Part II: Creating the Perfect Moment

Day 2 our bride steps out of her home with a fresh pair of heels and new expectations. She gathers her crew and begins her dress shopping:

Imagine entering a gorgeous wedding gown boutique met by a fabulous white staircase. Upstairs you become surrounded by various different sections of exquisite gowns separated by top designers. A sales associate approaches you and assists with picking out various dresses of your choice making suggestions along the way based on your body type and skin coloring. Your hands run across all the different fabrics enjoying the textures, layers, and beading. This sales consultant will bring you and your family into a private dressing room where she will help you try on all the gowns of your liking. Based on your response she will bring you more dresses that will compliment your figure so much you could just cry. At the end of the day you will find a dress. This dress will likely make you do a little dance in front of the mirror, your mom will begin to cry, and sure enough the tears become contagious and the whole room, including you, will have smiling wet cheeks. The perfect dress has been found and a moment has been created.

Experiences are everything in life. Make sure this experience is so perfect that words can not express the joy and excitement you feel. Meet me for Part III for a few wise suggestions and a glimpse into the newest wedding dress fashion trends.

Always Learning, Always Fabulous,

Vanessa Sinatora
Associate Planner

Part I: The Wedding Dress Saga

When shopping for a wedding dress it is vastly important to know where to go and who to meet with. As minor a task this may seem you would be surprised how much a wedding planner can do to make sure you have an excellent shopping experience. Without the advice of a wedding planner you may find yourself in the following situation:

Imagine entering a cutely decorated store glancing around, excited to try on your first wedding dress. You reach for a beautiful pearl gown to get a closer look and feel the fabric against your skin, WAIT, a sales consultant stops you with a drill sergeant like demeanor. “Please use these hand wipes and clean your hands thoroughly before touching any gowns” she says. So you clean your hands feeling like a four year old who just got scolded by her mother. When you try to enter the actual salon where the dresses are being kept there is a small stop sign requesting that all customers wait to be escorted into the room. You have brought your sisters, best friend and mother to help pick dresses to try on. The sales consultant says “I am sorry, only one person can help you pick out dresses.” Every where you walk and everything you touch is being patroled by the sales associate standing in the corner of the room. Here you are ready to spend $1,000-$20,000 and this is your shopping experience? Well, as a wedding planner I would not let my bride experience this. Shopping for a dress should be an exciting experience and a bride should enjoy every moment that leads up to her big day.

After an experience like this you could imagine what a disappointment day 1 of wedding dress shopping was. After a long discussion with her wedding planner she will be out on day 2 with new direction and many new expectations. Tune in for part 2: Creating the Perfect Moment!

Yours Truly,

Vanessa Sinatora
Associate Planner

Cutural Weddings: Eritrean Weddings Celebrate With Great Flare

My first cultural wedding! I love culture! Coming from a family with an Italian father and Mexican mother gave me a lot of culture to start off with but nothing compared to the insane amount of tradition that was involved in this extravagant wedding. When I am working on an event I usually remain focused on what needs to be done to ensure everything is running on schedule. Although this was the case, I found that there were points in time that the traditions being handled by the family left me standing in awe. I cannot repeat enough how much I love culture. It was an honor to partake in all these ceremonies and learning about the different traditions that they hold so closely to their heart.

The ceremony began at 4:30 pm at the Chapelwood United Methodist Church. Before the ceremony there were seven bouquets to hand out to the bridesmaids, seven boutonnière’s to pin on the grooms men, the ushers needed instruction, and finally I had to get all 14 of them in order to walk down the isle. Yes, the made of honor and best man made it down the isle with the rings safely tucked away. Soon after, the most beautiful bride I have yet to work with floats down the isle bringing tears to many loved ones eyes.

Picture time! With the help of a few family members we must have had 200 plus pictures snapped. Nancy Aidee, the photographer impressively managed a bridal party of 30 plus people maintaining a sweet smile. Now to get everyone on the limo bus, all 16 of them…Where is the bride?
Finally we rallied the women onto the bus where they commenced the celebration opening bottles of champagne accompanied by lots of laughter. 15 minutes later I thanked EJ for the fabulous ride by Royal Carriages and we enter the beautiful Omni Hotel. Here Samantha greets me with two other soireebliss! members and hands me a list of infinity things I must accomplish before the introduction of the bridal party.

One thing I did not account for in this cultural wedding is that the band did not speak one word of English…Hmmm. Another problem we run into with other cultures is that time really is not very important. Luckily we had a wonderful DJ named Will from Def Jam Blaster who was so incredibly flexible and wonderful to work with because if the band was still outside during their break, he would just keep jamming. Thank you Will.

Everything is running on schedule! The food at the Omni was absolutely exquisite. The décor in the banquet was breathtaking and the guests were all on the dance floor having the time of their lives. The bride and groom did a lovely toast and we cut the beautiful cake made by Who Made the Cake.

The stress is over, the event was lovely and most importantly we made the bride and groom, as well as all their loved ones truly happy! They celebrated till 2am the new beginning of the merging of two very lovely families. Congratulations to Mewael and Elise!



Yours Truly,

Vanessa Sinatora
Associate Planner