Introducing Collaborate & Create: A photography and design event
I am so excited to be partnering up with my friend and colleague, Carla Ten Eyck to put together an intimate and intensive workshop dedicated to creativity and photography in the wedding industry. Collaborate and Create 2010 is kicking off with a BANG on May 16th through the 19th at the renowned Ocean House in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. This workshop is open to both planners AND photographers. Attendees with have the opportunity to collaborate, design, and create their own editorial wedding style photo shoot with teaching, guidance and support by myself and Carla. At the end of this workshop attendees will have a stunning portfolio of work. There are limited (and by limited I mean EIGHT spots total divided between the two mediums) attendee spots for both planners and photographers for this exclusive, one-of-a-kind workshop. All the important details are located at collaborateandcreate.com, where you can learn more about the focus of Create and Collaborate, the ocean house, contributing vendors, and a break down of the workshop schedule.
If you’ve been looking for a means to become creatively inspired or if you’ve had an idea swimming around in your head without the knowledge to make it happen, this is the workshop for you. Seats are selling out before we’ve even made this official announcement, so be sure to contact us as soon as possible to reserve your seat!
Can’t wait to see you!
xo
Jubilee Events featured in BRIDES Magazine! Plus, Behind the scenes video of our photoshoot!
I’m really excited about our recent feature in BRIDES Connecticut and all 16 regional BRIDES magazines (Atlanta, Northern and Southern California, Washington D.C., Chicago, Houston, Boston, Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey, Florida, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, and Southern Jersey). The first feature is an interview and sneak peak into my own wedding, which you can read about in any BRIDES regional magazine.
The second feature is Marie Antoinette inspired photoshoot we did back in September, which has been featured in the newest issue of BRIDES Connecticut (Spring / Summer 2010), along with Carla Ten Eyck, The White Dress by the Shore, BLUSH Floral Studio, Dana Bartone, Flower Upon Flour and Jen’s Closet. Also, the incredible Tom Morlock of Vantage Point Films was on hand for this photoshoot and has put together a great behind-the-scenes snippet video of our shoot…! Check it out below!!!
C10 Workshop from Vantage Point Films on Vimeo.
A Winter Wedding Photoshoot: Behind the Scenes
As you know, I’ve been doing a lot of creative and editorial shoots, some of which were featured in BRIDES magazine and Style Me Pretty recently. Over the past 5 months I’ve had the opportunity to work with talented and incredible people. Since we can’t show you the images from our super top secret projects, I wanted to show you some behind-the-scenes images and talk about what we’ve been working on.
This past December we had the opportunity to shoot at an amazing location in the northern hills of Connecticut, The Mayflower Inn and Spa. The setting really inspired so many details of our shoot. In every story we’ve set out to create, the vendors come together and collaborate on almost each aspect. It is truly a team effort – I’m happy to say – with each mind bringing unique and amazing ideas to the table. I have to admit not only am I SO lucky to work with these folks but I have THE BEST time doing it!! On this recent winter inspired shoot, we collaborated with Beth Chapman of White Dress by the Shore, Carla Ten Eyck, Tony of Datura, Dana Bartone, Corine Dell’Orso of Lovely Lollies and the ladies behind Posh Paperie from San Diego.
After several weeks of planning, our day always starts out with the arrival and load-in of our vendors. Our models arrive for hair and makeup, done by the talented stylists at Dana Bartone. Today, Miss Catie Bane waved her magic wand and created a stunning look for our bride-to-be!
Meanwhile, Tony and I are creating details for the shoot with the help of my staff. On this shoot we helped create three tablescapes and a confections table. It was a great opportunity for the new members of Jubilee Events (Ashley, Amanda and Diana) to get their feet wet in the creative process! We had a lot of beautiful pieces for our table and created several different looks at each tablescape. The details from the ladies at Posh Paperie looked amazing — from the escort cards, place cards, banner, pinwheels and pennant flags. We also styled up some incredible sweets created by Corine Dell’Orso of Lovely Lollies. Setting up all these details and tablescapes takes us several hours… we never have any down time!
The floral designer for our shoot was Tony of Datura – A Modern Garden. Tony is truly an artist and created almost all of our floral details right there. He is such a great person to collaborate with. He created a bunch of unique bouquets for our shoot using all different types of textures. He also created all the centerpieces and floral looks on the tables!! We had a lot of birch, some metal, and a variety of gorgeous flowers!!! We set out with a concept for our shoot and have definite ideas in place– but often create a lot of things on the spot that we didn’t intend or think of. Tony might be the best person I know at doing that! He’s so talented and creative.
Beth Chapman and Kelley of White Dress by the Shore always style our models. Beth brings a truck load of fashions and accessories and is constantly adjusting a necklace, bolero or fixing a wayward strand of hair. She also gets stuck holding all the accessories in the bitter cold!! Our shoots wouldn’t be anything with out these two–that’s for sure. They are fully responsible for making our models look incredible!!! I love to sit back and watch Carla shoot Beth looks– Beth, Kelley and I always get giddy at how gorgeous everything is!!
Once a shot is set up that’s where Carla Ten Eyck comes in. Seriously– without this girl, these shoots wouldn’t even be possible, and we wouldn’t have ANY fun. Once we get a shot ready Carla jumps in to shoot, direct, and make things happen. She’s the best at what she does! She also keeps us all laughing, excited, on our toes, and enjoying the hard work we’re putting into each project. She has some of the best ideas and is so fun to collaborate with.
In the end, we all work together on many details and are apart of each shot being set up. You can see us all pitching in to achieve the final outcome… which is always incredible!!
I hope to have more behind the scenes from some previous shoots we’ve done and most definitely New Orleans when we get back!!
xoxo
The Studio throws a holiday bash!
As you know, we share an incredible studio space with Eric and Amber Langlois of raw photo design and Tom Morlock of Vantage Point Films. We opened our joint space back in early 2009 and have been eager to host a party in our new digs. As the end of the year neared, we really wanted to get together with our industry friends and celebrate an incredible wedding season. During our brainstorming session the studio decided to have a fun, RELAXED, unpretentious holiday party that celebrated crazy tinsel, garland, and fiber-optics. If Eric had his way, we would have also had blown up snow globes in Tom’s office and an animatronic nativity.
Forging ahead with our party theme, we created an invitation to surely set to tone. A raw photo design exclusive:
Our crazy event was catered and hosted by Jordan Caterers, who provided an incredible spread of absolute deliciousness for our guests to munch and feast upon! Jeff and Debbie of Jordans were totally game for our ideas and created a quirky yet delicious menu of mini fondues with yummy goat cheese, coney island pigs in blankets (the crowd favorite), ants on a log, and baby twice-stuffed potatoes with truffle oil. We also had delicious hummus and cheese drizzled with honey and candied nuts. For dessert there was munching of white chocolate covered popcorn and individually wrapped red velvet whoopie pies. Yes, whoopie pies. Yum!
Our very good friend and colleague, Tony from Datura – A Modern Garden created a floral sculpture masterpiece straight out of whoville.
And the super awesome Meredith of Pygmalion Design created this gorgeous ranunculous arrangement that classed up the joint!
No event hosted by raw photo design would be complete without their famous photobooth. I’m certain we didn’t disappoint!!!
It was such an honor to be able to host this party in our space. Thanks to all who could come! BIG thanks to Jordan Caterers for making our event taste delicious. Also, thanks to the Jubilee Events interns and staff for their expertise in tacky lighting displays. See you in the new year!
XO
Happy 15th Anniversary Martha Stewart Weddings!
Martha Stewart Weddings celebrated their 15th Anniversary with a really spectacular party at the Plaza in New York. Carla Ten Eyck and I attended the event and had a blast! There were so many incredible and talented people in attendance and it was such a pleasure to meet all of them. Clearly, Martha Stewart Weddings is THE magazine in the industry — by far the most amazing — and we wish them 15 more years of success!
xoxo
Jubilee Events featured in the new Get Married magazine!
I was super pumped to find out that one of our weddings from 2009 was featured in Get Married’s premiere October issue! You remember the preppy and chic wedding at the Saugatuck Rowing Club that we designed for Kim and Matt back in May? Well their amazing tablescape and details made it into the glossy! You can actually read the entire first issue online too. We have received several copies in the mail and like what we see! It’s so hard to pull together a magazine in today’s industry so many kudos and congrats to our new friends over at getmarried.com. Also, congrats to Kim and Matt for having your gorgeous wedding featured!!
xox
Vintage French Inspired Photoshoot with Carla Ten Eyck, Part II
To recap from my previous post, a few weeks ago I had the pleasure of working with Carla Ten Eyck for her September Ten Eyck Tuesday. To view the first portion of this shoot check out my previous post, here! I collaborated with Elisabeth of BLUSH floral design and Beth Chapman of White Dress by the Shore on the color story of teal and pink. All the hair and makeup was done by the talented and super amazing Dana Bartone & Co., who are responsible for making almost ALL of my brides gorgeous on their wedding day (me included)!! My studio roomie Thomas Morlock of Vantage Point Films also shot the entire event from his viewfinder. He ate all the cake AND drank all the champagne!!!
Soo… is Signature Event Rentals not awesome? Their furniture totally made our tablescape go from cool to incredible. I loved their white dining table and we decided to use their Alice Pop hot pink chairs, mixed in with the white padded, clear backed. Elisabeth created a series of beautiful and simple pink arrangements down the center of the table in vintage milk glass containers… gorgeous!!
Party Rentals Ltd in Greenwich and New Preston supplied the hot pink glass chargers and some of the dinner plates. We also used their gold rimmed wine / champagne glasses and gold flatware. All the other pieces are vintage china (lots of limoges), including the tea cups and saucers, white/gold dinner plates and the aqua soup bowls are all courtesy of my friend and etsy shop owner, Jen. Check out her store, Jen’s Closet!
I added little bottles of Moet at each place setting and floated white raspberries in each champagne glass (they were yum!). The beautiful art deco napkins came from this fabulous antique store in Seymour, Connecticut called Yesterday’s Luxuries. They are made of linen and are so delicate and beautiful! Definitely a set of keepers.
Thanks to all the awesome vendors who contributed to the shoot! You can see more of it here on Carla’s blog!
xoxox
Vintage French Inspired Photoshoot with Carla Ten Eyck, Part I
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of working with a lot of my absolute favorite people on a photoshoot with Carla Ten Eyck for her September Ten Eyck Tuesday. I collaborated with Elisabeth of BLUSH floral design and Beth Chapman of White Dress by the Shore to come up with a unique and fun color story in teals and pinks. All the hair and makeup was done by the talented and super amazing Dana Bartone & Co., who are responsible for making almost ALL of my brides gorgeous on their wedding day (me included)!! My studio roomie Thomas Morlock of Vantage Point Films also shot the entire event from his viewfinder. Plus, he drank all the champagne.
For those of you who don’t know, Carla runs an amazing workshop for photographers once a month where she spends an entire day shooting, educating, and discussing her artform. I’ve attended two Ten Eyck Tuesdays and Carla is amazing!! If you are a photographer in the area (you should travel here if your not!) I highly recommend Carla’s workshop. They are so thorough and detailed. Plus, Carla puts the sass in sass-a-frass.
The location for the shoot was really awesome. The building is an interior designer’s dream, full of lots of shops from furniture to lighting. We took over a blank industrial space with nothing except a few sheets of unused drywall laid up against the wall.
This gorgeousness is all courtesy of Carla and Beth Chapman of White Dress by the Shore who dressed and styled our gorgeous models. Don’t you just LOVE this short wedding gown and feather hair fascinator? It was so delicate and pretty in person! I could have played dress up for hours with all the amazing accessories Beth brought.
That gorgeous, vintage pink bouquet is by the equally talented Elisabeth of BLUSH floral design. I love Dan’s peacock feathered boutonniere. Can you see the peacock feathers tucked into Mandie’s bouquet? Check the neck collage of images!
Pretty gorgeous, right? The furniture is from my FAVORITE rental company, Signature Event Rentals, who are responsible for most of the awesomeness you see. That gorgeous white couch? The clear-backed and hot pink dining chairs?! The leather tufted wall panels?!?! The WHITE dinning table?!?!?! Yeah, they pretty much rule. They’re the best, hands down, and we LOVED having their furniture at the shoot!
Elisabeth created a bed of tightly arranged hot pink carnations for our escort cards, which were pennant flags that I made and hand wrote in gold ink. Antonia from Flower upon Flour blew us away with her tasty little gold petit fours with the hot pink fleur de lis… but the pièce de résistance was definitely her INSANE cake!!
Antonia and I had discussed the color story and inspiration behind the shoot… and when she showed up with this…. we were like… seriously?! A teal cake with a gold birdcage on top and hot pink feathers?!
…. up next, our table and some other fun stuff!
xoxo
Jubilee Events featured in The Connecticut Bride Magazine
A few weeks prior to our wedding I picked up a copy of The Connecticut Bride Magazine and read an article I did concerning planning and the internet. Be sure to pick up your copy at your local bookstore to read more!
Jubilee Events featured in Fall 2009 issue of BRIDES Connecticut!
A few days ago a handsome box arrived at the studio and inside were copies of this Fall’s BRIDES Connecticut magazine. The photography of our friends, Robert and Kathleen, is splashed through out the glossy pages — including our wedding with Michael and Dagney! Be sure to pick up your copy to read all the details!
Jubilee Events featured TWICE in Style Me Pretty this week!
Just thought I’d share the total awesomeness that is happening around here with our feature on Style Me Pretty this week!
View the feature on Dagney and Michael’s wedding from a few weeks ago as photographed by our friends, Robert and Kathleen Photographers: part i, part ii, and part iii.
Remember my totally awesome Trash the Dress by Eric Langlois of raw photo design? Well his work was featured yesterday! Check it out here! They also spotlighted a bunch of the amazing people who contributed to my trash the dress!
Jubilee Event’s introduces The Studio!
In March we opened up our planning studio (alongside raw photo design and Paradigm Digital Video). It has become an amazing space for Jubilee Events and our clients. The Studio is a relaxed planning atmosphere where we sit down with our couples to design and plan their wedding. We have a ton of inspiration on hand, from design books, magazines, vendor portfolios, fabric swatches, prop rentals — you name it!
We are located in Danbury on the Bethel line, conveniently off I-84. Visiting The Studio is by appointment only. For more details, please contact us at 203.632.5654 or at info@eventjubilee.com.
Jubilee Events featured on The Smart Planner!
Liene Stevens of Blue Orchid Designs has a very successful and informative blog where she provides business coaching to wedding & event planners. I’ve been reading The Smart Planner since Liene started the blog and her insight (and those of her guest bloggers) have been pivotal to the success of my business. I was super excited to see that I had been featured this morning on her blog in her Meet the Planners series. Click here to check out out! Thanks for featuring me, Liene!
Liene is traveling across the country hosting Blogging Workshops for event and wedding professionals. Highly recommended. Check her website out for more information and to see when she’ll be near you!
Jubilee Events featured on Fox61: Tips to save on your wedding!
Yesterday, Fox61 news at 10 stopped by our studio to interview myself, Elisabeth of Blush Floral Studio, Eric Langlois of raw photo design, and Tom Morlock of Paradigm Digital Video, and get our opinions on how couples could save money while planning their wedding. I advised couples look into off season dates and nights other than Saturday — where the cost differential can be pretty considerable! Here are some other tips we talked about that didn’t make it on air:
Cut your guest list: About 40% of a couples budget is spent on the reception (food, drink, and the site itself). You can significantly impact your budget by cutting the guest list down!
Prioritize. Spend / splurge on what is important to YOU and seek out creative and cost effective ideas for aspects that are not as important. Every couple is different, and therefore, every couple will have different priorities. Once you identify areas that you want to invest in — do so!
Some other advice: If you have a hobby, skill, or something you are love to do — I definitely recommend infusing that into your wedding! But I caution couples: don’t bite off more than you can chew. It may seem like no big deal to do something yourself — and with enough time and preparation no task is insurmountable. Be sure to schedule enough time to get a project done and have a back up plan in case something doesn’t go as planned. Always consider, as well, if doing something yourself is actually saving you money.
Welcome to the new Connecticut Wedding Blog!
Welcome to the newly updated Connecticut Wedding Blog! I hope you all enjoy the new look we’re sporting this morning (please climb out from your Google Reader to look!). I wanted to streamline our content and make our blog easier to read. I think we achieved that! You can follow us on twitter or fan our new facebook page to get blog updates quickly and spy on what we’re doing. Thank you to all our MANY continued readers for your daily visits and contributions!!
Jubilee Events on Style Me Pretty
On my way out the door to meet Studio Foto for lunch I saw in my Google Reader that we were featured on Style Me Pretty this morning! I did a fun tablescape inspired for the DIYer in some necessary spring color! Click here to check it out. Thanks to Abby & Michelle for featuring us!!
Website Survey – we just need a minute!
I promise, this will only take a minute of your time! If you wouldn’t mind, please click on the link below and answer 9 quick, easy questions about different design aspects of wedding vendor’s websites.
http://www.questionpro.com/akira/TakeSurvey?id=1152739
We won’t record anything about you other than what state or country you are from – we don’t even ask for your email address so no spam or anything like that.
You will likely see this link on lots of other blogs and sites – this survey is being shared all over the blog-o-sphere so please take the survey only once.
If you have additional comments on the subject, please feel free to email me with those and I will share them with the other wedding vendors who are participating! We can’t wait to hear what you have to say!
(If you are a wedding vendor and would like to participate, just copy this post to your blog and email me the link at emilie {@} emilieduncan {.} com – I will send you the results once we have closed the survey in March)
Headshots with Rob & Kathleen
I’ve been so super busy with Jubilee’s couples and the holiday that I totally FORGOT to post about my fabulous headshot session with Rob and Kathleen Trenske of Robert & Kathleen Photographers in Fairfield. Rob and I go way back — like, MIDDLE SCHOOL, and it is always so insane to me that so many years later we are both in the wedding industry. They are both incredibly talented and I was so psyched to spend an afternoon gallivanting around Fairfield with them. Here are some of their favorite shots and mine!
Check out Jubilee Events in BRIDES Connecticut!
I received some advance copies of the New BRIDES Connecticut Spring/Summer 2009 issue. In a word, it is fabulous! BRIDES always puts together such a wonderful regional magazine, full of amazing content related to Connecticut. Among all the crazy eye candy is an interview we did on our TOP PICKS for a Connecticut bride’s reception. Be sure to pick up your copy to see what they are!
My favorite feature in this issue has to be the Style Inspirations Shopping Trip. BRIDES went to several of our favorite stores — Anthropologie, Crate & Barrel, and West Elm just to name a few. They took each of these stores unique styles and parlayed it into a wedding day design. I love it because it is an extension of what I’ve always said — your wedding should be a reflection of your personal style. You can find inspiration not just in wedding magazines, but in every day life! Look toward your own personal style and let your unique style sense shine.
Jubilee Gets Our PUG Party On
On Wednesday I was invited to spend the Holiday’s with Connecticut’s most fabulous photographers at their annual PUG Holiday Party! Big thanks to Mrs. Ten Eyck for having me. I got to kick up my red heals with some friends, like our blogging bride Jessica, Rob & Kathleen Trenske, Robin Dini, and Eric Langlois and his gorgeous wife. I also got to meet a bunch of fabulous people, like Justin & Mary Marantz, Amanda from Orchard Cove, Eric Foley, and Val McCormick.
Thanks again — I had a blast!
Jubilee is on Etsy with Custom Holiday Cards & Save the Dates
I have a super fabulous announcement to make (which many of you may already know about): Jubilee is now on etsy.com! After a little bit of pressure from our friends and clients, we’ve decided to offer a casual line of holiday cards, party invites, save the dates, and thank you cards. I am super excited about the designs I have featured and invite all our friends to go take a look.
I’ve also received a few requests from our colleagues and vendor friends looking for personalized “business brand” holiday cards. If you’d like a custom design based around your business brand give me a holler and we’ll come up with something fabulous! Here are a few of my favorite designs:
Jubilee Celebrates the Holidays for the Month of December!
The holidays are my favorite time of year. I love decorating, gift giving, wrapping, eating, drinking, and all the merriment of the season. We’re going to take a slight break from wedding inspiration and talk about holiday party planning for the entire month of December. I want to motivate you all to celebrate the holidays with more cheer and vodka than years past! With all the crazy happenings in the world, it is all the more important to spend quality time with family and friends. If you’ve never hosted a holiday party than this year is the year to start! If you begin your preparations early, you can save a few dollars on food and décor. I would love to feature photographs and details of your holiday party! I’ll be sharing my own with you all.
As you are reading this I am out and about with all the crazies for a little black friday shopping. The rest of the day today will be spent cooking a Turkey and decorating the entire house! I hope you are all enjoying your left overs and having some holiday cheer yourself.
Happy Thanksgiving!
the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
– John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends, family, colleagues, clients, and readers. I have a lot to be thankful for this year, most importantly that my family is healthy and happy. I wish you all a very fabulous holiday! Enjoy your family, friends, food, wine, and football.
Do You Twitter?
I’ll admit it — prior to signing up for my twitter account I thought “twittering” was a waste of time. What’s the point, I thought? Well, I still don’t know the full answer to that question. What I DO know is twitter keeps me fully locked into my family, friends, and colleagues whereabouts and general insane 140-words-or-less blabbering. Without twitter, how would I know about How to Kill Your Blog or that BridesDesign’s morning was off to a great start? Seriously though, twitter is a great tool to stay connected with people and network with other people in your industry. I’m a twitter convert! And now that I figured out how to use twitter on my Blackberry (no laughing, please), I am twittering EVERYWHERE!
We twitter. Do you?
