Michelle Cangemi, WeddingWindow.com

Michele CangemiWebsite: WeddingWindow.com
Michelle joined Wedding Window in 2009. She learned to love all details that make weddings unique and personal to the Bride and Groom and their life together while recently helping with the planning of her sister’s and best friend’s weddings. She has a degree in Art and loves to be involved in the process of making ideas and inspirations become a reality. With a particular soft-spot for fabulous wedding photography, she looks forward to sharing her favorite finds with you in her Macro Mondays – A Close Up Look at our Favorite Wedding Photographers posts every other Monday.

Michelle is currently living in a small city on Cape Ann where she has happily been settled her whole life (apart from the short four months she spent living abroad). Aside from reading and crafting, she spends most of her time with family and close friends as well as her little dog.

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Favors with Flavor!

Everyone enjoys a little homemade treat! If you love getting creative in the kitchen, why not make yummy favors to send home with your wedding guests? Below are some great ideas for homemade, edible wedding favors.

Click on the images to view ingredients and directions.

Bread with Jam

Photo Credit: ProjectWedding.com

Photo Credit: ProjectWedding.com

Potted Banana Bread

Photo Credit: TheCoterieBlog.com

Photo Credit: TheCoterieBlog.com

Homemade Jars of Jam

Photo Credit: IntimateWeddings.com

Photo Credit: IntimateWeddings.com

Mini Pie

Photo Credit: OurBestBites.com

Photo Credit: OurBestBites.com

Pie Pops

Photo Credit: Luxirare.com

Photo Credit: Luxirare.com

Roasted Nuts

Photo Credit: Oxmoor House

Photo Credit: Oxmoor House

Fortune Cookies

Photo Credit: Inchmark.SquareSpace.com

Photo Credit: Inchmark.SquareSpace.com

Hot Chocolate on a Stick

Photo Credit: GiversLog.com

Photo Credit: GiversLog.com

Candy Apples

Photo Credit: mrk_photo on flickr.com

Photo Credit: mrk_photo on flickr.com

Vanilla Extract

Photo Credit: SimplyRecipes.com

Photo Credit: SimplyRecipes.com

Surprising your guests with delicious homemade favors is a great way to thank them for being a part of your special day.

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Filed under: Our Team, Wedding Favors and Gifts

Interview with Beth Helmstetter Events

Beth Helmstetter Events is an event planning company that is dedicated to giving brides and grooms a custom wedding experience that is not only focused on the couple but also an unforgettable experience for the guests.  The company has been involved with planning both intimate affairs and huge wedding bashes.  Whichever type of wedding is being planned, it is always a collaboration between the planners and engaged couple resulting in a completely unique and custom experience.

Image Credit: Beth Helmstetter Events

Image Credit: Beth Helmstetter Events

How long have you been in business?
Beth Helmstetter Events has been in business for 5 years.

What inspired you to start your business?
After working as a wedding planner for years in the hotel industry, I became frustrated at how limited I was in helping my couples. I worked closely with each couple but at the end of the day, I still represented the hotel. I wanted to work closer with my couples to help them really personalize the day and ultimately represent all of their wants and needs.

Tell us why you think your business is successful.
Our clients come to us for our aesthetic and overall event philosophy. We don’t think bigger or more expensive necessarily means better. Our clients love us because we encourage them to be themselves rather than encouraging them to follow arbitrary rules that may not be relevant to them as a couple.

What makes your business unique?
We specialize in intimate and approachable weddings. Often this means we are traveling around the world to help plan weddings of 30 people or less and sometimes it means we are planning huge bashes for 300 or more here in Los Angeles. But no matter what, we try to make every guest feel like they are part of something amazing!

Is there a particular niche you target?
We target couples who believe in the art of entertaining. Most of our couples are more concerned with hosting an unforgettable event and creating a new experience for their guests rather than planning an event that is 100% focused on the couple and ignores the comfort and needs of their guests.

How do you help couples customize their weddings?
After a collaborative meeting, listening, and reviewing the client’s vision for the day, we develop design boards for each part of the wedding day from the attire, ceremony setup, lighting, dinner, etc. Once we have a full understanding of the couple’s style, we help them develop the best team for the day to implement their style. From there we collaborate on all of the details to ensure the overall vision is cohesive.

At what point in the planning process do you typically work with couples?
We are a full planning firm and typically start working with couples at the beginning of the planning process. Many of our couples have a venue in mind, but that is usually as far as they have gotten in the process.

Take a look at some photos from weddings planned by Beth Helmstetter Events to see the wide variety of their planning endeavors …

Photo Credit: Jose Villa Photo

Photo Credit: Jose Villa Photo

Photo Credit: Manuele Photography

Photo Credit: Manuele Photography

Photo Credit: Meg Perotti

Photo Credit: Meg Perotti

Photo Credit: A&C Photography

Photo Credit: A&C Photography

Photo Credit: Jose Villa Photo

Photo Credit: Jose Villa Photo

Photo Credit: Jonathan Canlas

Photo Credit: Jonathan Canlas

Photo Credit: Steve Steinhardt

Photo Credit: Steve Steinhardt

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Filed under: Our Team, Vendor Interviews

Wonderful Wheat Weddings

Wheat is a wonderful resource to use as wedding decor. If you’re planning a rustic wedding, wheat is perfect for the occasion. It ties in beautifully with a neutral color palette and is very easy to work with. Seriously, all you need to do is bunch the desired amount of stalks and tie them together to create beautiful decor. Use ribbon, berries or flowers to add color to your creation. Wheat stalks can be found at your local farmer’s market or can be bought in bulk from online sellers.

Photo Credit: Khalil Group

Photo Credit: Khalil Group

Check out the images below for some lovely ideas for how to use wheat as wedding decor …

Photo Credit: MixMingleGlow.com

Photo Credit: MixMingleGlow.com

Small bunches of wheat can easily dress up the seats on the edges of your wedding aisle or seating at the reception.

Photo Credit: IntimateWeddings.com

Photo Credit: IntimateWeddings.com

Photo Credit: StlWed.com

Photo Credit: StlWed.com

Photo Credit: IntimateWeddings.com

Photo Credit: IntimateWeddings.com

You can create simple and distinctive centerpieces with wheat.

Photo Credit: Grise Photography

Photo Credit: Grise Photography

Photo Credit: Country Living

Photo Credit: Marcus Nilsson

It also makes very unique boutonnieres.

Photo Credit: Blog.Weddingish.com

Photo Credit: Blog.Weddingish.com

Photo Credit: WeddingBee.com

Photo Credit: WeddingBee.com

Wheat can be used to fashion all kinds of natural accents on your wedding day!

Photo Credit: Ritzybee.Typepad.com

Photo Credit: Ritzybee.Typepad.com

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Filed under: Our Team, Themes and Colors

Welcome Back Featured Photographer Benjamin DiCaprio

Benjamin DiCaprio is back as this week’s Macro Monday featured photographer with more lovely shots from another destination wedding.  Benjamin traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland to photograph the marriage of Jenn and Asef.

Photo Credit: Benjamin DiCaprio

Photo Credit: Benjamin DiCaprio

Photo Credit: Benjamin DiCaprio

Photo Credit: Benjamin DiCaprio

Photo Credit: Benjamin DiCaprio

Photo Credit: Benjamin DiCaprio

The couple met in Edinburgh several years ago and decided to return to the city where they met for their destination wedding.

Photo Credit: Benjamin DiCaprio

Photo Credit: Benjamin DiCaprio

Jenn and Asef were joined by friends from around the world to celebrate their marriage at the Balmoral Hotel in downtown Edinburgh.

Photo Credit: Benjamin DiCaprio

Photo Credit: Benjamin DiCaprio

Photo Credit: Benjamin DiCaprio

Photo Credit: Benjamin DiCaprio

As usual, Benjamin took some great photos of the details …

Photo Credit: Benjamin DiCaprio

Photo Credit: Benjamin DiCaprio

During the ceremony there was a torch light procession through the streets.  Jenn and Asef grabbed a torch and ran out to join in the excitement!

Photo Credit: Benjamin DiCaprio Photography

Photo Credit: Benjamin DiCaprio Photography

It was a beautiful wedding located in a place with remarkable meaning to the bride and groom – who were lucky to share their destination with friends and family who traveled to be with them on their big day.  Congratulations Jenn and Asef!

Photo Credit: Benjamin DiCaprio Photography

Photo Credit: Benjamin DiCaprio Photography

Thank you Benjamin for sharing another fabulous destination wedding with us!!

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Filed under: Macro Mondays - A Close Up Look at Our Favorite Photographers, Our Team, Photography and Videography

Wedding Advent Garland

As with most special dates or events, as they draw closer it’s always fun to start a countdown.  Why not have a countdown to your wedding date!?  I recently came across this Christmas advent garland on Julie Ree’s blog and thought it would be a super cute way to count the days left until your wedding day.

Photo Credit: Julie Ree

Photo Credit: Julie Ree

I can’t get over how fun this idea is!  It’s very simple and can be designed to fit any wedding theme.  You can find a template for the pyramid boxes here.  Choose paper that either matches your wedding colors or you can have it complement the room you’re hanging it in.  While the apples are very cute, they can be substituted with anything that would fit into your wedding theme.

Photo Credit: Julie Ree

Photo Credit: Julie Ree

Just think of how exciting it will be each day as you take down one of the hanging pyramids … another day closer to spending the rest of your days with the love of your life!

Photo Credit: Julie Ree

Photo Credit: Julie Ree

Many brides tend to watch what they eat as their wedding day approaches, but everyone deserves just a little something sweet!  These pyramids can hold a (small) treat … think of it as a little reward for all of the hard work you’ve been putting into planning your wedding – just an added bonus each time you knock a day off your wedding advent calendar. :)

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Filed under: Just for Fun, Our Team