The Largest Multi-Cultural Bridal Show in California

Check out this flyer for more information! Hope to see you there!!

Favor Idea / Table Card Idea ... You Choose!

Here's a wedding idea! La Nebbia Winery in Half Moon Bay (yeah, I too just found out there was a winery on that side of the Bay) has Bottle & Cork Days where you can bring empty wine bottles of any size and they will fill and cork them. I just went there today for a friend's birthday, and the wine is pretty good! You can use these wine bottles for various wedding ideas: as favors, bridal party gifts, guest table centerpieces/table number holders, it's all up to you!

For the rest of 2008, there is one Bottle & Cork Day next week on November 8 from 9am-4pm.

2009 Bottle & Cork Days ~ Join them Saturday from 9am-4pm

Feb 7 ~ Red Wine
Feb 14 ~ White Wine
April 25 ~ Red Wine
May 2 ~ White Wine
June 6 ~ Red Wine
Sept 12 ~ Red Wine
Nov 7 ~ Red Wine
Nov 14 ~ White Wine
Dec 5 ~ Red Wine

Bring La Nebbia Winery your bottles any size, any label, and they'll fill and cork them. Standard 750ml bottles $4.95 ea.

Planning a special event? Bring in your custom labels and they'll apply them during a bottling event.

Can't make it? Drop off your bottles prior to the bottling day, or call 650-726-9463 to place an order.

La Nebbia Winery
12341 HWY 92
Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
www.LaNebbiaWinery.com

Here is the flyer for more information:

J & R Wedding in Sacramento, CA - 10.25.2008

This past weekend I did Day-Of Coordination for a wedding in Sacramento, California. I actually did not know I was going to be doing this event until two weeks before the wedding. So this is similar to Real Events' Peony Package, where the bride wants as much hands-on as possible and does most of the planning and then come the day of the wedding gets to sit back and relax and enjoy the Big Day while we take care of it! :) This 250-guest wedding was very elegant and fun. The ceremony was held at Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in downtown Sacramento, followed by a sit-down dinner at the Hyatt Regency just a block away. This wedding featured a horse and carriage, beautiful flower arrangements by Visual Impact Design, open bar, great-tasting hors d'oeuvres, a Polynesian dance performance as a gift from the bride's cousin, an interactive DJ/MC, a trendy square-shaped 3-tiered cake, and lots of love coming from very supportive and enthusiastic guests.

Florist: Visual Impact Design www.visualimpact-design.com

Photographer: Christopher Kight www.kightphoto.com

Videographer: 4th Wall Productions www.4thwallproductions.com

Make up Artist: Shana Beals

Hair Stylist: Ashley Mathews

Horse and Carriage: Top Hand Ranch www.tophandranch.com

String Quartet: Camellia String Quartet www.camelliastringquartet.com

DJ: Thomas Alexander III

Event Day Coordination: Real Events :)



The church was breathtaking, inside and out.



We love details. Check out the beautiful cake.

Congratulations again to the newlyweds!

Wedding Monograms

Want the feel of a professionally-planned upscale event? One idea that I highly recommend is creating a wedding monogram that you can use throughout the event. You can have the monogram to display on the invitation, which will give your invitees the impression of a chic wedding. Then carry out the monogram design to various aspects of your wedding, like napkins, favor tags, on the programs, etc. You can get one designed for you for a decent price. For example, the website, www.pinkdesignevents.com, can custom design one for you starting at $20! Here are some examples from that site:

Cigar Rollers - a new wedding reception idea

Here's a new wedding reception idea - employ a master cigar roller to demonstrate the art of cigar rolling at your reception. He can entertain your guests during cocktail hour while you are busy taking pictures. You can combine this with a lounging area or around a martini or vodka bar for an added chic element. He can display an array of cigars for guests to enjoy after dinner.

Inspiration Board

A bride asked me to create an inspiration board. I have not yet created hers yet, but this is my little practice one. Just testing it out...

Hawaiian Photographer

Anyone getting married in Hawaii and looking for a great photographer? Visionari's method is that of a simple one: they focus on each client's personality and style and bring that out through every image, in their own words. A picture speaks a thousand words, so here they are:

Great Dress Finds!

One designer I love is Alvina Valenta! And look - I found a great website, preownedweddingdresses.com, that has this beautiful Alvina Valenta dress (above) for a decent price! Going vintage is a great way to save, not to mention a great way to be unique and trendy. More websites to check out: vintageous.com, www.unique-vintage.com, www.poshgirlvintage.com (which has a summer sale going on), and www.oncewed.com, which has ELEGANT dress for great prices! And if you've always wanted to wear a couture gown but never knew how to come up with the money to buy one, check out encorebridal.com, a couture consignment and retail boutique!

From Encore Bridal: Junko Yoshioka Jacqueline




Here are some stunning replica of Jim Hjelm dresses for only $350, found on Oncewed.com:




Unique-Vintage.com has this antique 30's style ivory silk wedding gown for only $258!


How 'bout a mini flapper black irridescent dress/tunic for only $118?



You can even get party dresses - and even bridesmaids dresses for great deals from poshgirlvintage.com, like this 1940's teal lace & tulle dance time dress!

Wedding Venue of the Week

Anticipating more than 300 guests and looking for a venue large enough for all your guests? Check out Casa Real at Ruby Hill Winery. I had the pleasure of speaking with the Event Coordinator back in November 2007 when I first started planning my wedding. Even though at the time there were only sketches for me to see, I saw the potential of this venue. Now that it is up and running (as of March 2008) and weddings have taken place here, I wanted to share with you pictures of this stunning and elegant venue located in Pleasanton, CA.

... just a moment ...

This site is under construction. Please check back soon! If you are interested in any of Real Event's services, please send us an email at realevents08@gmail.com.

*** SPECIALS ***

We are currently offering free day-of coordination services for weddings, which includes an in-person consultation, unlimited contact via email and/or phone, up to 2 hours of rehearsal, and up to 10 hours of wedding day coordination.

If you don't need coordination but just need an extra hand to help out at the wedding (for whatever it may be - i.e. setting up, organizing the bridal party, etc.), we are also offering those services at a special price. Please contact us for more info.

Have a great day!!! :)

From the Bottom of the Owner's Heart

I did it - I just got married! Yup…I went through it all to achieve the “fairy-tale” wedding I envisioned – climbing the financial hill with my fiancé to fund such a big party, dealing with parents’ desires that didn’t exactly match up with my vision, dealing with future in-laws’ requests, becoming a PRO at interviewing vendors, negotiating prices with various vendors, making unncecessarily painstaking decisions about details I never thought existed, realizing who really wants to be there for you and who IS there for you during such a busy time in your life, spending endless hours on the computer and in book stores researching wedding idea after idea or reading up on correct wedding etiquette, driving all over the Bay Area to scout venues for the big day, pulling teeth with my fiancé to get him involved and help me out, giving in and asking loved ones for their help, and putting aside other important parts of my life to focus on the wedding (I took an unorthodox B in one of my Masters classes, not to mention I took as many days off as I could from working as a NICU nurse).

The funny thing is, I found that for being one of the – if not – THE most important day of your life and presumably the BEST, it sure took a stressful path to get there. For the most part it was enjoyable (obviously, since I am still planning weddings!), but there were definitely times when I thought, Why didn’t we just have a civil ceremony? or Why aren’t weddings cheaper? The busyness of having to accomplish the different tasks during the planning process had me pulling my hair out at times, yet it was something I enjoyed doing, and something I wanted to do. It was a paradox in itself.

Now that the wedding is done and I have that whole experience behind me, there are a lot of things I find very important for the wedding that I would like to pass on to future brides and grooms / brides and brides / grooms and grooms. I am actually surprised at myself. I thought I’d be too worn out to even want to hear the word “wedding.” Yet, lately I have found myself on various websites and at Barnes & Noble reading up on more and more wedding ideas. The more I see something even remotely wedding-related, the more I get inspired. That’s when I realized that I want to help brides and grooms achieve the PERFECT WEDDING DAY.

When I say “perfect,” it is all relative. It is what YOU think is perfect. It is all about YOU. YOUR VISION is what Real Events wants to achieve. I absolutely loved my wedding, but I will admit there were some things I regret… not MAJOR things, but just some things that now as a Wedding Coordinator, I will definitely make sure are taken care of. For example, one of my biggest regrets is that we were so busy that I never got a professional picture taken of me and my two sisters. I wish someone had taken the time to remind me of this or just ask me if there was something I wanted that had not been done yet. So now as a Wedding Coordinator, one thing I will make a point of doing during the day is approaching the celebrants occasionally to ask them if there is something that may have been overlooked that they want to happen.

Another perspective I carry strongly with me is the financial perspective. I lost count how many times my jaw dropped during wedding planning calculations. Weddings can easily break your bank, but I strongly believe that you can still have the wedding of your dreams and not have to spend so much on it. That is what Real Event is here for – our original intended client was the “cost-conscious” client, so we specialize in many cost-cutting ideas, especially DIYing! Of course, if you don’t mind spending more, you can take advantage of our services and still get more bang for your buck!

Real (pronounced “Rey-Al”) Events is named after the two people in my life that have shown me God’s love through their immense unconditional love for me – my parents. The name of this company is not only a dedication to them but a reflection of what I envision my services to be – something that I love, something that my clients will love, and something that will create wonderful memories for my clients … memories of the day they made their love official, the day the “fairytale” became… REAL.