Happy Monday! Today we present the second of our Christmas Wedding Plans. This one is more traditional. When you think of a Christmas Wedding the palette that comes to mind is Red and White. So we thought we'd share some obvious as well as not so obvious choices for your Wedding Day design.

 Snowflakes are often used with a blue and white palette but why not use them in your red and white palette instead? The white shows up beautifully like snow against velvet.

 One of the newer trends is to use Christmas trees right in your decorating plan. This invitation is beautifully elegant and is only about $1.50 each! What a lovely way to set your theme for your guests!

 Onto the ceremony! We love these rose topiaries that would look just gorgeous placed along your ceremony aisle. Just one every 3 rows would make quite the statement!

Choosing red for your bouquet flowers doesn't mean you are stuck with red roses. While roses are very elegant they are also a bit expected. Why not tuck other red flowers in the bouquet with the roses? We love the way they created texture with the tulips they mixed with the red roses for this Bride.

And don't forget your Groom! A red tie or ascot against this white vest and black tails makes a romantic statement for his outfit.  

 Why not take your first kiss as Husband and Wife in front of the Christmas tree? How lovely would this be at the head of your aisle? Indoors or outdoors a beautiful tree as your backdrop would be perfection!

 Have an attendant stand at the entrance to your ceremony and pass out these little bells. The instructions say to ring the bells as the couple walk back down the aisle as well as a way to prompt them to kiss during the reception. Another nice way to add a bit of Christmas into your ceremony!

 For the doors of the church or the door of your reception hall this rose heart swag would be a lovely way to welcome your guests to your celebration. 

 Chances are there will be several serving tables around your venue. If you are celebrating inside a home there will be side tables and perhaps even a mantle to decorate. In a Hall there will be your food, cake and drink tables and maybe even a bar surface to add a bit of detail to as well! Mix it up, while sticking to your color scheme of red and white, with arrangements made from flowers, cranberries, even using greenery to create color and texture to your space. 

 You can even extend that to your tables. While this arrangement is primarily red and green the crystal of the bowl and the white tea lights surrounding it on the white table cloth keeps it within your color palette.

 Every year I see this arrangement, or one very similar to it, in one florists ad or another. Why not take advantage of these great sales prices to make these arrangements fit your wedding budget! A few of these down the wedding party table as well as one in the center of each guest table would be elegant as well as cost effective. Teleflora has a similar one this year for only $62 each! What a deal!

 You can add a bit more Christmas very easily by wrapping your chairs up like gifts. A simple square knot made from wide red ribbon with a bit of Christmas greenery and a small ornament dresses each one right up for your celebration.

 You can even use ornaments on your tables! These adorable ornament place card holders are only a few dollars a set and how cute they would be on each plate!

 One of the cutest details that I found were these 12 Days of Christmas Table Numbers! How cute to use this wonderful Christmas tradition as part of your day!

 And if there was ever a perfect time to give out wrapped favors, a Christmas Wedding would be that time! White wrapped gifts, or just white boxes, tied with bright red bows make a simple elegant statement. Make a gorgeous display for your guests so they can take one home at the end of the night.

 Or place a wrapped gift in the center of each plate to add a bit more color and decor to your tables. I love how the mini ornaments have been sprinkled on and around the plate as well to help give a bit more color and texture as well.

And, finally there is cake. This buttercream confection from Cat's Cakes is decorated with sugar Poinsettia flowers. The real flower is toxic so if you choose to use real on your cake make sure that your Caker places the flowers into food safe container picks before adding them to the cake. However the chances are good that a sugar flower costs the same as the real flower so why not play it safe and wow your guests with the sugar version?! The perfect centerpiece for your cake table and addition to your Wedding Day!

Next week we will be spotlighting a very special birthday party! I can hardly wait to share all the really cute details of this birthday party for a 2 year old!

As always you can join us for our daily tips on our Facebook Page! http://www.facebook.com/thecherryontopevents

See you then!
Cat

Happy Monday! Tis the Season....for Winter Weddings! So many will get engaged over the next few weeks and begin planning their Winter or Christmas Weddings that we thought we'd feature two different types the next two weeks. This week we are focusing on a Winter Wedding. It's not often that we will feature an all white wedding palette but for a Winter Wedding it is the perfect fit! 

 A Winter Wedding doesn't have to have snowflakes as a part of the motif so we thought we'd show you a couple of options. The gorgeous invitations above from Your Invitation Place look like roses in the snow and are about $1.66 each!

 But if snowflakes are part of your motif then you will be able to run wild with them! There are so many snowflake options to choose from but we love these from lunarink.com and are also about $1.50 each. Lovely.

 There are many ways to dress up your entrance spaces. If you are having your wedding inside a grand home or hotel with a stairway that would be perfect for your grand entrance then you will want to dress it up and make it totally gorgeous.

 Garland, roses, lanterns with candles inside and ribbons make this staircase simply stunning! What a perfect frame for you and your escort as you make your way to the aisle. 

 There are lots of places this time of year to get free or low cost greenery. In fact, you could deconstruct a Christmas tree and have all the greenery you would need for your ceremony and reception space! How's that for cost cutting! Tie with gorgeous ribbon and you have dressed up your aisle for pennies. 

 But if your budget allows why not make your aisle look like driven snow with white rose petals placed just so...what an impact that would make! Remember to tie off the head of the aisle and have your wedding party enter from the sides of the ceremony space so that this very special walk is saved for you and your escort only. 

Are you a DIY master? Then this craft is right up your alley and would be gorgeous hanging at the alter. Just get a wooden letter from your craft store, paint it white, cover with different sizes of pearls and tie up with a gorgeous ribbon. Yes, it's really that easy.

 And speaking of easy DIY. You don't have to spend a fortune to have gorgeous heels for your wedding day. Buy your shoes and then take them with you to match the ribbon. Tie a pretty bow and glue that to the shoe and top that with a gorgeous button or jewelry finding to add that little bit of bling to your shoes!

You all know I'm not a huge fan of the white rose bouquet but this one adds in some bling and white feathers that give it a lot more texture and make it a whole lot more interesting than just a plain white rose bouquet.

And let's not forget the Groom. How charming it would be to have this antique key boutonniere on his lapel...a key that matches an antique lock hanging from her bouquet!

Programs can be quite boring but we just loved these! Paper bags filled with white rose petals that have all of the program information on the front and back. How much fun is that!

Now onto the reception. You can make a gorgeous splash with this DIY wreath made exactly like the letter at the altar. Use a white foam base and glue the pearls all over it and hang with a wide white ribbon. Simply beautiful.

You can use those precut wooden letters for this project too. Now here is how easy it is. Glue the letters to a white painters canvas. Let them dry solidly and then spray paint the whole thing white. Yup, DONE! 

 And speaking of easy...just some tulle and white ornaments in silver vases are used for these centerpieces. If you deal with allergies or just don't have the budget for a lot of flowers these would be gorgeous for your tables.

 But if you have a grand budget wouldn't it be wonderful to hang incredible chandeliers over your tables! Now here is news...you can rent them! YUP! Rent them! You can have a lighting company hang the electrical strip that will allow them to light them up for this stunning display.

 Ok, so maybe you don't have 15K for a grand lighting display but that doesn't mean you can't make a huge impact. This is the one and ONLY time I will recommend balloons for your space. Of course we are not talking about a dozen here or there, we are talking about a thousand clear and white balloons on the ceiling. Amazing. People will be in awe. With helium tank rental, clips and the balloons you will spend about 1K but you will also have a huge impact at your wedding.

But it's not all in the big impact. All of the little details are what makes a wedding stunning. These beautiful little snowflake place card holders will add a little bling as well as a lot of texture to your place settings.

 And speaking of an easy way to add texture to your place settings! Fill these little boxes up with candies like little silver Hershey kisses or a great smelling votive candle and place them in the center of each plate. Easy, beautiful and elegant.

You could also put these snowflake ornaments into those snowflake boxes or just one of these in it's chiffon pouch would be lovely too. The box and the ornament together would cost about $2.50 each so why not spring for both?

Lastly there is cake...or, in this case, Cupcakes! But not just any cupcakes...really gorgeous handpiped fondant covered cupcakes. The decor on these stunners takes them right from kids birthday party right up to supreme elegance. Instead of cutting into a cake you can cut one of these in half and feed the pieces to your new spouse. Easy, elegant and simply stunning. 

Next week we will feature a red and green Christmas Wedding that will knock any ideas of little kids and Santa right out of your mind and replace them with ideas of warm, welcoming classic Holiday Charm!

See you then!
Cat

Happy Monday! Today we bring you a very colorful wedding! So many times "elegant" or "beautiful" for a wedding means just using white or creams in the color palette. But what about those Brides who love color? You can have a very beautiful wedding using color and today's palette includes just about any color you'd like to use!

One of the fun parts of opening your color choices up is that you can use any type of invitation you choose including these fun photo invites from WeddingPaperDivas.com which start off at just about $1.60 each! We love the colorful back as well as the patches of printed color on the front!

Wedding Paper Divas

Looking for a bit more elegant? These lovely floral watercolor invitations are just $1.90 at WeddingPaperDivas.com and would create a very elegant start for your wedding plan.

Now onto the ceremony space. You all know how much I love Mason Jars...here is another really easy but colorful way to dress up your aisle. Wrap the lip of the jar with heavy wire and then create a loop for hanging. Now cover the lip with wide ribbon and fill about a third of the way up with water. Hang these on the chairs facing the aisle and then tuck in the little bouquets of colorful flowers.

Or, if your budget allows a bigger statement then you can create this stunning aisle "runner" of flower petals. Make sure to tie off the head of the aisle so no one will walk on it until you arrive for your big entrance. Have your attendants walk around the outside of the chairs to the altar and leave this gorgeous walk for just you and your escort.

And who says you have to carry white roses in your bouquet?! You can, literally, have any flower you want with this color palette! Roses? Sunflowers? Peony? Strawflower? Aster? SURE! Have them ALL! 

And your flower girl can join in on that act with her hair decoration! If you put your girls in a solid colored dress make sure to dress up their hair or waistlines with a bit of color. These little ribbon headbands would be SO cute on your flower girl as she makes her way down the aisle.

And don't forget your 'Maids. You can dress them in solid colored dresses and then give them a handful of colorful flowers to hold. If you go with floral dresses make sure their flowers are of one color so that they stand out from the dress and enhance the girl.

Just because you are carrying various colored flowers doesn't mean each display of flowers needs to be multi-colored. You can spotlight one or two colors of flowers here or there and still get your colorful effect.

Making a "Wedding Tree" is a new and popular trend this year. Draw out a simple multi-branched tree on your computer along with your names and wedding date and then print it out onto water color paper. Then have your guests "sign in" by using chalk in bright colors to add "leaves" to your wedding tree. (make sure to provide some sort of wet wipe so they can clean their fingers off after signing in.)

With the popularity of Facebook and Twitter we also add the new popularity of Instagram. Chances are good that you will have someone beat you to the honor of posting your first wedding photos online. You can either ban this with about a 95% success rate, give them a special place to post the photos, or make something like this chalkboard asking guests to "tag" the newly married couple in any photos they post! It's a great way to make sure you get to see all the photos your guests are taking!

There are many ways you can go with such a varied color palette and we have chosen two to share with you. There is the Garden Party theme which feels light and airy and is just gorgeous. Using long tables with a simple runner and lots of little vases of multi-colored flowers is an easy way to set this mood. Perfect for a daytime wedding on a gorgeous Spring afternoon.

But if you are having an evening wedding or the day is just too cold for an outside reception you can still use this idea inside. This couple added beautiful candle holders and chargers to their table setting and then used color uplighting to help set the mood. Very colorful and very elegant!

You can even add color for the cocktail hour by tying colorful ribbons around personal sized bottles of champagne. Tie on a colorful straw and you have a drink everyone will be smiling about!

Submerged florals is a favorite of mine. Even if you don't use them on your guest tables you can decorate the food table, sign in table and cake table with these centerpieces. Just use colorful marbles in the bottom, submerge one or two different colored blooms and top with a floating candle. Gorgeous!

Serving a Signature Cocktail for your cocktail hour? How about garnishing them with these colorful frozen fruit skewers?! Set out a selection of these for your guests and let them pick which one they would in their drink!

Yes, even your food can continue the colorful theme. These starter salads are just mini bread bowls filled with a dip and different cold veggies to dip!

Fun for the kids, or a midnight snack for everyone, these M&M filled cookies with milk in champagne glasses would be such a great grown up version of a little kid treat for everyone.

You can even add your colors to these little thank you envelopes for your vendors. Print them out on white paper and back those with a couple more sheets of colored card stock. Slip that into a colorful envelope and have your Best Man, Maid of Honor or even your Mom hand these out to the vendors.

Your favors can be equally as easy. Print your monogram with your names and wedding date underneath in bright colors on cardstock, punch those out with a square punch and then punch holes for the ribbon. Thread in the ribbon and attach at the back of the holder with hot glue or double stick tape. Set one at each place setting. Beautiful.

For a bit more fun you can fill clear boxes with multi-colored jelly beans and then just stick on your labels to seal the case. These you can buy at myweddinglabels.com for about 50 cents each! 

We love this photo of the Bride and Groom because of the use of color in the balloons. But don't be fooled. These are NOT the birthday balloons you would find at a kids party. These balloons are the giant balloons for weddings that are about 3 times the size of the standard balloon. If you are going to try to recreate this shot make sure you use about 2 dozen of these balloons. Stunning!

And, of course, there is cake. I found this fun creation online but have no idea who the Caker is who created it. If this somehow gets back to that Caker please let me know it was you and I will add photo credit for you! I simply love the way color is used without overwhelming the cake. The secret is to use more white than color so that the color POPS out. Lovely!

With Christmas on the way we will be spotlighting Christmas Weddings the next two weeks. We know that a whole lot more lucky ladies will become engaged over the next few weeks and will begin planning their weddings for next Winter so we want to help kick start the planning with two gorgeous party plans!

See you next Monday!
Cat