Gratitude

I have to give a shout out to our interns today. I am overjoyed with the hard work that they have all been doing and I feel like they deserve a party! Well.... since we are all overwhelmed with planning other people's parties, a blog entry will have to do for now : ) The party will come later.

Stefanie, Kirstin, and Brittany you three have really blossomed over the last few weeks and we are all so proud of you! We are so lucky to have the rest of the summer with you and look forward to all of our adventures ahead.

And more thanks... Amanda, you are for sure the sister I never had. Thanks for making me laugh at EVERYTHING! That is a gift. Danielle, you will be such a stunning bride!! We can't wait for your Big Day!!! We need to throw a party to celebrate your amazing year too!! : )

and I'd like to thank God and the Academy and my mom and ....

Brides, post your gratitude as a comment to this blog. There are so many people to be thankful for today and always.

Peace, Lara

*photo by Kim Sellers for Bliss Event Group

Bliss Girls Guilty Pleasures

The Bliss Girls Guilty Pleasure #1: stalking our favorite wedding photography blogs! We like US magazine too, but “Blog Stalking” as the cool kids call it is our number one guilty pleasure. On our bookmarks right now (in no particular order…)

www.easthillphotography.blogspot.com

www.almasyphoto.net

www.photosbyrae.blogspot.com

www.patsybrown.blogspot.com

www.megphoto.com/wordpress

www.cookimages.blogspot.com

www.bradwaltersphotoblog.blogspot.com

and check out these west coast photographers we love:

www.thebecker.com

www.theblogisfound.com

www.jessicaclaire.net

and our new SWS blogs!

www.swsmag.blogspot.com

www.swssalon.blogspot.com

Bliss Girls Guilty Pleasure #2: Wedding Magazines. Yes, brides, there is a way for the fun to never end and for you to continue tearing pages out of bridal magazines- be a Bliss Girl! Don’t even open the “can of wedding magazine worms” as we call it and start talking about the new Martha Stewart or Elegant Bride in our office. We will not stop talking about our favorite things. (we have most of the wedding magazines memorized!) Our desks are stacked high with all the latest and greatest. Watch out when the new Grace Ormonde comes out though- we might trample you at Barnes and Noble!! ; )

Bliss Girls Guilty Pleasure #3: Brides. Yes, brides, YOU are our #3 guilty pleasure because we are suckers for love stories! When a new bride comes in our office the first thing we all want to hear about is how she fell in love, what her Big Day dreams are, and what she sees –beyond the wedding day- in her future with her soon-to-be-hubby. We have yet to hear a story that didn’t make us gush. Even the most matter-of-fact brides who claim to not believe in romance have a soft spot. We are saps, what can we say?

Check out the post below about our new Blog Series: A Blissful Marriage. Thanks to all the brides who have posted comments! Keep em comin’!

*photo by Kim Sellers, flowers by Kebbie Hollingsworth

Wedding Planner Needed!

OK, Brides, you are NOT allowed to apply... trust me, you don't want to plan your wedding and 30 others at the same time! But, if you know of anyone who is FABULOUS, and I mean really FABULOUS, then we want to meet them. We are in need of another one of us to fill in when Amanda and I have to do our military duty and follow our hubby's out of FL very soon. She'll be going most likely to San Diego and I'll be going back to CA when Ari gets back from Iraq in three months. Don't worry, we will still be planning Bliss events as usual, but we can't fly back for every meeting (it was fun for a while, but I started to call the Delta Crowne Room "home"!). So, spread the word. We're looking for the next Bliss Girl! Email me for details- bliss@blisseventgroup.com

photo by Kim Sellers

New Blog Series: A Blissful Marriage

We talk so much about the Big Day, but it's time to delve into what makes a marriage Blissful! This month, the women of Bliss will be posting the top ways to keep your marriage spicy, tips from our past Bliss brides on what makes them tick, and how to enjoy every day after the Big Day. POST your questions, thoughts, favorite quotes, gripes about your groom (or bride) and your top tips for making "from this day forward" pure Bliss! (If your tip is the creme de la creme, it might even make it in the premiere issue of Southern Wedding Style Magazine!)

"Letter Seven" written by Ranier Maria Rilke... (on my top 3 list for describing marriage...used in vows for several weddings)

It is good to love: because love is difficult. For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation. That is why young people, who are beginners in everything, are not yet capable of love: it is something they must learn. With their whole being, with all their forces, gathered around their solitary, anxious, upward-beating heart, they must learn to love. But learning-time is always a long, secluded time ahead and far on into life, is - ; solitude, a heightened and deepened kind of aloneness for the person who loves. Loving does not at first mean merging, surrendering, and uniting with another person (for what would a union be of two people who are unclarified, unfinished, and still incoherent - ?), it is a high inducement for the individual to ripen, to become something in himself, to become world, to become world in himself for the sake of another person; it is a great, demanding claim on him, something that chooses him and calls him to vast distances. Only in this sense, as the task of working on themselves ("to hearken and to hammer day and night"), may young people use the love that is given to them. Merging and surrendering and every kind of communion is not for them (who must still, for a long, long time, save and gather themselves); it is the ultimate, is perhaps that for which human lives are as yet barely large enough.


And on a sexier note... this link is PG-13ish, so clicker beware... you are about to enter the amazing web domain of Cosmopolitan Magazine! Yay Cosmo! This is a great article on taking a Blissful Bath... for two ; ) Enjoy.... Love in the Tub

Santa Rosa Kids House Gala

What a fantastic evening! Angela Ellis Moore and Pandora de Balthazar hosted this gala fundraising event (we had over 400 people!) that made us all feel like we were in Hawaii, not the Hilton Garden Inn. And they raised a significant amount of money for the Santa Rosa Kid's House. Many thanks to the participating sponsors- Pete Moore Chevrolet, WEAR TV3, The Buris Family, Congressman and Mrs. Miller, Pandora De Balthazar, and Cook Realty... just to name a small few of the 31 sponsors. Such a success! Thank you for letting us create this magical event for you!

Angela Ellis Moore (holding the winning Corvette raffle ticket) and the MC for the evening, WEAR TV3 Anchor Francesca Maxime

One of the floral shell boxes on the Congressman's table.

Each table was unique and a work of art

The Corvette that was raffled off - thanks to Pete Moore, this car raised over $100,000.00! Unfortunately, we didn't win. Oh well, we would have had to paint it Bliss hot pink anyway!

Swirling Calla lilies. Many arrangements were 8-10 feet tall!

Amanda showing off our registration table arrangements- I was asked a hundred times about the exotic flowers in the vases... they are called heliconias (from Hawaii) : )

Congressman and Mrs. Miller enjoying the steel drum band and delicious island food.

Another huge arrangement (for Pandora de Balthazar's table)

Me finishing up one of the gigantic entrance arrangements.

After a hard day's work -(From Left) Lara, our new interns fantastic Kirstin and Stefanie, and Amanda with mini pineapples.

Many thanks to Kebbie Hollingsworth for helping us to create a tropical floral wonderland!

Busy Bliss Babes

The Blog may have been quiet for a couple weeks, but we sure haven't! The Bliss Gals have been hard at work on some very exciting summer events....

Tomorrow kicks off a fabulous summer with the Santa Rosa Kids House Gala at the Hilton Garden Inn on Pensacola Beach. Congressman Miller will be there along with other community leaders to raise money for to build their new center for abused children. Come support this fantastic cause and enjoy island food and music from 6-9 (and come see our fabulous decor!!). AND they are raffling off a corvette courtesy of Pete Moore Chevrolet!


CONGRATS to all of our spring Bliss Brides that we haven't blogged about yet (still waiting on pics ; )..... Nikki & Rob, Kristin & Joe, and Cayla & Will! Your weddings were so beautiful and we were so thrilled to have been a part of them!

As if we weren't busy enough with a dozen summer weddings, we have 5 photo shoots planned for Southern Wedding Style Magazine this month. We can't wait!

Wishing everyone a Blissful summer~ The Bliss Gals

*flowers by Bliss Event Group in the pic above

~Almasy Photography~

Dan and Anne Almasy are a husband and wife photography team from Atlanta who flew down to Pensacola for our May 5th wedding... Laura + Matt. They just posted this on their blog- WOW!! Absolutely breathtaking and such a joy to be around. Take some time to peruse their website. If you are like me and cry when you see Kodak commercials, then you will for SURE need a box of tissues while viewing. Their work is clean, crisp, modern, in the moment, playful, and very heartfelt. Thank you, Dan and Anne!

Enjoy!

BLOG: "Working with Bliss"

BLOG: "Laura + Matt"

Dan and Anne's Website

Congratulations Laura + Matt!

*flowers created by Fiore of Pensacola



There are no words for how beautiful this wedding was. Inside and out- the heart of these two families, the love between this beautiful couple, and the prettiest wedding I've ever seen! What an amazing two weeks this has been for the Bliss gals. Congratulations, Laura and Matt! Thank you for letting us create this day for you. We are all so honored to have been a part of it.

*sneak peak photos by Bliss in house photographers Kim Sellers and Samantha Crooke

Samantha just sent me this. I swear my feet were squeaky clean- that table cloth would have cost me my car payment if I got one tiny smudge on it! i felt like I was dancing in a sea of pink... so pretty : )

keep checking back... we'll keep adding more!

SWS IS ONLINE!

We still have a few glitches to fix (it's a work in progress), but holy cow this site is GORGEOUS!!! Enjoy! www.SWSMAG.com

*photo by Cook Images
*flowers by Bliss Event Group

36 more hours!

We know we said May 1st, but trust us... the wait will be worth it! Thank you for all of the great emails about the SWSMAG Online Edition launch! We are so excited too!

...hold on tight.... it's coming!!

*Photo by East Hill Photography for SWSMAG

Natalie & Beau sneak peak from the Salter's

Mick and Rita Salter of Salter Photography, who are always such a joy to work with, were the photographers for Natalie and Beau's Big Day. Mick sent me these shots last night just to wet your appetite... watch out for this wedding in Southern Wedding Style Magazine's print edition (launching this fall!). Thanks so much Mick and Rita for these fabulous pictures and for a fantastic evening!!!



5/9/07 UPDATE: here are more fun pics from our in house photographers extraordinaire... Kim Sellers and Samantha Crooke.... enjoy!

Congratulations Natalie & Beau!

There just aren't words for how phenomenal this wedding was! Stay posted for several blog entries to come about Natalie and Beau's BIG DAY... and it was BIG!!! Belly dancers, martini slides, and a gorgeous and gracious family are just the beginning of what made this night my favorite wedding of all time. Here's a sneak peak of Amanda, Danielle, Sam, Kara Marie, Natasha and I in the photo booth! CONGRATULATIONS Mr. and Mrs. Pollard!!!

Congratulations Erin and John!

This weekend, Amanda and I had the pleasure of celebrating with Erin and John, along with their families and friends. Erin and John live in New York City, so they bravely planned from afar. Their amazing ceremony took place directly on the beach with the reception at Portofino Resort on Pensacola Beach. The chef and restaurant staff outdid themselves for the occasion. Check out the pictures below of the celebration.

Erin and John

The two lone groomsmen who started the much needed "South Side" Dance Floor. This picture was taken before they advertised for others to join.

Celebrating their victory of bringing the "South Side" Dance Floor to life!

Betty Weber's cake was a hit, as always! This is just the top layer that was left for the bride and groom.

John's Dad and Stepmother led the way on the dancefloor!

Congratulations again and, please, keep in touch. Best wishes for the future!

Six Weddings, Six Wedding Planners, and a whole lotta candy!

If you haven't noticed, our blog-posting frequency has gone WAY down. We're busy! We have 6 weddings in the next three weeks that we've been working night and day on, plus the debut of our online magazine Southern Wedding Style is May 1, PLUS we are about to start layout on the print version that will come out this fall. We are busy and HAPPY! This work is awesome and we all feel blessed to have the honor to do it each and every day. Here are a a few behind the scenes shots of what our office looks like right now - candy (125lbs!) and parasols and lounge furniture, oh my! : )





I want to officially introduce two women who have quickly become part of our close-knit Bliss team.... drum roll.... Sam Ellison and Amanda Shiflet ~

More to come on both of them, but check out these awesome shots (they also make fabulous models!) that Hara and Jeremy Cook took of them a couple weeks ago as part of an SWS photo shoot. www.CookImages.com We promise we will reveal the other half of their faces... and details about these amazing women... very soon! haha Stay tuned.


Sam getting pics of Hara and Jeremy getting pics

Amanda peeking through the baby's breath- Emily Stiles is the make-up diva responsible for those smokin' eyes

SWS Photo Shoot Alert!

Here's a sneak peak of a shoot we did yesterday for our upcoming magazine, Southern Wedding Style. The SWS Online Edition launches May 1st and the print edition will be out this fall! Hara and Jeremy Cook of www.cookimages.com were our fabulous photographers yesterday, Emily Stiles was the master of make-up, and gowns provided by Minton's and one stunning gown we cannot show you until late this summer : ) Our gorgeous bride was the soon-to-be-Mrs. Pollard, Natalie Henderson. What a star!

Here's a sneak peak of behind-the-scenes shots that we CAN show you~ enjoy! *these are our own candids- the real pics from Hara and Jeremy you will just have to wait for!! : )


Hara and Jeremy even got in the water for a few shots! They were so much fun and such a great team to spend the day with.

Danielle organized this awesome shoot and -like the rest of us- laughed and smiled all day. It was such a fun shoot!

Natalie and her husband-to-be, Beau. Aren't they a stunning couple!?

Lara and Natalie (in a Lazaro gown) strolling in Seville Square... just a normal day with Bliss and SWS

The best MOB ever, Bette Harriman, puts the glass slippers on her Cinderella daughter. We had such a blast!

Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. Congrats Natalie and Beau! We can't wait till the Big Day and to see this shoot in print!