Memphis Wedding Planners
It is always so nice to see our local venues use our bride’s photos from their weddings to feature their venue space in Southern Bride magazine. Thank you to Hillwood/Davies Manor and Memphis Botanic Garden for using our beautiful weddings!
Hillwood/Davies Manor
Tracy Dugan Wedding Reception
Memphis Botanic Garden
Amanda Austin Wedding Ceremony at Bleckon Pavillon
Get the word out officially and show off your bling! Let both of your families know in a special way first, and then share the news publicly. This gets everyone excited and the free advice will begin flowing in. You can even do a fun photo session to use on social media announcing the news!
The ‘B’ word
Before you delve into planning and designing your dream wedding, determine a realistic budget. Figuring out an estimated guest count is important and will help guide you in nailing down a budget. The average wedding cost in the South, based on 250 guests, is $30,000. We like to tell brides to consider taking all of your guests out to dinner at a nice restaurant. That cost in addition to a private location, ceremony cost, and entertainment and decor all factored in can add up quickly and make sense of why the budget seems higher than you would expect. The dress and other necessary details are not even factored in yet so you can see how it adds up quickly.
Set the Date
Knowing the season or month you want to marry in will help you in choosing that perfect date, but flexibility can be an asset when searching for venues and ceremony locations. Many couples plan 10-12months out so popular venues may not have the first date you want open. Keep in mind — Friday and Sunday’s are usually a more economical option if you are on a tighter budget. Once you set the date you should book the church/ceremony location and reception venue. However, if you are considering hiring a full service planner, don’t sign any contracts or hire any other vendors until you have hired the planner. They can negotiate contracts and often offer discounts that will save you money on the front end.
Get Organized (or Hire Someone Who Is)
If you are doing all the planning yourself- start researching. You don’t want to skimp on your own wedding and without any prior experience you are setting yourself up to be overwhelmed, frustrated and exhausted throughout the process. Get a notebook to keep everything organized. You should include your budget, vendor information from meetings and your vision — aka lots of photos and examples from magazines. If you are spending close to the average wedding cost, you can afford to hire a wedding planner. This will be the best money spent and hopefully (if they are experienced and good) they will help you maximize your budget and create the wedding of your dreams with very little stress! In the least — if you cannot afford a professional planner to help you from start to finish, consider hiring a day of coordinator. This will allow you to enjoy the day and all that you have planned.
Hire your A-Team
I recommend making a priority list of what the most important aspects of your wedding are to you and your fiancé. For example, you love to dance and your fiancé loves to eat. Make sure you allocate money in your budget according to your priorities.The band and caterer would be where you want to spenda little more money to ensure you get top notch professionals that will exceed your expectations. Once you really jive with a vendor, ask them who they like to work with! The wedding industry is a small world and having a team that works well together ensures a successful event. Don’t be afraid to check references for vendors either. You don’t want to have any regrets and there are too many reputable companies to settle for second best.
Choose your people
Who will stand by your side? You can find a unique way to ask your bridal party to be part of your wedding. There are tons of ideas online to help you. Once you enlist them — let them help you in the planning if you need it.
Say Yes to the Dress
You don’t want to wait too long to start dress shopping. It can take months to get in that perfect dress and then you almost always have alterations. Looking your best can take some work — so the sooner you start, the better. Finding that dress can also help you jumpstart your wedding diet if you intend to start one.
Thanks to Starbucks, many of us are coffee lovers. As with most weddings or parties some of our clients are looking for a fun thank you favor to hand out at the end of their parties. And thanks to Pinterest, we can now combine the love of coffee and the party favor idea into one. Here is our attempt at recreating a Pinterest pin – “Thanks a Latte” coffee favor, our treat to our guests at a special birthday girl’s Sweet Sixteen party.
1. Visit your local Hobby Lobby and check out the glass jars. They have various sizes and tons of options with clasp tops or gold twist tops. We chose a gold twist top mini mason jar. We also visited our local Costco to purchase some Dunkin Donuts fine grind Original Blend coffee to go in the jars. The jars were on sale 50% off (I waited for them to go on sale before I purchased them) – regular $1.49, got them for $.75 each. I purchased three bags of coffee at $18.99 each.
2. Next I took off the price tags from the bottom of each jar – a little tedious but I don’t want our guests to know the price! Stuck them in the dishwasher, ran an express wash so as to make sure they were clean before I added the coffee.
3. Then I opened the coffee and scooped the jar in the bag and filled up each jar to the top. I originally thought I would try a funnel but that was too messy and this was a lot quicker and a lot cleaner! I did measure out one jar with a teaspoon to find out how many it took to fill the jar. Each jar held 12 tsp. so it would make up to 24 cups of coffee; just in case a guest asked how much the jar would make.
4. I also purchased thin white satin ribbon from Hobby Lobby – they always have their ribbon on sale. I purchased four spools – 18’ each, one spool did about 12 long pieces of ribbon. I cut each length about 18” long.
5. I had our local stationary company, Mrs. Post in Chickasaw Oaks Village, print small square tags and hole punch them for me in the corner of the tag.
6. Finally, I tied the ribbon, slipped the tag on the ribbon and had the cutest coffee favor ever! Hope you enjoyed this quick coffee favor tutorial. 🙂
The luxury of working with beautiful venues in Memphis, Tennessee like the Dixon Galleries is that you get to also create beautiful weddings in these places. With fall weddings abounding right now, espeically since late September through November in Memphis has gorgeous weather, we thought this would be a great time to show how an ordinary concrete pad outside the Hughes Pavillion can be transformed into an amazing wedding reception. The pops of orange, reds and golds make the flowers come alive in this space. The clear top tent is now a show stopper with the added orange draping. We loved the gold and brown embrodiered circle overlays from Mosaic Linens ontop of the burnt orange polys. The floral designer, Haute Horticulture, used mercery gold vases and votives to enhance the floral arrangements.
