Sebastian & Bethany's Wedding

On Sept 24, 2011, Alexander's brother, Sebastian, married sweet Bethany. We were privlidged to be able to fly down to Phoenix, AZ to attend. As an added bonus, I also got to assist in the decoration of the cultural hall for the reception.

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon, just in time for me to attend Bethy's bachelorette party and Alexander spent the evening with his father. We got up bright and early the next morning to decorate the church and we were there until 5pm when we finally left. During that time we set up a dropped ceiling and put up wall panels of pictures along with decorating the tables and entryway. There was no official backdrop, but a faux wall was put up to break up the monotony.




The centerpieces were damask-style candelabras with battery lights along with 2 bud vases holding 3 pink roses each. The tables had white tablecloths, black satin overlays, and a white damask runner to complete the look.



The wall panels were made up of a white horizontal strip, with a black vertical stripe, gathered in at the middle. I hung pictures of the bride and groom with light pink ribbon at alternating heights and then spot-lit the pictures to add ambiance.



Thursday night we were able to go out to dinner with Alexander's best friend, Robert, and his awesome wife Natalie. We had a blast catching up with them and we really miss hanging out with them on a regular basis.

Friday morning dawned with us rushing to help Alexander's parents host the wedding brunch in the backyard. They had everything anyone could have ever wished to eat including: fruit, eggs, bacon, sausage, German meats & bread, veggies and a variety of delicious tamales. Afterwards the brothers helped each other get ready by trimming their twin goatees and making faces in the mirror.





Here Sebastian is fighting off the wedding day jitters:


The ceremony was beautiful and the day was gorgeous (albeit very bright and hot!).

Husband and Wife:




The reception that evening was lovely, although my date was stuck in the line all night. (As a side note, if you are not already married, please DO NOT put the ENTIRE wedding party in the line, it is miserable for the bridesmaids and groomsmen as well as for all of your guests, creating incredibly awkward moments for all!)



Cutting the Cake:


The First Dance:


Throwing the bouquet:


After the reception Alexander and I stayed to help clean up and then hobbled (literally) back to our hotel room where we rested our feet in our awesome Jacuzzi tub (we had an awesome free upgrade!). Needless to say, we were exhausted on Saturday and we lounged around all morning. We spent the rest of the day with Alexander's family. On Sunday we were lucky to be able to go to church with Robert and Natalie and then they graciously took us to the airport for us to make the long trip home.

We had a great time and really took advantage of the "vacation" in the midst of our packing up the house and moving. We are sad to leave the family and friends behind but hope that we will be back again very soon.

Wedding Planner: The person you pay to be stressed out for you

I have been MIA for the past few months. I did think about writing, and then I thought about how I had nothing to say.

Life is going about the same as always for us, busy and crazy. As can tell from the Elegantly Expressed blog, we have had a good amount of weddings. They have all turned out well, though some were more insane than others.

I have been getting more and more into the wedding planning aspect of things. It's much more difficult and requires an insane amount of patience, effort, organization, and time. As I am naturally rather bossy, it works out well. However, the wedding I did on Nov 27 was enough of a challenge to convince me that had I been a novice, I might have died.

For this particular wedding I was hired on towards the end of the planning process as a "day of coordinator". This means that the bride plans everything, gets all her vendors, and does most of it herself but hires someone to make sure everything runs smoothly that day. It usually involves some decoration, some floral design, and a lot of energy. I am truly convinced that this is much more difficult than if I have planned the entire wedding. Even though I'm hired for "one-day", I am not only working the wedding day, but also the whole week before to coordinate schedules with the florist, the cake decorator and the caterers and various other types of prep work.

This wedding day was sort of a mini disaster. I was in charge of decorating tables, chair sashes and overlays, and a chocolate fountain with all its yummy dipping foods. Everything I was supposed to do turned out awesome, but because I wasn't able to recommend my preferred vendors, the ones the bride contracted were sub-par and over-priced.

First case in point: the florist. This supposedly professional florist was paid very well for specific items and to deliver and set-up, but the week before, the florist claimed to not know she was supposed to deliver them. She was going out of town and it was impossible. Let's pause for a moment and discuss professional responsibility: IF YOU TAKE ON A WEDDING, YOU ARE BEING HIRED FOR THAT DAY! YOU SET IT ASIDE IN YOUR SCHEDULE. IF IT CONFLICTS WITH SOMETHING ELSE, DON'T TAKE THAT CLIENT! Okay, excuse my rant. I called the florist and informed her that the flowers would be delivered and I would be expecting them at 4:00. She could not refuse.

The flowers arrived at 4:00, delivered by the florist's sister who knew next to nothing of what she was doing. She expected me to put all the centerpieces together, but I didn't get paid for that nor did I have the time so I kindly asked her if she could take care of it. She spent the next hour on the phone as her sister walked her through everything she was supposed to do. I thought the flowers looked good (not knowing was was expected by the bride) and sent her on her way. Soon after, the mother of the bride arrived and promptly freaked out about the centerpieces. They were supposed to have 6 calla lilies in each of them. Instead, they had 3 callas and a huge bunch of bear grass. I explained that I would be happy to help if desired, but there was little I could do about missing flowers.

Ten minutes later I get called away from my current work again because there was no cake topper. They had ordered a cake topper of white flowers but the florist hadn't brought one. I had to create something for it so I rounded up a couple of spare flowers and created an elegant topper. I was actually amazed that it looked as good as it did.

The caterers in the kitchen had no idea what they were doing and had brought none of their own equipment. They kept asking me where various things were and if I had any of what they needed. That frustrated me because I was also catering the chocolate fountain portion and I always bring everything I will need with me. Then, they left early before everyone had a chance to eat and took all the food with them. I couldn't believe it.

Because this was a Hispanic wedding, a Mariachi band was hired, but the singer's mic was way too loud and he was always flat. I had a headache within minutes. Oh, and to top it all off, during the dancing, the DJ got super annoying by cutting out in the middle of EVERY song and making people sing a couple lines A Capella. I can understand the occasional YMCA, but after ten songs like this, it gets really old.

Despite the drama, the actual reception went really well. The mother of the bride was so pleased with my staff and I that she gave us a very large tip. However, the next morning I awoke with a very nasty cold, obviously the result of stress. Such is my life.

My next wedding is a bit of a risk for me in a number of ways, but we can discuss that later. In the meantime we will just cross our fingers. :)

Bridal Etiquette: Chapter 1

The day dawned with a glorious light, deceiving me into thinking it would be a marvelous day. I awoke early, anxious to finish my big task of sewing table runners. The morning sun peeked through my living room curtains and the machine stitched away as I watched a revival of Saturday morning cartoons eerily familiar to those I watched 20 years ago. Strawberry Shortcake and Transformers graced the TV bringing back forgotten memories of childhood.

The revelry collapsed with the last stitch and reality crashed back as I rushed to accomplish everything I had to do. The next hour was comprised of running up and down the stairs to and from the basement to make sure everything was remembered, put in a box and checked off the clever inventory list I had created the day before. With the last wire and lantern in place we continued with our duties. Running to K-mart in desperation, I found the perfect black button-up shirts for all three of my employees (the boys) and ran to finish loading the trailer.

By 1:00 we were on the road to Salt Lake City, ready to conquer another wedding. However, the traffic was against us and we didn't arrive until nearly 3:00. My poor boys carried 8 heavy pillars up two flights of stairs. Luckily, the other things fit in the elevator. We rushed to put up two backdrops, hang lanterns, put on chair covers and ties and set up the chocolate fountains.

At 6:00 the reception was set to begin. As I was adjusting the chocolate fountains, I glanced over at the main floor, only to see a member of the bridal party attempting to move the backdrop back a foot. I recoiled in horror as my carefully crafted waves of fabric and yellow drape were pulled apart, leaving the pillars stripped, like bare bones. Running across the room, my frustration evident on my face, I approached the bride.

"What is going on?!"
"My dance floor isn't big enough. I need a bigger dance floor"
"Couldn't you have moved the tables back?" To this I received a blank stare. "Well, it's broken now, I have to fix it."
"Well, I didn't like where it was, so I had to move it....." She continued on her selfish mumbling as she sauntered towards a bridesmaid who would probably assure her that moving the backdrop one foot back was the right thing to do.

Tears stung my eyes as I grabbed my duct tape, the only tool available to me, and began my attempt to hurriedly fix the sad disaster. Behind me I could hear the bride exclaiming that her reception was supposed to start 10 minutes ago. Thoughts of frustration and hurt whirled through my eyes threatened to spill down my cheeks in the form of tears. I swallowed the lump in my throat and kept working. When it looked mostly decent, I ran back to the fountains to ensure they were running correctly.

And now to the bright spot of the evening: the chocolate fountains ran perfectly. Even when they were low on chocolate, the rivers ran evenly down the sides in a lovely cascade of brown satin. The only thing missing was the other food. I had not been contracted to do any of the dipping food. I looked around for one of the surplus bridesmaids and inquired as to who was in charge of the other food.

"Oh, uh...I don't think anyone is. We just thought, that, it would...kinda happen..."
Kinda happen? Really? It was immediately evident that they had expected me to do all the food. The bridesmaids huddled and realized that they were the only ones who would do it, so they scuttled off to the kitchen where Alexander was melting chocolate.

Please imagine your most typical valley girl voice direct at my patient husband: "Aren't you the caterer? Why aren't you working? None of this food is done!"

"Actually, I'm a decorator and I'm melting chocolate. We were not contracted to do any of the other food besides the fountains."

Finally, the food was brought up on platters by girls with scowls on their faces. Such lovely girls. We soon realized that they didn't have anyone clearing tables either, which flabbergasted me. It wasn't my job, but I decided to help, so I cleared off the tables and attempted to make the situation better.

When it came time to dance, no one but the bride was interested, so she kept going up to the DJ and telling him to announce different dances that would make people dance. "And now, for the dance of the bridesmaids and the groomsmen to dance together..... And now for the dance for the bridal party that everyone must dance...." etc. It was sort of hilarious. I could have promised her that no one would dance, but some brides insist on everything being exactly the way they imagine it.

I have decided that I really must write a book about bridal etiquette spiced up with excerpts of my exciting job. Does anyone else have any funny stories about wedding etiquette gone wrong?

All in a Day's Work

I am exhausted, but very proud of myself. I did a wedding today that had a new, very difficult feature. It had a dropped ceiling, and it actually looked good. It took a massive amount of time to figure out exactly what would be the best way to put it all up, but in the end we did an excellent job. The credit really should go to my best brothers, Bryce and Tyler who spent a good 5 hours working on the project with me. New things always take time to learn, and now that we know what we are doing we can cut the time in half for next time.

I am really excited to have a new product to offer my clients, and I feel that I can now have a really competitive edge. While I was putting the finishing touches on the room, the woman with the cake came. She looked around at the decorations and was really impressed. She told me that she is getting married in August and she loved my decorations so she got my name and phone number and promised to call. Awesome!

Anyway, tell me what you think!

Introducing: The Wedding Planner

*I apologize in advance for the long post*

Let me tell you about my job. Not my full-time Corporate Event Coordinator job, but my "part-time" wedding planner job. I have recently been accused of doing a job that "anyone can do" and of being a "cultural hall decorator" (which was said disdainfully and thus I take to mean that they think I have low quality decorations and no taste). In this post I hope to be able to enlighten my friends and family about what I am actually committing to when I take on a client. Hopefully I don't bore you to death with the tedious details. My job is a lot more complicated than simply putting up Christmas lights in a cultural hall.

I love, absolutely love, being a wedding planner/decorator. It has become a major passion in my life. My absolute goal is to always make the wedding better than the bride imagined it would be. Sometimes I am limited by the bride herself, but I strive nonetheless. If some of the weddings I have done are less than perfection it is only because I have been restrained by clients with small budgets and low expectations. I get giddy when a bride leaves a consultation really excited for her wedding. It means that I have done my job right and am earning my paycheck.

I have discovered that in order to be good at my job, I need to be really in-tune with my perceptive skills.

Before each consultation I take a careful study of what outfit I should wear. Because I have already figured out what kind of a person they are, I try to dress in a way that will gain the confidence and respect of my potential client (a consultation is simply a long, fancy advertisement to convince people to "buy my product"). I can tell when some brides want an over-the-top planner, like the ones they see on TV, and so I dress in classy (expensive-looking) black with modern accents. Some brides are shy and afraid of being intimidated. These people I try to connect with on a friend level and will wear trouser jeans with a hip blouse and dangling earrings.

Between the time I first talk to them on the phone and when we meet for a consultation, I need to have already developed a sense of who they are and what they want. In most cases I have only talked to them for about 10 minutes on the phone before they show up at my house. However, 8 out of 10 times I know which backdrop they will love and choose before showing them a single picture. I judge how well I am doing by how many pictures I need to show them during a consultation.

This is all before they even sign a contract! Getting a client to sign and commit is the number one, hardest part of the job but once it's signed, we celebrate. Getting a sale is cause for celebration for anyone in this tough economy.

With a signed contract and deposit in hand, I then proceed to buy the most expensive looking materials for the cheapest price. I am a highly-valued club member of Roberts, Michael's, and JoAnn's. I always shop with a 40-50% off coupon in my hand and at Robert's the cashiers know me as "the wedding decorator". I roam up and down aisles that I have been up and down dozens of times, trying to get my mind to work up a better way to make something new. At Michael's the staff now know that I'm not lost and that I will probably bug them about getting in 15 vases when they only have 2 in stock.

The week before a wedding I go crazy. Literally. I have 3 different lists and my work load ranges between 3-15 hours of last minute projects. If I am lucky the boxes are loaded, in the car with minutes to spare before driving at break-neck speeds to get to the venue on time. Once we are at the venue things are great if it is only me and my crew there. If family or (heaven-forbid) the bride herself is there, the stress level jumps about 10 notches. The average wedding takes about 3 hours to set-up, despite the fact that we run everywhere we go and I have 3 helpers. It just takes a lot of time. Sadly, about 2 hours of that I am standing on a ladder with my arms above my head trying not to poke wire underneath my fingernails.

Once the wedding is set-up I breathe a sigh of relief and pray nobody touches anything until I return that evening. I have been known to seriously lose my cool if I return to clean up and find tablecloths on the floor and LED lights missing. I just remembered that I forgot to include that clause on my contract: "Everything stays where it is until Elegantly Expressed returns to clean up that evening. I don't care if you ended 2 hours earlier than you thought, that is not my problem. You will sit and wait until I arrive before you even THINK of touching a table or a pillar."

Each wedding I do brings an immense satisfaction. I love being a part of the most important day in most couple's lives. It is a blessing to be able to contribute to their happiness.

So thanks for those of you who support me with encouraging words and positive comments. And those of you who think I am an amateur? Please tell me if you find anyone more devoted to their job than I am.

Shar's Wedding

I have known Sharylann for years, we used to work together planning conferences and workshops for a university. Her wedding was so exciting to plan, and it was a blast to be able to take part in all of the preparations.

Shar's colors were red and black with a real modern twist on traditional elegance. I think this wedding actually turned out to be one of my favorite's. We put up our most popular backdrop, draped it in gorgeous red (just like the for the Valentine's Dance) but I added some extra swag to the front to create a more graceful effect. To add a modern twist, I also added red and black spangle branches that I used in the centerpieces. It really tied the room together nicely.

The backdrop behind the cake was draped in black with a shiny red ribbon running through it. I loved it! It turned out perfectly . :)

In a clever attempt to decorate a blank wall, we put up large frames, scrapbook paper, and Shar's bridal pictures to create a collage effect and dress it up a bit. In the end it really added a lot to the room. Kudos go to Alisyn for making it look so awesome. This was her project and she mastered it. What would I do without her?

On top of decorations, we also provided two fountains, one chocolate and one nacho cheese, oh and of course the punch fountain. I have to tell you how much the guests raved about the food! I even found comments on Facebook about how great it was. :)

All in all, it was a really fun event. In the end it's really all about making the day as perfect as possible for the couple getting married, and it's always wonderful to have a hand in that.

Main Backdrop:


Cake Backdrop:



Pictures on the Wall:


The Tables:


The Room:


Finally, the food..somehow the chocolate fountain didn't make it into this picture, oh well:

Fountains of Cheesiness

I did a wedding on Saturday that was a little bit different than I have done before so I thought I would share it with you. As you know, in addition to my regular decorating, I also do Chocolate Fountains. I had a client whose dream was to have a cheese fountain at his wedding. He didn't care about anything except the cheese. His fiance was a little skeptical, but after consulting me, she got really excited. I gave her some ideas of the food that could be served with the cheese and she signed a contract right then and there. I was a little nervous, having never put anything other than chocolate in my fountains, but I read online that it could be done (everything online is true, right?) so I went forward with the idea.

While the cheese obviously didn't run as quickly as chocolate does, it was still pretty cool to see. Men literally started drolling when they saw it. People were taking pictures and wishing they had one for their Super Bowl parties. All in all, it was a good experience. It should be interesting to see if this idea catches on.

2009 is Out of the Gate and Running at Full Speed!

I just realized that it has been forever since I have posted anything here so I've decided to tell you that I am exhausted. For some reason I just can't get my act together. Oh well.

Do you ever feel guilty about reading blogs of people you don't know? For example, maybe you click on your friend's blog, and they have a link to someone else's blog and even though you don't know them you read it anyway, cause you are bored? Sometimes I do that. And then I feel bad. However, I am totally addicted to somebody's blog and I don't even know them. It's like their life is the most interesting soap opera and I have to catch all the episodes. I think I must be so lame.

I have a wedding coming up this weekend. I'm not doing very much for it because they are having a carnival reception. Popcorn, cotton-candy, and those little games; my mom would have killed me if I had done that for my wedding. Really all I am doing is providing a nacho cheese fountain. Apparently this is the latest rage, but it sounds a little unappetizing to me, or maybe I don't like it because I know that by the end of the night I will be covered in the stuff. Just so you know, I also think chocolate is disgusting due to the excessive work I have done with my chocolate fountains. The very smell of melty chocolate makes me ill. I'm glad that so many other people like it though, I need the business.

The Bridal Fair is coming up in a few weeks. My booth will look beyond awesome! My colors are a bright pear green and robins egg/light teal. It is totally modern, chic, and adorable for spring! I am using white paper lanterns and creating a chandelier effect with them using colored LED lights. The show is on February 7th, you should all come and say hi :)

Other than all of that, my life is kept busy with job searches (if someone has a job for my husband, please let me know!), podcasts, convention planning, Elders Quorum activities (I am planning a Valentine's Dance!), and oh yeah, my full time job. I should really chill out a little more, but I know that's not going to happen anytime soon. ;)