Tabblo is a new service where you can upload photos and arrange them on a canvas called a “tabblo”.  You can either share your tabblos to the world, or order posters, cards and books of your tabblo.  The account to create and share tabblos is free, the only cost is for the posters or whatever you order (if you do).

We’ve seen at a lot of weddings (ours included) posters of the bride and groom made by the parents or friends.  These are usually assembled with good old cut and paste methods.  This is a very slick way to make a nice looking poster.  Photos can be imported from Flickr, iPhoto and Picasa.  Even if not all your photos are digital, a low end scanner will overcome that with professional results.

The tabblo interface takes only a couple of minutes to figure out, and there are some basic photo editing operations (such as crop and resize) available after you upload your photos.  You can also add text to your tabblo to help tell your story.  You can find some additional review of Tabblo at TechCrunch.

Here's a recent cookie table we made for a wedding at the Butler Country Club.  The cookie table was placed right in the middle of the room, so it's the first thing guests saw as they entered the room.  There were vases of monte casino lilies, calla lilies, orchids, snapdragons, and mixed arrangements of hydrangea, peach roses and white orchids to match the centerpieces.  Smaller carnation balls and vases of flowers were mingled in between the cookies and large vases.  The piece in the very middle is actually sitting on top of a very large vase, which contained calla lilies and clear glass beads.  It was breathtaking, and the cookies were good, too (we were also invited guests).  There is too much on the table to capture with a photo, but we tried.

(click on the image for a larger view)

We’ve been informed that the Days Inn Bridal Extravaganza scheduled for October 1 has been cancelled.  That’s also a Steelers bye week, so we’re not sure what to do to fill our weekend.

Yes.  White and blue hyrangea are available pretty much throughout the year.  Other varieties, such as the pinks and green hydrangea, may have seasonal availability.  Not all florists participate in the global flower market and may not be aware of the availability, so if you’re interested in such a bouquet, it’s best to ask as part of the interview process.

One of the more popular favors we've seen this year is small bottles of wine, most of them with a custom printed label.  If you're in Pennsylvania, and you've wondered where to find the labels (not to mention all those little bottles of wine), you may be surprised.  The PA LCB has a custom order form where you can choose any of a number of labels, as well as any of a number of varieties of wines.  You'll find their page and form at http://www.lcb.state.pa.us/plcb/cwp/view.asp?a=1328&Q=557357.  The selection of labels is not limited to weddings--there are also labels for holiday parties, anniversaties and birthdays.

One of today's weddings took us back to Heinz Chapel, and then our first trip of this year to LeMont Pittsburgh. LeMont Pittsburgh is a AAA Four Diamond restaurant, and if the outstanding food and service aren't enough, there's always "the view".  Perched atop Mt. Washington on Grandview's restaurant row, LeMont Pittsburgh offers one of the most picturesque views of any city anywhere.  At right is a view of downtown Pittsburgh taken from LeMont's lower dining room, where our wedding reception was being held.  LeMont's home page has an almost identical view taken at night.
The wedding cake was white fondant with chocolate fondant bands, and did it smell good!  We added the circus roses and petals.
Centerpieces were made from white hydrangea, circus roses, hypericum and eucalyptis in a cube vase.  How about an elegant place setting overlooking downtown Pittsburgh?
If the Steelers are more your style, simply turn your head the other way, and your wedding guests overlook the Ohio River and Heinz Field.  Bottles of wine with personalized labels were favors for adults.  The children received small boxes of chocolates.

Note: Click the thumbnails for a larger view.  The top photo is taken looking north-ish.  The Monongehela is the river toward the bottom of the photo, the Allegheny is coming from the north.    The Ohio River starts right at the fountain, and the star shaped thing slightly to the right of the fountain is historical Ft. Pitt.  The bridge in the foreground is the Ft. Pitt Bridge.

All clearance items are now 75% off!  Huge savings on flowergirl baskets, pens, candles, and more.  View the full selection at http://www.bloomeryweddings.com/search_results.asp?txtsearchParamCat=48.

Diann Valentine is the wedding planner to the stars, known for her unique and personalized weddings.  To put it simply, she plans some seriously hoity-toity celebrations.  Diann has planned weddings all over the country, for celebrities such as Toni Braxton, Kelis and Lela Rochon.  You may have seen some of her events on Entertainment Tonight and in O: The Oprah Magazine.

You can find some of Diann’s secrets in her new book, Weddings Valentine Style: Rich Inspirations fo Every Woman's Dream Day.  Diann’s style is to pretty much do away with tradition, ignore the bridal magazines, and tailor the wedding specifically to yourselves.  That’s a sentiment we certainly endorse.  Every couple we’ve worked with has their own story—how they met, became engaged, the little things they do to keep each other amused and happy.  There’s no reason to discard any of that on your wedding day.

If you’re looking for tips in planning a completely personalized wedding, check out Diann’s book.  Then give us a call at The Bloomery—we’d love to work with you.

More and more we’ve seen projection screens set up at receptions to show movies or slideshows of the happy couple, set to music.  In some cases, these wedding montages are professionally produced, but in most cases the couple makes them.

If you’re thinking of such a thing, there are a couple of free tools you can use to make these movies.  On Windows XP, there is the Windows Movie Maker, which has a video tutorial on YouTube at http://youtube.com/watch?v=hTLGGnSpf_k.

A new onlline tool called OneTrueMedia was recently reviewed in the Wall St. Journal (http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20060830.html).  The online video editing tool is free, and should work on both Windows and Macs.  OneTrueMedia will also convert your old photos, slides and VHS tapes to digital format for you.

Macintoshes have iDVD, which you can use to create your wedding movies.  Other parts of the iLife suite may also be useful for your needs as well.