I found this fun little information on Urbanity Studios website and thought I would share! An event that is memorable appeals to all Five Senses. Think about these elements when you’re planning your next occasion…
Sight
As soon as your guests walk through your front door or garden gate, set their sights on beautiful things. Fresh flowers, lit candles, or a beautifully set table, create a welcome that captures more than a glance.
Sound
Whether guests hear ambient music, birds singing, or water falling, sound is an essential component of a successful party. It helps to set the mood, the pace, and the overall feeling of the celebration. No matter if you’re hosting a backyard barbecue or a cocktail party, think about the atmosphere you desire and work to achieve that feeling through sound.
Smell
Smell has the power to remind us of our childhood, a moment in time, or a particular person. It has such a strong connection with our emotions, but is often ignored when planning an event.
Some easy and fairly inexpensive ways to create a wonderful smell that fits the occasion is to buy a candle that has been infused with the aroma that will delight your guest’s nose. Fresh flowers are also a great way to fill the space with clean scents. Timing when you bake your dessert or hot appetizer also helps to create great smells when guests arrive.
Touch
Entice your guests to not only study your table and party decorations, but make the party accessories either interesting or playful enough for guests to want to pick the items up. For instance, display photos of the guest of honor or strategically place memorabilia or items that enhance your theme all around your event space.
Taste
Some may argue that food is the most important factor to a successful party. We would say that we have to agree. That is why we rely heavily on some key cookbooks to help us delight our guest’s appetites. The Joy of Cooking and the Best New Recipe are some of our favorites. Generally, the recipes are easy and turn out wonderful, giving the perception that you are professional chef.
Filed under: Advice and Tips from Experts
I found this great little article on a chat site, but unfortunately I don’t know who the author of it is. Sorry!! You have to check it out though. It’s full of great recommendations!
TIPS ON TIPPING:
All tips should be given in cash. If the person serving you is an employee of the company, their tip should be in a separate envelope.
No one/single person should get more then $150.00. For example: Let’s say your limo bus is $2000.00. 10 or 15% of that total is 200 or 300 dollars, not necessary.
Tips should be given just before your vendor leaves. That way you can judge how much to give, according to the job they did for you.
All vendors would love a thank you card. It is a great reminder of happy clients and let’s face it, it’ll help them book future clients.
Giving vendors a favour/bomboniere is totally up to the couple and how many they can spare.
THE ONES YOU SHOULD TIP
* Altar boys or girls – $10-15.00 each
* Limousine Drivers – 10-15% of the limousine bill, given at the end of the evening. See “FB Tip” above.
* Valet Parking Attendants – $.50 to $1.00 per car, prearrange this amount with the supervisor based on an estimate of how many cars will be arriving and a sign should be posted to guests that the gratuity has been taken care of.
* Wait staff – If the tip is not on the contract already, 15% of the total catering bill is tipped. Wait staff do the hardest physical labour on your wedding day.
* Bartenders – 10% of the total liquor bill, presented to the head bartender or divided equally among the total number of bartenders who worked the full evening. Make sure that a tip hasn’t been added to your contract already.
* Restroom and/or Coatroom Attendants – $.50 to $1.00 per guest, prearranged again based on the number of guests.
* Makeup artist or Hair Stylists – You don’t have to tip them if they come to you. If you go to the salon, then you should tip them 15%. Why you ask, well the salon makes the money, not the individual. If you have received a good job, and you would tip normally, then go ahead.
* DJ – If your DJ owns the company then the tip is optional but if the DJ is an employee $50-100.00. If you have 2 DJs (DJ & MC), give each person $50.00 in separate envelopes. When your guests rave about your reception later, it’s the DJ that had everything to do with the fun.
OPTIONAL TIPPING (amounts reflect optional tips)
* Business Owners – You don’t have to tip the owner of a business, unless you feel that they have gone beyond the call of duty and you want to give them a token of your appreciation.
* Ceremony or Reception Musicians – $5-10/hr per person, in one lump sum given to the person in charge.
* Banquet or catering manager – doesn’t need to be tipped unless they’ve thrown in extras or saved you a few hundred dollars on your bill. The tip would be between $50-$100.
* Photographer and Videographer – If these vendors own the company, then the tip is optional. If they are employees $50.00 goes to the main photographer and he/she can give a split to the assistant.
* Officiant – To tip them is to trivialize their profession and extremely bad etiquette. Generally you pay your fee and that’s it. If you wish to make a financial contribution to the church, you can do that separately.
* Florist – You don’t need to tip the florist for making your arrangements but you can tip them an extra $5.00 per delivery location (3 locations=$15.00) or $10-20.00 per staff member in one lump sum, for set-up and delivery.
* Wedding Cake Baker – You don’t have to tip for the baking of the cake but if you are at your reception venue at time of delivery and set-up = $10.00
* Wedding Coordinator or Room Manager- This is the person managing the reception venues staff and facility the night of your wedding = $50.00
* Your Wedding Coordinator – If this vendor owns the company, then the tip is optional. If they are an employee = $50.00
* Your Wedding Planner – This person has planned your wedding from start to finish. An appropriate tip would be 10% of their total commission or bill.
This should give you some guidelines on tipping etiquette. Tipping etiquette is different in different provinces, cities and towns. Please be sure to add this to your budget. The amounts above are only examples and are not written in stone.
Filed under: Advice and Tips from Experts, Centerpieces and Decor, Favors, Reception
Scan all those photos of candy buffets throughout the web, and you’ll quickly spot two things. One, buffets are monstrously popular. And two, while some are a feast for the eyes, others seem to fall short of the heights their planners must have hoped for.
So what’s the secret?
Here’s number one: buying enough candy. Sounds simplistic, but it’s key.
“The first thing I tell brides — you really can’t do candy as a hard commodity. It’s more a decoration,” says Jon Prince, president of online candy giant CandyFavorites.com.
“I talk to hundreds of brides. They’ll say, ‘I’m having 200 guests, and I want to give each guest 3 ounces, so I guess I need about 37 pounds of candy.’ Sounds reasonable, and 3 ounces might be enough to actually satisfy your guests, but visually? It won’t be enough to make a presence.”
Prince suggests that instead of seeing candy by the numbers, brides take an aesthetic approach. “You choose the flowers because they’re beautiful,” he says. “The candy buffet should be too.”
And unlike flowers, Prince adds, candy serves double duty as an edible item. “Still, you have to budget the candy buffet into your wedding expenses. It doesn’t work well as an afterthought.”
But what about the wedding planners who suggest buying a pound of candy per person?
Prince says buffets work best when you plan by the eye, not the numbers.
“To make it look gorgeous, I’d start with the table, not the guest count. I’d take five to 10 types of candy, and buy 15 to 20 pounds each, whether you actually need that much or not.”
He adds, “When it comes to candy, the more the merrier. If you have a large table overflowing with candy, you have presence. The biggest disappointment I hear is that the candy buffet didn’t look substantial.” http://www.FavoriteIdeas.com
Happy Labor Day everyone! Hope you are enjoying the final days of summer. I know all of us in Arizona are happy to kiss those days good bye. It’s been a hot hot hot one lately!!
Recently, I have come across a number of people who ask me how to set a formal dinner table. Hope this diagram helps!
A recent post on my knot chat board inspired me to find an article related to Bridezillas (Thanks “turkey”). So I searched the web to come across a fun little article on A Houston Wedding. com
Bridezilla \bride-zil-a\ n : a bride-to-be who focuses so much on the event that she becomes difficult and obnoxious.
How to Avoid Becoming a Bridezilla
Everyone loves a bride, but very few people can tolerate a “bridezilla”. A bride is a woman who is engaged to be married and is happily enjoying planning her wedding and all other aspects of her wedding. A bridezilla is an engaged woman who is so stressed out planning her wedding that she makes everyone around her (including herself!) miserable. Planning a wedding should be a fun, exciting time in your life, not a time of excessive stress and misery. As a newlywed recently married in Houston, there are several stress management tips that that I learned and would like to pass along to anyone currently planning their wedding.
Perspective
Many brides get overly caught up in the numerous details surrounding their wedding, which often results in panic and stress. While your wedding is inarguably a very important, special day in your life, it’s very important to realize that it is truly just one day. I would advise any bride to focus on the ‘big picture’ and try to avoid getting caught up in worrying about every single, little minute detail of the wedding. Of course it is important that you plan your wedding carefully to avoid any problems, but at the same time there are going to be some details so minor that truly it makes no difference if they are done or not. For example, does it really matter if all bridesmaids do not have the exact same color of toenail polish the day of the wedding or if the mother-of -the-bride’s dress is similar to the mother-of-the-groom? I know it’s easier said than done, but try and focus on the excitement and nostalgia of the marriage itself and focus less on things that truly won’t matter even one year from now.
Delegation
Keep in mind that there are likely several people that you know (friends and/or family members) who would be thrilled to assist you in some aspect of the wedding. It’s incredibly easy to feel like only you can be ‘trusted’ to get wedding tasks done properly but often, there are minor tasks that you can delegate which would help you immensely. For example, if you don’t have the time to contact all your wedding vendors right before the wedding to confirm everything’s on schedule, why not ask your sister to do that for you? Just give her a list and consider it done. No time to pick up the bridesmaid’s gifts? Chances are your mother would be glad to help out. Your friends and family can’t read your mind. Unless they have recently been through a wedding, they probably have no idea what needs to be done unless you tell them (this includes the groom, too!). As long as people do not feel like you are taking advantage of them, they are often honored to be asked and very happy to help.
Sense of Humor
You simply have to maintain a sense of humor during the wedding planning process. Believe it or not, you will be surprised at some of the seemingly insensitive things that will pop out of people’s mouths while you are planning your wedding (“You registered where?? Oh, I hate that store…why on earth would you register there?”). Try not to take any random comments too seriously and just laugh them off. It’s important you not stress over other people’s perceptions of what your wedding should be. Also, in all events leading up to (and including!) your wedding, it’s highly likely that something may go wrong or not exactly as planned. Just to provide a little anecdote on this issue, I arrived at our rehearsal dinner (along with the wedding party, their dates, our families, etc) to find out to my chagrin that nothing was ready for us…in fact, the night manager had no idea we were coming (apparently some slight miscommunication between the day shift who I been talking to and the night shift). At first I found myself getting really upset and distressed, until I realized that they could accommodate us just fine and I was causing everyone else to be upset. It turned out to be a perfectly wonderful evening. The point of my story is if anything goes awry, just roll with it, make the best of it, and chances are everything will work out just fine.
Treat Yourself
My favorite stress management tip is that if you find the wedding pressure bearing down on you, take some time out from all the planning to treat yourself. Schedule an appointment for a facial, manicure, pedicure, or massage (or all the above!). Plan some time to meet with friends over coffee or drinks and request that you all talk about things other than your wedding plans (or, in reverse, ask if you can “vent” to them, depending on what you feel would help you the most). Another fun way to relax and still be in the wedding mode is to rent classic movies like “Father of the Bride”, “My Best Friend’s Wedding”, or “The Wedding Planner”. Alternately, you and your fiancée could have a ‘date night’ where just the two of you spend time together. Taking some time out to relax and enjoy yourself will help make the overall planning process more fun for you.
There is no doubt that wedding planning can be a stressful experience. However, it is important that you make an effort to enjoy your engagement and the planning process because it is a wonderful time of your life. Enjoy!
the Event Essentials 