The climbing temperatures in Colorado means we have one thing on our minds: how to beat the heat on sunny summer days and preserve the beautiful outdoor celebration you had in mind. Our tips will help you keep your cool on your special day, from making sure guests don’t roast during your wedding ceremony, to preventing your centerpieces from wilting before the celebration starts.

• Research the location of your wedding and learn the hottest time of the day, record highs and lows, abundance or lack of cloud cover, humidity, and change in temperature by nightfall. Factor this into the time, duration, and venue for your event.
• Give your guests an early heads up about the sunny weather. Let them know in the invite to choose cooler formal wear, bring hats, and wear sunscreen. Take care of your wedding party by picking cooler fabrics.
• Shade – make it and find it! Pick a shady outdoor venue, or plan to bring in tenting to shade guests. Provide parasols or umbrellas. Keep guests in the shade as they arrive, limit the length of the ceremony, and get guests out of direct sun within 30 minutes to an hour. You want to give your guests memories, not sunburns.

• Bring in quiet outdoor fans or portable AC units if the temperature is really going to be climbing. Or look into small misters or hand-held cooling devices, and pass them around among the guests. These simple additions can work wonders for the comfort of guests, leaving them free to enjoy the party!
• Be careful about outdoor chairs, particularly if any metal or plastic is involved. If they’ll be set up long before the ceremony and baking in the sun, consider adding chair covers to your decoration scheme.
• Consider providing sunglasses, sunscreen, or fans for guests. You can even make these wedding favors!

• Check in early with your florist and caterer about the weather. Have flowers and center pieces brought out at the last minute, choose cool summer foods, and include extra ice for drinks!
• Keep guests hydrated. Especially with Colorado’s altitude, this cannot be overstated! Be sure to have ice water readily available. Even better, mix in some fruit and herbs for beautiful pitchers of lightly flavored water, or serve healthy and cooling popsicles as a fun reception appetizer.

• Plan your pictures based on where the sun will be. Direct sun at noon won’t be flattering, and glaring afternoon sunlight leaves pictures full of squinting guests. If you give your photographer a heads up to scout a location, you can use the sun to your advantage! It can add a magical glow to your photographs.
• All in all, treat sun much as you would rain and have a plan B if it gets too darn hot! Have an indoor extension to your space, where guests can escape the heat temporarily.

Sunny days can make for lovely celebrations. With some smart planning and a few adjustments, you’ll be able to keep your guests comfortable and create a memorable day!

xx, Calluna Events

Photos: Kyle + Scott’s Wedding (Photography by Ashley Davis), Parasol Inspiration, Parasols by Splendor, Personalized Wedding Fans, Sunglasses as Wedding Favors, Refreshing Beverages, Fruit Infused Water.

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Even if you’ve waited until the last minute, you can still surprise Dad on June 16th with the perfect celebration.

If Dad’s a foodie, he won’t be able to wait to savor these delicious gifts and restaurants:

• Frasca and the Kitchen [Next Door] are two local favorite restaurants that offer gift cards in varying amounts. Stop by Pearl Street to pick one up last minute, or have it emailed straight to Dad!
• Cured, a local cheese, cured meat, and wine shop, offers gift certificates, boxes, and two monthly subscriptions box options packed with delicious goodies.
• Oak on Fourteenth is the perfect place to take Dad out on Father’s Day for lunch, dinner, or mid-day drinks! Stylish and contemporary, this neighborhood restaurant features local and seasonal American Cuisine with a great mixology program, craft beers, and interesting wine options.

If Dad is an aficionado when it comes to distilleries and craft beers, check out these special gifts and local tours:

• Roundhouse Spirits offers free tours and tastings, with shuffleboard and foosball. This local micro-distillery is the perfect place to spend an afternoon with Dad. (Saturday, 3pm to 7pm. No appointment needed).
• Denver Beer Co. is offering Dad a beer tasting and VIP brewery tour. The Barrel Room & Patio is the perfect place to hang with Dad, and the Bistro Colorado Food Truck will be there for lunch! (Sunday, 12pm to 4pm, $15 tickets).
• Leopold Bros Navy Strength is distilled in Denver and found in many local retail locations. Pick up a bottle of this hand bottled, hand labeled, and hand numbered small batch gin for Dad this weekend.

If Dad loves the outdoors, he’ll get a thrill out of these local events and stores:

• Boulder Cycle Sport invites Dad to test some of the hottest Scott 2013 bikes on the road or trail. (Sunday, from 10am to 3pm. Reservations encouraged).
• Father’s Day 4K + Kids Run is perfect for the Dad who’s always on the move! Get outside at the beautiful Boulder Reservoir this weekend and spend the day running or paddling in the Colorado sunshine! (Saturday, starting at 9am. Registration online starting at $25).
• Neptune Mountaineering is family owned and the perfect place to pick out a new piece of gear. This Father’s Day, get Dad something he’ll really use!

If your Dad is unique, why shouldn’t his present be? Check out these customizable gifts made just for him.

• Hot Mama’s “Hot Papa” cuff links, keychains, and other accessories may arrive late at this point, but order now and Dad will forgive you when he gets a look at these awesome and customizable gifts.
• Color Me Mine is hosting the perfect family friendly outing, Donuts with Dads. Dads pay no studio fee for this special event with painting, free donuts, and coffee! (Sunday, 10am to 8 pm).
• Mike’s Camera wants to help you create a personal gift Dad will never forget. Dad’s sure to love his favorite family photo on a canvas print, coffee mug, photo book, or iPhone case. (Select items 20-40% off).

Photos: Cup of Jo Gift Guide, Cured Gift Boxes, Leopold’s Gin, Boulder Cycle Sport Scott Demo Day, Hot Mama Keychain, and the Daily Green 

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What’s the hottest new way to celebrate your engagement and upcoming wedding in this digital day and age? “Wedsites,” aka wedding websites, have been popping up right and left throughout the last year! These personal, gorgeous, and creative websites are the perfect way to tell your story, share photos, provide information for your guests, and create a memento that will still shine online after your big day.

Two graphic designers created one of the most astonishing wedding websites in existence, aided by the illustrations provided by their friends. JessAndRuss.us

Building your own wedding website has never been easier. Websites like TheKnot, Wedsite, and WordPress make it easy to use pre-existing themes and simply drop in your content such as stories, information, and photos. Want to take your wedsite to the next level? If you or your partner is creatively inclined, flex your graphic or web design skills! Or reach out to friends you know in those fields and see if they’ll design a site as their gift to you. Finally, look into hiring a web designer for the project as you would for other aspects of the wedding.

Taking advantage of a fun engagement shoot, this site shows off the personality of the couple with photos on every page. The-Pittmans.com

Wedding websites are the perfect way to:

• Electronically share your wedding invitation! Include important details such as venue, hotels, gift registry, or even an RSVP field and your website can replace or supplement traditional paper invitations.
• Tell your story & celebrate your engagement! Remember how you met and how the proposal went down, share engagement photos, and feature your wedding party members. After the wedding, your website can is a great place to share your photos and/or videos.
• Create something together! Use the process of building a wedding website as a way to walk down memory lane, spend time together, and get excited for your wedding. If you plan ahead, you can match the style or color theme of your wedding as a special preview for guests.
• Get inspired for your event! Seeing the style of other couple’s events can help you sort out your own. And, of course, we could all use a few warm fuzzies from fun proposal stories and great wedding photos.

This clean and lovely typography paired with a hint of texture brings to mind classic paper invitations. RossPlusJess.com

Find out more!

• “25+ Wonderful Wedding Websites”
• “Wedsite.com: Unique Wedding Websites”
• “The Knot: Free Wedding Website Builder”
• “The Best WordPress Themes for Wedding Websites”

Gorgeous photos, beautiful typography, interesting infographics, and some fun personal touches bring everything together in this masterful wedding website. JennyAndGrayden.com

xx, Calluna Events

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We just HAD to share these stunning photos by the very talented Dana Romanoff. Dana shot our lovely couple, Lauren + Alex, recently for their engagement shoot.

Here is Colorado we are so fortunate to have gorgeous backdrops all over, but Dana captured this couple and the morning light absolutely PERFECTLY! Enjoy these photos and we can’t wait to share the actual wedding in October!

xx, Calluna Events

p.s. note the picture perfect deer that just happened to make their way into the shoot. LOVE!

The post Lovely Engagement Shoot with Dana Romanoff appeared first on Calluna Events.

We just wanted to take a moment to express our absolute joy for our most recent couple, Olivia + Daniel of Denver. The beautiful couple was married this past weekend and Devil’s Thumb Ranch, in beautiful Tabernash, CO. For those of you who haven’t had the privilege of staying at or visiting this stunning property, we suggest you get on it ASAP.

We also want to thank the fabulous vendors that participated in the wedding weekend. We couldn’t have done it without you all! Thank you for your dedication, help, hard work, and pure talent! For some instagram photos of the wedding, please click here. More photos of this stunning wedding to come soon….Stay tuned!

From the Rehearsal Dinner: Brickhouse 40, Elephant Revival,Perfect Petal Denver, The Envelope Please, Valley Taxi,Revampt (the Groom’s own awesome store in Denver), and The Vineyard Wine Shop (thanks for the great wine, Clif)…

From the Wedding: Devil’s Thumb Ranch, Perfect Petal Denver, LMD Productions, A Moment’s Notice (Club X), Magnolia Photo Booth Co., The Envelope Please, Lana’s Shop (for the card!), random Etsy talent, Lory the beautiful Cellist, Reza, Tess Pace Photography, and Eclectic Hive.

Beautiful cover photo courtesy of Tess Pace Photography (the wedding photographers).

xx, Calluna Events

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Who doesn’t love a refreshing popsicle on a hot, summer day? We have long loved these satisfying, fruity concoctions, but now popsicles are making their way to the top trends list for 2013 Summer weddings.

Thanks to this interview from Colin Cowie Weddings, here is a glimpse as to some of the hottest new companies providing this treat. “Nostalgia, flavor, refreshment—what more do you need?” says Emily Zaiden, creator and owner of Popshop, a premier popsicle store in Los Angeles known to deliver its treats by bicycle to local weddings, and author of Top Pops, a book of 55 popsicle recipes. “We do pops for weddings and love tying the flavors of the pops together with the wedding’s color themes or to personalized menus or even food and wine pairings!”

Planning a “healthy” event and looking for a healthy, cleansing treat for your guests? People’s Pops offers awesome flavors like wheatgrass, lemon ginger, peach-habanero, watermelon-ginger, cantaloupe-jasmine, apple-lavender, raspberry rosewater, and rhubarb-chai!?!

And, (thanks to this  recipe from People’s Pop’s book) for a perfect event all summer. We call it a pop-tail (the popsicle’s take on a delicious Summer cocktail):

Cucumber, Elderflower & Tequila*
Makes 10 pops

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 pounds cucumbers (about 3 medium), peeled
• 1/3 cup elderflower syrup
• 2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• ¼ to 1/3 cup tequila

Finely puree the cucumbers in a food processor. You should have about 2 ½ cups of puree. Transfer the pureed cucumbers to a bowl or a measuring pitcher with a pouring spout and stir in the elderflower syrup and lemon juice, and then the tequila

*Taste and adjust, but be careful not to overdo the tequila, because too much will keep the pop from freezing.

Pour the mixture into your ice pop molds, leaving a little bit of room at the top for the mixture to expand. Insert sticks and freeze until solid, 4 to 5 hours.

If you are looking for a way to get these pops to your destination location pronto, you can call up LA’s Pop Shop to deliver to your (or your caterer’s) door. Cheers!

(photo via Daily Candy, Popshop and People’s Pops from Colin Cowie Weddings blog)

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Thank you so much to Anne & Bill Holland of Holland Photo Arts for this fabulous blog post that we just had to copy (with their permission, of course)…

What’s a topic that’s rarely covered by bridal magazines and blogs, but that has significant bearing on how much you enjoy a fun and stress-free celebration on your wedding day? That one’s easy: Whether to hire a wedding planner. Probably because the answer’s so easy: Yes.

Of course we’re not talking about Franck. Nor are we talking about someone who after planning just one–usually their own–wedding, thought, “I can do this!” Indeed, we’re talking about someone who devotes their professional lives to ensuring everything runs smoothly, saving their clients money, and taking care of all the little things that crop up (and yes, they will crop up) so their clients can fully enjoy their day.

One of our couples, Karen & Michael, put it best: “A wedding planner is the wedding gift you give yourselves.” We couldn’t agree more.

We encourage all of your to read much, much more about this topic on the Charlottesville Wedding Blog post here. Thank you SO much to Anne & Bill for this thorough and accurate representation of what wedding planners do, and why you should hire one. Now.

(photos by Holland Photo Arts and West Weddings), and xx,

Calluna Events

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Thanks to our friends at Bridal Guide, we are able to share with you the HOT new apps to use for sharing photos on your wedding day.

Toss out the disposable cameras and check out these easy-to-use wedding photo sharing apps. Happy downloading…. (article borrowed from Bridal Guide)

1. Wedding Snap

Since this innovative app’s launch last year, over a million photos and videos have been shared in 15 countries worldwide. Wedding Snap instantly compiles guests’ photos in an online album that can be viewed anywhere around the world in real time. Photos can be downloaded into multiple albums, each with a unique album code, for up to a year after the wedding.

Tip: If the wedding is in a remote location with poor service, the Wedding Snap app automatically stores all photos and videos and instantly uploads them after the user returns to an area with better reception.

Cost: Free

Rating: 10 out of 10. Wedding Snap is the ultimate photo sharing app. We love how Wedding Snap’s high resolution photos are 10 times as clear as any Facebook upload. After taking a photo, guests can choose to apply one of seven fun filters that give the photo a whole new look. Brides have the ability to make albums private and invisible to others, and a live slideshow is also available for up to six hours during a couple’s reception!

(photo from Wedding Snap)

2. Wed Pics

This swoon-worthy app will capture your heart from the moment you view the adorable home screen. Brides can create a personalized dashboard with a wedding bio and cover photo, where guests can not only upload photos but can “love” and comment on the pictures as well!

Tip: The app offers lifetime hosting of all content, with an unlimited amount of photos.

Cost: Free

Rating: 10 out of 10. Wed Pics is much more than a photo sharing app; it’s more like a social network exclusively dedicated to your wedding. The interactive dashboard, filters to personalize the look of each photo, and the app’s instant push notifications take all of our favorite features from Facebook and Instagram and roll them into one super-app.

(photo from WedPics via Pinterest)

3. Wed Social
Get to the heart of the social side of a wedding with this app. We love that it was invented by a real engaged couple who wanted to create a completely customizable and interactive experience for brides and grooms everywhere.

Tip: With this app, you’ll never get lost on your way to a wedding again — the bride and groom will enter all of the event info and, with a tap of an app, you can get turn-by-turn directions to the venue through Wed Social’s partnership with Google Maps.

Cost: Free

Rating: 10 out of 10. There is so much more to this app than photo sharing; it truly is a digital storyteller. Features include bios of the couple, where they met, how he proposed, engagement photos, and pictures from pre-wedding events. There is also a section to introduce your bridal party. The funniest feature: Enter guest info to let your ‘maids find the eligible bachelors!

(photo from WedSocial via Pinterest)

And, cover photo provided by Snapable.

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Have you ever thought about ways to give back at your wedding?

After spending hours upon hours deciding between different table linens, hors d’oeuvres, hairstyles, and cake flavors, and all, it is easy to get caught up in the glamour of modern wedding planning. But, after all the little decisions have been made, weddings can actually provide the perfect opportunity to do a little good in the world and make a difference.

From your initial planning process to your honeymoon, here are some easy ways to give back:

-  Responsible Wedding Vendors: When looking at vendors to help with your big day, start by considering non-profit organizations or socially and environmentally responsible wedding vendors.  There are entertainers who work in the non-profit sector and other vendors the industry who are on the mission to give back too. Ask wedding venues, caterers, and bakers what they do with leftover food and supplies. Check out websites such as Good Shop, that provides information on percentages a chosen company gives back.

- Do Good Days: Forget the lingerie shower, grab your gals and go build a house! We suggest ditching the traditional bridal shower and opting for a “do good day” event instead. Volunteer at an organization for the afternoon, help to pick up some trash (Ecocyle in Boulder and Heal the Bay in California are great sample organizations to check out for afternoon projects), plant trees in your neighborhood (call them love ferns?), Finish the day with a craft cocktail celebration!  One step further… In lieu of lingerie, ask friends and family to donate to your organization of choice for a lasting impact.

- Charitable Donation Gifts: If you and your fiancé have blenders, towels, and china galore, you can follow in Prince Williams + Kate Middleton’s footsteps and create a charity registry. The website IDoFoundation allows couples to choose an organization dear to them and easily guides guests through a secure, online donation site. Credit card donations are linked to the charity of your choice (not your Paypal account) and can be put in the couple’s name. Other ideas: Check out the world’s first online lending platform at the website Kiva and help make a difference for as little as $25. One step further… The Couple-to-be can make a donation in their guest’s names as a priceless wedding favor (cards can be left at each place setting).

- Extra Welcome Bags: For those guests who are making welcome bags for out-of-town guests, think of buying additional supplies.  When throwing together the care packages make extras that can be sent to senior centers, care facilities, hospitals, shelters, or those who are serving our country abroad. One step further… Make sure every item in the welcome bag is eco-friendly, fair trade, and support local businesses!

- Fair Trade Gifts: Your gifts for your bridesmaids can also be a fun way to give back to various organizations.  Fair trade companies such as Ten Thousand Villages and Equal Exchange can be great places to find those fun gifts for you favorite gals.  Or, choose a company that focuses on giving back like FEED or TOMS.

- Post-Wedding Giving: Giving back to those around the world doesn’t have to stop after the festivities. Instead of trashing the dress, we suggest checking out Brides Against Breast Caner, which allows for brides to donate their gown to someone who is in a position where they can’t obtain their own gown (Check out these five other companies at this Huff Post article too). One step further… the Newlyweds can become Honeymoon helpers! There are so many beautiful places around the world where service projects are offered for recent newlyweds.   Organizations such as HoneyMoon Volunteers provide volunteer opportunities for any type of couple, in any location around the globe.

Photo credits to Truly Chic Inspirations via Martha Stewart, Jenna Walker Photography, WWF, I Do Foundation, and Honey Fund. Facebook, Sierra Club, Peony Events Co, Cary Jobe Photography, Kate Parker Weddings, Ten Thousand Villages, Chair Affair Rental, and Deposit a Gift.

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