Featured ~ Fun Cakes by Kimberly Aya

A new trend is emerging in the wedding industry...fake cakes! But not only that but with Fun Cakes you can design your own cake and rent it for your wedding day.

Fun Cakes owner, Kimberly Aya has been decorating cakes for years. She has been trained under Colette Peters in the art of gumpaste and fondant and is even a teacher herself, teaching classes on cake decorating.

Here's the concept, the outside of the cake is decorated just like a real one, with gumpaste and fondant it's just the inside that is different. The form of the cake is styrofoam so there is no rush, no timelines, no worry of slipping or falling. You have the option of either designing your own personalized cake or using one of the pre-designed styles available. The cost can be up to half the price of a real cake and the design can be much more elaborate. There is a little hidden compartment in the back of the cake where you can put a piece of real cake or even Twinkies to use for the "cake cutting" and then just wheel it in the back and serve up inexpensive sheetcake to the guests.

The cake will be shipped to you in a specially designed box and will arrive to you a day or two before the wedding. If you are renting the cake all you have to do after the wedding is box it back up and ship it back, easy as that!

Fun Cakes owner, Kimberly Aya and her cakes have been featured on The Today Show, Live with Regis and Kelly, The Rachel Ray show and Live at Five in Grand Rapids, to name a few.

Exhausted

One more long weekend under the belt. One more long, exhausting weekend under the belt. All of you other wedding planners out there know exactly what I mean. My feet hurt, my back hurts and I think I'm slightly dehydrated from the heat yesterday. I put every skill and talent I have to work yesterday, decorating, communication, coordination, even waitressing!

Being a wedding coordinator isn't all fun and games, it's not all about glitz and glamour. Honestly, it is the complete opposite. Anyone that is seriously in the biz knows exactly what I mean. We are there behind the scenes, not making ourselves look good but making the bride and groom shine.

Recently, with all the TV shows focusing on wedding coordinators, anyone and everyone that has ever been to a wedding thinks they can handle the job. They see the shows and think it "looks like so much fun". Even my own friends and family say that when I talk about what I do, no one has a clue how stressful it can be.

It is a fun job, it is one of the most satisfying things I have ever done, having a bride and groom tell you at the end of the night "it would not have happened without you", it's an amazing feeling. But I want to caution anyone thinking about joining the "team", it's a hard job. It is exhausting, physically and mentally, you have to be on your toes and the top of your game at every moment. You have to be willing to do anything and everything to make sure the day goes off without a hitch: willing to clean up other people's garbage, willing to put tables and chairs away at the end of the night, willing to crawl around on your hands and knees in your dress clothes and willing to spend 12 hours or more on your feet. It's a serious job and it needs to be taken seriously.

Before jumping into the deep end, I encourage perspective planners to take a course or two or shadow or intern for an experienced planner to get your feet wet. Please don't do a trial run on someone else's big day.

This has been a hot topic with other wedding planners around the country as well, please check out these blog postings Amber Events, Confessions of the Wedding Diva and Destination...Soiree! Thank you ladies for putting this topic out there.

Real Wedding ~ Lanya & Minh

I had the great pleasure of working with a very sweet couple this weekend, Lanya and Minh.

Ceremony: Morningside Park

Reception: Evergreen Commons

Florist: Picket Fence Flowers

Photographer: Nicole Skaggs

Cake: DeBoer Cafe & Bakery

Chair Covers: Celebration Central

The day started out for me at 9am, running last minute errands for the bride. Picking up more centerpiece bowls and sand at Hobby Lobby, picking up balloons and hunting down handheld fans for the guests at the ceremony. After running all over Holland I spent a few hours at the reception site setting up the tables, decorating the head and cake tables and make sure everything was just perfect for the couple. I finally was able to meet with Carol from Celebration Central when she came to set up the chair covers, and they turned out just gorgeous!

It was such a beautiful day...a little warm and sunny but better than rain! After setting up at the hall I headed over to the ceremony location. Morningside Park is such a cute spot for a wedding and great for pictures too. The ceremony was intimate and very personal, the couple said their vows to each other and poured sand in their wedding colors together to show the blending of their lives.

The reception was a new experience for me, the bride and groom incorporated a lot of their cultural traditions into the event. The Laos food was catered in by some friends of the mother of the bride and wow, there was so much food! The evening was led off by a beautiful Thai dancer, music from both a traditional local band and a great DJ. The couple had two first dances, one in the traditional Laos style and one in the American style, with the bride wearing different dresses for each.

I had so much fun working with both Lanya and Minh and meeting their families and friends was just wonderful. Thank you Lanya and Minh for letting me be a part of your day!

The Knot magazine - Michigan edition

Yeah!! I was just at the store and found the newest copy of the Knot Magazine the Michigan edition, it's the Fall/Winter 2008 issue...isn't it only June?

Anyways, I was so excited to flip through it and see a couple of Real Weddings from here in Grand Rapids. A few local vendor's work was listed such as Gail VanderLaan Floral, Dusty Brown Photography, Ben Harrison Photography, Noel Restaurant, and more.

These pictures are from one of the featured weddings, photography by Kelly Sweet Photography, the floral arrangements are from Gail VanderLaan Floral, the ceremony was at the Kuyper College Vos Chapel and the cake was from Noel Restaurant.

I love to see local vendors getting advertised in bigger publications! Great work guys!

Cutting the Guest List

Having a hard time cutting back your guest list? Does your fiance want to invite everyone he has ever met? When couples are trying to stick to a hard budget cutting back the guest list can mean a huge savings. The difference between 100 and 125 guests doesn't sound like a lot but that is 25 more meals, 3-4 more tables and centerpieces, more favors, more invitations, programs and menus. Sounds a little different when you put it that way, doesn't it? Here are a few tips on making the tough decision of who to leave off the final list:

1. Make a preliminary guest list as early as you can. This will help narrow down venues that can accommodate your wedding.

2. Before you ask your future in-laws to submit a list, give them parameters upfront to avoid confusion later. Break the guest list down into percentages, say you and your fiance have 50%, your parents get 25% and his parents get 25%. This can be adjusted with family sizes, if you have a very large family and he has a small family as well.

3. Remember the people that mean the most to you, as much as you will want to talk with everyone you may not be able too. Trying to give everyone equal face time with you will take away time from the people you most want to celebrate with.

4. Because an acquaintance invited you to their wedding 5 years ago and that was the last time you have spoken with them, you don't have to "repay" them but inviting them to yours. There is no rule saying you have to use your wedding as a source to return favors.

5. You don't have to invite all of your co-workers, but be careful with this one, if you are constantly talking about your wedding in front of them you may hurt a lot of feelings when they don't receive the invitation. Be cautious about talking about your wedding plans in front of people you aren't inviting. The size and intimacy of where you work can affect this as well.

6. You should not feel compelled to add "and guest" to invitations sent to unmarried friends, especially is they have only been dating someone for a week. This also helps your friends who are single and are stressing about having to find a date just for your wedding.

7. Having an adults only wedding or limiting the guests to no children 12 and under will help cut back a lot too. Be careful when adding "and family" to an invite...some people may read this as everyone they are related to not just those in their immediate family. Specifically spell out who is invited on the envelope.

8. When going through your over sized guest list ask yourself this question "will I still know this person 2-5 years from now?" if not, then cut them from the list.

9. If you have a lot of out-of-town guests on the list, send out Save-the-Dates to get a feeler for who will be willing to make the trip and who will not.

10. If you are still having a dilemma on cutting back, make an A and a B list. Send out the invitations for the A list 8 weeks before the wedding, this will give you time to receive back any regrets and still give you time to replace those with guests from the B list. And no one will ever know which list they were on.

Don't forget this is YOUR wedding day, no one elses, you may feel pressure from people to invite guests that you don't plan on, you don't have to give in to that pressure. Taking care of the guest list early on will help relieve a lot of stress and help the rest of the planning to go much smoother.

Good Luck!

For the Love of ~ Organizing

Okay, I'm already self-aware that I'm a dork. I love to organize! Anything and everything. If you currently could see my office you wouldn't question that statement! But, that's exactly my point, right now my office is a mess because I'm making the invitations to my upcoming 30th birthday party (I'm so old!). My husband was thrilled when I said I wanted to plan it and I was just as thrilled that he didn't care...I wanted to organize every detail myself. Does that make me a little controlling or just good at my job? I prefer to think the second, but pretty sure it's a little of both.

I used to love playing in my dad's office when I was little, all the file cabinets and drawers, everything had it's place. I thought I wanted to be a teacher...but then I realized it was only because of all the office supplies they have. I LOVE office supplies!!! My favorite place in the office I used to work at was the supply room, stacks and stacks of Post-its what could be better!!! Who doesn't love sticky notes?!

I love to help couples organize all the details for their big day. Making lists of contacts, decor, vendors and especially time lines (using office supplies along the way, of course). My favorite part of my job is the final result, when all the details fall into place and witnessing the look on the bride's face when she can finally see her dream in reality.

The First Dance

I have to admit, I love when people are original and put themselves out there. One of my brides showed me a YouTube video of a couple's first dance. I love the first dance of a newlywed couple, it's always so sweet to see them out there dancing and whispering to each other. But you know what? It's never the memory that sticks with me when the night is done. I encourage couples to make it fun, make it memorable, make it you. Why not right? It's your big day, everyone is there to celebrate you, enjoy yourself.

Here's the link...please check it out, it's great.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dvIvHrsLvSM