Hitched!!! Ford Wedding 9.25.10

Nothing like a beautiful September wedding to get me through these winter months!  Plus, Christmas day was exactly 3 months of wedded bliss for this couple.  I am so excited to feature the Ford wedding and all the fantastic details!  I have known the bride, Kate since high school when we met through our church's youth group.  Unfortunately, we lost track of each other after college and about a year ago we reunited through a wedding blog!  She saw Felicity C Weddings featured on Charm City Bride Blog and the rest is history.

Kate was a great bride to work with, not only because she's a friend but because she knew exactly what she wanted and had great ideas from the start.  A literary theme with specific personal details was the plan for Kate & Mike and I believe that is exactly what we accomplished.  The ceremony & reception took place at the Howard County Conservancy in Woodstock, MD.  It is a gorgeous property and we could not have asked for a better day.  Reverend Laura Cannon officiated the ceremony and Kate & Mike could not have chosen a better officiant.  She took the time to find out what they were looking for and created that personal, close vibe for the day.

Next up was the cocktail hour in the honors garden.  Atlantic Caterers did a fantastic (and delicious!) job from start to finish and they even went above and beyond to create a s'mores bar specifically for this wedding!  It was a HUGE hit!  Procopio Photography's wife and husband duo of Cicely & Jason were a perfect fit for this wedding and effortlessly captured every moment from the ceremony kazoos to the book that Mike & his brother put together for the guest book to the excitement on the dance floor.  Their passion for photography is obvious in working with them and the pictures speak for themselves (see below!).  Speaking of amazing details, Kate & Mike honored a great Howard County tradition by having The Snowball Stand in Woodstock serve snowballs at their cocktail hour.  Guests were treated to blue raspberry, watermelon & wedding cake (of course!) with optional marshmallow topping (a local favorite). 

Moving onto the reception inside the Howard County Conservancy, DJ Bill Bowen kept the party going all evening.  Bill actually did the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception music (three separate places) and was great to work with.  I was really impressed with the Fords' florist, Local Color Flowers.  I had heard rave reviews about the LoCoFlo crew and after working with Ellen, I can tell you that every compliment was deserved.  Even more amazing than their work, the company is based on "creating personalized arrangements and bouquets from fresh, seasonal, and sustainable flowers cultivated by local specialty growers" so it is a purchase couples can truly feel good about.

There are so many details that I cannot even begin to list.  Thanks to the Fords and their families for making this wedding such a joy to be a part of.  Here are the photos of this beautiful day.  Enjoy!

Snowball Cocktail Hour Anyone?

As I've mentioned before, I currently live & plan events in northern Delaware, but I grew up in and call Ellicott City, MD my home.  While I could go on and on about how great of a town this is (15-20 minutes to downtown Baltimore, 40 minutes from DC, Money magazine's 2nd best place to live in 2010), what I really want to talk about is a source of great Ellicott City/ Howard County pride: The Snowball Stand on Rt 99.  Everyone in town has been there at least 100 times.  Seriously.  It opens around late May/early June every year to delight residents with dozens of snowball flavorings and numerous toppings.  My all time favorite combo is raspberry with nerds on top.  YUM.  While their popularity continues to grow with people aged 2 to 100 (they now sell TSS apparel and there is TSS facebook page as well as a TSS blog), the simple concept remains the same: quality snowballs served with a smile throughout the summer.
 
So, now you know how beloved this hometown hero is.  And you know my passion for personalization of events & weddings.  SO, I practically did a back flip when my Sept 25th bride told me back in March that she wanted to have TSS serve snowballs during her cocktail hour!!!  Brilliant.  Especially since her ceremony & reception site is the Howard County Conservancy, which is probably less than a 1/2 mile from TSS.  I should mention that I have known this bride since we were 15 years old and even though we lost touch during college, we just recently reconnected last fall.  As she is an avid blogger and blog reader, she saw a post about Felicity C Weddings on Charm City Bride blog and reached out to me, figuring that there can't be TOO many Felicity's and that it was probably me.  She was right.  We met up again in February to discuss her wedding and now we are EXACTLY ONE MONTH away from the big day!

Back to the snowball cocktail hour.  The idea is to have 3 flavors available and to have them handed out in kiddie sizes during cocktail hour.  It is a refreshing treat and perfect for this lovely Howard County couple.  I searched for some images of snowball cocktail hours online, but I couldn't find any which actually makes me pretty happy.  Because I know that we are doing something completely new!  Stayed tuned for sneak peek pictures shortly after Sept 25th and then probably towards the middle of November  is when I expect to get the professional photos for my use.  Until then, feast your eyes on the prize of Howard County:

The Snowball Stand: a hometown hero since 1974. Source