Hello, 2009

2008 was a fabulous year and I have my many wonderful clients and colleagues to thank for that. I love love LOVED being a part of so many wonderful events and was inspired by everyone I worked with. But as much as I have loved 2008, I am equally READY for 2009! I am so excited for the events that are already in the works, as well as those that I don't even know about yet. I'm looking forward to all of the stories and surprises that the new year will be bring.

My New Year's resolution is the the same as it is every year - to put my gym membership to actual use! If there are any Urban Active members out there who want to help me with my resolution, let me know! I'm much better at going to the gym when someone else guilts me into going. And if YOUR resolution is to have a stress-free wedding or event, then contact me and I can make sure it happens :)

A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone!

Best wishes,

Fabulous February Deal

At my last wedding of 2008, the bride and groom commented to me multiple times how surprised (and happy!) they were that the day was going so smoothly and seamlessly. Their secret? Very simple - they chose high-quality, professional vendors (more on that to come in their recap which will be posted soon). On your wedding day, your wedding vendors work as a team to make sure that everything happens precisely the way you envisioned, so having a team of professionals that complement each other in style and process is key.

That said, what if you could have two high-quality, professional vendors for the price of one? For the month of February 2009 only, Lifetime Video is offering complimentary wedding day coordination with any package booked. The process is simple - when you book Lifetime Video for your videography, you'll receive complimentary wedding day coordination from your choice of 3 companies (including Aviva Events) as well as special discounts from Brideface. For more details, contact Matt Pine - (513) 231-0080 or matt@lifetime-video.com.

Please spread the word - it's a deal to good to be missed!

Happy Birthday, Steph!

Happy Birthday, Steph!

In Cincinnati, we're very lucky because there are an outrageous number of photographers, and within that outrageous number there is somewhere between 7 and 10 that are (in my opinion) truly amazing artists. Steph Carson definitely falls in that "artist" category, and today was her birthday! She celebrated by having a surprise (on the guests!) party at her newly opened studio downtown. Purple was the theme, to celebrate her new logo/blog design (or maybe she just really loves purple? or both?)... Nancy was on hand to prettify and purpleify the guests before they each got a photo taken on the purple couch, and purple champagne was popped just for the occassion. Now if I were smart, I would have broken out my brand new Flip Video (thank you, Seth) which was in my purse and taken some quick shots of the fun to share with everyone. But I'm not used to having my awesome new technology yet, so I didn't even think to until after I had left. But-- Matt Pine of Lifetime Video was there to document it all, so be sure to check his blog!

Steph, I'm glad I got to see your new space and celebrate your birthday with you, even if I didn't get to stay as long as I would have liked to. I hope you had a truly fantastic day!
*** had to update to include this pic, which I stole (yep, I'm bad) from Steph's blog. LOVE it.

Nancy & Rich

Nancy and Rich were married in late October at her parent's home, which was the perfect setting for this small wedding. We lucked out with PERFECT weather, and the small group of guests (about 40 of their closest friends and family) gathered on the deck to watch Nancy and Rich exchange their wedding vows. Nancy's children were included in the ceremony as well, and when they were asked if they would accept Rich as their dad, there was not a dry eye on the deck! Beautiful, beautiful ceremony.

To transform the Dawson's home and yard into a 'wedding venue', we rented tables and chairs (and a porch heater) from All Occasions (thank you Beth & Kristen), and draped the porch and yard with string lights and hanging lanterns. Loads of candles both inside and out helped to warm the space and set the mood. Much credit has to be given to Nancy's father for all his work on the lighting scheme! Additional small porch heaters were purchased from Target to help keep the porch space warm enough for guests to dine comfortably.

Being her fabulously stylish self, Nancy of course put a lot of DIY work into her wedding. When I spoke with her the morning of the wedding she said to me "I want it to look like Anthropologie threw up in my living room". She succeeded (in the best of ways, of course!). She found a great vintage-inspired fabric online and had a local seamstress create table runners to liven up the simple linens provided by her caterer. Nancy also hired an etsy seller to create dresses for her daughter and niece using some of the same fabric - they were ADORABLE.

In the screened-in porch and connecting living room we combined banquet tables to create long, family-style seating to best suit the space and to compliment the slightly more casual feel of the event. The center of the dining tables were lined with small potted plants, mercury glass candlesticks, small bell jars, and other 'found' objects -- the final effect was beautiful, and very "anthropologie-esque". Nancy's bouquet was created by Courtenay Lambert, and I have to say that it is one of my absolute favorites from all of 2008.

Funky's Catering provided the beyond-delicious dinner and desserts (displayed on silver cake stands we found at one of many post-meeting trips to Home Goods), and the backyard fire pit was put to good use as a S'mores station... way too much fun for both the kids and the adults. Tine Hoffman (tm photography) photographed all the gorgeous details (all the images in this post I have swiped off her blog as well as from Nance's facebook - sorry/thanks Tine!) -- and had the very first s'more of her life that night!

It sounds a bit trite but it is absolutely true, it was a beautiful wedding for a beautiful couple and family!

Congratulations Nance & Rich!

Happy Holidays

Are you sick of seeing "ElfYourself" cards from your friends and family yet?
Too bad, because here's another one - Happy Holidays from the Aviva Events team! :)

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Wedding Day Makeup

OK so I have to admit that I'm a bit of a blog addict - clearly not in the writing sense of things, but in the sense that I have about 25 blog feeds directed to my inbox that I check on a regular basis. So this morning when I checked to see what the the two new posts from Style Me Pretty were... I was SO excited to see that one of them was a feature on my dear friend Nancy of Brideface! It's a great post with some quick tips from Nance on how to look your best on your wedding day (quick tip from me: just hire Nancy).

The Style Me Pretty post also reminded me that I'm totally overdue on blogging Nancy's wedding! I promise to post something by end of day tomorrow. :)

Stylish Yumminess (the best kind of yumminess)

This has nothing to do with anything, although I can pretend that it does by telling you that these would make such a lovely favor for a winter wedding. Which if you're going to bother with a favor (less and less couples are these days), make it edible! So few people save the trinkets like mini picture frames and whatnot.

Anyway back to the yummy picture at right... isn't it gorgeous? I swiped it from Design*Sponge, which is my favorite daily read of all the (perhaps too many) blogs that I follow. What a great example of how putting a simple twist on a basic concept can completely personalize it and make it all the more special without much (if any) more effort or expense. And we all know that everything tastes better when it's fancified.

So when planning your next event, keep that in mind, and swap out the white linens for something colorful or patterned, serve a signature drink instead of plain old wine (just rename your wine something fun if you're short on time!), or cut your dessert cookies into anything other than a circle. Life's in the details and the details should reflect you!

Now I'm off to attempt to make some cookies. Anyone have any good (and more importantly, easy) recipes? Please share!

Sarah & Adam: Revisited

Sarah and Adam's wedding was way back in July, and while I already blogged about it with my non-pro pics, I am just now finally getting around to posting some of the pro pictures from the wonderful Geri Ciulla of Ciulla Photography. Gorgeous! The ceremony was held at St. Monica-St. George in Clifton and the reception was held at the Krippendorf Lodge at the Cincinnati Nature Center.

Holiday Loveliness at Poeme

The other day, Amanda (the very talented associate coordinator at Aviva Events) and I had a field trip afternoon. We lunched at Potbelly (a favorite of mine for catering small, casual lunches -- YUM) and then visited a few venues that Amanda had yet to see (mostly park properties, managed by HPM). But in between lunch and the venue lesson, we stopped in to Poeme on Michigan Avenue for some general perusing of merchandise and annoying of Phil (co-owner with Kristen).

First things first- their window displays are always so freaking cute. Makes me want to buy lots of paper and make cute things out of it. I guess that would be the point, of perhaps I am just very much their target demographic. (Good work, Kristen and Phil!). Secondly, the store is filled with a GREAT variety of holiday cards (not to mention of course stationery, wedding included), and lots of fun gift choices, too. My personal favorite line of cards that they carry (other than Kristen's own Cardiology, of course) is by a company called Uncooked. These cards are NOT for the faint of heart, and are definitely not sweet in any way, shape or form. They are more snarky, tongue-in-cheek, and in my opinion wonderfully funny. These are the cards that you know you can only send to certain people! Love them. Some are nicer than (and some are less nice than) this one below:
My PSA for today is to let you know that Poeme is offering 20% of all boxed holiday cards now through December 24th. BUT the offer is only available to those who subscribe to their email list. Not a subscriber? Sign up! Need the email to print off? Let me know... I'll forward it to you. :)