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!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

When I think of Valentine's Day, I think of sweet stuff; candy you give your special someone, sweet nothings you whisper in each other's ears... I also think of romance and that leads me to think of Paris, the most romantic city in the world (in my opinion). And when I think of Paris, I think of my favorite cookie, the French macaron.

My favorite French macaron is called the Ispahan, it's basically a French macaron with a combination of rose, raspberries and lychee flavors that blend together so beautifully. The Ispahan is created by Pierre Herme, a very talented French pastry chef, who I think is the god of French macarons. (That reminds me, I better get started on working on one of my New Year's resolutions.)

I am going to leave you with this photo of a heart-shaped Ispahan by Pierre Herme, wishing you all things sweet today!

Photo credit: PierreHerme.com