Featuring: Viola Sutanto of Chewing the Cud

One of the most creative wedding professionals that I've had the pleasure of meeting in 2008 was Viola Sutanto of Chewing the Cud. Her company name alone shows how much creativity this brilliant girl has in her! The Wedding University is extremely honored to be partnering with her in the design of our logo and collaterals.

I first became familiar with Viola's name when her own beautiful wedding was featured in one of the premier bridal magazines--Northern California Brides. I was incredibly impressed with the way her favorite book, To Kill a Mockingbird, inspired her to create an entire wedding design around it. From the paper table runner to the escort 'books' to the ring bearer book 'pillow', I could tell that every element was very well thought out and designed.

When I met with Viola to get to know her, I found her to be quite charming and approachable. We had a great time chatting and when we began seeking a designer for The Wedding University's logo, I knew she would be the perfect candidate.

Viola is currently working with the rest of the design team for The Wedding University, to show our students how paper goods are an integral part of a wedding design.

Some facts on Viola:

ACHIEVEMENTS/AWARDS

Western Art Directors Club Silver Medal

Communication Arts Annual Awards

Print Magazine Annual Awards

How Magazine Self-Promotional Awards

Grace Ormonde's Wedding Style Magazine Platinum List 2009

Style Me Pretty's Little Black Book of Preferred Vendors

CREDENTIALS/PARTIAL CLIENT LIST

Designed for brands such as The Sak, Chronicle Books, Design Within Reach, and Peet's Coffee and Tea.

MEDIA EXPOSURE

Bride and Bloom

Real Simple Weddings

Brides Magazine (Northern Cal, Chicago, Washington D.C. and other regional markets)

The Knot

Brides.com

7 x 7 San Francisco

Southern Weddings Style

Featured on Style Me Pretty, Wedding Bee, Project Wedding, Brooklyn Bride, Oh Joy!, Poppytalk and other premier wedding and design blogs.

INTERESTING FACTS

Viola was named after the protagonist in Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night".

She regrets that she may never take her husband's last name: put "Viola" and Ting" together and you'll see why.

Viola has an incurable weakness for found objects, used books, the streets of Paris and dark chocolate.

Below are some examples of Viola's talent:

Luxurious Honeymoon, Anyone?

Here's one of the many reasons why you should attend The Wedding University...

At the end of the day, a very lucky student will get selected for our Grand Giveaway--3 nights at a luxurious Four Seasons Hotel for your honeymoon!

Any Four Seasons? No, but you can choose one of the three below which are all INCREDIBLE!!!

1. Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora--think overwater bungalows (!!), crisp blue lagoons, pineapple coladas.

2. Four Seasons Resort Whistler--think warm fireplaces with hot chocolate, superb spa, and awe-inspiring ski slopes.


3. Four Seasons Resort Hawaii, Lana'i, the Lodge at Koele--think country manor, peaceful tranquility, and golf.


What are the odds of winning if you sign up? One out of 150--odds are good! There will also be other fantastic giveaways.....more details to come later. Please follow our blog for more updates!

Teaser #2--From Concept to Reality

What makes a wedding beautiful? It's design ofcourse! Think about the times when you attended a wedding or event, and you walked into a room that completely dazzled you with its incredible decor and ambiance. Well, let me tell you...A LOT of thought, planning, and hard work went behind the scenes to pull it all together.

When couples get engaged, they turn to the magazines to offer them inspiration and ideas for their wedding design. BUT....

1. How do you hone in on a concept that truly expresses your passions, style, personalities, and background?
2. How do you take one, or even multiple, ideas and turn it into a concept for your wedding design?
3. How do you thread elements of the concept throughout your wedding to make the design cohesive and perfect?

The Wedding University will be offering a design class for its students to help them understand the basic elements of design-- how to turn an idea into a design concept, and then how to turn the concept into reality!

One of the professors for the design class will be Gloria Wong Tritasavit of Sash and Sugar. Gloria has a background in design and is obsessive about color, composition, style, and how visual elements can stir the heart. Born and raised in San Francisco, she set her sights on a career in fashion at an early age. After receiving a Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in fashion design from the renowned Academy of Art College in San Francisco, she started her career in fashion by designing for DKNY Jeans in New York. She later ventured into merchandising at bebe, and then took on a role as a designer at Levi Strauss & Co in San Francisco.

Upon planning her own wedding in 2006, Gloria fell in love with the world of event design and soon converted her creative energies from apparel to weddings. She earned her ACPWC certificate for wedding consulting and in the short amount of time she has been in business, her incredible designs have already been featured in numerous publications such as Brides, The Knot, SF Brides by Modern Luxury, Bride & Bloom, Style Me Pretty, Daily Candy, and the View From The Bay.

Take a look at this Mood Board that Gloria created for one of her clients this year! The couple's favorite destination for travel was France. They got giddy when they spoke of French shops to Gloria so she immediately knew that the wedding would be heavily influenced by French design. At the same time, the bride had mentioned her fondness for Asian styling and the groom expressed his desire to keep the wedding modern and organic. Both wanted a fresh bold color palette. The result was a Modern Chinoiserie concept equipped with French tapestry, Asian geometric shapes, birds and branches, and a daring color palette of bright lemon yellow, silvery blue, black, and white!

We will post photos of the actual wedding to show how Gloria turn the ideas and concepts into reality in a later post! For now, enjoy some interesting facts about our lovely Gloria:

- She is a Brady Bunch fanatic.
- Her mother is one of twelve siblings.
- She won an art contest sponsored by Sanrio when she was 8.
- She met her best friend of 27 years and in Kindergarten, went to grammar school, high school, and college together, and were post-college roommates in New York.

Meeting of the Minds Again

Yesterday, Jean and I met with the Bridal Beauty and Attire Group, which included Armando of Get Your Do Up, Gabby of Gabrielle's Bridal Salon, and Dan of Eli Thomas. We met at Gabby's beautiful salon in downtown Los Gatos and brainstormed on ways to deliver the most valuable information on beauty and attire to the students of the Wedding University on February 8th.

After an hour and a half of discussion, we came up with a lot of fun and brilliant concepts which ofcourse I cannot reveal here but I promise students of TWU that you will learn SO much from these experts!

Some topics that will be presented in a creative way:

1. How do you select a wedding dress that best suits your body type and your wedding venue?
2. How do you choose the right hairstyle to fit your facial features and wedding gown?
3. What are all the attire options for the guys? How important is it that their choice of attire matches the girls' dresses?

That's all that I can reveal for now but you will not be disappointed at the valuable information this dynamic group has to offer on February 8th!

We are currently doing a casting call for models to wear some of Gabby's beautiful gowns and Eli Thomas' suits and tuxedos, featuring trends for 2009. More to come in a later post two weeks from now!

Teaser #1: To Have or Not to Have....a Professional Videographer!

The Wedding University promises to be full of valuable information for brides and grooms planning their wedding. It is not a tactic to 'sell' at all, but rather provide you with the RIGHT information so that you can make wise decisions on your own.

This blog will feature many of the Professors for the Wedding University, with a little teaser to introduce you to the topic that they will be speaking on. Here is our first one!

Introducing...Chuck and Jewel Savadelis of Savadelis Films

CREDENTIALS

Chuck was immediate Past President of the Bay Area Professional Videographers Association (BAPVA)

ACHIEVEMENTS

-Selected for Grace Ormonde's Wedding Style Magazine Platinum List

-Recommended by Style Me Pretty, Here Comes the Guide, The Flirty Guide, By Recommendation Only and Daily Candy's Wedding Guide

-On Many Preferred Lists Including Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay, St Regis, Julia Morgan Ballroom, Meadowood, Ralston Hall Mansion, and many more

-First to deliver weddings on an iPod, first to broadcast weddings live over the internet without a direct internet connection, first to record wedding in true surround sound, among the first to film in high definition.

AWARDS

-BAPVA Videographer of the Year

-WEVA Gold Creative Excellence Award

-3 "Telly" Awards

-Aegis Award

-Communicator Award

-Ball and Chain Award for Funniest Wedding Movie

-Judge, EMPixx Awards

-Spirit of NACE Award

MEDIA EXPOSURE

-Grace Ormonde Wedding Style Magazine

-Northern California Brides Magazine

-Brides.com

-Featured in Countdown to Your Perfect Wedding by Joyce Scardina Becker

-Here Comes the Guide Blog

-The Flirty Guide Blog

-By Recommendation Only Blog

-Events by Evonne Blog

-Wedding Planning Audiocast (coming soon)

INTERESTING FACTS

-Filmed pilot for TV show, including an interview with Maya Angelou

-Chuck was a freelance fashion and commercial photographer before becoming a cinematographer and photographed 3 U.S. Presidents

-Jewel was a marketing executive for high tech companies; while Director of Marketing at Atari, she launched Pac Man

-Chuck and Jewel own a pet tortoise named Gromit who is currently hibernating

A question that often comes up is 'Should we hire a professional videographer?' Some people tend to believe that videotaping a wedding is a simple task that can be done by a friend or relative. To help answer that question, here are two short clips comparing the audio and video from an amateur to a professional's work. Take a look, and then you decide whether or not you would like to hire a professional videographer to capture one of the most important and significant days of your lives!

Ta-da!

I'm so excited to show off this beautiful postcard for The Wedding University, designed by Viola Sutanto of Chewing the Cud! The amazing photograph is from Geoff White. Be prepared to see this at bridal salons, jewelry stores, and other places around the Bay Area. Remember to RSVP early because space is indeed very limited (we're not just saying that to lure you in!)

Faculty Orientation Day!

December 8th was the 2 month mark before our inaugural Wedding University and it was our first official Faculty Orientation! What a big day for us indeed! The orientation began bright and early at the Four Seasons Silicon Valley, where I started out by introducing the goals and visions behind WU. Kelly from the Four Seasons followed with a discussion of the marketing efforts, and Jean gave all the participants a rundown of the course schedule. We then broke into our individual presentation groups and had the opportunity to brainstorm on our topics. After 3 productive hours together the meeting concluded and we enjoyed a nice luncheon together at Quattro's.

We are all so excited about this event!!

There's me presenting the WU concept to the group

Jewel Savadelis and Ron Grandia getting their morning coffee!

Touring the spaces of the Four Seasons Silicon Valley

Here's the Design Team going through all of their brilliant concepts

Two of our music and entertainment professors--Cynthia Glinka and Carl Mindling

Jean Marks, John Woods, and Kevin Chin enjoying the lunch at Quattro

Welcome!

Thank you for visiting our new blog, where we intend to post information about upcoming WU courses, inspirations for your wedding, and A LOT of valuable knowledge to educate you on planning a successful wedding! We encourage you to subscribe to or follow our blog, and we promise you won't be disappointed!