photos by Corbin Gurkin

Today we are sharing some of our tried and true tips and tricks. Even though we design our weddings and events totally around our clients’ personalities and tastes, there are a few secrets that we provide or encourage our clients to embrace across the board based on what we’ve seen work so well.  One that I feel quite strongly about is having square top or rectangle tables. I can fit more people in a smaller space by using them, and they encourage better conversation for all seated at them, versus trying to talk across a big round.

photo by Liz Banfield

We always have multiple boutonierres on hand for our grooms. After the initial ceremony, if it’s hot, or there have been several congratulatory hugs, they can get damaged or wilted. So, to make sure they stay picture perfect we can switch them out in a flash.

photos by Liz Banfield

Since I still do all of my bride’s bouquets by hand, there are times that I get certain flowers in that are so lovely I can’t decide which would be best. I’ve done two different bouquet versions, an all white or a mixed colored for the bride to choose from.

left photo by Liz Banfield; right photo by Corbin Gurkin

There are so many venues out there that may have certain fixtures or items in place that we can’t move or have to work around.  For a fountain in the middle of cocktail hour at one venue, we made custom cushions to place around for guests to sit and enjoy the view.  An old swing set on the lawn at a classic Lowcountry yacht club was less than attractive, so we covered it in greenery garlands to dress it up a bit.

photos by Liz Banfield

For a wedding at a client’s home with many hundreds of guests, coming up with ways to serve the food throughout the evening can be challenging so we love coming up with creative ways… we fashioned a store bought garden fountain into the seafood station.

photos by Liz Banfield

There are many traditions that seem to reign at Southern weddings so matter how modern they are. One tends to be that they can welcome many many guests, a lot of brides like to get married at their family homes, and the “guest book” is still incorporated somehow.  Sometimes when you planning the space and flow of the evening, these things may not always work well together. For this wedding, we placed bags with a timeline of the evening’s events and blank cards along with pens for guests to write notes to the couple to be placed in a keepsake box after the ceremony… It was great for capturing an audience during the downtime of waiting for the ceremony to start.

photos by Liz Banfield

For another large outdoor reception, we often have to build out restrooms (which of course we love to make them not look like restrooms!)… We put a flip flop and pashmina station, making it easy for ladies to grab on their way in and out of the restroom. And, covered some dead space!

photo on left by Corbin Gurkin; photos on right by Liz Banfield

Lastly, we always have fun with our escort card set ups- and sometimes we even make this a surprise for our clients! This is a great place to have some fun and get creative. For a bride with peach in its color palette, fresh peaches with floral cards made a lovely display. For a bride with a butterfly theme, paper butterflies rested on a moss covered log. Another bride loved chandeliers and they were a large part of our decor, so die cut chandelier cards hung from chandeliers were a great way to incorporate them into the decor.