Happy Wedding Season!

WOW! I have been a blogging SLACKER! Honestly though I have had good reason for that. I will give you all the short version:




My lease was up in February for my studio and I had the hardest time trying to decide on re-newing. I knew that if I had to really talk myself into the re-new then it probably was not worth it. So I went ahead and chose to move my office into my house. After all I was working more from home then in my studio anyways so it was a very sensible plan. So there that is and done...



On to the next topic at hand.



Recently I have been playing around with lots of feathers and went ahead and decided to make some bridal hair pieces. At first I was making just funky everyday whatever hair pieces. Now I have moved on to bridal. I am really having fun with feathers, and vintage inspired fascinator hats as well as birdcage veils. I have to tell you this is a challenging thing for me. Because I am a perfectionist as a wedding planner. When using feathers I am literally picking through every single plume and piece for the perfect feather. It takes FOREVER! All of the items are hand stitched and also perfectly stitched. On most you can not even find the stitching. So far I only have one completed fascinator hat with veil but I am working on a few others right now. I have been lucky at the antique malls finding lots of vintage lace and fun items to incorporate into these pieces.



My season is kicking off with some great venues to start with such as the Syndicate, Stonelick Hills Golf Course and the Hilton's Hall of Mirrors for this month. So much fun will be had!

Lauren and Chad

I loved this couple. They were so much fun to work with and had an amazing vendor group! Which I love like crazy. Also they went to a number of locations for photos. Which I love too. It is so possible logistically when you have a great photographer in place. Lauren and Chad did photos at the Art Museum where the ceremony and reception took place, Eden Park and Great American Ballpark. When you are doing multiple locations it is crucial to stay on time and a good photographer knows that and does it. So take a peek at how much fun they had and how amazing they looked!

Lauren and Chad by urweddingbyjen

Vendors for Lauren and Chad's wedding were as follows:
Photographer: Daniel Michael
Videographer: Iconography
Florist: Courtenay Lambert
Cake: Maribelle Cakery
Lighting: Goodwin Lighting
Stationery: Amo-Ink
DJ: Maize Music
Location: Cincinnati Art Museum

Stacey and Darrell...

Recently I have been going through all of my past wedding photos and can not believe how many I did not blog about!
When it is wedding season I think there comes a point when all of the sudden you are getting massive amounts of photos from the photographers and brides. I tend to have to set some aside to keep up with my current clients during this time.
I was happy to find this set of photos and they are from two years ago! Wow! Still very cool!

Turfway Park by urweddingbyjen

Design tip #1 "I just want something different....."

I am willing to bet that I have heard this from every single one of my clients.
Now when I hear that, I immediately think "let's rock it out" BUT I have to quickly pull back on my reins and take a hard look at the couple and really figure out what their idea of different means.
These days EVERYONE wants their wedding to be personalized and when they think personalized the brain immediately goes to a monogram. Which is great, don't get me wrong I love them, in moderation though. It is easy for me to say that a monogram is not different. I see them at every single wedding. Often though I think many couples may feel that this is what will set their wedding apart from others. Unfortunately that is not the case. The things that will set your wedding apart from others are the other little or big details. The things that even I have yet to see.
I think the foundation of these details begins with the bride and groom.
What do you love? Individually and as a couple? What is your everyday personal style? Do not even think wedding when answering these because then you will just be mentally tricked and go into things that you see on wedding websites and everything else wedding that your eyes gaze upon. Your answers will become flowers and feathers and beads. When really those are not the things you love daily.
I will use myself for an example...
Things I love are.. vintage costume jewelry, music, art deco, and early 1900's architecture.
My personal style... "feminine tough".. Basically I love black anything and add some great accessories.
So with that in mind it would be super easy to design a wedding based on that information. The catch, it would be different, and personalized. Because I am an individual. My likes are not everyone else's likes. So when designing a wedding if you pull your details from the things you like/love then you will be amazed at what starts flowing from the right side of your brain.
Often times people become so obsessed at making their wedding different by spending hours online looking at photos and ideas from other people's weddings. It becomes a frustrating struggle for the researcher, because they just can not find the things that appeal to them.
Instead of searching wedding related photos try searching one of your likes. For example, I would google "art Deco" images. Some of the results would include some really cool signs with amazing font types. I would see some breath taking architectural structures among other things like art deco prints and so on. First thing that comes to mind for me is the stationary. See that was not so hard. From there you just start building and incorporating.
I hope that helps some of you out there who may be struggeling with the actual design and creating the over all look for your "different, personalized" wedding.

Kristen & Kyle.....

What can one say when you have a bride that looks like her and a groom that looks like him other then.. AHHHHHH!!! They will have amazingly gorgeous babies.

Kristen and Kyle have some serious style and I LOVED working with them. It was really difficult trying to pick which photos I would post because they ALL were so amazing. I love when that happens. Cindy Wagner and her team did such a great job with the photography. Working with them made my job so easy. So on with the eye candy..

Courtenay Lambert Florals did all of the flowers for Kristen and Kyle's wedding and I must say she did a freaking awesome job. You will see more of her work below.

The ceremony and reception took place at French House in French Park. We could not have asked for a better day. The flowers were all in full bloom, sun was shining and the temperature was perfect.

Kristen and Kyle created their escort card holder with old corks and twisted wire in the shapes of hearts and flowers. It turned out adorable.

Their cake was made by Jerry's Cheese Cake.. One of my favorites. For the first time ever I had to decorate the cake and let me say that freaked me out. All I could think about was messing that cake up by putting a flower in the wrong spot. It turned out perfect though and tasted soooo good. I loved that she used fabric flowers from an Etsy seller for the cake.

Jeff Thomas did all of the catering and I do not need to say it was done with perfection. I love working with Jeff and his team. They always do a perfect job and are like clock work when it comes to perfection. The food was amazing.

The linens were all rented through me (yes I do linen rentals as well) She choose an eggplant pintuck with a pewter crushed romance runner and napkins.

Each table had a few small arrangements. All in vintage glass, the flowers were so cool and fit the table setting perfectly. The flowers ranged from succulents, to berries to hydrangeas and fiddle ferns and a mess of color in between. They popped really well on the linens.

T-Sly band was soooooo much fun! I had a lot of fun with these guys all night long. They had every guest out dancing through out the entire night.

It is sooooo hard to find a vintage car these days BUT not for my clients. I have a guy who literally has a mad fleet of cars. All types of cars too. I believe he said he has almost 15 different styles of vintage cars to date. The guys is so cool. He dresses like a vintage chauffeur and is always early and just an all around fun guy.

Feathers and Fabric.. Oh My....

Nothing says sassy like feathers and I am absolutely in love with all feather bouquets as well as those made of fabric. How cool are these babies and you could coordinate the colors like mad. If I were getting married I would totally rock one of these without batting a lash. Choosing just one would be the difficult part. After a few hours of browsing google images and flicker I found that Etsy has the best selection and the sellers have mad skillz when it comes to creating these feathery lovelies so take a peek and if you love one or want to see more the etsy seller's link is just a click away!

Visit this etsy seller by clicking here... I am pretty sure she is my favorite.

Love these colors together! Visit this seller here

Love the combination of vintagey colored fabrics, and the vintage bling. See her here.

Then this amazing felt and fabric bouquet is found right here.

Fun color choices see the pink bouquet right here!

Get your face ready girl!

Ok, so I am sort of embarrassed to say this but to me skin care used to consist of target brand makeup remover wipes and eye make up remover. I would always complain about how I am 30 something and still have acne like I am 15. I never really understood why because I remove my makeup. Duh!! So after much pressuring I finally went in to Shane Weber Salon and had a facial. Now understand, I have had a facial before at a salon/spa type place and when I walked out I was expecting a miracle but was quickly disappointed when I looked in the mirror to see not a single change from when I walked in. So that experience sort of had me entering the salon with little expectations on a huge change or even a little change.

When I walked into the salon I was greeted by Stephany the skin care specialist at Shane Weber Salon and was handed a form to fill out. Basically asking a good amount of skin related questions as well as a few health related. Once I completed the form Stephany took me back into the skin room and explained what her plan of attack would be. So I got ready, laid on the bed and was told to relax as she got to work. Initially I had a hard time relaxing, mainly because I was expecting the same results as the first facial I had, but I also have issues with people being in my facial area and not being able to see what they are doing. Well, needless to say that lasted about 5 minutes, at that point I was totally relaxed and about to fall asleep. Stephany explained what she was doing each time she did something different which was very comforting to me. After much cleansing she examined my skin under an intensely bright light. In my head I was thinking "oh my god she is looking at all of my skin in all of its horrific grossness".. Ha.. Once she looked over it she told me what the issues were and how we needed to treat it. I said "okay" and we went on with the facial. After about an hour and a half and about 20 minutes of that included some really amazing massage action, I was all finished. She left the room so I could get dressed and the only thing I could think about was walking back out into the salon with no makeup on and my face looking like crap.   So I took about 5 extra minutes to exit the skin room. I walked out and she immediately took me over to a mirror to check it out.  I was pretty much blown away. My bare naked skin looked amazing! I could not believe how good it looked. So needless to say I was sold. She gave me a list of products that I should get with no pressure what so ever to buy them. Well, of course I am buying them if my skin can look like this all the time I will buy whatever it takes!  Stephany showed me the products that I should have to start with and I eagerly bought them. Then she gave me detailed instructions on how and when to use them. I was also informed that it will take about 4-6 weeks before I see a real improvement. I was thinking wow I already see a huge improvement, so in 4-6 weeks I cannot even imagine what my skin will look like. I left the salon very happy that I came in for the "dreaded facial". Later that night I pulled out the boxes of Dermalogica products that I had purchased as well as the directions on how and when to use what. It took me about a half hour to get familiar with the products and get the routine down but now it takes about 5 minutes.
So my point is girls, for your wedding day you can't wait till the last minute to get your skin in shape. Even those who are still a year out why wait until you are two months away to get started? Yes, photographers can photoshop your skin imperfections but they cannot create a healthy glow like good skin care can.  When the skin care routine is customized to your specific needs it makes a huge difference.
You can contact Stephany at Shane Weber Salon by calling 513.221.6500 to schedule an appointment. I can assure you that you will walk out totally ecstatic by the initial results.

Robin and Craig details...

Robin and Craig had a gorgeous wedding and reception both at Manor House. Here are a few of the details that tied the whole event together.

Lifetime Films presents....

Bethanie was an absolutely stunning bride. I loved so many of the details for her wedding but most of all I loved her dress details. She looked absolutely stunning. Here is a clip from Lifetime Films. The wedding was held at the Cincinnati Art Museum and the reception was at Reception's in Erlanger.

Bethanie and Michael Highlight Reel from Chris Joecken on Vimeo.

Katya & Eric

This past summer I had the pleasure of planning Katya and Eric's wedding which you may remember in a few previous post.
It makes me happy when videographers post teaser clips on their website so I am able to share them as well. Andrew and Annette Tate with 28:20 Films did an amazing job on this so check it out for yourself.

eric + katya // 06.13.09 from Andrew Tate on Vimeo.

Are you ready for this??...!!....??

After reading an article in the NY Times I felt it was totally worthy of posting it on my blog.
I think that many times the engaged couple may just assume that they have everything mapped out and know the other like the back of their hand. In many cases that is not the truth. There are many things that pre-married couples forget to discus and then it comes up post-married only to become a.) a huge fight b.) a huge disapointment or c.) the dreaded divorce. When taking on a marriage you have to be completely willing to communicate your needs to each other. No, you may not agree on everything but you have to comprimise on some things as well. Marriage is something that requires so much work and attention from both of you. So go over this list and sit down and have a heart to heart. Get everything out in the open so that you can have a happy marriage. 3 years from now you do not want to be sitting at home wondering why being married is not what you expected. Remember you make the marrriage work, it doesn't work on it's own.
So check the article below.



Weddings & Celebrations Questions Couples Should Ask (Or Wish They Had) Before Marrying

Relationship experts report that too many couples fail to ask each other critical questions before marrying. Here are a few key ones that couples should consider asking:

 Marriage Is Not Built on Surprises (Dec. 17, 2006
1) Have we discussed whether or not to have children, and if the answer is yes, who is going to be the primary care giver?



2) Do we have a clear idea of each other’s financial obligations and goals, and do our ideas about spending and saving mesh?



3) Have we discussed our expectations for how the household will be maintained, and are we in agreement on who will manage the chores?



4) Have we fully disclosed our health histories, both physical and mental?



5) Is my partner affectionate to the degree that I expect?



6) Can we comfortably and openly discuss our sexual needs, preferences and fears?



7) Will there be a television in the bedroom?



8) Do we truly listen to each other and fairly consider one another’s ideas and complaints?



9) Have we reached a clear understanding of each other’s spiritual beliefs and needs, and have we discussed when and how our children will be exposed to religious/moral education?



10) Do we like and respect each other’s friends?



11) Do we value and respect each other’s parents, and is either of us concerned about whether the parents will interfere with the relationship?



12) What does my family do that annoys you?



13) Are there some things that you and I are NOT prepared to give up in the marriage?



14) If one of us were to be offered a career opportunity in a location far from the other’s family, are we prepared to move?



15) Does each of us feel fully confident in the other’s commitment to the marriage and believe that the bond can survive whatever challenges we may face?

Rock'n the Wedding Contest

As weddings season is drawing to a close I have been looking through all of the weddings that YWBJ coordinated this year and I must say we did some pretty amazing and pretty work. So that was the inspiration for this contest!

Yes we all love pretty weddings. Especially when they have some really awesome personal touches that you do not see at any other wedding. BUT what I want to see is a Rock'n wedding that is downright awesome as well.

SO girlz and maybe some boi readers this is what I have for ya.

Your Wedding by Jen is looking for the most offbeat, rock n roll bride type affair. We will be offering the lucky winner of this contest 75% OFF of a full or partial planning package. Seriously that is insanity on my end but I need to unleash some of my ideas on someone willing to rock them.

So here is what we are looking for..

tattooed bridez and groomz

non traditional wedding attire

willingness to rock the reception

unique venue location

Basically we want a couple who will step outside of the traditional box and really punk up the wedding. So if you think you have what it takes then here is what you have to do.

Send us an email to contest@yourweddingbyjen.com saying why you think you and your soul mate should be the YWBJ Rock'n the Wedding winner. It does not have to be a novel okay, just type it up and tell me why. Tell me your wedding date, attach a photo and hit send.

On October 31st we will pick a winner and we will be on our merry way to planning this bad azz wedding. Easy enough right?

Your wedding MUST be on a date that we have available. So just a word of advice if you are looking for May of 2010 I have one weekend left. So you must either be flexible or have a date that I have open.

So open up your email and start sending in the entries! Good luck to you kidz.

Meet the YWBJ 2009 bridez...

ROBIN

Robin is the kind of bride who's happiness is contagious. This girl never once stopped smiling and giggling the entire day. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen. I could tell from the moment that I laid eyes on this couple that they were/are hopelessly in love with each other. The way Robin looks at Craig screams I love you. It was perfect. (By the way Robin, I stole that image above from your Facebook photos. HAHA)

They had an amazing team of vendors in place as well and here they are.

Ron Schuller's Photography

Who put together this awesome slide show.

Lifetime Video

Once again Matt and Dan did a perfect job. (Love those guys.)

Manor House

Ceremony and Reception were held here.

Furst Florist

The flowers that Michael created were amazing. You could smell them through out all of Manor House. They were gorgeous!

Party Pleasers DJ's

Ele Cake Co.

Thank you Robin and Craig for allowing YWBJ to be a part of your amazing wedding.

Meet the YWBJ 2009 bridez...starting with,

BETHANIE

Bethanie, what a gorgeous bride. I am so lucky that this year has brought me so many gorgeous clients with serious style.

I am 100% sure that Bethanie's birdcage veil and dress were my favorite part of her wedding. Mostly because of the amazing feathers that she used as well as the sweet adornment she added to her dress. (Take a peek down below.)

Her wedding was held at the Cincinnati Art Museum. I adore this location because it is so gorgeous. The girls at the museum are amazing as well. I love working with them. Jan and Katelyn rock.(Plus it allows me to make sure that I take extra time before rehearsal to walk through the museum to see what is on exhibit.)

Bethanie had her reception at Reception's Erlanger and it was gorgeous as well. She brought the black and red into all elements of the reception and added some damask print to tie it all together. It was beautiful. I love black and white anyways and when a pop of color is added it makes my eyes so happy. :) Her cake was done by Patricia's custom cakes. It was amazing.

This girl had one intense bustle. 16 ties I think it was. It may had been even more, but mom and I got her bustled up and good to go in no time.

Other vendors that made this wedding amazing were.

Chad Moon Photography

You can also see the entire slideshow here.

He does amazing work and it is true pleasure to work with.

Lifetime Video

Matt and Dan are awesome to work with and so much fun.

Motortoys Limo Service

Always a pleasure to work with.

Newburg Trio

Another group of professionals that I enjoy working with.

Brideface

Mollie at Brideface made the girls look smokin' hot.

Thank you Bethanie and Michael for allowing me to be a part of your wedding.

Guest book OR........

Are you looking for an alternative to the traditional guest book for your wedding? Well once again Etsy has came through with many of the amazing sellers offering some really cute and different items for your "Guest non-book".

I find that brides these days really want to personalize their wedding and offer their guests with something that they have never experienced. There are many ways to do this and I think one small way is to incorporate something besides your standard guest book for everyone to sign. Yes you may look through it the week after your wedding but chances are you may not look at it again until your 10 year anniversary.

Some ideas that are not pictured below could be hanging a huge blank canvas and offering up some spray paint to create a graffiti type wall hanging. Now that is not really going to work out for an indoor event due to massive amounts to fumes but in that case how about an easel with some paints and brushes? Another fun idea is a huge chalkboard with various colored chalks. After the event you can spray it with a spray lacquer such as Rustoleum Painters Touch Spray Lacquer to preserve the board.

No matter what you decide on keep in mind you never have to go with the norm. Make your wedding an event that reflects you and your significant other! After all that is what it is all about. Right?