preston bailey – St. Simons Wedding Planner :: Island Destination Weddings

Celebrity Fête: Preston Bailey’s Wedding

Preston Bailey Wedding

The guru of wedding design, Preston Bailey, tied the knot last week at midnight in New York’s iconic Empire State Building. Preston’s weddings are always seen as effortless, fashionable and over the top. It is absolutely no wonder that is very own wedding turned out to be the same way.

King Kong Floral Statue Preston Bailey Wedding Getting married at the Empire State Building alone is bragworthy, but what would the New York landmark be without its partner in crime, King Kong? Known for his large floral arrangements of animals and other natural elements, this particular beauty was there to greet guests as they entered the wedding. Not to be outdone by one of his fabulous creations, when it was time to come down the aisle, Preston emerged from what appeared to be a 12 foot bride drenched in orchids and a Reem Acra gown, donning a dapper black tuxedo and carrying a white bouquet.

All white ceremony draped with florals
The ceremony altar as quite regal, with clusters of hanging flowers and crystals. The chair covers gave the same lush look as the florals that were the focal point of the ceremony, tying the look all together. The ceremony altar itself, was draped as guests arrived, to add to the mystery of the affair.

Wedding Cocktail Hour Decor
One thing you could tell, by both the set up and decor, was that preston and Theo wanted their wedding to be gorgeous, but also fun and personal. The hallways and rooms had hanging crystals and beautiful shades of purple florals, but also their favorite images of attending guests.

Gold Hanging Boxes of Chocolates as Wedding Favors Pink centerpieces for cocktail tables
As favors, the couple hung gold boxes from a gold tree of gourmet chocolates. As opposed to having a sit down dinner, they opted for a cocktail party full of delicious fare, including an after-party with breakfast finger foods. As it was a cocktail party, there was no formal seating. Instead, there were high top tables with Chiavari stools and gorgeous cascading arrangements.

Reception Menu for Food
In addition to great entertainment and décor, food makes the party. Playing on famous pairs, their delightfully designed menu (in both the culinary and artistic sense) consisted of what we call “small plates”. These little, but savory, bites are perfect for you to get creative for your cocktail hour or party.

Pink Lighting for Wedding Reception
It was definitely a party atmosphere with a pink wash thrown over the room with speciality lighting. As a special touch, the dance floor displayed orchids, mimicking the floral details of the wedding.

Photos :: Robert Evans via BizBash

We Likey: Preston Bailey’s Color Palette Picker

Wedding Sugar

It’s no secret that we are completely in love with color and the Wizard of Aahhs himself, Preston Bailey has a new feature on his website with creating delicious palettes and inspiring ideas for your wedding. Simply pick a color and then you can pick elements of your events such as number of guests, its location, the light source and the event’s tone.

You then add your choice of a “Preston Bailey” touch and the tool generates a color palette as well as information about it.

Very cool and an uber amounts of fun. Go play! Tell us your favorite palettes!

The Life of a Wedding Planner: Engage 09

Company News, Terrica Talk

When you’re a wedding planner, people think that your job is so much “fun”(!!!), playing in pretty dresses and linens, picking lush flowers for a centerpiece and choosing delectable seven tiered wedding cakes. Many don’t view this line of “work” as work at all, let alone hard work. While I and my colleagues know that nothing could be further from the truth, the following post will not help my case.

In June, I attended the Engage!09 Luxury Wedding Business Summit in Grand Cayman, which is the brainchild of Rebecca Grinnals and Kathryn Arce of Engaging Concepts. There, wedding professionals from literally across the globe were gathered to hear from experts such as the Wizard of Ahh’s himself, event designer Preston Bailey, wedding cake coutourier Sylvia Weinstock, the fabulous Marcy Blum as well as editors of some of your favorite magazines such as The Knot, Brides, Modern Bride & Elegant Bride, as well as Martha Stewart Weddings. The second day, we were able to have small group sessions with industry builders and advancers like former president of Preston Bailey Designs, Sean Low, Randy Fenoli of TLC’s “Say Yes To the Dress” and Kleinfeld Bridal, beauty and brains Harmony Walton of The Bridal Bar (be sure to visit their new Bridal Bar Location in Atlanta, too!), the incomparable Michelle Rago, Bee Kim, the mastermind behind Wedding Bee, “style obsessed” Abby Larson of Style Me Pretty and so many more. It was also great to see and support good friends who served as panelists as well like Liene Stevens of Think Splendid and Lara Casey of Southern Weddings and the new Lara Casey Reps.

As planner, and being naturally fabulous, I had all of my outfits planned—with a few wardrobe changes in between (yes, I’m serious…I ran into Randy Fenoli at one of the dinner parties and he exclaimed, ‘”Girl! Did you change again!?”). So imagine my horror when my luggage was delayed prior to the conference’s welcome party on the beach. So there I was, stuck with what I had on since 4AM and what I like to call my “TSA approved 1 quart ziploc makeup bag”. I shudder as I reminisce… Nevertheless, it turned out wonderfully! I had a fabulous roommate—Monica of The White Box of Wedding Design, and her husband was equally fabulous— I had a cosmo and creme brulee delivered to my room as a gift for, and I quote “Taking care of his baby” while we were in Grand Cayman. I know. I should ask them to adopt me. Monica was fabulous—we sat up most of the nights talking (sometimes via Skype with her husband) and laughing!

The parties were absolutely gorgeous—it was so nice to be on the receiving end of great linens, design concept, florals and live music for a change. It was funny, because during the beach party (which was literally on the beach, with a tiffany blue carpet to strut on and shoe valet), something dropped and I remember laughing as I and about 10 other wedding planners and vendors all raced to fix it and replace it before it was noticed. Part of the job! It was also great to meet friends I talk to daily but don’t get a chance to see often (some I had never met in person until now!) and those that I consider friends after falling in love with them over martinis and 1 AM fries. Yes, this totally includes my new BFF, Michael Landry of Gucci. Michael and I met serendipitously over a Tortuga rum cake tasting, and I was just as lucky to have gone on to dinner with him and other professional at the exclusive dine-arounds, which ours was hosted by Randy Fenoli (Be sure to check out Randy???s recap that includes pictures our dinner and fun times).

Ok, so enough chatting…how about some pictures?

You know I’m a total foodie—had to get pictures of our lunch!

Gorgeous arrangements and linen from La Tavola Linen were staples of the conference

Marcy Blum, Michelle Rago and Preston Bailey and myself

The final night of the conference was a stunning party with lighting, draping, huge hanging decor…you know, the things that a wedding planner or designer’s dreams are made of!