Christmas Proposal Plans

Christmas: the time of shopping, cold weather and delicious food.... and engagements. When would there be a better time to ask your loved one to marry you than the holidays? With the engagement boom right around the corner, it can only lead me to believe that there are some fellas out there brainstorming their strategy to pop the question.

Check out these ideas from Santa on North Pole:

Make the Ring the Ornament
A cute way to propose at Christmas is to hang the ring on the Christmas tree – like an ornament! Have the ring be the ONLY ornament on the tree when she walks in…or, hang the ring box with ribbon on the tree and point out the “interesting” new ornament. She won’t know what to think!

Visit Santa Claus
No, seriously. Go to the mall and visit Santa Claus. This could be the making of the perfect Christmas engagement! Tell her you know what she wants for Christmas…then BOOM. Drop down on one knee in front of everyone. She will have to say that Santa knew what she wanted! (Cheesy, but true!)

The Magic of Mistletoe
Everyone knows that the Christmas tradition is to kiss under the mistletoe…so why not take it a step further? Give her a quick smooch then pop the question right there – propose under the Christmas mistletoe! It is a romantic, personal, and intimate way to share the moment together.

The Bottom of the Stocking
This Christmas engagement proposal idea is pretty easy to figure out. Hide the ring box at the very bottom of her Christmas stocking. When she goes through all the candy and little things along the way, the best present yet will be waiting at the bottom – an engagement ring!

Do you have a favorite holiday proposal?

Floor Plan Checklist

It is crucial to develop a floor plan for your event. Leaving the layout to chance can inhibit the true potential of your event. There are some key points to remember before checking this task off your list:

Sample Cotillion Floor Plan

1. Seat yourself or the guest of honor first. As the main focal point of the event, you want to make sure that the bride & groom or guest of honor are comfortably seated. 
2. Allow for extra space around the head or main tables. Guests will want to visit and congratulate the happy couple or guest of honor.
3. Wait lines always take up more room that you can imagine. Make room for guests to wait to order their next drink, grab their coat from coat check, or patiently wait for the next available restroom. 
4. Bathrooms: as a rule of thumb, I would seat people as far away from the bathrooms as possible. You don't want any guests to take it personal.
5. Vendors that provide photo booths and DJ's take up quite a bit of space. Double check with your contact how much space they will need and if they will be bringing their own table or need to use one of the venue's.
6. Leave room for traffic flow. As your guests enjoy the evening, they will need a path to walk from their seat to the dance floor, bar, food, etc. Provide a little extra room between tables to provide a path. This will greatly help control the flow of the events as your guests will recognize your path as the one with least resistance. 

At The Cotillion, I help each guest personalize their floor plan two weeks before the event so they are aware of how many guests they need to accommodate. Arranging a floor plan should be done once most of the RSVP's have been received.

Client Review of Plush Productions

I just received this very kind review from Ali & Sean Brown. Being apart of their special day was a treat!

Dear Britney,

Thank you so much for providing such wonderful service for our wedding day. Your expertise made our day run smoothly and effortlessly. Hiring you for our day-coordinator turned out to be so much more than we could have expected. You took the stress of our rehearsal off our hands and left us no worries for our big day. Not having to worry about working with vendors as they arrived allow us to spend more time with our families and friends. Your hard work exceeded our expectations and I would recommend you to any bride looking for coordination help whether it's the whole wedding or just for the day.

~Ali

Brown Wedding & Reception 9.18.10

Everything about this wedding was amazing: the couple, the venue, and all of the unique touches throughout! Check out the photos of a wedding that I coordinated this September. All photography is provided by Shades of Gray. Both the wedding and reception were held at the new 909 Walnut Event Space. To view more amazing photos of this wedding, please visit the Plush Productions Website.

 

Customize Your Coat Check Tags

As I glanced outside this morning, I found light flurries floating around the sky. Time always slips away through the summer and it is now time to bundle up for winter weather.

As you prepare for your winter event, make sure that you have a system set in place for your guest's coats. Failing to do so will result in coats falling off chairs and tables only to be tripped and stepped on. Hiring a coat check attendant is well worth the expense as your guests will not have to keep track of their winter-wear throughout the evening. If the venue does not already have a procedure for coat storage put in place, make sure that you discuss your options with them prior to the evening of the event.

You can also look at this as an opportunity to provide your guests with a favor from your event. An online company, Pilgrim Plastics allows you to customize your coat check tags. You may choose to use the monogram or color scheme from your special event with a quirky quote or message from you at the bottom. The design opportunities are endless. Once you have finalized the design, Pilgrim Plastics will print two cards for each number, allowing the coat attendant to put one tag on the coat and provide your guest with the second card. Each card has a hole punch at the top, so your guest can easily put it on their key ring to find it later. As your guest is leaving, they show the attendant their number to retrieve their coat and then take their card as a memento.

This is not only a unique way to incorporate your theme throughout the evening, it is also very inexpensive. Pilgrim Plastics offers pricing by the 100's and decreases the flat rate as you order more. To begin designing your coat tag visit Pilgrim Plastics website today.

Marriage Probability Statistics

Statistics are always funny to ponder. Check out the latest marriage probability statistics provided by MSN.com. Do you agree? Disagree?

1. If you live in the U.S., your chances of getting married before reaching age 40 are 86 percent if you're a woman, 81 percent if you're a man.

2. If you have a high IQ, you're 29 percent more likely to get married than a person with a low IQ.

3. There's a 75 percent chance that you'll remarry if you've divorced.

4. If you live in Nebraska, you're 30 percent more likely to get married than if you live in Washington, D.C.

5. If you're a woman who was not overweight as an adolescent, you're 20 percent more likely to get married than a woman who was overweight as an adolescent.

6. Women who lived with both biological or adoptive parents at age 14 are 12 percent more likely to marry than those who didn't.

7. If you're a born-again Christian, you're 19 percent more likely to get married than an atheist is.

8. If you're a college graduate, you're nine to 14 percent more likely to get married than someone who never finished high school.

9. If you're living with a lover for the first time, there's a 65 percent chance that you'll be married within five years.

10. A "conscientious" man is at least 50 percent more likely to get married than a man who isn't conscientious.

11. A single woman serving in the U.S. military is more than 200 percent more likely to get married than single civilian women are.

Announcing a Royal Wedding

Prince William and Fiance Kate Middleton. Photo by www.et.com

This just in! Prince William has asked Kate Middleton to marry him after dating for several years. William got down on one knee in October in front of friends while vacationing in Kenya. As every woman dreams of her prince, Kate's wish came true with one of the most prized possessions in Prince William's family, Princess Diana's wedding ring. How could this dashing bride keep from leaking this secret for almost a month! 

The question now is if the wedding is going to be a public event for all eyes to view. Designer names will surely be mentioned, but to be a guest at a royal wedding has to be an event everyone is dying to be apart of. Let the details unfold within the next year! Congratulations you two!

Perfect Color Selections- Drop Your Crayons!

You no longer have to grab your crayons or paint swatches to select the perfect color combination. I have found the ultimate tool for selecting the colors for your special event!

Every event should have a minimum of three colors. You start with your primary color; the one you want to be prominent throughout the print material, decor, and accent to fashion. For example, pink is seen as the primary accent for many weddings. The Color Scheme Designer allows you to mark a starting point and then determine if you would like to select only a compliment, a triad, or tetrad (four colors). The color wheel has markers that you can rotate around to the color of your choice. What an easy way to select colors per season: Fall, Summer, Spring, & Winter!

Not only will this tool help you generate a proper color scheme for your event, its also FUN to play around with! Check out some creative swatches that I came up with for each season!

Spring

Summer

Fall

Winter

Visit www.colorschemedesigner.com to build your own palate

The Cotillion: Kansas City's Newest Event Space

I am currently the General Manage of a brand new event space in the Kansas City area, The Cotillion. From the first day of business in June 2010, I have hosted 22 events ranging from birthday parties, wedding receptions and charity events. The space was intelligently designed to be contemporary while also elegant and easily suitable for each client's taste. After 22 events I have seen just about every color combination, and every one of them looked amazing.

To learn more information about The Cotillion please visit the Official Website! Check out some photos of the space below. I will update you with photos from events that we have had in the past as well as those that are in the future. Enjoy!