10% Spring Discount off planning services!

We are offering a 10% discount on all planning services to all couples who book before April 8th!!

To book your free consultation or book your date today please email our creative director & Coordinator Barbara Mouradian at: Barbara@JustSayYesEvents.com

Mod wedding design.

I love everything MOD!! With that being said, I'm super excited to show off our last design for the Luxury Bridal Expo at Belvedere Banquets. I think that using crisp bright white and adding a pop of color=Eye catching. For this particular MOD design I decided to use orange to pop off the white details. What we ended up with was a fun, vibrant modern design that would work with any color. This design can easily be redone with fuschia or chartreuse and every color in between.

As always I will give a brief description with each image.


Details, details & more details!! Ribbon was used a few different ways to add a fun aspect to the design. I added a ribbon detail to the napkin as-well as the bride & groom chairs. In keeping with the modern design the vases were cubes in bright white with giant roses!! I absolutely adore roses and think they are just perfect for this design.


Roses galore hand wired to a white mazanita tree was the focal point of this tablescape. I think the next blog post should be 1,000 ways to use a manzanita tree! I have hung them from the ceiling, draped them in crystals, hung floral from them and now painted them white!!

Event: Luxury Bridal Expo Chicago

Venue: Belvederebanquets.com

Event Design: Just Say Yes Events! Creative Director, Barbara Mouradian

Floral: www.JustSayYesEvents.com

Photography ©: Angela Swan of Jumpshots! www.jumpshots.biz

Eco-Friendly Centerpieces

I am super excited about our April 2nd wedding being held at Salvage One in
Chicago. This particular couple is eco-friendly and we loved designing their eclectic eco-friendly wedding. Our gorgeous bride loves tulips so were bringing in tons of tulips in different colors to be placed in bottles that we have collected and are recycling into bud vases. Around the base of the bottles were adding natural moss and votives to take the natural look a step further.

I recently set up a mock table setting for the couple and my design file. I think it came out fabulous and can't wait till April.
Photos: ©Just Say Yes Events!

The Caketress

I have always loved wedding cakes and think it is the perfect place to express yourself as a couple. I recently stumbled upon the Caketress from Toronto and fell in love immediately. Their cakes are drop dead gorgeous and their attention to detail is immaculate. I don't even need to go on as a picture is worth a thousands bites in this instance.
All images ©The Caketress.

Mr & Mrs. Marinelli 9.4.2010

I remember my first meeting with Kate very vividly. She was very casual, laid back,funny and calm about the wedding planning process which is rare! It was a joy working with her and making sure that their wedding day reflected them as a couple and brought in the look & feel that they were seeking.

Kate began telling me about a special church that the majority of her family had been married in. It was such a romantic idea to be married where her grandmother, mother & family had all been married. The church is Our Lady of Pompeii and is located in Chicago's Little Italy. I was inspired by her story and couldn't wait to begin designing something special for Kate and Christopher.

The second major item on the list was reception which was selected by Kate Zapatista's Restaurant just 10 minutes from the church. Zapatista's has a very ethnic feel inspired by Mexico with Terracotta, ironwork and rich colors. Kate mentioned loving the colors yellow and grey and during a walk through of the venue which is when I noticed the walls were yellow. Zapatista's was the perfect venue for them and the colors worked fantastically.

We ran with the colors and used them in linens, floral & print materials. There is one thing I love and it's linens!! I love taking clients to the linen showroom to drool over all the lavish linens and that is exactly where Kate and I ended up.
Staying within the yellow and grey color scheme we selected a pale yellow satin linen for the guest tables, twist grey linen with texture for the escort card table & soft grey bengaline napkin that I would be tying with yellow ribbon.

Once the base of the tables was designed I began working on the floral design making sure it felt as if it "belonged" in the venue. After another meeting with Kate we narrowed down type of flowers, colors & size for all floral. We would be using Calla lilies, Roses, two types of Mums, Alstromeria & orchids all in the yellow and orange color family. The guest tables would have two different arrangements to keep it interesting. Centerpiece #1 would be three rustic wooden boxes filled with floral and two black lanterns in between the boxes. Centerpiece #2 would be three rustic wooden boxes with glass cylinders in the middle holding a floating candle. When it came to the head table I wanted to make sure it had extra drama and clearly noticeable as head table. The head table arrangement was a play off of the guest tables but much larger in scale. The table held a whopping 6 large lanterns and 5 large wooden boxes all holding a medium sized cylinder. To assure they were eye catching we used a very unique and delicate orchid shooting up from the boxes along with lush floral.

Last but not least my favorite design element....The escort card table. It was very unique and brought in the color scheme, Invitation design & ethnic feel but in a modern way. The linen for the table was a grey twist linen for texture and something a little different than the guest tables. Since it was a escort card table we had to make sure that the centerpiece wasn't too large and could be placed towards the rear of the table. We brought in three lanterns in bright yellow and three glass cylinders varying in size to hold bright yellow floral. Opposite the arrangement were picture frames of the couples family and a decorative box to hold cards.
I was very excited about the place cards since I was able to take the graphic that was on their invitation and duplicate it onto the place cards. I truly believe all the small details count 100%

To this day Kate & Christopher remain one of our favorite couples and their wedding was loved by all. CS Brides Magazine recently published a photo from their wedding in the "With Love"issue on page 274.

We wish Kate & Christopher the best and hope they have many year of happiness.
-Just Say Yes!


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Photos ©Wedding Creativo & Just Say Yes Events!

Seductive Summer Shower

At Just Say Yes we love bridal showers!!! Bridal showers are the perfect opportunity to implement a fun theme and make it reflect yourself the bride. Our wonderful client Isenia Hererra will be celebrating her shower this August and has sent us one of her gorgeous invitations. We love when brides get creative and Isenia came up with a wonderful design with pink and back the colors of the shower. We love the unique element of a black feather and we have been assisting her with floral and implementing the feather into the centerpieces.
Here are a few snapshots of her wonderful invitation and we hope you too are inspired!!

-Just Say Yes Events!





Gorgeous pink cardstock with satin ribbon, black feather & rhinestone. The envelope for the invitation had a beautiful embossed feather decorative element.

Invitation Design By: My lovely October 9th bride Isenia Herrera
Photo By: Just Say Yes Events!

The perfect venue.

For those of you that frequent our blog you know that I was married this June to my fiancee and love of four years Daniel Mouradian. There was so much planning put into our wedding and so many small details that I will be selecting one detail, vendor or element and blogging about them individually. I love that we are both in the creative industry and we would be able to design EVERYTHING! I am the Senior Creative Director for Just Say Yes Events and Daniel is a Senior Art Director for an Creative Agency here in Chicago. The creativity between us on a daily basis is absolutely insane with constant ideas of creating and design everything from art to furniture.

Once the planning started it was actually very easy for a few reasons; The first reason is very obvious, I'm a wedding/event designer and the second Daniel and I have very similar styles as-well as likes and dislikes. We both agreed very early on that the wedding would be black and white and definitely a black tie affair. Daniel and I love getting dressed up and feel one should do so for a wedding as it is a very special occasion. Once we had a direction and style we were going in we set out on finding the right location. For my 27th birthday Daniel took me to ZED451 with some friends and I told him that I wish we could get married there. ZED451 is American Churrasco so I knew the food would be amazing and its gorgeous inside. The decor inside ZED451 is contemporary yet warm with wood floors combined with leather and a few event spaces all different in design which is nice.
They also have a massive roof top right smack in the middle of downtown that has three cabanas, giant bar, outdoor fireplaces and lounge areas. This was the place and we both knew it so we BOOKED it!

ZED451 was fantastic during our planning process and it helped that a friend from my modeling days Sammy Ojeda is the Event Manager at ZED451. She helped immensely and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect venue planner than Sammy.
We started with figuring out what space we would use for our ceremony which was really important to us as that is the most important part of the day. For the ceremony we selected The Fireside event space which is on the second level of the restaurant and has a wonderful warm feeling with hardwood floors, double sided floor to ceiling fireplace and Juliet Balconies. The ceremony was to be set up directly in front of the fireplace....Can you say ROMANTIC!
After that was settled we moved onto the cocktail hour which was suppose to be downstairs in the massive bar area that has lounge areas, fireplaces & gorgeous decor.......But Dan had his eye on something else!
Dan wanted the rooftop.....CRAZY! I loved the idea but I knew the restaurant would be hesitant as that is their big money maker during the summer. With the motto of whats the worse that can happen? they say no?!?!? We asked ZED451 what they could do for us and they said YES!!! I died with excitement, we would be hosting a full TWO hour cocktail reception on the rooftop at sunset. Okay now i know I said this earlier but "How romantic".....LOVE IT!
So now we had our ceremony in The Fireside and cocktails hours set on the rooftop of ZED451. We now had to figure out where the reception would be and the dancing and misc items that I will share in another post =)
After another walkthrough we decided that The Fireside would be turned over from the ceremony to the reception during the two hour cocktail reception. I am in the industry and plan wedding with 300, 400 & 500 guests every weekend so I knew that I wanted a small more intimate wedding to avoid all the craziness. The Fireside room was perfect as it seated 90 guests and that was it we had our invite LIMIT 90!! We couldn't budge since the venue space was a 90 guests space and we love that we had to stick to that no matter what.
After all that all that was left was our dancing area and other surprises area. I love when weddings have different spaces for guests to visit and wander to and not be confined to their table and thats it! ZED451 has another event space right off the Fireside room called the Mezzanine that is gorgeous and open to the main dinning below. After being in the Mezzanine I knew it was perfect as its openly divided into a few spaces that we could play with.
That was it floor plan DONE & DONE!

Here are a few images with before and afters of the spaces & descriptions.



Before shot of ZED451 double sided fireplace. This is the area that we set up as the ceremony altar.


After of the ceremony area set up. We flanked the fireplace with two pedestals covered with grey pintuck fabric. Each side had a collection of three different floral pieces. The first glass cylinders were placed on the pedestals filled with a giant manzanita branch, crystals, hanging votives, hydrangea, vendela roses, freesia and orchids. I absolutely love how everything turned out and think It made for a unique and magical altar.


Before image of ZED451 Fireside room.


After close up shots of table designs for reception.


Full after shot of Fireside room used as reception area. We used two different centerpieces for interest to the eye and to balance the heaviness of the crystal tree centerpiece. The secondary centerpiece was a collection of tall cylinder vases holding hydrangea, vendela roses, freesia & orchids. I also added crystal hanging from the vases to make them cohesive to the trees.

All before images by: Just Say Yes Events!
All after images by: Studio This Is

Mr & Mrs Beasley

It was an absolute joy working with Nakeisha & Nathaniel on their July 23rd 2010 wedding. Just Say Yes Events was brought on to create two massive 16 feet candy buffets and the bridal party flowers. The color scheme for the wedding was a kiwi green accented with brown which is very in this season. Nakeisha the bride requested a flower ball also known as pave flower pomander and we had fun with it. We decided to use a few different flowers for some interest to the eye and green satin co-ordinating ribbon.
Here are a few images of their special day!



Creative Direction: Barbara Mouradian, Just Say Yes Events!
Photo By: Just Say Yes Events!


Creative Direction: Barbara Mouradian, Just Say Yes Events!
Photo By: Just Say Yes Events!
This was a pave pomander requested by the bride as her bridal bouquet. This is bar far to date one of our favorite bridal bouquets and truly unique. To stay within the clients budget we opted to use mums and baby green Hydrangea in between roses with an accent of orchids.
Please keep this in mind when selecting your wedding floral to keep costs down. Now a days there are so many fantastic florals that you can achieve any look by just swapping out your floral for something more affordable but similar in look and style.


Creative Direction: Barbara Mouradian, Just Say Yes Events!
Photo By: Just Say Yes Events!
This image so you have an idea of just of massive this pomander was. It was definitely heavy but fabulous and most importantly the bride loved it!


ENJOY!
Just Say Yes Events!

Paris, je t'aime

Paris, je t'aime.....There is no place on earth quite like Paris. I had the opportunity of spending some time time there this past June 2009 and Paris won my heart over immediately. With that being said it was very easy when it came time to plan my bridal shower. My bridesmaids know how much I love Paris and one day chatting with my matron of honor about the shower my Parisian shower was born. I searched high and low for a Paris themed invitation and after many nights of google searching.....NOTHING! I was very sad because being an Event Designer I know just how important the invitation is. Not many people realize that it serves at your guests first glimpse into what they should expect from your event. I decided that I would take on the task of designing the invitation and so began my adventure in invitation design. I knew that I wanted the invitation itself to be "Pink"....It is my favorite color after all and I also wanted the shower to be very feminine. I have shared a few photos for you to see the process and finished project enjoy and I will post images from the shower as its coming up pretty soon on May 1st.



Photo By: Just Say Yes Events
Creative Direction: Barbara Medina
First run of the copy on the invitation. We tried different fonts but in the end decided to mix a modern font & Traditional one. This is also a test of the custom ribbon we designed for the invitation. I did not just want an Eiffel Tower because that what people associate most with paris. I wanted other details and words such as Merci, Bonjour etc


Photo By: Just Say Yes Events
Creative Direction: Barbara Medina
In this image you can see the entire invitation suite. The first piece the actual invitation came out wonderfully with the custom double faced satin ribbon and custom copy. The envelopes were also adorned with an Eiffel Tower & the words Paris, Merci & Bonjour. No detail was left out...We designed the RSVP to match the suite as-well adding one simple Eiffel Tower, simple yet sophisticated.


Photo By: Just Say Yes Events
Creative Direction: Barbara Medina


Photo By: Just Say Yes Events
Creative Direction: Barbara Medina
In this last photo you can see the detail of the custom ribbon. The ribbon was a labor of love taking over 3 days to complete.
It added the perfect touch to the invitations and we will be utilizing this technique for future events...Stay Tuned!!

Meet the planner!

Hello everyone! I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself to those who do not already know me. My name is Barbara Medina and I am the owner & creative director for Just Say Yes Events based in Chicago. Ever since I was a little girl I was planning parties & gatherings. From very early on I loved the whole planning, setting up & hosting of parties. I have many fond memories as a child helping my parents with my birthday parties. My father would give me a budget and I would divide up the money making sure to cover all bases: Food, decor & misc such as invitations, favors etc. One party that stands out to me was my 12th birthday, a wonderful sleep over that I will remember forever! My birthday is February 11th so I tend to lean towards the colors of Valentines day for decor. I created a menu and my parents cooked, I bought decor and decorated our home & even made sure to have enough money for a fantastic birthday cake.
Unfortunately, I didn't realize that "HELLO" this is what I should be doing. I finished school and became a business manager for a few different businesses everything from Pharmacy to retail management. I was never 100% happy with what I was doing and was just not fulfilled. After being in the whole business management industry I left to travel and promote companies all over the United States. I worked with all sorts of companies everything from auto industry, medical industry, restaurant industry and more! I was basically in sales at a trade show level. Once again....Not fulfilled!
One day while driving in the car I had like Oprah says an "AHA" moment. I knew all along what I should be doing and what my passion was and it had been right in front of me this whole time! The next step was to become certified, select a business name, build a website and much much more!! I was up for the challenge and ready to take on the event planning and design world. Just Say Yes Events was then born and took off like wild fire. In three short years I made a name for myself and learned from the best of the best. Just Say Yes is now a luxury event planning & design firm specializing in weddings. It has been so exciting seeing my business grow and become everything I had ever dreamed of.
We are now on the road to becoming even bigger and looking forward to being part of the most important day in a couples life. we take pride in our work and strive to make every wedding different and treat them as if they were our own.



Thank You
Just Say Yes events!
Barbara Medina
Creative Director


Photo by: Just Say Yes Events @ The Palmer House Hilton's "Taste, tea & tour" annual event.

Evening of Bridal Luxury!

Everyone at Just Say Yes Events absolutely loves the Evening of Bridal Luxury that Modern Luxury hosts. The evening is hosted in the most lavish venue The Ritz Carlton in Downtown Chicago on March 25th, 2010. The evening includes: Exquisite culinary creations by the Ritz Carlton, Lavish event decor by Heffernan Morgan, luxury swag bags from all of CS Luxury vendors (Just Say Yes! is included of course), Gown by Belle Vie and a exclusive runway show featuring Vera Wang.
This event is the most important of the year and space is limited. If you would like to purchase tickets please visit...
Click Here


An Evening of Bridal Luxury
Thursday March 25th, 2010
The Ritz Carlton Chicago
160 East Pearson Street
6-9pm


Thank You
Just Say Yes Events!

Heres a few images from last years Evening of bridal Luxury.
Photos by: Billy Rood Fig Media & Just Say Yes Events

Utter Romance!

I have a love for all things soft and romantic. Our clients Brian & Isenia have definitely chosen to go in that direction and we are ecstatic. They described wanting something that was very romantic and sophisticated and that is something we love at Just Say Yes Events. I knew from the very beginning that I would use Hydrangea as they have a very soft and cloud like look to them. The bride loves pale pink roses so we are using a premium rose that is being flown for this wedding. There are 3 different centerpieces for the reception so we wanted to make sure they were all tied together and look cohesive. All three centerpieces utilize hydrangea, roses & hypericum along with tons of crystals. We took the decor to another level adding tons of candlelight! When I say tons...I mean tons! Each crystals tree will have 9 candles at the base, tall centerpiece 3 floating candles and the low centerpiece 3 votives. I love the glow that they create and the way they make the crystals come to life!
This will be a wonderful wedding and we are very pleased to be working with Brian & Isenia.

Just Say Yes Events
Enjoy!




Photo © Just Say Yes Events

Photo © Just Say Yes Events

Photo © Just Say Yes Events

Photo © Just Say Yes Events

Photo © Just Say Yes Events

Happy Valentine's Day!

I found my fiancées gift a couple weeks ago and well was eager to blog about it but I was afraid he would visit the blog!
On one of my weekly trips to Paper Source I found a tiny little book that resembles a bachelors "Little black book"
The title of the book is; STUFF...Every man should know by Brett Cohen and is a steal at just $10.00. I absolutely fell in love with this tiny humorous book. Inside there are all kinds of interesting things, for example; How to purchase a diamond, how to last ten minutes on a dance floor, five pick up lines in five different languages....He will NOT be using those ;-) but most importantly, How to give a MASSAGE! The book is the perfect little gift for your son turning 21 or hubby that needs to be taught a few things he missed!!!

Happy Valentines Day!!
Barbara Medina