Smart brides and grooms avoid wedding stress and arguments by going away on a romantic pre-honeymoon. Planning a weekend getaway or just an overnight stay in a bed and breakfast allows you to step away from the whirlwind of wedding planning – particularly in those last hectic weeks before the wedding – and re-connect as a couple without spending a fortune.

You don’t have to fly away to Tahiti or St. Lucia or any other top honeymoon locale in order to take your pre-honeymoon trip. Not when our state offers so many exciting destinations at the shore points in Ocean and Cape May Counties, golf resorts and ski areas in Sussex County, and more. Our New Jersey brides and grooms say they plan their getaways for our state’s wealth of exciting and indulgent vacation spots, many of which they visit annually, or where they – or friends — might even have shore or ski houses. They’re booking weekend stays and overnighters at the following types of locales:

• Upscale casino hotels like the Water Club or the Borgata in Atlantic City, where they can enjoy spa treatments, first-class service, the thrill of gambling, and perhaps taking in a concert or comedy show.

• Quaint beach towns, such as Cape May in Ocean County or Spring Lake, where they can ride bikes, relax in the sun, go shopping, and eat at wonderful restaurants overlooking the ocean at sunset, watching the dolphins at play in the distance.

• Lovely, Victorian bed and breakfasts. They’re not just in Cape May, although you’ll find some of New Jersey’s best B&Bs there. Visit www.BnBFinder.com to locate sweet and charming bed and breakfast establishments all over New Jersey, from the northernmost, mountainous points to shore points and in suburban areas in between. Friendly innkeepers see to your needs and make you a delectable breakfast in the morning. Some of our brides and grooms stay at B&Bs during weekdays to nab great discount prices.

• Brand-name hotels. Your nearby Westin, Hilton or Ramada may offer romantic weekend packages that allow you to stay in a suite, welcomed with complimentary champagne and strawberries, and a lavish brunch the next morning. You can laze by the pool, order room service, enjoy a five-star dinner, and act like you’re on vacation even though you’re only a few miles from home.

• Ski resort areas. You might choose your favorite New Jersey ski resort town, or pack for a road trip to a notable ski resort in a neighboring state. If you decide to stay off the slopes in protection of your ankles and knees before the big day, you can enjoy the ski lodge scene, go on tours, enjoy fine dining, and soak in an outdoor hot tub as a light snow falls.

• New York City. A quick ride into the city delivers you to a cultural mecca, and you might surprise your partner with tickets to a Broadway show or a limousine ride to a notable hotspot. Stay in a fine hotel and go celebrity-spotting at the city’s best-known star hangouts, or just walk hand-in-hand through Central Park during the afternoon. The city is your pre-honeymoon playground.

Best,

Lars Johnson, General Manager, Pleasantdale Chateau

Your wedding favors make the stylish ‘last impression’ on your wedding guests, so be sure to choose lovely favors, and create a wedding favor display that’s pleasing to the eye as well. When you take time to creatively display even the most modest of favors, your efforts create an effect that makes it seem like the favors are more expensive, more upscale and more of a treat. At our New Jersey wedding venue, we’ve seen some of the loveliest wedding favor display trends:

• Place one wedding favor at each guests’ place setting, in front of their plates.

• Create a wedding favors table by your gifts table, and set on it large, elegant silver platters that hold organized, even rows of your packaged favors. We use the same presentation style for our petit fours and other small desserts, so your favor treats will share the same elegant styling.

• Accent your wedding favors table with a floral centerpiece matching those on the guest tables, or place an 8”x10” framed photo of the two of you, paired with a framed, printed thank –you note from the two of you, in the center of the table, surrounded by your favors.

• Arrange your wedding favors on three-tier serving pedestals, just like our banquet managers and pastry chefs use with our dessert offerings, for an elegant look that matches the serving-style the guests have admired all throughout your reception and dessert hour.

• You can also use these three-tier serving pedestals as favor presentations that our servers can bring to each of your guest tables, creating an upscale presentation at the end of your reception.

• Our servers can also present each table’s favors on an elevated serving platter or on a small silver platter, with the platter garnished with additional chocolates, mints, or – a favorite at our New Jersey weddings – pastel-colored Jordan almonds.

• If you’ll make a donation to charity in lieu of traditional favors, display a framed printed announcement of your charity choice, and place next to it a basket of packaged cookies, chocolates or mints for guests to enjoy as they depart.

• Arrange one of the hottest current favor presentations – the favor bar. At this long table, guests use tongs or scoops to select their own choices of chocolates, truffles, brownie bites, colorful candies or other favor choices from glass bowls and platters. They package their own edible favor choices in either clear Lucite boxes or cellophane bags that they can tie with a ribbon. You can serve just truffles, or you can mix up your favor bar offerings to include bite-sized brownies, fudge squares, petit fours and an array of dessert indulgences.

Edible favors are the top choice at our Southern New Jersey wedding venue, but we’re also seeing single long-stemmed roses packaged in cellophane and ribbon, displayed in a tall, beautiful vase, ready for guests to choose their own take-home wedding flower.

All the best,

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

We’re so happy to see the return of one-time-use wedding cameras set on our wedding reception room guest tables here at the Ram’s Head Inn in Galloway, New Jersey. For a time, they disappeared as brides and grooms sought to shave expenses from their wedding budget, but now wedding couples welcome them back into their tabletop design, offering their guests the fun of using them.

Here are the top reasons why wedding cameras are back:

• They’re prettier than ever. At www.Kodak.com, you’ll see pretty red floral, blue floral, and purple floral one-time-use cameras, in addition to traditional ‘bridal white’ cameras. And you’ll also see cameras in solid colors coordinating with the top wedding colors of the season: orange, yellow, blue, red, even black and white for themed weddings.

• They’re now made with top film quality. With 800-speed film, photos taken with these cameras can capture a priceless wedding moment in quality resolution.

• They keep kids occupied. Many of our New Jersey wedding couples say this is their top reason – that the one-time-use cameras on every table get the kids playing, happily occupied, laughing, taking photos on the dance floor, and –simply put – not prone to behavior problems they’d have if play wasn’t an element of your reception.

• They capture the moments you miss. While you’re out in the wedding gardens having your portraits taken, guests use these cameras to capture wonderful moments between relatives, such as great-grandma meeting a guest’s baby for the first time, or the bride’s parents showing off their skills on the dance floor.

• Guests are told they’ll get to see and perhaps buy the photos. When you place a printed note with each one-time-use wedding camera, you let guests know that the photos they take will be included on a photo-share website for them to view and purchase. Guests then tend to take greater care with the pictures they take, and it works out wonderfully for everyone.

• Extra wedding cameras let you capture the after-party. When all of the cameras are gathered up at the end of the reception, you can take the ones that still have shots left on them to your after-party to capture memorable moments with your friends long after your wedding photographer has left.

• Panoramic one-time-use cameras let you snap your own wide-angle photos of our beautiful wedding gardens and grounds, as well as all of your friends and family celebrating your special day.

All the best,

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

During your wedding rehearsal, you and everyone involved in your wedding ceremony will learn all of the important details central to the beauty and perfection of this most important part of your wedding day. You’ll arrange your bridal party members’ lineup, practice the processional, practice your vows and the symbolic or cultural elements of your ceremony, and make any last-minute changes you desire.

In years past, the wedding rehearsal was in the hands of the officiant who was in charge at the house of worship, or a wedding coordinator stepped in to run the practice session. Now, we’re seeing a fresh, new trend of a team effort encompassing the guidance of several authorities at the rehearsal. Our New Jersey wedding couples enjoy the input from specialists in each portion and style element of the ceremony.

The wedding coordinator handles the bridal party lineup and partner pairings, helps the child attendants learn how to walk down the aisle and where to stand, and instructs any musicians, readers, cultural performers and other players in the wedding ceremony. With a practiced hand and a level of authority that the excited circle of friends and family members listen to with great respect, the wedding coordinator also keeps you on an efficient schedule, so that you can get to your rehearsal dinner on time, with all crucial instructions received.

If you do not have a wedding coordinator working on your wedding, our banquet managers can happily step in to guide your group through every step of your ceremony held on our wedding garden grounds or in one of our ballrooms, and we too will keep you on schedule.

The officiant is another important member of your wedding rehearsal team, leading you through the spoken elements of your ceremony, providing calming guidance and often a sense of humor that puts everyone at ease.

And of course, you are also a member of the rehearsal dinner team, as the highest authority in the creation of your wedding ceremony. You can ask questions, request modifications, and let the officiant know if you have something already printed in your wedding program – such as a particular reading — that needs to be added into the ceremony.

Our wedding couples from Passaic County, Morris County, Somerset County and all other state-wide regions, plus our growing number of New York City and Long Island brides and grooms, actively co-create their wedding ceremonies, finalizing their plans during their all-important wedding rehearsal, and they can then enjoy the peace of mind of knowing that all of the plans are set, and all of the participants know what to do. All that’s left to do is relax, enjoy the evening, and know that your wedding planning team, especially including our dedicated banquet directors, will protect your plans and run everything wonderfully on your wedding day.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

One of the most important elements of beautiful wedding décor is the floral centerpiece set on each guest table, and here at our northern New Jersey wedding venue, we’re seeing gorgeous, innovative centerpieces inspired by the top wedding room décor trends shown in national and regional bridal magazines from North, Central and South Jersey, as well as the designs shown in real-wedding photo spreads of socialite New York City weddings. Here are the top trends to inspire you:

• Elevated floral centerpieces are back. While low-set floral bunches will always be popular for wedding table décor, today’s trends lift those large, lush, bountiful floral arrangements at least four feet off the tabletops, suspended on equally-gorgeous, decorated floral stands made of bronze, pewter, even wood in rustic-elegant wedding décor schemes.

• Elevated floral centerpieces contain multiple colors of flowers, most often a beautiful blend of brights and pastels.

• Classic, traditional floral pieces in ‘bridal white’ achieve great texture and dimension by using blends of cream and white shades.

• Elevated floral centerpieces reach down toward the tabletop in delicate drapings of floral strands, or a ‘willow tree’ effect of floral branches and suspended crystals on invisible wire.

• Crystals are being incorporated into floral centerpieces in greater number, in elegant style. They may be affixed by floral wire in stand-up, starburst effects, or individual crystals may even be pinned into the centers of roses. The crystals give a sparkling effect in the room when they reflect the flickering of candlelight and the glow of our soft lighting in the wedding reception room.

• New Jersey wedding couples now request the incorporation of locally-grown, in-season flowers to cut down on their carbon footprint, as a green wedding value in their day.

• New Jersey wedding couples are also using more leaves and greenery in their floral centerpieces, as well as in their general wedding room décor to coordinate with our garden wedding atmosphere. The use of greenery provides a lush, natural look and is also among the most effective budget wedding strategies.

• Centerpieces are arranged more often in clear glass vases, either rounds or squares, and also in tall rectangular shapes. Couples are also mixing up the sizes of their glass centerpiece vases to provide an eye-catching trio of low, medium and high-set centerpiece containers.

• Glass vases and bowls may also hold collections of colorful flower petals, with the bowls surrounded by color-matched votive candles in their own decorative glass votive holders.

Elements of nature play a new role in wedding centerpieces, just as they do in the designs of our own wedding gardens, so look into incorporating smooth river stones in neutral shades of gray, tan or brown, as well as mosses and tall, architectural branches to make your centerpieces stand out.

Have a great day!

Laura Madden, Senior Sales Manager, Pleasantdale Chateau

Some of our favorite wedding ceremonies that we’ve hosted  here at the Pleasantdale Chateau in West Orange, New Jersey have been masterpieces of wedding ceremony décor that truly took our breath away. Our wedding gardens and ballroom have been home to some of the top NJ floral designers’ works of art, including the following top wedding ceremony décor ideas:

Altar Décor:

• Trellises and chuppahs bursting with colorful flowers and greenery, including garlands, ivy and light-reflecting crystals.

• Flower petals scattered on the altar area ground, for the bride and groom to stand on.

• Decorative pedestals on either side of the ceremony altar, featuring large, lush floral arrangements.

• The bride and groom’s birthmonth flowers incorporated into the altar floral décor.

• Crystal bowls and vases filled with roses and other flowers, or colorful flower petals.

Aisle Décor:

• Traditional white aisle runner with crystals embedded into the fabric.

• Colorful aisle runners with the couple’s names and monogram printed at the start of the runner.

• Floral nosegays or pomanders attached to the ends of each row of seats.

• Each seat covered with a fabric chair cover, tied with a colorful ribbon.

• Each seat covered with a fabric chair cover, accented on the back with a tiny floral nosegay.

• Instead of an aisle runner, colorful flower petals are lined on either side of the aisle.

Wedding Garden Décor:

• Flowers strung from invisible wires ‘raining’ down from the trees.
• Large, dramatic crystals on invisible wires ‘raining’ down from the trees.

• Trees encircled with floral wraps or garlands.

• Lanterns suspended from the trees for evening ceremony décor accents.

• Floating candles in water features.

• Our garden lighting accents transforming the evening scene with colors and highlighting our manicured wedding garden landscaping.

We invite our brides and grooms to share their most wished-for wedding ceremony décor ideas with our banquet manager team, and we will help you create your beautiful wedding décor scene.

Have a great day!

Laura Madden, Senior Sales Manager, Pleasantdale Chateau

Every bride and groom wishes to personalize their wedding décor, looking at their wedding ceremony site, their wedding reception venue, their wedding gardens…and one of the most popular décor ideas right now is decorating with your wedding monogram.

When you entwine your first initials together, or simply use the initial of your new, shared last name, this style of décor carries a great sense of symbolism. Your new, married monogram depicts your partnership, the joining together of your lives.

Here are some of the most inspiring ways that our New Jersey wedding couples are incorporating wedding monograms into so many aspects of their wedding décor:

Ceremony Decor

• On your wedding programs, with your entwined monogram featured on the front of your wedding programs or as a small, top-of-page accent on each wedding program page.

• At the start of your aisle runner, with your wedding monogram design silkscreened beautifully onto the fabric.

• As a part of your unity candle décor (some styles of unity candles feature oval ‘frames’ where photos can be slid in. Use this ‘frame’ to showcase your entwined monogram instead)

• As part of aisle or pew décor, such as a small silver frame containing your single last-name initial, attached to a pew bow or floral accent piece.

Outdoor Wedding Garden Décor

• Individual flowers, such as white roses, spell out your last name initial or entwined first initials in a large garden hedge or shrub.
• Your wedding monogram can be spelled out in staked flowers on the grounds, perhaps by a walkway.

• Pedestals at the start of the aisle can display floral pieces that showcase your monogram in flowers.

Wedding Room Décor

• ‘Gobo’ lights can project your wedding monogram beautifully onto the dance floor or onto the reception ballroom walls.

• Your guest book can feature your beautiful, custom-designed wedding monogram on the cover, and also at the top of each page.

• Your monogram can be printed at the top or far left portion of your place cards.

• Your monogram can be printed on each table number sign.

• Your monogram can be printed at the top of each guest table menu card.

• Ice sculptures can be designed in your monogram design, set on buffet tables or on food station tables.

• Place setting plates and chargers can feature your married last initial monogram.

• Table runners and napkins can be printed or embroidered with your married monogram design.

• Centerpiece designs can be made using flower petals arranged into your monogram shape at the center of each guest table.

• Pillar candles used as table centerpieces can feature your wedding monogram.

• Wedding favor votive candles and favor boxes can be imprinted with your monogram.

Wedding Food Accents

• Your wedding cake can be piped with your beautiful, intricate married monogram as the ultimate in indulgent wedding décor.
• Cupcakes on the dessert table can be piped with your last initial on top.
• Our pastry chef can swirl your wedding monogram in dessert sauce onto each guest’s wedding cake serving plate.

Have a great day!

Laura Madden, Senior Sales Manager, Pleasantdale Chateau

Your wedding video is a priceless capturing of your dream wedding day, and you get to help create it. When you alert your wedding videographer to what you do and don’t want on your wedding day footage, you play a big part in the final version.

The top wedding videographers we know from our elite community of New Jersey wedding experts, including award-winning video experts from the entire Northern and Central  Jersey and New York City regions, among others, want to hear from you about the types of footage you love, and what you have no desire for. For instance, you might not want your wedding videography to include interviews of guests at their tables. Some guests are camera-shy and cringe when they see the videographer coming at them. You don’t want your guests to be uncomfortable, so you might add ‘no table interviews’ to the Don’t list you deliver to your videographer well before the wedding day.

Here are some of the top Don’ts that today’s brides and grooms have in mind when it comes to their wedding videography:

• Too many special effects. Couples say they find it distracting when their ceremony footage keeps transforming from black-and-white to color, so ask your wedding videographer to use special effects minimally.

• Too much focus on us. A great videographer knows to stick close to the bride and groom in order to capture those wonderful looks between them, interactions with close friends and with the flowergirls and other magical moments. But today’s wedding couples want lots of footage of their family and friends enjoying the celebration.

• No line dances. Some brides and grooms agree to having line dances at their receptions, sometimes on request from their parents, but they often don’t need that footage shot, nor included in their final wedding video.

• No table interviews. Again, guests who get surprised by a camera in front of them often don’t express themselves eloquently. It’s not something they want captured for posterity. And wedding couples wish to spare them the awkwardness.

• No picking out music for us. Brides and grooms prefer to submit a list of songs they’d like used as the soundtrack for their wedding video, not to be surprised when the videographer adds songs they don’t like…or that remind them of previous relationships!

• No baby photo montages. Some of our New Jersey wedding couples choose instead to display those adorable baby and childhood photos as an entertainment feature at the start of their wedding dinner, not including them on their wedding video.

A large portion of wedding videography cost is due to the time it takes for your video expert to edit your video, especially if you’ve purchased a video package providing you with just an hours’ worth of footage. So your Don’t requests may even save you money by eliminating some editing elements such as special effects. Cost aside, though, the goal is creating the wedding video you want, one you’ll watch again and again in the future.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

Your wedding photographer wants you to be blissfully happy with your wedding day photos, so the new trend in arranging for wedding photography is one that local NJ photographers have actually requested: they want to know what you don’t want them to capture on your wedding day.

A great wedding photographer will adhere to your photo wish-list, while at the same time making sure that he or she is well-positioned to capture all of the most magical moments of your ceremony and reception. Top professional wedding photographers in the counties of Essex, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Hudson and other nearby regions also know that the bride and groom want to enjoy their cocktail party and reception to the fullest, not spend an hour taking endless posed group photos. No reputable photographer wants to make you miss your cocktail hour, so join in the trend of delivering your Wedding Photography Don’t List to your photo pro in advance of your wedding day, letting him or her know which types of shots you don’t want, what not to waste time on. Wedding photographers we’ve known for years here at the Pleasantdale Chateau in West Orange have said they’re greatly relieved to know what the bride and groom are thinking. They appreciate getting a Don’t List. It’s not an encroachment on their expertise.

Here are the top types of photos to add to your own Wedding Photography Don’t List:

Boring Shots

• Posed lineups of the bridal party, with the ladies on one side and the groomsmen on the other. Today’s wedding couples request a more modern ‘blend’ of interspersed bridesmaids and groomsmen.

• Posed lineups of the bride and groom with sets of parents. More candid wedding photography shots are often preferred for these priceless shots.

• The cliché shot of the bridal party jumping up in the air, or running down a hill holding hands. While some wedding couples love these ‘fun group scenes,’ others would rather skip the ‘scripted levity’ photos and just have the photographer capture more natural group interactions, such as everyone dancing or sharing a champagne toast.

• Posed photos taken at each guest table. They have wedding cameras on their tables, so they can take their own at-table photos.

Uncomfortable Shots

• Tell your photographer if you wish to skip that cliché shot of the groomsmen holding you sideways, awkwardly, with everyone forcing smiles.

• If your photographer asks you to pose a photo of the groom dipping you backwards over a pool or pond and that makes you uncomfortable, just request to skip that shot and move onto the next. [A Don’t can be delivered in the moment, not on a pre-submitted Don’t List.]

• Tell your photographer about any awkward family situations, such as your father bringing his new girlfriend to the wedding, and you not wanting her included in the family photos. You might find it easier to skip the posed family lineups to avoid this situation, and instead just get photos of yourself with your father. Our favorite wedding photographers here at our New Jersey wedding venue are masters at handing tricky family photo situations, so that you don’t have to worry about them.

Your Don’t List can also include instructions on how you’d like your wedding photographer to capture you, such as getting you from your ‘good side,’ or not taking photos of you from the back. They’re your photos from the most important day of your life, and you’ll want every frame, every proof, to make your wedding wishes come true.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

Share the excitement of your upcoming wedding by sending out stylish Save the Date cards to your wedding guests. These colorful wedding stationery Musts have evolved in beautiful design over the past few years, and we have the top new trends in Save the Date style — chosen from national trends as well as from the designs shared with us by our local New Jersey wedding couples from West Orange, Morristown, Short Hills, Princeton, Madison, Chatham and many additional regions:

1. Save the Date postcards are all the rage, with couples ordering or making their own oversized postcards featuring a photo of the moment when the groom popped the question. Guests love sharing that extra-special moment, and brides and grooms now count this as their #1 graphic for their Save the Date cards.

1. Borrowing from wedding invitation style, another top trend in Save the Date card design is choosing a single-panel printed card, as a budget-friendly yet stylish and elegant format.

1. Include your personal wedding website URL at the bottom of the Save the Date card, so that guests can easily find your wedding’s full information, including hotel room block details and where your bridal registries are.

1. Include your full names. With so many weddings taking place in your circle of friends and family, guests don’t want to have to guess which Sarah and James you are. So last name inclusion is a Must.

1. Include the wedding location, so that guests know immediately if travel and lodging will be required. It’s enough to simply put ‘West Orange, New Jersey’ on the Save the Date if your card doesn’t allow room for additional locale information.

1. Bright colors are In, with our New Jersey wedding couples following the hottest wedding trends of going vibrant as opposed to pastel or all-bridal-white. The top wedding colors for Save the Dates are blue, purple, orange, bright pink and summery coral.

1. Design stylish borders to give your Save the Date cards the look of a frame. You might choose a single or double border line, or go more graphic with 1/8-inch filled-in, colorful lines surrounding your card.

1. Add a romantic quote. Check www.quotesgarden.com to find the perfect classic romance quote that you both love, and that conveys the sense of your wedding-to-come. We’re seeing more of our Morris County, Essex County, Passaic County and other New Jersey couples adding quotes about gardens and flowers to convey their garden wedding theme.

1. Use green wedding-friendly card stock such as recycled papers and earth-friendly soy inks to make your invitations, or order your Save the Dates from the top green wedding stationery websites.

10.  Save the Date magnets are still a hot trend, with couples designing brightly-colored magnets that guests will be able to use on their refrigerators because they love the pretty design of it.

Send out your Save the Date cards or magnets as far in advance as possible, ideally more than six months before the wedding, so that guests can make their travel and lodging plans as early as possible, not just saving the date but saving money as well!

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château