Utterly Engaged } The 1st Online Wedding & Bridal Magazine. Inspiring Brides with Style.

Happy Monday! Last week has been such a busy week for us, with our Leap Year Remix Party on Wednesday and A Soolip Wedding yesterday. But nonetheless, we can’t help but feel truly blessed with all these opportunities and for all the friendship we’re building. We had such a wonderful experience at A Soolip Wedding yesterday being their media sponsor and also very proud of Lucia for sharing her expertise on the Engaging with the Experts panel. Thank you to those of you who came out and say hi to us. You made our day!

Our booth came out beautifully with the help of Jill Velez Calligraphy for our signage, Krista Jon Couture Designs for the beautiful florals and Archive Vintage Rentals for the lovely props. And the designer of the Lazaro gowns, Lazaro Perez himself were at our booth, putting on one of his gorgeous gowns on the bodyform!!! He was so gracious and kind to lend this beautiful gown. We’re soooo very grateful. We kept getting compliments throughout the day for our space and it wouldn’t be possible with these amazing individuals! So thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Designer Lazaro Perez at our booth

With Calligrapher Jill Velez

We wanted our booth to be interactive, so we invited brides to reflect on who they are and write a vow to themselves before they become a wife on a piece of paper, which we’ll send back to them in three months. A couple of them really love the idea and took part in it.

We also met a few familiar faces, like Robin of Gather Events and Sandee of Candee by Sandee.

Other amazing talents at the event…

Beautiful cakes by Butter End Cakery

The ridiculously talented Eddie Zaratsian

Grow a couple’s garden by GreenTree Landscaping

The vendors that were part of this event are exceptionally talented and truly great at what they do. We feel so honored to be part of this event and can’t speak highly enough of Wanda Wen and her crew for putting this together.

So what’s next in store, you ask? Issue No. 20!! Work is under way for this colorful issue…

Our Leap Year Remix Party was a huge success! It was such a blast leaping with you at the party! We want to thank those of you who came out and celebrated Leap Day with us and those that were there in spirit. We love you guys! And thank you to all our sponsors! The event wouldn’t have been as successful without your support. We’ll do a more thorough recap later on, but for now, we have to switch gears and leave our neons at home because we’re going to A Soolip Wedding!

You might have seen a spread on this event in our last two issues, but we just wanted to officially invite you to join us this Sunday, March 4 from 12-4pm at Bel Air Bay Club (the venue alone is gorgeous!). Celebrating their 13th year, this annual celebration is considered to be the wedding event of choice by the industry’s most distinguished bridal resources in Southern California and beyond. A Soolip Wedding elevates the art of getting married to an extraordinary experience. We are proud to be a media sponsor for this event!

Credit for board: Dress on top left, wooden bezel brooches, Decor on top right, Bride bottom right, others unknown (if you know, please contact us).

Check out the inspiration for our booth! We’re inspired by rich jewel tones and luxurious textures. We’re very excited to have the talented Krista Jon Couture Designs to create the florals for our booth and Archive Vintage Rentals for the props. If you’re attending the event, please come by Booth #14 and say hi to us! We’re going to have an interactive booth where brides can participate in! Also, check in the swag bags for chocolate spoons from us by E-N-R Creations!

We’re thrilled to be in this event with other amazingly talented exhibitors, like Jen O’Sullivan Photography, Gather Events (who were in our 2012 Design Challenge!), Good Gracious! Events, Petal Floral, and many more! Check out the full list of exhibitors. Also, our very own Co-Founder Lucia Dinh Pador is going to be on the Engaging with the Experts panel at 2 pm, so you won’t want to miss this! See the list of experts on the panel. There will also be a Fashion Show with gorgeous gowns by JLM Couture and jewels by Black, Starr & Frost at 1pm and Cake & Champagne Tasting at 3:15 pm. It’s going to be such an exceptional event for brides and vendors alike! Don’t forget to RSVP for your tickets and use UEASW code to get $5 off your tickets. Hope to see you there!

Did you know that $1 from every ticket sale of our Leap Year Party is going to ShelterBox to help raise money for emergency shelter and lifesaving supplies? We just had to. In 2011, Utterly Engaged and Lydia Yeung of Ever Ours teamed up for a grassroots movement called For Japan With Love to raise money and awareness in response to the earthquake and tsunamis in Japan. One year later, we are honoring lives lost and lives we were able to help save at our Leap Year Party. The Design Challenge teams are taking part in raising awareness and designing for a cause. They’ve created tablescapes inspired by countries that have been touched by ShelterBox. Taking two cultures and blending them together to create something new. So it’s kind of perfect that we’re ending our inspiration boards with Japan.

Team Fresch Concepts, Choco Berries and Cupcake Fairies, See Smell Love and Sucre blended India and Japan and created something incredible.

Can we give *throw confetti* to every team that we’ve seen here. We’re so blown away by all the concepts so far. Let’s get ready to celebrate this Leap Year! I hope you’re ready, because it’s going to be pretty amazing. Get your tickets soon, you don’t want to miss out. See you tomorrow!!

Who would have thought Brazil is such a popular country for inspiration. But what’s really interesting is everyone’s interpretation of what Brazil is. Design Challenge team #11 makes up of Kays Inspired Events and Stylish Event Design. And they took a twist of blending the bold patterns and colors of Brazil and Somalia and turning it into “Bramolia”. Next to tangerine tango, purple is still such a big color this year. Excited to see what they will create at the Leap Year Party tomorrow night!

Tomorrow is the day we’ve been waiting for, it’s our Leap Year Party and Design Challenge! Are you coming? Because it’s going to be full of inspiration and loads of fun! Today, we’re finishing up giving you a sneek of our Design Challengers and their inspiration boards. Total of 13 teams! WOW! Incredible. Be ready to be blown away by all the creativity at the party when all 13 boards come to life.

We’re at #9 that means there three more to go! Let’s bring it on. Team In the Now Weddings, Art With Nature, and Creative Media Print went Asian with a Latin flair - Brazil and Japan. Their inspiration board is so rich in gold! Can you imagine what they are going to create? I heard it’s going to be pretty amazing.