Brides Against Breast Cancer Nationwide Tour of Gowns

We are so thrilled to be planning the Twin Cities Brides Against Breast Cancer Nationwide Gown Tour Event! This event hasn't come to the Twin Cities for quite a few years and we are excited to be sponsoring it. It will be happening on May 14th and 15th at the Marriott West in St. Louis Park. Jill at the Marriott is fabulous to work with and it is such a beautiful hotel with a contemporary look with splashes of dark red.

This fundraiser is basically a bridal shop on wheels. It is the largest fundraiser for an organization called Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation, headquartered in Oregon. Making Memories grants wishes to stage IV breast cancer patients. All sales from the gown tour go toward making these wishes happen. Many of the wishes are video cameras to record the remainder of the patients lives. Other wishes are trips.

Wedding gowns are donated to Making Memories throughout the year from past brides, manufacturers, designers, and bridal shops. The gowns are put on a truck and travel to over 40 cities for a gown sale. The price for most gowns start at $99. Couture gowns are 35-75% off of retail price. Veils, tiaras, shoes, and other accessories will also be on sale.

General Admission is free and takes place on Friday from 12-8 and Saturday from 10-6. Brides are encouraged to go to www.bridesagainstbreastcancer.org to register for the event. There will be Power Hours on Friday from 10-12. These Power Hours are the first opportnity to take a look at the dresses and make a purchase. It is $20 per person. You can purchase a ticket on www.bridesagainstbreastcancer.org in advance.

If you want to help in some other way, here are a few ways that you can:

1. Volunteer - Here is a breakdown of what times/dates we still need coverage for. Please let me know if you are interested in signing up for a shift or three.

Thursday, May 13th
5 pm -8 pm: Set up the event (Unload the gowns, arrange the dresses and accessories, etc.)

Friday, May 14th
4 pm - 8 pm: General Sale hours: Assist brides in gown selections, run dresses back to the racks, keep accessories and shoes organized, assist with merchandise sale, etc.)

Saturday, May 15th
10 am - 2 pm: See General Sale hours above
2 pm - 6 pm: See General Sale hours above
6 pm - 9 pm: Tear down (Repack dresses, load racks on trucks, etc.)

2. Pass this event information on to anyone that you think is interested in volunteering OR attending the event to purchase a gown.

3. Or, if you have a gown or know someone that has a gown that they want to donate, they can bring it to our office before the event. The office is a drop off site for dresses all year long. But, if they bring it here before the event, we can put it on the truck instead of shipping it to their headquarters in Oregon. Any dresses that are put on the truck go directly to headquarters for cleaning and processing. They then go to a different city. They would love the gowns to be from 2006 or newer.

4. If you know of anyone that is a stage IV breast cancer patient and they may want a wish, they can go to the main website and ask for wish information. www.bridesagainastbrastcancer.org.

5. If you are a wedding vendor, we have two more tables for "booths" for sale. If you are interested, please contact Lora at At Your Service Weddings

For more information on this event, please go to www.bridesagainstbreastcancer.org. There is a flier on their site that has our local event information.

Welcome Back Blog

Check out the ice sculpture from our new friend Trevor at Metro Ice Sculptures. We came up with a couple pretty "cool" ideas for the bouquets at the reception site. Give him a call to check out the ideas.

Welcome back! It has been quite some time since the last blog. So many things have happened. It has been a great start to the new year and new wedding season. Here's a quick recap.

We have spent hours this past winter refining our services and defining what they mean to us. We decided to go back to the basics. We believe that weddings should not put couples into major debt. Nor do we believe that it takes a vault full of cash to have a beautiful, elegant wedding. With some creativity, reflection, and a plan you can plan the event you have always wanted. All of our services and packages are designed for couples that want to do their own planning. We specialize in Day of Coordination for a reason. We are good at it and that is what we enjoy. Our DOC package goes beyond just the wedding day. You also have assistance with your planning whenever you need it. Our ala carte services and hourly consulting can assist all couples in various stages of their planning. We just step in and help when there is something that they either don't want to do or don't know how to do.

The best part is that we have lowered, yes, lowered all of our pricing. We stepped back one day and asked how we can really help all couples. Through money of course. This doesn't mean that we lowered our quality. Nor does it mean that we are inexperienced. We just want to be a part of everyone's planning in various increments.

Our new office in International Market Square is coming along nicely. We think it may always be a work in progress though (just like owning a home). All brides are welcome to stop in between the hours of 10-4, Monday-Friday to browse our wedding accessories. We also have access to order a gazillion more items at reduced rates for couples. You don't need to be a client or under contract to stop in and make a purchase.

We also have our Idea Libary ready to assist in the planning. Again, you do not need to be a client or in a contract to spend time in the library. It is free and you don't need to schedule an appointment to browse. Basically, we have spent years, and we mean years, collecting pictures from magazines and other resources. Everything is referenced in a binder by group. So, if you are only looking for cake designs, you can pull the cake binder and see hundreds of cake pictures. We have categories for hair, accessories, invitations, overall wedding design, floral decoration ideas, non-floral decoration ideas, etc. You could spend hours going through the binders. We will start a pot of coffee for you. Just flag any pictures you like and we will make a photo copy for you.

We have many other great things happening. Stay tuned...