Cost Savings Ideas

When you’re looking forward to your wedding day, one of the most enjoyable first tasks that bride and groom share is creating a bridal registry, and in today’s wedding world it’s become quite common to establish multiple gift lists for guests to look at as they decide what to get you for your engagement party, bridal shower, or wedding gift.

Creating a bridal registry is, according to wedding etiquette experts, a service to the wedding guests as much as it is a treat for you. After all, wedding guests want to get you the things you need and want for your home and lifestyle. They enjoy clicking onto your bridal registry, seeing the items you’ve selected, learning your style, and purchasing from your list.

Here are the top new bridal registry trends as reported by so many of our New Jersey brides and grooms:

1.   Create two to three different registries. Start with the traditional home décor and kitchen registry, and continue on to set up a list at a home improvement store (such as Home Depot or Lowes) to help you redecorate or remodel your home, or create a beautiful garden and backyard. You might create a honeymoon registry, or a charitable registry where guests can get you an exotic treat for your getaway, or donate to your favorite cause.

2.  Upgrade your housewares. Couples want the good chef’s saucepans and carving knives, or high thread-count sheets, so they’re registering for the newest and best items on the market.

3. Register for all seasons. When you’re adding sheets and bedding sets to your wedding registry list, be sure to register for lightweight fabrics that will be most comfortable during the spring and summer, as well as for heavier fabrics, blankets and throws for the cooler fall and winter months.

4. Register for electronics. Now, bride and groom registry picks include Energy-Star™ kitchen appliances, GPS systems, security systems and other electronic gadgets that make their homes comfortable and energy-efficient, and add to an exciting lifestyle in the future.

5. Register for entertaining. Our New Jersey wedding couples love to entertain, and they envision a future married life in which they’ll host holiday dinners and throw dinner parties, showing off their gourmet cuisine. If you dream of entertaining, add plenty of serving platters, barware, glassware, wine decanters, sangria pitchers and other entertaining musts to your bridal registry gift lists.

Don’t forget to keep adding items to your bridal registry gifts lists all throughout your engagement season, so that guests have plenty of affordable options, and so that you get plenty of chances to enjoy the fun of registering for wedding gifts together. Many official registries also have ‘completion programs,’ offering you 10% or 15% discounts on the gifts that remain on your list after the wedding, so when you add additional wedding gift items to your list, you can get them more affordably later on.

Thanks!

Christopher Gellings, Banquet Manager, Highlawn Pavilion

As you discuss your dream honeymoon locations as you begin to think about your getaway of a lifetime, it can be quite overwhelming once you see all of the beautiful island resorts throughout the world and as you hear about your friends’ amazing honeymoon experiences. As I write this, the world is buzzing about the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, speculating that the royal wedding couple may go on safari for part of their honeymoon.

With so many inspirations out there — so many Top 10 Travel Locale website articles and specials on travel channels, not to mention bridal websites’ honeymoon articles and their annual Top 10 picks for the perfect honeymoon location – it’s best to begin your honeymoon discussions by assessing what both of you wish for in your dream honeymoon experience.

Here are some style-setting considerations:

1. Tropical environment. It may be your dream to go to a 5-star tropical resort, sip pina coladas on the beach, swim with dolphins and sea turtles and listen to steel drum music by the pool

1. Overseas city environment. A growing number of our New Jersey wedding couples are headed to Italy for several weeks of touring the famous, historic cities and historic landmarks, not to mention enjoying the Italian cuisine and upscale shopping. A flight overseas may take you to a dream destination on any continent, perhaps even to visit with family and friends overseas.

1. Big-city environment. In this era of careful spending, more wedding couples are choosing honeymoon locations within the continental United States, planning their getaways for big cities such as New York City – with the couple staying in the finest hotel, enjoying fine dining, theater, shopping, the VIP experience. Many New Jersey wedding couples say they’re always bringing friends to visit the hotspots of New York City, but they have never checked into the finest city hotel or experienced celebrity-style luxury there before. Other big-city destinations for our local wedding couples include Los Angeles, Chicago, and especially New Orleans.

1. Celebrity-style casino environment. Our wedding couples from Morris County, Somerset County, Hudson County, Passaic County all the way down to Cape May County are now booking their honeymoons at the top Atlantic City casino hotels, bumping into celebrities at nightclubs, dining in fine restaurants, shopping, taking in concerts and shows, experiencing the VIP honeymoon treatment just a short ride away…eliminating the need for pricy airline tickets.

1. Adventure sports environments. Some honeymoon locations provide adrenaline-pumping adventures such as ziplining, mountain biking down a volcano, white water rafting, scuba diving and other activities that may play into your dream honeymoon experience.

1. Heritage environments. What better time to explore the homeland of your ancestors, and share the illuminating trip with your new spouse? This trend ties into my earlier mention of local wedding couples heading to Italy, as both an international city destination and a connection to heritage, and heritage-connection honeymoon locations may be anywhere across the globe. You might wish to visit all of your heritage hotspots during a several-stop trek or during a cruise through the Mediterranean or Caribbean.

Today’s lengthier honeymoons see wedding couples visiting several locales, perhaps visiting a big-city locale for a few days, then heading to an oceanfront resort for a beach-style honeymoon – giving both of you the chance to make your wedding location wishes come true.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

Your wedding favors create that all-important final detail and last impression made on your guests. They’ve enjoyed your fabulous wedding menu, they’ve toasted you with amazing wines and champagne, they’ve danced all evening, and as they depart, you have one last opportunity to impress them even further.

A great wedding is made from many stunning small details, and your choice of wedding favor can be the stunning, smile-inducing last touch of the perfect wedding. When you do it right, guests are impressed with your genius, your creativity and often, your generosity and class. If you were to skip the wedding favors, as an ill-advised method of budget-saving, guests will walk away with a negative impression. Yes, they do want a little something to take home from your wedding celebration. Wedding experts say it’s not okay to skip the favors.

That said, here are some of the most-appreciated, still budget-friendly wedding favors to consider:

• Chocolate truffles, in unique flavors such as key lime, cappuccino, espresso, and banana liqueur

• Individually-packaged cupcakes, one of the hottest new trends, especially when topped with an elegant champagne-infused frosting

• Individually-packaged brownies in unique flavor blends such as triple chocolate fudge, macadamia nut and coconut.

• Individually-packaged cookies in theme shapes and icing designs

• Wine bottle stoppers, in simple elegance styles such as a silver heart

• Photo coasters, in clear or frosted glass, allowing the guest to slip in photos or a printout of their monogram for their own entertaining use

A living favor, such as a tiny potted primrose plant or a tiny potted rose plant, which is a highly popular trend at New Jersey weddings, with our local brides and grooms sharing the style of our Garden State with guests from near and far.

One very popular trend right now is giving guests the chance to select their own favor tastes, such as a favor bar featuring five or six different flavors of chocolate truffles, jelly beans, cookies, brownies, petit fours or other treats. Guests use silver scoops or tongs to select their choice of take-home favors, place them in colorful, decorated or Lucite favor boxes, and they’ll depart delighted and impressed that you offered such a wonderful wedding favors feature.

Best,
Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

Welcome to The Art of Reception, a blog about everything to do with weddings. The Knowles properties (The Manor, Highlawn Pavilion, Pleasantdale Chateau and Ram’s Head Inn) have been hosting wedding of every size, style, nationality and budget since 1953. That’s more than five decades of experience, something few others can claim.

As a result, we have some of the finest, most capable bridal experts both in-house and as preferred vendors. This blog will feature the expertise and helpful hints from our in-house bridal experts and occasionally we’ll hear from our preferred vendors too, on trends specific to their line of work. Here’s a Who’s Who of our blogging wedding experts… Read more…

By Paul Keenan, Banquet Manager, Highlawn Pavilion

A band, a DJ, or an iPod? You’ve got a lot of options in choosing the musical entertainment for your wedding reception. In terms of protocol or etiquette, there is no right or wrong choice. However, some rooms or locations are better suited acoustically or logistically for DJs, and some for Bands. There are other factors to consider as well in choosing the musical entertainment:

DJs:
DJs, on the average, are slightly less expensive than bands simply because of the number of performing individuals in a band vs. the single DJ. Another plus: DJs are far more willing to customize your song selection than ever before. And they’ll honor your “do not play” list no matter how many times your Aunt Edna wants to request the Electric Slide.

Bands:
Live music can add a real kick to your reception. Remember though, the more people in the band, the more money the band usually charges. And don’t forget – you pay for their meals. If possible, be sure to see the bands performing in person (either at a friend’s wedding or at a bridal expo) before hiring one, so you have a real sense of their sound and style.

IPod:
The iPod is arguably the most contemporary and lowest cost option, but it is not a good one unless you have an incredible sound system to plug it into and someone willing to make sure it doesn’t run out of batteries. Anyone who has an iPod knows what I’m talking about!

With a little forethought, your musical entertainment choice will be one of the high notes of your reception.

All the best,

Paul

By Christopher Gellings, Banquet Manager, Highlawn Pavilion

The rehearsal dinner guest list is always a matter of discussion. Who should you invite? The answer depends mostly on your budget and the size of your wedding. Certainly all bridesmaids and groomsmen, as well as anyone who will be speaking or performing a reading during the ceremony should be invited. You might want to include close family members from out of town, giving you a chance to actually sit and visit and spend some quality time with them, which you probably won’t have on your wedding day.
But even with a large party, you can keep costs of your rehearsal dinner down. Remember, it doesn’t have to be a fancy, sit down affair. It can be as simple as a BBQ in your own backyard. The facility where you’re having your wedding reception may also be a good option for where to hold your rehearsal dinner. They may even offer packages that provide a discount for this meal, since they are also hosting your reception.
At the Manor and Highlawn Pavilion, two Knowles properties in West Orange, New Jersey, we offer private dining rooms for rehearsal dinners, or simply accommodate the wedding party in the Terrace Lounge at The Manor or the Main Dining Room at Highlawn Pavilion.
With a little thought put into your guest list and the location, your rehearsal dinner can be one of the most memorable events of your entire wedding.

Thanks!

Christopher

By Rolf Shick, Banquet Manager, The Manor

As much as they love you, attending a wedding can be an expensive proposition for your guests: gift, transportation, maybe a new suit or dress. Saving them money might get some who are undecided about your invitation to come. Some guests might be traveling from great distances. They’re going to need a place to stay. One great way to save them money and also make the festivities more fun is by partnering with a hotel near the site of your ceremony. You can arrange for discounted rates by blocking a set of rooms. This also makes it easy for your guests to socialize before and after the ceremony as well. The facility where you’re having your reception may have an arrangement with area hotels. For example, a wedding at any of our three West Orange, New Jersey properties – the Manor, Pleasantdale Chateau or the Highlawn Pavilion – will get you top priority at our local Residence Inn.
You may also be able to arrange shuttle transportation with the hotel to and from the wedding, saving your guests wear and tear as well as money – and making it easy for them to celebrate safely. Remember, don’t drink and drive!
Here’s something else you can do when you designate a nearby hotel as “action central” and book a block of rooms: You can put together great welcome packages for guests with snacks, a bottle of wine and information for local things to do in the area. This is a great way for out of town guests to feel special and appreciated!

Thank you,

Rolf

Brides today are finding different ways to cut costs without affecting the desired wedding experience. One of the ways to do that is by finding a wedding reception site that also accommodates ceremonies.

By having the ceremony and reception at the same location, you save money a number of ways. Here’s how:

Fewer/Recycleable Decorations. The flowers and other decorations that would normally be set up in a church, synagogue or other house of worship (or location) will no longer be necessary. The flowers used on-site can be reused and quickly moved from ceremony area to table tops by friends, family and/or bridesmaids. If you originally planned on having the ceremony on a beach somewhere, you’ll no longer need to shell out money for renting chairs. Read more…