Tricia Huddas & Co. Real Savannah Wedding: Roya and JB, Part 2

The weather forecast had called for rain during the entire week leading up to the wedding, and throughout the weekend. Based on the forecast, we made provisional plans for the outdoor elements of the wedding the amazing rental company, Savannah Special Events.

The wedding day started with the bride, her sister, Sara, and her lovely mother, Soraya, having their hair and make-up done, just the three of them, at one salon, while the bridesmaids had their hair and make-up done at a different salon.

Roya wore a stunning Amsale lace and tulle wedding dress. The bridesmaids each wore a different style of Vera Wang bridesmaid dress, each in a different shade of green. The girls joined Roya for for some pre-ceremony pictures before she and JB met for a private, pre-ceremony shoot.

It was a good thing that the day's schedule initially prompted the couple's choice to see each other before the ceremony for pictures. The forecast storm rolled in during the first ceremony and hung around the rest of the night, so theses beautiful, outdoor shots of the couple would not have been possible after the wedding ceremony.

Christine Hall expertly captured the personality of the couple in these pictures! Amazing work as usual.

Liancarlo on the cover of Inside Weddings Summer 2009 Issue

Liancarlo is a Miami-based wedding dress designer that we are very fond of - not only are his dresses stunning, but his daughter, Genina, works for us as an assistant! We are very proud at his latest accomplishment of making the cover of Inside Weddings Summer 2009 Issue!

If you have never checked out Liancarlo's designs, we recommend you visit his site right away- http://www.liancarlo.com/.

Don't forget to pick up the magazine while you are at it. I read it from cover to cover as soon as I got it! It features the fall lines of many of the greats - such as Vera Wang, Oscar de la Renta, Priscilla of Boston and Amsale - and many inspirational real weddings.

Congratulations Carlos!

Tricia Huddas & Co. Real Savannah Wedding: Roya and JB, Part 1

Roya and JB were married in March during a very stormy weekend – but that did not stop us from having one of the best wedding weekends! I just got the photos from their amazing wedding photographer, Christine Hall, and I am so excited to share them with you. You may remember that we blogged about their rehearsal dinner the weekend after the event, and have just left you hanging, waiting for more!

The two met when they were awarded Fulbright Fellowships and were preparing for their trips abroad. So with Fulbrights and various degrees from Vanderbilt, Emory and and Harvard, you can see that we are dealing with a very intelligent accomplished couple. They had visited Savannah during their courtship, and once they were engaged the couple knew that this was where they wanted to get married. It was to be a destination for all, as the bride's parents live in St. Louis, MO, the groom's parents in Atlanta, and the couple in NYC. Roya is a writer for a financial magazine and JB is a photographer.

Roya was a bride after my own heart. She knew what she wanted, and was willing to explore all ideas to get her outcome. This amazing day featured both a Christian Wedding Ceremony at Bethesda, a Persian Ceremony in Reynolds Square, and an amazing reception in the Pink House.

Tricia Huddas & Co. Real Savannah Wedding: Brittany and Matt Part III

Brittany and Matt’s reception at Savannah Station was as fun as the couple. A to Zinnias did a beautiful job with the flowers and really helped transform the space. Matt loved paisley and we were determined to bring a little bit of Matt into the wedding - enter Carrie with Two Cakes who created a beautiful paisley design in the center section of the cake.

Guests danced the night away until we sent the Bride and Groom off in style with Savannah Pedi Cab driver dressed to the nines in his tux to ride off to the Gastonian with our newly weds!

Brittany and Matt are back from their honeymoon and are enjoying the married life – Cheers to you Brittany and Matt!

Photography by Memories n More

Tricia Huddas & Co. Real Wedding: Martha Stewart Weddings Magazine

I just received my issue of the Summer 2009 Martha Stewart Weddings and it has me so excited for the next issue to come out - Fall 2009, due around August or September. I had the pleasure to work with Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge to plan her April 2009 Savannah wedding and it will be featured in the Fall Issue of Martha Stewart Weddings!!!

The wedding and reception were absolutely spectacular, and the local vendors, as well as the Martha Stewart team, were all so great to work with that I know you are going to be blown away! I wish I could tell you all of the details and show you pictures, but I have to keep my mouth shut until the issue comes out so you can all fully enjoy the beauty of this event as it was captured by the pros. Grace, of course, has magnificent style; and her wedding truly reflected her and Aaron's personalities!

I will remind you when to go and buy the Fall issue once it comes out; until then, you can read the blog history on The Brides Guide where Grace chatted about her wedding planning- just search for Grace Bonney or Design Sponge on the blog!

PS - go buy the summer issue while you are at it - it is full of great DIY projects, perfect in today's economy!

Tricia Huddas & Co. Real Savannah Wedding - Brittany and Matt, Part II

Brittany loves bold colors, and built her wedding color scheme around reds, oranges, pinks and greens. Red was the stand-out color with the bridesmaids and junior bridesmaid wearing red dresses, and the groomsmen clad in red vests. I would definitely characterize the wedding flowers from A to Zinnias as bold and beautiful!

At the the ceremony’s conclusion Brittany's mother had a surprise planned – and I wish I had a picture of Brittany's and Matt’s faces! She called me about two months before the wedding hoping to do something special for the couple in the form of a butterfly release for the conclusion of the ceremony. She found a supplier on the Internet and had the butterflies shipped to me the day before the wedding. The surprise was a great success as each guest released his butterfly on perfect cue from the minister. At first confused, Brittany and Matt were elated once they saw all of the beautiful butterflies. One even walked out with them on Brittany's bouquet!

Even better than the butterflies, was Brittany and Matt’s choice in a recessional song – Celebration by Cool and the Gang. They are a young couple and they wanted people to know that this was a celebration and they were about to have some fun!

I will let you in on a little secret of mine - I was extremely nervous about the butterfly release and told her mother so! I had organized a butterfly release before, and about 3 butterflies actually “flew.” The rest were alive, but just sort of fell to the ground upon their release. They eventually got up and flew off…but too late for big impact that the couple was looking for, and most of the guests just started laughing that their flightless butterfly rather then paying attention to the newly married couple!

Etsy Wedding Jewelry

I absolutely love this very cute, very literal necklace from the etsy shop YellowGoat.

Jackie's Wedding Planning Journey- Fascinators!

And now...for this week's topic...The Fascinator! If you have not heard of it, do not be ashamed. I hadn't either before I started researching this.

It started out after I had just made an appointment for my wedding day hair and make-up trial run. I am so excited to get together with Jenny, from Hair Comes the Bride, and play but I am so torn as far as what I think I should do with my hair. Up? Down? Hair piece? These questions have consumed my week!

Thank goodness for my Matron of Honor. She recently returned from another wedding in Florida and brought back some great ideas for hair. The bride had her hair curled and lightly pined up in the back. After the ceremony she removed her veil and her maids took out the pins. The curls were still in tact and she had what the bridesmaids dubbed the "fascinator"....a big white flower that her mother crafted out of fabric...that she pinned in her hair for the reception. I love the idea of having my hair up for the ceremony, and then letting it down for the reception - with, perhaps, the addition of a "fascinator" of some sort.

So began my research on fascinators! They are hair pieces of all different shapes and sizes, and can be made from almost any fabric. You can find them in any color to match your wedding or just look for traditional white or ivory. Etsy - everyone's favorite online purveyor of handmade goods - is a great place to start, as I found more than my fair share of fascinators in a variety of price ranges. I am still not sure if I could pull off such an accessory, but it is definitely something I am thinking about.

A white or ivory option might be good if I choose to fascinate at both the ceremony and reception...

Twigs & Honey

But if I decide to add my fascinator after the ceremony, maybe I should go with something more bright and funky that matches my wedding reception color scheme?

Top - Bethanylorelle; Bottom - BrassPaperclip

Are you considering a "fascinator" or special hair piece for your wedding day, or playing around with the idea of a hair change between your wedding ceremony and reception?

Paint Chip Place Cards

I'm a big fan of Real Simple Magazine. It's the only magazine that I actually save apart from bridal magazines for work. The recipes are simple (duh) and delicious and each issue is chock full of great ideas. They always feature New Uses for Old Things, and the new issue had one that I thought would interest brides.

Behold, Paint Chip Place Cards!

I have been a fan of the hardware store paint section as a source of wedding color inspiration for a while now, and Tricia is currently toting around her wedding's color scheme in the form of paint chips she picked out while she was supposed to be choosing colors for her new home. So this idea is naturally appealing to me. They certainly aren't formal; but I would say they are modern and, of course, inexpensive place card alternatives. They would have been perfect for a couple that I know who has their own business flipping houses! They always had paint chips around - in every drawer, in his car, in her purse - so it would have been a cute little joke that most people would have understood as part of their wedding.

If you had, as they say on the description above, a "technicolor" wedding palette, you could make each table a different color family.... Ohh, so many ideas from this one page in a magazine!

Tricia Huddas & Co. Real Savannah Wedding - Brittany and Matt

Brittany and Matt are back from their Costa Rican honeymoon and are enjoying the married life. Brittany was a beautiful young bride that had been dating Matt for nearly 7 years when they got married. They meet through friends, and have been together since.

The day started off gloomy and that was cause for concern for Brittany – but I kept my eye on that radar (thank goodness for radar on my phone!) and we caught a break for their Lafayette Square wedding ceremony.

Here are a few of the getting-ready shots by talented Teresa Earnest with Memories N More Photography. Brittany got dressed at the Gastonian, in their honeymoon suite - it is a charming and spacious room, perfect for her and her maids to get dressed! She looked absolutely stunning!

Jackie's Wedding Planning Journey - More Showers!!

This past weekend I took a mini vacation to Bradenton, FL, my home town, for another wedding shower and some quality family time - seeing my family so often has been one of the best perks of the wedding planning journey. My family went above and beyond to make the shower amazing. There were custom napkins with my name and the date of the shower, food galore, amazing cupcakes, and it was just perfect.

My Grandmother gave me a really special gift that I had to share. I am not a cook. I am a baker. Grandma taught me to bake as soon as I was old enough to stand up on my own. She even had a special apron for me that said "Little Helper," with pockets for my baking tools. Well unbeknownst to me, she has kept it after all these years; and she gave it to me with the hope that one day I will have a "little helper" of my own and pass on the baking tradition! I, of course, cried. It was so touching and I just love her so much.

Seriously, how could you not love this woman?!

And here I am, the "Little Helper" all grown up.

Not only was it my bridal shower, but it was also my youngest cousin's dance recital. I started taking dance lessons when I was three and continued up until I went to college, so there is a special place in my heart for a 3 hour long dance recital. I am so excited that she shares my love of dance and I was so happy to be able to make it home for her recital! She danced beautifully and also won a $500 dance scholarship. Here she is on stage after accepting the scholarship.

Wedding Q&A Thursday - Wedding Reception Send-Off

Q: Are formal exits from the reception necessary? Is it tacky if we just stay 'til our guests leave, or do we have to do some grand send-off where people throw something at us as we exit? [Our venue] will not allow you to throw anything like rose petals or lavender so I am stuck on how to exit if I do one. Help!

A: I think it's clear from your tone that you know the answer....right? Just in case - No, of course you don't have to have a formal exit. I think that it's a lovely way to, if you will, complete the circle. I also think it's best to keep it simple. Whether or not you have a coordinator, it can be difficult to smoothly position your tired (maybe intoxicated) guests into some sort of complicated position, hand out props (flower petals, sparklers, etc.) and coordinate a complicated send-off. And, as you mentioned, your venue may put restrictions on where you can have the send-off and what you can and can't toss, pop, or ignite.

Based on your toss restrictions, and the fact that I know that you are staying at the hotel where you reception is - thereby negating a send-off using a car - why not keep it super simple and combine it with another component of your reception, like the bouquet toss?

Martha Stewart Weddings

About 15 minutes before your reception is set to end (or earlier if you're tired) have the band leader or DJ announce that the bride and groom have asked all of their guests to join them on the dance floor. Once the guests are gathered, thank everyone for coming and then have the MC bring all of the single ladies to the center for the bouquet toss. You and your husband (yay!) can then turn so your backs are to the ladies (and hopefully your fronts are facing the exit). Throw. Go! Everyone will be there, paying attention, but you won't have to go around hugging everyone good-bye and finding yourself stuck on long, drawn-out goodbyes. (It's not that you don't appreciate everyone enough for a personal good-bye, but you are tired!)

I think that, back-in-the-day, the bouquet toss was actually a part of the send-off. So it's simple and it makes sense! If your wedding reception venue has some sort of staircase or balcony, that would be just perfect...

Tricia Huddas & Co. Real Wedding - Carly and Brett

If you are a Savannah blog follower – you have seen everyone a-blog and a-twitter about the crazy, unusually abundant, rain we've experienced over the last month. Don’t get me wrong, we get our fair share of rain in Savannah – but May was just too much! We had more rain delays and implementations of “plan b” this year than in years past, but it probably affects our free time more than actual weddings - rain is just a bummer sometimes!

Carly and Brett's Forsyth Park wedding ceremony fell in the middle of a particularly long stretch of rain that didn't look to be ending anytime soon. But the "wedding gods" prevailed and while radar showed rain surrounding Savannah, we enjoyed 3 hour break that was timed perfectly for their outdoor ceremony!

Congratulations Carly and Brett – may luck always be on your side!

Photography provided by Denise Gonsales Photography

Including Man's Best Friend

Just a quick post today, to show you something that made me smile yesterday and will hopefully do the same for you!

I was surprised and flattered, as always, to get a little "thank you" package in the mail from an April bride...side note: I can't believe it's June, her wedding seems like it was yesterday. And check out her stamps...

Those are their 2 beloved Corgis! Let's face it - animals are a part of the family. It's often very hard to have them involved in the wedding, but if you think small there are certainly ways to keep them in the mix. These are from stamps.com.

Following the same train of thought led me to dig up this picture from the With This Ring blog of a great table number idea that involves the family pet.

What a great way to keep your pet in the hearts and minds of your guests! They do so much for us, why shouldn't we make a place for them in all that we do... For example, my dog is currently warning me about, and protecting me from, the presence of the landscapers that have been cutting our lawn every two weeks for two years! How thoughtful of him!

Rain on your wedding day...

It has been a rainy spring in Savannah! But the warm and often light showers that have been peppering the usual hot sun have been pretty easy to work around. And the city looks lovely and green. And, of course, we can only thank the rain for special shots like these...

What's more intimate than an umbrella for two?

Jackie's Wedding Planning Journey - Choosing wedding vows

This past week I have been working on getting my wedding ceremony together, making programs, and finalizing details. We are getting married at First Presbyterian Church in Savannah, where I am a member. Here's a picture of First Presbyterian from 98 Productions' blog. Pretty, right?

In preparation for a meeting with the minister who is conducting our ceremony, Rev. Andy Meeker, Matt and I sat down to review the mock ceremony and variety of vows, charges, prayers, and so on, that we can choose from. Who knew there were so many options for a Presbyterian ceremony?! I know that people write their own vows, or make changes here and there to the traditional set, but I figured there was one standard set that most people use. I was so wrong.

But I'm glad there were so many because Matt and I had a lot of fun reading over them and almost practicing by reading them to each other as we culled through the options. Discussing the differences in each set of vows and which suited us both the best was a true bonding experience - I even shed a tear or two.

How did you go about choosing your vows? Did you stick with traditional, write your own, or something in between?

Wedding Q&A Thursday - Expecting the Worst?

For this week's Q&A Thursday I thought I'd address the question that nearly everyone - friends, family, brides, grooms, random strangers - asks us...

Q: What is the worst thing that has ever happened at a wedding?!

A: Really? I am a wedding planner, I work for people leading up to, and on, one of the most special days of their lives; and you want to know about disasters, meltdowns, fights and the other wedding-day crises that "reality" shows like Bridezillas would have you believe are commonplace. Humph....

I understand the question from a bride, during an initial meeting, to some extent - it is an interview and she is testing your experience, problem-solving skills, etc. But even in that situation, it is still a reflection of the doom and gloom that has settled into the wedding industry - which is sad. Sad-face-icon-sad :( Where did this expectation of stress and turmoil come from?

Guess what?! Not every wedding goes exactly as planned, but they are all wonderful! And they are as happy an occasion as the couple getting married. What do you have to compare it to? And are you going to sit down the next day, go over notes, and decide how to make it better the next time? Relax and enjoy!

"If that's the case," you ask, "why do I need a wedding planner or coordinator?"

Well, I don't think I can even begin to answer that without getting too wordy for a blog entry. But I will say that any planner, or wedding vendor, who is appealing to you in the capacity of damage control, is doing you and the entire wedding industry a huge disservice.

Tricia Huddas & Co. Real Wedding - Wish Tree and Sneak Peaks

I promised professional pictures of the Wish Tree from my March Savannah wedding of Roya and JB a while back. These are much better then what I could have taken with my little camera.

After much research, the bride and I came up with the vision for this tree and it was assembled by Harvey Designs. We used this table as both the escort card table and the Wish Tree table so guests were able to enjoy it all night. Behind the wish tree was a fireplace mantle where we displayed the wedding pictures of the couple's parents and grandparents - always a sweet touch!

I'm sharing these sneaks peaks because I have finally made my way over to Christine Hall Photography's studio to pick out some images, and I will post the amazing wedding of Roya and JB from March next week - but here is a sneek peek of the beautiful couple!

Pre-Ceremony Photographs

It's a point of debate between wedding professionals, and the subject of much thought by most brides - whether or not to see the groom for pictures before the ceremony. I can argue for either - that the look on the groom's face when the bride enters the ceremony is priceless if it's the first time he's seen her, or that the moment can be captured before the ceremony, without losing any of the emotion, when time for photographs after the ceremony is limited. Savannah wedding Photographer Nichole Barrali shared images of one of our Mansion on Forsyth Park weddings with me. I really love the way she set up Annette and Marc's first meeting, captured the intimate moment beautifully, and then took them for pictures on their own for a while before including the bridal party.