3rd April, 2012 - Posted by Natasha - 1 Comment
The one thing a lot of people tend to not pay attention to in the planning of their wedding is the lighting. Lighting is one very important aspect that sets the tone and mood for your venue, if it is done right, it can make your $30,000 wedding look like it is $100,000. Here are some tips on planning your lighting.
Contact a professional: You want to make sure that you contact the right person for this job, ask other brides what company they used, or ask your venue on what vendors they can recommend. You want to ask to see pictures of previous events that they have done to see the lighting arrangements they can create. Do your research! You want to make sure that this person knows exactly what they are doing, as lighting is a very important aspect.
After you find your professional you must…
Assess the Venue: As most receptions are held during the evening, paying visits to the venue in the evening will help you get a feel of what tone and mood you would like to have made with the lighting. Take a walk around the room; bring a friend or a family member that has a keen eye for detail as well as your professional of course, as you want to look for the spots that need to be focused on the most. Ask your coordinator at the reception if any service doors will be kept open, or if the pot lights will be dimmed, or if there is any florescent lighting as this could take away your lighting and ruin your effect. Remember: too little, will make the room seem dark and your guests will have a hard time seeing, and too much can flood the space and look less appealing. You also want to make sure you are not drawing attention away from the centre of the room, where your head table will be, you want to make sure everyone can notice the tables, the dance floor, each other, and of course your head table.
Use Colour: Think outside the box, sometimes people are not as brave when it comes to adding colour into their lighting, but this is a must and there are plenty of advantages in doing so. Different colours set different tones and moods, so you want to make sure you pick the right one for the mood you are trying to create. You also want to make sure you have different lighting for different parts of the night, during dinner soft lighting is suitable, as it portrays the atmosphere of candlelight, after dinner for the duration of the night that is where you start to get bold and daring, you can even be very dramatic with your lighting as well. When transitioning between different colours make sure you are doing ones that won’t hurt the eye, a tip is to find colours that go together, take a look on a colour wheel. You want to make sure that the transition between the colours flow.
Outdoor Venues: Lighting for an outdoor wedding is an ultimate must, as it serves a lot of purposes. If your site has a walkway or stairs, you will need to enhance these features with lighting to ensure nobody trips and gets hurt. Outdoor weddings can be a lot of fun when you are incorporating light, as you don’t need to use the typical equipment you would use in an indoor wedding; you can use more dramatic pieces that can also serve as wonderful decorative items as well.
Spending time working with your lighting designer is a very crucial part to your wedding, and it also will be one that is worth-while, although, lighting can be costly, it can also eliminate other expenses in the decoration and floral budget as lighting can create more benefits to the room then most decorative and floral pieces can.
Until Next time!
X-O-X-O
Natasha
2nd April, 2012 - Posted by Natasha - No Comments
More often couples are always asking the famous question “How can we save money on our wedding, without cutting our guest list or bridal party down” I must tell you, it is possible and here are a few tips that can help you save thousand of dollars.
Buy a second hand dress: Usually wedding dresses have only been worn once, so it will still have that new look to it. By doing this you will definitely save a few thousand dollars and it can also help out that bride who wants the Vera Wang, without spending the retail price for it. At the end of the day who is really going to know where exactly you purchased it from.
Venue: The best way to save money on the venue is to have your reception in the winter, banquet halls, always offer discounted menu prices for the winter months, so you can end up saving almost 50% off the price that you would normally be paying for the popular summer months.
Be Crafty: Instead of spending a lot of money on the ring bearer pillow, wedding veil, or jewelry, you can make your own with craft kits you can buy at your nearest craft store. It will not only be a money saver, but it will also be a one of a kind piece that nobody else would have had and nobody would have seen before. Tip: Add in your personal style.
Photography: Hire a college or university student that would like to build up their portfolio to take your photographs. Tip: Contact professors or deans of the program to inquire about the top students, so you know you are getting the best of the best.
Sound Systems: If you are not interested in hiring a dj, your iPod will do just fine. Set it up to a loud speaker dock, set-up your play list, and hire somebody from a college or university to be the disc jockey.
Balloons vs. Flowers: Considering decorating in balloons for your reception rather than lots of flowers, it will create a different ambiance, that will sure to be a wow factor, there are tons of how to videos online that teach you how to create specialty balloon decorations (such as: arches and bouquets), they are very neat looking, and are a money saver, as they are much cheaper then flowers.
Purchasing Decorations: Purchase majority of your decoration a year before, when that particular season is ending, decoration items at your craft store will most likely be up to 50% off, you will find you can afford more.
Musical Performers: Entertainment is always fun at a wedding, but it can be quite pricey. A good tip is to look on YouTube, MySpace, twitter, facebook for local unsigned talent in your area; you can find some great artists out there that love the exposure.
Hope these tips were helpful!
Until next time!
X-O-X-O
Natasha
30th March, 2012 - Posted by Natasha - 1 Comment
I feel very honoured that I was asked to become a weekly contributor to this blog, as a wedding/event planner and coordinator for Events by Natasha, I believe I can provide brides with the right advice and tips on planning their wedding. For my first blog, I thought it was suitable to explain the benefits of hiring a wedding planner/coordinator as I find many people ask ‘Why should I hire one?’
So you just got engaged, a million thoughts are running through your mind and the thought of it all is starting to stress you out a little, not only that you have your family members adding to your stress with question after question about the planning of your wedding. You are not sure of where to even begin with all the planning, nor do you have that much time to devote to it. That is where a wedding planner/coordinator comes in.
I truly believe, a wedding planner/coordinator is the bride’s personal fairy godmother and after reading this blog, I’m pretty sure you will too. The average wedding takes about 250 hours to plan, now throw in your full-time job, your extra-curricular activities, your own personal time, and sleep of course – what are you left with? Stress! Hiring a wedding planner/coordinator is probably the best decision a bride could make, not only does it save the newly engaged couple time to go about doing their daily activities, but it also helps relieve a lot of stress and with relieving stress, comes eliminating a lot of arguments that may have started between you and your groom, or family members, not saying that the normal quarrels might not happen during the wedding process, but majority of them are eliminated.
When hiring a wedding planner/coordinator you are not only saving yourself the stress and anxiety you are also saving a lot of money – yes, I said it MONEY! Wedding planners have a lot of connections in the industry with qualified vendors and venues, where they offer them certain discounts that you are able to use, not only that, wedding planner/coordinators are very skilled in negotiating so they are always trying to get you the best deal for your money. Budget Management is one of their strong suits as well, so they will make sure your money is being spent right and you are never going over your budget or spending money in the wrong places.
Majority of Brides have been dreaming about their wedding day, since they were little girls, collecting pictures, visioning what their special day will look like, a wedding planner/coordinator will work for you to make sure that all these dreams are met, and surpassed. They will plan your wedding as to how you want it planned not how they want it planned.
Now, we all know sometimes even during the greatest day of our life emergencies or crisis tend to happen. But, fear no more, your wedding planner/coordinator can take care of them; they are trained in handling any type of emergency and making sure that everything gets taken care of immediately.
Wedding planner/coordinators also create detailed schedules and itineraries for your wedding allowing you not to worry about orchestrating your rehearsal, or ceremony. Your wedding planner/Coordinator will make sure your bridal party and parents are properly lined up and standing in the right places. They can orchestrate the whole wedding from rehearsal right through to the end of the reception and make sure that everything goes as planned.
But, the number one reason as to why people should hire a wedding planner/coordinator is to reduce stress and put the fun back into planning a wedding, more often enough brides forget to enjoy the days leading up to their wedding and have fun because they are so stressed out from planning. Wedding planners/coordinators allow you to throw the fun back into it, and sit back, sip champagne, choose colour swatches, and taste cake.
In the past a wedding planner/coordinator was known to be more of a luxury, today it is more of a necessity to ensure that your wedding is planned smoothly and you are having fun throughout the whole process.
If that doesn’t seem like a bride’s personal fairy godmother-then I don’t know what does.
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Natasha
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