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Let's Get This Party Started ... If Only There Was an Emcee

So, when you hire a professional DJ or Band for your wedding, one of the elements of their job that I always ask about is who is the emcee for the evening? An emcee is the person is the designated driver for the night. They make the appropriate announcements, they keep the order of events happening, basically they run the show from the entertainment perspective. And most wedding related DJ's and Bands have a person whose role is not only to play awesome music to also make sure that everything happens on the timeline. This means that they invited Father Bob up to make the toast, the invite the Brides Father George up for their speech, they invite the crowd to join Groom Billy and his mother Ethel on the dancefloor. Basically, the emcee is the one who guides the roles of honor up to the spotlight.

From the point of a wedding planner, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is not having an emcee. {And keep in mind, the emcee doesn't need to be from the entertainment, they can be appointed by the Bride and Groom}. We had a couple this year who opted to have their amazingly talented DJ friend spin at the wedding. And seriously, this woman played awesome music, to the point where I wished I had an iphone and Shazam since I am so terrible with song names, but I digress. The DJ had the whole turntables thing down. She rocked. BUT, she was not an emcee. An element of the wedding day that I believe is crucial. She apparently told my bride and groom that she had "it covered" which really meant she had a microphone for someone else. Who that someone else was, I am still waitng to meet them. As the bridal party entered the room I asked the DJ if she was announcing them into the room {as an aside, when I created the timeline with the bride and groom, I was told that said DJ had the emcee'ing thing down} she looked at me as if I had asked her to eat fire. The response I got was "I spin tunes, not speak". Hmmmm, okay. So your truly emcee'd the wedding that night.

If you want the evening to flow well, you need someone to guide it. You need someone to announce things, plain and simple. Its very hard for your guests to know its your first dance if no one actually tells them. Its hard to tell 200+ people you are cutting the cake if someone with a microphone doesn't let them in on what is happening. So please, before you sign the dotted line with your choice entertainment, please make sure they have a designated speaker for the party. Otherwise, you may as well not have any special moments throughout to share with your guests since they'll miss them anyways.

Real Wedding: Swanky Southampton Affair

I may be a bit biased, since I had a tented wedding myself, but I love tented weddings. I do. I love creating this fabulous experience for your guests literally from the ground up. Adding details throughout the day that make the space truly your own. Kristin and Jarret did just that. They had a truly scrumptious wedding. It was magical. I loved every single day of being apart of their wedding day. I'll let the images speak for themselves:











Vendors:

Venue: Whitefield Estate
Tent: Sperry
Caterer: Thyme and Again
Flowers: Claire Bean
Photography: Craig Paulson
Stationery: Pen & Paper Design
Keepsake: Paloma's Nest
Wedding Planning: Anderson Green Events

When Bad Photography Happens To Beautiful Brides {&Grooms}

This first lesson we'll start off this series with is about the extreme importance of hiring a Q-U-A-L-I-T-Y photographer for your wedding day.

Firstly, I will preface this post with the following: I totally get that budget plays a large part in choosing your wedding day vendors BUT there are some amazing photographers out there who are very talented that aren't charging 5 figures for a wedding photography package.

One of our first weddings of the 2010 season had a gorgeous bride and a handsome groom. They were also the nicest people on the planet. Their big day was filled with so much love and family, it was hard not to cry during the ceremony! Their reception was pretty cool as well - the band literally had guests rocking the dance floor the entire night ... to the point were guests didn't want to sit down for their food. It was that awesome of a reception.

But, like everyone getting married - my couple had a budget that they were working within. So, on the recommendation of a family friend, they hired a Wedding Photographer. While this person was extremely nice and carried a fancy camera, a quality photographer he was not. He continuously was absent for major image worthy moments. He also came without an assistant, and used myself and my assistant throughout the day and evening to carry his equipment, help set up shots and generally be his assistant. Not the wedding planner's role at all. And just about every shot he took was completely generic. Nothing creative, nothing exciting and nothing that wasn't just basic.

Obviously everyone's tastes are different but you want incredible images to remember your day. Not mediocre images that you hide when guests come over. There's too much talent out there to use someone who hasn't picked up any tricks of the trade since 1950. You want to hire photographers that create images that literally make your heart stop. Not images that look like they should be on some blog that makes fun of images.

After all is said and done on your wedding day - literally all you will have to savor the memories of one of the biggest days of your life is your photographs and your video {if you are getting a videographer}. Wouldn't you rather spend a bit more on fabulous photography?

Monday Musings: Our 2010 Wedding Season Has Ended

Our final wedding of 2010 happened this weekend and it was beautiful! The couple had the most amazing weather for November, I was so happy for them!

We've got lots of exciting blog posts coming up: Real Wedding images and a new series: Lessons Learned: We will go through many of our weddings from the 2010 season and discuss what we learned as planners and as brides and grooms. We did a similar series last year that was very well received.

I took this image this weekend and I love the colors in it:

Celebrating Veterans Day

"To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with lots of pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations." - Woodrow Wilson, Nov 1919

Please take a moment today to reflect on everything that America's military has done in order to keep this country free. Take a moment to thank our veterans for their hard work, their bravery and their lives.


Via The Examiner

Real Wedding :: A Manhattan Soiree

One of my most favorite things about Liz and Matt's wedding is that they had a theme, they stuck with it but they didn't over do it. It was a very classy cocktail reception at Studio 450 this Summer. They created an atmosphere for their guests that was sophisticated, chic and above all, they had tons of room for dancing! Which the guests did a ton of.

Check out some fabulous details, shot by my amazingly talented friend, Trent Bailey:









Vendors:

Venue: Studio 450
Caterer: World Wide Events
DJ: DJ Gaza
Flowers: Opalia Flowers
Rentals: Broadway Party Rentals