Customize your groomsmen

(picture from Martha Stewart Weddings)

I opened my email this morning to find a great email from Martha Stewart Weddings about Tiecrafters.  Tiecrafters is a custom tie making company in New York.   This company loves ties!!  Here is what they say about the history of ties... " During the period of their initial introduction as items of wearing apparel, ties were of necessity "custom" made. The French with their unusual flair transformed the tie into an item of self-expression with multi-colored patterns, one more outrageous than the other. These ties seemed to shout 'This is me'!" When I read this I thought about how much our society has gone back down the "This is me" road when it comes to planning their weddings. I know with the brides we work with, we like to pull in their personality so their wedding becomes there own and mirrors who they are and what they love. What better way than to pull in your colors (with or without a fun pattern) in the ties for the groomsmen, fathers, grandfathers, ringbearer and of course, the groom! It can also serve as the grooms gift to the special men in his life. It is a perfect combo of style and thoughtfulness. I love it!!

Please check out their website www.tiecrafters.com!!

Featured Bride!!!

(Taylor & Mark, top left picture, The Weeks at the alter during their ceremony, bottom picture)

Our team is excited to announce that one of our very own brides is featured on Style Me Pretty's Little Black Book Blog... what a mouthful. :)  Taylor and Mark Weeks were married last May at the Dallas Museum of Art.  It was a very beautiful and colorful ceremony and reception.  Her wedding will be featured on the same site in a few weeks and we will be sure to keep you posted!!  For now, she is featured in the "Wedding Dresses from the Little Black Book File" on the SMP website.  Click here to view the blog.   We love Style Me Pretty!!!

Bridal Gown Shopping

Did Valentine's Day put a diamond ring on your finger? One of the most exciting things you get to do now is start looking at bridal gowns. AK wants to help you get started….below is a list of fabulous bridal salons in Dallas and the trunk shows they will be hosting in the months of February and March. Happy Gown Searching!!

Neiman Marcus Downtown
February 27 & 28 – Monique Lhuillier

Stanley Korshak
February 27 & 28 – Regalia Veil and headpiece trunk show
March 6 & 7 – Badgley Mischka
March 13 & 14 – Amsale
March 20 & 21 – Rivini
March 27 & 28 – Kenneth Pool

Warren Barron
February 19-21 – Lela Rose
March 5-7 – Oscar de la Renta
March 26-28 – Vera Wang

Blush Couture
February 20 & 21 – Augusta Jones
March 6-8 – Tejani Bridal Jewelry
March 6-8 – Bellissima Bridal

One of our favorite Brides...

One of our brides from last year, Jana, is about to have her first wedding anniversary.  She is a very talented photographer who has started her own company called Bella Bee Photography.  Jana has an amazing eye and has won many photography awards for her pictures.  Since she is nearing her 1 year mark as being a married woman, she is traveling down memory lane..thinking about her wedding and vendors she worked with.  She was sweet to write a blog about her experience with us!!  Please check it out here.... Jana titled it AK Event Design Forever, which I just love. :)  She's too cute!!! 

Happy 1 Year Anniversary, Jana!!!

Lighting your look...

We LOVE lighting!!! It is one of the things at a wedding that should not be over looked because of budget reasons. Lighting makes all the difference in a room full of crazy wall colors or carpet you need to draw attention from. When we walk into a bare ballroom with a bride it is typically very hard for the bride and MOB to visualize the room with tables, flowers, lighting etc. It makes it so much more difficult when the walls are an awful shade of pink and the carpet is an overwhelming floral pattern....something you look at and think, "Why on earth would someone pick that for a room? Much less a BALLROOM!!" Lighting is the band-aide for an ugly ballroom. It assists in making the floral and tables pop and the guests eyes are drawn to the beautiful table tops. We also love to "wash" the walls with uplighting. This means you can make the walls any color you like! There is also an option to have a lighting technician onsite during your event to change the wall color throughout your party. We've had parties that start with a white wall wash and change to pinks as the night goes on. Changing the lighting changes the atmosphere, which is always a plus! It is fun to keep the guests wondering what will happen next. Gobos on the dance floor are also a fun addition to your wedding. If you have a monogram you want to use or some type of motif you've carried throughout your wedding, the dance floor is a perfect place to display it. Lighting companies can do just about anything!! Lighting makes drab florals look fabulous. Spend less money on florals and put some money into your lighting budget. You won't regret it!!

Some of our favorite Dallas lighting companies are Absolute Lighting and Lite Dallas. They both do a wonderful job and are so great to work with! Absolute Lighting created the look above and washed the room in a gorgeous pink color. Let me tell you, the room above wasn't anywhere close to a pink color but you wouldn't know that thanks to the magic of lighting. :)

Happy Lighting!!!

Inspiration from SMP... (think SJP but for the wedding world)

We’ve been blogging about things that inspire us and thought it was only right to give inspirational credit to one of our favorite wedding websites. (drums please….) Stylemepretty.com is a brides dream website! You can go on the site to look for ideas, places to buy things, things to buy for bridesmaids gifts (or any other type of gift), local vendors and the list goes on… I could spend hours looking at the site and getting inspired. In fact, I do… quite a bit! If Style Me Pretty had been around when I was planning my wedding, the bank account would have been empty…quick!



Sine we are a featured vendor on the site (they have to ask you… you can’t solicit them) they sent us the cute little Style Me Pretty logo to display on our website and blog. We are OFFICIAL now!! AK Event Design is happy to be a Little Black Book member and a part of one of the greatest wedding websites. SMP loves weddings as much as we do!!

Visit Style Me Pretty and be inspired!!!

Lovely Dresses!!!

When you see a beautiful dress, you stop in your tracks and try to come up with an excuse to buy it. I found a lovely dress today that I should have purchased. It was inexpensive and simply... stunning. I honestly think there is nothing better than finding something you love and then when you look at the price tag, you gasp because it is totally affordable. Most of the "less expensive" wedding dresses I see aren't made with great fabric and they just look... CHEAP. Nothing is worse than a cheap looking wedding dress. 

Every bride knows that when it comes to their wedding dress, they will pay about anything if they find the dress of their dreams. However, the dress is one of the most important aspects of a wedding. When our clients meet with florists, one of the first things they ask is, "Have you found your wedding dress?" The reason is because it helps the designer understand more about the style of the bride, which in turn helps them style the wedding of the bride's dreams. We had a bride last weekend that wore a gorgeous Lela Rose dress. It was simple, elegant and had a little bit of a vintage look to it. You can probably imagine from her dress what the wedding was like... it was in a garden setting with candles hanging from the trees. Her favors were carmel dipped apples and her floral was very simple with a vintage twist. Just from seeing her dress, I knew exactly the feel she wanted for her wedding.

The dress tells a lot about the woman in it, which is why we LOVE WEDDING DRESSES!!! I've always been a fan of J.Crew and they've recently come out with some beautiful wedding gowns. They are on the affordable side and are simple, elegant and state the design of the bride nicely. If you saw one of the dresses walking down the street, you would know exactly what type of wedding it was walking to.

Happy Dressing!!