NJ Wedding Planner - Hong Kong McWeddings: I'm Lovin' It!

It's easy to confuse "My Big Redneck Wedding" with a McDonald's wedding package, but other than the incongruity of holding a wedding ceremony under the Golden Arches, there's nothing similar to it and the tractor pulls featured on the TV show.

Apparently wedding ceremonies in Hong Kong aren't the same as those here in the U.S. It was only in 2006 that the government there allowed a marriage to take place in a secular location. But since such out of the ordinary locales were permitted, unique settings have been popping up and the fast food burger chain is just the latest example.

McDonald's "Warm and Sweet" wedding package, which goes for HK$9,999 (or $1,283 in U.S. dollars at current exchange rates) includes renting the restaurant for two hours, 50 invitations, and up to $385 in food. Couples can provide guests with McDonald's characters like Ronald McDonald, Grimace, and the Hamburglar as wedding favors. And you can't beat the Double Apple Pie box "cake" display!

According to Time magazine, the average traditional wedding in Hong Kong starts at around $38,000 (compared that to $25,000 or so in the U.S.). A McDonald's wedding therefore makes for a more affordable and intimate -- if somewhat offbeat -- affair.

Anything that encourages couples to get married means I'm lovin' it!

Wedding Planner NJ - Do Me a Favor!

Wedding favors as a custom seem to have come full circle. With a centuries long history, they were originally handed out by the wealthy who had the means to bestow such gifts. Called "bonbonnieres," they were small trinket boxes made of crystal, porcelain, or precious and semi-precious stones. Inside were sugar cubes or other tasty confections!

Almond joy
People of lesser means, but using simpler tokens of appreciation, subsequently adopted the custom. It evolved into a gift of Jordan almonds that were then sugar coated and called "confetti." The bitter taste of the almond mixed with the sweet taste of the sugar was meant to symbolize the bittersweet realities of marriage.

Today it seems we've returned to lavishness, trying to outdo each other in the elaborateness of the favor.

And that has led to a backlash of sorts causing people to ask, do we even need to give favors anymore?

While tradition says we have to give a gift, and many times it means following a rote path that others have taken before, nothing requires us to actually do so. However, we are celebrating a unique time in our lives and providing a small favor to our friends and family to remember this occasion is a simple gesture of goodwill.

Are you nuts?
While I remember getting small fabric-wrapped almonds at almost every wedding I went to when I was young, today people seem to give everything but almonds. Regardless of whether it was three or five Jordan almonds, the symbolism was the same: fertility, longevity, wealth, health, and happiness. The odd number of almonds also had meaning. Not being easily divisible, it represented the difficulty in dividing those newly joined in marriage.

Today, anything goes! Small bottles of wine or champagne (or hot sauce even!), personalized glasses, small crystal trinkets, silver spoons, and more are handed out. Wedding favors come in varying price points too, from less than $1 to more than several dollars a piece.

You don't have to spend a fortune, and the wedding planners at Coming Together Events recommend you don't. You can find many unique, memorable gifts on the Internet today and not pay a king's ransom to get them. Monogrammed glass candy jars, for example, can be bought in bulk and had for well under $1 each. Personalized soap squares, complete with box and ribbons, can be purchased too. One-of-a-kind candy tins, gourmet coffee packets or tea bags, candles, shot glasses, and more are available, and all for below $1 each.

At my own wedding, we gave personalized M&Ms in small silver boxes.

A NJ Wedding Planner's Bottom Line
Today there are so many options that you're really only limited by your imagination. Think of something that represents who you are and would say something about you. That way when the wedding is over and your guests are back home and they reach for the favor you've given them, they'll remember you fondly and perhaps wish you good cheer.

After all, that is what a wedding favor is for. Good luck!

Wedding Planner NJ - Google Weddings Site

It's not going to replace The Knot anytime soon, but search engine king Google just launched Google Weddings that gives brides-to-be a nice, simple platform to create a wedding site, share announcements and photos, and yes, plan your wedding.

The interface of Google Weddings is very clean and simple, just like its search engines. Created with input from wedding planner Michelle Rago and the gorgeous site of wedding planning ideas Style Me Pretty, visitors are offered four main choices: creating a wedding website on Google Sites; editing photos and creating announcements; a gateway to Google Docs for planning worksheets; and a portal to Picasa, Google's photo sharing web platform.

As a New Jersey wedding planner, I think this is a great tool for couples, though I didn't find the planning guide initially to be as intuitive as the simplicity of the rest of the site suggests it would be. Clicking on the first link "Wedding Planner" takes you to a rather ugly spreadsheet that gives couples tips on how to proceed with their plan, such as starting with your guest list. You then have to back out of the page and head to the other links to get to the various other spreadsheets for the address book, budget, music, etc. Again, these are Google Docs, so they're not so stylish.

You also have the opportunity to enter to win a $25,000 dream wedding designed by Michelle. That's, of course, around the average cost of a wedding these days, but couples shouldn't pass up the opportunity of having their wedding costs defrayed.

I plan on recommending my clients make full use of the site. Google Weddings is a great tool to use and I think it will help couples getting married to plan and keep their weddings on track and within budget.

While The Knot also offers many of the same tools, the site is, let's say "busy," so getting quickly to what you need isn't always a simple task. Google Weddings on the other hand gives couples the means of finding the items that means most to them right away.

Relaxing Chamber Music

Last night I attended the Mercer County Regional Chamber of Commerce's wedding industry networking event in Trenton. Although a little further afield than what would be typically considered my base of operations, it was an excellent opportunity to meet a number of vendors in the field, including NJWedding.com, New Jersey Bride magazine, and Brides.com.

Perhaps one of the most interesting people I met was Frank Margasak, of The Wedding Artist. You'll find out more about Frank when he's added to The Social Register later this week, but suffice to say he brings a very unique service to the industry.

Frank is a portraitist and illustrator that transferred his skills from the fashion industry -- where he worked for the likes of Polo, Armani, and Prada -- and brought them to the wedding industry. He creates beautiful, haute couture bridal portraits in charcoal. He is quite possibly the only high fashion bridal portraitist in the country.

To the right is just one sample of Frank's amazing work, but he has many more samples on his site where he goes from original to first draft to final design. Keep an eye out for more about Frank later this week on The Social Register.

Brides have a lot of choices these days in picking photographers, musicians and DJs, even places where to look for the services (as well as where to find wedding planners too -- but you already know you don't need to go any further than here!). While Coming Together Events currently utilizes The Knot and WeddingChannel.com, primarily because they're seen as the go-to sites for the industry, you shouldn't neglect alternative venues either.

Last night we met the folks from WedAlert and WeddingZone, both of whom offered intriguing opportunities for showcasing my services, but also bringing a wealth of information to the bride-to-be. You'll likely be well-served by checking out either (or both!) sites.