Design Inspiration from Wedding 360

As promised, here are a few pictures from the Wedding 360 design seminar I attended a few weeks ago. I don't want to say too much about the first collage, as the pictures speak for themselves. The images walk you through the Museum of Petals dinner, which was held at the St. Regis San Francisco. The theme was 5000 petals, which is the amount of petals used to create this beautiful room. Gloria Wong and her team did a fabulous job.

Clockwise: Top images ~ the entrance to the Museum of Petals dinner. A modern display of white couches, floating candles, silver tables, and pink lighting create a fun and unique setting. The ice bar, courtesy of Chisel It, consists of beautiful arrangements on top of the bar as well as frozen inside the waist of the bar - super creative!

Middle ~ Petals blanket the dinner tables, while floating candles in clear vases add a warm touch to the setting. A man made tree (courtesy of Gloria Wong and her team) stands elegantly in the center of the room with petals hanging from every angle. It serves not only as an eye catching design, but also as the focal point that justifies the surrounding accents.

Bottom ~ Petals carefully sprinkle the linens including the floor-to-celling fabric, which creates a warm atmosphere and soaks up empty space.

A few of our unbelievably inspiring educators. Pictured here: Youngsong Martin of Wildflower Linens, Catherine Hall of Catherine Hall Studios, Tara Guerard of Tara Guerard Soiree, champagne for our tasting compliments of the Henry Wine Group and Componere Fine Catering, the fabulous Jean Marks and Jubilee Lau (hosts of the event and producers of Wedding 360) pictured with Grace Ormonde of Grace Ormonde Wedding Style, our seminar room in the St. Regis San Francisco, and one of the panels featuring Youngsong Martin, Catherine Hall, and Grace Ormonde.

Yikes, Planning a Wedding Is Tough!

Did you know that 43 businesses are involved in the average American Wedding. Forty Three businesses! These are the "post-booking businesses," so your florist, rental company, photographer, permit company, etc, etc. Can you imagine the amount of businesses you need to contact before you get to your final 43? To help narrow down your "pre-43 biz contacts" here are a few tips:

1. Make a budget - first and foremost, this is drastically important. Create a spreadsheet and allocate funds to each category. Even if you are unaware of what a photographer costs, guesstimate. You don't want to realize you spent 90% of your money before even booking your catering company. Google has a great tool for free -

2. Hire a wedding coordinator - many think they can do it all....but after reaching maybe half of your 'final 43' you will realize, planning a wedding for 50, 100, 200, or even 300 or so people is overwhelming. Wedding coordinators spend their days negotiating, advising, and taking care of the many unromantic details involved with creating an organized and lovely celebration. Wedding Coordinators also know the top 50 vendors in their area - so they can assist in vastly reducing the amount of companies you need to contact. Better yet, they can even do it for you!

3. Determine the style of your wedding - Would you like a backyard soiree or a formal ballroom celebration? Would you like your photographer to take mostly candid photos, or do you love the creative posed shots? Would you like elegant, tall centerpieces, or simple wildflowers in mason jars? Think about who you are as a couple and how you would like your event to reflect your personalities. Then, list off each category (photographer, florist, venue, food, etc) and make a few bullet points of the style you are aiming for. This will help tremendously when deciding between vendors and when reducing your list of companies to contact. It will also help your vendors determine how they can taylor their services to your ideal wedding.

4. Ask for help - don't be afraid to ask your coordinator for advice. We are professionals in guiding you to your happy day. Whether it be to review your budget and perhaps give a reality check on the likelihood of staying within it, or to review a few contracts, or even to advise on which accessory will compliment your theme.

5. Outsource - with a full time job, a social life, and the fear of turnig into bridezilla looming over your head, you have to face the facts and realize that you can't do it all. Consider your time and how much it is worth? Do you really want to spend hours trying to create a pretty invitation out of scrap paper, or would it be worth while to spend the money on a professional invitation company that has oodles of experience in designing and producing pretty invitations?

Phenomenal Design Seminar!

I feel so unbelievably inspired after listening to and learning from the creme de la creme of the wedding industry. More to come soon from who we met, our favorite designers, and so much more!