Bridal Tour No. 3 Recap

We had our Third Dream Bridal Tour this past Sunday, and it was such a fun day. The tour started with the group meeting at our studio on Fillmore Street. We then loaded into our shuttle from California Wine Tours and headed to our bottomless mimosa brunch at Circa. This was a nice time to get to know everyone and talk about specific issues they had run into during their planning.

After we were full from brunch, we walked a block to Habit and Pin the Tail. Habit is a wax studio in San Francisco, and is just the sweetest spot ever. Carrie Maxwell, the owner, was a client of mine for her May 2007 wedding at Bimbo's. This is the place to go for anyone preparing for their wedding day. Plus, their new boutique, Pin the Tail, has the cutest stuff around.

We hopped back in the bus for a short ride up to Pacific Puffs. This is a cream puff only shop, and they are to die for. It is a family run business, and the two grandson's used their grandmothers' cream puff recipe to start their shop. This place is great for any event for a dessert bar or for favors. We then walked right across the street to Nick Brown Photography and Bella Bridesmaid. This husband and wife team have a space that they share where they can both showcase their work.


After looking at dresses and pictures, we walked to Haute Bride to look at their goodies. They have everything from hair adornments, jewelry, veils, shoes and even dresses. It is a must check out place for those little things you need to make your look complete. The girls even got a pair of earrings to take home with them!

We then got back on our shuttle, and traveled down to SOMA to visit the darling Hello Lucky shop. We got a great presentation about all different options for print styles, what type of custom work they can do and got to take home a little pack of letterpress thank you notes. This shop does all of their own press work, and it shows. It is absolutely a haven for anyone that loves paper products and day of details!

Did I mention how hot it was that day by the way!? The city is rarely even warm, and we got a hot one. Good thing the shuttle had a great AC system! Anyway, we then shuttled ourselves to Hayes Valley to visit Birch's new floral studio. She is a complete creative genius, and anyone that can check out her studio can see that. She can take your vision, and make it a masterpiece.

After Birch, we were starting to slow down, and made a quick stop at Paper Source before heading back to our studio to meet with Gabby from Cake Coquette. She talked about cake design and let the participants taste red velvet and chocolate ganache cupcakes. Yum! Then Kathy from Well Rehearsed talked about the importance regarding the events surrounding the wedding. We talked about how to invite guests that have traveled from afar without busting the rehearsal dinner budget or offending anyone. We then got to see a beautiful slide show from Andrew Weeks Photography, my office mate.

We met so many fun people on our tour, and I truly enjoy doing them. I heard some great feedback along the way, and most commented on how great it was to meet and visit with 14 vendors in a five hour period that were hand picked by a planner. In the end, the particpants all walked away with new vendor information and a swag bag full of goodies and discounts valued at over $2000.

Plans have already begun for the next tour happening in early 2010! We have great new additions to our tour, and will be able to take more participants on the next one. Look for information coming in November!

Happy Planning!