Year in Review

This year has been a rather fruitful one for us. We had a busy summer and fall working on weddings, in fact, we just had our last wedding of the year a couple of weeks ago! This year, we had the opportunity to work on our largest wedding ever, more than 500 people, and also our smallest weddding so far, about 40 people. Regardless of the size of the weddings though, we enjoyed working on the weddings because of the couples; they are some of the nicest couples we got to work with this year.

As a result of these weddings, we also got to work with some new wedding vendors as well. We will be posting pictures from some of our weddings this year so do check back soon!

One thing we are looking forward to next year is the ACPWC E.P.I.C. 2011 Conference, where we are in charge of working on the Events Professional Showcase portion. This national conference is to empower event professionals to establish greater success through education, awareness, support, and motivation, thus building confidence and credibility. We will have more information about this conference in a future blog.

It's time for us to recharge our batteries over the holiday season so that we are prepared for the next year of weddings and special events. Hope you all have a great holiday season as well!

ACPWC Salsa Dance & Dinner Fundraiser

Please join us for a Caliente Fundraiser event hosted by ACPWC (Association of Certified Professional Wedding Consultants)

Date: Thursday, November 11 at 6:00pm - November 12 at 2:00am
Location: Azucar Latin Bistro - 71 E San Fernando Street, San Jose, CA

A night filled with dancing, good food, salsa lessons, WHILE helping ACPWC raise funds for their 2011 EPIC Conference. A conference which empowers event professionals to establish greater success through education, awareness, support, motivation-building confidence and credibility.

Your choice of a package:
...
Dinner, Salsa lessons, Show and Dancing (includes 1 drink): $55.00pp

Salsa lessons, Dancing, Show and Appetizers (includes 1 drink): $30.00pp

Please RSVP to events@elegantoccasions.us. Once we receive your RSVP, you will be emailed a link to purchase your tickets.

Tickets may also be purchased for cash at the door. Door sales will be $65.00 and $40.00.

Please feel free to bring a guest(s) and to share this invitation.

There will also be raffle tickets available to purchase for a chance to win many prizes. We will be giving away gift certificates for Horseback Riding, Cake Expressions, Photography, Night at the Hilton San Jose and many, many more!

Parking is on 2nd and San Fernando and is about $5.00 per car.

Our sponsors for this event are Azucar Latin Bistro, Loves Cupcakes and The Card Lady.

The Secret Garden Tea Party Fundraiser

You are invited to attend The Secret Garden Tea Party Fundraiser, hosted by Association of Certified Professional Wedding Consultants.

The ACPWC is sponsoring a Tea party fundraiser for all to enjoy on Sunday, October 3rd, 2010.

The Tea party will be held at The Guglielmo Winery with the proceeds going to benefit The Ainsley House and The Fattal Foundation.

Come enjoy an afternoon at Guglielmo Winery filled with delectable goodies, exciting raffles, and a silent auction.

The Grand Prize of the raffle is "A Night Out On the Town" which includes a limousine, a (1) one night stay at the Hilton in Downtown San Jose and dinner.

Tickets are $40 for adults and $20 for children 3-12 years.

RSVP by Friday, September 24, 2010. Click here to register.

Blog interview from Judy Lee of Iridescence Bridal Couture

We had the opportunity to work with Judy Lee, owner of Iridescence Bridal Couture and creative director of an all-occasion bridesmaid dress collection called ju.lee for The Free Pamper Yourself special event earlier this year.

She did a mini-interview with me afterwards, just thought you may like to read all about it here.

Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Downtown Napa staycation - Part II

Usually, a highlight of any of my vacations is trying out great restaurants. This time, my hubby and I got to try 2 great ones; Bottega and Redd, both in Yountville.

Bottega is owned by Michael Chiarello, well-known for his TV shows on Food Network and Top Chef Masters shows. At Bottega, the cuisine is defined as "micro-regional Italian cuisine"; selecting the best dishes from across Italy and anchoring them with artisanal, heritage, or house-made ingredients.

We even caught a glimpse of the famous chef himself in the parking lot! We were trying to find a parking spot and lo and behold, we saw this man in chef whites walking towards the restaurant. Could it be? Yes, it was him alright! As we drove closer to him, I quickly rolled down my passenger-side window and shouted out to him "Hi chef!". He turned around and looked at us, trying to see if he recognizes us. Then I said "We're big fans and are trying your restaurant out for the first time." He was very gracious and wished us a good time inside. I wish I had taken a quick photo of him but I think it would have been weird and honestly, I was too star-struck to even think about it at that time...

On to our dinner, we decided to go with the following dishes:

Pecorino cheese pudding with crispy soft-boiled egg and forno roasted rapini

Polenta Under Glass, caramelized wild mushrooms with balsamic game sauce

Smoked Pasta with porcini mushrooms (One of the specials that day)

Adriatic Seafood Brodetto monkfish, mussels, rock cod and fresh Monterey calamari, forno-confit tomato broth, olive oil-crouton, paprika-saffron rouille

Vanilla Goat’s Milk Panna Cotta with saffron kumquat marmelleta and passionfruit citrus gelee

My favorites were the polenta and pasta dishes. The polenta was creamy and with the balsamic game sauce, it was the perfect comfort food. The pasta was just very earthy with all the mushrooms and I never had pasta that was smoked before so that added an interesting nuance to the dish. Needless to say, we were happily stuffed and rolled on our way back to our hotel.

The next day, we returned to Yountville for lunch at Redd. Redd is the complete opposite of Bottega, both in terms of the decor inside and the cuisine. Where Bottega evokes a warm and cozy feel in its dining room, Redd offers a more contemporary and casual feel in its open layout. Their cuisine is an "updated interpretation of wine country cuisine with influences from Asia, Europe, and Mexico in a relaxed yet elegant environment."

We were quite full from dinner last night but still wanted to try their specialties so we had the following:

Glazed pork belly, apple purée, burdock, soy caramel

Sashimi of hamachi, sticky rice, edamame, lime ginger sauce

Steamed pork buns, hoisin, vegetable salad

Dark chocolate pot de creme, hazelnut mousse, warm beignets

My favorites this time were the pork belly and dessert. I am a sucker for pork belly, and am drawn to any kind of pork belly dish on a menu. The ones here were so soft and tender that again, it's like comfort food to me. And for the dessert, the combination of the dark chocolate sauce and hazelnut mousse was what did it for me, it was so good that I did not need the beignets, just give me another glass of that and a spoon and I'm good!

If you think all we did in Napa was eat, that's not entirely true... We did visit a couple of wineries in the area and I am going to leave you with this picture that summarizes what the wine country means to me.

Bella Bridesmaids: Jenny Yoo August Sale

Jenny Yoo is offering a Perfect Sale for the Perfect Dress! For the month of August take an additional 15% off any Jenny Yoo Collection orders. This sale includes all bridal, bridesmaid, flower girl and junior bridesmaid dresses! Don't miss this amazing event at Bella Bridesmaid!

To schedule an appointment:
Call (408)399-4649 or email losgatos@bellabridesmaid.com

Address: 465 N. Santa Cruz Ave. Suite A, Los Gatos, CA, 95030

Downtown Napa staycation - Part I

A few weeks ago, my husband and I took off to Napa Valley for a mini vacation. It is nice to take little breaks like this just to take in new surroundings and rejuvenate yourself. We have been to Napa Valley before and each time, we try to go to different areas, this time, we are focusing on downtown Napa.

We stayed at this new boutique hotel in downtown Napa called AVIA. I like that it has a contemporary yet warm feel to it; the color palette in the guest rooms consists of various shades of brown, chocolate with accents of moss green. On their website, they describe it as "rustically elegant". I love the bathroom too! It is big and bright as they use Eastern White marble over the entire bathroom, including the oversized walk-in shower. Bathrooms in hotels are very important to me, if it's too small or outdated-looking, that can break the deal for me.

As it was lunchtime soon after checking in, we decided to take a stroll through downtown Napa to get to the Oxbow Public Market, a smaller market kind of like the Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco.

After walking around the entire market, we decided to have lunch at Pica Pica Maize Kitchen. This place serves up Venezuelan cuisine and favorites such as the arepa; a grilled corn flour cake, the cachapa; a sweet corn pancake and the maize'wich; a sweet corn bread. Basically, you choose one of the three breads and then one of the many different stuffings available to make a sandwich.

We chose to have the chorizo capacha (left) and the pulled pork maize'wich (right) with a side of yucca fries (middle).

Both sandwiches were pretty good, I like how the sweetness of the corn contrast with the savory-ness of the meats. I did not try the yucca fries but my husband said that they were good!

In the evening, we went to the Chef's Market that was taking place just a block away from our hotel. For a Thursday night, we were quite surprised at how many people actually showed up at this outdoor event. It is like a farmer's market with live entertainment and cooking demonstrations. We tried the cherries at different stands, wine-infused jams and preserves and sat through a cooking demonstration of ahi tuna tartare salad. At the end of the demonstration, they gave out samplings of the dish and even complimentary sauvignon blanc to go with the dish! This is Napa after all...

Stay tuned for the second part of my recap as we visited Michael Chiarello's Bottega Restaurant and Redd in Yountville!

Wedding Jewelry Giveaway From One World Designs

Bonnie Harper from One World Designs is an amazing jewelry and wedding accessories designer. I had a chance to work with her on The Free Pamper Yourself Event earlier this year and was blown away by her beautiful work and warm personality.

Starting today through next Thursday, July 2nd, she is having a 'Wedding Jewelry Giveaway', where she will be gifting two $150 gift vouchers toward the purchase of any of her jewelry and accessories! Check out this blog on details on how to enter for the drawing.

Good luck!

Destination Weddings at Silicon Valley NACE May Meeting

The other continuing education event I attended last month was held by the Silicon Valley NACE chapter at the Silver Creek Valley Country Club in San Jose. I was really looking forward to this event as there was going to be a panel of wedding industry professionals who were going to talk about destination weddings and high-end celebrations.

The theme of the event was Alice in Wonderland and it was perfectly conceptualized in the main ballroom of Silver Creek Valley Country Club, where we spent the main portion of our time that evening.

Check out the centerpieces!

Dinner at Silver Creek Valley Country Club never disappoints; for salad, we had mixed baby greens, artichokes, tomatoes and carrot curls with balsamic dressing.

For the entree, we had petit filet mignon, roasted shallots with Merlot reduction sauce, garlic herb potato au gratin and fresh seasonal vegetables.

For dessert, we had yummy mini cupcakes from Jen's Cakes.

After dinner, we awaited excitedly to hear from the panel of speakers; planner Sasha Souza of Sasha Souza Events; videographer Andrew Hsu, of Studio MSV; baker Jen Kwapinski, of Jen's Cakes; and photographer Brook Todd, of Alisha + Brook Photographers. They shared valuable information regarding what issues to watch out for in planning and coordinating destination weddings. Do you know that you have to pay customs tax for flowers you bring into certain countries? Do you know what kind of wedding professionals you should hire locally and whom you should hire from where you are located? That is definitely useful information to know beforehand!

I think this event has been very informative and it's nice to see how other wedding professionals work with destination weddings.

Lula Kate Trunk Show at Bella Bridesmaid Los Gatos

You're invited to see the latest in bridesmaid dresses from Lula Kate at Bella Bridesmaid Los Gatos!

Start Time: Saturday, June 19, 2010 at 10:00am
End Time: Sunday, June 20, 2010 at 6:00pm

Address: 465 N. Santa Cruz Ave. Suite A, Los Gatos, CA, 95030

Sip complimentary champagne cocktails and enjoy:
- 10% off orders placed by June 30th, 2010

To reserve an appointment:
Call (408)399-4649 or email losgatos@bellabridesmaid.com

For more information, please visit Bella Bridesmaid.

Alix & Kelly Trunk Show at Bella Bridesmaid Los Gatos

You're invited to see the latest in bridesmaid dresses from Alix & Kelly at Bella Bridesmaid Los Gatos!

Start Time: Saturday, May 22, 2010 at 10:00am
End Time: Sunday, May 23, 2010 at 6:00pm

Address: 465 N. Santa Cruz Ave. Suite A, Los Gatos, CA, 95030

Sip complimentary champagne cocktails and enjoy:
- 10% off orders placed by June 6th, 2010

To reserve an appointment:
Call (408) 399-4649 or email losgatos@bellabridesmaid.com

For more information: please visit Bella Bridesmaid.

ACPWC May Meeting

What a whirlwind past few weeks it has been! After completing my biggest wedding yet (500+ guests!) a couple of weeks ago, I also attended 2 continuing education meetings/events, the first one held at We and Our Neighbors Club clubhouse in San Jose, hosted by ACPWC.

We and Our Neighbors Club clubhouse is a San Jose Historic Landmark and a well-kept secret. It is a Craftsman style bungalow and started out as a meeting place for a women's club in 1892. It is still in use today by several Scout troops and can be rented for special events at a minimal cost.

The main room can accomodate 80 people, there is a small stage area and an upright McPhail piano that is in place and still in use.

This evening, we had floral arrangements sponsored by Christine Le of Pink Lincoln Designs, linens and chair covers by Blanca Samano of A Touch Of Elegance and dinner provided by Michi Sushi.

I love the color combination of Christine's gorgeous centerpieces!

The amazing dinner was a 7 course meal that consisted of salad, appetizers, assorted nigiri and rolls.

The sushi was ultra fresh as Michi brought a sushi bar to the venue.

Our speaker for this meeting was Karmen Reed of Kickoff Topic, a Social Media Marketing Solutions company. Karmen is a social marketing expert and educates, coaches and consults small businesses and entrepreneurs on maximizing the benefits of social media marketing. She taught us about Facebook, LinkedIn and Youtube in particular. Social media is so important for small businesses nowadays, I am still learning about the benefits and how to harness the power of using social media.

Stay tuned for future posts of 1) the other continuing education event I attended this week and 2) of my biggest wedding so far!

Fire Safety, Anyone?

Last Tuesday night, I attended the Silicon Valley NACE meeting at the Stanford Faculty Club in Palo Alto to hear Natti Pierce-Thomson give a presentation on fire and electrical safety in the events industry. She is the President and Senior Lighting Designer of North American Theatre Technology. (You may recall that Natti also provided the lighting at the ACPWC meeting in February.) One of the first ETCP Certified Entertainment Electricians, Natti is also a member of the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association). Who better to teach us on fire and electricity safety than Natti!

She gave plenty of useful tips and information to teach us about how to use extension cords properly, what kind of extension cords to use and not to use in different situations and how to check if a piece of fabric is flammable, among other things. She also showed us the latest in LED lighting technology. Lots of useful information! I also learned that there is a product that is essentially a single-use fire extinguisher about the size of a water bottle. Guess what I'll be adding to my bridal emergency bag from now on!

If you look closely at the centerpiece, you can see that different kind of extension cords have been incorporated and would later be used in Natti's presentation, how clever!

For dinner, we started with an artichoke carpaccio and mâche salad with shaved Parmesan, tomato concassé and balsamic vinaigrette.

The entree was a duet entree consisting of Painted Hills Natural Angus petit filet mignon topped with frizzled leeks and filet of halibut with lemon thyme beurre blanc with white and green asparagus and Gruyère potato strudel.

After the entree, we were treated to a cheese course; various Cowgirl Creamery cheeses with lavender honey, quince paste and herbed flatbread.

Last but not least, the dessert was an Opera cake; layers of almond sponge cake with coffee buttercream and chocolate ganache.

All in all, good food, excellent presentation, getting to meet new event professionals and catching up with old ones, what more can one ask for?

Preferred vendor at Harding Park Golf Course!

I'm proud to let everyone know that Enchanting Events is now a preferred vendor at Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco!

Harding Park Golf Course is a hidden gem in San Francisco, it was the site for The Presidents Cup in October of 2009. It is actually located in the southern end of San Francisco, close to Daly City, which makes it easily accessible from both the North Bay or South Bay.

Outdoor wedding ceremonies held here overlook serene Lake Merced and wedding receptions are held at the Clubhouse, which is built in 2005 and has floor to ceiling windows. What makes this site great too is that you do not need to be a member to have your wedding here and there is plenty of complimentary parking available.

If you are looking for a wedding site that has incredible views, a fabulous catering manager and staff, no parking issues and is easily accessible, this is the place!

Harding Park Golf Course Wedding Open House

 

Photo by: FIMA Photography

Date: Saturday, March 27, 2010
Time: 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Location: Harding Park Golf Course Clubhouse, 99 Harding Road, San Francisco

Great chance to meet local vendors!
Photographers, DJ, Limo, Florals, Tablesettings, Cake, Hotels, Wedding Planners, Formal Wear & much more!

*Complementary Wine & Hors d'oeuvres*

Free Admission * No RSVP Required
For More Information: Contact Bridget Buck
(415) 664.4690 x112
bbuck@kempersports.com
http://www.harding-park.com/

National Raise Awareness Week - Wish Upon A Wedding

Followers of my blog will recall that in January, I posted about America’s first non-profit wedding wish granting organization Wish Upon A Wedding. Since this week is their National Raise Awareness Week, I like to give you some updates about this organization.

As of my previous post about Wish Upon A Wedding, there are now twenty chapters nationwide, (with more chapters opening soon in Colorado, Arizona, Portland, Miami, St. Louis, Ohio and Nevada) headed by some of the industry’s most renowned leaders:

Presidents:
• Sasha Souza, National
• Kevin Covey, LA/Orange County
• Stella Inserra, New York
• Ivy Robinson, The Carolinas
• Eliana Baucicault, Atlanta
• Mary Alice Sublett, Tennessee
• Heather Hamilton Sims, Houston
• Shelby Tuck Horton, DC
• Elisa Delgardio, Orlando
• Ali Phillips, Chicago
• Daniela Fageʹ́t  Seattle

For those wishing to qualify for Wishes, you must be unmarried legal citizens of the United States, over the age of 18, who have been diagnosed with less than three years to live.

To apply online, please click here to request one of three wedding types: URGENT (Up to 10 guests, in hospital or at bedside); BOUTIQUE (up to 25 guests, in home town of applicant); ROMANTIC (Up to 50 guests, at any WUW destination).

For those wanting to be Wish Granters, please click here for more information on how to start helping them make Wedding Wishes come true.

Wish Upon A Wedding's first wish recipients are Florence and Michael, hailing from Elk Grove, CA, who will be getting married March 13. To read about their amazing story, please click here.

Press Mention!

The Free Pamper Yourself Event last Sunday was a success! I'm so glad all our hard work paid off!

Wedshare.com's bloggers came to cover the event , wrote a blog about it and Enchanting Events was mentioned in it. Do check it out for a review of the event... Thanks to Crystal and Jason for coming by and for the wonderful blog!

I will also like to thank my amazing planning team: Arlene Marcos from Ah...New Beginnings and Judy Lee from Iridescence Bridal Couture, could not have done this without you ladies!

Also, thanks to Philippe Lee of Jade Studio Productions for hosting the event at their Treasure Island studio and all the participating vendors for contributing their skills and talents!

Quail Lodge Resort and Golf Club

Last Thursday, I drove down to Carmel for a site visit and lunch at Quail Lodge Resort and Golf Club.

Greeted by Nick DelPozzo, the Senior Sales Manager, I was welcomed warmly and with lots of smiles. We started off with lunch first as it was already 1pm. We had lunch at the Edgar's restaurant located at the clubhouse and were seated by the window with a wonderful view of the golf course. We both had the Thai-style steak salad with mixed greens, arugula, cherry tomatoes and lime ginger cilantro dressing.

It was light and delicious! For dessert, I had the Valrhona Chocolate Cake, basically, it was a molten chocolate cake, served with vanilla bean ice cream on the side, in an almond tuile cup. I'm so glad I had a salad for the entree as the dessert was sinfully rich and totally satisfied any chocolate craving I had! Kudos to chef Julio Ramirez for the awesome lunch! (He even stopped by our table to say hello.)

After lunch, it was off to the site tour, we met up with Kui Maluki, the Events Manager, to start the tour. We started off with the Peninsula Ballroom and Oak Room. The Peninsula Ballroom holds 180 comfortably with a dance floor. It has cathedral ceilings, 3 walls of windows and an outdoor terrace that overlooks the golf course.

Next to the Peninsula Ballroom is a foyer area which can be used for cocktail hour. Adjacent to that is the Oak Room, it also has an outdoor terrace and can be used as a babysitting area for children attending weddings.

The good thing about Quail Lodge is they only hold one event per day so once you book it for your wedding, you can have total access to their event space and not worry about having to share the space with another couple.

After that, we were off to see the outdoor ceremony site, Quail Meadows, which is just a couple of minutes drive away from the clubhouse. We approached the site through the Barn Loft, which is a rustic building where couples can hold a cocktail hour in the outdoor patio immediately following their ceremony.

Having your ceremony on the lawn at Quail Meadows, you get views of the nearby lake and the tree-covered hillsides. It is very secluded and private and offers a serene setting for a lovely ceremony. You can even choose to have your reception outdoors at Quail Meadows as well.

Here is a view of the lawn from upstairs at the Barn Loft, so gorgeous!

For you dog lovers, the other great point to bring up about Quail Lodge is they are pet-friendly! You can have your furry four-legged buddy as your ringbearer, no problem at all. During lunch, Nick mentioned about an event they have at Halloween called "The Howl-O-Ween Dog Paw-ty". It's a party for dogs and their owners where they have food (for both people and pooches), costume competitions, a dog fashion show and muscial entertainment. How cool is that!

I want to thank Nick and Kui for their gracious hospitality and for spending time with me and telling me all about Quail Lodge!