Bonnet Island Estate/Mallard Island Yacht Club

The Bonnet Island Estate in Long Beach Island was the perfect place for a June wedding! With the beach only being minutes away, there were tons of great spots for pictures! I'm very much looking forward to working at their sister site located a little down the road - The Mallard Island Yacht Club! Anyone getting married there?

Above: Bonnet Island Estate, LBI

Below: Mallard Yacht Club, LBI

Add Thought, Mix it Up!

I love making homemade gifts! There's nothing more special than putting thought and time in to a gift to give someone you care about. I made two friends of mine recipe books. I absolutely love playing around with materials and so I took shreds and made some cute additives. I also made a Tuscan-themed recipe card holder which I painted and adorned with miniature eggplants and garlic. I love miniature things!

Presentation is Key

It's so important to me to not only serve GREAT quality food at an event, but also to have it presented in a way that people will remember! One caterer I work with, gives many different options for menus and such. I'm a HUGE fan of doing great tasting items miniature sized! It's finger-friendly, diet-friendly, and just so darn cute!! Who doesn't love to dip miniature grilled cheeses in tomato soup or pop scrumptious cheesecakes without feeling the guilt?

Escort Cards Jazzed Up

One of my favorite set of homemade escort cards were ones that I made last winter. Sticking with a gold and diamond theme, I made sure these were "blingy" at the bride's request. I then hung them on trees for the guests to take (after they were written out of course).

Home Make Over ~ Heather Edition

When looking for inspiration on how I would decorate my place, I decided to make PLACES the theme.

Paint does a lot to fix up just about anything whether it be a wall or a piece of furniture. After deciding on a South Beach, Miami styled bedroom, I took a wooden dresser of mine and refurbished it by painting it a hot orange. Painting the walls blue gave the presence of water and then some added touches like green ting ting gave a seaweed feel. Whiting out the bed, curtains, and actual furniture really gave it the South-Beachy look I was going for. I'm so happy with it and right now I'm working on a city-chic New York-themed Living Room and a modern California-themed Dining area.

Let it Snow!!

What makes a wedding magical? Starting with a dream and letting All The Rave turn it in to a reality! Guests were beyond ecstatic when they left this wedding only to be greeted by snow. The best part? No one really knew that it wasn't coming from the sky!!

This is by far one of my most favorite moments captured!

Warm Wishes

When it comes to deciding on which guest book you'd like to have at your wedding...maybe think outside of the box. That's what we did for a bunch of our brides. In the pictures above you will see the work of the Talia Effect where the artist constructed a gorgeous blocked quilt in the colors of the bride's wedding. As each guest arrived, they were given special markers to write on the quilt which we then hung up for display at the end of the night. This is something beautiful that the bride and groom can keep with them forever. Whether they display it or cover up in it...the memories will always warm their hearts.

Winter Wonderland

Michele and EJ will soon be celebrating their one year anniversary. Their wedding is one of my most absolute favorite ever! There were SOOO many special details that went in to this day, that every time you turned your head, we had another attraction heading your way. From Christmas Carolers greeting the guests with tunes of the season throughout cocktail hour to cute themed drinks like 'Goody Gumdrop' oozing from the beauitful snowflake ice sculpture to a cookie bar at the end of the night where guests were able to take hot chocolate for the ride (with monogrammed cup holders mind you), this wedding was very over-the-river-and-through-the-woods-like over-the-top!!! The whole evening was magical. I will be sharing more pictures from this gorgeous ceremony since there are so many different details to look at.

All You Need Is Love

Each wedding ceremony is special, but there was a wedding ceremony I planned this time last year that was just really unique and I owe a lot of thanks to the talent behind the big day. In the first two pictures you will see the Rutger's University Gospel Choir. Why? The bride (an alumni of Rutger's along with her husband-t0-be) had an amazing vision she came to me with. She loved the wedding scene in the movie 'Love Actually' where the gospel choir burst out in to the song 'All You Need Is Love'. We wanted to surprise EVERYONE with a similar performance. The group from Rutger's was AMAZING!!! I had them hidden in a tiny room behind the alter. They caught everyone by surprise when they came out at the end of the ceremony and started singing and followed the bride and groom to their champagne toast. This did not leave many people without tears!

Geri Rizzo of Magic Flute Weddings graced us on her flute and also brought a violinist, celloist, and piano player to play beautiful music throughout the ceremony. The ceremony really set the tone for the rest of the day.

Bye Bye Birdie cage

Something that is often a focal point at a wedding is the cake! The wedding cake has taken many turns and become very ornate. It's a neat way to put a personal spin on the day. Something else that has also become a neat focal point is a card box (instead of that awful bird cage...not awful if you have a wedding with birds as a theme or something, but otherwise, that's a tradtion that flew out the window...no pun intended). The card box is where guests can place your monetary gift and you can feel safe in knowing that it is secure. Some brides like to walk around with a money bag. I think this is a great alternative.

Above are two very different card boxes I made for brides.

French Country Shabby Chic Bridal Shower Picnic

I customize all of my invitations to match the event.

I had so much fun creating this French Country Shabby Chic Picnic! Yes, I LOVE theming things. I feel as though everything MUST have a theme...something to make it special and personalized. Playing off of the blue and yellow colors found in this style, I got mismatched napkins and placemats in everything from gingham to cordouroy. I then rolled the napkins in to the ornate assortment of napkin rings I had fun shopping for. These were set up on china so that the tables were set when the guests arrived. It was such a beautiful day...well not at first...The shower was to be in the MOB's (Mother of the Bride) back yard which was beautifully landscaped with gorgeous flowers. It actually POURED so badly, that we had to make the call about 30 minutes prior to the event that we would set up inside the garage. I was devestated!!!! I was holding on to hope that the sun would come back out, and it DID! Literally five minutes before guests were arriving, we rushed to set tents (thank God we had man power) and we transported the tables with the plates set on them in to the backyard. I topped each table with candelabras that I refurbished myself. What was really neat was that I found these candelabras in clearance sections of stores very inexpensively. They were marked down because they were missing crystals or they were beaten up. I purchased my own crystals and painted them to give them the shabby chic look we were going for.

For the food, we wanted to stick with picnic-type food. We did BBQ chicken, cornbread, fresh fruit, an assortment of pies. It was great!

This is what the candelabras looked like after I painted them and attached crystals. I was going for an artsy (almost cartoony) type of look with these.

From Beantown With Love

Meghan is from New Jersey, but after meeting her sweetheart in Boston, she continued to reside there. Since the wedding was going to be in NJ and a lot of guests were going to be staying, we wanted to do something neat to make the two families feel at home and welcome at the same time. We did this by making postcards of both states. We attached them to the welcome bags that we made for the hotel which contained all sorts of goodies like (you guessed it) Boston Baked Beans candy.

My Very First Wedding Planning Job!

Before and After Photos

This wedding took place at Forsgate Country Club in New Jersey

Thanks to Meghan Hurley and her confidence in me, I really got to have an amazing experience when planning/coordinating my first wedding! I'm so very proud when I look back at the pictures to see what I was able to create after working with a blank canvas. There was no greater reward though when I took Meghan and John to see their reception room for the first time. Their reaction was one of the greatest feelings in the world. That to me, makes my job worth every bit of hard work!

My Best Friend's Wedding

Several years back when one of my closest friends got engaged, I threw myself in to Wedding Planning mode and I haven't come out since! I wanted to learn anything and everything about weddings! From etiquette to dress designers, I would research for endless hours and teach myself. One of the very first weddings I had input in was that of my friends Kelly and Michael. It was an amazing and elaborate wedding! And, I caught the bouquet (and it worked)! I'm sad that the special tradition is starting to become scarce.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!
I hope you take the day to count your blessings instead of problems. I'm looking to spruce up Thanksgiving this year with pie pops inspired by Bakerella. They will be available for order soon!

You're Invited!!!

You are cordially invited to get a glance at my world!

Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog!!! I hope to give you an insight in to my world and mind to let you know what makes me tick. Whether it's with my personal life or with my business All The Rave Events by Heather, LLC., I want to be able to inspire you or at least provide some fun reading material for you. I'll share lots of information on weddings, events, and more! I'm sure there will be some really amazing posts along the way. Can't wait to share them with you!

Remember to Celebrate Every Day!
xoxo,
Heather :)
http://www.AllTheRaveEvents.com