A Plum of a Wedding {Plum, Ivory and Gold Inspiration Board}

Tablescape (Brides.com), escort cards (Style Me Pretty), bouquet (Style Me Pretty), bridesmaid dresses (Martha Stewart Weddings), purple shoes (Leo Patrone), cake (Brides.com), invitation (Next Exit Photography), silverware (Brides.com) 

It may still be summer but we are in the thick of planning for our Fall and Winter weddings and plum is a big color for our brides. Plum is such a sophisticated shade and it looks gorgeous when paired with soft, warm tones like ivory and gold. This board is for one of Amy's brides. You know it's a Bridal Bubbly inspiration board if it has at least one cake (often two) and a pair of amazing non-bridaly shoes! 

And if you missed it yesterday, the blog giveaways have begun.  Yesterday's giveaway: a copy of the "Rough Guide to Weddings." We'll announce a winner on Wednesday so email us (weddings@engagingaffairs.com) anytime before then to enter.
Enjoy!
Laura and Alison  

Let the Giveaways Begin!

Welcome to the official relaunch of Bridal Bubbly! Yes, we know that the new design went up a few weeks ago but we were just too excited by Heather Bianchi's cool new header to keep it under wraps. So what's new with the blog?

Well, for one thing we will be profiling tons of new wedding products and vendors this month in tandem with our huge giveaway bonanza! We have over 20 giveaways and discounts during the month of July which means we are giving away something really cool almost every day. Everything from a gift certificate for honeymoon travel to a custom designed birdcage veil to custom lollipop favors. How fun is that?

Plus, we'll continue with the fabulous profiles of real weddings, the fun inspiration boards and the practical planning tips.  We'll be adding more profiles of our favorite wedding finds and starting a series of posts about relationship and marriage topics to take you beyond the "I Dos".  All fabulously fresh original content to help you plan the wedding of your dreams.

So check back every day and be sure to leave us comments and enter the giveaways. We love to hear from readers.  Happy comments make our hearts go pitter-patter!  And, most of all, thanks for reading!

Our first giveaway of the month is a copy of the book Getting Hitched: The Rough Guide to Weddings for Girls and Guys. So, this is a great wedding guide (and I've read a lot). It's a practical and down-to-earth guide for modern couples, providing all the advice and information you need to plan your dream day, whether that be a "green" wedding, a commitment ceremony, an alternative bash, or a traditional church-and-champagne affair. From the practicalities of budgets and venue-booking to the emotional curveballs you'll be thrown along the way - whether cold feet or mutineering bridesmaids - it will help you pull off your perfect wedding without losing your mind.

If you'd like a chance to win a copy of this book (and perhaps save yourself some sanity and cash), send an email to weddings@engagingaffairs.com. We'll pick a winner on Wednesday. Good luck!
Laura

Real Wedding Planning {Inspiration Board}

Photo credits, clockwise from top left: aisle (The Knot), bride with bridesmaids (The Knot), manzanita trees (Elizabeth Ann Designs), lanterns, (Getmarried.com), boutonniere (Getoffwhite.com), cupcakes (Georgetown Cupcakes via Celebrations.com), escort stones (pacificbrideguide.blogspot.com), tablescape (Martha Stewart Weddings), floral centerpiece (Martha Stewart Weddings) 

Our real bride, Renee', is back with the next step in her wedding planning process:

Keeping in mind that we're getting married in a garden (you can check out our venue in my last blog post), we want to incorporate elements of nature into our wedding day. The colors we chose are apple green and white with some touches of light pink (not too girly for the groom, but including a lot of green as it is both of our favorite color). Our wedding will be in the evening, and we are envisioning a fun and classy summer garden party as an overall theme. Enjoy!
Renee'

Get Ready for the Bridal Bubbly Relaunch Celebration!

You may have noticed that we rolled out our new site design a couple of weeks ago. (We were so excited by the fabulous new look that we just couldn't wait!) But now we want to make sure that everyone knows that we have a fun new design and great content so we are celebrating our blog relaunch for the entire month of July!

Starting on Monday, July 5th (this coming Monday) we will begin a month-long series of really great giveaways! We love finding amazing wedding products and sharing them with you so we have gathered over 20 amazing wedding products for you to win!!! That means a new giveaway just about every day. How cool is that? Plus, we'll have sitewide discounts for readers at some of our favorite wedding sites. And, of course, we'll continue with the great original content. Lots of real weddings, new inspiration boards and vendor profiles.

So spread the word and be sure to check the blog every day for really cool new giveaways!

A Disney Romance {Kristine & Alec}

From the moment I met Kristine, we clicked.  Whether it was the fact that we both went to Duke or the fact that she (and the groom) works for Disney (how much fun is that?) or the fact that we had a similar sense of humor, we had the best time working together. Add to this a fabulous groom, lovely families, gorgeous venues, fun details and I was in wedding planner heaven.

We didn't have tons of time to put the wedding together (6-7 months for a Spring wedding in D.C. is not long) so we opted for a Friday evening wedding to get our choice of vendors.  After a citywide venue search, Kristine and Alec fell in love with the National Museum of Women in the Arts.  New York Avenue Presbyterian Church happens to be right across the street from the museum so it was the perfect choice for the ceremony site.

The wedding day looked to be potentially rainy but that didn't dampen the spirits as the bridal party got ready at The Willard Hotel. The Willard really does has great suites for getting ready!  The ladies were transformed by Gustavo's makeup team and Susie McNair's hair expertise. At the end, the bride was getting hair and makeup done simultaneously to stay on schedule!

The bridal party hopped on a shuttle for monument photos before the ceremony so they could get good light (and miss the rain).  I love the jumping shots because this was a really fun group!

The groom had to stop for ice cream before heading over to the ceremony! I mean, can you blame him?

The programs, menus and other reception paper goods were designed by yours truly (using fonts and inks to coordinate with the couple's Smock invitations) and printed by my favorite folks at Rockville Printing.  I am getting mad Photoshop skills (okay, maybe not mad, but definitely proficient).

Rev. Peyton (another absolute favorite of mine) presided over the ceremony that featured a solo by the bride's college friends from her days singing in the Duke accapella group Lady Blue. Guests threw biodegradable confetti as Kristine and Alec ran out the doors and over to the reception.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts looked absolutely stunning with the shades of dark blue and white that the couple had selected.  Nick Perez of Multiflor created gorgeous white arrangements of hydrangea, orchids and stock with lots of glass and candlelight that sat atop shimmery dark blue linens. John Farr Lighting created the romantic ambiance with soft amber lighting that seemed to make the room glow.

And of course, we had to have bride and groom Mickey ears!

Instead of traditional escort cards, we had four large white frames with canvases covered with a pretty swirly blue fabric (that went well with the table linen) and white tags pinned to the fabric with guests' names on them (calligraphy in dark blue ink by Caren Milman).  It was something unique and it fit in well with the museum setting. Alison and I spent a better part of the week before the wedding painting the frames and covering the canvases and we had a lot of fun!

After the guests took their tags, we transformed the frames into "charity boards." Each of three boards had a description of a charity near and dear to the couple: Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, Special Olympics, and Honor Flight. Each guest received a custom paper tag that said "Share the Love" and an instruction card explaining that they were to pin their tag to one of the three frames downstairs to vote for their favorite charity.  The bride and groom would then donate money to each charity according to the votes.  People had a lot of fun voting and coming back to check on the status of their favorite cause during the evening.

Another fun detail that fit into the museum setting was the live painter, Irina Koren, who created a portrait of the bride and groom's first dance.  It's always fun to watch Irina work and the couple gets a beautiful painting of their wedding.

After an amazing seated dinner by Occasions (and the incomparable Joel Wolke), guests watched from the balcony as the bride and groom danced their first dance.

Then the bride danced with her father and finally everyone took to the dance floor while the fabulous band Nightsong took the stage.  I have to say this band was fabulous and kept people dancing all night!

The only time guests stop dancing for a second was when the bride and groom cut the cakes by the lovely Kendall from Kendall's Cakes (don't you love the custom bobblehead cake topper?). 

The groom's cake was a replica of the bride and groom coming down the Splash Mountain ride at Magic Kingdom since working together on this ride was how the couple met.  

And see if you can find the hidden Mickey in the icing on the white wedding cake.  Okay, it's not hard to find in this close-up shot. It was a lot harder to find when you had a whole cake to examine, let me tell you!

Another big hit of the evening was the s'mores station.  The bride and groom love s'mores so we had a do-it-yourself s'mores making station.  Everyone loved this!

The final surprise of the evening were Mickey Mouse cookies that Joel and I conspired to do without the bride and groom knowing.  It was fun to see their faces as the trays of decorated cookies came out.

This wedding was so much fun to work on and to attend. It was filled with creative touches that were personal to the couple and were just plain fun. I loved every moment of it! 

I have to thank all the wonderful people who went above and beyond to make the day happen. Thanks to Linda (a Disney alum herself) from Linder and Associates for flawlessly (as always) coordinating the transportation, Michelle Alberg from Michelle's Memos for the beautiful invitations from Smock, Regal Limousine for the getaway Rolls Royce, Tom Bowen for video coverage so unobtrusive we almost forgot he was there, the team from the Women's Museum who let us have s'mores, and my phenomenal assistants Alison and Maeve. A special thank you to Juan Carlos Briceno and his team at Fotobriceno for the gorgeous images.

We wish Kristine and Alec lives full of imagination and wonder (what else?)!
Laura

Photographer Spotlight {Corey Hendrickson}

We love finding fabulous new (to us) vendors. Check out these fun engagement photos by talented photographer Corey Hendrickson.

Corey photographed Heather and Michael (and Wyatt) a few weeks back in Arlington VA.  They had perfect weather and plenty of people to work with at the Lincoln Memorial.  After that they walked around Georgetown.  Heather and Michael are getting married August 7th 2010 in California, which will be photographed by Corey.

Corey uses a quiet and artistic approach to create photographs that are elegant, natural and unique. He works in 35 mm digital and medium format film. Martha Stewart Weddings, VT Vows, and InStyle Weddings are among the publications that feature his photographs. His website, with more photographs and booking information, is http://hendricksonphotographyweddings.com.

Navy & Gold Wedding Inspiration

Clockwise from top left: shoes (Style Me Pretty), boutonniere (Style Me Pretty), cake (In Style Weddings), flowers (The Knot), M&M favors (The Knot), quilt banner (The Knot), parasol couple (Style Me Pretty), seed favors (The Knot), program (The Knot), bridesmaids (The Knot)

Continuing with our navy blue inspiration, we have the fabulous shade paired with a shade of gold between sunshine and mustard. Navy and yellow doesn't have to be just nautical!  The sophisticated shade of yellow really livens up dark blue dresses. We love the cake decorated with blueberries and topped with lemon peel.  So fresh and fun for summer!

Laura and Alison

True Blue Inspiration {Navy, Orange and Pink}

Photo credits clockwise from top left: table (Brides.com), bridesmaids (Style Me Pretty), bride & groom (Mark Brooke Photography), cake (The Knot), clutch (The Knot), sea urchin tray (Style Me Pretty), invitations (The Knot), reception (Style Me Pretty)

Our team has several upcoming weddings using navy as a base color  so we thought we'd do some fun color combination inspiration this week. Love mixing orange and pink for that punch of color.  And you know we love those orange shoes! Enjoy!

Laura and Alison  

Memorial Weekend at The Mellon {Kristen and Eric}

I wouldn't normally recommend being anywhere near Rolling Thunder over Memorial weekend but being downtown in the middle of all the madness was definitely worth it for Kristen and Eric's amazing wedding.  While the bikers did create some logistical challenges for us (we had to load everyone into the Mellon super-early before all the streets were closed off and we had to reroute the shuttles around the parade), the day turned out to be fabulous!

The bride begin the wedding day getting ready at The Willard Hotel with a hair and makeup team from Gustavo Mottola. She was completely calm and happy (even though she'd only gotten a few hours of sleep the night before).

The bridesmaids donned mint green dresses and the bride slipped into her gorgeous gown before heading off for St. Matthew's Cathedral for the ceremony.  My favorite part of the traditional Catholic wedding mass was the rows of Kristen's kindergarten students waiting eagerly to see their teacher.  They were so excited they were bouncing up and down and nearly passed out when they saw her! Very sweet!

After the ceremony, Kristen and Eric hopped in a classic white Rolls and took a few photos down around the Capitol before joining their guests at the Mellon Auditorium.  Frank from Rock Creek Limo pulled together the many limos and shuttle buses (including the classic car) we used on the wedding day and was a pleasure to work with.

At the reception, guests enjoyed cocktails upstairs on the terrace before entering the spectacular ballroom. Karen Kallmyer did a lovely job with the natural look that Kristen wanted for the tables and escort card display, using lots of wheat grass, bark and moss to create the rustic yet sophisticated decor.

The tables were set with white linens and gold and white china for a crisp, clean look.  White and green menu cards were tucked into white hemstiched linen napkins.

Capitol Decor and Events provided the glossy white dance floor and lounge furniture while John Farr Lighting provided the lighting.

The bride and groom took a few photos at The Mellon with the fabulous team of photographers from Hamilton Photography.

After cocktails, guests entered the auditorium to the sounds of Party On The Moon, unquestionably one of the best bands I've ever worked with.

After an amazing dinner by Susan Gage Caterers, guests took to the dance floor and kept the floor packed for the rest of the night.

Party on the Moon was nothing short of amazing, inspiring guests to do back flips (literally)!

A huge thanks to all the vendors who put in lots of extra hours to be set up early and to the band who drove up from Atlanta and was so easy to work with. Everyone went above and beyond to pull off a wedding on what may be one of the toughest days to work in downtown D.C. (especially if you're working on the Rolling Thunder parade route like we were). A big hug to Jenna at The Mellon for giving us the extra time we needed to pull off the set-up, and kudos to my assistants Renee and Nicole. I couldn't have done it without you!

Thanks to Mark Hamilton for the stunning images and for being such a delight to work with. And a special thank you to Kristen and Eric for letting us share their gorgeous wedding!
Laura