wedding inspiration – WedBrilliant

Preserve Every Wedding Card Forever with New Digital Platform, E-Bration!

Preserve Every Wedding Card Forever with New Digital Platform, E-Bration!

One thing you can absolutely count on as you get closer to your wedding is an outpouring of good wishes via congratulatory cards! Your friends and family want to show how excited they are for both of you by sharing heartfelt messages in sweet cards. Whether you receive these on your wedding day or they trickle in through the mail, you will want to collect and save them all. But, after a reasonable period of time after you’re married, what do you do with these wonderful sentiments captured on letters and cards? The days of gathering them up and stashing them in a shoebox never to be opened again… are over!

E-Bration is a brilliant new digital platform that preserves the memories of every card, message, photo and memory from your wedding!

The founders, Shea and Jeff Cohen, built E-Bration after their own wedding when they realized capturing these sentiments was a need shared by thousands of others. After easily creating an “event” in their account, couples can share the page with their guests who are able to send them a digital card straight through the site along with a personalized message and option for a cash gift. Unlike traditional ecard sites where the card is delivered via email and then scattered throughout your inbox with a card link that eventually expires, these cards are stored forever in the couple’s online account. Additionally, for any physical cards that are received outside of the website, the couple can digitally upload those into their account so they are saved with the same collection (or E-Bration can even upload the cards for them if they choose!).

After the wedding, couples can use E-Bration to create a personalized “Memor-E-Book” that matches each card with a photo of the guest who sent it. They will also always have access to their dashboard where all their cards, photos and messages will be hosted. In addition to the preservation of memories and sentiments, E-Bration gives their customers a platform to even send invitations and thank you cards.

We love this concept, so glad that someone finally addressed the question of “what now?!” and we love supporting fellow entrepreneurs. So, go check out E-Bration today as you plan your wedding! It’s free to join and set things up!♥️

Forget the shoeboxes for storing wedding cards!
Create a free E-Bration account to receive and store everything!

Painted Wedding Stationery Elevates Everything

Often, your guests’ first peek at what your wedding will be like and a reflection of your combined personalities, is in the save-the-dates and other wedding stationery you send out. WedBrilliant vendor CharmCat Stationery & Design creates original painted works that capture moments and personalities, and that inspire, excite, and connect people through the shared experience of art.

Products include save-the-dates, wedding invitation suites, and custom watercolor commissions including wedding venue paintings. These are not just mundane to-do’s to check off your wedding planning list, these are truly pieces of art. Owner and designer, Ashleigh Pritchard recommends that couples planning their weddings add personal touches to their stationery to show off their personality. And these one-of-a-kind pieces will likely be ones you’ll look back on with fondness, long after the wedding has come and gone!

Contact CharmCat:

charmcat.net

Staying At Home? Let’s Get Those DIY Projects Done!

Ready to tackle some wedding DIY projects at home? There are countless resources available to you for inspiration and tips to reach your wedding décor goals, but here’s a great place to start:

  • Have you firmed up your theme? Going for rustic, elegant, modern? Once you know that, the décor ideas flow from there.
  • What’s accessible to you and easy to do at home? Do you have lots of jars? How about painting some for table centerpieces? Do you have craft paper? Could you make table numbers?
  • Can you outsource DIY projects? What can your MIL-to-be help with? Does your maid of honor have incredible penmanship? Can she help writing out place cards? Or addressing invitation envelopes?
  • Post your requests on WedBrilliant.com for any other projects, receive bids and identify a vendor who can help you tackle more of these “to-do’s!”

In the meantime, here’s some more inspiration to get the creative juices flowing:

19 Clever Ways to Use Mason Jars at Your Wedding

60 DIY Wedding Decor Ideas to Wow Your Guests

23 DIY Wedding Centerpieces We Love

Pretty Pink Countryside Wedding (With Cute Aisle Signage)

Photo Booth Fun

We’re excited to share a little about WedBrilliant pros, Fun Fab Photo Booths & DJs. Looking for a fun, reliable provider of photo booth rentals in the Houston, College Station, Galveston, Huntsville or Bay City areas? Check them out.

They offer open air, enclosed and green screen options with the highest quality photos and guaranteed fun for your wedding guests. All of their rentals include flash drives, custom graphics, on-site attendants with great customer service, print outs for your guests, and of course fun props!

We love a good photo booth and the fun it creates! Check out Fun Fab Photo Booths & DJs, and head over to post your own wedding needs for WedBrilliant vendors to submit customized bids on!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We Polled Our DJs: How much do they charge?

We launched WedBrilliant with the express purpose of helping our happily engaged couples find great wedding vendors and get bids on all your wedding needs. But, if you’re starting the wedding planning process and not sure how much budget to allocate to various components of your wedding, we are here to help you out. We polled our talented DJs around the nation and are sharing the average amount they charge for weddings… Now that you know this info, head over to request bids for your own wedding!

How much do you charge couples for basic wedding DJ services for approximately 3-6 hours?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Illustrate Your Love Story

You’re engaged, yay! You’re happy and can’t stop peeking at the ring on your finger, recognizing the significance behind it and planning the big day pretty much 24/7. Right? As you should be!

And we’re excited for you! I mean, we’re in the wedding business because we are obviously obsessed with weddings! Looking for a little inspiration? We’ve got just what you need with these amazing shots captured by WedBrilliant wedding photographer, Rachel of Peace Love Shoot Photography. As she, herself, says, her goal is to ensure that “each couple has the images to illustrate their love story.” And we’d agree that she accomplishes that!

 

 

 

 

A Camera (and photographer!) Ready for Adventure

When you’re searching for an engagement or wedding photographer, here’s one of the best pieces of advice to keep in mind – find a photographer who loves what they do. That love transfers directly into the experience you’ll have with them.

A WedBrilliant photographer who clearly loves what she does? Whitney Lyons of Whitney Lyons Photography fits that description! She’s a visual storyteller with a clear passion for what she does. It comes across in her photography and the way she approaches capturing special occasions for her clients. From the touching candid shots of happy couples and their guests at the reception to perfectly unplanned moments of tenderness, it’s clear Whitney’s a true professional. Her dozen years of experience and background in photojournalism are just two of the assets she offers. And while she’s based in the beautiful Northwest, as she says, “my passport and camera are always ready for the next adventure!”

Wedding Music to Set the Stage

When it comes to selecting what music you will have at your wedding, you have a number of options. Have you been thinking about musicians for the ceremony? What you’ll have during the cocktail hour? And what about what’s going to get your guests on the dance floor at the reception?

First step? Check out the variety of incredibly talented wedding musicians and DJs we have here at WedBrilliant. Take, for instance, Ocdamia Strings, ceremony musicians playing music ranging from classical to contemporary and anything in between. Most of their musicians have masters degrees in music performance – true professionals. And, they are known for serving multi-cultural clients by taking the time to learn different cultures and traditions to ensure every wedding goes smoothly and is unforgettable. Ocdamia Strings musicians discuss goals with each couple they work with and will always make sure that couples get beautifully performed songs on their big days!

Looking to hire great musicians for your wedding? Post a request on WedBrilliant and receive bids from talented wedding pros!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Color Us Happy!

When it comes to selecting your wedding colors, what factors help create the perfect palette for your special day? You will undoubtedly get input from parents, siblings, best friends, neighbors, and maybe your mail person, but it’ll boil down to what feels “right” for you and your loved one and best represents the two of you! To get you started thinking about it, here are some pointers:

  1. Look around your home. Is there an obvious color scheme going on? What color are your kitchen walls, your bedroom? Open up your closet and see if you subconsciously (or not) lean towards certain hues. These are all good hints as to what colors will make you happy on your wedding day, and bring back those fond memories for months and years to come.
  2. Location, location, location. If you have selected your venue already, think about what colors will work best for the ceremony and reception. Are you having the reception in a large ballroom? Feel free to go for deeper, brighter colors since they won’t dwarf the room much. Is your ceremony cliff side over the Pacific Ocean? Incorporate natural blue and green shades that take the surroundings into consideration.
  3. ‘Tis the season. One big way that your colors will come into play is in your floral selections. So, why not start with determining what flowers and plants are in season when you’re getting married. Sit down with yoColor Us Happyur florist to discuss what will be available and fresh (and better priced) and use those ideas to help narrow down some colors.
  4. Use the color wheel. Now don’t laugh, but remember when you were in grade school and used a color wheel to learn about primary and secondary colors? Well, this could be helpful as you select your wedding palette. Colors opposite each other on the color wheel are often pleasing to the eye since they pair warm and cool hues.
  5. Get inspiration! This may be an obvious one, but one of the best ways to determine the right colors for your wedding is to look at what others couples have done and see if anything jumps out at you. From flowers to bridesmaids dresses, you’ll be able to get a real sense of how various colors work together on the bid day. Check out Style Me Pretty or Pinterest to get your creative juices flowing.

Ultimately, while each couple’s wedding palette is a deeply personal choice and a decision to give serious consideration to, have fun with the process and don’t let it overwhelm you. You want to look back and have only happy memories stem from the colors you choose!

Brrrr… It’s Time To Plan Summer Weddings!

It may be the week of Halloween, but there’s no better time to kick start summer wedding planning! We have visions of tea lights, pastel flowers and fruity signature cocktails dancing in our heads. So, without further ado, here’s a short list of action items every summer bride and groom need to be focused on right now.

1. Sign up for free on WedBrilliant.com (if you haven’t already!) and begin to post your wedding needs. These can range from linens for the reception to a DJ with AV and lighting equipment. You don’t have to post all your requests at once, you can always return and add more. If you have the time, select the option to post your bid requests for 3 weeks so WedBrilliant vendors have plenty of time to view your needs and submit bids. Once you start getting bids, read through them and take a look at vendor reviews and photos to make your decision. It’s all free for couples to use – so get started!

Photo Courtesy: Catherine Colgan Photography
Photo Courtesy: Catherine Colgan Photography

2. Have you selected your venue? If so, great – that’s one of the biggest hurdles since those can often book up quickly, especially in summer months! If you haven’t, turn your attention to figuring that out right away. If your ideal spot is already booked on your wedding date, consider a Friday or Sunday wedding instead. Or ask the venue if they might accommodate two weddings in one day. If yours is a morning wedding with a wedding brunch, some venues can still keep the evening wedding they might already have on the books! Win win.

3. Now’s the time to really drill down on a theme, or at least what you want your colors to be. This is such an important piece that truly impacts so many different facets of your wedding planning. Once you’ve determined what your color scheme will be, get thinking about accents for the bridal party (bridesmaids dresses, ties, etc.), flowers, and your stationery…

4. Speaking of stationery… gather some ideas for save the dates, invitations, programs and more (have you checked out our fun Pinterest board?), post your needs on WedBrilliant to receive bids from fabulous wedding stationery designers across the country, and then really start focusing on the wording. Every couple has a different style and voice, so decide what yours is and put some ideas down on paper! Just writing down ideas, no matter how many times, can be extremely helpful!

Good luck planning! Before you know it, the trees will be blossoming again and your special day will be around the corner!