Archive for February, 2012

A Tip For A Successful Wedding Reception

Tuesday, February 28th, 2012

With Michiana wedding season is just over a month away, here is a tip to guarantee that your wedding reception is a wonderful success!  The bride and groom set  the energy level and determine by their actions the success of the wedding reception. We have seen it again and again over two decades of experience. Most guests take their cue on participation level from what the bride and groom are doing. If the bride and groom are just standing around talking to people, then the majority of guests are going to stand around and talk.. One sure fire way to kill your wedding reception is to not be in the banquet hall. We have seen many receptions come to a quick end because brides and grooms ended up outside smoking or in the entry way talking to guests for most of the night. We aren’t saying you can’t do this, just keep it short because when guests see that the two guests of honor aren’t around they start walking for the door. So at least spend as much time as possible inside your wedding reception hall, tent.

But as we said, the bride and groom set the energy level of the wedding reception! If you want people walking out the door exhausted from having fun, and you have a DJ or Band then both of you need to get out on the dance floor! Good DJs and bands will get people on the dance floor, but as we said many guests take their cue from the bride and groom and if the two of you are out on the floor shaking your bon bon for long stretches at a time then your guests will be out there with you. And yes we mean both of you, sorry grooms who don’t like to dance. A good band or DJ will always have people dancing and the one half of the bride and groom getting on the dance floor is good, but it is the energy of both of you partying out on the floor will get the more reticent guests to join in on the celebration!

A bride and groom participating can also overcome a bad DJ and take an empty dance floor and bring out at least a few people to dance.

The same applies to other activities like a photo booth. Your guests really do take the cue from you, as the bride and groom, and if they see you having fun in the photo booth, they are more likely to enjoy it themselves. We have seen people who absolutely refused to step into a booth and have their picture taken, change their minds once they see the happy couple enjoying it themselves.

You have spent thousands to enjoy your wedding day in and if you join in the activities your Michiana wedding will be one to remember for years to come by all of your guests!

Brian Peterson
Brian is the owner of Fun Zone Photo Booths, serving the Michiana region. Prior to Fun Zone he owned River City Music for 20 years, a successful wedding entertainment company.

Oscar Fashion

Monday, February 27th, 2012

Michiana Brides, to say that the Oscars fashion influences wedding fashion for the next year is an understatement. So with that in mind here are a few of our favorite gowns from the 2012 Oscars.

Stacy Keibler in form-fitting, draped, off-the-shoulder Marchesa gown

Milla Jovovich in couture Elie Saab gown with all-over silver paillette detail

Michelle Williams in a bright coral strapless Louis Vuitton gown.

Tina Fey strapless Carolina Herrera

Cameron Diaz in a strapless form-fitting Gucci gown.

Penelope Cruz wore a princess-like Armani

Gwyneth Paltro in a Tom Ford dres.

Had to search all over for an image of this dress with out the god awful coat she wore on the red carpet. Love this gown, hate the coat!

Elkhart Trudge For Suds

Saturday, February 25th, 2012

I know it’s not wedding related, but what a fun event this sounds like!

Trudge For Suds

I have been informed that two of our favorite wedding vendors will be participating in The Pillars of Elkhart, Trudge For Suds event! The Lerner Theater (Crystal Ballroom) is one of the stops on the Trudge. Inside the Lerner, Girly Girl Gifts will be selling 60′s style jewelry and Fun Zone Photo Booths will be offering Free photo booth usage!

 

 

Brides A La Mode Are You One Of The Brides?

Friday, February 24th, 2012

Michiana Weddings has been contacted by a national news program asking us if we know any of the brides or families that have been caught up in the Brides A La Mode Closing. If you are willing to share your story, please contact us at info@michianaweddings.com and we will pass your information on to the producer to contact you.

WSBT Interviews Anonymous At Brides A La Mode

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

We have emails sent to both of the addresses that have been given asking quesitons.

WSBT has some new information along with video on their website.

A consultant of a Granger bridal boutique (Brides A La Mode) that’s been under fire for weeks from its customers speaks to WSBT. …

But now, the store said a consulting firm has been hired by the owner’s family to handle day-to-day operations.

They are in the process of contacting each customer about their dress order.

The store is open, but by appointment only.

By request, the consultants did not want their names revealed.

Brides A La Mode Update

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

Michiana Brides earlier this evening (Feb 21) the following was posted to the the Bride’s A La Mode facebook page by Kelsey Jones one of the brides caught up in the BAM closing mess.

BRIDES ALA MODE UPDATE – I was actually in the store today (drove by &there  were 3 ladies (1 of which was the previous manager of Andrea’s Bridal) standing in the store who let me in to talk about my situation).
they told me they are working separate from Kathy & have decided on their own to come in and try to do “damage control” and figure things out for those of us who have things on order. While I was in the store they set up a yahoo email for us to get in touch with them. The email that was set up is damagecontrol1229@yahoo.com (at least that is what was given to me).
They ask that everyone be kind since they aren’t even sure where to begin because things are such a mess. I agreed to send this to those who had posted on the fb page & they would like everyone to email them with their situation – they need to figure out who has dresses in the store (since the records aren’t correct) & what is owed, who has dresses actually on
order & which designers to contact, what items were never actually orderd, and what needs to be refunded (although this didn’t sound promising).

We have sent an email to this address ourselves, to get more information and will let you know what we find out.

Wedding Open House AT South Bend Country Club!

Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

Michiana Brides the South Bend Country Club and the Michiana Wedding Network is having a Wedding Open house on  3/11 from 12-4!!!! If you are a Bride who would like to attend this FREE event, please email us at michianaweddingnetwork.com.

So Michiana Brides mark your calendar and plan on attending the Wedding Open House at the South Bend Country Club. We will add more details as we learn them!

 

 

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Michiana Wedding Photo Booth Fun!

Sunday, February 19th, 2012

We think it’s time to start talking about something else than a out of business wedding gown shop. So…

Recently one of our favorite Photo Booth rental companies, Fun Zone Photo Booths introduced their new white photo booth! Most photo booths that are used for weddings in Michiana are all black, black drapes, black walls, black everything. Which is a good idea because you don’t need a photo booth at your wedding reception that is going to clash with your carefully chosen wedding decor and floral arrangements. So black photo booths are the standard in the photo booth industry.

However as Fun Zone proves here, white can be just as elegant and neutral for wedding receptions.  We at Michiana Weddings love it! It is so cool!

So if you are looking to rent a photo booth for your Michiana Wedding and  like this white photo booth as much as we do, give them a call today and reserve. According to Brian the owner, they only have one white photo booth, but they do have several of the standard black photo booths.

BAM In The South Bend Tribune

Sunday, February 19th, 2012

Today’s Market Basket column in the South Bend Tribune has a brief blurb about their attempts to contact Kathy Strukel owner of Brides A La Mode.

We did not hear back from the owner about a possible reopening, nor did we receive new information about the status of the business after requesting it from the City Plaza shopping center owner.

If Kathy Strukel won’t even communicate with the South Bend Tribune, then this store is out of business. If  you have been holding out hope, thinking that this wedding gown shop would reopen or the owner would do what was right and put out a public notice about what was going to happen, we strongly suggest it’s time to move on. We feel bad for the customers who have been caught up in this mess. We have been recommending taking steps to move forward and find alternatives since nearly the start of this on January 31 and this should be the proof that that is the only option.

Can you get your money back? Many credit card companies allow you to protest a charge from 6 months to a year after purchase. Even if you are beyond that time you should be still be able to protest if you have not taken possession of your merchandise!

Did you pay by cash or check? If yes, your situation is far more difficult. But most likely you won’t get an answer back so your alternative is small claims court. But depending on the amount of money involved it may cost more to pursue in court than just writing it off to lesson learned. And even being rewarded an amount of money in court does not mean the defendant will pay it to you.

Was your gown in and you were storing it at BAM until needed? If you haven’t heard from Kathy Strukel and your attempts to contact her have resulted in nothing, there is the option of contacting the police. Several years ago a Michiana photographer vanished on his clients and after several complaints to the police by customers, the police opened his office and carted off all the negatives and prints they could find to distribute to the rightful customers.

When restarting the search for the perfect wedding gown for your Michiana Wedding we recommend checking out the following wedding gown shops: Our favorite is Bernardo’s for the Bride, loacated across from Farmers Market, in South Bend. There is also Greta’s on Lincolnway near the corner of Miami. In Plymouth there is Treats and in Elkhart there is Stephensons. All of them have long stable histories in the Michiana Wedding market.

Brides A La Mode Facebook Page Disappears

Saturday, February 18th, 2012

Tonight the Facebook pages for Brides A La Mode disappeared. The main page called Brides A La Mode still appears in searches for the name, but when you click on it you are returned to your home feed page. The second page called Brides A La Mode presents Formals appears to still be active but on an intermittent basis. Sometimes you can access it and at others you can’t. BAM Formals page. This could be a Facebook server problem.

Before vanishing there were numerous postings from brides/parents and friends of brides demanding information about what was going on with orders. No responses were ever forthcoming. So what can you do if you are a customer? If you charged by credit card you can protest the charges with the credit card company normally up to a year after the charge is placed. If you paid by cash/check your money is probably gone. There is the small claims court but that is time and money and depending on the amount of money lost, may not be the best economic choice.

In our opinion the longer this stretches on the less and less likely that this store will reopen at any future date.  If you are a customer caught up in this mess and haven’t taken steps to find your own solution, like finding another supplier or initiating a charge back, in our opinion it is time to start doing so. Kathy Strukel, instead of attempting to initiate any type of damage control or offering some sort of explanation has decided instead to shut down potential lines of communication that could have helped her and her business.

Update Saturday Night:

After being off line for nearly 24 hours the Facebook page for Brides A La Mode is once again accessible. What this means who knows. After lots of experience with Facebook we’ve never seen a page just disappear like this, but we do know they can be turned off and on at the will of the owner. No new information was offered once the page came back online.