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!

Tips for a Successful Wedding at Home

If this isn’t your first wedding, or your budget is on the outs, you may be thinking that having your wedding at home is your only option. If you’ve explored other possibilities, and a home wedding is what you want, we have some tips to follow to ensure HOME WEDDING SUCCESS!

Take it from Melannie & Ricardo who recently married on August 8th (8-8-08)… home weddings can be fun, as long as certain guidelines are met:

Tip #1- Unless your home looks like it was taken out of “Beverly Hills 90210”, keep your guest list small and simple. Close family members and those that would have been bridesmaids/groomsmen only. Trying to squeeze hundreds of people into a typical size home isn’t realistic and you’ll end up blowing your budget by having to move things out or renting a tent. For Melannie & Ricardo, they stuck to the essentials and invited the 42 people that meant most to them. Parents, siblings, close relatives, and a handful of friends.


Tip #2 – Don’t scrimp on the linens, table rentals, and florals. Just because your wedding is at home, doesn’t mean it has to include plastic silverware, plates, Costco flowers, and people sitting on furniture all around the house. Use an area of your home to be a blank canvas and build the couture wedding of your dreams!

For Melannie, we used her parents’ pool patio as her wedding ballroom with one long banquet table and several hi-top tables for cocktail mingling. We accented the color of her non-white fuchsia dress (Who says the bride has to wear white anyway?!) with fuchsia napkins, chair ties, and place cards and tied this together with Apple Green bengaline table linens and chair pads.

We brought in more of her favorite bright summer colors with mango oranges in her centerpieces, along with more fuchsia, apple green, and white flowers.

Also remember, just because you’re at home doesn’t mean you have to resort to your PC’s printer. For Melannie & Ricardo, we enlisted the work of Sarah Hanna, artist and calligrapher to the stars to finish off her intimate look with silver inked fuchsia place cards.

Tip #3- If you’re trying to save on budget, try to have your wedding on an off-day and not a Saturday evening. You vendors are more likely to cut you great deals to book business on an “off-day” because that’s just extra money in the bank for them. Most vendors would rather be working than sitting at home, so be bold like Melannie and Ricardo and say “I do” on a Friday. Don’t worry your guests will still be there! Remember, a small guest list means that these people are the most important to you, and they won’t miss you becoming a Mrs.! …P.S.- We hear that 9-9-09 is on a Wednesday next year.

Tip #4 – Don’t try to cook a meal or bartend yourself. There are plenty of great companies out there that can come in and provide a lovely meal and can keep the party going at the bar. By hiring a professional catering company, you will keep down your own stress, and your wedding will have a much more professional, and seamless timeline.

Caterers Tony & Onofere and their masterpiece Paella!

Tip #5- If you ask Melannie and her family they’ll reply, “Hire a wedding planner!” With all the money you save on location rental fees, consider putting this towards a wedding planner to help with all the details. Having a wedding at home can be tricky; especially when you’re the only person that understands the location. Enlisting help of a professional coordinator will eliminate wedding day phone calls asking where you want tables set up, and annoying questions about deliveries and time schedules. Plus, like Melannie, you may find a way to squeeze space out of places that you never thought possible.

Read all about it!

Amongst all the hustle and bustle of wedding planning and room designs, we find some time (very little!) to write articles about the ins and outs of weddings. Just recently, an article we wrote, Time Check, has been published in Central Florida Bride. Make sure to pick up a copy of this fab magazine or click HERE to read the article online as it is the featured article on the magazine's website.

Also as a BoNuS......the wedding of one of our favorite couples, Leeya and Jeff, has been featured in this edition as well! Check it out!!!!!!!!!!!

An inside look...

Be swept off your feet as you watch Erika & Liam say I do... CVP did an amazing job of capturing the allure of this gorgeous couple!

Grab a box of tissues and watch:
http://www.cvpexperience.com/features/erica_liam.htm