Chelsea Clinton Wedding... Remembering that less is more!

I remember working on a important wedding I did at the Marble House and the florist was adorning the urn with loose flowers.

I asked her "Why are you mucking it up?

The urn is beautiful and so are your flowers just leave it alone.

The Clinton Wedding ceremony had no ribbons, bows, rose pedals or seating signs.

Just a simple white extra wide runner. Very classy and very simple.

Yes In society weddings less is more and quality over quantity should rule the day!

Cake imitates art, more than art imitates cake?

What Would Oscar Wilde say about this cake!

Chelsea Clintons Topiary Wedding Flowers

Chelsea Clintons Topiary Wedding Flowers were so simply they were chic!

Less Is More!

“The Great Gatsby” at Newports Rosecliff Mansion

Some of those Rhode Islanders have fond — and not so fond — memories of several cold, damp nights when, as former Providence Journal theater critic William K. Gale recalled, the extras would arrive around 6 p.m. and then “sit there for hours in tents before they called us. Then you’d line up and the assistant director would say, ‘DON’T LOOK AT THE CAMERA!’ And anyone who looked at the camera would be pulled out of the scene.”
In a column he wrote upon the film’s release in March 1974, Gale said that although the party looked glamorous onscreen, “much of the time in Newport it rained. In truth, the extras, dressed in gay 1922 party frocks and dress suits, were often wet, muddy, cold and tired.” (Thursday’s Rosecliff screening of the film was part of a three-month-long series of activities in Newport centered on a program to encourage reading that’s cosponsored by the Preservation Society of Newport County, which owns Rosecliff, and the Newport Public Library.)
Mary Riggs of Newport was one of the revelers in the party sequence, which was supposed to be taking place in a mansion on Long Island in 1922. She recalled, “We wore original ’20s things that they had gotten from some costume collector in California. I had a dress that had a very low back because somehow they decided that I had a lovely back.
“I never knew. I mean, who sees one’s back very often?”
Gale said the party sequence was shot over “six or seven nights. We’d get there around 6, get dressed in dorms at Salve Regina [University], all in period costumes.”
It all looked very glamorous onscreen, even the elaborate food displays. But Riggs recalled that because the same food was set out night after night, “it began to stink.”
Nathaniel Tingley Jr., whose late father was an extra on “The Great Gatsby,” also remembered his father coming home and saying “all that luxurious food started to smell after a few days.”
“And we were supposed to be drinking champagne,” Riggs added, “but it was ginger ale. And they never changed the glasses. So you were supposed to be drinking and having a good time, but wondering whether the night before someone had sneezed into the glass you were holding.”
ale said that although he wore a tuxedo, whose style hadn’t changed all that much in a half century, the ’20s-era suit “must have weighed 20 pounds. The material used was heavier in those days, all wool.” But that turned out to be not such a bad thing because although it was July, the nights were very cool. It was not such a good thing, however, for the female extras who had to smile as they skittered down the steps of Rosecliff as dawn was breaking and jump into a fountain pool in below 50-degree weather to dance the Charleston with enthusiasm for the third time.

Riggs remembers “it was very cold when we were shooting at night. One night the wind blew up my ‘lovely’ back. I jumped and the director had to yell, ‘Cut!’ And then everybody would turn and look at you.”
Yet despite the long overnight hours, the rain and the mud, Gale, who lives in North Kingstown, looks back on those nights of filming “The Great Gatsby” with Farrow and Redford as “fun, but exhausting. You’d be there sitting around for 10 hours and then they might call you and you’d work for maybe an hour.” He said the crew would pass out colored tickets to the extras. Which color you were handed determined whether you were slated to stand in the background of a party scene or in the middle of it or in the foreground, up close with Farrow and Redford. But after a time, he said the extras had figured out the system and tried to jump into the foreground.
“Everybody came out of the woodwork for this one,” Riggs added. “It was the thing to do.” However, although 400 extras were hired (at about $20 a day) for the nighttime shooting at Rosecliff, as the filming dragged on and the extras realized the hurry-up-and-wait reality of filmmaking, they began to drop out. “Many of them were socialites,” said Riggs. “They came for the first few days. But after a while, they thought, ‘I don’t think so.’ Many of them fell out, so they had to have a second cattle call for extras.”
But not all the extras were unhappy. Maybury Fraser, widow of Nathaniel Tingley, remembers that her late husband “really enjoyed it.” She recalled that she’d be getting their three children up and ready for the day just as he’d be coming in from a night on the movie set and going to bed. “I told him I could never be the wife of a movie actor,” she said with a laugh, then added: “I’ve seen him in the movie a couple of times.”
Gale’s big scene came when he was standing near a heavyset man who was supposed to be causing a problem at the party and a bouncer in a tuxedo comes over and slugs the guy. Gale was directed to look on in shock and point, as if to say, “Look at this!”
“I thought they had me overact in the scene,” he said ruefully. “I wanted to do it with a little more subtlety.”
Riggs appeared in a scene standing behind Farrow and Redford as they talked, but she says that when she watches a video of the scene with friends, “by the time I tell people I’m in that scene, they’ve already missed me.”
Yet one of her fondest memories was the night when the Fourth of July dawned and British director Jack Clayton had fireworks shot off into the night sky over Newport to celebrate America’s Independence Day. At last, some real Hollywood glamour … and class.

mjanuson@projo.com

Newport Wedding Planner

A Great Idea from
A Newport Affaire
www.anewportaffaire.com
917 355-0689

A Sunny Sunflower Picnic In the Park with the Accessories Council

I was invited to design a entrance arrangement for the 15th Anniversary of the Picnic in the Park at the Bryant Park Grill.


The Guests came to bid on one-of-a-kind picnic baskets designed by: Kate Spade, Mary Norton, Fred Allard, Lilly Pulitzer, John Wind, Echo Design, Henri Bendel, Godiva among others.

It was a perfect New York summer evening!

Meet John Wind...Not Your Mother's Pearl Jewelry!

I met John Wind at The Accessories Council's Picnic in the Park Party at Bryant Park Grill last night.
He's so charming and so is his work!
I love his whimsical tiara adorned with butterfly's.
It is perfect for a chic garden wedding.
Take a look at his line for its a great options for your bridal party.

http://maximalart.com/index.shtml

Here Comes The Clinton Bride!

Chelsea Clinton's Wedding Flower Container?...

Nancy Swiezyt Events designed this arrangement for a client to day and a source in the N.Y. flower market told me that this square mirrored container are going to be used at Chelsea Clintons Wedding...

If you are interested in buying them for your wedding contact

The Clinton Flowal Containers nancy@anewportaffaire.com

Flowers By www.NancySwiezyEvents.com



Events

Cool New Signature Wedding Drinks

Building a theme wedding around a couture signature cocktail is trendy, exciting and a treat for your guests. Dress the Drink offers you an artist's palette of colors and textures to garnish the edges of beverages. From water to wine...cocktails to coffee... the COUTURE COCKTAIL COLOR PALETTE will spark your imagination. No event should be without these divine beverage embellishments. Imagine edible flowers floating on champagne in a flute trimmed with edible gold flakes. Absolutely decadent! Or perhaps trim the rim with edible silver flakes and drop some edible diamonds into the flute.

Just Dazzling!

http://www.luxuriouswedding.com

Chelsea Clinton's A List Wedding Vendors

Jeff Leatham will be doing her Flowers,Vera for the Bride and Oscar for Hilary!

Experts in all things nuptial ballpark the cost of Bill and Hillary Clinton's little girl's big day at anywhere from $3 million to $5 million.

This will definitely be the biggest wedding of the year.

Martha's Vinyard to Astor Place ... Chelsea Clinton Leaves New England with Bryan Rafanelli in hand!

Today in Chelsea Watch: Miss Clinton (soon-to-be Mrs. Mezvinsky) was spotted at the Astor Place Starbucks in NYC yesterday, according to Page Six. She was "in jogging clothes, drinking iced coffee and Smart Water, texting and talking on her BlackBerry about her upcoming wedding." The source noted the "huge rock on her finger," of course.

The New York Daily News reports that "Chelsea-mania has hit Rhinebeck," where the former first daughter is said to be getting married. Hotel rooms at the town's Beekman Arms Inn are already all booked up and Clinton and Mezvinsky have reportedly reserved the nearby Grasmere Estate for their rehearsal dinner.
Huffington Post

Buttons and Bows

Cute as a Button ! From Brides.com

Gratitude 5 Weddings in Newport, New York City, Miami, South Hampton and Jamestown R.I! 3 Gallas and One Charity Benefit! A very busy year.

I am so enjoying designing flowers for these events.
I have found my artistic voice and a medium so joyful to work in!

If any one is looking for a Newport - New York Wedding Planner or flowers for a quick wedding this summer give me a call!

The fall season is lining up nicely.
Im looking forward to these wonderful fall events.
Much Joy this Summer.
Nancy
A Newport Affaire

Real Wedding Sarah and Jere South Hampton Historical Museum

"Driving down South Main Street on Saturday night, you wouldn’t have known where to stop first, with all the parties that were going on.
Jere Patterson and Sarah Hunter tied the knot at the Historical Museum. While the museum is on Meeting House Lane, several guests had parked at the top of South Main, so to the passerby you knew something was going on. Congrats to the happy couple!
From
www.27east.com






























































































































































Flowers by Nancy Swiezy www.nancyswiezyevents.com
Photos by Jill Johnson www.jilljohnsonphotography.net
Catering by Park Avenue Catering www.parkaveneuecatering.com
Band and Bestman Alex Donner www.alexdonner.com
Event by A Hampton Affaire www.AHamptonAffaire.com
Many Thanks to Walkers Shortbread www.walkersus.com

The Next Grace Kelly?

PARIS – Prince Albert of Monaco is engaged to marry Charlene Wittstock, a former Olympic swimmer for South Africa, a union that will give this wealthy Mediterranean principality its first crown princess since American Grace Kelly died in 1982.

The palace announced the engagement of "His Serene Highness", 52, and Wittstock, 32, who also worked as a school teacher before moving to Monaco. The statement Wednesday did not indicate a planned wedding date but put to rest months of speculation that the two longtime companions would tie the knot.

Albert met the willowy blonde Wittstock in 2000 when she traveled to Monaco for a swimming competition, said Laetitia Pierrat, a palace spokeswoman. Wittstock swam for South Africa at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, though won no medals. In the All Africa Games the year before, she won gold in the 100-meter freestyle.

Since 2006, Wittstock has lived in the principality, Pierrat said.

It will be the first marriage of a reigning prince since Hollywood actress Grace Kelly married Albert's father, Prince Rainier III, to massive hoopla in 1956. Princess Grace died in a car accident in 1982, casting a pall of tragedy over the family, but remains a style icon to this day. London's Victoria & Albert Museum for art and design has a current exhibition on her.

According to protocol, royal couples must wait at least six months between the announcement of the engagement and the wedding day, Pierrat said.

She demurred when asked whether Wittstock might be pregnant. "Honestly, I don't think so," she said, adding she wasn't privy to such matters but if Wittstock were, a formal announcement would probably have been made.
From the AP

Eight Reasons to Hire a Newport Wedding Planner

Congratulations!
You are engaged and you are elated. Your wedding day is going to be the most important day of your life and you envision everything is going to be perfect.
You want to be involved. You have planned parties that have wowed your friends. You want to take a hands-on approach to the planning of your wedding and the prospect excites you.
Yes, the thought of planning a wedding is very exhilarating. But in reality, it is like solving a Rubik’s Cube. Getting all the pieces to work together and fit together precisely to complete the design is the objective.
It may look like a seamless process but it is not easy. A wedding requires Synergy – the interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.
Much like a movie, a wedding has to be produced, scripted, edited, and directed. As a visual feast for the eyes, a wedding has to have a flow and a tempo. It needs to be as pleasing for your guests as it is for you.
As the star of your movie, can you envision yourself being the central character, producer, editor, director, and run interference for all minor details on your wedding day?
If you are having more than 25 guests, the idea of working with a wedding planner should appeal to you. As the creative director for the most important day of your life, your wedding planner will help you avoid some dreadful mishaps that could ruin your day.

Reason # 1:
A Theme Is More Than A Hodgepodge of Great Ideas
Your ideas are fabulous. But they are only the foundation of your theme. Remember: They are only ideas and pictures ripped out of magazines. Brides have ended up blowing their budget on one item to the detriment of the whole wedding. This is where your wedding planner becomes your magician. Knowing all the tricks and resources, your wedding planner can create a theme that runs through the whole event. They see the whole picture. If budget is a constraint, they will advise you how to economize and still achieve a similar look.

Reason #2: Is Your Budget A Guideline Or A Blueprint For Bankruptcy?
A budget is an essential part of your wedding planning. Even a million-dollar wedding has a budget. A budget will give you perspective and it will center you. It will be a great comfort to you when you want to know where you stand financially. Expenses tend to mount up quickly, and your budget will always give your a realistic assessment. I have witnessed brides being so out of control that they end up randomly buying items that have no rhyme or reason. That money could have been spent elsewhere to make the wedding a better experience for the guests. Being realistic about your budget is essential. Don’t fool yourself with a figure knowing you can go over it. You will only be hurting your chances of selecting the best possible vendors. Your wedding planner is your accountant and will believe the budget you give them. They honestly try to work within your parameters. Therefore, decide on a realistic figure so your wedding planner can recommend the vendors who will deliver the best work within your budget.


Reason #3:The Venue Event Manager
When the event manager from your venue tells you they can do your wedding planning, they are not lying. They will do everything under the sun to oversee everything they are responsible for; however, they are not responsible for 90 percent of the details that go into your wedding. Some brides are shocked when things go wrong. They thought their venue person would be on top of things. Not necessarily. If they have several events that day, they can’t be held responsible for letting you know your flowers haven’t arrived or your best man is held up in traffic. Imagine walking into a bald room instead of the floral intensive ballroom you paid for. Your wedding planner is your overseer. Their job is to make sure everything arrives on time and complete. If you have 15 tables, 13 centerpieces just won’t do. They will get the florist to fix it. If the videographer does not show up, they should be able to find a replacement for you. Things happen, but it is your wedding planner’s job to see that things are fixed and end up perfect. Your wedding planner is your fairy godmother.

Reason #4 Timelines And Other Annoying Details
Checklists. Do we know anyone who likes them? And timelines. “Who has time to think of these boring things? I’m getting married!” I recall one bride saying. Actually, you might not be getting married after all if the minister does not show up. Timelines are critical. Timelines are necessary. And timelines keep your wedding planner sane. They thrive on them. You, however, should never be subjected to them. These are the things a bubbling bride should be kept far away from. They will certainly kill the excitement.

Reason #5 Synergy Applies To Vendors Too
There are vendors who work so well together you almost get double your monies worth. Having a vendor with an attitude can affect everyone. Your wedding planner knows these things and will steer you in the right direction. By involving your wedding planner in the selection of vendors from the invitations on, you will be guided down the path of success. After all, synergy is what we are striving for!

Reason #6 What Are The Rules?
Brides need a go-to person for etiquette, wedding-related questions, and to keep the planning timeline moving forward. All brides need a liaison to help keep emotions and relationships from straining during planning. Your wedding planner is a combination of Martha Stewart and Emily Post. Do you really have the time and inclination to research, answer, and solve the problem yourself?

Reason #7 Overtime Charges Accrue Faster Than Champagne Pours
One hour of overtime with a location site or photographer can cost you plenty! Everyone is on the clock and so is your wedding planner. The difference is your wedding planner is on your clock. They keep everything in motion so extra costs are avoided. In the end, your wedding planner is the most cost effective choice you can make.

Reason #8 Frazzled Is Not Fabulous
Wedding planning and the events that lead up to your day will be stressful. You should have one job only. Keeping yourself relaxed and living in the moment. You need time to take in and enjoy this special day. Be with your loved ones. Be happy. Be kind. And mostly, be assured that your wedding is going to be the most fabulous day of your life.
Yes, all weddings have glitches. And yours will, too. But your wedding planner will make sure you never have to deal with or see them. You may never even know anything out of the ordinary happened. And that is the sign that you are a genius at wedding planning. You started out with great ideas, hired a wedding planner to bring them to life, and sat back like a pampered princess on your wedding day accepting all the accolades that you deserve.
Luxurious Wedding
Article contributed by Luxurious Wedding Etiquette & Protocol.

http://luxuriousweddingetiquette.blogspot.com

Real South Hampton Wedding at the South Hampton Historical Museum

More Photos coming...
Photorgapher
Jill G Johnston
www.jilljohnsonphotography.net

Fare-Thee-Well to weddings at Asters Beachwood

NEWPORT, R.I. – Beechwood, the 1851 mansion that became the epicenter of Newport high society under the Astor family, has sold for $10.5 million. The 19,000-square foot Italianate manse, was sold to Eastern Estates, LLC, a Rhode Island-based corporation listed with the state on Dec. 8, 2009 with an official contact address of 101 Ygnacio Valley Road, Suite 320, Walnut Creek, Calif. While the buyer behind the corporation was not disclosed on the deed, nor in the incorporation papers, the mailing address of the company corresponds with one high profile party rumored to have expressed an interest in the property. Sailing and software magnate Larry Ellison appears to be the buyer of Beechwood mansion on Bellevue.
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Argentine designer Fabian Zitta hits the New York Street with a red carpet party !

Last night I was asked to design my signature floral arrangement for the Argentine designer Fabian Zitta. he deigns the most wonerful Coctail dresses.
His red carpet,side walk fashion show was held at the Jeffery J Salon and Roland Antiques on West 11th Street.
Hair and Make up by The Divas Little helpers!
A grand time was had by all!
http:www.zittacostura.com

Photos by Wai Ng
http://www.WeddingFlair.com

Chelsea Clintons Wedding Gown Options at Huffington Post

Check out Chelsea Clintons Wedding Gown Options at Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/01/chelsea-clintons-wedding_n_375458.html?slidenumber=nqwiCK2oq0c%3D&slideshow#slide_image

A Few Patriotic Wedding Details

A Few Patriotic Wedding Details

Lucky Strips

Do it with a Flag!

Photos by http://www.kristinvining.com/

The New J Crew Bridal Store

The new J Crew Bridal Store is slated to open Wednesday,June 2 at 769 Madison Avenue in New York.















































This look is so Doris Duke!

Off to South Hampton for a Wedding

I'll be heading out to South Hampton to prep for Sarah's wedding.
I'm looking forward to this sophisticated garden wedding.
The cake and flowers will be stunning!