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Most of today’s brides are professional women whose plates are full with work, family, church, and vol-untary work. Her time is spread in so many directions. So when that very special mo-ment comes in her life to plan her wedding she becomes overwhelmed. She dreams of having the perfect wedding, but she doesn’t have the time to make all the phone calls, set up appointments, research vendors, design the wedding, and attend to details. How will she find time to plan her dream wedding? Hire a wedding and event planner.

But what if the bride is a wedding and event planner? How does she plan her own wedding and make it a spectacular evening

for everyone to remember for years to come? She brings in another event planner and all of the vendors whose services she uses when planning a bride’s wedding.

Recently, one of South Florida’s well-known wedding and event planner, Jackie Farah of Jackie Ohh…Events, planned her wedding with the assistance of her fellow wedding professionals. Jackie shares with us the details of her wedding.

Jackie has been planning events since high school. Her goal is to make her clients happy. At a wedding, Jackie leads her bride down the aisle. Then at the reception the wedding party and guest enjoy a night that Jackie and her team has worked so hard to

put together. After years of planning other bride’s weddings, Jackie was not prepared for what was in store for her once it was her turn.

To Jackie, “every little girl’s dream is to be the queen for a day when she gets mar-ried! My dream was very similar but was filled with tons of ideas and specifications down to the last detail of the ceremony and reception. My vendors were all so great and so patient with me being both a bride and a planner. We laugh until this day about our memories of planning the wedding; they called me a “bri-dezilla”, but I disagree. I like to think I was an overly opinionated and knowledgeable bride with a million ideas and too much at-

HOWdesigns her wedding

a wedding planner

EnchantEd BridEs ~ spring/summEr 2008 35

tention to minor details. I guess those quali-ties make me a better planner than a bride, good thing I will only be a bride once.”

Jackie and her groom, Carlos, decided to have two weddings. The first took place on Thursday, November 8th in the chapel of Our Lady of the Lakes where their parents were married and renewed their vows. Only close family and friends attend this ceremo-ny. The rehearsal dinner was the first recep-tion to their first wedding. The wedding activities concluded on Saturday, November 10th with a ceremony followed by a black tie reception at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens.

As a planner, Jackie treated her wedding like any other. She completed a budget anal-

ysis worksheet, a preliminary guest list, and collected pictures, sketches, and ideas that developed an overall wedding theme. Jackie and Carlos wanted to have a very romantic wedding. They chose the theme of Lush Ro-mance infused with hues of dark chocolates and rich reds.

After deciding on a theme, Jackie and her mother flew to New York to shop for her wedding gown. She chose a Kenneth Pool Couture gown. She completed the gown with a coordinating veil from Kenneth Pool at Ever After Miami and a stunning hand made headpiece to match her gown by couture designer, Carolina Boulton. For the chapel ceremony Gabriella Arrango designed a beautiful guayabera wedding dress. Now that Jackie had her gown it was time to attend to all the details that would make her wedding an elegant and spectacular event.

The next step in planning her wedding was to create a unique Save the Date an-nouncement. With the assistance of Martha

36 EnchantEd BridEs ~ spring/summEr 2008

Ramirez, from UDS Photo, and Eddie Gar-duno from Clear Vision Pictures, they shot a motion-picture style movie trailer of the couple in different settings to portray a dream of the wed-ding day. The trailer concluded with “Our Wedding… Coming Soon…November 10th, 2007.” The DVDs were sent out in gorgeous envelopes designed by Paper Studio. The DVD was a huge hit!

The next item in planning her wedding was a walk through the grounds of Vizcaya. Jackie wrote down the details that she and Carlos wanted their guests to see and experience as they were going to the ceremony, the cocktail hour, and finally, the reception. The reception area was drawn to scale and she began figuring out the different reception layout possibilities using square, round, and rect-angle tables. She met with each vendor to discuss her ideas and drawings.

After going over the details of the menu with Mena Cater-ing, renting the hardware from Christina’s Party Rentals and Soiree Event Rentals, and hir-ing JM Lighting and Draping, she went to AB Covers to start designing the basis of the cer-emony and reception design. Collectively between the entire design team they decided choc-olate would be the primary linen color. Ana de Castro and Gilbert Monzon designed an amazing, crinkly, espresso brown linen with red kick pleats for the square and rectangle

tables. Chair covers were designed to match the chiavari chairs in red satin with a coordi-nating brown kick pleat finished with three

fabric buttons. The invitations were designed and created by Natalie Argote from Paper Studio. Each one was made of dupioni fabric with fabric pockets for each insert, a pleated

fabric band around the invite topped with a gorgeous amber and brown broach. Each invitation was hand delivered so each guest

felt that they were personally invited.

For the ceremony, Jackie wanted to create a very roman-tic atmosphere so she used can-dles with hints of blue hues in the ambient lighting. She con-tinued the color theme of the ceremony but introduce one of her main colors, dark choco-late. Although the entire wed-ding overall was amazing, the reception needed to be mind-blowing! The Cake table and the Bride and Groom table had to be a huge focal piece along with the ceiling-scape. Tiffany Nieves from Dream Design Weddings, a fellow planner, assisted Jackie in the planning process. Tiffany had the perfect tables for the wedding. They were mahogany tables with an acrylic top and enough space in between to fill the middle with hundreds of flowers. Above the dance floor and stage was a huge rectanglar structure that floral designer, Rick Interian from Avant Gardens, built by hanging thousands of mirror crystals. It made the entire tent look like a starry night.

David Walters, from All Access Lighting and AV was the brains behind the outstand-

ing lighting throughout the wedding. Guests walked into a red and amber tent that trans-formed into a dark blue tone throughout dinner and changed Continued on page 48

48 EnchantEd BridEs ~ spring/summEr 2008

beauty; letting them be comfortable and relaxed is the best way to do that.”

Shooting bridal portraits after the wed-ding allows Michael to go to various locations that have more possibilities for creativity. “When I photograph brides before the wed-ding, there is a big concern of keeping the dress clean. Shooting after the wedding takes all the fear out of getting the dress dirty and allows me to go anywhere I want, even a junk yard.

“If she is into modern fashion and art, then I usu-ally go somewhere that has an urban feel. If the bride is into the beauty of nature, then I will go to a park. There is a big trend to use locations that aren’t very typical or traditional. A lot of photographers are taking brides to industrial areas that aren’t well maintained to cre-ate more edgy por-traits.”

Arline and Doug Beets of Ace Photography shoot a majority of their bridal portraits before the wedding day. “Our sessions are free flowing and not as posed as the traditional bridal sessions of the past. We do some posing but more of our shots are about creative and using correct lighting.”

Some of their couples decide to do a portrait session after the wedding. They find these sessions to be more relaxed. “The bride is not as worried about soiling her dress. The groom is ready to have fun photos with his new wife.”

“We are artists who want to create art for the home. When their friends visit they com-ment on the beauty of the art, only to realize that the hosts were the subject.”

Lesli Emmetts of Divine Images told us, “I hear that more brides are doing sessions after the weddings. However, out of 1400 weddings we have never done one. But we are certainly open to it.”

To Lesli, “every bride is different. Some

are traditional, some are edgy, some are romantic at heart, others playful and some of them a little of all! We feel the energy of the bride. The images will always reflect that bride’s personality, beauty and sense of style. And after all, that’s what a bridal shoot has always, and WILL always be about...HER!”

In South Florida, Martha Ramirez of Unique Design Studios told us “our bridal portrait sessions are normally done the day of the wedding. With great planning, we have

time to create beauti-ful images.”

Martha encour-ages her brides to shoot their portraits either the day of their wedding or after the honeymoon. “We have found that shoot-ing the bridal session before the wedding, causes the bride to worry about the dress getting dirty. We’d rather have her relaxed and at ease during her portrait session.”

“If the bride elects to shoot her portraits after the honeymoon, we suggest she come to the session with an open mind. We highly recommend choosing an out of the ordinary

location and many times we’ll end the session with a ‘trash the dress’ sequence. Trashing the dress is growing in popularity and ends up being the most fun the brides could pos-sibly have while wearing a beautiful wedding gown. From jumping into a pool, to rolling in the mud...photography has never been this exciting!”

Bridal portraits are continuing to be shot every day all around the world. So it’s up to you to choose when and where you want your portrait shot. It’s all about what best suits you in capturing the most important time in your life. So, relax and have fun with your portrait session, it’s priceless.

Written by Mary francis Gomes

contributors: mike colon, chuck arlund, arline and

doug Beets, Lesli Emmetts, michael howard, meishach

moore, and martha ramirez

“there is a big trend to use locations that aren’t very

typical or traditional. a lot of photographers are taking

brides to industrial areas that aren’t well maintained to

create more edgy portraits.” — michael howard

Continued from page 31

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colors with the beat of the music once the party started.

Music was an important factor in creat-ing an evening for guests to dance the night away. As the guest arrived at Vizcaya they were greeted by French horns. Then for entertainment a band and DJ kept the guests on the dance floor. As the guests enjoyed the music they satisfied their sweet tooth with a cake from Rosie Cunille of Elegant Tempta-tions.

Paper Studio made an accordion style program that included all of their ceremony information, a note from the couple, special words to their bridal party and a picture of their parents on their wedding day.

As guests walked into the reception they notice very unique place cards. The cards were baseball cards with the team name “Fernandez” and their table number inside a baseball on the top right hand side. On the back of the card, it had the couple’s relation-ship statistics.

After months of planning the day arrived for Jackie to marry her best friend and the love of her life. The vendors, Jackie’s friends, were a huge asset in creating an amazing wedding. “What a great job they all did. Car-los and I couldn’t have been happier.”

Jackie’s advise to brides is, “the day of your wedding, relax and let go. Enjoy every second of the day because it will go by faster than you could ever imagine. After it is all said and done, you only have your memories. Take it all in slowly- the moments will last forever in your heart and in your mind.”

Jackie and Carlos would like to thank first of all their parents for their love and support in making their dreams come true. Next, they would like to thank all the outstanding ven-dors involved in their wedding.

“Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. You made our dreams a reality. And for that you will always hold a special place in our lives. Lastly, to my husband, thank you for taking this journey with me. Now, we can look forward to living happily ever after.”

Written by: Mary francis Gomes

contributing writer: Jackie Farah of

Jackie Ohh . . . Events

photography: unique design studio

Continued from page 36