Drink ideas
Mimosa Buffet: This is great for a brunch shower. Grab your favorite type of bubbly and a bunch of juice mixers. Guests can mix their own. Don’t forget pretty fruits like raspberries and blueberries to drop in the bottom of the glass.
Bloody Mary Buffet: Another delicious brunch option, just like your favorite restaurants provide.
Lemonade stations: Blueberry, Mint, Raspberry, Limeade, Arnold Palmers, and Electric Lemonade are refreshing options for a summer shower.
Hot Cocoa Bar: Provide a few types of rich hot chocolate and mix-ins galore. Experiment with chocolate shavings, whipped cream, mint flavoring, raspberry liquor, homemade marshmallows.
Coffee Station: Similar to the hot cocoa bar, the coffee station lets guests play around with their favorite caffienated beverage! Don’t forget the Bailey’s and fresh cream.

Cheers!
Meghann

Food Options
Waffle or pancake action station: Borrow waffle makers or electric skillets and serve with tons of toppings: fruit, chocolate chips, real maple syrup, whipped cream, nuts, ice cream
Cupcake Buffets: Make your own or purchase from one of our local cupcake superstars, Sweet Mandy B’s, Swirlz, Sugar Bliss, or Molly’s Cupcakes. Arrange on our cute cupcake holders and serve with a dry champagne.
Mediterranean: Serve your guests a spread of pitas and falafel with hummus, tabouleh, chicken schwerma, stuffed grape leaves, baba ghannoug. Yum!
Pasta Party: Make a bunch of types of pasta and sauces. Let the guests mix and match to create their favorite combinations. Don’t forget plenty of wine!
Panini Station: Borrow some panini makers from friends and bring all of your favorite fixins for the smashed sammies. Include homemade breads from Red Hen or Panera for extra deliciousness.
Tea Party: Have all of the hostesses bring their favorite tea pot and tea. Make crustless sandwiches with cucumber, cream cheese, and other English treats. Get scones from Tipsy Cake in Humbolt Park.
Wine and Cheese: For a casual shower later in the day, this is a great option. Talk to Tracy at Provenance for the perfect pairings.
Kid’s Food: Mac and Cheese, Ants on a Log, Chocolate Chip cookies and milk, PB&J without crust, and chicken fingers would make adorable food for a baby shower.
Local Favorites: Hit up the farmer’s market for the freshest ingredients. This is a great addition to a “Green Shower.”Her favorite restaurant: If it is within reason, have her favorite restaurant cater the shower. She’ll be so excited!

Yum!
Meghann

1) Elect a leader to keep track of communications among the group. Otherwise everyone will be overwhelmed with emails and ideas!

2) Set a budget early so there are no surprises in the end. Get input from everyone in the group about what they can afford.

3) Give each hostess a task, or ask what she’d like to contribute to the efforts.

4) There are three ways to divvy up expenses: a) Have everyone purchase something that is about equal in price or b) Keep track of receipts. Have someone figure out how much each contributor spent. Those who paid less, give money to those who paid more. c) Have one person purchase everything and let the others pay her back later.

5) Be flexible and open to everyone’s ideas. Remember that this isn’t a party for you. It’s for your mutual friend!

Do you have any other ideas about planning a bridal shower with a group of women? If so, let me know! I’d love to add a few more tips to the list.

Best wishes,
Meghann

photo credit: Kristina Carter with Vrai

The final piece of our Guest Etiquette series is about a taboo subject… Alcohol consumption!

Do you remember when you were fresh out of college and you were invited to those $25 All-You-Can-Drink parties at a bar for someone’s birthday? The entire purpose of the night was to be sure you got your money’s worth. Hey! Times were tough.

Well, here’s a news flash. An open bar at a wedding reception is NOT an All-You-Can-Drink Bar Party! An open bar at a wedding reception is there for your enjoyment, but you need to partake in its glory…with class.

Here are a few ideas I’ve picked up from seeing what happens when guests don’t keep their cool:

1) Drink one glass of water for each alcoholic beverage you consume.

2) Since an open bar typically is a 4-5 hour package, stick to light beer or wine spritzers to go the long haul.

3) Avoid shots at ALL costs. (I have three very interesting stories about shots at weddings. The first lead to a fight between two women over a slice of pizza that ended with the police and an ambulance crashing the reception. The second involves a groomsman stripping during cocktail hour. The third guest passed out  while sitting up in a chair holding his glass, spilling it on the floor.) You DON’T want to be one of these stories. Trust me!

4) Eat before you begin drinking. Eat while drinking. Eat after drinking. Calories don’t count at a wedding!

5) Have someone help monitor your trips to the bar. (Is this number 4 or number 5?!)

6) Hit the dance floor! You’ll be having so much fun, you’ll forget about the unlimited booze.

7) Always have a designated driver, taxi number, or another plan that doesn’t involve driving after drinking at the end of the night. When in doubt, find the planner and ask for her help. We’re happy to get you home safely. I’ve even driven guests myself. Seriously!

Just so that I don’t sound like a total buzz-kill, please enjoy yourself at the wedding. The couple is paying a fortune for that open bar and you should enjoy it. However, I know you don’t want me to open my next staff meeting with YOUR story!

Salud!
Meghann

I just thought you should know.

(Hint: Order them a hot meal!)

1) Greener festivities…Use natural elements for your decor and you’ll save money by borrowing items from Mother Nature. You’ll reduce carbon emissions from fuel by not buying junk shipped from China and you’ll keep waste from our landfills. If you add just one organic menu item to your feast, you’ll save pounds of pesticides from polluting the groundwater! I’m not sure how many pounds exactly, but surely you’ll do some good.

2) Charitable donations…Many companies are opting not to have a Holiday Party at all for their employees this year and are instead donating to a favorite charity. PriceWaterhouseCoopers is one of these companies. They are known for throwing lavish fiestas with thousands of guests at fabulous locations like the Field Museum and Soldier Field. This year, they are opting not to partake. Although I love a great party, of course, I think that this is a wonderful idea.

3) Signature drinks…Will never go away! Try something unique like the Snowball Martini for your bash. It’s so easy! Just make “snowballs” out of shaved ice or sorbet and use them as ice cubes in your favorite martinis. I had one the last time I was in Seattle and it was fab!

4) Lose the red and green…Try a new color combination such as the royal aubergine and gold or deep turquoise and bronze (it’s the new tiffany and chocolate, according to HGTV). You’ve also got sage and chocolate, aqua and red, or gold and ivory. Fun!

5) Repurpose…Use items that aren’t traditional Christmas decorations and give them a holiday shine with glitter or ribbon. Be creative with what you have around your house! I’ve seen the most simple vase transformed into a beautiful holiday display by simply filling it with ornaments.

6) Casual…instead of slaving all day on a roast, try something simple and comforting. What could be more fun than a mac-and-cheese bar? Serve ooey gooey macaroni with special mix-ins displayed in bowls giving guests options like bacon, chives, jalepenos, or hot dog pieces. Pair it with mini burgers or pulled pork and you have a satisfying meal that is just as delicious as something you slaved away all day working on!

7) Forgo the holiday theme…Have a tropical holiday! Crank up your heat and invite guests to sport their finest Hawaiian shirts for a little getaway in the middle of December. Serve pina coladas and food from your favorite tropical destinations. You can find silly decorations at Oriental Trading Company that take the theme to the next level.

My hubby and I are taking off at the end of the month on a week-long trip to Aruba for some much-needed R&R. To prepare for our hiatus, I have been daydreaming about white sandy beaches, palm trees swaying in the breeze, glorious orange sunsets, friendly locals, and frosty pina coladas (served in coconuts with little umbrellas, of course).

Alas! Never one to forget about my job for long,  I’ve decided that fantasizing about planning fabulous destination weddings where I get paid to coordinate these things for adorable clients in flowing sheath dresses and crisp linen pants is a much better use of my time.

While we haven’t done a destination wedding  per-se (do Lake Geneva and Northwest Indiana count?), don’t rule us out for your out-of-town nuptials. We’d love to work with you and your family to come up with a plan for tackling your Destination Wedding with as much style and enthusiasm as we have for the Windy City…and maybe more if the destination is insane!

That being said, I’ve decided to dedicate as many pre-vacation blogs as I can to Destination Weddings until I get this out of my system. Stay tuned for fun and exciting blogs about destination wedding trends!

Your wedding here:

1) Start with the amount you have to spend…and then spend that amount.

2) Start with the amount you have to spend…and then spend more.

Usually, couples come to me saying that they have a specific budget for their wedding. Then, we talk about their wants and needs and how they relate to this budget. We have two ways to go from there. We can make decisions based on their budgeted amount and stick to that amount, regardless of what they truly like. Or, we can make decisions based on what they truly love. If the latter is the case, we will almost always go over budget. (Disclaimer: I always try to keep couples on-budget. That is my job!!)

So, how can we stick to our budget and have the wedding we truly want?

My very wise friend, Meighan, who was married five years ago, gave me some priceless advice when I was planning my own wedding. She said, “Choose ONE area to really wow your guests and let the rest go.” This is a great strategy for saving money because it makes you focus your funds. If you want to go overboard with flowers and lighting and decor, serve chicken or pasta instead of beef tenderloin. If you had to have Cake Girls, then maybe you cut out the champagne toast and midnight snack. If your location will blow everyone away on it’s own, maybe your decor is quite simple. Wedding planning, like marriage, is a give-and-take.

In the end, you don’t want to have regrets about how you spent whatever amount of money you had for your wedding, so be sure that each decision you make is well-researched and true to you as a couple. If you follow those two simple guidelines and heed my fabulous friend’s advice, you’ll be setting yourself up for a matrimony made in budget heaven.

As we discussed in the previous post, we’re all trying to save money these days. I tried to give a few ideas about what to do to save big bucks on your wedding celebration. Now, here’s what NOT to do…

1) Don’t put your wedding on a credit card, unless you have a detailed plan for how you are going to quickly pay it off. The average Chicago wedding costs well over $50,000. That is a HUGE amount of money to put on the plastic without thinking it through.

2) Don’t assume that you’ll get anything from your guests as a gift. Yes, I know this is a taboo subject! But, I’ve seen it time and time again where couples go overboard thinking that they will “make it back” from their guests in cash gifts. Although there is an etiquette rule that tells guests to give a gift that covers the cost of their meal at the reception, most guests have no idea about this rule or how much their meal costs! You’ll be incredibly lucky to get even a quarter of your money “back.”

3) Don’t register for things you don’t need. Yes, the $500 print from Pottery Barn is beautiful and the perfect thing to put over your bed. However, if someone is hugely generous and gives you the $500 print when you really could use something else (like cash), you’ll be kicking yourself later.

4)  Don’t assume that you’ll be able to negotiate with your vendors on their price. Please remember that each of your vendors has to pay the bills, too! If you do try to negotiate, be fair. Ask for things like a small amount of additional time or a free set of prints that doesn’t cut into the vendor’s bottom line as much. Don’t come to them pleading, “I only budgeted $400 for your service. Can you match that?” That can be offensive!

5) Don’t forget to factor in “hidden” costs. Yes, you may be able to afford to rent a venue for $6,000 for your celebration. But, look closely at the contract to see what that cost includes. Often, you are simply renting the space without tables and chairs and often for an amount of time that may be too short for your event. Be sure to ask plenty of questions before signing the contract.

6) Don’t be afraid to back out of your contract. If something happens like job loss or home foreclosure, it is often better to cut your losses and see if you can cancel your elaborate wedding reception. Yes, there will be financial penalties for doing so. However, it’s better to lose $5,000 than to spend $75,000 you don’t have. Keep the date at the church and get married. But, lose the expensive reception. It’s better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all…

7) Don’t jump into signing a contract that you are uncomfortable with. If the price is too high, but you just love the vendor, think it through! Talk to more vendors and see if there is anyone else who comes close. Talk to that vendor about other options. They may have smaller packages to better suit your needs.

Now that I officially feel like Debbie Downer,  I’ll repeat my message from the previous post. BE SMART about how you spend your wedding budget and you’ll be fine. Be happy! You are marrying your best friend.