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DIY, Real Glö-bies, Real Glö-Weddings, Twists on Tradition

New Twists on Catering for your Wedding

It goes without saying, food is one of the most memorable parts about any event. So, how can you make your food really stand out without having to focus too much on it ahead of time, AND without breaking the bank? Here are four tips to help you:

1. Go local - it’s all the rage in the food industry right now: giving a nod to your local companies. And what better way to do that than when all of your friends and family are in from out of town? Just because your favorite restaurant around the corner doesn’t have the word “caterer” in it doesn’t mean they don’t do catering. Ask them! You’ll find that a good amount of restaurants are happy to fully cater, or supplement, events as well. Of course, you might lose some of the perks a true catering company can provide: dinnerware, serving spoons and maybe even waitstaff, but it is definitely a fun way to give your guests a true local experience with food that you know is good at a price can stand up to any catering cost.

2. Take a trip to the grocery store - Don’t be afraid to do some of the catering yourself. A quick trip to the grocery store can save you a lot of dough and your sanity. For example, if you have nagging in-laws just dying to help somehow, put them to work slicing cheese and fruit for a platter. I guarantee it won’t taste any different than a cheese platter you’ll get from an expensive caterer. Plus, you can get all the cheeses you like, instead of being at the mercy of whatever platter your caterers recommend.

3. Think outside of the warming dish – Who says catering needs to be traditional?? Street food is creating buzz around the country and is a great way to get unique and memorable with your wedding catering. Hiring a food truck to literally park in front of your venue and serve food out their window would certainly be the highlight of any event. Glöbies Shanelle and Mike were a great example of how much fun you can have with this – they had a street vendor make burgers and fries for everyone. Fun!!

4. Get funky with your desserts – I heard somewhere that 2010 was the year of the cupcake. Heaven knows we all saw cupcakes EVERYWHERE. And that worked great to help people get away from traditional wedding cakes. But, cupcakes are still cakes…get funkier if you want! Everybody loves dessert, so you really can’t go wrong with anything you do. My favorite example of this is done with straight up candy.

10 Feb 2011

Glö-nouncements, Real Glö-bies, Real Glö-Weddings

And now…an Introduction (aka Chelsea and Bill’s Organic Celebration of Cross-Pacific Proportions)

Hey Glö-bies! I’m pretty excited for this post – I’d like to introduce you to Chelsea. She’ll be blogging regularly for y’all, and I know you’re going to love her. Not only is Chelsea super fun with exactly the right amount of wacky, but she was also an event planner in her former life – which means we’re all in store for some great tips on how to plan really fun celebrations in sane, thoughtful ways.

Chelsea and I thought that the best way to introduce one Glöbie to another was with a Real-Glöbie Wedding post. So we bring you….

Chelsea and Bill’s Organic Celebration of Cross-Pacific Proportions

Hi everyone! My name is Chelsea and I recently found my way into the delightful world of Glö. I’m excited to join Taryn as a regular blog writer to share some low-key wedding tips/tricks, personal experiences and to hear your fun stories.

To start off, I’d love to share my own wedding story with you. My husband and I got engaged in July of 2008 and we thoroughly enjoyed about two hours’ worth of pure bliss…and then we started announcing the news to our friends and family.

Common conversations included, “Congratulations! When’s the big day?” or “You must be so excited to plan your wedding!” or “What are your colors going to be? Do you have a dress picked out yet?” Can’t a girl enjoy her engagement for more than a few hours without being bombarded by questions about wedding logistics??

The only thing either of us knew about our wedding was that we wanted a very small and casual ceremony, followed by a huge – and once again, casual – party. We had no dates planned, no colors or first-dance songs picked and not much time or desire to figure those details out; We had lives outside of this.

I’m a professional event planner by trade, and still the thought of planning my own wedding weighed so heavy on me. I didn’t want it to be about the details or the dramas. I didn’t want people to chime in on when and where they thought we should have it. I just wanted to have a celebration where all of our good friends and family gathered around to have a really really good time with us.

That seemed next to impossible though because we come from two very strong, very different religious backgrounds where wedding ceremonies are done a certain way. Plus, we both come from huge extended families where everybody comes to everything. How in the world were we supposed to have our drama-free wedding??

Long story short, we decided to elope in New Zealand where we could have the quiet ceremony we wanted. It was so simple and couldn’t have been better. And with that out of the way, we were now able to focus on that huge party we dreamed of.

Three months after getting home from New Zealand, we threw a giant bash at our home to celebrate our marriage. I handmade the invitations and we catered and decorated most of it ourselves, without too much planning on small details. We let our fathers give speeches (but told them they could give speeches the morning before the party so they didn’t overthink them…), threw on a random music playlist and had the time of our lives.

For some brides, the details are everything – and that’s great and it’s what works for them! For others, the feeling is everything. It doesn’t matter what everybody’s wearing or how perfectly plated the food all was – it’s all about having a really really good time.

I’m excited to be part of the Glö team and am especially excited to connect with all of you out there who are looking to have a really really good time.

7 Feb 2011

Real Glö-bies, Real Glö-Vites & Sites, Real Glö-Weddings

Ilene and Victor’s Celebration of Cherished Friends, Family (and Golf)

Look at this amazing wedding! I’ve loved working with Ilene and Victor over the past months – these two planned a wedding while practically on a world-tour. That was enough to tell me how put.to.gether these two are. Let’s get reading!

The Glö-Couple:

Ilene, an angel investor &
Victor

Celebration Date & Location:

November 2010
The Lodge at Ventana Canyon
Tuscon, Arizona USA

Tell us how you got engaged:

Vic first said that if I parred our last hole in a golf tournament we were in, he would ask me to marry him. I did! But the real story was that he realized that sanctifying our relationship with marriage was important to him. He was going to surprise me at his “surprise” birthday party, but he could not wait and asked me to marry him in our kitchen! We planned the wedding in less than four months as we traveled around the globe from California to Tucson to Israel and Piemonte, Italy.

What’s the overall ‘feeling’ you were aiming for with your celebration:

Our cherished friends and family are the center of our lives and were the center of our wedding. The natural beauty of the outdoors set the stage for the ceremony. Dancing and good food set the stage for the celebration. It was elegant!

Did you add any fun twists on tradition:

As an older couple, we chose to have our grandchildren walk down the aisle. They were spectacular!

We not only had a cake dessert, we had a Gelato Cart! (mmmmm)

Now show us your Glövites and Glösite!

What’s a favorite moment or memory from your celebration?

Ilene says that the lovely words she received from their guests after the celebration was one of the best parts. I encouraged her to share some quotes, so here are some of the fabulous things their guests wrote to them:

Thank you so much for this weekend! It was so awesome!! It was great to be part of it, you guys did a superb job with hosting us all and the wedding was so beautiful and moving, planned to the last detail !! Your wedding weekend was such a joyous one, and we are so happy to have been here to share it with you.

The garden and dining room last night was filled with such love. And all the little things went well too: you both look fantastic, all the kids/grandkids get along swimmingly, and the gelato…nice touch!

We just got home and have not stopped talking about how lovely the wedding was. Everything was perfect, especially the bride and groom. The wonderful feelings that were at the wedding and throughout the entire weekend were sheer joy to be a part of this union. We were thrilled to be there. We wish you many wonderful years continuing to share your love.

Any good planning tips and tricks for the couples who are just starting to plan?

I have to confess that I was totally chuffed to find out how helpful Glö was for Ilene and Victor when planning!

I don’t know where to begin – there are so many features on Glö that made our planning seamless. I will use Glösite for all celebrations in the future! In particular, Glosite prevents duplicate RSVP responses, unlike Evite. It allows for multiple activities, such as Rehearsal Dinner, Sunday Brunch, Golf Tournaments, etc in addition to the wedding, to be sent to targeted guests. Extremely important was not only the choice of meals capability but also the ability to put open ended questions such as “Do you have any food allergies?” We were surprised at the severity and number of allergies. Our Chef John was grateful to have this information in advance. Then the ability to learn any glitches in our email addresses or people not receiving the Glövite for any reason gave us confidence that everyone would be included. Most important to us, as our time frame was truncated, is the ability to manipulate the RSVP data responses both on the Glösite and also once exported to Excel. The support at Glösite helps make it the best site. Being a VC, we learn to bet on the jockeys as well as the horses – Glösite has a winning team.

Now that I’m thoroughly blushing…let’s see some of Ilene and Victor’s amazing wedding photos:

Photos by SpencerBoerup Photography

17 Dec 2010

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