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Friday, April 6, 2012
Whether you have been planning your wedding in your head for years, or didn’t even give it a thought until you said yes, when it actually comes time to plan the big day it can be hard to know where to begin. Well don’t worry, we are here to help make finding a venue a little bit easier. In this part of a three part series, we will show you some of the most luxurious hotels in Washington, D.C., which will make a great venue for any wedding. Whether your wedding is large or small a hotel is a great choice to host your ceremony or reception. With a full staff on hand, spacious banquet halls and years of experience hosting weddings, a hotel can provide you with the flexibility and reliability you need to make sure your wedding day is perfect. If you’re considering getting married in the Washington, D.C. area here are some of our favorite luxury wedding hotels you should consider.
Hotel Monaco Washington DC
Located right in the heart of Chinatown and Penn Quarter, this stunning boutique hotel has the feel of a quaint French hotel with a modern twist. Every room, from the reception area to the restaurant Poste Moderne Brasserie, is popping with bright, bold color. Located right downtown next to the historic Tarrif Building, and numerous monuments and museums, the exterior of the hotel, as well as the interior, provide a stunning back drop for wedding photos. Guests from out of town will feel right at home staying at the Hotel Monaco. The hotel hosts a complimentary wine tasting every day, and even provides guests who love animals with a guppy in their room for the entirety of their stay. Write to family and friends who couldn’t attend on the specially-designed letterpress stationery left in each room.
The Washington Hilton
If you plan on having a larger wedding, you may want to consider the beautiful Hilton Washington. The Washington Hilton can accommodate up to 4,000 guests in their largest ballroom and has a romantic garden oasis on the roof of the hotel, which has comfy couches and fire pits to keep guests warm while they enjoy a breathtaking, panoramic view of the city. The hotel, which was originally built in 1965, has a timeless feel; but a recent head-to-toe renovation costing $150 million ensures the iconic building still has all the modern luxuries you would expect to find in a brand new hotel.
The Mandarin Oriental
This brand new luxury hotel is a five-star hotel and spa that can only be described as elegant. Recently, Institutional Investor Magazine ranked the hotel as one of the Top 100 Hotels in the World. The hotel has an understated, classic beauty with lots of creams and deep brown colors throughout the hotel and the ballrooms. The main ballroom can seat up to 625 people and the hotel sits amongst beautiful gardens filled with charming Cherry Blossom Trees. The rooms provide beautiful views of the Potomac River and the city sky line.
The Omni Shoreham
This large hotel offers one of the widest selections of ballrooms in the city of Washington D.C. With seven uniquely-themed ballrooms you are sure to find one with the ambiance you are looking for. The ballrooms hold between 200 to 1,500 guests. The hotel itself is a historic landmark and has hosted a number of U.S. Presidents and foreign Royalty. The hotel has won numerous awards for hospitality and interior design, and is a AAA four-diamond hotel. For grooms who are looking to pick up a last minute gift for their brides, there is a jewelry and diamond store right in the hotel lobby.
The Willard InterContinental
If you are looking to feel like a million bucks on your wedding day, this hotel neighboring the White House on the infamous Pennsylvania Avenue is the spot for you. Constructed in 1853 the hotel has 19,891 square feet of banquet facilities and boasts rooms that cost up to $4,000 a night. The interior decoration is reminiscent of an earlier era, with large crystal chandeliers, mosaic tile floors and stunning marble accents present in almost every room. The history behind the hotel is vast, and can be felt in every hallway. President Lincoln and his family actually lived in the hotel for a month before they moved into the White House, and Martin Luther King finished writing his famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech in one of the hotel’s rooms.
The Park Hyatt Washington
This hotel has a modern feel, and has only been open for six years since its $24 million renovation. The Park Hyatt Washington has a quaint feel, housed on the eastern end of Georgetown. To make sure you won’t soon forget your time at the Park Hyatt Washington, the hotel has its own signature fragrance that they offer to guests. If you would like an out of the ordinary venue, consider getting married in the hotel’s Tea Cellar, a vast room filled with teas from all over the world. The Deluxe guest rooms are the largest hotel rooms in the city and each room comes with antique hardcover books and an assortment of vintage boardgames. The famous restaurant located in the hotel, The Blue Duck Tavern, has private tasting rooms where guests can sample some of the finest wines and liquors.
If you are looking for that extra touch of luxury consider one of these world-class hotels as the perfect venue for your upcoming nuptials. These hotels are built to create unsurpassed, long-lasting memories and will make sure that both you and your guests enjoy one of the most luxurious days of your lives.
casinorulet.com
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Tuesday, April 3, 2012
If you are looking to add a truly luxurious touch to your wedding consider the type of entertainment you have at your reception. In recent years, going above and beyond the traditional wedding band has become a popular custom. Couples are now offering their guests unique entertainment by including dancers, magicians and eight-piece bands as part of the post-wedding fun. Below are a few popular luxury wedding bands and entertainment that have wowed wedding guests and will make your wedding a truly magical event.
Photographers and Artists
Make your wedding memorable for your guests by giving them party favors they will want to hang onto for years to come. Hire a professional photographer to set up a fun and wacky photo booth for the guests. Have plenty of costumes and fun accessories on hand, such as feather boas, cowboy hats and bow ties. Invite guests to get creative and a little goofy while they pose for pictures from your photographer. Guests can then pick up a set of the photos to take home with them at the end of the night, and you can hold onto to some of the snapshots yourself. Create a scrapbook, or collage with guests’ pictures as a fun keepsake to display around your home. For a truly special touch, take guests’ photos and attach them to your luxury thank you cards you send out after the event. If your guests are a little camera shy consider hiring a sketch artist to create fun party favors. Have a sketch artist draw cartoon caricatures of your guests and their friends.
Dancing Troupes
Whether you are hoping to simply inspire guests to hit the dance floor, or are looking to surprise guests with an exciting performance, dance troupes are becoming a popular staple at many luxury weddings. The type of dancers you can find for your wedding ranges from professional ballroom dancers to exotic belly dancers. Oftentimes, guests may be hesitant to take that first step out onto the dance floor. If you want to make sure your guests are burning up the dance floor by the end of the night, consider hiring professional ballroom dancers. The dancers will take the lead and invite guests out on the dance floor to learn popular dances, such as the waltz, tango and foxtrot. These dancers’ goal is to get guests feeling comfortable out on the dance floor and to encourage guests to have a good time. If you are looking to feature a performance that guests can enjoy from the sidelines consider hiring a more unique dancing troupe. Many couples have chosen to hire everyone from ballerinas to bottle dancers to provide guests with unique entertainment they won’t see anywhere else.
Food and Drink Experts
How often have you gone to a luxury wedding and felt overwhelmed by the wine selection or number of fancy hors d’oeuvres on display? Provide your guests with a unique learning experience by inviting food and drink experts to your reception. You can find experts in wine, cheese, liquor or any number of delicacies, who can teach your guests about proper food and drink pairings, or how to spot a good Cabernet Sauvignon. These experts will educate guests on the food and drink they are sampling, as well as answer guests’ questions. These experts are a fun way to encourage guests to mingle with one another and try appetizers or drinks they normally may not have tasted.
Magicians or Fortunetellers
Create an air or mystery and magic at your wedding reception by inviting a magician or fortuneteller to entertain guests. Magicians are popping up at more and more weddings, and are a fun way to keep guests entertained during a cocktail hour or while you and your partner slip away to take photos with the rest of the wedding party. Magicians can put on a brief performance for guests, or they can walk around the reception hall providing one-on-one entertainment. If you are looking for an even more unique way to mystify guests then hire a fortuneteller to read guests’ fortunes. Many fortunetellers will don costumes and appear in character to further delight curious wedding attendees.
Non-traditional Bands
Embrace your family’s culture or simply spice up your wedding’s soundtrack by hiring a non-traditional wedding band. Forget the standard DJ, or cover band, think about hiring a sting quartet or a Hindi band. After attending so many weddings with the traditional wedding bands, who play 80’s covers or pop music, it is easy to forget that there are a number of different musical groups you can have perform at your ceremony. If your family is Irish, it may be fun to celebrate their heritage by hiring an Irish folk band, or you can have the bagpipes at your wedding to celebrate Scottish roots. When planning your wedding leave yourself plenty of time to audition a variety of different musicians and bands to see who fits your taste better. Couples have even began choreographing a special number of their first dance. If you and your partner want to make a grand entrance after saying ‘I do’, find a band who will work with you to create a special introduction and first dance performance.
These days, weddings are more often becoming entertainment events than your simple wedding. Keep guests entertained and on-the-edge-of-their-seats all night by thinking beyond the standard wedding band and incorporating a number of different wedding bands and entertainment acts. With so many entertainers on the market, it is easy to find affordable performers who can create the special atmosphere you are looking for. Don’t be afraid to surprise guests and set your ceremony apart from other weddings.
bonusaffiliate.com
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Monday, April 2, 2012
With so much to do on your wedding day, and so many guests to see, many couples often find they don’t have enough time to greet and talk to all their guests. Guest books can help you keep track of all the family and friends who helped you celebrate your big day, as well become a wonderful keepsake where well-wishers can share messages of love and luck with you and your fiance. If you are looking for something a little more creative than the traditional guest book you find at weddings, keep reading. Here we will share some of the most creative, and beautiful wedding guest book ideas we have come across.
Envelope-Filled Guest Book
Instead of simply asking guests to scrawl a message in a book for all to see, encourage more personal, intimate messages by inviting guests to write upon pieces of paper and place them inside individual envelopes glued into a book. Scrapbooks work great for this type of guest book since they have larger pages and provide room for more envelopes. For an extra touch of uniqueness, purchase patterned paper from a craft store. If you look in the scrap booking aisle at most craft stores you will find hundreds of different colors and types of paper, this can brighten up your guest book and encourage guests to have a little fun with the messages they leave. Encourage guests to write their names and addresses on their envelope, so when it comes time to send out your thank you notes you have everyone’s contact information in one place.
Luxury Stationery Cards
If you are looking to incorporate elegance and sophistication into your wedding ceremony, luxury stationery cards are a great option. These cards can be printed on a variety of different types of paper, and can display unique designs created by letterpress printing or embossing. You can either provide several different styles of card, and allow guests to choose their own; or you can also provide one, beautifully designed stationery card if you would like a uniform look.
Polaroid Guest Book
They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, so fill your guest book up with fun polaroids to capture exactly what each guest looked like, wore and had to say on the day you were married. If you would like guests to have a little fun, consider setting out props for the pictures, such as hats, boas, silly glasses or other costume pieces. Leave out different colored markers so guests can pen their own well wishes on the bottom or back of each Polaroid. Once the day is over tape all the Poloraids into a keepsake book.
Traveling Guest Book
This guest book is great for those couples who like to make a statement. Gather together a list of cities that each wedding guest is traveling from. Paint these city’s names on pieces of wood and include the mileage between your venue and their hometown. Then take these individual pieces of wood and nail them to a small wooden stake so they resemble an old-fashioned road traffic sign. Then have guests sign their names in permanent marker on the city where they came from.
Guest Tree
Turn your family and friends’ beautiful messages into a touching decoration you can display in your home for years to come. Buy a small tree-like ornament. Many craft stores have miniature trees actually crafted from wood, while you can find porcelain and metal tree-like sculptures at many home goods stores. Make sure the tree you choose has plenty of branches from which guests can hang their messages. Depending upon the size of your tree, either have guests sign miniature ornaments, or pieces of paper with loops of ribbon attached to them. Then have guests hang these messages from the tree. For a romantic look, hang small candle valises or twinkle lights from the some of the branches as well.
Postcards and Mailbox
Buy a collection of different postcards, or ask guests to bring one from their hometown. Have guests write their messages on these postcards then place them inside a mailbox. If you are going for a rustic look, a simple metal mailbox can provide a beautiful finish to your guest table. If you would like to get more creative, you can paint and decorate the mailbox with fabric, buttons, shells or any other trinkets that embody the theme of your ceremony. Again, ask guests to leave their names and addresses on their postcards so you are sure to have everyone’s information when it comes time to send out thank you letters.
Quilt-style Guest Book
If you are an avid sewer, or you are looking for a guest book you can display around your house this is the perfect guest book for you. Ask guests to sign and leave their messages on pieces of fabric. If you like you can color coordinate this fabric with the colors of your wedding, your home, or you can simply leave a variety of different colors and see what guests come up with. After the wedding is over, sew these individual pieces of fabric together and you will have a beautiful quilt to display on your walls or place on your bed.
Keys to a Wonderful Marriage
If you would like to add a touch of antique style to your ceremony consider this truly unique guest book. Purchase a bunch of old, Victorian keys. Purchase roughly as many keys as you have guests attending, with a few spares just in case. Don’t worry about matching the metals or style of keys, as the more diverse your collection the more stunning it will look. Provide a trunk, ornamental vase, or other holder for the keys and ask guests to write their messages on slips of paper. These can either be messages of love, or you ask guests what they believe is the ‘key to a wonderful marriage’. Guests will then ties their messages to a key and drop it in the holder.
Guest books are one of the best ways to celebrate family and friends who attended your wedding, and share this special moment with them even if you don’t have time to personally greet everyone. Get inspired by some of these creative guest book designs and you’re sure to throw a wedding everyone will be talking about.
bonusgrand.com
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