Fresh and new...

As we head out of the office for a much needed and welcomed break I wanted to leave you with the first of many nips a tucks in the overall face lift of our site. Enjoy!

http://www.lukesevents.com/mcleanryan.html

Our web designer has some great things in store. Stay tuned!

Sneak Peek...

I was so lucky to work with Liz and Chris on their October 17th wedding. I will bring you every luxurious detail as soon as we get the pictures, but until then...

... just one beautiful shot by The Kim Graham in front of one of my favorite churches, Trinity United Methodist on Meeting.

When I get the rest of the pictures I will be updating, so keep an eye out. It is truly a beautiful fall extravaganza.

Sweetness and Light ...

So, we at LWSE are always looking for new and fun sayings. Megan's favorite lately has been sweetness and light. I always think it is such a cute little saying, and while thinking about that today I immediately thought of Emmy and Burch. This super cute September 12th wedding was the ultimate mix of cool, funky, traditional and fun. You just cant get any better than this.

Emmy decided (with a move planned right before the big day and with being out of town in both locations) she needed just a little help planning her early fall wedding. After the first meeting with her, her parents and Burch I think we were all so sad to leave each other. We had such a blast with them through the whole planning process. Emmy came in for every meeting with the best stories and so much to entertain us that we often found ourselves having to settle down and actually get to the purpose of planning for the wedding.

They chose the William Aiken house for their event with ceremony on site. With Fish catering and the ever so talented pastry chef Susie doing the cake we were in GREAT hands! Calvin Taylor played for cocktail hour and then brought in his trio for "rockin' tunes" through the night. It was truly a party to remember. Kim Graham was able to catch all of the pictures to memorialize it.

I had the pleasure of seeing Emmy and Burch (and bridesmaid Owen) out the other day and it made my Sunday. I hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as We enjoyed working on this event. Thank you Emmy and Burch for being the definition of Sweetness and Light!

Best of 2009

So one of our Photographer friends Tracy Turpen just posted her best of 2009 slideshow, and the images are stunning! Thank you so much for sharing Tracy! I was so happy to see that a couple of our brides and grooms made it in!

http://tracyturpenslideshows.com/2009/

Take a minute to look through it, and enjoy! We surely did!

Wedding Party Armies??...

Brides ask me all the time of their number of bridesmaids is too large. "Have you ever heard of so many bridesmaids, should I get rid of some people? I don't want it to look like an army!" My answer, "the more the merrier!" This year with so many weddings we saw every number of bridesmaids from just one up to twenty two. Yes, can you believe 22 ... on each side??

All of these Bridal "Army" weddings went so smoothly and the large number bridesmaids and groomsmen was really never a setback at all. In fact, I would say it assured that there were plenty of hands to help the bride and groom. Also, plenty of party goers who were guaranteed to be the life of the party.

This wedding ceremony was at the Citadel Summerall Chapel. The 13 bridesmaids were some of the nicest girls I have ever had the pleasure of working with. They were all so beautiful in their floor length blue matching dresses. The Chapel was a perfect choice for such a large party since there is plenty of altar space for them to stand.

For this wedding we held the ceremony and reception at Lowndes Grove. The large patio space was the perfect location to have 16 bridesmaids and 16 groomsmen standing. In the same way that there was no shortage of bridal party, there was also no shortage of fun. These bridesmaids were having a blast all through the night.

For this bridal party of eleven, the bride decided because of restricted space behind the fountain at The William Aiken House that we would have nine of the bridesmaids sit and two of them stand with her. She was slightly concerned the the girls would think it was a bit of an A list and B list, but in rehearsal one of the bridesmaids put it to rest very quickly. She said "honey, in these heels and in this heat, I would much rather be sitting down!" We all laughed and that put the bride's fears to rest.

So you can see that no matter what size group you end up with, with careful planning you can have your larger group and enjoy your friends being close around you that day.

Just an advanced peek...

One of the many perks of being able to work on so many events a year (this year LWSE happily planned and executed 94 weddings) is being able to sit down and choose from hundreds of thousands of pictures for our many talented photographers we work with. We are so grateful that Charleston has such a wealth of super talented photographers. We love being able to sit and thumb through the pictures. While waiting to get some of our great fall wedding pictures, Leslie McKellar provided us with some great detail shots that she took while working with Kim Graham Photography on one of our most detail oriented weddings ever. I really should wait to put anything up, but I just cant resist!

Place Cards in Wheat Grass. These were beautifully hand calligraphered and put together by the mother of the groom. She was very hands on.

A beautiful overall tent shot. The flowers were truly breathtaking here. I love the simplicity of the all white/ivory taller designs with just the hints of greens and pinks.

The shorter centerpieces we brought in more color to play off of the hand pearled pintuck organza overlays. The silver of the satin underneath really was a perfect combination with the color scheme.

To me, there can never be enough candlelight ... or rose petals for that matter.

And helping us out with making sure every single detail was flawless, The Patrick Properties Events staff at Lowndes Grove really making sure every setting was impeccable.

New to us...

I feel very slack in posting this after they have been with us for months, but I thought that since we are still in love with them we might as well show them off.

In September we purchased some beautiful new lanterns from Jamali in NYC. They are a pretty standard carriage lantern shape, but something that was new to us and new to our brides. We love them and have them in any size. Let us know if you can use them. We would love to share.

Traditionally Southern and Sweet...

One of my favorite events of the year was held at Lowndes Grove back in August 2009. We worked with the bride to come up with such a subtle, but very pretty color palatte of gold and pink with soft champagne accents. It was a color combination that I would love to re-create.

Because of threatening poor weather we decided to setup the ceremony under a smaller tent located adjacent to the reception tent. This gave an all inclusive feeling for the space making guests feel like they didnt have to go from place to place all through the night. The overall setup was very simple with lots of indoor and outdoor seating to help make guests comfortable on the warm summer night.

The flowers we did for this wedding were truly stunning. From the large flower ball hanging from the ceiling of the tent (as opposed to a chandelier or some sort of lighting fixture) to the small accents of the pew markers, each arrangement was the perfect mix of pinks, apricots and peaches.

For the centerpieces we filled a simple glass compote bowl with fresh green moss and built a large dome of hydrangea, lysianthus, stock and roses to give a soft lush look that stood out wonderfully on the gold runner and soft pink linen.

Kim Graham was with us through the day shooting all of the wonderful moments.

And for the ultimate showpiece, the cake was covered with garden roses, hydrangeas, lysianthus and stock creating a lush display that wowed our sweet bride.

A sweet treat ... as if we didnt have enough over the holidays.

Having a Baking and Pastry background I really take great care in helping choose the wedding cakes we display at our Weddings. I have loved working with all of the talented Bakers and Pastry Chefs in the Charleston Area, and I wanted to show some of their immense talent.

Wedding Cakes by Jim Smeal

http://www.weddingcakesbyjimsmeal.com/

This beautiful cake was made to serve 400 of a total of 600 guests at this early August wedding. Jim worked with the wonderful ladies at The Gown Boutique of Charleston (LOVE them!!!) to get the pictures he needed to re-create the dress pattern. When Mason saw it she was so impressed at the detail and how closely it matched her dress. She loved it and even joked that she saw details on the cake that she never even noticed on her dress. She said it made her love her dress even more now that she has noticed these details. What more could you ask for than to help a bride love her dress more on her wedding day?

The Cake Stand

http://www.thecakestandcharleston.com/

For this truly southern inspired event the Mother of the Bride and a friend made each and every hand molded and painted white chocolate seashell out of the bride's favorite chocolate. Lauren create a smooth and stunning three tier cake with her own White Chocolate Mousse and fresh Raspberries. The combination was remarkable! The Bride and her mother were so happy to see it all come together so flawlessly.

Ashley Bakery

http://www.ashleybakery.com/

Hayden worked with our bride Elizabeth's sister for her wedding four years ago. When Elizabeth and Sanjo got engaged, Elizabeth's dad (a big sweets fan) was insistent that Ashley Bakery do their fantastic Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Filling. It as a request that Hayden was happy to oblige. Choosing a simple ivory cake with bands of deep navy blue the cake was a subtle accent in a wedding with bright pink and deep blue abounding.

The Cake Stand

http://www.thecakestandcharleston.com/

Lauren provided a beautiful soft white background for this bride who wanted her English Garden style flowers to really pop off of the smooth base. It was a stunning cake with all of the tiers double height so that even though it was only three tiers it was still a tall cake with presence in the cotton dock.

Elaine's Events Cakes of Distinction

http://www.elainesevents.com/

For this wedding, Sara Cavallon with Something to Celebrate, Elaine and myself teamed up to re-create the bride's inspiration cake from a magazine image. With the delicate piping and soft flowers this cake was an understated element of elegance at this Middleton Place wedding.

Elisabeth Hanckel

843.568.3008

We geared this entire wedding around a pattern we loved from our Cutout Lace Pendants that we hung in the tent. Elisabeth copied the lace pattern on the soft yellow background of certain tiers with alternating colors on the other tiers. It was such a beautiful interpretation of our theme, and created a wonderful centerpiece for the dining room at the William Aiken House.

Ashley Bakery

http://www.ashleybakery.com/

Another beautifully detailed cake for this I'On Creek Club wedding. The bride and groom's initials were piped on in a deep green while the soft piping designs were kept in all white just for a slight accent. Just a few flowers really gave this grand cake a soft look.

The Cake Stand

http://www.thecakestandcharleston.com/

For this 39th birthday celebration we chose to do a broken up look with the cakes, instead of one massive cake for the large group. Using a very literal interpretation of the orange color we had Lauren sugar frost oranges as very simple decor for each of the satellite cakes. The centerpiece of the table was a large cutout 39 to match wooden 39's that we had made and painted to accent the rest of the room. A great touch we added for this cake was to have our calligrapher hand write signs to mark each cake so that guests could get excited to taste all of the different flavors. This cake was a big hit.