There is this great commercial out on TV now where a man gets on a bus and sits down next to this woman, and begins speaking to her in discombobulated English about how she is his long lost cousin, and only she can help him retrieve his lottery winnings (or some such thing) by just handing over all her personal identification information.  Then an announcer comes on and says “these scams don’t work well in person, you shouldn??t fall for them online either.” The commercial, by the Alliance for Consumer Fraud Awareness, cracks me up every time I see it, because I’ve received loads of crazy email scams just like that one.          

          Most are worded in a very odd, ESL style of speech, using lowercase letters sometimes Interchanged with UpperCase lEtters as well.  Usually they’re completely ridiculous references to me having to send some of my banking information to my long lost uncle in Nigeria as I am, typically, “his only hope.”            

           In any event, most of the time these scams are easy to spot and easy to understand why it might not be the brightest of ideas to forward my bank account and routing information to some stranger via email.  But yesterday I received the following email to my Fabuluxe account: 

 “I’m Chris Darwin and i would like to inquire if you will be available to coordinate our wedding which would be taken place on the 16th of next month(February).I would like to know the necessary things needed and involved so as to make this event a worthwhile and remarkable one. I look forward to hearing from you soon.” 

       I thought it sounded like a scam email but replied anyway to get some additional information, and it became clear when she informed me they’d “already booked a band from MassacHusettS, uSA”  that this was not an entirely legit request.  I forwarded it to Terrica who explained that loads of people have already received it. 

         I did a little digging, and seemingly the scam here involves you acting as some sort of money launderer, i.e., they overpay you for your services and then ask you to send the extra money here or there, etc.  CrAzY!  Vendors beware!          

We’ve got a secret.

It’s like, huge. l’m so excited, I wish I could tell you now.

But I won’t can’t, so you will have to wait until the official launch date of Jan 1.

We hope you’ll like it!

As of October 27, 2007, I am officially married! Hooray. After two (short) years of planning, Joe and I managed to finally have a wedding, and it was FABULOUS if I do say so myself, and I do. I’m not even sure where to begin. Our wedding was at the Gingerbread House in Savannah, GA, with the majority of the guest list from various places in the Northeast. I’d been telling everyone for weeks how warm it’d been down here, and that “last year at this time I was on the beach.” So clearly, it was sort of cold and dreary, and rainy for the majority of my wedding weekend. I joked with a friend that we had nothing to worry about weather-wise since GA had been in a drought for almost a year – HA! Who knew that the only thing holding the weather back all this time had been my nuptials. It will more than likely never rain again in GA after this past weekend; the whole state will actually dry up and fall off into the sea…but it had to be a monsoon wedding on my big weekend!

..It did manage to be fairly nice out for the actual day of the ceremony, so I was thrilled. Everything more or less went off without a hitch, which I think, is basically unheard of. All of the smooth sailing can be attributed to a number of factors, not the least of which is that the O’s other fabulous intern, Lindsay, graciously agreed to be by “Day of Coordinator.”

And may I just say she was fabulous. I haven’t the slightest idea how people go without one. I barely managed the planning of the wedding without any professional assistance, but attempting to run the whole show while actually being the one getting married is CRAZY. Lindsay was great. She showed up early to make sure that everything was going as planned: DJ arriving, things set up correctly, caterer getting there, the whole bit. She escorted guests to the courtyard when they arrived, and helped hide the groomsmen up stairs in their room until it was time for the ceremony to begin. She was kind enough to field my crazy phone calls all day, repeatedly asking about the status of everything. She even dealt with the police for me when some crazy (clearly parentless) teens decided to crash my wedding photo session! It was quite a scene.

Joe and I wrote our own vows which proved to be extremely scary on the day of the wedding, but I’m so happy that we did it. I think really thinking about what you want to say, and knowing that it’s coming from the heart made a big difference in the way our ceremony felt. We both incorporated references to our family and friends being at the wedding, and I think it made for a very personal, intimate feel.

 Thereafter, I wanted a very non-traditional all out party. We had heavy hors d’ouevres for dinner and no assigned seating which made for a very mingle-y relaxed feel. I really wanted to eliminate a lot of the traditional events (cake cutting, bouquet tossing, etc.) because I felt like all that shuffling people around to watch me smush cake into Joe’s face would take away from the party, and I wanted the party…and honey, we GOT the party. It was great – everyone drinking and dancing and chatting, and enjoying the food and our ice cream wedding cake.

Yes. I said ice cream cake. I hate wedding cake. So we opted for two ice-cream cakes from Coldstone Creamery. One (mine) had Sweet Cream Ice Cream, brownies, fudge, yellow cake, pecans and was covered in a layer of chocolate ganache. The other (Joe’s) was a Cookies and Cream cake complete with Oreo Ice Cream, yellow cake, and vanilla frosting. I am drooling on the keyboard just thinking about it. They were a HIT.

At the moment I’m going through a little post-partum-style depression now that all the planning for the big day is over. Thank goodness I got this gig with the O and can keep planning weddings for other people…I think I’m in love with it. Okay who’s next….?

I heart my interns 🙂

Today is Lindsay’s birthday so join me in a round of shots the Happy Birthday song! During a company pow-wow, it was revealed that our fair Lindsay has never had Creme Brulee before. I, of course, almost died at this revelation.  So guess what I will be treating her to the next time I see her!?

At any rate, leave some love for her in our comments, she deserves it. She’s a creative and dynamic woman who is such an asset to the craziness that is The O.

—————-
Now playing: Jennifer Lopez – If You Had My Love
via FoxyTunes

Hi, I am Lindsay Morkel and am excited to say, I am now an intern with Terrica and Once Upon Your Wedding.

I became a Stylist in 2005, and after graduating I made the move from Kansas City to Georgia. I have been a stylist now for two years. My passion is in formal and bridal styles, and with that I am now making the transition into… ta da… wedding planner!

I guess somewhere along the way of getting brides ready for their big day, I became obsessed. Beauty, fashion, flowers, colors, cakes, I am enthralled by it all. So, I am going from designing hair to designing weddings.

All of that has brought me to now, which is me, a Midwest girl living in the South. A big change. I guess that’s why my boyfriend, being the southern gentleman that he is, felt it was his duty to make sure I had tried boiled peanuts, grits, and of course sweet tea. But seriously, the people, their charm, and the change of pace, I am loving it.

So, with my first blog complete and my new career starting, I have officially made the transition from updos to I do’s.

         Hi there! My name is Abby Washuta and just this week I’ve had the honor of accepting a position as an intern with Terrica and the oh-so-fabulous Once Upon Your Wedding, g.k.a. (glamorously known as)  “The O.”

            I graduated from Boston University in 2003 with a degree in psychology and quickly realized I did not know what I wanted to do now that I was “grown up.”  Unlike many of my fellow graduates, however, it was not that I had no idea what to do; it was that I had too many ideas, and apparently not enough hours in the day to be employed as a psychologist, lawyer, writer, restaurant manager and florist.  If only I could find one career to fulfill all of my many interests…was there such a thing?

        Shortly thereafter, my boyfriend of six years asked me to marry him and I caught a serious case of bride-itis.  He was in the army and we had to have a quick ceremony at the courthouse in our jeans, all along promising ourselves (er, well, promising the monster we’d created in me) that we’d have a traditional wedding just a soon as we could…we’ve been married nearly two years now, and I’m still in the process of planning the BIG ONE.

         I devoured everything bridal I came across and spent more of my free time than I’d like to admit on the internet researching and planning every detail of the wedding of my dreams.  I won’t even mention the countless hours I spent (spend) glued to the various wedding planning TV shows, scribbling down their helpful hints and ideas in my notebook.  What developed from all things weddings was, surprisingly, not just a serious obsessive disorder, but an idea for a new career as a wedding planner.  The more I thought about it the more I realized that all my interests and talents could be harnessed without having to maintain thirty-seven simultaneous careers.  What a relief!

           The psychologist in me can spend time talking to people and trying to figure out what it is they want and how best to make that happen.  The lawyer in me can scrutinize over contracts and paperwork and negotiate on behalf of clients.  I can write, and socialize, and orchestrate events, and discuss food and beverage options, and talk fashion, and flowers and color palettes. The possibilities are endless.  I set to work looking for a foot in the door with an experienced planner, and found Terrica and The O.

           To date, I’ve helped Terrica out with one very platinum wedding, complete with a DJ, a band, two dance floors, three different venues, and a fireworks display. I have officially written my first blog and will begin my first project in the coming weeks. Needless to say, I have a lot of work ahead of me and a lot of learning to do and I’m super excited to be learning and interning and blogging with The O(h My!) 

I was featuerd on Trash the Dress!  Check out the article at the Trash the Dress website.

 Thank you to my buddy Mark Eric for the wonderful opportunity and featuring me on his site!  If you are considering ditching the idea of the classic bridal portrait, definitely consider “trashing your dress”.  Check out the site for more ideas or a fabulous trashy photog in your area. 

We are proud to announce that Once Upon Your Wedding will now carry Carlson Craft’s lines of invitations.  We’ve got it all:  Something Different, Exclusive Collection, Seventeen Fifty, Save the Date!, Occasions, Pockets, and The Bridal Collection.??  In addition to these lines, we also carry menu cards, seal n’ sends, thank you cards, and more. 

 You can receive 20% off your order through our new online invitation site and current clients receive an additional 10% off.  With the new Le Papier service,  The O wedding designers can work with you to have your invitations calligraphed, assembled and mailed, even if you aren’t a client!  Your wedding team will also handle your RSVPs and guest tracking.  To find out more about this service and to receive a special rate or to get suggestions and assistance, contact Customer Service.