Monday, March 8, 2010
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Weekly Round Up: Advice on Wedding Costs
I had many get organized plans dreamt up for this past week - especially since the husband has been away and I thought that since spring is hopefully around the corner it was time to do my annual overhaul of stuff and spring clean. Um, not so much, I actually don't know where the week went - lots of fabulous meetings and tomorrow I get to celebrate the impending birth of a childhood friends son. Yay!
I stumbled across some fantastic posts this week, read on:
Nancy Liu Chin {fabulous SF florist} has had her intern blogging - its quite insightful into the dedication of a florist.
The amazingly talented Jasmine Star shares some thoughts on the family portrait session at a wedding. It doesn't need to be a time suck at all!
My friends over at The Good Life Events posted 5 tips on choosing a venue - very helpful!
And lastly, over on myKPw, there's an excellent post on photographer pricing - a must read. Part One & Part Two
Happy Weekend!
I stumbled across some fantastic posts this week, read on:
Nancy Liu Chin {fabulous SF florist} has had her intern blogging - its quite insightful into the dedication of a florist.
The amazingly talented Jasmine Star shares some thoughts on the family portrait session at a wedding. It doesn't need to be a time suck at all!
My friends over at The Good Life Events posted 5 tips on choosing a venue - very helpful!
And lastly, over on myKPw, there's an excellent post on photographer pricing - a must read. Part One & Part Two
Happy Weekend!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
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!
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!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Wediquette: Who Really Gets Invited to the Rehearsal Dinner?
I really wanted to say thanks to my "out-of-towners" so instead of a typical rehearsal dinner we are having a BBQ for all of our "out-of-towners". This just gives my fiance and I the chance to welcome them to our wedding weekend and thank them for coming to our wedding. I have done a wedding website and have a page on there for our out of town guests and I have the BBQ on there as well. Will the "in-towners" be offended??? Who traditionally gets invited to the rehearsal dinner anyways?
First things first, let's discuss the Rehearsal Dinner and who traditionally gets invited:
"Those invited should include the members of the wedding party (except for the flower girl and ring bearer), the officiant, the parents and grandparents of the bride and groom, and the siblings of the bride and groom if they are not in the wedding party. If the bride or groom has stepparents, they are invited with their spouses but should not be seated next to former spouses. The wedding party’s husbands, wives, fiancées, fiancés, and live-in companions should be invited, but it’s not obligatory that they have dates. The children of the bride or groom from a previous marriage also attend, unless they are too young. After that, any number of people may be invited (totally optional), such as out-of-town guests, close friends, aunts and uncles, and godparents. Junior bridesmaids and junior ushers may also be invited if the hour is not late, as may the flower girl and ring bearer (if supervised)."
{via Emily Post}
So, basically, invitees should include your wedding party, their dates {if you so choose}, close family and that's it. Anyone above and beyond that that you choose to invite is at your discretion. Whomever is footing the bill for the evening should sit down with the bride and groom and go through the guest list and the parameters for inviting people. If you'd like to include those who travel in for the wedding weekend, make sure that everyone who travels in gets a printed invitation. Make it known that their presence isn't required {just in case their flights or schedule don't allow for it} but that you are extending the invite. Guests are already committing time and money to travel to your wedding, don't put them in a position where they feel they must take a vacation day or change travel plans for a dinner. If too many people are coming in from town, or its a destination wedding where everyone is traveling in for it - make a firm decision on whether to invite everyone or not. And stick to it.
As far as putting the dinner information on your wedding website - skip it unless every single person invited to the wedding is being invited to the rehearsal dinner. You don't want people to be confused or hurt that they weren't invited.
First things first, let's discuss the Rehearsal Dinner and who traditionally gets invited:
"Those invited should include the members of the wedding party (except for the flower girl and ring bearer), the officiant, the parents and grandparents of the bride and groom, and the siblings of the bride and groom if they are not in the wedding party. If the bride or groom has stepparents, they are invited with their spouses but should not be seated next to former spouses. The wedding party’s husbands, wives, fiancées, fiancés, and live-in companions should be invited, but it’s not obligatory that they have dates. The children of the bride or groom from a previous marriage also attend, unless they are too young. After that, any number of people may be invited (totally optional), such as out-of-town guests, close friends, aunts and uncles, and godparents. Junior bridesmaids and junior ushers may also be invited if the hour is not late, as may the flower girl and ring bearer (if supervised)."
{via Emily Post}
So, basically, invitees should include your wedding party, their dates {if you so choose}, close family and that's it. Anyone above and beyond that that you choose to invite is at your discretion. Whomever is footing the bill for the evening should sit down with the bride and groom and go through the guest list and the parameters for inviting people. If you'd like to include those who travel in for the wedding weekend, make sure that everyone who travels in gets a printed invitation. Make it known that their presence isn't required {just in case their flights or schedule don't allow for it} but that you are extending the invite. Guests are already committing time and money to travel to your wedding, don't put them in a position where they feel they must take a vacation day or change travel plans for a dinner. If too many people are coming in from town, or its a destination wedding where everyone is traveling in for it - make a firm decision on whether to invite everyone or not. And stick to it.
As far as putting the dinner information on your wedding website - skip it unless every single person invited to the wedding is being invited to the rehearsal dinner. You don't want people to be confused or hurt that they weren't invited.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Tips on Tuesday: Letting a Vendor Know You Aren't Interested
I'll preface this post with this caveat - I too have been one to forget, not everyone can remember to do everything, but ...
It's just plain common courtesy after meeting with a vendor to give them some follow up, regardless of whether or not you are actually going to use their service. Perhaps during the meeting you got a feeling that they weren't the right one for you - tell them then. Don't let your vendor waste time putting together a proposal if you know that you won't even consider them as a potential contender. If you liked them during the meeting but didn't like their proposal and are choosing to work with someone else, let them know. Its just polite to tell a vendor that you have decided on someone else. It allows them to pursue other potential clients for the same wedding date. Otherwise, vendors will continue to reach out to you for some kind of answer. Don't think that by ignoring them or not saying that you don't want to work for them will hurt their feelings. Everyone in business knows that you win some, you lose some. Vendors have a business to run and don't want anything outstanding. If you need more time to decide, tell them. But, also respect that many vendors work on a 'first come, first served' mentality - so if you take months to get back to them regarding your proposal - they may have gotten booked between then and now.
While these are expensive decisions to be making, please take a minute to reach out to the vendors you've met and tell them you've decided otherwise, its the right thing to do. And yes, vendors will respect your decision.
It's just plain common courtesy after meeting with a vendor to give them some follow up, regardless of whether or not you are actually going to use their service. Perhaps during the meeting you got a feeling that they weren't the right one for you - tell them then. Don't let your vendor waste time putting together a proposal if you know that you won't even consider them as a potential contender. If you liked them during the meeting but didn't like their proposal and are choosing to work with someone else, let them know. Its just polite to tell a vendor that you have decided on someone else. It allows them to pursue other potential clients for the same wedding date. Otherwise, vendors will continue to reach out to you for some kind of answer. Don't think that by ignoring them or not saying that you don't want to work for them will hurt their feelings. Everyone in business knows that you win some, you lose some. Vendors have a business to run and don't want anything outstanding. If you need more time to decide, tell them. But, also respect that many vendors work on a 'first come, first served' mentality - so if you take months to get back to them regarding your proposal - they may have gotten booked between then and now.
While these are expensive decisions to be making, please take a minute to reach out to the vendors you've met and tell them you've decided otherwise, its the right thing to do. And yes, vendors will respect your decision.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
