January Wedding - Reception

The reception was held at the Renaissance Atlanta hotel in downtown on the 25th floor with floor to ceiling windows overlooking downtown Atlanta. The wedding colors were chocolate brown and light pink.


We kept the tables basic with white linens and added the colors with organza chair ties and flower centerpieces.


This was an evening reception so the bride wanted to fill the room with candelight.






It was a cold winter night so the fireplace was perfect to give the reception a cozy warm feeling.



We created three different centerpieces that we alternated over the 15 tables. The first was the standard hotel hurricane on the mirror base with candles. Many venues have the same standard centerpieces and in my opinion it's pretty boring. But they came with the hotel's package so we didn't want them to go to waste. To dress them up and make them look different, we put flowers on aluminum wire and looped it around the glass hurricane.



The second centerpiece was a 9 votive candleabra with flowers at the base of the stand. You can see the table number cards matched the decor with a chocolate brown base and pink cardstock.
Once it got dark it almost looked as if the candles were floating in the air.



For the third centerpiece, we used dark manzanita branches and placed pink flower blooms to give it a tree look. Then we hung votive candles from the branches and placed them in glass cylinders with pink rocks.



For place cards which also doubled as the party favors, we made personalized votive candles that had the guest's name and the wedding couple's initials and wedding date. Then we topped it off with chocolate satin ribbon.

January Wedding - Ceremony

Here are a few pictures of the ceremony at Ebeneezer Baptist Church - photos are courtesy of http://www.andreataylorstudio.com/


Here is a close up 0f the pew arrangements - tinted pink hydrangea and pink roses, tied with chocolate brown ribbon.
The altar decor consisted of candelabras and urn arrangements on white columns.
Similar to the unity candle, the sand ceremony represents the blending of two families.
The wedding couple and their family members took turns pouring pink and brown sand into the jar.

And here is the sand after the ceremony -you can see the pink and brown blended together in the custom etched jar. This will be a keepsake for the wedding couple.

JANUARY WEDDING

I had the privilege of designing the wedding of a wonderful couple that took place in January. It was a pink and chocolate brown theme wedding. I'm waiting on images from the photographer - http://www.andreataylorstudio.com/. But in the meantime you can view a slideshow of the wedding at http://www.andreataylorstudio.com/leahmichael/

WILL YOU BE MY......

Today I worked on a project for one of my wedding clients. The wedding couple wanted a unique way to ask their friends to be in their wedding party. For the ring bearer and flower girls we used cookies with edible messages. I'm sure this will be an unforgettable proposal for the kids.

Here is the cookie for the ring bearer
The "diamond" has luster dust to give it some sparkle. And here are the cookies for the flower girls.
The icing was done in the wedding colors - lime green and lemon yellow.

All wrapped up and ready to go!

THE SPECIAL EVENT SHOW

This week I have been attending and volunteering with The Special Event Show - http://thespecialeventshow.com/ - which is a conference and trade show for event professionals. It's been a great week and I'm learning so much and have been exposed to so many great ideas!




Today I volunteered to get ready for the Welcome Event at the World of Coca Cola. A tent was constructed for the entertainment and party area.



Here is the section that I helped worked on. I love the colors - copper, peach, browns, and a little touch of animal print. I also really liked the use of the feathers. And I must say the carnations looked great. I've always hated carnations, but they are really starting to grow on me!





The Blue Section

The Ultra Hip Dance Floor

Buffet Centerpieces

It's SNOWING! As we finished up for the day, what do you know, it started snowing!

TIFFANY'S 30TH BIRTHDAY

Tiffany turned 30 and wanted a special evening with friends and family to celebrate. She didn't know where to start for a theme or decor. All she could tell me was that she liked the colors aqua and lime, butterflies and bling! And that's where I come in.
(Photos courtesy of Snap Atlanta Photography- http://snapatlanta.smugmug.com/)

INVITES

The invitation always sets the tone of the event. It gives the guests an idea of what's to come. When the invitation is unique and interesting that guests know to expect a great event.

For Tiffany's birthday we used the color scheme she liked and incorporated the butterflies and bling with aqua and lime rhinestones. You'll be able to see later how this helped us to develop the palette and decor for the birthday party.

These beautiful invites were made by my great friend Alicia at Artistique Designs.

CUPCAKE TOWER

A great way to save money but still have a beautiful cake display is to do a cupcake tower.

Here is a close-up of the birthday cake. We used lime tinted icing and placed aqua and lime butterflies as accents and then trimmed the bottom in matching polka dot ribbon.

Yummm.... I love this close-up picture of the cupcake. I dream about these cupcakes they're so good. Anyone who has been to my one of my events and tasted the cakes always remembers them and often talk about them long after the event is over. The cake and cupcakes were made by my favorite bakery Sugar Plum - http://sugarplum-visions.com/

FLOWERS

For flower arrangements we used hydrangea and gerbera daisies that we tinted lime and aqua and placed into blume boxes - http://www.blumebox.com/. Blume boxes are a great way to display flowers in a disposable box which makes it easy for guests to take the flowers home after the event. People often complain about the flowers being a waste. After this party, the birthday girl was able to take the arrangements to enjoy at home. The blume box arrangements were made by my florist Angie at Birch Blooms - http://birchblooms.com/

I accented the bottom of the box in matching ribbon and of course had to add a little bling with a rhinestone "T" for Tiffany.

The arrangements had butterflies "flying" out of the top. These are the same butterflies used on the cake.

On the tables we had simple bud vases with lime and aqua gerbera daisies.PARTY FAVORS

Party favors are often a source of debate for my clients. Some feel (particularly men) why should they have to give a gift to their guests when they're already paying for everything! I personally feel that party favors are just a little touch to let your guests know how special they are to you. Favors don't have to be extravagant or expensive. For Tiffany's party I took a small white favor box, tied with ribbon and used a rhinestone "T" on top of a lime cardstock. Inside each box was a chocolate truffle.

CANDLELIGHT

Besides flowers, to me lighting is the second most important design element of an event. The easiest and most inexpensive way to add ambiance to your event is to uses candles. We used an assortment of candles to add color, interest and ambient lighting to the space.