Creative Fall/Winter Wedding Cakes

Each season brings a different take on wedding creativity. Take a different spin on what is placed on your dessert table and Bon Appetite!

Greens and seasonal fruit are the perfect piece of decoration for this cake

A cheese cake.....paired with fruit, crackers and a great glass of wine, I will be happy to cut this at the beginning of the reception

Chocolate Toffee Naked Cake. Yum!

Everybody loves donuts!

Crepe cake

Cold weather = Delicious pies

Outdoor Wedding Lawn Games

Outdoor weddings are best when you use the location to its maximum potential. Day-time outdoor weddings allows your guests to enjoy the scenery and with a few choice games, they will never want to go indoors. Make cocktail hour recess. Create living areas that allow the guests to sit an mingle or take part in the fun. Using furniture similar to those you would find in your living room makes you feel like you are home in the backyard competing with your siblings.

Non-Flower Centerpieces!

Get creative with your centerpieces! Flowers are traditional and can be manipulated into stunning works of art, but that is not your only options.

Moss has an unappreciated beauty. Paired with succulents and birch wood you can keep the elegance without the flowers.

Strung lights make an outdoor wedding picture-ready.

Candles, candles and more candles! Not only are these great lighting options for evening receptions, but they are also an inexpensive alternative to floral centerpieces. Use pillars of different heights, candelabras and lanterns to make this look complete.

We eat with our eyes, so you can be sure that your guests can appreciate the beauty of a fruit centerpiece.

Cheers! Creative Food and Drink Idea.

Guests come for the nuptials but stay for the food and drinks! A creative idea is offering individual bottles of champagne, soda or an alcohol of choice. These can be given to guests as favors or for their use during the reception. You will just need to contact the individual companies for more details.

A Little Piece of Elegance: Chandeliers

An outdoor wedding does not mean you have to sacrifice some of the elegant features of a ballroom. Chandeliers are the perfect decor piece that brings the indoors outside. This piece of decor costs a pretty penny, but installing one at the ceremony structure, or a few at the reception goes a long way.

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Belle the Magazine

Belle the Magazine

Home My Design

Preston Bailey

Planning Tips: The Reception Dinner

The reception is a huge portion of the wedding budget, mostly due to the cost of food and beverage. Choosing how to use your money is not as simple as couples imagined when they begin their planning process. The hardest decision may be choosing how to serve the meal to your guests. There are three styles that are most popular: Buffet Style, Seated Dinner and Dinner Stations. There are different reasons to choose each and here are some details and tips to help you decide.

Buffet

Although a buffet has the rep of being the most cost-effective option, that is actually misleading. A buffet gives the guests multiple options to choose from, but the caterer cannot account for the size of the portion each guest will take. Caterers typically make more to accommodate, resulting in a bigger price tag. 

When considering a buffet also remember that a line will be unavoidable unless you have a small guest count. As a planner, lines are my event peeves and aesthetically unappealing. One way to shorten the line is to have a duplicate buffet station with all the same options. You should also make the stations double-sided: guests can form lines on both sides of the buffet and two people can help themselves at once.

Seated Dinner

A seated dinner is an option that eliminates the lines and is more formal. The trade-off is that the guests get a limited choice for their meal. 

An option that is becoming more popular for seated dinners are to have them served family-style. Whether the whole meal or just the sides, it is a compromise to giving the guests some options for their meal and encourages interaction between the guests at their tables.

Dinner Stations

This is one of my favorite options. Dinner stations allow for you to get creative with your food choices, and provides your guests with multiple choices and usually the opportunity to customize their meal options. Have fun with your station choices: Chinese lo mien station, Sushi station, Macaroni station,  Satay/Kabob station and a few carving stations. Have 4-5 different food choices. Make sure to have 2 of each station to avoid lines.

This can be a bit costly, so you may consider doing 3 stations for cocktail hour. 

Chair Decor Galore!

Chair decor is often overlooked at the wedding, but the ideas are limitless. With a little creativity you can transform a chair into a gorgeous piece of your wedding decor. Sashes, ribbons, signs and chair covers come in different material, textures and colors that you can manipulate and mix and match to compliment your wedding vision. Here are some of my favorite looks for chairs for your ceremony and reception:

The First Dance: Choosing a Song

Photography by Kevin Weinstein

By: Amber Cooper (@TheHoneyLife)

For many couples the first dance is where they can finally decompress and take in their newlywed status, if only for a few minutes. After much socializing and picture-taking, to be in the arms of your beloved as your guests quietly look on can be a true "Cinderella"-moment.

Here are 15 of my favorite songs (in no particular order) for The First Dance:

1. "Like a Star" - Corinne Bailey Rae
2. "The Look of Love" - Diana Krall
3. "Spend My Life With You" - Eric Benet
4. "All of Me" - John Legend
5. "The Only Reason" - JP Cooper
6. "Whenever Wherever Whatever" - Maxwell
7. "Our Love is Easy" - Melody Gardot
8. "Unforgettable"-  Nat King Cole
9. "Collide"-  Nayanna Holley
10."Baby It's U"-  Brian McKnight
11."Imposible Vivir Sin Ti" - Buena Vista Social Club
12."If I Never Get To Heaven" - Javier
13."Lovers Rock" - Sade
14."That's Where It's At" - Sam Cooke
15. "So Amazing" - Luther Vandross

As you can see I'm a bit of a classic R&B/jazz-head. If you're more of the country or classic rock-type check out these posts from The Knot!

Wedding Songs: 35 Country-Flavored First Dance Songs
Wedding Songs: 33 Rockin' First Dance Songs

How to Determine The Size Of The Dancefloor?

In a previous blog post (here) I provide tips on how to choose your perfect venue. One important tip I provide for couples is to remember that your dancefloor will take up some of the space on that special night. Need some help figuring the size of your dancefloor? Here is a chart to help you figure out which dimensions are perfect so your guests can party the night away.

                                                                    50 guests: 12' x 12'

                                                                   100 guests: 12' x 20'

                                                                   150 guests: 14' x 14'
                                                                   200 guests: 16' x 28'
                                                                   300 guests: 26' x 26'

                                                                   400 guests: 30' x 30'

                                                                   550 guests:  36' x 36'

* Remember, approximately half of the guests will be on the dance floor at the time. This chart gives you an approximation of the dimensions needed for dancing. Choose the dimension closest to your guest count.

Late-Night Wedding Snacks

After a night of dancing (and some drinking!), nothing is better than a late-night snack. A bride and groom treating their guests to a delicious treat near the end of the night is a perfect surprise! These yummy delights will satisfy those late night munchies, while giving tiring guests a quick energy boost. Get creative with your snack ideas! A unique flavor added to a favorite, or offering a treat that remind guests of their childhood, you can't go wrong with more food! Now on to the good part of the post:

The perfect mix of salt and carbohydrates, nothing tastes better late at night than some hot french fries with some ketchup after a night of partying and fun.

I couldn't mention french fries without writing about hamburgers. Do I have to say anything else about this American classic?

Remember those nights of grabbing a slice with your friends? Have servers bring out a few pies with different toppings a, but don't forget the extra cheese! 

This is a personal favorite of mine. You are never to old to enjoy some cookies and a cold glass of milk. To make it a bit more grown-up, provide milk in a reasonable quantity within a shot glass. But bring the cookie down to scale for easy dunking.

Floats never go out of style. Offer root beer floats and coca-cola floats as well. You can also offer a float station for guests to make their own, because the only thing more fun than drinking a float, is making one.

Bring the fun part of the carnival to your guests. Have cotton-candy in your wedding colors. Allow guests to add spices to their popcorn: Salt, sugar, paprika, cinnamon, cayenne pepper or cheese powder. The choices are endless.

Have a favorite burger joint? Taco shop? BBQ shack?  Consider a food truck. The food truck sensation is sweeping the nation. The experience is as fun as the food.

Ice Cream sandwiches. Create variety with different cookies and different ice cream flavors. 

You want sweet and salty? Chicken and waffles are the only sensible answer of course. Enough said.

Coffee and donuts provide a sweet snack and caffeine for a pick-me-up. Perfect combination to keep the party going for a few more hours.