photo by Powers Studios

Marc Rotse and the team at Moving Picture Weddings never cease to amaze me.  Take a peek at Natasha & Huston’s highlight video, and click here if you missed their beautiful wedding photos!

There’s not shortage of wedding vendors in the Portland area, but here’s one more to add on the list!  In her small studio just outside of Portland, Allisa Jacobs creates custom wedding clutches and bridesmaids gifts for brides around the world.  Allisa’s simple and sophisticated designs feature bold patterns, bright colors, and handmade touches including chiffon flowers and monogrammed embroidery.  How cute are the monogrammed initials?!?

While she’s no stranger to sewing, having built a successful online shop and loyal base of customers, she recently streamlined her business to focus on wedding accessories.  Brides looking for personal touches like special messages to their bridesmaid sewn inside their clutches or custom hand embroidery most appreciate her work.  After formal training in handbag design in Boston, Allisa enjoys making each of her clutches, from sketch to last stitch with luxe fabrics and trims. This might be what sets her bags apart, a focus on quality and design. Since she works primarily on a custom basis, brides can create one-of-a-kind clutches to coordinate with wedding colors or bridesmaid preferences!

Currently, Allisa is exploring the world of textile design and further expanding her ability to customize each bag.  You can find her work online at www.allisajacobs.etsy.com.  Mention Bridal Bliss and receive a complimentary cosmetic bag with your custom order!

The world’s largest bridal magazine, Brides Magazine is the go-to source for all things wedding.  Flattering gowns, creative reception ideas, planning how-to’s, DIY stories, color palettes, amazing flowers, inspiration boards, gorgeous hairstyles, etiquette advice, fun honeymoon spots, Brides has it all.

We are BEYOND honored and thrilled to have been featured as an expert in the magazine’s December issue!  Take a peek at our take of a fabulous NW themed welcome bag…hope you like it!

Back in November we blogged about Ari + Jonathan’s unique wedding photos and video.  We are so excited that Oregon Bride Magazine loved the wedding as much as we did and decided to feature it in their newest issue!!

We just learned that we won the “Best of Weddings 2013″ award from Theknot.com!  The winners are chosen based upon the reviews that our brides have posted on The Knot-Wedding Channel.com Network!

This is such a great honor.  Thanks so much to everyone that has taken the time to review us. Click here to peek at our reviews…feel free to leave one too!

Click here to see all of our recent awards!

Every other year, we throw a big New Year’s Eve party to benefit local charities. This year, we held the fab event at Bridgeport Brewery and our chosen charities were The American Cancer Society and Leve.  It was a huge success with lots of dancing, bubbly and a super fun group of people!

Bridal Bliss Planners Katy, Heather and Nora!

A huge hit at the party was the dessert buffet designed by our new sister company, Blissfully Sweet!

Blissfully Sweet is available to design dessert displays for weddings, showers, engagement parties, birthday parties or any private event!  Check out www.blissfullysweetpdx.com for more info!

WeddingWire, the nation’s leading online wedding marketplace, announced last week that Bridal Bliss has been selected as a winner of the prestigious WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards® 2013 for Wedding Planners in Portland, OR!

The esteemed annual awards program recognizes the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness and professionalism.  Bridal Bliss’s selection as a Bride’s Choice Award 2013 winner was selected based on the positive experiences expressed by  past clients on WeddingWire, the world’s largest wedding review site with over one million reviews.

While many industry awards are given by the host organization, the WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards® winners are determined solely based on reviews from real newlyweds and their experiences working with Bridal Bliss.

The WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards® 2013 are given to the top local wedding vendors in more than 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, based on professional achievements from the previous year. Award-winning vendors are distinguished for the quality, quantity, consistency and timeliness of the reviews they have received from their past clients.  As a Bride’s Choice Awards winner, Bridal Bliss is highlighted within the WeddingWire Network, which is comprised of over 200,000 wedding professionals throughout the United States, Canada and abroad.

We would like to thank our past clients for taking the time to review our business on WeddingWire. We value all of our clients and truly appreciate the positive feedback that helped us earn the WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards® for 2013!!  Click here to view more of our reviews, or to post a review of your own!

I just realized that I never shared photos from our fab tabletop shoot that we styled for Portland Bride and Groom Magazine that was published in the Summer/Fall issue! It turned out so great that I just have to post about it…better late than never!!

We were inspired by berry tones but wanted to add in modern elements like the chevron printing & backdrop, ghost chairs, mirrored pieces and lamp accent. I absolutely love how everything photographed and came together…what do you think??

Attempting to get the background perfectly straight…its harder than you would think!!!

Devil’s Food perfecting the apps

Hailey and I making sure everything is PERFECT.

The final table…I’m in love!

Flowers & Linen by Zest Floral, Catering by Devil’s Food Catering, Printing & Favors by New & Blue, Lamp, Pillows & Glassware by Z Gallerie, Chargers by Crate & Barrel, China by Vera Wang, Silverware by Nambe, Chairs by West Coast Event Productions

I feel like I was just sitting down to write a post about 2011…and here we are already a full 365 days later!  What a year it has been!!

Personally, 2012 has been a year with some ups and downs, but I am most certainly counting my blessings.  I unfortunately had two loved ones spend some time in the hospital (they are fine now!) and if anything, it reminded me not to take a single day or a single person for granted.  I have honestly never felt so supported and loved as I did during that difficult time, and am beyond thankful for my friends and family.  Other than that drama, I have no complaints.  My husband and I took some great trips together, we spent some fun times with friends and family…and we are expecting our first baby in May!!  Feeling like a very lucky girl!

Tyler and I in front of Versailles on our recent European adventure

Our Bridal Bliss Team has had another stellar year.   We are thrilled to have been named Portland’s “Best All-Around Wedding Vendor” and “Best Wedding Planner” by Oregon Bride Magazine, for the third consecutive year (yay!).  We planned 53 events this season and although it was 7 less than last year, our 2012 events were on a much larger scale.  It seems as if the economy is bouncing back; our coordinators worked on some of the largest and most intricate weddings to date.  In addition, we had the opportunity to get to know truly amazing couples and also to collaborate with Portland’s finest wedding professionals.  I am always in awe with the level of creativity that we have here in Portland.

We are lucky to have added more talented ladies to our Bridal Bliss family this year and are ready to take on 2013!  Click here to meet our entire team.  I feel so blessed to call each of these girls a friend.  We always have a blast spending time together, and they are truly an amazing group.  From celebrating successful seasons to new babies and engagements to other exciting life events, it is always a fun time.  I am so thankful for these girls.

Celebrating our big win at the OR Bride Awards!

2013 is already shaping up to be a very busy year.  We already have a record number of bookings, and are excited to be working with some of the sweetest brides to date.  Our sister company, Blissfully Sweet, was launched in October and is really gaining momentum.  If you are interested in a seriously unique candy or dessert buffet for your wedding, shower, birthday party or other special event be sure to contact us!

A small portion of a recent holiday dessert display we created.

We wish you and yours a new year full of blessings and beautiful memories.  THANK YOU for your continued support…I cannot begin to express how thankful we are for you.  Here’s to 2013!!

If you love shoes as much as I do, you are going to love this new website I came across where you can design your own perfect pair of shoes!  Shoes of Prey allows you to choose the shape, color and height of your masterpiece, then they assemble the shoe and send it your way!

Pricing starts at $200 and goes up depending on the details of your design–pretty reasonable for a custom made shoe.  Not only a great splurge for yourself, this is a fun gift idea too!