Picking a venue is usually the first step for a couple looking to piece together their big day. The venue will dictate the color palette, the style, and the details of the wedding – so where should you start? I suggest restaurants. They beat out ballrooms and state parks any day, and here’s why:

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Ocean Place Hotel

Small, but with a lot of punch, is how we would describe New Jersey. In our small yet, densely populated state, New Jersey offers some of the most stunning wedding locations for outdoor ceremonies. Read Full Article

The 2012 wedding season has taken on a personality of its own, with brides selecting a wide variety of colors and accessories, as well as unique venues, to reflect their personalities. Read Full Article

Images by Lito Sy Photography and CeanOne Photography

What did you want to be when you were little? At some point, most girls wanted to be a princess – or at least be treated like one. Even if you’ve never harbored a secret wish to be royalty, then you’ve surely wanted to be waited on, hand and foot, by your own personal staff to attend to your every wish.

We all should be treated like royalty now and then – so we thought it would be interesting to explore some options in the way of “the royal treatment.”

Photo Credit: ChateaudelaBarre.com

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A “Best of” reception location for several years running, the Brides of New York and New Jersey agree that the Bridgewater Manor sets the standard for wedding receptions in the New Jersey area.

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As the mild temperatures, extends the wedding season in the North East, outdoor weddings are a viable option for many couples getting married between May and November, a pretty wide span, with many weekends, for the perfect outdoor wedding.

The Old Mill Inn is located in Basking Ridge New Jersey amidst the Somerset Hills. With opulence and beauty spread throughout their grounds, the Old Mill Inn is one of Abacus Wedding Studios, favorite spots to capture a wedding.

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I’m frequently asked about the 20% service charge applied to catering contracts.  Its commonly assumed that a service charge is a gratuity.  However, that’s not the case.

Caterers and venues commonly add an service charge (15-25%, varies by region) to help cover the costs of operating a business: office staff, utilities, supplies, insurance, advertising, etc.  While a catering contract may show a break down of the specific event elements and their costs, the service charge helps cover the cost of the hours needed to prepare and plan the event.  Often, a caterer or venue will offer services – tastings, room layouts, meetings, walk throughs – that are not included as a line item cost on the contract.  The costs need to be covered as business expenses, and thus the service charge allows for such services.

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More and more couples are opting to have their wedding ceremony and reception in the same venue.  This is extremely convenient for guests and many times, you may find it to be more cost effective as well (saving on transportation, alternate venue fees, etc.)  With a ceremony most often comes the need for a rehearsal – typically the evening before the wedding – in the wedding ceremony location.  And yet, just as common, is a venue’s policy of not guaranteeing the rehearsal date and time until approximately one month prior to the wedding date.

Why is that?  With so much planning that must be done with scheduling everyone’s’ attendance and arranging the rehearsal dinner, why would a venue wait until a couple weeks before the wedding day to confirm a rehearsal date and time?  Because there is a chance the venue can book your event space on the day before your event.  And rather than bumping you from the space, it usually works out best to avoid setting the rehearsal date and time until the wedding date is closer.

Let’s say you are getting married on a Saturday and the venue has indeed booked a Friday evening event, you could consider:

• Late afternoon rehearsal: Get together around 3pm and have time to dress for dinner before your family, bridal party and out-of-town guests meet you at the rehearsal dinner location.
• Early afternoon rehearsal: Get together around 11am and conclude with a casual lunch before embarking on a day at the spa! Read Full Article

Choosing your venue is one of the first tasks to tackle for brides and grooms on their wedding planning adventure.  Very little progress can be made before you pick the venue and set the date.  So where do you start?  What do you ask?  What to consider?

1. Start by asking yourself: “What type of setting do we want for our wedding day?” Have you always envisioned walking down an aisle created by rose petals on a freshly manicured lawn or is the drama of a grand staircase from which you descend more in line with your bridal fantasy?  Perhaps there a location or part of town that speaks to you as a couple (met at the beach, proposed at the beach – get married at the beach!)  Maybe its logistics for your guests or the vision for the whole weekend that will dictate the venue style and location.  Maybe you don’t have a vision yet and need to explore options.  Fair enough!  Then consider the time of year and what that might dictate – want a winter wedding?  Better opt to avoid garden ceremonies.  Unless that garden is in Hawaii.  Then by all means, “aloha!”
2. Once you know what direction to explore, you’ll want to ask:“Does it fit in my budget?” Before you do anything more than open a bridal magazine or search online, you must have a plan on how much you want to spend and how much of that budget will be spent on the venue.  That is a hard task to contemplate when you haven’t done any research on pricing.  But if you start with what you know you can spend, and take time to craft a preliminary budget (WeddingWire has a great calculator to get you started!) you can then adjust the amounts in each category as you sharpen your priorities.  You may start out thinking you’ll need a huge floral budget, then find a venue that is ornate in a way that your floral design can be much more streamlined in cost, thus allowing for more of that allocated budget to be spent elsewhere. Read Full Article