Diary of a Wedding Planner

Natalie & Gilles

On Saturday, October 7, 2006 I had the pleasure of coordinating the wedding of Natalie & Gilles.   Click here for more photos.

The wedding ceremony and reception were held at the  Officer's Club in Fort Mason, San Francisco.  This was a really great wedding.  Natalie is Chinese and Gilles is French.  We had a really great theme going here.  We honored the Chinese tradition by using red linens for the tables, a traditional silk cloth served as the guest sign in, Chinese food and the bride later changed into a red Chinese dress after there ceremony.  For the French tradition we had  a traditional French wedding cake called the Croquembouche, French Food and we had an image of the Eiffel Tower projected onto the wall in the dancing room.  Wally's Swing World provided cocktail reception and dinner music and then later on for dancing we had my favorite DJ from Dennon and Doyle, Chad Grissom. 

I always recommend that my clients have a mixture of music acts for a wedding.  A string trio is great ceremony music.  I never like to use the ceremony musicians for the cocktail reception, because you want a whole differenc feel for cocktail reception.  It has to be a bit more up-beat and fun.  Then for dinner, you want something that sounds really nice in the background.  When it come's time for dancing, you want either a Band that can play all types of music or a DJ so that everyone can hear the music they love in it's original form, the way they hear it on the radio or their iPod. 

Natalie & Gille's wedding was wonderful.  They are such a great couple and have a very loving family.  I enjoyed workign with Natalie in creating a customized wedding for her and Gilles.  We had lots of fun and that is the most important thing.   Congratulations Natalie & Gilles.  May your marriage be blessed with love, luck and happiness for eternity.

Not Your Typical Vegas Wedding

My goal for 2007 is to venture into destination weddings. I will go anywhere in the world you want to take me! I think that the possibilities are endless. Destination weddings are becoming more and more popular. So many couples move to different cities for work or school, fall in love, get engaged and realize that their family and friends are from all over the country and the world. That is why a destination wedding is so great. It gives people an opportunity to come together from all over and not only will they enjoy seeing you married, they will enjoy their own little vacation away from home as well. If planned out far enough in advance and done well, it is the perfect solution!! I love to travel and I love weddings, so combining the two seem perfect for me. My first stop in researching Destination Wedding Venues…Lake Las   Vegas

After a long day and night’s work at another spectacular wedding on Saturday, my mother and I left Sunday Morning for Las Vegas. We figured it was time for a mini vacation, not to mention I had some research to do.

Lake  Las Vegas is about 17 miles from the Las Vegas Strip. The strip is where all of the major hotels and casinos are and they do a huge amount of wedding business there. Although there are some amazing properties on the strip, I wanted to see if there was something a little more unique and upscale that Las Vegas may have to offer. Lake Las Vegas is exactly what I was looking for.

Wedding season in Las   Vegas is from April thru Mid July and then again from mid September to mid October. Late July thru early September are not good times of the year because of how incredibly hot it gets there.

 My first stop was the breathtaking Ritz Carlton Lake Las Vegas . The minute you walk in, you just feel the warmth and quality of every part of that property. From the lovely scent to the beautiful floral arrangements to the Morano Chandaliers to the unbelievably friendly and helpful staff, especially Joe who has been a bellman for that property ever since they opened in February 2003. The Ritz truly is THE place to hold your destination wedding in Las Vegas.  Everything from an outdoor beach ceremony to an adorable little chapel with its own private outdoor reception area on top of a bridge above the lake with a gorgeous view. The Ritz has 5 different options of ceremony sites that accommodate anywhere from 2 to 600 guests with pricing of $4700 to $6800.  There are 6 different options for reception sites (2 of them are outdoor locations) that can accommodate anywhere from 30 to 600 guests. Food and Beverage pricing ranges depending on the time of day. Lunches start at $52 per person and dinner buffets start at $85 per person. I took lots of photos.   Click here to see the photos I took on my site tour.

 

The other property I visited was the Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas Resort. You may have seen this propert featured on a special wedding show that was on the Food Network a few months ago. That is how I first heard of Lake Las Vegas.   The Hyatt is a very nice property with gorgeous views and a really well done Moroccan theme throughout the interior. The staff is very friendly, especially Kim, our server in Café Tajine. If you are ever there try and get his station. He’s so welcoming. The food was great too! The Hyatt has a wide variety of interior and exterior function space for anywhere from 20 to 2100 guests! Ceremony site fees start at $2,000 and Evening Reception Packages start at $100 per person. This is another highly recommended location for a beautiful and unique destination wedding.  Click here to see the photos I took on my site tour