Real Life Wedding Planning

Fred Marcus Photography, Brian Marcus

Ivanka Trump, real estate developer, former model, and daughter of Donald Trump, married publisher Jared Kushner in a Jewish ceremony (Ivanka converted to her husband’s religion) on October 25, 2009 at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminister, New Jersey in front of 550 guests.

Here are some ideas you can steal and scale to your budget:

Bridal Attire

Her wedding gown (custom lace and tulle by Vera Wang), hair, and makeup were inspired by Grace Kelly.
Look in vintage clothing stores for wedding gowns from previous eras. Bridal stores also have vintage inspired gowns and many may have “knock-offs” of Ivanka’s gown very shortly.

Ivanka’s wedding jewelry, hair accessory, drop earrings and Art-Deco inspired bracelet was from her own jewelry line, Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry.
Bridal stores and fashion jewelry stores have simialr items if you can’t afford to buy from Ivanka’s line. You could also check online for bridal jewelry rental.

Ceremony

Each guest was greeted with a gardenia.
Gardenias are beautiful, fragrant flowers which can be expensive.  You may select a different flower or give a wedding program to your guests when they enter. Use it to list the order of events, names of the wedding party, or explain rituals you are doing in your ceremony.

The chuppah, the Jewish Wedding canopy, was decorated with crystals and flowers.
Ivanka’s chuppah was very lavishly decorated. Talk to your florist and about locally grown flowers that are in season and ask to see other chuppahs they have decorated.

Reception

Tables were decorated with white lilies of the valley, ranunculus, roses, and floating gardenias. The china was white with gold trim and glassware had gold trim. Chairs were gold chevalier chairs.
Again, talk to your florist about white flowers that are in season for the best prices. Party rental companies have a china, glassware, and chevalier chairs in a variety of colors. Your venue, if they provide these items, may also have these items.

13 layer cake for 550 guests was 70-inch tall carrot, chocolate, and almond topped with sugar flowers
You probably don’t need a 13 layer cake. But, if you want a tall cake and are not having very many guests, you can have your baker put in some faux cakes to make it taller. Also, like Ivanka, you can have each real cake be a different flavor.

The first dance was “This Years Love” by David Gray.
You can request your DJ or musicians play the same song.

18 piece Hank Lane orchestra played at the reception.
Use a DJ or find a local orchestra or band to play are your reception.

Favors were flip flops customized with Ivanka and Jared’s names.
You can find stores online that sell personalized flip flops. Instead of using them as favors, which can be expensive, you might want to have them made as one of the gifts for your attendants.

Ivanka’s wedding planner was Preston Bailey.
Preston Bailey, who also planned Donald Trump’s wedding to Melania, has written books featuring his event designs including one on fantasy weddings. Using a wedding planner is a necessity when you are trying to plan an elaborate wedding.

Photos from the wedding can be found in the November 9, 2009 issue of Us Weekly Magazine and at popsugar.com.

Can you plan a wedding in 9 days?  Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom did but they had help from friends, professionals, a lot of money, and the E! television network.

Here are some of the details of their wedding September 27 wedding  and how you may be able to adopt them to your own:

Custom Wedding Gown by Vera Wang

Khloe wore an ivory strapless gown with a jeweled lavender sash that designer Vera Wang made in one week, it usually takes two months.  Wang is a family friend so she was willing to do it.

If you need a dress quickly, check bridal shops for sales of floor samples that can be quickly altered, shop regular department stores for white or ivory gowns or visit vintage clothing stores for previously worn wedding dresses.  If you decide to buy online, be sure you allow enough time to get the dress shipped to you and altered in case it does not fit you properly.

Attendant Dresses Varied

Khloe’s attendants wore gowns of various shades of purple, as did her mother.  The styles differed also, three were strapless, three were halter, and her two younger sisters wore mini dresses with balloon hems.  Her flower girl wore ivory with a lavender sash.

All attendant dresses do not have to be the same and actually, if you are doing a last minute wedding, it’s easiest if you don’t have to find identical dresses.  You can select styles and tones of the same color according to what looks best on each person.

Joint Maids of Honor

Two of Khloe’s sisters were maid of honor, something you can do if you have two sisters or two close friends.  She had other attendents also.

Venue

The wedding took place at the home of a family friend.

If you need a quick place for your wedding and don’t want to fly to Vegas or go to City Hall,  your home or the home or garden of a friend or family member is an excellent place to get married.  You can find officiants who are willing to perform a ceremony.  Make sure you can get your marriage license quickly and complete your pre-nuptial agreements, if needed, before you desired date. (Some gossip columns say Khloe and Lamar didn’t legally get married, they did a wedding for the cameras only since, reportedly, their pre-nups haven’t been finalized.)

Flowers

Weddings flowers were white roses, calla lilies and hydrangeas.  Attendants’ hand-ties bouquets were of white roses, Khloe’s also included lilies of the valley and stephanotis.

Use in-season flowers for the lowest cost and fastest delivery.

She Used a Wedding Planner

If you want to do a last minute wedding and need to involve caterers, florists, musicians, etc., it’s best to hire a professional wedding planner who has good relationships with a variety of vendors who can help you pull off something spectacular in a short amount of time.

The weddng will be the November 8 episode of Keeping up with the Kardashians on the E! television network.  Photos of the wedding are in the October 12, 2009 issue of OK! Magazine.

There was another celebrity wedding this past weekend.  Actress Milla Jovovich, in the Long Muse wedding dress from the Temperley London’s Bridal Collection, married director Paul W. S. Anderson in the backyard of their Spanish-style home in Beverley Hills on Saturday, August 22, 2009.

Here are some ideas you can steal:

• As with many outdoor celebrity weddings I’ve blogged about, the aisle was scattered with flower petals, this time the petals were white
• Floral arrangements were red and white (if the idea of red at your wedding doesn’t seem right, remember there are many shades of red, you can find flowers in deep reds and maroons which would work well for a Autumn wedding)
• The music at the pool-side pre-reception party, was traditional Spanich music provided by a Spanish guitarist and a female vocalist (a DJ could also provide Spanish guitar music at your pre-reception or reception)
• Reception music included Cuban drums (if you want live music and are not sure where to find musicians, check with local talent agencies)

Wearing a custom Vera Wang wedding gown, actress Alyssa Milano married agent David Bugliari at his family’s New Jersey estate on August 15, 2009.

Here are the ideas you’ll want to steal:

• At the outdoor wedding, the aisle was scattered with cream-colored rose petals

• They wed under a wrought-iron gazebo decorated with calla lilies, roses and willow

• The bridal bouquet was made of  lily of the valley flowers

• The color theme was purple.  The bridesmaids wore long purple gowns and the flower girls wore long white dresses with purple sashes.

• In keeping with a “country-chic” theme, wooden signs directed guests to the reception area which was decorated rattan furniture.  Bales of hay were used as cocktail tables.  (You can get bales of hay at a feed store)

• The reception was in a tent with wooden flooring and wrought iron chandeliers (Flooring and chandeliers can be rented from a tent or party rental company)

• Dinner was served “family style” on rustic farmhouse tables (”family style” means platters of food were placed on the tables for guests to serve themselves – perfect for a casual country wedding)

The wedding was planned by event planner, lifestyle designer, and star of the Lifetime television show, Get Married, Colin Cowie.

I continue my obsession with stealing ideas from celebrity weddings with actress Ali Larter’s August 1 ceremony to Hayes MacArthur in Kennebunkport, Maine.  It was an outdoor event and, if you notice in the photo above, instead of an aisle runner, the aisle was bordered with petals from pink and purple roses.  Great idea!

Although many outdoor weddings use cloth or carpet aisle runners, as reality star Kendra Wilkinson did when she wed at the Playboy mansion, there is always the risk of someone, usually the bride, tripping on the cloth or sticking a sharp heel right through the fabric.  Other, safer, ideas to define the aisle at an outdoor wedding:

• Potted plants at the end of each row of chairs to define the walkway

• Leaves, instead of rose petals, scattered along the border for a autumn wedding

• A bow, wreath, or swag attached to the aisle seats

Take the weather into account when you chose your aisle decorations.  Petal or leaf borders will scatter in the wind and fresh flower swags can wilt quickly under a hot sun.  Work with an experienced florist for more ideas.

Don’t forget, when you select your wedding gown, a long train will be ruined if you drag it through dirt, grass, or sand.  You might want to chose a tea length dress instead, one with a hem that falls between the bottom of the knee and the bottom of the calf.

American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi planned her own wedding when she married Mike McCuddy in small (36 guests – no celebrities) intimate ceremony near her home in Prospect Harbor, Maine on July 5, 2009.  Photographs and a description of the event are featured in the July 20, 2009 issue of In Touch Weekly magazine.

Here are some ideas you can steal from Kara:

Something Borrowed and Recycled!

• Kara’s matron-of-honor wore the dress that Kara wore as a bridesmaid at her wedding

• Kara wore her late mother’s wedding dress at the pre-wedding reception (her wedding dress was a mermaid-style, strapless gown by Vera Wang)

• She wore her grandmother’s pearl earrings and bracelet

The Ceremony

• The 30-minute ceremony was held in a church across the street from her home

• The couple used traditional vows rather than writing their own

• They included moments of remembrance for her late mother and his late sister

The Receptions

• The pre-wedding and post-wedding receptions took place in her backyard

• Pre-wedding reception food included crepes, quiches, pastries and muffins

• Post-wedding reception food included Maine lobster and salmon – food was organic

• Music was handled by a DJ and featured karaoke

• Colors were cream, white and natural beige

• Desserts were red velvet cake and whoopie pies

• Favors were personally inscribed iPods loaded with music selected by her business partner (instead of  iPods, select music and create personalized CDs to use as favors)

If you are having a small, intimate wedding, you, like Kara, may be able to handle the details yourself.  Be organized and keep things simple, but beautiful.

Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan, costars of the movie Step Up, got married Saturday, July 11, at Church Estate Vineyards in Malibu, the same venue both Fergie and Josh Duhamel and Natasha Bedingfield and Matt Robinson used for their weddings this year.

Here are the ideas from people.com’s report that you’ll want to steal:

• A short, 15 minute outdoor ceremony

• A fairy theme carried out by two flower girls who wore wings

• Bridesmaids wore long, flowing,  pink, halter-neck dresses.  The halter neckline varied a little among the women.

• Jenna wore a Reem Acra strapless wedding gown with a sweetheart neckline

• Flowers at the ceremony were were white and pink roses

• The sit-down reception took place in a tent

• The cake was shaped like a castle with fairies.  Flavors included red velvet, chocolate and white.

• The favors were crystals, which kept to the fairy theme

Kendra Wilkinson, Hugh Hefner’s ex-girlfriend and a former star of The Girls Next Door, wed Philadelphia Eagles football team wide receiver, Hank Baskett, on June 27 at the Playboy mansion in Beverly Hills.  The July 13, 2009 issue of Us Weekly magazine gives details that you can use when planning your own wedding.

Here are the ideas you’ll want to steal:

• The civil ceremony was outdoors.  There was a white aisle runner which led to an arch of roses and hydrangeas.

• The reception in the backyard was tented, decor was also all in white.

• Kendra co-designed her strapless, duchesse-satin wedding gown with R-Mine Bridal’s Armine Ohanessian.  The groom was dressed all in white.  The bridesmaids wore short lavender dresses and the flower girl wore a white dress with a lavender sash.

• Flowers were roses, hydrangea blossoms, and orchids in white and lavender.

• The cake was layers of chocolate and strawberry, frosted white, decorated with their monogram and topped with a replica of Kendra and Hank.

• Food was served buffet style and included lobster, rib-eye steaks, sushi and mini cheeseburgers.

• Music choices:

• Processional – The Wedding March

• First Dance – I Cross My Heart a George Strait song

• Father-Daughter dance (Hugh Hefner and Kendra) – As Time Goes By – from Hefner’s favorite the movie, Casablanca

• Bouquet toss – Let’s Get It On by Marvin Gaye

Find great photos and more details in the magazine.

Television’s former Bachelorette, Jen Schefft, wed options trader Joe Waterman on May 15.  The June 1, 2009 issue of Us Weekly magazine gives details that you can use when planning your own wedding.  Here are the ideas you’ll want to steal:

• The venue was a restaurant.  The ceremony was in a private room which was transformed into a candle-lit dining room for the reception while the guests were attending  the pre-reception party in a separate room.

• The ceremony was secular, even though the couple are both Christians.

• The colors were black and white.  Jen wore a white Carolina Herrera wedding dress with a black bow and black peep-toe pumps.  The bridesmaids wore black.  The four-tier, red velvet cake was frosted in cream cheese and trimmed with black satin  ribbons.

• Receptions centerpieces were pink and purple hydrangeas, tulips, and peonies.

• The gifts for the bridesmaids were pearl bracelets.

• Music choices:

• Recessional – Signed, Sealed and Delivered by Stevie Wonder.

• First Dance – Everything by Michael Buble.

• Father-Daughter dance – My Wish by Rascal Flatts.

• Bouquet toss – Single Ladies by Beyonce.

• Favors were M&M’s with their portrait printed on them.

Find out more details and see photos in the magazine.

Get wedding planning tips from the wedding of reality stars Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt.  If you pick up the latest edition of Us Weekly magazine, you’ll see details of their April 25th wedding in Pasadena, California.  Here are some of the ideas that you can steal:

• Wedding colors were white and yellow.  The flowers were cream and yellow daffodils and calla lilies.  The bridesmaids wore yellow dresses while two flowers girls wore white dresses with yellow sashes.

• There were two receptions, the second one included familyonly and close friends.  Both had multi-tiered wedding cakes.

• Heidi wore a custom drop-waist Monique Lhuillier dress for her ceremony, changed to a short, strapless white Stella McCartney dress for the first reception, then changed to a white Juicy Couture tracksuit, with “Mrs. Pratt” embroidered on the back, for the second reception.  All clothes were white.

The wedding will be featured on the May 31 show of The Hills.