Author: Emee Pumarega

{ Portland Wedding Coordinator Loves } Weddings in the Oregon Wine Country

Posted on by Emee Pumarega

I am right in the middle of the busy pre-summer planning season. Many couples are putting the finishing touches on their vendor lists, but quite a few are just getting started on their Summer 2012 planning. This means lots of site selection appointments for me with venue tours all over the area, especially the wine country. I thought I'd share a few of my favorite Oregon Wine Country and Willamette Valley wedding venues with you.

Zenith Vineyards

Red Ridge Farms

Youngberg Hill Vineyards

Brookside Inn on Abbey Road

Ponzi Vineyard

 

 

Springtime and cherry blossoms means engagement photo time!

Posted on by Emee Pumarega

Today's warmer weather reminds me that springtime is just around the corner. For many of you who are getting married in Portland in 2012, this means engagement photos.

Portland-wedding-cherry-blossoms-engagement

Image by Paul Rich via My Portland Photographer. (actually taken in Maryland, but ah well.)

Why have an engagement photo taken? This is an exciting time, and it's fun to document the transition between singlehood and marriage. The photos have lots of uses, such as holiday cards, and save the dates. I say, err on the side of taking more pictures, at more events, than not. When you look back, you'll be glad you did.

And in the most practical sense, if you do your engagement shoot with your own wedding photographer, it gives you a chance to run through what it's like to be around that person for an extended length of time in the focus of their camera lens. If, like me, you don't have professional photos taken that often and can feel somewhat awkward about it, every chance you get to spend time with the photographer and get more comfortable in the process will help you feel more at ease when it comes time on the day of your wedding.

{ Meet and Greet } Join us at The Bridal Loft open house – March 14, 2012

Posted on by Emee Pumarega

Wedding-planning-services-portland
Have you met our family at The Bridal Loft yet? I am grateful to have had the “Lofties”‘s friendship, camaraderie, and business support since I joined in June of 2002. We are doing our yearly open house to welcome the upcoming 2012 and 2013 wedding clients, as well as renew friendships / make new ones in the community of artists, artisans, and designers that make up Portland’s wedding businesses.

Please join us on Wednesday, March 14, 2012 from 4pm to 8pm and enjoy a fun evening out with the wedding professionals of The Bridal Loft, Portland’s original bridal collective. Light hors d’oeuvres and wine will be served as you view the 2012 collections from August Veils and beadALEX, as well as getting your opportunity to meet in person with:

Bridal beauty educator Katherine Sealy of Event Cosmetics

Wedding planner Emee Pumarega of EJP Events (that’s me!)

Photographer Paul Rich

Calligrapher Alesia Zorn

The cinematography team of Scott and Amanda Shama of Ambient Sky Couture Wedding Films

Master seamstress Kim Trickey of Sewing Solutions

and designer Andrea Hoyt of August Veils

Bring your wedding questions and be ready to enjoy the atmosphere of The Bridal Loft. We’ll see you there!

RSVP here for best service.

Photo credits, clockwise from top left: Holland Studios, Holland Studios, Holland Studios, Craig Strong, The Bridal Loft, Craig Strong

{ Front Row Fashion } A Novel Romance: Elizabeth Dye / The English Dept. Runway Report

Posted on by Emee Pumarega

Sunday, I attended A Novel Romance, the spring presentation from Elizabeth Dye’s bridal salon, The English Dept. Established in 2005, her shop is a can’t-miss stop for local and destination-Portland brides looking for sweet, offbeat dresses. Here are a few of my favorites from the show (no laughing! I’m a coordinator, not a photographer):

Click any image for a larger version.

    Nicole-miller-stretch-silk-gown
1. Nicole Miller, 2. Nicole Miller.

English-dept-fashion-show    Ivy-aster-anemone-gown
3. Not known, 4. “Anemone” by Ivy & Aster.

 

Portland-wedding-miss-bianca    The-english-dept-miss-bianca
5. “Miss Bianca” by Elizabeth Dye.
My sideview photo doesn’t do it justice, so I’m including a catalogue photo, 6., above, from Wedding Inspirasi.

 

Jenny-yoo-poetry    Love-yu-poppy-tulle-gown
7. “Poetry”, Jenny Yoo  8. “Poppy”, Love Yu.
The tulle netting overlay on “Poppy” was soft, touchable,
and draped wonderfully.
And I loved the little chartreuse flower added on to the Jenny Yoo gown.

 

Two-if-by-sea-elizabeth-dye-gownThe show closed with this cloud-blue, one-of-a-kind creation by Elizabeth Dye, “Two if By Sea” (above).

Although I must say my personal favorites were these two sweet dresses, “Romy” by Jenny Yoo; and “Sweet Pea” by Ivy & Aster (below).

Portland-wedding-gown-romy    Sweet-pea-ivy-aster-side
10. “Romy”, Jenny Yoo; 11. “Sweet Pea”, Ivy & Aster.
“Sweet Pea” has a wonderful swiss-dot textured overlay (click to enlarge).

Not only are these designs darling and perfect for an Oregon wedding, they both have pockets. This appeals to my practical-coordinator side (what bride wants to carry a clutch everywhere on her wedding day just to have lip gloss and dusting papers close at hand?) as well as my fandom side (if you’re familiar with my favorite TV wedding ever, you know why a wedding gown has GOT to have pockets).

Many more photos of these gowns are available at The English Dept.’s website and this post from Squirrel and Starling.

Know of any other great local Portland wedding gown fashion shows or trunk shows? Send me an email.

An Oregon Garden Wedding Inspiration for a Stylish Manhattan Bride

Posted on by Emee Pumarega

I was so excited to be contacted by another out-of-towner this week who will be planning her Oregon summer wedding, working long-distance from Manhattan. Her big priorities are food and photography. She sent along a few photos of her intended style and I thought I would go through our past event file to put together a few photos to  convey my initial thought process for site selection and other possible details. Here goes:

Oregon-wedding-stylish-insp
Oregon-foodie-wedding-inspi

All photos are from real weddings coordinated and planned by EJP Events.

Full size photos and photographer credits after the cut.

Continue reading “An Oregon Garden Wedding Inspiration for a Stylish Manhattan Bride” →

{ Design Roundup } 5 sites to help you choose a wedding color scheme

Posted on by Emee Pumarega
orange peach and yellow flowers
Chuttersnap on Unsplash

You’re engaged, you’ve got the venue and the date, and are so excited to get going on planning! Yet, you’re stuck on what the wedding will actually look like. Envisioning the final event means you need to pick invitations, table linens, flowers, lighting, and all the assorted goodies that go with your big party. And of course you’ve got to start with a color or two (or a few!) that hopefully go together.

“But I like everything!” you say. Or maybe, “Our site has this weird carpet and I’m not sure what goes with it.” Or possibly, “I don’t want my wedding to look too matchy-matchy.” How do you decide on a color palette that, while not as lasting as a bedroom paint job, is still super-important and something you’ll remember for years to come? Here are five tools and websites I like to use when I help clients formulate their color ideas.

1. Adobe Color Extract From Image – Adobe Inc.’s Color tool makes it possible for you to take a photo of your site (or any photo, for that matter) and extrapolate a color scheme from it. Click on “Create” > “From an Image” and upload your photo and wow! You can also select different moods for the same picture. A great tool if you are feeling a bit stumped. You do need to create an account if you want to save your palettes.

2. ColourLOVERS A bit broader in scope, ColourLOVERS covers not just weddings, but other design solutions such as graphic, print, and web; interior design; and fine art. Users are encouraged to get social by creating accounts, uploading patterns, and sharing with the community.

3. Design Seeds This blogger takes hundreds of artful photos and applies her own aesthetic to draw out each custom color palette. A wonderful inspiration site on their blog and Instagram.

4. The Perfect Palette This blog updates several times a week with wedding color inspiration. You can search the whole site by color family to find exactly what you want.

5. You knew I would mention Pinterest. If you’re following my boards already, you know how addicted I am and how you can be sure to see a 2am pin from me on your dashboard now and then. If you haven’t had the pleasure of using this site, it is a sort of visual Twitter where you can “pin” just about any image on the Web to a virtual bulletin board, keeping all of your ideas in one place. You can create as many boards as you like and name them anything, from “Color Inspiration” to “Cute Pictures of Pugs“. All boards are public, so you can search the site for your desired color scheme or idea and re-pin other folks’ images to your boards. All of the above tools can be used in some way along with Pinterest.

Are there any other great color tools you’re using to design your wedding? Please share with me in the comments as well.