Portland Wedding Coordinator

Love Mexico - Destination Wedding Planning

Images: EJP Events

Interest in destination weddings in Mexico is definitely up among our Portland clients. With that in mind, we recently attended the LoveMexico Destination Wedding Planning summit in Playa del Carmen, where hundreds of planners, travel agents, and travel suppliers came together to share the latest trends and knowledge about destination weddings all over Mexico. We returned full of information and can't wait to share!

Featured locations included Puerto Vallarta, San Miguel de Allende, Merida, Michoacan, Cuernavaca, Cozumel, Oaxaca, Cancun, and the Yucatan.

I thought I'd share with you some of the photos taken around the host resort, The Barcelo Maya Palace. Our lodging was sponsored by the resort and exhibitors. You can take a look at the exhibitor list here: http://www.lovemexicoweddings.com/a_directories.htm

A disclaimer: I took all of these photos myself, some with a phone camera at night. I am obviously not a professional photographer. For professional photos taken at LoveMexico, please see Trevor Dayley's website -- we were so happy to meet him at this event and were very impressed by his work.

OK, back to my informal snapshots: here's the Barcelo Maya Palace's French restaurant:

Images: EJP Events

A lunch entrée at the restaurant:

Images: EJP Events

The view from the restaurant's veranda:

Images: EJP Events

One of the starter courses, foie gras mousse:

Images: EJP Events

At one event, a tequila tasting was offered. Wouldn't this be fun for your Mexico destination wedding, or even for your Portland wedding?

Images: EJP Events

And another specialty bar -- Mexican coffees with flambéed anise liqueur and topped with whipped cream.

Images: EJP Events

A dessert buffet at one of the fiestas. Coconut-stuffed limes, assorted flans and cheesecakes, bunuelos, and dulce de leche tartes were only a few of the choices.

Images: EJP Events

Finally, La Confiteria presented a different, lovely, themed candy buffet each day of the conference. I've seen a lot of candy buffets and have honestly been a little ho-hum about them lately, but I loved the local authenic ceramicware and paper lace they used here.

Images: EJP Events

Why a receiving line is a good idea

Photo: Jessica Spengler

Receiving lines. Do they bring to mind stuffy, overly-formal, laced up affairs from 1987?  Actually, a receiving line is a very good idea for several reasons.  Here's why: it's imperative that you personally greet each and every guest that comes to your wedding. They have taken off work, scheduled babysitters, and traveled from far and near to witness your big day. Don't leave your guests hanging and yourself in a tizzy, wondering if you got to this group or that group.

In addition, leaving the guest-greeting to a casual time, such as the interval between dinner and dancing, means that you will inevitably have to cut your meal short in order to go table-to-table. Let's think about that. Most of you have spent so much time planning the menu! Most of you say, "The reception - food, drink, dancing - is the most important part." Shouldn't you enjoy your first meal as husband and wife as well, instead of hurrying from group to group?

There are lots of different places you can fit a receiving line in your wedding timeline. Immediately after the ceremony; as guests move from cocktail hour into the dining room; or even a reverse receiving line where the bride and groom greet each pew in the church as they leave. Check with your planner to see which scenario is best for you. But by all means, make sure you greet each of your guests personally!

Make it a White Friday instead, and set your wedding planning intentions

Wait! Before you make one more Black Friday purchase, stop for a minute! If you're recently engaged and hoping to have your wedding in 2010, why not take a little time this holiday weekend to set your intentions around what's really important for your celebration? A little pre-planning before the plunge of wedding shopping can go a long way.

1. Have your families met yet? Ideally, your families will meet before the wedding day. FIgure out a way to make this happen if it hasn't already.

2. Have you set your budget yet? There are many budget planning tools online, or you can email me with the subject line "I read your 11/27 blog" and I'll send you the one I use for my full-service clients -- free!

3. Have you started on your guest list? Your budget will give you an idea of how many guests you can have. It's not a perfect rule of thumb, but just to get you started, consider on the casual end (in the Portland, Oregon area), a budget of $50-100 per person; then, a more elaborate celebration will have a budget from $100-500 per person. Reducing your guest list is the easiest way to reduce your budget.

(Of course, all you really need is your intended and the witnesses, but these guidelines should work for anyone hoping to host a celebration with more than a dinner-party number of guests and some kind of food, drink, and entertainment.)

Another way to think about budget is to consider a favorite restaurant whose food you would love to have at your wedding. What did you pay per person the last time you went there on a date and had appetizers, dinner, and a few drinks? Take that number and double it (in order to budget 50% on catering and 50% on the other things like planning, venue rental, entertainment, documentation, printing, etc) and that can be a rough budget for you.

4. Have you discussed your shared vision with your fiance(e)? On The 2000 Dollar Wedding Blog, Sara Cotner discusses how she and her fiance "started with the end in mind". No matter what your wedding budget might be, this is great advice.

So take a few moments during this holiday weekend to be thankful for this exciting time, and to set your intentions and get your wedding planning started right. Who knows--maybe eliminating one Black Friday impulse purchase will allow you to get something you really hoped for for the wedding.

The 25-year rule

 

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kayugee/CC BY-ND 2.0

As we get into the early part of the wedding planning process for many of our 2010 clients, we hear a lot of "Do I really need to...?" (insert X, Y, or Z element here) This may relate to a a vendor decision (to have a videographer or not?) or a tradition decision (to see each other before the wedding ceremony or not), or maybe a design decision (to rent those chivari chairs or not).

Thing is, no wedding planner or magazine or blog can truly help you answer these dilemmas until you've explored your own feelings. One method I recommend is what I've been calling the "25-year rule". How will you feel about this decision 25 years from now? When you look back at your wedding album, when you celebrate your silver anniversary, will you say to yourself, "I wish I had ____________, after all"?

Haute looks from Emilia Kaye

Our friends over at Event Cosmetics recently did a high-fashion runway show with Emily Sunnell, the designer of the Emilia Kaye clothing line.  The looks are startling, very Marie Antoinette!  Not necessarily what you'd think of for a wedding, but I love the mood that this look inspires.  Great job EC team! Photos by Brett Marjanen.

Prepping models for the show

{ Real Portland Wedding } Maronite Church and The Acadian Ballroom

One of the great things about this job is the diversity of cultures, faiths, and families that I am honored to witness.  I just received some photos courtesy of the great guys at Impression Arts Photography of a wedding we coordinated in January.  The bride and groom were married in the Maronite church, which is a branch of Eastern Catholicism mostly based in Lebanon and Syria.  What this translates to me as a coordinator is:  great food and people who never stop dancing!  I had so much fun with this group.  Their wedding reception was held at The Acadian Ballroom in Northeast Portland. Make sure to check out all the pictures, filed in the Indoor Weddings photo album.