Tara & Jimmy

We had the opportunity to work with this beautiful bride on her April 2nd wedding at The Cavalier Hotel near the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. It's historically known as The Cavalier on the Hill and Tara's wedding was one for the record books as well. Tara was an out-of-town bride who trusted her mother and the As You Wish team with the majority of the wedding planning. And boy did we plan! We helped her put together a stellar team of professional vendors who worked together to make Tara's day nothing short of perfect.




The guests arrived to a beautiful display of roses, and organza bags of petals were given out for the guests to toss during the recessional. The aroma of fresh cut roses swirled through the air and the musical notes from a string quartet filled the room. The ceremony was a heavenly vision of white with ballroom chairs and hanging rose pomanders lining the aisle.




Colorful rose pomanders hung from the wall and romantic rose trees were created on site for the ceremony.

Guests enjoyed cocktails and Hors d'œuvres while the the bridal party took pictures on the hill in front of The Cavalier Hotel with photographer Keith Cephus.

The reception decor included rich eggplant purple linens accented with taupe damask napkins which were gathered with strands of pearls. The centerpieces alternated from tall baroque candlesticks with white feather flumes to short floral arrangements with soft feather accents.

The wedding cake, provided by Shockley's Sweet Shoppe was a 3 layer square cake embellished with a satin ribbon trim and beautiful scrollwork. The florist provided a delicate rose cake topper, and the front of the cake was adorned with the bride's late aunt's brooches. All of the floral arrangements had brooches mixed within the flowers, which beautifully tied into the bride's authentic, hand made brooch bouquet. Shockley's Sweet Shoppe also made a guitar cake for the groom.

The guests danced the night away on the enclosed patio and also enjoyed some fun extras like a chocolate fountain and a photo booth.

Here are a few more detail shots from the wedding day and bridal shoot:

Tara and Jimmy, (and mother of bride Kathi!!) we had a wonderful time planning your wedding and absolutely LOVED every second and detail of the big day. We wish you nothing but love and happiness! -As You Wish team

*photo credit and creative design elements courtesy of Keith Cephus Photography and Palette of Petals floral design

Beth & Miguel

We had so much fun working with Beth and Miguel on their wedding day! They are such an amazing couple with so much joy, laughter, and love to share that we were honored to be a part of their special day. The ceremony took place at Grace United Methodist Church and the reception was held at Christopher Newport University in Newport News.



The decor was absolutely stunning, and complimented the space perfectly.



Beth and Miguel made sure to include their sense of humor into the day, and gave their guests these fun pint glass favors



They also surprised their guests with this amazing first dance as husband and wife









Beth and Miguel, we had an amazing time helping you plan your wedding, and executing your vision on your special day! Much love, and best of wishes to you both!

Credits: Amazing photography by Art Louis of www.artlouis.com/
DJ Rodney Charles of Arch Entertainment www.djrodneycharles.com
Professional Wedding Lighting by Blue Steele www.bluesteelprolighting.com/
Videography by Gary Randall http://www.lnrpro.com

Escort cards or place cards?

As brides get further along in the planning process they start to question how they will seat their guests at the reception. When the question is to assign seats or offer open seating to their guests we always suggest some structure. If you've ever been one of the last people into the lunch room in your high school cafeteria you can relate to the hustle and bustle that ensues with open seating. With structured seating your guests can enjoy the entire cocktail hour, and leisurely find their appropriate table in the reception without having to worry about whether or not they will even find an open seat for both themselves and a date.

So if you've decided on structured seating then the next question is how will you do it? Most brides choose to assign their guests to tables by using small cards with the guest's name and table number listed to let them know where to go in the reception area. It is not uncommon for a bride to refer to these cards as place cards, name cards, escort cards, etc. and to use those words interchangeably. These card names do not all mean the same thing though.

If you are assigning your guests to a table, and allowing them to choose their seat at that table then you would want to use an escort card. Your guests will pick these up during the cocktail hour and take the card into the reception with them.


We always remind our As You Wish brides to place the escort cards in alphabetical order to make it easy for the guests to find their name. Placing the cards in alphabetical order is also something that should be done prior to the morning of the wedding. It can take a lot longer than you would think!



An alternative to escort cards is creating a seating chart to put on display during the cocktail hour, allowing your guests to see where they are seated while saving them the extra step of picking up their escort card.



So now that we've covered the use of escort cards you're probably wondering why any bride would decide to use a different method of seating. Well, a place card is something that you would use in addition to an escort card or a seating chart. After a guest locates his or her table they will then find their place card already included in one of the table settings at that table. This option works well if you have family members or friends that you want to sit at the same table, but not next to each other. It also benefits the serving staff if you are having several menu options for a plated meal because a specific color or symbol on the place card can denote which meal your guest ordered. This can be done with the escort cards as well, but you can't always count on your guests to place the escort card in front of them after they sit down.



If you do choose to use a place card keep in mind that this seating option works best with an escort card or master seating list preluding it. Happy Planning! ♥As You Wish

We're engaged!!!! ...now what?

If you are one of the many couples that got engaged over the holidays CONGRATULATIONS! December is the most popular month for engagement ring purchases and proposals! Now that you have your ring you are about to embark on an incredible journey! To get you started we've compiled a list of the first 5 things to do after getting engaged.



1. Spread the word. Tell your parents, first! If you can manage to take your eyes off your new ring to pick up a phone or hop in the car, your parents should be the first ones to hear the news. After telling your friends and making your new relationship status official on Facebook consider the tradition of publicly announcing the engagement. Before Facebook and Twitter there was this wonderful daily publication called a newspaper, delivered straight to your door with all of the news and advertisements you could possible want! Okay, so it may not be as technologically trendy as our modern day form of social networking and news, but people do still read the paper, and by publishing your engagement announcement in one you will have a nice memento to cherish for years to come.

2. Spending. Sit down with your parents and fiance, or whoever is contributing financially to the wedding and determine an estimated budget. If your budget is not being determined by a set amount of money that has previously been saved, and merely a guess of what you think your wedding will cost, understand that as you go along you may realize purchasing a wedding cake for 250 people for $100 may have been a bit unrealistic. Don't allow yourself to get too fixated on a price based on what your sister payed 5 years ago, or your cousin from Oklahoma paid.

3. People. Make a guest list. Your main guest list should be comprised of 3 separate lists: bride's parent's list, bride and groom's list, and the groom's parent's list. It might seem a little early in the planning process to be making a guest list, but could you imagine falling in love with and booking a venue that seats 100, only to realize your master guest list consists of a nonnegotiable 200 guests?

4. Vision. Start researching everything wedding related and compiling a list of images and things that really inspire you. Nothing is set in stone at this point, it's just good to start looking at your options and determine what you love and what you could do without on your big day. Determining a preferred wedding month or even date wouldn't be a bad idea at this point either.

5. Wedding Planner. If you really want things to flow smoothly from here on out hiring a professional planner/coordinator would be in your best interest. Sure, it's easy to breeze right through steps 1 through 4, but what about the remaining 1,256 steps (merely a guesstimate) up until your grand exit at your reception? By hiring a professional bridal consultant you are investing in their knowledge, expertise, and experience. You deserve to have a fun, stress-free engagement and wedding. We've had clients retain our services as a gift to their parents, so they wouldn't be the ones bogged down with setting up decor and dealing with instructing vendors on the day of the wedding. Not sure if you need a coordinator? At least consider having one solely for the day of the wedding so that you can enjoy your day to the fullest. Go ahead, be the guest of honor at your own wedding. You deserve it!

From all of us at As You Wish, congratulations on your engagement and happy planning!

New Years Eve 2011

It's no secret that we're in love with weddings here at As You Wish, but who doesn't love a good party? Now that all of the presents have been opened, and family has departed it's time to focus on the next big event...New Years Eve! Again, while we at As You Wish love oogling over bridesmaid and bridal gowns we also love a great party dress! Here are a few of our favorites for New Years Eve 2011



Take a peek at the As You Wish inspired look we put together for your New Years Eve party



Aren't those Louboutins fabulous? You may have noticed we didn't include a cocktail ring in the picture. It's also a fabulous look to get engaged in, don't you think?

With so many hot spots in Hampton Roads there is no reason for you to be all dressed up with no where to go this New Years Eve! We suggest heading on over to One Fish Two Fish for an amazing dinner date, and ringing in the new year with Roger Cruz, one of the hottest DJs in Virginia Beach!

Wherever you decide to spend the evening, have a wonderful time and be safe!

Seasonal Centerpieces

When planning a winter wedding, or even an intimate dinner party your options are endless when it comes to a seasonal centerpiece.




Earlier this month we had the opportunity to create a fun seasonal centerpiece, and were thrilled to design and execute a vision of our own! The goal was to create something fresh and fun. By combining common seasonal elements like peppermints, carnations, and a little imagination we were able to create this gorgeous centerpiece!








We accented the main centerpiece with votives and smaller vases filled with red rock candy. By placing a floralyte towards the top it created a gentle glow and from a distance looked like a tall pillar candle.



The carnation pomander was really easy to make and the rock candy vases doubled as a mini candy buffet at the end of the evening. Win-win!