Tiffany and Dan were featured in the fall issue of Premier Bride. You can see the full article here. We loved working with them!

Tiffany had a great idea to remember the guests at her wedding: make a quilt. She had everyone sign square pieces of fabric instead of signing a guestbook. People could write messages and good wishes for the new couple. After the wedding, Tiffany was going to sew the squares together to make a keepsake quilt. It’s such a cute idea, and it’s something that can be passed on to their children and grandchildren.

The food was definitely something to remember. Tiffany decided to do food stations instead of the normal buffet. She had a Southern Station that featured baby back ribs, cheese grits, and a sausage cheese tray. There was also a Caribbean Station with Jerked Chicken Brochettes, Cuban Meat Pie (in empanada form!), grilled fruit, and of course, black bean and corn salsa with homemadechips. For the spicy food lovers, she had a Creole Station with chicken and seafood jambalaya, jalapeno duck poppers, and smoked catfish quesadillas. Guests were coming back for more all night long!

On to the pictures!

Happy Planning!
Southern Event Planners
Memphis, TN Wedding Planners

Wow, I can’t believe we are already in 2009! Who knew 2008 had wings and could fly as quickly as it did? This year has been incredible. We expanded our retail store. Destination weddings increased this year having us traveling over 7,000 miles for five different weddings. Our staff expanded to include a new office assistant and additional setup crew. Continuing education was a big focus as we attended three different educational conferences,  and a few members of our staff received floral design training.

One of our brides was selected as the “Featured Wedding” for the cover of the 20th Anniversary of Southern Bride. That makes four cover weddings for us! We also had ten weddings (count them, TEN) featured in magazines. We are waiting to hear if Grace Ormond is going to pick up one of the destination weddings, so that would make eleven. That is a record for us. We built new relationships with some amazing new wedding talents and rekindled some old. Southern Event Planners started blogging (after months of “should we/shouldn’t we”) and now we are addicted. It’s all we want to do – outside of planning the next wedding.

We have been blessed to have worked with so many great clients this year: an NFL player and his amazingly gorgeous wife, a Cardiologist (a real lifesaver) and his “should be a model” wife and their precious daughter, 12 teachers, 4 attorneys, 3 retail store owners, 2 speech therapists, 6 nurses, 3 marketing professionals, 2 chemical engineers,  2 human resource managers, 1 librarian , 1 hair stylist, and a slew of college students/new grads.

Since we started blogging late this year we wanted to go back and share with you some of the highlights. Hopefully you will find something to inspire you and make it your own. 

Enjoy!!!

Sarah and Brett came to us and had already picked the Memphis Zoo as their location. They wanted a smaller, more intimate wedding where they could entertain their out-of-town family and friends in a relaxed, elegant setting.

Sarah was a true DIY bride. I had complete faith in her abilities when I received her “Save the Date.” She had made the cutest cards in the wedding colors (chocolate, banana, persimmon, and citron) with monkeys and bananas. The craftsmanship was excellent!

On one of her visits to town, we went to the zoo to discuss setup, placement, and decor. Sarah and Bret originally planned to have the ceremony right inside the gates of the zoo. As we were walking around, the bells starting going off in my head (those of you who have met me know what I am talking about). The ceremony should be in front of the zoo – not in the courtyard. That area is called “Avenue of the Animals.” We decided to have the gates draped with a citron green backdrop, complete with yellow and orange flowers. It was perfect.

Their guests enjoyed a seated four course meal with wedding cake and an ice cream sundae bar for dessert. The long banquet tables were dressed with chocolate linens, citron runners, and persimmon napkins. The centerpieces were containers wrapped in coordinating colored paper that Sarah had used to create her invitations, favors, tossing cones, placecards, menu cards, and table numbers.

 

Brides are always looking for that one thing to make their wedding memorable. Some look towards the food to make an impact, while others believe it is the flowers that stand out. Then there are those that insist on the cake being the big bang. All of those are important, but if you really want to have your guests walk away with something to talk about, think about dance lessons.

Nothing is more boring than watching the happy couple people sway back and forth (YAWN) to a song that is 5 minutes long. I promise you, people would rather be at the bar than watch that suffering. One of the most memorable first dances I have ever seen was a wedding we did about 4 years ago at the Peabody Hotel. The food was basic, the centerpieces and decor - standard hotel ballroom simple. But the dance: WOW!!! The song was Prince’s “Adore” and the couple did the most amazing, sensual, and spicy tango. All 300 guests had their eyes on the couple as they danced together for the first time as husband and wife. That hot night in July, those two owned that dance floor. I swear I saw steam rising from the floor. At the end of the song, the couple received a standing ovation from all 300 guests.

I still tell that story to all my clients, just like it was last weekend. A few lessons with a professional dance instructor at Memphis Ballroom Dance will make a huge difference and give you the confidence you may lack. So many of my clients say that they don’t like alot of attention. Well here’s the deal - it is your wedding day, you are the only one in a dress and veil, and they all came to see you, so you are going to get the attention – SORRY. If all eyes are going to be on you then you might as well give them something to remember.  

Watch a little Dancing with the Stars, pick out a few dances that you like, then choose a few songs and make that call to your local dance studio. Discuss the ideas that you have and they can help you pair the song and the dance together. Call both sets of parents and make it a date night. A lot of dads don’t feel comfortable dancing, so why not bring the parents along to get a few pointers as well? They will appreciate you thinking of them. Your guests will be dazzled and will swear that your whole family are descendants of Fred Astaire himself.

Happy Planning!
Angela