Long Beach Wedding Officiant Rewarded for Top Customer Service and Professionalism with Prestigious AnnualAward.
Long Beach, CA – January 26, 2011 - WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, is thrilled to announce Blessings All Around has been selected to receive the prestigious annual WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 for wedding Officiant service.
Recognition for the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 is determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 750,000 WeddingWire newlyweds. Our past clients are among those that shared their experiences on WeddingWire, the largest wedding review site in the nation.
Blessings All Around stands among the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire community, representing quality and service excellence within the wedding industry. Awards were given to the top wedding professionals across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, and were based on the overall professional achievements throughout the past year.
“WeddingWire is honored to celebrate the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire community,” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “With the annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program, WeddingWire has the unique opportunity to recognize the best wedding professionals across the US and Canada. We applaud Blessings All Around for their professionalism and dedication to enhancing the wedding planning experience last year.”
We are happy to announce that Blessings All Around is among the very best wedding Officiants within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Martha Stewart Weddings, Project Wedding and Weddingbee.
“We would like to thank our past clients in the Los Angeles County and Orange County areas for reviewing our services; thereby nominating us to receive the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011. We are devoted to professionalism and customer satisfaction.Our goal is to give every bridal couple the wedding ceremony they’ve always dreamed of.” said Rev. Angela Chester, Blessings All Around's owner. “Whether an eloping couple that wants a private wedding, or a grand evening ceremony; we are there to celebrate each couple.”
WeddingWire’s formal transition from the 2010 recipients will occur in early February. For more information on the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011, please visit www.WeddingWire.com.
To assess a lady's character, look no further than the handbag she carries to work. "It is an absolute indicator of who they are and what their style is," says Rachel Zoe, celebrity stylist and entrepreneur. Since a purse's size and shape isn't limiting like a pair of skinny jeans, a bag is an easy way for a woman to express herself -- especially in the workplace. "For the majority of women, the handbag is the most important part of the outfit because it doesn't have to do with your body type," says Kate Schelter, a New York-based stylist and brand consultant. Perhaps that's why the global luxury handbag and accessories market is about $24 billion, according to Coach CEO Lew Frankfort.
Whether it's an oversize carryall or structured satchel, a bag's details -- right down to the buckle -- reveal clues about its owner. Not to mention that "how you wear the bag is just as important as the bag itself," adds Schelter. Slinging it across your body sends a different signal than nestling it on the crux of your arm. Having your assistant tote it for you says something, too.
In order to decode the language of work-bag-speak, Bloomberg Businessweek called on a panel of fashion experts, including Zoe; Schelter; International Best-Dressed List Hall of Fame honoree Amy Fine Collins; and handbag designer Rebecca Minkoff. Next time you're in the elevator, think twice about rifling around that mammoth hobo for your ID badge: You're giving off a disorganized vibe.
The Eternal Prepster
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A woman who totes Longchamp's classic Le Pliage canvas bag to the office is conservative and traditional, yet secretly relishes carrying a status symbol. "She is wearing plaids and pearls," says Zoe. Adds Minkoff, the owner is "practical and loves a bag where she can carry all her essentials at once."
The legions of young urbanites who cart around burlap bags designed by FEED, a philanthropic organization whose mission is to curb global hunger, are "obviously concerned about the world and the environment," says Zoe. She's "a little crunchy but brand-aware," adds Collins.
A ladylike Louis Vuitton bag is the standard arm candy of a woman who has feminine -- and expensive -- taste. "This woman is a label freak," Collins says. Adds Zoe: "She has a job, but she may not need the money." Minkoff notes: "You'll never find her outside her house without the 'It' heels."
A young gal who wears many hats in addition to her 9-to-5 job favors an expandable bag with many pockets. "She was voted Most Likely to Succeed in high school," Collins says. "She's a little bit safe in her dress, but in a cute way." The purpose of her tote "is to allow her to be hands-free," says Minkoff.
A vibrant print bag is the sign of a city-dwelling hipster who doesn't care about dress codes. "She isn't too worried about her bag matching her shoes matching her belt matching her outfit," says Zoe. "It's for the style blogger," says Schelter. Collins adds: "She doesn't get her hair blown straight."
The leather shopper was made for working moms. She "needs room to keep all her necessities in place while running around in between meetings and playdates," says Minkoff. Its wearer likes labels, says Collins, "but doesn't need to show them." Schelter adds that its price makes it "still a treat."
A leather handbag from a luxury house such as Mulberry completes the no-nonsense executive's professional look. "With the power women of today, they want to be taken seriously," Zoe says. "They also want to look fashion-forward." Schelter: "It is very easy to put files and a laptop in here."
A crossbody bag that doubles as a clutch screams "work hard, play harder." The owner is "still young enough to go out at night after work," says Schelter.
A purse designed by an of-the-moment fashion darling suggests the wearer isn't referring to real machinery when talking about hardware. "This bag doesn't have a lot of functionality," says Zoe. "You make it work because you love it." Adds Collins, "People think she's on the cutting edge."
Massive oversize bags show "that maybe you're not as focused as you need to be because you can't edit what's in your handbag," says Schelter. "If you go to a job interview with a bag the size of your body filled with crap, they're going to be a little nervous," says Zoe. Collins agrees: "She is kind of a mess."
Glittering Cupcakes from Martha Stewart Weddings, features two cupcakes in gold-colored cup liners: carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, and white cake with a lemon Swiss-meringue buttercream. Both are topped with edible gold dust and leaf. (Marcus Nilsson/Martha Stewart Weddings)
Cupcakes are whimsical, easy to serve and may be more cost-effective than the traditional multitiered wedding cake. They can also reflect the bridal couple's personalities and tastes — which is why they're so popular.
"Each tier (of a cupcake stand) offers you the opportunity to completely change the cake and the icing. You can't do that with a traditional cake," said Bobbie Lloyd, president and chief baking officer of New York-based Magnolia Bakery.
"With cupcakes, (couples are) looking more for flavor. You may have one layer of pumpkin cupcakes with maple-cream cheese icing. Another layer could be coconut cake with meringue icing," she said, noting Magnolia's cupcake trees hold 24 cupcakes up to more than 100 cupcakes.
"On a wedding cake, people traditionally use a butter cream frosting that has some structure to it or they use fondant because they're looking for those three-dimensional shapes," she said. "A meringue icing you could never put on traditional wedding cake. Cream cheese icing you could never put on a traditional wedding cake."
As with anything you eat, but especially a cupcake, it needs to taste delicious (not just be sweet) and really special, said Darcy Miller, editorial director of Martha Stewart Weddings.
"What's going to go with your color palette and the feeling of your wedding? What's going to go with the time of the year you're getting married? What's going to go with your guests or your menu?" she said. "Often today at weddings, people serve more than cake. They'll serve chocolate mousse or sorbet. So I'm not really sure if you're serving chocolate mousse whether your cupcakes should be chocolate."
Also think about how they'll be displayed. "There are so many great things that you can do," said Miller. "I love those cupcake wire stands. We've taken the plastic foam rounds that a cake baker would use to make the dummy layers of cake, and we covered them with papers and doilies and tiered them."
If you let a pro handle the wedding cupcakes, you still can showcase your cupcake baking talents sometime during your wedding celebrations, suggested Miller: "You might make them for your rehearsal dinner or engagement party. Or bring them to your shower as a gift to thank those who are throwing the party for you."
Appetites: Will there be other desserts? Sorbet? Cookies? If you're doing mini-cupcakes, you may need more.
Beyond cupcakes: "If you want to be part of making your cupcakes, make an embellishment," said Miller, whether it's fondant hearts or sugared petals and you won't be frosting cupcakes the morning of your wedding.
National Wedding Site Leads the Way in On-The-Go Planning
BETHESDA, MD--(Marketwire - January 12, 2011) - WeddingWire.com, the nation's leading wedding technology company, expands its mobile offerings with the launch of a new wedding planning application for Android devices. The new application allows engaged couples to search, compare and book wedding vendors and prepare for their special day, all from the fastest-growing mobile platform. To boost the innovative commitment of WeddingWire and to further simplify the planning process for engaged couples, the Android application developed will be available to the 26% of smartphone users who said, in a recent comScore survey, that an Android device was their primary phone. The WeddingWire application can be downloaded for free via WeddingWire.com or through any Android enabled device.
WeddingWire was the first online wedding planning site to launch a completely mobilized version of its website at m.WeddingWire.com, and also has one of the top iPhone applications for wedding planning. Now, WeddingWire couples who use Android mobile devices will be able to conveniently access and manage their fully-synced WeddingWire account using the Android application. Couples can navigate to their WeddingWire Dashboard to view their personal wedding countdown, to-do list and budget status. The integrated Checklist, WeddingWire's most popular function, allows couples to track their progress and make changes to their tasks from their fingertips. Payments can be organized, scheduled and revised using the application's mobile Budget tool, enabling couples real time control over their wedding expenses. Additionally, the application geographically targets the user's location, allowing couples to search over 200,000 local wedding vendors and the largest database of newlywed reviews in the wedding industry.
"Mobile technology is indispensable for today's tech savvy brides and grooms," said Timothy Chi, CEO, WeddingWire. "We have hundreds of thousands of engaged couples planning their weddings on the go through WeddingWire's mobile offerings. Our new Android application puts planning and productivity in the palms of our engaged couples; therefore, providing them with immediate access to their wedding planning details."
Annual Award.
