What is your best advice for engaged couples?
We may be biased but interview who you are wanting to work with for your planner. It is important to work with a professional to create a realistic budget, talk through logistics, and create a more thorough big picture. As someone who has started this process with many couples over the years our initial consultation always leads to couples having deeper conversations about things before moving forward so everyone is aligned about priorities, budget and guest count. It is always best to walk into the process with your eyes completely opened to what to expect to make sure that everyone is planning towards the same thing. It will make the process much more fun and exciting.
What is your favorite trend for weddings currently?
We are loving the look change for the "party" portion of the wedding day. We are loving the shorter fun dresses with a lot of texture or a big statement piece like a bow or sparkles for our brides. For grooms we are seeing a change of jacket from something more formal for during the ceremony and dinner to something either colorful or patterned for the dancing section of the night. We love seeing our couples express themselves through fashion.
What sets your brand or business a part?
The destination wedding planning portion of our business is something that is very unique to us. It is a full service, concierge planning service for not just the wedding but the travel planning for all of the guests for the entire duration of their travels. It is important that for destination planning the process is seamless and enjoyable for everyone, no matter the previous level of travel experience, and we put a lot of emphasis on this as it ensures the process from start to finish is a great one for everyone. We focus on destination weddings in Europe, Mexico/Caribbean, and throughout the United States.
What is one of the most unique elements you have seen in a wedding?
This previous season we saw a very unique guest favor that we loved. It was a custom made perfume and cologne with Tom Ford. The idea behind this was that scent is your strongest sense, and that when guests would wear it they would affiliate with this moment of time when they were celebrating our couple in Lake Como.
How far in advance should couples book your business?
For full planning we typically see couples booking 24-14 months prior. For partial planning 9-12 months in advance. For coordination 6-9 months in advance.
What is something you constantly strive for?
We are always striving to stay on top of trends in the design and fashion world to continue to push ourselves further as planners and tastemakers with our couples. While not every couple is trying to push the envelope we find that the new trends absolutely impact availability and adjust small choices that make a couples wedding unique. We love finding small ways to set each wedding a part while keeping it timeless.
Contact: www.eleganteweddingsandevents.com
[email protected]
(312) 550-5338
Photography by: Courtesy of (from top): Rossini Photography;Nonfiction Love; Sapan Ahuja; Anna Roussos; Perry Vaile
