New Orleans Wedding Photoshoot: A Sneak Peek!
I am bursting with so much excitement to show you the above mini-teaser from our photoshoot in New Orleans! Big shout out to the amazing Tom Morlock of Vantage Point Films!
This shoot was a real labor of love for me… It truly blossomed into something bigger than I could have ever imagined! Can’t wait to share with you the behind the scenes, but in the meantime, enjoy this video. Below is a big shout out to ALL the vendors who put time and energy into making our shoot amazing!
Jubilee Events, The Cornstalk Hotel, Carla Ten Eyck & Co., The White Dress by the Shore, Datura: A Modern Garden, Jennie Fresa & The Beauty Library, Tom Morlock, Gala Cloths, Dr. Jazz and the New Orleans Sounds, Sucre, Perlis, MADELiNE Shoes, Poetic License Shoes, Posh Paperie, Twigs and Honey, Karen Lindler Designs, Sarah Drake Design, Elizabeth Porcher Jones Calligraphy, Orange & Blossom, Bella Umbrella, Nachtmann, Riedel, and Pommery Gold POP Champagne,
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
Today is Veena and Rich’s Wedding!
Today is Veena and Rich’s wedding in Stamford, Connecticut! I’m so excited for them and their families who have traveled great distances to be here. Veena and Rich have planned an amazing two ceremony wedding and will top off their marriage with a gorgeous reception at the Hilton in Stamford. Can’t wait to come back and share all the details from their day. For now, my assistant Audra and I are about to head out and do what we do best!! Check us out on twitter today to see what we’re up to!
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!
Today is Kim & Matt’s Wedding Day!
We’re gearing up for another epic event today as we celebrate the wedding of Kim and Matt! I’ve been working with them closely for quite some time on this amazing wedding that we’ve designed. They are an awesome couple, a lot of fun, and have great style! I can’t wait for you to see how their story unfolds.
Today is Jessica & Eric’s Wedding!
I am so excited for Jessica and Eric’s wedding today! They are such a fun couple. Jessica has been sharing her extremely popular DIY projects with our readers and it will be great to see all her hard work come to fruition. We’ll be sure to have her share her wedding as her final post! For now, here are some of her most popular projects:
Tissue Paper Pomanders
Rememberance Candles
Table Numbers
Church Door Monogrammed Decorations
Monogrammed Favor Boxes
Card Box
Church Bubbles
Wrap around Save the Date Labels
Calligraphy
Today is Michael & Dagney’s Wedding!
Today is Michael & Dagney’s wedding day! We’ve been working with them for about 4 1/2 months to plan an amazing wedding in a really unique location. I’m really excited for the two of them and can’t wait to share their story with you.
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!!
Check out Liz & Jayson in today’s Hartford Courant!
One of my favorite elements in planning weddings for our couples is learning how they met one another. Love stories are truly inspiring, and this morning I was so excited to see one of my July couples featured in today’s Hartford Courant. Liz and Jayson met on a popular match making site, JDate.com, and their love story has been featured on a real “Webisode” on JDate’s website too. Click here to view the short promo piece for the series where you can see a bit of their interview. They are such a fun loving, gorgeous couple and we can’t wait for their wedding at Norwalk’s Maritime Aquarium (where they had their third date!).
Click here to read all about Liz and Jayson: A Few Emails, A Date, and She Knew.
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.
Holiday Cocktail Party Invitations
The best parties start with a fabulous invitation! Just like your save the dates and wedding invitations, an invite to your cocktail party gives guests a glimpse into the style, formality, and overall theme. If you must, you can always do e-invites, but I prefer to send something beautiful in the mail instead. Here are a few invitations I really love and think you will too:
Invitations by Jubilee
First up are the invitations Jubilee is offering through our etsy store. They all have a vintage vibe to them with fun and catchy phrases. We can customize them for you too, based on your parties color scheme!
Good Golly, Lets Get Jolly
This one is a favorite of mine — and I love that it is double sided! Click here to see more!
Holiday Soiree
This invitation was originally designed for our own fabulous holiday party, which we’re throwing on the 20th of December. I love that it is double sided, too! Click here to see more.
The tree won’t be the only thing that’s lit…
This one is fun and a slight variation to the invitation that Mike and I sent out to our first holiday party three years ago. Click here to see more.
Eat Drink & Be Merry
I love the design and colors in this fill-in-the-blank party invitation by MewPaperArts on etsy. Click here to see more.
Cocktail Party
The rounded edges and vintage details are what makes this gorgeous fill-in-the-blank card! Click here to see more.
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.
Jubilee Events Give-a-Way: The Winner!
Did you think I could ever wait until December 1st to announce our winner of our Full Service Package Give-a-way? I am so happy with the feedback I received regarding our contest. There was a tremendous amount of support from our favorite vendors and friends and I thank them all for spreading the word! We received seven entries and they were all fabulously written stories of love mixed with planning frustration. A huge thank you to ALL of our couples who entered. I was so blown away with your stories and the Libra in me wants to help ALL of you! And I am not just saying that – it really was a tough decision. With that said, there can only be one winner.
I touched base with my assistant and we read, reread, and then read again all the entries. We intuitively kept coming back to the very last entry we received only a few days ago by a very stressed Jody Warrick. Jody wrote a very honest and heartfelt entry that I found to be humble and humorous. I wish she showed a little confidence in the fact that she could win this contest because she did!
What I liked most about Jody and Eric’s story was that it was real. It is the story of so many of us regular people who want the wedding of a lifetime and pay for it ourselves. Besides, the girl as four wedding gowns that she bought off ebay. She seriously needs an intervention! I’m going to leave you with the fabulous entry that Jody submitted. I am so excited to meet her and Eric and begin the process of helping them to plan their fabulous January 2010 wedding!
To all of our other couples who submitted an entry – please check your inbox as there is something special waiting for you there.
Our contest was an absolute success and I am looking forward to carrying on the tradition into next year!
Jody & Eric
Growing up I wasn’t like normal little girls dreaming of their knight in shining armor or their prince charming. I was something of a tomboy and enjoyed playing flag football and dressing in baggy clothes like the boys. As I got older the lights got dimmer and dimmer as the hope of even finding someone suitable to date never mind being a life partner faded into the background of ‘real’ life. I had focused on my career and strolled from broken relationship to broken relationship along the way. Albeit discouraging, it allowed me to really find out who I was as a person to grow change and learn about me and what I did and did not want in and for my life. Five years ago my life changed and a beautiful soul named Sydney Elizabeth came into my world. She is my daughter and my greatest love and greatest achievement. Her being with me had made dating that much more difficult. As my standards for my daughter are much higher than my own and as we come as a package deal I needed to make sure whoever was going to share our lives would be worthy of both of us.
14 months ago I met a man that slowly and quietly crept into my heart. Initially I thought it was strange, a relationship that move slowly at a quickened pace. Seems like quite the oxymoron huh? In retrospect I knew he was the one for me. The yen to my yang! We are so different, I am loud and he is quiet. I am impulsive and he is a thinker. But we laughed together and enjoyed each others company. Of course the true test was yet to be administered. Miss Sydney Elizabeth! When they met it was not instant fireworks, she is very much like her mother in that way. As I am writing this and reflecting their relationship was a lot like ours (Eric’s and myself). It quietly took shape. Now (14 months later) I call him my love and she calls him Daddy Eric. I look into his eyes and I can feel the love that he has for me. He watches me while I sleep and he loves Sydney as if she was his own. I call him a good egg!
This brings you to the wedding. I was perfectly happy planning a romantic gondola ride at the Venetian or even the Eiffel tower at the Paris. Yes that’s right… I am talking about Vegas Baby! Quick and clean! ? But alas it was not to be…. Him being an only child (I am the baby of 4 (see told you we are different)) and his mom being 79 years old, his only request to me was that he wanted his mother to see him get married. This is the man that I adore and he looked me in the eyes and told me that was all he wants… I had to make it happen for him… for us! But how???? OMG! How the heck was I going to plan a wedding? I have a full-time and a part-time job, a four year old daughter, a finance that lives in New York, and a Matron of honor that lives in VA (That’s another long story). I had never been through the planning process before but I did have some ideas. From the first bridal fair and guest list dry run I knew I was in over my head! I just know that it has to be fabulous. It’s either all or none, and one of my biggest fears is that it will not meet my expectations (even though I am not sure what those are). My mother goes “You need a Wedding Planner”!.
Please pick me!! I need help!!! No Really… I need help!! But you probably already figured that out ?!
By the way did I mention that I have 4 wedding dresses (purchased on eBay) and not sure if any of them are the one due to the fact that I have never pictured myself in a wedding dress never mind getting married.
I am sure that I probably should have written this beautiful essay about my love for Eric and how everything is lovely and sunny bright… but the truth is our guest list is at 216, our date is 01/22/2010 and we are paying for this wedding ourselves … he wants a lot of flowers and a harpist during the ceremony. I want a fabulous party with great food, drinks, family and friends… I want people to talk about our wedding years down the road I want to … no I have to look back and think that was the 2nd best day of my life (first best day was the day Miss Sydney Elizabeth was born) ?!!! I know that I can not pull this off alone!!
There is so much more I can write so many more stories but for now all I will say is…..
HELP!
New Feature: REAL Connecticut Weddings!
Jubilee Events and the Connecticut Wedding Blog are really excited to announce a new feature we are going to be debuting in 2009: Real Connecticut Weddings! This is an open invitation to all our readers, former brides, and favorite vendors to submit photographs of gorgeous Connecticut weddings which will be featured weekly on our blog.
For photographers: Please submit your photographs to: candice@eventjubilee.com with Real Connecticut Wedding in the title. All photographs must be at 72 dpi and cannot exceed 1000px in width or height. Please include an email address or telephone number of the couple so I can contact them for a little Q&A session. It may be a good idea to contact the couple prior to submitting to let them know that they might be featured on our blog.
For couples: Please check with your photographer prior to submitting your photographs. Email your photographs to candice@eventjubilee.com with Real Connecticut Wedding in the title. All photographs must follow the same specifications above.
For our other vendors: If you’ve recently been apart of a fabulous Connecticut fete, please contact the photographer of the event and ask them to submit the photographs to us. We will send you an email asking for specific details regarding our involvement!
So, I’m putting a call out to all our favorite CT photogs and vendors — submit your favorite weddings from the 2008 season!
Jubilee Events Does BizBash 2008 in NYC
I attended BizBash in Manhattan a little over a week ago with my friend Simone from 5 Sense Events (read her blog, too!). We had such a great time lugging around our 50 pound bag of marketing material (seriously, my shoulders and neck hurt for days!) and we got to interface with a lot of talented and unique event vendors. This is one of the things I love best about my job: staying on top of trends, meeting new people, and bringing that information straight to my couples.
Simone and I took a ton of pictures — from lounge furniture to floral trends, tablescapes, and yummy food! I can’t wait to share it all with you and highlight some incredible vendors we met along the way. For now, take the time to enjoy a picture of Simone and I in our black and white spectacular, courtesy of MVSStudio.com (more on them later!).
Off to BizBash!
I’m out of the office today because I’m spending some time in Manhattan for BizBash, an annual conference for wedding and event planners. It should be fun! I always look forward to meeting new vendors and seeing what is up-and-coming in wedding styles and designs. I also wanted to remind all our readers about our exciting contest where one Connecticut couple will win full service planning from Jubilee!
While you are browsing the internets today, do us a favor and visit one of our favorite couture invitation designer and friend, Erin from Brides Design. She opened up an etsy shop and takes custom orders!
I have so much exciting content to get up in the next few weeks! I can’t wait to share. Plus, I have some really knowledgeable and talented Connecticut vendors guest blogging. So, enjoy this very cold autumn day!
I’ve been tag teamed!
Thanks to my friends and fellow planners Letetia Nicole from Simply Beautiful Concepts, Katasha Butler from K Sherrie+Company Wedding & Event Planning and Samatha Darr from soireebliss! Wedding & Event Planning I’ve been tagged threefold to fill out this fun little survey. I’ve tagged some of my favorite vendors below to post a bit about themselves, too!
Four things I did today:
1. Answered a slew of emails and job inquiries.
2. Bought special cards for my maid of honor and bridesmaids.
3. Launched Jubilee’s Destination Connecticut service!
4. Worked on finding a location for one of my September ‘09 brides.
Four things on my to-do list:
1. Talk with Rob Trenske about getting some head shots done.
2. Review contracts and time line for upcoming event.
3. Register Mike to vote!
4. Call back two potential brides to discuss services.
Four of my guiltiest pleasures:
1. Coffee.
2. 90210 2.0. I have to admit, it is kind of good!
3. Clothes. Specifically, J. Crew clothes. I stalk their website daily to pounce on sales at a moment’s notice!
4. Designer purses. I have to admit, I collect them and have a very twisted love affair with anything leather, labeled, and expensive… I’m trying to break my habit… for the betterment of my retirement!
Four random facts about me:
1. I haven’t eaten a piece of bread, starch or sugar in FIVE years. Let me tell you, it has become more torturous every single day!
2. I collect art books. I have stacks and stacks of them. I love art history!
3. My favorite band is the Grateful Dead. Now those who’ve known me for a long time won’t find this surprising, but I think a lot of people who don’t know me from my younger days do!
4. I love stationary. I mean, I LOVE stationary. I don’t know what it is about fabulous cards, letterpress, couture graphics and pretty inks but I just love ‘em!
So now it is my turn to tag some people.
1. The very talented Rob Trenske from RJT Pictures!
2. The equally talented and fun Mrs. Robin Dini from Robin Dini Photography.
3. My birth date twin and all around fabulous invitation designer Erin from Brides Design.
4. My fun and talented colleague from NYC, Sarah from Brilliant Event Planning.
