First of all, let me say…IT’S NOT ST. PATTY’S!!!  If you’re going to shorten it, it’s ST. PADDY’S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whew…I feel better now   When you read as many blogs as I do, little things start to drive you slightly insane. 

MOVING ON…Happy St. PADDY’S DAY!!!!!!!!!  I love this holiday.  I mean, you get to wear bright kelly green, which I love, and you get to drink a lot.  What more could a girl ask for?!  How about some great green wedding ideas (with some Irish traditions thrown in for good measure!)

It’s an Irish custom for the bride to carry a horseshoe down the aisle for good luck.  She must carry it facing up, so the good luck doesn’t run out.  There are tons of little horseshoe charms out there for bouquets, like this one from Nordstrom:

But I like the larger ones, like this one which, sadly, I can’t remember where it came from (Etsy?)  It would also be cute to display in your home after the wedding:

You can also use horseshoe touches in other parts of your wedding, like in these traditional Jordan Almond favors from Martha Stewart:

The claddagh ring is another Irish tradition (I meant to take a picture of mine, which I love, and bought at The Silver Parrot in Old Town Alexandria, but I just moved and can’t find it!)  Here is another gorgeous one.

A great way to honor the day, though, is to, of course, include green in your wedding!  You can do this a number of ways, like these bridesmaids dresses:

Photo: Chris Baltazar

Kimberly Gray Photography:

LOVE these J. Crew dresses, photographed by Root Photography:

Or these darker green Jim Hjelm dresses, photographed by Sarah Bastille:

Accessories are a great way to add color too (and then the bride can get involved with the wearin o’ the green!)

Franco Sarto shoes, photographed by Sarah Q Photography:

Or how about this beautiful shamrock necklace (great bridesmaid’s gift!) from Etsy seller Sammi84:

 

Speaking of bridesmaids gifts, how about these cute clutches from Etsy Seller JenniferLadd:

And don’t forget the guys…they can wear green too!

Amy Carroll Photography:

How awesome is this boutonniere from Design Sponge?!

Kristin Spencer Photography:

Bouquets are an easy way to add green as well.  There are so many great green flowers as well as things like succulents (and especially four-leaf clovers!) that make a gorgeous green bouquet.  Touches like beautiful green ribbon add some great color too.

I love this bouquet from Brilliant Blooms in Denver:

Chris Baltazar Photography:

LOVE these green bouquets, photographed by our friend Heather Z:

Speaking of green flowers, how about the ceremony decor and centerpieces?

Photo by The Wiebners:

Laurel McConnell Photography:

Allyson Magda Photography:

How much do I love those green vases?!?!  Of course, flowers aren’t the only way to color your wedding.  There are also cute escort card ideas:

Non-floral decor:

Love Life Images:

Martha Stewart Weddings:

Or favors, like these cute shamrock lollipops, photographed by Blue World Studios:

Of course, we Irish love our drink, so add a little festive touch into your drinks (and food!)

Anne Constance Photography:

Mmm…cake bites…oh, Bakerella, how I love you. (That’s Red Velvet cake…dyed green!)

I admit it…I love corned beef and cabbage…

How pretty is this cupcake stand photographed by local Dolphindance Photography:

I love that candy buffets are still popular, like this green one photographed by Eleise Theuer:

And of course, you can’t have a St. Patrick’s Day wedding without Guinness:

How cute would it be to have a group of Irish Dancers perform at your reception?  (Locally, the O’Neill-James School of Irish Dancing and Culkin School of Traditional Irish Dance would be good places to check)

So for all of you Irish out there (and those who are Irish just for today) HAPPY ST. PADDY’S DAY!!!!!!!!

Ah, New Year’s Eve.  Some people go skiing, some people go to black tie parties, some people spend it drunk at a bar or, as we did when we were little kids, lighting sparklers and banging on pots and pans.  (Did other people do that?  Or was my family just weird?)  Some people, though, spend it getting married!  New Year’s Eve is all about celebrating new beginnings, so a New Year’s Eve wedding is PERFECT for that!  And what better way to make sure your friends and family are all around when the clock strikes midnight?!  Here are some great touches you can use for your New Year’s Eve wedding.

How cute is this idea, to put centerpieces in a champagne bucket?

Holiday ornaments can be put to great use for a New Year’s Eve wedding.  And not on a tree!

Martha Stewart Weddings:

Clocks are also a great way to decorate your space for the night (Martha again)

Taste of Home:

And, of course, you have to have noise makers around for your guests for when the clock strikes midnight!

When I think of New Year’s Eve weddings, I think silver and gold.  Sparkly touches are perfect for New Year’s!

I wish I remembered what blog I got this from — too cute!

I love this idea of everyone writing their resolutions and hanging them on the tree

Cute gold touches from one of my favorite party supply web sites, Plum Party

Martha Stewart Weddings:

You can even wear cute silver and gold touches like this bride’s gorgeous dress, photographed by Meg Baisden:

Or these hot gold shoes:

Or this ADORABLE flower girl’s shoes from Rachel at Millie Holloman Photography:

And of course, you have to end the night with the perfect send off, whether it’s a balloon drop:

A confetti drop (from Jessica Claire)

Or, of course, sparklers!

Millie Holloman Photography:

So what are you doing New Year’s Eve?

Last weekend I had the pleasure of coordinating Sarah & Abs’ wedding at the Torpedo Factory Arts Center.  What a gorgeous day!  We’ve worked at the Torpedo Factory several times over the years and it’s one of our favorite spots.  Sarah & Abs were really one of the most fun couples we’ve had this year.  I broke into a smile countless times just being around them and their friends.  What a great crew!

Let’s kick off with some pictures!  The professional images you see are from the very talented Kristen Leigh Photography.  Kristen is such a doll to work with.  Check her out if you’re looking for a photographer!  Images without her cute “K” watermark are ones I took with my iPhone.

Barbara at Growing Wild did a phenomenal job with Sarah’s bouquet:

Sarah’s green shoes pretty much sum up her personality.  Fun, vibrant, energetic, elegant, and unique!

Sarah and her ladies took some time before the ceremony to take portraits.  I loved this one:

Inside, the ceremony’s all set to go.  If you’re been in the Torpedo Factory during the daytime it looks totally different!  John Farr Lighting Design does an incredible job in making this building transform for events:

Sarah and her dad make it down the aisle:

A gorgeous wedding ceremony at the Torpedo Factory.  Sarah & Abs had a friend, Pastor Dave Saville, perform the service.  He was really wonderful!  It was light, touching, and heartfelt.  I really enjoyed working with Pastor Dave and happily recommend him to anyone who’s looking for a young and modern officiant.  It was a nice departure from the typical wedding officiants I see:

During cocktails, Kristen took photographs of the bridal party in Alexandria.  This cute spot is just around the corner from the Torpedo Factory:

Here’s what Kristen saw:

Kristen got some great shots of our newlyweds along the Old Town Alexandria waterfront.  This is near and dear to me since my husband and I took similar photos over three years ago!  I thought this particular one was so elegant….just a beautiful moment frozen in time while the rest of the world buzzes around them:

Couldn’t this easily be the front cover of a magazine?

Back inside, the party was in full swing!  To start, guests found their escort cards in these cute wheat grass boxes (provided by Growing Wild):

The other half of the Torpedo Factory (opposite from the ceremony) was set up for dinner even before guests arrived.  All we needed were chairs!  Once the ceremony ended and guests moved upstairs for cocktails, Windows Catering set the chairs in place around the tables.  I love this image because it shows a little bit of the wonderful lighting and centerpiece pinspots:

A few more shots of the reception area.  Nicole at Windows Catering is a doll to work with and her staff was phenomenal:

Look familiar?  Once the chairs were out of the way we used the ceremony spot as the dance floor!  Ray from Chris Laich Music Services did a great job keeping folks on the dance floor the entire night.  Doesn’t the space look totally transformed with funky lighting?

Windows’ accomplished pastry chef made the gorgeous and tasty cake.  Sarah & Abs chose to forgo the traditional cake cutting ceremony so this baby was just dislayed then sliced up by the caterer:

On a final note, I wanted to share a video of their incredible first dance!  Sarah and Abs must have practiced this for MONTHS.  Their guests were totally shocked at the last move…watch it and see what I mean!

Thanks, Melissa & TJ, for referring this wedding to me!  I’m honored you thought of me for your friends and am glad I got to see you at the wedding.

For more photos from this wedding, check out Kristen Leigh’s Blog.

Congratulations again, Sarah & Abs!

I thought this Sprint commercial was pretty cute:

Thanks for sharing it, Dia!

Jillian and Chris’s wedding is this Saturday and, well, I could help but tempt you with one of their engagement photos. Old Town Alexandria is such a beautiful place and it truly shows in this great photo from Brian Tropiano.

Keep an eye out early next week for photos from the wedding!

Cheers,

Laura is not only a wonderful wedding planner, but she is also the fabulous wife/mother to three boys (two of them are wonderful, the third one has issues saying he is wonderful because he was elected to type this blog post.  The other boys lack fingers for typing).  While Laura is working at a wedding tonight, all three of us boys spent this valentines day having a family meeting to come up with all the reasons why Laura is the most important thing in our life.  The meeting really didn’t have to take long because it was a simple task.  We decided to share the minutes from our meeting to Laura’s community through her blog (the nice thing about owning the server that her site is on is that I can login and do this without her knowing!)
————————————-
Auer Family Meeting
February 14th, 2009

FAMILY MEMBERS PRESENT
Chris the husband
Schooner the dog
Mico the bird

FAMILY MEMBERS ABSENT
Laura the wife/mom

CALL TO ORDER
This meeting was called to order by Chris the husband at 8:59pm after her rounded up Schooner the dog from the kitchen sink he was standing in again and Mico the bird from the cage which he was standing in.

NOTES FROM MICO ABOUT MOM

- Love the fact that mommy chases me around when I need to get exercise by flying.  Lord only knows how out of shape I would be if she didn’t make me fly (boy I know its a gift but I hate to use it)

- She makes the best corn/pellets/banana meal I have ever known

- She is always so willing to share her cereal and her ice cream with me, I love her for that

NOTES FROM SCHOONER ABOUT MOM

- Mommy is so soothing.  There can be scary things like the leaf blowers out side or people walking outside our door, but when she starts calming me down… nothing else matters

- She is really fun to play with. Not very good at throwing the ball, but no human is perfect.  I think I almost have her trained to throw the ball properly

- SPECIAL NOTE: Schooner has a longer list, but he has left the meeting temporarily to attend his 9:05pm appointment to try to hide his bone in the perfect spot.

NOTES FROM CHRIS THE HUSBAND

- Laura is one of the most caring persons that I have ever known in my life.  Whether its her family or her business, she always puts in 150%

- Even though she is the most detail oriented individual I have ever known, she still is capable of being completely spontaneous

- The way I look at it, there are 6.80 billion people in the world.  Half of the population doesn’t necessarily fit my criteria for marriage for one reason or another.  My odds for finding the perfect wife were 3.40 billion to 1.  I think this makes me ONE LUCKY DUDE for getting it right the first time!

ADJOURNMENT
This meeting was adjourned at 9:22pm on February 14th, 2009 after Schooner returned from finding the perfect hiding spot (yeap, under the curtains again).

—————————

Happy Valentines sweets!

Love

Chris the husband

Way back in March I posted about some non-traditional first dance songs.  Well, I’ve been updating my iTunes and fell back in love with Queen.  Somebody MUST pick this song for their first dance:

OK, the video’s a little odd and we all know Freddy made some interesting wardrobe choices.  But who doesn’t love this song?  Shout out to Erin for Queen first dances!

Armin DeFiesta’s website & blog

:::please ignore the constant parrot screams in the background.  someday I’ll introduce my parrot to you via video blog and you’ll be amazed at how loud a little bird can really be:::

Transcript for those of you at work without sound:
“Hi everybody, thanks for checking out our blog today.  My name is Laura – I’m the one who writes most of the posts here on the Wish Blog.  I figured today I would switch it up a little bit and do a video blog!  I’ve never done one of these before (sorry if it’s awful).  I wanted to thank my friend Armin DeFiesta.  First, for having lunch with me today and second for inspiring me to do one of these video blog posts.  I hope you like it!  I wanted to take a quick second and show you around my office.  It’s a little bit messy, like always, but I figured I’d show you where I work everday when I’m not at Starbucks meeting with a client or at a wedding venue doing weddings.  So behind me I have my husband’s bike gear.  He’s big into biking and is doing a 210-mile charity ride in August this year on the other side of the country in Seattle.  I’m very excited for him.  On the other side…this is my desk with my laptop, my printer, my scanner, and all the bride files and all the kind of good stuff that goes along with wedding planning.  So anyway, I figured this would be a little bit different and hopefully in 2009 we’ll do these a little bit more often.  Definitely check back on the blog later this week.  We have a BIG giveaway to announce.  It will be running through the first couple months of the year which will be a day-of coordination giveaway.  Stay tuned for details on that.  Have a great afternoon otherwise!  Hopefully we’ll see you soon.  Thanks!”