Thankful!

Here at As You Wish we have a lot to be thankful for, and I just wanted to take some time out this morning to reflect.
I am so fortunate to have such a fulfilling career that I am passionate about. I love meeting with a bride for the first time and hearing her love story and watching her glow as she tells me about the man of her dreams, who she is so in love with and cannot wait to spend the rest of her life with. I love helping my brides plan the biggest day of their lives and am so thankful to be a part of the planning process. I feel so fortunate to be able to truly get to know so many families and see them come together on a wedding day. I love seeing a father spend those last few seconds alone with his daughter right before he walks her down the aisle.

I love all of the behind the scenes work that wedding vendors, my team, and myself put in to make the wedding day absolutely flawless. All of our hard work, stressing, planning, etc. pays off the moment our bride walks down the aisle, or sees the reception decor for the first time.

While I appreciate the gratitude a bride shows me being a part of her wedding day, the truth of the matter is that I fall in love with each and every one of my brides and her wedding, and I should be thanking her as well! I realize that I have so much to be thankful for. I am thankful that all of my past, present, and future clients trusted me with such a momentous event! I am thankful to have the opportunity to be right in the middle of it all, enjoying every second. It's absolutely magical!

I hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family, friends, and loved ones. I know I will! ♥ Julie

Get Married in Times Square on New Years Eve!

Get Married is one of our favorite sources for all things wedding related. If you haven't yet been to their site you're missing out, and if you're not already a Get Married fan you're about to become one! Take a little trip on over to www.GetMarried.com, check out our As You Wish listing, and sign yourself up for one of their complimentary wedding websites while you're at it! Interested in receiving one of their magazines? Let us know and we'll deliver one straight to your door courtesy of As You Wish and Get Married!

And now for the exciting news! Get Married is throwing one lucky couple (Bethany & Geoff) an amazing wedding in Times Square on New Years Eve and they're inviting YOU to be a part of the planning process! Get Married readers have been having a blast voting on fun wedding elements including the couple's invitations, attire, wedding bands, favors, menu, and even the honeymoon!

Check out http://www.getmarried.com/times-square/vote to cast your vote! Wedding elements currently up for debate are the bridesmaids' gowns, wedding rings, tuxes, favors, and gifts for the bridal party.
Here are the three wedding band options awaiting your vote:







Pictured below is the winning invitation and bride's gown




Join in the voting fun and happy planning!






Images courtesy of Get Married

Entertaining children at the wedding reception

Reception entertainment is a common concern among our brides, and rightfully so. You want your guests to have a great time at your wedding reception which is why you hire a dj, a band, or another form of musically inclined artists to provide the entertainment at your wedding reception.
When our brides are partially concerned with entertaining children at the wedding reception we suggest setting up a children's table, or area where we display games and crafty items to occupy the kids while the adults enjoy the reception entertainment. Recently though, we have encouraged our brides to embark on a new entertainment development. Welcome the game PODs. These are the newest form of reception entertainment to hit the wedding industry since the photo booth. You can keep kids occupied for hours with these things! They come with a touch screen, oodles of games and options, and are even internet compatible! Not only are they functional and fun, but they are very price effective as well.



We highly suggest any bride who is concerned with entertaining children at the wedding reception to check out Hyped Gaming PODs. Contact Jon Shoemaker, Regional Sales Director at Hyped Gaming - Solutions by EBS Office: 757-631-0590 jshoemaker@hypedgaming.com www.hypedgaming.com It's an investment that will pay dividends on the day of your wedding. Your guests will LOVE the PODs! Trust us! Ask Jon about Hyped Gaming PODs for adult gaming as well!

Unique Accents

At As You Wish Weddings and Events we believe that every wedding should be as unique as the bride behind it all. So when we first stumbled across the Cute & Unique online boutique we fell head over heels in love! How many weddings have you attended where the bridesmaids' hair broachs matched the groomsmens' ties? What a fun idea!!

This peonny clip had us at first glance! Isn't it stunning?



These custom made clutches make a wonderfully thoughtful gift for your bridemaids, and can make their debut during the ceremony processional in lieu of bridesmaids' bouquets!






If you're looking for something unique, beautiful, and handmade for your wedding day head on over to Cute & Unique and take a look at their delightful pieces. And remember, it's ok to window shop!





Be sure to mention As You Wish when placing your order for a sweet deal!

Wedding Cake Toppers

One aspect of the wedding where a couple can have a lot of fun, and show off their uniqueness is with their wedding cake topper. At As You Wish we always encourage our clients to have fun with the wedding planning and enjoy every aspect of planning the actual wedding day. While it's encouraged to honor tradition when it comes to certain things, at As You Wish we also encourage our brides to get a little crazy and think outside of the box when it comes to other aspects of the wedding. The wedding cake topper is a perfect example! Some couples prefer an elegant, beautiful cake topper that compliments their cake (and personality) perfectly. The couple that chose this topper


was a spitting image of the lovebirds they chose to adorn their cake with. Such a sweet, loving couple, and it came as no surprise to us that their wedding cake topper would resemble those same beautiful characteristics.

What a lot of couples don't realize is that there are a lot of options out there for wedding cake toppers. You can do monogrammed letters, plastic figurines, flowers...these are all very beautiful traditional, classic options for a wedding cake topper.

For couples looking for something a little more unique and customizable feast your eyes on some of our favorite wedding cake toppers we've had the pleasure of coming across:












and lastly



Happy wedding planning!

Daniel & Angelina

This couple was so much fun! They were so laid back and relaxed! We love when couples think outside of the box and this couple was a great example! They had a late afternoon wedding and reception at the Smithfield Center. Their colors were black, and cobalt blue with hints of silver, and a lime green accent and they just happened to get married on September 19th which is International Talk Like A Pirate Day so they took full advantage of that by making a treasure chest card box in their colors, complete with a pirate stencil on the back.



They also ordered a customized wedding guestbook from http://www.etsy.com/shop/itsmyday that turned out beautifully!




The bride got really creative with the table numbers and purchased tiles from the local home improvement store and spray painted her table numbers on them which looked amazing throughout the evening by candlelight!



The cake was provided by the talented artist and cake decorator, Carolyn Neal who provided an amazingly true to life watercolor of the cake during their initial consultation. Check out the comparison!




Congratulations Daniel and Angelina! We had a wonderful time working with you on your wedding and wish you all the best!

Kathlyn and Jeremiah

Kathlyn and Jeremiah are by far one of the sweetest couples we have ever met! Over 300 of their closest friends and family members attended their wedding at St. Matthew's Catholic Church and their reception at The Westin in Town Center, Virginia Beach. It was truly a beautiful feeling to see and feel the love and admiration that everyone had for this couple, and the couple had for each other.







Both the bride and the groom enjoyed the planning process, and included some great elements and personal touches into their special day. The couple ordered cardboard cutouts of themselves which the guests used in pictures during the cocktail hour. The wonderful photographer Andi Grant of Andi Grant Photography set up a photo area for guests to have their chance to shine with the newlywed couple

The couple had a large projection screen set up in the reception that displayed their monogram and later showed a beautiful photo montage. When the parents, sponsors, and bridal party were announced into the reception the screen and projector were used to produce shadows of the people prior to their actual appearance. The bridal party had a lot of fun with this, and the guests loved the unique twist to the traditional announcements.



Kathlyn and her bridesmaids preformed a beautifully choreographed and surprise Hawaiian dance followed by the couple taking part in the traditional money dance. So fun!




The bride's younger brother provided the guests with a little taste of breakdancing which everyone loved.


The sweet and thoughtful groom (hint hint to all the guys out there) requested that we end of the evening with one last element of surprise for his new bride


Kathlyn and Jeremiah, we loved being a part of your special day, and wish you all the best!


Images courtesy of Andi Grant Photography