Shelley & Andy's Autumn Affair

Halloween didn't stop Shelley and Andy from knowing that October 31st was their day to tie the knot! Pushing pumpkins aside, they opted instead for an elegant Autumnal Affair complete with lavish centerpieces in greens, oranges, and golds, stunning chandeliers, a decadent cake, and music from their own personal library including everything from Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" to popular hip hop that got the entire crowd on the dance floor.

Here are some beautiful images taken by David Watson of Get Lit Lighting to give you a good idea for how to do Halloween in a classy, non-themey way.

Shelley and Andy selected a long head table with the wedding party seated on both sides - 16 in total. It gave great balance to the room as well as variety, as all of the other tables were 60" rounds to seat 8 or 9 guests.The chandeliers that were hung in American Tobacco's Bay 7 space especially for Shelley and Andy added a romantic feel and along with the specially installed up-lighting, created a warm and romantic mood. The Catering Company's fabulous decor team provided the chandeliers and additional draping.
The lovely cake from Sweet Memories Bakery tasted just as good as it looked. I was lucky enough to get a piece after a long day of running around! Donna Ford's sugary goodness gave me that last push I needed to stay full of energy throughout the evening.
The cloths look pale gold in these images, but were actually a beautiful pale green with circular details and the napkins and accents were a deep rust, as you can see here. The amazing floral centerpieces were done by Ninth Street Flowers.
Here's another shot of the tables and the room. The luxurious linens and beautiful chairs (as well as all of the other rentals) came from the fabulous CE Rental in Raleigh. DJ Brian Clonaris of EE Productions did a fantastic job keeping people partying, and The Catering Company of Chapel Hill was as always on their game and produced a flawless served dinner for nearly 200 guests.

Congratulations Shelley and Andy! Thank you for choosing to share your lovely North Carolina Autumn Affair with Grace Leisure Events.

XOXO

grace

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