A new year and a new set of future Wedding Consultants. The Cal Poly Wedding Consultant Certification course starts Wednesday and I am so thrilled to share the next ten weeks with a great group taking steps to fulfill their dreams.
This will definitely be a labor of love. There is much work to be done and many projects to complete, requiring a great deal of time management, focus and creativity…such is the life of a Wedding Planner.
"Imagination is a very high sort of seeing" - Ralph Waldo Emerson 1844
On one hand, I am so grateful for such great moments like being part of creating memories for new Mr & Mrs. Amazed at how I end up with the greatest couples to work with…all now having enjoyed their first Christmas together. Along with some long yet worth-while days and nights with HER. 2009 was the Year for HER Release and other fun corporate and social events including a simple sandwich and tea party that started as a small gathering with my mom and her granddaughters and quickly grew into a high-end Princess Tea Party Event complete with antique china, vintage formal attire, custom baked butterfly cookies (Annette of Sweet Addictions), photographer (Joshua Swodeck) and videographer (Jon of Planet Zaya), and field trip for a studio photo session.
On the other hand, 2009 was also a year of learning and recovery. My attorneys were used for the first time to reconcile payment for an event. Five days before one of my weddings, I suffered a head-neck-and-back injury…meaning no lifting or standing for long periods of time and me moving at a snails pace but thanks to my wonderful assistants – the event was beautiful and noone was the wiser. I went through a dry summer of scheduling followed by my husband loosing his job right before babygirl’s birthday. Enter immediate need to practice the art of juggling and re-purposing to make ends meet and not get laid out by burning the candle at both ends.
And now 2010 is here. So far its started with a bang…enjoying Disneyland on the very first day of the year (we may just make this a new tradition) and tomorrow, my husband starts his new full-time position. The Holidays, and its hit-and-miss work schedule, has now brought upon the need for great accomplishments these first couple days of the year, but I am ready and anxious for “toaster speed” productivity.
First up are the celebrations of a few anniversaries, one of which is of my record breaking wedding, completely planning their event in 20 days.
The Winter session of the Wedding Consultant Certification Course at Cal Poly Pomona starts this Wednesday for 10 weeks. My previous classes have kept me posted on their accomplishments, so I am really looking forward to meeting this new set of potential planners and seeing their dreams become reality as well. Basecamp HQ will be part of this session, so I am anxious to see how well we streamline the communication and project completions for the class.
In the middle of it all are the plannings of several beautiful events for my wonderful couples starting with Scottish Elegance, followed closely by Vintage Hollywood Glam. There are lots more themed weddings this year including my Sunrise Family Affair/Lakeside BBQ, LA Wedding and Modern Polynesian Inspiration.
I am already excited about looking back on 2010 and being very pleased with what I see.
“This bright new year is given me to live each day with zest . To daily grow and try to be my highest and my best! ” – William Arthur Ward
“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.” - Edith Lovejoy Pierce
I get the opportunity to meet with couples all the time who have seen all the wedding shows on television and parused the lastest celebrity magazines. I hear things like, “I want a wedding like Fergie and Josh Duhamel or Jay-Z and Beyonce, but for like five thousand dollars” or the ever famous, “I have five thousand dollars and like 300 guests”.
I understand the desire to cut costs right now (a lot of my friends are still struggling during this recession), however two things come to mind on this topic.
1. You get what you pay for. Having your cousin’s frat brother shoot the wedding or your great aunt on your father’s side do the flowers hardly ever works out in the end unless of course you were hoping for a hundred pictures of your best friends rear and spray painted carnations with fake doves on each table.
2. Planners can save you money. Okay, here’s a little secret. I get a lot of my vendors booked at a much lower rate than is available to you. On the average, I save my couples so much money that in the end, they basically get me for free.
So, the question remains, can I still have a great wedding without dropping $30,000-$100,000? Of course. You may need to skip on getting Spindarella to DJ and the bouquet of rare exotic orchids, but it is possible.
In the end, remember you can have the wedding of your dreams without necessarily spending a ton of money, however get some help so it doesn’t quickly turn into the wedding of your nightmares.
One of my clients’ sister is getting married in a couple months and I just love her new app. Weddingbook. It marries Facebook and The Knot, giving brides and their family/friends access to special wedding details including their Wedding Party, Guest List, Wedding Countdown, To Do Lists and Guestbook. I wish I was getting married again (to the same man of course) so I can create a Weddingbook for myself.
CharaNicole 