Wedding Story Writer Debut at Saks Fifth Avenue!

Michelle McMurray de Luces has birthed a very novel idea and quite the entrepreneur! She actually attends the same Unity church I do but I did not get to know her until last year when she wrote the story of the wedding of one of my couples. Her service is to attend your wedding from start to finish and then create a wonderful story of it, all the details, things you may not have noticed or would remember, in fascinating style. She then has an artist of your style and choice illustrate it and eventually it is bound into a beautiful leather book. It is a treasure, a legacy. Truly something very unique to enjoy and pass down in your family.  Her business is called Wedding Story Writer.

Michelle herself with a display edition of a Wedding Story she has done. She will travel all over the globe for weddings. Beautiful floral display by The English Garden.

The launch party for Wedding Story Writer was held on March 21, 2013 at Saks Fifth Avenue in Raleigh's Triangle Town Center. It was quite elegant reflecting the high-end style of  Michelle's one-of-a-kind service and product. I was thrilled to be invited!

Guests were greeted by lovely young women holding examples of the artwork possible and by Bartending Unlimited servers bearing delicious glasses of champagne.

Eric, Michelle's husband, told me that they have illustrators/artists from all over the world. In fact, Michelle is contacted quite frequently by artists wanting to be included in her service to wedding couples. Here are some examples of the different styles that couples can choose for themselves.

 More examples......

 Michelle, your elegance reflects the heirloom quality of your beautiful bound volume. 

 Title page...... 

Had fun chatting with April Maness, owner of The Oaks at Salem, a beautiful wedding venue in Apex, center, Jenna Olender, co-owner of Southern Bride & Groom magazine on the left, and Amanda Scott, owner of A Swanky Affair, wedding planning services, on the right. Brian McGuire, DJ with McSound Productions, Contonna Peterson with Bartending Unlimited were providing the music and the champagne.

A new cake bakery, Artylicious Cakes, was on hand providing these sweets! Their bakery store front officially opens May 1st. It is located at the intersection of Six Forks and Morning Dove next to Vinnie's in N. Raleigh. The owner and chief baker is Iriene Wangsawidjaja.

April, Angie Wright with Chic Details  and Mica Parekh with IWP Photography who was covering the event were trying out these goodies.

 Iriene and her beautiful wedding cake! 

So many artists were represented and each with a different style of illustrating. I am sure that Michelle is going to be in demand more and more as couples discover what a wonderful service she provides. Congratulations, Michelle!

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!