A personal touch!

As many couples are in the process of planning how to personalize their weddings for 2009/2010, I want to share some of the great ideas my clients and I were able to come up with for 2008 weddings...a good idea is always inspiring, especially when the results have proven to be very successful!

IDEA ONE: Wine corks can be used as escort card holders and...

...also as table name holders; all it takes is strong glue, a drafting knife to make slits, and some time at the end of the day to sip wine and prepare for the wedding day... lots of corks needed, so ask your friends to begin saving them now!

IDEA TWO: Have a painter begin an oil painting at the beginning of your wedding day, and complete it by the end...fascinating for the guests, and a work of art to be treasured for generations, beginning with the bride and groom, and their future family.

Fogarty Winery provided the perfect backdrop for Laura and Mike's wedding canvas...

As the day progressed, so did the painting! By the time the sun set, the painting was complete, and the guests were heading home...but the memories were captured, and the painting now resides in Mike and Laura's home.

IDEA THREE: Use unexpected items in your centerpieces, emphasizing texture, more than color.

Flowering kale and young bamboo...a refreshing combination!

IDEA FOUR: Name your tables in ways that are uniquely personal for you...Mike and Laura are both left handed, and firmly believe being left handed adds a dimension of creativity and intelligence unknown by those who are right handed...therefore, they named each table after a famous "Lefty Hero".



IDEA FIVE: Incorporate photos from your parents' wedding, and use photos of your engagement session to create, or have your photographer create, a unique guest book...maybe your children will display your guest book at their wedding!
IDEA SIX: Surprise the groom with a cake just for him...in this case, Mike loved the Boston Red Sox, so a groom's cake of Fenway Stadium was perfect...the caterer and I added the beer back drop....a nice touch, don't you think?
IDEA SEVEN: Rather than providing disposable cameras for your guests, provide CD's and mailers so the guests can share their best shots from their own digital cameras...these days, almost everyone at a wedding brings their their own camera, so Laura and Mike decided to try a new twist on seeing later what the guests saw on the wedding day!

Periodically during the summer, I will be sharing other great ideas, both from this year and last, to stimulate your creativity for personalizing your wedding!