December 31st, 2010

Real Weddings | Top 10 Picks of 2010 (part two)

As we promised, the remaining top weddings of the year (in no particular order)!

Amanda McMahon Photography:  Talk about a DIY goldmine!  From handmade seating cards to a custom candy creation, buttons were turned into unforgettable artwork.

Sweetest Things Weddings:  For our followers, we’re sure you knew this wedding was going to pop up.  Do we need to point out as to why this wedding is so amazing?  From the exuberant couple to the thoughtful color scheme and place settings, this wedding is an inspiration for years to come!

image above by Sierra Kristen Photography

Rodeo & Co.: We love a good parade, so why not make one of your own on your wedding day?  The New Hampshire fall backdrop was the perfect setting for this wedding where the bride and groom – with guests – carried flags and puppets from the ceremony to the reception.  And the flowers — we’ll, we’re in love not only with the design but the designer, Emily Herzig Floral Studio.

Capries Weddings & Events:  Pucci?  Yes please!  Love these bold colors — royal blue and striking yellows make for such an amazing contrast.

images by Julia Newman Photography

Beyond the Lens Photography:  This vintage inspired wedding Connecticut was all the buzz when Beyond the Lens shared with us the thoughtful details of the wedding.  And can anyone really question it?  Check it out for yourself!

So we hope you enjoyed our top wedding picks of 2010 and have a happy and safe New Year’s!  See you in 2011!

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Posted by PTW Media at 9:00 am 1 Comment
Labels: my Kate Parker Wedding

December 30th, 2010

Real Weddings | Top 10 Picks for 2010 {part one}

In no particular order, below are our favorite weddings found on Prepare to Wed in 2010.  Ok, these are just the first five, so stay tuned for more.  And let us just say that this was no easy task!

emilie inc. photography:  An astronomer meets interior designer in New York though decides to marry in the midcoast region of Maine at a private residence.  Even though it was a fog-filled day, the wedding was simply beautiful.

The Feds Studio: With all that is offered in California, the bride and groom chose to marry in Ashley’s hometown at their family’s local dairy farm, The Hornstra Farm. If my family had this farm, I would too!  Vintage milk glasses were fill with freshly squeezed lemonade and cold chocolate milk.

Petal’s Edge Floral Design:  This mod wedding featured a vibrant color scheme of yellow, silver and black.  With pin cushion protea for a bridal bouquet and bridesmaids carrying yellow craspedia or yellow coxcomb bundles, this was certainly an original event.

images above by Heather Z Photography

Fat Orange Cat Studio:  We fell in love with this intimate backyard wedding in Cambridge, Massachusetts which was certainly a family affair with father’s hanging up lights and a huppa made by a good friend.

Concept Photography: How can you not love this wedding!  The colors were incredible and the texture of the centerpieces with hanging peacock feathers were amazing!

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Posted by PTW Media at 11:18 am 1 Comment
Labels: my Kate Parker Wedding

December 29th, 2010

Our Top Picks for best Cakes/Desserts on Prepare to Wed!

Well I certainly thought this would be an easy award to give out, but apparently we have too many talented cake designers to choose from!

We divided Cakes and Desserts into five categories:

sugar flowers

detail work

sculpted cakes

dessert buffets

cupcakes

Some categories had a clear winner, others had some fierce competition so we also awarded a few honorable mentions.  Congratulations to the winners!

SUGAR FLOWERS

Winner: Wild Orchid Baking Company |  North Hampton, New Hampshire

This massive 7-tiered wedding cake, covered in fondant cut-outs that mimic the bride’s dress, and stuffed with hundreds of pale pink, cream and blush sugar flowers was created by Erin Gardner of Wild Orchid Baking Company in North Hampton, NH.  The bride worked with Erin to select the specific flowers used- peonies were one of her favorite flowers but getting married at the end of August wasn’t the right time to have them so Erin created hundreds of peonies for the wedding cake.  The cake actually was an inverted version of the design on the bride’s Oscar de la Renta wedding gown.  What a work of art! PS- I swear Erin makes the BEST fondant on the planet… trust us, we’ve eaten a lot of it!

Honorable mention: Sylvia Weinstock Cakes, LLC |  New York City, New York

Obviously she is probably the best sugar flower designer on this planet, and we couldn’t not mention her unbelievable work, so three cheers for Sylvia Weinstock!  You can order a wedding cake from Sylvia from anywhere on earth and they’ll ship, fly, or hand-deliver it to you.  You can also pick them up at her store in NYC if you’d like!  Overabundance of flowers is what Sylvia Weinstock is known for and her cakes don’t cease to amaze us.  Even more interesting, she doesn’t use fondant, not ever.  Butter cream is the only thing she frosts her cakes with because she doesn’t like the taste of fondant!

DETAIL WORK

Winner: Wild Orchid Baking Company | North Hampton, New Hampshire

Now, I know that Erin already won the sugar flower category, but what would you have done if you saw this cake?  The detail behind the vintage brooches and the teeny tiny accents on the fondant are ridiculous!  I love the shimmery gold edges to the cake too. Amazing.

Honorable Mention: Lovely Cakes | Norwalk, Connecticut

I love the delicate snowflake details on this cake from Lovely Cakes in CT! The 3D larger snowflakes add quite a bit of texture as well!  Love the light blue color of the fondant also.  What a wonderful wintry wedding cake!

Honorable Mention: Delicious Desserts | Falmouth, Massachusetts

What a fabulous way to make a nautical theme more formal?  Hundreds of tiny sugar pearls in shades of cream, pink and gray scattered around a cake and finished with a shimmery starfish.  We love how delicate and classic this cake looks with its obviously nautical theme!

SCULPTED CAKES

Winner: Sin | Providence, Rhode Island

Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more creative groom’s cake before!  Add the insane amount of custom coloring and shading to make this look like a real space ship out of Star Wars and you can see why we picked Sin as the best sculpted cake! I even love that she placed the ship on a board with sprayed sugar to look like stars!

Honorable Mention: Wild Orchid Baking Company | North Hampton, NH

Liz has loved this cake from the moment she laid her eyes on it!  From the lobsters complete with wedding rings, to the corn and potatoes in the pot, Erin Gardner didn’t forget a single detail for this amazing lobster bake themed sculpted cake!

Honorable mention: Sweet Rewards | Brookfield, Connecticut

A computer, with double monitors and screen shots? I love the details that went into this cake, complete with a wireless mouse and mouse pad! I’m pretty sure it’s a PC, but we can let that one slide because the detail work is so amazing!

DESSERT BUFFETS

Winner: Nothing Bakes Like a Parrott | Portland, Maine

above images from Aphrodite Wedding Photography

Jessica Robitaille- I know, her maiden name is Parrott-  of Nothing Bakes Like A Parrott is taking Maine by storm and we know that clients are thrilled to have her amazing desserts at their weddings!  If you can come up with a dessert, Jessica will make it.  Ice cream, pies, tarts, cake pops, sugar sea glass, funnel cakes, or even cotton candy.  Talk about talented, and we haven’t even started discussing how detailed her displays can be.

Honorable Mention: Cookie Creatives by Jennifer | Wilbraham, Massachusetts

above image from Doug Levy Photography

Cookie Creatives by Jennifer has been known for her amazing cookie wedding favors. She ventured into the dessert buffet world and we’re so glad she did!  From home-made marshmallows, cupckaes, and her signature cookies, these dessert buffets are always color coordinated, stylish, and a bit preppy if I may so myself!

CUPCAKES

Winner: Sweet Rewards | Brookfield, Connecticut

I swear we’re not biased because these are Red Sox cupcakes! Sweet Rewards can make mini cupcakes, custom designed cupcakes, and just about everything in between!  Since she’s also a master of the sculpted cake, the possibilities are pretty much endless.  We also love how she uses custom stands to display her cakes!

Honorable Mention: Nothing Bakes Like a Parrott, Portland, Maine

We loved the sugar pansies on these cupcakes.  Simple, sweet and classic!  Not much more to say about these little adorable cupcakes, right?

Congratulations to the winners again and Happy New Year everyone!

KP


Posted by PTW Media at 1:05 pm 0 Comments
Labels: my Kate Parker Wedding

December 28th, 2010

Wedding RSVPs | New York City Planner, Anderson Green Events

Organizing is a pure passion of mine – or an illness.  It depends on whether or not you’re talking to my husband.  And while “prepping” for wedding organization may  initially add on a few more minutes to your process…in the end, I promise you will not be running around like crazy trying to do a cram session of your guest list.  New York City wedding planner, Lisa from Anderson Green Events and myself have very much in common and especially when it comes down to organizing your wedding RSVPs:

Organizing Wedding RSVPs

Hopefully when you created your guest list, you kept an electronic record of it with which you can use to track RSVP responses. If not, there’s a bit of typing in your future!

You can either purchase Wedding RSVP programs that will help you track responses, or you can use excel. Either way, you’ll want to be organized enough to keep every response recorded and up to date.

Firstly, you want to track yeses and nos {as well as correct name spelling and any guests that are coming for your escort cards or place cards}.  After that, if you are doing a pre-selected dinner entree choice, you’ll want to keep track of that. And finally, if you are monitoring their accommodations for the wedding weekend, you’ll want to note that as well {helpful if you are delivering welcome bags around town}. Being able to give an accurate guest count and meal choice to your venue / caterer on the appropriate day will be incredibly helpful.

For more helpful tips from Anderson Green Events, be sure to check out the full expert advice article.

To help out visually,  here is a layout that I personally used for my wedding.  Keep in mind, I did have a few more columns and equations since I am a crazy excel person, but kept it somewhat simple for this post.  Ok, so below is the entire spreadsheet which is broken down below…

So first, I split my list into four parts (headers in blue):  Bridal Party, Bride|Groom Friends, Family of the Bride, and Family of the Groom.  You don’t need to do this but since we have such a large family I wanted to make sure I could really visualize all who’s coming. So next I used the following headers:

Guest Last Name, Guest First Name: This way I can easily alphabetize my list using the sorting option.

Children (age): I like to keep my children listed with the family, if they are of younger age and need for their parent to accompany them.  So next to the child’s name, I like to list the age in case the venue or catering needs to determine whether or not a high chair is required.

Role | Relationship: Since my mother has 11 brothers and sisters (yeah, crazy), I wanted to make sure that my husband or anyone looking at the list knew the relationship.  So you can type in “aunt and uncle” or “bestman”.  Sometimes I would just use it as a reminder like, “Sarah is Chris’s girlfriend” or if one of my friends is the “gift collector”.

Seating Card Listing: Keep this separate from your basic first and last name listing and enter in how you want the name of the guest(s) to appear on their seating card.  That way you won’t be playing the puzzle game when it comes time to address your envelopes or if you have to hand your list over to a calligrapher.

Address: Of course you will need this for sending out your invitations.

The next part of the spreadsheet is keeping track of your RSVPs:

No. Invited: The total number you are inviting.

No. Attending: Those who have sent back their reply with guest count.

Table No.: Keep track of which table you have assigned each guest.

Hotel FRI and Hotel SAT: Basically this is for the accommodations I set up for my guests.  So Hotel FRI (Friday) and Hotel SAT (Saturday) basically helps me to keep track where guests are staying in case I have welcome baskets to distribute or have organized any special transportation.  Your guests probably won’t reply back to you with where they are staying, but you can certainly check in with your accommodations on a regular basis and ask for a list of those who have reserved a room under your room block.

Beef or Fish? I like to enter in each food option that I am having to keep track of it right when the rsvp’s start coming in.  And don’t forget to include a kid’s plate or a vegetarian option — basically whatever is specific to your wedding menu.

Notes: You have enough to remember during your planning process so use a column to jot down any reminders or notes about your guests.  For instance, do you need a high chair for one of your guest’s children?  Does one of your guests require any special attention whether they may be in a wheelchair?  Put these notes down and don’t be afraid to give this entire list to your coordinator, catering or venue.

Finally, keep a running total at the bottom so that you don’t have go through each time and add up the numbers.

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Posted by PTW Media at 1:30 pm 1 Comment
Labels: Advice, Wedding Budgets 50-80k, Wedding Budgets Above 80k

December 22nd, 2010

Snow, Please | Inspiration Board

I have been dying for snow and just as I looked out my window.  It’s snowing!  Ok, not a lot.  Probably won’t even amount to anything but I’ll take what I can get.  So I always love making something homemade to bring to my parents and friends so this year it will be a little hot chocolate in a jar (oops–I guess it’s not a surprise anymore).   Last year it was holiday-infused macaroons which are my sister’s favorite!  And I’ve decided to make snowflake marshmallows as seen on Martha Stewart to include.

Now as most of you know, I always wanted to have a winter wedding though the golf enthusiast I’m married to cannot take the cold.  Bummer — just have to live vicariously through our work! If I had a winter wedding, I would have loved to add these snowflake marshmallows to my gourmet hot chocolate bar.  So to get into the holiday spirit even more, here’s a little snowy inspiration to enjoy!  {ls}

invitations:  Gus & Ruby Letterpress | branch centerpiece:  Diana Ma Weddings and Events | cake: Lovely Cakes | necklace/headband: Emici Bridal | bouquet: Emily Herzig Floral Studio | feather and floral headpiece:  The White Dress by the Shore | snowflake lanterns:  Nordic House | wreath:  Martha Stewart | pomander:  Diana Ma Wedding and Events | tags:  Ballard Designs

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Posted by PTW Media at 9:00 am 0 Comments
Labels: Inspirations, my Kate Parker Wedding

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