Style Tips #1 through #5 on Cinematography, Lounge Settings, Runway Fashion & more….

# 1 LOUNGING ANYWHERE
Wonder what to do to a resort ballroom to make it more interesting and intimate?  You can create individual lounge areas by renting tents of sheer flowing fabric and adding sofas and coffee tables with lots of candlelight in them.  You’ve suddenly created that romantic lounge atmosphere in a standard ballroom and given it more intimacy.  Your guests can move to different “rooms” during the cocktails hour or or they can dance the night away. Jill La Fleur, The Wedding Planner  

# 2 MARSHMALLOWS AS TREATS
Children are a wonderful addition to a family-style wedding. To encourage small children to be involved in the wedding, whether you are taking photos or want them to walk down the aisle, carry a bag of miniature marshmallows.  Marshmallows don’t make their hands sticky, they don’t stain—and the kids love them. I have found them to be much more compliant after a few treats.
Melissa Lee, Events of Santa Barbara  

# 3 WEDDING ATTIRE
Color is Hot! Whether for the bride or bridesmaids, gowns are going glam by keeping up with runway fashion trends. Try a hot pink sash, trim or hemline! It could be as simple as colorful embroidery or as bold as a full dress hue. Either way, heads will turn with these new bold colors: canary yellow, teal, and Kelly green.
Mary Anne Knox, MAK Events, Inc.

# 4 SAYING YOUR VOWS
Writing your own vows is not new, but having a member of your bridal party or family read them is. Handwritten vows personalize the ceremony and express the individual’s love. Some brides and grooms may be too shy or too emotionally caught up in the moment to speak. Hearing your words through a loved one is reaffirming and makes the role of the witness ever so more important.
Mary Anne Knox, MAK Events, Inc.

# 5 WEARING IT WELL
We all love the movies that take place in the Victorian Era—the big ballroom parties, the dancing, the full gowns, the petticoats and corsets, and the beautiful jewelry and hair up-dos.  Today, we don’t wear formal clothes very often, and so when the time comes to dance in them, we can truly appreciate the grace we see in the movies. When preparing for an evening of dancing, spend some time in the “gear.”  Brides don’t have to wear their actual gown, but they should wear their shoes and a petticoat similar in size to the gown, so the groom can get used to the feeling of the dress around his legs and learn to hold her close without wrecking the gown. Grooms should practice in dress shoes and a jacket.  Just before the wedding, the bride should put on the gown and go through the moves, raise her arms, spin and walk back.   If she doesn’t want her groom to see her gown until the wedding, she can use another partner for that last rehearsal.
Karen Hermanson, Arthur Murray Dance Studios