How “Bling’s the Thing” turned out – Bravo Wedding Affair 2009

So tired after today, but had to post at least one little peek at the magic we created.  Thanks to Royce's Prop Shop, Event Floral, The Bridal Loft, and all who made the room a success.  The entire Bravo! Wedding Affair was the best one I've ever seen.  I enjoyed every room.  More soon!

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And here's another mosaic (Thanks BigHugeLabs.com!) from the entire event.  Every room was amazing. I was sad to see it all taken down.

bravo wedding affair 2009

For a complete listing of all who participated, see here. Thanks again Bravo!

EDIT: Just realized that Flickr makes really easy slideshows. Let's see if this works: 

To see descriptions of each picture in the slideshow, please go to our Flickr set.

Sneak peek: Bling’s the Thing!

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If you are engaged in the Portland area, you do not want to miss The Bravo! Wedding Affair at the Embassy Suites Downtown Portland, this Sunday, February 22, 2009 from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm.  Get tickets here, or keep reading for a sneak peek into what EJP Events, The Bridal Loft, and the rest of the "Bling's the Thing" team have planned for attendees!

The Bravo Wedding Affair is a unique, interactive wedding show where seven wedding coordinators take over the Embassy Suites Downtown Portland for a day and transform each event space into a themed wedding.  From "Dusk after Sunset" by Soiree Special Events, to "Renaissance Romance" by Sweet Dreams Bridal Consultants, to our own "Bling's the Thing" coordinated by EJP Events, as well as six others, the coordinators assemble crack teams of wedding vendors and compete to create vignettes to inspire and excite. It's like "Iron Chef" for wedding planners! (Seriously – we have from midnight until 10am to transform our room. Find out if we make it or not!)

"Bling's the Thing" will be located on the Mezzanine level in the Colonel Lindberg Ballroom.  Featuring decorator/designer Royce's Prop Shop, floral by Event Floral, music from Paradox Productions, a fashion show debuting the Love, June Bridal spring 2009 collection, hair and makeup from Event Cosmetics and Fada Salon, aestheics from Soleil Spa, veils from August Veils, alterations info from expert seamstress Sewing Solutions, photography by David Barss, videography from Bigler Productions, cake sampling from La Joconde, and catering/drinks from Crave Catering — "Bling's the Thing" reads like a "Who's Who" of Portland weddings. Don't miss it – we can't wait to see you there.

Image from Nicole Green Photographer.

x# Handy Tools for Your Out of Towners

If you have tech-savvy guests, have them make use of the Portland "Twisitor's Center" by following @travelportland on twitter.com . Your guests can then post questions with the tag #inpdx and receive real-time advice on where to eat, shop, and play during their wedding-weekend downtime. Thanks to VentureBeat for the tip!

Wedding 2.0: Seven interactive planning tools

For this week's roundup, I thought we'd put together a list of some cool planning tools that are making  use of the latest technologies to help you plan your wedding. If you know anything that should be in this list that I've missed, please post in the comments!

Olivia Luca Design Studio  This Portland-based design firm has an addictive Flash tool where you canOlivia-luca-wedding-gown
design your bridesmaids' dresses from silhouette down to the sash and the trim.  Eco-friendly fabric options are available for order as well, or you can be like me and just keep making tons of dresses online and daydreaming about the fetes I can wear them to!

Wedding Gown Guru   I met Bridgette, the "Wedding Gown Guru" , on twitter.com and took a look at her interactive gown selection tool.  Simply answer a series of questions about your style and personality, and she will suggest several different looks for you! Much more fun that a visit to a crowded bridal salon, and a great way to prep yourself before going out to shop in person.

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David's Bridal "Dress Your Wedding"  Thanks to Sasha Souza, celebrity planner and the brains behind Sparkliatti, for turning me on to this. They have done a great job in creating a Flash tool that allows you to mock up your bridesmaids' gowns and colors, plus groomsmen's attire, so you can preview the lineup of your whole virtual wedding party, including groomsmen and child attendants!

Calculators at Eventageous  Eventageous is an Austin-based event planning firm, and they've been on Eventageous-austin-planner
the cutting edge for forever. I know this because they've had these great calculators on their Resources page since I started my business in 1999! Scroll down this page to see the Calculators; here, you can tote up everything from the number of people that will fit into a given square footage, to a sample wedding budget. Simple tech, but so helpful!

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Wedding Mapper  So many weddings involve out of towners, so this interactive mapping tool with great design is a must.  You can even tag the locations with your notes ("Here's where he proposed to me"/"This is our favorite bar"). Also included is a method for leaving and reading reviews of vendors.

Backpackit.com  Not an exclusively-wedding tool… Nonetheless, Backpack, the consumer version of design Backpacklogo-small
powerhouse 37signals' Basecamp, is inexpensive, easy to use, and a great way to invite collaboration across a large group (think Mother in law, mom, bridesmaids, dad, the groom, and your wedding planner!) I'm currently using it with a client and love it — we might even make it part of our standard package in the future.

Evite Drink Calculator  Most of us have used Evite for their free online invitations, but I recently discovered their handy-dandy drink calculator. It's not super detailed, but it at least can give you a place to start, if you have no idea where to begin as far as beverage purchases.

Hope you find these helpful!

The Impossible Project: Bringing back Polaroid film!

Polaroid
Remember our post from last year lamenting the closure of Polaroid’s instant film factory?  We thought that was the end of those cute little guest books, at least in the traditional format.  Well, it’s so exciting to hear that a group called The Imposssible Project (love that name!) has announced:

“We aim to re-start production of analog INTEGRAL FILM for vintage
Polaroid cameras in 2010. We have acquired Polaroid’s old equipment,
factory and seek your support.”


So go to their website, and see if there’s any way you can help them!  I know a lot of you are creative types, and it looks like a daunting task.  We wish them luck.

If you can’t wait for 2010, then Adesso still has the original Polaroid film in stock.  And right now they have a special buy-two-get-one-free deal!