Guy's Corner: Formal Event Clothes Made Easy

With wedding season now starting as early as March and going through November & December, it is pretty common for most people to attend at least wedding a year.  From beach to black tie weddings, what to wear is always a concern for all guests.  This Well Groomed Blog post breaks down the age old question that most males face in regards to fashion: which color dress shoes to wear with what color suit.  While males do have some room to make mistakes in day to day work attire, formal events such as weddings are a whole other ballgame.  Sure, if you are a guy with a girlfriend or wife who can help you then you are in luck.  But maybe pass this along to your friends who only have their manly instinct to rely on when getting dressed for a formal event.

The other big question is what color suit to wear in the first place.  The tuxedo is on its way out of the wedding circuit, save for black tie affairs.  Modern groomsmen & male guests are opting for black, tan and gray suits.  And there is always the option of not wearing the full suit, instead sporting a suit vest or casual vest over a button up collared shirt.  I've collected a few images below, both from my Felicity C Weddings clients & ones I found online.  Enjoy!

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Diamond Wedding 5.21.10 Credit: Lindsay Hite/ ReadyLuck

Ford Wedding 9.25.10. Credit: Procopio Photography

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The 411: Guest Seating

Pop quiz: what is the difference between an escort card and a place card?  A place card is located at the top of each place setting on the table to indicate the exact seat for each guest while an escort card contains the guest name and his/her table number, allowing each guest to choose his/her own place at the table. 

Couples are getting creative with their escort cards, not limiting themselves to actual cards but preparing table lists in imaginative and beautiful displays. Whatever you decide on for the display, having assigned seating is a MUST for all weddings which goes hand in hand with a seating chart.  As a planner, receiving a completed seating chart is in my contract because it can make or break the dinner hour.  The basic outline is table name/number, guest names and total table count.  I scratched out the names from the latest client seating chart to give you an idea of how easy it is to be organized, Excel is your friend!

Back to escort arrangements, this is such another area of decor in the wedding to express your personality so the sky is the limit.  I've picked some of my favorites to share with you for inspiration- a few from online and a few from my wonderful clients.  Enjoy!

Seating chart- DO IT!

Alphabetical is the simplest way to go.  Source

A sweet treat before dinner, love it! Source

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Warm weather, sun, light breeze, and go!

If "location, location, location" is the real estate agent's mantra, then "weather, weather, weather" is the wedding planner's mantra for outdoor weddings.  Actually, even if the ceremony & reception are indoors, couples will still be outside for pictures and possibly transportation.  No bride wishes for rain, wind, or cold weather obviously, but if you are a bride who has her heart set on an outdoor wedding, weather is going to be a huge factor.  Enter WeatherUnderground.com, which is a weather website that allows you to see the weather history for locations.  It goes back to 2008 but I have already used it for my 2011 wedding clients to check on 2010 weather to get an idea of the weather for their big day.

Another great tip is to talk to your venue about the weather for your date the year before.  The site coordinators who work weddings year round have a pretty good memory of weather month to month.  Certain months can be predictable but it is always good to have rain plan with your site and your planner.  As I've heard from all of my brides, once you get close to your wedding, it is pretty impossible not to check the 10 day forecast.  But even if the forecast is calling for less than ideal weather, hold off the panic.  Weather is constantly changing and you really should only take the forecast 2-3 days seriously.  If it is going to be hot, hot, hot make sure you can rent air conditioning machines for your outdoor tent, the ceremony site is air conditioned, and that there is water on hand for guests as well as the wedding party.

Lastly, if you do end up with some heat, rain or wind, all you can do is embrace it.  For the Diamond wedding on May 22, 2010, leading up to the wedding and the whole morning it was forecasted to start raining at 4pm, the start time of their outdoor ceremony.  Jen was such a cool bride and left it up to me to make the call since we had a rain plan set.  Luckily the sun came out and the rain held off for their beautiful ceremony.  Funny enough, the rain held out right until the couple had finished the cocktail hour photos and I was ready to introduce the wedding party to the reception.  Literally as the last person stepped inside the reception building it started to pour.  Hope this has eased your mind brides!  Enjoy!

  Diamond wedding- we got some amazing pictures before the rain set in!

Credit: Lindsay MacDonald Weddings

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Vendor Love- Lindsay MacDonald Photography

**I am re-posting this because it was one of FCW's first posts and I unfortunately stretched the photos trying to get them to the "right size".  After a few weeks of posting & uploading a new photo editor, I think I figured it out.  A thousand apologies Lindsay, I hope this one works!

The first time I meet with a bride, I ask what are the 3 most important aspects of her wedding day. For most brides, this is actually a hard question for one of two reasons. Either the bride has 234334546 important aspects to her day and can't narrow it down or she just wants everything to flow overall and can't choose specific vendors/services that matter more to her. However, photography is almost always a top priority, as it should be. Skimp on every detail you can, but you will really appreciate the money you put out for a quality photog for years and years to come. So, as a wedding planner, I understand the importance of working with photographers that are true professionals with an amazing artistic talent. So, when I find a photographer who really impresses me, I really want to support them.

I had first heard of Lindsay MacDonald Photography in early 2009, around the time I started Felicity C Weddings. Being from the Baltimore area, I was eagerly scouring local blogs to find the hottest vendors. I can't remember exactly where I saw the first Lindsay reference, but once I went to her website, I fell hard for her style. And then I kept seeing Lindsay MacDonald Photography being referenced every.where. She was really taking off as an in demand photographer in the Baltimore area. In fact, in a "its a small, small world" twist, when I was going through her wedding portfolio, I actually saw some friends of mine who were guests at a wedding she shot. Yep, I was instantly intrigued.

Lindsay actually has two websites, Lindsay MacDonald Photography and Lindsay MacDonald Weddings. She has such a range; her portfolio includes food, portraits, personal, engagement shoots, and weddings. Lindsay is originally from outside Boston and is now living in Baltimore. Her work has taken her to from MD to NY and even Mexico! I have followed her blog (and you should too!) for awhile now and imagine my surprise when I was told that I would have the opportunity to work with Lindsay! I met with newly engaged Jen last October who hired Felicity C Weddings for her Day of Coordinator for her May 22, 2010 wedding. Jen had hired Lindsay MacDonald Photography after hearing a lot of great buzz about her as well. As with every wedding I do, in the weeks leading up to the big day I contacted all the vendors to review my day of timeline. Instantly, I felt comfortable with Lindsay and I could tell that she would make my job easier with her experience. I finally met Lindsay and her 2nd photographer, Danielle, on wedding day and both ladies were a joy to work with. Lindsay was extremely professional and focused, but she was also so much fun and made all the guests feel really comfortable. This is the perfect dichotomy of a great vendor. I don't think I saw Lindsay or Danielle without a smile on their faces the entire day into the night. It is obvious they both love photography and they both love shooting weddings. I had not worked with a pair of photographers before, I can honestly say that it was a great experience because I knew that every moment would be captured from many angles.

Now, I don't usually present challenges to my vendors, but Lindsay really impressed me with taking on a vision that I had since the first time I visited the site (Oliver's Carriage House). The reception took place on the 2nd floor which was one big, open, rectangular room with a loft on each end of the room. One loft we utilized for the DJ station and the other loft was mostly off limits because the site is used regularly by a church and this loft is the pastor's office. Well, on my first visit to this room, my wedding planner mind immediately envisioned group shots with the photographer shooting from the lofts. Simple and easy. Only, I do not have a photographer's mind and the trouble with my vision was that there were support beams in the middle of the room which would make these "above shots" tricky. Not to mention that with all the room's lights turned down combined with the dark, stone walls which would create lighting issues. Lindsay and Danielle were super excited to take this challenge on and made it work. In fact, Lindsay thanked me for having her think 'out of the box' to figure out the best way to get the loft shots and I couldn't be happier with the results:

 Oh and another very impressive fact about Lindsay? She was getting married the following weekend! In Massachusetts! On Memorial Day weekend! I was shocked that Lindsay was so cool, calm, and collected considering her own wedding was so close. I don't know if any other bride would be willing to take on such a huge task so close to her own big day. Lindsay did tell the couple and me that because of her own wedding and honeymoon, she may take 4-5 weeks to get the professional pictures back to us. Ha! For those of you not familiar with wedding photography, I've known (non client) brides who have waited up to a year to get back the professional pictures! True to her word, we received the link within the timeline and when I saw the whole wedding, I was amazed. Lindsay was awesome and sent me my favorite shots, although it was very hard to pick just a few and not a hundred. Lindsay featured different pictures on her blog (Birds and Flowers Oh My... Jen and Sean Got Married) and there are more pictures on Felicity C Weddings website, but here are a few that I definitely wanted to show all of you right now:

Let's Hear It For The Bride- Diamond Girl

SO, I have the BEST brides. True statement. The grooms are great too, don't get me wrong, but I typically have the most contact with the bride gearing up for the big day. In the first minute or two of an introductory meeting I know what kind of wedding this newlywed is envisioning and I'm already crazily spinning ideas. All of the weddings I have done are completely different & I would not want it any other way. I love stretching my ideas & inspirations as a wedding planner and adding new visions to my portfolio. Since I do love all my brides, I decided to start featuring my brides and what makes each of them uniquely awesome in my "let's hear it for the bride" section.  Enjoy!

First up is my lovely May 22nd bride, Mrs. Diamond. She is creative (the DIY queen!), lovely, and it was so much fun to work with as her day of planner. I featured her wedding in the post Vendor Love: Lindsay MacDonald Photography.  This bride had a definite vision, shares my love of details, and was incredibly laid back and easy going- all key qualities that a planner thrives on.  As a thank you after the wedding, this bride sent me a great thank you note with a necklace from her Joies Etsy shop. Working on her wedding was such a pleasure and now, this necklace has become my default/wear all the time necklace! Talk about great benefits! She told me in the note that she has a lot more time to work on her jewelry now that all the planning is over and I'm really excited to keep up with Joies shop. To get an idea of her style, I included part of her bio on Etsy and some photos. Do yourself a favor and check out her whole site!

Joies Bio: I create handmade simple and sweet jewelry that hopefully brings a smile to your face. After all, that's my goal! I use glass beads, wood, metals, stone, and minerals to create original pieces for everyday wear. My designs are all inspired by nature – whether it be the grove of trees behind my house, or the many birds that stop by the bird feeder. There is inspiration everywhere to create a simple and sweet design.