{wedding trend: charging stations}

Nowadays it's becoming uncommon to see someone without a smartphone. These smartphones have enabled us to stay consistently connected to our business, family and friends. Smartphones play a vital role at events especially weddings since it becomes a guest's camera, video recorder or even their GPS to lead them to the reception venue. Smartphone users know what a challenge it is to keep the battery life of their smartphones going strong. Setting up a smartphone charging station is a clever and practical trend that is taking over the wedding scene recently.   

There's definitely a way to do this without it being an eyesore for your guests. You can incorporate these charging stations along with an Instagram hashtag encouraging your guests to interact thru social media. A small table with a few blooms, maybe a framed photo of the couple and some instructions would be perfect. At the table would be a power strip where guests could plug in their own chargers or use ones provided to them by the bride and groom.  Power strips can be visually displeasing. A way to fix this problem and keep the outlets out of sight. A perfect sign for this station would be "Charge your phone, then facebook, tweet or instagram away. Don't forget to tag the bride & groom and use the hashtag #williammarrieskate2013" 

Photo courtesy of Mindy Weiss Instagram

{mark + mary | engaged | santa monica}

I'm so excited for Mark & Mary's wedding this weekend. I met Mary through Allison of Flower Allie and we hit it off immediately. {Thank you Allison for introducing us! :)} She was super sweet and very relaxed considering her wedding is 3 months away. I wanted to share a few of my favorite pictures from their engagement session that was taken by their photographer, D2 Photography. Can't wait to see all the details that they have been working on unfold this weekend!!Click here to view the rest of their shoot.

{a little about Premier Soirees}

When I first consult with my clients, one of the first things we do is to chat. I see it as an opportunity for both of us to get to know each other and see if we are the right fit. You’re probably thinking you’re not getting into a relationship - just hiring a vendor for your wedding. Hiring a great team of vendors for your event especially for your wedding is a very hard task for brides to do. Trust all of the vendors that you've hired and know that they will execute all of the plans that you have carefully planned for the past few months. Wedding is the ultimate celebration of love. Premier Soirees was born out of my love and passion for all celebrations and weddings. One of my life long dreams is to be an entrepreneur but most specifically an event planner. I knew that I wanted to share my skills & talent like my keen eye to littlest detail with everyone and see how I can help. With the amount of time I spend with my brides planning for their wedding, they really see that Premier Soirees is my heart and soul. It is ME and I take great pride in delivering exceptional service to those who have entrusted me with one of the most special events in their life. Apart from making sure that everything is set up according to plan or all the vendors have arrived or making sure that all the guests have been seated in their seats or the timeline has been approved and finalized, my goal at each event is to make sure that my bride & groom are having a great time with their family & friends.

A little about me..

I’m a wife to my number one fan who continues to support me in every endeavor or challenge that I face. One of my most favorite things to do is sitting with him in peace & doing nothing.
I’m a daughter, a sister, a cousin, a niece, a godparent, a friend and most recently an aunt to my first niece, Olivia.
I’m a self-confessed daddy’s girl and making my parents proud has always been one of my life goals.
I’m definitely a nurturer and taking care of people comes very natural to me.
I moved to California when I was 14 and have lived in Southern California ever since.
I love food! I enjoy eating of course and making food especially baking.
I love music  - especially pop music. I was a crazy NSYNC fanatic with my sister & my cousin. We saw the same show 3 times within the same week – one in LA, one in the OC and one in Las Vegas.
I love lists! I always have a notepad for all of my lists in my bag and it brings me joy to check things off my list rather than on my iPhone.
I’m a lover of all things pretty – I like looking and making things pretty.

My current obsessions..

My hubby Ed
My family
My niece Olivia
Macarons (Bottega Louie’s are my most favorite ones)
Handbags (my one vice J)
David Austen Garden Roses & Ranunculus (my fave blooms)
Jo Malone perfume
Watches (I never leave home without one.)
Washi tape 

{showers | an OMG baby shower | details & decor}

I know I set a goal to blog more often at the beginning of the year and I still intend to fulfill that goal but this first half of 2013 has been extremely busy. I know that I have to schedule specified time for blogging so I can continue to share with all of you these special events & weddings that I have been so fortunate to be a part of and all the daily musings of life. I have so many things coming up for the blog within the next few weeks - a CARS birthday party for two special brothers, a vendor highlight on one of our fave photographers (it's been a while since our last vendor highlight!), a personal post for you to get to know the person behind Premier Soirees (that's ME!) and a very special baby shower to welcome the arrival of my first ever niece - OMG!

When my sister Leah first shared with me that they were expecting last October, I was thrilled for them and also for our families. This meant a lot of first for many of us. She is Leah & Kevin's first child. She is the first grand child on both sides of our families. Most of all she is my first ever niece. I can't begin to tell you in this post how extremely close Leah & I are so to have this little girl joining our circle is just a blessing. When they announced that they were expecting a little girl, they shared with us the name that they chose for her - Olivia Madeline Garcia. OMG!! Yes my sister's very clever that way that she thinks what initials the baby would have.

I knew that I wanted to plan a very special & girly baby shower for Leah as she prepares to welcome Olivia in the next few months. As I was building my inspiration boards for the shower like I typically do when I start designing an event, I kept drawing inspirations from lots of peaches, mint and blush.

The Whitten Center in Placentia was a wonderful location for our event since it was a great blank canvas to work with. Since it was a shower for all of their friends and families, we were expecting about 150 guests to join us in the celebration. Luscious springtime florals that included green hydrangeas, peach roses and ranunculus were created by my mom out of vases & jars that we've collected in the past as well as flowers from the Los Angeles Flower District. We dressed each table with these florals and glittered animals that added an extra glam to each table. We also found some slabs of wood that we wanted to incorporate in the decor so they became stands for some of our centerpieces.

I have been wanting to re-create these hanging fringe garlands that I saw on Oh Happy Day and this shower gave me the perfect opportunity to create this. I just followed the simple step by step instructions they provided on their blog and away we went with some coral colored crepe paper. The garland made the perfect backdrop for our dessert table and made for perfect backdrop for pictures as well. Also made a tassel garland for added color in our dessert table.

We brought in some of Leah's favorite sweet treats from the fabulous Sweet & Saucy Shop in Long Beach as part of the decadent dessert table. We had mini cheesecakes with fresh raspberries, mini cappucino cheesecakes, nutella macarons and salted caramel macarons. We also  added in a few extra like mini donuts from Krispy Kreme, chocolate dipped pretzels and rice krispy treats. Since Leah's birthday was a few days prior to the baby shower, we also had a very rich Parisian chocolate cake from Portos. I think this is one of my all time favorite chocolate cakes ever.

Guests were welcomed by our wishing tree where guests filled wishing cards for Olivia and some guessing game items that were part of our games. We used some of Olivia's items like her first ballerina slippers and the letters of her name covered in peach yarn to create small vignettes.

We gifted all of the guests including our little guests with favors that they can enjoy after the party. We used clear boxes and filled them with vanilla animal crackers tied with yarn and topped with the daintiest crochet flowers. My mom hand crocheted each of these dainty flowers to use for the favor boxes and also made them into hair clips for each of the little girls that came to join the shower. The kids also went away with a small bag filled with snacks for the drive home.

Since Leah's a big fan of Instagram like most us Instagram fanatics, we created a personal hashtag (#omgpartyof3) that guests can use to post photos that they take at the shower. Here's some of the best photos that won a special prize from us.

This is definitely one of our favorite wish card! They hope she becomes a Jedi! :)

We wanted to thank all of our guests who came out to join us to celebrate Olivia and her mommy & daddy. A special thank you also goes out to the wonderful husband and wife team of Desi & Tammy Mendoza of Dez and Tam Photography who took all of the wonderful pictures of this awesome celebration.  Desi & Tammy were great to work with - did not even feel like they were vendors more like guests since they knew some of our close friends.

To my love bug niece Olivia - everyone in the family is so excited to have you as part of our life but I am most excited to be your aunt, your tita, your Ninang, your tea party date and your shopping buddy. I can't wait to read you bedtime stories, sing you to sleep, play house with you, get our first Drybar experience and take you to tea time. I love you and can't wait for many more first with you.

{bridal show | brea bridal show | april 20th}

If you’ve been following us on Instagram and Facebook, you know that we recently participated in the Brea Bridal Show this past weekend. I’ve been to this bridal show several times as a bride and a maid of honor but never as a vendor until this past Saturday. The show was at the Brea Community Center and it was filled with different vendors from hotels, photographers, florists, event planners, photo booths, custom invitations and bridal salons. We were very lucky to have such a prime spot for the brides to visit our table – located right in the middle of their main room. The last time we were at a bridal show at the Queen Mary we went with a more classic design so we definitely wanted to try something more rustic and natural this time around. We’re still in love with these wood slabs that we got recently for a baby shower (look for a post on the baby shower by the end of this week!!) that we did so we wanted to use those in our table set up. The idea was to re-create smaller vignettes with the rustic theme in mind. I found some small wood crates at our local Michael’s and used those to create a bit of height in our table. Instead of doing the traditional candy buffet set up, I wanted to show other creative options that can be done and be just as cute so I decided to go with a trail mix bar set up instead. We’re so glad that we went with this set up since we got a lot of brides that stopped by loving this make your own trail mix set up. My obsession for ranunculus continues as I added a few of them in our table paired with tulips from Trader Joe's that gave my table that pop of color that I needed. .

We had some great neighbors around us too like Amazing Blooms Studios in Fullerton and the Firefly Atelier.

So glad to have met a lot of brides and grooms and their families this past weekend and looking forward to working with some of you planning your wedding day.

{ideas | vintage brooch bouquets}

For a few years now, I've noticed that there is a growing trend with brides carrying vintage brooch bouquets. I've come across brides who either have made their own or purchased one. It's a great way to add personalization to your wedding or even a way to honor a special family member. Maybe you have a grandmother or an aunt that collects them that would love to lend or even gift you some of her favorite pieces for your bouquet. Some brides have also scoured thrift stores or estate sales for some rare finds that they can incorporate into their bouquets.

If you don't find yourself the type to DIY such an art piece, you can also go thru some designers who can customized one for you. Etsy offers many different vendors to choose from. One of my favorite designers though is Amanda Heer of Fantasy Floral Designs. Some of her work have been one of the best brooch bouquets I've seen. David Tutera even ordered a customized brooch bouquet from her for one of his weddings that was featured on his TLC show.

{birthdays | a race car birthday for noah & adam}

It took us 5 months to finally blog about this super fun birthday party for 2 little boys but it's finally up. Joyce wanted to throw her two charming sons a fun birthday party (Noah was turning 2 and big brother Adam was turning 6) that they could both enjoy. The one thing that both boys enjoy most is playing with cars especially with their dad. She knew that the perfect theme for this party is a race car themed but she wanted to stray away from the typical Disney Cars themed type of party. Since the family was heading to a week long Disney cruise vacation a few weeks prior to the party, Joyce contacted us to help plan for the party in her behalf. I was thrilled to work on this party since the Valdez family have been friends of ours for quite a while now - even before Joyce was pregnant with Adam. I went to work researching for different aesthetics that we can use for the party and used some race car printables courtesy of Nounces on Etsy. Since it was a birthday party for 2 little boys who has a huge craving for anything sugary & sweet, we wanted to create a dessert/sweets station with all of their favorite candy and scrumptious treats. From gumballs, pixie sticks, laffy taffys to cupcakes and chocolate covered pretzels - we made sure to include all of their favorite things in the sweets station. The party was held at the Chino Youth Museum in Chino, California. The venue itself provided awesome interactive activities for the party guests to enjoy. Before the party was over, we made sure all of the party guests went home with bags full of treats that says "Thank You for racing to our party - Adam & Noah".  

Working on this birthday party gave us a chance to create such a fun day for the 2 kids and all of their friends and at the same time providing some relief to their mom so that she wouldn't have to stress about the party planning. Seeing Noah & Adam's faces lit up as they enjoy their party treats was pure joy. 

Thank you to the Valdez family for letting us be a part of the boys' race car themed birthday party. We can't wait for your next party for your new addition to the family. All photos are courtesy of Cattura Event Photography - Joyce's awesome hubby owns Cattura by the way.