My day at The Wedding Symposium

Last Saturday, I had the honor of hearing celebrity event designer Preston Bailey speak on event design at a workshop at The Wedding Symposium held in conjunction with The Wedding Faire at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Like a giddy schoolgirl, I was star-struck with the sight of Preston and it felt really surreal to be in the same room as him. Listening to him speak, I realized that he is a really down-to-earth, funny kind of guy; no celebrity attitude, just a normal expert telling us stories about himself, his business, his past, current and future projects. It was very enlightening to hear about his sucesses and failures and how his business grew into the conglomerate that it is today. The one thing I love about Preston is his over-the-top designs; all the design slides he showed in the workshop generated oohs and aahs from us, they were so amazing! What can I say? Preston Bailey, you are truly an inspiration!



Mr Fabulous himself!

After his workshop, I had some spare time before The Wedding Lunch, so I went to check out the Design Gallery in The Wedding Faire.


ACPWC booth at The Wedding Faire



Classic Party Rentals and Pico Soriano Designs



Amazae Special Events and Nicole Ha Designs

Hartmann Studios



Napa Valley Linens

The next event I was looking forward to that day was The Wedding Lunch. We were able to view table designs by celebrity event designers Sasha Souza, Bryan Rafanelli, Nikki Khan, and Preston Bailey too. Sasha Souza also gave a presentation on her Favorite Things for brides, wedding professionals and weddings in general. I had heard her speak last year at the ACPWC EPIC Conference and it was interesting to hear how she runs her business and deal with her clients. She didn't disappoint again, I walked away with useful tips that I cannot wait to try.

Rafanelli Events with Amazae Special Events



Nikki Khan from Exquisite Events



Poppy's Petalworks (recreating a Preston Bailey signature design)



I also bought a copy of Preston's latest book, Preston Bailey Flowers, and got it signed by the master himself! All in all, time well spent on a beautiful Saturday...

2011 in Review and Happy 2012!

Are we already in 2012, what happened to 2011? I don't know about you but time seems to have flown by really quickly the past year. Let's recap some of our highlights for 2011:

In February, we participated and helped organize and manage the Event Professionals Showcase at the ACPWC E.P.I.C. 2011 Conference which was received warmly by the participating event professionals.

We had 2 memorable weddings in June. Firstly, we had our most challenging wedding to date; what we like to refer to as our "warehouse wedding" now, which was recently published at Wedloft. Later that month, we had our first Marie-Antoinette-themed wedding at the San Francisco Fairmont Hotel. It was a blast designing that wedding with our bride, we promise photos will be posted in the upcoming months!

In October, we were able to help coordinate a wedding for a dear friend of ours, who is also a wedding planner, and also took some time off for a vacation in Rome and Florence (blog coming soon!).

In December, we launched our Facebook Fan Page (do check it out if you haven't already), where we hope to interact more closely with our clients and vendors.

Looking ahead, we look forward to working on this year's weddings, keeping you posted on our chronicles and like to wish you all an awesome year ahead!

ACPWC EPIC Conference 2011

What a February it has been! I spent most of my time working on the ACPWC EPIC Conference, specifically the Events Professional Showcase that took place on Friday, and am so happy that the entire Conference was a huge success. Both attendees and vendors alike commented on how valuable the information gained from the workshops are; I know I personally learnt a lot of useful information that I cannot wait to implement into my own business.

It was a lot of hard work but I'm so glad that it paid off! The Showcase reminded me of the event that I helped plan last year, the Free Pamper Yourself Event. We also had different types of vendors showcase their products and services. It looks like I had been doing a showcase each February for the past 2 years, wonder what next February will bring.

Without further ado, here are some photos I'd like to share with you:

Registration table on Friday morning

  

Breakfast table Friday morning with linens by Exquisite Party Rental

 

Opening address by ACPWC Director Deborah Moody

Vendor Showcase at The Poolside Pavilion at Hyatt Regency

Vendor Showcase at The Poolside Pavilion at Hyatt Regency

Lounge area for the Gala on Saturday night (by North American Theatre Technology and furniture from Stuart Rental)

The Poolside Pavilion transformed for the Gala

Table setup (Chairs and linens from Stuart Rental, centerpiece from Citti's and North American Theatre Technology)

Happy 2011!

Happy New Year!

The time between this post and my last post seemed to have flown by in an instant, I guess that is what happens when you take a vacation to rejuvenate yourself. My husband and I went to Hong Kong and Singapore to visit families over the holidays and spent Christmas and New Year in a warmer climate, good times.

Now that the new year has begun, I look forward to the ACPWC E.P.I.C. 2011 Conference, which is coming up next month. To all you small business owners out there, I highly encourage you to check it out, we have an amazing lineup of speakers and workshops.

In regards to Enchanting Events, we are continuing to enhance our services to brides and grooms to better assist them with their wedding planning needs. We are very excited about the upcoming changes and cannot wait to share them with you soon!

In the upcoming couple of months, we will also be posting about our favorite weddings from the past year, so please stay tuned! Wishing all of you a happy, healthy and safe 2011!

(And just because I am still reminiscing about my Christmas vacation, I leave you with a picture of me taken in Hong Kong.)

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.