Weather can be unpredictable, so couples must consider a back-up plan. For our outdoor wedding in late fall 1990, we booked a church “just in case” – but the weather cooperated. We had a 75 degree day, more than warm enough for the stringed quartet. Did you know there is a minimum temperature or musicians cannot tune their instruments? Consider this when planning an outdoor event with live music. But when possible, outdoor weddings can be breathtaking, as this one was.

For Tabitha and Matt, part of preparing for the weather included providing each lady guest with a beautiful scarf, as you can see in the photos below. The purple Pashmina 100% silk scarf kept me warm when the evening cooled. Some other scarf colors were ivory and pale blue. At another family wedding a few weeks later, I wore the scarf again. Thank you Tabitha!

I have to put “dance” in quotation marks because although it started out as a dance to the song “My Wish (For You)” by Rascall Flatts, it ended in a more personal way than a dance ever could.

Jonica and her son Ben worked out the details of their dance for his wedding on September 25. They began in a traditional manner, dancing to the touching music they had chosen. Within a minute, however, everyone could see that something very different had been planned. A table and chairs were placed on the dance floor, where mother and son moved to sit and leaf through an old family photo album. They were soon joined by father Doug and sister Janne, followed quickly by their whole family. “My Wish” was followed by everyone singing along to “Boondocks” by Little Big Town. But the word “boondocks” was replaced by ‘Slippery Rock, referring to the family homestead along the Slippery Rock Creek in the village of Wurtemburg. I have never seen anything more personal and suited to a mother and her son, and even more personal was the fact that their family members joined them. Kudos to this mother of the groom who managed to show her relationship to her son in such a personal and unique way.

So when you are planning your cookie table, go for something unique and include the groom’s cake. We have seen sports fan themes, even an X-Box cake shown here.

Another remarkable cookie table was at the wedding of Rebecca and Scott. The Main Dining Room at the Cathedral had a long cookie table with hundreds of dozens of cookies. What made this unique was that all the cookies on the table in the main room were light-colored pastel. All of the dark cookies were on a different table in the Ballroom. This was remarkable and a beautiful tribute to both the bride and groom  - the dark cookies were accompanied by the groom’s cake, the light cookies were accompanied by the white wedding cake.

The successful execution of a theme wedding is all in the details! A Halloween wedding we filmed lined the driveway to the mansion in Butler with white pumpkins carved as jack-o-lanterns. At another we saw each table decorated for a different favorite Disney movie; one couple wore Mickey and Minnie ears decorated for a wedding. A life-sized Mickey and Minnie attended the reception, and you know that this couple went to Disney World for their honeymoon! The details make the wedding, even more so one with a theme. I will describe some of the details for our masquerade wedding:

• We used a hand-drawn invitation in a medieval motif, it is pictured here. I penned the original, then took them to Kinko’s and printed them an old-looking parchment. Even my thank-you’s reflected the theme.
• Darryl’s Star Fleet uniform was also worn by the groomsmen; these were hand-tailored for each. One advantage was the cost, which ended up being less than the conventional tuxedo, and the best part was that each groomsman got to keep his outfit! Each one provided his own black trousers, turtleneck and boots to round out the costume.
• The ceremony site was outdoors. This was a risk and a gamble that paid off for us. Of course, we had a back-up indoor location that was included on the invitations. But on the day of our outdoor masquerade wedding, the weather cooperated (hard to believe?) and the stringed quartet was able to perform. Everyone was comfortable at Brush Creek Park in Beaver County. Best of all, the locale was at no charge. A guest in a monk’s costume (medieval theme, remember?) read the vows we had written for the ceremony. Everything went smoothly.
• We used a fire hall with an interior that provided the perfect canvas for a medieval castle. Artist friends created medieval banners and shields. Tables were lined with fruit and evergreens to reflect a medieval castle feast. We rented suits of armor to complete the d’cor. A good photo of the reception details can be seen at the posting “Weddings Can Be Different”.

Give as much thought as possible to the details. One or two won’t carry a themed wedding, so brainstorm, look at books, troll the net, ask others, but most of all, talk to each other. Use the theme as a frame work on which to hang all the details. There is a reason you chose this path, now have fun with it! Show everyone what the two of you can accomplish together, and throw the party of the century.

The couple planned surprise fireworks for their guests toward the end of their reception. Our role in the uniqueness of their wedding came when they included the Kiss Concept feature which you can view here. There is a wide variety of songs that fit this feature; for their dvd, they chose the song Kiss Me.

Catrina was a happy bride all day, despite the fact that their wedding cake never arrived – the bakery had been hit hard by the after effects of Hurricane Hugo that same week. Fortunately, Seven Springs provided her a cake to cut and share with her groom, then their guests. She had the attitude of a happy bride that carried over to her celebration – a critical component of any successful celebration. She and her guests had a blast; the band had the dance floor full all night.

Beginnings is a very popular feature for our clients and there is a variety of song choices that work with it. The song used here is one of the newest options. If you watch all three Beginnings Features on this site, you will be able to compare the look and feel that different music gives to your video. Only you know which best fits the two of you as a couple.

Beginnings is a feature that is chosen often by our clients; notice that John took some time to plan some fun surprises. Keep watching and you’ll see that the bride isn’t the only one who can pull of a “spin” shot!

Your wedding dvd should reflect your personalities from the choice of songs to the shots we capture. We can work with any ideas you have from the very traditional to the outlandish and fun.

This is a classroom enhancement dvd used as a training and education tool for students of optometry including visual acuity assessors and rehab specialists. The completely interactive dvd produced by Dinosaur Studios provides practical instructions on how to conduct a functional visual assessment for a client with field restrictions. Among other things, the training describes how to explain to parents the results of acuity tests.

A picture is worth a thousand words, and this type of instruction is priceless. Those who assist the blind can learn by using all the interactive functions. These functions are not limited to pausing the dvd, rewinding, and replaying to fully benefit from the instruction, but go much farther and allow key word searches and more.

The use of training dvd’s enables the College of Optometry to offer consistent and visually interesting information to their students. The dvd’s include many complicated visuals, hand-outs, and graphics that are always accessible via these educational dvd’s through links to websites and keyword search ability.