What?? Well, not entirely, that is! If you are interested in truly getting the best deals, the best information and have your questions answered in real time by someone who isn't anonymous or unknown to you, you must meet vendors face to face! It's hard as millennials to get comfortable with this concept. This is uncomfortable for a lot of individuals, but particularly in this age group.
It feels like I am online almost constantly, but as a Wedding Coordinator, I know all too well that you cannot get the very best information for planning a wedding online. You will only get the best prices and advice by talking to people who are in the business and have relationships with real people who specialize in their particular area pertaining to weddings.
It's easy to sit at the computer, and it's actually a ton of fun to see all that is available out there to customize a wedding. However, planning a wedding isn't all about what it will look like or just picking vendors without really getting to know them. How do you know what questions to ask a vendor? How do you know if you are seeing the warning signs or not? How do you know if you are even going to like them? Do you really want to get advice from other brides on how to plan a wedding versus people who know what the realities are to every detail of a wedding? Do you know what you should ask before signing any contracts with a particular venue or vendor. Do you know why things costs what they do for your wedding, i.e. catering vs. a nice dinner out or why you might not be saving money getting your wine or champagne at the big box stores? Do you know why you're going to pay more for a particular type of flower at certain times of the year? Do you know what the laws are in your particular state as compared to advice you get online? How will you know if you have all the bases covered without getting an education first on the essentials of planning a wedding spoken from proven professionals?
What you don't know can hurt you! As a bride, you would have no way of knowing how many venues and vendors are hoping for Wedding Coordinators to conduct workshops to teach brides about the wedding industry. It's a concept that would prove to help brides and also make wedding vendors and venues be able to serve their clients much more efficiently which saves money for everyone in the long run. So why mention all of this? If this was not true, you would not be hearing more about venues requiring that a bride hire an independent Wedding Consultant in order to book a wedding at their venue.
For the benefit of all brides out there planning weddings, you must look for opportunities to learn in real live situations, workshops and stop limiting your advice only to websites, forums and yes....blogs! You have to get out in the real world to save yourself a lot of time and money. Hey, wouldn't it be cool to have a shorter engagement? Now that can save you a LOT of money! One example of how you can do that is to go to www.bridal4-1-1workshops.com and take a look at what you're not taking advantage of. For every 10 hours (maybe more) you spend on the computer filtering through information about planning your wedding, you could find more information from a workshop or a Wedding Coordinator in just 2 hours.
So it depends on how much you trust information online to be reliable as compared to a professional who makes it their livelihood and truly has a passion for what they do. If they didn't have passion for what they do and the greatest desire to help brides, they would probably choose another line of work. Their jobs require long hours before and after the wedding, weekends away from home and family, and a phenomenal amount of time marketing for the number of clients they might receive.
I absolutely love being online and I wouldn't have a business without it, but brides and wedding vendors alike, we have to get out in the real world to really know what is going on in the world of weddings. No matter what we would prefer, there is no substitute.
Wishing you the greatest of days!
Janis Flagg, Event and Wedding Coordinator
Creating memories to bring a smile to your face for years to come!
http://www.bridal4-1-1workshops.com/
http://www.greatestofdays.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkKIjSu9dbA
Everything on Event Planning and Wedding Officiating
Showing posts with label wedding consultations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wedding consultations. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Wedding Planners Cost Too Much!
Let's dispel some myths here since we're getting into the season where everyone seems to have gotten engaged or is getting engaged.
In two hours of time your assignment is to get 3 of each category of photographers, DJ's, cake designers and floral designers whose work you are familiar with, who you really like as a person because they have your style down to a "T". On your mark, get set...stop!! I can hear you say, "How in the world am I supposed to do that in two hours? That's 12 people and how would I know all of that information about them?"
This is how it happens. I would say that most wedding coordinators could do just that after they had a 1-hour consultation with you. They would also have enough information at that point to suggest other vendors and a selection of venues in a very short period of time.
There's another exercise to do now. Let's say that you didn't use the above system to plan your wedding and did all of that research whenever you had some extra time during the evenings and weekends and when you could sneak in a few minutes at work. You realize after you count the hours during the week or month that you have just taken on a part-time job..planning your wedding. You may have even had to take a day off, that you really wanted to spend on your honeymoon, but instead you spent that day trying to find just the perfect invitations and still didn't find what you liked. You feel like you see less of your fiance' than ever.
That is the kind of scenario that really makes me sad. I catch myself hearing a couple's stories who might be half-way through planning their wedding and it makes me cringe. I can't help it. I think to myself or out loud, "I sure wish I'd been able to speak with them sooner! I could have saved them so much time and money."
I know what you're probably thinking. How in the world can a Wedding Planner save you money? Aren't they only for rich people? They act like snobs in the movies! Not for me. No way!
Reality differs from Hollywood once again. Wedding Planners can pass on to you the discounts that vendors give to them because they have that "know, like and trust" relationship already established. Sometimes the discounts are 20% and they add up fast in a good direction!
Another reality strikes again and you find that you saved or almost saved as much in those discounts to pay for your Wedding Planner. It doesn't stop there. The rest is gravy. You also know that you have a liaison with vendors, your venue and sometimes even your family and friends if problems come up. You also know that your Wedding Planner is going to have her eyes on you and your guests on your wedding day to make sure they are comfortable and not working on your wedding day. This scenario is especially true with a full planning package where everything has been designed from the beginning to fit together like pieces of a puzzle.
Let's see, where would you rather be 6 months from now. Still trying on shoes for your wedding or walking on a beach in sandals?
http://www.fostergolflinks.com/sites/courses/view.asp?id=305&page=7050
Trendy Events and Home of Betta Mansions
1903 Market Street,
Tacoma, WA 98042
In two hours of time your assignment is to get 3 of each category of photographers, DJ's, cake designers and floral designers whose work you are familiar with, who you really like as a person because they have your style down to a "T". On your mark, get set...stop!! I can hear you say, "How in the world am I supposed to do that in two hours? That's 12 people and how would I know all of that information about them?"
This is how it happens. I would say that most wedding coordinators could do just that after they had a 1-hour consultation with you. They would also have enough information at that point to suggest other vendors and a selection of venues in a very short period of time.
There's another exercise to do now. Let's say that you didn't use the above system to plan your wedding and did all of that research whenever you had some extra time during the evenings and weekends and when you could sneak in a few minutes at work. You realize after you count the hours during the week or month that you have just taken on a part-time job..planning your wedding. You may have even had to take a day off, that you really wanted to spend on your honeymoon, but instead you spent that day trying to find just the perfect invitations and still didn't find what you liked. You feel like you see less of your fiance' than ever.
That is the kind of scenario that really makes me sad. I catch myself hearing a couple's stories who might be half-way through planning their wedding and it makes me cringe. I can't help it. I think to myself or out loud, "I sure wish I'd been able to speak with them sooner! I could have saved them so much time and money."
I know what you're probably thinking. How in the world can a Wedding Planner save you money? Aren't they only for rich people? They act like snobs in the movies! Not for me. No way!
Reality differs from Hollywood once again. Wedding Planners can pass on to you the discounts that vendors give to them because they have that "know, like and trust" relationship already established. Sometimes the discounts are 20% and they add up fast in a good direction!
Another reality strikes again and you find that you saved or almost saved as much in those discounts to pay for your Wedding Planner. It doesn't stop there. The rest is gravy. You also know that you have a liaison with vendors, your venue and sometimes even your family and friends if problems come up. You also know that your Wedding Planner is going to have her eyes on you and your guests on your wedding day to make sure they are comfortable and not working on your wedding day. This scenario is especially true with a full planning package where everything has been designed from the beginning to fit together like pieces of a puzzle.
Let's see, where would you rather be 6 months from now. Still trying on shoes for your wedding or walking on a beach in sandals?
Janis Flagg, Owner
Greatest of Days
Event & Wedding
Planning and Design
Wedding Officiating
27111 167th PL SE, STE 105-242
Covington WA 98042
Cell: 206-604-1908
http://www.greatestofdays.com/
http://www.greatestofdaysweddingsandevents.blogspot.com
If you are a wedding vendor, join the South King County Event and Wedding Vendors through http://www.meetup.com/
A very special guest will be speaking on January 27, 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkKIjSu9dbA
Event & Wedding
Planning and Design
Wedding Officiating
27111 167th PL SE, STE 105-242
Covington WA 98042
Cell: 206-604-1908
http://www.greatestofdays.com/
http://www.greatestofdaysweddingsandevents.blogspot.com
If you are a wedding vendor, join the South King County Event and Wedding Vendors through http://www.meetup.com/
A very special guest will be speaking on January 27, 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkKIjSu9dbA
If you know someone who is planning a wedding, give
them the gift of information by telling them about
Bridal 4-1-1 Wedding Workshops beginning in March 2011.
Creating Memories to Bring a Smile to Your Face for Years to Come!
http://www.bridal4-1-1workshops.com/them the gift of information by telling them about
Bridal 4-1-1 Wedding Workshops beginning in March 2011.
Creating Memories to Bring a Smile to Your Face for Years to Come!
http://www.fostergolflinks.com/sites/courses/view.asp?id=305&page=7050
Trendy Events and Home of Betta Mansions
1903 Market Street,
Tacoma, WA 98042
Monday, July 26, 2010
Brides, Grooms and FIL's Paying for Weddings.
Many brides and grooms are paying for some if not all of their wedding expenses. I like to think that Greatest of Days is unique in that I offer a free consultation to the bride and groom which is pretty standard, but I also offer a free hour of consultation with the parents particularly if they are paying for a wedding. There are even occasions where I'll step in when a desperate mother says, "Can you talk to my daughter?" and just as often when a bride says, "I wish you could tell my mother that!"
There's a reason for this, and it is all in the effort to have a stress-free wedding day and the many days before that planning for that big day. Reality is seldom perfect and planning a wedding can be stressful on more individuals than just the bride and the groom. Stress can rear its ugly head on an emotional level, a financial level, and a level I'll call, "Where in the heck did that come from?"
I'll show this in various extremes.
Scenario #1. Imagine Princess just became engaged to be married. She has a sense of entitlement and always has. She has either gotten almost everything she has ever wanted or feels that her day has finally come where she can at last have everything under the sun. If parents are on the same wavelength, then that's fine. Where the problem comes in, is when the parents simply cannot afford their daughter this luxury.
Scenario #2. Mom and Dad have all the money in the world and quite often along with it brings control and power. Mom always wanted her daughter to have the wedding she never had and now she sees it as her turn to get the wedding she wish she had had. When a bride or groom states a preference for any particular aspect of the wedding, they just might hear, "As long as I'm paying for it, you'll do no such thing!"
Scenario #3. "I think you shoulds" which can start sounding like nails on a chalkboard. All things become new again, but people have ideas that really take the cake sometimes. I remember both my mother and my husband's mother doing this routine when we were choosing the music for our wedding. The songs meant nothing to us and when there was a song recommended about sunshine when I knew the wedding was in December in a very rainy climate. If "Look at the sunshine" had been sung, everybody might have walked out to go look for it! My Mom thought it would be nice to have a song sung that she liked. Never mind the fact that I had sung it for countless friends' weddings, even with a former boyfriend! Not happening! We ended up rearranging a song that we liked by changing a few of the words and the tempo.
This is where I feel I can make a big difference in how things progress up to and at the wedding. It's all psychology! I'll talk to a bride and groom and go through with them what all is involved and how the costs can creep up. Basically, it's bringing them into the reality of the parents who are paying for the wedding. Secondly, in the case of the Penny Pusher Power Parent, I can speak with them and find out without them knowing, what it is that they are really dealing with. Quite often its a bad memory or a vision of how they wanted their own wedding to be like that never happened.
Never forget that a parent can be feeling a big dose of separation anxiety, but would never admit to it. If a parent has entirely wrapped his or her life around raising children, they could very well feel like they are wandering into unknown territory. What people don't understand, they fear. What they fear becomes an unrealistic expectation or misinterpretation.
In one sentence. Everyone wants their feelings and concerns validated. I have a heart that's big enough to hear both sides and two shoulders to be cried upon. If it ends up with everyone smiling a genuine smile on the wedding day, I'm happy! Worth every minute of listening!
Wishing you the greatest of days!
Greatest of Days
Event and Wedding Planning
www.greatestofdays.com
jan@greatestofays.com
206-604-1908
There's a reason for this, and it is all in the effort to have a stress-free wedding day and the many days before that planning for that big day. Reality is seldom perfect and planning a wedding can be stressful on more individuals than just the bride and the groom. Stress can rear its ugly head on an emotional level, a financial level, and a level I'll call, "Where in the heck did that come from?"
I'll show this in various extremes.
Scenario #1. Imagine Princess just became engaged to be married. She has a sense of entitlement and always has. She has either gotten almost everything she has ever wanted or feels that her day has finally come where she can at last have everything under the sun. If parents are on the same wavelength, then that's fine. Where the problem comes in, is when the parents simply cannot afford their daughter this luxury.
Scenario #2. Mom and Dad have all the money in the world and quite often along with it brings control and power. Mom always wanted her daughter to have the wedding she never had and now she sees it as her turn to get the wedding she wish she had had. When a bride or groom states a preference for any particular aspect of the wedding, they just might hear, "As long as I'm paying for it, you'll do no such thing!"
Scenario #3. "I think you shoulds" which can start sounding like nails on a chalkboard. All things become new again, but people have ideas that really take the cake sometimes. I remember both my mother and my husband's mother doing this routine when we were choosing the music for our wedding. The songs meant nothing to us and when there was a song recommended about sunshine when I knew the wedding was in December in a very rainy climate. If "Look at the sunshine" had been sung, everybody might have walked out to go look for it! My Mom thought it would be nice to have a song sung that she liked. Never mind the fact that I had sung it for countless friends' weddings, even with a former boyfriend! Not happening! We ended up rearranging a song that we liked by changing a few of the words and the tempo.
This is where I feel I can make a big difference in how things progress up to and at the wedding. It's all psychology! I'll talk to a bride and groom and go through with them what all is involved and how the costs can creep up. Basically, it's bringing them into the reality of the parents who are paying for the wedding. Secondly, in the case of the Penny Pusher Power Parent, I can speak with them and find out without them knowing, what it is that they are really dealing with. Quite often its a bad memory or a vision of how they wanted their own wedding to be like that never happened.
Never forget that a parent can be feeling a big dose of separation anxiety, but would never admit to it. If a parent has entirely wrapped his or her life around raising children, they could very well feel like they are wandering into unknown territory. What people don't understand, they fear. What they fear becomes an unrealistic expectation or misinterpretation.
In one sentence. Everyone wants their feelings and concerns validated. I have a heart that's big enough to hear both sides and two shoulders to be cried upon. If it ends up with everyone smiling a genuine smile on the wedding day, I'm happy! Worth every minute of listening!
Wishing you the greatest of days!
Greatest of Days
Event and Wedding Planning
www.greatestofdays.com
jan@greatestofays.com
206-604-1908
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