I’m inviting all of you to collaborate, be friends and share wedding inspiration with me.  If you see any perfect pins please “Repin” and share your ideas from photography to dresses, I want to see it all!

Get Pinning!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This hits close to home in our Weddings Unique family, as Heather has successfully battled the disease twice and won! It is estimated that in 2011 there will be 230,408 new cases of invasive breast cancer, resulting in 39,520 deaths, (http://ww5.komen.org).

More than likely, you’ve been affected by breast cancer in some way. And the upcoming Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk gives you the power to make a difference and fight back against this disease. By participating in a Making Strides event, you are helping to save lives and create a world with less breast cancer and more birthdays – where breast cancer never steals another year from anyone’s life.

Join Heather on Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 8:00am in downtown Orlando as she walks for a cure. Tell your friends, invite your family and let everyone know that it’s time to get involved.

For more information about the walk or to register, click here. 

We are counting on seeing you all out there.

This year, the Orlando WOW Awards committee is excited to present a special segment to the show called the “Peer Awards”.  The Peer Awards creates an opportunity for Orlando special event professionals to recognize their fellow peers for their talents in the year of 2010.  Nominations were accepted from our local industry and the top professionals who have the highest quantity of submissions in each Peer of the Year category were redistributed to all five organizations (ABC, HSMAI, ISES, MPI, and NACE) for final voting on the top in each category.

Anybody is allowed to participate, the voting will close at midnight on September 19, 2011.

Click here to vote

The winners will be announced live at the 2011 Orlando WOW Awards, to be held on Saturday, September 24^th at the Waldorf Astoria Orlando/Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek.

Wedding Planners Debate Rewards, Risks of ‘Day of’ Coordination

Wedding Planners Debate Rewards, Risks of ‘Day of’ Coordination

Jul 13, 2011 10:19 AM, By Lisa Hurley

Some planners tweak the “day of” approach and find they can make short-term planning pay.

Mix a sluggish economy with a crop of brides who see media versions of beautiful weddings everywhere and use the Internet to price-shop—and what do you get? Relentless pressure on professional wedding planners to pare down their traditional role as experts who guide the bride for months ahead of the big day. Instead, many brides who believe they can “do it yourself”—the DIY brides—are pushing wedding professionals to offer “day of” wedding services.

The topic brings a range of responses from professional planners, with those who flat-out refuse to offer such services and others who have added some form of short-term planning to the range of options they offer.

JUST SAY NO

Lindsey Pitt, CSEP, founder of Atlanta-based Toast Events, has a prepared statement she sends to potential clients asking about “day of” services, explaining why she does not offer them.

Pitt explains that the only way she can ensure a flawless wedding day is if she is involved in “conversations and meetings” with the bride in the months leading up the big day. She closes with the sentence: “We hope that you will see the value in our wedding experiences that we offer so that we can work together during the entire process to execute your vision and make your wedding the ‘toast’ of the town.”

In contrast, Chicago-based wedding planner Ali Phillips, head of Engaging Events by Ali, has just launched a sister company—Elevage Events–to offer what she calls “weekend wedding services.”

The move was prompted, Phillips says, by a steady stream of inquiries about “day of” services. “‘Day of’ coordination is very popular in Chicago,” she notes. “We get about three inquires a week for this.” Her new division enables Phillips to focus on full-scale wedding planning while her staffers handle the “weekend” services.

Lynn Fletcher, head of Lynn Fletcher Weddings of Calgary, Alberta, began offering her version of day-of services a few years ago thanks to the sour economy and the pressure of competition. “We want to be able to offer our services for every bride’s budget,” she explains.

Fletcher’s company gives its “day of” brides a set of templates and checklists, which are returned one week before the wedding and reviewed by junior members of the team. “We have a halfway meeting with them as well just to go over their plan and help them along with any gaps or issues in the timing, etc.,” Fletcher explains.

Besides offering day-of services, Fletcher’s company also offers coaching to new wedding planners. “We really can support all aspects of the industry,” she explains. “There will always be competition. It just makes us come to the table with our ‘A’ game every time because we know that there is always another planner waiting in the wings to take advantage of the business.”

BATTING CLEAN-UP

Although most of the planners interviewed by Special Events would prefer to offer full-scale wedding planning, some see “day of” planning services as a profitable way to clean up the messes made by DIY brides who realize as their wedding day draws closer that they don’t know what they are doing.

Gwen Helbush, founder of Newark, Calif.-based Where to Start, offers what she calls her “wedding management” package.

“They do the planning and I bat clean-up,” she explains. About four to six weeks before the wedding day, Helbush meets with the couple and collects all their wedding-related documents. After reviewing the plans already in place, she schedules a walk-through with vendors, meets the couple one more time, then oversees the rehearsal and the wedding itself.

Helbush says she has offered “wedding management” for about a dozen years, “and it is becoming more popular now,” she says. While she prefers to plan a wedding from the very start, “You have to be flexible to stay in business,” she notes.

Similarly, Kerry Lee Dickey of Santa Barbara Wine Country Weddings and Events in Santa Barbara, Calif., offers what she calls her “month of” package option—and she has some strict rules for brides who opt to use it. “Otherwise, you risk inheriting the mess a client made planning their wedding on their own,” she says.

Dickey says she carefully pre-screens potential “month of” clients, and then requires them to hire vendors from her list. All vendor contracts must be in place no later than one moth prior to when Dickey steps into the picture. “If [the contracts] are not, I reserve the right to walk away—and keep their deposit—or I can charge huge fees to compensate me for the extra work that I will now have to do since they did not uphold their end of the contract,” she explains.

Dickey is grateful for her “month of” option, she says, “because with the economy, fewer brides are booking my full-service package.” She adds, “Most venues now require at minimum ‘month of’ to hold a wedding there, so it’s a niche I’m glad to offer.”

FIXING THE NEWBIE’S PLANNING

Ironically, the rush of “newbie” wedding planners into the market sometimes boosts the business of experienced wedding professionals who can step in late in the planning game to fix the newbie’s mistakes.

“I have had several clients come to me after having hired another planner who ‘said’ they could handle things, but after a few months, the client realized that the planner was a joke, and therefore terminated their contract and hired me,” notes Janice Blackmon, head of Atlanta’s Janice Blackmon Events. She adds, “In a couple of these situations, the ‘fired’ planner had initially charged a higher fee than I did.”

Robyn Martin, ABC, founder of The Wedding Belle of Edmond, Okla., started offering “day of” service but switched to a package called “The Basiques—Wedding Day Directing,” which steps in to help brides about a month out. Martin estimates that she sells one “Wedding Day Directing” package for every 10 full-service packages.

Martin adds, “Most of the Wedding Day Directing packages we sign are actually distressed weddings for brides who have gotten in over their heads for any variety of reasons.”

Martin says she stopped marketing to low-end brides, choosing instead to target brides who want the full-service package. “The reputation of the company has come full circle, and now those clients we thought weren’t our clients are increasingly coming on board to get it fixed or finished.”

STOP SAYING ‘DAY OF’!

Virtually all planners interviewed by Special Events wish the term “day of” would just go away because it leads brides to expect a planner can drop in the day of the wedding and make everything run smoothly.

“A planner who claims to be able to swoop in on the actual day-of and pull it all together is conning someone—the bride and her family,” says Erica Prewett, president of Atlanta’s A Big To Do Event.

“I never just show up on the day of,” Helbush says. “That is a lawsuit waiting to happen.”

Photo by iStockphoto.com / © hartphotography1

Stefanie and Barton’s sugary sweet save-the-dates were surely one of the most creative ideas we’ve come accross this year! The elephant symbolizes strength and commitment, a constant piece throughout their wedding. These sweet creations were pieced together by the fabulous Marie with Emmay Design and Maralyn with Sweet Maralyn’s Chocolates.

This was taken at Nadia and Kris’ wedding at the Ritz-Carlton Naples with the adorable ring bearer, Emma! What better way to celebrate such a special day than with man’s best friend.

Photography: Garrett Nudd

Kathy with Raise the Cake offers a fun, unique cake stand presentation. These stands are completely customizable to flow with the theme and color scheme of your wedding. What great way to add an extra “wow” factor with this fabulous accessory!

The Portofino Bay Hotel Universal Studios provided a beautiful ceremony and reception location for Kim and Jeff.  Georgeous ivory linen was provided by BBj Linen, topped with breath taking floral arrangements by Lee James. The newlyweds looked stunning dancing on the dance floor to the Hot Property band. What a beautiful day, with special thanks to Bonnie Garfield with the Portofino Bay, Bake Me a Cake, Beautiful Music, Emmay Design, Chair Affair, and Raining Roses.

Congratulations Kim and Jeff!

Photography Credit: Damon Tucci Photography