Read some more of our blogposts.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Planning Weddings and Events with Less Stress: Are You Allergic to Flowers? No Achooos, When You...

Planning Weddings and Events with Less Stress: Are You Allergic to Flowers? No Achooos, When You...: You Can Be Allergic to Flowers and Still Have a Beautiful Wedding! And guess what?  You're more than likely going to have gue...

Are You Allergic to Flowers? No Achooos, When You Say I Do!



You Can Be Allergic to Flowers and Still Have a Beautiful Wedding!


And guess what?  You're more than likely going to have guests try to sniff them, but they won't sneeze, because these beautiful arbors are embellished with quality silk flowers and other forms of bling!

If you live in the Puget Sound area, you should think about having one of these at your wedding or other event.  Can't you see these arches and even the lamp posts at a garden tea party?  She also has a very special design for 50th Anniversary celebrations.  

"Where do you get one?" you ask.  Here is my friend and fellow wedding vendor's website:

www.FleurDeLaceEvent.com   You'll get see even more of what she does and the pictures are better!  She also makes beautiful paper roses which can be used for weddings, but what better way to bring flowers to the hospital when you can't bring real flowers?

Here are some reasons why I recommend that couples use her arches and other ceremonial decorations.

1.  Allergy sufferers can have or attend a beautiful wedding.
2.  You don't have to worry if your favorite flower isn't blooming around the time of your wedding.  You want a color, you'll probably be able to find it any time of the year.
3.  They certainly don't need to be kept cool until the ceremony.
4.  They won't wilt.
5.  If a flower falls off, it's not the end of the world...just put it back in its place.
7.  These arbors are designed with the bride in mind and can be customized to a look that you want as far as flowers go.
8.  Themes aren't a problem!  As you can see, they are adaptable to different settings.
9.  They provide the setup and the tear down.
10. It's just fun to have an element of surprise at a wedding (in a good way).  It's fun when people say, "I thought they were real!" 
11.  Price out regular flowers for a regular arch decorated with fresh flowers and you will see a higher price tag for the same look.

Wishing you the greatest of days!

Greatest of Days Wedding and Event Planning & Design












Sunday, August 24, 2014

Planning Weddings and Events with Less Stress: Would You Rather Have Wedding 101 or Wedding 9-1-1...

Planning Weddings and Events with Less Stress: Would You Rather Have Wedding 101 or Wedding 9-1-1...: Wedding 101 or 9-1-1?    Bridging the Gap! I speak with wedding vendors on a regular basis and I want to be able to make their job...

Would You Rather Have Wedding 101 or Wedding 9-1-1?

Wedding 101 or 9-1-1?   Bridging the Gap!




I speak with wedding vendors on a regular basis and I want to be able to make their jobs easier. The end beneficiary is the wedding couple and their families.  I even had a mother of a bride (with her daughter and future son-in-law’s reluctance) pay for a wedding planner because all she wanted to was buy her dress and the next thing she would do was sitting down before the ceremony!  That same reluctant couple actually toasted me during the wedding reception with a huge thank you and stated they could have never done it with me and the bride’s father actually said in his toast that other people with a wedding in their future should hire Greatest of Days!  Most couples think that they don't need a Wedding Planner or they have a friend or relative who can fill that role.  It sounds like an honor to be placed in that role, but in reality that person is probably going to be the one who has the least chance of really enjoying the wedding, or... will automatically fall into the guest mode leaving the couple getting married stranded.  Ironic, but true.

Here are some misconceptions people have about hiring wedding planners!


~  Wedding Planners are too expensive.

     Wedding Planners have so many options to help whomever is planning a wedding.  So many times when a couple or perhaps a mother is thinking that they are saving money by doing things on their own, they can actually be wasting money.  Wedding Planners have discounts offered to them that the couples can benefit from that they can't get on their own.  Every couple engaged to be married owes it to themselves to at least have a complimentary consultation with a Wedding Planner.  If you believe that time is money, you really owe it to yourself to see what you will save in time alone.   For an average wedding, without a Wedding Planner, the equivalent of 7-1/2 40-hour work weeks is spent planning a wedding.  I’d say to wedding vendors, recommend a complimentary consultation with a Wedding Planner as a  gift to your brides.  Chances are, they will thank you for it!  

Please look at our various Wedding Planning Packages.

~   A couple will often have friends who seem like they are naturals to help plan a wedding. There are so many things that the recruited or volunteering friends and family members just don't know about the actual wedding day and what can happen.  Wedding Planners spend a lot of time networking, doing research and taking classes.  
  
   If a website isn't kept up to date or does not reflect a particular vendor's personality, you just don't know if they will be the fit for you or not.  As Wedding Planners we try our best to match vendors and clients according to their personalities, styles and budget range.  Just as a bride/couple is looking for an ideal vendor, a vendor is also looking for an ideal client.  Vendors learn that not every bride is going to be one that they will work well with.  

  
~  A Wedding Planner will take over my wedding.
      Wedding planners feel that the most important thing they can do is listen.   We listen to what you want, can sense a couple’s or parents’ uncertainty, can feel what kind of pressures they are facing and learn by the expression in their faces that they have found that "just right" dress, venue, photographer, etc.  


~  A Wedding Planner won't let me use any vendors I've found on my own or will make me work with a list of their preferred vendors.

The opposite would be true 99% of the time.   The most common type of job that a Wedding Planner is hired for is what is referred to as a "Day-of"  Coordination.  In this case, all the wedding vendors or other people filling in for those roles, have been set.  A "Day-of" Coordination usually doesn't include any research for venues or vendors but actually puts in, according to statistics,  40-80 hours of work before a wedding.  I have actually had brides call me wanting someone to coordinate just their wedding day and not hiring me because didn't think that there could possibly be that much work involved for the "Day-of" Coordination.  You might have noticed how I always put quotations marks around “Day-of“ and that is for a good reason.  There really is no such thing as Day-of like the name implies or what the bride thinks she wants.  Of all days, you don't want someone coming to your wedding and not knowing all the aspects and variations planned for the wedding.  For many of us, the part we like best about doing a "Day-of" Coordination, if finding new vendors whom we might not have met otherwise!


Brides, Grooms, Same-Sex Couples, Venues and Vendors alike, I would love to have the opportunity to speak with you about various ways Greatest of Days can help you out!  If you are a venue or a wedding vendor, we can help you as well.



If a Wedding Planner is given the chance, a wedding engagement time can be cut in half! Grooms particularly love that!

Wishing you the greatest of days!

Planning and Designing Events and Weddings since 2007!

Friday, August 8, 2014

Planning Weddings and Events with Less Stress: How to Keep Aisle Runners in Place.

Planning Weddings and Events with Less Stress: How to Keep Aisle Runners in Place.: Securing Aisle Runners There are some very simple and personalized ways to keep aisle runners in place.  Here are just a couple o...

How to Keep Aisle Runners in Place.

Securing Aisle Runners



There are some very simple and personalized ways to keep aisle runners in place.  Here are just a couple of my favorite tips.

Solution #1

I like using this solution for indoor or outdoor weddings!  You'll have to go to a home improvement store for the first solution.

1.  Measure the width of your aisle runner.

2.  At your home improvement store, find some flat iron and have it cut to the same width or preferably just 1/2" shorter than the width of the aisle runner.  Maybe a store employee can cut it to the correct width.  Cut as many pieces of flat iron as you will have ends for your runners.  For example, if you and the bridal party will be walking down multiple terraces, you might want to have aisle runners for more than one area. 

3. Wrap the flat iron with some of the runner fabric 2 or 3 times with the edge ending on the underside of the flat iron.  

4.  Tape with clear packing tape the underside and the ends of each piece of flat iron.

5.  When you are ready to set down the aisle runner, wrap the end of the aisle runner around the covered flat iron a couple of times and tighten from each end of the runner to make it as flat as possible.  This is a 2 person job!



Solution #2, but always use Solution #1!


If you are outdoors, especially by a body of water, you have a really good chance that the aisle runner will want to pretend to be a kite.  It's important to secure the outside edges of the aisle runner in addition to the ends!  But, while you're at it, why not make it pretty or unique?  I never know what I idea I'll come up with.  They just happen!

For the wedding below, I had a day to come up with a solution but I wanted to make it personalized for their wedding.

The bride is an excellent pianist so I found some fabric with a white background that had musical notes on it.  I then cut with pinking shears (to prevent raveling) 11" X 11" squares and placed 1/2 cup of the glass stones in the middle of the squares.  You often see these same stones sprinkled on the tables at weddings or in votive cups to prop up a candle.  I cinched the edges up and secured them with a wire rose.  To make doubly sure that they would not come apart, I cut a burgundy grosgrain ribbon long enough to tie a bow in the same location.  The wire rose makes it a lot easier when it comes time to tie on the ribbon bow.   The ribbon was another way to utilize one of the colors of their wedding. 

I chose the option on the left after a late-night posting to Facebook to ask my friends which one they liked best.


Here they are on the aisle runner!  Keep in mind that a large bridal party had already walked down the aisle runner!  The little bead bags were place approximately every 3 feet down both sides of the runner.



We would love to hear from you!  Please feel free to leave comments.

You can use the links below to contact us.


Greatest of Days has been planning and designing events and weddings since 2007.  Actually more like 20 years before that as well!