wedding planning

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

When brides and grooms tour a wedding venue, they’re exploring the beauty of the setting, taking in the architectural details of the wedding reception room, the space where their lavish cocktail party will take place, the wedding gardens and outdoor gathering areas. And now, the bride takes a special interest in the beautifully-decorated  bridal suite. This suite, after all, is where she and her bridesmaids will gather to await the start of the ceremony, finish dressing, pose for photos, and even enjoy a private, ladies-only champagne toast and berries before the ceremony begins.

Here at the Ram’s Head Inn, we recently gave our Bridal Suite a designer makeover, creating an elegant setting with full-length mirrors and elegant seating that creates an elegant space where brides take some of their most beautiful wedding portraits. Our New Jersey brides have posted by the mirror, by the windows to glow in the natural light from southern exposures, to show off the beauty and detail of their wedding dresses as they sit majestically on a couch suited to a princess pose we’ll surely see when the royal wedding photos of  Kate Middleton are released.

The bridal suite of your dreams can be decorated with floral arrangements, both elevated and low-set, pillar candles and candelabras, and photo-worthy arrangements of fine champagne and champagne flutes awaiting the bride and bridesmaids.

Another trend enjoyed by brides and grooms is the use of the Bridal Suite for their post-ceremony gathering space, with the elegant room serving as a glamorous indoor setting for some of the wedding couple’s most romantic photos, as well as group portraits and family photos. Before venturing to the wedding reception rooms or the wedding gardens, the bride and groom enjoy valued private moments with their family and friends, including a champagne toast.

One additional trend that the Bridal Suite may play a role in is the bride’s change into her second dress for the reception. Inspired by celebrity brides and royal brides, more of our New Jersey brides create a surprise ‘second look’ for their receptions, changing from a traditional wedding gown into a shorter wedding dress, and we’re also seeing more brides changing into their culture’s traditional wedding dresses in bright colors. Another trend in this ‘second look’ that the Bridal Suite provides the perfect setting for is the bride’s change of hairstyle, going from elegant Up-Do to a more relaxed, curled or straight, flowing hairstyle with a tiara or fresh flowers pinned into place, to make a new impression when they make their public debut at the reception.

The Bridal Suite is a place for celebration and transformation, and is now a high priority for the bride and groom who want their wedding’s most special moments to take place in a setting of great beauty.

All the best,

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

While some wedding couples are planning ‘green weddings,’ a great many of our New Jersey wedding couples are focusing on their wedding menu’s green salads. In one of the freshest wedding catering trends, a new focus lands on the salad course, with couples requesting gourmet mixes of greens, vegetables, nuts and cheeses. The salad course is no longer an afterthought as couples design their menus. Brides and grooms who come to the The Manor are just as interested in creating unique salad courses as they are in designing their cocktail party menus, their sit-down dinners and their dessert hour menus.

The salad course has long been designated as a refreshing ‘palate-cleanser,’ giving guests a delightful plate of fresh, organic salad greens, crisp raw vegetables and vinaigrette after they’ve enjoyed heavier, perhaps creamy or cheese-based appetizers at the cocktail hour. In past years, at many wedding venues, salads were comprised of simple, basic iceberg or Romaine lettuce with a slice of tomato and several cucumber rounds, topped with vinegar and oil, or a classic Caesar salad. Now, the gourmet trend in wedding catering is to choose more adventurous, more unique salad elements, creating layers of more sophisticated flavors.

In short, the salad course has emerged as a new spotlight feature of the wedding menu. Wedding dining will never be the same again.

Here are some of the top trends in creating an ‘inspired salad course’ to create a more elegant dining experience:

• Add color to your greens. A plate of freshly-picked mesclun greens creates a foundation of light and dark green colors on which your topping elements rest. A tri-color salad of arugula, endive and radicchio blends pale and dark greens with the bright reds of the radicchio for a colorful presentation and both sweet and bitter greens blending in a dish with flavor depth.

• Add sweetness to your salads. Here at the The Manor in West Orange, one of our most-requested salads is an arugula salad with red onion, mandarin orange and sliced almonds, with the sweetness of the orange adding a burst of flavor in each bite. Sweetness may also come through the dressing, such as a berry vinaigrette, or cubed mango, apple and other sweet fruit toppings.

• Add crunch to your salads. The top trends in crunchy gourmet salads include croutons, almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds and pine nuts, among other nuts.

• Add unique vegetables to your salads. New Jersey tomatoes are often a Must in a fine garden salad, but the new trends in crunchy garden salad bites include beets, cauliflower, asparagus, and snap peas. Mushrooms have burst upon the salad scene as another top trend in toppings.

• Add seafood to your salads. A tiny cluster of fresh lobster meat or crab placed on top of a salad is a new secret ingredient to elevate the salad into a gourmet course.

• Add cheeses to your salads. Guests appreciate the attention to detail when a server offers to shave fresh Romano cheese over their salads, and slices of fresh mozzarella, parmesan or crumbles of feta or goat cheese add the perfect topping and taste to a salad.

• Get creative with vinaigrettes. Our salad dressings include red wine vinaigrettes, raspberry vinaigrettes, and balsamic vinaigrettes. The trend in salad courses is to lighten up the dressing calorically, skipping heavier, creamy dressings in favor of lighter, fresher, fruity vinaigrettes.

Like many aspects of wedding décor, ice sculptures have returned to the top trends list after a brief absence, having gotten a style makeover and a big boost in intricacy of patterns and presentation. Here at The The Manor in West Orange, our in-house master ice sculptors – a father and son team who have been part of our family for over 30 years – have created gorgeous ice sculptures for display in our wedding banquet rooms and at our outdoor garden weddings. Our sophisticated, style-savvy New Jersey and New York City brides and grooms consult with our ice sculptors in order to select and co-design beautiful ice sculptures matching their wedding’s themes and colors, to accent their cocktail hours, their reception décor, and even their location entryways to make a fabulous first impression on guests.

This resurgence of stunningly-cut, intricately-detailed and beautifully-lit ice sculptures as seen in our wedding venue makes the couple’s wedding décor stand out with the kind of attention to detail that’s often seen at celebrity weddings and royal weddings.

Here are the top trends in ice sculpture designs for your wedding:

• Welcome guests to your indoor wedding venue by placing a 5-foot or taller ice sculpture on a gorgeous table set right inside the entrance doors. Surround the ice sculpture with low-set fresh flowers in small glass or crystal bowls or vases to carry the ‘ice’ effect across the entirety of the table.

• Choose a unique theme and shape for your wedding décor ice sculpture. Our Passaic County, Morris County, Somerset County and other regional wedding couples have recently looked beyond the traditional oversized heart to such wedding symbols as intertwined wedding rings, wedding doves, and wedding swans. With a garden wedding theme in mind, many wedding couples have commissioned ice sculptures in the shapes of butterflies, hummingbirds, floral bouquets, and seasonal and cultural shapes may also be expertly carved and intricately finished in a unique design.

• Engrave your names, initials or monogram on one, central, focal-point décor piece to personalize your ice sculpture ‘collection’ throughout your reception rooms and wedding gardens, or feature your full names on this one, large ‘centerpiece’ sculpture, while the additional, smaller ones feature just your initials.

• Lighting effects now make the ice sculpture a true work of art, with ice design artists training décor effects lighting on the ice sculpture from above, and also from within the ice sculpture. White, pastels or bright colors are used like paints on an easel to create the perfect, complimentary effect for an ice sculpture, and wedding décor takes a modern twist when eco-friendly LED light blocks are placed inside smaller ice sculptures.

• Speaking of smaller ice sculptures, it’s becoming a beautiful wedding décor trend to set small, individual ice sculptures as the centerpieces on each of the wedding room guest tables. Choose an identical style for each table, or select different theme-coordinating designs – such as different flowers or different butterflies – for each table.

• Set themed ice sculptures on your buffet tables, as décor on food stations, and also behind your cocktail bar. The design of each sculpture is sure to impress in its size and detailing, as well as its sparkling in the room’s lighting.

• A fun aspect of a cocktail party bar setting is offering a more refined twist on the ‘ice luge’ that you might see in more casual lounges or collegiate nightclubs. In this more upscale presentation, our bar managers pour flavored vodkas or other liquors down an intricate, impressive ice luge and into a stylish serving glass.

• Also at the bar, our ice sculpture masters can create ice blocks in squares or cylinder shapes, fill them with ice shavings, and place cone-shaped vodka glasses or stemless drink glasses in them for a stylish any-season drinks presentation. Especially when they feature a glowing block of colorful LED light below the ice shaving surface, giving this ice sculpture a magical, gemlike effect.

Thank you,

The Manor

We’re seeing a wonderful trend among our brides and their bridal parties – the brides have named two of their closest friends or sisters as their co-maids of honor. These lucky brides experienced the enviable dilemma of having two fabulous, supportive women close to them, and when it came time to decide which would be their maid of honor, they decided not to choose.

The role of maid of honor is a sizeable one, with many assisting tasks, shopping trips, online searches, and especially planning a bridal shower and perhaps a bachelorette party for the bride. It’s actually quite wise to hand this role to two maids of honor, dividing the time-consuming responsibilities among them. Each spends half the time, tackles half the To-Do list, spends half the money, and the bride experiences the relief of knowing her wedding tasks are in good hands.

If you’re fascinated by the idea of having two maids of honor, here are some of the ways that your closest ladies can divide the tasks associated with the role:

• By location. A best friend who lives in your hometown can easily accompany you on dress-shopping expeditions, as many of our brides have reported of their own gown searches in Short Hills, Princeton, and other top shopping meccas in New Jersey. The second maid of honor can take on the lion’s share of online research on trends, bouquet designs, cake designs, etiquette answers and more.

• By personal interest. A sister who loves fashion may be the perfect candidate to lead the bridesmaids in their dress search and selection, and a friend who has a talent and passion for graphic design may create your Save the Date cards, wedding invitations, shower invitations, wedding programs and more.

• By financial position. A maid of honor who is in a higher tax bracket than the other may volunteer to take on the pricier tasks, such as booking a limousine for the bachelorette party, while the co-maid of honor tackles more time-consuming yet inexpensive tasks such as tracking down shower guests’ current mailing addresses.

Two of the most important roles of the maid of honor are holding the bride’s bouquet during the ceremony and signing the marriage license, so divide these tasks among your two maids of honors so that one gets the bouquet to hold and the other gets the pen to sign with. Both maids of honor can walk in the processional side-by-side to show their equal ranking in the bridal party, and of course you’ll title your unmarried friend or sister a maid of honor while a married friend or sister would be given the title matron of honor, according to age-old wedding etiquette rules. Whatever their title, your two maids of honor — or honor attendants, as you may wish to call them – will be there for you every step of the way, to help you plan, support you emotionally, and wish you well in this new chapter of your life.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

A growing trend in wedding décor is the creative showcasing of the bride’s and groom’s family wedding photographs. It’s long been a tradition, especially among our New Jersey wedding couples, to display framed family wedding portraits at the reception, giving guests the chance to see the bride’s and groom’s parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and siblings in their fabulous wedding day attire, standing before stunning scenery in a wedding garden or aligned on a grand staircase. Especially in wedding portraits from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, the details of the bride’s dress and bouquet can be quite breathtaking.

Such a display pays tribute not just to wedding fashion, but to the couple’s relatives and ancestors, including the marriage relationships that served as great inspirations to the bride and groom. Relatives in attendance at the wedding are especially touched to see generations of family honored in this way.

You’re not limited to the traditional arrangement of family photos lined up on a long table by the reception’s entrance, as you’ve likely seen time and time again at other weddings. Today’s fresh take on family photos as wedding décor offers the following display trends:

• Switch family photos carefully from their original frames into all-matching, coordinated frames such as sleek and simple silver frames or ornate filigree frames for a unified look.

• Display family wedding photos in colored frames, including pastel pearlized designs or brightly-hued frames.

• Scan all of your differently-sized family wedding photos and print them onto photo quality card stock in 3”x5” or 4”x6” size. Frame each small photo in a clear plastic frame, and use colorful or black and white ribbon to hang each from a potted, living ‘family tree’ that stands next to your guest book table. After the wedding, the potted tree comes home with you and is planted on your property.

• Display photo frames at different heights. Place some on table level, and some on glass or decorative ceramic footed pedestals of varying heights, with a collection of colorful votive candles and flower petals interspersed between them.

• Pair each framed photo with a separate, smaller frame containing your computer-printed notes on who’s in each picture, where and when the photo was taken, and perhaps even a treasured anecdote about that couple.

• Skip the framed photos and edit a slideshow of family wedding photos that play on a small plasma television set on your guest book table.

• Replace the ‘all about us’ video montage that opens some wedding receptions with a ‘memory lane’ video presentation featuring wonderful family wedding portraits and other images. Guests will be so impressed that you chose to open your reception with a tribute to the loved ones who came before you, displaying the importance you place on family and your lineage.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

Your path down the aisle can be a beautiful, personalized one with your custom-designed aisle runner leading you toward your groom. We’ve seen many stunning aisle runner designs here at the The Manor in West Orange, and we’re pleased to share with you the top trends in aisle runner design.

• Today’s beautiful aisle runners are made from high-quality fabrics, having evolved beautifully from the early days of aisle runners that were very similar in feel to a heavy-duty paper towel roll that often bunched up and tripped up the bride and groom and their guests. The new world of aisle runner fabrics are heavier, often top-grade cottons, providing the all-important secure surface you’ll want beneath your feet.

• Aisle runners are also being made from organic fabrics, such as natural organic cotton and even hemp, pleasing eco-conscious brides and grooms.

• White designs are still very popular for brides and grooms who love the traditional bridal look, and we’re also seeing many aisle runners in beautiful pastel colors such as lavender and sage green. We’re also seeing bright colors such as dramatic reds, jewel-toned purples, and summery oranges and yellows.

• Creative graphics such as a cluster of butterflies decorate the start of the new, modern aisle runner, so talk with your designer to choose the theme icon that best fits your formal or garden wedding wishes.

• Today’s aisle runners feature the bride’s and groom’s first names, or monogram, printed in a beautiful font and in a gorgeous coordinating color at the start of the runner.

• At our garden weddings, many of our New Jersey brides and grooms choose to skip the fabric aisle runner and instead mark their aisles with lineups of potted flowers or pretty piles of colorful flower petals on either side of the aisle. Or, they choose to create a ‘petal carpet’ of scattered flower petals in all-white or colors that creates their path.

• Some of our recent brides and grooms have decided that they prefer to walk not on an aisle runner nor on flower petals, but on our flooring or garden grass to provide a lovely color contrast of the bride’s white gown against their hues.

We’ve encouraged our wedding couples to have their wedding photographers snap photos of their aisle runner design and details as a priceless keepsake, and we’ve seen our brides and grooms pose photos while standing in front of their runner logo. A popular trend is for the couple to either clean and store their aisle runner to use in the future for their milestone anniversaries or when they renew their wedding vows. At those celebrations, which they may choose to host here with us once again, they can use their wedding day aisle runner as a valuable and sentimental part of their décor. And of course, many of our New Jersey wedding couples choose instead to cut out their aisle runner logo and design, have it professionally framed, and display it in their homes as an everyday reminder of the best and most beautiful day of their lives.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

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

Today’s brides and grooms start thinking about their wedding registries right away, and they’re very excited (and quite fortunate!) that current wedding registry trends and etiquette say they can have more than one registry. In fact, both nationwide and in our local New Jersey region, the average number of separate wedding registries set up by brides and grooms is two to three.

Many wedding couples choose to create registry gift lists at one or more housewares stores such as Bed Bath & Beyond, Macys, and Williams Sonoma, just to name a few, to stock up on kitchen and linen essentials, décor items, appliances such as top-tier coffee makers and Panini presses. They register at home essentials stores to upgrade to the good cookware and cutlery, and load up on high thread-count towels and sheets. For many couples, this type of registry is their wedding registry number one. They then create other, unique registries. Here are some of the top types of unique wedding registries that our Passaic County, Morris County, Essex County, Hudson County, Somerset County and other New Jersey wedding couples report as their top wedding gift list choices:

• Honeymoon Registry: These popular wedding gift registry sites allow you to sign up for such romantic experiences as a private sunset dinner cruise or a couple’s massage on the beach, or an adventure such as swimming with dolphins or taking a zipline canopy tour above an exotic rainforest. Guests can purchase these experiences for you, or they might choose to give you a ‘share’ of your honeymoon suite booking, or your plane fare, to make your trip possible for you. They can also select gift cards to your honeymoon resort, giving you the ability to spend your gift money any way you wish.

• Charitable Registry: If you’re a charitable-minded couple, you might set up a charitable gift registry on which you designate your favorite charity or charities, and guests select the amount they’d like to donate to your chosen cause as their wedding gift to you. A big trend among our New Jersey wedding couples is designating local donation recipients, such as animal shelters, libraries, schools and especially food pantries. Having a charitable registry among your two or three established wedding registries gives guests their choice of traditional or unique gift to give you.

• Sporting Registry. Our local North Jersey brides and grooms have a penchant for outdoor sports, and living an active lifestyle. So they’re signing onto active and adventure lifestyle gift lists at such stores as REI.com, one of the most popular registries for couples who want mountain bikes, kayaks, camping gear, GPS systems and other supplies to enhance their active lifestyle that’s so popular here at New Jersey’s many hiking, biking, climbing, boating and other adventure sport areas.

• Wine Registry. Our New Jersey brides and grooms have sophisticated tastes when it comes to wines, and one of the things we hear quite often from couples who come to our West Orange wedding venue is that they dream of having extensive wine collections and installing wine cellars. So creating a wine registry at a local wine merchant or wine connoisseur website is a top trend.

• Experience Registry. Similar to the honeymoon registry, this type of registry offers experiences as gifts. The bride and groom log onto an experience wedding registry site, and they choose their dream adventures. It might be skydiving, horseback riding on the beach, taking a culinary course at a celebrity chef’s establishment, or other phenomenal experience that only a guest’s generous gift could provide.

Wedding registry information must not be included on your wedding invitation, but is instead shared as links in your personal wedding website. Wedding guests say they appreciate finding multiple types of registries that give them a wide range of options for your wedding gift, since they want to get you an unforgettable gift or experience that you’ll love.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

Your sisters, friends and cousins will certainly be thrilled to hear you say, “Will you be my bridesmaid?” It’s a very big moment for the ladies who are asked, since being invited into a bridal party circle is a great honor, a sign of great admiration, one of the biggest thrills that you can share with each other.

In today’s world of wedding planning, especially in our northern New Jersey region and in the surrounding counties of our tri-state area, brides are taking extra steps to make this invitation even more special to their future bridesmaids. Here are some of the creative ways that brides are planning unique ways to ask, “Will you be my bridesmaid?”

• Send your bridesmaids flowers at their homes or offices, with a hand-written note from you (if possible, since long-distance flower-sends will produce computer-printed notes) asking the big question.
• Send your bridesmaids chocolate-covered strawberries or chocolates from one of our award-winning NJ chocolatiers, with a note inviting the bridesmaid to make the bridal party a sweeter circle of friends with her involvement.
• Send a voice-recording greeting card, especially to a far-away friend, so that she can receive an indulgent gift and your voice-added greeting card inviting her to the bridal party circle…and serves as a keepsake of your relationship and this big moment.
• Send your bridesmaid a stuffed bear, outfitted to look like a bridesmaid, with a hidden voice player that you’ve used to record your invitation message.
• Schedule a Skype meeting with your friend so that you can ask her in a high-tech way.
• Buy each of your ladies a bridesmaid guidebook or a New Jersey wedding magazine and send them to your bridesmaids with a personal note from you, inviting them into your bridal party group.
• Invite your bridesmaids to a VIP dinner party, cocktail party, a fine dining restaurant or your favorite gourmet cuisine spot, or simply out for cocktails at your favorite cocktail bar or family restaurant as a celebratory get-together where you ask the big question, then clink cocktail glasses for the first time as bride and her bridesmaids.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château