Recession-Friendly Wedding Planning

As you all know we offer a fabulous package for Photo, Video & DJ services for $3600!! How recession friendly is that??? But there are many other vendors offering fabulous recession friendly products and services. What better way to learn about it then with a

Recession-Friendly Wedding Planning Event
click on the photo for a larger version

Dates: June 13 & 14 2009
Time: 10:00 am – 1:00pm
Location: Sweet Revenge 62 Carmine Street (Bedford & 7th Ave) West Village

ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS:

Marlo Scott / Sweet Revenge:
Sweet Revenge, the upscale and world-inspired cupcake beer and wine bar, opened in the West Village in July 2008. Marlo made her artisan cupcakes and discussed her unique cupcake beer and wine pairings menu on The Martha Stewart Show in January 2009 and on Fox5's "Good Day New York" in February 2009. Sweet Revenge won Time Out New York Magazine's prestigious 2009 Eat Out Award and was the magazine's "Critic's Pick" and in its "Top 100 List" in 2008. Marlo has been featured in Bon Appetit, the Feedbag.com, CupcakesTakeTheCake and New York Metro, among others.

Robin Goldsmith / Scissor Paper Stone:
Scissor Paper Stone designs wedding invitations for today's modern bride - stylish, cool and totally fabulous. Available in a range of formats to suit every budget, from luxurious handmade invitations wrapped in tissue and ribbon to cool and funky postcards. The invitations are fully customizable, including print specifications, colors, designs, typeface, and personal photographs. Already a leader in the UK, Scissor Paper Stone is pleased to announce the launch of its US office and website. Contact us via our website: www.scissorpaperstone.com or at (718) 313 0139.

Peta Takai / KoruDesigNZ:
KoruDesigNZ sells New Zealand-inspired jewelry, clothing and art using natural raw materials from New Zealand (e.g., merino wool, paua/abalone shell, mother of pearl, greenstone, pearls, and river stones). Peta's stunning and stylish pieces reflect the inspiration she draws from her native New Zealand's natural resources, multi-cultured people, and landscape and the energy of her life in NYC. With a passion for travel, people, surfing and cycling in places all over the world, Peta brings it all together in her striking line of jewelry, hip and versatile clothing and dazzling artwork.

Joshua Freiwald / Joshua Freiwald Photo:
Joshua Freiwald is a freelance photographer based in New York with 15 years of experience. His clients include Estee Lauder, the St. Regis Hotels, Unicef, film producers, and art directors. Josh’s photographs are held in private collections in over 15 countries. He combines a documentary approach with a background in fashion and editorial photography, capturing all the love, humor and joy of a wedding day as it unfolds naturally. Revealing authentic emotion and human interaction, his photos are beautiful, fresh, spontaneous and modern. Full of truth and beauty and of moments large and small, Josh's work reflects all the complexity and richness of the emotions experienced during one of life's most precious occasions.

Courtney Kern / events beyond:
With 10 years of experience in the arts and event planning industry, a career at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, and a passion for perfectly executed events, Courtney Kern founded Events Beyond in 2007 to provide clients with innovation, style, and seamless and flawless event management for special occasions. Offering a full spectrum of services, from idea development to total event planning and management, Events Beyond turns visions and dreams into reality. Check out www.eventsbeyond.net for more information and ideas.

Denise Fasanello / Denise Fasanello Floral Design:
Denise Fasanello Floral Design is a boutique events company that specializes in stylish weddings for the modern couple. With over ten years of experience working with leading New York floral designers, a BFA from The Cooper Union, painting studies at the Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, and exhibitions of her art in New York and Paris, Denise brings her artistic passions and experience to life in every floral arrangement she designs for her clients' special occasions. By establishing an overall design aesthetic based on the individual's needs and vision, Denise incorporates color, scale and texture to create unique arrangements that are truly works of art.

Janelle Funari/Orangia Collection:
Orangia ties the knot and launches eco friendly bridal collection for destination weddings. The birth of Orangia Bridal occurred when duo Janelle Funari and architect Rodrigo Londono were commissioned from brides all over the world to create custom one of a kind creations incorporating the same Orangia concept - comfort, elegance and exclusiveness for unique global destinations. Each Creation is custom made one of kind and is softly fabricated using natural, organic laces and cotton, silks, hemp and custom prints,and embroideries. The launch of the bridal division in April 2009 has been outstanding with press coverage from Brides.com, The Knot.com, Project wedding.com,and Better Bridal magazine.
Every piece is hand crafted by artisans in the U.S.A fabricating each design with love. The brand was created for the customers to feel the contentment and harmony from the clothing, and know that at the same time they are doing something good for the Earth and for humanity. Modern bride look no further, if you are looking for an atelier to give you a unique piece incorporating function, art and love Orangia is the place for you.

Marni Gold/ Creative Custom Card Boxes
When planning her own wedding, Marni sought a card holder that matched her theme without breaking the bank. She found that the options available were either too gaudy or tacky and were very over priced. She and her mother Linda decided to create a custom painted card box to match her color scheme and theme.

The mother-daughter team behind Creative Custom Card Boxes works closely with each of their customers to create a card box that is perfectly in tune with her wedding or party theme and decor. The boxes start at just $40, which is absolutely amazing, considering the time and effort that goes into creating such beautiful finished products. Creative Custom Cardboxes recently recieved the prestigious Brides Choice Award from WeddingWire.com for 2009!

Linda and Marni of Creative Custom Card Boxes create hand crafted and hand painted gift holders, cake table "I DO and WE DO letters, and monogram caketoppers which can be completely customized for weddings and other celebrations. Check out www.creativecustomcardboxes.com for more information!

The Wedding Salon at the Roosevelt Hotel

I love the Roosevelt Hotel. No, I've never stayed there. Actually, until this event I've never even been inside. But I'll tell you why I love it. 2 years ago a friend from out of town had plans to meet me at the clock in Grand Central Station. Pressed for time, I ended up driving into the city and of course got stuck in traffic. Said friend had no cell phone. I was late and you know how likely finding a place to park in the middle of the day on a weekday by Grand Central Station is? Yeah - not likely at all. So I pulled up to the Roosevelt Hotel and asked the doorman there for advice on a parking location. I blabbed out the reason for my situation and asked him if he knew anywhere I could put my car for the 15 minutes max it would take me to meet my friend that wouldn't cost me $50. And what that wonderful man said was my salvation, "Leave it here. I'll watch it and make sure that the cops don't ticket it." And that's what I did. I left it in front of the Roosevelt hotel, grabbed my friend and ran back up in less then 5 minutes. My car remained there. Ticket-less. I gave him the $25 in my pocket for it.

But I digress. Customer service kudos to the Roosevelt Hotel aside, I found myself in front of it at 6:15pm on Monday for The Wedding Salon Event. I attended the Wedding Salon event in October which was beautiful (if unbelievably warm) and obviously missed the after work crowd at that event as this go around, I found myself around the corner on a line that snaked up the street, in the side door, up 2 flights of stairs and over the main room JUST to get to the registration tables. I stood behind 2 wedding planners form Connecticut and in front of a bride to be and her friend with the most odd story of the guy she's seeing and his psycho ex-fiance with whom he bought a house with while engaged to yet another man. ODD. It served as a great distraction from the line I was standing on. To the Wedding Salon's credit, it did move fairly quickly. But by the time I reached the registration desks I was already sweltering under my plaid wool coat. I skipped the coat check because of the number of people there but waved at the living plant feeling sorry for how hot he must be and began my walk around.

The sheer number of people there made it difficult to really talk to much of anyone, let alone make your way through the packed rooms and narrow, cramped and congested balcony space. I never made it into the Victoria's Secret Lounge and curse myself for it as I heard that was where David Tutera's company was. I marvel that I stayed there for an hour as the conditions could only be correctly labeled as sweltering. Even then, though, it is always a good event to attend. I especially love going to see the tablescapes. My favorite being the design by Flowers by Topaz, but I'll let you be your own personal judge.

Of course, one of the highlights to the Wedding Salon are the cakes, or better said, the tasting of them. Sylvia Weinstock was there yet again, and I thought it particularly endearing to see her handing out cakes to passerbys.


I must though take the time out to say that Make My Cake II was by far my favorite cake there. Absolutely scrumptious. I went back much to my embarrassment - 3 times. Absolutely delicious.


And of course among the tastings is the beauty of the cakes and cupcake tiers displayed





Visiting the vendors at took a back seat this go around because, like I said, the number of people and the heat of the venue. But I have to give a shout out to Joseph Edwards (wedding filmmaker) for remembering me from the last show (I told you, you are still on my roster ;) ) I also got to speak with Allison from Style made Simple with whom I really clicked with and who I can imagine is the perfect wedding dress concierge and stylist.



I was to meet up with the photographer from Jason Groupp there but was just too hot and left shortly after walking down the block with my jacket still flung over my arm trying to cool down. I would have stayed longer and talked more had the location turned on the air conditioning. But maybe that was the whole point.

Fall busy-ness, October wedding madness & Trade events

admit it. I’ve neglected my blog. Noticeably. So much so that three of my recent brides have said “weren’t you going to blog about this??” OOPS. So apologies for falling behind in so many things and thank you all for your reminders as not only do they motivate me to actually UPDATE but it makes me realize that people are reading along with the blog (if not actually leaving comments *hint, hint* )

October is without a doubt one of the busiest times for us as the fall foliage decorating the backdrops, the semi warm yet cool temperatures and the general beauty that is the autumn season makes it especially popular to get married. As Rob and I got married on Columbus Day weekend six years ago (has it really been 6??) I have to agree that this is one of the best times of years for a wedding. And I have many ‘real weddings’ to showcase to you over the next few days/weeks - beautiful garden weddings, elegant hall weddings and weddings that seem to be spiritually engulfed in emotion. I may be exhausted over the work but I’m renewed each time with the reality that I truly get to see such beauty, such love and such emotion in each individual celebration.

Beyond weddings we were busy with some tradeshows and events to attend. Rob attended the Photo Plus Expo which is without a doubt the largest Photography Expo. I was rather jealous that I was not able to attend that with him as he reported back to me how absolutely enthralled he was in the latest in technology and offerings. These events always serve as inspiration for new ideas and opportunities to add to our already illustrious list of contributions at Colorblind Productions. They also serve to deplete bank accounts in the desire for the newest and generally coolest gadgets. He attended with one of our photographers Maggie who took advantage of several seminars. I totally expect to attend this event myself next year!

Rob and I took the time to visit The Wedding Salon. It is a luxury wedding showcase in New York City. We went specifically look at the latest in luxury ideas, designs and companies. It is generally a bridal show but one where the exhibitors are by invitation only and the target market is elite clientele.

Not being a bride (and lesson learned as I made the mistake and told the registration desk that I wasn't one) I missed out on the goodie bag. I did get samples at booths. It was held at the Prince George Ballroom a stunning space that had to unfortunate luck of losing the general aesthetic of the room's grandeur in the midst of vendor booths and throngs of guests. Models walked around in stunning gowns and honestly answered my questions on the weight of the dresses and their personal opinion as to whether they could feasibly dance in them. I did speak to some vendors and exchanged business cards. The illustrious Sylvia Weinstock was there and I was able to talk to her, but I was so flustered and intimidated that I couldn't even bear to ask her to take a picture with me which I really wanted. And with cake tastings of her and other cake artists I was in heaven. I took pictures (mostly of the tablescapes design firms/florists put together.)

What you can't see in this first one (Rob took the pictures as I perused the vendors) was that the flowers actually wrap around the entire pedestal of the table and is visible through the glass tabletop.

I met the designer of this and got to talk to him about his inspiration on this piece. It was pretty damn cool to have that conversation. I love gold and he was as happy as I was to know that gold has made a comeback in its competition with silver based metals

What was cool about this florist is they had price boxes. You gave them your cost of centerpiece and they provided a box with examples of work that was in the budget you gave.

And how gorgeous are these seat covers? My friend Michelle of Everyday Celebrating was so infatuated with them that not only did she blog about them but she has told me how much she loves them EVERY DAY since I showed them to her and is obsessed in finding them.

Delicious cakes!!!