Thank you, thank you very much!

The wedding is over and you're back from your honeymoon. Now it's time to sit down and get to work on those thank you cards! Many brides are under the impression that you have 1 year to send out your thank you notes for your wedding. I disagree and so does wedding etiquette professional, Emily Post.

All thank yous should be written within 3 months of the receipt of the gift, and proper stationary should be used. Your thank you notes should be personalized and acknowledge the person and gift. Pre-printed thank you notes with a handwritten signature are not appropriate. Writing a sincere thank you will not only show your appreciation for their attendance at your event and their gift, but your guest will admire the special time you took to personally thank them.

Here are the Top 10 Do's and Don'ts of thank you notes (by Emily Post)

1. Do personalize your notes and make reference to the person as well as the gift.
2. Do remember that a gift should be acknowledged with the same courtesy and generous spirit in which it was given.
3. Do be enthusiastic, but don’t gush. Avoid saying a gift is the most beautiful thing you have ever seen unless you really mean it.
4. Don’t send form letters or cards with printed messages and just your signature; don’t use email or post a generic thank you on your wedding web site in lieu of a personal note.
5. Do promptly acknowledge the receipt of shipped gifts by sending a note right away or calling and following up with a written note in a day or two.
6. Don’t mention that you plan to return a gift or that you are dissatisfied in any way.
7. Don’t tailor your note to the perceived value of the gift; no one should receive a perfunctory note.
8. Do refer to the way you will use a gift of money. Mentioning the amount is optional.
9. Don’t include wedding photos or use photo cards if it will delay sending the note.
10. Don’t use being late as an excuse not to write. Even if you are still sending notes after your first anniversary, keep writing!

It's been a crazy few months...

These past few months have been full chaos and new adventures. In October my husband and I spent three weeks in Italy and Croatia. It was a wonderful time and we couldn't have asked for better weather. I've also been busy meeting with new clients and working with a talented graphic designer to relaunch the new "Simply Chic Event Planning" web site! In addition to my crazy lifestyle, I began training for the Philadelphia Breast Cancer 3-day Walk (60 miles)that's in October 2009. Our teams name is "Saving Second Base". We've been busy with fundraising and promoting awareness. I'm really looking forward to being apart of something so important.

Don't worry, I wasn't kidnapped!

Things have been kind of crazy these past few weeks! I've been very busy with meeting with new clients and reaching out to more vendors. I promise I'll be more disciplined when it comes to blogging!

Also, I'll be launching a new site with the help of a great friend and web designer, so be on the look out for that (Hopefully it will be done sometime October). I hope everyone had a happy and safe summer and are ready to welcome FALL!

Part II - Jennifer and Lance's Budget Conscious Wedding

"Next came the hunt for the perfect dress. As so many brides do, I changed my mind time and time again. In May 2006, I decided to go to a local dress shop and look at their gowns because I wasn't really happy with the one I'd chosen. The first one would have been better suited to getting married in my Mom's backyard (my original plan). I went in and found the dress. Since it wasn't a designer gown, it didn't have the designer pricetag. But it was based on Maggie Sottero's Dion so it had an expensive look for a low price. The dress, veil, and shoes came to $440.00.

I splurged on one area. The person doing the ceremony. We're not religious so we didn't want a church wedding. We also didn't want the Mayor doing it in a cold, impersonal ceremony at the courthouse. ("Do you? Yes. Do you? Yes? Good! You're married. Kiss her!" - Spaceballs) So what are the alternatives for people like us? In my research online, I came across an organization called Celebrant USA. They helped me find our officiant, Lois Heckman. And she was worth every penny. When we met with her for the first time at Shawnee, she was very personable and answered every question that I had. She was also intrigued with some of our ideas for the wedding, including the handfasting. I wanted something different from the unity candles and sand ceremonies that I had been seeing online and I wanted to incorporate a little bit of the Celtic flavor that has always interested me. Thus the theme was born: Our Favorite Things.

Lois was the best decision I made second to agreeing to marry Lance. She took the handfasting and ran with it. She also took the time to get to know us and really custom wrote a ceremony that was just so ... us. I recommend her to everyone I possibly can.

Since I wanted to incorporate our favorite things, I started looking for things that were reminiscent of us. I found our invitations online at The American Wedding Company. What says wedding better than a motorcycle draped in flowers? :o) Our favors and our cake were chocolate. Our centerpieces were made of candles and coffee beans. And I made our table numbers and table cards myself using a book theme, since I am a huge reader. That was about it in my DIY skill.

Our DJ was Lance's friend so he gave us a discounted rate. I found our photographer on Craigslist as he was just starting his business at the time. I found the woman who made our handfasting cord on eBay.

All in all, we had a fantastic day. The food was good. We got married in the most beautiful place possible for us. And we're living our happy ending."

Speaking of Cakes...

I stumbled across a great blog that I'm sure many of you will LOVE. It's called "Cake Wrecks" and it highlights professional cakes that have gone terribly wrong. I think it's something that you have to see to believe. The author of the blog features cakes with hysterical spelling errors, inappropriate cake themes, and anything else you could possibly imagine going wrong with a cake. Below are links to just a few of my favorites that have been featured on CAKE WRECKS!

"Speaking of Weeding"

"When Brides Have No Budget (or taste)"

"We Have a Failure to Communicate"

I'm back...

So the past few weeks have been really crazy at home. I've been in and out of doctors appointments trying to figure out what's wrong with me. Well I'm happy to say that things are better and I'm ready to start blogging again!

If you have any questions or would like some advice on a certain event topic, just shoot me an email, I'll be glad to answer it for you!

They're BIG and They're FAKE!

Wedding styles and trends come and go, and are always evolving. Something that has surely changed is the WEDDING CAKE. Brides have said "goodbye" to the traditional white butter cream frosted cake and "hello" to something BIG and FABULOUS. Wedding cakes are now becoming more of a focal point of the "big day". The bigger, the better!

With bigger and better cakes, comes a bigger price tag. Many brides want the towering cake that probably feeds 500 people, when in fact their guest count is only 180. In reality, who would want to spend an extra thousand dollars for cake that no one will eat? Not me! That's why bakeries and brides alike have gotten creative and have designed a great trick to get the look of the cake you want without breaking the bank! GO FAKE!

Many bakeries now offer "dummy layers" for your wedding cake. For example, say you want a 6 tier cake and your guest count is 150. Obviously, you will not need 6 layers for 150 people, so the baker will offer to incorporate fake layers into your cake to give you the height and look that you want. The fake layers usually consist of Styrofoam and are decorated exactly like the rest of the cake. I guarantee, your guests will not know the difference!


Another option is to go completely fake. I'm currently working with a bride who is on a tight budget. She would LOVE to have the towering decorative fondant cake, but it's just not an option. We have opted to create a tall, luxurious, fake wedding cake! The bottom layer will be real so that she will be able to cut the cake with her husband and as for the guests, we will have multiple sheet cakes that the kitchen staff will cut and serve to guests.

There are many sites that sell or rent fake wedding cakes, or kits that you can make them yourself. If you decide to contract a bakery to make your fake wedding cake, you will more than likely have to purchase your sheet cakes from them in return. Be sure to check with them before signing a contract.

Resources:

DIY Fake Wedding Cakes

Cake Rentals

More Cake Rentals