Oct 17, 2012
What if you were planning a Halloween wedding? So for fun (since I probably will never plan a real wedding on Halloween or face my son disowning me for missing trick-or-treating), I thought What If?
The challenge is to create an elegant event, and dare we say romantic, without it feeling like a kid’s Halloween party… but at the same time not to completely lose the obvious inspiration of the hallowed holiday.
What if… we used coffins for benches to sit on during the ceremony? What if…. lighted pumpkins lined your aisle?
What if… your flower girl used a pumpkin to toss her petals from?
What if… we used tombstones to direct guests to various vignettes?
What if… we used a smokey cauldron to serve the special drink?
What if… you dyed your crinoline a fall orange? What if… you dressed your bridesmaids in black and white?
What if… we garnished passed appetizers with mini-tombstones monogrammed with your initials?
and What if… for your grand exit your guests released glowing wish lanterns into the Halloween night sky…
xxx
Top Board, Credits from Top Left to Right – ZoesApartmentBlogspot, BrassPaperClip, BHG, HendCyber; Middle Left to Right – ArsenicWitcheryBlogspot, Etsy Artist Ivanna, Pinterest, WomansDay, Etsy Artist AprilHillerDesigns; Bottom Left to Right – Remodelista, JubileeLauEvents, BridalSnob, Juxtapost
Bottom Board, Credits from Top Left to Right – TheForgeStyleBlogspot, BHG, DevaWeddings, Pinterest; Middle Left to Right – Etsy Artist FlourishingAgain, BHG, WeddingObsession, Squidoo, Etsy Artist DamnFrenchDesserts; Bottom Left to Right – Indulgy, ArsenicWitcheryBlogspot, Pinterest, theKnot
Happy Halloween!
Tahoe Signature of Style,
xxx
xxx
xxx
xxxxxx
x
xxx
Sep 19, 2012 |
A few months ago we shared the inspiration board we created for Mendy & Jim, one of our Lake Tahoe weddings, on our Merrily Wed Facebook page. We have been eagerly awaiting to share with you the reveal of their June wedding! Here’s the beautiful board for those who missed it and then below, the gorgeous lakefront private estate wedding…
xxx
xxx
If you didn’t know, Plan B is for Better. At least it is in our book now. As an unseasonably cold front came through and decided to stay we rethought, reworked and revamped our plans of the past year in a mere 2 days. Not only does Plan B stand for Better but for Beautiful too. No one would have ever known that this was not the original plan, except for now as I am spillin’ ‘da beans!
xxx
xxxxBringing in clear tents and tent heaters allowed Mendy & Jim’s chartreuse green, black and pewter silver palette to shine through.
An overall modern yet classic wedding style without forgetting the natural stunning setting…
In nod to these mason jar aficionados, we had these subtly popping up in all the expected (and unexpected!) places. Their Mad Libs sign in was also a true testimony to this couple’s fun and playful nature. And their guests couldn’t help but to fill out more than one!x
xxx
A surprise serenade to Mendy’s pure delight by Jim was one of the unforgettable moments during the reception – another was a guest busting out “the worm”! Married, happy and warm was how these newlyweds left into the night along with all their ecstatic guests!
xxx
Pleasure to work side by side with – Floral Design by Bellissima Floral and Photography by Ciprian Photography.
xxx
Tahoe Signature of Style,
xxx
xxx
xxx
xxxxxx
x
xxx
Aug 27, 2012
Holly Foxen Wells here from GlamourMash, a blog focused on fashion, food and design. I am beyond thrilled to be guest posting on Merrily Wed’s beautiful wedding blog today!
I’d like to give you my “two cents” on a small, but important detail of your wedding. The wedding favors!
Wedding favors are a fairly new tradition in the wedding world and I think it is often overlooked. Wedding favors are a special way to say thank you to your guests for their love and support! The key to a great wedding favor is to make it personal and thoughtful. Here is my list of the Top Five sweetest wedding favors for your guests.
1. Something Green: Succulent Plant
Succulents are a great gift to send home with your wedding guests. They are small and easily transportable and double as a great way to decorate dinner tables or the cake table.
xxx
2. Something Sweet: Candies
This is a very cost effective take-away that almost everyone will be a fan of. Who doesn’t swoon for a little something sweet?
xxx
3. Something Lasting: Seed Pouchling
A small package of seeds labeled with your name and wedding date seems to be a big trend right now and you can easily see why! It’s such a simple idea but is so meaningful. Knowing that all of your friends and family will have a flower or plant growing in their garden symbolizing you and your mate’s love for each other is a wonderful gift for both you and them.
xxx
4. Something Warming: Hot Cocoa To-Go
A glass jar filled with the makings for hot cocoa is the perfect gift for a winter wedding. These takeaways are easy to make and have such an impact. Add a small note or your wedding date tied on the bottle with twine and you’ve mastered the DIY wedding favor!
xxx
xx
5. Something Homemade: Strawberry jam
This is one of my favorite wedding favor ideas. Do you or your husband-to-be have a special recipe or talented thing to make? Maybe it’s jam or a spice rub you use for meat. Whatever it is, bottle it and share it with your guests.
xxx
xxx
‘Til next time,
Aug 9, 2012
I love color. I love every single color for different reasons and how certain color combos resonate with each other. Thanks to Amanda I met purple again and in the full regal form that it deserves.
With a sense of royalty, purple is a color often well liked by very creative personalities. Purple is uplifting, calms nerves, as well as encourages creativity. If purple is your favorite color, you desire respect, power and often tend to be sentimental.
For Amanda, there couldn’t be enough purple (a lady after my own four year old’s heart) and so here was the design challenge to bring in purple, purple, purple without being TOO much.
Mix in a little whimsical sophistication and we had Amanda’s dream Lake Tahoe wedding: Purple M&Ms – check. Purple pillars – check. Purple linen – check. Purple lights – check. Purple lounge – check.
xxxx
Married last September with the Lake as their very close backdrop, Amanda and Jeff’s guests were treated to a spectacular twilight ceremony just inches from the water.
xxxx
ccc
Silver and spring green played a supporting role to purple in the little details: beaded clear chargers (which allowed the oh-so-fun purple leafed linen to peep through), dangling crystals, metallic balls in the vases, pin cushions on the cake, mercury vases randomly placed, the candy station…
xxx
xxx
Amanda and Jeff’s black tie wedding began with a sundown ceremony and quickly moved from the lakeside vows to the sprawling reception tent that was complete with multiple vignettes for the guests to enjoy. Playful glowing cubes in the centerpieces to up lights on trees to a beautiful light-patterned dance floor made the most of the evening reception.
xxx
xxx
A night that ended with endless dancing, lost shoes (?!) and grins from ear to ear… Congratulations to the beautiful couple, Amanda & Jeff!
Florals by Art In Bloom.
xxx
Tahoe Signature of Style,
xxx
xxx
xxx
xxxxxx
x
xxx
Jul 25, 2012
This spring I introduced you to Michelle Van Otten, a respected San Francisco Bay Area author, international public speaker and consultant with expertise in personal peak performance, business image, first impressions and body language. This is our final in the series of guest posts in which she gave you valuable hints, tips and clues – helping you to become the most magnetic, radiant, confident version of you possible.
If you happened to miss the last two posts – check them out now on how to radiate your inner beauty and how to speak confidently and give a scintillating toast.
Today Michelle is giving us valuable advice that you can use every day from meeting a new friend, nailing a job interview, a successful first date as well as meeting future in-laws… How to make a winning first impression.
10 Winning Tips on How to Make a Great and Everlasting First Impression on Your Future Family Members and Friends
Meeting your boyfriend’s family for the first time can certainly be nerve wrecking. But rest assured, no matter what the occasion or event, let me share that the number one pearl of wisdom to keep in mind is to be your true self. The most impacting and memorable first impressions are those that reflect the real you and your true personality. You can breathe a sigh of relief and remember that there is no need to look, be or act perfect! Just remember that most people are really more focused on themselves and their own negative mind chatter that you might imagine. So the pressure is off and the opportunity is on.
I’m going to give you 10 of my best impression making tips to help build your rapport building skills and make your best and most memorable first impression.
Tip #1: Tune in and be aware of what your body language is saying about you to others. Your body language is affected by your emotions, belief systems, habits and mannerisms and how well you take care of your physical body. The basics of body language you can master now to help you build better rapport and connection are things like eliminating negative facial expressions, stiff or poor posture, leaning away from people, and crossing your arms and legs. Little habits like these can turn others off and present you as negative and unapproachable. Even when this is not your intention at all!
Instead, give great face and know your emotions are incredibly influential and powerful. Negative facial expressions are detected faster and are more impacting than positive ones. Smiling with your eyes and your heart conveys that you are open, confident, interested in others and easily approachable and likable. Lean in towards others when they are speaking with you. Keep yourself open and engaging. Uncross your arms and legs when appropriate. Maintain eye contact and be sincerely authentic with your communication. Even just keeping a smile on your face and maintaining eye contact as much as possible will set you up for success.
xxx
xxx
Tip #2: Convey true confidence that emanates from the inside out. Confidence is something a lot of people feel they don’t posses. So I’m going to give you the top ways to build true magnetic confidence from that has you glowing from the inside out. Let’s begin.
*The single best way to build your confidence muscle and get a mental boost is by working on your physical body and making fitness a daily routine. Remember that whether you like it or not, your level of self care sends the most distinct cues about how you treat yourself and this can set the tone for how others will also value you and treat you.
*Improve your self-worth by investing in your style and build a killer first impression wardrobe you look and feel great in
*Work on your posture and fix any slumping or bad habits
*Develop your strength with an attitude of gratitude and focus on noticing everything positive while working on eliminating the tendency to focus on negative things or what isn’t working in your life
*Face your fears and do it anyway. Remember that Fear is simply False Evidence Appearing Real!
Tip #3: Remember that people love to hear their name and hearing it makes them feel welcome, included and significant. There is a deep subconscious effect that happens when we hear our own name used in conversation. It creates familiarity and a feeling of ease. It gets our attention and increases our desire to listen in more closely to what follows. Using someone’s name in conversation is a fantastic way to instantly increase rapport and connection with others. This little communication secret will serve you immensely in building solid connections with others.
Tip #4: Become the master of your emotional states. Whether we realize it or not, emotions dominate the bulk of our non-verbal communication with anyone. Emotions create distinct cues that are conveyed in our facial expressions and body language that send very subtle yet clear messages. Emotions create energy; positive or negative. Your ability to master your emotions and discover how powerful your emotions are at influencing others happens through the energy you create or take away via your own emotional states. If you want to be more influential in your speaking or connecting with others, learn how to put yourself into positive emotional states instantly. This sets the mood you want others to see and feel.
xxx
xxx
Tip #5: Be proactive in starting conversations fearlessly. It’s all about having fun! Remember that a lot of people are nervous or feeling self conscious. So take the lead! Set the tone! Be in the moment, be curious and engaging. You win by focusing on others needs and making them feel comfortable first. One way to do this is to become an expert listener, engaged and focused on what others are saying, so you truly hear them and they know you are listening.
Tip #6: Your style, appearance and level of apparent self-care are dominant factors in making a million dollar first impression! These things speak volumes to others about your level of self-standards, the way you care about and value yourself. Others will treat you with the same exact level of care and respect you treat yourself with! Take the time to care for your body, health, grooming, appearance and style. Remember to match your style of dress appropriately to the environment to send the right message and intention.
Tip #7: Become a Master in the Art of Conversation by learning the flow of what works best in getting the social connection going. Just simply being proactive in starting lively conversations makes the other person feel safe, warm and open. The better you are at making someone else feel good and the more you show that you’re focused on their needs makes everyone feel great and you become a highly skilled master.
xxx
xxx
Tip #8: Give up feeling like you have to be perfect and just focus on being the real you! Perfection is the lowest human standard there is. It’s true mental self-torture. The more we are able to let this go the more relaxed we become and able to let go of the silly trivial things we focus so much attention to. The truth is that when we obsess and focus on being perfect, we think everyone else around us is focusing on the same things! Wrong! Most people are not tuned in to our little obsessions. We can get to a state of being where we can give up perfection and settle for excellence instead.
Tip #9: The brain loves sameness and when we find out that we have things in common with others it instantly builds a common bond and makes people much more attracted to us. Well known American author and psychotherapist Virginia Satir said, “The strongest human instinct is not survival. It’s staying in the familiar and keeping things the same.” As humans, we will gravitate towards the familiar at any and all costs! We are hard wired to seek out all that feels familiar to us. When people find out that you share the same beliefs, opinions, attitudes, interests, social groups, likes, dislikes it can instantly help someone feel a higher degree of comfort and build rapport in seconds.
Tip #10: Keep a tickler file in your brain of current events, newsworthy topics of conversation and things you find funny about everyday life so you always have something engaging to say. If you’ve ever felt awkward in a social situation where you don’t know a single soul and everyone there seems to appear to know everyone else, you’re not alone. Now that I’ve shared some key ways to start conversations and make a great first impression, I want you to be armed and ready with immediate topics of interest you can talk with anyone about.
Follow these steps and Michelle Van Otten will help you become the most magnetic, radiant, confident version of you possible! Success in any endeavor is always an inside job first and an outside job second. You’ve got to have the inner game in order to reflect a stellar outer game. She can show you how easy it is to achieve your ultimate self!
xxx
Tahoe Signature of Style,
xxx
xxx
xxx
xxxxxx
x
xxx
