Baby Eskimo

Mike Miller at Drinks Fantastic sent us this festive holiday cocktail and we thought it was too cute not to share! It is called a Baby Eskimo and is a frosted vanilla milkshake with Kahlua, red sprinkles and fresh mint! Drinks Fantastic will be serving it at the ISES Holiday Social on Monday and we cant wait to try it!

Annual Retreat!

Each year the Bride Associates team enjoys a weekend getaway for training! This year we were headed to Austin, Texas but the resort we were staying decided to go under construction this month! In a quick recovery, the Southlake Hilton graciously worked with us on short notice and we enjoyed a relaxing 'staycation' this year!

We started the weekend off with a much needed spa day at the Royale Maison and Spa in Colleyville. Between mimosas and delicious cheese, we were pampered with massages, facials, and pedicures! We didnt want this part of retreat to end!

Friday evening we were hosted by Brio's for dinner. We were treated VIP in their private dining room - this room is perfect for a rehearsal dinner or any other small event! Regina and the staff at Brio's welcomed us and did not even let us order - they had prepared a meal fit for a king and we enjoyed every last bite! I wish I could describe the amount of food that we consumed! We tasted four appetizers, lobster bisque soup, two salads, five entrees, and three desserts!

Saturday was our primary training day! We got down to business by looking back and learning from this year and setting goals for next year. We focused on providing better customer service and overall quality in each of the services we offer. We had two special presentations prepared for us to learn more about ethnic weddings. One of our senior consultants, Christina Tran, taught us about all the details that go into Asian weddings and we had a special guest, Kirtna Charavda with Simply Perfect Weddings that educated us on the rituals of Indian weddings. It was a great weekend of education, spending quality time as a team and learning how to better serve our brides and vendors!

You would think after our huge meal on Friday night we would not want to eat again, but we were up for the challenge! Rebecca Wright and Mike McClure invited us to dine with them at Trulucks. Rebecca and Mike were so gracious and the staff and service at Trulucks is top notch! We got so much special attention that a few of the other guests that were dining near us thought we were celebrities or someone famous - until we started taking pictures of our food - like this amazing display of cold stone crab and shrimp and our favorite the chocolate cake!!

A BIG thank you to the following people who made our retreat extra special. We thank you for your friendship and partnership as we try to provide the highest level of service to our clients!

Southlake Hilton
Royale Maison and Spa
Brio's
Trulucks
Simply Perfect Weddings

Where Will You Be?

Bride Associates will be celebrating the launch of i entertainment tonight with Cameron Fox and Damany Daniels. We are so proud of these two entertainment guru's and look forward to watching their success this year with their new company i entertainment! Tonight should be the party of the year! Where will you be when club i happend?

Ester and Joe

Bride Associates had a wonderful time working with Ester and Joe who had a beautiful reception at the Dallas Museum of Art in downtown Dallas. A big thank you to Monique Boyd, who is absolutely fabulous to work with at the DMA. Ester and Joe flew in photographers Pen Carlson from Chicago and it was a pleasure working with them. Their style is very unique and we love the photos! Absolute Entertainment provided all of the great lighting, Lilium Florals created beautiful flowers for the event, and Booth Booth added pre reception fun with their photobooth!

Unveiled Bridal Show

Last month the Bride Associates team took a trip to Unveiled, one of the new bridal shows that came to Dallas. The event was beautifully designed and gave plenty ideas for creative brides! We enjoyed seeing the fashion shows, decor and most of all saying hi and catching up with some of our favorite vendors!

These were beautiful table displays provided by Ducky Bobs.

This was one of the beautiful fashion shows.

Christina Tran with Bride Associates enjoying delicious cake with Janice from Romanos Bakery.

Christina and Chelsey with Bride Associates enjoyed the Unveiled event with one of our favorite entertainment gurus - Cameron Fox - with i entertainment.

State Fair Engagment Photos

One of our beautiful couples took their engagment photos with Andrea Polito Photography last month at the Texas State Fair. These photos are too wonderful not to share! Look for their wedding photos right before Christmas!

Happy Halloween

At Halloween and all year through we want to express our love and gratitude

for all our brides, vendors, and friends. For all the things that you have done to make our world a better one. Since this is the time for goblins and bats, Halloween spirits and spooks and cats,

Weird happenings and witches brew, these are the things that we wish for you...

May the only ghost that comes to stay be the Holy Ghost to guide your way.

May the only spirit you chance to meet, Be the spirit of love and friendship sweet.

As we start this festive time of year, we hope that you feel the spirit and love,

that can only come from our Father above. These are our Halloween wishes to you and may God bless you in all that you do.

Happy Halloween from the Bride Associates Team!

Eat, Drink & Be Scary

Have fun tonight while helping a worthy cause at the first annual Halloween party at Hickory Street Annex benefiting Heroes for Children. Enjoy the company of fabulous event professionals and celebrate this spooky holiday at Eat Drink and Be Scary. Not only will there be a costume contest, heavy hors d’oeuvres, signature spooky cocktails, music and dancing, but the party is also set up to raise money for Heroes for Children! Heroes for Children provides for families who have children battling cancer in Texas. Thanks to this wonderful organization, families are able to focus on the most important part of the cancer treatment — the child. Celebrate a very worthy organization and a very spooky event at Eat Drink and Be Scary! RSVP online and check out their website to find out more information about this cause and how you can help.

Brides Love Bride Associates!

"Having planned most of my wedding myself, I wasn’t looking for full wedding coordination. I was looking for someone to ease my stresses and execute all of the preparations I had made for my big day. I met with Christina from Bride Associates and several other day of coordinators from other companies, and I actually initially chose someone else! But as we began working together, I could not get Christina’s energy and Bride Associates professionalism out of my mind. I switched over to Christina, and I am so glad I did! She was organized, diligent, and FUN! So much of my planning had been so stressful; Christina got me back into remembering to enjoy the process and my wedding. The whole day went beautifully, and I couldn’t have been happier. A big thanks from an elated bride!" - Helen Pendergrass Calvin

More Photos to Come from the Pendergrass/Calvin Wedding!

Race for the Cure

Bride Associates is a proud member of the National Association of Catering Executives and a few weeks ago they threw a “Think Pink” party in order to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. With a little help from Bride Associates and other members of the wedding industry, they ended up raising hundreds of dollars in order to help raise awareness. Here are a few photos from this wonderful evening!

Christina, Chelsey and Deanie with Steve Cooley from Carpe Vita Photography who took this great shot of us as he jumped in the picture!

Christina and Chelsey with Cameron Fox and Damany Daniels from i entertainment

Last weekend Bride Associates teamed up again with National Association of Catering Executives and participated in the 27th annual Susan G. Komen - Race for the Cure walk. Over 30,000 people gathered together to help raise money for education about breast cancer, research for a cure and to provide resources for those dealing with breast cancer. This was by far one of the most influential walks Bride Associates has ever participated in.

Bride Associates Senior Coordinators Christina Tran and Gretchen Holmes getting ready for the race! Christina Tran and Sara Sawai with NACE team up to “race” in Race for the Cure!

Thousands of people came out to help raise money and awareness for such an important cause.

Pamper the Prego

This past Sunday the Bride Associates team had a special baby shower for one of our consultants, Sarabeth. The theme for the shower was 'Pamper the Prego'. We figured baby Grahm would get plenty of gifts so we decided to shower Sarabeth with gifts strictly for her! We enjoyed a fabulous tea party by Twist of Tea at Patty Cakes in downtown Grapevine. Tante with Twist of Tea and Patty with Patty Cakes are two amazingly talented women! A special thank you for them being such gracious hosts!

Delicious treats from Patty Cakes! My favorites were the signature cheesecake bites and creme brulee in shot glasses!

We had craft time and created cute door hangers!

Twist of Tea provided these adorable hats, pearls and feather boas for a fun afternoon of tea and dressup!

Celebration Event Rentals!

Celebration Event Rentals in Southlake had their grand opening last week! We had a great time seeing all of the beautiful new rental items they have and few of our favorite vendors!

Randal Stout provided the music and was the MC of the evening. Kim and Steve Cooley with Carpe Vita Photography are always a pleasure to see!

Kodi and Amy with Celebration Event Rentals are wonderful! They really make the rental process easy and fun. Thanks Kodi for all the extra effort you always provide!

Chelsey Dane with Bride Associates and Mike and Rejana Krause with Blue Door Studios who took some great shots of the event!

Think Pink

Bride Associates is a proud member of the National Association of Catering Executives. Tonight the DFW Chapter of NACE invites you to "Think Pink" and join us for a special evening to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Click Here to Register

Attire: Pink Chic (Casual Cocktail)
When: Thursday, October 1, 2009 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Where: Infomart 1950 N. Stemmons Freeway Dallas, TX 75207
Parking: Complimentary Self Parking at the Infomart

Cost: $50.00

Casino Fantastic Entertainment Tabletop Competition Silent Auction Wine & Liquor Raffle

Meet & Greet!

Bride Associates would like to introduce our newest feature to help 'make planning simple' for our brides! Its called Meet & Greet and each month we will feature a new and fabulous vendor to 'meet' and 'greet'! Stay tuned to learn more about our favorite vendors and their special talents!

For the month of October we are going to start off Meet & Greet with a unique format! Because we are hosting The Wedding Party Studio's montly Soiree we want you to get to know some of our featured vendors that will be at our event on October 8, 2009! No one likes to walk into a room full of strangers so 'meet' some of the vendors that will be featured and 'greet' them next month at our Soiree!

Meet & Greet Rufus Felix

Meet: Traci Cruse (designer) and Kelly Cruse (co-owner)

Company: Rufus Felix LLC

How I got my Special Talent: I have always loved growing things, even as a child. I loved flowers and pods and branches and odd bits of nature. As an adult, I completed a degree in Theatre and Acting and eventually took that appreciation for drama and the manipulations learned in stage craft and applied it to flowers. That is why the back of our business cards read "nature...rearranged".

Favorite wedding trend: I love the new trends in unique color combinations. It is so fun to work on a wedding with a color duo of yellow and grey, or purple and lime green. It adds new dimensions and so many options to the design process. Fun, fun, fun!

Three fun facts about Traci:

1. Our company is named after our paternal grandfather, Rufus Felix Cruse.
2. I am uber-eco-friendly. I Free-cycle. I recycle everything I can at the shop, and do organic gardening at home. We even rescued a tree frog that came in with the orchid shipment. He couldn't live here, so we gave him to a learning center so kids can gaze at "Scooter" and watch him eat crickets.
3. I don't have a favorite flower. I like them all and love one more than others, then the season changes and so does my preference. A few blooms that always make the list: Ranunculus, Garden roses, and Blushing Bride protea.

Spootacular Soiree

Save the Date!

"Spootacular Soiree" Hosted by Bride Associates

When: Thursday October 8, 2009

What Time: 6-8pm

Where: The Wedding Party Studio

2422 Allen Street

Dallas, TX 75204

RSVP: 214.303.0077

Don't miss a moment of spooky fun! Enjoy sipping our speciality cocktail "berry scary bridezilla" while meeting quality vendors, shopping the wedding studio with 20% off, and leaving the "spootacular" evening with a goody bag filled with treats!

Featured Vendors:

Bride Asssociates

The Wedding Party Studio

Andrea Polito Photography

Rufus Felix Floral Design

Pic Flips

Campisis Catering

Delos Vodka

We are Back!

You may have not known we were gone, but we took a quick break during August and September! We are back from our vacations and ready to go for the busy Fall wedding season! Here are a few photos of our awesome Bride Associates team members with their families on vacation:

Chelsey and Clayton went to Hawaii to visit Family on the island of Oahu. We enjoyed snorkling, scuba diving and relaxing on the beach. We also visted the Pearl Harbor memorials, BYU Hawaii, and enjoyed fresh shrimp and pineapple from the side of the road! We also went to a Black Eyed Pea concert on North Shore! We are now asking why we live in Texas!

Arriving in Hawaii

Drinking Fresh Coconuts

On the Beach in Wikiki

At the Black Eye Pea Concert on North Shore

Christina’s summer vacation started in Houston, Texas where she spent July 4th at a Beach House in Galveston with close friends and family.

In August, Christina traveled to Omaha, Nebraska, not to pick corn (although, she really did do this), but for her step-sister’s wedding. The wedding was held at the Fountains Ballroom located 12 miles south of Council Bluffs. It was a beautiful day outside- perfect for an outdoor ceremony.

A perfect ending to summer for Christina was celebrated at her engagement party. The party was held at the Flight Wine Bar at Ferrari’s Italian Villa in Grapevine.
Congratulations Jeff and Christina! Jinna and Doug mixed business with pleasure when they enjoyed a destination wedding in Acapulco, Mexico at the Mexico Mansion. Here are Jinna and Doug with the beautiful Acapulco City behind them. Mexico Mansion
A beach vacation in Mexico isnt complete with out an Acapulco drink like this one!