Premier: Same Day Edit Shannon & Benji - November 10, 2012

We're so thrilled to share this same day edit film from Steve and the Studio Z Films crew.  We had such an amazing and perfect November day.

Check it out here!

Shannon and Benji: Columbus Same Day Edit from Studio Z Films on Vimeo.

Food Truck Friday: Leslie's Creperie at Columbus State

We said our journey knew no bounds and boy did we mean it. Although, Kasey and I have both already graduated from college we ventured to Columbus State Community College to find some warm delicious crêpes from Leslie's Creperie . It was technically a food cart (we bent the rules, we really do love crêpes and they promised us that there was going to be a food truck up and running in November). We sampled the grilled cheese crepe and the Nutella one. They were an ooey gooey mess in the best way possible. The perfect lunch on a crisp fall day. The Feta & Spinach Crêpe is their signature crêpe, but they like to do seasonal ones also, like pumpkin spice. Well that is what John our crêpe master told us. Overall it was worth the trip back to college on our journey to taste the best food trucks (cart this time) that Columbus has to offer!

 We were told they are going to be making regular appearances at Columbus state! They will be there starting at 8 am and go til 2:30 on Tuesday and Wednesday.They are also there on Thursdays but only for lunch.

 Also if you have a SBB card you get $1 off your order. Woo supporting local businesses!




xoxo, Kasey & The Bliss Girls

Food Truck Friday: Mexican Taco Truck in Victorian Village

This is where it begins. We started at 5th & Forsythe in the parking lot of the Las Maravillas market. There we ordered the Taco platter for a very reasonable $5.99. It included 3 tacos, rice & beans. We sampled the chicken and beef tacos. The chicken taco was to die for it was so delish! We also were feeling like the chips & guacamole were a needed addition to our meal. The guacamole was the best I have had anywhere. It was so fresh and had chucks of tomato, which has the power to make me go weak in the knees. For our drinks we went took a short stroll in to the market and purchased a coke and sprite to top off our super yummy lunch! We asked what the specialties are we were told that the enchiladas & tamales are also top notch. Overall it was a great way to kick off our food truck adventure!

 After talking with the owner of the truck for a little bit we learned that the truck is new and that the business has been runnning for four years and that they hope the truck will be mobile within the next year! We wish them the best of luck!

 Hours - 11am - 10pm
 Closed Sunday

 

Lindsay & Kurt Married 08.24.12 - Same Day Edit Video

I'm so excited to share this video with you!  Julie and her talented team from Elysium Productions created is amazing Same Day Edit video for Lindsay and Kurt last Friday at their wedding in Downtown Columbus at the Ohio Statehouse.

Take a peek...

Ohio Statehouse Wedding // Lindsay & Kurt's Same Day Edit from Elysium Productions on Vimeo.

Cakes For A Cause 2011

Coming March 1st to the Mid-Ohio Food Bank click here to register!

Not sure what Cakes For A Cause is about?  Watch our video below and you'll see why we felt we needed to create a fantastic event like this!  

Big thank you to Steve & Josh at Studio Z Films for creating this wonderful video for us to help tell out story!  xo xo

Untitled from Steve Zugelter on Vimeo.

The Knot Fall 2010

Check us out in the latest issue of The Knot!

Find out what my secret weapon is and who I picked for Columbus's most talked about wedding venues.




Images from The Knot magazine Columbus, Fall 2010

Win A Vintage Birdcage Veil!

Are you a vintage bride? Do you consider yourself to have a unique bridal style? If so, you could win this beautiful vintage birdcage veil from Razvan Photography. Available in white or ivory, this veil is a fabulous and classy addition to weddings, both vintage and modern. All you have to do to win is go to the Razvan Photography Blog and explain why you deserve the veil.

Good luck!

Who's the Big Bad Wolf?

There are tons of blogs that get down on the wedding industry, and especially the Biggest, Baddest Wolf of them all, the evil Wedding Planner. They say we are taking brides for a ride on their "big day" and fueling the trend in Bridezillas, but I really wanted to know what the percentages were for each category, who was making the most money in the industry that is reportedly fueled by greed and self indulgence.

What I found, surprised me and I think it's important to outline EVERYTHING that is included in the SIXTY BILLION DOLLAR a year figure that the wedding industry reportedly pumps back into the economy. The number don't include all the money spent on books, magazines and websites created by the bride and groom. How much can that add? My guess is it's equal to the wedding planning figures.

First off, did you know that in 2006 Wedding Registry was a $20,000,000,000 (TWENTY BILLION) dollar a year industry all by itself? That doesn't take into fact all the people working on the wedding, that is just what people spent on gifts for the bride and all the things the bride & groom asked their guests to buy for them in exchange for an invitation to their wedding. That was in 2006, I cannot locate 2008 figures, but with inflation it is safe to assume that it probably went up by a few million.

So here are the stats and what they include....next time you're picking up that Le Creuset pot and you're anti big bad wedding industry...consider that between registry & reception costs that is just under 50% of the industry right there. Then add in Jewelry and you're at 62%. Those three account for over $49,499,852,691 dollar.

Oh, and the big, bad wedding planner who takes everybody's money? 2%

Update: Full stats are available via .pdf download at the end of the post....

The Wedding Registry $20,000,000,000
All Wedding Registrys Combined $20,000,000,000.00

Ceremony: $3,141,133,867
Aisle Runner $115,651,166
Ceremony Location $2,384,867,234
Other Accessories or Decorations - Ceremony $480,346,606
Ring Pillow or Box $78,853,068
Unity Candle $81,415,793

Entertainment $2,569,755,774
Band at ceremony $98,434,913
Band at reception $392,294,013
Dance lessons $253,709,746
DJ at ceremony $298,765,513
DJ at reception $938,395,316
Musician/s at ceremony $410,079,761
Musician/s at reception $178,076,512

Flowers $2,340,140,022
Boutonnieres, Corsages $227,929,174
Bridal Bouquet $323,823,266
Bridesmaid Bouquets $302,160,576
Ceremony Flower Arrangements $513,683,931
Flower Girl Flowers $130,633,249
Flower Petals $133,546,432
Reception Flower Arrangements $708,363,394

Photography/Video: $4,774,246,617
Engagement Photographer $641,820,166
Engagement Videographer $837,813,848
Wedding Photographer $2,332,736,595
Wedding Videographer $961,876,008

Planner: $1,249,492,573
A La Carte Services $111,839,935
Day-of-Coordinator $178,470,777
For Getting Started $84,241,361
Full Service $722,381,717
Month-of-Direction $152,558,783

Reception: $19,201,663,915
Hotel Room for After Reception $415,511,861
Other Accessories or Decorations - Reception $445,191,280
Reception Bar Service $3,537,983,836
Reception Food Service $5,911,264,050
Reception Location $4,349,841,882
Reception Rentals (Tent, Table, Chairs, Etc.) $2,883,065,299
Reception Table Centerpieces $617,967,113
Toasting Flutes $157,881,365
Wedding Cake $699,842,882
Wedding Cake Topper and Serving Set $183,114,347

Source
Want to see it broken down by category, you can download a very large .pdf Excel Spreadsheet Download Weddingindustry reports

A big Thank You to Sasha Souza, who originally shared this on her blog: Sparkliatti!, for allowing me to repost this to share with our Bliss & That readers! Thanks Sasha!

Stationery Spotlight: TearDrop

Name: Holly Hatam

Company/Business Name: TearDrop

How long have you been in business? 2 years

Where do you get your inspiration from? I get my inspiration from everything and anything around me. Whether it be a rusty door, my cats, a song, a flower and most importantly my brides and grooms.

Do you have a favorite style of invitation (formal, whimsy, contemporary, etc)? My favourite style of invite is our new collection called Love Stories. We have designed invitations for every style of bride and we designed our invitations to tell a story. So we have designed an invite for the food lover bride and groom, the summer couple, the fall couple, the rustic couple, the urban couple etc.

Do you specialize in a type of stationary (letterpress, print, engraved, etc)? We specialize in letterpress, engraving foil stamping

Average cost of your invitations: If you were to choose a design from an existing collection, the price starts at $1200 for 100. For a completely custom design the cost starts at $2600. And what is great about our designs is that even if you choose a design from an existing collection, you can still customize it in the paper, envelope, ink colors, type, wording and we even change the hair and facial features of the characters to look like that specific bride and groom!

Tip or advice to brides/grooms designing custom invitations or stationary suite: Remember that your invites represent your personalities and your wedding. Tell your guests your story, show them your quirks and don’t be afraid to be different and step out of the typical traditional invitation suite. Your invitations give your guests a glimpse of your wedding day, you want them to feel exited! Your invites are something you will cherish for years to come, so we have the mission of making each and every invitation a piece of artwork that all your guests will keep and cherish forever.

Stationery Spotlight: Seedlings

Name: Jenny Zemanek

Company/Business Name: Seedlings, LLC

How long have you been in business? 4 Years

Where do you get your inspiration from?
Anywhere and everywhere I can, but most of my inspiration comes from the bride herself. I love when a bride comes in with an idea but she’s not quite sure how to bring it to life; it’s fun to rise to the challenge of putting a design on paper that previously only existed in her head. There’s also the bride that has no idea where to start and that challenge comes in trying to create a design based on her personality and come up with something she loves but didn’t know she was going to.

Do you have a favorite style of invitation (formal, whimsy, contemporary, etc)?
My style tends to be more contemporary. I gravitate towards simple, elegant but still fun designs that bring a little flair to the stationery suite and get guests excited to see how the rest of the wedding will turn out.

Do you specialize in a type of stationery (letterpress, print, engraved, etc)?
Most of my invitations are printed digitally, but I do offer offset printing or letterpress if that is something the bride is really interested in. Engraving is usually very expensive, so in my experience it’s not a very popular printing method (though it’s gorgeous!)

Average cost of your invitations (a range is just fine):
Since everything is so custom, it really depends on the type of paper, embellishments and number of invitations ordered, but a solid range would be $4-$9 per invitation set (includes invitation, outer envelope with return address printed on the flap, reply card and reply envelope).

Tip or advice to brides/grooms designing custom invitations or stationery suite:
Have fun with it! The beauty of coming to a graphic designer for your wedding invitations is there are no limitations and the possibilities are endless. There are no select few ink colors, no select few paper choices, design motifs, monograms or anything else; we can create anything you want. This is the bride’s dream day, a day into which she is going to invest hours and hours of planning to create an event that reflects her and her fiancé, and I love being a part of that and helping them set the tone for that event with an invitation that no one has seen before. It brings an element of surprise and anticipation for guests when they open that envelope.

Stationery Spotlight: Wedding Paper Divas

I thought I'd do a series for November highlighting some of my favorite stationers. First up is Wedding Paper Divas!

Name: Lea Armstrong, Public Relations Manager/Spokesperson for Wedding Paper Divas

Company/Business Name: Wedding Paper Divas (http://www.weddingpaperdivas.com/)

How long have you been in business: Wedding Paper Divas has been in business since 2006. It is the sister company of the online stationery retailer, Tiny Prints. The early success and popularity of Tiny Prints proved that consumers are looking for quality paper products. As a result, Tiny Prints’ founders created Wedding Paper Divas.

Where do you get your inspiration from: A wedding is often one of the most important days of a couple’s life together, and that’s why we work with talented designers who create sophisticated, modern and classic stationery pieces that will reflect the style of any event.
In addition to offering beautiful stationery, our primary goal is to offer an online shopping experience that is better than the in-store shopping experience. We want to give couples the opportunity to conveniently order high-quality wedding stationery online, while offering a “white glove” customer experience that one would come to expect. This means that all orders go through a multi-level quality assurance process that ensures that every order is processed and reviewed for everything from typos and mistakes to etiquette rules.

Do you have a favorite style of invitation (formal, whimsy, contemporary, etc): I personally love the bold colors offered in our signature collection. Some couples feel like they need to shy away from color in their wedding stationery, but I think it’s a great way to set the tone for a beautiful event.
I also love many of our new invitations in our Signature Ecru Collection, which feature watercolor designs that feel romantic and whimsical.

Do you specialize in a type of stationery? The Signature White and Signature Ecru collection from Wedding Paper Divas uses the highest quality digital printing press available. This means that rather than use toner similar to a laser printer, our digital press uses liquid ink for high quality results.
Additionally, through a partnership with stationer William Arthur, we also offer the Wedding Paper Divas Letterpress Collection, which represents the marriage of our contemporary designs, state-of-the-art technology and personalization tools with the most traditional printing method available.

Average Cost of your invitations: Our Signature Collection ranges from $1.64 - $2.59 per invite. The Letterpress Collection starts at $3.33 per invite. Pricing for both collections depends on quantity.

Tips of advice to brides/grooms designing custom invitations or stationery suites: When it comes to weddings, personalization is always popular and couples love to feature monograms and photos, as well as unique colors or fonts. We think personalization is great, but the key to a beautiful stationery piece is not to overdo it. Keep it simple.

Below are a few samples of the Divas' work. There is a link at the bottom of our blog as well if you are interested in doing a little shopping!

What You Don't See

My friend Emily at Emily Duncan Event Planning just emailed this picture over and I thought I'd share it with you. I assisted her with a wedding last month and the photographer snapped this picture of us hard at work. Yes, contrary to popular belief we wedding planners are friends and we do help each other out when our schedules permit! It actually makes for a great event because there are two professionals on site.

Thanks for sharing Em!

15

I'm so happy, excited and proud to announce the grand opening of 15!

15 is a shared meeting space in the Short North that I have the pleasure and honor of sharing with Amy from C Studios and Janna from Janna Coe Designs. We've been hard at work for the past month and a half to pull everything together for the space and our grand opening gala.

The grand opening party was a huge success. We had almost 100 attendees comprised of clients, vendors, friends and family members. Everyone who came out to celebrate had a fantastic time. I was honestly sad when 9pm rolled around and our party was over.

Janna did the most gorgeous floral displays. You can see in the pictures below how talented she is. Amy's beautiful pictures adorn our walls and she captured the mood and feel perfectly of the party. I felt like I was reliving it again just looking at her pictures!

I'd like to say thank you to the following vendors for their donations to our event. They really did go out of their way to ensure our party was a success.

Made From Scratch provided delightful hors d'oeuvres and our bartender who did a great job keeping the Bellini's chilled and flowing.

The Cake Studio provided our adorable little mini cookie cakes that were our favors. Everyone was so excited to take a little box home.

Jan Kish La Petite Fleur provided the a fabulous lemon cake that the guests enjoyed at the party. She also treated everyone to her famous truffles (little balls of chocolate cake dipped in chocolate). Can you say heaven?!

Lasting Impressions provided our beautiful linens and glassware for the party. Our retro champagne flutes were just the right touch of fabulousness we needed!

Thank you to everyone who came out to support us and our exciting new endeavor. I really have to send a big thank you to my husband who worked tirelessly on the space to help make is perfect for us. I couldn't have done it without you!

xo
Kasey

Pictures courtesy of C Studios Photography

Bridal Beauty

I wanted to share one of my favorite vendors with you today. I had the pleasure of having Kellie from Pearls and a Black Dress do my make up for a recent photo shoot. Let me tell you she is AWESOME! She is a true artist and professional in her field.

She did an airbrush foundation which I never had done before (and is my new favorite thing). Those of you who know me, know I love all girlie things like hair, make up, spa days, etc, so having someone as talented at Kellie do my make up was such a treat. I looked gorgeous all day and couldn't believe that the make up stayed on and looked good for so many hours. You'll get to see a few pictures in the next day or so....I haven't seen them myself and I can't wait! ...more aboout the photo shoot later...

So, if you are looking for a make up artist to do your wedding day beauty you must give Kellie a call and tell her I sent you!

Katie needs your help!...

Katie from The Cake Studio that is!


I just received a call from her asking if I knew anyone who would be interested in becoming her assistant. I didn't have any one in mind but offered to post this message for her. So if anyone is interested working part time -8am to noon, 2-3 days per week - in the yummiest smelling house around (yes, her house smells like cake!) please send her an email. DO NOT CALL HER!


Contact Katie at katie@thecakestudio.net and tell her you saw this on my blog.