2011 Wedding Trend: Local is the New Organic

Being eco-friendly and "organic" came in strong with the year 2010, with brides planting trees in honor of every wedding guest and insisting that the meat at their wedding be from grass-fed animals. For 2011, supporting your local economy is chic!

Going local usually means you're also getting organic products, as you're buying from the farm around the corner instead of around the world. And, using locally made products for things such as favors and decor supports your hometown and adds a sweet, intimate charm to your event.

Some ideas for going local for your Western New York wedding (which can easily be translated to any town you may be getting married in)...

• Wine from a local winery in the Niagara region or the Finger Lakes
• Chocolate from a local business like Fowlers (we love Truffaloes!)
• Local products included in your OOT guest bags- such as Frank's Hot Sauce
• Favors produced by a local shop, or even roadside stand (candles, soap, etc.)

2011 Wedding Trend: The New Neutrals

Yes my wedding-loving friends, that says 2011 trend. Can you believe we're talking about 2011 already?? Well, it's important to be ahead of the curve in the wedding world, and if Fashion Week shows their collections for next year in the fall, then why can't we start talking trends now?

So, having a neutral base color in your wedding color scheme is a pretty common thing. Most brides choose to have a neutral to ground their theme, and then accent (either lightly or heavily) with brighter colors. 2010 was the year of gray. Gray was by far the most popular wedding neutral, with the color combos of gray + yellow and gray + red dominating the wedding scene.

For 2011, brown is the new gray. Which is funny, because gray was the new brown. So I guess brown is making a comeback. In 2008-9 chocolate brown was the IT neutral for weddings, and for 2011 it's coming back strong. But also, mocha, latte, and taupe are coming back with brown, as a lighter, more airy alternative to dark chocolate brown.

This lovely cranberry and latte themed inspiration board was borrowed from The Perfect Palette.

Sneak Peek: 4th of July Wedding

Phew- July was a whirlwind of a month!!! It was filled to the brim with weddings galore- so stayed tuned for loads of photos! Not all of them were weddings we planned, but we want to share photos from them all so you can get design/decor ideas, and just drool over the wedding gorgeousness. But first, some photos from a wedding we DID indeed plan, Christina and Wyatt's 4th of July Weekend Wedding Extravaganza! Check out the fantastic photographer Lindsay DeDario's blog for a sneak peek of her images. Soon, we'll be posting a full rundown of all of the details we created for Christina and Wyatt, complete with more lovely photos from Lindsay. Enjoy!

Planned by Us: Christina's Bridal Shower

Well it certainly is wedding season isn't it? We've got a string of lovely events coming up, and we're so excited! For now, please enjoy photos from the shower we helped coordinate and design for our 4th of July weekend bride-to-be Christina. The hostesses, mother of the bride Anne and maid of honor Stephanie, chose Rick's on Main in East Aurora and we designed the decor, favors, and setup. Enjoy!

The lovely bride-to-be Christina is in white with her maid of honor and sister Stephanie. Notice the white lantern in the window in the background- we put those in all of the windows!

Favors were little terracotta pots with alysum that Julie and I planted the night before. We also glued ribbon and bows and thank you tags to them. Cupcakes and stand provided by Zilly Cakes on Elmwood.

These centerpieces turned out so cute! And they were really fun to make. :)

The mother of the bride made beautiful baskets to raffle off as prizes for the guests, so we wrote numbers on the bottom of the pots and the bride picked the winners out of a bowl. Here she is showing off the favors! Photos courtesy of Christina's cousin, Taras Muzychko (website under construction).

Enjoy the last weekend in June (can you believe it's over already?)!!!

Ask a Planner: Questions for Photographers

A bride recently came to us and asked for advice on what to ask photographers when you're trying to choose one for your wedding day. So, I thought I'd take this opportunity to share my answers with all of you!

First of all, before interviewing potential photographers, it's important to know the style that you want your wedding photography to be. There are SO many photographers out there these days, and they all specialize in different styles. The two basics are traditional vs. photo-journalism, but there are varying degrees within these two categories. Traditional style wedding photography is more of the posed, formal shots with bride, groom, and wedding party, using elegant and scenic backgrounds. Photographers who use a photo-journalistic style strive to "tell a story" with their photos, so they include more candid, unposed shots and usually take a lot more pictures. As I said, there is a lot of variety within these two basic styles. The best way to figure out what you want is to look at wedding photos! Check out the galleries on the Knot, Style Me Pretty, Project Wedding, etc. and save photos that you like. When you put these all together, you can start to see what style you want your wedding day photographed in.

Once you've pinpointed style, start interviewing photographers who say they specialize in this. Often, photographers bring assistants to weddings to take photos as well- then one photographer can take the posed shots while the other focuses on details and candid shots. This is a great way to get a mix of styles, if that's what you want. Ask if the photographer uses an assistant, and if it's included in the package or if you have to pay extra.

When looking at the packages a photographer offers, make sure you ask exactly what is included in them. Is there an hour limit for how long they'll be with you on the wedding day? Do you get any prints or a book included with the package price? Is an engagement session or bridal portrait session included in your package? Do you have personal usage rights* to the wedding photos? This last question is a big one!! Some photographers retain the rights to your photos, so that you receive 4x6 prints or low-quality jpegs on a disc and if you want more prints you have to purchase them through the photographer- or you can pay an extra fee to purchase your high resolution photos from the photographer. If you do so, then you can print your images whenever you want. Other photographers give you your photos as part of the original package. Make sure you understand whether or not you will be receiving a disc of your photos that you can print from or not.

The photos are the biggest thing you'll have left of your wedding day, make sure that you get what you want with your photographer! Any other suggestions on what to ask a photographer- let us know in the comments section!

(photo credits 1,2,3)

*"Personal usage rights" is different than outright owning the copyright on your photos. Photographers usually don't sell the rights to their photos to any couple, because then this couple could profit off of the photos without giving any credit or compensation to the photographer. So instead, photographers protect their work, and offer couples personal usage rights, meaning they can have the high res photos to print and reprint for years to come, but cannot sell these images to anyone. Thank you to Lindsay DeDario, a photographer friend of mine here in Buffalo, NY, for further explaining the terminology to me!

Testing Testing... 1 2 3

Just trying out some new looks on the blog- I want to be able to display photos bigger and better so I needed a new template. So, enjoy the test photo collage of Southern Belle/Country brides and tell me what you think of this background and design!

Colors We Love: Pool Blue and Pink

It's summer!! Well, not officially yet, but with temps in the 80's in Western New York, that's good enough for me to call it summer. :) Let's bask in the bright colors that brides often choose to celebrate their wedding day in the summer sun- an alternative to one of my fav color combos of navy and fuschia, pool blue and pink is summery, fresh, and fun! (click for a larger view and photo credits)