts, spread with cream cheese, garnished with a sprig of dill



Cherry tomatoes stuffed with cottage cheese, basil, and Parmesan cheese



A slice of rare roast beef with a dab of honey mustard sauce served in a pastry puff



Chicken drummetes, chicken wings with the meat pushed down to one end



Sushi - california rolls can be bought the day before.



Salad to go - tiny grape tomatoes, shredded carrots, diced cucumber, baby lettuces served in a small clear plastic 4 ounce cup



Mini burritos. Stuff the smallest size flour tortillas with your favorite burrito mixture, then cut in half.

Augment the mini appetizers with a lavish display of veggies and dip or a basket of crackers and cheeses.

Check out the freezer case of your grocery store for more appetizer ideas. Choose those that taste good at room temperature. It's easier to keep foods cold because you can serve them on a bed of ice, or place the serving plate on a bed of ice. Keeping hot foods hot is more of a challenge. Small servings of food have a tendency to cool off faster.

Garnish the serving plates with ruffled kale, a bed of butter lettuce, or thinly sliced citrus fruit. Garnishes don't get eaten (usually) and cost much less than the appetizer, yet they take up space on the plate and enhance the attractiveness of the food.

Dee

October 11, 2008 - Monroe, Louisiana

Well kids, I'm back from Monroe, Louisiana and met some really great people. Last year Jessica Claire held a contest for free photography from her including all travel fees for a deserving couple. Jessica is California based photographer that is always on the go and shooting so many locations. I'm often envious of all her travels. She's well known throughout the wedding community and is truly an artist and someone to aspire to be.

The winners: Anna & Chris! They were nominated by Anna's family and that's how this all began. Elysium Productions (also based out of Orange County) and I decided to sweeten the pot and include our services as well. I can't wait to see the finished product from the both of them, but here's a teaser from Jessica's blog. I really enjoyed meeting all the families and Anna & Chris's wedding was so much fun! I know people say that a lot about weddings, but this one was one for the books!

Also, thank you to Crystal Goss out of Arkansas for joining the crew, too!

Fancies – Yes, Diamonds Come in Colors.

Think of diamonds and you think of breathtakingly clear stones, clear as water, pure as ice. But diamonds do come in colors, over 300 different colors in diamonds have been found in nature so far. Diamonds are normally graded from colorless or rare white, to brown. Black is not used in jewelry except as a novelty item. Colors deeper than light yellow are not usually used in jewelry making, although on occasion, champagne diamonds or cognac diamonds appear. These are really, in most cases, white diamonds of an inferior color grade, rather than fancy diamonds.

The colorless is the most expensive of the white diamonds. Diamonds with a faint tint of yellow are less valuable and a yellow color visible to the naked eye are the least valuable.

Fancies are the term used for colored diamonds. Diamonds can be found in every color and intensity: red, blue, yellow, green, and lavender. The intensity of the colors can range from palest pink to red, lightest blue to sky blue and so forth. Fancy diamonds are rarer than white diamonds. The most common fancy colors are yellow ranging from canary yellow to orange. Colors such as pink, lavender and light green occur much more rarely than the yellow colors. Most valuable of all are the deep reds, greens and blues.

One word of caution: colored diamonds can be created artificially by subjecting inexpensive yellowish and brown stones to radiation or heating. Fancy diamonds, other than green, can be tested to see if the color is natural or the color has been induced. Fancy diamonds can also be created synthetically. These artificially colored, or produced diamonds, don't have nearly the same value as fancy diamonds found naturally. It some cases the colors fade, revert back to their natural state, or change color.

The Hope diamond is an example of a fancy blue diamond. The Argyle Mine in Australia produces a small number of red diamonds and is the world's largest producer of pink diamonds. Several of their pink diamonds have sold for over $1,000,000 per carat.

The Dresden diamond is an apple green diamond weighing 40.70 carats. The Tiffany diamond is orange.

Colored diamonds are valued on a different scale than white diamonds. The color's saturation, hue, and darkness determine the value. In other words the more intense the color the more valuable the diamond is. Make sure you take any fancy diamond you plan on purchasing to a certified lab for evaluation.

Dee

Party Ideas for Kids

Weddings on a Shoestring Budget

How to Freeze Wedding Cake

Saving the top layer of the wedding cake, if stored properly, can be a meaningful and delicious part of a couple's anniversary celebration.  Wiregrass Weddings' Laurie Chapman had a three-tiered basket weave cake in all white.  Like many brides, she saved the top layer for later. 

Last week, Laurie's mom called to tell her that she found her wedding cake.  Laurie and Jim were married on March 21, 1998!  Regardless of how well a cake is packaged, ten years is too long.

WikiHow(dot)com has the following suggestions for freezing wedding cakes:

1.  Wrap cake in aluminum foil

2.  Place wrapped cake in sealable baggy.

3.  Secure wrapped and sealed cake in a metal tin to protect from getting smooshed in the freezer.

It is important to freeze cake as soon as possible, so don't wait until after your honeymoon. Before the reception, decide who will be in charge of packaging the portion of the cake you choose to freeze.

Happy  freezing,

Suzanah

5 Tips for a Champagne Wedding on a Shoestring Budget

Are you faced with planning a wedding on a shoestring budget? Considering the state of today's economy, you can rest assured that you're not alone. Many brides-to-be are in the same boat. You can have a champagne wedding on a shoestring budget.

The good news is this: there are many things you can do that will actually help you save money on your wedding. You can still have a beautiful day, without spending thousands of dollars in the process.

Tip number one. Develop a budget. Be honest with yourself and your fiance about how much you can reasonably spend for your wedding. You can do some preliminary estimates by going to websites and seeing how much a three tiered wedding cake costs, a dramatic bridal bouquet, centerpieces, invitations, and so forth. Once you set a budget limit, stick to it. It's easy to get carried away and decide that the darling tissue paper liners for the save the date cards are a must have and add only $100 to the total cost of the invitations. The problem is that if you keep adding $100 here and there you'll end up thousands over budget.

Tip number two. Decide what's important to you. If you've always dreamed of a beautifully embroidered wedding gown with yards of lace then cut back in other areas. Or find a wedding gown that fulfills your dream but is second hand. Because most dresses are only worn once, opting for a 'gently used' gown is almost like purchasing a new one... for a whole lot less.

Many bridal shops carry at least a small selection of used wedding dresses. You can also utilize online resources such as eBay. You will probably be surprised at the number of 'designer' gowns that are currently up for grabs, for a fraction of the price.

Tip number three. Determine what you truly want. You might think that a sit down formal dinner is the only alternative for your wedding but what you really want is to share a wonderful meal with friends and family. There are alternatives to that sit down dinner. A buffet is a great idea and cuts costs, or what about an elegant boxed lunch picnic? Or perhaps consider a selection of appetizers instead of a full meal.

Tip number four. Offer your guests the opportunity to help pay for your wedding as their wedding gift. Several of your friends could decide to pay for or supply the wine for your wedding. Others could participate in paying for the wedding cake, music, photographer, and so forth. This isn't as crass as asking for cash donations directly and it makes your guests feel they made more of a contribution to your happy day than just showing up.

Tip number five. Research, research, RESEARCH! There are many websites that provide information on low-cost weddings. Take the time to visit several of them. Chances are you will run across MANY great ideas that you may not have thought of on your own.

The websites don't necessarily have to be geared specifically toward weddings. Even sites such as Better Homes & Gardens and Redbook often feature wedding related articles.

Follow these tips and you can have a beautiful wedding on a shoestring budget.

Hand Assembly Included

Thanks Laurie. It is so much fun to be a part of Laurie's productions. The energy in her office is amazing. There is always a phone call to answer and a wedding program to nurture. Laurie understands what it takes to make her brides happy. I've never heard her say that something could not be done. Behind the scenes at Laurie's looks like a talented group of people working diligently to make each client's wedding day special.

Laurie and her team focus a lot of their time and energy on wedding programs. Each program is hand assembled and checked for quality. We live in a day and age when phone calls are outsourced and speaking with an automated computer is the norm. There is no press one for programs, two for invitations, three for operator at Wiregrass Weddings. Clients speak directly to the creators of their one of a kind programs.

If I were a bride in search of programs, it would matter to me that my programs came from a business started by a young mom. It would matter to me that she employs a tribe of talented women who seek to make a difference in their own worlds. It is easy for me to see that around here, it is more than just a program.

Happy Monday.

Unique Bud Vase Floral Arrangements

Looking for a ideas to decorate a reception hall, or how to decorate a church for a wedding? Maybe you are looking for a nice centerpiece for a dining room or living room. Unique bud vase floral arrangements are a great solution for all of these decorating needs.

When you are decorating a reception hall or a church for a wedding, you want something unique and beautiful. I found these unique and interesting bud vases at www.coniartglass.com that are handmade in Europe. They are extremely affordable, and make wonderful gifts too. They are versatile in that they can be used as a bud vases, oil lamps, or even as reed diffusers. Coni Art Glass will send you the hardware to use them as oil lamps if you wish, or reeds in case you wish to use them as reed diffusers, just let them know. For any purpose, they are a perfect solution for many decorating needs.

These bud vases come in many colors, shapes and sizes, and are extremely affordable. Contact www.coniartglass.com to order today.

Oh, Suzanah!

I'm excited about tomorrow -- my good friend, Suzanah, will be coming over to help me keep up with my blog!  She is a gifted writer and will be in charge of putting all of my blog post ideas on the site for you.  Just to give you a little background on Suzanah, I would like to give you a brief introduction...  Suzanah is an ordained minister.  She was ordained in the Baptist church, but currently is serving my local non-denominational church (Covenant Community Church) as the "global minister in residence".  Basically, what that means is that she helps us to focus our thoughts, energy, gifts and talents on worldy issues.  She has traveled to Africa several times to volunteer at a children's home, but her main day-to-day tasks include heading up a maternal health initiative where 60 birthing attendants in Haiti are given monthly supplies and annual supplies.  They are supplied with enough "birthing kits" to attend a total of 600 births per month. 

That being said, I'm happy to be welcoming Suzanah to the bunch.  She is an inspiration to be around and a great friend as well.

That's your cue, Suzanah -- take it away!

 

~Laurie