Ask A Bride Pt II: Danielle's Wedding on Lake Lanier

 Hello SASsy Friends and welcome back for part 2 of our Ask A Bride series!  Danielle was married in the fall of last year in a beautiful wedding on Lake Lanier in Atlanta, GA.  Danielle followed one of the latest bridal trends and wore two very different wedding gowns. She shares with us how she created and pulled off the spectacular wedding of her dreams!

 SASsy: Danielle, you recently had a beautiful wedding on a lake in Atlanta, what key features did you consider when choosing your wedding venue?

My husband and I both wanted to have a wedding that was very laid back, yet beautiful. My maid of honor Brandee told me about the recent remodeling of Lake Lanier Islands Resort, so we decided to go check it out. When I saw the beautiful wedding venues they had to offer I immediately knew it was where I wanted to say “I do”.

    SASsy: What was your biggest challenge when planning your wedding?

One of the biggest challenges for us was creating the guest list. My husband has a very large family, so it was a challenge to decide who we would invite. 

I felt like a complete stalker trying to get everyone to RSVP by the deadline! And despite my best efforts, we still had a few guests show up who weren’t invited, as well as guests who did not show up even though they RSVP’d saying they’d be in attendance.

SASy: I loved your pink and damask color scheme, what was the inspiration behind it?

My favorite color is pink and I wanted to use a bold shade, so I decided on fuchsia. As I was looking at wedding reception designs online I came across a red and damask color scheme reception, and I decided the damask pattern would look fabulous with fuchsia!

 SASsy:What did you find to be the most helpful resource when choosing your vendor and planning the details of your wedding?

I relied heavily on reviews from past customers. My mother-in-law had worked with Christine from Perfect Petals for her daughter’s wedding, so we decided to use them as our florist.

I had planned on using my photographer, Jessica Horwitz, ever since I saw the gorgeous wedding photos she did for my friend’s wedding. I kind of just came across my other vendors, but I did make sure to look at their reviews before signing a contract with them.

SASsy: Wedding planning can be very stressful and all brides need a good support system. Who did you rely on the most for support during the planning process?

When I wasn’t bugging my husband about the planning process, I leaned heavily on my bridesmaid, Brittanie. Anytime I was stressed out or just needed advice I would call Brittanie and she was always willing to listen!

 

    SASsy:I remember you tweeting that all of your bridesmaids actually agreed on the dress! Please tell me how you achieved this?

When I went to look for wedding gowns, I also looked at bridesmaids gowns. I knew I wanted a dress that would look good on all my bridesmaids, so I decided to go with something that flowed. 

I found one designer in particular whose dresses I liked, so I sent my bridesmaids an email asking them to pick their favorite three dresses from that designer’s website. Once I had all their choices, I narrowed it down to the top 3 (several of their selections were the same), and then we chose the dress they liked the best.

    SASsy:You wore two dresses that were very different, but both equally as gorgeous. Were you planning on wearing two dresses initially?  Did you find yourself torn between in two different styles of dresses so you decided to go with both? (Personally, I am torn between 2 very different styles so this advice will help me too!)

Originally I had no intention of buying two wedding gowns. When I went to try on dresses I found two that I loved. One was a full gown, the other mermaid style. Both of the dresses were reasonably priced, so I decided to buy them both, one for the ceremony, one for the reception. 

 

I ended switching my reception dress later on, but I’m definitely happy I got both. The ceremony dress made me feel like a princess, the reception dress made me feel sexy!

    SASsy: The pictures of your bachelorette party looked like you guys had a great time.  What did you do and where did you go?

My bachelorette party was awesome! I had a bridal shower at a restaurant earlier in the day. Then I met up with my friends and bridesmaids at the Twelve Hotel. From there, we rode in a stretch Range Rover to a club and had a fun night of dancing! Some of the girls stayed at the Twelve Hotel that night for a sleepover!

SASsy: What was/were the most special moment(s) from your wedding for both you and your husband?

The most special moment from our wedding would definitely be the reception as a whole. Everyone had such a blast dancing and mingling! It was exactly the way we wanted it to be…a big party!

    SASsy: Were there any funny or unplanned moments that made the wedding even more memorable?

My sister Denechia was one of my bridesmaids and she definitely made the night memorable. She’s the type to have fun no matter where she’s at. Another funny moment was the dance-off between Denechia, my brother Chris and my husband’s friend Chris. It was super entertaining!

    SASsy: If you could do anything differently, what would it be why?

It sounds cliché, but there is actually nothing I would change. The wedding was everything I imagined and more!

    SASsy: What’s the best piece of advice you were offered as a bride that you would like to share with other brides to be?

It’s your big day, so do whatever you want to do (within reason)! Don’t let anyone else’s opinions interfere with what you want. If there’s a time to be selfish, this is it! LOL!

I would like to thank Danielle for contributing to this week's SASsy Report.  Do you have bridal questions or a product that you would like to see featured in The SASsy Report? If so, leave comments and I will be sure to follow up with you! 

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Ask A Bride Pt 1: Ashley's Memphis Wedding

Hello SASsy Friends, I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July holiday. When planning a wedding, everyone seems to have endless and usually unsolicited, advice for brides to be.  For brides, it can be quite overwhelming, but the best way to get advice is to ask others who've recently been down the aisle.

This week, you will meet two very different brides Ashley and Danielle.  Both ladies were recently married in two very different style weddings.  These ladies have survived the trip down the aisle and were excited to share their advice with The SASsy Report.

Our first bride is Ashley, who had a beautiful wedding in June of this year.

SASsy: Hi Ashley, could you please share with us your favorite part of wedding planning?

This question is rather difficult since I found wedding planning to be harder then I originally thought it would be.  My favorite part was probably creating my wedding board on Pintrest that allowed me to keep track of all the beautiful things I saw and ideas even though I wasn’t able to use them all.

SASsy: I believe you live in DC but your wedding was in Memphis.  Was the long distance planning difficult, if so how so?

    I am from DC originally but moved to Memphis a month before I got engaged.  I decided to plan my wedding in Memphis instead of DC for a few reasons 


 I thought the stress of wedding planning would be too much to do from a distance, and since I currently live in Memphis I wanted my friends and family to have the opportunity to see where I live now and what my new life is like.  


SASsy: What criteria did you use when selecting vendors?

    I got recommendations from people that I thought had good taste and I used vendors that were responsive.  I was extremely surprised by how so many people in the wedding industry were not responsive to phone calls, emails, and voicemails.  The vendors I used were were easy to get in touch with,  and more importantly, stay in touch with.



SASsy: What were the theme and colors of your wedding and how did you incorporate them throughout the wedding?

    I didn’t have colors in the traditional sense. My bridesmaids wore a grey/silver dress, my flowers were white and green, and we have silver/grey accents.  I wanted to keep things neutral and elegant without feeling like there was a particular “theme.”

SASsy: When shopping for your gown, was there a specific style you were looking for?


I actually designed my gown myself.  I knew what I wanted my wedding gown to look like but wasn’t sure if I would find it.  My earliest criteria were sweetheart neckline and mermaid silhouette.  On my first trip shopping I swooned over a Lazaro mermaid and a trumpet Pronovias. 


 On my second trip shopping, I drove to Atlanta from Memphis to go to several stores.  However, the drive took longer than I expected and I missed all of my appointments except for one.   My bridal consultant asked me what I wanted my dress to look like, and I pointed to three different parts of three different dresses.  


They said they could make the dress how I wanted it and voila. I had found my dream dress.  The final product was a sweetheart neckline, mermaid silhouette  with tulle extending beyond the dress, with a low v-back.  

SASsy: Was there one specific aspect of the wedding that was more important to you than others, if so what was it?

FUN!   At the end of the day, I wanted everyone to drink, laugh and dance all night.  We played a lot of contemporary music instead of just Motown and top 20 hits that you get at most weddings and people were on the dance floor with a drink in their hand the whole night.

SASsy: I heard you came up gave out BBQ rub as a wedding favor.  That’s one of the most creative favors I’ve heard of!   How did you come up with that idea?

Wedding favors are tricky because it’s not really an area you want to spend a lot of your budget on, but if you are going to spend any money on wedding favors, you want it to be something that your guests will actually keep and not just throw away.  


Memphis is known for its dry rub, I love to cook and my husband loves to eat BBQ.  I figured it would be a cute idea and something people could actually get some use out of.  I was able to get cute jars from Michael’s at a great price and a friend’s family owns a catering company that I got the rub from.  It went over well with the guests and I’m really glad I did it.


SASsy: Did everything go according to plan, or were there a few unplanned moments that made the wedding even more enjoyable?

I had a hair catastrophe two days before my wedding and ended up getting my hair done three times before it was right, I got 4 emails the day of my wedding from people who RSVP informing met that all of a sudden they would not be in attendance, and the church didn’t have the communion ready during the ceremony and we had to wait for someone to run and get it and bring it in the sanctuary.  


In the grand scheme of things, none of that impacted my day and things were wonderful.  Just be prepared for problems to happen, but don’t let them detract you from the point of the day - starting a life with your spouse and the love of your friends and family.

SASsy: If you could do anything differently, what would it be and why?

I would have given myself more time.  I got engaged at the end of September and got married the first weekend in June.  Because of the holidays, I only really had about 6-7 months to plan a wedding for 150 people.  If I could do it over again, I’d give myself more time because I thing I would have enjoyed planning my wedding more if I didn’t feel so rushed.


SASsy: What advice you would you offer other brides to help them through the wedding planning process?


Give yourself enough time to plan so you don’t feel rushed and overwhelmed.  The process can no doubt be overwhelming, but giving yourself time to savor the moments and made thoughtful decisions is important.  


Also, wedding planning is a dictatorship. You are the dictator. That doesn’t mean you need to be a crazy bridezilla. It does mean that you are going to get a lot of input from everyone around you and it is important to remember that it is your day so do what you want.  


I would like to thank Ashley for helping out with the blog this week.  If you have any questions or topic suggestions, please leave comments and they could be featured in an upcoming edition. And be sure to check out Part II of our Ask A Bride series on Thursday!


Connect with The SASsy Report:
Twitter: @TheSASsyReport
Pintrest:http://pinterest.com/thesassyreport/ 

Weddings, Weddings and Hair Oh My!!

As you all know, the most SASsy event of the century aka the Royal Wedding is happening Friday, April 29th. (Well it's the most SASsy event until I get married; but that's a different blog that won't be written for a few years down the road)  If you want to watch the wedding live, be sure to set your alarm clock because it will be on very early at 6am on the East Coast. Much to my boyfriend's chagrin, I WILL be watching the wedding live even if we are on vacation. Sorry honey, you will live, love you smooches!

So what's the big deal about this Royal Wedding anyway? Well for one, Prince William is the son of the late Princess Diana. Diana’s wedding to Price Charles was the 2nd most expensive wedding in history and at the time, the most watched live event in TV history. So this wedding definitely has high standards to live up to.

Secondly, it’s kinda, sort of, but not really a Cinderella story.  Kate Middleton is a commoner who is marrying into royalty and becoming a princess.  Which is every 5 year old little girl's dream; until she realizes that being a princess isn't all it’s cracked up to be. Your life will pretty much suck once the dress comes off and the tiara goes on and you are awakened for events by 7am EVERY day.  Dream over. 

But for most women, we all want to see the dress and the flowers and critique every little detail and take notes on how we would do it better.  Or, we simply want to gossip about it with other women.  Whatever our reasons maybe, at the end of the girls will be girls and we like weddings.  It’s just that simple. So sorry fellas, you guys get 40 days and 40 nights of playoff basketball and a plethora of other sporting events and we only get a royal wedding once every 30 years, so suck it up lol!

Since we are discussing weddings, ladies if you are dying to get your wedding dress from Klienfeld’s, but the prices give you a heart attack, you're in luck! The store featured on the hit show, “Say Yes to the Dress” is having their annual 70% off sale on May 3rd at 3pm.  I highly suggest you get there early because the line will be down the block hours before 3pm. Dresses will be as low as $800 and go as high as, well it's Klienfelds, so you can go as high as your imagination or budget will allow.  But hey it's your wedding and you only get married once right, so budget smudget.

For more bridal tips check out this blog from one of my many engaged friends Angela: The Blessed Bride http://theblessedbride.blogspot.com/


So here’s where the hair discussion comes in, just in case you were wondering why it was in the title of this blog J

As some of you may know, last week I joined the cast of Life Full Circle Radio on blogtalkradio.com as the fashion and entertainment reporter. The show discusses hot topics nad news event. With me joining the show, we now have 2 very opinionated men, 2 even more opinionated women, and our host who stays neutral, so needless to say the discussions get very interesting.  

This week in my entertainment report, I will be discussing my latest very, very, shameful guilty pleasure, “Mob Wives” (I’m shaking my head in shame as I type this).  As if "Mob Wives" won’t take up enough of the discussion, I will also talk about about the return of my girl, Queen Bee aka Beyonce` and her new single. So far the reviews haven’t been that great hmmm…

Additionally, on the show, this week’s hot topic is Good Hair.  Many of you may have seen the Chris Rock documentary, but how do you really feel about it and what do men think about the natural hair vs relaxers and weave? Check out the show and feel free to call in and join the debate. I’ll even talk about my painful transition from flat ironing back to my natural curls. I used to have beautiful super curly hair but right now my curls have been damaged and don’t quite curl right.  So far I look a hot mess and have even been compared to Shaggy from Scooby Doo. I’m starting to figure out what works for me and it’s getting better each day.

Well SASsy friends, I'm off to Toronto, Canada this weekend some much needed R&R.  I'll be sure to report on all of the fun and SASsy events in next week's blog. Be sure to follow me on twitter @MzSAS.

This week's sales:

·         Klienfelds- 70% off wedding dresses sale May 3rd @ 3pm 

·         Victoria's Secret- Free shipping with the purchase of a full price bra

·         The Limited- 60% off markdowns

·         Ann Taylor Loft- 40% markdowns

·         Macy’s – Friends and Family sale take an extra 25% off all regular, sale and clearance price   items with your coupon or promo code online MACYSFF

·         Loehmann’s- 40% off all red sticker clearance items