Red Letter Events was assigned the theme “Winter Desert” for the inaugural show in Tacoma. It was our challenge to create a vignette that incorporated these two opposing themes. To do this, we used rustic and organic elements like burlap, twine, wood, sand, moss and succulent plants. We also used snow and cool blue lighting, as well as blue napkins and ribbon, and brown and blue fonts in the paperie.

We want to give a big ‘thank you’ to our vignette partners, Trendy Event Rentals, Burning Cupcakes, Valerie’s Invites, AA Party Rentals and Mercer Island Florist for all of the time and materials you put into this event.

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This year, 100% of our clients through out the receiving line, and we couldn’t have been happier about it. For the sake of soon-to-be wed couples that are trying to figure out what to do to acknowledge their guests, but really aren’t excited about the thought of a receiving line, I thought I’d offer some alternatives to consider.

• Mingling during the cocktail hour – Instead of planning a grand entrance to your reception with your new spouse, you could enjoy a more casual entrance to your party and mingle with your guests during the cocktail hour. You probably won’t have to go far though, because what you might find is that an informal line will start to form, and the guests that really want to greet you will come to you.
• Releasing tables to the buffet – Of course this only works if you’re planning dinner buffet-style, and not plated. The idea is that you and your new spouse visit each table, receive your congratulations, thank your guests, and excuse them to the buffet before moving on to the next table. This keeps the buffet line short and managed, and gives you and your guests a moment together. Don’t forget about you, though. To pull this off, I recommend having your wedding coordinator prepare a plate of food for the both of you, and eat a bit before you make your entrance into your reception. Depending on the size of your guest list, releasing tables could take a while, and if you don’t eat before, you’ll be starving by the time you’re done. That, and there won’t be much time before toasts, cake cutting, and the many other reception events replace your time to eat.
• Mingling at guest tables – This works for buffet or plated dinners. You and your wedding party lead the way to the buffet, or receive your plated dinner first. Because you’re first to eat, you’ll likely be first to be done. When you’re done eating, you and your new spouse can spend a few minutes at each guest table. This is less rushed than releasing tables to the buffet, but you still need your wedding coordinator to manage your time, otherwise, you may not make it to every table before reception events begin, and you lose your opportunity.

While we don’t wish ill will on the poor Receiving Line, or any clients that are planning on “the long walk”, we are glad to see this tradition fading into the past. Always have fun planning your wedding, and don’t be afraid to make some new traditions.

Ice Cream Bars are becoming increasingly popular. You can offer a variety of different ice cream flavors for your guests to choose from (or just select a few), and have an assortment of cute glass containers full of candies, nuts, cherries, bananas, hot fudge, berries, cookies, sprinkles, brownie pieces… you name it. Oh, and don’t forget the whipped cream! Your Ice Cream Bar could be self serve, or you could have someone staff the table during your reception to serve your guests. It would be a refreshing late night treat, after hours of dancing the night away – or if you’re truly a non-traditional bride, you could offer an Ice Cream Bar instead of wedding cake!

Popcorn Bars have also become popular recently – you can offer it as your take-home favor for guests, or as a novelty treat during your reception. Offering a few different flavors to choose from would be a nice option (you can pre-make the flavors at home prior to the wedding) – and offer a few mix-in treats such as nuts, M&M’s, Sour Patch Kids and other types of candies. If you don’t want to try to pull it together on your own, you can hire someone to do it for you.

We’ll be featuring a Seattle-area based popcorn vendor called Pop! Gourmet Popcorn at the Tacoma Art Museum during the Wedding Walk Tacoma on February 20, 2011. You can check out their popcorn mix-in station to see if you’d like to include popcorn at your wedding. Hope to see you there!

Wedding Walk Tacoma is a one day event, coming Sunday, February 11th, 2011, that will introduce prospective brides, grooms, wedding attendants and their family and friends to Tacoma, as a one-stop shopping destination for weddings, while sampling excellent food, wonderful beverages and touring Tacoma’s most beautiful places to get married.

Brides, grooms, friends and family will walk the Downtown Tacoma Business District, stopping at the Marriott and Pacific Grill Event Center,  then walking down Pacific Avenue to the Tacoma Art Museum, Union Station, and the History Museum before crossing the Chihuly Bridge to the Museum of Glass on the water.

There are approximately 60 premier businesses and sponsors participating from categories such as floral design, formal wear, hotel and banquet halls, invitations and printing, jewelers, photographers, salons and spas, shoes and accessories, and bakeries.

Participants can choose to walk, ride in a limo, or hop on Tacoma’s Link lightrail to the featured venues. After visiting all locations, participants will be entered to win a Grand Prize Raffle.

Red Letter Events is excited to be the Wedding Walk Tacoma wedding and event planner for the Tacoma Art Museum. Purchase your ticket in December 2010 and take $10 Off the regular price.

Red Letter Events is a proud supporter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Alaska & Washington.

Come join us at the Tacoma Art Museum on April 8th for and evening of delicious appetizers and beverages, provided by Jonz Catering.

You’ll get to meet an array of wedding vendors in an intimate setting, pick up some beautiful decorating ideas, and see the museum as you’ve never seen it before.

This free event is by invitation only. Please RSVP with us by email or by phone.

Come join us at the Tacoma Dome Exhibition Hall on March 27th & 28th for the Tacoma Spring Wedding Expo. We’re going to be there with some great partners and an amazing 20′x20′ booth, showcasing our collective talents and services.

We’ve also put together a great package just for Expo brides – wedding-day coordination, photography, videography and a DJ, all for under $5,000. You’ll save over $1,500, just by attending the show. You won’t find a better deal at the Expo than this.

On site will be Kim with Vivid Images Photography, Adam with Adam’s DJ Service and Anthony with Motion of Life Video Productions. And of course, we’ll be there too. Be sure to ask us about our Expo pricing, as well as our group package with Kim, Adam and Anthony.

Tickets are $15. Sign up now and get 2 tickets for the price of one. Limited time offer.

Dear Friends,

We’re on an important mission to rekindle the holiday spirit and we need your help.

Quite simply, we’re asking America to believe. This holiday season, join Macy’s and the Make-A-Wish Foundation® to help collect a million reasons to believe.

What is the Believe campaign? Beginning on November 6, children across the country are invited to drop off their letters — stamped and addressed to Santa at the North Pole — in the Santa Mail letterbox at any Macy’s store. For each letter received, Macy’s will donate $1 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, up to $1 million dollars to help grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions. We’ll be picking up letters from our local Macy’s and getting them on their way to the North Pole.

What is the Make-A-Wish Foundation? The Make-A-Wish Foundation grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy.

Be an inspiration. You are in a unique position to really make a difference. Write your own letter to Santa and drop it off at your local Macy’s store today. Inspire your children, peers, family and friends to get involved by writing their letters, too.

This is Part 3 in our 3 part series on saving money while getting the wedding you want. There were great ideas long before these, and there will be more tips after this series – but we hope that some of the info in this series has been a help to you in planning your wedding. If you find yourself in need of some cost saving or trendy ideas, or you need help on your wedding day, please call or email us – we’ll be right there for you.

Videography: Limiting the events that your videographer captures will save room in your budget. Instead of having them film from the time you start getting ready to the time you ride of into the sunset, you could have them capture just the ceremony and the formal events of your reception.

Wedding Cake: Instead of getting an elaborate cake for display and eating, you could have a small 2-tier cake made for display, and then have a sheet cake made that will be served to guests.

Favors: You can save on cost by making your own classic favors from scratch. Buy tulle circles (or cut them out yourself) and wrap some Hershey Kisses or Jordan Almonds with ribbon tied around it. Other affordable favors might include paper fans, coasters, candles, or handmade chocolates.

Hair & Make-up: Depending on the look you want, hair and make-up are easily done by you or a friend. More complicated hair styles will require someone with some expertise, though.

Wedding Planning & Coordination: With enough time and enough organizational skills, you can plan your own wedding and save the money for day-of wedding coordination. Having a professional wedding planner coordinate your wedding day allows you, your family and friends to enjoy your wedding day instead of working. We have the experience with vendors and venues to make sure that your wedding day looks just like you imagined it.

Whether or not you get to visit this bridal show, we thought we’d give you a sneak peak at some of our favorite things at this year’s show.

Favorite Unique Idea: Directly to the left and right of one of the entrances to the main hall where vendor exhibits are located sits Adam’s DJ Service showcasing these unique and cool inflatable lights from Air Sculptures. They come in various shapes and sizes – some hang from the ceiling, some sit on the floor, and there’s one that can act as a wall or divider. They’re all lightable in just about any color imaginable and make for really neat lighting.

Favorite Fun Idea: Straight down the center aisle from Adam’s DJ Service and those inflatable lights is Justin with Party Outfitters. Our favorite idea to add some fun to your reception, as well as some touching and crazy moments, is their photo booth. It’s been a common tradition in recent years to provide your guests with disposable cameras, so that they can take candid photos of your reception.

Not saying you couldn’t still do that, but how fun would it be to have a photo booth set up so your guests can take unlimited serious, silly or outrageous photos of themselves. And this option comes with instant gratification – within a minute, a strip of photos is deposited into their hands to take as a momento of your wedding. Not only that, but you get a copy of every photo taken in the booth at your event.

Party Outfitters will deliver the photo booth to your venue, set it up, and pick it up after the reception is done. You even have the option to have the photo booth manned by a staff member to assist your guests in taking photos – great for the technologically challenged guests. They even have all kinds of arcade games and billiards too.

Tastiest Treat: Since our center of referrence today is the inflatable lights, we’ll stick with it – just to the left is our favorite treat of the event, Affairs Chocolate & Desserts. If you get within five feet of Gay’s table, you’ll start to smell and see why. The plesant and intoxicating arroma of chocolate draws you closer. Gay places a small truffle in your hand. You place that truffle in your mouth. You book your wedding date with her. Then about five minutes after you leave her booth, you wake up from your chocolate-induced trance. I’ve got a feeling you won’t regret what you did though.

Favorite Decor Idea: Betta Mansions‘ variety of center pieces featuring all shapes and sizes of betta fish definately qualify as one of our favorite unique ideas, but we love the spandex chair covers that they have. They are form fitting and don’t hang on the floor – so no fabric to trip on – and when you swing around in the chair, the snug spandex fit keeps the fabric in place. They’re sleek and they’re practical, and they come in fourty-seven different colors. We really like the look, and we think you will too.