Happy New Year 2017

We are ready for many new and wonderful things ahead personally and professionally
in 2017. As many of you are aware the website has been down for a bit, but we have been working on it.  There were many things that we needed to tackle to get it finished and it will be completed fairly soon.
We want to start our 2017-year strong with completing our goals before March, before wedding season officially begins.  

Besides the completion of the website, we posted that we are working on the ‘Celebrations & Occasions’ Magazine on a previous post.  Our magazine will feature our products and services along with featuring other professional vendors from all over the world that are different nationalities.  We want others to share culture, expertise, ideas, inspiration, traditions and be uplifting and encouraging to wedding and events industry professionals and to our customers who shop with us too.  

Thank you for always following us on our social media websites and supporting our business with kind words, actions or shopping with us while we are focusing on finishing our awesome new website and our magazine.  It has been a difficult transition for this new website, but we have no doubt 2017 will be a year filled with positivity and possibilities.  

Lastly, we want to convey a special message to all of you.  "May the New Year bring to you warmth, love, and happiness filled with beautiful moments and treasured memories.  Let your light shine every day and be a shining light to the others in the world"-Carla Lowery.

Would you love more free printables and other free items from our website?  Sign up for our Newsletter...Click on the 'Subscribe to Our Newsletter' button. 

Remember, at WicksnCandlesticks, we love celebrating all of life's events and special occasions! For more information on designs, ideas, inspiration and styles for weddings, events, celebrations and special occasions, please follow our blog at WicksnCandlesticks. To shop on our website, please visit http://www.wicksncandlesticks.com/.

Kind Wishes,

Carla Lowery is the Owner of WicksnCandlesticks that is an International Business. Her website launched in 2009 and her store is the 'go-to' store for beautiful, exceptional and exclusive products for weddings, events, celebrations and special occasions.

Celebrations and Occasions Magazine

We are actively seeking vendors and professionals in the event and wedding industry that complement our Celebrations & Occasions digital magazine along with our services and products.  We want a diversified group of talented vendors of all types of disabilities and nationalities. Meaning if you are a disable person who would like to model or currently is a professional model, we want you! We do not want to exclude vendor professionals; we rather include all vendor professionals.  

We are also seeking vendor professional to provide one written contribution

for each quarterly magazine issue regarding trends, tips, inspiration, or ideas in your industry profession. If you like to be included, please contact us via email at wicksncandlesticks [at] gmail.com in the RE: section, please write Professional Vendors Interested for Celebrations & Occasions Magazine.

Professional Vendors Needed:
•Barbers & Hairstylist
•Bed and Breakfasts
•Caterers

•Ceremony & Reception Venues
•Dance Instructors
•Dress & Formal Attire 
•Dress and Formal Gown Designers
•Event Rentals

•Flowers
•Hotel Accommodations
•Insurance
•Officiants
•Professional Makeup Artist 
•Nail Technicians
•Photography 
•Restaurants
•Transportation
•Travel Experts 
•Tuxedo & Suites 
•Videography
•Event & Wedding Planners

This idea has been on our hearts for a very long time because we believe that the event and wedding industry should be able to accommodate all ethnicities and disabilities. We understand that other magazines are different and that is great!  However, it would be nice to include a bride who wants to model that is wheelchair bound and give her the dream of modeling.  Those kinds of things are very important to our company and no professional business that we know of offers that opportunity regarding a photoshoot.

Would you love more Free Printables and Other Free Items from our website?  When you sign up for our Newsletter be sure to check out all the Freebies that are Available For You...Click on the 'Subscribe to Our Newsletter' button.

Remember, at WicksnCandlesticks, we love celebrating all of life's events and special occasions! For more information on designs, ideas, inspiration and styles for weddings, events, celebrations and special occasions, please follow our blog at WicksnCandlesticks. To shop on our website, please visit http://www.wicksncandlesticks.com/. 

Kind Wishes,

Carla Lowery is the Owner of WicksnCandlesticks that is an International Business. Her website launched in 2009 and her store is the 'go-to' store for beautiful, exceptional and exclusive products for weddings, events, celebrations and special occasions.

Liven Up Your Wedding Reception with a Wedding Anniversary Pinata

Ever since I was little, I have loved Piñatas! My sister and I went to a childhood friend’s party from private school.  His parents bought him a piñata and my eyes lit up when I saw it because it so beautiful and colorful!  At first, I did not understand what it was because I just thought it was just a pretty decoration. 

His parents gathered all the children around in a circle outside in his backyard and explained what the decoration was at the party.  His parents showed us how to play, everyone took turns and when it was my turn, and I placed the blindfold over my eyes and used the piñata stick to smash the piñata open, so I could retrieve some candy!

Even though that was back when I was a child, there is nothing wrong with adults using a piñata at a wedding reception today because it is fun and a celebration of marriage.  If your wedding reception is more family oriented, I suggest purchasing two (2) piñatas. One (1) piñata for the children and one (1) piñata for the couple to use.  Remember, the one pianta for couple is not to opened at the wedding reception, this one is for celebrating their first year anniversary together.

What to put in a couple's wedding pinata? Of course, I suggest a variety of items couples may enjoy. I have provided variety of options

for one of the wedding party members to put inside a piñata for a wedding couple or you can let guests choose a couple of items and then provide a sticker for guests to write a note, a joke, predictions or words of encouragement and stick the sticker on the item and place inside the piñata. I have provided some sayings I have found online and also provided some of these corny lines I came up with myself...Enjoy!

Remember, at WicksnCandlesticks, we love celebrating all of life's events and special occasions! For more information on designs, ideas, inspiration and styles for weddings, events, celebrations and special occasions, please follow our blog at WicksnCandlesticks. To shop on our website, please visit http://www.wicksncandlesticks.com/. 


Kind Wishes,

Carla Lowery is the Owner of WicksnCandlesticks that is an International Business. Her website launched in 2009 and her store is the 'go-to' store for beautiful, exceptional and exclusive products for weddings, events, celebrations and special occasions.

There's Something Magical About Christmas Lights....In December

There is just something magical about Christmas lights.  My husband and I drive all over in look at pretty white Christmas Lights.  The reason why I love them so much is that I feel at a time when the world seems lost, there is always sparkly magical white lights that represent peace, love, joy and hope during the Christmas season.  

When you go out to look at Christmas Lights this season with your family, I designed this Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt Printable for your journey driving all over your town or state to look at Christmas Lights (Just click on the photo save as and it is yours to print for personal use). Who knows?  It may be a new family tradition for you each Christmas season. Don't forget to check out some of my favorite places for Christmas & Holiday Lights on Foursquare.  If you have any favorite places to go, please let us know and we can add them to our Foursquare page.

Download your Free Printable:
• Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt Game

Would you love more free printables and other free items from our website?  Sign up for our Newsletter...Click on the 'Subscribe to Our Newsletter' button. 

Remember, at WicksnCandlesticks, we love celebrating all of life's events and special occasions! For more information on designs, ideas, inspiration and styles for weddings, events, celebrations and special occasions, please follow our blog at WicksnCandlesticks. To shop on our website, please visit http://www.wicksncandlesticks.com/.

Kind Wishes,

Carla Lowery is the Owner of WicksnCandlesticks that is an International Business. Her website launched in 2009 and her store is the 'go-to' store for beautiful, exceptional and exclusive products for weddings, events, celebrations and special occasions.

Share the Charity Cause, Share the Link & Share the Love

 

Winston Churchill was quoted, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” A wonderful quote…and a beautiful gesture to incorporate charitable giving to others in need at a wedding reception.  We conducted online research this weekend regarding new ways couples handle the wedding favors or wedding gifts. 

We have found within the last few years, couples are making technology available at weddings where wedding guests can provide the act of charitable giving.  There are many
ways that couples can incorporate charity giving even before their wedding day, such as; 

the bridal shower, bachelorette party, bachelor party or engagement dinner. Going even further than that a wedding couple can rent venue space for the wedding reception at a non-profit space museum, historical site or botanical garden. If the venue space would not be your cup of tea, then couples can choose a charity of their choice with either the Charity Navigator or the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance Accredited Charities. 

 We found that two websites that provide complete charitable giving with no shopping or registry options available.  The websites we liked the best were “Plumfund” or “Deposit A Gift.” Each company provides different options available, so please review each website carefully before making your final decision.   Plumfund website does offers a free set-up and does not charge extra fees to your wedding guest, but Deposit A Gift website offers the very lowest and transparent fees, but has more options available to the couples. Whatever couples choose to use at their wedding reception, the gift of a monetary donation will be made to the charity of choice by the couple in lieu of wedding favors or wedding gifts.  Will you be hosting a charitable giving at your wedding reception?  If so, what website have couples chose for your charitable giving? We would love to hear from you!

At WicksnCandlesticks, we strongly believe in charitable giving with our own charities and with a few others we donate monetary funds to each year.  We wanted to provide couples with our free complimentary charity printable to Share the Cause, Share the Link and Share the Love for your charity of choice.

Download Your Free Charity Printables:
•Charity Binder

Would you love more free printables and other free items from our website?  Sign up for our Newsletter...Click on the 'Subscribe to Our Newsletter' button. 

Remember, at WicksnCandlesticks, we love celebrating all of life's events and special occasions! For more information on designs, ideas, inspiration and styles for weddings, events, celebrations and special occasions, please follow our blog at WicksnCandlesticks. To shop on our website, please visit http://www.wicksncandlesticks.com/.

Kind Wishes,

Carla Lowery is the Owner of WicksnCandlesticks that is an International Business. Her website launched in 2009 and her store is the 'go-to' store for beautiful, exceptional and exclusive products for weddings, events, celebrations and special occasions.

How To Create an A5 Wedding Planner

One of the things we love to create are 
printables! In order to get started with this wedding planner project, a few things are needed. The items you would need would be a planner (Preferred Filofax, Kikki-K or Franklin Covey), Clear Zip-Up Plastic Pouch (A5 Size) for pens and pencils and a few pocket folders.   As stated, we recommend the Filofax, Kikki-K or Franklin Covey Planners because we like the quality of the leather planners. 

What are pocket folders anyways?  They are A5 pockets folders to be used in your planner.  Things brides need to collect in their pocket folders would be ideas and inspiration for the wedding, such as wedding theme and wedding colors.  We collect items like fabric and pattern swatches (name, color, and fiber) Pantone colors, paint swatches, and magazine photos. 

To help with pocket folders, you need tab dividers to keep organized with vendor categories.  The primary categories we use are attire, beauty, budget, catering, ceremony, cake, contracts, decorations, florists, hair and makeup, guest list, honeymoon, invitations, jewelers, music, musicians, photographer, reception, registry, rentals, stationary, transportation, wedding schedule videographers. 

The final items to include are some checklists, lined paper, monthly calendar, wedding planning timeline checklist, to-do checklist, notepad, emergency contact numbers.  We have a Pinterest board Dedicated to Filofax Printables
& Sitckers! Needing something more custom for printables and stickers, we can always design it at WicksnCandlesticks!

Would you love more free printables and other free items from our website?  Sign up for our Newsletter...Click on the 'Subscribe to Our Newsletter' button. 

Remember, at WicksnCandlesticks, we love celebrating all of life's events and special occasions! For more information on designs, ideas, inspiration and styles for weddings, events, celebrations and special occasions, please follow our blog at WicksnCandlesticks. To shop on our website, please visit http://www.wicksncandlesticks.com/.

Kind Wishes,

Carla Lowery is the Owner of WicksnCandlesticks that is an International Business. Her website launched in 2009 and her store is the 'go-to' store for beautiful, exceptional and exclusive products for weddings, events, celebrations and special occasions.

Add Pop, Pretty and Pizzazz with Postage Stamps

Custom Postage Stamps are a wonderful way to add that pop, pretty and pizzazz to cards or postcards for life’s events and special occasions! Create postage stamps for just about any occasion, such as or birthday, holiday, birth announcements, Christmas or even your own business. Either select a photo or upload your own.

The United States Post Office recommends
a couple of independent vendors licensed to offer stamps and the companies are PhotoStamps and
Picture It Postage. On each of the websites, it has the Official United States Postal Service logo with the text that reads "Approved Licensed Vendor."

Other postage options include checking with

your local post office to inquire about Charity Stamps.  Charity Stamps are really wonderful because the U.S. Postal service will donate a portion of the proceeds to charity. Acts of kindness like that go a long way to help others in need and customers will feel good knowing that they helped others too.

Customers can also order custom wedding invitations or personalized invitations from WicksnCandlesticks and we can match your stamps to the wedding invitations.

If you are looking to add a little-personalized touch to your event or special occasion, stamps are a nice little cost-effective way to personalize your communications to others.

Remember, at WicksnCandlesticks, we love celebrating all of life's events and special occasions! For more information on designs, ideas, inspiration and styles for weddings, events, celebrations and special occasions, please follow our blog at WicksnCandlesticks. To shop on our website, please visit http://www.wicksncandlesticks.com/.

Kind Wishes,

Carla Lowery is the Owner of WicksnCandlesticks that is an International Business. Her website launched in 2009 and her store is the 'go-to' store for beautiful, exceptional and exclusive products for weddings, events, celebrations and special occasions.

Facchianos Bridal and Formal Attire

Recently, we had the opportunity to interview this wonderful bridal shop owner Jennifer Ricciardi-Thompson of Facchianos Bridal and Formal Attire. It was not only a privilege speaking to her because she has a background and education in fashion as a fashion designer and in bridal and formal attire owner. 

She has expertise knowledge with draping, illustration and design, pattern making, threads, sewing, along with cutting patterns, samples and finished garments, color schedules, material types and accessories and fashion design ideas and inspiration. Customers drive from all over the world to her store and to us that speaks volumes about her a business owner, a fashion designer and a shop owner. 

Jennifer got her start in the bridal and formal industry years ago and she has been in the business for over 19 years. She chose to be in the bridal and formal industry after college when she met her husband and then moved to the Tulsa area after she was married. She felt with all of her experience she wanted to open her own shop named Facchianos Bridal and Formal Attire. P.S. The business name stems from her grandmother’s maiden name. 

She stated she was a Kleinfeld bride. She purchased her bridal gown at that store and she felt she wanted to give everyone that “Kleinfeld” experience but designing her very own store. She personalizes her shop for all brides. Furthermore, they have experienced bridal and formalwear consultants who provide the very best customer service. 

What makes the Facchianos Bridal & Formal Attire experience unique would be the fact she specialize in wedding parties offering bridal gowns, bridesmaid dresses, mother’s dresses, flower girl dresses, and tuxedos. The store offers a variety of sizes from sizes 6-22; however, we can order 0-28 and they do pride themselves on their size selection. At Facchianos, Jennifer carries well-known designers like Maggie Sottero, Casablanca, Rebecca Ingam, David Tutera, Phillipe Matthews, Franssical, B2, Belsoise and Bill Levkoff. Since she does have a fashion degree, what makes her store even more attractive would be her private line that no one else has to offer brides, which are her beautiful wedding gown designs. The wedding dress and formal industry trends she has been selling are a very low back gowns and lace gowns. 

Jennifer treats brides like family and assists couples with planning the entire wedding from assisting brides with bridal gown selections, wedding dress delivery to wedding day coordination. In addition to the bridal dresses and wedding attire, she offers many formal dresses for proms and many of those women remember the experience from her store from prom or other events and come back to shop with Facchianos when they are asked for their hand in marriage. 

Facchianos Bridal and Formal Attire are by appointment only, but they do not turn away any walk-in customers. What would be helpful for any brides before an appointment to bring a tote bag in of the following items; undergarments such as shoes, body smoother and pantyhose. Basically, anything you plan on wearing underneath your wedding gown. 

A helpful wedding tip from WicksnCandlesticks before arriving for your appointment at Facchianos Bridal and Formal Attire. Create a simple A5 wedding planner (see related article for information on how to create one for yourself). This way there will be information available for Jennifer or her sales staff to view, so they has a general idea of what you are looking for in the way of wedding gowns, bridesmaid dresses and tuxedos. To find the one and only Facchianos Bridal and Formal Attire, please visit them via the web at http://www.facchianos.com/ and you can find her business on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter. 

Remember, at WicksnCandlesticks, we love celebrating all of life's events and special occasions! For more information on designs, ideas, inspiration and styles for weddings, events, celebrations and special occasions, please follow our blog at WicksnCandlesticks. To shop on our website, please visit http://www.wicksncandlesticks.com/.


Kind Wishes,

Carla Lowery is the Owner of WicksnCandlesticks that is an International Business. Her website launched in 2009 and her store is the 'go-to' store for beautiful, exceptional and exclusive products for weddings, events, celebrations and special occasions.

Free Wedding Snapchat Geofilter

It's #SundayFunday! And here's a freebie for you! It's a Free Wedding Snapchat Geofilter..And we submitted our design today on Snapchat. They will inform us if it meets their approval. We are very excited about it because we are just starting to use Snapchat. We don't use it very often yet, but we are hoping to use it more next year.  

Here's the description of the geofilter: "It's Michigan, of course. Everyone loves the Mitten State...so help us capture the love in Michigan." If you want to use this Free Wedding Snapchat Geofilter Designed By WicksnCandlesticks, just right click on the photo and save as then it's ready to use for your wedding! 

Remember, at WicksnCandlesticks, we love celebrating all of life's events and special occasions! For more information on designs, ideas, inspiration and styles for weddings, events, celebrations and special occasions, please folloour blog at WicksnCandlesticks. To shop on our website, please visit http://www.wicksncandlesticks.com/.

Kind Wishes,

Carla Lowery is the Owner of WicksnCandlesticks that is an International Business. Her website launched in 2009 and her store is the 'go-to' store for beautiful, exceptional and exclusive products for weddings, events, celebrations and special occasions.