Tonight we have the honor of being nominated for a prestigious Allie Award (this is basically Oscar’s for the event industry)! We are so happy we were given the opportunity to produce The Party Goddess: Uncensored conference here in Atlanta back in November! The Party Goddess contacted A Big To Do Event all the way from California to plan all the logistics of the event from the staging to the photography. We made some amazing friends along the way and produced an amazing event while we were at it! Wish us luck!

Have you heard? Our very own, Erica Prewett will be speaking at the Occasions Expo on Sunday, March 3rd!

Come to the class at 3:00 p.m. and be inspired as you learn:

• 9 types of parties that don’t call for a full dinner (such as fondue dessert night)
• 7 off-beat holidays with no “official menus” (like National Men Make Dinner Day)
• 5 clever ways to decorate with what you have (old 33s make great table chargers for a Golden Oldies birthday party)
• and lots more…

At 2:00 p.m., Sharon Fisher of It’s Your Party, Inc. will also speak about Jewish traditions and the elements needed for those events.

At 4:00 p.m. Eliana Baucicault of EllyB Designs will lead a panel and discuss formulas, resource tips, and general q&a about the event planning process.

Have you purchased your ticket to Occasions Expo yet? Click here to do it now: Buy My Ticket. 

We’re hard at work creating an amazing space with some of our fellow StudioWed Atlanta vendors for the Occasions Magazine Expo and we can’t wait to show it off! Have you registered to attend yet?!

Happy Valentine’s Day! There is nothing as great as love and we are so incredibly lucky to get to witness so many amazing love stories take place right before my eyes. No two stories, no two couples, and no two loves are the same (which is why we will never give our couples a cookie cutter wedding!).

How are you celebrating Valentine’s Day? Romantic, candlelight dinner for two at a fabulous restaurant? Or are you staying in and cooking with just you and your sweetie? If so, here are some sweet treats you might want to add to the menu (maybe it’ll even end in a ring)!

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Sweetheart Salad! While beets aren’t anywhere close to making my “favorite foods” list, I would definitely eat them if someone took the time to make them into heart-shaped garnishes on a salad! Leave it to Martha to make a beet romantic! Click on the picture for the easy instructions on how to do it yourself.  If beets just aren’t your thing, you could easily use heart-shaped apple slices instead!

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Cotton Candy Cocktail! How cute is this pink and bubbly concoction?! Start out with some fun, fluffy cotton candy (pink of course, since it’s the color of the day!) then just pour something bubbly overtop for a tableside presentation! Choose your favorite champagne, prosecco, or sparkling water even and try it out!

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Heart Brownies dipped in goodness! Even if you don’t like how everything becomes heart-shaped for Valentine’s Day, you have to admit these brownies look pretty amazing and not the least bit cheesy! This can be so simple too (have you noticed my easy, DIY V-day theme)! Grab you favorite boxed brownie mix and make them! After they cool, stick the pan in the freezer for a bit and melt your chocolate or almond bark. Use a heart cookie cutter to cut out your brownies, dip one side in the chocolate, then dip the same side in nuts or chocolate shavings (or sprinkles) and let cool. Easy and romantic!

Hopefully you can add one or more of these to your menu tonight to add a little special something! And to all of our amazing couples, past and present, as well as every couple out there, Happy Valentine’s Day and remember to show your love for each other every day and not just on February 14^th (this is just a good excuse to go all out)!

If you didn’t see last week’s introduction, we’re following Busy Bride and Kentucky Fan as they plan their wedding and become husband and wife! You’re getting a front row seat to the behind the scenes, step-by-step process!

Busy Bride and Kentucky Fan got engaged right before Thanksgiving, which to the wedding industry is the beginning of engagement season, so when we started working with them the first goal was to find a venue for their fall wedding before they got booked up!

Busy Bride can be very decisive; when she knows, she knows. This being said she knew she wanted to look at one specific church and if she got the warm and fuzzies, she was willing to commit to it instantly. With an ideal date in mind that happened to be available at this church we went, we saw, we loved, we booked! If only everything could be that easy! So here it is! Busy Bride and Kentucky Fan will be tying the knot on November 9, 2013 at Peachtree Christian Church!

One venue down, one to go! Now time to find a reception space available on November 9^th that will give us what we want with the city view and lots of windows and fit our guest count and budget. Easy peasy, right? We went back to the office and started brainstorming a variety of venues to show them to get a better idea of what they want/don’t want and hopefully find the perfect place in the first batch! We started with the usual suspects and threw in a few extras to gauge their reaction.

A whirlwind week of site visits began and out of that came three frontrunners: W Midtown, Ventanas, and Atlanta History Center. Budget-wise, they were pretty comparable, so it came down to comparing the details of what each venue had to offer. Outdoor space? City skyline? In-house or outside catering? After much deliberation, Busy Bride and Kentucky Fan decided to have their reception at….drumroll….Ventanas! The view is unbeatable and the helicopter pad is the perfect photo op (although just like at the site visit, I will be choosing to stay at the base of the stairs leading up to the pad, hanging on to the railing for dear life. Normal fear of heights behavior, I’m sure).

So we’ve got our date and we’ve got our venues! Next step? You’ll have to wait and see next Wednesday!

This year I’ve decided to bring you all with us as we plan one couple’s wedding, updating you every step of the way through the entire planning process. In order to give you some big reveal at the end (and to make sure any blog-hopping guests don’t find out all the details and ruin the surprise), I’m going to call them Busy Bride and Kentucky Fan (I couldn’t think of a cute word to go with Groom for the life of me). These names could not describe them better as Busy Bride travels at least 70% of the year and I’m pretty sure Kentucky Fan has worn some type of blue UK gear to 50% of our meetings (not that that’s a bad thing, I’m all for team loyalty. Go Dawgs!).

We first met with Busy Bride, her mom, and Kentucky fan in December and just like when you find your soulmate, it was pretty obvious the planner/happy couple connection was meant to be.

Here are a few details of what they want for their wedding:
150 – 160 guests
A fall wedding date
Reception with a view of the city which means we have to have some good windows
Church ceremony earlier in the day allowing for lots of pictures and relaxation time before the reception
A seated, plated dinner
Close proximity to hotels for the out of town guests
Lots of candles
Champagne and blush as the main colors

After getting these details from them, we got to work! Check back for the next Planner’s Perspective as we find these two the perfect venue!

February has officially kicked off and we are well into 2013! Since we’re now in the month of sweethearts, I thought I’d give you a peek at our spring sweetheart tablescape design at StudioWed Atlanta. For those of us down here in Georgia, it’ll be a nice taste of spring since our groundhog, General Beauregard Lee, saw his shadow the other day sadly sending us into six more weeks of winter.

For this sweetheart table, we decided on a palette of pale pink or blush and aqua after seeing a gorgeous maternity shot on Pinterest (wedding inspiration doesn’t have to come from other weddings!). We worked with Blossoms Atlanta and Hi Note to bring you this adorable and refreshing spring design!

Blossoms Atlanta used three white floral sculptures as the base of the design and added even more interest with ribbons and single blooms spread throughout. Hi Note created some amazing stationary using blush and aqua with a darker blue pattern as the base. Each layer of paper had a little shimmer to really stand out! We Rent Atlanta provided the plates, flatware, and chairs paired with a pink pintuck linen and white satin napkins from Connie Duglin Linen.

Thanks so much to Gregg Willett Photography for the gorgeous pictures! See it for yourself at StudioWed Atlanta!

If you’ve been on our blog before, odds are you’ve seen a picture or two from Claire and Scott’s wedding at Foxhall Resort & Sporting Club. We’re so excited to share it with even more people on Style Me Pretty today! You have to see this gorgeous ivory, blush, and green wedding shot by Peach Blossom Photography by Julie Anne!

See all the images on Style Me Pretty and let us know what your favorites are!

We’re ending our countdown with Josephine and Robby’s September wedding at Cator Woolford Gardens! This group was so much fun to work with and definitely knew how to have a good time!

Renee Brock Photography took some amazing photos of the evening that we can’t wait to share with you soon!

2013 has a hard act to follow but we can’t wait to see what’s in store! See you next year!