Wedding Friends Lunch and The Fig Magazine

Jill Fanning and Lindsey Dukeman of the Hamilton Ballroom, Rene of Bellamanse, (me), Leslie Gilbert, Kris McElligott and Leslie's son Braden, Rosie of Rosie's Creative Cakes, and Jonnaysa of Planned Perfection; all in my dining room- notice the ugly wallpaper is gone!!
Leslie set up her camera to get this shot. Both she and Kris arrived with their cameras around their necks. I think they love what they do, don't you???

It is so nice to work with the best wedding vendors in our area, and we enjoyed spending time together today to 'talk shop' and plan a group trip to the Big Apple to attend the Wedding Salon
bridal show. Collin Cowie, Sylvia Weinstock, David Tutera are just a few big names that will be there with all their wonderful displays to inspire us! That's what we 'wedding people' do during the dreary winter months.....find fabulous wedding shows, expos and workshops to stay on top of all the new and inspiring things. Not a bad way to get thru the cold, boring winter months to prepare for the new wedding season... and best of all; we will all board the train and go together!

And............. here is the ad for the Best of Weddings bridal show that was just published in the FIG magazine. Kris McElligot of KMPhotography is the brilliant photographer that created the show's signature look with the hot pink and black feather bird-cage veil as the inspiration for these images. I had the privilege of designing a bouquet for it. Love, love, LOVE this shot!

Did you get your tickets yet?????

A Winter Wedding at Reading Country Club

Reading Country Club looks like a castle, and is even a little Medieval in interior design. This week's wedding and reception was held there for Aviva and Dustin. That dear bride was calmly applying all the make-up for all eight of her bridesmaids when I arrived! She still wasn't dressed herself when we were finished almost 3 hrs. later, so I didn't get a to see her in her gorgeous dress, so I can't wait to see her pictures when they are posted on her photographer's website and blog. http://www.bjfphotography/. com

The bride's bouquet was made of red Intuition roses, Swartzwalder Mini-Callas and burgundy Mini Carnations. Little crystal drops were added to the Callas and Salal leaves.

8 Bridesmaids wore a deep burgundy color and carried bouquets of White Hydrangeas, white Majolika Roses, Cream Stock, and were accented with clusters of crystals.

Guest table centerpieces were the ever -versatile Pilsner vase with crushed ice and a Swartzwalder mini-Calla. We added white branches to the outside of the vases for a wintery look.

For the large, long Head bridal table for 18, we used our glass bead garland, White Birch Branches in pilsner vases and lots of votive candles with crushed ice, white submersible lights and our silver chargers. All 9 bouquets were placed in between the garland after the ceremony. We were finished before the staff arrived to set the tables, so I'm sure once it was fully dressed, it was beautiful. The White Birch branches are a popular dramatic stand-by for the wintery weddings.

So we're busy working on all the little (little?!?) projects for Jessie and Doug's upcoming June

wedding; as well as finishing up the last of the winter weddings, meeting with couples for their spring, summer and fall '09 weddings.... Plus we are planning our part of the exciting

'BEST OF WEDDINGS' Show in April , at the brand new, soon to open Lancaster Convention Center. Get your advance tickets now for a bag-ful of wonderful wedding surprises!

www.bestofweddingsbridalshow.com

So much fun......good thing we LOVE what we do!!

Next wedding is in two weeks with the reception at the Lancaster Country Club-just across the street....how convenient!

Is it Spring yet????

Wedding Wire Award

WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, just announced that All Things Beautiful has won the 2009 Bride’s Choice Awards™!

In its inaugural year, the Bride’s Choice Awards recognizes and honors vendors from the WeddingWire Network that demonstrate excellent quality of service, responsiveness, professionalism, value of cost and flexibility. This year’s recipients represent the top three percent of WeddingWire’s vendor community, which includes over 100,000 wedding vendors from across the US. That means All Things Beautiful is one of the very best in wedding floral design.

Unlike other awards in which winners are selected by the company, the Bride’s Choice Awards are determined exclusively by recent newlyweds through surveys and reviews.

“We are excited to launch this annual award program to honor high-performing vendors based solely on the experiences of our WeddingWire community,” according to Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “This year’s recipients have set the bar high, exhibiting excellent service and expertise in the wedding industry.”

Kelly Steadman of All Things Beautiful would like to thank our past clients for speaking on our behalf and helping us win the 2009 Bride’s Choice Award!

Freezing Cold Winter Wedding

Starting with a picture of the beautiful bride, Lisa.

Her bouquet of Picasso mini Callas, Ruscus, and varigated Pittosporum with clusters of Swarovski crystal surrounded with Ostrich feathers. A beautiful brooch was added to the stems for a little more icy-bling.
The bridesmaids bouquets were Akito roses, Vivian spray roses, Maine Blue Limonium, silver bead threaded Bear Grass and Ruscus. Little purple gems were added to the stems.

Soon-to-be a bride too, Jessie is once again a bridesmaid.

Father of the Bride's boutt.

The wedding and reception were at the beautiful Casa di Fiori at Leola Village. The staff there was wonderful to work with. I just can't say enough good about them.

Next wedding is on Valentine's Day at the Reading Country Club.

Looking forward to the 'Best of Weddings ' event coming up in April. If you haven't checked the website yet, please do..... and tell your engaged friends that it will be better than any they have ever seen. If you go, you will feel as if you were in a New York City wedding event. Get your advance tickets now. FABULOUS!

http://www.bestofweddingsbridalshow.com/

Blog Break

Hello all you wonderful blog watchers,
Taking a little blog-break to meet with brides, do a mini-bridal show at Cameron Estates,
strip the hideous wallpaper off of my dining room walls and give it a fresh coat of paint plus work on my own daughter's wedding plans.
Next week we will be doing another winter wedding at Casa di Fiori. I should have some pictures to post of that one....
Now is a good time to get those garden catalogs out and dream of warm weather and spring flowers- with a good cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows! Yummm.....

Looking Back

It's New Year's Eve, and I just had so much fun looking back at all my blog posts from the past year. Wow! A new website, a Knot magazine feature, 2 precious little grandsons, an exciting engagement- and lots of wonderful weddings to remember. What a fantastic year- better than I could have ever dreamed! Just for fun I'm going to post some of my favorite images from this year's happenings & weddings. Thanks so much staff and clients for a great year.

First, our feature in The Knot. Thanks KMPhotographyweddings for submitting this wedding to the magazine.

So much fun working with these happy bright colors. This is one of Rene's fun cakes.

Just had to add a couple pictures of my sweet babies. Hudson and Kole.

Winter Wedding Ideas

Erika, like one of our family....we love her....she's Jessie's maid of honor. She'll soon be a lawyer!
My favorite wedding image of the year!!

Winter Wedding #2

Transforming Shady Maple Banquet room into a winter wonderland was no small task with less than 1 hr. to get the job done. With a wonderful crew on hand, the job was done in the short amount of time we had. Using beautiful platinum/silver linens from Special Occasions, White Birch branches in tall vases, lots of 'crushed ice' with LED lights, snowflakes and crystal garland- the head bridal table looked icy and elegant.

Crushed ice in the vases and votives. Silver bead table numbers hang from the vases with sparkly snowflakes. Favors were clear rock candy swizzle sticks that looked just like ice crystals.
Bride and Groom's chairs.

Snowflakes attached to the gift card box..................



Snowflakes added to the wedding cake, surrounded by glass bead garland, and tinsel -filled cake stands complete the icy theme.

The flower girl dropped snowflakes rather than petals from her basket as she walked down the aisle.

Thanks to Amy, Lindsay, Jessie, Joyce and Moa for a wonderful job well done! Especially for Christmas week! And Congratulations to Katie and Jeremy.

Winter Wedding #3 is January 24 at Casa di Fiori.
Happy New Year!