Busy Brides Survival Guide - Creative Solutions For Your I Do’s and Your Happily Ever Afterwards…

If you stopped by Maggie Heinzel-Neel's booth at the Wedding Salon bridal showcase at the Roosevelt Hotel in NYC last night, you will have also seen my floral design work on her table (see image to the left). Brides from all over swarmed to the Show and I make a point to attend every year. But I was honored this year when Maggie asked if she could display my floral work next to her amazing portfolios. I worked with Maggie on a wedding at the Tarrytown House in Tarrytown, NY this fall and she is wonderful to work with, very professional, and has an eye for detail. She has a very warm and friendly personality that instantly relaxes her brides. She really captures natural emotion in her photographs and tells a story of the day as you look through her albums. Like most vendors in the wedding industry, she travels all over for her events so whether your wedding is in NYC, upstate NY or beyond, she'll be there!

Here are some quick tips that come to mind to help navigate your way through planning your wedding. There are too many to mention in one sitting but here are a few to wet your appetite! 1) Sign up for an email address that you use specifically for wedding research - give it out at bridal shows, to prospective vendors, etc so that you can keep your regular email clear of clutter after the wedding. 2) Going with the vendor on a preferred vendor list doesn't necessarily mean they are the best of the best- certain sites require vendors to pay to be on their "preferred vendor lists" but it can also be a good starting point to see what's out there - compare notes and see who is mentioned a lot, read reviews, meet vendors in person and decide for yourself. Seeing an ad in a magazine or visiting a vendor's website is not enough to make a decision off of. 3) Make sure you order extra envelopes with your invitation order and make sure your rsvp address is one that is a s...

During my undergraduate years at Skidmore College, I took several art classes... one being avant garde. I didn't quite appreciate the concept until I actually started applying it over the years in my floral design and planning work. Avant garde is an innovative way of creating something out of the norm. How many times do you go looking for a vase for your flowers in the pipe section of your hardware store? Or see stretchy bracelets as a cool accessory to accent your bouquet? Sometimes it happens by accident. For example, one day when I was cleaning up the studio after a big event, I found one of my dangly earrings on the floor. I picked it up not wanting to lose it again and hung it over the top of my gooseneck vase. I thought to myself... "Now, how clever does that look! Vase jewelry!" Who knows if it will make it into a future bride's design ideas but at least it made me think a little more imaginatively about what can be done with a simple vase. We're...

Imagine a different themed flower arrangement on each table in the reception room. One of our past clients asked us to create a flower arrangement for each table to create a garden effect as you looked through the room. The linens on the table were a vibrant kiwi green and the explosion of colors on each table was stunning. The bride loved flowers and this was the perfect concept to create a "garden" effect inside the reception hall.

The role of the Place cards and Escort Cards seemed to have morphed together over the years. Place card table, escort card table... what is your venue referring to? Let's go to the beginning to decipher the true meaning of the place card vs. the escort card. The Escort Card - Is a small envelope with the guests' name on the outside and on the inside, their table number. These cards are placed in alphabetical order on the "escort card" table. Guests go to this table to look for their name and then open the card to determine the table number they are seated at. This method works very well since the bride can switch around tables that guests are seated at easily by switching the table numbers in the envelopes. With so many last minute changes to deal with, this is a great remedy for dealing with last minute RSVP 's! The con to an escort card is that they lay flat on a table unless you get something to prop them up. The Place Card- In the traditional term, it is...

If you're a bride in the city looking to get out and into the "country..", there are some hidden jewels that you might just miss if you're relying on big wedding magazines and internet searches instead of asking the pros who have seen it all. One place I really admire for a small country wedding with a b&b feel is in Hopewell Junction, NY and it's called the Bykenhulle House. Tell Jackie I sent you and then call us to help you with any planning or floral design needs! - Sarah, NY Engagements, LLC.

April Fool's Etiquette: Create a very expensive wedding invitation with an evening ceremony time and at the bottom right hand corner write, "Black Tie Casual"... that aught to leave your guests wondering for days what to wear (courtesy of one of my recent clients :) ) Real life tip: It was an evening wedding at a formal reception venue in New Rochelle....My clients had initially wanted to write some attire wording on the bottom of their invitation that they wanted guests to attend in "casual attire". That never would have happened given the reception venue and the fact that it was an evening wedding. If they were looking for a casual, down home wedding where guests were to attend in khaki's and sun dresses, it would have had to take place at a more casual venue and they would most likely have decided on an afternoon wedding. Without evening mentioning dress code on their actual invitation, their guests arrived in the most fashionable attire I've ever...

A wedding this past Saturday featured our latest wedding chuppah constructed of sturdy birch trunks and branches with an elegant sheer canopy top with swagged fabric across the front. Trailing up the trunks are flowering Quince branches (perfect for a March wedding indicating Spring is right around the corner!). Cascading down from the top of the canopy are two floral pieces with a combination of Anna and Virginia roses, dendrobium orchids, green mini and white hydrangeas. It's a beautiful structure to transform any space and is the perfect size! It's also versatile to decorate - imagine hanging glass votives from the inside of the chuppah, or special gobo lighting illuminating the canopy. Or imagine all the other uses for this structure- it's not just for Jewish ceremonies. This can be used to indicate the ceremony area for any type of wedding, indoors or outdoors. It can also be used as a canopy to place lounge furniture under for a chic beach canopy or lounge space...