How Are You Spending Your New Year's Eve tonight?

My husband and I, along with our teenage children, are hosting a small New Year's Eve party in our new home. There will only be eight adults with teenagers and some younger children. I downloaded lots of dance music from the 70's, 80's and today. Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE to dance! That is a must-have at my parties.

I made tissue pom-poms as the simple decor, taking an idea from Martha Stewart Weddings. The pictures shown above don't do them justice, though. We still have our Christmas decorations up so I am only putting the pom-poms in the Family Room where the main party/dancing will be taking place. Of course, there will be candles glowing everywhere. I will have two lanterns on top of my columns at the entrance inside the foyer. I originally was going to have them outside the entrance, however, in my area, a coldfront is coming in and it is VERY windy. I am also using small Mason jars as my luminaries to line the walkway, but they will have the flicker lights in them as tealights would not stay lit in this wind. I will be weighing them down with mini-sandbags I already have that I usually use for my paper luminaries when I use them for weddings.

Every family is bringing a hot or cold Hors d'Oeuvre and a sweet or salty snack. We are providing the drinks - wine, punch and sparkling cider for the toast at midnight. Why not champagne? Because the majority of people do not like the taste of champagne, so why waste a good bottle for just a sip? To divert to weddings for a moment, I also tell my clients to save money and not serve champagne for the toast for the same reason. A sip is taken and then the rest just sits in the flute - wasted. Okay, back to my party. The party is scheduled for 9pm - 12:30am, but if anyone wants to stay later, they are welcome. The first half-hour will see guests arriving and setting up the food. The next hour will be for eating, mingling with nice, background music playing. For the second hour, the dancing PARTAY begins! We'll dance until 11:30pm when it will be time to tune into Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve with the Jonas Brothers, which the teenage girls will love, and watch the ball drop to welcome in 2009!

I want to wish everyone a safe, healthy and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

My last wedding of the year was last month for Jenn and Ricky. Click here to read their story.


I am now working on my next two weddings and I have a meeting with a prospective client this Saturday. Whew!

It's also Christmas next week. Can you believe it? I don't like it when there are only four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It just doesn't seem like enough time to get everything ready. I still have more shopping to do. Aghhhhhhhh! The house is decorated, but I don't feel ready. Are you?

I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

Happy Thanksgiving

I will be taking the rest of the week off, but thought I would share with you a little blurb about the history behind us celebrating Thanksgiving Day on the last Thursday every November. Enjoy!

In the fall of 1863 the Civil War raged across this country taking the lives of the best young men that this land had to offer and threatening to tear the nation in two. In the midst of such chaos and bloodshed it would have been easy for the country's leader, President Abraham Lincoln, to raise a defiant hand toward heaven and question the wisdom of God. But, that is not what President Lincoln did, instead, he sat down and penned the following words.

"The year that is drawing to its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of such an extraordinary a nature ... (that) No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It is seemed to me fit and proper that they should solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens ... to set apart the last Thursday in November ... a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings ... and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and Union."
Happy Thanksgiving!

I know, I know...

it's been a long time since I posted and this post will not have anything to do with weddings.

Our family moved recently and that took up a lot of my time with selling and buying a new house, moving, and most frustratingly of all, trying to establish new phone/Internet service. For the first two weeks in our new house, we had no phone service (with the exception of our cell phones) and no Internet service. Well, the phone service finally got connected, however, we are still trying to get our DSL service established. There has been a multitude of issues with the phone company getting our lines to work. Last week, I thought it was done. However, I go and try to use one of the jacks we use for our Internet service (until we get the DSL connected one day) and, lo and behold, the dial tone is no longer there. It was working when they initially connected it. What happened? Aghhhhhhhhhh! I am about to scream my head off. This is crazy. I have made numerous calls to the phone company, even going to the supervisor level, and I am waiting for him/her to call me back. Yeah, right. It's really unbelievable.

Okay enough venting for today. Hopefully, I'll get back to posting about wedding stuff soon. I have a wedding this Saturday, so I'll post something about that next week.

See ya. Hope you have a great rest of the week.

Announcing New Service

Several months ago, my creative juices started running when one of my client’s was going to have a bridesmaid who is wheelchair bound and the bride wanted to use her service dog as her “ring bearer.” (Click here to see their story) I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great to have a dog bone for the ring pillow?” I presented the idea to my clients and they loved the idea. (See picture above) That’s when I thought I could make and offer custom-made ring pillows to all my clients, if they so choose.

Therefore, I am announcing the launch of “Bearer of Rings©” custom-made ring pillows as a subsidiary of Smooth Weddings, LLC. Since I’m just beginning this, I can only offer this service offline (phone, e-mail, face-to-face), but hopefully one day I want to make it available online, too.

If you are in the Maryland, Northern Virginia, DC area and want something different and non-traditional for your wedding, then contact me. You don’t have to be a client to order one.

Have your own personality shine through on your wedding day when your ring bearer walks down the aisle with one of my custom, handmade ring pillows.

I can use practically any material or you can send me your own material, such as leftover fabric from your wedding gown, bridesmaids’ dresses, or a special handkerchief, etc. Let your imagination run wild!

Since I’m just starting to promote this side of my business and because of the creativeness, personal preferences, themes, etc. that you may have, I don’t keep a stock of standard “cookie-cutter” type of pillows. Each one will be made according to your specifications. Therefore, I don’t have a lot of pictures to show you yet with the exception of the dog bone pillow and one I just made as a sample.

If you want the standard shape style of pillow, I can do that, too. The standard pillow shapes are limited to square (8”x8”), round (8” diameter) or rectangle (8”x6”).

If you would like to discuss your ideas and/or place an order, just contact me. Please allow two to four weeks delivery time once your order has been placed and payment has been received.

Prices begin at $25 for standard pillow shapes and begin at $45 for custom-made shapes.

Okay. Enough of my shameless, self-promotion ad.

Duties of the Wedding Party Part 4

Bridesmaids

As with the groomsmen, these ladies could be sisters or friends of the bride and groom. Don’t let the “maids” part of “bridesmaid” fool you. They do not have to be single to be a bridesmaid. We are in the 21st Century afterall.

The bridesmaids can offer their help to the maid of honor and bride during the planning process, as well as helping the maid of honor plan the bridal shower. They are responsible for paying for their own attire, which the bride usually chooses for them.

During the reception, the bridesmaids should be conscientious to the guests and assist wherever possible.

Junior Bridesmaids

These attendants are usually in the age range of 12-16 years old. These young ladies could light candles or pass out the rose petals after the wedding or reception for your grand exit.

As with the bridesmaids, junior bridesmaids pay for their own attire and could be a modified version of the bridesmaids’ dresses.

Think Pink!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. As such, Kate Aspen donates 10% of the proceeds from their Pink Ribbon Collection to the Young Survival Coalition in October as well as all year long.

So do yourself and others a favor. Order from my Kate Aspen online shop today , type in Pink Ribbon Collection in the Search window and help those with breast cancer.

The Young Survival Coalition is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the unique issues and concerns that are important to young women with breast cancer. The foundation educates communities through advocacy and awareness and provides support for those living with this disease. For more information, visit their Web site at: www.youngsurvival.org.