wedding gifts

Wedding Gifts

According to 2013 wedding surveys, brides and grooms create an average of two to three different wedding registries. Guests don’t see this as a greedy grab for presents; they know that couples have different preferences and needs for their home. Perhaps they like the Crate and Barrel glassware and party serving platters, and the Macy’s bedding. Your different gift lists at each of the stores where you register for wedding gifts will show your style, and guests appreciate knowing what you love, so that they can give you presents you’ll adore and use often. Read more…

Gifts

As a popular New Jersey wedding venue, we’ve received so many gracious thank you notes from our many lovely couples. Some have come quite quickly and others in good time. Regardless of the timing or the manner in which they come, we were are always appreciative, but never expecting to receive these thank yous.  Your wedding guests, particularly those who have given you a wedding gift, however, will most likely be anticipating a thank you in response.  And proper wedding etiquette dictates that sending a timely thank you note is a must.

Because the note writing process falls after the day itself, it is one of the more overlooked parts of your wedding duties.  But it is no less important, because your response is a direct reflection on you (and if you wait too long, you may soon start hearing from your mother or mother-in-law that it is a reflection on them as well).  Good timing also goes a long way to show your guests that you are genuinely appreciative that they were part of your special day. Read more…

Wedding Favors

Guests at a wonderful wedding, having enjoyed fine cuisine, top entertainment, top vintages of wine and champagne, and the joyful company of friends and family for your happy occasion would say the experience itself was all the gift they need, but it’s a top wedding etiquette idea to offer a take-home wedding favor they’ll love.

In years past, brides and grooms gave our small wine bottles with their personalized labels on them, and now the top wedding trend for weddings in our Northern New Jersey area is edibles…particularly something sweet.

Here are the top trends edible favors, welcome at the end of your wedding reception: Read more…

Wedding Favors

Among the most popular wedding ideas, a category that many of our New Jersey wedding planners say is an important reception décor element is a beautiful presentation of the wedding favors. With today’s favor trends including edibles such as chocolate truffles, cake pops, and especially New Jersey shore salt water taffy, and with non-edible favors including wine bottle stoppers and other pretty-yet-inexpensive useful take-home gifts, our New Jersey and New York City wedding couples are designing creative, enticing wedding favor displays to complement their reception venue’s décor plan.

 Now, there’s a real sense of importance in how the wedding favors will be displayed, so we suggest the following top wedding trends for favor presentation:

Setting Up a Favor Table

• A favor table creates an artistic opportunity for your display, with a top wedding trend of using a gorgeous tablecloth on the wedding favor table. Wedding planners now suggest favor table linens that coordinate with guest table linens for a uniform look, but may be a few shades lighter or darker than the wedding reception hall guest table linens. The tablecloth may be shimmery, embroidered, pearl-dotted or other wedding décor style-matching design, setting a lovely foundation on which the favors will be displayed. Read more…

Wedding Trends

Our Northern New Jersey wedding couples most often find that their families and friends give them wedding gifts in the form of a check in an envelope, but with weddings bringing friends, family and work associates together from all corners of the globe, we are seeing more wrapped wedding gifts at today’s wedding celebrations. That calls for a decorated wedding gift table in the reception ballroom, where guests may place and display their beautifully-wrapped wedding presents for the bride and groom.

Wedding décor methods apply to every detail in the wedding ballroom, large and small, so we and our New Jersey wedding coordinator contacts pay special attention to both the design and the functionality of the gift table. Here are the top trends for making your wedding gift table more attractive and fitting to your wedding theme and décor style:

1.      Your gift table linens can have a style of their own. They do not have to be the same color, fabric, texture and style as the wedding guest table linens. Many of our wedding couples choose an alternative color and style of linens for the gift table, guest book table and other wedding venue entrance display tables, and these might be accented, shimmery, crystal-sewn, even patterned linens that reach the floor on all sides for the most polished effect.

1. Add a table runner. Just like the wedding guest table décor, add a length of décor fabric to extend along the table to create a colorful, decorative effect.
2. Decorate the front edge of the table. An extra garland from your wedding floral décor can be strung along the front of your gift table. A fabric drape might have your monogram on it, in a color matching your guest table décor accents.
3. Place your wedding gift box or wedding gift birdcage on this table, ideally in the center, for guests to use and wrapped-gifts to surround.
4. Allow the gift display to take its own form as guests place their presents there. Don’t worry about arranging gifts on the table.
5. Skip the votive candle holders. Even though these are pretty accents, you don’t want a gift ribbon to fall into the flame and create a disaster. If you like the look of candlelight on the gift table, a top wedding idea is to set up flameless candles or LED light cubes in glass vases for a budget-friendly wedding décor look.
6. Provide room on either side of the gift table for guests to place extremely large wrapped gifts that cannot be placed on the table itself. When you allow room for these boxes, they will not pile up around the table, jutting into high traffic areas.
7. When you bring your wedding reception supplies to us prior to your wedding, bring a few large, empty, plastic-lidded bins in which we can securely pack your wedding gifts for home transport. We’re happy to help bring your gifts to your car, but we recommend these bins for easy use on your big day and also for organizing systems in your home after the wedding.

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Chateau

While some wedding websites advise choosing child attendants who are no younger than six years old, we know that your adored nieces and nephews may be younger than that, and you very much want them to be your flowergirls and ringbearers. Here at our wedding banquet hall and wedding gardens, we’ve seen children as young as two perform quite well as child attendants, and the key is smart preparations for the little ones at the wedding rehearsal.

Our wedding staff, as well as the top wedding coordinators and special event experts in the New Jersey region, has helped many brides and grooms during their wedding rehearsals, offering our expertise in helping flowergirls and ringbearers prepare for their big moment at the wedding. The key, we’ve found, is making sure kids are comfortable, know what to expect, and know what they might earn by behaving well.

Here are some top tips for helping kids at your wedding rehearsal, improving your odds of a tantrum-free day:

• Be sure that child attendants will be comfortable in their wedding day clothing. Itchy lace collars and shirt tags that poke, too-tight bow ties and other wardrobe issues are the #1 cause of kids’ acting badly at weddings. So be sure the kids’ dresses and tuxes have been checked and adjusted to allow for the little ones’ comfort.

• Be sure that kids have eaten before the wedding, and that they’ve had plenty of water to drink. Hunger and thirst are also top causes of kids’ misbehavior. So practice the same Musts for the rehearsal.

• Tell kids what they’ll see when they walk down the aisle. A practice walk down empty rows is very different than the people-filled rows, flashbulbs, flowers and other distractions. From the youngest kids to the teens, spell out the things they’re likely to see as they walk down the aisle.

• For small children, have a treat waiting for them at the end of the aisle. A grandparent might be holding a big, colorful lollipop or a (silent) toy that they can have when they reach the end of the aisle.

• Allow kids to sit down during the ceremony. This big trend provides for kids’ comfort, they can sit with parents who can shush them if needed, and kids won’t be tempted to wander around, fidget or panic in the face of so many people looking at them.

• Let kids practice their walks down the aisle a few times, and test out who they’re most comfortable walking with. There’s no rule saying the flowergirl has to walk alone. If she’s happiest walking with the maid of honor, that adjustment may be made.

• If children are frightened, talk with them privately to ask what they’re concerned about. A child is more likely to open up about her shoes being slippery on the aisle runner than she might be with a dozen strangers looking at her.

• Prepare children for what happens after the ceremony, that they’ll pose for photos, then be introduced into the room at the reception, dance and sit with the other kids. When children know what to expect, they don’t act out as much.

Keep these tips in mind, and your child attendants will have more fun, be happier and more comfortable and thus be a wonderful part of your wedding day.

Best,
Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

We’d like to help you avoid some of the most common wedding registry mistakes. During our decades of getting to know so many wedding couples, we’ve heard a number of them talk about their wedding gift lists, specifically the problems they’re having with them and what they’d do differently if they could register for gifts all over again.

Here are the wedding registry mistakes we hope you’ll keep at the forefront of your mind as you create your bridal registries and also as you maintain your lists now until your wedding day, and even afterward:

1. Registering for too few items. That’s right, wedding couples who don’t want to appear greedy to their friends and family limit their wedding registry lists to just a handful of items, which not only keeps them from receiving everything they’ll need to set up their home, but also leaves wedding guests without enough gift options in their budget to choose from. Don’t be shy. Sign on for lots of wedding gift possibilities, and guests will be more likely to be grateful than offended.

Only having one registry. With so many unique registries out there, don’t limit yourself to just one kind of wedding registry. Look into creating a honeymoon registry, charitable registry, a registry at a local sporting goods store if you like to enjoy an active, outdoor lifestyle as so many of our New Jersey couples do, a wine registry, or other type of wedding gift list.

2. Registering in a single price range. Load up your list with lots of gifts in a very affordable price range, such as under $50, and then add items in the $50 to $100 price range, some in the $100 to $200 price range, and follow the new wedding registry trend of adding a few big-ticket items that can be given to you by groups, such as your bridal party (who are each saving money by splitting the cost of a pricy gift for you! That $400 coffee maker is just $40 apiece if there are 10 bridesmaids and groomsmen giving the gift together!)

3. Not signing on for gift cards. Again, it doesn’t make you look greedy to ask for 10 $50 gift cards, 10 $100 gift cards and so on. Guests know that you’ll need to buy some household essentials after the wedding, items you didn’t get for bridal shower gifts, and gift cards let you do so without guilt.

4. Choosing the wrong delivery address. If you live in an apartment, you don’t want these valuable gifts being delivered to your entryway with no doorman able to take them in for you. It may be smarter to have all of your wedding gifts delivered to your parents’ home, where they can take them in and protect them for you.

Thanks!
Christopher Gellings, Banquet Manager, Highlawn Pavilion

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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

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