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A Fall Wedding at Viansa

Vendors:
Venue: Viansa/Laura Fraize
Wedding Planner: Emarie of A Savvy Event
Photographer: Jen Good
Lighting: Twilight Design
Flowers: Fleuressence
Cake: Inticing Creations
Wedding Stationary: Card Girl
Band: Fundamentals
Caterer: Sage Catering for Viansa
Linens: La Tavola
Rentals: Classic Party Rentals Napa

Martha Stewart Show

We are so excited to announce that our cake designer Kelly Zubal of Inticing Creations
will have her cake featured on the Martha Stewart Show Monday, March 8, 2010! Darcy Miller will be placing a cake topper on top of her cake!

Kelly was also recently featured in the Spring Edition issue of Martha Stewart Magazine for the wedding cake she did for the Hello Lucky Wedding of Eunice and Daniel. Here is the photo of the cake featured in Martha Stewart!

Click Here to view more photos of the wedding!

Congratulations Kelly! We are really excited for you!!!!

Wish Upon A Wedding

Wish Upon A Wedding was founded in San Francisco, CA, in January of 2010, by a group of wedding and business entrepreneurs and is America’s FIRST nonprofit wedding wish granting organization, producing weddings and civil union ceremonies at destinations across the United States for individuals facing terminal illness, regardless of sexual orientation.

Chapters:

Wish Upon A Wedding is now boasting twenty chapters nationwide, headed by some of the industry’s most renowned leaders with plans to expand to over 40 chapters worldwide.

Presidents:

Sasha Souza, National President & SF Bay Area President

Kevin Covey, LA/Orange County

Stella Inserra, New York

Ivy Robinson, The Carolinas

Eliana Baucicault, Atlanta

Mary Alice Sublett, Tennessee

Mark Kingsdorf, Philadelphia

Saundra Hadley, Indianapolis

Heather Hamilton Sims, Houston

Shelby Tuck Horton, DC

Elisa Delgardio, Orlando

Ali Phillips, Chicago

Daniela Isabella Ferdico Fagét, Seattle

Forming Additional Chapters:

Other chapters opening soon include Boston, Colorado, Arizona, Portland, Miami, St. Louis, Ohio and Nevada. We are also planning to open to chapters in other areas depending on need including international chapters. If you wish to start a chapter, please fill out the online form for consideration.

Who Is Behind Wish Upon A Wedding?

Many influential people in the industry are beginning to endorse Wish Upon A Wedding & you can find those endorsements on the website. There are also amazing people sitting on the Boards and Advisory Panel throughout the US such as Dana Larue “Broke-Ass Bride” {LA Chapter PR Chair}, Leila Khalil {National PR Advisor}, Beth Helmstetter {National Outreach Director} just to name a few. They would love to have you join as well either as a board member or wish granter!

How We Grant Wishes:

To qualify for Wishes, applicants must be unmarried legal citizens of the United States, over the age of 18, who have been diagnosed with less than three years to live. Couples can be granted wishes either in the chapter where they live or in a chapter of their choosing as long as they are able to make the trip.

Couples can simply apply online to request one of three wedding types:

URGENT (Up to 10 guests, in hospital or at bedside);

BOUTIQUE (up to 25 guests, in home town of applicant);

ROMANTIC (Up to 50 guests, at any WUW destination)

How Can You Grant Wishes?

As the organization is building, Wish Granters are needed in all locations. Please apply online today to start helping Wedding Wishes come true. In two weeks, Wish Upon A Wedding will be granting the very first wish. To read more about that wish and the couple please visit the website.

Please use this info on your own blog and during the course of this week...if you have the time and the room on your blog this week.

It will help build a network of very important people in this industry whose main goal is to help these very deserving couples. After all, if you are in the business of creating lifetime memories, we are now asking you to help us create memories for those who are left behind because these couples do not have a lifetime together.

Outdoor Ceremonies

We just love these! These are perfect for all the outdoor Wine Country Weddings! A lot of our brides are worried about sinking in the grass during their ceremony or tripping and this is a great invention to help keep you on your feet and keep your wedding shoes in tact!
If you want to purchase them go HERE.

Happy Planning!

Shout Out to Kathryn Kalabokes of Dream A Little Dream Events

I had to share this link to Kathryn Kalabokes wedding planning blog as we also have received so many leads with regards to "day of" wedding planning. We too do not offer day of but "month of" services! There is a reason why it cost a little more and why we come in 30 days prior to your event then just showing up the "day of". Wedding planning is usually a year process and to walk in the day of your event and try and execute it is physically and mentally impossible! You spend a lot of money creating a wonderful event and that is why we as professionals provide you with a level of service you need and deserve! Please read the article Kathryn wrote as I could not have written it better! Remember some important advice my mother once told me! "You get what you pay for"

Happy Planning and Best Wishes!!!

ARTICLE
Click on the title below~
Difference Between Day of and Month of

What We Have Been Up To...

Sorry for the lack of blog post lately but we have been really busy this season with our weddings! We are excited to start posting some of them on here! Some of the great spots we have worked this year already are:

Cornerstone Gardens
Nicholson Ranch Winery
The Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn
B.R. Cohn Winery
Bungalows 313
The Mark Hopkins, San Francisco
Miraval, Glen Ellen

We are really excited about all of our 2009 weddings and are so excited for all our couples!

Please keep checking back as we promise to update the blog more! :)

Happy Planning!

A Great Find....

So every day we have our blog roll that we read and while reading Blue Orchid Designs Wedding Blog we came across this free online Wedding Vendor Hiring Guide! It is fabulous and if you are getting married you should take a look! The fabulous Laura Hooper did all the graphics for the book and we are just in love with her work! We refer her to all our clients!! We just love her!


So Click Here to Download your Free Online Book!

A Post We Just Loved!

We came across this blog post on Marcy Blum's new blog Adventures of Wedhead! It is a fantastic blog and this post made us laugh out loud! I hope you enjoy it too!!!

Over and Out…….

Posted on | July 28, 2009 |

So rumor has it that at Engage 09, the luxury wedding symposium in the Cayman Islands, a very vociferous planner in the audience attempted to bully the very elegant and very ladylike Darcy Miller into spilling what “trends” she thought had run their course. While Darcy is far too clever to be baited so easily, Eventista has no such qualms and actually has been chomping at the bit to give everyone the list of things she, personally, thinks are VERY MUCH over…

Some of these items (like a favorite song that the radio destroyed by playing over and over until you could no longer bear even a note) were good ideas once. Others were always inane, boring or just plain stupid- she will leave you to decide which things cited fall into which categories:

*Tiers of cupcakes as a wedding cake
*Cutesy and colorful candy displays at weddings (replete with insufficiently sturdy paper bags to take your goodies home in)
*”Celebrity” wedding planners (it says so on their websites) whose celebrity client list consists of having worked with Jennifer Aniston’s body double’s third cousin
*Event planners who are now self-proclaimed “lifestyle” experts (Is there a correlation between throwing a good party and pontificating on styling someone’s life? …I’ve missed it)
*White lounge furniture for after-parties (and pretty soon altogether)
*Poor miserable dogs being stuffed into absurd costumes and dragged down the aisle as a flower creature or ring bearer
*Same goes for terrified small children
*Releasing doves (read this horrendous story today http://news.aol.com/article/wedding-doves-stuck-in-nyc-park/591904), butterflies, or any other living creature as a testament to your new-age fabulousness
*Television shows that not only encourage but delight in brides and grooms behaving horrifically
*Bride and groom’s first dance that soooo unexpectedly (wink, wink) turns into disco madness (by the way, the wedding party groove down the aisle that was everywhere this week- that was actually cool)
*Etiquette columnists in bridal mags that don’t have a clue what in the world they are talking about and are advising [poor women who listen to them] some bizarro nonsense
*Starting a sentence with “In this ecomomy…”
*Bridesmaids dresses for under $200 that anyone actually thinks will be worn again
*Pretentious and absurd pronouncements on entertaining, such as “Rum is the new Vodka”
*Event/wedding designers “demonstrating” with no irony whatsoever how they can shop in a bodega and throw an absolutely extraordinary 16th century ball for 12 dollars max
* Inspiration boards that are Kafka-esque in their relation to a real wedding (uh, let’s see- I’ve got a twig, a sequin, horses, a fountain, a doorknob and George Clooney)
*4-hour posed photo sessions before the wedding ceremony-(bride has to be up at 4 am for hair and makeup)
*”Black tie preferred” (the super-duper passive aggressive attire suggestion)

Oh, and just for good measure, empty restaurants that wont seat incomplete parties…

SARAH+TAYLOR-Nicholson Ranch-07.11.09

photo by Jen Good Photography

This weekend we did a gorgeous wedding at the Mission San Francisco Solano and Nicholson Ranch Winery.
Here is one photo from the event and we are so excited to get the rest!
We worked with some fabulous vendors on this event and we just want to take the time to THANK all of them.
Congratulations to Sarah Hemmer & Taylor Holve! We wish you both the very best in life and love.

Our Fabulous Team of Vendors:
Ceremony: Mission San Francisco Solano (SONOMA)
Ceremony & Cocktail Hour Music: Golden Gate Strings
Reception: Nicholson Ranch
Caterer: Alex's Catering
Photographer: Jen Good Photography
Florals: Fleuressence Floral Design
Lighting: Twilight Design
Band: Suite Love Express
Cupcakes: Cups & Cakes of San Francisco
Guest Book Stationary: CardGirl
Rental Company: Classic Party Rentals
Linen Rentals: LaTavola Fine Linens

An Evening with Alice Waters......

A Savvy Event had the opportunity to work with the Center for Land Based Learning on an event with Alice Waters. The evening started at the McNamara Organic Farm with a Q&A with Alice Waters and delicious food from the Buckhorn Restaurant and Local Winters Wineries. After the Q&A 45 invited guest had a private dinner catered by Nugget Market's Head Chef Rachael Levine in the Backyard of the McNamara's home and Organic Walnut Orchard.
A Special Thank you guest out to LaTavola Fine Linens and Hartmann Stuidos for the rentals, Peculiar Pair Press for the Menus and Place cards and Amy Hayson for Michelle Walker Photography. It was so fun coordinating this fabulous event and getting to meet Alice Waters!

Alice Waters and the guest mingling
The Buckhorn Catering Pizza Oven


Q&A With Alice Waters and Craig McNamara
The Entrance to Dinner
The Menu by Peculiar Pair Press







Thank you again to all of our sponsors for such a successful event!

A Savvy Event*LaTavola Fine Linens*Hartmann Studios*Nugget Markets*Peculiar Pair Press*Michelle Walker Photography
and of course this fabulous event never would have happened if it weren't for the wonderful organization for Land Based Learning and Craig McNamara!!! We are looking forward to next year!

Engagement Session by BLR Life Photography-Lauren & Jason

We are so excited to be working with BLR Life Photography and the fabulous Brittany who is the lady behind the camera! Our couple Lauren and Jason who are getting married in October at The Sonoma Golf Club just had their engagement session and the photos are amazing! Brittany did a fabulous job capturing the personalities and love between them! Here are just a few that we had to share!!!



This is our Favorite! I love this one of them eating the ice cream cone! So cute!!!

engage!09 GRAND CAYMAN

I am so excited to share that this week I will be going to the Grand Cayman for engage!09. Last year I went to Orland to engage!08 and it was so much fun and such a great summit to learn all there is to know about the wedding industry from the BEST of the BEST! Engage!09 will be even better and I am so excited to be here! There are so many fabulous speakers this year and I have heard lots of surprises so this week will be so very informative and interesting! I won't have much time to blog but I will definitely share the experience with all of you! It is so nice to be back in Grand Cayman where I use to do weddings and call home a few years ago!

Have a wonderful week and I look forward to sharing more of enage!09 with all of you.

E~

Favorite Vendor Day 4-Peculiar Pair Press

Amy and Mary Beth are a pair of accomplished graphic designers who share a love for fine printing and are addicted to everything paper. Each earned their BFA in graphic design, and then independently decided to relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area, Amy from the Lone Star State of Texas and Mary Beth from New York. eventually, their paths crossed while working in the same design department at a major corporation. as the years passed in corporate america and their creative genius became trapped, they realized a drastic change was needed, and fast! each afternoon, over their still favorite cups of earl grey tea, they imagined a better life in design. As luck would have it, the drastic change came in the form of downsizing, and they were soon free to build their dreams into a reality! With freedom came long drives up to Chandon and impromptu vacations to Mexico. On the plane back from Sayulita, Peculiar Pair Press was born.

Mary Beth has moved back home a few years ago to be closer to her ever growing Italian family so we are now officially bi-coastal and keeping the business flourishing.
With 7 years in the stationery business under our belts we enjoy getting our hands into many projects! We have several types of stationery lines that are all letterpress printed by hand – ours to be exact!! We’d thought you’d enjoy reading briefly about our distinct lines available and then seeing the entire printing process!

SIGNATURE COLLECTION - A collection of fourteen versatile styles appropriate for a bride’s fabulous ballroom extravaganza or a simple outdoor garden party. This line of invitations is available online at peculiarpairpress.com and at over 70 fine stationery stores across the nation.

EXCLUSIVELY ONLINE - Available only at peculiarpairpress.com these designs are perfect for bride’s planning a destination wedding. Invitations from this line accommodate any wedding day vision whether inspired by a private vineyard, an ocean estate or the love of travel, just to name a few. With thirteen beautiful designs to choose from, we are certain you will find the right style for your special day.

CUSTOM - Every custom invitation design starts with a piece of paper, a pencil and a conversation. We let the concept of the bride and groom’s wedding day guide us as we design the invitation suite specifically to their needs. Exquisitely unique and original, these invitations are always the most sought after.

BABY - Our simple & adorable baby announcements are perfect for every expecting couple. Fourteen different designs offer a wide variety wether they’re expecting a boy, girl or twins! Each design can be adjusted to accomodate a photograph of the new addition. Announcement collections are available online at peculiarpairpress.com or at one of our fine retailers.

STATIONERY - We offer a wide variety of everyday notecards for many occasions, single, blank, boxed or do it yourself! We have expanded our line over the years to include such luxuries as journals, wrapping paper and favor cones. Our partnership with Chronicle Books has also allowed us to establish an even wider fan club with our Paper Patisserie line featuring: gift wrap kit, enclosure cards, mini journal set, stationey box and an adorable box of labels.

____________________________________________________________________

Now for the Process!
Letterpress is a form of relief printing that was invented in the 15th century. Individual letters were cast into lead, arranged into words, rolled with ink and then pressed into paper. The impression of each letter creates a distinct printed surface filled with beautiful texture. Peculiar Pair Press continues this tradition using photopolymer printing plates. Here is a brief explanation of our extensive printing process:
Creating digital artwork and film output:
After the initial stages of design are complete, we begin to develop your design on the computer. These digital images are separated by color and prepared for output onto a film negative which is used to create the photopolymer printing plate.(

Making the printing plate:
The film negative along with the “blank” printing plate are placed in an exposure unit. The outermost layer of these printing plates are covered with a light sensitive plastic. Light passes through the clear areas of the film negative and hardens the light sensitive material on the plate. Once it is done exposing, the plate goes into a wash out unit that brushes away all of the soft, non-exposed area leaving only the hardened relief surface. Now we’re ready to go to press!

Going to press:
The ink is placed on the inking cylinder and distributed evenly throughout the rollers-we only print with one color at a time, let’s say its blue. The printing plate is registered on the press so that it prints in the proper position on the page. All components to your job that require blue ink get printed while we have the ink on press-we simply change out the plate when necessary. If your piece is two color, the plate is removed, the press is cleaned of all ink residue and we start all over again with the new ink color and the new plates.

Once your piece is cut to size, you’re ready to go. Sounds like a lot of work, but the beauty in the resulting printed piece is unmatched!

Thanks for letting us educate you briefly on our company and how letterpress printing works. We hope you see the attention to detail needed for such exquisite work and will be drawn to the tactile quality and handmade feel of our lines.


Ready to Order?
When you would like to learn more about how we can can work together to create your letterpressed wedding stationery, please contact us for a consultation.

www.peculiarpairpress.com
www.peculiarpairpress.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/peculiarpair

Favorite Vendor Day 5- Cardgirl Custom Invitations

Well today is our last day of Favorite Vendors...and I am so excited about our 2 vendors today! I have loved stationary since I was a little girl and while most kids wanted toys for their birthdays and Christmas I always asked for "fun" stationary! So today we are highlighting two custom wedding stationary designers! They are both so fabulous and so talented! Every time I meet with both of them I get so excited to see what they are doing and what is new in the industry! Thank you all for stopping by this week to see the vendors we work with on all our fabulous events! So without further Adieu let me first welcome Nessa Sander for Cardgirl Invitations....

Hello! My name is Nessa Sander. I own Cardgirl Invitations and run the CardgirlDIY blog. Thank you so much to A Savvy Event for inviting me to guest blog today!
Cardgirl Invitations is a custom design studio, specializing in letterpress wedding invitations. Because we do all custom work, we are able to incorporate custom artwork, colors and calligraphy into your invitation design. This adds such a personal touch to the invitations, as it offers a true one-of-a-kind look.
After the invitations have been mailed, I often work with my clients to "complete the look & feel" with wedding programs, escort cards, thank you notes, stickers…just about anything created on paper. I am also not shy about passing along the artwork to my clients for some DIY projects…as I know it all starts adding up. I have also created a DIY site for those clients of mine.Here's a quick summary of my favorite trends for 2009 wedding invitations:
My favorite new color combinations for 2009Yellow & BlackEggplant & Ecru
Grass Green & Poppy Teal & Slate GreyMy favorite design elements for 2009The Damask (of course!)Pattern printing onto the backside of your invitation cards
Scroll DesignBlock lettering complemented by hand letteringPrint a design onto the front side of your envelopesCardstockCrane's 100% Cotton Extra Heavy Cardstock(amazing, heavy like a coaster, works beautifully with a letterpress printing…and eco-friendly!)I hope you will take the time to visit my DIY blog for more ideas & my invitation website. Thanks again to A Savvy Event for including me in your awesome blog!

Favorite Vendor Day 3- Michelle Walker

Our next oh so fabulous photographer is the very talented Michelle Walker! We are so excited that she is guest blogging on our week of Favorites as she truly is one of our most favorite photographers! Michelle has worked with us on so many weddings I can't even count them all and she was even my wedding photographer for my wedding! I could not have imagined my wedding without her! So without further Adieu....Let's Welcome Michelle Walker~




Hi! I’m Michelle Walker and I am a wedding, portrait, & travel photographer based in the SF/Bay Area (and I travel worldwide for gigs).
People never ask me how many weddings I’ve photographed – why is that? The answer is (drum roll, please)… 375. That’s A LOT of weddings! I love weddings and still get (absurdly) excited for each one (just ask my girlfriends). Weddings inspire and move me and I’ve cried every single one.
Instead of a boring old BLOG entry, I want to do something fun and tell you about my 3 very favorite things that I’ve seen at the weddings I’ve been to:
1. A few years ago at a wedding at Villa Montalvo (which is one of my very favorite places on the planet), a fabulous couple did a tango as their first dance. It was sexy, sassy, and totally unexpected given the formality of this wedding. I’ve never forgotten it.
2. A beautiful bride I photographed at her family ranch in San Juan Bautista wore her mom’s dress. I’ve often heard of this, but I had never seen it actually done. She had it retailored to a more modern style, but kept most of its original design. Mom cried, the bride cried, I cried. It was beautiful.
3. My bestest friend (Amy) and I have developed an addition to my photography package called SnapShot. Our tagline is, “Let Their True Personalities Shine”, and boy does it! We set-up a portable photo studio at your wedding. Not one of those photo booths, but a real portrait studio with lighting, umbrellas, custom backdrop, and everything you need to make sure your guests take fun, candid & whacky photographs of themselves. Your guests will LOVE it!
And I sometimes get asked, “What was the favorite part of YOUR wedding?” When I was married (on 2.2.02), a friend of ours serenaded us to “What a Wonderful World” - A Cappella. It was truly magical. Now my husband and I do this really cheesy thing… wherever we are in the world, whatever we’re doing, whatever time it is, we call each other when we hear that song. I’ve been in a smoky club in Havana, the desert in Northern India, and at many a wedding when I’ve called him. It connects us and reaffirms our feelings about each other.
I hope you can get some inspiration from the ideas above. In the years that I’ve been photographing weddings, the best are the ones that reflect the couples personalities & style – not something that a magazine or friend tells you to do. Follow your heart and you’ll never go wrong.
Michelle Walker
Michelle Walker Photography
http://www.michellewalker.com/
michelle@michellewalker.com
(415) 235-5400

Favorite Vendors Day 3-Kate Webber Photography

Greetings Readers!

I hope you are enjoying our week of Favorite Vendors just as much as we have enjoyed sharing them with you! Today we have two fabulous photographers we are highlighting and we love working with both of them so much! They are both so talented and both so much fun! They make the events we work on together a blast and they capture the images as the story is unfolding right before our eyes! I always tell our clients that if you are going to spend all this money on one day it is equally important to allocate money in your budget for a good photographer to capture the day for you to remember for many years!! So without further Adieu Lets welcome Kate Webber....


How wonderful to be included in A Savvy Event’s week of Guest Blogs!

In trying to think of what I’d hope for you to know, I suppose the biggest question I always have of a photographer is why they do what it is they do! So, it seems only appropriate to answer that myself. I think it is an important element to consider when looking for someone to document such an important day, such as a wedding!

I shoot weddings because it is very fulfilling for me as a keen observer of life and, in turn, it is incredibly meaningful to others.

Just this morning, I received an email from the mother of one of my brides which beautifully illustrates this point: “…I want you to know that I can't imagine a better or more artful capturing of the joy, pageantry, emotions and just plain fun of that day that was so important to our family history. We were in such good hands through your incredible eye.”

I love the images I captured and created! I love that they loved them…and will for years to come!

Weddings are an open opportunity to do what makes me happy—to create or capture a moment, and for it to be always new and changing with each unique story. In one day, or sometimes over several days, I am able to touch on all the things I am passionate about in my work— fleeting moments, engaging portraits, carefully planned details (oh, how I love the little details) and gorgeous surroundings, to name just a few. They are all there, in one, very personal event! Crafted together, they tell a story about a special moment in time.





I feel so fortunate that I am able to work with clients that let me “do what I do” – connecting with my imagery as well as my personality to let the day unfold naturally. When I go into a wedding, I aim to tell the story as fully, beautifully and kindly as possible. It is a real blend of my fine art and editorial backgrounds playing off one another. This true love of art and design paired with a desire to visually express a story is what drives me.

Commissioned both nationally and abroad, I work with clients from near and far to capture their special days. It is always an honor and always a new adventure!

Thank you so much Kate for stopping by A Savvy Event to share all of this with our readers! Please make sure you check out her website