Portland Wedding Coordinator

{ Design Roundup } 5 sites to help you choose a wedding color scheme

You're engaged, you've got the venue and the date, and are so excited to get going on planning! Yet, you're stuck on what the wedding will actually look like. Envisioning the final event means you need to pick invitations, table linens, flowers, lighting, and all the assorted goodies that go with your big party. And of course you've got to start with a color or two (or a few!) that hopefully go together.

"But I like everything!" you say. Or maybe, "Our site has this weird carpet and I'm not sure what goes with it." Or possibly, "I don't want my wedding to look too matchy-matchy." How do you decide on a color scheme that, while not as lasting as a bedroom paint job, is still super-important and something you'll remember for years to come? Here are five tools and websites I like to use when I help clients formulate their color ideas.

1. The Perfect Palette This blog updates several times a week with wedding color palette ideas and an explanation of each. You can search the whole site by color family to find exactly what you want.

2. ColourLOVERS A bit broader in scope, ColourLOVERS covers not just weddings, but other design solutions such as graphic, print, and web; interior design; and fine art. Users are encouraged to get social by creating accounts, uploading patterns, and sharing with the community. (A side note: ColourLOVERS also has the great widget Themeleon, for creating Twitter screen backgrounds. It's where I got mine - look here.)

3. Adobe Color CC - Adobe Inc.'s Adobe Color CC tool makes it possible for you to take a photo of your site (or any photo, for that matter) and extrapolate a color scheme from it. Click on "Create" > "From an Image" and upload your photo and wow! You can also select different moods for the same picture. A great tool if you are feeling a bit stumped. You do need to create an account if you want to save your palettes.

4. Design Seeds Similar to The Perfect Palette, but not exclusively about weddings. This blogger takes hundreds of artful photos and applies her own aesthetic to draw out each custom color palette. A wonderful inspiration site.

5. You knew I would mention Pinterest. If you're following my boards already, you know how addicted I am and how you can be sure to see a 2am pin from me on your dashboard now and then. If you haven't had the pleasure of using this site, it is a sort of visual Twitter where you can "pin" just about any image on the Web to a virtual bulletin board, keeping all of your ideas in one place. You can create as many boards as you like and name them anything, from "Color Inspiration" to "Cute Pictures of Pugs". Most boards are public, (you have a limited number you can set to "Secret"), so you can search the site for your desired color scheme or idea and re-pin other folks' images to your boards. Also, all of the above-mentioned tools can be used in some way along with Pinterest.

Are there any other great color tools you're using to design your wedding? Please share with me in the comments as well.

Update: March 12, 2018: Another great post about color palettes for 2018 from Azazie.com, check it out!

A version of this post appeared on The Portland Wedding Coordinator blog in January 2012.

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My Portland Photographer - a valuable resource for finding quality wedding photography

We worked with Bethany and Patrick for their wedding in Bend, Oregon. Photo by Altura Studio.

With so many national resources and wedding directories out there, it's sometimes hard to find a directly, truly local resource for information on Portland wedding photography. Thankfully you only need one - and we have a great one in My Portland Photographer. Run entirely by a savvy group of local Portland wedding photographers, the site serves up almost daily wedding inspiration, photography advice, and just good old fashioned wedding eye candy. You can even check availability and book your photographer straight from the site. The best part is that I have personally worked with many of the photogs on this site, so I know you'll find someone you'll love!

 

 

Print Not Dead! { Digital Magazine Giveaway - Offered by Zinio}

** Free digital magazine giveaway, see below! **

I admit, I am a bit of a clinger when it comes to technology. I cling to my rapidly-aging devices, refusing to let the latest new gadget woo me away from what is tried and true. (I'm typing this on a 2008 MacBook running Leopard, if you must know!) So, no, I do not yet have an iPad, for the above reasons, and also for fear of the havoc it will wreak on my children's minds if they get a hold of it and get too much screen time.

However. I was checking out the Zinio digital newstand recently, and oh! how pretty all the bridal magazines look. And how little office space they would take up! I love a good, glossy bridal or fashion mag - and now there are hundreds of titles available to me if I just break down and get that iPad that I secretly want. (Actually, the issues read just fine on a laptop as well.)

Tons of great bridal titles available, such as The Knot, Grace Ormonde
Wedding Style, and Indian Bride Lookbook.

We'll see. It's enough to break this technology-clinger out of her rut.

You, my readers, are probably not as Luddite as I, so Zinio is currently offering you "Sweet Deals", which means you can save 50% off many of their already-discounted titles. To get the deal, click through to http://bit.ly/ziniosweetdeals and have fun shopping! The promotion ends February 21.

** Oh! AND. I have also been given, by Zinio, ten free subscriptions to give away. To enter the drawing to win a free digital magazine subscription, simply comment anywhere on this blog, as many times as you like, and email me a link to your comment, as well as your real first and last name, and the title you would like, if you are drawn as a winner. Comments must make a reasonable level of sense. Each comment will count as an entry, and I will choose 10 names randomly from all the entries, on or before February 23, 2013. Winners will be notified and be sent redemption instructions by email.**

FTC Disclosure: I haven't been offered any monetary compensation to mention Zinio on my blog, but they have offered me one free subscription in return for posting the link to their deals page.

More fine print: Winners can:

• choose any title Zinio carries
• get the full subscription period as indicated on the site (some are 6 months, some are 1 year, etc.)
• the 10 giveaways must go to 10 different people; thus only one prize per person
  
• subscription winners can live anywhere in the world - as Zinio titles are all in digital format

 

{Sunday Roundup} 5 Sites to Help You With Your Wedding Color Scheme

Image: The Perfect Palette Blog.

You're engaged, you've got the venue and the date, and are so excited to get going on planning! Yet, you're stuck on what the wedding will actually look like. Envisioning the final event means you need to pick invitations, table linens, flowers, lighting, and all the assorted goodies that go with your big party. And of course you've got to start with a color or two (or a few!) that hopefully go together.

"But I like everything!" you say. Or maybe, "Our site has this weird carpet and I'm not sure what goes with it." Or possibly, "I don't want my wedding to look too matchy-matchy." How do you decide on a color scheme that, while not as lasting as a bedroom paint job, is still super-important and something you'll remember for years to come? Here are five tools and websites I like to use when I help clients formulate their color ideas.

1. The Perfect Palette This blog updates several times a week with wedding color palette ideas and an explanation of each. You can search the whole site by color family to find exactly what you want.

2. ColourLOVERS A bit broader in scope, ColourLOVERS covers not just weddings, but other design solutions such as graphic, print, and web; interior design; and fine art. Users are encouraged to get social by creating accounts, uploading patterns, and sharing with the community. (A side note: ColourLOVERS also has the great widget Themeleon, for creating Twitter screen backgrounds. It's where I got mine - look here.)

3. Kuler - Adobe Inc.'s Kuler tool makes it possible for you to take a photo of your site (or any photo, for that matter) and extrapolate a color scheme from it. Click on "Create" > "From an Image" and upload your photo and wow! You can also select different moods for the same picture. A great tool if you are feeling a bit stumped. You do need to create an account if you want to save your palettes.

4. Design Seeds Similar to The Perfect Palette, but not exclusively about weddings. This blogger takes hundreds of artful photos and applies her own aesthetic to draw out each custom color palette. A wonderful inspiration site.

5. You knew I would mention Pinterest. If you're following my boards already, you know how addicted I am and how you can be sure to see a 2am pin from me on your dashboard now and then. If you haven't had the pleasure of using this site, it is a sort of visual Twitter where you can "pin" just about any image on the Web to a virtual bulletin board, keeping all of your ideas in one place. You can create as many boards as you like and name them anything, from "Color Inspiration" to "Cute Pictures of Pugs". All boards are public, so you can search the site for your desired color scheme or idea and re-pin other folks' images to your boards. All of the above tools can be used in some way along with Pinterest.

Similar to Gmail and Spotify in the past, getting a Pinterest account might involve a bit of a wait for an invite. For you wonderful readers of The Portland Wedding Coordinator Blog, I'm offering up my next 4 Pinterest invites. Just share this post, then comment and let me know where you shared it (Facebook, Twitter, G+, Tumblr or whereever!) and I'll send you a Pinterest invite. Please make sure to include your email (which won't be publicly shown) in the comment field where asked.

Are there any other great color tools you're using to design your wedding? Please share with me in the comments as well.

BarStocker - the iPhone app that calculates liquor needs for your party or wedding

Many of our clients are in turnkey venues where they can provide their own caterer and bar. But figuring out how much liquor, beer, and wine to order is always a challenge. Order too much and it's a bit of a waste. Order too little and you risk running out during the event, and having to send a wedding party member to the nearest 7-11.

EJP Events is pleased to unveil our own iPhone app to tackle this continuing problem. Based on an algorithm developed over our 13 years in the event planning, catering, hotel, and wedding planning businesses, BarStocker will save you time and prevent a waste of money or alcohol by helping you figure the perfect amount to order.

 

 

Customize your order based on length of party in hours, time of year, types of alcohol being served, and how much your guests like to party :-)  It's available right now on the iTunes store. Please let me know what you think!

5 slipups that can spoil your reception: Part 2 - "The band/DJ sounded terrible!" {Music and sound considerations when planning your wedding music}

“The band (or DJ) sounded terrible” / “We couldn’t hear the toasts” / “No one could see the slideshow”
 

This is a case of Bad AV (Audio-visual).  Remember the geeky team who ran the projectors in science class?  Well, those guys are now your friends when it comes to the multiple media inputs that go into a modern wedding day.  We live in an age of media, and many of us wouldn’t dream of having the wedding without a live band or DJ, or a music-synched slideshow.

When narrowing down your selection of audio-visual professionals consider the following: quality equipment, quality content, back-up equipment, a run-through to make sure it all works, and having a knowledgeable person (ideally a trained professional) to operate the equipment on the day when it counts. After all, you don’t want to step onto the dance floor for your first dance and hear the wrong song because your DJ didn’t have the right playlist queued up!

Photo courtesy Craig Mitchelldyer. 

 

Tomorrow: Join us at Portland Wedding Coordinator for Slip Up Number 3: "We missed out on the fun at your wedding!" {Communication and coordination on your wedding day}

Did these tips help you? You may like our past advice and more wedding planning tips.

Find something interesting? Reblog with Typepad & Typepad Micro

If you've been looking for a good microblogging service, or if you already use something like Tumblr or Posterous, you might find this interesting, from SixApart, the makers of Typepad:

This morning we launched TypePad Micro. Micro is a free streamlined blog, powered by TypePad, and optimized for social media.

via everything.typepad.com

You can now microblog any Portland Wedding Coordinator content that you find interesting with your followers on your very own free Micro blogs. Or you can use a Micro blog to save clippings of stuff you find interesting on the web, and share it with your friends and fellow planning buddies. And when you see the "Reblog" button at the bottom of any Typepad blog post, you can easily add that link to your own Typepad Micro or regular blog.

Here are some other wedding and design bloggers on Typepad that you may enjoy: Sparkliatti, Ritzy Bee, The Bride's Cafe, Oh So Beautiful Paper, Always a Blogsmaid, Weddingistas, and Celebrity Wedding Buzz. So you can see, Portland Wedding Coordinator is in great company! (Did I miss anyone? Feel free to shout yourself out in the comments!)

Couples AND wedding professionals:  Are you using microblogging in any form to meet those blogging needs when you have those "in-between" posts that are too long for Facebook or Twitter, but not long enough to merit a "real" post on your main blog? Share your thoughts here.

Where to put your wedding website? Which wedding websites are free?

With all the excitement and information there is to share regarding a wedding, an invitation is only the start.  Most of us want to share lodging information, photos, fun things to do, and perhaps some silly stuff as well!  Hence the popularity of the wedding website.  But with so many providers, which one to choose?

We reviewed a few sites at Portland Wedding Coordinator and found a few keepers that we hope you'll like!  Some of the things that made these stand out were: ease of use; classic, good-looking designs; reliable uptime (as far as we can tell) and that they are FREE!  Enjoy.

momentville.com

projectwedding.com

mywedding.com

weddingwire.com

weddingmapper.com (Less traditional website design, more of a "map of the whole week", but cool idea!)

And of course the old standbys:

theknot.com

weddingchannel.com (now a division of The Knot)

In addition, many savvy brides and grooms who want more customization (and also who don't mind doing a little bit more footwork) are using the free blog services such as blogspot.com, wordpress.com, and weebly.com as wedding websites.

Do you have any free wedding websites sites that we haven't heard about yet?  Let us know in the comments!

Blogging Bootcamp by The Smart Planner™

I had the pleasure of traveling to Seattle this week to attend Blogging Bootcamp by Liene Stevens of The Smart Planner.  Liene owns Blue Orchid Designs which plans weddings in Scottsdale, NYC, and Washington DC, and she also owns The Smart Planner, a coaching resource for the business side of wedding planning.

I felt very lucky to be able to spend time with Liene in a small workshop where we talked about our goals for wedding blogging, how to achieve them, and all sorts of tools and tricks to help us get to that success.  I feel like that because of this workshop, our focus at Portland Wedding Coordinator will become even more fine-tuned, and we will be able to offer you better content, prettier design (eventually!), and more frequent updates.

Many thanks as well to Renee Metty of It's Eventful for bringing Liene to Seattle, and to Aria Style for hosting the space for the workshop.  I also had the pleasure of meeting other like-minded wedding bloggers, including Laura from Edit1 Media, Mindy of Tweet My Wedding, Dianne Greene, the Washington State Coordinator for Association of Bridal Consultants, Kirstie of Simply Wed, Sarah of Alderbrook Resort and Spa, Daniela of Bella Signature Design, Jennifer of Taylor'd Events by Jennifer, and Brandi of Soiree Wedding and Event Planning (Idaho). Finally, kudos to Hotel Max for my very swank accommodations!

Do you have something you'd like to see on Portland Wedding Coordinator?  Please feel free to comment, whether you are a bride, groom, or a vendor.  Comments make the blog world go 'round! And thank you for reading!

When can we meet? whenisgood.net

After creating this list of interactive wedding planning tools, I recently found one more that really is so useful, it merits its own blog post: whenisgood.net .  While not strictly for wedding planning, whenisgood.net is wonderful, simply because it does one thing well: allows you to specify "when is good" for everyone involved in a meeting.  Simply click and highlight several dates and times that work for you, create an email to send to everyone you would like to invite to the meeting, and send. Your invitees also click their available times, and eventually a good date for everyone emerges.

For busy wedding planners and brides trying to coordinate the multitude of vendor interviews, looking for a free, easy to use online tool, whenisgood.net is super helpful!