The Association of Wedding Professionals Christmas Party in Garland, TX

Sunday night we attended the Association of Wedding Professionals Christmas Party at the Atrium at the Granville Arts Center in Garland, TX. It was a fun event! We had a great dinner, a visit from Santa, wonderful food and desserts, a silent auction as well as a live one and a fun photo booth. I'm not a member of this organization yet. Just checking it out. This was my third time visiting and I have met some very nice people in the industry.

This picture doesn't do it justice. The uplighting was great, the table decorations were nice and it is a great space to have a reception. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but they did not turn out.

Photo Booth Pictures

Here are just some fun pictures we took in the photo booth provided by Flicker Stage, owner Damien Hutchins.http://www.flickerstage.com/

This was a great Santa!

A photo booth is a fun addition to any event and wedding. You can take as many pictures as you want. To view and get your pictures, you are provided with a card with a website and password. All you have to do is enter the code on the website and you can view the photos from that night. Now you can download them and print them all you want! The event was last night and I was able to upload the pictures today. Very fun!!

A Wedding, A Concert and ICE!

A Wedding:
My friend Danyelle Daniel came up from San Antonio this weekend to attend a wedding of a lady she mentored a while ago. I attended the wedding with Danyelle. I thought it would be fun to go to a wedding in which I could just attend, watch their wedding coordinator, pick up some tips and enjoy. Danyelle was part of the ceremony, she was part of it by saying a few words to the bride and groom and was to be introduced as the brides mentor. Since Danyelle needed to know when she would be speaking and a few other details, we got there early. We looked around at the decorations and found the reception hall. We waited to find out more details and the bride showed up at the reception hall to see what was going on. I thought it strange that no decorations were up. After all, the wedding was going to begin at 11:30am and it was about 11:10am. The bride was a bit frantic trying to let people know what was going on. I then realized that the bride was in control and others did not know what was going on. I just could not stand there and not help. I told the bride that I was a wedding coordinator, just let me know what the flow was, what she wanted and I would help. I told her that she really needed to go to the bridal room and relax and wait for the wedding and I would take care of things. The bridesmaids were helping along with her house party and a great friend of the family who just really pitched in. The bride should NEVER have to stress over things like this at the last minute and I just couldn't stand by and let that happen. It still pains me to think about that even now. My heart just went out to her. I told Danyelle that I'm not sure I'm going to make it to the wedding and that I was just going to stay and help out until it's done. I sent the bridesmaids back to their room as well and the rest of use just stayed and in no time, we got everything set up. To her credit, the wedding coordinator of the church did know what was going on. It just took a while to find her and she was so busy with the wedding and other things that she wasn't able to have time to work on the reception.
NOTE TO BRIDES: You should always have someone in charge of the set-up for the reception and it should not be you. If you do not have a wedding/event planner, please convey your thought and ideas to someone NOT in the wedding party and make sure they can take charge and get things done the way you want it. You need to be as stress free on the day as possible.

Ceremony: The theme of the wedding was vintage (which is very popular right now) and Christmas.The ceremony had some nice personal touches that I thought were special. I always encourage brides to make it your own, add personal touches. What is special to the bride? What is special to the groom? Is is a song, is it a person? Make it your own. when I do a wedding, I do spend a good amount of time with the bride discussing the ceremony. I know that the reception is a fun party and the decorations are important, but the main thing is the ceremony. The couple is entering into a covenant with each other and God and that should be important.

A few unique things they did:
1. A ring warming ceremony- this is where everyone in attendance was passed a little bag with the rings in it and was told to say a blessing over the rings for the couple.
2. A mentor speak to the bride and groom - They had Danyelle speak since she was a mentor to the bride.
3. The grooms daughter - the groom had a daughter about three years old. The bride wrote a letter to her which was read by the grandmother of the little girl, which was very special, and they included the little girl in a part of the ceremony.
4. Snowflake girls - The little flower girls were adorable. They were called snowflake girls. They dropped plastic snowflakes in the aisle for the bride.

TIP: For wedding programs, if a bride decides to do them. Make sure the print is readable. I found with this wedding program, the font was pretty small. Consider people over 40, they are usually the ones that read and maybe keep the programs. :-)

The Reception:
At first everyone went to the a coffee bar and could get either hot chocolate or coffee. (Just FYI, in December, you expect it to be a little chilly outside. It was unusually warm on this December 1 and was in the high 70's...Texas is so unpredictable) Then everyone went to the reception where there was a dessert bar, hot chocolate or pop (yes, I'm from the north and call it pop)
TIP: If you are just having dessert, please try and consider anyone who doesn't eat sugar like diabetics or just those dieting. The desserts here were great, but there was nothing to off-set the sugar. I would suggest some fruit and always have water for your guests.

The Entertainment:
The bride hired a well know radio personality and MC/DJ for her reception. There were maybe 30 or 40 people in attendance so this might not have been a necessity, but he has a great voice and is well known in Dallas. I recognized him from the Association of Wedding Professionals meetings that I have attended. This is another area where the bride was in charge and I could tell she was struggling with trying to greet her guests and mingle with them as well as try and coordinate how things would go at the reception.

TIP: Brides need to convey the flow of the reception to a wedding event planner/coordinator so that she can thoroughly enjoy her reception. I know that people try and save money by trying to cut this part out, but you might be surprised how much return you get on your investment for hiring a wedding planner or coordinator. It can be a lot less than you think and very worth it. I can tell many stories of disasters that have been averted that brides still have no idea about. I'm sure I will relay some of those as I do more writing on this blog.

Here are some pictures from the wedding:

The church was Elevate Life Church in Frisco and this is called the Cathedral. It is the lobby of the church.

Me and my former co-worker, Danyelle Daniel (she's also a fantastic Realtor for Keller Williams in San Antonio if you ever need one)

I wish I had a better picture of the bridesmaids dresses. They were really pretty. I liked the brides dress as well. Her jeweled Shaw was a nice added touch to her attire.

This Snowflake girl was so adorable, but this is how interested children are at weddings...but adorable when they come down the aisle! :-)

Danyelle speaking to the couple

First Dance...beautiful dress

Me and Jeff Christenson, a radio personality known as Jay Fox (the wedding DJ)

http://jayfoxproductions.com/

A Concert:

Stonebriar Community Church (Chuck Swindoll, Pastor) had their annual FREE Christmas concert called O Magnum Mysterium. It was fantastic as usual. My favorite this year was the Ladies Soprano Trio singing The Bells of Christmas.

And ICE!:

At night we went to ICE! featuring DreamWorks' Merry Madagascar at the Gaylord Texan. It is 9 degrees in there, but it was fun. We even went down the ice slide! http://www.gaylordhotels.com/gaylord-texan/lone-star-christmas/ice-experience/index.html

Inside the Gaylord Texan

The Nutcrackers tell you where to go

The best part was the clear ice manger scene at the end. They didn't try to hide the true meaning of Christmas! This was a welcomed delight to us!

An adventurous and fun day of events!!





Road Trip to Tennessee

We love road trips, but it has been a while since we took one. We started a tradition a few years ago to go somewhere on or around Thanksgiving. This year, we met my family in Sevierville, TN (near Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg). It was such a beautiful drive. Arkansas was at the peak of its color and it was beautiful driving through.

This is in Arkansas at a rest stop

We stopped in Little Rock at a Wingate by Wyndham the first night. We got a good deal by calling the main Wyndham number and booking the hotel through them. We asked about their best deal and apparently having a Costco membership paid off. We got $20 off for having a Costco membership.

On our way to Tennessee, we stopped for dinner at a wonderful BBQ place called Blue Moon in Lebanon, TN. http://www.bluemoonbbqlebanon.com/. It was some of the best BBQ I have ever had! They had run out of their banana pudding, so we decided to stop on our way back home. Unfortunately they are closed on Mondays so we didn't get to try it. Bummer.

The Blue Moon certainly has character

When we got to Severville, it was packed. Traffic was bad. We stayed in on Thursday, cooked and ate our Thanksgiving meal with family and ventured out to see the Christmas lights that night. We found a great drive through Christmas light display that we enjoyed. This is where we stayed in the smokies.

Christmas Lights in Sevierville

Friday we went to eat a late lunch at one of my dad's favorite restaurants, the Applebarn. http://www.applebarncidermill.com/ We went there to celebrate my dad's birthday. While there, I was surprised when I ran into a couple I knew from Heritage Baptist Church in Lynchburg, VA where I used to work. I used to work with Keith on staff there for almost 10 years. Everyone at Heritage was just like family to me, I miss them all so much. They are a couple who know my parents as well. It was a nice reunion. Of all the many people that were there, I couldn't believe that we ran into someone we knew!! It was so nice to see Keith and Judy.



Shopping...

My husband and I also started a tradition of shopping after Thanksgiving, but we are not black Friday crazy shoppers. We prefer to go late on Friday or Saturday. We were staying really close to an outlet mall so we decided to go shopping there. We needed some shoes. I really don't like shoe shopping. Shoe stores rarely have my size in a low heal. So after shopping at many stores, we tried a store called Bostonian Shoes. (they also sell a brand called Clarks) I couldn't believe how they fit! I found some nice boots I liked as well as some shoes. (Scott found a few pair as well) We found our new favorite shoe brands, Clarks and Bostonians found here. http://bostonian.clarksusa.com/

These are my new Clarks...they are so comfortable!!

Sunday my husband and I went to Gatlinburg to go to a craft show and do some more shopping. Gatlinburg is such a fun little town to walk around in. We enjoyed all the sights and all the little shops. It was a beautiful day!!

My husband likes learning about his heritage. He's been to Ireland and Scotland and would love to go back. I think I will go with him this time. :-)

On Sunday night, we went to a quaint restaurant called The Partridge & Pear Restaurant at Christmas Place. http://partridgeandpear.com/  It was very Christmassy. The food was very good and they even had a chilled salad fork. (Sally G would appreciate that)

On Monday we had to leave to go back to Texas. We met a friend for lunch at Cracker Barrel. He was a friend of ours from our college days at Liberty. He lives near Nashville, TN. It was so good to see you Jon Heisey!!

Lessons at Dance Etc.

In an office close to my work is a dance studio named Dance Etc. I've been by it many times and thought it would be fun to take dance lessons with my husband. He's not much of a dancer so I wasn't sure he would do it. The dance studio is under new management and Jack Foltyn is the new owner. I met Jack and he told me what they had to offer and so we decided to give it a try. It was really fun! We learned the very basic steps of three different dance styles: Fox trot, ballroom and swing. It was pretty fun...we might get hooked!

This is us with Jack Foltyn. He is a great teacher! He's offering a great special right now. $35.00 for 2 private and 2 group lessons. Website: www.danceetcdallas.com. He's also an Elvis impersonator...can you tell? :-)

Veteran's Day Parade in Frisco

We found out that our town of Frisco has an annual Veteran's Day Parade. We decided to go check it out this year and we were pleasantly surprised! It was really good! All the city's high school bands were there and played in the parade. There were quite a few Veterans in the parade as well as fireman, police officers, boy scout troops, brownie and girl scout troops and others. It was really good! We need to make this an annual event for sure! What a great way to pay tribute to those who served our country.

New Venue - Lone Oak Ranch

Here are a couple of pictures from weddings at the Lone Oak Ranch. This is a venue that I started working at last month. It's a wonderful retreat center. It is great for outdoor weddings. The views are wonderful and it's such a relaxing atmosphere. There is a wonderful white chapel to choose as well, or for a back-up to an outdoor wedding in inclement weather. It has a very Texan flare, but can accomodate a sophisicated bride as well. It's worth a look!  This is the view from an outdoor location. There is more than one way to set up an outdoor venue.

Here is a picture from the ballroom.

 



Getting Started

This is my first posting. I have been wanting to write a blog, so why not write one on events.  How creative and fun could this be?  From the time I was a kid, maybe 9 or 10, I loved entertaining people. My friends from the neighborhood and I would write plays and invite the neighbors to our "show." Whether it was a play, a dance, or a musical, it was fun; it was creative. It was something I loved to do.

My life experience has been one in which I have been able to plan and coordinate many events. My work at a church allowed me to do weddings, dinners, blood drives, a Habitat for Humanity project, plays, musicals, decorating, programs, conferences, and more. What a fun job, huh?!

After moving to Texas from Virginia, that pretty much stopped. My life changed, got married and except for having the frequent dinner parties and yearly birthday party for my husband, I pretty much stopped doing events until recently.

Over two years ago, I became a part-time wedding coordinator at my church. It has been quite part-time, but this year I started getting more weddings and some away from the church. I also just recently started working for another venue as well. I'm currently taking an event planning class and well...things are starting to take off. I still have a full-time job, but weekends are slowly getting more and more booked up. I feel a renewed vigor in my life and this is where I believe God is leading me more and more.