Cheers!

One of the most common questions we are asked is “how important is the selection of my wedding site?”  Pretty darn important.  Besides the obvious concern, i.e.: money, the style and atmosphere of your location is crucial to the type of party you will have.  Specifically, you want to look at three main areas when selecting your venue:  space, design and location.

Space

Your location should be big enough to accommodate your guests.  It also needs  make your reception appear full.  For instance, if your guest list is only 100, you would not want a location that seats 250.  Because on the day of your wedding, the perception of attending guests will be that empty seats represent absentee guests.  When in essence, it was because the space was too big to begin with.

You also do not want a space that is too small.  Too many guests crowded in a tight location raises the room temperature, makes movement difficult and congested and says to your guests that you did not have enough money to secure a space large enough to accommodate them.  Embarassing!

Design

This one is often overlooked.  What are the colors like in relation to your wedding colors?  Will you have to take on additional decor cost to camouflage the designs in the space (i.e.: table linens, chair covers, etc.?  Or, do they enhance your vision?  A space should require minimal sprucing up and complement your wedding theme.

Location

Preferably, you want a wedding reception location in the same venue as your wedding ceremony.  Often you can realize a cost savings by doing this and it eliminates travel time between the two.  However, if this is not possible, choose venues that are not more than ten miles from each other. 

The reason: time.  Guests normally arrive before a wedding about 30 minutes.  If they have to travel to another location for the wedding reception, that could add another 30 minutes.  By the time you and your Groom arrive, 1 1/2 hours could have easily passed since guests arrived for your ceremony.  This can make for very anxious guests.  Sometimes, we lose guests because they are hungry and tired of waiting.  This can result in lost money because we have already guaranteed their attendance with the caterer.

So…while there are many variables to factor into selecting your special place, keep in mind that these are the top three.

Cheers!

So…you saw “The Wedding Planner” and are inspired.  Or, maybe you have planned your best friend’s wedding, or even your own and now you want to become a wedding planner because you just LOVED all of the fun you had.  That is great.  But..the reality is..wedding planning is hard work.  And, if you fail to deliver what you contract with your client’s on their wedding day, you CAN be sued.  Remember, this is one of the most important days of a person’s life and should not be taken lightly.  Thus, at the very least, you should take some sort of wedding planner training class to emanciate yourself into the “ins” and “outs” of the wedding industry. 

There are a lot of wonderful programs and courses available.  Which you decide to take depends solely on what you hope to get from the course.  Understanding the seriousness of the business of making wedding dreams come true, our course is especially beneficial.  Not only do we provide the basics of wedding planning, we also offer post-training support both from a business standpoint and a wedding planning one.  Support we believe is critical to the success of every beginning, novice and aspiring wedding consultant.

That is why if you are serious about planning weddings as a business, and want to avoid the major pitfalls of starting up, or maintaining your wedding consultancy enterprise, enroll in our course today.  You may visit the website at:

Wedding Consultant Certification Institute

http://www.weddingconsultantcertificationinstitute.com

We believe that most wedding planners run into problems with their wedding planning businesses simply because they have not been empowered with the basic tenets of truly running a business.  Do not let this be your story.  Enroll today!

Our next class is:

Saturday, July 19, 2008, 8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Wyndham Midtown Atlanta Hotel and Resort, 125 10th Street, N.E., Atlanta, Georgia

The cost is to register is:

$595 (Expires June 30, 2008)

$795 (July 1, 2008 - July, 8, 2008)

$895 (After July 8, 2008) Email or call for availability.  Spaces are limited.

Payment Installment Plans are available.  See website for details.

Cheers!

         

We would like to join our most recent partner…Belle Mariee Couture Weddings.  

Belle Mariee Couture is a professional manufacturer of wedding gowns and bridal attire selling their own Belle Mariee brand of designs, along with a vast array of custom dresses worldwide.  Heather Park, Owner, and her team of talented designers are known for providing their clients with the highest quality fabrics resulting in designs that are elegant and stylish.  Belle Mariee’s designs are all handcrafted, fashionable, delicately attractive and exceptionally well-made.  Belle Mariee’s designs are delightfully affordable.  Custom designs start similar of some off the rack bridal gowns.

Belle Mariee is a total wedding shop.  By providing photography, videography, hair & make-up, flower arrangements and decor, invitations, etc. they are able to meet all your needs timely and cost effectively resulting in an exceptional wedding planning experience. 

When calling, or visiting Belle Mariee, please tell them that their friends at New Beginnings Weddings and Events referred you.

7130 Buford Hwy. Suite A130  
Doraville, GA
404-667-2025 
www.bellemarieewedding.com
 

Out of all the areas of wedding planning, it appears that validating the cost associated with hiring a wedding planner is the most challenging for couples.  I do not believe it is because couples do not see a need for the service.  Rather, my experience over the last seventeen years is that many couples one) have a pre-conceived notion of how much they believe a wedding planner should cost, and two) they simply do not have a clear fundamental picture of what wedding planners do. 

Wedding planners are service professionals.  As with any service professional, you are paying for that person’s time, labor and expertise.  As service-based professionals, wedding planners set out rates along those of the service industry standard.  Said hourly amounts can be as low as $50 to as high as $125, or higher in some more populated metropolitan areas.

What does this mean? Seasoned wedding planners will have gained the knowledge of how much time and labor a particular style of wedding will take to plan and will charge for the hours accordingly.   This is quite possibly one of the many reasons why wedding service packages and a la carte rates vary so drastically.

As for Atlanta wedding planners, try to keep this in mind as you seek to employ your wedding planner.  In addition to time, labor and expertise, an experienced wedding consultant will bring to you invaluable negotiation skills, mediation abilities and Atlanta wedding connections for wedding services.  All of these are highly desirable attributes.  And, as with any real level of talent and expertise, you can expect to pay for it.   

Yes, I know there are many organizationally astitute Brides planning their own weddings.  But there is something unique to having a wedding planner on your side.  It could literally mean the difference between saving thousands, or overspending thousands for your wedding day. 

Lastly, for the cost-conscious Bride, a veteran wedding consultant/planner can provide you enough cost-effective ideas to offset his, or her fee.  Thus, your wedding planner’s fee should not be an addition to your budget, but a part of it.  

Cheers!

It may seem like an obvious question.  However, you would not believe how many of my clients ask it.  The short answer is:  yes.   Now, here is the long answer.

The appeal to simply place those disposable cameras on the table and have your guests take ’spontaneous’ shots to save on the photographer may appeal to you initially.  But here are some problems that always occur.  Guests forget to use them.  They get obscounded when the guests leave.  Only one or two shots are on each camera.  And, you have to develop the film and not everyone takes good photos.

Perhaps you know of a close friend, or family member who you believe can be the defacto photographer.  That is a great idea, if, the individual is a professional photographer by trade.  If not, you cannot be assured the he, or she, will know how to take a photojournalistic approach to your wedding.  Or, that the photos you do receive will be vibrant, visual candid shots that you will want to look at - forever.

I know that the cost of a wedding photographer can be a bit overwhelming.  But I have to say it is one of the areas of your wedding that you just should not skimp on.  Rarely, do couples remember their wedding day.  With all the anxiety and emotions running high on that day, many tell me that it was a blur.  And, that without the photography, they would not remember anything.

So, if cost is an issue for you, here are five tips to consider when looking to hire your Atlanta wedding photographer.

1.  Most all photographers will work with you.  You just need to find the one that fits in your budget.  Not all photography services are equal.  What one photographer may do, another may not.

2.  Decide on whether the style of photography you prefer  is photojournalism, or candid (staged) poses.  Then, select photographers who focus more on the area you like.

3.  Look to hire your photographer early.  The longer you wait, the more the cost of one is going to become a factor.

4.  Some photographers offer you proofs on DVD.  This is good because if you decide you do not want to purchase an album, you could print your own photos.  Just know that the images will display the photographer’s name. 

5.  Research prices before you set up an appointment with a photographer.  This may sound like a no-brainer, but many couples set up appointments to meet with potential photographers never knowing the price range.  Then, once in the meeting, the price is revealed and the couples are shocked.  This too leads to frustration.

These are not all the tips available.  They are what I believe most important to think of in conjunction with your research.  Happy planning!

Cheers!

Ah, the New Year.  It will soon be upon us and that means more resolutions to be accomplished, or at least given a lot of thought.  For many others, the New Year will bring an even larger task that may never have been tackled - the planning of a wedding.  If you are (or, at least hope to be real soon) behind the ringing of the nuptial bell, you may be asking yourself “where the heck do I start?”  Well, your worries are over.  

The planning of a wedding can be really fun, if you take the time to prioritize.  That will require you to truly think about what is important to you as a person, and as a bridal couple.  So, to that end, here are five suggestions to help you with the beginning of your wedding planning.

1.  Talk to one another about what each desires to have from the wedding. 

Often, it is the Bride who gets exactly what she wants, while the Groom is left to feel like an accutriment to the wedding.  Keep in mind that this day is a pre-cursor to a marriage.  You can have what you desire, but your Groom deserves the same consideration.

2.  Couples need to agree on who is going to be part of the wedding planning committee. 

Why is this important?  Because the future in-laws, and close friends will offer unsolicited suggestions and opinions.  That in itself is fine.  But, if you are not in agreement about whose opinion the two of you really should be considering, and whose should just be appreciated, it can easily become a source of contention between the two of you.

3.  If you are considering hiring a wedding planner, hire one early. 

Wedding planners do their best work, and can save you the most money, when they are hired at the beginning of your wedding planning process.  Yes, you can attempt to plan your wedding yourself.  However, you still cannot manage all of the wedding day’s events and thus, the need for one may still arise.  Additionally, “Wedding Day Of” services can be more costly than if you hired one at the onset because of the risks involved.

4.  Keep your guest list relatively small.

What I recommend to my clients is this.  When they find that their list is large, use this approach to reduce it.  If a potential guest has not been to their house for dinner, or if the guest has not been spoken to within the last six months, then perhaps they should just receive a wedding announcement.  The larger the guest list, the more your wedding will cost.

5.  Scout, tour and book your wedding ceremony and reception venue early.

It is true that many book up months, even years in advance.  What you may not know is that Fridays and Sundays are on their way to becoming the new Saturdays.  There are only 52 Saturdays in a year and most brides are vying for those prime spots.