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

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!

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!

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!

Hi everyone
Check out Kendall’s blog for the great October Color Story and some more photos from our photo shoot:
http://www.eclatantedesign.com/blog

A week ago on a nice quiet closed Monday here at Winterthur we had a great photo shoot with Marie Labbancz. She is a very talented photogrpher that has shot on the estate a couple of times. These are all dress shots - I LOVE the short one by the way. Check out her blog to see all the cool shots.

http://www.artoflove.com/blog

Hi Everyone - we have just decided to try something different this coming year and everyone I have chatted with is so excited for this cool opportunity for all of our pending brides -

On NOVEMBER 24, 6:00PM - 9:00PM  - You are invited to our first ever Tasting Showcase!!

The nitty gritty - Per your catering packages you still get the same amount of people that come. We will do these every 6 months so please plan accordingly (next one to be in June!). Want to bring your friends and family? Register with us for a small per person charge. If you are getting married and want to come to more then one of these - please do - again, a fee will apply after your first one, but it will be a great way to network.

What will you get to see and do? - when you step into the VC we will have a photo show on the screens, a great cocktail hour band and a mocktail bar for you. We will be passing tons of hors d’ oeuvres for you to try.

You will then be graciously moved into the VC where you will see flowers, lighting, tablecloths, and of course - Food!! We will offer both stations and served options. Our bakers will be on hand to greet you and tempt you with their wares. I will be there with my whole team - Chef Jason, Rachel, Mary Jane and our great bridal attendants - Jessica, Jessica, and Zanthea.

We are inviting some past brides and parents so that may chat with you and share ideas and offer suggestions on everything you might be wondering about.

The fluff - We are so excited to make this change and by not doing the individual tastings any longer, be able to offer you more food, and direct access to approved vendors and a room full done up - a complete design inspiration for you. Our hope with this date is total convenience for you and your family since it just 2 days before Thanksgiving and we know that so many of you are already traveling into the area.

We will still need to schedule time for each bride to sit one on one with me and map out all of the details for your event. Each meeting will take approximately 1 hour and we can schedule those from here on out.

Please email me with your acceptance!!

I just got word this morning that Joel Plotkin has more great pictures from Brian and Beth’s wedding here on Saturday up on his blog

http://www.plotkinphotography.com/blog/

And Kendall - whom we had such a great time working with on the large tented wedding here at Winterthur just got the first part of the wedding up on her blog with some pictures that I know you will all love to see

http://www.eclatantedesign.com/blog/

And I also just got the latest issue of Delaware Bride - the only wedding magazine dedicated to Delaware and guess where they shot their latest pictorial - check out the website and click on the featured article “Enchanting” (after enchanted woods) Let me know if you like any of the shots and I can tell you where those are for your pictures

http://www.delawaretoday.com/Delaware-Today/Delaware-Bride/

Are we in Boston or Winterthur Delaware? Jeffrey and Kathleen whose families both hail from this area are now residents of Boston and wanted to share some of their favorite places with their guests. No worries - tonight we did not have a choice of entree so staff could easily navigate around Faneuil Hall and the Red Sox!!

We had a gorgeous ceremony and cocktail hour in the Gallery this evening and then guests came back to a beautifully lit Visitor Center courtesy of the groom and his co-workers who do this for a living! The groom surprised the bride by serenading her and their guests before the first course came out.

Great new photo booth.. Pleasant person to work with. This one is open - so you and your 37 closest friends don’t have to crowd in!! Let me know if you are interested in the contact information.

Ceremony in the gallery

Hey guys! I just sent off brand new PDF’s for our catering packages with a ton of cool new upgrades that are available to everyone. Hopefully the pdf files will be live first thing next week but just to give you and idea and not keep you waiting in suspense

One of our neighboring golf courses is now allowing our brides and grooms the opportunity to play, during the week, for up to 3 foursomes!

We have the snazzy flat screens in the lobby. We can start you off by welcoming your guests with the bride and grooms names in light or go all the way to a slide-show of various pictures.

I think so many of you know and love the Asian Lanterns but we realized it is not actually listed anywhere.

We have the estate Silver Cloud Rolls Royce that we can now have at your cocktail hour or ceremony for picture opportunities - or just for the dads to drool over.

Jason came up with a fun idea - a milk and cookie bar for you and your guests after dinner - usually the last half hour or hour of your wedding. Shot glasses of different milk and fresh baked warm cookies. What a way to end the night!

There is just nothing more hospitable then greeting your guests with a beverage as they enter your ceremony site. Whether it be hot spiced cider on a crisp evening in October or a Watermelon Martini on a warm night in August - adding this little something extra really tells guests you are thinking about them and their comfort.

What about your comfort? Taking pictures in enchanted woods? What if you or the bridal party want something to drink? We now offer both non-alcoholic and beer and wine packages for the bridal party during photos.

Questions about these- let me know as they are available now!!

Have a great weekend everyone - we have the weekend off so I will be back next week with 2 fantastic and fun weddings to share with you.

Evening everyone - as the weekend draws to a close I hope all of you were able to be outside and enjoy this great weather this past weekend!! I had to walk today - Winterthur is just so gorgeous in July - it really is one of my favorite times out of the year here.

We had a great weekend - Weddings on Friday and Sunday. Friday night was great - Nicole and Andrew are so carefree and cute together. Nicole may be one of the most beautiful and memorable brides - she wore a tea length wedding dress and looked perfect!! We did try to beat the rain on Friday but just as she started down the aisle it started to rain so they laughed and ran inside and were married straight away.

Tonight we have Jennifer and Angelo - and he grew up in Italy. It is great getting to see the Italian culture and the group is so warm and friendly. Their colors are from his favorite soccer team! We also brought in a barista tonight which is so cool.

Flowers by Yukie poppin pink

Love this - Photo Guest Book - ask your photographer

2 more next week - see you then!

Just got this link from one of my favorite people to work with - Steve Croce. Steve takes great pics of all of the weddings he works (he also does some lighting by the way) and he sent me this link from Amanda and Andrew a few weeks back. Take a look and let me know your thoughts!

www.silversound.com/svc/amandaandandrew

Hey there! Hope all is well with everyone and you are all getting some time to enjoy the last few days of Spring and the anticipation of summer!

We had a wonderful wedding with a wonderful couple the other night. Clear skies - 78 degrees - amazing weather here at Winterthur! Michael and Erin were so excited and so happy that day. Surrounded by their big, loving families and friends it was a great evening and Rachel and I really loved working with this couple - they had such a great warmth to them.

Erin and Michael got a photo booth as their favor - love this. One of my friends got married and I was in the photobooth like 5 times with different groups of friends - old college roommates, work friends, my boyfriend  - you get the idea. This photo booth group brought a box of props - how much fun is that. You could do that yourself to enhance the “theme” of your wedding - grass skirts and coconut tops for the summer weddings, wigs and masks in the fall. Trust me - your guests will love this hot new trend!

Ticket to the Photo Booth

Props for the Photo Booth

Photo Booth Setting Up

Your pictures, our flatscreens

What a great way to personalize your wedding

Suitcase for cards - love this!!

Stay tuned - now that I have the blog up and running again you have no idea what you are all in for!!

I worked with the dynamic team of Kendall Brown and her new colleague - Leila Miller from Eclatante, Eventquip for the tent, Beautiful Blooms for flowers, Mike Kehr on photos, and Mr. Greengenes as the band - it was an all star cast and first class all the way. I have some pics for you but can not wait to get a link from Mike so I can really show you how great everything looked that night. Take a look at what I have to hold you over and please - you need to use these vendors - amazing!!

 

Shrimp Tower - Seafood Station

Cocktail Hour - lower level reflecting pool

Standing and Seated - Ceremony on the Upper Level Pool

Bride and her parents make their grand entrance

NEW - Thai Shrimp Salad Cones - 2 cute 2 eat?

Awesome Tent

Water View from the tent at Clenny Run

Tent View

One of my favorite areas in the gardens is the lower and upper peony gardens. I was walking back from the party last night and I had to stop and take some pictures. I am determined to have a wedding ceremony or a cocktail reception in this area - the sooner the better - look at these amazing shots….

Upper peony path - imagine a bride walking....

Peonies!

Peony Garden - Lower Level

The rain has stopped - the azaleas are in peak bloom - the weather is 78 in Winterthur Delaware - and we have 2 blessed brides.

The Visitor Center this evening was the reception after a catholic ceremony- 225 people and they are tearing up the dance floor as we speak. Wanted to show you their cake - a princess for a princess

Princess cake topperExtended Head Table