wishing you a wonderful 2009

I cannot believe that there are only minutes left of 2008.

I want to send out a HUGE thank you to all of our 2008 clients :: Juli + Andy, Becky + Matt, Monique + Kevin, Jackie + Matt, Summer + Jim, Alicia + Troy, Dana + Joe, Kristina + Dan, Jen + Greg, Kathryn + Will, Daisy + Greg, Christina + Eric, Dana + Brian, Kami + Dan, Karaline + Andy, Melissa + Kyle, Rose + Brian, Bree + Brad, Liza + James, Amy + Chad, and Felicia + Jeremy. All of you were fabulous to work with and I wouldn't be where I am today without you.

I also wanted to send a huge THANK YOU out to my 2008 intern, Alison Westhouse. Without Alison, well, I don't want to even imagine what could have happened at some of our events! From setting up reception sites and tracking down deejays to perfectly placing escort cards and making sure the bride + groom had champagne for toasts, Alison always came through. Ooh, and I had fun working with her too!

And of course a giant thank you to all of the amazing vendors we had the pleasure of working with in 2008!

In the coming year, there is much to look forward to. There are also many vendors that I'm looking forward to working with for the first time :: Stems Event Design, Elements of Elegance, Ryan Prins Photography, Elite Photography + Design and Lotus Photographic...

Happy 2009 from Pearls Events.

[image source]

eventology 2009 :: for wedding professionals

Are you ready to take your wedding business to the next level?

Are you looking for ways to leverage your brand and increase your company's reach?

Do you want your business to thrive regardless of the economy?

K Sherrie + Co is proud to present Eventology 2009, an intimate, collaborative and intensive business conference designed especially for wedding planners. Eventology 2009 will bring you real-life, applicable marketing and business information to use to enhance your wedding planning business.

Three highly successful and renowned wedding planners will be discussing their insight and perspective on how to create and cultivate a prosperous wedding business.

-Chat with Saundra Hadley of planning . . . forever events on How to Close the Deal: Sales Methods for the Wedding Industry.

-Discuss how to Turn Brides into Fans: Nurturing Your Relationships with Clients with Terrica Skaggs of Fabuluxe, Inc. and iWed: International Network of Wedding Designers.

-Learn how to Leverage Your Brand to Reach Today's Bride: Marketing in a Post-Modern World with Liene Stevens of Blue Orchid Designs and The Smart Planner.

You do not want to miss this educational and networking workshop! Learn the science behind running a successful wedding business, because the reality is, if you're not running a profitable business, it's just one big expensive hobby.

When: Tuesday, April 7 to Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Where: Indianapolis, Indiana at the Omni Severin Hotel
Cost: Early Bird registration is $150 and includes the networking event on Tuesday night and breakfast and lunch on Wednesday.

A select amount of rooms will be available at the Omni Severin Hotel for the special Eventology rate of $115 +tax per night. Space is limited for this conference. Please sure to look for future announcements regarding the official launch of the Eventology 2009 website and Eventology 2009 blog.

To be included on the email list for Eventology 2009, please send an email to hello{at}eventology2009.com with Mailing List in the subject line.

[logo design by Tifany of Gourmet Invitations]

Pearls Events Press | Daisy & Greg in MyNorth Wedding

This Fall, MyNorth Wedding contacted Dasiy & Greg about their August 2008 wedding which was held at The Homestead in Glen Arbor, Michigan. They were interested in featuring Daisy's planning journey in their brand spankin' new magazine, and of course all the glorious photos by Amy Carroll Photography.

Daisy, a graphic designer, put hours of work into designing the details--from the gorgeous invites & fun table numbers, to the coordinating escort cards & amazing cake she designed with her pastry chef. It is a perfect Up North wedding to feature and inspire other brides who are planning a wedding in Northern Michigan.

holiday happenings

This week is about catching up and preparing for the 2009 season. (Yes, this includes getting all of my expense reports in order. NOT fun!) I still cannot believe how busy 2008 was and how 2009 is shaping up. I'm anticipating some exciting changes + additions for Pearls Events, and I cannot wait to share all of the details with you.

I did not have the pleasure of being involved with any winter weddings in 2008, so when my friend Melissa Diekema posted a couple teasers of Claire + Matt's wedding from 12.27.08 on Facebook, I immediately emailed her to see if she'd like to share with my readers. Look for this amazing wedding next week right here on the Pearls Events blog.

back from vacation

I returned from our Christmas vacation in Costa Rica early Saturday morning. It was an amazing trip full of rain forests, volcanoes, shopping in coastal towns, hot springs and sunshine. I am back in West Michigan with all of its snow + cold weather glory and looking forward to 2009.

I want to thank my December guest bloggers Daisy, Bree, Jessica + April. Having these ladies writing for the Pearls Events blog was a complete blast - I hope you enjoyed their posts as much as I did. I have one more guest blogger lined up for 2009, but other than that, I'll be back to my regular scheduled posting.

The photo above I took of the veranda at our resort in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. I plan on recapping the trip on my personal blog, if you're interested in reading more. I hope you enjoyed your holiday season!

Thank you!

I want to thank all of pearls events readers for following along this week. I had a lot of fun. I know I didn't get to all of the inspiration boards, but I will continue to work on them and send the to Aletha to post at a later date.

I would like to finish my week with a couple of my favorite holiday recipes. You will have to excuse the amateur photography...I tried to make them look pretty :)

Chocolate Buttercream Cherry Candy

Tiny Pecan Tarts

Please be sure to stop by my blog after the new year for exciting new posts!

Inspiration board:: Meg + Bob

The couple's wedding style: Super casual outdoor farm wedding with lawn and board games, gourmet vegetarian food, and tons of DIY accents. We love playful, fun details.

1-4, 6. Photos

 2. Dress

7. Shoes

8. Hanging Star Lanterns

Also see this inspiration board by Elizabeth Anne Designs

Merry Christmas!

I will be taking today off to celebrate with my family. Stay tuned tomorrow for more inspiration!

Our holiday card

Inspiration board:: Tyffanie + Christian

The couple's  wedding style: Outdoor elegance in the Rocky Mountains. We'd love to incorporate damask, but not overwhelmingly. We are also looking to incorporate Christian's Chilean heritage, including the Spanish language and any other little bits of latino goodness!

1. Centerpiece (In Photography)

2. Bouquet

3. PhotoNecklace

4. Invitation Suite

5. Shoes

6. Sign

7. Cake

8. Boutonniere (Troy Photo)

inspiration board:: kate + daniel

The couple's wedding style: Classic and intimate. It will be an outdoor ceremony on Lake Michigan followed by a reception located in a restored furniture factory. We are going going nautical without using too many "nautical items". I would say more classic with a touch of nautical. 

1. Wedding Gown 

2. Boquet

3. Cards

4. Tie

5. Invitation

6. Heels

7. Cake

8. Vases

inspiration board::christine + scott

The couple's wedding style: Easy elegance. Southern charm. We're going for a blend of our two backgrounds from Virginia and Georgia. The wedding reception will take place at George Washington's old farm on the Potomac River in Alexandria, VA.

1. Invitation

2. Place setting 

3. Shoes

4. Flowers

5. Bridesmaid dress

6. Centerpiece

7. Cake

8. Boutonniere 

inspiration board:: kara + mike

The couple's wedding style: Classic with a twist, the most important thing to us is that our guests have fun and remember our wedding for years to come. It's a celebration, people go to so many weddings we want ours to stand out. So classic with a twist, fun and fun.


1. 

Bridesmaid Dress

2. Cupcakes

3. Gift Bag

4. Program

5. Bouquet

6. Boutonniere 

7. Photo (by Geoff White)

8. ValentinoHalf d'Orsay Peep-Toes

If you want to add a fun and unique element to your reception that will blow your guests away, I highly recommend checking out Sam at 176 Keys. You will not be disappointed!

inspiration board:: katie + luke

The couple's  wedding style:: Rustic (but not country) and simplistic. Our main decorations will be real trees (without the leaves), with white lights wrapped on the branches, mixed with artificial Christmas trees w/white lights. But definitely not “Christmas-like” :) I envision lots of woodsy branches and white lights, and pillar candles galore at the church and reception.

1. J Crew Dress

2. Table Scape

3. Centerpiece

4. Bouquet

5. Candle Holder

6. Tie Photo

7. unknown

8. Cake

If you want to get in on the inspiration board action, just leave a comment on this post!

hi! i'm april

I am thrilled and honored to be this week's guest blogger for pearls events! 

I am an owner and lead consultant for the event planning and custom stationary design business, Blu Sky Designs, located in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Please feel free to visit my blog and take a peak at the archives. You won't see any new posts as Blu Sky is going under some major changes for the new year. 

I have some excited things planned for my blog appearance... the first being something that I love so much... inspiration boards! So, brides, I need YOU!!! If you would like a custom inspiration board to appear on pearls events this week, just leave a comment with the following information:

Your first name:

Your fiancé's first name:

Your wedding date:

Your wedding colors:

Your wedding style:

Also, stay tuned for my favorite holiday baking recipes complete with pictures of the actual product that I made- not a picture of a professionally made good. :)

jessica's inspiration :: thank you

I knew that after all the personal details that we put into our wedding, there was no way that we could just have a standard thank you note! These two photos inspired me along my way to creating the perfect thank you card. In combining the two pictures above, we took a picture on our wedding day that would become the front of our thank you cards.



Chris incorporated our monogram into our Thank and our You signs and we posed for the picture after the ceremony in front of a historic house on Meridian Street in Indianapolis. I left the other half of the front side of the card to write our thank you note.


The back of our card was a collage of three of our favorite pictures, all of which were taken by the talented Nicole Green.

I suppose that it is appropriate that my last post in this series is about our thank you cards. I'd like to take a moment to thank Aletha for letting me guest blog this week on Pearls Events. It has been such a pleasure! And to her lovely readers; thank you for following along! I hope that you gain as much inspiration from the blogging community has I have. If you want to stop by my blog, I'd love to see you over at tying the knot!

photos jessica strickland + rebekah westover

jessica's inspiration :: reception details

All the time spent planning and agonizing over ribbon colors, fonts and flowers came together at our reception. Thankfully, our amazing photographer, Nicole Green, captured everything perfectly for me to remember that awesome shade of raspberry ribbon and those adorable napkins I found on Etsy. I really enjoyed planning the details, so seeing it all come together was fulfilling.


I first got the urge to create custom cocktail napkins with our monogram on them after seeing the eat. drink. be married. napkins on Style Me Pretty. I purchased our napkins from Etsy seller Designs by Tine, the same seller that made Bree's custom cocktail napkins.

The vision for our smaller centerpieces came to me when I saw this centerpiece. I loved the look of ribbon around the vase and sealing it with a monogram square. When the time came, our finished product was sans monogram square. I figured out an elegant way to tie the ribbon around the vase and loved the way it looked without the monogram.

From day one, I knew I wanted our guests to find their seats with anything but a standard escort card. Once I saw this photo on The Knot, I began making the perfect seating chart for our venue. The chart was framed and was displayed on an easel just outside the ballroom. As guests arrived, they found their name on the list.

My favorite detail from our wedding was the Blurb book that I made after seeing this post on Brooklyn Bride. We used our Blurb book as a guest book, having guests sign the right hand side of each spread. The left hand side of the book held various layouts of our engagement pictures, which guests enjoyed looking through.

jessica's inspiration :: socks and shoes

During the eleven months I spent planning our wedding, blogs quickly became a constant source of inspiration. Each blog provided me with unique + creative ideas and I enjoyed the eye candy each day. From our Blurb guestbook + cocktail napkins displaying our monogram to the seating chart + pro photo ideas--they were all details that we incorporated into our wedding after finding them on blogs.

There was one picture that I started to come across on various photographer's blogs. I fell in love with the sock and shoe shot. I knew that our wedding could not be without this sassy detail. Thus, inspired by the photos below, my search for the perfect plum peep toe shoes and plum socks began.



So, just how did these photos of sock and shoe shot inspiration turn into reality on our wedding day? See for yourself...


I bought my plum shoes from Bakers for $40. I adore them much more than any other white bridal shoe that I had found and when spring rolls around, I know they will be making an appearance. We bought socks for Chris and the groomsmen at Banana Republic at the price of three pairs for $24.

I hope that you love the sock + shoe shot as much as I do! Perhaps this will be your inspiration to stray away from the typical white bridal shoe and spice up your groom's socks for your big day!

[images]
image one :: Jose Villa
image two :: Pen Carlson
image three :: White Box Weddings
image four :: Natalie Moser
image five-eight :: Nicole Green

jessica's inspiration :: flowers

Once our colors had been chosen and the monogram was set, it was time to work on the other fun details. I started with the flowers. Above is the original inspiration for the bouquets--plum, raspberry + utterly gorgeous and full. Since the flowers were a big part of our day--from the bouquets to the centerpieces--I wanted them to be perfect. Although I have always loved peonies, they are not readily available in September. Dahlias, however, are available and they are a full, frilly flower--everything that I was looking for.

The best part? They are available in raspberry and plum!


After I {finally!} decided on an all-white bouquet for myself, it had only one other requirement--it must be fluffy + full. I found the photo above at the classic bride blog and immediately was inspired for my own bouquet.


Did our inspiration turn it into picture perfect bouquets? See for yourself...

My bouquet was made up of beautiful white dahlias and gorgeous spider mums. A few button mums were sprinkled in and the bouquet was perfect in every way. Our florist created bouquets of plum dahlias and raspberry asters for the bridesmaids. I would have liked for the bridesmaid's bouquets to be a bit larger and the dahlias to have been fuller, but they turned out just fine.


And for the guys? Chris wore a white dahlia, which matched my bouquet perfectly and each of the groomsmen donned a raspberry flower. The groomsmen's asters held up really well, but Chris' dahlia was a different story!

If you are still searching for floral inspiration, check out Stone Blossom Floral. There are tons of beautiful bouquets--you are sure to find something you adore. And on a related note, every week Bellissima Vita features a centerpiece of the week that might aid you in your search for floral inspiration!

[photos]
plum + raspberry flowers :: Jessamyn Harris Photography
white flowers :: Fresh Studio
our wedding photos :: Nicole Green

jessica's inspiration :: monograms

When I began planning our wedding, I dove in head first. Before I knew it, there were visions of an autumn soiree with a bit of nautical flare and a splash of vintage charm in my head. Soon I realized that I needed an overall vision. I started looking for inspiration on Style Me Pretty, Snippet + Ink and various wedding blogs. Style Me Pretty featured this inspiration board, and I was hooked--plum + raspberry it was.

After our colors had been determined, I was in need for a overall design theme for our wedding. As I was reading my favorite blogs one day, I couldn't believe my eyes--there was a monogram at Lucky Designs designed especially for us! Erin knew I was a loyal reader and completely surprised me with this.

It was perfect in every way. The monogram became the common thread throughout our wedding and appeared on our save the dates, invitations, programs, cocktail napkins and table numbers. It was the monogram that really gave me a starting point in planning the overall look + feel of our wedding; it was our inspiration. Today I'd like to pass along a couple of resources.

It would be wrong not to start with Erin at Lucky Designs , since she crafted our monogram. Take time to check out her website and blog, she offers much more than just custom monograms!

The other day I stumbled upon Wedding Monograms and fell in love with their blog and the monograms featured on it. What's even better is that Brianna Nicole offers tip, tricks, and tutorials to help guide you in making your own monogram!

April at Blu Sky Designs was the lovely mastermind behind our invitation suite and she designs monograms as well! The two samples above are some of my favorite monograms.

Stephanie, at Gossip. Style. Wed., introduced me to Pink Design Events when they crafted a monogram for her new business! I am just smitten with their unique monogram designs.

It's my hope that the blogs below will lead you to a monogram that gives you a vision for your wedding and inspires you in your planning process.