One of our local travel agencies, Travel Leaders & Cruises, was kind enough to answer a few questions for us regarding honeymoon destinations. Terri Neely is their Honeymoon Specialist, and her answers to our questions are below.

Photo by Kate Crafton Photography

1. Currently, what is the most popular honeymoon destination?
At this time, St. Lucia is my #1 honeymoon destination

2. How about the most popular US destination?
Hawaii

3. What seems to be the average cost of a honeymoon?
$3,000-$5000

4. What’s the length of time that couples are honeymooning?
5-7 nights

5. What’s the most unique honeymoon request you’ve received?
I had a couple that wanted to experience beach/adventure/woodsy-rustic , possible mountains/pampering. To accommodate their needs, I sent them to Costa Rica.  They went to a resort on the beach for 4 days then they went to a lodge in the middle of the rain forest  for 4 days.  For the pampering, I booked them plenty of Spa treatments, and for the adventure, I booked them zip-lining tour/wildlife tour/lagoon kayaking.

6. What is YOUR favorite location for a honeymoon?
The Caribbean

7. How long does it take to plan a honeymoon on average?
6  – 9 months

8. What are the pros and cons of an “all-inclusive” honeymoon package?  Like those found on cruise lines?
There are no negatives for booking an all-inclusive honeymoon package. An all-inclusive package is the most popular honeymoon package, because of all of the advantages. The main advantage of the all-inclusive package, is one stop shopping. Your all-inclusive package will include everything.  It will include roundtrip airfare, roundtrip airport-hotel transfers, hotel accommodations, all food, all beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic), non-motorized watersports, taxes and gratuities.  Once your all-inclusive honeymoon is booked and paid for, there is no more stress , and you can relax and look forward to your trip.
Most people have the misconception that cruises are all-inclusive, however they are not. The additional charges that you will accrue when you go on a cruise: Port charges, taxes, sodas, alcoholic beverages, shore excursions, gratuities

9. If you could give couples one piece of advice for their honeymoon, what would it be?
Please contact a travel professional when booking your honeymoon, to ensure that it will be the wonderful experience that you are expecting.  You definitely want to deal with someone who has an in-depth knowledge of the locations/hotels that you are looking to visit, and who listens to all of your wants and expectations when customizing your package.

If you need help planning your honeymoon, give Travel Leaders & Cruises a call! You can reach Terri at (901) 853-6200 or stop by at 305 New Byhalia Road, Suite 102; Collierville, TN 38017.

Happy Planning!
Southern Event Planners
Memphis, TN Wedding Planners

As a wedding planner, we’re always involved with the “wedding” aspect of our brides’ and grooms’ lives. But what about the happily ever after part? This usually starts with the honeymoon – a nice, romantic, relaxing (or adventurous) vacation where the newlyweds have fun and enjoy each other’s company for the first time as husband and wife.

At the wedding, guests are inclined to bring gifts, money, cards, and well wishes. Most couples receive the infamous toaster from Aunt Ida, but what if they already have a toaster? In fact, what if they have everything they need for a house because they’ve been living together? Wouldn’t they want to have that money go elsewhere??

Well, now brides and grooms can combine the traditional gift registry with a  honeymoon. How so, you ask? Simple. A Honeymoon Registry! We’ve teamed up with Honeymoon Wishes, an online honeymoon registry.

 Brides and grooms alike can sign in and create their registries. You can include activities, airfare, travel, dining, or customize an item! Once the registry is created, it can be e-mailed to family and friends. They can purchase whole items or contribute partially, so everyone’s price range is covered!

To learn more about it, go here: http://southerneventplanners.honeymoonwishes.com.

We’ve had some brides sign up in the past, and we wanted to share this idea with our readers!

Happy (Honeymoon!) Planning!
Southern Event Planners
Memphis, TN Wedding Planners

When you’re shopping for the shoes you’ll wear on your wedding day, you may fall into one of the two wedding shoe categories: flip flops or…not flip flops.

Some brides don’t really care about their shoes because they’ll take them off and slip into some flip flops after the ceremony. They fall into the “flip flops” category. Other brides are in it for the all around style and appearance. They live by the mantra “beauty is pain” and they fall into the “not flip flops” category. Which one are you? No matter which group you’re in (or maybe you’re somewhere in between!), we have some great options for you.

We got an e-mail from Jan of frogges and she had pictures of some really cute handmade flip flops. We checked it out, and she has 11 different colors that are decorated with crystals! I know what you’re thinking: bedazzled shoes?? Weren’t those made in the 90′s??

These flip flops are far from the bedazzled craze. Just take a look:

The flip flops are offered in two heel sizes: 1.5 inch and 2.5 inch. If you don’t see a design that you like, she’ll make a custom pair for you. The shoes are made from real rubber, and the crystals are set on the shoes with a special adhesive to prevent them from falling off. I could see the white ones with the blue crystals on a bride’s perfectly pedicured feet for sure! To take a look at more of her designs, visit her Etsy store: www.frogges.etsy.com!

So maybe you’re not the flip flop bride, but you want something fun and funky…maybe even on the verge of custom made. You’ve scoured every shoe store you can think of, and none of the shoes are “it” for you.

How about designing your own bridal shoes? There’s a company that does that! You don’t need a degree in graphic design, and you don’t need to be an artist. All you need to do is click the mouse and choose your own colors and designs.

Shoes of Prey is a company that will custom make your shoes – not just for your wedding, but for an evening out or a day walking around town. All of the shoes are made by hand…they even show you how they’re made! The shoes take about four to five weeks to make, so you need to order them accordingly. You can go to the site and just play around to see what you come up with. When you order your shoes, at least you’ll know you’ll be the only one wearing them in the world!

Happy Planning!
Southern Event Planners
Memphis, TN Wedding Planners

We’ve gone through some pictures, and we’ve each picked out a few of our favorite bouquets. This will be the first post of a little mini-series where we all pick a few of our favorite wedding elements (rings, shoes, dresses, centerpieces, etc) and share them with you.

Now you can get to know our styles a little bit better, and hopefully you can relate to some of our favorites! Now, on to the collages…

As you can see, we each have a different style when it comes to bridal bouquets! What are you favorites? Putting together little collages like this can help vendors determine the look and style that you want for your wedding. Try it for your next meeting!

Happy Planning!
Southern Event Planners
Memphis, TN Wedding Planners

Spring is here (almost!), and for those of us in Memphis, we’re welcoming the warm weather with open arms! The sun starts to shine, flowers and tress start to bloom, and weddings can take place outdoors.

In honor of the long awaited Spring season, we will dub March as Floral month! We’ll start off with a great money saving tip:

Use your bridesmaids’ bouquets as centerpieces! Why do you need to have seperate flower arrangements when you have such fabulous bouquets?? All you need to do is have your bridesmaids put their bouquets in a vase that has been pre-filled with water. Wah-lah! A beautiful centerpiece!

You can also use the bouquets for the head table flowers. Just have some vases placed on the table and add the bouquets!

Happy Planning!
Southern Event Planners
Memphis, TN Wedding Planners

You have your wedding invitations done and ready to be mailed, but let’s face it…the stamps are just plain ugly.

Add your own personal touch by making your own stamps! You can make a stamp with a photo of you and your fiance, or you can incorporate your monogram or wedding theme. Stamps.com can provide you with the tools needed to make this project quick and easy. You just upload your photo, select your options, and wait for them to arrive!

Happy Planning!
Southern Event Planners
Memphis Wedding Planners

The lucky bride was Vanisha Mittal. She is the daughter of Lakshmi Mittal, a steel tycoon who has made billions. In 2004, she married a London banker named Amit Bhatia. She was 23 years old at the time, and some of her wedding events were held at the Palace of Versailles (which has never hosted a private function), Hotel Bristol, and the Jardin-des-Tuileries. Guests stayed at the Hotel Intercontinental in Paris. The wedding festivities took place over 5 days, and when everything was said and done, the reported cost of the event was $60 million! Forbes.com even acknowledged the wedding in an article about billionaire nuptials.

The press was not allowed to go to the wedding, so it’s very hard to find pictures. I did find a  few pictures of part of the invitation that was sent out:

About 1,200 guests received an invitation that was hand-painted.It included romantic poems, and one of them was written by one of Vanisha’s family members.  The invitation was composed of twenty pages, and it had information for each event that was taking place during the five day celebration.

I’ve found mixed descriptions of the rest of the invitation. Some places report that the invitations were presented in silver boxes, and others say they were delivered along with a 5kg hand carved silver centerpiece, and there was even speculation that jade necklaces and diamond watches accompanied the invitations. It’s hard to know for sure since the finer details were private.

So exactly how much were the invitations? No one knows! That information was never divulged to the public, but wedding experts say that they’re the most expensive invitations ever made. It’s a little bit disappointing that we don’t know the price tag on the most expensive invitations ever made. Let’s do a “what if” scenario:

The stationery usually takes up about 3% of the wedding budget, so if we did the math and they followed the average trend (which is slim!), the invitations could have cost a whopping $1.8 million. If we break that down and they did, in fact, send invitations to 1,200 people, the invitations would cost $1,500 each. Now, that would be the cost if they spent 3% of the budget on the invitations alone. Remember, stationery includes invitations, programs, place-cards, signage, and thank you notes.

Now that I’ve introduced you to the most expensive wedding invitations, I’m going to give you a few tips on how to save money on your stationery. Be sure to check back on Friday!

Happy Planning!
Southern Event Planners
Memphis Wedding Planners

Just a few cute ideas if you’re getting married or having your reception in a theatre like the Orpheum, or if you’re a huge movie buff, you can have a movie themed reception. Here are a few ideas:

• If you’re sending out Save the Dates, design them to look like movie tickets. Include the time and location of your show, and don’t forget to add “Invitation to Follow” somewhere on the ticket to let them know that the Save the Date is not the actual invitation!
• Your ceremony program can be a playbill. You can be the leading lady, your husband-to-be is the leading man, and your wedding party is the supporting cast. Split the ceremony into Act I, Act II, and Act III, with your curtain call at the reception.
• The tables at your reception can be named after your favorite movies. Casablanca, Titanic, and Gone With the Wind are a few examples for love stories. You can always go a different route and have action, drama, horror, or comedy movies listed.

Do you have any other ideas? Leave us a comment  and let us know!

Happy Planning!
Southern Event Planners
Memphis Wedding Planners

Having place-cards at your wedding reception can be helpful, but now it’s time to make them really stand out. Everyone knows that you can fold the place-cards in half and sit them up like a tent. But what if you want something different? If you haven’t learned by now, we’re all about different!

Here are some really fabulous ideas for displaying your place-cards:

• Glamorous – Sit them on a bed of diamond drops or crystal beads. This would work really well if you have different colored lighting in the room. You can get clear diamond drops and they’ll reflect the colors and really make the table pop!
• Wine-O – Cut a slit in the top of wine corks and stick the place-cards in the slit. They’ll stand up on their own. Cover the table with grapevine leaves and set the corks between them.
• Asian/Zen – Get some flat river rocks and write names on them with a permanent marker. Display them on a bed of smaller pebbles.
• Autumn – Write names and table numbers on leaves (fake, of course!) and hang them from a birch arch or tree. Be sure to make it easy for the guests to get their leaves off of the tree!
• Spring/Garden – Make or buy some paper flowers (with stems) and write table numbers on the petals. Stick them in small terra cotta pots filled with styrofoam blocks and cover the blocks with the filler of your choice. It can be leaves, rocks, crystals or moss. Put the corresponding name on the terra cotta pot.

Which is your favorite idea? Did you have a different placecard holder? What was it?

Happy Planning!
Southern Event Planners
Memphis Wedding Planners

You have the location, the date, the shoes, and the dress. But what about the jewelry? It’s not in your budget to spend money on a precious necklace/earring set, so what’s a bride to do?!

Rent it!

We’ve discovered a company that rents a wide selection of beautiful bridal jewelry: Adorn Brides.

According to their web-site, here’s what you do:

1. Pick out the jewelry you like and check the availability for your wedding date.

2. Check out with your credit card and reserve the jewelry. Insurance is included in the rental price. A 5% security deposit will be held until the jewelry is returned.

3. They’ll call you a few days before your wedding day to confirm shipping information. The jewelry will arrive 2 business days before your wedding.

4. The first business day after your wedding, just drop it at any UPS location in the provided prepaid packaging. Once Adorn Brides receives the jewelry, the security deposit will be removed from your credit card.

It’s so easy, and you’ll look fabulous on your wedding day! Use this special promotional code and receive 20% off of your order (on top of all the other great discounts!):

Adorn Brides also just introduced Bridesmaids Sets! These jewelry sets are simple and elegant, so your entire bridal party can look fantastic.