It has been confirmed that Alan Ray Bridal in Dublin, Ohio has closed it’s doors – very suddenly and VERY quietly.  Unfortunately, this leaves many brides, bridesmaids and moms in a bad situation with a lot of money down the drain.

So, what if you are one of Alan Ray’s brides or maids who have ordered a gown but haven’t gotten it yet?  There are a few paths of recourse that I would suggest:

*If you paid by credit card, call your credit card company and try to get the changes reversed.  Sadly, this likely wouldn’t be the first time that they have dealt with this situation and so they should be able to help

*Call the designer of your gown and see if the order was even placed – sometimes in closing situations, money is taken from the customer but no orders are actually placed due to cash flow.  Basically, it is a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul and they are using your money to pay outstanding bills counting on another bride’s future order to pay for yours.  This is actually common and often SOP but if a company is in trouble with their suppliers, the situation can easily get out of control.  In this case, I have heard a lot of rumors of some orders that were placed with certain designers and not placed with others.

If the order has not been placed, you are likely out of luck with the designer and hopefully they can point you in the direction of a sample gown or someplace you can place a rush order (depending on how far from your wedding we’re talking).

If the order WAS placed, see if the designer is willing to deliver the dress to another shop who carries the same line.

*If you can’t get ahold of the designer, research other shops that carry the line – everyone in Columbus now knows what is going on and are going to be wiling to help out as much as they can.  For instance, the girls at La Jeune Mariee have offered to assist with the bridesmaids lines they had in common with Alan Ray including Watters and Dessy Group.

More than anything, please don’t panic – you will have a dress, no one is going to let you go down the aisle in sweat pants and an old t-shirt – I promise!  If Emilie Duncan Event Planning can help you with anything, please feel free to let us know and good luck!

Myth: A heavy hors d’oeuvres reception is a great way to save money and will always be cheaper than a plated dinner!

Reality: So not true!  Catering costs have several different components – the largest of the two would be food and labor. While half a red skin potato roasted and stuffed with blue cheese and sprinkled with herbs is smaller then a steak or chicken breast think about what goes into making each of them.  You have to halve the potato, roast them, scoop out the center without tearing the outside shell, fill it with blue cheese, put the right herbs on it and broil it to melt the cheese. Now repeat that 175 times.  Pretty labor intensive, right?  That would be why they tend to be a more expensive component of catering costs.

To get the same amount of food that a plated dinner would afford your guests, you will easily spend as much if not more on hors d’oeuvres!  If you don’t plan to give your guests a full meal, hors d’oeuvres can be a good way to cut costs but honestly, it won’t be by much.

Myth: Buffets are always cheaper than plated dinners.

Reality:  It really depends on the caterer and what meals you choose.  A plated dinner means more staffing is needed to ensure everyone is taken care of but a buffet means more food is needed to ensure that they don’t run out.  Plated dinners are portion controlled and the caterer knows that each person is getting one meal – a buffet is generally serve yourself and the caterer must account for the people who take extra servings of items including the main dish!

Check with your caterer to see what the costs really work out to be – you might be surprised!

What other myths do you see floating around regarding catering?  Any comments?  Feel free to chime in!

I don’t think anyone can deny the weather this winter has been weird – especially in Ohio!  We’ve had basically no snow and it was 80+ degrees in March.  Color me confused but not too upset I didn’t have to pull out the boots this year!

If you have your heart set on certain flowers for your wedding pay attention – that especially means all you ranunculus and peony lovers!  Look outside – see those tulips and daffodils already in bloom?  They’re early this year because of the wacky weather – it stands to reason that other flower growing seasons might be affected too.  Given this fact, there is a chance that some brides who are on the tail end of the traditional growing seasons might be out of luck.

On the flip side, if you were told by your florist that your wedding is too early for certain flowers, this weather might have worked in your favor!

Now bear in mind that all this really only applies to truly seasonal flowers.  Many varieties of flowers – roses, orchids, lilies, hydrangea, daisies and freesia to name a few – are year round flowers and so growing seasons won’t affect them.

Either way, make sure to talk to your florist about what they are seeing from their suppliers and whether the flowers you want are still going to be available for your wedding.  Have the conversation well in advance of your wedding day so you aren’t disappointed then.

And please remember – unless your florist is named Mother Nature, it isn’t their fault!  Getting angry with them isn’t going to do you a bit of good but if you are understanding, they will be more likely to try and pull a rabbit (or a peony) out of their hat.

A friend of mine, Liene from Think Splendid, is doing a survey on the weddings.  If you are currently planning a wedding or you planned one anytime from 2007 – 2012, please take a moment to answer a few questions.  Just click the picture below and give us less than 5 minutes of your time!

I will be back in the next few weeks with lots of pictures from late 2011 weddings, some important questions to ask your florist this year in particular and some more Etsy Find Fridays from my lovely new interns as well!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

(Photo Credit: Sister72 Flickr Stream)

Hope you are spending today snuggled up with your valentine!

PS – if you are one of the 4 million or so people who will get engaged this Valentine’s Day and want to get started planning, feel free to drop us a line!

Here’s the thing about marriage…it’s wonderful, it’s fun, it’s frustrating, it’s hilarious, and it’s tough.  You have to work at a marriage.  You have to make a promise to each other and renew it every single day – a promise that you won’t give up.  I think that might be why I love this song from Jason Mraz – it kinda says it all…

I Won’t Give Up by Jason Mraz

When I look into your eyes
It’s like watching the night sky
Or a beautiful sunrise
There’s so much they hold
And just like them old stars
I see that you’ve come so far
To be right where you are
How old is your soul?

I won’t give up on us
Even if the skies get rough
I’m giving you all my love
I’m still looking up

And when you’re needing your space
To do some navigating
I’ll be here patiently waiting
To see what you find

‘Cause even the stars they burn
Some even fall to the earth
We’ve got a lot to learn
God knows we’re worth it
No, I won’t give up

I don’t wanna be someone who walks away so easily
I’m here to stay and make the difference that I can make
Our differences they do a lot to teach us how to use
The tools and gifts we got yeah, we got a lot at stake
And in the end, you’re still my friend at least we did intend
For us to work we didn’t break, we didn’t burn
We had to learn how to bend without the world caving in
I had to learn what I’ve got, and what I’m not
And who I am

I won’t give up on us
Even if the skies get rough
I’m giving you all my love
I’m still looking up
Still looking up.

I won’t give up on us (no I’m not giving up)
God knows I’m tough enough (I am tough, I am loved)
We’ve got a lot to learn (we’re alive, we are loved)
God knows we’re worth it (and we’re worth it)

I won’t give up on us
Even if the skies get rough
I’m giving you all my love
I’m still looking up

One piece of advice I always give my clients is to head to the paint store and grab those great paint chips – having paint chips in your binder is the best way to make sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to colors.  They are small and easy to take with you to meetings, they are visual and if you give one to your florist to match ribbon, you can easily get another set!

Now if you are having trouble picking which colors you like it can now be as simple as finding a great picture on Pinterest and clicking a button.  Sherwin Williams has a new (free!) tool called Chip It!

You just drag the Chip It link to your toolbar and then when you find that perfect color scheme in a picture, you click the Chip It button, mouse over your picture and your color scheme will pop up!  It isn’t perfect – calibration on monitors can be tricky but it is a good jumping off point for color schemes!

Often my non-summer brides ask me what they should wear over their dresses in case it is chilly on wedding day.  I usually suggest a wrap, bolero or a shrug of some kind.  Because I am so often asked for suggestions, I am always on the hunt for pretty options for my brides so when I saw MaryandAngelika’s Etsy shop, I was excited to see the different options!

Mary and Angelika are a mother/daughter team who make beautiful bolero jackets and shrugs for weddings and special occasions.  They have different styles, sleeve lengths and fabrics as well as colors to pick from – I saw a gorgeous purple, black, yellow, couple of shades of blue, silver and of course, white and ivory!  Love the splash of color these would add to a bridal ensemble!

Pricing varies based on fabric and design but to give you an idea, the long sleeve satin jacket on the left is $70 and the silver silk dupioni design on the right is $85.  Each piece is custom made to your measurements so make sure you plan accordingly with regard to time before the wedding!

Mothers of the Bride pay attention – if you have your eye on a gorgeous strapless gown but want to cover up your arms (VERY common request from my moms), these would be perfect for you as well!

When a couple gets married there are new birthdays from the other side of the family to be remembered and celebrated which is why when I saw this wonderful guest book idea from Devon and Dan’s Real Wedding on Martha Stewart Weddings via Pinterest, I thought it was brilliant! Guests sign their birthday – you could ask for wedding anniversaries as well – and you have a perfect record of everyone’s birthdays so you can make sure to send those cards on time!

You could either grab a calendar that fits your theme or you could make one with your engagement pictures!  Shutterfly lets you start the calendar any month and year you would like so you could create one beginning with your wedding month!

Once upon a time, brides and grooms would buy disposable cameras for each table at their wedding with a list of suggested shots to capture or just let guests have some fun with them.  After the wedding, the couple would spend a pretty large chunk of change developing the film to get lots of lots of badly exposed, low res, badly lit pictures.  Some would turn out great but some…well, how many pictures do you need of your friend’s boyfriend that she broke up with 2 weeks after the wedding anyway?

Nowadays, we don’t see disposable cameras much because pretty much every guest at a wedding has a camera on their phone.  Those cameras produce MUCH better pictures than those throw away cameras but it can be a chore to get those pictures from guests after the wedding.

Flickr makes it easy to give your guests the chance to upload pictures to your Flickr on the fly!  Simply set up a Flickr account and go to this page to get your upload by email link: http://www.flickr.com/account/uploadbyemail/.  Print out signs to place around the reception with that email address on them so guests can upload pictures during the reception or distribute small cards to send home with guests to they can upload pictures after the fact.

Extra pictures at no cost to you and your wedding budget?  Perfect!