Wedding Planning 101, How Do I Organize All This Stuff?

The Web Savvy Bride-
Wedding Wire has great online tools

The Traditional Bride-
Martha Stewart's Keepsake Wedding Planner

The Non-Traditional Bride-
Anti-Bride Wedding Planner: Hip Tools and Tips for Getting Hitched

The Stylish Bride-
 Mindy Weiss Ultimate Organizer

The Destination Bride-
Destination Wedding Planner: The Ultimate Guide to Planning a Wedding from Afar

And for Bride looking for a great filing system-
The Ultimate Wedding Planning Kit: From America's Top Wedding Experts, Elizabeth & Alex Lluch

Thoughts of Chairs and Your Wedding Reception......

Happy Monday! 

We have been back from The Special Event in New Orleans for close to a month now but as I look over the pictures we took from the trade show, I realize that most of the pictures I took were of chairs. I have a love for cool furniture, maybe because my Mother has an antique store or maybe, just maybe when I see chairs like these, I am reminded of things I have worn or would like to wear. Whatever your taste, adding some kind of fashionable accent to a chair is a great way to steer clear of the ho-hum chair covers and really show your style.

 

You should have seen Heidi loving on all of the tassels.

 

The black wing back with the steel push accents was my favorite chair of the show, so super comfortable 

and very cool.

Shoes for Though Thursday, Pour La Victoire

Um, ya. So fabulous I'm having a hard time not drooling! And yes, I NEED a pair of the Divia!!!!!!!! Checkout the rest of their Bridal collection- Pour La Victoire. And exclusively to Zappos launching in March!

The Couture House presents, Be Inspired

In celebration of our new Wedding Library and Lounge, the Couture House, we are introducing our Workshop Series for 2010. First up “Be Inspired” , a wedding inspiration workshop. Are you having a hard time deciding your colors? Can’t decide between an outdoor garden party, a beach ceremony, or a sit down black tie affair? Let us help guide you in finding your inspiration for your Couture Wedding. No matter what your budget, this fun and interactive workshop will help you to visualize and create your dream wedding. Heidi and Karissa, co-owners and lead planners for Coastside Couture will be there to get you on tract for narrowing your theme and decor details. When? Saturday February 20th from 2pm- 4pm. Where? At the Couture House- 303 Potrero Street Suite 7C Santa Cruz, California. Cost and What is included? For Wedding Chicks readers- Brides $45, and their guest $20. All course materials for creating your own inspiration board along with bubbly and chocolates to get the creative juices flowing. Join us for a fun Girls afternoon! Space is limited, please call 831-600-8206 to reserve now.

The Good Times interviews Heidi, and talks about the Couture House

The post below is an article from The Good Times Newspaper-

Bespoke Wedding
Why Heidi Hughett has big plans for your wedding

If there is any event in a person’s life that should be intensely personal, a wedding is it. Forget the traditional notion of a “wedding,” these days brides are branching out and creating an affair to remember with details as diverse as the couple’s personalities themselves. To put it simply, weddings should be like snowflakes—no two alike.
Assisting in the creation of a bespoke wedding is the specialty of local wedding coordinator Heidi Hughett. Prior to starting her wedding planning business, Coastside Couture, Hughett worked in area nuptial hotspots such as UC Santa Cruz and Chaminade, where she oversaw more than 200 weddings. After more than 20 years working in the local wedding industry, Hughett knows her stuff. “The biggest trend now is intimate weddings,” she says. “People are really getting back to the family values of the 1950s and ’60s and thinking quality instead of quantity. Everyone’s being a lot more personalized and doing the little touches that make them happy. Cookie cutter weddings are gone. You want people to walk away and say, ‘Oh that was so them,’ and not, ‘that was the tenth wedding I went to this year that had chicken.’”
Covering ground from Half Moon Bay to Carmel, Coastside Couture has myriad connections and ideas that brides may not discover without the help of a wedding coordinator’s trained eye. However, many brides these days do not have the budget to hire the services of a wedding planner full time. For this very reason, Hughett created a solution she calls The Couture House, a wedding Library and Lounge. “The Couture House is a full service vendor resource specifically designed for engaged couples, brides and their families,” Hughett says. “This affordable service matches clients with the area’s best event professionals based on style and budget. It is basically the newly engaged couple’s one-stop-shop for a guided tour of services and products from some of the top event professionals in the Monterey Bay Area.” In a nutshell, The Couture House can save frazzled brides countless hours of Google-ing by condensing their wedding vendor search into one relaxing afternoon. “Our clients enjoy a warm, comfortable atmosphere, while sipping champagne, viewing videos, browsing through photographers’ albums, tasting cakes and much more,” Hughett shares. “During the two-hour private appointment, a professional Event Concierge is there to assist in finding the best fit of vendors, products, concepts and venue,” Hughett says. “We felt this was a much-needed service due to the budget concerns of today’s engaged couples. If they cannot afford to hire us to plan or direct their big day, they can hire us to help point them in the right direction.”
In addition to The Couture House and full service wedding planning services, Hughett assists many brides with day of planning to ensure that even brides on budgets can be cool and collected on their big day. After all, what good is the most detail-oriented wedding at any price if the couple is too stressed out and harried to enjoy it?
by Leslie Patrick

To read the article on their website- Goodtimes Santa Cruz
I love what Leslie wrote about me. Thank you Leslie! The bummer is she chose not to include my amazing new business partner Karissa in the article, or the fact that we have just merged our companies. Coastside Couture is the result of two Women, not just myself. As Karissa and I like to say "Two Superheroes, no sidekicks".

Jenny Packham, my obsession

If you have read this blog for some time, you know I adore Jenny Packham's wedding dresses. It may be the 20's influence, or the fab old Hollywood feel, or maybe the fabric and all the sparkle. Anyway, I just get a bit giddy looking at them.

Wedding Wire Bride's Choice Award!!

Well this is VERY exciting!

We just found out that we received the Bride's Choice Award for 2010!!! How cool is that?!?!?

We are among the top five percent of all vendors in the WeddingWire community, which includes over 100,000 wedding professionals across the US and Canada. The awards were given to winners across 19 different service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers. The annual Bride’s Choice Awards recognizes and celebrates excellence in quality and service within the wedding industry, as determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 500,000 newlyweds.

Coastside Couture is among the very best Wedding Planning and Coordination Service within the Wedding Wire Network, which includes WeddingWire and Martha Stewart Weddings.

We would like to thank our past newlyweds for nominating us for the 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards!

Shoes for Though Thursday, for the Bride who wants a little sparkle

Dahlia Gem Stone Heels Pale Pink

Eva Hot Pink Evening Shoes with Rhinestone Back Bow

Kylie Ivory Bridal Shoes with Ornaments

Shoes from Bourne available at Perefect Details

The Kid's table at weddings

Why not use this fab cardboard Table set. Suggested for children 3-10 years of age it comes with one table and six chairs and sells for $75. There are other prints available. Just add containers of crayons and let the kids color on it! Available from Modern Lola.

The Ultimate Bridal Expo, this weekend at the Cocoanut Grove

Come join us! We are at booth #66.

All the information you need to plan the perfect wedding, under one roof! Meet more than 100 wedding specialists and win valuable door prizes, including $1,000 cash!
Enjoy bridal fashion shows in the Sun Room throughout the day.
Show Hours: 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Admission: $7.00 or $5.00 with discount coupon
Click here for printable $2.00 off discount coupon.
For more information call (831) 423-2053