Happy New Year!!!!

I can’t think of a better way to start 2011, than with another addition of 30 days of Vendors! For the next 30 days, we will be doing a blog post featuring a vendor in Oregon every day. Because a large part of our job is finding the right vendors for our clients, we do not have a preferred list, but a long list- that continues to grow, as we meet and work with new talented and professional vendors! With each vendor’s style and personality being different and the importance of you finding a vendor that matches not only your style, but personality, we find it crucial to meet new vendors and grow our list of people we know continuously! While we’ll be bringing you 30 vendors over the next 30 days, they are not in any particular order. It was really hard to pick just 30 vendors, but we will be bringing you many more vendor’s through out 2011!

Click here to view the posts from last year’s 30 days of vendors!

If you’re wanting to know more about a vendor we have posted about or you would like any vendor recommendations, feel free to contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)!

Enough rambling, and on to the good stuff! The first vendor is Paper Bloom Studio.  We hope you enjoy getting to know Lindsay as much as we have!

Champagne: How did Paper Bloom start?

Paper Bloom: Back in 2005 right as I got engaged, I was just beginning to work as a graphic designer and couldn’t wait to design my own wedding invitations.  I had so much fun flipping through wedding magazines and visiting local paper shops and wedding boutiques for ideas and inspiration.  I designed matching favor cards, a guestbook table sign, menus, a large seating chart, and even signs for the bathrooms for my wedding.  After it was all over, just as I started to feel the post-wedding blues, a friend of a friend called me about her own wedding invites.  She had seen my invitation and was curious if I could design hers.  YES please!  From there, her friends and their friends began calling, and without really planning it, I had started a wedding invitation design business.

Photo by Katchlight Photography

Champagne: What’s your inspiration?

Paper Bloom: It may sound cheesy, but I’m really inspired by love.  I adore working with couples who are head-over-heels, and hearing how they met, their proposal story, details of their wedding…  All these things fuel my passion and creativity, and I strive to create something truly special for each couple.  I still look at my own wedding invitation on a daily basis, and it brings me back to that feeling right before marrying the love of my life– excitement, wonder, anticipation…  Who knew a piece of paper could do that to someone?! It’s really important to me that my clients are reminded of those same things when they look at their invitation.

Champagne: What types of printing processes do you offer and which do you specialize in?

Paper Bloom: I work with a local print shop that offers offset and digital printing, which are the most popular among my clients (and my personal favorite!)  Thermography and letterpress are less popular options due to the higher costs, but are also available.

Photo by Honeysuckle Photography

Champagne: Do you offer matching table numbers, programs, place cards, thank you notes, etc?

Paper Bloom: YES! I love love love it when a couple “brands” their wedding.  I get so excited when I’m asked to design even the most simple thing– like a sign for the bathroom!– just so it matches. 

Champagne: What do you love to do when you’re not doing what you do?

Paper Bloom: I love spending time with my husband and our 1-year old son.  Those boys are my world and inspire me every day to do what I do, and to do it well.  I enjoy Portland and discovering new places to eat or drink coffee, and listen to live music by local artists.  I love spending time with our big, loud and amazing families, and my dearest friends.  I enjoy cooking, but am not that great at it (unless I’m following a recipe)...  I think I just like to have an excuse to wear my cute apron!

Photo by Yasmin Khajavi Photography

Champagne: Do you have a minimum order? Do the invitations come in increments of 25?

Paper Bloom: The minimum order is 50, and can be ordered in any increment.

Photo by Honeysuckle Photography

Champagne: Do you offer recycled paper invites?

Paper Bloom: Yes.  My printer is able to order almost any kind of paper you can imagine, including 100% recycled, FSC-certified stocks, and other eco-friendly papers (like those made with cotton, which is a renewable/sustainable resource). They also use soy-based inks (very environmentally friendly) in their offset presses.

Champagne: What’s the approximate turn around time?

Paper Bloom: Ideally, I love to have anywhere from 2-4 months to work on an invitation before it is sent out to guests (4-6 months before the actual wedding).  I’m definitely able to accommodate shorter timelines, but that sometimes includes rush charges from the variety of vendors I order supplies from.

Photo by Honeysuckle Photography

Champagne: Do you have invitations for parties and other events related and not related to weddings?

Paper Bloom: Yep! I have worked with the Mothers of the Groom and Maids of Honor to design rehearsal dinner and bridal shower invitations that compliment the couples’ wedding invitation.  I’ve also designed baby shower invitations, baby announcements, holiday cards and birthday party invites for past clients, as well! I love keeping in touch with my clients and being able to provide custom designs for ALL the big events in their lives.

Photo by Honeysuckle Photography

Champagne: Thank you, Lindsay [Paper Bloom Studio] for sharing more about your company and how you got started!! Make sure you stop by Paper Bloom Studio‘s website, become a fan on facebook and follow them on twitter!

Cheers,

Mandi, Rachelle & the Champagne team

Amazing… The best word to describe the last year! With the support of our families, friends, vendors and you- our clients, Champagne has had a wonderful year! We can’t begin to express how thankful we are for each and every one of you! You help us live out our passion every day! Thank you! We are so excited for all that is to come in 2011! Tomorrow, we will start out the year with our first of 30 days of vendors. Check out last year’s segment here! 

Today, I decided that I’d share with you a little about my wedding. Though it was extremely hard to pick from the 2000 images I received… yes.. 2000, I narrowed it down… and then realized 100 was still too many…! The day was perfect! I’ve written things about our day about 10 times and keep erasing it, as I feel I can’t even begin to explain what a wonderful day it was! Having our closest friends and family all in one place was enough for it to be one of the best days of our lives and the fact that the space looked amazing and it didn’t rain was just icing on the cake- did I mention the cake was delicious? Alright, enough rambling… enjoy!

Wedding Consultant: Champagne Wedding & Event Coordination [Danielle]
Flowers: Blum Design in Flowers
Reception Site: Pure Space
Ceremony: Pure Space
Brides Rings: Shane Company
Grooms Ring: Fred Meyer Jewelers
Jewelry: Fred Meyer Jewelers and The Wedding Cottage
Hair piece: Nicole Couture- AniA Bridal
Gown designer and boutique: Jim Hjelm at AniA Bridal
Formal Wear: Men’s Wearhouse
Hotel: The Heathman Hotel
Rehearsal Dinner: Old Town Pizza
Cake: Dreamcakes
Honeymoon: Oahu, Hawaii
Alterations: AniA Bridal
Caterer: Crave Catering
Photographer: Yasmin Khajavi and Laura Marchbanks
DJ: Event Team Entertainment
Hair & Make-up: Nicole Wagner Make up & Face Body Beauty
Videography: Focal Point Digital Media
Officiant: Carroll Myers
Veil and Accessories: The Wedding Cottage
Rental: West Coast Event Productions
Invitations: Paper Bloom
Favors: Studio Olivine
Bridal Portraits: Anne Adams Photography
Boudoir Portraits: Yasmin Khajavi Photography

Photos courtesy of Yasmin Khajavi Photography

It seems so silly to say the words thank you for everything because I am so grateful for all of the hard work, time and kindness that each and every one of our vendors put into our wedding!!! Sending you the biggest virtual hug- EVER! THANK YOU!! A huge thank you to each and every one of our family and wedding party members!! You complete our lives! Thank you for your friendship and love!

Have a safe and fun New Years!! We look forward to talking to you in 2011!! Cheers to being the best year yet!!! Only a few months till we’ll get to introduce you to Baby Bell!!

Cheers,

Mandi, Rachelle and the Champagne team

This holiday season has been much different for me from the past!  I’m always thinking, “Wouldn’t it be fun to do my Christmas shopping on Christmas eve?” Though I always think this, I’m never one to come near to that happening, as my Christmas shopping is usually done the first week in December and the gifts are wrapped soon after! This year though, it was down to the wire. Between getting married, honeymooning, and catching up on work, Christmas shopping happened this week! So, as far as saving Christmas shopping for Christmas eve- that won’t be happening in the future and even though this holiday season is feeling more like a holiday weekend, I’m so excited to be able to spend the holidays with my new family!!
Rachelle is in Mexico for a friends wedding and enjoying Christmas with her family in Mexico this year! We hope that whether you’ve been prepping for the holidays for weeks or days, you’re able to relax and enjoy what this time with your friends and family!
May your holiday season be filled with much love, laughter and happiness!! Wishing you the best this holiday season and always!!

Cheers,

The Champagne Team

When hiring someone you want to know that you’ll be treated with respect and care! When you’re hiring your wedding vendors, you want to know that you’re going to get a high quality of service, that’s going to be worth the money spent. For this very reason, we are so grateful when we receive reviews from our past clients! Over the past few months, we’ve received reviews through emails, thank you notes, facebook and WeddingWire.com. We’d like to invite you to visit Wedding Wire to view our reviews, here, as well as the Toast section of our website.  What sparked this post, was actually an email that Rachelle received recently from a past client. Please read on to hear what Lizzie had to say about her planning experience!

Lizzie & Andrew [9.11.10] - Photo by Paul Rich Studio

From Lizzie, to you- the Bride to be!

“As a bride-to-be, I knew what it was like to be inundated with well-intentioned, but unsolicited wedding advice. So I’m careful to give only two pieces of advice to friends about to get married. First, don’t get so caught up in details and pleasing everyone that you forget to enjoy being engaged. And second, call Rachelle at Champagne Wedding and Event Planning. The expense of a wedding planner was, far and away, the best money that I spent on my wedding. The value far exceeds the price!

From the beginning, Rachelle steered us in the direction of vendors who were worth our time. It can be overwhelming to see how many vendors are out there. Instead of dialing at random from lists provided by questionably reliable sources, and wasting days and weeks of my time meeting dead ends, Rachelle gave us the names of a few wonderful, reliable, creative people who were (and this is key!) available on our day. It cut our field of dozens down to just one or two choices instantly! It’s hard to describe the look on a vendor’s face when you tell them you’re working with Champagne. They are relieved and excited, knowing that there will be no headaches on the wedding day, that everyone will be well-organized, and the event will be classy and fun. They love to give glowing recommendations for the ladies at Champagne, too, saying that they have worked with them many times before, and they are the best event planners in Portland.

The next step in the planning process was the conceptualization piece. Rachelle seemed to read our minds, summoning ideas that so perfectly matched the vision in our head that we were barely able to verbalize. It was such a relief to have someone instantly understand the vibe we were trying to achieve with our party, and to have brilliant ideas to make it even better than we could have imagined! It felt frustrating, before we met with Rachelle, to wonder how we could possibly make our wedding feel like it was our own when there are so many weddings that feel the same as the last. Rachelle made those worries disappear instantly! We felt understood and listened to, and that she was using her enormous gifts to craft our wedding day according to our wishes, not anyone else’s agenda.

Rachelle was so attentive and detail-oriented, keeping things organized, and at the same time maintaining the sense of joy and excitement. She never lost focus of the love that was making this day possible, and never made us feel the weight of worry or that the considerable work she was doing was ever burdensome. The countless times I was asked a question by my mother, my mother-in-law, or my friends, that I wasn’t able to answer, I felt confident to say, “I don’t know, but Rachelle will.” Or, “Rachelle’s taking care of it.” That freedom helped me maintain my sanity and actually enjoy the process of wedding planning. If I found myself getting overwhelmed with questions and details, one email or call from Rachelle made me feel like everything was more manageable, and that the idea of having a wedding wasn’t completely nuts after all!

Finally, the value of having someone there the day of the wedding, making sure things flowed easily was such an immeasurable gift! It allowed our families and friends to simply be present and enjoy the stunningly gorgeous day without being distracted by tasks or adhering to the schedule or by putting out fires. If there were fires to be put out on the day of the wedding, I was oblivious to them. All I remember of my wedding day was the profound joy, serene happiness, and abundant excitement and goodwill as our favorite people in the world came together to celebrate our union. Since our wedding, guests have freely told us that it was the best wedding they’ve ever been to, that the day was gorgeous, and that we’ve totally ruined all other weddings to come because everything was so charming, joyful, and unfussy … exactly what we wanted! I always give credit to the guests themselves, who helped us celebrate the spirit of the day, and to my enormously loving and adorable husband.  But I never fail to give credit where it’s due. “Thanks to Rachelle!” I say, because it could not have happened without her colossal gifts and massively great attitude! Please do yourself a gigantic favor, and contact Champagne!”

To view Lizzie & Andrew’s slideshow, click here! Photos by Paul Rich Studio

Thank you, Lizzie, for sharing about your experience with Champagne! Also, a huge thank you to all of our clients [Past and present], as you allow us do what we love every single day!! We hope that you, the bride-to-be, will make sure to hire vendors that are the right match for your personality and budget!

Happy planning!

Cheers,

The Champagne Team

Cheryl and Mike… Where do I begin? They are two of the sweetest, most loving people I’ve ever met! I’m so excited to be sharing with you their wedding, which took place on National Aviation Day, August 19th, 2010 in Oceanside, Oregon. I loved the details that made it personal and intimate for their guests! They had a memory bouquet where we hung pictures of the people who had passed away. They made a cd for a favor with all of the favorite songs their guests had requested and gave a bottle of Oregon wine to their out of state guests and a bottle of Virginia [Where they currently live] to the people who live in Oregon. I had so much fun working with them, as ever decision was made because of the love they have for each other and their family! Read below as Cheryl describes a little about their wedding planning process!

This was a second wedding for both of us.  Originally, I would’ve been content with eloping but Mike didn’t get to have his family or friends at his first wedding, so we decided to have a small wedding on the Oregon coast.  Oceanside is a very special place for us; Mike’s dad used to come to the beach when he was sick, and we spread his ashes there last summer.  With the location a ‘no-brainer,’ we set out to organize everything else…from our home in Alexandria, Virginia! 

With a 14-month engagement, we had plenty of time to plan and Mike was a very active participant - he found our photographer, Lenny from Studio 98, through online searches and Lenny led us to Mandi at Champagne! After that, planning was a breeze as Mandi made everything else EFFORTLESS!  I quickly became a Champagnenw.com blog junkie and found contacts for invitations, hair/make-up, calligraphy, and planning a bachelorette wine-tasting tour.  With only one trip to Oregon in February before the August event (and countless midnight emails!), Mandi helped us plan the most perfect and fun wedding.  Mandi, Lucie and Amanda were amazing, driving back and forth from Portland to the coast, picking up the cake, setting up chairs, helping the caterers, playing the homemade CD for the wedding ceremony music, anything and everything that needed to get done!  The day couldn’t have been any better, the weather was gorgeous, everyone had a blast, Mike’s grandparents and high school friends were with us, and I married my best friend!  I’m so glad we didn’t go to Vegas : )  I still check the blog every now and then…maybe we can renew our vows periodically, with the help of Mandi??!

Please enjoy a few photos from the wedding by Studio 98!

Vendors:
Photography: Studio 98
Ceremony venue: Oceanside Community Hall
Reception venue: Private beach house rental
Coordination: Champagne Wedding & Event Coordination
Invitations: The Wedding Cottage
Calligraphy: Lori Raines Calligraphy
Florist: Form & Flora
Caterer: Maggie’s Buns
Cake: Lamb’s Thriftway
Chair covers: Avery’s Chair Covers & More
Rentals: The Party Pros

Cheers,

Mandi, Rachelle, & the Champagne team