Party Planning

Attending a bridal show is a smart way for brides and grooms to explore the styles and trends of wedding décor, fashion, favors, photography and more, since nothing beats the in-person opportunities you’ll find at bridal expos like the elegant ones occurring in our local New Jersey area. Just like you can only fully appreciate our wedding gardens and wedding rooms by walking through them, seeing the details all throughout our wedding venues, you can best appreciate the beauty of a floral arrangement by standing right in front of it, inhaling its fragrance, seeing the breathtaking layers of delicate petals on each gardenia, rose and ranunculus. That’s far better than looking at even the most beautiful of photos on a website.

To help you get the most from your bridal show experiences, we’ve listed the Top Do’s and Don’ts for bridal expos:

Do:

• Plan to attend several different bridal shows and expos, to meet a wide range of local New Jersey wedding vendors and see a wide range of design ideas.

• Plan to attend your first bridal show with your groom, sharing your first-time excitement with him. Many of our New Jersey wedding couples are full planning partners, with the grooms just as interested in the catering, entertainment, photos and décor as the brides. They want to share this first bridal show event excitement with their brides as well.

• Bring your closest women with you to subsequent bridal shows. Moms now join the maid of honor and bridesmaids on a bride’s guest list, sharing the exciting scene and discovering fabulous wedding details and experts alongside the brides.

• Sign on to win prizes. The bridal show coordinators share your e-mail address with displaying vendors anyway, so sign onto their sheets and you may win valuable prizes.

• Talk to the wedding vendors. They welcome your planning questions, and they’re quite willing to share ideas or make suggestions about details you might not think about, such as providing a water source for hydrangeas to help them last longer through your wedding day.

Don’t:

• Don’t rush in, rush past vendor tables, grab some appetizers and a glass of champagne, take a glance around, and leave. Great bridal shows have fabulous events planned throughout the show, including band performances, fashion shows, seminars by local wedding experts, prize drawings, and games through which you might win a valuable prize for your wedding or honeymoon.

• Don’t assume that only beginning wedding vendors attend wedding shows. Top wedding professionals – including the most successful, busiest and most admired NJ wedding experts — make it a high priority to attend as many bridal shows as possible. They want to meet brides and grooms face-to-face, show their talents and offerings, and connect with wedding couples who are looking for their style of top-caliber wedding services.

• Don’t forget to take your camera with you. You’ll see hundreds of designs and details that will help you create your wedding details.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

Your wedding rehearsal brings the focus to the most important part of your wedding day: your wedding ceremony. You and each of your ceremony participants will embark upon a detailed run-through of your ceremony elements, led with experience and efficiency by your wedding planner, your wedding officiant, or our banquet manager for your garden wedding or ballroom wedding here at our West Orange, New Jersey wedding venue.

I say efficiency because it’s a hallmark of today’s wedding rehearsal — especially for our time-conscious New Jersey, New York City and Long Island wedding couples – for the rehearsal to run smoothly and quickly, instructing all and putting everyone at ease about the elements of the wedding ceremony. So to that end, and to help you plan a quick, efficient, and enjoyable wedding rehearsal, here is your primer on what should be practiced at your rehearsal, and what may be skipped for time, and also for that all-important surprise factor on the wedding day:

What’s Practiced:

• Where the ladies and the men will each gather and await the start of the ceremony.
• Ushers escorting guests to their seats, including a familiarization with the path of our wedding gardens and the layout of our wedding ceremony room.
• The lineups for the bridesmaids and the groomsmen, including how they will walk, stand and pair up in duos or trios for the recessional.
• The processional walking spacing and walking speed for all.
• Special instructions for child attendants, teaching them how and where to walk.
• The wedding ceremony elements:

• The officiant will confirm how the bride wishes for her parent or parents to give their consent, if she wishes to include the ‘giving away’ portion of the wedding ceremony. We’ve found moments like these to be enlightening ones for the bride and groom, places where the wedding rehearsal allows them to tailor the nuances of their ceremony wording.
• The steps of the religious, spiritual or secular wedding ceremony, including the bride’s and groom’s moving to another location for a ritual, plus the maid of honor’s necessary arranging of the bride’s train.
• The readings, giving participants the chance to run through the wording, and also learn from the banquet manager or officiant which podium or microphone to approach.
• The presentation of religious, spiritual or cultural elements.
• The wedding vows (optional – some couples wish to run through classic or traditional vows, and some wish to keep them a surprise until the wedding day.)
• The exchange of rings, acted out, without the actual rings.
• The kiss.
• The presentation of the bride and groom to all in attendance as a married couple.

• The recessional, including how the bride and groom will walk back down the aisle together, bridal party members’ walking in the processional, and the process by which groomsmen will return to the front row to indicate parents’ turn in the recessional.
• The receiving line order, if the couple wishes to have a receiving line at this point.

What’s Not Practiced:

Again, at their wedding rehearsal, many of our local brides and grooms appreciate speeding things along, so that no one gets restless, and so that they can get to the fine restaurant dining experience of their rehearsal dinner on time. So these are the elements that are most often not practiced at the rehearsal:

• The officiant performing the entirety of readings to be used in the ceremony.
• The entirety of wedding vows. A trend we’re seeing in wedding rehearsals here at our West Orange, New Jersey wedding venue is couples practicing the traditional beginning of their wedding vows – “to have and to hold, etc.” – but keeping their personalized ending sections private for now, as a surprise to their intended, as well as to all present.
• Religious elements, such as the receiving of Mass.
• Musical performances, or cultural performances.
• The bride and groom’s departure to the wedding limousine.

Trust in the experience of our banquet manager or your special events expert as your group enacts the steps at your wedding rehearsal and you’ll find that you have a greater sense of comfort about your wedding day, fewer nerves distracting you, and a wonderful ability to take in all of the beautiful details and meaningful elements of your New Jersey wedding.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

When the bride and groom step onto the dance floor for their first dance, the song they choose to dance to is more than just a pretty tune. It’s ‘Their Song,’ a deeply-meaningful first dance song that reflects their relationship, their joy, their new life together. First dance songs are now being chosen from a list of songs that have played a big part in the bride and groom’s love story, perhaps the first song they ever slow-danced to.

Wedding deejays and wedding bands in our North Jersey region say there is a trend toward perennial favorite first dance songs, and that many wedding couples say they’re choosing their first dance song together as a team. They’re also reporting that the couple is now choosing two special songs for their wedding reception’s spotlight dance moments: one for the First Dance and another for the bride and groom’s last spotlight wedding dance of the reception.

Here are the top First Dance Songs that you may wish to consider for your own big moment:

Amazed by Lonestar
At Last by Etta James
Beautiful In My Eyes by Joshua Kadison
Because You Loved Me by Celine Dion
Breathe by Faith Hill
Can You Feel the Love Tonight by Elton John
Can’t Help Falling In Love by Elvis Presley
Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You by Frankie Valli
Come Away With Me by Norah Jones
Embraceable You by Nat King Cole
Everything I Do (I Do It For You) by Bryan Adams
Faithfully by Journey
Fly Me To The Moon by Frank Sinatra
From This Moment by Shania Twain
Groovy Kind of Love by Phil Collins
Have I Told You Lately by Rod Stewart
Here And Now by Luther Vandross
I Can’t Help Falling In Love by Elvis Presley
I Could Not Ask For More by Sara Evans
I Cross My Heart by George Strait
I Only Have Eyes For You by Flamingos
I Swear John by Michael Montgomery
I’ll Be There by Michael Jackson
It Had To Be You by Harry Connick Jr
It’s Your Love by Faith Hill/Tim McGraw
Just The Way You Are by Billy Joel
Someone Like You by Van Morrison
The Best Is Yet To Come by Frank Sinatra
The Way You Look Tonight by Frank Sinatra
To Make You Feel My Love by Garth Brooks
True Companion by Marc Cohn
Unforgettable by Nat King Cole
Wedding Song (There is Love) by Petula Clark
What A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong
When A Man Loves A Woman by Percy Sledge
When I Fall In Love by Celine Dion
When I Said I Do by Clint Black
Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton

Some songs are contemporary, some are classic, some country, but all – and so many more — are open to your consideration as the soundtrack for your lovely first dance as husband and wife.

Best,
Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

Rehearsal Dinner Trends

The first big celebration of the wedding weekend is the rehearsal dinner, and today’s brides and grooms are fully involved in creating a culinary experience for their VIP guests, the perfect complement to the evening’s relaxed and festive mood. This dinner party is their welcome break from the hectic, last-minute planning tasks and all the stress that goes hand-in-hand with creating the most important day of their lives. The rehearsal dinner, then, is a treat for all, a chance to mingle and glow, sharing gifts and toasts and an unforgettable meal served in style.

Rehearsal Dinners

The new rehearsal dinner has evolved into a foodie’s dream, with hosts putting as much effort and care into choosing a locale and building a menu as is often seen with the wedding plans. This event, then, is meant to impress.

Here are the top trends in rehearsal dinners for the coming year:

• Most frequently, the parents of the groom are the official hosts of the rehearsal dinner, even if both sets of parents have been fully involved in planning the wedding. (The parents of the bride get to plan the morning-after breakfast.)

Guest lists are smaller. It’s no longer a Must to invite all of the out-of-town guests to this elegant dinner party. Plan a separate, casual cocktail party for them at their hotel, and you’ll join them later. The rehearsal dinner is solely for immediate family, the bridal party and their guests, the officiant and his or her guest, and other ceremony participants.

• Couples choose a beautiful restaurant with fabulous design, perhaps outdoor dining, and other high-style ambiance as the setting for this dinner. Here at the Highlawn Pavilion, brides and grooms say they choose our establishment for the catering and the spectacular views of New York City from our position at the top of Eagle Rock Reservation. Indoor and outdoor ambiance creates a wonderful rehearsal dinner experience.

• The meal trend is now a sit-down dinner, at least three courses, with coffee and a fabulous dessert.

The rehearsal dinner menu items differ from the reception menu, giving the wedding couple the chance to offer those pricier entrees (lobster, filet mignon, etc.) that they perhaps couldn’t afford to serve as entrees to their 150+ guests at the wedding.

• The menu often includes cultural and traditional dishes that are important to the couple and their families.

• More couples request eco-friendly menu items and locally-grown foods.

• The champagne toast is back, and additional drinks are top-shelf and unlimited for this VIP crowd.

• The rehearsal dinner hosts give the first toast of the evening, with the bride and groom proposing a toast immediately afterward to thank the hosts and guests for sharing their day. Gifts are then given to parents and bridal party members.

Regards,
Paul Keenan, Banquet Manager, Highlawn Pavilion

The best wedding catering is as beautiful as it is delicious. Chefs and pastry chefs prepare and present their delectable cocktail party, wedding reception menu, and dessert hour items with painstaking care, creating a breathtaking display of wedding menu treats. Chefs have gone to great lengths to make every dish a work of art, garnished to perfection and arranged so beautifully that guests hesitate before digging in.

From shiny pearls of caviar on top of salmon puffs to tiny martini glasses filled with mango salsa and shrimp, that platter of perfect little petit fours with the tiny little pink rosettes on top. The entire wedding menu features fabulous accent details just like the wedding dress does…which is why photographing the wedding food is a new top trend in wedding photography.

While the bride and groom are dancing or visiting with guests at the start of their celebration, the best professional photographers move through the cocktail party room, snapping fabulous photos of the buffet menu items, in HD close-up, capturing the most sensory elements of the cocktail party and reception with the same spotlight focus given to close-up photos of the bride’s bouquet or her wedding ring.

The result is a collection of magazine cover-worthy images of the gourmet fare at the reception, a capturing of wedding menu details the couple planned together yet didn’t notice fully during the swirl of their wedding celebration. But now, and in the future, they can look at these photos and marvel at the beautiful platters and food displays their wedding venue’s caterers arranged for their big day. Photos of the food become cherished images from the best day of their lives. In fact, many brides and grooms include photos of their food in their professional album collections, and guests have even been spotted photographing impressive cocktail party spreads, texting the images to far-away friends.

Other foodie photographs: close-ups of the wedding cake details, platter shots of dessert bites, monogram-shaped swirls of sauces on dessert plates, and brightly-colored cocktails and champagne glasses at the bar.

Best,
Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

Renewing Wedding Vows

Every so often, celebrity couples grab the headlines for renewing their wedding vows, sometimes just a few months after their splashy wedding celebrations. Recently, Khloe Kardashian Odom and her husband Lamar Odom were reported to have renewed their wedding vows, and other stars such as Heidi Klum and Seal have made it a tradition to renew their wedding vows every year, sometimes in creative theme celebrations.

While celebrities often drive wedding trends, their example in the world of renewing wedding vows has become a bit confusing to couples. So to clear away that confusion, here are some reasons why renewing vows is so popular right now:

• Renewing wedding vows re-connects couples, especially if they’ve had a challenging year for any reason – a health crisis, financial stress, job search struggles, a move to a new city, what have you

• Renewing wedding vows allows couples to celebrate milestone anniversaries – the 1st, 5th, 10th, or more – as well as any anniversary they choose. So a 7th anniversary is completely welcoming of a celebration

• Renewing wedding vows allows couples to plan their wedding ‘re-do’ their way, which is quite wonderful for those who were perhaps unhappy with how their original weddings turned out, or whose parents overtook the plans

• Renewing wedding vows gives military couples the chance to celebrate their appreciation of one another before or after a deployment

• Renewing wedding vows serves as a wonderful example to the younger generations of what a positive, successful marriage looks like

• Renewing wedding vows may be done privately, just the two of you on a beach or mountaintop, or it might be a large family and friend gathering in a ballroom

• Renewing wedding vows allows you to show appreciation for your spouse, a healthy element of a strong marriage

In these challenging times, so many people want something cheery to look forward to and enjoy, and a wedding vow renewal provides exactly that.

Best,
Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

The First Dance

As the wedding reception begins, all eyes are on bride and groom as they join together for their first dance. For several years now, brides and grooms have signed up for ballroom dance classes, and this tradition has now evolved from basic dance lessons that couples took to learn the steps of a waltz to a far more personalized dance….sometimes in a style that surprises and delights guests.

Brides and grooms now enlist the services of professional dance instructors to choreograph their first dance, impressively tailoring dance steps to the skill levels of the bride and groom. The result is so much more than the ‘swaying back and forth’ dance or the box step dance with awkward arm movements that some brides and grooms seemed to just want to get through. Now, brides and grooms are putting on a performance, such as a sultry yet still family-friendly tango, or a dance with lifts, dips and twirls that the choreographer has designed with thought to the bride’s movement ability in her wedding gown. After weeks of working with a dance pro, the couple takes to the dance floor confidently, ready to show off their skills, as ‘their song’ plays.

In an additional new trend, the bride and her father, as well as the groom and his mother, might also sign up for dance classes and choreography, so that their spotlight dances will be equally impressive. After all, a spectacular first dance by the bride and groom is immediately followed by the father-daughter and mother-son dances, and parents also want to look confident and impressive for their spotlight performances.

Sometimes, a fun-loving couple will arrange for their first dance to lead into a group dance performance led by them and including their bridal party members. That number might be a well-known celebrity’s dance from a video, or it might also be a completely original, choreographed dance that starts the party off with a thrilling performance, and provides priceless wedding video footage as well.

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

Wedding guests love slow-dancing with one another, so the new trend in reception music is to have your band or deejay play a greater number of slower songs at the start and at the end of the wedding reception.

Everyone shares in the romance of a beautiful wedding day, and when guests are dressed to impress, perhaps remembering the joys of their own wedding days, they want to dance close together for more than just a song or two. Wedding entertainers say that they notice the dance floor gets packed for those slow ballads by guests of all ages, whether married, engaged, dating or as friends, and can sometimes clear a bit when the faster club music begins. So they now suggest to brides and grooms that they add more slow-dance songs to their reception music play lists.

Slower songs are played during the dinner hour, and guests happily stand from their tables to lead their partners to the dance floor when their favorite slow-dance songs begin. Wedding entertainers say they play three or four slower songs even after the meals have been enjoyed. Brides and grooms hold it as a high priority for their guests to enjoy the music, and they thrill at the sight of their grandparents and parents showing off their well-practiced, often enviable slow dance skills when this slower reception music invites them to spend more time on the dance floor.

From there, of course, reception music gets faster, with club music, Motown hits, and top 40 songs leading the trends here in our New Jersey region, for several hours of the party. Then as the reception winds down in its final hour, the pace returns to four or five more slow-dance songs that couples adore. Wedding guests say that it’s a particular thrill to hear ‘their song’ played within these closing slow dance performances. The bride and groom often plan a slow, spotlight dance as the last dance of the evening, joining their guests on the dance floor as all share in the couple’s second ‘our song’ of the wedding celebration.

Upon that song’s last notes, and with couples closing the dance with a spin or a dip, the reception ends with a romantic tone that leads guests to consider your wedding to be one of the most romantic and truly enjoyable they’ve ever been to.

Best,
Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

By Caitlyn Bradley, Director of Private Dining, Ram’s Head Inn

The Destination Bachelor/Bachelorette party is now a popular option. From spa weekends, to quick European getaways and the ever popular Las Vegas excursion. Keep everyone’s budget in mind when planning a destination bachelor/bachelorette party. Make sure you choose a destination that allows the most people to come and join in the fun.

For couples getting married at any of our four Knowles restaurants in the New Jersey, New York metro area , closer to home options include a dinner in New York City followed by a night cap at a wine bar or lounge, topped off with a night at a great boutique hotel. A spa weekend can really be done in your own backyard, too, if you live in this area. There a number of great spas in our region people travel far and wide to get to. So that’s a choice that can make you look smart, as well as beautiful!

All the best,

Caitlyn