Wedding Tips; How to choose a Color Palette

            Today I want to talk about something I have been noticing all year. That is the change in the wedding color palette. Weddings, of course, originated with the simple yet elegant black and white. Still today many people choose this beautiful, elegant theme. However, this year more than ever I have noticed a color appreciation. Many of our Brides & Grooms have been adding a splash of color and spunk to their wedding theme! We have seen splashes of pinks, oranges, blues, yellows, greens and many more! How do you pick a color you might ask? Well I’m here to help!

·         Those of you who are anything like me will just pick colors that they like...I chose Ivory and Black as my base colors and then splashes of blue and orange. However then I began to wonder which oranges and which blues really complement each other and how much of each color do I use?

·         Others will choose a theme first and base the colors on a theme. For instance a vintage wedding would have a certain palette of colors. Whereas an outdoorsy wedding would be themed with natural colors.

·         Some may be lovers of flowers, they may choose their centerpieces and bouquets first and then choose the colors accordingly.

                    Everyone has a different style, and everyone will be unique in their own way. Here are some things to consider while choosing a color palette….

1)      Where is your wedding and reception taking place? You want the colors you choose to compliment the surroundings, not clash with them.      

2)      What Kind of mood or feel do you want to create? Vibrant colors will be cheery and high energy while subtle colors are for more of a romantic feel.

3)      What time of year are you getting married? Generally colors are lighter in the summer and darker in the winter.

Keeping all of these things in mind will help you greatly while choosing an appropriate color palette. Another thing to keep in mind is that it is best to choose only two or three main colors, that way things do not look jumbled and hectic. There are two popular techniques for figuring out which colors complement each other. You can choose colors by looking at a color wheel or giving attention to websites with color palette generators. Or, if you want just use your instinct! Once you choose your colors, be consistent.  Here are some of the most popular colors of 2011 so far:

·         Turquoise

·         Hot Pink

·         Coral

·         Black & White

·         Yellow

·         Deep Red

·         Fuchsia

·         Slate Grey

·         Purple

·         Latte

                        Whichever color you choose make sure you really love it because you will be seeing A LOT of It while planning the wedding, while enjoying the wedding and then of course reminiscing with your pictures afterwards. Here are a few pictures of some beautifully themed Forest House Lodge Weddings:

                                                                  Bianca & John-David

                                                  (White & Black with Bold Green Accents)

Cindy & Darren

(Brown,White, Pale Greens and Blues)

Erika & Tyler

(Brown & White with subtle shades of blue & purple)

Sarah & Peter

(Brown, White & Hot Pink)

Erin & Roy

(Brown & White, Orange, Blue & Purples)

As you can see many people have used their wedding day as an opportunity to share their love of colors. You can do this too! There are many ways to keep the elegance and use bursts of outgoing color as well!

We want to thank the many Brides & Grooms for coming to us with their wonderful personalities and sharing inspirations! I hope this blog has inspired you!

With Love and Care,

Sienna Forrester,

Wedding Journalist,

Forest House Lodge

         

Planning Tips; It's the little things

Eye Catching Detail

     Today I'd like to introduce you to something we don't see as much as we would like, but when we do they are phenomenal. This is an easy and inexpensive way to add personality and thought to the small details of your wedding. Can you guess what I'm referring to? Card holders are usually utilized for seating guests at your reception, however they have many functions, such as; informative signs for the buffet, drink station or sign in table. Some even use them as favors for their guests. In any regard, card holders can be found to match any theme! Have fun with them, be decorative, creative, and express yourself. Every little detail counts! Wow your guests with eye catching details they never expected! You may think Card Holders are a subtle accessory to your wedding but take a look at these photos and be inspired! 

                                                                         (Nature)

Add Meaning

          Sometimes the smallest of details can make the biggest impact. When choosing card holders, or any decorative pieces for that matter, think about how you can make it meaningful! I bet now you’re wondering; how do I make a card holder meaningful, is that even possible? Each Bride & Groom should chose something that is fitting to their personality. That is something that will be clearly evident to your guests. However you can take it even a step further...

•  Symbolization. Did you know that elephants (especially with a raised trunk) symbolize good luck and prosperity? This is long revered in Indian and Buddhism society, therefore many choose to have these present at their ceremonies. There are many things such as these that are a symbol of something greater.

• A Moment From the Past. Others will choose to bring into the picture something that is a  reminder of when they first met, or something from the surroundings of the proposal. This is a very good way to share little tid-bits about your life together.

 

These small details can add so much meaning to your reception! Those who know your story will be touched to notice how much thought you put into something thought to be so small. That’s my little tip for the week. Hope this helps in your planning adventures!

with Love and Care,
Sienna Forrester,
Wedding Journalist,
Forest House Lodge

The Wonderment of Wedding Websites

             

           The wedding website is a fairly new phenomenon, but it has taken the wedding world by storm. Now I know what you’re thinking; “Make a website!? Sounds complicated! ” Trust me they are as simple as can be! I am not too technology savvy myself but this is a fun and easy way to be creative and informative. All you need is the information you want to share. Wedding websites started out as simple one or two page "blogs" that simply introduced the engaged couple and served as an online announcement. But today's website builders enable brides and grooms to do much, much more than just put up a simple page with some words.  You can even show off all of your pictures, introduce your wedding party and set up an RSVP system. How can a wedding website benefit you as you draw ever closer to your big day? Here are five reasons to consider having one;

1.     It offers a great platform to tell your story. It is the one place where you can go into detail about your relationship and your wedding plans. It enables you to create special pages about how you met, how you got engaged, bios about each of you, which would be especially nice for friends that do not yet know the Bride or Groom-To-Be, photo galleries of your lives while dating, engagement photos, and other personal facts about your relationship. Many wedding websites also offer modules for your guests to post comments and even pictures regarding you and your spouse-to-be.

2.     It provides an easy way to deliver necessary information.  For instance, your guests will need directions to your wedding venue. How can you make this easy on them? You can provide links on your wedding website that lead your guests directly to maps and directions to the venue, preventing them from having to search or call and ask. You can also place pictures of the venue on your site to give guests a sense of what they look like. You can even go a step further and suggest hotel options for out-of-town guests as well as local points of interest that people can see while they are in town.

3.     You can also use your website to inform people of where you are registered. You could set up a link for the sites to stores you are registered at, once again making it that much easier for your guests.

4.      It simplifies communications. Simply by putting a link to your email address can simplify how your guest can get a hold of you. You can also put your phone number and other contact information there if you like (although for privacy reasons, less is usually better). And one tip here ... you should create a specific e-mail address for your wedding. Create a unique email and use it for anything that is wedding related. Why do this? Mainly because you will probably be signing up or registering on many Web sites, and you probably don't want to be receiving a lot of wedding-related junk email after you are married. By creating a wedding-specific email you can simply shut it off or ignore it after you are married.

5.     A wedding website also keeps people on time. Many couples post the schedule of all the events leading up to and on their wedding day on their wedding web sites, and for good reason. At least some of your guests will probably misplace their invitations and/or forget what time the ceremony starts or when the reception begins. By repeating all this information on your wedding web site, you give people another place to "refresh their memory" and make sure they are in the right place at the right time.

                  So as you can see there are many great reasons to create a wedding website for yourself! Now you may wonder,” How do I go about this?” Well, there are many different website providers who offer free wedding website services. You could do a simple search online for “free wedding websites” and see what you can find. A few that I recommend are;

www.weddingwire.com

 www.mywedding.com

www.weddings.theknot.com

www.projectwedding.com

                     My personal choice was www.mywedding.com. They have many theme options and multiple page options, I have found it very simple to use which is why I love it. I personally used it to tell “our story” and introduce our bridal party as well as provide information about the ceremony and reception locations. I think that if you reviewed some sites you would see that they are an extremely useful tool in your before-wedding agenda!

With love and care,

Sienna Forrester

Wedding Journalist

Forest House Lodge

Invitations Part II: Wording

                        Hello my Bride’s & Grooms! So last Post we talked about Invitations. We covered mostly the look of the invitation and the content, However I want to give you some samples from our fabulous legacy Brides & Grooms of the direct invite wording. I have been dealing with this lately in my own planning adventures and I was able to pull from the famous Forest House “Idea Box” and thought you might like to as well. 


Form & Function


When wording your invitations you want to capture your personalities as well as the overall theme of the wedding and then wrap it all in blanket of elegance. Our legacy couples definitely pulled this off. Let’s learn from them shall we?

Together with their families

Jennifer Louise Sawyer

&

Sean Gregory Smith

Invite you to share in the

Joyful celebration of their marriage

Friday

The seventeenth of September

Two thousand and ten

Half past five in the afternoon

Forest House Lodge

24590 Main Street

Foresthill, California

                                                                    ---------------------

“We’ve come so far since that day

And I thought I loved you then”

Together with their parents

Kristie Lynn Trimble

And

Craig Alan Kersey

Request the pleasure of your company

At their marriage

Saturday, the twenty-third of April

Two Thousand Eleven

Four o’clock in the afternoon

Forest House Lodge

24590 Main Street

Foresthill, California 95631

Reception to follow

--------------------------------

Because you have shared in our lives

With your friendship and love we,

Anne Marie Wanken

&

Vernon Paul Elarth

                                                    Request the pleasure of your company

At our wedding celebration

On Saturday, September 25, 2010at 4:00pm

Forest House Lodge

24590 Main Street, Foresthill, California

Feast and merriment to follow

Respond by August 27, 2010

At wedding@gmail.com or (555) 555-5555

In lieu of presents, donations to the Placer SPCA will be accepted.

----------------------------------------

To celebrate the next chapter of their lives

Amy Rocha

And

Nathan Grijalva

Together with their parents

Invite you to be present at their marriage

The sixteenth of April

Two thousand and eleven

At four o’clock

Forest House Lodge

24590 Main Street

Foresthill, California

------------------------

There are many other options too. You may have a poem you would like to insert or you may want to include the parent’s names. Just make sure that no matter what you do it is truly yours. Don’t forget directions! Here is a very simple way to guide them;

Directions From Sacramento

Take I80 East to exit #121 Foresthill/Auburn Ravine Road in Auburn

Turn Right onto Foresthill Road and go 17.4 Scenic miles to historic Foresthill

Destination will be on the right;

Forest House Lodge

24590 Main Street

Well, this information has certainly proved helpful for me; I hope it has done the same for you. Thank you to the Brides & Grooms that left us these wonderful examples! If you have any other questions regarding Invitations or any other planning matters please feel free to ask!

With love and care,

Sienna Forrester,

Wedding Journalist,

Forest House Lodge

Sienna's Idea Pulse; Wedding Invitations

             Good Afternoon everyone! So as you move along in your planning process you will notice that invitations play a large and obviously vital role. There are so many different styles of invitations. I am going to give you a few ideas of what you may like your invitations to look like, as well as what should be contained inside. Invitations depend primarily upon personality and the amount of information that needs to be enclosed. Here are some invitation styles you may like;

Here at the Forest House your day flows a little differently than it would at another venue. Due to the all-inclusive packages that we offer some will want a few guests to arrive early on their wedding day and join them for lunch if that is the package option they have chosen. However, they may want the rest of the guests to come up a little later nearer to the ceremony to keep the "during the day" guest count to a minimum.  You then may wonder; ‘how would I word that in my invitations?’ Well, for this I direct you to our planning mastermind herself, Kathryn Gardenhire. The same questions you have asked us, I have asked Kathryn, and here is what she has to say:

“Invitations are tricky, because of all of the activities associated with a wedding at Forest House versus a wedding anywhere else.  I usually recommend leaving the main body of the invitation formal with the parent’s names, bride and groom names, ceremony time, date and location.  Then, I recommend using an insert to explain the lunch, pre-ceremony cocktail party, post-ceremony cocktail party, etc.  Since the invitation is usually a keepsake of the event, I recommend using the actual ceremony time.  If you don't want to use a separate insert for the "time line" information, you could add a note at the bottom of the invitation that says something like the following:

"Please join us at Forest House Lodge starting at 4:00 for cocktails and appetizers prior to the ceremony.  The ceremony will take place approximately 1.4 miles from Forest House Lodge at Grand Sierra Pointe, please see a staff member for directions.  Cocktails and appetizers will be available back at Forest House Lodge immediately following the ceremony, and dinner will begin at 7:30, with dancing to follow."

Also, we have had some confusion regarding rooming arrangements. Here is what we suggest to help eliminate any confusion: we strongly advise that you give rooming information about the Lodge strictly to those who you have chosen to stay at the Lodge over night. In the Invitations for those who will be staying in one of our overflow hotels, please give ONLY the information regarding those hotels. Forest House Lodge has a list of overflow hotel information that has been provided in your planning packet, if you would like to receive a secondary copy of this insert please feel free to contact us. One more thing: for the guests who are staying with us here at the Lodge PLEASE remind them that they are to make their reservations through you. This ultimately gives you complete creative control of your guest list and makes it less of a hassle for them in not having to do the legwork of reservations. Keeping these things in mind will help contribute to a clear, informative invitation.

    Hopefully this is a big help to your planning process. Another thing to keep in mind, as some of you know, is that we have an ‘idea box” here at the Lodge for your use at any time. It is a collaboration of past Bride & Grooms invitations, save the dates, dinner menus and even a few favors. In this way you are able to get your creative juices flowing and even come up with some of your own ideas. Please feel free to call us and ask about coming up to take a look! Hope this helps! As Kathryn always says; Happy Planning!

With Love and Care,

Sienna Forrester, Wedding Journalist

Forest House Lodge

Shoes Shoes Shoes!

                          

                                      Good Afternoon Everyone! So, you all knew this was coming, and if you love shoes anywhere near as much as I do, you have been anxiously awaiting this day! This is the first of many Bridal Shoe Updates! Each bride has their own individual style. Sometimes the gowns are long and the shoes are hidden. Depending on the Bride, the Shoe may come before the gown. Here are some common style choices;

1)      Classy

2)      Elegant

3)      Bold

4)      Bright

5)      Comfortable

6)      Character

7)      Vintage

8)      Personalized

And the list goes on!

 Each time I go through the Bridal Shoe pictures I am going to choose a Featured pair. I will always choose the shoe that catches my attention, the one that is exquisite and unique of the batch. I think you will absolutely love this group’s featured pair! Please continue to send me your shoe pictures! You can send them to: fhlsienna@gmail.com. Here are a few I have received so far:

                                                     Bryanna Galloway (Classy Red)

Cristie Lo (Summer Elegance)

Lauren Gustie (Vintage Beauty)

Rachel Adams (Classic Royal)

                                              My Top pick!

   Jessica Mendenhall (Personalized Beauty)

These are my favorites! I really thought Jessica’s shoe idea was a perfect execution of a personalized wedding shoe, with her own adorable flare. Before Jessica took her first steps down the aisle and into wedding bliss, each of her girls wrote a little something on her shoes. In this way she was able to carry their thoughts and love with her. Such a cute Idea! Thank you for sharing Jessica!

 Please don’t forget to send in your shoe pictures so that I can share them with others!

Have a wonderful day everyone!

With love and care, Sienna Forrester,

Wedding journalist,

Forest House Lodge