AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, where did the summer go?

Generally, July and August are a little slower for our weddings as the weather tends to be a little hot and humid here in the Greater Philadelphia area….it’s catch up time from May and June and get ready time for fall weddings….

July and August here have been INSANE!

We’ve had more weddings than in the past and all totally different – ranging from a fun stylish, military wedding, a rustic outdoor wedding with a ceremony in an apple orchard and a beautiful tented Main Line wedding with amazing personal touches….

Both Rebecca and Kristin had their own engagement shoots….

Christina has been busy with beautiful invitations, menu cards, escort cards and other printed materials for fall weddings….

We’ve all done some continuing education, and even snuck in a little time away

We’re really excited about the new weddings for next year…. clients booking us from all over the globe, vegetarian weddings, and all in all great couples with beautiful design requests…. 2011 will be an AMAZING year…

As we recieve images from our summer weddings we’ll be catching up on some blogging and sharing these beautiful images with you, as well as some great design ideas and more of our famous weding planning tips…

Hope you’ve had a great summer! I know we have…..

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We oftensee struggles with rehearsal dinners more than most parts of the planning process…

Maybe it’s because the groom’s family is often pay for or arranging it and there are times we have little contact with them until this point…

Maybe it’s because there are so many varying points of view or opinions on what it suppose to be….

In either case we wanted to share some sage advice on what we see and how to best navigate rehearsal dinners…

1. The rehearsal dinner should NEVER compete with the reception – it’s a chance for people from various parts of your life to mix and meet…

A local favorite restaurant or something at home –

We were just invited to lunch by Megan Conway of Pit Masters, LLC {who own several local Famous Dave’s} – we recently had a client who used their BBQ for a rehearsal dinner at home around the pool – they can offer something as simple as drop off, add staff to serve (and clean up) or even build a menu for you with things not necessarily on their menu…

We’ve also notices several of the local caterers we work with have excellent BBQ divisions as well

Things can be a little challenging if you are already doing a really informal wedding, but you can still do it… we’ve had couples who hosted a pizza and beer night in their apartment buildings community room

2. There is no real formal structure… a cocktail hour for people to get acquainted and allow for more casual seating….

It’s a great time to show a slide show or short video clip (images from engagements shoots or childhood photos work well)…

It’s also a great time to allow people who might not ordinarily get to toast at the wedding to say something – try to keep wedding toasts to two…

 We often suggest that the couple give their bridal party and parents their gifts at the rehearsal dinner

 3. We ALWAYS see struggles over who to invite…. We find that immediate family, and the bridal party (with spouses) works well…

If it turns into a situation where you feel you HAVE TO invite all of the out of town guests think about hosting a post rehearsal dinner mixer…. Often held in the hotels bar, it can be light hors d’oeuvres and cocktails or desserts and after dinner drinks, it works well for a larger crowd …

Best rule of planning a great rehearsal dinner is just like everything else in wedding planning….

Plan ahead so there are no surprises and allow time to get feedback from all those involved… relax and enjoy your family and friends

  by Rebecca Druckenmiller

I love the elements of a Jewish wedding, they’re steeped in so much history and tradition…..and frankly many of them are so much fun!

Many of you of course know about the horah, but an unfamiliar tradition for some may be the Mezinke Tanz, which is derived from the tradition Krenzl dance.

You may know this tradition as a “crowning”. 

Rachel and Josh had a traditional crowning at their wedding as Rachel was the last child in her family to be married.  It is tradition that when the last son or daughter is married, the mother and father are seated in the middle of the room the couple place crowns of flowers placed on their heads while their family and guests dance around them. 

It’s an incredibly celebratory tradition and really makes you feel the love in the room as you watch their friends and family approach them in the circle to whisper wishes of love and support. 

Mazel Tov!

Congratulations to Rachel, Josh and their parents!

photo by Philip Gabriel Photography

Kate and Matt both have extremely hectic schedules – {during parts of the planning Kate seemed to travel more for work than she was home…}

They wanted a beautiful summer wedding that was Simple, Elegant and Stress Free and a little rustic….

We think we nailed that for them – Normandy Farm was just the right venue – accented by decor by Eventricity with entertainment by EBE Paris … and photographer Susan Stripling captured everything beautifully!

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In celebration of our upcoming engagement shoot I thought it would be fun to share with you how we chose our photographer and how we at the Queen of Hearts Wedding Consultants match our clients with the best wedding professionals for their weddings. 

I’m so excited that Laura and her husband, Paul from Laura Eaton Photography will be shooting our wedding. 

When we were thinking about photography for the wedding, our decision was on one hand an easy one to make but also difficult. 

I’ve had the pleasure of working with so many amazing photographers in Philadelphia and have fallen in love with so much of their work so obviously choosing just one was going to be difficult. 

So I decided to use the same method that we use to connect our brides with their wedding professionals.  We match them up based on the 3 p’s, price, personality and product. 

We have a database full of photographers that we have taken the time to get to know and understand who they are and the type of work they can offer at what price.  Using that information we are able to recommend to our couples wedding professionals that match their needs. 

Price wise, Laura and Paul were right in the range that we wanted to spend.  We were able to customize our package and after sitting with them, we knew what we would be getting in our package for the said price. 

Laura and Paul’s product is also the type of photography we were looking for.  I wanted more candid shots and was trying to stray from the portrait look (nothing wrong with it, just not our style).  They are both very unobtrusive when they work but always still manage to get the creative images I love so much. 

Now, while price and what you’re getting for it are usually top priorities, personality was a huge one for me. 

Dan is not comfortable in front of the camera, AT ALL.  He hates the attention, which makes me wonder how he’ll make it through the wedding day {haha}. 

When he hired Laura and Paul to take photos of our engagement he had the opportunity to get to know them both a little and by the end felt very comfortable.  This was really, super important to me.

I was already friendly with them both as I’ve worked with them several times but I wanted to make sure Dan was really comfortable with our photographer. 

When we discussed our options for photography, Dan said that if we could he would love to hire them because he already knew them and didn’t feel so awkward. 

That alone sold me but like I said, they really matched all three requirements of price, product and personality.

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