9 Jan
2009

Posted in: Real Connecticut Weddings
By CandicecloseAuthor: Candice Name: Candice Coppola
Email: candice@eventjubilee.com
Site: http://www.eventjubilee.com
About: I am the owner and creative director of Jubilee Events-- an event planning boutique located in Cheshire, Connecticut. I'm a newly wed, residing locally with my amazingly handy husband, Mike. Aside from planning and designing beautiful events, I love art, wine, and delicious food! xoSee Authors Posts (469)    6 Comments

Real Connecticut Wedding: Lisa & Sean | Reception Details

Lisa & Sean chose a simple decor scheme with bold pops of color. Her centerpieces, created by Fleur de Lys of New Haven, had beautiful sunflowers, white gerbera daisies, white hydrangea and yellow roses. I love how she grouped several small vases together in thirds on the table — it is so much more visually appealing than just one centerpiece! Each cluster was also monochromatic, keeping with the simple decor scheme. At each place setting tucked into a linen napkin wa their donation to NAMI, which was printed on a small donation card with a stalk of millet wrapped in raffia. Lisa says that she tried to keep with the theme of the reception site, an old beach club with striped awnings and rustic décor, and made use of some retro elements.

Some of the details that she did herself: luminaries that lined the path outside of the reception site after dark. She also sewed buttons onto a piece of thick cardstock in the shape of a number and used them as table numbers (so cute!). She hand stamped a button in the corner of each place card and created a board where the place cards were hung. How did she do it? She took a large corkboard and covered the surface with a yellow and white patterned piece of wrapping paper. She then stretched white ribbons of varying texture and width across the board and the cards were staggered across the ribbons. She also created a flip flop filled basket that had a sign that read “kick off your heels.”

The Wedding Menu

The menu contained elements of summer. In addition to the Owenego Inn’s standard appetizers, Lisa’s father ordered fresh shrimp from a local seafood market which they served with cocktails. For dinner, a gazpacho soup was served followed by grilled salmon with a peach salsa in addition to filet mignon. They chose to add in-season local foods such as carrots with sugar snap peas. For dessert, they served Lisa’s favorite Ciao Bella Blackberry Cabernet sorbet in addition to wedding cake. Yum! The cake was beautifully decorated with yellow frosting as the canvas to white details of vines with leaves, swiss dots and buttons on the top tier.

We asked Lisa… what was it like planning your wedding and were there any challenges you had to overcome?

I enjoyed planning my wedding from beginning to end. We spent some time just after becoming engaged to enjoy the special time in our lives and let it all sink in before delving into the world of wedding planning. The only significant challenge I had to overcome was to find a baker willing and able to accommodate my food allergies and bake a cake without using any dairy products. Some people refused to entertain the idea of creating a frosting without butter cream and hung up on me others pitched the idea of cakes made with fondant frosting and no filling whatsoever. After searching high and low I found a kind woman in Torrington who specializes in dairy free baking. She explained that her son has food allergies and she had created a recipe that he could enjoy. We made the trip to Cakes Unlimited and sampled her cake. It was moist and delicious. Our wedding guests raved about the cake not knowing that it did not contain any milk. Friends and family went back for seconds!

What family traditions did you incorporate into your wedding?

Soon after we became engaged we made the discovery that both of our mothers wore amazingly similar wedding gowns. They were simple, Mexican style free flowing dresses. We felt compelled to exhibit this coincidence and displayed framed wedding pictures of their weddings as well as pictures of each set of grandparents on the guest book table.

Next up? The party! ….

The Vendors

The day was documented and captured by the talented photographer, Robin Dini of Robin Dini Photography. Hair and makeup for the bride and party was done by Dan of Studio 8 Salon in North Haven. Lisa’s bridal gown was a Monique Lhuillier’s “Miranda”.The bridesmaids’ gowns were varying Simple Silhouettes in a beautiful spring green from Bella Bridesmaids in Westport. The groom wore a khaki Brooks Brothers suit and tie, which complimented the groomsmens’ blue blazers and khaki’s from their own personal collection. Ceremony, reception, and caterer is the Owenego Inn in Branford, Connecticut. The speciality non-dairy wedding cake was baked fondly by Cakes Unlimited in Torrington. Florist, including bouquets and centerpieces, was Fleur de Lys of New Haven, Connecticut. Their save-the-dates were hand crafted with love, but the invitations were designed by Elm City Fine Stationers in New Haven, Connecticut. Guests danced the night away courtesy of the band, Brick Park out of Boston, Mass. In lieu of favors, the couple made a generous donation to to NAMI, the National Alliance of Mental Illness.

Share/Bookmark

9 Jan
2009

Posted in: Real Connecticut Weddings
By CandicecloseAuthor: Candice Name: Candice Coppola
Email: candice@eventjubilee.com
Site: http://www.eventjubilee.com
About: I am the owner and creative director of Jubilee Events-- an event planning boutique located in Cheshire, Connecticut. I'm a newly wed, residing locally with my amazingly handy husband, Mike. Aside from planning and designing beautiful events, I love art, wine, and delicious food! xoSee Authors Posts (469)    1 Comment

Real Connecticut Wedding: Lisa & Sean in Branford

I’m really excited to debut our new feature of real Connecticut weddings with the story of Lisa and Sean. Lisa Manke and Sean Kimball were married in an intimate ceremony at the gorgeous Owenego Inn in Branford, Connecticut on August 9th, 2008. Surrounded by 150 of their closest family and friends, their wedding was a detailed reflection of their amazing love story.

How did you two meet?

Sean and I met while studying abroad in our junior year of college. We were introduced by mutual friends while touring the Vatican gardens in Rome in November. It was raining and I had come prepared with an umbrella. Sean, on the other hand, wore a rain soaked fleece jacket and shivered in the cold. I offered to share my umbrella with him and he happily accepted. We laughed, talked and lagged behind the group. From that point on we were inseparable. We spent all of our free time together for our final three weeks in Italy, hitting up museums, exploring around town and drinking Chianti after dark in the piazzas. Their first dates involved trips to Venice, Pompeii and Sorrento, and studying for finals soon became less of a priority!

How did he propose?

Sean proposed in June of 2007. It was nearing my birthday and he told me that we would be going out to celebrate a week in advance. I was tired and ambivalent about going altogether. Sean lured me by telling me that he had made reservations at our favorite Italian restaurant. We drove to Branford CT and he told me that we had some time to kill before heading to dinner. He suggested that we visit Hotchkiss Grove, where I had spent every childhood summer. We parked in front of my parent’s house and walked along the beach towards the pier. As we got closer I was able to see that there was something set up at the end of the pier. Sean escorted me closer and brought me to a small table that had a gorgeous bouquet of roses and a bucket with ice and champagne. I sat down, grinning from ear to ear with butterflies in my stomach. Sean proposed to me on one knee and I said yes without hesitation. We spent the rest of the celebrating at our favorite restaurant with a bottle of Chianti from the year that we met. He had reserved us a room at the neighboring Owenego Inn which ended up being the future site of our wedding ceremony and reception.

…. Next up: The Ceremony

The Vendors

The day was documented and captured by the talented photographer, Robin Dini of Robin Dini Photography. Hair and makeup for the bride and party was done by Dan of Studio 8 Salon in North Haven. Lisa’s bridal gown was a Monique Lhuillier’s “Miranda”.The bridesmaids’ gowns were varying Simple Silhouettes in a beautiful spring green from Bella Bridesmaids in Westport. The groom wore a khaki Brooks Brothers suit and tie, which complimented the groomsmens’ blue blazers and khaki’s from their own personal collection. Ceremony, reception, and caterer is the Owenego Inn in Branford, Connecticut. The speciality non-dairy wedding cake was baked fondly by Cakes Unlimited in Torrington. Florist, including bouquets and centerpieces, was Fleur de Lys of New Haven, Connecticut. Their save-the-dates were hand crafted with love, but the invitations were designed by Elm City Fine Stationers in New Haven, Connecticut. Guests danced the night away courtesy of the band, Brick Park out of Boston, Mass. In lieu of favors, the couple made a generous donation to to NAMI, the National Alliance of Mental Illness.

Share/Bookmark

2 Nov
2008

Posted in: All Things Paper
By CandicecloseAuthor: Candice Name: Candice Coppola
Email: candice@eventjubilee.com
Site: http://www.eventjubilee.com
About: I am the owner and creative director of Jubilee Events-- an event planning boutique located in Cheshire, Connecticut. I'm a newly wed, residing locally with my amazingly handy husband, Mike. Aside from planning and designing beautiful events, I love art, wine, and delicious food! xoSee Authors Posts (469)    10 Comments

A Bit of Vintage: Our Save the Dates

It is an exciting weekend for this event planner — our save the dates went into the mail! I wanted to share them with you as they were designed and crafted by yours truly. I went back and forth several times with the idea of creating them myself. I certainly have the means and tools to do so, but as any artist knows, it isn’t easy to take on your own projects. I searched endlessly for an easy way out and couldn’t find anything that I simply had to have, so, it was off to Illustrator to begin designing!

I wanted to tie in our wedding’s color scheme with the save the dates so I went with varying shades of purple, gold, and white. After many designs, Mike and I really loved this one the most. It has a very subtle vintage feel and gives a peak into the romantic vintage-style fete we are planning! So, without further adieu, here are our save the dates! Be sure to click the images for a larger version!

The front of the purple envelope with gold metallic lettering and a Betty Davis stamp.

The interior custom lining which mirrors some of the design on the actual save the date.

The beautiful hand calligraphy envelope seals in shimmery gold metallic card stock. These gorgeous creations were made by the very talented Lisa Ridgely of Pen & Ink Calligraphy out of Westminster, Maryland. I found Lisa through her etsy.com shop and knew that these envelope seals were the one touch of glam our envelopes needed. She was such a doll to work with and I can’t wait to recommend her services to my brides. Thanks Lisa!

Oh, I am so thrilled with how they came out! My most favorite part is the varying font style. I have huge love affair with fonts. Am I crazy?

All the elements together so you can get the full “experience.”

Up close and personal!

I’ve already started receiving phone calls about how much our guests love them which makes me so thrilled. I hope you enjoyed them too!

Share/Bookmark

29 Aug
2008

Posted in: Uncategorized
By CandicecloseAuthor: Candice Name: Candice Coppola
Email: candice@eventjubilee.com
Site: http://www.eventjubilee.com
About: I am the owner and creative director of Jubilee Events-- an event planning boutique located in Cheshire, Connecticut. I'm a newly wed, residing locally with my amazingly handy husband, Mike. Aside from planning and designing beautiful events, I love art, wine, and delicious food! xoSee Authors Posts (469)    6 Comments

Ellen Degeneres & Portia de Rossi: A shade of pink

The Details

Date: August 17, 2008
Ceremony: Their home in L.A.
Reception: Their home in L.A.
Gowns: Couture Zac Posen
Jewelry: Neil Lane
Officiant: Friend and author Wayne Dyer
First Dance: Ribbon in the Sky, Stevie Wonder
Menu: Vegetable Spring Rolls and Mini “beef” sliders
Flowers: Spray and Ecuadoran roses and cafe au lait dahlias
Cake: Vegan Red Velvet cake with creme-cheese Tofutti frosting from baker Sweet Lady Jane
Details: Hand-calligraphed place cards by Ellen’s mom, Betty; Vintage handkerchiefs given to weepy guests before the ceremony; a surprise acoustic performance by Portia’s favorite singers, Joshua Radin.

What I Love

The intimate dining veranda swagged and drapped in white fabric, giving it a romantic and airy feeling, the wedding gown and suit that looks to be made out of the same bolts of fabric, the intimate family style table with lush roses and tall, thick pillar candles, and the different french country style antique chairs.

Photographs courtesy of People Magazine

Ellen & Portia Storyboard

Share/Bookmark