Alleluia - Melanie and Mark's Wedding

I really feel lucky to be a wedding planner. It is an amazing thing to be connected with people on their happiest day to date. And it is even that more special when you have sung with the bride on a countless number of concerts throughout the years. On October 3, Melanie, who sings with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus with me, got married to Mark! No inclement weather was going to bring this party down! They had a day of activities at their house: ceremony, clambake/BBQ luncheon and a cocktail party at night.

Melanie contacted me a few weeks before her wedding and got right to work with a beautiful invitation set and working with a beautiful rich red and chartreuse green. I liked the strong colors and the simple design. We moved quickly to secure all her vendors for the big day.

I was honored to have such a wonderful team:

Christopher Dumas Photography - the images say it all. Christopher is an artist. Period. Take a look at his slide show of Melanie and Mark's wedding (which will be at the end of this entry). I think when I watched it for the first time all I could do was say "wow" to my computer monitor over and over.

Tables of Content Catering - thank you to Linda, Chef Steve, Deb and the rest of the TOC team for an amazing event. From the tasting to the actual event, there was not a piece of the process that was painful at all! Their staff bent over backwards to make sure the day went on without a hitch. And the food! YUM YUM YUM! And the presentation. Who could ask for anything more?

Rentals Unlimited - Jenna is just the best and hardest worker and she happens to be one of my best friends too! We had beautiful linens and EVERYTHING else in between including dishes, glasses, tables, chairs, dance floor and a tent! Everytime I called Jenna to ask her a question about adding something, she did it quickly and with a smile!

DJ Dave provided by Ormonde Productions - Tony doesn't just do incredible lighting. He has a great team of entertainment specialists! Dave kept the crowd dancing all the way until the end!

Melanie's dear friend, fellow TFC'er (and my bookkeeper!!) Joan Sherman made the incredible cake that was inspired by a cake from Chocolate Springs in Lenox, and a few of her friends gave the gift of music at the ceremony by singing: Jo, Jeramie, Deb, Mark and Joy.

And last but not least, Kerri who was the lead coordinator for this event while I was in Beverly with another wedding. THANK YOU KERRI! I didn't have a worry in the world knowing you were at the helm!

Enjoy the slide show from Christopher Dumas Photography:

http://christopherdumas.net/extra/wilder_highlight/

These are the days of true romancing...!

Jill and Steve got married on Saturday! This was not the driest of days, but we quickly went to 'Plan B' and was able to adjust plans but still have a wonderful day! Some of the guests even commented that it added to the drama of the day! Luckily by the time the bride was ready to come to the church the rain essentially stopped. We had a few little downbursts but we even snuck in the Sparklers at the end of the night!

This was also the first wedding that I had where a bride and groom from another wedding (Brad and Laura) were in the wedding party of another wedding. Brad is Jill's brother and let me tell you, it was so nice to see them both again as well as Laura's mother, father and brother.

I was very lucky to have Jill's mother Merry, help in planning the entire day. This is what I love about the planning process - meeting wonderful people, spending time with them and then becoming friends with them! After all this planning, I think Merry and I will either need to find another wedding to plan or go into group therapy! :)
I had the honor of working with some of my favorite vendors again and also the chance to meet a few new ones:

1) JWrobel - Jessica always impresses me with her designs and we work very well together. She knocked it OUT OF THE PARK! Thanks Jess!! You and your team were wonderful to work with!
2) Kahootz - What else do I say about my favorite band in the world except for the fact that they are incredible and people danced all night long! Chris - you are a wonder and thank you for another great wedding!
3) Eugeneworks.com - I even wore my special shoes for Mr. Eugene but he is more than just a wonderful videographer, he is also a great friend to me. His video edit WOWed the crowd and we all enjoyed watching parts of getting ready and the ceremony.
4) Joya Beauty - When Joanne is "in the house" or in this case, the Inn, I know everyone will look beautiful and it will STAY! Bravo AGAIN for making my lovely bride and mother of bride and maids and everyone else even MORE beautiful with your special gift!
5) RI Photobooths - People had SO much fun in the photobooth!!
6) TSH Catering - I always know people will RAVE about the food when Paul and Tim are there. Thanks for your hard work and for the awesome crew you brought to help us all out.
7) Boston Cigar Company - what a nice and unique thing to offer to our guests!
8) Jenny's Cakes - delicious and beautiful wedding cake AND Groom's cake! YUM!!!
9) Virginia Crumb - harpist - As a fellow musician, I can't say anything except WOW. It touches me when great musicians share of themselves and add so much to the special day.
10) A Dozen Eggs - cookie favors - I have been following this company since I heard about them on the Food Network. Not only were our customized cookies BEAUTIFUL but they taste good too
11) Rentals Unlimited - BEAUTIFUL linens, overlays, chargers, trumpet glasses and sundae glasses
12) Canditto - the most fun new technology! Guests had a lot of fun with it!
13) Joe Puleo - thanks to you and Lorna for a great day of shooting!
14) Last but not least - Ormonde Productions - Tony's lanterns added a magical touch to the property and lighting up the foliage was the extra special magic we were looking for!

And my INCREDIBLE assistants: Jenna, Marla, Bonnie and Caroline for the day and then Amanda and Joe for the evening! I can't thank you all enough for helping out!!!!

We at The Perfect Details were BUSY with well, DETAILS! :)

We did:

1) Save the dates
2) Invitations
3) Custom artwork of the teahouse at the property
4) Ceremony programs with a special insert
5) Menu cards
6) Place Cards
7) Wish Cards
8) Amenities Baskets
9) Customized Cookie Toppers
10) Spice jar labels and tags
11) Customized cigar labels

Congrats again to Jill and Steve!! They are such a great couple and we definitely had some great laughs and fun along the way. I am honored to be a part of your special day!!

"What a Wonderful World!" (and wedding!)

Yesterday we were lucky enough to be in Newport for ANOTHER glorious day of weather for Sarah and Kyle's wedding! Sarah had lots of wonderful vintage touches throughout her day including a hankie station ("For your tears of joy"), a Cigar Station, a very yummy candy station with homemade chocolate lollipops and a quilt station. The groom's mother made a beautiful quilt and guests signed circles of fabric that will be sewn into the quilt. A very lovely momento of a great day.

I also have the honor of singing in the Tanglewood Fesitval Chorus with Sarah's father, Jim. WAAAAY back when Sarah started planning her wedding, we thought about how Jim could sing and I thought, it would be great if he could sing their first dance song. As it turned out, he sang the song, "What a Wonderful World", which has a lot of meaning to his wife as well. We kept this as a surprise from Mrs. Gordon for the entire year and I have to say, there were lots of tears of joy while Jim sang (and he did a GREAT JOB!) and the happy couple danced their first dance. Ahhh.. this is what dreams are made of!

Speaking of dreams, I had yet another dream team for this wedding including my two wonderful assistants - Kerri and Amanda. THANK YOU LADIES! I cannot say it enough but I am so lucky to have such talent with me on the day of. My other favorite wedding vendors included:

• Kristin Spencer Photography - Kristin and Jared are too wonderful for worlds and so incredibly nice and funny too!
  
• Stoneblossom Florals - the best best best!!!
  
• Ormonde Productions - Tony did it AGAIN with perfect lighting!!
  
• David Natola - DJ - One of my favorites and SOOO professional!
  
• Maureen of Cake Couture - her tiramisu cakee is so yumm!


• Rentals Unlimited - Beautiful linens and great custom pieces!


• Bettencourt Videography - Josh and Jeff were a great team!

And a big thank you to Erin and Nicole over at Belle Mer. It is sad that this is my last Belle Mer wedding of the season but I hope to have many more weddings there soon!

Congratulations Sarah and Kyle! We hope you enjoyed your Newport wedding full of "The Perfect Details!"

Sweet Dreams are made of This!

This past weekend, Jo and Mike finally tied the knot! Another terrific day of weather in lovely Newport. I have been working with Jo for about 18 months on her wedding. I know I say this all the time, but I am really honored to be a part of such a special day and Jo is no exception. We have shared a lot of laughs and bonding moments. Jo - you know you are now stuck with me as a friend!!! I also loved my time with her "Mummy" and meeting the rest of her family. This weekend I also met the wonderful groomsmen and many more friends of the couple. They were surrounded by a lot of love!

Did I mention that Jo LOVES details!! She had such a great vision and som many wonderful ideas. It was SOOOOO much fun to work with her!

This was such a fun wedding to be a part of! And not only was it so much fun for me, but I had such a wonderful team again!

Kristin & Jared Spencer - Kristin Spencer Photography & RI Photobooths

Mike Callahan - Black Tie Video (your instant replay ALWAYS gets to me!!)

Joyce & team at Stoneblossom Florals

Tony Ormonde - Ormonde Productions (terrific lighting!!!)

Rob Caplin & crew of the Boston Party Machine - Jazz Quartet

Pat Lally & Dave Natola - Thanks for keeping the dancing floor moving and grooving!

My great assistants - Amanda and Deanna!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

Jeff - After party coordinator - thanks for coming and helping us out!!

In addition to the planning and coordination, we were lucky to be a part of the following "Perfect Details":

1) Save the Date design

2) Invitation Design & Printing

3) Welcome Bag elements - tags, welcome letter, labels for gummy lobsters (yummy) and salt water taffy (yummier) and water bottles

4) Customized programs

5) After party drinking cups

7) The cutest cocktail napkins

8) Table Numbers

9) Place Cards

10) Menu cards

11) Signage for welcome drinks and signature drinks

12) Cupcake stand

13) Amenties Baskets

14) Customized postage stamps

15) And.... homemade chocolate chip cookies! I made 13 batches of chocolate cookie dough! That's 26 sticks of butter, 156 ounces of chocolate chips and a LOT of love

I really enjoyed staying in Newport for the two weddings I coordinated. I was a little sad to leave my lovely little rental home on the "Point". What a great time to be there for Folk Festival and Jazz Festival!

Thank you Jo and Mike for letting The Perfect Details be a part of your special day!

(edit: This blogging site is making it difficult to lay the pics out the way I want so please forgive the weird placement!)

Don't Stop Believing!!

Another wonderful wedding at Belle Mer in Newport for a great wedding couple! Britt and Kevin were referred to me by another great couple and from the start, I had their number and understood their vision for their day. And we had the PICK of days! Probably the best day to date for the summer of 2009, which has proven to be pretty wet and rainy. Not for our day!! I woke up to sunshine and blue skies.

Not only did we help plan and design the entire day, but we created the save the dates, menu cards, place cards, invitations and special signs for the day.

There were a lot of wonderful details for this wedding and I am as always, honored to work with some of my most favorite people in the wedding industry including:

• 
  
  Rachael Berkowitz - hair & makeup
  
• 
  
  Stoneblossom Florals - exquisite florals!
  
• 
  
  Ormonde Productions - incredible lighting
  
• 
  
  Nikki Cole Photography and her second photographer Chris
  
• Cake Couture - delicious and beautiful

• Hip Pocket Orchestra - they totally rocked the house!
  
• Rentals Unlimited - beautiful napkins
  
• Jenna & Kerri - my terrific assistants for the day - thank you!!!!!!
  

Thanks Britt and Kevin for allowing me to be a part of your special day. I enjoyed meeting their wonderful families and their wedding party. They were all so helpful and caring which is nice to see. Stay tuned - next week is another fabulous Newport wedding! And yes, the voodoo magic for great weather for the next wedding is already underway!

All you need is LOVE (and some weather voodoo magic)...

It's hard to imagine June is almost gone and the 4th of July is around the corner! And it's hard to also imagine dry days in June because it has definitely been one of the SOGGIEST Junes in my memory! When I was getting ready to go to New Jersey for Lauren and Chad's wedding, I had some serious soul-selling discussions with the big guy "upstairs" in order to have some beautiful weather to match my beautiful bride and groom.

And wow - did we have beautiful weather! What a way to set the stage for my first wedding in New Jersey! Lauren and Chad's wedding at the Park Savoy in Florham Park, NJ was top notch. A special shout out for Sherry, Susan, Mary and Diane. I wish I could have those ladies with me at EVERY wedding!! They are true professionals and made me feel at home.

And I could not have done the wedding without Rachael Berkowitz who did some BEAUTIFUL hair for the wedding! Jeanine Mangan rocked out the makeup with her style and humor, April Beer was the perfect celebrant to marry the lovely couple, The Rhythm Shop (and I am in love with them) ROCKED THE HOUSE with their incredible music and the amazing photography team of David, Amy and Joe from David Lau Photography completed a great team of professionals that make all the difference in having a nice wedding to having a GREAT wedding! Hopefully it won't be too long before I am back in the tri-state area to do another wedding!

Not only did we coordinate Lauren's wedding but she also hired us to do all her stationery items from save the date to invitation, to ceremony program, place card/luggage tags, table numbers, candy table signage and bags, menu cards and welcome bag letters and labels.

I even got to be Lauren's "something borrowed" by lending her a beautiful Tiffany pearl bracelet that was gifted to me by another wonderful bride.

After all that, how could be not have a beautiful day full of The Perfect Details?

Congrats Lauren and Chad! We are honored to be a part of your special day!

Take those lemons and make LEMONADE

It has been a loooong time since I've blogged and all I can say is "sorry"!! I promise (cross my heart <3 ) to be a better blogger.

Today there was something that happened that made me realize - I LOVE MY JOB and I wouldn't change it for the world!! All other things be damned! I am so lucky to be able to do what I do and to have the freedom to be creative and to meet such wonderful people!

OK, so how excited am I that The Perfect Details is going to Jersey!! Having gone to Hofstra University I definitely had friends and my fill of all things Jersey. Until I went back a few weeks ago with Lauren for a site visit, I forgot how much I felt "at home" when I was there. I will definitely be sneaking in a little shopping and diner action while in town. Lauren was initially my stationery client and I helped her with her vision for save the dates, invites, programs, candy labels, table numbers, you name it. I was sad that I wasn't going to see her walk down the aisle. That is probably one of my most favorite moments in a wedding. But as fate would have it, Lauren hired me as her wedding day coordinator and I couldn't be more thrilled. And in addition to meeting an new wonderful team of professionals, I get to bring my girl Rachael Berkowitz to do hair!! I promise to get this wedding and others that I need to get on my reviews section SOON! But until then, here are a few images from Lauren's pieces to get you in the mood. :)

I am always sentimental on the day of a wedding when I not only get to watch a client get married but someone who has also become a friend. :)