Happy New Year!

2009 was such a whirlwind year for LWSE with moving offices and 94 events we had our hands quite full indeed. We will be starting our year off right tomorrow working with Sara Cavallon of Something to Celebrate as well as The William Aiken House to produce our first event for 2010. The flowers are beautiful and we couldnt be happier to be starting off a new year busy. What a blessing.

We would like to toast all of our great brides and grooms from 2009 and all of the wonderful vendors we worked with through the year. We are so grateful for every interaction, and we are looking forward to a great new year.

We hope everyone has a safe and happy new year, and we will see you in 2010!

Planning for Summer Heat ... To Booze or not to Booze

Today in looking through the events I have booked for 2010 I was noticing that a lot of them are in the warmer months of July, August and September. Keeping this in mind when menu planning last year for our warmer weather weddings I took the traditional idea of a passed cocktail and simplified with more flavor and less alcohol. For instance for this wedding of our British James Bond groom and Sweet Southern Belle we decided to take the flavors they loved (in this case peach and mint) and just simply add a classic sweetened tea.

As you can see it was a beautiful passed beverage, but we were able to offer them to guests of all ages and preferences while really quenching the thirst which is the main purpose of the passed cocktail in the first place. Perhaps have a carafe at the bar with some Firefly Vodka or Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka for those guests that do want a little touch of something stronger in theirs. The William Aiken House staff made sure that each drink was picture perfect.

Your guests will end up with thirst quenched and less of a headache the next day.

Ice Ice Baby...

While talking with a friend recently, it came out that he was thinking of making that next big step with his Girlfriend. I was so excited, I hope to be a part of their wedding of course. However, with my extreme love for diamonds I just had to run him down the high points of diamond and ring shopping. These are just some of my favorites that of course have been on my mind since that discussion.

A classic favorite of course is the timeless Tiffany Six Prong setting. It is such a beautiful setting, very simple (perfect for the super busy, hands on bride) and being Tiffany the stone is a piece of art on its own.

Also from Tiffany, for the bride (or groom) looking for something a little different yet still classic there is the Princess Cut which is a stunning, more modern ring. Tiffany also has their Lucida which is their version of a cushion cut in a specialty setting that has been refined to really showcase this beautiful diamond.
Then from my favorite Harry Winston comes the beautiful emerald cut. This one of course is definitely what i like to call celebrity sized (kind of like super sized), but you can really see the detail in the cut.

Then some other classic Winston settings with slightly less traditional cuts are the Pear shape, Marquise and Oval. Your diamond is really supposed to be such an expression of you and I feel like this is such a great way to say something different about yourself.

Last but definitely not least, for the bride who just refuses to have anything traditional and tends to love things completely over the top ...

From the Harry Winston "incredibles" collection. Talk about celebrity sized!! This ring is so spectacular that you have to set an appointment just to talk about it. Too much for you? Well then get it for me ;-)

Curly Hair ... What to do?

While looking through the pictures from this last year I came across some great pictures of our girls with big beautiful curls. I just get so excited to see that. As someone with curly hair, and hair that used to be pretty long, I understand how the thought of what haircut and even more important what hairstyle to have on your wedding day can prove to be daunting.

Luckily for us all Stuart Lawrence Salon on King Street has done the hard work to bring us a fantastic new product and style technique. Check out their Ouidad styling system that Michael has brought to us to help all of the curly haired brides (and wedding planners) really be confident in their wedding day look.

www.ouidad.com

Call today to make your appointment with Melissa.

http://www.slsalon.com/

455 King Street

Charleston, SC

843-722-6776

The Divine is in the Details

Just wanted to make a quick post sort of in keeping with my theme. In looking back through pictures while planning for next year, I ran across this image from Squire Fox.

It inspired me in its simplicity. Just the simple piece of an Antique Hydrangea Bloom really was all that was needed in this vase to make a statement of understated elegance.

Just a thought ... from someone who doesn't always think less is more ;-).

Elizabeth and Sanjo

In planning for next year I am finding that we are seeing a few of the same color schemes and palettes being repeated this year. We are always so happy to work with the same colors or themes again because we get excited to see how we can change the old ideas into new fun and fresh looks for the upcoming events.

Elizabeth and Sanjo were married at Saint Luke's Chapel with the reception following at The William Aiken House. You might recall seeing a post to check out Tracy Turpin's beautiful pictures on her website, but I wanted to share some with you that are giving us great inspiration this time around. The deep cultural influences of Elizabeth and Sanjo's wedding as well as deep family influences really warmed the heart for this event. So many times we see the days come and go with no time to really sit back and enjoy it as a family. It was very important to Elizabeth that we really give them time to make this a family affair and spend time with the ones they love so much.

I love Saint Luke's Chapel because of its versatility. So many times we have the pleasure of bringing in cultural influence into the ceremonies which are not allowed at so many other chapels or churches.

Some of the shots of the reception show me places where slight changes and adjustments will re-fresh the look our upcoming bride. I loved how the dark tablecloths gave a really deep background for our beautiful bright pink flowers. Elizabeth's sister worked with Debbie Mock on her wedding and we were so happy to be able to team up with Debbie again for this event.

The Bride teamed up with a graphic designer friend and came up with all of the place cards and table numbers in the same color scheme of the wedding, but with fun touches of Charleston Charm.

The most important part of the decor of this event I think was the lighting that at night really brought through our color scheme and helped the floral and linen elements pop the way they were intended. This is something we will definitely bring into play again in the coming years events.

One key to such a great party is the right band for the group. The Heather Hayes Band brought the fun to this wonderful spring event. Not only were they high energy and fun, but they got the entire crowd moving and dancing.

Even our favors were customized to fit our color scheme. We found stone ground grits who's labels were stamped with a bright pink stamp. With a custom tag and a tie of our navy ribbon we had a personalized gift with which guests could remember the night.

Fun, New and Improved...

What a better way to get over the stresses of the holidays than some great retail (or in most cases) wholesale therapy. In starting planning for next year we have found some absolutely delicious pieces that we just have to add to our inventory. Today we got in some absolutely divine containers for one of our upcoming weddings in April. They are a silver/gold Mercury Glass look. In a word they are breathtaking and I cant wait to see them at the wedding.

And after looking through hundreds ... and I mean hundreds ... of chandeliers, we have found the new ones that we will be bringing into the LWSE family. They are a beautiful Chrome with dangling Crystals and Crystal strands. They will be a stunning new addition to our Spring events and I am sure will be in lots of pictures. We will update the blog when we use them the first time.

I am looking forward to our break from events to be able to investigate even more fun new things to bring to our clients and to the Event community in Charleston. I will update with more ideas as shopping progresses.