Gainesville vendors at Jays expo

Thank you Jay's for a great show!
How exciting to walk up and see Celebrations and their amazing setup in front of the Phillips Center for a beautiful entrance. Brides walked in to get a bag and Gainesville Today Magazine and then on to check out all the fabulous vendors.

It's always great to see other wedding vendors and to meet new brides who are so excited to be there!

Check out some of the photos we took at the Jays Bridal Expo.
~Amy

*The ladies of A'vie

...and our booth.

Christen from Crevasse Regency

Ms Debbie's Sugar Art

Kristin from Footstone Photography

Kent and Casey from Gainesville Today

Adia from PartyTime Rentals

Beautiful brides from Jay's Bridal

Solutions Bridal Expo 2009

Thank you to all the vendors and brides who participated in the 2009 Solutions Bridal Expo!! What a great event it was this year, including time with each vendor available, a mock reception to see what your wedding reception could look like, a fashion show with beautiful designer gowns and even Free prizes!! We are looking forward to the next one already! Check out a few shots we took and a few from TJMorrisey Photography! Thanks again to all!! ~A`vie

*Photo by TJMorrisey
Angela announcing the Little Bridal Book available for Brides at the show with vendor information and articles. What a great touch!

*Photo by TJMorrisey

Angela and Amy drawing for free prizes.

*Photo by TJMorrisey

Part of our A`vie's booth. Centerpiece provided by The Plant Shoppe.

Beautiful flyers given out by A`vie designed by Footstone Photography and Design.

Set up for the mock reception. Thanks to PartyTime for the outside tent area. Gorgeous!

Stage setup for the Solotions Bridal Fashion Show

VIP seating. VIP brides where able to be the first to get in the door at Registration to talk with the vendors first, they had front row seating to the Fashion show, received a gift and special cake during the show.

Family Fun Day

This year we were fortunate enough to be able to work Partnership for Strong Families to plan their annual Family Fun Day. It was such a blast! We had such a great turn out this year. There were two bounce houses and a train ride for all of the kids to enjoy. Party Time Rentals donated both bounce houses and the cotton candy machine. The train was donated by Capital City Bank. The Alachua Sheriffs Office donated tables and chairs as well as helped us block off the streets so that all of the families could safely walk around the area. Thanks to Hitchcock’s and Watson’s towing we were able to have hamburgers and hotdogs for all of the families to enjoy! Some of the other organizations that helped make this event a success were Regal Cinemas, March of Dimes, and Cabot cheeses. We all had a blast and hopefully next year’s Family Fun Day will be even larger!
Ann Marie

Oh!!!! It was a Beautiful Wedding for Ashley and Thomas

We have been at so many venues over the years and it is a pleasure to work with a new one. This was a our second time at BayLaurel in Micanopy. The owners are such a pleasure to work with as a planner it brings us such joy when a venue takes care of what they have and are prideful in what they do. Thank you owners of BayLaurel.
Sit back and enjoy some special details from Ashley and Thomas's Wedding there. Ashley had such a passion to have a fun filled wedding, that had a touch of country but with a flair for bright colors. Somewhat a tropical feel with their colors.
We had Party Time Rentals take care of all of our needs for rentals. It took them days to set up for we had so much to have brought in. They even did the trees for the centerpieces.
As you look through the pictures you will notice Christine from Dove Photography has an eye for detail and fun with our couple, wedding party and guests. This was my first experience working with her. Ashley met Christine at another friend's wedding and knew then she had to have her do her wedding.
Wait!!! I almost forgot...not really. If you are every looking for a great country meal that doesn't look like BBQ Celebrations is the caterer for you. We had BBQ smokies, Meatballs, Pulled Pork Shoulder, Turkey with two different rubs, cucumber and tomato salad, coleslaw, mashed potatoes, baked beans, and mac 'n cheese.
So sit back and enjoy their wedding.

That's a cupcake tower. These are the biggest cupcakes I have ever had a wedding. I was shocked by how big they were...they were good. A very dear friend of Thomas's family made them as a gift for them.

To keep the party going we had Darren and Rodney from Jay's Entertainment to keep the floor full the whole night. They even took the 'tick' joke lightly to make sure all the guests check themselves when they got home. Of course, they were able to put some music on to make us remember it.

After the wedding they were able to slip away and have some quiet time alone with out their guests around. Christine from Dove Photography was able to capture some stunning shots of them.

After years of dating they have finally tied the knot. We all were in celebration.

Isn't he the cutest Ring Bearer of all times. He was a proud ring bearer to be able to bring down Ashley and Thomas's daughter down the aisle. Look at him go.

What a Groom's cake not only is it edible but drinkable (is that even a word?). This cake has some history with us. Jessica actually had to put this cake back together after doing 'surgery' on it for 30 minutes. Doesn't it look wonderful?

I just love it!!!
What a way to start things off when you come into the wedding site.

Ashley had always dreamed of having a great wedding filled with lots of Gerber Daisies. She l

How beautiful...as they rest in each other's arms...

Thanks to all of our wonderful vendors for making this a great wedding.

~Angela

Celebrate Adoption at Haile Golf and Country Club

For the past two years we have been given the opportunity to plan Celebrate Adoption for Children's Home Society. Both of these years we were able to have it at Haile Golf and Country Club in the Haile Village Center. It is such an exciting event were we are able to bring awareness of adoption to others. Those who come range from those who have adopted, those who are adopted, those up for adoption and those who want more information about adoption. It is a big range of people. I am so blessed to share in having two adopted children so working with Children's Home Society on this event is even more dear to me. To document this event and to give you a small glimpse of what we had going on Photography 35 (Gregg and Angel) was there to bring it all to life. We have put a few just to give you a glimpse of the activities that we had please check out their blog for more. (http://blog.photography35.com/)

Treasure Dig with great prizes donated by local vendors.

Plus cotton candy...YUMMY!!!!

Go Albert! Go Albert!

Albert you can do it, too!!!!
Just a little SURPRISE that we were able to give to the kids.
Thank you Albert and Alberta for coming to our event.

Fishing!!!! Fishing!!!!

Even my very own daughter, Kaelynn. We picked her up from the hospital at 2 days old and adopted her 4 months later.

Slide....so much fun...

Face painting and balloons

Again this is just a glimpse of what we put together for the children and awareness for others. Thank you Gator Dominos for the pizza, Officer Graham, Bike Safety, Capital City Bank, Adoption NOW, Head Start, Beef O'Brady's, Regal Cinema, Gainesville Sunshine Clown, and Fantastic Graphics.

Hope to see everyone of you next year. If you want more information on Adoption please email or call me and I will get you connected to the right person.

~Blessings, Angela

Megan and Frank

As we get closer to the fall Wedding season we wanted to recap one of our favorite weddings from last fall- Megan and Frank Beidler. They held their ceremony and reception on the Hauswirth family property and it was nothing short of spectacular. This 3 day event was a brides dream full of family, friends, and fun! Megan and Frank kicked off their wedding weekend Friday night with the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner for their family and wedding party and then opened up the historic Thomas Center for a Champagne Reception. The night included piano music played by Jonathan Gil, a lavish fruit, cheese and vegetable display as well as desserts by Chef's Brothers catering. Guests were also given a lesson in the history of the Thomas Center by the lovely Sayers dressed in full costume.

Saturday brought even more delightful Wedding day cheer as guests arrived in charter buses provided by A Candies Limousine. They approached the beautiful ceremony site over looking Paynes Prairie through two massive old oaks ornamented with Spanish moss. Along side the ceremony was a massive tent set by Party Time Rentals for their nearly 400 person guest list. Guest's ears were charmed with the music of "Patchwork" a 5 piece wandering orchestra during the ceremony as Megan and Frank said their " I Do's". Our favorite part of the ceremony had to be the children's parade which did not include one ring bearer and one flower girl, but a parade of about 20 small children. The girls tossed flower petals and the boys rang bells as they all skipped down the aisle to let guests know the bride was on her way.

The reception was nothing short of amazing with the delicious southern inspired buffet done again by Chef Brothers, beautiful centerpieces from The Plant Shoppe, cupcakes to die for by Ms. Debbie's Sugar Art, and a flawless performance from the band The Tremors and the Earthquake Horns - what a fabulous band! Thankfully we had the pleasure of having the K-Gallery photographers there to capture all these wonderful memories!

Megan and Frank finished out the weekend with a Farewell Brunch held at Albert's restaurant at the Hilton University of Florida.

Here is what Frank had to say about his wedding day and his experience with A'vie:

On behalf of Megan and myself I just wanted to say “thank you” one more time for helping with our “big day.” I hear so many friends tell us that they don’t get to enjoy their own weddings. We didn’t feel that way. In fact, at various points throughout our engagement friends would ask how “stressed” we were. Thanks to A’vie our stress was minimal. I think in retrospect that was the biggest value of having a wedding planner. A’vie made the plans, timelines, delivery dates, etc. and let us focus on decisions like where everyone should be seated. It was a wonderful arrangement. There’s simply no question in my mind that for people sitting on the fence about whether to arrange for a wedding planner A’vie is the right choice. It’s a life saver. The staff is so friendly and so organized I just can’t imagine we would have had as great a wedding without them. And I know – for a fact – that we would have been so busy worrying about the details that we wouldn’t have been able to enjoy it