Wedding Planner NJ - Save Yourself the Embarrassment

We noted the other day the hubbub that was created when Prince William and Kate Middleton sent out "save the date" announcements by fax. It heralded the convergence of a modern convention with another modern invention. And, yes, the prince and princess of Serbia may have wrinkled just as many brows by showing how tech savvy they were to by sending back an RSVP via their own website. Yet what all this demonstrated was there really aren't any rules of etiquette couples can follow when sending out announcements.

But just because no one's chiseled anything into granite, doesn't mean common sense doesn't still dictate we follow certain guidelines.

What they are

A "save the date" announcement is a simple way to inform your guests you're getting married. With family and friends in far-flung corners of the globe, a simple newspaper announcement might not be enough to let everyone know the good news.

Particularly when guests are going to be jetting in from those four corners, a "save the date" card gives your guests plenty of time to make appropriate arrangements to attend.  Add in if you happen to live in a popular tourist hotspot or you're planning a destination wedding, a "save the date" note is a way to show you respect your guests' time.

Consider them also if your wedding will occur around a holiday, which are also popular times for vacations. And June might be one of the top months for weddings, but kids are also getting out of school and families are getting ready to pack up and hit the road for the summer. Your wedding plans could put your guests in a quandary if they've already made reservations and your invitation slides across the kitchen counter.

Moreover, with weddings costing so much these days and invited guests expected to pay for their own way, make sure that if you're inviting someone to the ceremony they're also getting invited to the reception as well. Not everyone needs to get a "save the date" card, but everyone that does needs to get an invitation too.

What they're not

At the same time, a "save the date" notice is not an invitation, so the recipient doesn't really have to save that date if they don't want to. The bride and groom shouldn't expect to receive any responses, though undoubtedly they will.

So what should a "save the date" announcement have? A good idea would be the following items as a minimum:

• The name of the couple getting married
• The date of the wedding
• The city and state where the wedding will be held
• And, as mention above, "formal invitation to follow" is good form

Beyond that, be as creative as you like. Check out these cute samples Style Me Pretty featured. Many bridal websites like The Knot allow couples to create their own wedding site so include that too on the card if you've made one.

With the formal invitation typically sent out a month or so before the wedding, wedding planners encourage couples getting married to send "save the date" announcements out four to six months ahead of time, even longer if the wedding is going to be on or around a holiday or at a destination locale.

A NJ Wedding Planner's Bottom Line

Save-the date cards have but one purpose and that's to let those who plan to attend the wedding make note that a date has been set. By providing extended notice to you guests, you're giving them the greatest opportunity to make travel plans, book the lowest rates, and secure accommodations for themselves.

Don't forget, though, these are a relatively recent development and "save the date" cards oftentimes are not only not required, they're not even expected. For couples looking to save money, they can be safely ignored without feeling they've committed a major social faux pas. Unless, that is, they wanted to fax them directly to the royal family.

Wedding Planner NJ - A Royal 3D Event

As if the wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton won't be enough of a spectacle, word comes the royal wedding extravaganza may be broadcast in 3D!

The wedding, which will take place at Westminster Abbey, will be the first royal event to be so televised. It looks like the BBC, ITV, and BskyB are pushing to have the eye-popping honors, according to the British news source The Telegraph, and the stations are promising to be discreet. As if. 3D cameras are much larger than a traditional camera.

Of course, you're going to need to wear those funky 3D glasses to view the broadcast, oh, and a 3D television set. Maybe you want to jog on down to your local Best Buy and upgrade the flat screen in your living room before the April 29 nuptials. Then again, maybe IMAX will show it in one of their theaters for all the subjects not ready to shell out $1,500 for a new set just a few years after having upgraded to LCD or plasma.

Although royals watching is fast becoming a legitimate sport and the World Cup and French Open were both televised in 3D, I'm not quite sure what the benefit will be. Crowns flying at the camera? Scepters threatening to poke out our eyes? Kate's baubles spilling out onto our hearth?

I'm sure the wedding will be just as majestic in 2D for his, well, majesty, without the need for bulging out of our TV screens into our living rooms.

Wedding Planner NJ - What To Do With Tattoos?

It's a long standing joke that the last thing you want to do if you want your relationship to last is to tattoo your significant other's name or face on your body. As soon as you put that eternal reminder on your skin, the clock begins counting down to when the relationship ends.

Eva Longoria is only the latest to discover that truism.  After having her wedding date -- 07-07-07 (actually VII VII MMVII)-- to pro basketball player Tony Parker tattooed on her wrist, the marriage was doomed. She also has the word "Nine" -- Parker's jersey number -- tattooed on the back of her neck. Angelina Jolie was another star suffering a similar fate (the vials of Billy Bob Thornton's blood were much easier to dispose of) Just recently she appears to have had that bad wrist reminder surgically removed by laser.

But plenty of brides getting married have tattoos that they don't want removed, yet they also don't want them showing. Whether a tattoo was a result of youthful indiscretion, a reminder of a wilder youth, or just a part of your personality, there are sometimes we'd rather not have it on display. A wedding is often one of those times.

What are a bride's options? For small tattoos, you can use coverup make as Eva Longoria did for awhile, using a concealer that matches your skin tone before misting on a spray foundation. If you go over all that with a translucent powder, the look should be seamless. You'll definitely want to practice with any coverup kits before the Big Day, even Dermablend, one of the more highly recommended kits out there.

Large tattoos, however, might present more of a challenge. Airbrushing is popular or choosing a wedding gown that hides as much as possible. There's also there's the possibility of wearing a bolero or a shawl. If it's a matter of not having them show up in pictures, your photographer might be able to help you with that, even by suggesting certain angles to shoot photos from. I'm not a fan of having photos Photoshopped, but that is also a possibility too.

However, if you do have very large tattoos on exposed parts of your body, then they are very much a part of who you are and rather than hide from their exposure, embrace it. They represent you, your personality, feelings and emotions you had at the time you had it done. There's no reason really you need to run from that.

What are your views? Should brides go to extraordinary lengths to cover tattoos, even large ones, or allow them to be exposed in all their brilliant colors?

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Wedding Planner NJ - Just the FAX Your Highness

I knew I should've plugged in my fax machine. 

Prince William and Kate Middleton caused a stir by sending out "save the date" announcements for their wedding by fax (BTW, the date is April 29). The official rationale behind the move was that protocol dictates that major sovereigns receive notice earlier than foreign heads of state and non-VIP guests, and besides, it's a really efficient way of getting the word out.

And the responses have already started rolling in. The prince and princess of Serbia RSVP'd right away they were attending...via their website! 

While royal couple intend to send out the traditional gold-embossed save-the-date notices, they wanted to get these in the hands of the guests ASAP. Will this become a new trend? Faxing invitations and RSVPing by website. Maybe they can schedule the wedding through a Facebook Meetup!

While the royals can get away with this, could you? Would you even consider faxing your guests a save the date announcement?

If you want to be a little more formal with your own Save the Date announcement (should we even call them STDs?), here are some good tips to follow:

Keep it simple. Write something along the lines of "Save the Date: (Your name and your fiance's name) are getting married on (your wedding date) in (city where you'll be married). It's also a good idea to include "Formal invitation to follow" to let your guests know to expect further details and communication.

Here are some ideas for Save the Date announcements:

Yes, it's a mint tin!

Familiarity Breeds Complacency

It's not change for change's sake, but we've redesigned and updated our website ComingTogetherEvents.com to give visitors more information and value. Now couples who are getting married in New Jersey and New York will be able to find just the services they need.

Continue to visit our site often as we add more pages of useful information. Thanks for checking in.

A More In-Depth View

We've been adding new content to our website ComingTogetherEvents.com with the goal of making the site the go-to place for information about your wedding, party, or life's milestone celebration.

We just added a detailed Wedding Checklist with more than 100 items you'll need to complete to make sure your Big Day goes off without a hitch (and, yes, hiring a wedding planner is one of the first things you ought to do!).

It's broken up into bite-size pieces based on when you should complete certain tasks. So you'll find "Choose desired location for reception" under things you should do a year or more in advance of the date (the more popular venues book quickly, so getting this done early is key to all your other plans) while you can wait 4 to 6 months before the wedding date to "Have groom and his ushers get measured for tuxedos."


If you're already well into your wedding planning schedule, just go to the section you need (but check the others to make sure you've got them done!), or you can download the whole checklist for a handy reference (it's a pdf file). The checklist can be used for many of the events you're considering.


Check out our website often to see what's new. You can also friend us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and FriendFeed.

Having Your Cake & Eating It Too

I got a chance to check out the creations of local bakery masters at Palermo's Bakery in Ridgefield Park. You don't need your own TV show to be able to create works of art, as the cakes on this page by Palermo's attest.

From the outside,  Palermo's looks like every other neighborhood bakeshop, and it is. It's been in business for over 20 years. But it's also the home to a level of artistry that rivals any TV celebrity baker.


These are the creations of the master bakers working behind the scenes in the kitchens. They just participated in the Martha Stewart Weddings and the Wedding Library's Wedding Party Bridal show at the New York Palace Hotel this past Saturday, and previously were able to present David Tutera of TV's My Fair Wedding with a special cake celebrating his many literary successes. Their cakes have also been featured on Platinum Weddings on WE.

If you want to check out some of their awesome cakes on your own, you're going to need an appointment. While some of their creations can be seen in the bake shop, the real show stoppers are located in the display room located just next door. And just like at a fine jeweler, you need to be buzzed in to gain entrance.

I recommend taking some time to stop in and see what these cake masters can do. And while you're there, try a cannoli. I did. Yum!

Best. Invite. Evah!

It's been circulating on the Internet for a couple of years now (it's a top-Dugg story on Digg), but this wedding invitation has got to be the all time best wedding announcement ever written:

Bridal Expo Update

If you were planning on attending the PlanIt Expo Bridal Show that was scheduled for next Wednesday, January 19, at the La Quinta-Hudson Manor in Secaucus, we've learned the show has been cancelled by its organizers. Apparently there were coordination issues that could not be resolved, and rather than go through with a half effort, PlanIt Expo decided to reschedule it to a future (as yet unknown) date.

If you're still looking for a show to attend, you're in luck because January is one of the busiest months for bridal shows. With all of the engagements that occur over the holidays, show organizers want couples to get as much information they need right away.

Here are a few links to lists of bridal shows in the area over the next few weeks, including those from WedAlert (check us out on WedAlert's site!), NJWedding.com, and American Bride.

I look forward to seeing you all at the next show!

Let Them Eat...Styrofoam?

One of the highlights of any wedding reception is the cutting of the wedding cake. It's always on your mind whether the bride or groom will mash the cake into each other's face. While that has sometimes led to one or the other grabbing handfuls of cake and starting a food fight, usually the ceremony is a tasteful affair.

What you may not have realized is that some of those gorgeously designed wedding cakes may not have been a real wedding cake at all. In fact, they may have been fake cake!

Fake cake? Yes! There's a growing trend in weddings now to substitute fake wedding cakes for the real thing. You might initially recoil at the idea of having a fake cake at your own wedding, but there is a certain sense -- and cents -- to it.

Many people at weddings don't actually eat the cake and often large amounts end up in the trash. That's hard-earned money for the bride and groom ending up in the garbage. A fake cake gives brides the opportunity to have a wedding cake that's every bit as beautiful as a real one, but at a reduced cost. Wedding guests are then served from a separate sheet cake that's kept "offstage" out of view, and no one is the wiser.

Equally important, fake cakes can save you hundreds of dollars.

Fake cakes typically have Styrofoam tiers as their support system. They're then covered in fondant and decorated just as any real cake would be. Ribbons, flowers, embellishments. It's all good on the outside, because the outside is just the same as a real cake. The only difference is what's underneath.

I can hear the howls already. What about the cake cutting ceremony?! There are a couple of ways that's handled: either a "slice" is cut out of the Styrofoam and a piece of real cake inserted (and marked on the outside so the bride and groom know where to cut) or one of the tiers of the cake is actually real and used for the cake cutting.

A few other advantages of going the fake cake route are that you don't have to worry about the temperature melting your icing and you don't have to fear the cake collapsing.

In fact, the photos on this page are actually all fake cakes and come from the portfolio of Ultimate Fake Cakes in Howell, MI. Liz Pietila does an amazing job creating these gorgeous masterpieces.

So the next time you're at a wedding and you're tempted to sneak a taste of the cake before it's served, don't be surprised if you end up with a mouthful of Styrofoam. Marie Antoinette has nothing on these fake cake beauties.

Under Construction

If you visit our ComingTogetherEvents.com website right now, you're likely to get that message: "Under Construction." There's apparently a server problem that we've been assured will be fixed within 24 hours. Unfortunately, it's also affected our email so if you need to get in touch with me, drop us a note at our alternative email, comingtogetherevents@gmail.com.

It's always good to have a backup plan in place and I'm glad we're still able to keep in contact with our clients. Of course, you can always call me at (551) 206-0198.

Thanks for your patience. We look forward to being up and running again very soon.

Calling All Brides!

On Wednesday, January 19, 2011, Coming Together Events will be a participating vendor at the PlanIt Expo Bridal Show at the La Quinta-Hudson Manor in Secaucus from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. While not required, you can register at the PlanIt Expo event website.

The bridal show is free, so be sure to stop by our booth for a chance to win some fun prizes!

La Quinta-Hudson Manor
350 Lighting Way
Secaucus, New Jersey 07094