A Must Do For Wedding Planning

You've been on such a productive and awesome roll getting venues and vendors lined up, doing research on fantastic design, its time to take a break everything wedding related. The key to stress free wedding planning is to make sure that you take breaks and timeouts along the way. Don't worry about things not getting done on time ~ they will. Everything will come together as you've imagined and your wedding day will be incredible. But, if you don't stop to smell the proverbial roses along the way, by the time you get to the wedding day, you'll be wedding'd out and we don't want that at all.

Make sure during your planning process that you and your soon to be are spending time together and NOT talking about the wedding. Make sure you get some relaxing and fun beauty treatments, go and take some exhilarating exercise classes and spend time with your gals NOT discussing the bridesmaids' shoes/hair/accessories. Make sure you tell your parents that certain nights/weekends whatever are designated wedding free so they know that its not the time to discuss whether or not some long lost uncle gets to bring a date. By giving yourself some breathing room from the wedding planning, you're ensuring that you will have a relaxed approach to the entire day and process.







(courtesy of Grand Hyatt & Tap Natural Remedies)

This post was originally published on June 15th, 2009

Your Wedding Day Taste & Your Budget

Remember that show "lifestyles of the rich & famous"? Their tag line was 'Champagne Wishes & Caviar Dreams' ... a tag line that could to varying degree's describe a bride's taste for their wedding day. But what does one do when their taste and their budget don't exactly see eye to eye?

Firstly, sit down with your groom and go through each aspect of the wedding day and really take note of your priorities. If you are a foodie couple, spend more on the food, less on the decor. If you are into design, spend more on the decor and photography, less on transportation and music. Do you get my drift? Make your top 3 priorities and then weight them - #1 = highest priority of them all, you'd rather not get married if you can't make this the most important, #2 = it would be fabulous if you could spend more on this aspect and #3 = important but if it came down to it, you'd be fine with not having the creme de la creme in this category. Once you've gotten your wish list together, take a good hard look at your budget and see where you've spent or what you've allocated. For your #1 and #2, the bulk of your budget should be put towards these items. If you have to re-work the budget to fit them, do so. I've found over the years that couples who overlook their #1 and #2 because they allocated their money elsewhere have pangs of regret after the wedding day.

What sort of things are high priority for your wedding day?

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Business & Wedding Planning: Confidence In Your Wedding Planning Decisions

In Business, having confidence is key. If you believe in yourself and show it, its much easier to convince other people to believe in it as well. Having confidence in a job interview is also important because no one wants to hire someone who lacks confidence and conviction. At the end of the day - having confidence in your decisions, in business, is integral to getting the job done and doing it well.

So how does confidence and conviction translate into your wedding planning? Firstly, it'll help you stick to your decisions. If you waffle over something or keep changing your mind about choices or decisions - you've lost the confidence in that idea. You've lost the confidence to believe that that idea is appropriate for your wedding. And once that happens, your wedding planning starts to unravel. You start having doubts about the color scheme, location, menu, whatever it is. You can't move forward, you can't check things off the massive wedding timeline you've got in front of you and panic sets in. You start to panic that you'll never get everything done in time for the wedding, you panic that the wedding won't be the way you want it. You panic because you've lost your confidence.

So, how does one not lose their confidence? Be firm when you make decisions. At the beginning of this wedding planning process, decide on what is most important to you regarding the wedding day. Use the important ideas / thoughts / feelings to guide you in your decision making process. Then, use your budget as a guide so that you don't overspend, lose your confidence and then panic. Then stick to your guns. If you have confidence in your vendors, you won't have room to panic. If you have confidence in your decisions, you won't have time to panic.

Who wants to live with regrets after the wedding? Be confident and you won't have any!

Business & Wedding Planning: The Elevator Speech

We've all heard it time and time again ... have a carefully constructed elevator speech that you can rattle off in a moment's notice about your job. It should be 30 seconds in length and should highlight what you do and why you are awesome. That way, when you run into someone who asks what you do for a living, you can give them the highlight reel without wasting too much time. The same is applicable to your wedding.

I am not talking about having an elevator speech that highlights the where and when of your wedding - I am talking about a short summary regarding what your wedding vision is all about. When you meet with vendors, you need to be able to give them a quick rundown on your vision, so that they get a glimpse. Ours went something like this: "old english garden setting with an ethereal feeling - soft colors with the ambiance set by lots of candlelight. our goal for the wedding is for everyone to feel the love we have for each other and our guests". Off the bat, any vendor we are talking about knows this about our wedding: we're looking for a romantic intimate setting and friendship is extremely important to us. After you've given them the highlight reel, you can get into the nitty gritty, but your vendor is starting off the conversation from exactly the same place you are.

Your wedding elevator speech doesn't need to be an overly detailed or descriptive 30 seconds, it needs to be insightful and to the point. Spend some time crafting yours and I promise, your vendor meetings will start off very smoothly and you'll all be on the same page from minute one.


{via JCriley}

Business & Wedding Planning: Using Your Niche

Regardless of what you studied in college or what your career is - we're all specialists. Our jobs have made us 'experts' in one particular niche, something that we are beyond efficient at; something that we know inside out how to do and most importantly, something we could theoretically, do in our sleep. We've got a defined niche after all. Or at least that's what our bosses want us to believe.

So how do we translate your career niche into your wedding planning? Simple. Use your specialization to your advantage. If you're a writer, use your words to create carefully scripted programs, invitations, RSVP cards, even your ceremony. If you're a marketing guru, market your wedding to your guests - find a common thread to link through your wedding day that will make your wedding day unique. If you're into finance - take over the budget and do the math. If you're a consultant - use your skills to analyze the wedding planning process into something easy to handle. Use your niche at the office to simplify your wedding planning process and make it your own. Use what you are good at to help aid you through your engagement. Why fight your niche? Work it!

We are always taught to use our specializations - why shouldn't this hold true to your wedding?

Repurposing Your Wedding Day Budget

During any consultation I have, I ask the same two questions: What are your 'must haves' and what are your wedding day fears. Both are meant to a) make you as the bride and groom think and b) let me know what matters most. 'Must haves' can include anything: we 'must have' my grandmothers rosary beads wrapped around my bouquet or 'we must' have a certain vineyards' wine served or we 'must have' pulled pork sliders. Your 'must haves' are items, ideas, concepts that if they weren't apart of the wedding day, would be a future regret. They are the sentimental aspects important to you as a couple or a family.

Your 'must haves' also give your wedding planner insight into where to potentially repurpose your wedding day budget. If a 'must have' is going to stretch your budget disproportionately in one direction, think about where you can put less money in elsewhere. Perhaps you know your guests really aren't into favors, but they would love a late night snack. Forgo the favors in favour of sliders and mini milkshakes at midnight.

Repurpose your budget to make your budget work for you. The greatest thing about weddings these days is that anything goes. The newest tradition is that "traditions" are out the window and its up to the couple to make their own traditions. With that in mind, your budget doesn't need to be cookie cutter - just because so and so did x,y and z doesn't mean that you have to. Make your money work for what you want, not the other way around.

2009 Wedding Lessons Learned: Mr.and Mrs. United Front - Resisting the Naysayers

2009 Wedding Lessons Learned

One would hope that a couple's wedding day is a very true reflection of them as a couple, and not a day influenced by anyone else. It's sad to say, but that's not always the case and I wish it were. Fortunately, I had the opportunity and honor to help plan and coordinate a wedding this year that was 100% couple only. Firstly, they did a two day affair - small intimate ceremony in their backyard followed by a fabulous soiree the next night for their closest 100. For them, this was exactly how they wanted their wedding and no matter how 'untraditional' the whole affair seemed to everyone else, they didn't care. And believe me, they received a lot of flack for the whole experience. The parents didn't get it, there were friends and family that were upset about who got invited to the ceremony and who didn't ... the list of gripes goes on and on. But, the couple stood firm in what they wanted and they didn't listen to the naysayers. It was their wedding and they could and would do what they wanted with it. And you know what, it was an amazing weekend that every guest loved.

So, how hard or easy is it to close off all the white noise that you'll inevitably get regarding your wedding planning? Firstly, be a united front. You're a mini family, the two of you, stay that way. This is probably the first of many battles that you'll face together once you're officially Mr. and Mrs. - this is the perfect time to start working together and be a unit. This may be difficult, but if you trust and support each other, and above all, believe in each other, it will be much easier to stand your ground. No one wants to be bullied into something anyways, right? Secondly, its your wedding. Do what you want. There really isn't any notion of 'traditions' these days as everyone wants their wedding to not be typical and the same. The new tradition is creating your own traditions. Picking and choosing what represents you as a couple, not doing something because someone says you have to. If you find an idea, great! Make it your own. Believe in it. Trust me, any resistance you may get before the big day will be gone when everyone sees how truly fabulous your wedding day is.

How will you be representing yourself as a couple on your wedding day? How have you handled any push back you've receiving during your wedding planning process?