Professional Wedding Guild (PWG) Luncheon at the Sheraton Chapel Hill

This luncheon last Wednesday 2/24 was my first professional wedding outing since my surgery in January. The last PWG luncheon was in November and they don't have one in December. The January one was the day after my surgery. So, it was good to be back at one of these networking events. We met at the lovely Sheraton Chapel Hill. It has been remodeled and redecorated since I was there and it is beautiful and spacious. They can accommodate a large wedding reception of 400+ people! The photo above is of a section of the ballroom. The lovely table decor was by Andy Karras of A Special Event. The table linens were so pretty. That is harpist Marilyn Wienand standing behind the wedding cake by Buy the Pound which was delicious and was served by the baker, Sandra Timmons. I was so happy to get a slice of the middle layer which was chocolate pound cake--yum, one of my favorites!

I saw lots of wedding professionals as usual and it was great to see them again after a long break. We were entertained before lunch was served by Patrice Kaluza  of Sea Sound Studio Entertainment. Patrice is a wonderful vocalist but unfortunately she developed laryngitis the day before and was unable to sing for us.  Maybe next time?

Across the table from me are Julie McKay and Ashleigh Collins from The Carolina Inn. Ashleigh is new to the Inn and Julie was introducing her around. Standing behind them is Rev. Robin Renteria, close friend and colleague. Rev. Barbara Lodge and Rev. Phran Gaucher were there too.  See the pretty table linens Andy provided? The flowers were provided by Flowers by Gary.

Jim Shaw of Jim Shaw Photography and Brian McGuire of McSound Productions (DJ) were busy networking!

Our program this month was a panel of 4 brides and one mother of the bride for us to ask questions. It was quite interesting. One of the brides was Amanda Jones whose wedding I am officiating. They are from left to right: Chanel Francis, Amanda Jones, Cecilia Mackey, Jane Peppler, and Danet Bratton. Cecilia's wedding was last October and so she was able to answer questions from that perspective and what she might do differently. Jane is our mother of the bride whose daughter's wedding is in June. Jane comes to PWG luncheons because she is a musician who sometimes plays at weddings so she had an "inside" perspective. To the far left is our moderator and publisher of Perfect Wedding Guide, Gail Galloway, who had received questions from us ahead of time that she presented to the brides and mother. It was a great program and I am sure we all learned some valuable tips from these brides.

After the program Gail was discussing things with Dajuan Jones from In His Image Photography who took photos at the luncheon for PWG. They will be posted on the PWG website soon.

Well, it was a great experience today. To make it even more terrific, I won one of the door prizes--a nice bottle of Chardonnay from Bartending Unlimited. (Thank you, Contada!) Good to be back in the groove. Weddings for me start on March 7th, next weekend at Nicole and Steven's wedding at Caffe Luna. Watch for a post on their wedding!