Cherry Blossom Weddings » Projects and Ideas

Sofia & Afzalul – Westin Grand Hotel

alexcbwe — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 18:45:27 +0000

Elizabeth had a wonderful time helping plan Sofia and Afzalul’s wedding in which every detail of the traditional Hindu/western wedding was colorful and joyous! The wedding began with the baraat, in which Afzalul’s family escorted him to the ceremony. Afzalul greatly enjoyed dancing with his friends and family as they moved through the DC streets on their way to the Westin Grand Hotel. Once the groom arrived, Sofia was escorted down the aisle by her parents while the music of a sitar and tabla played in the background. After the ceremony, the couple changed into their reception attire and headed to the ballroom, which was completely transformed using amber lights and tons of red orchids. After a delicious buffet from Rangoli Restaurant and a beautiful cake designed by Fancy Cakes by Leslie the party got started! The dance floor was packed and the party went strong till the ever end. Congratulations to a very sweet and happy couple, Sofia and Afzalul! Thanks to Eli from Freed Photography who was kind enough to share the gorgeous images.

Ben & Emily – Green Woodend Wedding

alexcbwe — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:33:02 +0000

After literally investigating every venue from the Eastern Shore to Leesburg and in between, Ben & Emily ended up getting married at Woodend – the place they initially fell in love with. They wanted a full day of events with a not-so-formal wedding but lots of celebrating. They decided to have a day wedding with an after party at Firefly at the Madura Hotel later that evening.

The couple was also very interested in any green elements to incorporate into their wedding. The grooms family grew the grass for the DIY centerpieces and as favors, they gave reusable bags with their wedding date on them.

They also wanted to think outside the box just a bit. We set up the ceremony in the middle of the grove with guests surrounding them instead of the traditional set up. In liu of a guestbook, Emily bought lots of Washington DC postcards that guests wrote on which will be mailed to them at a later date.

Ben & Emily, it was fantastic working with you both and congrats!! And a huge THANKS to Moshe Zusman Photography for these fabulous images!

New Year’s Eve Celebration

alexcbwe — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 22:38:31 +0000

Rachel and Dan threw the best kind of New Year’s Eve party this year – their wedding! They were married at St. Aloysius in Washington DC at 6:30pm on December 31. With the ceremony over, guest piled into shuttle busses and were taken to the Galleria at Lafayette for the reception and to ring in the New Year. While balancing the effort to create an elegant wedding reception and a fun New Year’s Eve party, we kept with the bride’s colors for the tables and used lavender pintuck linens with alternating tall sprays of white orchids and short clusters of white calla lilies, spider mums and hydrangea’s. We used warmer up lights for a festive tone and at 11:30pm, champagne and New Year’s hats, glasses and noisemakers were passed out to the 225 guests. At midnight, the wedding planners shot confetti over the balcony (with special permission!) over the guests as they all found someone to kiss!

I loved this event – they guests had such a blast and Rachel and Dan, you two were wonderful and we wish you all the best!

A huge thanks to Jamie for these awesome images!

Vendors:
Wedding Planner: Alex from Cherry Blossom Weddings & Events
Venue: The Galleria
Photographer: Jamie from Turner Photographey Studios
DJ: Aaron from Chris Laich Wedding Music
Flowers: Barbara from Growing Wild
Videographer: Matt from Buerhaus Designs
Place Cards & Table Numbers: Christina from PaperZest
Caterer: Catering by Uptown

Stamp Increase Approaching

Chantal — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 02:02:00 +0000

Have you heard the news? The USPS will again raise the price of stamps. Right now, the prices are:

Envelopes that are 1oz or less are $0.41.
Envelopes that are more than 1oz and less than 2oz are $0.58.
Envelopes that are more than 2oz and less than 3oz are $0.75.
Square and vertical envelopes require an additional $.17.

As of May 12, first class stamps will go from $.41 to $.42 each and the heavier mailings will go up as well. But, the post office now offers Forever stamps, where you can buy them at the current 41 cent price and you can use them forever, even as rates go up. The only problem with that? There's only one style, the liberty bell.

American? Yes. Does it define weddings? No. I actually do look at the stamps that come with wedding invitations as I think they add to the overall design and attitude of the invitation and event. However, these forever stamps would save you money and would be great for return envelopes, invites to other related parties such as rehearsel dinners, brunches, your thank you notes even.

You could always get some more colorful and event specific stamps and then add on the 1 cent stamps to add some more pizzazz. There is always the traditional wedding heart stamp

or a great stamp for spring and summer would be these beautiful blooms:

Then, there's the more personal approach of getting your pictures on the stamps, a fun recent trend. Photostamps.com offers personalized stamps with your picture on it for only $5-$10 more than postage. You can use an engagement or casual fun shot for save the dates or invitations and a wedding pic for thank you notes!

Do It Yourself Table Pieces

Tasha — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 03:56:31 +0000

I wanted to share with you some pieces I put together for a black and red themed party that I helped out with this weekend. These Ideas can be used for any event, all you have to do is change the colors to match your own color scheme. Take a look and tell me what you think!

It's hard to find black candles so for this piece I painted modge podge glue on the red candles and rolled them in black glitter. Added a couple red feathers, red rocks and jewels and finished it off with a rose bud.

More candles rolled in black glitter, this also adds a nice texture look to the candles.

For these pieces, I filled the base of vase with a mixture of red and black feathers letting them spill out at the top. I then inserted black silk flowers and real red roses.

A larger black and red center piece with black silk flowers and real red roses.

We used bouquets of balloons to section off the reserved area as requested by the host