REAL WEDDING: Alicia & Patrick - Westwood Plateau Golf & Country Club

Today I have a lovely post from a real bride! I love to share the experiences of a bride, her planning and memories and also her vendors! It is such a great way for local brides to see what they could be getting and what the cost would be!

Alicia and Patrick got married on March 19, 2011 at the gorgeous Westwood Plateau Golf and Country Club in Coquitlam, BC. They had 204 guests attend the wedding and almost 20 children. The ceremony and reception were both located at Westwood and the over all cost of the wedding came up to approximately $30,000.00. The theme for the wedding was elegance and bling and this affair definitely lived up to its expectations. In a gorgeous venue with vaulted timber ceilings, the bride draped the tables with gorgeous linens, some gltiz and a little glam.

There were a ton of do it yourself touches to her wedding so she was able to get a head start on all the projects. As the bride describes “Every piece of bling, every blue ribbon and every table number holder was lovingly created by my fabulous maids (and man of honour).”

The bride goes on to say: The most important thing we wanted was for everyone to have an amazing time. That when people walked away they would say “That was an amazing wedding. Possibly the best one I’ve every been to.” Many of our guests were out of towners, so we wanted to have our ceremony and reception at the same place, and somewhere that was very ‘west coast’. We decided on Westwood Plateau Golf and Country Club. It’s up in the mountains, with an amazing view. We had the ceremony downstairs, and the reception upstairs.

We splurged on a deluxe buffet, with a wide variety of vegetarian and meat-eater friendly dishes. We opted to use all the cold cuts and crackers between the ceremony and reception as an appetizer, which was a great idea as people were getting peckish.

Some of my family doesn’t drink, so we did our toasts with sparkling apple juice, and then we had complimentary wine throughout the meal and evening. 

We had a candy buffet which was a huge hit – and a photo booth to keep people and kids busy while we took pictures. Everyone said the time passed too quickly before we sat down to dinner.

 I sing in a semi-professional choir, and many of them came and sang for us during the ceremony. I also had a good friend sing the Ave Maria before supper. We passed on the DJ and hired a real band – Yes, a REAL band. Cease and Desist. They were AMAZING. The whole place was dancing until the wee hours of the morning”

Some of the personal touches that made this wedding so unique (and full of tears!!) was the fact that the husbands mother passed away 10 years ago  so the bride and groom gave everyone in the wedding party, and on the Grooms mom's side a gold angel pin in her memory.  The bride also got up and sang to her new husband "The Way I Am" by Ingrid Michaelson as a surprise before their first dance.

 Alicia’s day was “the most magical day” she could have hoped for. She kept track of everything using Google docs and also had a notebook with her “To Do” list, and an area where she pasted fabulous ideas she came across. She suggests for future Brides to “get a notebook and keep it with you. There’s nothing worse than losing some great ideas because you wrote it on some loose paper and lost it. We had a wedding coordinator on the day of – money well spent”

The Bride and Groom “did everything from place cards to invitations to save the dates by hand – which took a ton of time, but saved a lot of money. We saved on flowers – my aunts did all the centre pieces and bridesmaids bouquets, and a good friend made my bouquets. Saved us a ton of money. We splurged on the band – and it was so worth it.”

Advice for the newlyweds. Alicia says “Embrace your bridezilla. This is a day for you and your man. I found myself tippy toeing to not go bridezilla and regret it in the end. I should have stood my ground and had things turn out my way” she also suggests “Try to keep your man involved – but don’t force him. He will share with you what he feels is important (and I can almost guarantee it won’t be the colour of the linens).”

Thank you for sharing your lovely wedding with Bailey's Brides Alicia and Patrick!

Ceremony venue: Westwood Plateau
Reception venue: same
Dress: Lisa's Bridal
Tuxedo: Moore's
Photographer: Winona Lee
Flowers: Family friend
Hair: East Vanity Parlour
Make-up: Jayna Marie
Invitations: Handmade by Alicia and her bridesmaids
Cake: Cupcakes from Clever Cupcakes
Decorations: Rose Chair Covers and Decor
Wedding Favors: Candy buffet by Alicia and her bridesmaids
Music for ceremony/reception: Elektra Women's Choir, Stephen Smith on Piano, cousin Wesley Wollin on Violin, reception was Cease and Desist
Transportation: n/a
Wedding planner/coordinator: The Bride

Inspiring Picture of the day - Guest book - Sept 15,2011.

Get your guests to find their birthday and write their name with a little note!


For more creative and unique ideas for your guestbook, check out THIS link.

You want to be rustic

One of the biggest wedding trends right now is "rustic". It most likely stemmed from brides being more frugal about wedding planning. Cutting corners here and there by taking flowers from your garden for a natural looking bouquet, wood from a fallen tree to make stands and table numbers and backyards of family or old barns to escape the costs of venue fees. Its all a great idea.

The wedding industry has caught on though! and the big trend is barn weddings. I love them. Love. Love. Love them. Especially if the couple getting married is from a farm or the area and it has great personal meaning to them..how touching is that? Since industry has caught on though, the "rustic" wedding has exploded. Its everywhere and its gorgeous (but not nearly as inexpensive anymore).

This post is nothing but inspiration for those who are taking the route of having a barn wedding....rustic simply works in no better place then in a rustic barn after all.

Happy Planning!

Pinwheel party

I am a huge fan of do it yourself projects. Not only are they economical, they are fun and they allow for your creativity and personality to shine through.

Planning a wedding is difficult and having numerous DIY projects on hand can make it that more complicated and add a lot of unneeded stress, but with a little timing and planning, some help from family and the bridal party any task can be done.

Pinwheels are my absolutely favorite trend right now. It would be such a simple task for fellow helpers as well, ship them some paper that you love, they can make them and bring them to you on your wedding day!

A they are incredibly simple to make and depending on the paper you use can be incredibly inexpensive as well. Here is a small tutorial on how to make them:

Now that you know how to make them, I hope these pictures will inspire you to use them at your wedding. There are so many ways to incorporate them and so many different styles. I would suggest using scrap booking paper as their is much more variation, colours and textures. Your local dollar store should sell some sheets that will be between .50 and $1.00.

Let your imagination go wild:

Hanging pinwheels to anchor a table setting

Bouquets!

Toppers for your cakes and cupcakes

Wall decorations

Backdrop for the alter

Ambiance and color!

Happy Planning!

A "sign" of the times

A new trend that I absolutely love in weddings and I feel can be used at any kind of wedding whether it be a high class affair or rustic backyard wedding, is signs. I love them.

They are a great way to add some personalization into your wedding, help your guests with directions on what to do or where to go and can even double as a thank you card for after the wedding.

You can go as professional or as DIY as you would like.

Sites to obtain a professional look, that I would recommend would be Etsy. Although I have never used this particular seller, a quick search of "wedding signs" will draw up numerous options such as the Rustic Charmer.  Remember with Etsy that some prices are negotiable and most items are up for more in depth personalization. Be sure to contact the seller directly and discuss options.

Another option would be DIY. There are many sites that have the templates already there for you, its just a matter of saving the templates and tweaking them to add your own personal touch. Some sites that offer such things are, Martha Stewart Weddings in the template section, Kiss the Groom (who has a kissing tree template) and last but not least, my favorite, The Wedding Chicks (be sure to scour their website for much more free goodies and templates!).

No matter which way you choose remember that this is a great opportunity to have some fun and a great way to add your own personal touch.

To pom pom your wedding

Pom poms.  I remember them when I was little, they were entirely to much fun to play with and I loved all the colours, so imagine my surprise when I started planning my wedding and I noticed poms poms in so many wedding pictures.

 I loved them they seemed so whimsical, cute and brought some colour to a venue. I thought it was a great way to have "fun". I made two of them to see what they would look like and had planned on using them going down the aisle.

 

I was not impressed and was worried it looked a little to "DIY". My bridesmaids soon nixed the idea and I  moved on. Here is the look I was going for:

Gorgeous! My only concern, and as a wedding planner would like to advise to all my brides, is the consistency and placing of them. To little, to big to small or random, can come across as scattered, un kept and disorganized, please be sure to keep the consistency when making something like this.

Now every bride has their own personality and tissue poms poms are inexpensive, easy to make and look great, but to put your own twist on it and to break free from the trend, why not try making them with something different like:

Coffee Filter pom poms

Doily pom poms

T-shirt or fabric pom poms

 

 

 

My favorite, by far though is tulle. TULLE. Its fairly inexpensive but you have to use much more material to make them. They turn out much more softer then the tissue paper, look much more expensive and classical and have a soft romantic look to them.

 

Either way, what ever you choose should reflect your personality, whether it be through the materials you use, the colours you use or how you hang them (be careful about low ceilings and rooms with now windows!).

Tutorial on tulle pom poms

Tutorial on tissue pom poms

Mad for bunting

Well wedding season has sprung again and all the new ideas for wedding trends are popping up like crazy.

An old trend, that was popular when i was getting married (you know...way back then in July of 2010) was bunting. Its an incredibly time consuming task and I simply did not have the resources (aka man power) and time to grapple such a task, but I wish I had.

It would be great for any wedding:

 A more high end wedding

Backyard wedding

and can be sued to add your personal touch and flare

I mean, if its good enough for Princess Catherine and Prince William, its good enough for us commoners right?

Now back to all seriousness. Bunting is an amazing way to incorporate the colours of your wedding or play on the elegance you are trying to obtain or playfulness even. It by far one of my favorite accents to a wedding and for a DIY kind of bride it is a great way of showing how much time and love has gone into your projects.

If you decide to take this route, make sure you make it your own. Unique. Should it be through the choice of colour or even the shape. Remember though, this is a huge project so start early.

Here is a link to a great site on how to make the bunting yourself. It will give you 10 how to steps as well as a video! click here to begin your journey!

Hope this has inspired you. Happy planning!