Updates!

Goodness has it really been since July that we updated? Shame. shame. shame.  I guess when you are busy planning events and working on construction and interior design projects you have little time for blogging.  The last few months have flown by for Mallory Wilkins Events & Interiors!  Our fabulous intern arrived and our weddings, corporate parties and design projects took off!  We have had the oppurtunity to work with some many great people, venues and vendors and we honestly thank all of you for everything.  Our main event for July was the wedding of Ashley Brown and Harley Matthews at Wills Creek Vineyard.  The event was perfect everything from the flowers provided by Attalla Florist down to the weather!  The images of the event by Southern Bliss Photography are stunning to say the least.  Here are a few of our favorite images from the night!

Most of the month of August was spent getting prepared for our September weddings and corporate events.  Our first wedding in September was Kelsey Sanders and Clint Rice at Ross Bridge. We enjoyed working with the staff there and also with another amzing photographer, Breanna Fogg, owner of Breanna Fogg Photography here in Birmingham.  We enjoyed working with Kelsey and helping her plan out each table design all of which were items exclusive to MWEI.  We were thrilled to do her flowers for the event as well.  Here are a few shots from that beautiful wedding!

Planner vs No Planner

Weddings are scary, especially to someone who has never planned one or been to one.  Sometimes the planning process can even be painful to the experienced bride who has watched every single one of her friends take the plunge.  Some people have a knack for organization but have no vision on how to create the perfect atmosphere for their guests. Others are so creative that they simply lose track of their budget and their minds!  The best advice that I can give to someone getting married is the same advice I would give to someone building a new home: get to the planner/coordinator/designer first! You may only need their help for a day or you may want them to help you with each step you take all the way to your honeymoon get- a- away car.  The thing that is the most important about meeting with them first is that they have done this countless numbers of times so their knowledge and experience will be the most helpful to you.  Maybe you already have the color palette you want but you have no idea where to get the linens you want to rent for the reception space?  Well we can help you select the right textures and lengths to convey your theme.  Maybe you know you want calla lily’s and orchids in your bouquet but you do not know the best florist to get that really cool tree centerpiece you saw in a bridal magazine, we can help you with that too!   Most people think it costs a fortune to hire someone to help coordinate everything when in reality a good coordinator can save you time, money and heartache.  We can help you create a realistic budget, organize and help you select your vendors and set up everything for your big day.  We can even carry around your mother’s purse and your lip gloss for touch ups during the wedding day.  Most all the coordinators, including us, will customize a package that will work for your budget, style and needs.  Do not be afraid to call and have a consult, I promise whether you choose us or anyone else in the business you will not regret it.  Do we make mistakes? Does everything always run perfect?  Well, no it doesn’t. But I bet that it would be so much easier to handle a crisis with a friend than by yourself on your wedding day.  You never get to relive this day again, why not make it as stress free and as perfect as it can be by hiring someone who can take it there.  Do not let your wedding day slip away without being touched by someone to can truly show the world who you are as a couple.

Texas is coming to Alabama!

Tis Tis Tis!  I know we have been very behind on our blog updates, we are very sorry for the tardiness.  We have had so many wonderful things going on that it has been hard to find the time to update.  The last few months have been full of weddings, after rehearsal dinners, custom baby nurseries, and renovations.  We have been working on moving our rental inventory to Birmingham to our new office which we are sharing with Concept Construction in Helena, Al.  It will be open by appointment only here in the next few weeks (we hope :)
Now on to other news!  Please be sure and check out our ad in the newest issue of the Perfect Wedding guide Summer 2011!  We are so excited to be a part of a network of Birmingham professionals!
I also wanted to share with you a little bit about our beautiful intern Haleigh Hickerson who will be joining us this fall!  I asked her to send in a short clip about herself and some photos and here is what she wrote:

 " I am in the last semester of my junior year at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. I am going to graduate with a degree in RHIM (restaurant, hotel institutional management) with a focus on catering and event planning. Unsure of direction for studies, I started "Just Let Me Cook, Catering the summer of 2009. Started for fun and has now become a passion in my life. I'm currently following that passion in Florence, Italy studying event planning and culinary arts. After graduation, I am hoping to continue event planning and some private catering.
Most important to me are my family and friends. They mean the world to me and have had a huge impact on where I am today. I also love all sports, working out, cooking, and traveling. I'm obsessed with being busy, and trying to get the most out of everyday! I am so excited to be moving out to Alabama this summer and can not wait to start learning! "
She is now home from her travels and we are looking forward to having her join our staff this fall! 

Beautiful Life

I have finally slowed down long enough to stop and breath in the fresh Spring air.  What an amazing ride it has been so far.  I am so thankful for the friends and family who continue to share my passion with others.  We started this business first because God gave me talent and I wanted to use to help others and the second obvious reason is so that  could earn a living doing what I love to do; which is making people happy.  I am overjoyed that I have been able to impact so many peoples lives in such a short amount of time.  The people that I have met along the way have been inspiring and they make me want to do even greater things with my life and my career. 
We have been so busy and now we are slowing down to a steady level for the rest of the year.  I am thankful for all the business I have gotten and I am looking forward to adding in more throughout the year.  Our partner company Concept Construction is launching a new site (that was the BIG news that I was so excited about on FB)  The website will allow you to see all the work they have done with us and also jobs they are working on now and pictures of past projects.  We are wanting to really get involved in some remodeling projects and also the custom home market.  If you know anyone who needs a builder who is lincened, insured AND talented then you need to contact us. We actually just saw a case of someone who's electrican wasnt certified and had no prior electrical exprience, he left them with a house that nothing worked right, the bulbs are blowing, and the wires are catching on fire.  He took the money and they haven't seen him since.  He changed his name and his phone number.  The lawyer told them he had no assets and there was no way to charge him.  Know who you are dealing with before you start a construction project!
On the bridal side we are booming and loving it!  I love to se the brides personality come through the design concepts that they choose.  Making that concept come to life is what I live for!  We are doing alot of custom pieces and florals starting in June.  Over these next few months we are shifting our focus onto our custom furniture pieces.  If you know of anyone in the area who needs a headboard, bedding, drapes.  Let us know, we got in some great new fabrics that we are ready to try out! 
God Bles you all and please continue to sare our website and blog with your friends and family!
Thank you!

Whew!

The past few months have been a blur to us!  We finished off 2010 with a beautiful wedding in Gadsden.  Katie and Ryan Franks we had a blast working with you.  Special thanks to Taylor Haynie Photography for sharing these photos with us!  If you have not looked at her work you can look her up online or through our facebook place.  She is amazing and I highly recomend her for your special day!
January was supposed to be our break but that didn't happen, we did the Southern Bridal Show at the BJCC.  February has been FULL of bridal appointments!  We are so thankful to have them and we are excited about this year.  We have already lined up several weddings, rehearsal dinners, and corporate parties along with some smaller showers mixed in.  Next weekend is the Birmingham Civette's Gala, please check our facebook page for more info on this and to purchase tickets you can go through our FB page to link to their website.  One of the event designers on staff, Brianne Phillips, is a member and is handling most of the decor for the event.  We are excited to be a part of an event for such a worthy cause.
The end of this month we will be headed to Las Vegas for a trade show.  We are hoping to come back with some freash insides and more product to use when doing events.  We will keep you updated as the month goes on!
God Bless,

Mallory

January News

What a busy start to 2011!  We have had such an amazing start to this year.  Our first event was the Southern Bridal Show at the BJCC last weekend.  We had a blast setting up and networking with all the other vendors on Saturday.  There were over 940 brides that came through.  Needless to say we had a great response and are getting so excited about the upcoming weddings this year!  We still have some dates available so please do not hesitate to call or email us and schedule a consult.
Our website is finally up!  Please check it out in your spare time http://www.mallorywilkins.com/
We have also been taking orders for upholstered headboards as well.  The ones we have completed are at Gadsden Lighting Showroom right now.  While you are there you can see our benches and farm tables too.  I will be posting more of these items in the shopping section of the website as soon as I can. 
We want to thank everyone who helped us with the Bridal show. Steven you did an amazing job on our custom furniture pieces, Dottie thanks a million for helping me with the flowers (they were AMAZING) and thanks to everyone who helped us set up and tear everything down.  We obviously did something right since we won the Best Booth Award! 
Please continue to check in on us and refer us to your friends.  We are still doing interiors, faux painting, linens, drapes, etc.  Call us!

Shopping around

Today I had the pleasure of meeting people from all across many different lines of work.  I started the day off by heading downtown to the office of Meredith Davidson who is a good college friend of mine.  She works for the Birmingham Business Alliance.  She so graciously set aside for me 10 copies of the Birmingham Magazine that our feature story ran in this month.  It has been exciting to see this business venture as it is unfolding.  I pinch myself and say "is this really happening?"  and it is!!
After leaving her office we ran around to several more stops looking at fabrics, trim, wallpaper and the list goes on.  I have to keep my contacts up to date and all of my resources so when you clip out that oh so fabulous picture of a custom  upholstered sofa in chocolate Belgium linen with damask print throw pillows and reclaimed lumber coffee table I will know where to get it from.
I get cracked up because so many people think that the life of someone in the design field is glamorous.  I always laugh about it when I have been in the refrigerator box of the wholesale florist for an hour digging out fresh greenery or out in the workshop at 1:00am with stain all over my clothes and my hands.  Well today was the worst stunt I have pulled yet.  I left wearing my tall black 3" heel boots with one of my favorite dresses and my long black coat from Anthropologie (which is one of my wardrobe favorites.)  If you follow the blog you know that we have been working on some custom furniture.  We have a couple of pieces finished, we are just waiting on a few more things to be finished up before we release everything.  We decided that we wanted to incorporate something more into the designs.  Steven loves wood, and I love the thought of recycling and we came up with the idea to take our design concepts and build them out of reclaimed lumber.  This thought of giving new life to something that would have otherwise been sent to a land field inspired us to go and check out some lumber first hand.  We go today and spend an hour just talking to the owner and walking through a huge warehouse of materials from textile mills to shipping yards from all over the country.  Needless to say walking through a dirt floor facility with those boots on wasn't the best idea.  We also met the three warehouse dogs who loved me because when I left there my favorite coat was covered with dirt from their sweet little paws.  They couldn't resist me I guess :)
If anyone has any custom furniture ideas that they would be interested in just shoot us an email or call us.  We love custom projects and are willing to do pretty much anything you can dream up!

2011

Happy New Year to you all!  To be honest we were excited to file away 2010.  We have been so busy with things for 2011 that we couldn't wait for it to get here!  We are so happy to announce our add which will be hitting shelves this week in the Birmingham Bridal Magazine.  We have a spread with photos and a story all about us! YEA!  Please be sure and pick up your copy, we will post an online version as soon as we can.

The next big thing we have been prepping for is the Birmingham Bridal Show at the BJCC.  We are so excited and honored to be a part of the industry here in Birmingham and we can not wait to show off our services to the many brides from all over the South East that will be there on January 16th.  We have a coupon that we attached for anyone interested in coming to the show.  There will be plenty to see, every "who's who" vendor will be there this year and we are looking forward to getting the chance to mingle with them all.  As my mentor Pam Richardson says, "Competition is healthy, it keeps us all grounded...besides there is more than enough business to go around."  I have encouraged several of our upcoming brides to attend the show just to give them more ideas for color palettes, fabric, tablescapes, flowers...everything! 

The next big thing for this year is our custom furniture line!  We are so excited to offer some amazing designs at very affordable prices.  We have several pieces produced that have now been moved into painting.  I am so anxious to get them back to see how they turned out.  We will have a site up soon where you can shop online. We will also offer these items for sale at Gadsden Lighting Showroom and are working on some other locations in Birmingham as well. 

We have also got our domain name so now you can simply tell your friends and family to type in http://www.mallorywilkins.com/ and they will be taken straight here to the blog for the time being.  (We will have our website up and running soon.)

Stay tuned more updates soon!  Please continue to let your friends and family know about our services.
Thank you and Happy New Year to you all!