Best Wedding!

We are so proud and happy to announce that at last week's NACE Golden Whisk Awards Gala, Grace Leisure Events won the award for Best Wedding of 2009! We are so happy and excited and grateful to our peers for choosing us for this honor. Thank you!

Here is a link to images from the event, which unfortunately we had to miss due to a MUCH needed weekend in South Beach with our hubby...

http://www.trianglenace.com/gallery.php?offset=0&date=111209&dispdate=November+12,+2009

And here is a link to the fabulous wedding for which we won best wedding! Images are by Rachel Garrison of Tamara Lackey Photography. Enjoy!

http://www.tamaralackey.com/KristenBlake/

XOXO

grace

Night At The Museum

These are photos from an October 3rd wedding we did in Durham at the Nasher Museum of Contemporary Art for a fabulous couple named Jessica and Shahid. They combined Chinese and Indian cultures and families to create a wedding that was colorful, classy, and downright FUN.
Take note of the Cerise Satin linens from CE Rentals in Raleigh....SOOOO luxe!
Fresh Affairs created bold and unusual centerpieces of gold painted Monestera leaves in tall vases. The look was minimal but oh so chic and stunning against the bright pink of the table tops. Places were set with gold napkins, bright green chopsticks and custom menu cards, and the gold chairs had coordinating gold seat cushion covers.
David Watson of Get Lit Lighting did beautiful uplighting around the room as well as Chinese lanterns in the center of the space over the dance floor. He topped is all off with a Gobo light on the dance floor of the Chinese symbol for "Double Happiness". Thanks to David for all of these photos, as well.
I will post more photos later so you can see the beautiful bridesmaids in their absolutely breathtaking jewel-toned Saris! Congratulations to Jessica and Shahid on a beautiful day and what I know will be a lifelong happy marriage.

XOXO

grace

My Team

I just received this beautiful photo from the fabulous Rachel Garrison of Tamara Lackey Photographers, taken on September 26th at the wedding of Caitlin and Kevin King at the Washington Duke Inn (images to follow!).

This photo is of me and my two wonderful assistants, Alex and Katherine. I could not do it without them! They help keep me sane and are incredibly helpful with coordinating the "day of" details such as making sure that the transportation runs on time, that the escort cards are organized perfectly, and that the bridesmaids are well taken care of. They help do a lot of the behind the scenes things that I simply can't do sometimes because I am off doing other things...or really, managing all of the myriad details that go into creating a wedding weekend.

My Alex and Katherine are a reminder that it takes many to accomplish any wedding. No florist, photographer, band leader, catering director, lighting/decor designer or cake baker works alone. You know how they say that behind every good man is a good woman? Well, behind every wedding professional is a team. I can tell you that first hand. I am ever so grateful for their consistent, diligent, detailed and hard work and want you to know that it does indeed take a village to make these things go off without a hitch. I'm so lucky to have such a fabulous team and so of course, I think my clients are lucky to have them, too!

We're off for another big wedding weekend, this time on the gorgeous Figure Eight Island. We'll post some photos of this fall's weddings just as soon as we get copies. They have been many and diverse and I am really proud of all of our hard work. Thanks for checking in to see what we've been up to!

XOXO

grace

A Tradition Is What You Make It

I hope you all are enjoying October and the fall thus far! This month always makes me incredibly, painfully nostalgic for college at Kenyon; the very, very special spot in central Ohio where I spent four years, met my husband, sang my heart out (oh yes, a capella group style...) and learned how to throw parties with the best of them. Seriously, some of the best soirees I've ever been to were during those four years at Kenyon College.

People were so creative, it was ridiculous! Must have been something in the corn-filled air or in the food at the dining hall or in the beer in the keg...I don't know. But I do know that some of the most outrageous ideas I've ever seen came straight from The Hill, as we fondly call it. For example: The "Shock Your Mama" party - where you might just see someone dressed in Saran Wrap. Or the "Redhead Party" - where everyone arrived with red hair - real and fake - and feasted on red food and Killian's Red. Or, my personal favorite, the "Luge Party" - where we built a luge from a 500 pound block of ice IN our bathroom and served a delectable array of juices and potions that you would drink in tandem from one of the two handmade trails down the ice. Sounds like fun, right? I'd be up for one of these parties tonight - if only they didn't start about 3 hours past my current bed time. :)

There are so many ways that you can take inspiration from college or another special part of your life and incorporate it into your wedding or special event. For instance, we had an event at Kenyon called "Freshman Sing" where all of the Freshmen would stand on a set of stairs outside and sing all of the dozens of school songs while the rest of the school would cheer (or jeer) us on. We would then do this again as Seniors - an emotional and nostalgic nod to our time as naive first year students.

Why not have a sing along at your event? This does not only need to be reserved for holiday parties. One of *the best* wedding ideas I heard lately was from a producer in LA who I worked with last winter who told me that she handed out sheet music to her guests and had everyone since a rousing rendition together of "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life". How cute is that? Now that's a wedding moment people will not forget any time soon.

Traditions come in many shapes and sizes. At Kenyon, it seemed there was a tradition for just about everything. My family was always full of traditions so this felt natural to me, but at the same time definitely pushed me to maintain and create traditions in my own life and family - things that can be carried on for years to come. You may create a tradition at your wedding or event that you decide to do every year on that day. A tradition is what you make it. If it means something to you and is relevant to a special moment in time, there's no reason why you can't carry it on, give it a name, and make sure that it lasts a lifetime. Now off to buy a block of ice...

XOXO

grace

September Bliss

Hi All!

I apologize for my delay in posting photos from this fall's weddings. I've been very busy planning and coordinating and not taking time out for this little blog of mine. Alas, here are some gorgeous photos taken by David Watson of Get Lit Lighting of the lovely and elegant wedding of Kristen & Blake that took place on September 19th.

The wedding ceremony was at St. Mary's Chapel in Raleigh and the reception (see photos) at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary. A beautiful wedding for a wonderful couple who could not have been sweeter or more gracious - I miss them already! Enjoy and hopefully I'll have more to come soon of the bride in her stunning gown and of more of the day and details.

Special thanks for a fabulous wedding to Sondra Johnstone at Prestonwood, JW Walton and The Catering Company decor team, David Watson for lighting, Party Tables, CE Rental and Classic Party Rentals for linens and rentals, Fresh Affairs for spectacular flowers, and my helpers Katherine and Alex for their amazing work.

XOXO

grace

Cheeky Chic

Check out the new Blog by one of my favorite gals, Lindsey "Fifi" Cheek, for all things fashion, weddings, home furnishings, and just generally gorgeous things to covet. She has exquisite taste and an an incredible penchant for finding treasures worth absolutely drooling over.

www.fificheek.blogspot.com

Be Where You Are

Fall wedding season is upon us and that means that many of you have your weddings coming up soon! And that means that you could probably use a little pep talk - am I right?

I've been planning weddings over a decade now and while that pales in comparison to the careers of some of my mentors and other who inspire me, it is long enough to have a lot of real life experience in the trenches under my bedazzled belt. Well, all of this experience would be for nought if I didn't have YOU to share it with!

I hope that these little gems that I provide here and there can help you to relax a bit more, enjoy a lot more, and most importantly, to be in the moment. One of my favorite sayings is "Be where you are". It's so simple, yet something that we all forget to remember and struggle to achieve. If you can be where you are, at your wedding, you will undoubtedly have a time to remember. In order to do this, you have to remember one of the other great phrases of all time: "Don't Sweat The Small Stuff". And even more important to remember, it's all small stuff.

So, here goes - my fall "play list" for how to get the most out of your wedding day:

• Wear your shoes around the house every evening for at least a week before your wedding day...you'll thank me, and so will your feet.
• If you don't have a planner, make sure you double and triple check your transportation plans. These are so often the plans that get lost in the mix and most often are the plans that go wrong. Assign a friend or family member to be in charge of the transportation on your wedding day. Have them get the names and cell phone number for the drivers. (For what it's worth, transportation details alone are a fabulous reason to hire a "day of" coordinator!).
• Remember that if you absolutely hate calla lilies and one accidentally makes it into your bridal bouquet, that it's not the end of the world, your bouquet is still gorgeous, and your mascara will run if you start to cry.
• Do your best to drink a glass of water in between cocktails at the rehearsal dinner. The stress and emotion of your wedding day is enough to handle sober and with a good night's sleep - a hangover can help to turn mole hills into mountains.
• Be sure you get ALL of the power requirements for the band, DJ, generator, and anything else that requires power at your venue, ahead of time. An impromptu power outage can really put a damper on things.
• Outdoor ceremonies and receptions: Rain plan, rain plan, rain plan.
• Weight gain: Spanx, Spanx, Spanx.
• After your father (or other family member) makes the welcome toast, do not let him/her release the microphone for open toasting. It's inappropriate to do this at the start of the night (or at the wedding in general - that's what the rehearsal dinner is for), and can really hold up the service of the meal - not matter whether a sit down, buffet, or stations. Nobody wants a flustered catering staff and starving guests eating cold petite filet.
• Have someone bring your overnight bags to the hotel early in the day. You don't want to wind up at the hotel with nothing to wear the next day except a day-old tuxedo and wedding dress!
• Making a Do Not Play list for the band or DJ is just as important as a Must Play list.
• Remind family members ahead of time if they are to remain at the ceremony spot for photos after the ceremony. This saves a lot of time and running around trying to gather people for formal photos, which in turn means more time for you to enjoy the cocktail hour!
• For the love of you-know-who, do not smash cake in your darling's face. This is your wedding, not a scene from Meatballs.
• When all else fails, and if everything does fail, SMILE. You know what I always say: the only thing that people will remember is a stressed out bride.

XOXO,

grace

P.S. Thanks to Shane Snider for the gorgeous photo of Whitney and Ben.