Hi All. Well we had our first rain plan for the season. I think Ken and Angela had every gardener and farmer on the East coast rooting against them with this rain storm coming. It did clear enough so that guests did not get wet going into the buildings. We so wish it would have cleared just an hour earlier so we could have given them the pool that they wanted. Angela is the last of her sisters to get married and it must now be tradition as it rained on each of their wedding days as well. The guests loved everything and marveled at how beautiful everything was.

Hi everyone. First lest me say that I am sorry I have been remiss the past two weeks about posting. I got some much needed time away after the weddings on the 26 and 27th and I never got the chance to post pictures from Corey and Shawn or Maryann and Chad which is a shame as they were both gorgeous brides with some gorgeous touches. Maybe if the ladies send me some pics I can post late.

Last night - after the 2:00 pop up storm - we hosted the wedding of Emily and Phil. I want to show you even more then what I am posting now and I am waiting for Jim Grahamwho was the photographer last night, to send me some of his shots - you have to see the way these two had the Gallery lit - amazing! I always love the work that the Eventions team does.

Let me tell you what I do have though in the meantime. After the storm we had some much needed cool breezes for our ceremony and cocktail hour outside by the pool. Emily (And Phil?) thought of some great little touches - love the card holder. I was able to carry it around securely for them throughout the cocktail hour!

Loved these programs - remember 1 per couple is more then enough

Cute card holder

Pond Water - no refreshing cucumber water for guests

Sweet Peas simplicity

Beautiful Blue

Nervous Dad

Picture Perfect

Dinner and dancing were held in the Gallery. As always Meg from Sweet Peas of Jennersville did a great job and the music from Tom Barrett was fun and fit the couple great. Newest thing I have now seen - Phil actaully rented 2 identical tuxes and changed completely once he came in from outside. Now there is a guy who knows how he reacts to the heat!

Cake by Liz Marden

PS - Emily if you are reading this in Aruba Phil wanted me to tell you to turn off the computer and go be with your husband!

More pics from Jim Graham - thanks Jim -these are great!

2 Responses to “After the storm”

• nbailey (July 21st, 2010):
  
  

  Thank you Barb - we had a great time planning with Emily and Phil certainly held his own and wanted his own details as well!

• Barb Myers (July 18th, 2010):
  
  

  As mother of the bride I have to say this wedding took my breath away and was without a hitch from begining to end.

  Nicole did a great job taking care of nervous dad.

  Everyone enjoyed it very much.

Saturday evening was the 3rd night of festivities for Sue Ann and Mike and their lucky guests. Sue Ann and Mike had a lot of guests from all over the world and they really wanted to show that they really appreciated everyone taking the time to come into town and celebrate with them. Thursday night kicked off with a small intimate dinner for guests and family. Friday night after the rehearsal the whole gang went to the country club for a BBQ and pool party. The guests stayed at various hotels - including blocking every room at the Inn at Montchanin; where they held brunch on Sunday for guests. Rumor has it that some of the guests then headed down to Dewey Beach on Sunday evening!

Kimberly from Liberty Lane worked on Sue Ann’s cake with her

Linens were a mix of sangria and ivory vine from Total Table

The ceremony was at the reflecting pool and their rain plan was under a tent on the VC patio due to their size

Flowers by Yukie did the beautiful peonies on the tables. We also had the pleasure of working with the team from Proud to Plan - Lisa and Danielle specifically. It was so great to have an extra set of hands and another person helping me to greet guests and get the ceremony off without a hitch. I don’t think I could have done it without them. They do the best thing for cards - it is 4 picture frames together that cards may go into -

2 more weddings this weekend - stations in the gallery on Saturday and seated dinner in the VC on Sunday. Look for more posts then!

Tonight was the first time we have had held our cocktail party wedding and it was so cool - actually I think this is the best way to go but we all know I can’t sit down!

I met Heather and her mom about a year ago and they are so relaxed and down to earth. Once I met them I knew that this was going to suit them and when I met Brent I was even more convinced. Of course I worried about everything for the entire night being held at the pool but the weather is great - 84 degrees - little warm but nothing a glass of water or wine wont cure and as the sun drops and the wind blows this is just so nice to be out here. Of course even a few days before the longest day of the year lighting at the pool is still a concern which was handled through DJ Steve Croce as well as numerous candles and more lighting that was brought in.

Steve Croce sets up and plays loud music that probably scared our curatorial staff from the walls rocking!

Take a look at some of the pics I got but I am of course hoping Mike and Jana from Mike Kehr Photo will send me some of their shots - I already told Heather there were some shots of her that I wanted to get on the website

Mike and Jana at work

Processing down the aisle

Garden Party Ready!

Relaxed - whew!

Liz Marden Cake - how cute

For everyone that has yet to make it to a tasting I have the next 3 dates available for you:

Tuesday, August 10, 2010 - 5:30pm

Thursday, September 9, 2010 - 6:00pm

Friday, October 15, 2010 - 4:00pm

Please let me know if you would like to sign up for one of the timeslots. These are not showcases. They are intimate group tastings so we ask that everyone be prompt.

Thank you!

Hey everyone. I want to get these great pics out to you so you can see the cool things we had on Friday night here. Everyone had a tremendous time and I can not thank my staff and the great groups of professional vendors that I am so privileged to work with including Dave from CinemaCake, Kendall from Eclatante, Maya from Beautiful Blooms, Steve Croce - Dj extraordinaire, Meredith from Winterthur Floral Department, Eventions Lighting, Jim Graham - amazing photographer (please see some of his handy work below) and so fun to work with, my colleagues at Longwood Gardens - Michelle and Sara, our amazing bakers - Liberty Lane Bake Shoppe and Liz Marden Gourmet Cakes and Desserts, and we got some more decor help from Special Occasions and my favorite person Claudia and Party Rental supplied the look once eclatante and blooms did the design for these 3 tables.

Beautiful Blooms flowers, Eclatante Design

Special Occasions Linens, Winterthur Florals

Special Occasion Linens, Asian Lanterns Hung, Winterthur Florals

Winterthur Rolls Royce

Gazpacho Soup Shooter

Thai Shrimp Salad Cones

Eclatane Design, Beautiful Bloms Flowers - love this as a modern take on a head table

Beautiful Blooms

Winterthur Floral Department - so whimsical

Pecan Chicken with Tamarind Shrimp

Filet and CrabCake

Portabello crusted Chicken with Seared Scallops

Eventions - Draping in the VC

Previewing the salads

Hi all! What a weekend - our tasting showcase on Friday, wedding on Saturday, and we hosted the annual graham partners event on Sunday and all day Monday - whew! Saturdays wedding was delightful! I have had so much fun with these two families. Tim and Sarah are really the first of their group of friends to get married and everyone was just so excited to be a part of it.

The weather held - it was hot and sticky but we had pre-ceremony beverages for the bridal party while they were taking pictures and the guests enjoyed themselves though they were all happy to get back to the VC in the air conditioning!

Meredith and the team from Winterthur Florals id the centerpieces. I think the pop of color on the napkin is a nice touch as well.  Joel Plotkin was the photographer and he did a great job as always - though he needed help for this one as he has a broken arm right now!

Cake - Liberty Lane Bake Shoppe

Seating Chart - framed

Candy Table as a Favor

Flip Flops set up in the restrooms for guests

More flip flops

Winthur Floral Department

Visitor Center - ready to party!

Good evening everyone! We just had the best weekend - 3 weddings, 3 gorgeous couples, and 3 great ceremonies with no rain plans in site - whew!

Friday evening started the weekend with Leah and Raleigh. This cute couple dated all through high school and college and they look like they were literally made for each other. Yukie did her flowers and Leah was stunning in an ivory lace dress with a 40’s inspired hairstyle - she looked so coordinated with the estate. They started with ceremony and cocktail hour at the reflecting pool and then moved back to dinner and dancing at the Visitor Center

At the pool - getting married!

ready for guests

Cake by Liz Marden - brandy almond buttercream

Slide Show on, placecards in wheat grass

Lined up, but watching the slide show!

Saturday night had a very vivacious crowd attending. We started with the ceremony at the pool and then Kristin and Mike snuck some alone time in for pictures and the guests hopped on the shuttles and came back to the patio for cocktail hour. Their evening continued as they danced and had a ton of fun in the Visitor Center. I loved what Theresa Florals did with the centerpieces - 3 different table arrangements, and eventions lit the room wonderfully. I got to work with Kristin from all about events planning - she is so laid back and relaxed - a great person to work with!

Liberty Lane cake

Theresa Florals - different floral arrangements

Another floral arrangement - my favorite

Placecard table

Eventions lighting - the perfect finishing touch

Tonight wraps up a busy weekend - I actually just met the bride and the groom for the first time yesterday when we did the rehearsal! I actually worked with the mother of the bride and w planned the whole thing with her in California!! Ceremony on the patio, Steve Croce is playing the music (so I am totally relaxed cause I am working with the best tonight!), and the Winterthur Floral team did the flowers on this wedding. I love this cake that Kimberly designed - I think it might be my favorite (or maybe I am too biased as I know it is the sunshine cake!).

Ceremony on the patio

Winterthur Florals does the arbor

Liberty Lane Cake - this may be my favorite one I have seen in a long time!

Winterthur Florals

A lot of hard work went into making this weekend so successful including my bridal attendants Lauren and Jessica and my great team in the kitchen and running the events including Josh and Adip. I can not do all of this without these great people and they are the same ones that are going to be taking care of your weddings if you are lucky enough to be getting married here.

Hopefully you are finding the pictures inspiring. I look forward to bringing you more next weekend. Have a great night everyone!

One Response to “May Triple Play”

• Steve Croce (May 24th, 2010):
  
  

  Hi Nicole! It’s ALWAYS a pleasure to provide entertainment at Winterthur. You guys are really the best. By the way, dinner was OUTSTANDING! I’ll see you again on June 18th! Here’s that photo I promised you: http://bit.ly/99J9mc

Friday the 14th we worked with the grooms family for a change of pace with a great rehearsal dinner. 70 people in the Gallery with 3 food stations and some light stationary hors d’oeuvres. White Stripe linens from Special Occasions gave just the right amount of pop. I do hope we did not outshine the wedding the next day!

White Stripe Linens for the Rehearsal DinnerStationary display for the rehearsal

Saturday the 15thwas GORGEOUS - I mean that was a typical May day - the reason so many people choose this month to get married! We did something different - which of course I always love - and the mother of the bride had the idea to have the ceremony on the East Side of the Gallery. Now we have done that before but not where we had it. MOB asked us to place it in a different area and I thought it came out really well.

You know how we LOVE to change desks into bars!The Bride makes her entranceMe shooting Jim Graham shooting

Flowers by Yukie did the sweet and simple flowers - I love the height the orchids give to the Gallery!

Mary Jane finishing placecards

Different cake idea

We are in full wedding gear right now with 3 this weekend. You may have noticed my email and phone responses have slowed down a bit - I will get caught back up after this weekend!

What a great night tonight. Sometimes I think the couples vibe just makes the night. Lindsay and Andrew are pretty laid back and relaxed, they are just so happy to be around each other and they have such a warm loving vibe when they are together, people can not help but to look and to smile. I have had a lot of fun as both Lindsay, Andrew, and both moms were very involved and oh so helpful.  And some sweeping azaleas in the background aren’t bad either!

Aptly named - look at that reflection!

Bridal attendant Jessica fluffing the trane

Making her grand entrance

Donna and the gang from Beautiful Blooms did the decor. Gorgeous orchid shimmer cloths were the backdrop for the mercury glass arrangements that varied from table to table. And let’s not forget the setting for the wedding with this great addition to the arch at the reflecting pool - I love the layers of crystals cascading from the top

Table arrangements

2nd Table Arrangement

Lovely cherry blossoms with more crystals on the placecard/frame table

Kimberly from Liberty Lane Bake Shop did the cake this evening and I think it is so pretty with the sweet floral touches supplied by Beautiful Blooms.

One of my favorite people - Steve Croce - is our DJ and master of ceremonies this evening. Steve is so great to work with, he just helps us make the night smooth and makes us look good. Gotta love that!

Winterthur Guest Book and Chocolate Truffle Favors - yum!

We are working with a new photography team tonight - Tony Baida and his son Sal. Really nice guys. I am hoping to catch a glimpse of some of his photos at some point this evening.

Cocktail hour on the VC patio

The past two weeks I have been so lucky to work with the great vendors on our list. I can not stress to all of you how much easier this makes my job pre-ceremony and how much more time I can spend on the bridal party and double and triple checking things for your wedding when I am not chasing new vendors throughout the 1000 acre estate!

More events next weekend and a big 3 in a row the weekend after - whew. Lets hope the weather continues to hold as it did today on this beautiful evening!

2 Responses to “Beautiful Night, Beautiful Couple”

• nbailey (May 8th, 2010):
  
  

  Donna, we are so excited that you are going to be a part of our showcase on the 4th - thank you!!

• Donna O'Brien (May 8th, 2010):
  
  

  Nicole,

  As always it is a pleasure and honor to work at Winterthur and with Restaurant Associates. We’ll be back very soon and I can’t wait for the whole Beautiful Blooms to create more magic there. Looking forward to getting some of our photos and Tony’s photos up on our blog too!
  Donna

Good evening everyone! Our first May wedding was this past weekend and it was GORGEOUS! The azaleas are in bloom early and making quite the display. It was warm but I will take heat over rain any day as I think most of you know. You have to see the pool pics that I got - wow!

Guests arriving at the pool

Greeting Guests - Great Ushers!

Setting up cocktail hour

Perfect Ceremony Backdrop

Steve actaully worked with me at a previous job and I had multiple chefs in the room as guests on this one. No pressure on Jason the night before Point to Point and wanting to make sure that Jessica and Steve were really well taken care of and everybody was well fed.

Jessica and Steve picked stations - we had Italian, Mexican and they upgraded and added a sushi station on an ice carving. Guests started to eat as they came into the VC from the pool and the DJ - Dave from Signature DJ’s who is great - was getting guests on the floor dancing. this worked out great - no real lines, plenty of dance time, and plenty of time to eat as much as guests wanted. Yukie did a great job on the cottage looking flowers - but she is always great.

I hope to have some more great picks from Joel Plotkin to add to the few I did - sorry - I have to get back into the blog  grrove - I did not do a good job of getting lots of pics!

Our next catering tasting is Friday, June 4, 2010 at 6:30pm at the Visitor Center. Want to get some great ideas, meet your cake vendors and taste your wedding options - this is the night to do that.

More info to come - we are lining up all of our vendors now!!

Flowers are out - weather is getting warmer - just how I like it - and we are getting ready for the May wedding season which is very full this year!

Reminder that our next catering showcase is Friday, June 4, 2010. Bring yourself or your friends or your parents or whomever! Bride and Groom are complimentary - $50.00pp after that. I am lining up vendors now. Can’t wait to see you all soon!

We kicked off our 2010 wedding season this evening with the ceremony and reception for Josh and Michelle. What a beautiful night - cool and crisp but sunny until 7:00pm - great for photos!

Ceremony was out on the patio under a tent and cocktail hour followed outside, sorta. The heaters in the tent were shut off to accommodate the cantor who had a sore throat - you could not hear her with the heaters on. Guests bolted inside after the ceremony and cocktail hour was impromptu outside and inside.

Josh and the cantor sneak a peakLaughs and tears under the huppah

Michelle had this cute cake topper made - on top of carrot cake with white chocolate buttercream from Liz Marden - yum! I love how this topper shows off their style.

Check out the look a like cake topper

Tonight is the first of 40 plus. I have a break for a week or so and then I will be posting so much you won’t be able to keep up reading. Looking forward to 2010 and working with So many of you!

Sunlight streams in as guests are seated for the ceremony

Good morning everyone - I am so sorry that I have not been posting more often. And here it is another snowy day at Winterthur - but look how beautiful!

I have been just as busy as ever - not what I was expecting during a close. Josh and I just finished getting everything ready on paper for Easter Brunch, we are opening a new cafe in the store (10 more days - yikes!) , there are renovations in our kitchen, Jason and I are hard at work on various menus, and Mary Jane and I have been trying to keep everything organized here in the offices.

Winterthur re-opens on Tuesday, March 9, jst in time as the witchhazels are coming out in bloom and the crocus behind the museum are starting to pain a light carpet of purple.

New catering packages are on their way and we are really excited by the amount of people we are meeting and booking for the remainder of 2010 and 2011 is getting packed already in a few months (can you say May is 90% booked already!).  Hope all is well with all of you out there. Attached are some pictures for you to see what we have been doing!

beind the scenes

replacing the walk-in fridges

Snow covered estate

Snow covered patio at the Visitor Center

Good afternoon everyone and Happy New Year!

First let me say I am sorry I have not posted more recently - with the holidays and events, the time has gotten away from me. I thought I would update you on what is new with Restaurant Associates and Winterthur…

This is the busiest time of year for us with new inquiries and selling new weddings. We just booked 5 new weddings in 2 days! Some for what we have left in 2010, some for 2011. Calls come in and I am busy trying to have people out to see this great estate and take tours with me and answer questions. I have met some great new people and I am really excited to be working with them for their weddings!

I updated and added a few more people to our preferred vendor listing and that was just updated and placed on the web for any of you in need of more suggestions.

Jason and I are combing through the menu packages and offerings. It is that time of year where we adjust for the next year and change pricing and food options and so on. If you are thinking of booking and have not yet - hurry and get signed with the current pricing as I know there will be some type of increase with the new packages.

Looking ahead to Spring - Save the Date - Friday June 4 is the next group tasting if you were not able to make the 1st one or just want to see some more great ideas. I have just started to work on this one so I don’t have too much to share…yet, but I will keep you posted.

The museum will be closing to the public February 1 - March8. I will be working but I will be the only one here. I can set whatever hours work with your schedules so I am lining up all of the upcoming brides (and grooms) that I can to meet and do final details, pick linens, choose cakes, and work everything out for your weddings. If you are getting married in May or June and have not met with me yet or don’t have a meeting scheduled - now is the time to get in touch with me and lets get you in here. July and August couples - feel free to contact me as well!

I am sending out the schedule and placcing Jessica x 2 and Zanthea, our amazing bridal attendants, on weddings in the next few weeks. I am also working with one of my favorite employees, Josh, whom a lot of you  met at the tasting. He is taking on an expanded role assisting me and you will be seeing him more in the months to come.

I am done talking about what I am going to get done and getting back to work. Please contact me if there is anything that I may do for any of you.

Hi Everyone. We are in the middle of the holiday blow out season right now but I want to take a quick moment and let you know a few things.

Rachel has taken another job with Restaurant Associates at an account in Baltimore. She left on the Sunday after thanksgiving so I am still trying to get my legs underneath me. I am a bit behind responding to emails but I see them and I will get to them, I promise!

I also just got a note from my great buddy at Eclatante - Kendall. She just got the December Color Story on her blog and there are some more (and the last) great shots of Winterthur and the conservatory - a new space. Pics by Marie Labbancz and flowers by
Beautiful Blooms. Take a look at the blog.

Remember - if your wedding date is in May or June you should have a meeting scheduled with me to go through all of your planning and notes. The sooner the better as I am going to contact the rest of the Summer 2010 brides in a week or so. Have a great evening and I will post again soon!

What a great mission and what a great team that puts this event on. The committee is so focused and there is a wonderful group of woman who work so hard on this event all year long. It is my absolute pleasure to work with them on an event that is so meaningful every year.

This year the committee wanted to mix it up - we had previously had a seated dinner in the Visitor Center. This year we turned it completely around and had stations and hors d’oeuvres in the Gallery with an extended tent. Theme - Moroccan Nights. Check out some of these great ideas and pictures…

Look at the cool cushions the Shine committee made

Seating for 80 under the tent

OOOhhh - Seafood Station - Shrimp Towers!

Quite getaway on the Gallery Steps

Custom Menu - Exotic Food Station

Custom Menu - Comfort Food Station