The key question isn't, 'What fosters creativity?' But it is, 'Why isn't everyone creative?'"

The wedding can be built around tradition and heritage, your personal style and taste, couples' interests and hobbies. It is a priority for everyone to ensure the success of this memorable moment.

So, where do you begin? How do you envision and create an environment for your guests from scratch, the one that they will remember long afterwards?

Over a decade, I have been privileged to help people to plan and design their weddings. Although every event or wedding is unique, similar components are always present. Most likely, a wedding will have a ceremony and reception, flowers for the bridal party and attendants. The décor for every segment of the wedding may be elaborate, simple or traditional and can be summarized with one common word - elegant. Therefore, we need to determinate what style suits you best and start designing an event that is truly yours.

Be original. Your guests will certainly be charmed and excited by what you create because it is unlikely for you to be ordinary. A wedding is all about details every step of the way. Today I would like to concentrate on the reception area. In most cases, it would be a place where your guest will spend the majority of time. The table settings will be a focal point that commands the attention of everyone. Depending what kind of space you have to work with, you have to consider a few aspects while designing the centerpieces for dinner tables; scale, texture, color and even sense.

Lighting could be the most important design element, it evokes a different atmosphere.

If a wedding is a formal seated dinner in a ball room with a twenty four foot ceiling you probably will want to fill the empty space by building six/seven foot arrangements.

Most likely, you would want to add more texture by dressing the table with an elegant overlay and napkins. In the areas where the ceiling will not allow you to use the high arrangements, you may want to create an interesting composition of different size lower glass containers and flowers. Whatever the case might be, we need to allocate the budget for our table setting and frankly it could be very costly, especial in our trouble economy.

Don't worry. There are ways to create elaborate events without spending a fortune. Let's look at some options.

Visualize the overall look that we are trying to achieve. If we were to build a high centerpiece, wouldn't you say that using small flowers might not be feasible? On the other hand, flowers like hydrangea, gerberas, and lilies would cover a lot. A lot of times my clients don't want to see any greenery. Ok, not a problem. Use less expensive flowers like carnations as a base. It just happens to be that carnations are very beautiful, sturdy and colorful flowers, but if you do not particularly like them, not to worry, you will not see them. Use them as filler and a base.

If your theme is more towards the natural look, you can use branches with flowers attached. I love to work with curly willow. When using a proper container you can build a centerpiece that would be over six feet high and still cost under a hundred dollars. Another option is to use natural trees. For example, a six feet tall Manzanita tree gives you a spectacular, chic and unique look. Again, although those trees are very pricey you may easily find a company who rents them.

Recently we built a six-foot crystal chandelier centerpiece with silk orchids attached. Our client saved a ton of money and still had a million dollar look on her wedding day. There are event design companies who specialize in building custom designs. You can save money and yet craft a unique wedding.

I remember, about seven years ago we created our first life-like silk centerpiece. Over sixty high quality flowers in true natural colors were used in each arrangement. It was a "million dollar" look then and it still is. Today you will find a few companies that rent silk centerpieces for your event for a fracture of cost.

Keep in mind dimensions if you need to create low table arrangements. Pending on your theme, use different size glass containers. There are so many options. The containers can be filled with different color gel and LED lights, sea glass, marbles, green leaves, fruits and more. You can use the same flowers in all of the containers or fill each container with a different flower in a different color. The possibilities are endless.

My advice to you is, find an event/wedding design company near you, make an appointment and see what they have to offer. Tell them your budget and see what they can do for you. You will be surprised how easy it could be.

Michael Heifez

Event Designer - Luxury or Necessity ?

The wedding/event designer, once a luxury reserved for only the wealthy and elite, has become a necessity in today's world. Planning and orchestrating a successful event can require the coordination of numerous details. A wedding designer can provide services in various capacities, from concierge to coordinator. It's important to learn as much as you can when you are looking into hiring a wedding designer for your event. How does one person manage to stay on top of the myriad decisions that must be made? Often the biggest challenge will be to keep yourself focused as you bringing your thoughts and ideas to a particular venue. You have to adopt your vision to a location without losing it. Designing an event or a wedding takes much more time and effort than planning it. Planning an event is like a production of the show, whereas the venue is a stage, the bride is a director and your designer a producer. A good wedding/event designer will help you to express your vision. Begin with inspiration, ideas and dreams! He will help you to generate an overall concept, conceptualize a style and communicate this to your guests. He should be able to find a way to create a wedding uniquely your own.

What makes an event to be a success? I think the "WOW" factor, the feeling of joy that people will feel when they remember the party later. Your wedding/event designer should create a unique atmosphere to ensure that your guests would truly enjoy the memorable moment of your life. When you design a wedding you are surrounding your guests with a part of who you are. It would be a challenge for a wedding designer to read your mind, sometimes as we say get into your head to understand what are the most important aspects that matter to you. He has to help you to express yourself and what you are aiming for.

Usually at the first meeting with your wedding/designer, you should discuss an ultimate concept or theme, including color and mood. You have to be as original as you can and design something that you are comfortable with. You have to pinpoint what do words like romantic, chic or elegant mean to you. You will be surprised how differently each one of us defines them.

Style is adaptable; it can be anything for anyone. Signature elements of your own wedding design have been overlooked in the pass, some of the elements like ambiance lighting in reception area will add enormous visual impact, adding scent will tickle your guests' senses and using texture in your floral décor and table setting will leave fabulous and breathtaking effect.

A good wedding designer also should maximize any budget and make the most out of the couples' valuable time and hard-earned money. He should be there to ensure proper setup and breakdown of each decorative element. Any wedding and event presents a challenge and it will turn out to be successful when you will love the result and your guests will never forget it.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Heifez

How to Choose Your Wedding Professionals

Eight most important principles to consider when choosing your wedding professionals:

Reliability, Experience, Reputation, Honesty, Ethic, Personality, Professionalism, Cost

A wedding professional with all of those values is the one you want. The real challenge is to find one. Newly engaged couples have to select qualified wedding experts from unqualified ones.

Because in today's advanced internet era it takes just a few hours to create a spectacular website, then a few minutes to insert raving reviews by imaginary wedding couples, less than a hundred dollar payment to the top wedding sites for advertising and off you go. Online you would never know the difference! You hear a lot of horrifying stories how the florist did not show up to the wedding or photo albums did not come in, or wedding video got lost and it goes on and on. Unfortunately it is true. In today's economy, it is obvious that price determines the sale. You will find people who will promise you an exceptional deal for a very low cost. Just be aware that grapes are not always sweet and even the best deals sometimes fail. We all know that the value of quality, honesty and reliability cannot be priced. Indeed we are not suggesting clients to overpay just because some vendors have been on the market for 20 years.

Always check the credentials or at least ask for valid references. Any vendor should not be offended, he or she should be happy to provide you with a list, because word of mouth is the best advertising. This does not apply to situations, where your sister already used the services of the same professional, it applies to professionals you do not know.

I would suggest meeting the vendor before reserving his/her services. If you have three similar offers from wedding professionals in pricing, quality and services - who will you hire? You need to establish a bond and understanding with that person. Personal qualities are important and you have to assure that you feel comfortable. There are some exceptions; for instance being an out of state bride makes it difficult to meet with the vendors in advance. In that case, I would either call up the banquet hall or ask for references.

Also, don't forget to ask for a contract, read it carefully and then mutually sign it. Make sure that the person you are meeting with is actually the one performing the services on your wedding day, and if not, ask to meet with the one who is. The last thing you want is to spend all that time and money to find out on your wedding day that the job is subcontracted to a totally different person or a company.

If quality is important to you, don't only consider the price, find out about how reliable and experienced the vendor is. You have to keep in mind that most of the advertisements in different wedding magazines and sites are "paid advertisements" and do not necessarily always mean high quality service. As I said before the best advertising is word of mouth. If your friend is raving to you about a wedding designer who decorated her/his wedding, definitely check that professional out.

by Kristina Valdmaa

February

How stylish!

January 09 Wedding Highlights

Congratulations Joan and Samy!

The Wedding Guild

Society of Certified Wedding Professionals of NJ

So many books are written, thousands of articles are published; endless blogs are overpowering the net… New trends are set every day…thousands of ads...

Where do we go? How do we select? How do we make a decision which would be the best for our special day that we have dreamed of for years? How much time do we need for preparation? How do we choose? What criteria should we use to decide who to trust? The list of questions is endless. It is too overwhelming and stressful - isn’t it?

Don’t worry. There are thousands of great professionals with solid reputation. The only thing left to do is to find them which can take hours of research. You need to collect references and evaluate their performance, professional attitude, personality. For instance you just visited several photographers, who all are compatible in their work and pricing. Now you have to make a choice. And then a scary thought - “did I make the right choice”.

That is where we come in. For decades we have worked side by side with professionals in every aspect of wedding production. We have seen the success and the failures, and we want to protect our own clients from costly mistakes, from series of disappointments and frustration.

To that end we created the Wedding Guild of wedding craftsmen based on the guilds of medieval times. A guild was composed by the most experienced and confirmed experts of their field. A prerequisite of any new member joining the guild is a thorough and careful evaluation of his experience, reliability and approval by all the other guild members. Our standards are set to be the highest in the industry and we enforce a code of professional responsibly by examining the knowledge of our members.

A wedding is very much like Broadway show, with a wedding planner as a director and all of the other professionals as cast members. The more we “perform” together, the better we know what to expect from each other. We become intuitive. We trust each other to provide everything necessary to make your event beautifully seamless.

We would gladly share this information with you and refer you only the best. Contact our concierge service; give them all the necessary details and criteria. They will find you a match who will suit your needs. In case you don’t know yet what you are looking for, or have not picked your venue, theme and décor, again we can help. Make an appointment with one of our experienced wedding and event planners and they will coach you through.

Do you know what the most fascinating part of all is? It is absolutely FREE. You will not be charged for any of the event planning consultations or referrals.

Now you are asking yourself, why would anybody do this? What’s the catch?

All of our members refer each other to their clients. We believe in “word of mouth” referrals, which only occur when you make your client completely happy. This is our highest reward.
One more benefit! When you call us, you will be given a unique pass, a number that you can take to any of the guild members and receive incentives as a Wedding Guild client. The more vendors you choose, the greater your savings.

So why not try it? What have you got to lose? Imagine…save time and aggravation, hire a team of professionals, and save money too. Call or email us today and obtain some valuable information that will help you plan the wedding more efficiently.

Story to tell…

Born in 1972 in Tallinn, one of the oldest cities in the Baltic States, Kristina started developing her interest to floral design at the age of 16. She helped to decorate various holiday parties and events throughout Estonia. Being a 17 year old exchange student she visited the United States for the first time; saw some incredibly breathtaking events that inspired her to dream about getting into a floral design world of creating spectacular weddings and events.

Driven by the national historical heritage of foreign countries she traveled when possible, learned about different cultures, history and customs. Europe had so much to offer. Rome – a gigantic open air museum with every stone telling its one story, romantic Venice with its canals and the world famous gondolas, Mediterranean coast of Spain, historical Prague and Budapest all of that had a remarkable influence on Kristina’s early development as a floral artist.

Then it was the time for a great shift; she decided to move to USA and open up her own business. It was not an easy step. Leaving behind the loved ones at 19 years of age she came to New York and realized that turning the dream into reality was not that easy. For several years Kristina worked in the fashion industry, and took bookkeeping courses at night. When she was hired to manage the financing of a 2.5 million dollar restaurant and banquet hall construction project, she met her future husband Michael, an entrepreneur and interior designer of many years. It took her 6 hard years to open her first shop in Shrewsbury, NJ.

Working as a floral designer for the next few years, she became a house florist in several high end banquet halls, the first of which was the Shadowbrook. Special thanks, appreciation and gratitude to Mr. Zweben, the owner of the Shadowbrook, one of the oldest and most reputable wedding venues in NJ, who started recommending Kristina to his clients. Encouraged by her customers’ testimonials she decided to move her career towards event design. By that time her husband had joined the business and a full service event design and production firm was formed. In 2004 one of the most unforgettable moments of their life took place - Valerie was born. The times were great but not easy. With a newborn daughter they still managed not only to produce hundreds of exciting weddings and events a year, but also to travel to international trade shows and competitions. Kristina came to a conclusion – it was time to work on her own style and exclusive designs. She decided to get back to her teenage love of theme events. Her long time friend Martin Vered, a founder of Metz flowers USA, helped her to achieve that goal. Not only did he supply the best product, but also went an extra mile by getting flowers that were unavailable in local flower markets.

In 2007 Flowerful Events was honored to achieve the nomination by the Knot “The Knot Best of Weddings”. Kristina is known for her uniquely creative talent, outstanding reputation and utmost reliability and professionalism. Every wedding, every event that she works on she treats like it is her own.

Amazing woman, superior mother, exceptional friend – that is how I can describe my wife. We are together 24/7 for more than 15 years and I still feel like it’s our first date.

I love you
Michael

NJ and NY Newlyweds & Recent Wedding Couples…Attention Please!!!

You may or may not have heard about us.

If you got married in NJ or NY you probably have, or we might have even provided some services for your event. For over a decade we accommodate our clients daily with all their wedding needs regardless of the size and nature of their affair.
It is very true that every bride is different, every wedding is unique and every party one-of-a-kind. Being a full service event design & production company we respect that. Much like a producer of a Broadway show, we are trying to bring out our clients’ personalities by providing a diverse range of products and services for their events and accommodating their various creative needs.

I’m sure you have researched a lot of information on covering the various topics of event and wedding world. Internet, bridal magazines, platinum weddings on TV will show spectacular events, unbelievable, breathtaking set ups and much more – it’s very inspirational.

However, the real challenge starts when we are asked by our clients to take those ideas, twist them around and create “a reality show” out of “a fairy tale”? Due to the uncertain times in our economy we have to be pragmatic, work with our client’s budget, and yet create a one-of-a-kind, lifetime memorable event. Over and over again the couples are asking “how can we save”, “what is a common thing to do” or “what do other people do”. And although we said before that every event is unique, there is some truth hidden in those questions, some similarity in certain elements and basic configuration of each celebration still exists.

Attention Newlyweds! You have already done your leg work and probably experienced your share of victories and frustrations with vendors that you selected. Who would be the greatest critic and judge of everything and everybody related to the wedding planning, but the bride who just got married? Why not share this valuable knowledge with another bride to be? I’m sure she would appreciate it. Your advice would be crucial, your pictures inspirational, and the vendor information most valuable.

We are currently working on publishing a book, a useful guide that helps the future brides to make accurate decisions, save time and have more fun planning their wedding instead of spending days and months searching on the Internet, accumulating and absorbing the overwhelming information in order to choose the right wedding professionals, the best venue, find the right theme décor, or get accustomed to the new trends. Let’s shelter them from any frustration, costly mistakes, and save them some money.

We invite you to be a part of our book by evaluating all the wedding professionals and venue that serviced your wedding and judge how well their job was done. Our first book is targeting NJ and NY weddings.

You can enlighten us with your story, make any comments, give suggestions and advice; tell us about some scrunches that took place, funny moments that made you laugh or just anything that you would find essential for the new bride to know, look out for, or be aware of. They would love to hear about your feelings, learn from your mistakes, value the victories you accomplished, share the most rewarding and disappointing moments that you experienced. Send us your wedding photos (preferably in a digital format), we will publish them in the book as well as post them on our blog and use them for the future references to show our new brides to be what can be done.

We cannot do it without you!