Nothing says a baby is coming more than the idea of nesting, and the nest theme makes a wonderful shower for a boy or a girl or gender neutral celebration.  Being that it is Spring, and Easter has just passed, nests and nests decorations are everywhere and most likely available on sale.  Now is the perfect time to plan a nest themed shower. Check out some of our decorating tips and contact Branches Catering today to start planing your social, corporate, or fundraising event today!

* The most well put together showers start with the invitations and follows right through to the favors.

* Providing guests with an assigned seat is the epitome of hospitality.  It gives them a sense that you as the host have thought about them and where they would feel most comfortable.  It also alleviates any hesitation or stress on their part in looking for a seat .  Generally you can secure matching place cards from the same source as your invitations, but you can also go a different route, get creative, and adapt plain ones to resemble the invites.  Craft stores now carry all sorts of scrap booking supplies including stickers, punch outs and decals which can elevate plain escort cards to a whole different level.

* Doing a colored napkin on a white or ivory table cloth is another great way to incorporate the invitation theme or color at a pretty affordable price.

* Nests themselves are perfect for centerpieces!  They are the perfect shape and hold any type of arrangement well.  You can purchase them at a craft store and do them yourself, or your florist will do an amazing job!

* Another table setting idea is the colored water glass.  You can rent a colored wine glass, goblet or flute to play into your theme color and kick your table up a notch!

* Favors are not necessary at a baby shower, but they are are nice touch.  Not only are they nice for the guests, they add another decor level to your table set.  For a nest theme shower small nests filled with speckled chocolate eggs of the color of your choice are beautiful and delicious and can be found anywhere this time of year.   Wrapped in cello bags and tied with raffia or a pretty ribbon and they good to go!

Need some help getting started? Contact Branches Catering today and start planning your event at our NJ catering hall!

At Branches Catering, we know how special your wedding day is to you!  That is why we strive not only to provide an excellent venue for your big day, but also to find the best tips on the web for all stages of your wedding planning.  There is a lot of work involved when it comes to wedding paperwork, but read on to get some excellent tips that are sure to make it easy and fun!

Source: www.etsy.com

When it comes to wedding stationery, budget and design style are the two most important factors to consider. It’s good to have a sense of where you place your wedding stationery in the context of your overall wedding priorities; not every couple needs letterpress invitations, and if your budget doesn’t allow for custom design, that’s totally okay too.

Couples should start looking for a stationer soon after setting a wedding date, particularly if they plan to work with the same stationer for both their save the dates and wedding invitations. For custom invitations, it’s generally a good idea to get on a designer’s calendar around 6-8 months before the wedding. For wedding invitations selected from an album in your local stationery store, 3-4 months should be sufficient. Try to find a designer that suits your overall wedding style and aesthetic, and then work with that stationer to achieve a wedding invitation suite that fits your budget — it’s a more positive experience than trying to force a designer to work outside of their comfort zone due to budget considerations.

Stationery budgets depend on a number of factors, including the number of invitations ordered, the number of individual pieces within an invitation suite, printing method, number of different ink colors in the design, and even the region or city where the stationer lives, as material and labor costs vary across the country. In general, for custom letterpress wedding invitations, couples should expect to pay around $10-$15 per individual invitation suite – again, depending on the number of pieces in the invitation suite and the number of ink colors in the design, as well as any other embellishments such as envelope liners and edge painting. During the letterpress printing process, each color is run through the printing press individually and must be cleaned between color runs, so labor costs add up pretty quickly. Digitally printed invitations are less expensive, and couples can often save money by having some of the “extra” pieces, such as maps and accommodation cards, digitally printed.

Save the dates aren’t a hard requirement, but they can be really helpful – particularly if your wedding will take place on a holiday or popular travel weekend, or if most of your guests will need to travel to attend your wedding. Save the dates typically inform prospective guests of your wedding date and location so they can reserve that date on their calendars, and should be mailed out 4-6 months before the wedding.

Engagement announcements are a formal announcement of a couple’s intent to marry, without mentioning a specific date or location. These days, it’s most common for engagement announcements to be made in a local newspaper by the bride or groom’s parents as a way of sharing the happy news, while save the dates are mailed to people who will later receive a formal wedding invitation.

The invitation itself is traditionally from the wedding host, which can be anything from the couple to the parents to everyone all together, and indicates the wedding date, start time, ceremony and reception location, as well as a little note about attire if the wedding will be semi-formal or black tie. Invitations are typically mailed 6-8 weeks before the wedding, with an RSVP requested no later than two weeks before the wedding. For destination weddings or weddings on popular holiday weekends, it might be a good idea to mail invitations 10-12 weeks prior to the wedding.

Traditionally, the RSVP was a blank card with a pre-addressed envelope to be sent back to the wedding host, where guests could write a little note graciously accepting or declining the invitation. Today, the RSVP card typically includes a place to mark either a positive or negative response, along with a line to indicate the number and names of guests attending the wedding. Couples can also choose to offer meal choices on the RSVP if they are planning a formal plated dinner reception.

Couples may choose to enclose a separate reception card if the wedding ceremony and reception will take place at different locations and involve separate guest lists. Maps, accommodation information, and direction cards are often a nice touch for destination weddings or when a majority of guests will travel to the wedding location and may be unfamiliar with the area. Still, the only “required” elements of a wedding invitation suite are the invitation and an RSVP card with return envelope (or RSVP postcard). Everything else is optional! Just remember, registry information should never be included in the printed wedding invitation; that information is best conveyed by word of mouth or reserved for your wedding website.

I love it when couples choose to incorporate calligraphy into their wedding stationery, either through escort cards or hand-addressing for their wedding invitations – each envelope becomes a work of art.  I’m also a big fan of the hand calligraphy from Angelique Ink. For tips on working with a calligrapher, I asked my friend Michele of Meant to Be Calligraphy for advice. Here’s what Michele had to say:

“Since all calligraphy work is done by hand, I would recommend getting in touch with your calligrapher as early as possible during your wedding planning process so that you can be best assured of getting on his or her calendar during your preferred time frame. I book my calendar on a first-come, first-served basis and forecast as far as nine months ahead at any given point. I tell potential clients that I don’t need their address lists until just before I’m about to begin writing out their envelopes, but I do need to have time blocked off well in advance for them if they plan to engage my calligraphy services.”

Couples often forget to budget for day-of wedding stationery. This can include ceremony programs, seating cards (escort cards or place cards – or both), and menus. Ceremony programs are helpful for religious ceremonies where some guests might be unfamiliar with some ceremony rituals or traditions.  Menu cards are a nice touch for plated dinner receptions, and many designers offer printable options, like e.m. papers. Seating cards are a must for large weddings or any assigned reception seating. Escort cards are placed at a central location near the reception entrance and contain the guest name and table number to help guide the guest to his or her assigned table. Place cards work in tandem with escort cards and are located at the individual guest place setting to indicate a guest’s assigned seat at a particular table.

Finally, couples should absolutely include thank you cards in their budget. It can be really fun to order custom stationery with a couple’s new married monogram for use after the wedding, but non-custom thank you cards are also 100% appropriate.  Just make sure to have enough thank you cards for each guest (or anyone who sends a gift) no later than a month after the wedding.

Source: www.etsy.com

We love DIY projects!  They are a fantastic way to cut the cost of your wedding drastically, and they can be quite fun too.  Even though they are time consuming, they are a great way to get creative with your wedding planning.

Source: The Budget Savvy Bride

In late October 2011 at a wedding expo, Dane (darling fiance) and I stumbled across a local, small-scale letterpress company. We were having a heck of a time finding any stationery for our winter wedding that wasn’t cheesy. After spending hours online looking for save the dates and coordinating invitation suites, everything had love birds, or was too Christmas-y, or had hearts or cheesy snowflakes. None of it matched our personalities. I’m lucky that my fiancé wants to be a big part and have a say in wedding decisions. I promised him early on I would not make him wear pink. Having a winter wedding allows us to marry elegance with woodsy elements – perfect for Dane and I. However, this is hard to find!

I liked the look of letterpress stationery online. However, the price was astronomical – we’re talking $700 to $900 for 100 save the dates. Ouch. The local letterpress company was half the cost, including their design services and envelopes. Designing our own invitation suite worked well for us because we wanted something unique. I got to meet with the company’s graphic designer over coffee and tell her exactly what we were looking for. It’s a good thing that we had an idea of what we wanted – colors, design and text. The designer emailed me drafts and was happy to make small changes. Plus, the first design session was free! The envelopes were included in the price and we got to pick the color. We chose a dark gray with a hint of sparkle.

The day we picked up our letterpress save the dates my mother-in-law was visiting. The three of us were so pleased at the beautiful little cards in the box. The owners were gracious and with design, envelopes, save the dates and enclosure cards we paid about $400. And to be further budget-savvy, because we already have our design nailed down, they won’t charge us for small changes and adjustments on our invitation suite! So next time around, we’ll just be paying for the paper and printing!

With a little woodsy inspiration from Martha Stewart Weddings, here’s how we assembled our save the dates…

For the full story and great photos visit The Budget Savvy Bride.

Wedding planning can seem like an insurmountable task at times, and you may be asking yourself, “is it really worth all of this aggravation?”  The short answer is yes! Branches Catering is here to help! This article explains this simple answer in a little bit more detail, and helps sooth your pounding wedding planning headaches.

Source: A Practical Wedding

16 Jul 2012
Why Wedding Planning Is Worth It

Moodeous Photography Denver

About a month or so ago, I took to wandering around the house saying, “Thank god we got married before I got knocked up,” and then cracking up and adding, “But totally not like that.” Which is to say, it turns out I was glad we got married first, simply because all of those painful emotional lessons that I learned during wedding planning are getting put to very good use for the second time around. (Least you get offended, I’m pretty sure this would work in the other order too, and I could have been wandering around saying “Thank god I got knocked up before we got married,” but I’ll leave that to those wiser than me to confirm or deny. Who wants to write a post on what you learn doing it in the other order?) But the moral of the story is, none of it was wasted.

Last week, we ran a post about how wedding planning was like project management, and @Kathleenincanrah (who I met on book tour, and who wrote this post on women and finance) piped up on Twitter to say, “Sort of, but sort of not.” Her response was that, “The heavy (and important) work is the emotional stuff. The to-do lists are false processes to do the real work.” And I think for me that was mostly accurate. Half of our wedding planning was project management (something we were blessedly good at, after being a former theatrical producing team) and half of our wedding planning was emotional work (which we felt like a total disaster at, doesn’t everyone, always?). The project management half of wedding planning didn’t end up being a life lesson. The emotional work, however, is still paying dividends. Or rather, is suddenly paying huge dividends again.

Of course I’m writing this for those of you who have been up half the night, at any point in the last few months, sobbing over something vaguely related to wedding planning. Because you and me both sister. Eye to eye: it’s worth it.

As I have been making my way through pregnancy (I want to feed our Hallmark-y images of pregnancy by saying I’ve been drifting through it, but instead I’ve been grinding through it and surviving it, so you’ll have to turn elsewhere for more diaphanous images) issues keep coming up, and the solutions feel like muscle memory. As anyone who’s ever been vaguely athletic knows, it’s painfully hard to build up a muscle the first time; it’s much easier to tone it up the second time around. Emotional muscles work much the same way. Once you’ve tuned up your emotional response to something, figuring out how to do it again, even after a lengthy pause, is much easier (if not exactly painless).

So, for those of you in the trenches of wedding planning…

For the full article please click here

Now that the ring is on your finger, the task of wedding planning becomes very clear. And very daunting. Take a few breaths, and think about where you want to start. Here at Branches Catering, we know the hardships of planning a wedding and we want you to get off on the right foot. Source: Martha Stewart Weddings

Start Spreading the News

You may want to let people in on your engagement as soon as the ring is slipped on your finger. Or you might want to keep the moment private a bit longer. However you share the information, even if you veer from tradition, you should tell your parents first, then other family and friends. You’ll make phone calls, of course, but you can also send email or a letter or use a service like pingg to send an announcement. You could even throw a party.

Discuss a Date

Once the word is out, expect lots of questions, including “When are you getting married?” Reveal a date if you have one, or let curious friends know plans are in the works — as they should be, especially if you want to hold your wedding at a popular time of year, such as June or over a holiday. Locations, photographers, caterers, and other professionals book up early, sometimes a year in advance.

Think About the Big Picture

Envision the type of wedding you both want — maybe it’s the event of childhood dreams or one that reflects your grown-up tastes. Even if you are set on a formal event in a ballroom, considering other possibilities, such as a seaside ceremony or a Sunday brunch, may change your mind or reinforce your choice. The same holds true for selecting the time of day and mood of the wedding.

Set A Budget

Prior to making any decisions about the style, location, etc., figure out what you have to spend and whether your families will contribute. Make sure you and your fiance are in agreement about your priorities before talking to your parents about budget and logistics.

Register for Gifts

Surprising as it may seem, as soon as people find out about your impending nuptials, presents will start flowing in. It’s never too early to register, not only to help ensure you get something you like and need, but also to make it easier on friends and family who are pondering what to purchase. Even if you don’t select everything right away, at least go to one store and decide on some things for your list. You can always add more later and register at other stores. Try to limit your registry to three places. This way, it’ll be easier to manage. And, in case you don’t get everything you put down, many stores will keep your registry active for as long as a few years.

Insure Your Ring

You may never want to take off your priceless new treasure, but realistically, you’ll have to at times. It’s a good idea to talk to an insurance agent about coverage in case the stones or the ring itself ever need to be repaired or replaced. You will first need an appraisal by a certified independent gemologist; most jewelers will provide this service upon purchase. And make sure you understand all the terms of the policy. Find out whether you are covered if the ring is lost, stolen, or damaged, and what stipulations there are, if any. If the ring is damaged, does the company give you a check so you can have it repaired by the jeweler of your choice, or do you have to use one of their jewelers? You’ll also want to know how long the claims process takes. You might be able to add a jewelry rider to your existing homeowner’s or renter’s policy; if not, set up a separate policy. And, most important, take very good care of your ring — when you’re wearing it and when you’re not — because that’s the best insurance of all.

For full article visit: Martha Stewart Weddings