




"You know you're in love when..." "We wish you..." "Once upon a time..." and "Love is..."
Putting these on the back of your RSVP cards give your guests the perfect opportunity and plenty of time to give you a thought-filled blessing that you can cherish for the rest of your life.
She was tickled by all the responses as her RSVP's came back, and I took all the card and made put them on these boards to display at the reception. All the guests enjoyed reading them, and the bride loved the boards so much she had them framed and they now hang on the wall in her and her husband's new home.

These "executive" restroom trailers are available all across the country, featuring toilet private rooms - with wall and doors just like a powder room, heating and air conditioning, hardwood floors and crown molding, pedestal sinks, a stereo sound system so you can choose the music that plays in the trailer, and it comes fully stocked with plenty of soap, hand towels, and toilet paper.


These trailers are super nice, and only require an electrical and water hookup. Now, one problem I have run into with some restroom trailer companies is the hookup. If you are renting one, make sure they will hook it up for you - this may cost extra. I had a bride rent one a few years ago and luckily I made sure I was there when it got delivered. The delivery guy told me he wasn't going to hook it up, but he did tell me what I needed! My initial thought when I'm thrown for a loop like this (which is almost every weekend) is "Okay, how can I fix this?" The water hook-up wasn't a problem from the building we were adjacent to, but power was. This trailer had 4 huge cords to plug in - think about the air conditioning, lighting, and stereo system - this is a small house we're talking about! Now I'm not an electrical person, but the operations guy of the building we were next to told me we could only plug in 1 of those to the building because if we plugged in the other 3, it would blow a fuse. I immediately called my husband, who is my go-to-guy for such situations, and we borrowed his dad's generator to pull the rest of the electricity for the trailer, and I just charged the bride for the gas we used after the fact. (And no, I did not tell her about the situation until she got back from her honeymoon!)
Now, once you have rented the trailer, it's hooked up, you're good to go, right? Not quite. Where is it located in relation to guests? Is this front of it facing the reception? Is it obvious to guests what it is? Is it hidden? It is unlikely that flat ground, water, and electricity is located right next to your dance floor, so the trailer will have to be placed a distance from the reception and guests will have to walk to it. You need to have clear directional signs to the restroom trailer and proper lighting on the path to it to ensure your guests' comfort and safety.
The bottom line is: just think logistically!


Because I'm a sucker for contests, I have to inform you of another wedding-related one, this time by KLOVE. The radio station is asking for incredible marriage proposal ideas - they don't have to be your story, they don't even have to be real, just an idea that you may have - adventurous, romantic, down right crazy, what ever you've got! The selected winner gets to have Brandon Heath sing at their wedding (or party or vow renewal). Brandon Heath is one of my favorite artists and his new song "Love Never Fails," based on the words of 1 Corinthians 13, is becoming a top request for ceremony songs. If you haven't heard it, take a listen on the video below.
One of the most popular wedding elements is the "Exit," where the bride and groom waltz through an aisle of guests throwing things at them. Traditionally guests have thrown rice, bird seed, rose petals, dried lavender, blown bubbles, and now it seems the most popular "to do" for the exit is sparklers. Sparklers are fun and make great pictures, but they do take a lot of coordinating because they only stay lit for a small period of time. They are also potentially hazardous, especially with drunk wedding guests, as they remain quite hot for a few minutes after the sparkler itself goes out. All of these are things to think about if you are considering using sparklers for your wedding exit. Hiring a wedding coordinator will relieve all of this stress and they should be able to answer all of your questions concerning this important event, as well as execute it perfectly.I am truly fortunate to attract and book all of the wonderful brides that I have the pleasure of working with. So many of them have amazing ideas they want to incorporate into their special day and I absolutely love it! Whitney and Rob were married in November and as a former Walt Disney World cast member like myself, Whitney wanted the whole day to be a "show!" So, she put together this video to show as guests arrived at the church. This pre-show is about 30 minutes long, as we started it when we opened the doors to the church. It's just like the kind of pictures and trivia you see when you go to a movie theater before the feature begins.
Another favorite part of Whitney and Rob's wedding was certain elements of the reception. The bride and groom were announced (or should I say danced) into their reception while the DJ played "Peanut Butter Jelly Time!" and it was hilarious! About half-way through the reception, we dimmed the lights and passed out glow necklaces - another Disney theme. Whitney's grandfather is a member of a barbershop quartet and they sang "I Love You Truly" as Whitney and Rob sat and watched - I even cried and I never cry at weddings!
Congratulations Whitney and Rob - I was so honored to be a part of such a perfect day!




The second reason is the encounter. Just imagine walking down the aisle for the first time, your hair and makeup all done perfectly, your dress bouncing, and tears in your groom's eyes. It's just the two of you in the entire sanctuary. To me, this is more romantic than the same encounter in front of hundreds of people. You and your groom have your own special moment before the festivities of the day begin, alone and heart-felt. Take time to pray with each other, tell each other how happy you are, how in love you are, how beautiful you look, and just have a private moment together before the chaos begins.

And I love letting guests choose their own in candy stations like this one we did for Angela & Ryan's wedding last May: 

My mother is a big newspaper-clipper-outer. She clipped these Dear Abby articles out for me to share with you. Photo schedules are ALWAYS a big deal for me and I often spend a lot of time working with the bride, groom, families, and photographer on the photography schedule because I'm an advocate for getting to your reception on time! One of the first weddings I ever did when I was an event coordinator at The Thoroughbred Center years ago was the worst case I have ever seen to this date. Guests began to arrive at the reception at about 5:00 just after the 4:30 ceremony and began to munch on appetizers and drinks at the bar. At about 6:30, there was still no sign of the bride and groom, so people actually started to leave. What can I do? Nothing.I will admit, most of the weddings I work on are traditional American/English Christian weddings and are fairly similar in flow and style. When I do have a couple wanting to add cultural flair to their wedding, I just love it!
Carla and Kpanja (pictured above with Kpandja's parents) chose to take Kpandja's west African heritage and and run with it. Kpandja was born and raised in Togo, Africa and came over to the states for college and then to work at Lexmark, where he and Carla (from Wisconsin) met and fell in love. Carla and Kpandja flew to Togo to have a seamstress from Kpandja's village create this beautiful embroidered gown for Carla and Kpandja's matching Bobo (I hope I spelled that correctly!). The cocktail hour at their reception boasted African tribal music and guests feasted upon traditional African foods such as rice and bean dishes, spicy cornbread, fish heads (yes, fish heads), and an entire roasted pig. It was one of the most unique weddings I have ever seen and I loved every aspect of it. Carla was so willing to dive into Kpandja's culture, and Kpandja was so proud of it. Kpandja and Carla flew in several members of Kpandja's family including his parents (pictured above dressed in their traditional African garb) from Togo just for the wedding and it was such a pleasure to work with all of them.
In the past two weeks, I have been so excited to book two different weddings with cultural emphasis. One is the wedding of Annie and Greg taking place this October. Annie grew up in Saudi Arabia and is bringing parts of her heritage into her wedding. The other is the wedding of Whitney and Rob this November. Rob is Italian and Whitney is throwing an "Italian wedding soiree" as she calls it, complete with a parade of waiters carrying around giant pasta bowls, to celebrate his heritage. More to come on these two events and I encourage you to look into your and your fiancee's own heritage to make your own wedding a unique cultural affair.
Happy planning!
I was talking to photographer Frank Becker at The Time Photography (who took this picture of our bride, Jennifer Howard last year) at a meeting recently and he was so excited that one of our brides was wearing her hair down on her wedding day. I said I had never thought about it before, but as a former bride, I know it's hard to keep your "do" looking good when you're in the spotlight and hugging people all day. He made me think about the style a bride chooses to wear her hair in which lead me to remember a bride I working with last fall who had naturally very curly red hair - it was beautiful. When we were planning her wedding, she was asking me about hair stylists because she had not found one that would do her hair for her wedding without first straightening it. She was completely against that because she wouldn't "look like herself." She was concerned about looking back at all of her wedding pictures and thinking that the bride didn't look like her.
The Derby City Bride Wedding Planner is a new, free online wedding planning tool that will be introduced on April 2nd at http://derbycitybride.com/planner
In this month's issue of In Style Weddings, I found this feature on wedding dress sketches and it really interested me. For a mere $100, you can have French artist Penelope-Anne Altmann draw a black a white sketch of your wedding dress. The size is approximately 9x12" and would be perfect for framing. You just have to send in a few pictures of yourself in the dress and they say it ships in about a week. Find out how to place your order at www.mydreamlines.com. I just love the thought of this because to a bride, the dress is the first thing she buys and she never wants to take it off. It's more unique than a portrait and can make other people think you had the dress custom made for you! I am going to do this for myself.
I just received an email from Jennifer Howard Moore, a bride I worked with last year and now a good friend. She put together the most fabulous wedding I've seen in Lexington and I was honored to be a part of it. I told her it should be in magazines or on Platinum Weddings or something - people had to see this! Well, the email I received from her today was a link to Style Me Pretty http://www.stylemepretty.com. It's a blog all about fabulous weddings and guess who's wedding they're featuring now? Check it out - it's amazing!

cture of him: