Let them Eat Candy

If you're going to spend some money on favors, you want your guests to enjoy them. And let’s face it; no one is going to keep that cute little monogrammed trinket that you so thoughtfully picked out. They will, however, devour their own and their neighbor's, editable favors.

And what a cuter favor than a mini replica of your wedding cake made out of chocolate! The Little Candy Cake specializes in personalized chocolates that are handcrafted for your special day. They come in 1oz, 4oz, 8oz, and 14oz, sizes and couldn't be more unique.

I always suggest for my brides to place their favors on the guest tables instead of in a basket at the sign in or gift tables. It completes the look of the tables and makes your guests feel more special that you have something just for them. Far too often when brides put their favors in one location, most either don't see them or don't take them and you're left with a bunch of wedding favors afterwards.

More September Weddings

Begining of Fall Weddings

I am severely over due on an update!!! Its been a busy time around here and we are all finally coming up for air, just to dive back into it next month.

Last weekend began our fall weddings. Gina had clear visions of how she wanted her wedding to look and I couldn't have been more thrilled with her color choices. We did all of her arrangements which consisted of a variety of orange flowers with a hint of chocolate and ivory roses. Everything looked so beautiful, especially Gina!

Special thanks again goes out to Mark Thomas Photography for sharing his perfect photos and the amazingly fast turn around time on them!!

As a side note: as a coordinator nothing bothers me more than having the perfect first kiss photograph be ruined by the minister standing behind them! This minister is so well hidden that the only way you can tell she's behind them is the little teal blue that looks slightly out of place! WAY TO GO minister and to Mark for having the right angle for the shot.

Congrats David & Gina Sept. 11, 2010!

Featured Engagement!

Our very fun bride and groom, Michael and Pamela, were chosen to have their engagement featured in the latest issue of San Antonio Wedding magazine!
Check out their story here on page 274 or you can purchase your own copy of
San Antonio Weddings at local bookstores all around town!

Brides Against Breast Cancer

Join us for a unique opportunity to find the gown of your dreams at a remarkable price, while helping make wishes and memory-making events come true.

Attend our Power Hours and be among the first brides in the San Antonio area to browse through hundreds of exquisite name brand and designer wedding gowns at the fraction of the price. Your Power Hour admission entitles you to an early shopping spree where you can try on and purchase your dress ahead of the crowds. (click the photos above for the link).

San Antonio Wedding Consultants has more information on their blog about additional events, which are FREE, if you'd like to go to the general admission times vs the Power Hours.

July 4, 2010

Our first couple to be engaged here at the ranch just had their beautiful Sunday morning wedding this past weekend. If you didn't get a chance to read about how Chad proposed on a very cold day by the Guadalupe River below our bluff, you can check it out here and see some photos I snapped for them.

The Marquardt Ranch did their flowers for their wedding. Cris, the bride, was looking for simple and delicate bouquets with a touch of indigo blue to match her 8 bridesmaids' dresses.

Their ceremony was at 10:30am therefore we set up the location a little differently so that the whole ceremony was in the shade against the morning sun. It was a beautiful day!

Photos by West Vita Photography www.westvita.com

While photos are being edited, photographer for our June 11, 2010 wedding, Amelia Tarbet has shared with us the slide show she's put together for Kendra and Matt. (Click the photo above or the link here.) I love all the bright bold colors that Kendra used. Very fitting for a June wedding! Hope yall enjoy this along with their video that was posted earlier!

Weekly Advice

I'm going to start a new weekly advice section to help our brides during their planning processes.

Hopefully yall will find this pretty helpful!

THE BIG SEND OFF
My advice for this week is for your BIG SEND OFF at the end of the evening. First and foremost you do NOT need to purchase enough for your entire RSVP'd guest count. Only between 1/3 and 1/4 of your guests will stay until the very end. Of course this average will change depending on if most of your guests are from out of town and staying nearby.
Many venues have restrictions on items that you can and cannot use, especially if you're within the San Antonio city limits. Fortunately for us, The Marquardt Ranch is not so we don't have to hold our brides to those special city rules. We do however have items that cannot be used for the following reasons.

Bird Seed - We learned this the hard way after our 2nd wedding - bird seed is a SEED and seeds GROW. We battled the new sprouts until winter came and diedl off.

Rice - with all the wild animals and birds in our area, this is a very unsafe product for them to consume. It is also very difficult for us to clean up. ** SPECIAL NOTE** there is special rice called "Designer Heart Wedding Rice" that looks similar to rice but disintegrates when it is sprayed with water, and is okay to use.
Confetti & Silly String - these are both impossible to clean up.


Some very popular items to use for your send off at The Marquardt Ranch are:

Sparklers - If you plan to use these PLEASE get the medium sized ones (at least 20 inches). Smaller ones won't give your guests enough time to all light them and for you to get down the aisle before they burn out. If you miss getting them during the 4th of July or New Years Holidays you can purchase them online at BuySparklers.com. Even during a burn ban it is okay to use these because we keep the landscaping watered so well.

Rose Petals (only real) - Real rose petals are very pretty, inexpensive and are very environmentally safe for the local animals. You should budget about 1.5 roses for every guests (remember only about 1/3 to 1/4 of your total guest count will be there for your send off on average!)

Bubbles - Always looks great in photos especially if you have some mighty long winded guests =). You can usually get them for a great price at Hobby Lobby. Please please PLEASE don't waste your time tying ribbon bows on your bottles of bubbles. I've seen too many brides stress out about this the last week before their wedding. Not a single person will remember if you had a bow tied on them or not. We usually can't even place them out before the end of the event anyway because people will start to blow them inside. Soapy bubbles and our smooth floors don't mix well especially for guests in heels!

Being cheered on by your family and friends as you and your new spouse make your way to your get away car couldn't be a more joyous way to end your perfect wedding - no matter what is thrown at you.

Truely Unique??

What can get more unique than your fingerprints.... on your wedding band?!

Okay I'm going to admit that I found this on another wedding blog...
so here's the link to the original post.

http://www.onestylishbride.com

New Video Highlights

The awesome team at Elite Video Productions already has the highlight reel from Kendra and Matt's wedding up (June 11, 2010)!
Sam and Lisa are awesome fantastic to work with and always produce great work! One of the top notch vendors in the area!

The video will also be listed to the bar right hand side so if you want to reference it later you don't have to search through all the posts!

Enjoy!

Kendra & Mathew from elitevp.com on Vimeo.

Over Due March Photos

I've wanted to post the photos from Sarah and Darius' Wedding for a while! Unfortunately, May caught up with me and this took the back burner. But I'm thrilled to share them with you now! Sarah was such an energetic bride who knew exactly what she wanted! Darius would just reply "what every you want baby" which always made me chuckle.

The Marquardt Ranch did all of her flowers while maintaining her look and budget. I love when brides - esp spring and summer brides - choose bright, bold colors!

Cat with Peacock Photography of Austin, TX did a fantastic job capturing the event. She and her whole crew were wonderful to work with and really open to new ideas!

Go to her blog to see the sneak peak she first posted and more detailed ceremony photos and wedding reception photos she posted later.

Letters of Praise

We hate to toot our own horn (not really =). But this couple wrote such a sweet letter to us after her wedding I thought that I'd share it with yall.

"Amanda!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you for the perfect wedding!! We could not have done this with out you. Everything went so smoothly and the evening was just perfect. I loved the flowers and so did all of our guests. They turned out more beautiful than I ever imagined. Please thank Delores and whoever else helped for doing just an amazing job.


The ranch was beautiful as always and set up just perfectly. The whole night ran so smoothly because of you. My girlfriends who have been married commented on what a great wedding planner you were, and they could not believe you did my flowers too. :) I hope you are catching up on your rest after that busy wedding month, you deserve it!


But seriously thanks for everything you did, it was truly an amazing day, and we would not have changed a single thing. :)


Many thanks and have a great weekend,
Kendall and Jake"

Sneek Peek...

... of our 5-29-2010 wedding with Jake and Kendall

compliments of their wonderful photographer

Francis Joseph Photography from Austin.

Check out the full sneek speak at his blog

Below picture was snapped with my Iphone... see the Francis' on his blog!!

Sneak Peaks From May Events

Below are some quick photos from my Iphone I snapped throughout our busy May wedding season! I'll be sure to post professional photos as they come in. But since those take a while to sort and edit so I thought you'd enjoy these for now =).

Terrific sunset view off our bluff over looking the river.

I love it when brides tell me that they check the blog often for updates and ideas. This past Saturday's bride was one such soul! She'd seen the idea/article of having a customized cake stand that matched her particular theme I'd posted on the blog months ago and loved it! I did too!! It matched the overlays that they had brought for their tables and is truely one of a kind!

This couple was so fun and adventurous! Their photographer, Josh Fowler Photography, took then out to our field where they'd just bailed some hay, and had them CLIMB ON TOP! They had a blast.

Both Bride and Groom were Texas Tech graduates. So as a nod to their almamauter the favors to their guests were none other than Texas Tech shapped cookies! Having something editable as your favor is ALWAYS a favorite of mine =).

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

GUESS WHO'S ENGAGED!!!

None other than our owner, boss man, Dru Steubing to Jessica Ford.

He'd been searching for the perfect ring for weeks on end. He finally found it in Dallas and couldn't wait for it to arrive. Meanwhile he put things into motion for the right time and place to "pop the question".

As a child he found a rock on the shore of the guadaulpe river that runs through his family's property and when he picked it up, it split clean in half!! He kept it at his grandmother's house for this entire time for exact purpose. He took this rock, drilled a small hole in the middle and carefully placed Jessica's engagement ring inside of it.

He later placed the rock down by the river for them to stumble upon while taking a walk one late afternoon. He'd gotten his sister Kerri to hideout near where he'd placed the "rock" in an attempt to take some photos without Jessica seeing her. It worked perfectly and they have some amazing photos as a result!

Dru & Jessica on a nature walk.

The Big Question!! Looks like she said "YES"

The Happy, Engaged, Couple!

In House DJ - Mike Lavender

One of many nights that I've had the pleasure of working with our now In House DJ - Mike Lavender!! Finally remember to get some pictures at work. He ALWAYS has a big crowd on the dance floor and tonight... a Thursday night wedding, is no exception!!
(left - bride making a special song request)

12-27-2009

Wonderful photos from our 12-27-2010 wedding. Thank you to Alan Rose Photography for sharing! It was a pleasure working with them again!

That little white dot in the sky was the moon.

It looked alot bigger in real life. =(

Remember you can see the photos bigger by clicking on them.

December Weddings

Well it seems that I've been a bad blogger and haven't updated you all in a while! I promise to be more up to day in the future. In the mean time I'm going to play a little catch up since our last post! Below is our wedding from 12-20-2009 which was an indoor ceremony and reception. Their photographer, Arol with AJH Photography has been out here several times and was super kind to share a couple of photos from their wedding day!

Raise The Cake - Literally!

Stumbled upon this charming website and idea for cake stands. This former wedding coordinator, who was tired of being stuck with the standard silver stands, started the company Raise The Cake to offer brides an alternative to the traditional. Its also a great way to add extra fabulous-ness to your wedding! Below is my favorite stand, but be sure to check out all of her other ideas!

December 2009

What a way to end 2009. We had several beautiful weddings in December with wonderful brides. What's even better is the sunsets that these great brides were given by mother nature!

The first wedding was December 5th with Casey and Robert. Their photographer, Melina from Alamo Photographic, was so nice to share with us the photos she effortlessly took that day including the flowers that The Marquardt Ranch arranged!

Tall centerpieces, red poinsettias white hydrangeas with red and white roses
and curly willow and roses inside the vase.

Bride's Bouquet. White and Red roses with Red Hypercium berry accents

Shorter centerpieces that match the taller arrangements.

Amazingly special photo through the wrought iron of our front doors
of the Bride dancing with her Grandfather.

Featured Wedding!

Our wedding on October 24, 2009 was featured on SanAntonioWeddings.com
Check out the link to read the article and see photos from this wedding.

The Knot Best of Weddings 2010 Pick

We are extremely proud to announce that
The Marquardt Ranch has been rated by local brides and voted
The Knot Best of Weddings 2010 Pick.

We were one of ten venues to receive the award in all of South Texas - spanning from San Antonio to McAllen to El Paso!! We couldn't be more excited to have received this award and are looking forward to continued excellence and outstanding customer service!

2010 Wedding Fair Show

Thank you to all of you who came out to the 2010 Wedding Fair Show this past Sunday at the convention center. We had a great time meeting so many potential brides and their families. A special thank you to all of the vendors who helped in creating our booth this year. Linens and draping from Cover That Up and the photos shared by Alamo Photographic, Team Exclusive Photography, Whitney Lee Photography, The Smile House, and Kerri Carpenter.