Vendors:
Meredith with Significant Events of Texas – Coordination
Colby with Astounding Sounds – Lighting and Drapes
Branching Out – Floral

Love from the Q’s

Vendors:

Bows & Arrows – Floral & Creative
After Yes – Coordinator
Stephanie Potter – Makeup
Vain Glamour – Hair
Layered Bake Shop – Cakes
Southern Fried Paper – Invites & Paper
Beauty Bar – Retro Locale
Ducky Bob’s – Rentals
Rent my Dust – Vintage Rentals
Rosa Clara – Dresses
Barbie Model – Tabitha
Ken Model – Adam

AFTER YES

After you say YES
Before you say I DO

Elizabeth Gonzalez is a fellow studio-mate at The Bell Jar and the fabulous owner of After Yes, a wedding planning boutique. Elizabeth and her team of pros offer personalized wedding planning services for the stylish bride. After Yes is a member of NACE and ABC and was voted The Knot Best of Weddings for 2011. After Yes is also featured in CRAVE Dallas Guidebook, a go-to resource for the best women-owned businesses in Dallas. Check out her helpful tips for brides-to-be below!

Q: How important is it to hire a professional wedding planner as opposed to have an organized friend help you with your wedding? What are the benefits to the bride and groom?

A: It is absolutely crucial to hire a professional. Using a friend can often lead to loosing that friend. Weddings are high emotion and high stress — It’s never a good idea to mix business and friendships. By using a professional, the bride and groom have someone with real experience and expertise. They are trained to be put in difficult situations and know what to expect and how to work with vendors.

Q: What is the difference between the service a venue coordinator offers and what you offer?

A: A venue coordinator is typically only responsible for what goes on at the venue — catering, linen, etc. — and making sure their rules are followed. They may have some role in helping put together a timeline as well. Our services are all encompassing of every aspect of the wedding. We’re with the bride and groom from start to finish and are a true advocate for them. We help with the design, budget and vendor selection as well as offer our Wedding Day Emergency Kit for any on-site needs.

Q: What aspects of your own personality help you in wedding planning?

A: I am very caring, patient and sweet. I truly care about all of my brides and have an invested interest in them. Nothing makes me happier than to see them enjoy their day because I was there to help.

Q: Besides planning and organizing a wedding, what are some of the behind the scenes tasks you do to benefit the couple?

A: There are so many small details that happen behind the scenes on the wedding day — we make the day run smoothly without anyone ever questioning what’s going on. Probably the biggest benefit to the couple is that we help pack up all the gifts and personal items at the end of the night and make sure they get to the right place. If we have access to the couple’s honeymoon suite, we like to leave flowers and treats as a nice surprise!

Q: Do you see a common thread among the weddings you’ve worked on like a certain style or trend?

A: The style we love and attract is the “Anthropologie Wedding” — laid-back, typically outdoors or rustic — really different and fun. We like to say we cater to the not-so average bride.

Q: Having been a bride yourself, what’s the best piece of advice you can share with other brides-to-be?

A: Relax and enjoy the day — really take the time to soak up every moment. You do so much to prepare before the wedding, when it comes, just let it happen and leave the details to a planner!

Much Love Ben + Chrys Q.!

     Alicia is the bows
Adam is the arrows
The hip Dallas floral design studio

We recently sat down with Alicia Rico of Bows + Arrows for an interview and photo shoot for our new vendor spotlight feature. Bows + Arrows is located inside The Bell Jar (a community of wedding and event pros) and has been featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, D Weddings and Paper City Mag to name just a few. We are excited to share some of the thoughtful answers Alicia gave us about her industry!

Q:  What is your favorite aspect of the floral industry?

A:  I love seeing everything come together! We sit down with brides and help them decide their color, style, decor and a lot of times we even design and come up with new concepts for them. So seeing everything come together in their location with their colors is my favorite part.

Q:  What is the best advice for brides who don’t even know where to start when choosing flowers?

A:  I think Pinterest is a great place! A lot of brides have told me that they learn a lot about themselves and discover their style on that site. Pinterest has so many visuals and you can see what you are attracted to, what images grab your attention and pin them on a pinboard. Those images often come together and make up what your style is and what you want for your big day.

Q:  What’s your favorite wedding trend?

A:  I actually like certain color palettes especially those that aren’t used very often. Peach and salmon are big right now and pairing those with navy is gorgeous. Also, unexpected color palettes that brides come up with on their own are very interesting.

Q:  Where do you draw your inspiration from?

A:  I draw inspiration from art museums, galleries, music, nature, interior design, fashion, everywhere!

Q:  What is the most unique request you’ve gotten?

A:  We are lucky enough to get a lot of unique brides. We did a fountain installation at The Crescent where we covered the entire fountain with flowers. I love to do those kinds of installations. We even did a floral chandelier before.  All my weddings are kind of unique.

Q:  What’s the biggest advantage to working with your spouse from a bride’s perspective?

A:  We read each other’s minds, we work so well together but also we complement each other really well. I am super girly and feminine and he brings that masculine, organic touch to things.

Q:  What are you most known for among brides?

A:  I like to consider us as the hip florist. We are really in tune with what is going on the world artistically and stay on top of the game with new ideas. We like to create our own vessels and create floral sculptures. Not just your typical arrangement but a true work of art.

We absolutely love shooting by water! We gave Dariela an inspiration board for this fashion-forward session and she fell in love with the idea. It was based off a Michael Kors ad and we love the way everything came out. We shot at Joe Pool Lake and the Marina in Grand Prairie and got some awesome beachy shots. Enjoy!

Since we started doing wedding photography Chrys has always asked me to shoot her bridals. 10 years ago when we got married, Chrys never had them done and wanted the experience our brides get at this special session. I actually thought it might be cool to get another photog to shoot them but Chrys was like “No! I like the way you shoot them, Ben!” How nice it is to have a wife that believes in you So, for our 10 year anniversary I gave my wife the whole experience. We picked out the dress together and even had a bouquet made at a local florist by the beach.

Chrys I hope you love them as much I do! It was my pleasure as a husband to treat you as the bride you were once 10 years ago! Happy Anniversary and I love you! Your husband – Ben Q.