FAVORS FAVORS FAVORS

Trying to decide just what to give your family and friends once the party is over. What can you give that will be practical but cheap? Here are a few DIY ideas to help brides everywhere give the perfect favor and save a few bucks too.

One Cup of Love

Who doesn’t love home baked cookies? The wedding favor is perfect for a bride that wants to send home the warmth and love she felt the entire day! To make this favor all you need is jars (Amount depends on how many guests and who you will be giving them to). In each jar add…. 2 ¼ Cups All Purpose Flour

1 Teaspoon of Baking Soda

1 Teaspoon Salt

¾ Granulated Sugar

¾ Packed Brown Sugar

2 Cups of Chocolate Chips

Once all of these ingredients are placed into the jar, strategically of course, use a small piece of paper to type up the ingredients. On one side you can write the ingredients of your marriage; for example, 2 ¼ cups of love, 1 teaspoon of trust, 1 teaspoon of compassion and so on. On the other side type up the ingredients and add in 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 2 large eggs, and one cup of butter (2 sticks) softened. Preheat oven to 375˚ degrees. Combine all ingredients into one large bowl and scoop small balls out and place onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 9 to 12 minutes (until golden) then remove and let cool for 5 minutes.

Add a piece of fabric to the top of the lid and a sticker with each of your initials. TA DAA! You have yourself a warm and heart felt favor that everyone can enjoy!

-Recipe from http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=18476.

Boxed Candle Poems

Candles will never get old. Whether you are using one to make the room smell great or trying to create the perfect mood candles are always great! Purchase your candles in bulk this way it will be cheaper and you’ll be sure to have enough. Once the candles have arrived print out different love poems and sonnets onto adequate sized paper. Some various poems you can print are Corinthians 13, Shakespeare’s sonnet 116, and many many more. Once each of the boxes is wrapped in these beautiful words, add a special touch by tying string to the box that has the beaded message of love. In the end you have a great and easy favor that looks fantastic!

Find this and many more great DIY wedding ideas at MarthaStewartWeddings.com

Renew, Redesign, and Reuse!

Hey everyone, I wanted to talk today about something that can both be money-smart but is also a “green” idea. It’s probably not what your thinking (okay, you might be due to the photo that’s with this post) bridesmaids dresses! Lets face it, almost no one re-uses bridesmaids dresses (maybe you remember Katherine Heigl’s movie last year where her closet was packed with bridesmaids dresses that never saw the light of day more than once?) and that’s because you picked it for them, plain and simple. If you’re going to have more than one bridesmaid then the chances are pretty high that you’ll also have more than one body shape, skin tone, eye color, hair color and everything else to consider besides the actual color of the dresses. So you’re bound to select a dress that doesn’t quite flatter at least one, if not a few, or all of them and they will be most likely be expensive, since they are specifically made for bridesmaids, and will never be used again.
A great new trend I’m seeing a lot of recently is that of these mix-and-match bridesmaids dresses. Setting the ground rules on the lenth and style and maybe even specific color (maybe giving each girl paint swatches of the color you can get from the hardware store to take with them shopping) and letting each girl choose their own dress. Or maybe not even one specific color, maybe each girl gets their own color that goes with the theme (maybe everyone wearing pastels or different shades of red-it’s up to you!). It might be fun to even make a day out of it – all go dress shopping together so you can okay it before it’s even purchased. In the end you can save the girls from being uncomfortable all day and then having the dress collect dust in their basement for the rest of their lives, just because the dress didn’t suit them to begin with.

Featured (clockwise from top left): J.Crew, Aaron Delesie, the image is found, and Sugar Love Weddings via Green Wedding Shoes)

Our Latest Inspriation - JUNE!

Hello! We just got fantastic photos of our latest inspiration shoot! Our designers have created this June design to totally inspire you - the photos were taken by the amazingly talented Rachel McGinn of Rachel McGinn Photography. We will have the complete shoot up in the next few days... we are SO busy preparing for Emily and Trevor's wedding weekend that we don't have time to put them all up today... but here's a taste of what's to come. Stay tuned!

Myth Buster

Hey guys! It’s me, Josie, again and I think I’m going to switch my focus just a little this week to talk about a myth I seem to hear a lot of. Many people think that the best way to save money while planning a wedding is to ditch the wedding planner. This is a complete myth that couldn’t be further from the truth! I know, I’m kind of partial on the subject but a few years ago I probably would have agreed with you, but oh how I see the light now!
Wedding planners (especially JP Event design, heh!) know the ins and outs of wedding planning. While this may be your first wedding, wedding planners may be doing one every other week, so they have a little more experience with things you may be unfamiliar with. Planning events is also all they do. While you may only have your lunch break to call and set up appointments with venues and caterers, they not only have the time to do this, but they have already worked with different vendors and know who would work best for your wedding and also your budget. A good planner knows where to get the best prices for the best services. You may not have the time to hunt down the absolute lowest prices on tissue paper and candy, but that’s what we’re here for (and yes! From working here I do know the cheapest place to get tissue paper!).
Wedding planners know the field, and know who you’ll get the best value from. They can steer you away from vendors they know are cutting costs by cutting services and show you ones that you’ll get above and beyond the money with. They can also suggest new money-saving ideas that can get your wedding looking like a million-bucks on a small budget. Me and the other interns here at JP Event Design do a lot of brainstorming for weddings. We spend a lot of our time looking at the latest ideas in wedding designs and are always trying to come up with ways to re-create them cheaper, but with the same visual impact. We’re also always looking for the best deals for each particular wedding. We get excited about being able to help bring a bride’s dreams to life without breaking her bank. It’s what we do- and we love it!
Your wedding is such a special day and it should be just as memorable as a high-budget wedding. Don’t let yourself think that you’ll save money just by cutting out someone who has the expertise in making beautiful events – talk to us and see how you really can afford a wedding planner and how we might actually save you money! And besides, whats more green then saving money?



**Also a special thanks to Allison for doing such a wonderful job on the blog!! You're the best!

Keeping it Classy While Keeping it Cheap

Hi! My name is Laura and I will be interning here at JP Event Design for the summer.Over the next few months I am going to help plan the wedding of your dreams while helping you not go bankrupt. If you haven’t noticed the overall consensus of this blog is to save money. At least once a week I am going to give brides creative ideas to make their weddings a dream come true! I will be sure to add the websites and books I found these great ideas from so you can look too!

Since we all have beach fever let’s look at a few fun ideas we can use from our friend the beach!

Seashells are everywhere. I’m sure we can all remember waking up early as a kid and walking down the pick out our favorite shells. Why not put these childhood treasurers to good use?

One fun idea for seashells is featured on the Better Homes and Gardens website. For this fun center piece all you need is sand, a few large bowls, plenty of seashells, and some candles. Most of these products can be found at the dollar story for low prices and can still have an expensive look! For more on this craft and other seashell crafts check out http://www.bhg.com/crafts/home/accessories/seashell-crafts/.

Another fun favor idea is to make your own sand candle holder. For this project all you need is some jars, sand, candles, food coloring, glue, and ribbon. (Base the colors on your weddings theme!) Take your jar and fill it with sand, use the food coloring to color the sand to fit your wedding. Place the candle in the middle of the sand and tie the ribbon around the jar. TA DA! You have yourself a cheap but beautiful wedding favor. To add more, feel free to add some sea shells in the jar or attach a fun poem to the ribbon

Well that’s all for this week! Be sure to find fun and inexpensive ideas every Tuesday here on www.JPEventdesign.bolgspot.com .

LOVE fresh summer foods... especially at weddings!

If you've been in or around Pennsylvania, New Jersey or almost any part the northeast, you might have noticed a smell recently...or rather...an aroma. Thats right, it's strawberry season, one of my favorite times of the year. A recent visit to a local farm market had me drooling over some of these red beauties and gave me an idea about what to write about this week.

The importance of buying food local. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you've seen the commercials recently and you buy your vegetables from farm markets during the summer, but what the heck does it have to do with weddings. Simple, have the food served at your wedding be local too! Not only does it support local businesses, but your food will taste that much better. Go ahead, get a tomato from a local farmer and then take it to your supermarket who shipped theirs from states (if not countries) away and just look at the difference, and then cut one open and taste the difference! Wouldn't you love to go to a wedding and notice how fresh and delicious the food was? and then realize it was your own wedding?
One of my favorite websites for find everything local in the Philadelphia area is LocalFoodPhilly. They even provide a list of caterers that use local food. BuyLocalPA features a map to help you find restaurants, caterers, bakeries, wineries and all things local. And for those of you that are outside of the PA/NJ area, you can always head over to Local Harvest which helps to find these things all around the country, or you can always just try a search engine to search for locally grown services in your area.

One last thing about using locally grown foods at your wedding - You have to use what's in season. Sorry! I know you might dream of having a december wedding with beautiful chocolate-dipped strawberries with the cake, but you know in the back of your mind that strawberries don't grow in December (at least not around here they don't). So before you get your heart set on having asparagus served at your august wedding, check with your local farm market first. Go ahead and ask them when they get what foods and such, most of them are more than happy to help. Another great resource is epicurious, who feature the coolest Peak-Season Map I've found online yet. Just click on the month you're having your wedding, and the state you're having it in and voila! you know what's in season!

Hope this has been a help and that you're enjoying the start of the summer-food season as much as I am!

Introducing Josie...

Hey there! I am one of the new interns, here at JP Event Design for the summer. As it is summer we are keeping busy! A large part of what I'm doing right now is working on my "Inspiration by JP Event Design" which I'm very excited about. To tell you a little about me, I consider myself to be an artist who just happens to love organizing and planning too, and I'm really hoping to use my art background to bring new and different ideas to all of the events I help with, as well as my "inspiration." It's great to be learning how to pull everything together, from getting a venue, to flowers, to designing a table and everything in between.

I'll be blogging weekly and would really like to concentrate my posts on the subject of buying local. With how America's economy is, it's becoming more and more important to support businesses that are based right here in the U.S. and keep the money right in our own "back-yard." One of my favorite tools is a site called Etsy. This is a fantastic site to find things for your event that are handmade, local, professional, and incredibly unique! One of my favorite tools on the website is their Shop Local tool which helps to find people who may be right in your own town that you didn't even know existed. I've found etsy to be particularly good with finding stationary for events such as invitations, place cards, thank you notes and everything else. If you can't find exactly what you're looking for (which is hard to imagine with the expanse of things on etsy!) there is another great tool that allows you to request custom items. I've also found that if you find a seller who makes things similar to what you're looking for, you can send them a message and they are almost always willing to custom make things for you.

Well thats it for me today! hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend!