So many blessings, Happy Good Friday!!!

Hello everyone,

It's Good Friday and I just had to write about all the blessings in my life and to fill you all in with all the juicy details!

Since lists are easier and more compact I'm going to list all the blessings and great things happening:

1. The Free Bridal Show was another HUGE success!!! Vendors and brides alike had a great time and enjoyed the show. I gave my first seminar about how to plan a stress-free wedding with Christi Tuck and it was awesome. I didn't stumble or fall apart or faint like I thought I would and I have God, Christi and my friend's support to thank for it.
2. I made so many new vendor friends from the bridal show that another great idea dawned on me: "The Real Wedding Women of North Texas" - a Ladies Nite event where wedding vendors can get together for happy hour and catch up, gossip and have a good time. We rarely see each other in between bridal shows and weddings, so this will be a great filler for us to get together and hang out. The name is not set in stone yet, but I like the idea that we can get together for a drink to relax and share stories. Brides are welcome to come and mingle to meet fabulous women who are in the business and run our own small businesses. 
3. My son Karl continues to grow and amaze me and my family, friends and clients. He has is bad days where he wants the world, but most of the time he's a great little guy whose smart, happy, healthy and full of life & love! 
4. God has sent many clients to me who are in desperate need of a wedding planner. My clients were sad, stressed out and ready to throw in the towel before they met me. But now that I've taken over and am helping them plan their big days they are happy, excited and ready to walk down that aisle with a smile. I am so happy that I get to help people plan the happiest day in their lives. I get to live vicariously through my brides and they get their dream wedding on a budget.  

Here are some of the fabulous weddings I'm planning for my new happy clients and their respective labels:

"Adoration at the Atrium" - a very low-budget, yet attractive wedding at the Atrium in Garland. Picture dark turquoise & black linens w/ white/silver sparkly trees as tabletop decorations. This wedding will be filled with family & friends who are happy to be there for the bride & groom from their ceremony at the groom's grandmother's church, to the grand reception at the Atrium. It will be flashy, fancy & fun!

"Party at River Legacy Park" -  a moderately budgeted wedding that is modern, filled with friends, family & kids, and of course, love. Visualize this: lilac & ivory colors with hints of dark purple & indigo to offset the lilac and really make it pop. Instead of flowers for centerpieces, there will be white rose petals drizzled on the lite purple linens and stacked pillar candles wrapped with assorted lilac, lavender & purple ribbon. This all-outdoor wedding ceremony & reception will include a HUGE white peak tent, a bounce house for the kids (and the groom, who is a big kid himself), home-style brisket, ribs & chicken, beer & wine, and a day that's modern, beautiful and full of fun!

"An Evening with the Stars" - another moderately budgeted wedding that is classy, elegant and chic! Envision aqua blue with white & trimmed with diamond accents & glitz <--(just enough glitter & glam on the classy side, not the trashy side). Imagine short, elegant centerpieces on the tables, complimented with dim candle light. Add a starry night on the ceiling and a champagne bar and you're in business! Glamorous, elegant & luxurious (w/o the price tag)!

"A Night in New Orleans" - a large-budget wedding that is rich, dark and lavish with everything of old world New Orleans. Picture a color scheme of dark, rich purple with gold & accents of slate-black & scarlet red. Tabletop decorations of twiggy branches, Spanish moss & candles behind crackled glass candle holders. This wedding is going to be so amazing, the bride and I see exactly eye-to-eye so much that I feel like I'm talking to myself. This Japanese/Cajun/All-American wedding will be rich with food, color, history and details, details, details!!!

I am so happy. I don't think I could say it enough! I have a family who loves and supports me. Friends who compliment me and give me support when I get nervous. Clients who are just WONDERFUL to work with and I can't wait to add their wedding albums to my portfolio.

Happy Good Friday to you all, have a Happy Easter and Happy Planning!

Love,
Krystal :)

What a FANTASTIC DAY!

I HAD THE MOST FANTASTIC DAY TODAY!!! 

Today I spent the afternoon with my clients (my Vintage couple - think Old Hollywood-Glamour, oh yeah, it's gonna be pretty!), my family and their families and dogs at the groom's parent's house in Kaufman...and it was WONDERFUL. Their log cabin home in nestled in a wooded area and they have a huge lawn (at least an acre or more) complete with a fishing pond and a simply breathtaking view. It was meticulously clean inside AND out, I think I only saw two bugs when I was there, and this is the country, which is supposed to be crawling with bugs!!! (And you all know how much I HATE bugs!!!! Bleh!)

So we went over the details of the wedding (as I usually do with all my clients), and we talked about the ceremony layout, where the tent/dance floor would go, decorations, lights, etc. It's going to be a stunning wedding indeed:
Flowers will consist of purple/white hydrangeas, caspia, babies breath, lite green coffee berries and assorted filler flowers. Tabletop decorations will be antique metal buckets that will be decorated with ribbon, flowers & assorted vintage pictures.

Clear light bulbs will be strung up all around the tent and lawn to light up the night and wholesale linen/tulle will be used as additional decorations to drape around the poles of the tent and give it added flare.

The bride and groom will say their vows at sunset with a backdrop of tall pine trees and hanging glass jar lanterns (I think they were pine trees, but I suck at knowing one tree from another, lol!) Bridesmaids will wear vintage lite purple/gray gowns (don't think lilac or lavendar, think Victorian lite purple/gray blended into one fabulous color!) and the Bride will be in white. Wish I could say more, but I don't wanna give it all away!!! The Groomsmen will dress in white or lite purple/gray shirts w/ white ties and the Groom will have a white shirt w/ purple tie.

After the ceremony guests will have musical entertainment from a DJ and can go fishing in the fully stocked pond with old-school twig & line fishing rods. (My son was able to catch his first fish today, courtesy of the groom's step-dad, thank you Ivan!!!)

The reception dinner will be a savory BBQ dinner (with caterer yet to be chosen), and of course there will be a bride's cake, a candy station and they are still thinking about having an ice cream sunday station. The Bride was a bit worried about it, but it should be just fine: serve ice cream after the cake is cut/served. It will be awesome!

And after a night of fun, drinking and dancing, the couple will (cross our fingers) enjoy the end of their reception with fireworks and sparklers as they head off to their honeymoon. It will be an amazing night and I'm thrilled to pieces for them!!!

It truly was wonderful for me to meet the families and get to know them before the wedding. They were so hospitable and generous...I don't always get the happiest families or the most level headed clients or even both, but I think I hit the jackpot with these clients. Not only are they level headed, honest and have realistic expectations about their wedding, their families are too! And everyone wants to pitch in and help them make their day as loving and memorable as possible. These are people are wholesome, down to earth, and have honest-to-goodness hearts and I see it in all of them!

The last couple I knew that were this amazing was my Air Force Couple back in November of last year. They and their families (minus one rude and overbearing aunt) were wonderful to work for and I didn't think I'd ever see it again.

Too often the brides I know have families that won't lift a finger or help in any way/shape/form on the wedding day and it puts a lot of strain on the couple. It is refreshing to see that these families are coming together to actually help, as opposed to saying "You should do this," or "I think you need to do it that (my) way," or "I'm footing the bill so it's gonna be my way or the highway."

For example, I once had some clients who forgot their "Responsibility List" and didn't email it to me, so at the end of the night they didn't know who was going to help clean the reception hall. At the request of the Groom, I kindly asked some of the guests/family if they could help clean since the Bride and Groom needed the extra help, (and I was specific; it was little things, like gathering up linens and piling them on one table or packing up the leftover cake to go home). Do you know what they said to me? "How much you gonna pay me?" Can you believe that? Even now I'm at a loss for words.

It's just sad how most people are selfish and don't care about helping their own friends or family, so when I come across people like today, I really feel like I hit the jackpot and won the client lottery!

Anyway, after the wonderful afternoon with my clients, the fam and I grabbed dinner at Red Robbin's in Arlington and I did some impromptu shopping at Charming Charlie. I was able to get a few new accessories to update my wardrobe (without having to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe). It was a wonderful day, a marvelous evening and I thank God for the wonderful clients who hired me and to bless all of us through this fun planning process.

Thank you all for reading and say a prayer for the ones you love you as much as the people I described above. Happy planning!

Luv,
Krystal