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All General announcements and news in Calgary bridal guide

Bling your dress at Novia Mia

Novia Mia, located in Calgary , sent in these beautiful images last week of their new 2012 collection. Don’t you love the bling?

Novia Mia is a bridal and evening wear boutique that offers one-on-one service and caters to the unique needs of all brides. It is currently a home-based boutique which is by appointment only, and sells designer inspired gowns under the Novia Mia brand. Novia Mia allows each bride to choose specific customizations that are for her unique needs.

This great boutique carries locally made bridal accessories such as head bands, sashes and jewellery, that are the perfect addition to make a simple dress shine and the really cool thing is there are lots and lots of styles to choose from and none of them are over $240! Prices are incredible since they are made by this talented duo, first hand!

Check out these stunning images taken by Cassies’s Camera:

Owners Lorena and Adriana.

Contact Adriana for an appointment 403.437.2374

or email her at contactus@noviamia.ca

Filed Under: Blog

Bridal Market Spring 2013: A review for you

Happy Bridal Market week!!! If you’re on Twitter, you have no doubt seen all the tweets. If you follow the blogs, you’ve been drooling and if this is the first you’re hearing about, well, welcome home lovely. Bridal Market is bridal fashion week – all the designers, big and small, fashion forward and traditional, independent and established, come together to show their collections to the buyers of the world. So yes – it’s wedding dress porn.

I keep my eye on Bridal Week, but I can’t religiously, as that would be a full time job. I generally try and follow the bloggers and tweeters who can show me sneak peaks – I love the backstage stuff. I love the behind the scenes action and I love the pictures of dresses when they’re not on the run way because I believe it gives brides a much more realistic sense of the dress (even though we see them on 6 foot models with perfect hair and make up). But remember, these dresses are Spring 2013 so they probably won’t be out in stores for a while yet!

So here are just some of my picks – and when I can, I’m trying to use the pics that swayed me, so you can see the magic that I see.

Claire Pettibone Get a load of the back on this! For 2012, Claire was inspired by her grandmother’s wedding dress and the intricate embroidery it has, as well as her own bohemian style and spirit. Love how it drapes the body, love the cap sleeves, love the high neckline!

Image via The Bride's Guide, Martha Stewart Weddings

Anne Bowen We’re seeing a big change from the modern and sharp lines that Anne Bowen presented last year. This year’s collection is inspired by her Welsh heritage, so tons of drapery and a very aristocratic feel. Look at the shimmer on the first flapper style dress – this baby will sparkle for weeks and is a perfect match for your ring. I love the smooth lines of the second dress, with the extra large ruffle.

Image via The Bride's Guide, Martha Stewart Weddings

Amsale Really into the sheath Amsale did this year – destination brides are constantly searching for a sheath that will work when they walk down the aisle barefoot in the sand, and I think this is a great piece! Also love the asymmetrical trumpet with off the shoulder detail below, which is a very interesting choice for my taste! The dress is actually quite sweet and simple, but it’s a mouthful to describe.

Image via Martha Stewart Weddings

Rosa Clara I’m loving this because you just don’t see enough like it out there. This classic A-line with a sweetheart neckline is simple to compliment the complexities of the amazing cutouts. Think of it as lace in 3D!

Image via The Bride's Guide, Martha Stewart Weddings

Carol Hannah Ok obviously this is not the best photo of the dress, but I really wanted to share this one. Here is a great example of the evolution of a trend. For the last year or two, we have seen tons of black accessories – sashes, hair pieces, design details, even dresses themselves. Here is a designer who has built on that trend, with a deep violet/black tulle feature and a use of the hue in a way we haven’t seen before. Just adore this dress!

Image via The Bride's Guide, Martha Stewart Weddings

Temperly London To round things off, I had had had to share this amazing gown by Temperly London (also – I love that name!!) A deep grey sheath with a gold lace overlay, it’s really quite a breath taking gown. Just a stunner!

Image via The Bride's Guide, Martha Stewart Weddings

Filed Under: Blog, Bridal Fashion, Posts by Alix

Bridal open house at GreatEvents Group tomorrow night

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Some days, I wish I had a crystal ball. Or the Eye of Mordor. Or a hot tub time forward machine or something that could help me predict the future. Or at least give me a good hint. How often do we say that to ourselves, “If only I had known”, “My gut told me otherwise”, “Hindsight is 20/20” (um, even my hindsight isn’t 20/20 some days).

Most brides I know can’t even predict what they’re going to want for dinner tonight, and decisions when planning a wedding a year in the future are no easier to predict. The best place to start? Ask those who do know – professionals who have a passion for making weddings perfect.

Tomorrow night, Great Events Group is having an open house for brides to come and meet and greet and ask every question under the sun. It’s important when choosing which vendors to work with that you know a bit about them – their personality, their work style. It can be hard to get a feeling of someone’s energy (I know, what am I, a hippie?) in a half hour meeting at a coffee shop. This is a fun and easy opportunity to get to know some Calgary wedding pros!

Tomato Confit on Martini glass and Pearled Mozzarella Salad Photo by: Titina Penalver

A great opportunity to meet and get to know some potential vendors, this is an event that is not about exclusivity – it’s about making sure every bride feels special and finds the right people to make her wedding day perfect. Meet Amanda with Glimpz invitations, Sarah Mayerson from Sarah Mayerson Design, Michelle Comtois Make Up and the Photobolic team with a photo booth. The best part? Attendees will receive a complimentary copy of the Fall/Winter 2011 Calgary Bridal Guide - use it to reference vendors, make notes or ask about certain ideas or inspiration!

Mountain Vintage Wedding Rentals by: GreatEvents Rentals Photos by: Tara Whittaker Flowers by: Sarah Mayerson Designs

See you there?

Event Details

Thursday October 27^th

5:00-9:00pm

GreatEvent Rentals Showroom 7207 Fairmount Drive SE

RSVP to jessica.broz@greateventsgroup.com by October 26^th 5pm

Gloria from United Distillers delights guests with some wines Photo by: Titina Penalve

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Article, Home, Posts by Alix, Special Offers

Bringing their best game to the BIG show

It’s truly one of the best days of the year for Calgary wedding professionals. Sure – they get to work on weddings all year round. They plan and coordinate and focus on the details – but those are your details they’re focused on. It’s your Tiffany blue – it’s your burlap table runner – it’s your ivy arch and your Jimmy Choo shoes. It’s all about you.

The Wedding Fair is all about them.

All year, they see the best of the best of the best in décor and design. They work with each other – they build creative relationships and collaborate and as artists, their imaginations start to take over and they think “This is what I would do”.

It’s like a runway show for wedding designers. They spend days setting up their very best, most elaborate creations up and down the aisle of the BMO Centre. They sketch and colour and wake up in the middle of the night to jot down ideas that come from dreams , all in the name of wowing Calgary Brides. The pros bring their best game to the Wedding Fair – that’s why it’s so affectionately called “The BIG Show”around town.

The same way wedding designers are inspired, it’s a perfect opportunity for you to be inspired. You don’t have to have a 15 foot candelabra – but maybe you do fall in love with the look of tall, slender candles. It’s a great opportunity to pick and choose what you love and what works for your vision.

So if no other reason than to marvel at the spectacle of what a wedding designer can really do for your big day, why not check out the The Wedding Fair? Here are a few warm up photos from last year’s Exhibitors to get your juices flowing…

Firefly Occasions

Inspired Occasions

Sarah Mayerson Design

Creative Weddings & Occasions

Great Events Groups

Lavish Event Management & Design

The Social Page

Filed Under: Blog

Calgary Bridal Guide cover shoot with Tara Whittaker Photography

In bridal magazines, you see it all the time. Perfectly put together scenes of romance and elegance, where all the right elements come together in just the right light and create beautiful weddings! I used to think all the time – who’s weddings are these?! And then, duh, of course it dawned on me that these are meticulously conceptualized and created scenes, that are by no means just thrown together in hopes of getting a good picture.

Isn’t that just the dream? The chance to be creative and try out a few concepts and trends before you wholly commit your wedding to it? Lisa Vettese of the Calgary Bridal Guide gave us a little insight on what it’s like to plan a cover shoot..

Lia Golemba our Creative Director and I begin each shoot with a concept. As we plan the shoot we try to include many vendors in the process and each one of them contributes their unique talents and products. Even though our location shoots seem to bring out the best and worst of Calgary weather patterns, we feel it’s a benefit to our brides to be authentically Calgarian. Our model was incredibly brave as it was a chilly Calgary day!
Our photographer, Tara Whittaker, has an innate sense of style and is always fashion forward. We had a great time working together on this shoot and were able to capture several locations as well as sumptuous ‘unique idea’ and detail shots. Cover shots can’t be too busy and there needs to be space for the verbiage on the cover. It was hard to choose from all the different images but ultimately we found that the totally fabulous teal convertible, beautifully-wind-blown-sassy bride, and delicate ‘etsy’ inspired vintage fashion, all captured in a local field, was just the perfect prairie feel…with a vintage twist. The blue and golden rod colors we chose were spring like and fresh, perfect for a Spring/Summer cover.

To see the entire shoot, check out Tara’s blog right here!