Bliss, a fine wedding fair Recap
Click HERE to register for the 2012 Bliss!
Bliss, a fine wedding fair seems like it happened a while ago, and I guess it did! For those of you who are wondering what Bliss was, it is Lynchburg’s one and only wedding conference designed to educate (and pamper!) the brides while they interact with local professionals who can answer all of their questions. It was full of main and breakout sessions, food, vendor booths, door prizes, music and fun! In this segment, I am sharing with you some of our pre-Bliss moments. Special thanks goes out to Jeremiah Guelzo of Stone Blue Productions for the photos.
Bliss took place at Riverviews Artspace in downtown Lynchburg, and it was the ideal setting. The weather was beautiful, the room was light, warm and welcoming, and I just love the atmosphere at Riverviews!
A limited selection of vendor booths were at Bliss, which really allowed for one on one interaction between the vendors and the brides … they were able to mingle all day long!
Below is the booth of RS Exclusive, which is a full service wedding event planning company.
Stone Blue Productions offers both photography and cinematography services for weddings (in addition to doing amazing design work!).
It was also a privilege to have Allegra’s Studio present … she even has a photography studio in the Riverviews Artspace building. How perfect! Visions by Heather was also very well represented at Bliss.
Travelbugs provided our grand prize honeymoon in Aruba … many thanks to them!
I love how homey and cozy Sincerely, Liz: Photography‘s booth was.
Love Is in the Air always puts together a lovely display to show off all of their amazing work.
I adore the cakes from La Bella Torta … creative, beautiful and tasty!
Boudoir … they are just plain fun, and they have lots of things to choose from.
Sabrena Deal of S Carter Studios brought her photobooth, which of course was a big hit!
Thank you to Bowen for providing the actual bags that our vendor’s goodies went into for all of the brides. Liz Cook of Sincerely, Liz: Photography designed the Bliss logo and our programs for the day. I loved them!
All of the brides were given a cute little “B” pin (Is it for Bliss, bride, or beautiful? You decide!), which was handmade by … me. Lots of fun!
Bliss also had an Idea Bar. Here are the actual dress and cake from our editorial photo shoot. We even had the video from the shoot up and running. To see our photo shoot, just click here. Love Is in the Air submitted their beautiful fabric bouquets along with a clutch for the mother of the bride that safely tucks things like tissues and lipstick away.
RS Exclusive had a sampling of their folded napkins on display … so many options!
Visions by Heather had her color inspiration boards on display, which coordinated with the colors of Bliss. Fun!
The tables were simply set with the Bliss programs and an easily made centerpiece to match the Bliss, a fine wedding fair colors.
I adore (truly!) my helpers/interns!! Here Madison (with her fiance Andrew) are helping to welcome brides with Savannah, who was my computer expert for the day. Thanks to you ALL!!
Here is Melissa from Travelbugs with her daughter, Kati, who helped with the Travelbugs booth for the day.
Ok, there is a mini sneak peek for now. In the next posting, I will show you the workshops, food, door prizes and the guests … after all, what fun is an event without guests??
Bliss, a fine wedding fair was a labor of love (and for love, too!), but I truly could not have asked for a better day. When asked how it went after the fact, I could only reply “perfectly” and “flawlessly”. Truly, I could not have hand picked a better group of people … vendors, interns and brides … to spend the day with. I had such an amazing time, and plans are in the works for our next Bliss, a fine wedding fair. I will keep you all posted!
Again, special thanks to Jeremiah Guelzo of Stone Blue Productions who graciously pulled quadruple duty as a speaker, helper (planning, setting up and tearing down … not to mention my on the fly sound man!), photographer AND cinematographer. Thank you so much, Jeremiah for the photos and the video of Bliss, a fine wedding fair.
Here I am getting things started for the day. What a wonderful group of people … we had about 60 guests with 27 of those being brides.
Here, Mary Love is beginning the workshop conducted by Love Is in the Air, which offered practical advice for brides on entertaining in their new home. They provided recipes along with tips and tricks. So fun!
Sabrena Deal of S Carter Studios and Liz Cook of Sincerely, Liz: Photography have been to enough weddings (and they are super creative!!) to know how to add special touches into the day to make guests feel comfortable. They did a wonderful job imparting their knowledge to help the brides be gracious to their guests in so many different ways!
When the ladies came back from their first session, they were treated to a wonderful (and healthy!) lunch by Flavours Catering by Design … yum! It awaited them on the tables when they arrived back in the main room.
Both brides and vendors alike enjoyed the chance to mingle together throughout the day.
An informative session on getting the most out of your wedding day photography (and the importance of hiring a wedding photographer!) was given by Heather Cheatham of Visions by Heather, Allegra of Allegra’s Studio and Jeremiah Guelzo of Stone Blue Productions.
Melissa Taylor of Travelbugs did a fun session on travel and honeymoon options. I adore traveling!!
RS Exclusive‘s Sandra Guelzo conducted a session on having a wedding planner so that you can truly be the bride on your wedding day and not have to stress.
Awaiting the ladies when they arrived back from their workshops was a copy of the wedding issue of Bella (of which I am the Editorial Director!) and a yummy Lindt truffle.
To cap off the day, a dessert reception was provided by the ladies of Love Is in the Air. Delicious!! I especially enjoyed the candied nuts. Mmmmmm …
Debbie Johnson of Flavours Catering did an excellent job helping the brides with all of their catering questions. Debbie was also a HUGE help to me in planning the space, food and also a lot of last minute things. She truly knows events and has the ability to think of EVERYTHING. Thank you so much, Debbie!!
Who doesn’t love door prizes?? I do!! We were able to give away a great bag of goodies from SPA 4109, a two hour consultation with RS Exclusive, adorable pins and a guest book handmade by e&a, a gift certificate to Boudoir and our grand prize honeymoon in Aruba from Travelbugs. Thank you to all who graciously donated door prizes for our brides!
Melissa from Travelbugs with our Aruba honeymoon winner!!
One special part of our day was to have a VBB (our Very Bella Bride), which was a contest that we ran on facebook. The winner, Heather, was able to have a reserved parking spot, a reserved table, and free admission and goodie bags for herself and 3 guests. Thank you for all of your hard work to become the VBB, Heather!
Again, thank you to everyone involved … brides, guests, vendors, sponsors, speakers, interns … etc. You truly did so much to make our day a success!! To cap off this posting, be sure to check out the video below by Stone Blue Productions. I hope to see you all at the next Bliss, a fine wedding fair!
Bliss A Fine Wedding Fair from Stone Blue Productions on Vimeo.
Jennifer what a lovely article on a beautiful event! It is wonderful to see such professional and organized presentations of services to brides! Congratulations on a successful event!
It was so much fun that day…. (and I always enjoy seeing professional photos of our food — so much better than the ones we took!)
Thank you again, Jennifer, for having such a great event and for the opportunity to be a HCB Vendor!