There are many times when we share decor concepts with clients and that’s the question we hear… until we explain it properly.

But then, as they say, a picture paints a thousand words.

You're investing a good deal of money on your tablescapes! Why not go all the way and make those details come to life?! It's not that much more expensive, on balance.

And another:

Notice how there is a vibrancy and shimmer that makes the tablescape full of interest! You'll allow us to create a scintillating environment which impacts, entices and stimulates your guests' senses! Notice, too, how each petal of the artfully designed centerpiece is allowed to 'breathe' and shine on its own! Now imagine the piece with just the ambient light in a dimmed banquet room. It would still be gorgeous but it simply wouldn't have that extra zing of elegance and panache. When you join us as a client, we'll show you how.

These photos were tweeted by Publisher|Editor in Chief of Southern Weddings Magazine, wedding business consultant, Lara Casey via www.twitpic.com.

UPDATE: We’ve recently learned that the floral artistry in these photos is the work of, none other than, Kebbie Hollingsworth, AIFD of Kebbie Hollingsworth Floral Design!

Simply GORGEOUS!

What wonderful news! Concert promoter Jeff Baker of Undercover Entertainment has AMAZINGLY donated a block of prime tickets to Sister’s Network of Central New Jersey (SNCNJ)!

This is wonderful because 60 women, who are supported by or supporters of SNCNJ can have a moment to relax and take their minds off of the strife of battling this rapacious disease.  If even for an evening.

After having donated our event coordination services to their annual “Promenade in Pink” gala for the past two years, we have seemingly “adopted” the group which provides breast cancer outreach, education, child care, medical transportation, housekeeping, early detection and an annual 5k walk for a cure.

They are a Susan G. Komen for the Cure affiliate (which we’ve also supported) and were recently voted the best chapter of Sister’s Network in the country. We’re VERY proud of their herculean achievements and contributions to all women of color whether living with or afflicted by breast cancer.  To date, in addition to our other fundraising efforts for the group (see below), we have donated more than $30,000 in billable hours to the creation and management of their gala!

So why is this important and why is this on our blogsite?

Because GLBTI men and women get breast cancer too!

And talking about it leads to prevention!

Learn more about the concert:
http://www.newbrunswicklife.com/kem-live-15818

Learn more about the organization:
http://sncnj.org

About Kem:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kem_(singer)

Join our $1,000,000,000.00 campaign to raise funds for this chapter?
http://www.firstgiving.com/sistersnetworkofcentralnj

This just approved.

savvyplanners.com CEO, MW Savant, is releasing TWO (2) three day, two night hotel stays to the first two Mainer couples to email travel (a)t savvyplanners.com.

Please include your telephone number (for verification of location purposes only and certificate activation instructions). No strings or hassles. Certificate doesn’t expire until 9/30/10 but we’ll make sure you get current ones based on the November election result.

It’s just a nice thing to do.

The first two couples residing in and engaged to be married in Maine will receive these awards. Hotel/resort Venues are on the Maine coastline but winners may select destinations in one of six countries.

Winners must be over 18 and will be called with their codes and instructions today.

Says Savant, “Even as the Governor speaks of the possibility of a public referendum, we want to add to your joy today. If it doesn’t work out, well the winners will have two awesome vacation accomodations! Silver lining!”

Congratulations Maine!

On behalf of all of us here at savvyplanners.com & savvyTravel!

via Gay City News
By: PAUL SCHINDLER

05/06/2009

New Hampshire Governor John Lynch, Maine Governor John Baldacci, and former Washington Mayor Marion Barry. (Gay City News)

Less than an hour after the Maine Senate gave final approval to a marriage equality bill, Democratic Governor John Balducci on May 6 signed the legislation into law. A day earlier, the House of Representatives had given approval to the measure, by a vote of 89-57, passed in preliminary form, by the Senate last week. The final Senate vote this week was 21-13.

In a written statement Balducci said, “In the past, I opposed gay marriage while supporting the idea of civil unions. I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law, and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage.”

The House vote on May 5 came shortly after the defeat of an amendment that would have forced the question onto a voter referendum in November. The amendment was defeated 85-62.

The Bangor Daily News described the House’s three-hour debate as “emotional,” but Representative James Martin, an out gay Orono Democrat, said, “I’m also glad we’ve moved beyond the contentious debate over the issue that’s taken place over the past 25 years. It was a very civil debate today.”

Martin and his partner celebrated a commitment ceremony nine years ago and plan to marry if the law is enacted in Maine.

The Bangor newspaper reported that while the bill had more Democratic votes than Republican, it passed with bipartisan support.

Noting he would soon celebrate his 53rd wedding anniversary, Representative James J. Campbell Jr., a Newfield Republican, said, “They have been the best 53 years of my life. I don’t want to stand here and say that two men and two women cannot have what I’ve had for the past 53 years with my wife.”

But Representative Michael Thibodeau, a Winterport Republican, said, “Let’s be honest. This isn’t about civil rights. It’s about a social agenda that tears at the very fabric of our society.”

Opponents of the legislation vowed to collect the signatures necessary to force any marriage equality legislation to go before the voters in a referendum. They would have to gather 55,087 signatures, according to the Bangor Daily News, in a state with a population of just over 1.3 million. Gay rights legislation has several times been forced onto the ballot in Maine.

Maine becomes the fifth state with marriage equality on the books. Three of the other four — Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Vermont — are in New England, and the other is Iowa.

Meanwhile in New Hampshire, the House Judiciary Committee on May 5 approved amendments to the marriage equality bill that the State Senate last week added to the legislation the House passed in March. House action on the Senate version is expected on May 6. As in Maine, New Hampshire’s Democratic governor, John Lynch, has not stated definitively how he will act on the bill.

And in Washington, DC, the City Council, by a vote of 12-1, approved a law recognizing legal same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions. Mayor Adrian Fenty, an African-American Democrat, has pledged to sign the measure, but the one dissenter on the Council, former Mayor Marion Barry, warned, “All hell is going to break lose. We may have a civil war. The black community is just adamant against this.”

When the New Hampshire Senate passed the marriage measure last week, Lynch articulated his long-standing preference for civil unions, which already exist there, over outright marriage equality, saying, “I still believe the fundamental issue is about providing the same rights and protections to same-sex couples as are available to heterosexual couples. This was accomplished through the passage of the civil unions law two years ago. To achieve further real progress, the federal government would need to take action to recognize New Hampshire civil unions.”

That message was similar to the statement Vermont’s Republican governor, Jim Douglas, made last month prior to vetoing marriage equality legislation, but Lynch has not ruled out signing the bill. The veto by Vermont’s Douglas was overridden by two-thirds of both chambers of the Legislature and the law was enacted there.

The primary difference between the Senate and House versions in New Hampshire is that the Senate approach explicitly distinguishes between civil and religious marriage, a component of the legislation that the House had originally not included, but that the Judiciary Committee there approved on May 5.

Seacostonline.com reports that Lynch has faced intense pressure from both proponents and opponents of the marriage bill as he considers his options. New Hampshire Freedom to Marry put volunteers on the streets in cities across the state this past weekend to urge voters to contact the governor in support. Mo Baxley, executive director of the group, said it has gathered 1,500 signatures in support of the legislation, and proponents have made up to 300 calls a day to the governor’s office. Baxley charged that out-of-state opponents are spearheading the drive to press Lynch to veto the legislation, saying, “We’re having only New Hampshire people call. We thought it was a better way.”

Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a group based in Princeton, New Jersey, that pledges to spend millions in opposition to marriage equality nationwide, called Baxley’s charge “absurd,” stating, “New Hampshire people are calling us saying, ‘What can we do?’ Residents of New Hampshire don’t support same-sex marriage. Period. And they aren’t being listened to by the House and the Senate.”

Brown acknowledged, however, that NOM’s advertising, which has been generic to date, including the infamous “Gathering Storm” spot, is rolling out an ad targeting Lynch, and will work to defeat pro-marriage equality legislators in the next election. Seacoastonline.com reported the NOM television and radio campaign is costing the group $50,000.

Colin Manning, Lynch’s press secretary, said the governor “will be reviewing the legislation carefully.”

If New Hampshire enacts a marriage equality law, it would become the sixth state with marriage equality, leaving Rhode Island as the only New England holdout. Action is still possible this year in both New York, which recognizes legal out-of-state marriages by same-sex coupes, and New Jersey.

In the nation’s capital, former Mayor Barry’s fiery rhetoric led David Catania, an out gay Independent councilman, to charge that Barry’s words were “bigoted,” according to the Washington Post. That in turn led a group of African-American clergymen to storm out of the Council chambers.

The US Congress, in accordance with Washington’s Home Rule Charter, now has 30 days to review the legislation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a written statement after the Council action saying, “I have long believed that Congress should not interfere with internal decisions made by the District of Columbia’s elected representatives — just as the Congress did not intervene in the State of New York’s recognition of valid marriage contracts in other jurisdictions.”

But, Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz, the ranking Republican on a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee, said, “Some things are worth fighting for, and this is one of them. It’s not something I can let go softly into the night.”

Eleanor Holmes, an African-American Democrat who is Washington’s non-voting delegate in Congress, praised the Council’s action, and said, “I do not believe that a serious attempt to overturn the Council bill will be made or will be successful.”

Catania has pledged to introduce a marriage equality bill in the City Council later this year.

©GayCityNews 2009

May 6, 2009

AUGUSTA – Governor John E. Baldacci today signed into law LD 1020, An Act to End Discrimination in Civil Marriage and Affirm Religious Freedom.

“I have followed closely the debate on this issue. I have listened to both sides, as they have presented their arguments during the public hearing and on the floor of the Maine Senate and the House of Representatives. I have read many of the notes and letters sent to my office, and I have weighed my decision carefully,”

Governor Baldacci said. “I did not come to this decision lightly or in haste.”

“I appreciate the tone brought to this debate by both sides of the issue,” Governor Baldacci said. “This is an emotional issue that touches deeply many of our most important ideals and traditions. There are good, earnest and honest people on both sides of the question.”

“In the past, I opposed gay marriage while supporting the idea of civil unions,” Governor Baldacci said. “I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law, and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage.”

“Article I in the Maine Constitution states that ‘no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor be denied the equal protection of the laws, nor be denied the enjoyment of that person’s civil rights or be discriminated against.’”

“This new law does not force any religion to recognize a marriage that falls outside of its beliefs. It does not require the church to perform any ceremony with which it disagrees. Instead, it reaffirms the separation of Church and State,” Governor Baldacci said.

“It guarantees that Maine citizens will be treated equally under Maine’s civil marriage laws, and that is the responsibility of government.”

“Even as I sign this important legislation into law, I recognize that this may not be the final word,” Governor Baldacci said. “Just as the Maine Constitution demands that all people are treated equally under the law, it also guarantees that the ultimate political power in the State belongs to the people.”

“While the good and just people of Maine may determine this issue, my responsibility is to uphold the Constitution and do, as best as possible, what is right. I believe that signing this legislation is the right thing to do,” Governor Baldacci said.

May 5, 2009 by Bryan Boyd (via GayRights Watch )

The Maine State House of Representatives voted today on a bill that would allow the state to create legal same-sex marriages. The bill, LD 1020 was passed by the House 89 votes to 58.
The bill will next be returned to the Senate for final approval.

Representative Stephen Lovejoy, D—Portland reflected on his own 45 year marriage and testified that same-sex marriage will not hurt his union. Lovejoy told the House in explaining his position, “Love does not destroy, hate does. This is the next step in civil rights”.

Representative Sheryl Briggs, D—Mexico, told the House that even though her daughter is a lesbian, She is unable to approve of who her daughter is and would be voting against marriage equality because of her religious upbringing.

Gov. John Baldacci, a Democrat, has not said whether he will sign the bill.

The vote in Maine comes on the heels of a new CBS/New York Times poll released Tuesday that shows that support for marriage equality across the country has risen nine points in the last month. The poll, conducted April 22-26, 2009, shows that 42% of Americans now say that same-sex couples should be allowed to legally marry. That number is up nine points from the month earlier when only 33% support marriage equality for same-sex couples.

via Outcome

D.C. City Councilman Marion Berry (Blade photo by Joey DiGuglielmo)

The D.C. City Council has voted 12-1 in favor of recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions. The only vote against the measure came from Councilman Marion Barry. Stay tuned to the Blade for more on this story as it develops.

Marion Barry is lone dissenting vote From Washington Blade staff reports | May 5 2009, 12:07 PM

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The final vote is expected to occur after 5pm.