Martha Stewart Weddings: Opalescent colors

Perfect Wedding Color Palette: Opalescent

Bridesmaid Dresses

Bridesmaid dresses don't need to look like, well, bridesmaid dresses. Pick out frocks in your palette that have potential for an afterlife and feature exquisite details -- oversize ruffles or allover pleating, perhaps? -- and your attendants will rejoice. From left: Strapless organdy dress (#2514), Vivian Diamond for Dessy Collection; coral necklace, de Vera; 50mm ribbon (#10000, color #31), Mokuba New York. "Nice" flower girl dress, Pip-Squeak Chapeau Etc.; 9mm ribbon (#10000, color #31), Mokuba New York. Silk gazar dress, Luisa Beccaria. "Galette" dress,J.Crew. Crinkle silk chiffon gown (G561C),Amsale. "Orchard" strapless dress, 57 Grand; stone necklace with pendant, Monet, Macy's.

July Meeting

We were fortunate today to bring together the leaders of wonderful wedding industry organizations for our July meeting. Very special thanks to Bucca di Beppo for hosting our event. BTW, the tiramisu was amazing :)

Our topic for this month's meeting was about creating a community of wedding professionals beyond our own organization. So we invited leaders from ISES and NACE to come and hang out with us.

Ashley Donnell of Brenda Abbott Floral Design giving us a little introduction to their floral studio. Thanks for being our Sponsor of the Month!

Congratulations to Carrie Beamer of Flora Fetish for Vendor of the Month.

Also, Congratulations to Maris Malone Calderon of MMC Makeup Artists for Vendor of the Month.

And a very warm welcome and thank you for Stacey Hoyt of Stacey Hoyt Events from ISES and Michele Edison of the Hilton Austin from NACE for attending to tell us more about their organizations!

Thanks again to everyone for attending and see you next month!

Petal Pushers on WE TV!

Give it Up to!!!
Our Very Own and Ultra Amazing...Floral Artist Stacey Hogge from Petal Pushers.
She did an awesome job working with David Tutera on "My Fair Wedding"!! I'm sure she has a great to story to share!
Maybe you caught the episode...but All of the floral work...was Their masterpiece.
So proud of her!!

Here is the link:
http://www.wetv.com/my-fair-wedding/vendor-lists/sheena-diva-bride

So If it pleases the powers to be, I would very much like to see this on our blog and newsletter right away.

Thank you very much and I look forward to seeing ya'll at the meeting!!

July Meeting!

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE:
Greetings to you all-

You are cordially invited to the July 2010 Nuptial Essentials Association of Wedding Professionals (NEAWP) Austin Chapter meeting, “Sensitiveness”. This month, you will have the opportunity to hear more information about other Austin professional associations. Have you ever wondered what are their policies? What is their focus? Which one will be the best fit for me? Instead of attending numerous meetings and paying numerous guest fees, come to this meeting and hear about ISES (International Special Event Society) and NACE (National Association of Catering Executives) right from their representatives mouth. Don’t wonder what everyone is about, come ask questions!

YOUR SPACE
Welcome to Buca di Beppo. Buca di Beppo® is an authentic Italian restaurant that offers flavorful Italian dining. Dine with family and friends while enjoying the Italian traditions of food, friendship and hospitality. In the spirit of Italian culture, our dishes are served family style and are meant to be shared. Thank you to Jennifer Branam for hosting this event. You can find out more at www.bucadibeppo.com.

YOUR SPONSOR
Thank you to Brenda Abbott of Brenda Abbott Floral Design. Brenda has long been a student of nature, architecture and art, and it is there she finds her inspiration…assisted of course by classes at the prestigious Benz School of Floral Design at Texas A&M University and numerous other talented floral artists who share their expertise via the many continuing education events Brenda attends. To find out more about Brenda, go to www.Brendaabbott.net.

YOUR NOTES
Still need an NEAWP business nametag? If you would like a professional name tag for the meetings, bring $7.00 cash or $7.50 online to the meeting. The next order will be placed on August 15, 2010. All name tags must be paid for prior to being ordered. Look at a sample in our newsletter online.

Delores Crum, the Fundraising and Community Development co chair for NACE will be present selling tickets for the Eat the Heat fundraiser as well as the NACE raffle for the national convention.

YOUR THEME
Sensitiveness- Analyzing motives and putting oneself in other people's shoes in order to understand their behavior.

YOUR SPEAKER
NACE Austin Chapter President- Michele Edison
ISES Austin Chapter President- Stacey Hoyt
NEAWP Austin Chapter President- Barbara Hearne

YOUR CHARITY
Our charity of the month is Ignite a Dream. Sports build character among children and yet many children do not have the opportunity to play them without equipment. Spearheaded by Dinka Hadzic, Ignite A Dream is proud to announce we have partnered with Southwest Key Organization to implement both of our soccer and tennis programs in their charter class of a brand new East Austin College Preparatory Academy. Their school previously had no athletic opportunities to provide to their very motivated and dedicated students. We have been extremely excited and honored to bring them soccer and tennis programs, that will impact around 40 to 50 students. They are in need of raising $2000.00 and are looking for $5.00 donations (they will gladly accept any amount!) To find out more about Ignite a Dream go to www.firstgiving.com/dinkahadzic or go to www.igniteadream.com. Think about making one less trip to Starbucks! And allow the children of the Austin Can Academy to play sports -http://www.dallascan.org/academies_austin.asp.
Continuing our June charity, we are collecting hair samples for the Gulf Coast Spill Clean Up. We use shampoo because hair collects oil. Why should millions of pounds of absorbent, natural, renewable fiber clippings go to waste every day? We are teaming up with Matter of Trust to help the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Response. All through the month of June we will be collecting pet hair and hair trimmings for oil spill cleanup. While you are at your salon getting your summer hair cut or getting your pet’s summer cut ask your salon and/or pet groomer to donate the hair and fur they would otherwise throw away. We also need nylons so dig in your drawer and bring those to our July meeting. If your salon or groomer is interested in donating hair, please send their contact info to me and I will arrange pick up. For more information please visit www.matteroftrust.org. If you have any questions, contact our philanthropy diva- amanda@neawp.org.

Don’t forget to “keep the change and pay it forward”. Empty out that change jar in your car and donate to this monthly cause. The money will be used at Christmas for Toys for Tots!

RSVP POLICY:
You MUST RSVP to this meeting by E-mail to amy@nuptialessentials.com.
RSVP's due by Monday, July 5, 2010.
No shows will be billed.
If you show up at the meeting without sending your RSVP, the cost of the meeting will be $35.00 per current NEAWP member and $55.00 per non-NEAWP member.
Any changes in the reservation system after noon on Monday, July 5, 2010 at 12:00PM will be billed assessed the full meeting fee.
If you show up to the meeting without a reservation confirmation, the cost will be $35.00 per current NEAWP member and $55.00 per non NEAWP member.
Checks should be made payable to NEAWP. NSF fees for checks is $50.00.

For more information, please contact us!

I look forward to seeing you all at the meeting!

Amy Mader

President
NECI,LLC and NEAWP 

MyWedding.com: Whimsical Cakes

Cake Gallery: Whimsical Cakes

• Ideas & Trends
 
• Inspiration & Planning
 
• Cakes, Food & Drink

Posted by Staff Writer of mywedding.com March 12, 2010

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Whimsical decorated wedding cakes are making their appearance at receptions all over. What do you think about these?

Style Me Pretty: DIY Sugar Packets

DIY Project: Sugar Packets

March 26th. 2009 by Abby Larson | Filed Under | 35 comments

I am obsessed with this next project. And obsessed might just be putting it lightly. I love when ideas come my way that I haven’t ever seen before and not only is this one new to me, it’s so designed so beautifully that it just appeals to my own sense of style and love of simplicity. Plus, it uses the Gocco which just might be the best invention EVER.

Here is the breakdown and instructions…

From the lovely bride…As we’re having a destination wedding in Barbados, we are limited in what we can give guests as favors. It can’t be too heavy and/or too large, as we need to carry it out there and guests have to be able to take it home. We’re getting married on the grounds of a 17th century sugar mill and wanted to tie the favors to the location somehow. Flavored sugar packets seemed perfect. Sugar is one of the island’s primary natural resources, so our plan is just to ship the packets and fill them with local sugar that we flavor down there. Guests should have no trouble packing them in their suitcases and bringing them home to hang on their spice racks. We bought a Gocco machine to print our Save-The-Dates, programs, menus and favors.

Materials
Gocco Machine + Inks and Screen
Ink Jet Printer
Glassine Envelopes
Round Seals
String & Needle
Resealable Cellophane or Zip-loc Bags
Flavored Sugar (Vanilla, Lemon and Cinnamon)

Instructions
1. Begin by flavoring the sugar. There are plenty of recipes online, where you can use ingredients you most likely already have at home. Or, buy ready-made flavored sugar from sites like www.faeriesfinest.com/sugars which have over 51 different flavors. I grounded cinnamon sticks, sliced a used vanilla pod and took rind from a lemon to make my three sugar flavors.

2. Prepare the artwork for the front of the bag. In Illustrator I designed the text to go on my bag, including the flavor, and printed it on an Ink Jet Printer. With the Gocco machine I transferred the text to a screen and mixed my ink colors. (It is possible to print directly on the glassine envelopes and skip the Gocco altogether, but we had bought one for our Save-The-Dates so were excited to keeping using it!)

3. Print on the glassine envelope and leave to dry.

4. Add sugar (I used 3 heaped teaspoons for 3×3 bags) and seal bags. Place into glassine envelopes and seal.

5. In the top corners of the envelopes, push a threaded needle of string through and across the front. Make two knots on the seal-side on the envelope to secure the string. Guests will be able to hang their own flavored sugar packets in their kitchen.

Supplies can be found here:

-Glasseine Envelopes – $8.75 for 50 (4″x4″) at Paper Presentation
-Round Seals – $4.50 for 50 at Paper Presentation
-String – $0.99/yard at Paper Presentation
-Resealable Cellophane or Zip-loc Bags – $2.50 for 100 (3×3) at clearbags.com

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Print Gocco’s can be a little bit expensive, so they are really best when you can use them for multiple wedding projects like this bride. They are kind of amazing and can print all sorts of fun things, but they take a little bit of time to master. Personally, I LOVE them. They are hard to find, so check places like ebay and craigslist for good deals.

MyWedding.com: Tips for Wedding Etiquette

Expert Wedding Planners and their Top 5 List for a Perfect Wedding Day

• Ideas & Trends
 
• Etiquette

Posted by Staff Writer of mywedding.com February 1, 2010

Photography by Maya Myers Photography

I’m engaged! Hooray! However, I’ve transitioned from glee to anxiety because I’m completely paranoid that I’m going to forget an important detail during my wedding planning. What advice would you give to help me make sure everything is perfect? - Marci, Austin, TX

First of all, no matter what event you are planning, it is never going to be "perfect." The important thing to remember is that on your wedding day, you aren’t going to care if the flower girl’s sash is the wrong color or if the DJ insists on playing "Butterfly Kisses," despite your repeated requests not to. These otherwise nagging annoyances will ultimately fade into the background because you are getting married; joy covers all manner of sins.

However, it is prudent for you to try and avoid as many of these glitches as possible. Here is a top 5 list of things to remember, contributed by some of mywedding.com’s favorite wedding planners:

1. Plan for the details. "An itemized budget should be set before hiring any vendors...you need to budget properly for all expenses," says Cindy Zingerella of Engaging Events. Often, couples just don’t remember all the seemingly small expenses, and "those little details can pack a heavy financial punch when added up," remarked Dawn Schenkel of Premier W.E.D.
2. Remember the wedding. Janet Dunnington mused that couples are often so focused on celebrating with their friends and family at a fun reception, that the details of the actual ceremony are the last thing to be planned.
3. Plan well, but be adaptable. Whether it be a sudden storm or twenty unexpected guests, couples need to plan as much as possible for any situation. Try to make your guest list early in the planning and be honest with yourselves about how many people might eventually be added to it, advises Joannie Liss of Joannie Liss Events. Liss adds that if you really want to get married outdoors, it is absolutely essential to have a back-up plan in case the weather conspires against you.
4. It takes a village. "The foundation to a successful wedding is for couples to have their own support team,” says Katy Castillo. Trusted friends and advisors are critical to not only a beautiful event, but also just maintaining your sanity.
5. It’s just a day. Granted, it’s "just a day" you have been dreaming about since your Malibu Barbie first married your brother’s GI Joe, but still, it’s no reason to lose sight of why you are having the party in the first place. Meagan Kochendorfer of Ambiance Wedding Consulting states, "A couple should remember to keep it all in perspective and remember what is most important about their wedding day: the joining of themselves in marriage."