What We Can Do:
In the past, our brides and grooms entrusted us with all sorts of responsibilities, including (but definitely not limited to):
planning and managing smaller events linked to the wedding: things like bachelor and bachelorette parties, kitchen teas, post-wedding gatherings for close friends and family – and so on).
engagement party planning and management: your new diamond needs a good-looking hand to sit on, so your first priority after getting engaged should be a manicure. Trust us, EVERYONE you meet will want to eyeball your new diamond. The moment you produce your hand for the first of a long line of spectators you might find yourself blushing with disgrace at the state of your previously uninteresting hands). So, you worry about booking a manicure with the works, and we’ll take care of planning the engagement party. Come to think of it, we can book you in for the manicure too. Speaking of which…
bridal beauty styling: in addition to fashion styling (see more about that further down the list), we offer beauty styling. The Dandelion Project’s beauty stylist (a self-confessed beauty and fragrance junkie) joined our Style team after working for a number of magazines in both Sydney and London as a beauty editor and stylist. Armed with a scary amount of beauty-related information, and an excellent network of industry contacts, she does things like locating the impossible-to-find shade of lipstick or nail polish which won’t clash with the flowers in your bouquet, scouts around to find the best salons and clinics in the various Australian capital cities (no matter where you live she will know who the best person for any given beauty job is) and knows exactly which waterproof mascara will be best for you. Your stylist be with you all the way, and will be there to handle (wrangle if necessary) the beauty team and bridesmaids on the day.
Stay tuned to our Style Updates (click on the Style link) for a variety of bridal beauty articles, including skincare advice, new product reviews, makeup tips and pre-wedding diet and fitness suggestions.
invitations: you dictate our level of involvement – we can handle the process in full or take care of any aspect you choose, be that design, writing and sending (Save The Date cards and then formal invitations), monitoring the RSVP list or producing a final guest list.
The Dress: our bridal stylist will guide you to The Dress which will make you feel – and look – like a goddess.
bridal styling: our bridal stylist helps brides pull their entire look together. In-keeping with the theme of the wedding and, of course, The Dress, we help brides to coordinate the bouquet, shoes, accessories and traditional accoutrements (old, new, borrowed and blue), match her up with a talented makeup artist and hair stylist, and even match her fragrance to the “feel” she wants for the big day.
bridal party styling: this includes dressing any or all of the following people: the bridesmaids, the immediate family of the bride and groom, the groom, the groomsmen – and anyone else who needs some help with their outfit for your big day.
writing and editing services: this includes speech writing (we work with the person giving the speech to make sure it sounds like their own work – only better), ceremony scripting (anything from traditional to entirely avant guard – and to save you the time of going through an entire library to find all the beautiful things ever written about love, we have a huge database of readings you can choose from – both religious and secular), vows, personalised thank you cards and anything else you can possibly think of which needs writing.
printing and design: think place cards, menus, Order of Service booklets, seating plans and so on.
wedding styling: either the ceremony, the reception, or both. We work with you to decide on a theme, be it a colour scheme, a season or an era, then we move from there.
The Cake: you might think this part is easy, but choosing the right cake is a lot more complicated than it might at first appear.
flowers: it’s simply not a wedding without an abundant supply of gorgeous blooms.
decorations: a list of everything which needs decorating at the ceremony and the reception would crash your computer as it uploaded, so let’s just say, if anything needs adorning, we’ll find the most beautiful way to do it.
bonbonniere and goodie bags: creative alternatives to the organza bags filled with sugared almonds, something personal to you for your guests to take home as a permanent keepsake.
the soundtrack: we make sure the music comes on and goes off when it should, and can arrange anything from live musicians to running your own playlist with each and every song chosen by you (it avoids daggy requests from a drunken Uncle Bob from ruining the evening).
wedding management: unless you are a professional event manager (and even if you are) this is the part you really do not want to be dealing with when it’s your own wedding. We won’t bore you with the details, but it involves schedules, maps, time tables, call sheets, headsets, back-up plans and a whole lot more on the actual day and night of the wedding. Brides and grooms all say that the day flies by so much faster than you think it will. If you’re caught up with the details of the event, you’ll miss it altogether.
sourcing and booking a venue: locating and securing the venue of your dreams. Somewhere to hold the ceremony (we manage both religious and secular weddings), the reception, and any pre and post wedding events. This might also include arranging for a marquee to be erected, either at a private residence, or in case of unfortunate weather.
catering - food and beverage: depending on your budget and your taste, we can arrange for just about anything you can think of (and lots of things you might not think of as well).
photography, photo shoot styling and videography: our stylist has years of experience styling fashion and wedding shoots. She and one of our trusted photographers will sit down with you to discuss ideas and prepare a comprehensive brief before the big day, to make sure you get exactly what you want. Using a stylist sets our wedding shots apart from the rest – after all, your wedding photos should be unique, beautiful and worth keeping for a lifetime.
lighting and sound (fireworks too): sometimes the only time these elements become apparent is when they don’t work. We use the best sound systems and know how best to arrange things for maximum impact (so people at the back of the room don’t get bored during the speeches because they can’t hear them). We contract with the best lighting guys in the business, who supply specialty lights and technicians to add sparkle to the occasion.
sourcing and booking a celebrant: again, this might be a religious celebrant or a secular one.
registering for gifts: we can hook you up with a fabulous online registry, and if you need to register with a department store (for older guests who might not be comfortable with buying online) we can help streamline the process for you.
accommodation: this might include a luxurious suite for the bride and her maids to get ready in, a honeymoon suite for the wedding night and accommodation for overseas and interstate guests.
transport: to and from various locations for the bridal party as well as any nominated VIPs.
security: so you might not be marrying James Packer, that doesn’t mean you can’t have a few gorgeous and capable security guards scattered about to make the whole affair a touch more glamorous (and, of course, to keep out wedding crashers and generally ensure things run as smoothly as they ought to).
I'f you've reached the point of buying a DIY wedding planner kit, you probably suffered a small brain haemorrhage when you opened the section entitled “To Do”. What you thought was going to be a two weekend job is apparently a 12 month process, with 25 pages of “to do items”, hundreds of chores accompanied by a menacingly empty boxes presumably waiting to be efficiently ticked off.
Here’s some good news. Go back to the first paragraph of this page and read it again, then stop after “as the world dissolves from around you.” Read no further, just hit the Contact button on your computer screen and we will handle the “to do” list for you. We work very closely with our clients, either with the soon-to-be bride and groom, their parents and/or their bridal party members. Your wedding should bear your signature style, so you tell us what you like and what you don’t, then we make it happen. If you have no idea what you’d like we have plenty of ideas to show you, and we can either handle the entire proceedings, or we can manage one or more elements (for example, you might have it all under control but you need the invitations taken care of, or you don’t have time to find the cake, or you just want help finding the wedding dress).
No detail is too small for our attention. Perhaps more importantly (as we know from experience), there is no such thing as “too late” in terms of asking for our help!. The Dandelion Project has a rescue team, which is as talented at salvaging last-minute dramas as the long-term wedding managers are at planning with plenty of time to go.
Just hit the Contact link on your screen and we can arrange an informal meeting on your terms to talk about your wedding, and to see if there is any way we can contribute towards making your wedding an affair to truly remember.
Your wedding will be one of the most memorable occasions of your life. It’s the day when you invite all the people you love, friends and family who have shared your life so far, to witness as you join your life with that of your best friend. It’s the occasion you will never forget, the event to which you will be wear the gown of your dreams (or the best suit you’ve ever owned) and dance with your prince or princess as the world dissolves from around you.
Why sully such a day with worry? Running an event is a big job. It involves managing a large team of professionals (catering staff, musicians, venue managers and so on) and being constantly on alert just to make sure everyone does their job as they are supposed to, that the event runs as scheduled and on time – all this in between smiling for the thousands of camera flashes raining upon you, keeping the unruly bridesmaid in check and desperately trying to have a good time… and that’s just the work for the actual day!
Add to that months of preparation. Most of us work full-time these days (our mothers and certainly our grandmothers lived in a different era as far as weddings are concerned). That means dress hunting on weekends and in your lunch break, creating a guest list, culling that guest list, choosing invitations, having them printed, sending them out and monitoring the RSVPs. Then there’s the bridal registry – you thought it would be fantastic – really it’s like shopping for free, isn’t it? Well, yes, but here’s the ugly reality of it. You spend six solid hours in a department store with your spouse-to-be, arguing over crystal vases, cameras and electric toothbrushes, you finally make a choice, at which point you need to fill out the registry form with a ratty ballpoint pen, noting down the full barcode of the item, description, colour code, size, department code and price. By the end of the day you have 10 items on the list and there are 150 guests coming, so it looks like the next weekend will be devoted to doing it all over again. Suddenly, getting married is starting to seem like a hasty decision.