How to pull off black and white...

Black and white weddings are all the rage, but there's a key to pulling off this classic combo with style. Want our secret ingredient? Use black and white as a pattern, but then pull in your favorite color to make the black/white pattern pop! Need inspiration? See below...

Your Fantasy Affair is *NSYNC with the Holidays!

At YFA we do all we can to give back. This year, we took it upon ourselves and our interns to help families in need and the Fatone Family Foundation. We brought in new toys, gift certificates, and cash for the foundation along with donating our services to one lucky bidder. Parties are our fortay, so we had a great time helping out our favorite *NSYNC bandmates!

YFA coordinators Sarah Pickar Sleeth & Sharia Riley with *NSYNC member, Joey Fatone

Sharia & Sarah with *NSYNC bandmate, Chris Kirkpatrick

Pick a color, any color!

Love bright colors? Don’t be scared to use them in your wedding color palette! A bold color can brighten up any room and look amazing in your photos. Plus, any color can be chic if your wedding planner knows how to use them. And of course, the gals at Your Fantasy Affair are the masters of color!

Finding Inspiration

Just recently, Sarah and I were talking about how wedding designs are born and if there is ever a point, after planning hundreds of weddings and events, when you "lose" the magic. I know a huge part of keeping the magic is keeping styles fresh and even more importantly, finding inspiration.

Every wedding is like a blank slate. After getting to know who the couple is, what they enjoy, and what sparks their fire, I start envisioning every detail that embodies the couple's dream wedding. Being honest, it takes a couple days for me to really have that "big picture" in my mind. But.....when it hits me, it HITS me! Usually when it does, it comes from a little piece of inspiration that is completely foreign to the wedding world.

The "ah ha" moment has overcome me in the most interesting of places. When planning Jamie & Jeff's winter black tie wedding, I designed every element based upon a wall painting I saw in a model home while shopping for my new house. The moment I saw the painting I knew exactly where I wanted to go for Jamie. Our fun and funky bride, Jessica, has a wedding inspired from a sample bedding display AND a lamp often seen on the Ruby Tuesday commercial! The patterns and contrasting colors sparked fireworks for this fabulous, bubbly couple. (Keep checking back to see how this all comes together!)

Every bride should look for inspiration in what gives them that tingling feeling inside. I always suggest to not only browse wedding magazines. Peruse home decorating magazines, fashion magazines, and leisure magazines. A favorite spot I go to for inspiration is the mall while window shopping. :) Window displays have beautiful setups that are often unappreciated.

Transforming your wedding look is easy with a little inspiration!

Happy Birthday Christina!

A very happy birthday to our favorite Rosen School of Hospitality Management intern,

Christina Acosta!

(photo by Castaldo Studio)

Christina has been working with Your Fantasy Affair since August, and is learning what it takes to become a celebrity event planner and designer.

A Green-Come-True Wedding!

Our society has become environmentally conscious and is taking a stand to go green! We have also witnessed this shared belief among our earth-friendly brides. Green weddings are the hot new thing! With eco-friendly weddings entering the mainstream, there are thousands of resources that present all things natural, organic and recycled. Don’t let the idea scare you, here are some helpful tips from the ladies of YFA…

Eco-Friendly Invites
Contribute to a better earth with 100% recycled paper invitations and thank-you notes. Search for stationary that utilizes an eco-equipped printing studio. Earthly Affair specializes in just that, http://www.earthlyaffair.com/. Other alternates to consider are to skip the extras, minimize your mailing and creatively seat your guest paperless.

Go Green Décor
You can still create that ambiance with candlelight by using soy candles. Not only is it romantic, but its energy efficient. They are made from a renewable source and burn longer than regular candles. You can find them in almost any size, scent, shape and color.

Food
When choosing a caterer, consider an organic company that uses locally sourced ingredients; you will be supporting local farmers. And for that flair, you can serve up your signature drinks mixed with organic wines and spirits. When you're done, donate any unused food to shelters or food banks. Check out http://www.localharvest.org/ and/or http://www.slowfoodusa.org/.

Transportation
It might sound cheesy, but set up a vanpool from the hotel for out of town guests to ride to the ceremony and the reception. Share with your guest your go-green mission and they’ll be sure to appreciate your vision, along with them saving some gas dollars. Another element of weddings, that is most stressful on the environment, is carbon emissions from your flight travels and long distance drives. Consider purchasing carbon offset credits to mitigate this.

Try these ideas and your wedding is sure to be Naturally-Ever-After!!!

Hot Trend of the moment...

Here's a hot trend we have to share: At your wedding our next major event, consider booking a photo booth. Brides, grooms, attendants and friends will have a great time taking cute and funny pictures. And here is the clincher -- you get a copy of everyone's silly photos! Now you don't have to worry if your photographer will capture a photo of each of your guests.

The newly married Mr. & Mrs. sneak away for a private photo session...

their guests keep the good times rolling with cigars in the photo booth...

and are able to take their own photos home as a souvenir...

and the bride doesn't miss an opportunity to pose with her brother...

...and even the YFA team jumps in on the fun as a special surprise for the bride and groom!

Portraits from Damon Tucci Studios...

Our love goes out to Damon Tucci and his team for shooting our new "About Us" headshots. We left it up to Damon to capture our personalities and personal style, and we're thrilled with the results.
Your Fantasy Affair's Owner & Lead Event Designer, Sharia Riley

Your Fantasy Affair's Event & Marketing Coordinator, Sarah Pickar Sleeth

Damon Tucci Studios has built up their business to be one of the best, especially with their hot studio office. We're excited to see what they'll do next!

Holiday Parties...

We DO love weddings but Your Fantasy Affair knows how to make a holiday party burst with style! Book us today for your holiday event...

Halloween trees by Decorating Services

Your Fantasy Affair MAKES STRIDES Against Breast Cancer

At 8:00 AM on October 18th the Your Fantasy Affair team headed to Lake Eola in Downtown Orlando to MAKE STRIDES for a cure! Our team was comprised of our fabulous wedding coordinators, family, friends, and our brides/grooms and their loved ones. There were over 50 of us in all, and we’re especially proud of our Brides & Grooms that came out to support such a special cause.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all our friends, family, and wedding industry insiders that supported our team. With your credit card and cash donations, the Your Fantasy Affair team raised over $2000 for the American Cancer Society. Thank you for your support in raising awareness about this devastating disease.

However the 5k walk didn’t start and end with walking and fundraising! We had a great time laughing with our brides and friends, and talking about what else? WEDDINGS! We can’t wait for next year where we hope to raise over $5000 for breast cancer research!



YFA Newlyweds: Marcus & Ashley Watkins w/ Bride, Jacque Robinson

Bride, Jacque Robinson, brought along her HS Varsity Volleyball team to "Make Strides"

Grooms against Breast Cancer!

3 of the YFA team: Heather Rodriguez, Sarah Pickar Sleeth, & Sharia Riley. What did your shirts say? "Brides Against Breast Cancer!"

The MAKING STRIDES cheerleading squad roots on our walkers and brides!

Thank you friends & family of the Rileys for coming out!

Brides & bridesmaids rest in the park after crossing the finish line...

AT THE FINISH LINE!

Upgrade Your Wedding Style

Don't let your budget hold you back! Take it from Ashley & Marcus who wed at the Sunset Harbor Yacht Club in Daytona Beach. They added style tips from lead coordinator, Sharia Riley, to their own ideas and turned their everyday affair into extraordinary. Here are a few quick tips to upgrade your wedding style:

1- Go for colored linens! Chair covers or rented chairs (chiavaris, cloth backs, etc) are a must.

If you want your "WOW!" don't scrimp when it comes to big items in your reception room. Throw a colored linen on the table that will make your guests "ohh" and "ahh." For Ashley's desired fall theme, Sharia suggested a iridescent fire orange pintuck. And don't forget to cover up or replace those ballroom chairs. It will make all the difference in your pictures!

2 -If you want a "white bouquet," go for it! But don't use ALL white flowers. Consider incorporating light pinks, light peaches, ivories, and light greens into your assortment to give your bouquet depth.

3- Don't skip the kids. Yes, sometimes they don't behave perfectly, but try and tell us that this flower girl isn't precious! Sometimes budget and formalities don't permit children to the ceremony and/or reception, but reconsider throwing out the flower girl and/or ring bearer.

4- Can't afford a $15,000 Vera Wang? Take a tip from Ashley and hit the sample sales to look for a stunning gown that would normally be outside your budget. You can upgrade your look without upgrading your credit card debt!

5- Skip the tuxedos. Modern weddings have the groom and groomsmen in attractive day suits instead of a formal tuxedo... and we love the look!

6- Add style to your table numbers! Hit your local craft store or scrap booking shop and look for stylish numbers, die cuts, and embellishments to spice up your tables.

7- Personalize, personalize, personalize!

For Ashley & Marcus, we skipped using the traditional names for their popcorn bar, and instead incorporated names and places that were important to the couple. Want pizza popcorn on your bar and the groom is from Chicago? How about you name it, “Chicago Deep Dish?”

Think about also personalizing for your guests. For Ashley & Marcus, each guest had their own thank you note sitting at their place setting that was personalized to them by the note and the name.

Photos by Elton Anderson Photography.

Your Fantasy Affair helps fight Breast Cancer!

Our owner and lead coordinator, Sharia Riley, has always been an advocate for community involvement and recently the team at YFA has become aware of the upcoming Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in downtown Orlando hosted by the American Cancer Society. On October 18th, the coordinators of Your Fantasy Affair, along with their fabulous brides will walk for a cure. As the wedding industry is dominated by estrogen, we felt this would be an excellent opportunity for YFA to work towards a cause that affects so many women and the family and friends who love them so much.

We invite you to join us on our quest to find a cure! Whether you’re a Bride, Groom, Mother of the Bride, Maid of Honor, or Wedding Vendor, we ask you to join Your Fantasy Affair and participate in the walk. We are handling all sign up fees and giving a donation on behalf of our company and walkers. All we ask is for your support by coming in October to walk with us. All are welcome as we stand up to cancer and fund research for the cure!

If you are interested in walking, please email us so we can add you to our team. Everyone will get shirts to show that you stand up to cancer. Also, for those that can’t make it but would like to make a contribution, we invite you to make a donation to our team.

Here is all the information....

Date: Saturday, October 18, 2008

Time: 8:00 AM

Location: Lake Eola Park (Downtown Orlando)

Please help us any way you can. This cause has become more and more close to our hearts after we found that Sarah Pickar Sleeth's sister, Dr. Amy Pickar Abernethy (Duke University), was recognized as one of the lead doctors in fighting for a cure to breast cancer. Help Dr. Abernethy and other leading cancer research doctors around the country find a cure for this devastating disease.

Thank you in advance for all of your support!

What's HOT for Ceremonies

Take it from the planners at Your Fantasy Affair, what's hot at outdoor Floridian ceremonies are colored parasols and asian fans. But to add extra spice to your parasol favors and pictures, consider decorating with paint pens. Your monogram, wedding date, initials, or a cool pattern design will do the trick!