Style Alert

Today’s brides and grooms start thinking about their wedding registries right away, and they’re very excited (and quite fortunate!) that current wedding registry trends and etiquette say they can have more than one registry. In fact, both nationwide and in our local New Jersey region, the average number of separate wedding registries set up by brides and grooms is two to three.

Many wedding couples choose to create registry gift lists at one or more housewares stores such as Bed Bath & Beyond, Macys, and Williams Sonoma, just to name a few, to stock up on kitchen and linen essentials, décor items, appliances such as top-tier coffee makers and Panini presses. They register at home essentials stores to upgrade to the good cookware and cutlery, and load up on high thread-count towels and sheets. For many couples, this type of registry is their wedding registry number one. They then create other, unique registries. Here are some of the top types of unique wedding registries that our Passaic County, Morris County, Essex County, Hudson County, Somerset County and other New Jersey wedding couples report as their top wedding gift list choices:

• Honeymoon Registry: These popular wedding gift registry sites allow you to sign up for such romantic experiences as a private sunset dinner cruise or a couple’s massage on the beach, or an adventure such as swimming with dolphins or taking a zipline canopy tour above an exotic rainforest. Guests can purchase these experiences for you, or they might choose to give you a ‘share’ of your honeymoon suite booking, or your plane fare, to make your trip possible for you. They can also select gift cards to your honeymoon resort, giving you the ability to spend your gift money any way you wish.

• Charitable Registry: If you’re a charitable-minded couple, you might set up a charitable gift registry on which you designate your favorite charity or charities, and guests select the amount they’d like to donate to your chosen cause as their wedding gift to you. A big trend among our New Jersey wedding couples is designating local donation recipients, such as animal shelters, libraries, schools and especially food pantries. Having a charitable registry among your two or three established wedding registries gives guests their choice of traditional or unique gift to give you.

• Sporting Registry. Our local North Jersey brides and grooms have a penchant for outdoor sports, and living an active lifestyle. So they’re signing onto active and adventure lifestyle gift lists at such stores as REI.com, one of the most popular registries for couples who want mountain bikes, kayaks, camping gear, GPS systems and other supplies to enhance their active lifestyle that’s so popular here at New Jersey’s many hiking, biking, climbing, boating and other adventure sport areas.

• Wine Registry. Our New Jersey brides and grooms have sophisticated tastes when it comes to wines, and one of the things we hear quite often from couples who come to our West Orange wedding venue is that they dream of having extensive wine collections and installing wine cellars. So creating a wine registry at a local wine merchant or wine connoisseur website is a top trend.

• Experience Registry. Similar to the honeymoon registry, this type of registry offers experiences as gifts. The bride and groom log onto an experience wedding registry site, and they choose their dream adventures. It might be skydiving, horseback riding on the beach, taking a culinary course at a celebrity chef’s establishment, or other phenomenal experience that only a guest’s generous gift could provide.

Wedding registry information must not be included on your wedding invitation, but is instead shared as links in your personal wedding website. Wedding guests say they appreciate finding multiple types of registries that give them a wide range of options for your wedding gift, since they want to get you an unforgettable gift or experience that you’ll love.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

Rehearsal Dinner Trends

The first big celebration of the wedding weekend is the rehearsal dinner, and today’s brides and grooms are fully involved in creating a culinary experience for their VIP guests, the perfect complement to the evening’s relaxed and festive mood. This dinner party is their welcome break from the hectic, last-minute planning tasks and all the stress that goes hand-in-hand with creating the most important day of their lives. The rehearsal dinner, then, is a treat for all, a chance to mingle and glow, sharing gifts and toasts and an unforgettable meal served in style.

Rehearsal Dinners

The new rehearsal dinner has evolved into a foodie’s dream, with hosts putting as much effort and care into choosing a locale and building a menu as is often seen with the wedding plans. This event, then, is meant to impress.

Here are the top trends in rehearsal dinners for the coming year:

• Most frequently, the parents of the groom are the official hosts of the rehearsal dinner, even if both sets of parents have been fully involved in planning the wedding. (The parents of the bride get to plan the morning-after breakfast.)

Guest lists are smaller. It’s no longer a Must to invite all of the out-of-town guests to this elegant dinner party. Plan a separate, casual cocktail party for them at their hotel, and you’ll join them later. The rehearsal dinner is solely for immediate family, the bridal party and their guests, the officiant and his or her guest, and other ceremony participants.

• Couples choose a beautiful restaurant with fabulous design, perhaps outdoor dining, and other high-style ambiance as the setting for this dinner. Here at the Highlawn Pavilion, brides and grooms say they choose our establishment for the catering and the spectacular views of New York City from our position at the top of Eagle Rock Reservation. Indoor and outdoor ambiance creates a wonderful rehearsal dinner experience.

• The meal trend is now a sit-down dinner, at least three courses, with coffee and a fabulous dessert.

The rehearsal dinner menu items differ from the reception menu, giving the wedding couple the chance to offer those pricier entrees (lobster, filet mignon, etc.) that they perhaps couldn’t afford to serve as entrees to their 150+ guests at the wedding.

• The menu often includes cultural and traditional dishes that are important to the couple and their families.

• More couples request eco-friendly menu items and locally-grown foods.

• The champagne toast is back, and additional drinks are top-shelf and unlimited for this VIP crowd.

• The rehearsal dinner hosts give the first toast of the evening, with the bride and groom proposing a toast immediately afterward to thank the hosts and guests for sharing their day. Gifts are then given to parents and bridal party members.

Regards,
Paul Keenan, Banquet Manager, Highlawn Pavilion

What will be the hottest wedding colors of spring and summer 2011? We checked out the fashion runways and the bridal industry’s latest color trend reports, and we see a bright future for you. Also, an earthtoned one. The hot wedding colors of the upcoming wedding seasons may be in one or the other color family – bold and vibrant, or calm and sunwashed neutrals – or a stylish blend of hues from each palette.

Wedding Colors

To inspire you, here are some of the trends in wedding colors that you can build into your bridesmaid dress choices, wedding flowers, décor, linens, invitations, and all other details of your big day:

Brights:

Tangerine, hot pink, apple green, celadon, coral, cherry red, vibrant violet, daisy yellow, fuchsia, and especially vivid aquamarine (the #1 wedding color of 2010, according to the Pantone® color report for the bridal industry)

Earthtones:

In a range of hues, the hot earthy neutrals of spring and summer are: slate gray, taupe, light brown, chocolate brown, sage to medium green, and metallic silver, bronze, copper and gold. Chocolate brown was a popular wedding trend a few years ago and is now making a big comeback, especially when paired with a vibrant color such as aquamarine.

Jewel tones:

In spring and summer, rich, deep jewel tones are smart wedding color accents, and in fall and winter they become the larger part of the color motif, with lights, brights or metallics as their accents. For spring and summer 2011 overall, the hot jewel-tones are: sapphire blue, emerald green, royal blue, peacock blue, teal, currant and ruby red.

What about pastels? A soft rose pink has made the list of top wedding color choices for this spring and summer, but it’s quite alone in the trends as last season’s lavenders and baby blues fade back, awaiting next year’s trend possibilities.

Do you have to abide by this color trends list? No, you can design your wedding to feature your favorite colors in any combination you wish, and our event specialists can help you create perfectly color-coordinated décor all around our establishment.

Best,
Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

When a newly-engaged couple begins the process of choosing a wedding date, one of the deciding factors – especially here in Northern New Jersey where the seasons are so colorful in nature – is the wedding flowers. Brides envision their wedding days awash with colorful roses, or lilies, or dahlias, or orchids, and their favorite, must-have flowers may be in season only during certain times of year. To help you choose your flower-strewn wedding date, here are some of the most popular types of blooms and when they’re most plentiful – and most affordable!

Wedding Flowers

Spring Wedding Flowers: Anemone, Bells of Ireland, Casa Blanca Lily, Daffodil, Delphinium, Hyacinth, Lilacs, Narcissus, Peony, Ranunculus, Star Gazer Lily, Sweetpea, Tulip

Summer Wedding Flowers: Alstromeria, Bells of Ireland, Chrysanthemum, English Lavender, Forget-me-not, Freesia, Gerbera Daisy, Hydrangea, Iris, Larkspur, Lily, Lisianthus, Queen Anne’s Lace, Snapdragons, Stephanotis, Stock, Sunflowers, Tuberose, Yarrow, Zinnia

Fall Wedding Flowers: Aster, Chrysanthemum, Dahlia, Marigold, Zinnia

Winter Wedding Flowers: Amaryllis, Anemone, Bells of Ireland, Camellias, Casa Blanca Lily, Cosmos, Daffodil, Forget-me-notes, Holly, Jasmine, Narcissus, Poinsettia, Ranunculus, Star Gazer Lily, Star of Bethlehem, Sweetpea, Tulip

Wedding Flowers Available Year-Round: Baby’s Breath, Bachelor’s Button, Calla Lily, Carnations, Delphinium, Eucalyptus, Gardenia, Gladiolus, Heather, Lily of the Valley, Orchid, Rose, Scabiosa

Of course, these are just some of the wedding flower varieties that are popular for weddings, rehearsal dinners and all other special celebrations, and for an extra fee, many of these blooms can be flown in from overseas during their ‘off-seasons.’ The beauty of your dream wedding flowers is always possible!

Come to our wedding venue in West Orange to see what we have planted in our expansive gardens and on our grounds, as well as the blooms we use in our seasonal centerpieces and display arrangements. We work with only the best floral designers in the region, so you may find your wedding flower inspiration right here, rather than in a bridal magazine!

Best,
Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

The best wedding catering is as beautiful as it is delicious. Chefs and pastry chefs prepare and present their delectable cocktail party, wedding reception menu, and dessert hour items with painstaking care, creating a breathtaking display of wedding menu treats. Chefs have gone to great lengths to make every dish a work of art, garnished to perfection and arranged so beautifully that guests hesitate before digging in.

From shiny pearls of caviar on top of salmon puffs to tiny martini glasses filled with mango salsa and shrimp, that platter of perfect little petit fours with the tiny little pink rosettes on top. The entire wedding menu features fabulous accent details just like the wedding dress does…which is why photographing the wedding food is a new top trend in wedding photography.

While the bride and groom are dancing or visiting with guests at the start of their celebration, the best professional photographers move through the cocktail party room, snapping fabulous photos of the buffet menu items, in HD close-up, capturing the most sensory elements of the cocktail party and reception with the same spotlight focus given to close-up photos of the bride’s bouquet or her wedding ring.

The result is a collection of magazine cover-worthy images of the gourmet fare at the reception, a capturing of wedding menu details the couple planned together yet didn’t notice fully during the swirl of their wedding celebration. But now, and in the future, they can look at these photos and marvel at the beautiful platters and food displays their wedding venue’s caterers arranged for their big day. Photos of the food become cherished images from the best day of their lives. In fact, many brides and grooms include photos of their food in their professional album collections, and guests have even been spotted photographing impressive cocktail party spreads, texting the images to far-away friends.

Other foodie photographs: close-ups of the wedding cake details, platter shots of dessert bites, monogram-shaped swirls of sauces on dessert plates, and brightly-colored cocktails and champagne glasses at the bar.

Best,
Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

We’re noticing something exciting about today’s brides and grooms: they’re very vocal about their requested wedding wedding reception food preparations and presentations, since they’re foodies at home! Couples watch cooking competition shows like Top Chef, they’re adventurous and exotic in their own cooking repertoires and restaurant menu choices, and they tell our chefs here at the Pleasantdale Château that they’re building wedding gift registries designed to enhance their cooking flair.

Gift registry

Whether couples are filling their gift registries with their very first kitchen appliances, cookware and gadgets ever, or upgrading their older kitchen wares to the good stuff – the same brands of cutlery and cookware that our chefs use – brides and grooms want a kitchen that’s filled with the best of the best.

So here are some of the top wedding gift registry items that we see added to today’s bride and groom’s lists:

• Chef-quality cutlery sets

• Top-brand cookware sets such as sauté pans in different sizes

• Top-brand bakeware, including nonstick cookie sheets, muffin pans, springform pans and more

• Gourmet appliances such as Panini makers

• Healthy fare appliances such as vegetable steamers and rice cookers

• Unique kitchen gadgets such as avocado or mango peelers, and potato ricers

• Cake and dessert décor sets, such as pastry bag kits

• Domed glass pedestal stands for displaying desserts

• Cookbooks written by iconic chefs

• Gift cards to luxury kitchenware retailers like Williams Sonoma

Armed with these foodie-centric wedding registry gifts, couples plan to indulge in gourmet fare as part of their happily ever after.

Best,
Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

Renewing Wedding Vows

Every so often, celebrity couples grab the headlines for renewing their wedding vows, sometimes just a few months after their splashy wedding celebrations. Recently, Khloe Kardashian Odom and her husband Lamar Odom were reported to have renewed their wedding vows, and other stars such as Heidi Klum and Seal have made it a tradition to renew their wedding vows every year, sometimes in creative theme celebrations.

While celebrities often drive wedding trends, their example in the world of renewing wedding vows has become a bit confusing to couples. So to clear away that confusion, here are some reasons why renewing vows is so popular right now:

• Renewing wedding vows re-connects couples, especially if they’ve had a challenging year for any reason – a health crisis, financial stress, job search struggles, a move to a new city, what have you

• Renewing wedding vows allows couples to celebrate milestone anniversaries – the 1st, 5th, 10th, or more – as well as any anniversary they choose. So a 7th anniversary is completely welcoming of a celebration

• Renewing wedding vows allows couples to plan their wedding ‘re-do’ their way, which is quite wonderful for those who were perhaps unhappy with how their original weddings turned out, or whose parents overtook the plans

• Renewing wedding vows gives military couples the chance to celebrate their appreciation of one another before or after a deployment

• Renewing wedding vows serves as a wonderful example to the younger generations of what a positive, successful marriage looks like

• Renewing wedding vows may be done privately, just the two of you on a beach or mountaintop, or it might be a large family and friend gathering in a ballroom

• Renewing wedding vows allows you to show appreciation for your spouse, a healthy element of a strong marriage

In these challenging times, so many people want something cheery to look forward to and enjoy, and a wedding vow renewal provides exactly that.

Best,
Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

Many brides and grooms wonder what they should register for when they already own all of the cookware, linens and décor they could possibly want, so a new trend is focusing on the honeymoon as a wedding gift inspiration. While honeymoon registries do exist, offering guests the chance to give the wedding couple the gift of a romantic sunset dinner cruise or couples’ massages on the beach or even a share of the couple’s stay at their resort, some couples prefer to register for items they’ll use while on their honeymoons.

Honeymoon gifts

Here are some of the most popular wedding registry items that can make that dream honeymoon getaway all the more special:

• A Flipcam or digital camcorder to record their adventures

• A top-of-the-line digital camera (Bridal parties often choose this item as their split-expense Group Gift to the happy couple)

• Luggage (Upgrading the couple’s existing older or mismatched sets, this too is a popular ‘group gift’ as well as a popular gift from parents.)

• Luxury pampering items, such as massage lotions in top-brand sets

• Spa robes made from cashmere or soft bamboo fabric

• Gift cards to the couple’s favorite clothing stores, so that they can purchase new formal outfits, casualwear or bathing suits for their honeymoon wardrobes

• Gift cards to their booked resort, so that they can treat themselves to an ultra-romantic private dining experience on the beach, or enjoy all of their meals and drinks for free

• Travel pillows for long-flight comfort

• Monogrammed luggage tags

• Monogrammed travel journal for recording honeymoon memories

• Travel guidebooks about their destination’s history and attractions, and more.

If the mention of gift cards surprises you, please know that it is acceptable in today’s wedding etiquette rules to add gift cards to a wedding registry. It is not acceptable to request cash gifts on a registry, no matter how much cash gifts are preferred. As an added bonus: guests love giving the happy couple honeymoon-centric gifts, adding to their trip of a lifetime.

Best,
Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

For so many brides and grooms, their dream wedding takes place in a garden venue, surrounded by the beauty of nature and the magic of endless flowers in full bloom, in the trees, in landscaping, along pathways…and a perfect blue sky above. The garden wedding is the choice of so many celebrity couples who lead bridal trends, and bridal magazines are filled with stunning images of outdoor weddings in gorgeous gardens.

Garden Wedding

What is it about the garden wedding that calls to so many of today’s brides and grooms? Beyond the sheer beauty of it, as designed by our site’s landscaping team and sometimes enhanced further by additional floral décor and lighting on the grounds, many couples say that a garden wedding creates a European feel to their weddings. An outdoor ceremony and celebration may be a replica of the family weddings that took place in Corsica, in Greece, in Tuscany, in the far-off regions of their ancestors. We’ve seen those weddings in Under the Tuscan Sun and other hit movies, left breathless by the flowers, the arbors, the scenery…with the bride and groom in their wedding finery standing out amongst the sea of natural color.

English Garden

Another factor of the garden wedding’s popularity is budget. If a site is already expertly planted in floral splendor – as is ours at The Manor — the couple might not have to spend any extra money on décor. In a plain and simple ballroom, at a basic site without garden grounds, hundreds if not thousands of dollars must be spent to create that floral splendor the couple dreams of. Planters would have to be brought in for the wedding, then carted off and discarded after the celebration. Since most couples are on a budget, it’s often impossible to create the same level of garden image that already exists in an actual garden venue.

And finally, many couples are eco-minded these days, mindful fans of nature, preferring to marry among living trees and plants, out in the fresh, clean air of a beautiful day in nature’s beauty.

For some, the reason is simply this: it’s always been their dream to have a garden wedding. They’ve never considered a different option. Whatever the inspiration, we’re happy to make the dream of a garden wedding come true, even better than you imagined it.

Until next time,
Preston Postlethwaite, Banquet Manager, The Manor

By Roman Bienkiewicz, Banquet Manager, The Manor

The unthinkable has happened – no, your groom didn’t get cold feet. But you think this is almost as bad. You – or a now mortified guest – has spilled something on your wedding dress. The first rule of spills: Don’t panic. Making a scene won’t help. But there are a few simple steps that can. First of all, realize that you probably won’t get the stain out during the reception, but you can treat it so that it won’t set permanently. Chalk is great for covering stains on a wedding dress. For example, the bride traditionally takes photos outside, and sometimes nature leaves its mark on her dress. That’s the kind of fabric blemish simple white chalk can fix. Make sure you or one of your bride’s maids has some ready just in case. Red wine, lipstick and ink can also end up on a wedding dress. Here’s how to deal with each:

Red Wine: The chances of a red wine stain happening are quite high, so remember these basic steps. Dab the stain with a clean cloth. Club soda (or water in a pinch) can be poured generously on the stain. Dab again, but don’t rub vigorously.

Lipstick: Kissing is common at weddings. And some mothers-in-law wear more lipstick than others. If for some reason you get lipstick on your dress, ask the maitre d’ or your bridal assistant to get some baking soda from the kitchen. Apply it generously to cover the stain. It will mask the stain until your dry cleaner can carefully get it out.

Ink Stain: Though less likely than the lipstick or red wine stains, ink stains are possible nonetheless. Good news – the solution should be readily available in the bathroom! Hairspray does the trick. First test the hairspray on a nondescript part of your dress to make sure it doesn’t stain (some hairsprays don’t work well with certain fabrics). Then put a clean cloth behind the fabric where the stain is and spray the ink stain carefully. Wait a few minutes then dab gently with a damp cloth.

Thanks!

Roman