High School Graduation

Houston Graduation Party

Why the shark fruit salad?  Glad you asked.  The party featured a poolside movie featuring Jaws.  The graduate chose to do a pool/movie theme party and we just went with it.

The colors green, lime green, and white are part of her school colors and incorporated them into the candy bar.

A good friend and nieghbor brought over her containers and the color coordinating candies.

I supplied the movie candy and ice cream sundae toppings for our dessert.

The high school girls are referred to as Hockadaises, and I used daisies throughout the house.

Easy and very inexpensive backdrop for the candy table.

Pool Water=Lemonade with sour patch octopus

homemade cake (not perfect but made with love)

I completely forgot to do pictures of the outdoor "theater" and the food.

I hired a chef to prepare gourmet hot dogs, corn dogs, chicken sliders, popcorn and french fries.  Raves from our guest about the food.

• Hot dog wrapped in bacon with tomatillo sauce
• Venison Chili dog with pico de gallo and fresh jalapeños
• French fries sprinkled with Truffle salt
• Panko breaded chicken breast on home made rolls

Credits:

Food:  http://www.chefleewhite.com/

Lemonade Recipe: http://foodfamilyfinds.com/under-the-sea-blue-raspberry-lemonade-sherbet-party-punch-recipe/

Shark Bowl Tutorial: Watermelon Shark Bowl

Kristen & Todd Part 2

Finally, Part two of Kristen and Todd's Wedding Day.  So many decisions to make when planning a wedding.  Some brides know exactly how they want the special day to go, others don't sweat the small stuff and just want to make sure their guest have the best time.  Regardless of what kind of bride and groom you have the end result is that EVERYONE should have a great time.  No thoughts of I wish had done that, or I should have thought of this prior, or my only regret is so and so.  That is why you hire an event planner.  To think of the small things and ask all the right questions.  For example, Kristen's mom has raised her since she was 13, having lost her father suddenly, her mom became a single working mother.   I thought it would be nice for them to do a Mother and Daughter Dance, I suggested a few and they ended up dancing to a Martina McBride song "In My Daughter's Eyes."

The bride and groom and I met with the DJ via phone conference the week prior to the wedding and went over all the songs that would be the soundtrack to their wedding, from first dance songs to what song they were going to be introduced as for the first time at Mr. and Mrs.   We did have an impromptu dance by some of the groomsmen.  Fantastic little dance number they put together to "Gangnam style" song. Hilarious!

The venue in which they performed the ceremony and the reception was the Chateau Polonez on Malcomson.  I fell in love with this venue.  Aside from being ultra professional and efficient, the grounds are impeccable.  

Gorgeous circular entrance to the Chateau.  Perfect for the sparkler send off.  I created a basket with 20 inch sparklers for them.  Another savings of $50.00

The bride mentioned she was a beer drinker and I just could not have her walking around without a cute wedding koozie so I made one for the couple and gave it to them as a Thank you gift at their wedding rehearsal.  I made her promise to have her beer covered at all times, thinking of wedding pictures. Call me old fashion, I love beer but for a wedding you need to dress that bottle up!!

........and she did.

The Chateau offers a fantastic balcony that joins the Bride and Grooms room, which are amazing.  They were kept nice and cold, fruit and cheese tray, complimentary champagne and beer for the wedding party.  Perfect space for the bride and groom to be.

The grounds on the Chateau are breathtaking.  Only one lady does all the gardening here and you can tell she takes it personally.  So much attention to detail.  Many scenic spots make beautiful photo backgrounds.  I personally would love an outdoor wedding by their fireplace terrace.

Walkway is lined with seasonal potted plants. Bright colors and swept walkways throughout the grounds.

The light posts are all covered in Jasmine and you can just imagine the fragrant smells wafting through the air as you stroll the grounds.

Great little water feature in the pond surrounded by the greenest of grass.

The back has this amazing half moon window that frames the stage and were most ceremonies are held. The outline of the concrete fence is surrounded by bistro tables with candles.  Each candle the Chateau set out was lit and ready to go by the time the guest begin to arrive.

Great wait staff ensured the guest were being taken care of and I never saw a long line at the bar. Quick and efficient service.  I worked with Christy, Savannah, Erin, Chef Adam, and Nathalia. Extremely professional and really listened to your needs and made helpful suggestions.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of the wedding and will post professional pictures once they become available from Sally V Photography.  

The flowers were beautiful and I did not touch on these much but Tawnya with Tennilles in Tomball did a beautiful job.  I love the arch she created and the centerpieces were a big hit with our guest.   She really helped stretch that flower budget!

Another perk you get from hiring Events by Marylinda is I make a complimentary basket with essentials for the bathrooms of either the bridal party or your guest.  Here is what I "threw" together for my clients, Kristen and Todd.

A good event planner will use all that the venue has to offer to keep the cost down in other places.  This centerpiece is already on the entry table and they added more candles.  I simply complimented the glass table with a crystal vase from home for the pens and used my own personal frame for the guest book sign.  The cost to the bride was zero!

I hope you enjoyed a sneak peak at Kristen and Todd's wedding!

Events by Marylinda

832-606-6021

eventsbymarylinda@gmail

free consultations!

Kristen & Todd part 1

This is my lovely bride, and I can honestly say the girl is so easy going that working for her and Todd was as easy as pie.    Let me list a few of the things we accomplished in our year together......

I created a binder for her with a 12 month timeline that I tweaked and included everything that needed to be accomplished in a timely manner.  I also created an excel spreadsheet for the mother of the bride so that she can keep up with the cost, deposits, due dates, vendor contact information and budget for the wedding.

Second, we agreed to meet once a month and have something on the list checked off.

Since Kristen's mom lives in Los Angeles, I accompanied the happy couple to the meetings I set up for them to help with negotiations and made sure they asked all the right questions. I kept all the notes, contact information and copies of the contracts.  This way a week or two prior to the wedding I could call and confirm that we were all on the same page and no last minute details were left out.

I was also hired to keep the lovely young bride on track to ensure a nice smooth and stress free wedding.  All i can say I think it was a huge SUCCESS!!  I have received numerous calls from the bride's mother thanking me for a great job.  Which of course made all my hard work worthwhile!!

Do you remember my gift to Kristen for the Bridal shower?  Well, we put all that to good use and decorated the entry table.  I printed their engagement pictures at home, ordered silk rose petals, and brought from home decorative feathered pens.  (Which by the way would not write on the Guest Book, luckily I came prepared with a black marker and that worked!)

I also used Canvas Pop and ordered a 16 x 20 from their engagement photos to display on a decorative easel that the Chateau provided.  More on the Chateau later...that will be a whole blog in itself.

Here are the darling flower girls that I made the baskets for.  Saving the bride $15, every penny helps!
That's me in the background, making the girls practice nice and slow. I had just finished unrolling the aisle runner.  That was a savings of $125 for the bride since I made it.

The gorgeous little ring bearer.  He carried the pillow upside down, and did a great job for a two year old.

We contracted Virginia's Cake and I will use them in a heartbeat. Great professional service, timely, and talented! The flavors they chose were Chocolate with chocolate buttercream and white cake with vanilla buttercream.

Take a gander at the Groom's cake. So creative.

One of my favorite meetings was the cake tasting, super yum! As well as the venue's menu tasting.  Great food.

Groom's Cake with a picture of the 'family" fish a muskie

More tomorrow........

May Wedding

I have been working for a year on Kristen and Todd's wedding.  I love working with a couple who's love truly shines in their relationship.  Sweet, kind and loving, makes my job the best!

Today I finished making their aisle runner and flower girl baskets. You can purchase a flimsy aisle runner that will tear the second someone walks on it with heals, for about $20.00.  The special order ones run about $175 and up.  Always thinking of my clients I wanted them to have the best but not have to pay for it. I started scouting the fabric stores and found the perfect material for $4.99 a yard and I just needed 15 years (45 feet x 4.5 feet.) for her ceremony. I trimmed it here and there and added a white lace to the ends and Voilà she has an aisle runner for $75!!! White vinyl tablecloth material with a damask print.

The other savings came in the flower girl baskets.  I looked at Etsy and they did have beautiful baskets but they were simple and I thought over priced. Roughly $25 each and when you have two girls that adds up to half a benjamin!!

Here are my creations for $15 each.

She loved them!

When she had her bridal shower, she was kind enough to invite me and as I gift I gave her a box full of goodies that she could use on the day of the wedding. Cake knives, wedding frames, and the box for gift envelopes.

Matt & Ellie

Matt and Ellie were married at University of Houston Chapel.  AD Bruce Religion Center.  It was a beautiful day and the bride looked amazing.

Salad Bar

 The Majestic Metro located in downtown Houston was the venue of choice. The father of the bride made a power point presentation aka slide show of the bride and groom, shown during the arrival of the guest after the ceremony.

The beautiful couple

 The vintage look of the Metro made the setting ideal for the couple.  They wanted something non traditional.

The Stone Kitchen provided the catering for the affair.  Professional staff and amazing food.

I contacted a wholesale liquor company that provided the beer, wine and choice alcohol.  They buy back anything that isn't opened so there is no worry of ordering not enough or too much.  Prices were competitive.

This venue has an upstairs that for an additional fee you can use and it has the DJ with about 15 extra tables.  The evening was a huge success.  The bride and groom are Texas A & M graduates and actually met in college.  The evening ended with all the Aggies walking on stage and singing their school song.  It was an amazing ending to their fairy tale day.

I loved, loved, loved working with Ellie and Matt.  It's an honor to be at the start of a love story and be able to contribute to an amazing couple's love story.