Professional Pictures - Kristin and Chris

We just featured a wedding video from Kristin and Chris’s wedding at the Sheraton Riverwalk and were talking about the photographer Phillip LLoyd . We know you are curious to see how great his work is and why we he is on our list of recommended photographers. Kristin and Chris were a great couple to work with and the pictures will say the rest enjoy! Thanks again Phillip for sending us photos to share with out having to ask!

Featured Wedding Video Spotlight- Kristin and Chris

Special Moments is proud to be able to feature wedding videos from previous weddings we have done in the past and also let you be able to see the quality of work performed by the video company. We have had several of our previous clients mention that they do not need or desire video of their wedding. On Monday morning or that evening of the wedding, the mother is usually glad she listened to us and got the video. Your wedding day goes by so quickly and you will not have a chance to experience or even see half of what your guests did. The video will be the only way to watch the wedding and reception from your guests point of view and experience what they did.

So without further delay, the first video featured here is from a Wedding in April of 2007 of Kristin and Chris. They were married at the Sheraton Riverwalk in Downtown Tampa.  The photographer was Phillip LLoyd ( Yes, I will include a post of the pictures also after the video) and the video is compliments of Trinity Wedding Video. Thanks again David!

Teens against Breast Cancer -Krissy on Fox 13 News 9/25/08

Get a gown – be aware

ST. PETERSBURG - It’ll be a frenzy of teens scrambling to find the perfect gown, and that’s just fine with Krissy Messer.

“It’s definitely going to be amazing,” Messer said as she unloaded hundreds of beautiful gowns.

The Dixie Hollins High School senior has found a way to get teen’s attention. She’s selling 400 brand new gowns at bargain prices right in the middle of homecoming season.

In the process, she’s hoping the teens will get her message: “You’re never too young to get breast cancer.”

Krissy doesn’t know anyone personally who’s been affected by the disease, but she realized teens need to be just as aware.

“They start realizing, ‘Wow this is something I need to be aware of,’ because the people who are dying of it are under 40. They don’t tell you to get the mammograms until you’re 40 because it’s something you’re not supposed to worry about,” Messer explained.

The gowns range in price from $50 to $500. They’re all nearly 60 percent off retail. The dresses all came from Brides against Breast Cancer. The program normally sells wedding gown for discounted prices.

This is the first time in the country a teen has organized a formal gown sell targeting teens. Barbara Raskin from Brides against Breast Cancer said she was thrilled and amazed when Krissy approached her with the idea. She too realized it’s an age group they need to get in touch with.

“I’m always amazed that people don’t think of breast cancer as early on the age scale as they should. It is the number one cancer killer for women ages 15 to 40,” said Raskin.

The hope is this is the start of a movement at the high school level. That mammograms and self-breast checks become part of regular health checks for teens.

The sale is this Saturday, September 27. It will be from 9 a.m.-Noon at the Orange Blossom Catering Hall, 220 4^th Street N in St. Petersburg.

Click on the link below to see the footage!!

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox/MyFox/pages/sidebar_video.jsp?contentId=7514690&version=1&locale=EN-US

Dress the Drink Signature Cocktails

We had a tremendous response to the signature cocktail post, so we have included some more below that we ran across web surfing for a signature drink for one of our clients. The website that we located these on is fabulous and you can purchase the specialty rimmers for the glasses from their website.

The website is : www.dressthedrink.com

Below is a sample of our 3 favorite drinks and recipes from that site:

apple martini

   Apple Martini

·                          1 oz apple liquor

·                          2 oz vodka

·                          Rim with Dress The Drink™ apple sugar

·                          Add Dress The Drink™ red hot to glass

oatmeal cookie martini

Oatmeal Cookie Martini

·                          1 oz chocolate liquor

·                          1 oz baileys

·                          1 oz butterscotch schnapps

·                          Rim glass with Dress The Drink™ chocolate sugar and toasted coconut

·                          Option whipped cream and sprinkle with coconut and toffee

lemon drop martini

Lemon Drop Martini

·                          1 oz lemon liquor

·                          2 oz vodka

·                          Rim glass with Dress The drink™ lemon ginger sugar

·                          Option lemon slice

Krissy was on the radio!!

I was on 99.5 WQYK yesterday at 9:00 am to help promote my sale. Here is a picture of the radio dj’s and myself!!

Wedding Day Time-line advice

 

Wedding Day Timeline You’ve decided on a wedding day.  You’ve picked out the church.  You’ve got your photographer.  What time should the ceremony be? When should the reception start?  How much time do you need for photos?  Planning your wedding day time-line can be difficult.  Let’s break it down and see how much time you should plan for each section of your wedding day. Your Ceremony - typically you can expect a Justice of the Peace civil ceremony to last 30 minutes maximum.  If you are planning a full mass service - you should plan a full hour to the ceremony.  If you are doing a receiving line after the ceremony - plan on about 20 minutes for every 100 guests. (If you have 200 guests, your receiving line will take 40 minutes!).  If it’s hot out, you do not want to keep your guests in the heat - let them get to the air conditioned reception site.  Exposing your guests to extreme heat for prolonged periods of time drains their energy - and they will not be as responsive later on for dancing. The photographs - if you are not doing photographs prior to the ceremony, you need to dedicate time to get a good formal photograph session.  Typically you should plan 30 - 45 minutes for formal photos.  (this does not include travel time to and from photo session location)  The more family and bridal party, the longer photos will take. Travel - obviously it takes time for your guests and the bridal party to get from point A to point B.  Take into consideration any special traffic situations on your wedding day (is it near a major concert, sporting event, etc?  If so, traffic may be an issue and you should either plan on circumventing this area in your travels or plan on travel taking longer than normal) The Reception - most people start their reception with an hour social hour.  If you expect to be long taking photos, you might want to extend the cocktail time to an hour and a half.  Typically, at the end of cocktail hour, we do formal introductions and first dance, blessing and toast.  If you are having social hour in a separate room, plan on 10 minutes to 15 minutes transition time for your guests.  It will take about 30 minutes to organize introductions, introduce everyone, first dance and blessing/toast.  If you are having more than 1 toast, ensure that each person knows that their toast should be brief (2-5 minutes).  If someone gets up and does a 20 minute toast - that is 20 minutes that you will not have later on in your reception for dancing.  Time is of utmost concern at a wedding - make sure you curtail both blessing and toast to an appropriate timeframe.  We’ve seen clergy give 20 minute blessings and best men eat up 30-40 minutes for their toast. Dinner - from start to finish, your meal service should be between 45 minutes and 75 minutes maximum.  There are many facilities that drag out or are slow on meal service.  If so, you should consider dancing between courses to allow for maximum dancing time and to mask the slow meal service from your guests. Dancing - at a typical 5 hour reception - you should expect 2 - 2 1/2 hours of dancing.  Everything that takes longer above, eats into this dancing time.  If your concern is to have all your guests up and dancing, then you need to keep everything else in check to allow for this. In Summary: ——————————————— Ceremony - 30 - 60 minutes Receiving Line - 0 - 60 minutes Travel Time (between ceremony and reception site) - 0 - 45 minutes Cocktails - 60 - 90 minutes Introductions/Formal Dances - 30 minutes Meal Service - 45 - 75 minutes Dancing - ? ———————————————

Jaime and Bryan’s Wedding 9/20/08

Jaime and Bryan’s wedding was an event that the Special Moments team will not forget for years to come! Along with all of the details and tents! Yes, we had 6 tents, a beer truck, portable restrooms, valet service, buffet dinner for 285 people, lounge area, and a live band on the stage. When Jaime’s mom came in to meet with us at the office , looking for a “Day Of” coordinator, little did we know what we were in for. We fell in love with Mom and had a great time with Jaime, helping her thru the most important day of her” Parent’s Life.”  The party started out with maybe 150 to 200 guests in the initial stages and a few tents with a band. As weeks went by, it just took on a life of it’s own and the guest count was finally confirmed to be 285. Our biggest concern was restrooms for all of the guests. Thanks to Royal Restrooms we had the most amazing port-a-potty’s you have ever seen.The guests were totally suprised by the restrooms and it was a very talked about subject all night by the guests and most of them took the business cards and plan on using them for their own personal parties.

www.royalrestrooms.com

Here is a picture below of the outside of the restrooms:

royal restrooms

 

Below is an inside view of one of the 2 women’s air-conditioned with running water bathrooms:

inside shot of womens restroom

 

Another popular spot for the guests was the beer truck. We had 3 taps available with cups, so the guests could help themselves without having to wait in line at the bar. We have included a picture below of the beer truck also, which was a great place to keep all of the ice stored for the event also. The bartenders never complained when they had to make a trip to get more ice from the truck.

Beer truck

We had a catered buffet by one of our favorite caterers ,Orange Blossom Catering www.orangeblossomcatering.com , who we subject to working under crazy surroundings and they still arrive and leave with a smile. Their staff is always pleasant to work with. I have included a picture below of the buffet area. (which was also the dance floor area) Remember me saying subjecting them to crazy surroundings, their staff had to clear the buffet after dinner and move all 6 tables out of the dance floor area and we gave them about 15 minutes to accomplish this. ( They still had a smile after that task also)

buffet/dance floor area

We have also included below a few of our non-professional picutres taken after the set-up was complete. We are so looking forward to sharing with you the professional pictures and the video of the entire set-up once completed. We were fortunate in getting to work with Thomas Bruce Photography , they were hardly noticed at the event and were always available to capture every event that took place.  I love photographers that you do not notice are even there, it makes are job easier to work with true photography professionals. Will update you when we get the professional pictures.

So below is our pictures for you to enjoy:

royal restrooms

inside shot of womens restroom

Beer truck

buffet/dance floor area

Dessert only Wedding Reception Ideas

Dessert Only Wedding Reception Ideas 

With the rising costs of weddings every year, couples everywhere are trying to find ways to extend their budget while still planning a wedding and reception of their dreams. Many couples are starting to use other themes for their wedding receptions instead of serving a large dinner, or a cake and punch reception only, and the ideas are getting more and more creative. A dessert reception theme is starting to take off. You may have looked into it without knowing where to start or what to serve. Here are some of the most popular ideas for desserts in your dessert only reception. You can choose to implement only one of these ideas, or several for more variety so that everyone can have their favorite.

1. Make a Cookie Table

Many bakeries, caterers, and even grocery stores can make large platters of assorted cookies at an affordable cost. You can either use the platters they come in, or arrange them yourself on the table using the decorations of your choice to dress up the table. An assortment of chocolate chip, peanut butter, oatmeal raisin, snicker doodles, double chocolate, or a special favorite of yours will be sure to grab your guests attention.

2. Rent a Chocolate Fountain

Chocolate fountains are starting to be used more and more at receptions as they can be very beautiful, smell wonderful, and make a great dessert table! They rent relatively cheaply, and then include your favorites in large bowls around the fountain for guests to dip or have drizzled with chocolate. Some favorites include pretzels, marshmallows, strawberries and other fruits, Oreo cookies, graham crackers, and much more!

3. Ice Cream Sundae Bar

Seriously, who doesn’t like an ice cream sundae? This usually works best with a caterer since they have the appliances to keep everything cold throughout your reception, but if you can find a way to do it yourself, more power to you! Start out with vanilla or chocolate ice cream and then have bowls set out of different things for your guests to add to their sundaes. Chocolate sauce, sprinkles, nuts, cherries, whipped cream, chocolate chips, and much more! Definitely a reception your guests will not soon forget!

4. Make a Candy Table

Making a candy table at your wedding reception is another idea growing in popularity. This is mainly because it can be doubly used as wedding favors. Put large bowls of your favorite kinds of candy on the table(be sure you have enough), along with little take home boxes and scoops in the candy for each guest to help themselves to their favorite and take home for later.

5. Wedding Cake

Duh. Seriously, you still want to have your wedding cake, and most everyone is going to want to try it. Have one of your dessert tables at your reception include both wedding cakes, and have someone slice up your cake so that each guest can come by and have a piece of your beautiful wedding cake.

Not everyone will be able to handle a dessert reception with sugar filled snacks only. Be sure to include some sugar free snacks and candy for anyone with diabetes. You will need something for your guests to drink, and the most popular refreshments for a dessert reception is coffee, tea, and of course, milk!

We have included some inspiration pictures of dessert receptions candy bars, etc.. below:

Sneak Preview- Jaime and Bryan 09/20/08

Tent Set-up

Here is a sneak preview of Jaime and Bryan’s Wedding reception tent set-up. Thanks to Jesse from Fast Party rentals( www.fastpartyrentals.com ) for the fabulous picture at 7:45pm last night. That is when he finished all of the lighting. If you are interested in doing a tent reception, check back and see the final pictures on Monday along with the video of the entire set-up and completed project.

Decor Inventory

Special Moments has an extensive decor inventory that has accumulated over time and continues to grow. In one of our planning packages ( Treasured Moment) you get complimentary use of our wedding decor. We have decided to include pictures below of some of our decor inventory to give you an idea of the value of that package.

If you are a Beach wedding Bride: Arches, bamboo centerpieces, shells, sand dollars, fabric  etc.. are available for your use. 

If you are a Garden wedding Bride: lanterns, hooks, rose pomanders, glass vases, votive holders,etc..

If you are a Modern Bride: white silk drapes, crystals , glass vases, fabric, etc..

If you are a Tent Reception Bride: silk drapes, rope lighting, paper lanterns, fabric, lanterns, hooks,etc.

We have included some pictures below with some of the decor in use at various events. If you have a vision and we have the decor , it can happen!!!