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Wedding songs are a big deal to some and not so much to others. Wedding music can seem like such a minor detail relative to the daunting task of choosing a venue. However, once you start to choose songs it can end up being more than you bargained for!

The list of songs that you (or, better said, the average bride) will be choosing for your wedding goes something like this:

Ceremony

• Prelude, as everyone is being seated
• Processional for the seating of the grandparents and/or parents
• Entrance of the groom and the officiant
• Bridesmaids and Groomsmen enter
• Bride
• Prelude
• Recessional – bride and groom exit; wedding party follows

Reception

• Announcing of the wedding party into reception
• Announcing bride and groom
• First dance as husband and wife
• Father/Daughter
• Mother/Son
• Cake Cutting
• Bouquet toss
• Garter toss

You may have many more songs that you have to decide on or you may have less. Either way, choosing all of this music and choosing who is going to play it can be overwhelming. You have the option of hiring a DJ for your entire wedding day. The DJ will play your ceremony music through speakers and then move his or her gear over for your reception. Depending on the layout of your venue, the DJ may also be able to play for your cocktail hour. The other option–and a very popular one at that– is having a live musician (e.g. a harpist, violinist or guitarist) play for your ceremony and cocktail hour. Relocating an instrument can be less cumbersome than moving an entire system of speakers and thingymabobs from one side of a venue to another. Live music never goes out of style either…just sayin’

Orlando Wedding Team’s advice on choosing music

• Stay classy! Whether you’re choosing the songs for your ceremony and traditional dances, make sure you choose something that you’ve always loved and will always love. (This especially holds true if you’re video documenting your wedding day.) Playing something from the top 40 or googling “most popular wedding songs” is not the best way to go. When it comes to music make sure that it reflects who you and your groom really are and what you really like. You’ll thank us for our advice when you’re watching your wedding video years from now and you don’t have to say, “What was I thinking when I chose that song?”

• Don’t worry too much about other people. We’ve seen brides get caught up in trying to make sure that none of their wedding songs have sentimental value to any of the other couples that are guests at the wedding. Other couples have been concerned about playing songs that may have been played at a funeral. You will drive yourself insane if you try to choose songs for your guests rather than yourself. Let the guests request music once the party starts, the decisions as to what is played during the ceremony and reception announcements are up to you and your groom– don’t stress!

• Have fun. If you’re not having fun choosing your wedding music, you’re doing it wrong. Take a break and get back to music picking at a later date. Enjoy a glass of wine and browse through your iPod playlists together, but don’t stress. (Do you see the trend here?)

• Ask for advice, but don’t feel obligated to take it. If you’re stumped, ask your DJ or musician for some inspiration. They have portfolios (sometimes much larger portfolios than anything you might care to choose from), they have experience (at least we hope so!) and they can share some advice with you. However, if you don’t like their suggestions, don’t feel obligated to go with it. Orlando wedding professionals (and wedding professionals across the world…we hope!) know that your wedding day is supposed to be a reflection of who you are individually and as a couple. No one is going to be offended if you tell the truth!

Best of luck to you in your musical endeavors.

Happy Monday Brides and Grooms!

A few months ago we discussed the top three decisions that need to be made when you start planning a wedding. Venue was on that list and it’s still on that list for so many reasons. The venue will determine your budget for other things or, in some cases, your budget for other things might determine your venue. Central Florida has so many gorgeous venues. Whether your the fairy-tale open air Villas of Grand Cypress type, An eclectic Grand Bohemian pair or a Lake Nona Country Club couple, Central Florida has options for you!

(Rows from top to bottom: Lake Mary Events Center, Celebration Golf Club, Omni ChampionsGate Resort, Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel, Portofino Bay)

Choosing a wedding wedding venue in Orlando can be a daunting task. There are hundreds of hotels, event centers, country clubs museums and more. Unless you plan on spending many years planning your wedding, you’ll never be able to see them all. Here are our tips for narrowing down all of the wedding venue options in the Central Florida area.

Have a food and beverage budget. We know that many couples don’t want to limit themselves to a food and beverage budget because they want to be able to choose the perfect venue. You don’t have to give yourself a strict budget, but have an idea of what you want to spend. It will help you reduce the number of options that you have. Realistically, if there’s a venue that you think you’ll really love that’s out of your anticipated budget, nothing is going to stop you from going to a site visit. However, setting a budget will definitely cut a few hundred wedding venues out of the picture and that helps everyone rest a little easier.

Request wedding packages in advance. While almost all venues will customize their menus and their pricing (to an extent) to suit your needs, getting an idea of what they have, how much it costs and how it’s presented will give you an idea if it’s worth making a trip out to the wedding venue for a site visit.

Figure out what you like before you start going on site visits. Check out wedding magazine– or even tourist publications. If you don’t already know, you’ll be able to get an idea of whether you like country clubs, hotels, event centers, parks or historic venues.

When you’ve found 3 venues you love, don’t add more venues to the mix. It’s torture! We can almost guarantee that if you choose one of three places you love, instead of seeing those 5 other places that you might love that you’re not going to spend the rest of your lawfully wedded life wondering how things would have turned out if you had been married at Mission Inn instead of the Villas of Grand Cypress.

If you get frustrated, sick of it or generally upset, give it a rest. The wedding planning process may be stressful at times, but anything beyond slightly stressful means you’re doing it wrong. Give yourself some time to breathe and look at the venue search through new eyes.

Happy Wedding Wishes!

Orlando Wedding Team has a busy week ahead of us this. The All About Weddings series is taking a little break this week, but please enjoy some of our virtual site visits on YouTube. (We are not videographers, we’re just trying to help our destination brides out in their venue search!)

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If you’re shopping for an engagement or wedding ring in the Orlando area, we have some sound advice for you.

While you may think that you’re better off going with a known name like Zales or Kay, there are a few things you should know about!

In the Orlando area many large jewelry stores (Kay and Jared to name two), outsource their jewelry repair, resizing and setting to another jeweler. While this is a common practice, it can present a problem when things don’t work out the way that the ring purchaser (you!) want them to. To better explain the drawbacks to purchasing from a company that outsources their jewelry repairs, I’m going to use a bit of personal experience.

A very close friend of mine got engaged on May 28th of this year. Her groom purchased her engagement ring from Kay Jewelers here in Orlando–a reputable name!

Naturally, the ring had to be sized. This was where the red flags began to wave. When they took the ring in to be sized, they also noticed that the setting was crooked. While this was unfortunate, they offered to fix it as quickly as possible. Apparently, “as quickly as possible,” meant just over two weeks. If you are recently engaged (actually, even if you’re not recently engaged), you can only imagine what it is like to be without your engagement ring for two weeks.  You would think that a company whose primary business is engagement rings would also understand this, but au contraire. The jewelery store diverted to the blame to the jeweler who was making the repairs.

During the third week of their engagement, my dear friend was able to wear her ring again for 5 whole days. On the 5th day she found that a stone was missing and, upon closer inspection, that the setting was still crooked. Against their better judgment, they allowed Kay Jewelers to send the ring back a second time. This time the ring was gone nearly three weeks.

During their first 2 months of engagement, the bride-to-be was able to wear her (defective) ring for a total of 27 days– the jeweler had the ring for more than half of their engagement. When she got the ring back the second time (just a few days outside of Kay’s 60 day return policy), the center stone had a large defect that looked like a crack.

The final resolution was neither returning nor exchanging the ring, neither of which Kay was willing to do for the couple at this point. Instead, they sent a new setting and new stones to the jewelry store (who would in turn send it to the same jeweler) to re-create the ring.

While there will always be imperfect jewelry, the situation could have been handled much better and there are ways to avoid the frustration of being recently engaged and ring-less. There are measures that you can take before buy an engagement or wedding ring to ensure that, even if things don’t turn out exactly as you would like, you don’t ensure any more stress and frustration than is absolutely necessary.

So before you purchase a wedding or engagement ring, whether you’re in Orlando or anywhere else, be sure to ask these questions.

• Where does the ring go to be sized/repaired/re-set?
• What is the return policy? (Does that 60 day return policy include the days that you don’t have the ring?)
• How does the jeweler deal with defective jewelry or jewelry that continues to fail quality control tests?
• Can the jeweler provide a loaner ring, should the original ring be in repair for an extended amount of time?
• Where do settings and/or stones ship from? (If they have stones in store, your wait, should anything happen will be much shorter than if they are shipping stones in from India!)
• What services does the jeweler provide to maintain and/or repair the ring during its lifetime?

You may be surprised to find, as you shop for jewelers, that local jewelers have more lenient policies and better customer service. While Orlando Wedding Team won’t advise that you purchase a ring from a place that you feel uncomfortable with (if a big name is what gives you peace, then go for it), we do think that you might be pleasantly surprised with the service that you’ll receive from a smaller company. Naturally, when a company doesn’t have a multi-billion dollar corporate backing they work harder to make you happy and keep you happy, because they can’t afford to lose you as a client.

Whether you decide to stick with the big name and big backing or to buy locally from an Orlando-jeweler, make sure you ask questions. You’ll be happy you did, even if everything goes smoothly.

Photo by Sterling Photography International; Cake by Frosting on The Cake

I have heard and seen more cake disasters than any other genre of wedding horror stories. The problem with a bad (or falling) cake is that you can’t really just “make a new one” like you might with a droopy boutonniere. You can’t really fix a toppling cake the way you might pin up the crinoline under a wedding dress if the bride is stepping on it. Your options are limited (even as a wedding coordinator) when it comes to defective cakes. In fact, the only thing we can really do once disaster strikes is head to the nearest grocery store and see what they have already prepared. (Happy Birthday Susie!)

Choosing Your Cake

Traditionally the wedding cake matches the wedding decor and is large enough for each guest to have a slice and for the bride and groom to be able to take the top layer home with them. (It’s tradition!) With that said, once you have a theme and a guest count you can start thinking about (and researching) ideas for your cake.

You have so many options as far as flavors go and you can (depending on your baker) choose different flavors for each layer of cake.

While it’s standard to base the size of your cake on your guest count, leave your options open. Some brides have a sweet tooth, other brides just love the look of an enormous cake. Don’t feel confined to the limitation of your guest count. Someone will take home the leftover cake.

Whether you love the details or simplicity is your thing, your cake can reflect your style. If you’re going for an elaborate look ask your baker about gum paste flowers. If you prefer simplicity, minimize the cake decor and add a few fresh flowers. The options are limitless. (Hmm…I feel a cake inspiration collage coming on soon!)

Avoiding Cake Disasters

While most cake bakers offer whipped cream and/or cheesecake fillings, if you’re considering going this route, you may want to reconsider. These types of fillings, though delicious, get softer and softer once they are are not refrigerated.  Your cake may sit on a cake table for hours before it get cut. As the minutes pass, your cake will inevitably change shape. If you are set on a creamy filling, see if your baker can drop the cake off closer to cake cutting time or discuss refrigeration options with your baker and your venue.

Make sure you are using a reputable company. With as delicious as your aunt Edna’s cakes may be, if she’s an amateur baker, you may want to kindly let her know that you want her to enjoy the wedding–not be a vendor! Because of the fact that wedding cakes are larger and more elaborate than your average cake and they have to sit out for longer than the average cake, years of experience is a must when you choose your baker.

Last July, Orlando Wedding Team posted about Frosting on the Cake, our favorite cake baker. If you’re looking for a wedding cake baker in Central Florida, we can’t emphasize enough how happy you’ll be with Frosting on the Cake. Not only is Frosting on the Cake among the most reasonably priced cake bakers that Orlando Wedding Team has worked with, but they balance beautiful designs with absolutely-to-die-for-delicious cake. We would never recommend a baker that might leave you with something like this.

Sterling Photography International Copyright 2010

The great debate…to hire or not to hire a wedding coordinator.
Wedding coordinators can be expensive. You may be thinking it’s not worth it to hire a wedding coordinator, because you could be using that money towards food, wedding favors, flowers or an ice luge. BUT, maybe there are a few other things to take into consideration before you take on the burden of planning your wedding yourself. Consider this post very carefully, we would hate to have you saying, “I should have hired a wedding planner,” the week before your special day.

The money you can save

Just like you have to spend money to make money (most of the time), when it comes to weddings you have to spend money to save money. Wedding coordinators across the U.S. (and possibly many other countries, but I don’t want to make false statements so we’ll keep it state-side for the time being) have developed large networks of wedding professionals. As in any industry, when you scratch someone’s back, they usually scratch yours. When Orlando Wedding Team refers our brides to our favorite vendors, those vendors are usually happy to extend a discount to our brides. Let’s just say that we know a venue or two who are willing to discount their rental fees by more than 50%, if you have a coordinator! If your coordinating company is well connected, you may make up for the money you spent on your coordinator.

Hiring a wedding coordinator also ensures that you won’t be overcharged for a vendor’s services. We know that you can get a DJ for under $700*– we aren’t going to let you pay more than that.

*Pricing is based on Central Florida average and is not a formal quote. Orlando Wedding Team is not liable if you cannot find a DJ for under $700.

Your poor mother/best friend/groom

Chances are that, even if you are planning a wedding on your own, you’re not actually planning the wedding on your own. A woman has to have support! Not to mention, who is going to make sure that the favors are distributed and that your aunt Mary gets directions to the reception? Your friends and family have been invited to your wedding so that they can share your special day with you, not so that they can be put to work. We are certain that they are more than willing to be put to work, but is that really where you want them?

Your mother, father, sisters and brothers should be at your side for family photos. Let your wedding coordinator help your great-uncle Bob find that elevator. Your wedding coordinator will make sure that the cake table, plate, cake cutter and forks are where they should be in time for cake cutting.

Your groom loves you. Your groom will probably listen to you talk about your beautiful wedding as much as you need to, but chances are (unless you are marrying the exceptionally rare), he would prefer that you have everything just the way you like it. He would hate to influence your opinion (or even worse, be forced to influence your opinion), only to have it backfire the day of the wedding. He wants to marry you, to be your husband, to love you, to cherish you. He (probably) doesn’t want to help you pick out wedding colors or wedding favors or wedding food (though he will definitely help you taste the food). Your wedding coordinator (if you pick the right one), wants to do all of these things. That’s why your coordinator is in the business! You want to talk colors, favors, chair covers and/or flowers? There is a professional just a phone call away.

The value of less stress

Orlando Wedding Team can’t guarantee that your wedding planning process will be completely stress-free. (Any coordinator that tells you it will be completely stress free is lying!) But we can tell you that by hiring a reputable wedding coordinator, you will plan your wedding much more efficiently. You will get better prices (which reduces stress), you won’t have to do as much research or have as many meetings and you’ll always have someone to address your questions and concerns related to your wedding.

Speaking from personal experience, I know that when a bride puts her wedding day in our company’s hands my job is to ensure that she enjoys planning her wedding. When the wedding day finally arrives my job is to identify potential fires before they start to burn and if they do start to burn, I’ll resolve them quickly and efficiently and may the bride never find out. I like to tell my bride’s that I can’t promise that nothing will go wrong on their wedding day, but if something does go wrong, it’s unlikely that they will ever hear about it.

We’re coordinators, of course there is a bit of bias. But we can assure you that if you ask anyone who ever hired a reputable coordinator, they weren’t disappointed. I can also assure you that if your mom misses your first dance, because she’s helping great-uncle Bob find the elevator, you’re going to say, “I should have hired a wedding planner.”

Dunikowski's Flickr Photostream

Orlando Wedding Team strives to provide Central Florida’s brides with up-to-date information on Orlando’s wedding industry as well as general wedding trends. With that said, today marks the beginning of our All About Weddings Series. We are going to cover the most searched for (or most “googled”) wedding words. You won’t want to miss this. So add us to your google reader, follow us on twitter and facebook and make sure not to miss a post!

All About Wedding Dresses

If you search for “how to choose a wedding gown” or “choosing a wedding dress” you’ll find dozens of articles. (Even Wiki how has something to say about it!) Over the years Orlando Wedding Team has seen tens of dozens of brides try on tens of hundreds of wedding dresses! (Yes! That many!) As a result, we’ve learned a thing or two about choosing a wedding dress.

1. Having more options only makes things more complicated. If you have tried on 15 wedding gowns and you LOVE three of them, you don’t need to try on 15 more. Deciding between three wedding dresses is difficult enough. It’s much more likely that you will end up adding dresses, rather than eliminating them.

2. If you can’t find anything you like, don’t forget that there are options other than David’s Bridal (or whatever your city’s wedding boutique of choice is). Depending on your budget and your taste, a custom wedding gown could be a perfect (and maybe even reasonably priced option). Do you have a favorite dress that you feel really flatters your shape? Look for dresses that have that cut online, or take the dress to a local shop that does custom dresses.

3. Remember that a wedding dress is supposed to make you feel beautiful. If the traditional idea of a wedding dress doesn’t make you feel lovely, find something that does. Have your mom or your maid of honor take photos of you in the dress and make sure you love the way that you photograph in the wedding dress.

4. Don’t buy a dress that you “will look good in” 10 pounds from now. If you feel amazing in it now, you’ll feel even more amazing in it 10 pound from now.

5. Enjoy the search. You only search for a wedding dress once (hopefully). You should enjoy the attention from the sales people at the wedding boutique. Enjoy trying on the different styles of dresses, veils, shoes and more. It’s a shopping experience unlike any other! If at any point you feel frustrated or upset, just take a break for a while.  The benefit of starting your wedding dress search early is that you can take time to breathe, if the situation becomes more than you care to deal with. Then you can come back to the dress hunt refreshed and ready to enjoy.

Tell us about your wedding search in the comments!

It can be so difficult to produce a tangible version of your work when you’re in the services industry, but we know that it puts our Orlando brides’ minds at ease when they see that we have planned, coordinated and assisted in designing beautiful weddings at venues across Central Florida. We are so excited to announce our first (but definitely not our last) video portfolio. Stay tuned to our Vimeo channel. (We chose vimeo, because it loads so much faster than youtube.)  Make sure you’re following us on Twitter, Facebook and Vimeo, because we could have a giveaway at any time!

This past Monday one of Orlando’s best kept secrets, The Villas of Grand Cypress, hosted a Christmas in July Event. While the Villas of Grand Cypress have been around for quite some time, they are often overshadowed by the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress, which, though love, is not nearly as picturesque. Christmas in July was held in the Executive Meeting Center at the Villas of Grand Cypress and it shed some light on this often-forgotten venue. In the past, the Villas have not focused on Orlando’s wedding market, but they have a new Weddings and Special Events team with professionals who are well-versed in the business– not to mention they have Orlando Wedding Team on their preferred vendors list. You get a discount on your ceremony fee, if you have a coordinator. Just sayin’!

There were so many wonderful vendors who contributed to this event including many of our favorites! The Orlando Wedding Team girls worked the registration desk. (We’re looking forward to that prize drawing…ok Villas?)

If you’d like more information visit The Villas of Grand Cypress Website. Without further delay, I present to you the photo documentary of Christmas in July.

Seating area overlooking ceremony site, great for cocktail hour

Very private ceremony site on the water - seats 100 guests

Snowman courtesy of Get-Lit-Productions (DJ Ricky Vazquez and Laura of OWT pictured)

Holiday Centerpieces by Greenery Productions

A spread of cupcakes by Frosting on the Cake

OWT and The Villas of Grand Cypress Crew

A very special thank you to the Villas of Grand Cypress and their phenomenal staff. It was a great even and OWT can’t wait to start coordinating wedding at this newly bride-friendly venue.

Taken from Flickr By imagine8.fr

Wedding music, oh wedding music. If you google the topic you’ll find scores of illegitimate looking websites with lists of the most popular processional, recessional, first dance and party songs. Lucky for you, if you hate what’s popular, it’s your wedding and you don’t have to play it. In fact, unless you’re at a total loss for musical inspiration, I recommend that you look deep inside yourself for your favorite songs, before you hit up google. After all, what does a search engine (and the clowns that put illegitimate looking websites about wedding music up on the web) know about weddings, music and your preferences? Nothing! That’s what.

The most popular songs are not necessarily the right songs for your wedding! As someone who attends 50 or more weddings a year, I find it rather refreshing to hear the bride and groom’s own musical preferences reflected in their reception and ceremony. But, as with everything in life, there must be balance!

While I could listen to punk, ska and country music all day long, this is an odd combination that my parents and grandparents (and probably your parents and grandparents) and even many of my guests won’t appreciate. Fortunately for me (or you, in this case), when it’s your wedding you can listen to whatever you’d like and if you have a great DJ, he or she can find the balance of what’s popular and what you enjoy.

Central Florida has so many DJ’s to choose from that it can be overwhelming. While we love to work with DJ Ricky and A Premier Entertainment, we’ve worked with (and enjoyed doing so) many other DJ’s in and around Orlando.  Our advice is meet with your DJ long before the wedding and get to know him or her. Let your hair down and get comfortable with your DJ. The more information you can give them about who you are and what you like (musically…don’t get weird on them!) the better they can tailor your wedding entertainment to reflect who you (and your bride/groom) are and what you like. If you don’t feel confident after that first meeting, request another meeting or see another DJ. The DJ controls the reception (and sometimes the ceremony too!) and while Orlando Wedding Team is happy to step in an help an amateur get through announcing the wedding party, you and I both know that you would feel more confident if the DJ could make the announcements without the help of the coordinator.

Stay tuned for our thoughts on ceremony music and don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments!