Saturday, January 29, 2011

West Monitor Barn wedding in Vermont

By: Jessica Robinson

We traveled up to Vermont this past week to do a property tour with one of our clients at The West Monitor Barn.  It's this wonderful raw space, with enormous wood beams and just a wonderful blank area.  The beautifully restored barn is incredible!!  It's by far, one of my personal favorite venues.



If you can visualize this:
There are three sections to the barn.  Ryan designs will be draping organic fabric over the doorway and to the floor.  That will set the entrance as the doors are opened after cocktail hour to a glorious reception reviled.   They are going to hang a collection of rod iron chandeliers down the center of the barn, along with organic fabric draped.  They'll be an exclectic mix of chandeliers clustered over the dance floor to break up the space a bit.  Ryan Designs will be also designing fabulous lounge areas (both outside and inside) for guests to mingle and enjoy.  Erik Ryan, of Ryan designs has a GORGEOUS custom built farmhouse style table that we'll be setting up outside to serve guests some sort of refreshment after their ceremony overlooking the hills of Vermont. (under a custom built reclaimed barn wood canopy that we'll be building, which will be draped with flowing organic fabric and a few touches of flowers)

The guests will be seated at long, family style reception tables.  Down the two sides, we're going to suspend old wood barn boards/planks from the rafters of the barn.  We'll be screwing in the lids to jelly jars and having an array of glass jars hanging from the bottom of those boards.  In addition to that, with all of the glow of flickering candles we'll be tying on little bottles (all uniform) with natural twine and garden rose blooms of reds, raspberry and magenta.  A huge pop of color suspended from the beams of the barn.  The place is going to be incredibly dressed to impress!

The tables will be dressed with linens from BBJ Linens and lots of little touches of color with flowers.  The main colors are raspberry, reds and magenta.  Their menu is going to be built off the Farm to Table concept.  With as much food being produced locally as possible.  This same theme will go into their out of town guest boxes.  Natural, brown kraft boxes will be filled with pure maple syrup, locally produced honey, Vermont made wooden spoons and so much more.  Carrying the same sense of local home with every guest that comes from afar.  

We'll also be lining the ledge of the barn with battery operated pillar candles for even more romantic glow.  Ryan Designs has so many wonderful fabric treatments to choose from, throw pillows, custom designed chandeliers and so much more that they can add to your event.

I'm thankful that we have the opportunity to design so many fabulous events and that each of them are unique.  We're looking forward to weddings in the city this year (both Boston and New York) and all over.  Each wedding being as personal as the client we create them for!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

GIVEAWAY! gift card towards custom invitations

By: Jessica Robinson

Praez Occasions is located in Hamden, Connecticut.  Her invitations are stunning!  Simply works of art.  Her bubbly personality brings sunshine into anyone's day. 


Praez Occasions giving away $100 gift certificate towards any invitation order!  Simply leave your comments below about what you would like for invitations and one lucky winner will be chosen at random to receive a gift certificate! (we'll announce the winner on our blog this Friday!)

We did an interview with her recently and asked a few questions.
How long have you been in business? 

Our parent company, Praez Media Group, has been in the professional graphic design and printing industry since 2003.  We began making couture stationery by demand in 2005.


What should clients know about custom invites?

The most important thing we can convey is that there is a big difference between truly custom invitations and customized invitations.  There are a lot of companies that offer customized invitations - and that can range from catalog or internet order companies to high end lines that are templates for mass distribution.  These type of invitations can only be customized with the client's names and event information, color scheme and limited design accents.  A truly custom design is built from the ground up, with individually designed graphics suited to the client's specifications, no templates involved.  These services are highly specialized and entail the services of a graphic design professional.  And our designs are then handcrafted with handpicked embellishing accents tailored to the client's design theme.  The two are simply not the same.


What information would you share with perspective clients that would help make the process a bit easier?

Know that this is a process, so you need to start early and be ready with as much information as possible to share your preferences and design wish list with your designer.  We're inspired by everything, so the more information you feed us, the better!


What inspires your designs?

We commonly look to the venue, decor selections, design/style of attire, florals, and personality of the couple for our design inspiration.  We always ask if there are any unique or whimsical details or interesting facts that we could possibly weave into the design, as well.  The end result is a design unique to that client with gorgeous appointments that can be anything from pearls to peacock feathers. 

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

New Studio in Collinsville-update

By: Jessica Robinson

We've been working hard on our new studio space in Collinsville, Connecticut.  It's nearly complete and looks amazing!! I'm SO excited to say we'll be moving in very soon to meet with our clients and new perspective new clients. 

The new studio is situated in the old Collinsville Axe Factory.  It's currently in a revitalization process.  Come the end of January, there's a new space that will be available down the hall from us (a gorgeous, spacious 2,500 square feet studio/office space.  It has 19th century hardwood floors, incredible views, 12-foot tall ceilings, brick and sheet rocked walls with pendant lights).  The old factory is filled with talented artists, photographers and such!  Collinsville is a trendy, up and coming spot.
Home Depot must love us!  I swear, we've spent a small fortune there in new supplies, paint and new tools to complete the project!!  We've cleaned windows from early 1900's, painted walls, trim and hung beautiful pendant lights which go perfectly with the old character of the original building.  I've been hunting down great furniture finds for our new space too!  I found a buffet on craigslist.com for $50 and a GORGEOUS desk at Used Furniture of Canton.  I have to say, I had never been there... always drove by it, saw the store advertised on TV a few times and still never stopped.  I FINALLY made the time today.  What amazing finds they have!!  I was impressed with how clean the furniture was, the selection and the prices were SO reasonable.  I had the initial thought that the prices would be too much, but they were not!!  As we get the studio together, I think I'll go back for a few more pieces to make the studio perfect!!


 (These images were taken by: Jamie Collins Photography)
Just a few little touches (molding over the door to the studio, painting window molding in the hallway, baseboard molding and hanging the chandelier from our current space) and we're done!!  I'm SO excited about the move and the transition to this new area.  The town is bursting with trades people, artists and so much more!  I hope you'll join us for a cup of coffee or lunch soon!  I'll try and post new photos next week so you can see all the wonderful progress we've made.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Recap of 2010

By: Jessica Robinson

We were so very fortunate this past season to design weddings far beyond Connecticut.  We traveled in August to Cooperstown, New York to design Caitlin and Mike's wedding.  You could find us in Boston about eight times last season.  (We LOVE Boston!)  We are so very grateful for all the personal connections we make with our clients who become close friends.
As many of you know, each year our company designs and coordinates several "Deserving Couple" weddings.  We've felt that over the years we've been so very fortunate to have earn a wonderful name in the wedding business and had so many incredible opportunities.  Each year we design a wedding (at no charge to the client) for a couple struggling financially, yet still giving back to their community.  It's just our little way of giving back.  What started out in 2008 as just a photographer and our company donating their services has rolled into this HUGE wedding!  Our company along with a superb group of wedding professionals all work closely together to design and create a wedding out of dreams for one very lucky couple. (we designed three deserving couples in 2010 and will be designing three in 2011)

Caitlin and Mike- The Farmer's Museum  (photos by: Justin & Mary Marantz)



Anna and Matt- The Barns at Wesleyan Hills
(Photos to come soon by: Raw Photo Design)

Lindsay and Alex- The Fairmont Hotel (photos by Allegro Photography)

In 2011, we have three deserving couples.
Anna and Justin at The Webb Barn along with:
Jessica's Country Flowers
Justin & Mary Marantz
Details Wedding & Party Planning
Stonington Paperie
Lovely Cakes
The White Dress by the Shore and designer Modern Trousseau
Dancing Pen Calligraphy
Karri and Chris at Wesleyan Chapel then reception following at Sarah Porter Memorial Hall:
Jessica's Country Flowers
Steve Depino Photography
Sixpence For Your Shoe
Paper Olive
Toria Dolce Fine Desserts
The Plumed Serpent
Dancing Pen Calligraphy
Christina and Dustin at La Cupola Ristorante & Inn
Jessica's Country Flowers
Chandelier Events
Sara Faella
AriaDress
The Spa at Litchfield Hills
Lamothe's Sugar House
Stacey Ilyse Photography
Fizz Paperie

For 2012 we have big things planned!!  We'll be announcing all of the details very soon.  Stay tuned for some very exciting news!  We always LOVE to hear your comments... so bring 'em on!