Planning Palooza

North Florida's top two wedding planners have teamed up for a fun wedding planning workshop offering tons of advice on hiring vendors, etiquette, your planning timeline, dealing with family stress, and much more!  Have the opportunity to ask the pro's anything... really anything!

Sunday, September 26

Haile Village Meeting Hall

4 o'clock to 6 o'clock

$30 (cash only), includes refreshments

RSVP Call: 352.317.3222

Email: RSVP@adoreevents.biz

(MasterPiece Weddings and its affiliates have not been paid for, for this post)

Place Setting - Where does the Napkin Go?

My plan was to stop our place-setting series on Friday...but these were too pretty to leave out. Don't you think?

Photographs by: Jean Moree Photography

Formal Place Setting- Napkin Debate

Someone emailed me yesterday and asked what a formal place setting with a menu card could look like. Well, there are so many, but here is one that I like!

What about you, what do you guys think?

This is from Agape Weddings and More

Place Setting- Where does the Napkin Go?

So, the napkin can go in several locations at the table at your wedding. In these images, they had a buffet meal, so the napkin was pre-set at the table, folded nicely on the table. You could even emblish the napkin with a small floral, fold a menu into the napkin, a ribbon tied around the napkin.

But really, it looks lovely just placed oh so perfectly on the table.

Photo's by: Dawn McKinstry Photography

In accordance with FTC regulations, we officially notify you that no one was compensated for this endorsement.

Place Setting - Where does the Napkin Go?

So, my original intention was to do a series on not putting the napkin in a glass when doing a place setting at a wedding. This is a huge pet-peeve of mine!

The napkin doesn't belong there, so please for all things that are holy, stop putting the napkin in the water, wine or champagne glass at a wedding! There are plenty of other elegant napkin folds and places for that beautiful linen to go, I promise!

But, I said, when I started thinking about this post... so what happened in the meantime, I got these super fun, amazing photographs of place settings, and now I MUST share them with you!

Fair Warning... *Insert Beep, Beep Beep* here... the first picture has the napkin in the glass, but if you can tell me its not precious and wouldn't be adorable at a bridal luncheon... then... well... shoooosh!

Who would have thought that a pink polka dotted napkin would be so stinkin' cute!

Photo's by: Ashley Brockinton Photography and Styling and Planning by Mary Hines, Chandelier Productions



In accordance with FTC regulations, we officially notify you that no one was compensated for this endorsement.

Engagement {Ear}Rings!

I was chatting with a good friend of mine who recently mentioned he was about to ask his long time girl friend to be married! Hooray!!!!

Then we started talking about rings, and what she might like, he thought maybe a mix of sapphires and diamonds - so I sent him some links to take a peek at.

Today he emails me, and says that over the weekend they were talking and she'd like to have her grandmother's vintage ring made into earnings for their engagement! Sweet, huh!

That got me thinking, eventually she's want a ring, right?

Maybe not?

Does everyone need a ring? What do you think?

Etiquettely Speaking...

The question was posed yesterday if it is etiquettely acceptable to send out a Save The Date as a postcard?

And to be quite frank with you, Yes.

Save the Dates can be anything you'd like. A formal letter explaining your wedding and where it is going to be, a magnet to hang on your dishwasher, a bookmark, a postcard, a formal card, really whatever you'd like it to be.

Basically the purpose behind the Save The Date is to do just that - make sure your friends and family mark their calendar for your wedding date - and whatever suits your personality is totally acceptable!

Now RSVP'ing via email to your wedding, well that's a whole nother story!

{the image is courtest of idovedesigns.com}

Chopsticks Do's and Don'ts

I had gotten a bunch of email questions about using chopsticks at a meal after I posted about Etiquette for a place setting.

• Do decide which piece of food you want before you start in on an appitizer platter with your chopsticks. Poking the food as you decide what you want is a no-no, and once your chopsticks have touched a piece of food, you must take it.
• Do bite in half any dumplings and other small items that are a little too large to eat.
• Do raise your rice bowl to a point just under your chin when eating rice (unless you happen to be dining in Korea, where all dishes remain on the table).
• Do rest your used chopsticks on your plate or chopstick rest, no directly on the table.
• Don't pour any sauce over the food, instead use your chopsticks to dip a piece of food in teh sauce before raising it to your mouth
• Don't tap the chopsticks on a dish to attract the attention of your server. (that's just wrong when it comes to forks, knives or any utensil)

**Thanks to Emily Post's Etiquette (17th Edition) for help with some of the questions.

Etiquette 101

So call me OCD, call me what you will. But when I am invited to someone's house for a dinner party, I attack the dining room table in a very indiscreet way - slowly and methodically placing the sliverware where it is supposed to be. And moving the glasses and bread plates to their proper position. I know it's wrong, I know I shouldn't do it, but I just want things done properly.

My husband thinks it's ridiculous. But I just have a thing for the proper placement of flatware and china.

I personally feel people just don't know, they were never educated in what breadplate to use or let alone where it was supposed to be. In Blueprint magazine recently they had a layout as to where things go.

And please for the love of all that is holy - don't put the napkin in a glass, it might look pretty. But it leaves lint behind, and the last thing you want in your wine is lint.