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With fall making its 2015 debut and summer just ending, most people would look back and wonder where the time went.  Family vacations are merely a moment of the past while students have returned to school. That wonderful time of year that we call summer is a season filled with happy times, and outdoor fun!

Before Old Man Winter takes over, we still have time for that “last hoorah”.  Did you get a chance to have an end of summer celebration? If not do not fret, here we will share with you 6 important steps you may want to consideration when planning for your epic summer celebration next year!

1. Spread the word efficiently: Summer is a very busy season for kids and adults so if you want a large turnout then send out invites at least a month or so before. This will ensure that most guests will be able to keep that day clear. Also be sure to include where the party will be, if it is inside or outside, and the theme so one will know how to dress. This is essential information to include on an invite along with the date and time.

2. Be sure to select a location that can accommodate all your invited guests: Whether your party is at your home, at a park, or your local community center, there is nothing worse than not having enough tables, chairs, or space for everyone. Although all your invited guests are not guaranteed to show or stay the entire time, you still want to have enough room for them all. Renting tables and chairs is always popular in the summer; folding chairs can even start as low as $2.00.

3. Purchase the essential items in advance AND in bulk: If your party is going to be around one of the holidays, you should know that the grocery stores will be packed with people trying to buy the same food and supplies. Get your items early so you will not have to stress out the day before your party. Also buying items in bulk is a great way to have more than enough supplies and all for an efficient price. If your party is going to be outdoors be sure to have mosquito and other bug repellent. And if your party is going on through the night be sure to have decorative lighting set up so you guests can still see and be comfortable when the sun goes down.

4. Set up a playlist for the party: The music sets the entire mood for the party. Select songs that are sure to make people want to dance and sing along with. Hiring a DJ is also very popular, this way the host will not have to worry about the songs at all.

5. Plan activities for the age groups invited: If your party is for all ages, be sure to have activities that will keep the children entertained as well as fun games that adults will want to play too. However if your party is for adults only you can never go wrong with some fun drinking games that everyone can let loose to!

6. The last tip is to play it cool: The weather during the summer can get really hot in most states so it is important to have enough beverages to keep everyone hydrated throughout your party. Water, juices and sodas are a must have, and if the crowd is 21 and whip up some nice frozen drinks!

Overall, having an end of the summer bash is usually a great way to end the summer with all of your friends and family. There are endless options for how you can go about your party but the most important tip is to have fun!!

Article Written by:

Amber Bentley
Social Media Manager/Event Assistant
Devoted to Your Event, LLC

Wedding Invitations
Make your own when you’re on a budget

So you want to make your own wedding invitations? Many Bride’s-to-be want their invitations to be flawless; it is an initial example of what is to come.  I’m sure that for many the first image that pops up in their mind is something that looks homemade, shabby and cheap. I want to show you how you can create your own handmade wedding invitations that are affordable without looking cheap.

One great way to get a perfectly customized and one-of-a-kind, unique invitation, is to make it yourself.

Even if your concerns do not lie with having a truly one-of-a-kind invitation, do it yourself wedding invitations will certainly save you money. Making your own invitations is one of the most popular of the many ways to cut costs from your wedding budget. Some brides-to-be forgo this idea with the thought that they are just not creative enough to make an elegant handmade invitation. And this is where I want to help. Here, I’ll share some of my tips, advice, and even some step by step tutorials on making handmade wedding invitations with style and class.

And trust me, I know about keeping it on the cheap. I hosted my own low budget wedding. And, of course, I made my own wedding invitations. I created my invitations for less than $65.00 for around 125 guests. That includes all the supplies and paper, copying and cutting, etc… Not only that but I made my invitations all myself, single handed and on short notice since I waited until the last second. You can make your own wedding invitations on the cheap, and do it without breaking too much of a sweat. I want to show you how!

Homemade and DIY Wedding Invitation Ideas

When doing invitations, they are very simple to do, you figure out what your style is and there are many examples online to choose from plus many examples of the right wording to give you examples of what you could say or make your own words.

Invitations are no longer a thing that has to match perfectly. You can now mix and match ideas, colors, papers and themes. Make them your own! That’s the beauty of creating your own homemade wedding invitations.

Another way you can make wedding invitations on the cheap is to go online to an online invitation management site that you can sign up for free and even allow you to select from a small number of options that are free which you can customize it for your use. Site such as www.paperlesspost.com is a perfect example of a website that allows you to sign up for free and provides a few free options of really nice invitations you can use to send and manage all your guests from.  You are in control! You get exactly what you want and for little to NO COST!

There are many locations to host your wedding in the DC metropolitan area but the venues that have become increasingly popular with the Indian cultural weddings have been the local big brand name hotels.

These hotels have the capacity to host Indian weddings which are now, one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups in America, as reported by the CBS News.

From brides on rickshaws to Vegas-style floor shows, Indian weddings are part celebration, part spectacle and June has long been the most popular month of the year for weddings, the report said.

“For us, an average Indian wedding is spending $300,000 to $400,000,” said Ani Sandhu, whose company planned a recent event at the Ritz Carlton Tyson’s Corner in Washington, DC.

Both sets of parents paying and a minimum of 250 guests, the money adds up fast, he was quoted as saying by the daily.

“Any business wants to get a piece of that, especially hotels,” he added.
Major Washington hotels, including the Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons, are actively trying to woo Indian couples. The Willard Intercontinental even has a designated path for grooms to arrive by horse.

“As we see the rise in that population and the spending power, it’s something you can’t ignore,” Apoorva Ghandi, the vice president of multicultural affairs for Marriott International, was quoted as saying.

In the past three years, his DC area hotels have hosted 415 Indian weddings, bringing in $12 million in revenue, the report said.

Marriott has gone so far as to institute an Indian Culture Day, a crash course on South Asian traditions, food and fashion for hospitality staff.

Neel Patel and Nisha Kumar, two Indian-Americans, said experience was one of the reasons they chose a Marriott property for their upcoming wedding.

“I was surprised there were places here that knew exactly what they were doing,” Patel said.

“An Indian wedding the groom has a procession outside,” Kumar explained. “Is that allowed? Not allowed? Open flame, you need that permit.”

In addition to space for hundreds of guests, hotels need to know what animals are allowed in their jurisdiction. Elephants have been banned in some places but are still allowed in Maryland, DC and Virginia.

“I want something classy with a blue theme for my birthday”. This is what our featured client Jacenta approached me as her initial idea.  Jacenta loves the color blue and for me, a lover of the same color, it was very easy to come up with creative ideas to help morph her vision of a classy celebration for her upcoming milestone birthday.

Yes, Devoted to Your Event’s first client of 2015 hosted the celebration of our dear friend Jacenta’s 50 and Blutiful Birthday celebration.  Jacenta is a retired veteran of the U.S. Army, full time mom, Government employee, owner of a health and nutrition company Blutifuly Fit and Fabulous, sorority sister of Zeta Phi Beta and loving wife to her husband Dee. We traveled to Alabama to set if off in an elegant way and got the ball rolling for this classy lady’s event. When I say classy, it was classy!

After stumbling over a couple themes, it was Jacenta that came up with the word Blutiful. What does Blutiful mean I asked? “Blutiful is a word we use in Zeta-land; it is the combined words of blue, their sorority color and beautiful”.

Immediately, I started taking copious notes and gathering ideas of not only how to decorate but what activities would be fun and engaging for all of Jacenta’s guests. Over the next 6 months, we entertained the process of seeking out the perfect venue, the right Deejay, caterer, baker and photographer to solidify the required resources to make this just right. Not to mention selecting the distinguished guests and creating the perfect invitation.

As the time grew near, nerves were growing with intensity but the evening went off flawlessly. The song “Champagne Life” set the tone for all the guests to greet and honor the “Queen of the evening”; It was on to a great time for all! The atmosphere said elegance, the crowd- mature, the pictures were beautiful, the food was scrumptious, the music was pumping the entire time keeping everyone constantly dancing except during planned activities and even then, the DJ did his thing. Last but most importantly, Queen Jacenta was flawless! Unfortunately many knees, backs and necks were aching the next day from all the dancing but it was worth it! Thank you Jacenta for the awesome opportunity to serve you! I am glad you enjoyed yourself as we pride ourselves in producing unforgettable events.

Devoted to your Event, LLC would like to acknowledge Chef Eric and Jerri Kerlegon for the catering, Christopher Stewart of Fountain City Entertainment, LLC for the Deejay services, Stephone Berry of Kingdom Shots for the photography, Angela Hagler for designing and Kia German for transporting the delicious and elegantly decorated cake and lastly my fabulous Event Manager Patty Jackson for always supporting me. Thank you all for working with me to create the celebration that Jacenta wanted; these guys all rocked!

Tracy Pope, MBA
Certified Wedding Planner/Accredited Event Designer
301-358-1264

Now that you’re engaged, everybody is happy for you and your fiancé. Everyone is so happy that they immediately start overloading you with questions about when, where, how, and why about your upcoming wedding.

Folks want to transcend their vision of what you should do and why you should do it. Comments come before you like, “You know you’re Catholic so you have to have service in the chapel before you marry” or “You have to wear something blue”, “We are Jewish and it is customary to say the Jewish prayer” or “You have to jump the broom, it pays respect to your ancestors”. Before you know it, you’re confused about what to do and you turn to the internet for information overload.

The reality is, we no longer live in a time where weddings have to align to weddings of yesteryear or look like a live version of the Cinderella story. The perfect wedding is not what your grandmother wants, your mom wants or even what your dad wants (unless they are footing the bill) and even then, the perfect wedding is what you and your fiancé want to have, whatever that may be.

If you choose to have a traditional wedding in a Church with all the bells and whistles, then by all means do it if that is your vision of the perfect wedding. If you and your fiancé love the Flintstones cartoon, Butterflies, Pink Pansies or Dinosaurs and you want to have that as your wedding theme, then by all means do it if that is the vision of the perfect wedding for the two of you.

Don’t allow others to dictate what the perfect wedding is to you. The perfect wedding is what you imagine it to be. So don’t limit yourself from the possibilities of ideas you and your sweetheart can create for your Big Day; be sure to give it a lot of thought and do as much or as little to live out one of the most important days in your life. You deserve it!

TAP

Now that you and your fiancé are on the road to holy matrimony, you have a lot of decisions to make. Some of your decisions are very important and need to be addressed right away, while other decisions can wait and be answered later on. Be sure that you and your fiancé start the process by addressing important decisions when starting the wedding planning process. We can categorize these as main and minor decisions. So, how about we explore what would be a couple’s top 10 main decisions to make when forecasting decisions to start the planning process of your upcoming wedding, this week we will look at the top 5:

1. When and what time of day? – This is usually the first question that a couple will face, when do we want to marry. Some want to do it right away while others wait and plan a celebration. Whichever fits the couple, they will normally take into consideration several factors. One being whether they prefer warm weather or cold. A special intimate day that is significant to the couple like on the day they met, first kiss or Valentine’s Day. At times, the venue where the couple wants to marry may dictate the when; popular locations are difficult to get unless you plan in advance so it may determine if the couple can marry on their Ideal day.

2. What is our budget? – This seems to be a big question because many couples typically aren’t aware of the average cost of a wedding and it varies from geographic location. It is important to talk about how you will finance this event and without going broke or in debt. If you are fortunate, you may have support from parents, and grandparents but whatever the source, you need to have a starting point unless you have a big purse like the likes of Oprah, Taylor Swift, Jayz and Beyonce or Donald Trump, just to name a few with seemingly unlimited resources.

3. Where are we going to marry? – Will you choose the church, the beach, the rain forest, a hotel, your parent’s estate, a museum, the back yard, Vegas, a cruise ship or in a hot air balloon. Today’s couples have a world of choices but unless you want to share your special moment with family and friends, it’s probably best to marry where the majority of the people that you want to share it with can come.

4. Who are we inviting? – This goes hand in hand with your budget. You can’t have a fancy wedding with all the bells and whistles and invite 150 – 200 people. If you have beer money, then you best have a nice small intimate celebration and invite the most important people in your life. This task will be difficult to manage because everyone will want to come and you and your fiancé have to make some difficult decisions whether or not Aunt Phyllis from Tennessee will get an invite or your best buddy from college.

5. Who’s going to marry us? – If you are a member of a religious organization, you may want to ask your spiritual leader, he/she will be honored. If you don’t have an affiliation, you may want to hire an officiate who has the license to marry which in many cases can provide the flexibility of locations that your spiritual leader may not agree to. Also, if you are same sex couple, some organizations may refuse to perform your service so you may have to seek other professionals who can with no problem.

Next week we will explore the last set of top 10 initial decisions a couple should consider once they start the planning process for their wedding.

TAP

This week we will explore the last set of top 10 initial decisions a couple should consider once they start the planning process for their wedding. Last week I covered the first set of important decisions. As a recap those questions are:

1. When and what time of day?
2. What is our budget?
3. Where are we going to marry?
4. Who are we inviting? and
5. Who’s going to marry us?

Okay, so for now you and your fiancé have five important decisions to discuss which don’t necessarily have to be answered in one day or discussion, but eventually will need to have an answer before you can move on to make other plans for your wedding. A great next topic of discussion would be:

6. What style and formality do we want? – When discussing the style for your wedding, be sure to cover how formal or informal you want your wedding to be. Deciding on the level of formality will go hand in hand with the location and time of day of the wedding. The ultimate decision is really what you want and desire your day to be like, but be careful not to take on someone else’s dream. If you want to wed in a cathedral chapel, it would be more fitting to do a formal event verses let’s say, having an event in the backyard of aunt Beverly’s house or at the fire station house. The style and formality also must go hand in hand with your budget. You can still have a glamorous wedding on a budget but it may call for a lot of DIY projects, borrowing unique items from friends and family or purchasing things from lower-end stores like the Dollar Tree or 5 below. Whatever style you and fiancé select, you can always add your own small touches to personalize it to reflect the theme that you all want.

7. Who’s going to be in the wedding party? – Deciding who is going to be selected to play a role in one of the most important days of your life can be a difficult decision. You may want to include all your friends however, your budget may not support that. You may want to include your fiancé’s sister(s), your cousin or your BFF since grade school/college in your wedding party. It is typically an honor to be asked to serve in a position of the wedding party. It can be viewed as a sign that you mean a great deal to the couple. It can also be an opportunity to blend the two families together by being a part of the couple’s union in a happy harmonious way. This decision should be well thought out and in advance so participants can help in making decisions and planning the many parties of the upcoming months. Be sure to select people you love, trust and those you spend a lot of time with because these are the people you’ll particularly want to party with you.

8. What kind of rings do we want? Deciding on what rings to purchase can affect the budget of the couple. Your rings can be selected at the time of engagement or throughout the engagement period. This task should be done by both parties as you want to be sure you are selecting a set of rings that is affordable, reflective of your union that has meaning to the both of you, and the style that will compliment both tastes. It doesn’t necessarily mean you must buy a super-sized diamond but you will want to have a solid representation of your commitment to each other. If your budget cannot afford those gleaming diamonds and you just can’t imagine not getting married without them, you can choose to select a more affordable stone such as cubic zirconium which are man-made stones that resemble natural diamonds. If diamonds aren’t your thing, you can opt for another stone like a ruby, an opal, a sapphire or no stone at all. Some couples choose to have a standard, gold, platinum, titanium or sliver band for their wedding rings.

9. Do we want to go on a honeymoon and when do we want to do it? Many couples choose to vacation after a long season of planning and getting married. It is a great way to kick off your new life. In many cases, if the desire to go off to another country is in the plans, much research and preparation has to be made of location, requirements, cost and amenities. If it is a costly trip you can find creative ways to finance your honeymoon by opening a honeymoon fund from websites like www.honeyfund.com and ask your family and friends to help raise money to support your honeymoon as their way of providing a gift. Sometimes if you are a busy couple, going on a honeymoon right after the wedding may not be an option or maybe cost is a factor. Be sure that if your plans is to honeymoon right away, add the cost into your wedding budget.

10. Do we need to hire a wedding planner/consultant? – For the busy couple that have little time to devote to the details of planning and executing a wedding and have disposable income to do so, hiring a wedding professional may be the best decision. A wedding professional will help you realize your dream wedding while you sit back, relax and enjoy being in the spotlight. Your professional can provide a number of services that will ease your worries by utilizing their network of vendors or new ones to provide the services you want, oversee the budget to keep you on track, seek out venues, serve as project manager, and do it in a professional manner.

No need to ask your sister, best friend or aunt Lucy to stress over trying to avoid you turning into Bridezilla, you want them to also enjoy you and your future spouse. A full service planner can do almost anything and everything you need. A professional planner typically has a team that is working with him/her to handle all the logistics and they do it with a smile because that’s what they love to do. Hiring a professional is also something all brides can obtain as today’s professional have multiple payment plans so you don’t have to stress about not having enough money for their expert services. Think about your needs and your availability of time before making a decision.

Now that you and your sweetie are aware of what you need to focus on for the next few months, make the best of it, take your time and enjoy this period before you join lives together. If you are still unsure or really want to savor this time, be sure to highly consider #10 where you decide whether to hire a professional. A professional can lift the heavy burden off of your shoulders with the wedding planning. Of course, hiring a wedding planner doesn’t mean you have no say so in what you are about to embark on, this is not the wedding of your planner/consultant, except it is yours.

Your hired professional will not make a move towards the planning of your event without your input highly involved. It’s your day, have it your way and the professionals at Devoted to Your Event, LLC will do just that to make your ideas come to fruition so you can create memories to cherish for a lifetime.

TAP

From the auto repair to the office project to selecting your soul mate, trusting relationships develop in a predictable way: You engage in a situation to test the expertise, if the test is passed, you may get the chance to become a regular trusted resource. Afterwards, you evolve through a pattern of consistent delivery and integrity to a trusted advisory, colleague, friend or spouse.

In order to develop and maintain successful and lasting relationships trust must be built. To have trust is to care, have reliance and confidence. It is an expectation of others to behave responsibly or honorably and a dependence on what will happen in the future. If you can’t trust someone regardless of the relationship whether personal or professional, you miss out on the benefits and to stall progression. The benefits of trust are:

1. Openness
2. Respect
3. Access
4. Involvement
5. Long-term relationships

Trust is typically built on a four step process which is the basis to establishing trust in all successful relationships:

1. Foundation – When building a relationship, it’s essential to starting off in a good place. To do this you must demonstrate credibility, professionalism, and empathy.
2. Practice active listening –listening shows you can reserve judgment and focus on the situation at hand or issues that may come up.
3. Communicate- Providing open, honest, quality facts will earn the trust from your counterpart.
4. Commitment to effort- Regardless the situation, you and the other party must be able to visualize success and jointly commit to the effort and avoid blame, set realistic expectations, surface risks and challenges

Knowing the importance, benefits and process taken to build trust, put these efforts into action and do what is right and your rewards will be tenfold. If perhaps you aren’t willing to develop anything long term, then don’t bother. Life has its ways of circling around and you never know when you’ll need to turn to someone or you may pass up that lasting love. Establishing trust in your relationships is beneficial in one way or another that will serve you well into the future.

TAP

Budget for your wedding? Why do some people think that having a budget is not important? When it comes to figuring out what your budget should be for your wedding, it is an all important topic that should be discussed with your fiancé in the early planning stages. Many couples today are contributing financially to their own wedding and most likely both individuals work. It’s no longer the sole responsibility of the bride’s parents to assume the financial task of paying for their daughter’s wedding. The grooms parents may offer to contribute, although they typically pay for the rehearsal dinner. Many second, third and possibly even fourth-time brides and grooms are definitely footing the bill for their nuptials.

What I think is very important is understanding as a couple what is your ideal wedding. Many couples have no idea what the cost of having a wedding is today. The average cost of a wedding is about $20,000. Here in the Washington DC Metropolitan area, the average cost of a wedding in 2013 was $35,306. Events such as these have become very expensive but it doesn’t have to be overly expensive. A couple on a budget can still have a decent celebration that possesses all of the typical traditions of a more expensive wedding. The difference is that the more money you have, the more you can purchase and the less you have to do. With less money you have to be more creative or possibly start a fund early on.

The estimated breakdown of a typical bridal budget is:

Honeymoon – 5-15%
Transportation -3 -5%
Attire – 5-15%
Parties – 2-5%
Ceremony – 4-8%
Photographer – 7-10%
Decorations – 2-3%
Reception -40 -60%
Flowers – 10-12%
Rentals – 3- 5%
Gifts – 2-5%
Stationery – 4-5%
Marriage Prep – 2-3%
Videographer – 5-7%
Wedding bands – 2-5%
Music – 4-9%
Miscellaneous – 8-15%
Wedding Planner – 8-12%

By far, the most expensive part of a wedding is the reception. if your budget is $10,000, then you can already be prepared to spend about $5-6K on food and drink to accommodate your guests in a catered meal situation. This is where, couples can really lose track of their dollars if they don’t stay on task and on budget.

Trying to include everyone in your friends and family network may not fit with your budget, which is why you and your fiancé need to have that all cumbersome task to agree on who to include and eliminate. The bottom line, more people equals more money. It’s not about who you are trying to impress, but more what you can afford. But if you just can’t say no, try being creative and have a pot luck type of event where everyone bring a dish, an early in the day celebration where the food is less expensive or a less popular day like during the week, a Friday or a Sunday. Starting your marriage in debt is not what you want to be aspiring to do.

Hiring a professional to help you stay on course and on budget will come in to be the most valuable investment in your wedding. Be sure to trust this with someone who you have the opportunity to get to know and who possesses the credentials and experience to back it up.

TAP