People feel one of two ways about tents: Love or Loath.  To some they are big, complicated things that need to be gussied up a ton, and are a necessary obstruction from the open air that would otherwise be avoided.  To other people, they are exciting, blank canvases.

I probably would put myself in the latter category, a tent lover.  To me tents evoke a sense of fantasy, especially in the right setting and well… with the right tent.  Let’s face facts, not all tents are created equal. Some have horrible ugly poles, most need a tent liner, but then not everyone likes that draping, romantic look.  So I was just blown away when we discovered Sperry Tents (actually, big shout out to Traci Romano who put us on to them).

Sperry Tents were the accidental discovery of a sailmaker who was preparing for a large gathering and used what he had on hand- light, gorgeous fabric for sails- to create these gorgeous canopies. They are light and airy and, well, if a tent can be beautiful, that’s what these are.  Who wouldn’t want to have their first dance under one of these gorgeous structures?  Sperry tents are available nationwide.  If you are thinking of tenting, how can you pass up one of  these stunning canopies?

Wedding planning should be a relaxing, luxurious experience.

Next Sunday, March 14th will be a day that raises the bar for bridal events everywhere.

The Ultimate Engagement is the first ever complimentary bridal event that allows brides-to-be the opportunity to meet with the premiere experts in the luxury bridal industry. Not only will brides be able to access the extensive experience, knowledge, passion and talent of these individuals, but you get to do it all in a stress-free one-on-one setting.

Think of the crowded booths, lines, frustration and general mayhem of the typical bridal show, then imagine the exact opposite; a relaxing, sophisticated one-on-one sit down where you and the expert vendors of your choice chat about YOUR wedding and yours alone. Participating is as simple as visiting The Ultimate Engagement website, completing your free registration and scheduling appointments with the hottest high-end wedding professionals that you have watched, read and heard about. Have the opportunity to sit with the most sought after photographers, florists, caterers, venues, planners… the list goes on.

While you plan your stunning event, enjoy designer trunk shows, book signings, food & wine tastings, educational sessions, chic pop-up shops and more!

Our own Xochitl Gonzalez, Blogsmaid Extraordinaire will be on hand to help you turn your luxury wedding dreams into realities – and blogging LIVE throughout the day! Xochitl will be joined by other notable wedding experts such as Marcy Blum, Sylvia Weinstock, Lisa Johnson of Ceci NY, Ines de Santo and many more.  This amazing event was put together by the wonderful Maya Kalman of Swank Productions and Elizabeth Beskin from 5th Avenue Digital.

To ensure each bride receives the personal attention she deserves, space is limited. Please register today to take advantage of this one-time experience that will help you create a day of memories that will last a lifetime.

WHEN: Sunday, March 14, 2010

9:00AM – 7:00PM

WHERE: Gotham Hall, NYC

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

xx

-Sal

Yummy! Attention all chocolate lovers… Imagine the most perfect chocolate bar ever, and it’s perfect because you made it. Well, designed it at least. Chocomize in Cherry Hill, NJ is a chocolatier that specializes in creating custom chocolate bars as per the client’s recipe.

There are 80+ topping options and you can choose a base of white, milk or dark Belgian chocolate. In fact, the kind folks over at Chomize did the math for us and there are over 10 billion flavor combinations. With a little creativity this process can get very out of hand very quickly and I am absolutely looking forward to that. While this is definitely a fantastic wedding favor option, how cool would this be for your escort table? Or better yet, your actual seating “cards” at the tables?

Creepy but cool… you can put text AND photographic images on the bars themselves and not just the wrappers.
Below are a few goodies, including my own creation: milk chocolate base, mini pretzels, peanut butter drops and coconut. This delectable has salty/sweet goodness written all over it!
Here are some delicious and odd combinations that the Chocomize team has come across…to each his own.

-Most romantic: Romance Bar- Dark chocolate, gold flakes, chocolate butterfly, rose petals, strawberries.
-Best sense of humor: Milk chocolate with bacon and chipotles as a wedding favor (weirdest order yet.)
-Most popular: Smores Bar- Milk chocolate, graham crackers, and marshmallows.
-Most likely to succeed: Dark chocolate with plaque that says “will you marry me?” (who would ever say no to this.)
-Most likely to fail: Milk chocolate with bacon, mini chipotles, sour patch kids, pop rocks, potato chips.(OMG my tummy hurts just thinking about this one )
-The early bird: Dark chocolate with ground coffee, whole coffee beans.
-Most retro: Milk chocolate with good & plenty, gushers, pop rocks, message hearts.
-Most extravagant: White chocolate with 23 karat gold flakes, rose petals, chocolate butterfly.
-Most likely to burn: Dark chocolate with chipotles, peppercorns, wasabi peas, cayenne pepper. (Again, ouch)
-Most likely to be remembered: Milk chocolate with bacon.
-Most likely to seduce: Valentine’s Day Bar- Crystallized rose petals, candy sugar hearts, message hearts, happy valentine plaque.
-Most likely to cure a disease: goji berries, flax seeds, cranberries.

xx

Sal

I have been meaning to tell you all about the fab wedding map service that we used for our wedding. Wedding Mapper can be found at www.weddingmapper.com. A web based service, it is quite intuitive with regards to building your map and also for your guests who must navigate it.

This was super easy and actually really fun to create. The gist – you go to the site and create an account, then you can immediately begin building your map. They have a great list of local vendors as well and when you add yours to your map, they become part of the pool for other like-minded couples to choose from. This is especially helpful if your wedding happens to be in a small town or an area with fairly minimal wedding/vendor resources – also great for a destination event. I actually had a destination event that happened to be in a small town so it was a win win.

There are more resources than I could possibly mention and to be honest, as much time as I spent on this website I am still discovering other cool features. I can tell you that the feature I loved the most, was the ability to embed the map/link into our wedding website. While weddingmapper.com also offers a free wedding website, vendor manager, guest manager, etc., we chose to build a different website yet our map still integrated seamlessly. Plus, when guests click on your map and scroll over your icons/locations, an info box pops up with address & description info for each location that you can customize. It’s essentially a souped-up, wedd-ified version of Google Maps with multiple levels of customization. Guests can print the maps, type in their starting address to get directions to and from any location on the map – it’s all very magical in my opinion. Visit the site, take a minute to acclimate yourself and def look at some of the other wedding maps for some fun and creative ideas.

Here is a screen shot and link to a sample map they have on the site: (when you visit be sure to scroll through guest services on the left and click on the different map icons for more info)

Wedding Mapper Sample Map

xx

Sal

In honor of the fact that this evening is the SURE TO BE FABULOUS book launch for Preston Bailey’s Celebrations book, I thought I’d take the chance to spread the news to my professional, non-bride readers out there about a fantastic opportunity to really expand your horizons and broaden your career outlook: The Bailey & Blum mentoring weekend.

Preston Bailey and Marcy Blum are arguably the top of the top when it comes to event designers and event planners in the business.  In fact, they actually changed the game.  Before Jung Lee was barking orders or David Tutera was pigmaleon, Preston and Marcy were re-inventing, re-imagining and elevating the concept of what a wedding or social event could even be.

Well, these two industry icons, friends and frequent collaborators are opening the doors of Preston’s studio for an intimate (40 person) mentoring weekend for wedding professionals.  Attendees will get to talk shop, see the ins and outs of what it’s like to really plan weddings on “the next level” and get advice about guiding your career and business in a personal intimate setting.  PLUS, you get to stay somewhere kind of swanky in New York, eat  some amazing food and…. well, there are a ton of surprises that they have in store that I’m certainly not privvy too.

Obviously, this kind of access and mentorship isn’t cheap- I mean, it’s Preston and Marcy- but it is AN INVESTMENT.

For a moment, I hope I can get on my soap box.  Lately, there seem to be a BOUNTY of previously unheard of, or totally green “wedding experts” charging an awful lot of money to attend academies or become “superstar wedding planners”… and I personally have been skeptical of what exactly, for all the money that they charge other planners/ designers/ professionals can they tell you about that a few great business books and a well spent weekend at Engage! couldn’t…

There actually ARE things that Preston & Marcy can tell you that NO ONE ELSE CAN.  I’ll be honest, I do personally know and love Marcy…. We’ve gotten to know her over the past year (once Mayra and I could stop being so nervous that we were in her presence and actually say something) and just in the time we’ve known her, I’ve become a better planner who values my talents and time more AND who thinks a little more out of the box than before.  We spent an amazing 2 hours at her office a few months ago where, upon leaving, I turned to Mayra and said “We plan weddings, she plans experiences”.  I only write about this weekend because I feel really confident that it will be transformational for those who attend!   Registration is live now….