May Mansion Wedding Bliss!

Jeanne and Mike's Wedding took place at beautiful Stone Manor, a private estate overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Malibu. Their day was perfect in every way. Truly Yours Catering did a phenomenal job with the menu and the cupcakes from Vanilla Bake Shop were delicious.

A special thank you to Jackie Combs from Jackie Combs Floral Design and Kerry Corcoran from David Michael Photography. You both were great and your work was even better.

Congratulations to Jeanne and Mike. They were a great couple to work with and I wish them a lifetime of love and happiness.

What's Hot in Invitations

As a wedding planner, we know how important it is for you to stay abreast of up and coming trends in each and every aspect of the industry. To make your market research a little easier, here are some hot new trends for wedding stationery that you can expect to see more of in the coming months and year. They're what your well-informed brides will be asking for.

Unexpected New Wedding non-Color: Clear!
Crystal, glass, and diamonds are synonymous with weddings, so why not carry the notion over to your stationery as well? Although it goes with any accent color you can imagine, it is especially powerful with black and jewel tones such as red, hot pink, electric blue, and royal purple.


Vintage and ethnic inspired prints
Vintage patterns go hand in hand with the letterpress rage and add a traditional touch to invitations, while ethnic prints grow in popularity as couples choose to make their weddings more personal. Whether it reflects the heritage of the bride and/ or groom, or just honors a favorite travel destination, it is a classy and subtle way to pay homage to another culture that is significant to the couple. A great pattern from a stationery suite can be carried through to cake, linens, and even lighting, tying the event together from start to finish.


Unique Die-cuts
While die-cut pocket invitations and rounded corners have been popular for several years, we are starting to see more intricate and elaborate die-cuts. Look out for non-traditional shaped pockets like the fan pocket at left, as well as sophisticated corners on layered invitations.


Font- tabulous Designs
In recent years a popular concept has been to print the wedding information in a conservative font and highlight the names of the bride and groom in a more elegant or artistic script. While this trend is still very in style, we will also see it taken one step further with the use of multiple fonts becoming part of the design itself. Bold letters reminiscent of vintage posters and "distressed" fonts will be among the favorites. During a time when everyone is looking for ways to cut back on the budget, this fad allows the budget bride to make a bold statement without the cost of specialty papers and pricey embellishments. Who wouldn't love that?

Summer Garden with an Asian Flair!

Congrats to the happy couple married last month! Check out the fab photographer blog http://conniemchung.blogspot.com/ for some of the details ...it was a lovely affair which we were so happy to be apart of! Enjoy

Marcia

Bride Save House From Burning on Wedding Day!!!

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – Georgette Fogarty-Clemons was heading home from her wedding Sunday evening, looking forward to relaxing with a few friends. Her friend was driving slowly because they had some leftover cake in the car, along with hydrangeas and lilies still in water.

That's when Fogarty-Clemons spotted smoke from the side of her neighbor's house in Bridgeport and told her friend to back up and stop.

Still in her wedding gown and high heels, Fogarty-Clemons jumped out of the car.

"I stepped right into a pile of mud," Fogarty-Clemons said. "I just thought to myself, 'Oh my God, my shoes.'"

"Where are you going?" asked her friend, Hanifah Bost, thinking the smoke was from a barbecue. Guests following them were equally perplexed.

"That's fire," Fogarty-Clemons said. "Come on; we have to tell them."

Fogarty-Clemons made it to the house and pounded on the door, alerting the residents to the fire. A woman and her 16-year-old son and their pets were able to escape unharmed.

"We have no way of knowing what would have happened had she not come to the door," said Susan Schneiderman, who owns the house that caught fire.

As firefighters arrived and battled the blaze after members of the family were alerted, Fogarty-Clemons folded her muddied wedding dress nearby.

"She was doing her best to get everybody out," Bridgeport Deputy Fire Chief Bruce Porzelt said. "It's got to be a funny thing to end up doing that on your wedding day, in your wedding gown."

Fire officials said the cause is under investigation. The home's occupants were not injured, though a firefighter suffered a wrist injury and a lieutenant's shoulder was injured, Porzelt said.

Schneiderman said it was "surreal" to have a bride show up in her wedding dress to say her house was on fire.

"I wished her mazel tov, remember that," Schneiderman said. "I thought it was amazing and selfless."

Her son, Lowell Eitelberg, said Fogarty-Clemons and her friend made sure no one else was at home, then let him use their cell phone. "I think it was a show of real community," he said.

Fogarty-Clemons, who also knocked on a neighbor's door to alert them, said what she did was a natural reaction.

"They are my neighbors," said Fogarty-Clemons, a 31-year-old tax accountant who has two boys, ages 7 and 4. "God forbid if there was a fatality. How could I explain that to my children? I just couldn't live with myself if I didn't do anything."

Bost and Fogarty-Clemons said the occupants initially didn't believe it was a fire — until they showed them the flames. They grew nervous as the residents went back in to get their pets, so Bost went into the foyer to try to coax them out.

"We were getting emotional because the fire was spreading," Fogarty-Clemons said.

Schneiderman and her son returned to the house Monday to assess the damage. A white plastic fence was curled and melted from the blaze, windows were boarded up and framing was charred.

"The den is totally gone," Schneiderman told her son.

Schneiderman said she's not sure what caused the fire, which apparently started on a rear porch. She said she is an unemployed attorney and her husband an unemployed contractor.

Fogarty-Clemons said she hopes the community rallies to help the family.

"They lost so much," Fogarty-Clemons said. "I think the focus should be on them and what we do for them."

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Associated Press writer Stephanie Reitz contributed to this story.