I Do Brunch

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending the 2nd annual I Do Brunch in Clarksville, Maryland. The brunch is put on by Linnyette Richardson-Hall of Premier Event Management. The whole brunch was amazing from beginning to end! If you were staying at the reserved hotel for the event, a limousine shuttled you from the hotel to the brunch. If you drove yourself, there was valet parking right at the front door.





The theme for the day was an English Garden, and each table in the room was decorated differently. There were 16 tables, and 4 different teams worked to design the different table settings. Everyone at the brunch voted for the winner, and here are a few photos from the winning tables.











The menu was fantastic. The first station was the breakfast station, where I got the Chesapeake Benedict (English muffin topped with a poached egg and jumbo lump crab meat with a Chesapeake Hollandaise sauce). There was also scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, applewood cured bacon, and homemade biscuits with southern gravy. The second station was a Grits station, where you could choose your own toppings (sweet or savory). Third was the Luncheon station with tea sandwiches and an English cheese display. The signature drink to cap it all off was the I Do Mimosa, which was a sparkling spumante with passion fruit nectar and a strawberry.







After we ate, we had an open mic discussion about several different aspects of the wedding planning industry. We covered topics like advertising methods, social networking, what's changing the industry, and the hot topic of the day was Day-Of Coordination; whether or not it was a good idea and how different businesses handle their own Day-Of Coordination packages.



To go along with the English Tea theme, everyone was invited to wear a hat and enter a contest. The contest became a fashion show, and the winner was decided by applause. By the time I got my video camera on, it was just in time to capture Mark Kingsdorf from Queen of Hearts Wedding Consultants with his entry in the contest.



Before it was over Linnyette had one more surprise for everyone. Since we as wedding planners don't get to cut loose and dance at the weddings, she had the DJ play a few dance tunes.



Our swag bags were filled with all kinds of goodies, and the bag was a prize in itself -- too cute!





Linnyette was wonderful to meet, and she was such a perfect hostess. She took the time to come by each individual table and speak to everyone and thank us for coming. Her insights during our discussions were empowering and motivating, and I left there with so many new ideas. This brunch was a wonderful learning experience for me, and I got to meet some lovely wedding planners from all over the place! Thanks to Premier Event Management and all of the other vendors and organizers. Can't wait for next year!