Flower Fridays Present the Morning Glory

Welcome to Tiffany Weddings and Events LLC's first Flower Friday!  We are so excited to kick off this new segment with you.

Fridays we will feature a new flower.  We will include a picture or pictures of the flower, what the flower means, and some ideas on how you can incorporate the flower into your wedding or other event, or draw inspiration from it to incorporate in a less direct manner.

Original Image courtesy of D Quinn Photography

So enough explanation, let's get started!

This week Flower Fridays Presents the Morning Glory!

Some of you may have wondered what kind of flower is featured in the Tiffany Weddings and Events LLC logo.  If you guessed the Morning Glory, you would be correct!

The Morning Glory has many meanings, including "Affection", "Love", and "Mortality".  It is often thought of as a symbol of life and death, as most of the flowers in this family bloom in the morning and die in the afternoon.  The family does also include a night blooming Moonflower, which blooms later in the day and last through the night.

The Morning Glory comes in a variety of colors including red, pink, blue, purple, and white; which makes for a nice range to accommodate any number of wedding or event colors and themes; and are climbing or trailing vine flowers that bloom in the summer and early fall before the threat of frost.  Their leaves range from 2-5" in length, and the flowers tend to be around 3" long x 2.5" wide.  

Image courtesy of Stoonn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

They are fairly delicate, particularly their roots, so I wouldn't suggest using them in a bouquet unless you are planning on carrying some form of potted bouquet.  These flowers aren't suited for cutting generally speaking.  However, they could make beautiful potted centerpieces.  They could also be used to decorate an arch and/or trellis for garden or garden inspired weddings and events, if you plan ahead.  Do keep in mind the bloom times of the flowers you choose though.  If you are having an early afternoon wedding, you may want to have a combination of Morning Glories and Moonflowers, otherwise, your flowers will start to close before the end of your affair.

The Morning Glory is often associated with the 11th wedding anniversary, so if your significant other is into flowers and gardening, consider giving the gift of the Morning Glory for that 11th anniversary together.  It is also one of the birth flowers for September and could be a wonderful element to add to your party decor in September, depending on where you live.

You don't have to incorporate live flowers into your decor in order to use the Morning Glory for your event.  One place you may be able to use the flower is on your stationary, flowers make beautiful stationary decor for all occasions.  Another great place to incorporate the Morning Glory is on your dessert design.  Just keep in mind that the seeds of the Morning Glory are toxic, so you wouldn't want to use any live plants on any food for decor.

Hopefully you have found this first Flower Fridays feature to be both entertaining and inspiring!  We look forward to showcasing more flowers as the year goes on.

If you have used Morning Glories in your event design, please share your story and/or photos with us and follow us on Facebook!  You can find us at Tiffany Weddings And Events LLC.

Don't forget to call (631-805-2055) or email Tiffany today to start planning your big event!

Why You Should Hire a Wedding Planner (The Basics)

Many people still think that hiring a wedding planner is only for the wealthy and those throwing huge events.  However, that simply isn’t the case anymore.  Wedding planners are available for a huge range of weddings from the intimate to the extravagant, from the budget conscious to the limitless credit line.  In fact, there are several very good reasons you should hire a wedding planner for your big day.  Following, I will briefly go over ten reasons you should hire a wedding planner, then later in the series I will address each reason in more detail.  Let the planning begin!

1. Handling the planning yourself often takes away from your being able to enjoy the process of being engaged and planning your big day.
2. Venue coordinators generally have very little, if any, involvement in helping you with any other aspects of planning your wedding outside of the specific services their venue provides.
3. Wedding planner are also your mediators.  They help with disagreements between the bride and groom; as well as family and friends who may be over stepping.
4. Hiring a wedding planner is a great idea for DIY couples who want to make a lot of the décor/details for the wedding themselves, because the planner can focus on the logistics of the wedding while the couple can focus on the arts and crafts.
5. A planner can often help you save money and can even sometimes help you save enough to cover their rate.
6. A wedding planner will also help you stay on budget and keep you from over spending, and thus help you recover their rate as well.
7. A wedding planner can save you time and streamline the process by helping you to more quickly narrow down your options.  Many already have connections with vendors which helps further with this, helping you save time and possibly money.
8. When planning a wedding, staying on schedule is vital, and a wedding planner will help you do just that, saving you stress and possible money.
9. Hiring a Day-of planner can help defuse disasters and potential disasters, often without you even needing to know about them so that you can fully enjoy your day.
10. According to different surveys, between 15 and 25% of couples plan destination weddings.  A wedding planner can help make sure that you have all the necessary requirements met to be legally married in the area you plan to have the wedding, otherwise you find out later your marriage wasn’t legal and end up going down to city hall to be legally married.

If you aren’t sure whether or not you should hire a planner, ask yourself these questions:

1. Do you have a stressful and/or time consuming job?
2. Are you bad with money and/or schedules?
3. Do you get overwhelmed by the details?
4. Is there drama and/or the potential for drama in your family?
5. Do you want to have your wedding out of town?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should hire a wedding planner, whether for full service, consultation services, and/or day-of coordination.  When selecting your wedding planner, you should choose someone you feel comfortable with, who listens to you and shows that they understand what your vision for your wedding is, and is organized.  If you don’t feel comfortable with the first planner you meet with, don’t be afraid to say no thank you and look for a different planner; it is easier and more cost effective to work with one planner or one group from start to finish than to start with one and then switch in the middle of the planning because things aren’t going well.

Happy Father's Day!

First I would like to say a heart felt Happy Fathers' Day to all of the Dads out there.  Not just the biological Fathers, but to ALL of the men out there taking responsibility and helping us to raise the next generation.

We want to celebrate the ones we love all the time, but Fathers' Day is a day set aside especially for Dads.  Sometimes we may have a hard time coming up with nice gift ideas for Dad that aren't the same old tie (Though for some Dads getting a new tie every year might be the perfect gift!), so I have come up with a list of items that some may find helpful in planning their Fathers' Day celebration.

As always, you want to keep the person you are getting a gift for in mind, not all Dads are the same.  But don't just look at the obvious things they enjoy, try to think outside the box.  One great gift idea is a massage gift certificate.  People often think of this as more of a gift for Mom, but the reality is that Dads can use the relaxation also.  Think of it this way, many Dads today still take on some of the more traditionally male responsibilities when it comes to the upkeep of a home, such as yard work.  Fathers' Day comes in June, it's the end of the spring/beginning of summer.  If your Father is the type to get out in the yard in the spring to clean out all of the debris from the fall and winter, chances are he has recently finished up this job.  After all of that raking and hauling and cutting and sawing, he may just be in need of a good massage.

Get his car detailed.  Often time, Dad is still the one that helps keep the family fleet running.  Whether it is checking the fluids on a regular basis or running the car to the shop when it is in need of maintenance.  If your Dad falls into this category, it might be a nice gift idea for you to take the reigns and make sure his car is in tip top condition.  Checking the fluids and adding more if necessary is a pretty easy job, but if you aren't sure make sure you ask for help from someone first so you don't inadvertently put in too much or the wrong fluid.  It would also be nice to wash and detail the car.  Again, if you know what you are doing and have the tools, you can do this yourself, but it might be nice to get it professionally done for the occasion to make sure the car is sparkling inside and out!

Help Dad get in shape!  Yep, that's right.  Maybe your Father loves to be active, but he has gotten out of the habit.  A nice Fathers' Day gift could be to get a gym membership for the two of you or sign up for a martial arts class (Galante Martial Arts in Port Jefferson Station is a great place to go).  This is a great way for not just Dad to get moving again, but also for you two to spend some quality time together doing something healthy!  Just be sure your Dad is physically fit enough for the activity you have in mind before hand.

These three gift are just a few out of the box ideas for gifts for Dad.  The possibilities are numerous!  What other uncommon or unusual gift ideas have you used?