Take a sip

Alcohol is the obvious drink of choice at wedding receptions, but how about trying something different like a soda bar or a lemonade station? These can be done on a budget and can be set up as self-serve stations so no one has to be hired to oversee it.

1. Soda bar
Buy a bunch of soda either in your wedding colors (grape and orange?) or do a multitude like in this picture. If you have more money to spend you can get personalized bottles and once the drink is gone guests can take them home as their favors. Find some cute striped straws (online you can buy in bulk and save money), and there you go!
Soda Bar

2. Custom lemonade station
Perfect for an outside summer wedding, you can use either pink or regular lemonade (or both!) then have either bottles of flavors or fresh fruit (or both!) to add to the drinks. Even better is serving them in canning jars with, again, striped straws. Super cute and super refreshing!
Lemonade Stand

3. Coffee bar
Now, this can be done a few different ways, depending on your budget. There are companies that provide a coffee bar with custom drinks (you pick how many you want on the menu), and a barista makes them on site. To do it yourself have coffee brewed and in urns then have add-ins available: cinnamon sticks, chocolate shavings, vanilla, honey, whipped cream, flavored creamers, and anything else you can think of. If you want to get really overzealous you can buy an espresso/latte machine and have milk and coffee beans out for guests to make their own lattes. Then you'll have the machine to take home and use!
Coffee Bar

4. Tea bar
Have hot water available and several options of tea flavors out. You can have spices, honey, sugar, and creamer out also for guests who want to experiment and need to sweeten their tea.
Tea Bar

As always, have fun and create something that reflects your style and your wedding's theme.

Inspiration

Inspiration can come from many places. A trip you took to Hawaii as a kid may have left you loving coconuts and hibiscus and wanting to incorporate those into your reception. A piece of fabric at Hobby Lobby or your grandmother's china pattern. Anything and everything can be inspiration. One of our couples this month met at a Starbucks, though neither of them are big coffee fans, and that inspired many things incorporated into their reception.

Since meeting at Starbucks had left both of them changed forever, Bill planned a surprise proposal for Tosha at the same Starbucks. Starbucks gave him special permission to lead Tosha to their special table with a trail of rose petals. As she sat in the chair where she had sat on their first meeting he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. Another customer in the shop caught the whole thing on video! For the reception they wanted coffee beans in all the vases, at the base of the flowers and encompassing pillar candles. The groom's cake was even a giant Starbucks cup!

Let your life inspire you.

Slideshow or Slide-snooze?

A timeless trend for wedding receptions is the slideshow presentation. Family and friends love reminiscing over old family photos and good times had on vacations. This also allows your guests to view your journey from singlehood to meeting your mate. Start with baby pictures then work up to the time you two met and took pictures together. You can even add some of your engagement photos and bridal portraits, if you choose. Most venues have some way of playing your DVD (though it may cost extra). At The Hamilton Event Center we have a BluRay DVD player (don't worry, it plays regular DVD's too) that is hooked up to our 2 flat scren TV's so your guests can easily see the pictures. We can also hook the TV's up to your laptop.

Steps for making a slideshow:

• Download photos from camera onto computer
• Import photos into PowerPoint or Keynote
• Save and burn to disc

Easy peasy, right? Sure, but what if you could make your slideshow even cooler with just as much effort as it took to make that boring, same-old same-old slideshow? Don't resort to using the "slide in from right" and "checkboard fade out" options. Animoto features some really cool options to make your slideshow cutting edge without giving your viewers whiplash.

You first choose the style of slideshow you want (their free site has lots of options to match your style, but you can always upgrade to their paid site for even more options and features). Then you're going to choose which images from your computer you want in the slideshow. Next it's going to ask you to choose some background music for your slideshow. Lots of different genres and options here as well. The only catch is your slideshow needs to be as long as your song; if it isn't then some of your pictures may not show up in the final product. (Read further to find out how you can work your way around this.) Now you can preview your slideshow, have it emailed to yourself, and also share on Facebook, Twitter, etc.

A fun twist to any slideshow (made in PowerPoint or Animoto) is to make slides featuring trivia about you and your groom. If you have a picture of the two of you on a date eating ice cream tell the guests your favorite flavors on the next slide. If he's afraid of roller coasters, let us know! Your guests will enjoy learning new things about you guys. (You can save the trivia slides as pictures and upload them to Animoto as such.)

Back to looping those songs...this may take some Googling and calling your tech-savvy friends, but if you have a Mac you can use Garage Band to merge two songs together or to make the same song play twice.

Don't make this too hard so it becomes you spend hours stressing over! If you have a friend who is really good with computers and technology ask if they wouldn't mind helping out in this area. Don't be afraid to delegate!

Bling bling ring

Check out these awesome wedding bands--colorful, edgy, and challenging tradition.

18-karat rose-gold band with pink sapphires and diamonds

Gumuchian

18-karat yellow gold band with diamonds, emeralds, and sapphires and beaded detail

Katrina Kelly Jewelry

18-karat white gold band with any combinations of sapphires, rubies, emeralds, and diamonds

Aaron Henry

18-karat gold ring with sapphires and diamonds

Temple St. Clair

As always, your ring should reflect your style and your taste. It's a symbol of the two of you starting your new life together, and it will be something you'll treasure always.

Flower budget

The price of flowers can depend on where the flower is coming from as it may or may not be in season near you as well as how difficult it is to grow, etc. Most brides search the Internet and magazines for photos of bouquets that they love then take the pictures into a florist, unaware of what the cost might be. Here are a few tips on ways you can save on your flower budget:

• Downsize your containers. If you originally had a vase requiring 20 roses to give the right effect, consider choosing a smaller vase that needs only 5 roses. Also if you love peonies or garden roses (we love the "fluffy" look these two have), you'll definitely want a smaller container. These flowers are big and usually don't take much to give the look you want.
• A trend that has been in for the past couple of years is really cost effective: "going green." You can use ferns, ivy, eucalyptus, curly willow sticks, and many other plants that will save you money and give more of that natural look to your centerpieces.
• Try not to get hung up on a certain flower that costs $10 a head or getting attached to the idea of traditional centerpieces with 50 stems each. If your florist is good they'll be able to help you find a flower that's similiar to the one you want but for a lower cost. Daisies are great because they come in lots of colors, are inexpensive, and can be arranged in several different ways.
• Try to limit your centerpieces to have 1-3 flowers each. If your arrangements have more than that, then chances are your florist is having to order more than he or she needs which is going to cost you more. See if they can use the same flowers in your bouquets or in other arrangements used to decorate at the ceremony and/or reception site.
• If you want a variety of flowers you may want to consider using shorter vases instead of tall. They tend to have smaller openings and will require less flowers to make a pretty impression. If you love the look of tall flowers like hydrangeas or gladiolas, tall vases are great and curly willow, feathers, etc. can always be added to fill the space.

At The Hamilton Event Center we include all of your centerpieces so you don't have to worry about contacting an outside florist to bring things in. We have several different sizes of vases for you to choose from, and the flower possibilities are just as varied.

Why stress

We've emphasised several times how stressful brides become while planning their wedding, but why is that? As young girls, we're told how magical and wonderful it will be when our prince comes along on his white steed and sweeps us off our feet, taking us away to his magical castle. Then we grow older and realize that prince charming doesn't really exist and if he does he isn't riding a horse, he's driving a Toyota. Life is messy and complicated, but we want our wedding day to be different. We want something wonderful and magical that describes how it should feel to be in love. We want a big party with our family and friends, celebrating the union we've made. We want an elegant and formal dinner to impress and shower our loved ones with thanks for helping us make this day possible. We want the fairytale.

In the movies fairytales don't come without a fight. The prince has to overcome a dragon or push the evil queen over a cliff, but in the end the man always gets his girl. Then the movie ends. We don't see how Cinderella planned her wedding; we just see her in this beautiful, puffy white dress. No one tells us how hard it is to pick the right caterer, the perfect cake flavors, the most amazing centerpieces, the most memorable favors. It's just one day, but we've made it up to be one of the most important days of our lives, and every detail has to be perfect.

Of course not every bride is like this. Some have a more go-with-the-flow attitude and are more than willing to delegate tasks to us at The Hamilton Event Center or to friends and family. That's why we strive to make our packages include as many things as possible so you only have to figure out a few small details. We're flexible enough that we let you choose the decor, but you don't have to worry about the set up or clean because we've got that covered. We'll help you in any way we can so that you don't have to stress over this special day. Let us make your wedding day memorable. We'll take on as much of the stress as you'll allow us so that you can relax and enjoy yourself.

Remember, if you're a last minute bride wanting a reception this summer we're offering 15% off all Reception Packages booked during the months of June, July, or August. Give us a call or email us today! 405.608.0342 hamiltoneventcenter@mac.com

Last minute summer bride?

If you're recently engaged and wanting to get married this summer come to The Hamilton Event Center! We're offering a summer special: If you book your reception with us for the months of June, July, or August we'll give you 15% off! That can add up to a huge amount of savings! Here is a list of everything we include with our reception packages:

• Tables & Chairs (60" round tables and mahoghany Chiavari chairs)
• Floor-length Tabledrapes with Organza Toppers (you choose the colors to match your color scheme)
• Plates, Glasses, & Flatware (glass plates and real glasses, the silverware will be rolled into a white linen napkin for you and your guests' convenience)
• Draped Food & Cake Tables
• Ornate Silver Cake Stands (1 round and 1 square that will accommodate nearly every size and shape of cake)
• Toasting Flutes (you're welcome to bring in your own)
• Tea, Coffee, & Water (unlimited refills for you and your guests)
• Signature Punch served in our Silver Punch Bowl
• Swan Ice Sculpture (situated in the center of the buffet in a large tray of ice that you can put shrimp, fruits, or veggies on instead of on a tray)
• Fresh Floral & Candle Centerpieces (completely customized to your style)
• Multiple Glass Candy Containers (if you're doing a candy bar, we don't want you to have to purchase or a rent any extra containers)
• Multiple Servers (they take care of refilling the food on the buffet table as well as clearing away dirty plates and glasses and cutting and serving your cakes)
• Room Hostess (she makes sure that things flow smoothly the entire night)
• Microphone & Sound System (for any announcements, speeches, etc. that need to be made; our sound system includes mp3 player and laptop hookup and a Blue Ray DVD player)
• Setup and Cleanup (we will have everything setup and ready for you and your guests upon arrival, and we will clean up everything once you and your guests have left)

What we don't provide:

• Food (this can come from any caterer, restaurant, cook it yourselves, premade trays--whatever type of food you want)
• Cakes (again, these can come from any vendor, but remember, we have the cake stands here)
• Photographer
• DJ (we have mp3 player and laptop hookup if you want to save on the cost of a dj and just bring in your own music to play through our speakers)
• Alcohol (bring in whatever wine or beer you want, the size of cup you want it poured into, and we will have a table set up for everything to be out on so guests can serve themselves; or hire an ABLE-licensed bartender to serve mixed drinks and manage a cash bar)

We take care of most of the hastle so planning a last-minute reception is easy! Give us a call at 405.608.0342 if you want to schedule a time to come in and see or send us an email at hamiltoneventcenter@mac.com.