Barn Wedding Venue-- Open House

I'm SO excited to announce that Mathwig Estate will be hosting an open house for their gorgeous event barn in Thurmont, Maryland!! I'm even more excited that NoLo gets to be a part of it!

Now, I might be a tad bit bias since my own wedding will be taking place at the barn, but it really is a great space and Taylor is absolutely wonderful to work with. 

If you are looking for a barn venue, you'll definitely want to check out Mathwig Estate. The open house is going to be on Sunday, April 14th from 1pm to 4pm. You'll be able to see the barn, talk to vendors and ask Taylor questions. 

I will also be there with information on NoLo so if you are already a bride at Mathwig and looking for an event planner, a prospective bride or just want to say hi, please stop by-- I'd love to chat!

Here's the flyer :)

Ceremony Planning

The wedding ceremony-- The single most important part of the wedding day and the one thing that I had the hardest time with!

I'm not sure exactly why I had such a hard time with the ceremony. Josh and I had an idea of the wording we wanted and the things we wanted to incorporate but when it came down to it I guess there were just SO many readings and parts to choose from that it seemed overwhelming. Luckily, the person performing our ceremony sent over a typical ceremony which helped to get us started and I found a fabulous book!

There are tons of different types of wedding ceremonies, none right or wrong. What Josh and I wanted was a short and sweet ceremony that talked a lot about the commitment we were making. We definitely wanted a Christian ceremony and it was important to us to have prayers and readings but we really wanted the focus to be on the importance of marriage and our love for one another. That was the easy part. The hard part was deciding exactly which readings and vows and all of the specific wording.

That's were "The Wedding Ceremony Planner" comes in. If you are having a hard time with the specific wording of your wedding ceremony, definitely check it out of your local library! I'm so glad I did. Josh and I spent a couple of days going through it, bookmarking pages, and everything came together so well! We are thrilled with our ceremony and can't wait to share it with all of our family and friends :)

Don't Forget to Invite Mickey & Minnie!

As you may (or may not) know, I am a HUGE fan of Disney. That being said, when I heard that you could mail Mickey & Minnie a wedding invitation, I was game. So I gathered up all of my invitation supplies and made sure to make a couple of extra.

My invitation to Mr. & Mrs. Mouse went out a couple of weeks ago, and although I have not heard back yet, I will be sure to tell you when I do! (From some online research it seems that you get a congratulatory package in the mail, complete with "Just Married" buttons!)

If you want to mail your own invitation to them, here is the address:

The Magic Kingdom
C/O Mickey and Minnie Mouse
1675 N. Buena Vista Drive
Lake Buena Vista, Florida 32830

You can also mail it to them at Disneyland. (I chose Florida because although I've been to both, I've grown up going to Disney World!)

Mickey and Minnie Mouse
The Walt Disney Company
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, California 91521

But wait... there's more. You can also mail an invitation to Cinderella and Prince Charming for another package of Disney gifts!

Cinderella and Prince Charming
The Magic Kingdom
1675 N. Buena Vista Drive
Lake Buena Vista, Florida 32830

Fingers crossed I get a present in the mail soon :)

Happy Wednesday!

Purple Friday

I'm not sure that I've expressed this via my blog yet, but I am an AVID Ravens fan. I've spent my entire life living within 20 minutes of Baltimore and followed in my dad's football loving footsteps long ago. That being said, I am obviously PSYCHED to see them going to another Super Bowl!

In honor of Purple Friday, I thought I'd share a little video for my fellow Raven's fans. Bonus-- The girl in the video is a seagull (just another reason to love the fact that I graduated from Salisbury University)! And even if you are not rooting for the Raven's, you have to admit they did an excellent job!

Here is their video from the last game!

Happy Purple Friday!

Quick Saving Tips

Let's be honest-- Most brides look for ways to save money on their wedding day. I'm not saying everyone does. I know there are brides who have a never ending budget and I know there are brides who simply don't want the hassle of finding deals or figuring out ways to save money. But for the most part, I think we're all on the same page.

For those who are looking for quick and simple ways to save money, I've put a small list together, because who doesn't like quick and simple?! Ideally, these ideas should help you save a little money with any guest count and without having to DIY everything or cut out items that you really want!

• Wedding Cake-- For the most part, your wedding cake is priced out based on your guest count. However, EVERY guest does not eat an entire piece of cake. You are going to have those that don't want cake and couples that share a slice. Instead of having the cake made for your entire guest count, cut it down a bit. If you are expecting 150 people, order a cake for 125. You could save $100 or more, depending on your cost per slice!

• Invitations-- If you can design your own, or know someone who can, design them and upload them to a site like 123Print. You can print 100 invitations for under $100 which sure beats $3.50 or more per person. And 123Print ALWAYS has coupons!

• Alcohol-- Ask if you can provide your own bar. You'll still pay for a bartender but you'll be able to control exactly what is available and how much of it to purchase. This way, if only half of your guests are drinkers, you don't have to pay per person for a bar that won't be used.

• Postage-- If it's an alternative that would work for your family and friends, use an online reply. It will cut your postage expense in half because you won't have to pre-stamp response card envelopes!

• Flowers-- If possible, use flowers that are in season. If you have your heart set on a specific flower that isn't in season, see if you can order them wholesale and get the girls together to make centerpieces. Your bouquets you might still want to have a professional do, but if you are not doing anything elaborate for you centerpiece you can save $25 or more per table by doing them yourself!

Just a few tips for your Thursday!

My Personal Invitation Etiquette Tips

I'm finally finished. All 170 envelopes are addressed and stamped. Whew.

Addressing invitations isn't easy. Especially if your guest list is anything like mine with the married couples, unmarried couples, singles who are allowed dates, families with children... the list goes on and on. During the last couple of weeks I've found myself searching how to address this and what to do about that, but all I could seem to find were blog posts and websites detailing the same information over and over. I know traditional invitation etiquette, but let's face it-- Today's weddings are not all traditional. Going into it, I thought I knew everything that I would need but sure enough, every so many envelopes I had a question that couldn't be answered by typical etiquette. And I'll be honest, I didn't follow all of the "rules" anyways, but I did look to the traditional rules as guidelines for how I wanted our invitations to look because although I want them to be original and fun, I also wanted them to maintain some sort of formality.

That being said, I wanted to go over some of the main questions I had along the way (the ones that I couldn't really find answers to) and share with you the decisions I ended up making. They are not rules by any means, but hopefully it will help those brides in the same situations as me! If you are looking for all of the standard rules to addressing your wedding invitations, you won't find them in this post, but trust me-- There are plenty of blog posts out there to help you out! Again, keep in mind that our invitations are not formal so I did break some rules.

• My invitation does not include an inner envelope, how do I address an invitation to a single person who is allowed a guest? I thought about this one long and hard. Most of the answers I came across simply suggested including "and guest" on the outer envelope, and although nothing is wrong with that for an informal invite, that just wasn't the route that I wanted to take. I ended up including a little card in the invitations of those who are single and invited to bring a guest. It's a business card- sized insert that simply reads "Please feel free to bring a guest!".

• My invitation does not include an inner envelope, how do I include children? For families with children I simply included the children's names underneath of their parents on the outer envelope. We also have a children's meal option on the RSVP card. 

• I really don't want to hand-write my address 85 times on the RSVP card envelopes, do I have other options? I wanted the addresses on my invitations to be hand written. Hands down. But what I later realized was that I was also going to have to address another 85 envelopes to myself and this I wasn't as pressed on. However, I didn't want address labels on them either because that wouldn't match the look I was going for. Enter a self-inking stamp. I ordered a personalized self-inking stamp (for a mere $25) from an Etsy shop that matched the look and feel of my invitations. It looks spectacular and matches wonderfully!

• I also don't want to hand write my return address 85 times on the backs of the invitations. My stamp came in handy again for this one! I used the same stamp that I used to address the RSVP cards and simple placed it on the back flap of the invitations.

• My hand writing is not going to work, but a calligrapher doesn't fit into my budget, what now? Cheat! Okay so maybe it's not really cheating, but what I did is definitely a short-cut. I traced every single address and they look fabulous, if I may say so myself, so it was worth the extra effort!

Here's the cute little stamp I ordered for the RSVP cards and return addresses. So happy I found it!

Wondering what my final result looked like? I'll be doing a more detailed post of my actual invitations sometime next month!

Erin Keough Photography

I met the lovely Erin, of Erin Keough Photography, back in August when NoLo had the opportunity to provide day of coordination for Kelsey & Wes's wedding. Remember them-- The super cute couple with the AWESOME first dance? I thought so! We had such a great time working with Erin and her second shooter that I wanted to take some time to share some information about her and her company with you. So, if you're in the market for a great photographer, read on!

Erin started Erin Keough Photography in 2007 after graduating from the Antonelli Institute in Philadelphia. Beforehand she worked closely with other photographers, second shooting and learning the ropes of wedding photography. She quickly realized that her favorite part of being a photographer was the relationships that she formed with her clients. She knows how important it is to get to know and trust your photographer and really goes the extra mile to get to know all of her couples! She is set apart from other photographers with the attention to detail and the experience that she creates for each and every couple. Erin and her team pride themselves on never missing a beat and creating a natural and fun atmosphere. "I love seeing the excitement, joy and love in their faces as I'm photographing them at such an exciting time in their lives" Erin says. Although Erin loves the excitement of the wedding day, she puts just as much effort into her work after the shooting is done, offering albums, prints, guestbooks, and more. For the upcoming year, Erin's goals are to create a faster work flow for working on editing and wedding albums and to have a blog up and running (perhaps it will be released with her new website that is set to debut this month)! 

As I know from first-hand experience, Erin is so easygoing and fun to work with. I know that Kelsey and Wes also had a great experience working with Erin, from their engagement photos to their "trash the dress" session.

All of that said, if you are looking for a photographer for your wedding you have got to check her out. Not located in Pennsylvania? She travels! Since 2007 Erin has grown her company from 15 weddings a year to 35, so if you are interested in her services, contact her today because I imagine she books up fast!

Images courtesy of Erin Keough Photography

Here's Erin with one of her couples!

Happy Friday :)

Congratulations to NoLo!

I am SO excited to announce that NoLo Weddings & Events is a winner of the 2013 WeddingWire Bride's Choice Awards :) Basically it means that our brides from the past year think that we rock! And that makes me extremely happy because I think that they rock too!

Being recognized as a Bride's Choice Award winner means that NoLo Weddings & Events was in the top 5% of local wedding professionals this past year based on reviews from clients and surveys. 

I'm not usually one to toot my own horn, but I'm just so proud of what Nora and I have accomplished with our company in the last year!!!!! And congratulations to all of the other wedding professionals who won--You can find a list of all of them here. You can also see our pretty little award in the toolbar to the right of this blog post :)

I know I've thanked you a billion times, but thank you again to all of our amazing brides and grooms! We couldn't have even dreamed of winning any award if it wasn't for all of you trusting us with your special day.

Happy Wednesday!

NoLo getting ready to fly to Vegas back in October for the wedding conference!

Book Honeymoon-- Check!

Warning: This may be my longest blog post yet!

I, of course, am no travel agent. But with Josh and I recently booking our honeymoon-- yay :)-- I thought I would share my advice! I know a lot of people have absolutely no idea where to start and although I have done my fair share of traveling, I remember the feeling of being completely lost when I booked my first vacation! Since for many couples, this is the first "big vacation" either of them have gone on, it's important to make it a good one!

First of all, come up with a list of things that are important to you. We had quite a few, and that's fine! With all of the vacation options out there, it's much easier to choose when you can greatly narrow it down. Here are the things we came up with:

• Caribbean-- We were not too picky on which island but wanted to go somewhere warm, with gorgeous crystal clear water and sunsets.
• All-Inclusive Resort-- This was extremely important to us. We didn't want to have to worry about carrying money around or budgeting in extra cash for food and drinks. We also knew we wanted an actual resort, not a cruise. (Just our preference!)
• Multiple On-Site Restaurants-- This was another one of my biggies! I knew we were going to go for at least 7 nights and if I'm going to be somewhere for that long, I don't want to eat at the same restaurant over and over again.
• Excursions-- We wanted to have the option to go on excursions away from the resort. While some resorts are far away from activities, others have a TON to choose from. We definitely wanted days to do nothing and relax but we also had zip-lining and a catamaran in mind!
• Jungle-like Feel-- We knew we wanted to be somewhere lush, and laid-back as opposed to a city with high-rise buildings (like Cancun).

{These are obviously just the criteria that we came up with! There is nothing wrong with wanting to be in a large city, not wanting all-inclusive, etc. It's completely up to personal preference and I'm not suggesting that those are the things you look for!}

Next, look at the weather! Any tropical island might seem like a good idea but keep in mind that some have rainy seasons. Some places may also be in hurricane season during your stay while places up North could have the threat of huge snow storms keeping you stranded. Depending on the month that you will be traveling, temperatures in some areas may be different than you would expect. I looked up the weather in April for every island in the Caribbean that I could think of and temperatures and rain alone narrowed it down to 4 places, with many of the being much cooler than I would have thought!

If price is a factor, make sure you check local festivals and events. If there is a popular event during your stay, chances are prices are going to be much higher than usual. Much like going to Ireland during St. Patty's Day or New Orleans during Mardi Gras!

Lastly, visit a travel agent. Especially if you don't like research. They can clue you in to the best places based on everything that I've listed above. They also tend to know which places will have the best deals and what will be in your price range without even having to touch a computer. We did all of the research ourselves but visited a travel agent when it came to the actual booking because I like the security of booking through a travel agent for big vacations. I also wanted it to be known that we were on our honeymoon (Hint-- A lot of places will give honeymooners a free upgrade at check in!) and a travel agent can put that in when he or she books your vacation. Our travel agent even matched a cheaper price that we found online! Luckily, we were on point with selecting the best resort based on everything that we wanted. And it met all of our criteria above! There are even some luxurious amenities at our resort that were not on our criteria list. So be picky-- It's your honeymoon :)

Here are two resorts that I can absolutely vouch for as fabulous, just in case you need somewhere to start!

Dreams Punta Cana

Riu Caribe in Cancun

Frohes Neues!

Happy New Year!

Like many people around the world, I like to make a New Year's resolution. I know I know... most people don't keep them, it's a cliche, blah blah blah... Regardless of what everyone says, I'm still doing it. 

The last couple days I've been thinking about the one change I want to make this year. What one thing have I complained about the most? What have I been the unhappiest with? Believe it or not, I actually had a really hard time coming up with something-- Until today. Today it hit me. The thing I've been the most unhappy about is my own happiness. That might seem extremely general, but there have been so many times this past year that I've wished I felt happier. 

I'll be honest, I get bored easily. Looking back on 2012, I've found myself in a rut numerous times. You know, one of those for-no-reason off moods that you can't seem to shake. And those get to me because the one thing I hate more than being in a bad mood is not knowing why I am in a bad mood! After thinking about it, and thinking about it, and thinking about it, I've decided that my main problem was getting stuck in routines. I would often just find myself bored and annoyed with the fact that I'm always doing the same things. So this year, my resolution is to make changes. I plan to go out and try new things, not watch the same TV shows on the exact same nights every week, go on adventures and tackle some things on my bucket list. I'm also done with worrying about the past (and the future, to an extent). It's time to start living in the moment more. Because what better time do I have than the present... and a brand new year!

What's your New Year's resolution?