This last month has been jam packed with bridal shows and I loved it! Even though last year I had weddings scheduled well into the fall and my usual time for recovery and planning was cut by more than half I still loved every minute of it. For the last two years I have been participating in one Salem show and one Portland show. There are so many these days that I can't keep track, ugh!

This past weekend was the Oregon Wedding Showcase at the Oregon State Fairgrounds. The last three times I have participated in the show I only paid for a mini booth, as you can see in the picture to the left. 5' X 10' is not very big so I wanted to show my creativity with a small space. As you can see I laid down astroturf to give the idea of an outdoor wedding. The idea was very fairly simple, but for the first time I had brides and mom's taking pictures of my booth. The mason jars with battery powered candles was a hit!

This show, by far, was more successful and enjoyable than any other Salem show I have participated in. I am very excited about my upcoming meetings. The brides, grooms, and moms I was able to meet this weekend blessed me with their time and attentiveness to me and my girls. If this year continues in the direction it is headed, we will have one of our most successful years yet.

Way to go Oregon Wedding Showcase!! You really did a great job this year.

Newly designed website

For a couple months now I have been working with a designer to build a new website. As much as I loved using this blog as my website I felt it was time to step it up. Holly Amlin was an intern for my studio mate Red Pearl Designs. In her internship she designed Megan's site I thought she did a nice job for Megan, so I hired her to redo mine. Not only was Holly fun to work with, she stuck right on track with her timeline and fulfilled more than my expectations. I am so proud and excited to showcase my new site. When you have time check it out, www.withthisringwedding.com and then let me know what you think?

The Home Page

It's official and I'm so excited

Over the last few weeks I have been meeting/talking with Cherie Ronning owner of the Portland Wedding Lounge. A space has opened up for another wedding consultant and Cherie has picked With This Ring to fill the space. What an honor!!! Cherie has been in the wedding industry for many years and her knowledge and experience is vast and highly respected. This opportunity has humbled me to know I am going to be working along side of some of Portland's most established and respected wedding professionals!

If you visit the Wedding Lounge's website you will find a new page for me, http://portlandweddinglounge.com/with-this-ring-wedding-and-event-planning/ as well as, the list of other vendors who are a part of the lounge. I am sooooo excited to have this space to meet with my Portland clients, and also to be associated with such a high quality group of vendors.

Look out Portland, here I come!!!

2011 was AMAZING

Wow what a year and I mean WOW! If you had asked me to project what 2011 would be like at this time last year, I could never have imagined it would turn out the way it did. My year was so blessed and incredibly fun! Here are just a few of the highlights of 2011...

I introduced my new logo and branding

We hosted our largest and most successful wedding workshop
The Salem Dream Wedding

We opened Studio 430 in Salem

We received two Best of Bride awards from the Oregon Bride Magazine

Also in 2011 we...

• Had weddings on a Monday, Wednesday and Thursday night
• Did our first wedding on the Oregon Coast
• Worked with more couples than on other year to date
• Participated in our first Portland Bravo! wedding affair
• and so much more...

I feel like I could go on and on, but the bottom line is that 2011 reminded me even more that I love what I do! I feel honored each and every time a bride says to me, "We want to hire you." My goal for 2012 is not to just book weddings, but to grow and learn new ways I can become a more valuable resource for my current and future clients. To approach every wedding like it is my only focus at that time and ensure couples that I am there to support and help them have the best wedding day, one that they look back on with fond memories and no regrets. 

Merry Christmas to all and a happy New Year! 

Jenn and Scott

Here is just a few pictures from the wedding of our 2011 Salem Dream Wedding winners Jenn and Scott. What a beautiful day it was out at Zenith Vineyards, things could not have been better. The day was flawless, the bride was radiant, and the food was great thanks to Willaby's Catering.

Mr. & Mrs. Woodward

Holiday Party Ideas

I absolutely love the holidays, and I mean LOVE them. I wish I could decorate my house to the nines and host all kinds of parties!!! One thing I have yet to do in my business venture is plan a cooperate business party. I have done plenty of small business/personal holiday parties but none that brought tones of decorations and fun entertainment. This got me to thinking about what I would do if I had the chance, well this is one idea I found while dreaming of a big budget, haha!!

Santa hats with names. I love to sew and I thought I would be such a fun idea to get the dollar store hats and use an embroidery machine to put each guest names on the hat and it doubles as a favor for them to take home! I even saw on a website where someone took a picture of all the employees at that party with the hats on and used it as the company holiday card. How fun is that?!?!?

"I'm dreaming of a holiday party. Just like the ones I wish I had..." 

Salem Dream Wedding 2011 Winners

As some of you may remember we hosted a workshop in February this year called the "Salem Dream Wedding" at Events at Copper Hill. Jenn and Scott were the winners of our grand prize which included over $3500 of product and services from 14 Salem area vendors. These are just a few pictures from their engagement session with Sela Photography who is also photographing their wedding next week!! It has come up so fast that I am almost sad it is so close to their big day. I could not have picked a better couple to have won our prize. They had no idea going into their plans what even happened during a ceremony. Jenn, bless her heart, is the only bride I have ever worked with that has never come to any of our meetings with a book, pictures, or even any inspiration. She knew her colors and her groom and that was it!!!

Watching this wedding unfold and come together has been a great joy. After the wedding next week I will come back and post pictures for everyone to see how things turned out. Along with some details for our next Salem Dream Wedding which is slated to happen early February 2012!!

Zenith Vineyard, the location of their wedding