Wedding Concierge in New Orleans for The Special Event

Your Las Vegas Wedding Concierge is headed to "The Big Easy", New Orleans, LA, for an exciting week to attend The Special Event Show 2010. I will be out of the office from January 11-17th.

The Special Event Show is THE world's premier conference and tradeshow for event professionals (including weddings of course) and includes the very best in educational, inspiration and networking to get the latest and greatest in the newest and exciting trends across the industry.

It's a great chance to learn and be inspired from "the best of the best" around the country and around the world!

Your Las Vegas Wedding Concierge will once again be attending "The Wedding Luncheon", this year featuring guest speaker Darcy Miller of Martha Stewart Weddings! There will also be incredible inspiration to "oooh & ahhh" over provided by some amazing designers including the lovely Sasha Souza in the "Wedding Gallery".

And what place could be better to throw a conference about throwing a party than a party city like New Orleans?!!! It is nice to see that this great city is getting back on it's feet after such a tough 5 years.

I am so excited as this will be my first time ever in "The Crescent City". I love the music, I love the cuisine and I am sure I am going to love it's spirit too! I was just reading the Experience New Orleans Website and it looks like I am going to have to brush up on all the local Cajun/Creole lingo though! Should be FUN, FUN!

So as they say in "The Big Easy"...."Laissez le Bon temp rouler (Lazay Lay Bon Tom Roulay)"

LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!!

The Wedding Concierge is Headed to Philadelphia-Closed Aug 1-10

Your Las Vegas Wedding Concierge is so excited to finally be headed off to "Experience 2008" Conference for the "National Association of Catering Executives (NACE)" being held in Philadelphia, PA this year!!

I am officially "closed" tomorrow, August 1st and will be returning, all reved up and ready to go again on August 11th!

I will be part of a great delegation from Las Vegas made up of my fellow Las Vegas NACE members and friends. I also can't wait to see many of my friends and fellow wedding planners and NACE members from the east coast!

This year NACE is celebrating it's 50th Anniversary as a professional association and Philadelphia takes us back to the very beginning and very first chapter but the focus of this conference is totally looking to THE FUTURE!

I'll be learning all about new trends in the wedding and event and catering industry from the very best in the business including celebrity wedding and party planner Mindy Weiss, getting new insight on how to have stylish yet sustainable and "green" events and just how to do things better and plan fabulous and memorable events working with all these great professionals who make it happen for YOU!

I hope to take lots of pictures and have a lot to talk about when I get back.

YO NACE, YO PHILLY...Here I come!

February "Gift of the Month" Contest: EXCITING NEWS!

EXCITING "GIFT OF THE MONTH" NEWS!!

Colin Cowie Book Collection now includes...

Signed Copy of the book "Colin Cowie Chic"!

Today is the first day of Catersource/Event Solutions Idea Factory 2008 Tradeshow & Conference right here in Las Vegas which brings together catering and event professionals from all over the USA and the world actually.

I will update you all on all the details later but must bring you the exciting news that Your Las Vegas Wedding Concierge was honored to meet Mr. Colin Cowie himself today at the conference, get a picture AND get a signed copy of his newest book "Colin Cowie Chic: The Guide to Life as it Should be." to include for my wonderful blog readers for the February "Stylish Gift of the Month Contest" featuring 4 Colin Cowie books!!

Colin was the keynote speaker at this conference and tonight he WOWED about 3,000+ people who have seen their fair share of fabulous events with images of some of THE MOST GORGEOUS, OVER THE TOP parties I have ever seen!

I am so excited to announce this very special bonsus and I am sure it it will be a great boost to those of you have not replied to the post, to get on it:) So....

Come and visit my blog and make sure that you tell your friends to sign up for this special contest and...

Have a Stylish Day!!

*Oh, I almost forgot!! Colin's new book, "Colin Cowie, Wedding Chic..." will be out at the end of this year:)!!

Wedding Concierge Talks to Videographers at WEVA Conference!

I had the pleasure and honor to be invited by my friend and fellow NACE member Tim Sudall of Video One Productions in Philadelphia, PA to be part of a panel of wedding industry experts on January 30th for the Wedding & Event Videographer's (WEVA) winter conference here in Las Vegas.

I was on a very illustrious panel including my friends and fellow Las Vegas NACE members, Lisa Lynn Backus, CMP, CPCE Senior Catering Manager at Caesar's Palace , Kathy Baldieri, CPCE, Director of Catering at Lake Las Vegas Resort, Tim Sudall, Alan Berg, VP of Marketing & Advertising for The Knot and Kris Malandruccolo of Elegant Videos by Kris in Chicago, IL!

We had some great questions posed to us by WEVA Chairman, Roy Chapman about how engaged coupoles are now perceiving video in 2008, the value are they placing on it figuratively and literally$$ and what a wedding planner (or catering manager) such as myself also values when they finally give their seal of approval and professional reccomendation to a couple to contact a videographer.

It was a lively debate (which I found out was being audio recorded for the benefit of WEVA worldwide-very cool!). It seemed everyone wanted to question Your Las Vegas Weddng Concierge as a planner and my thoughts on selecting & hiring professional videographers (this goes for all wedding professionals though!!)

I am a #1 fan as long as the work they produce is done with the highest quality and care within the budget and they treat my clients as well as I treat my clients. If the memories of the planning experience and the wedding day are wonderful AND they call you or me asking how to get more copies because they wore out the first DVD, then my friends, "we" did good:)!

I think someone said after one of my answers "I think I love you":) It got a big laugh.

But seriously I am a big supporter of wedding videography!! As a planner, it is in my personal "Top 3" of must have components for your wedding!

Wedding Videography and Cinematography is the only part of your wedding and celebration that truly captures every moment of what you planned for a year for!

Yes, when the floral arrangements have long been composted and the cake has been sitting in the freezer for a year (don't even get me started on that tradition, uggh!! That's a whole other conversation!), you will have your gorgeous photographs and video to remember them by for decades. But, what your photographs can't do is...

• Capture what was said just before that great photo of the two of you laughing during your ceremony or the laughter itself.
• Capture the two of you saying "I love you" and "I will" on your wedding day.
• Let you listen to your grandmother or grandfather tell you how much they love you both.
• Laugh all over again as you listen to the hilarious toasts that had you and your guests laughing so hard you were crying tears of joy. You know, THAT great picture!

So to my wonderful clients and to my wedding cinematographer friends out there, I look forward to helping you create a beautiful wedding celebration and party and I look forward to having you by my side to ensure each moment is captured beautifully and gloriously in time!

Have a Stylish Day!

Imagine Seeing Your Wedding Video on This? WOW!

Get a load of this incredible Panasonic 150" full HD Plasma Television, would you? It is the largest High Defintion plasma display in the world!

I had the chance to see it up close and personal when I snagged a pass to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week.

Now, I know that if any grooms or guys are reading this, your tongues are hanging out too. I honestly think a lot of guys who were there or saw this in the news were thinking how to find a way to pay and renovate their home to fit this in. I can hear it now; "So we just remove the kitchen-we can order in & most of the bedrooms...just need a couple of recliners and big fridge!" Ok, maybe I'm generalizing a bit guys:)! Sorry about that.

But seriously, now just think about how incredible YOUR wedding video could look on a screen like that! WOW!! Every beautiful image, BIGGER THAN LIFE!

I realize most people won't ever be able to personally enjoy something like this, BUT a decent, good quality High Definition Plasma or LCD display is definately within most people's reach these days and in a size like 23-65", they are just made for enjoying your beautiful wedding memories in your home.

To take advantage of this, most professional videographers now offer coverage in High Definition, or "HD" format which truly takes your wedding video to a whole new level with Hollywood style production values and quality that will be something you will want to watch over and over! What truly talented videographers create on film now is absolutely extraordinary from vintage to over the top music video style.

To get just a sense of what I mean, please visit the newly launched site of wedding cinematographer extraordinare, Joshua Smith from Cinematic Bride. Joshua's work literally takes my breath away; it is absolutely gorgeous in every sense of the word. His full on "HD Theatre" gallery is "Coming Soon", but until then you can enjoy the movies in the "Theatre". I promise, you will be amazed & inspired.

Your wedding video is such an important part of your wedding budget!! It truly is the one element of your wedding that captures ALL of the imagery, sounds & emotion of your wedding celebration as a "living, breathing" document for yourselves, your parents, grandparents and your own future generations.

If you haven't hired your wedding videographer yet, what are you waiting for?!! You can find many talented, creative and professional videographers who can tell you all about HD Wedding Video and anything and everything else you need to know about getting the very best videography for your style and budget. Check out the websites of the Wedding & Event Videographer's Association (WEVA) and The 4Ever Group which are the leading international associations for professional wedding and event videographers.

So now depending on who is reading this, you have the perfect sales tool to convince your fiance on why you should buy that big screen HD TV (sports & weddings). You can tell them it was Your Las Vegas Wedding Concierge's brilliant idea. I'm happy to help:)

Don't forget to stop at the TV store on your way back home from booking your wedding videographer and be prepared to sit back and enjoy YOUR show!

Have a Stylish Day!!

The Very Overdue Diary Post

Tracey & Hubby Mike using USnaps

My favorite new cool reception idea from the WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International) convention is....USnaps!

It's a digital photo booth that you can place in front of any background and let the fun begin! Guests snap and snap away their own pictures and take a USnaps card with a special event name, like "Bobby&DebbieVegasWedding". All the images are posted on USnaps website and ready for viewing in...are you ready?...24 hours!!

The photo booth gets delivered and picked up by USnaps to your event location and you can take more than 1000 pictures. Check out all your pictures online the very next day and relive all the fun and download the images for free!

No more shlepping disposable cameras on the plane, worrying about if people are actually taking pictures with those cameras (why did you spend the money if people didn't even use them), losing cameras at end of the night and then the hassle of developing and making copies of pictures. I think the disposable camera people should be very afraid!

The USnaps Deluxe Package including unlimited free downloads of images, the rental of the booth and high res images on a DVD for you is $1,500.00. USnaps is in selected states now but they plan to go national.

Even the celebrities love USnaps-Check out this link to a video clip on Access Hollywood from the ShowWest show featuring the USnaps booth. http://video.accesshollywood.com/player/?id=82421. Quentin Tarantino & Robert Rodriguez (Grindhouse, Pulp Fiction, Desperado) were digging it and that is soooo cool. I love those guys!

There are some very cool new ideas for photo save the dates and thank you cards with gorgeous high gloss or luxe linen quality that look they were purchased in a high end greeting card store. I may even use these myself for my own business. Accordian style, CD size, the ideas are endless.

Its always fun to go to these tradeshows and conventions that come to Las Vegas and see what other industries that are wedding related (like photography, video, gift shows, etc.) are looking at as the next trends and how it will take weddings in a whole new direction forward. Its one of the exciting and interesting and best parts of being a wedding planner.

Its good to be back. Have a Stylish Day!