Negativity. It happens to the best of us – the most naturally sunny personalities sometimes get a dark cloud over our heads. When things go wrong, it’s easy to look at the worst in people, the worst in situations, the … Continue reading
Did you catch yesterday’s Modern Rustic Snow White Inspiration Shoot, featured on Every Last Detail? It’s getting a lot of great attention, and if you haven’t checked it out yet, you should. You already did, you say, and you loved it? You’re in luck, then! Lauren is starting a new feature along with photoshoots, and we’re the first ones to get in on the action! She asked me last week if I’d be interested in participating in her new “Get The Look” series, and of course I said yes! I am a big believer in transparency and helping people get the best wedding they can have… So I went back through our receipts to find out the prices for all the pieces we used, and Lauren wrote them up.
We used a mixture of vintage/thrifted pieces and new ones, including mirrors, chargers, and plates from Wal-Mart; moss, wood, and other supplies from Save-on-Crafts and the local flower market; and candle holders (used to hold succulents) from IKEA.
Check out our “Get The Look” feature on Every Last Detail today!
Today’s post is a bit of a rant… A list of pet peeves, if you will. About word misuse and misspelling common to the wedding industry. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not always the best at proofing my own posts… But between my background in Copyediting and my English teacher mother, well… I’ve been known to let the owners of small stores know when their signage was spelled incorrectly.
So this post has been brewing for a long time.
Behold, the list of common wedding word mistakes!!!
I know that there are other additions that could be made to this list…. But this is a good start… Keep your eye out for these common problems, whether you’re a couple, a vendor, or a blogger. These are some important ones! Special thanks to the ladies of Wedding Pros Serious About the Biz for your suggestions!!! 🙂
What are your wedding world word pet peeves? (Try saying that sentence ten times fast, too!) Add them in the comments!!!
Have you ever wondered HOW all the bits and pieces, the decorations and menus and favors and special details, get to a wedding? The answer is simple: The planner.
Venues and vendors who know me know that when I first arrive on-site for a wedding or event I “move in.” Typically my car is completely full of wedding supplies – both from the couple and from my personal stash – and it takes my assistant and I a decent amount of time to truly unpack. This is because part of my final pre-rehearsal meeting with my couples is to get all their wedding supplies from them.
What does this mean for you?
No worrying about whether escort cards or guestbooks will get to the wedding, or sending your third cousin to your apartment an hour before the ceremony starts to pick up the programs. We go through an inventory of all the pieces needed for your big day and where they should be at what time, and then I take them off your hands. Then on your wedding day I stuff everything into my car and “move in” to your venue.
It’s not glamorous, it means a lot of sweat, and it can mean that my home office is stuffed full of your wedding supplies for a few days or weeks. But it translates to less stress on the wedding day itself for both the couple (no last-second forgotten items) and my staff (everything is centralized and organized, and the function for each piece is known).
I often joke that 90% of my job is schlepping things from one place to another. But when those “things” are details crucial to your wedding day, it’s one of the most important parts of my job!
I’ve planned and coordinated events with budgets of almost nothing (like a party for 80 with a budget of $150!) and those with budgets upwards of $500 per person. While the scope of each event is different, one thing remains the same. Each event was special to the client and the attendees. So no matter whether everyone was eating off of paper plates or bone china (or one of the many, many choices in between), I directed the budget we did have to making the party feel special.
The same goes for wedding planning – very few people have unlimited budgets, so as a planner I try to make every budgetary decision count. Of course we’d all like to have the perfect wedding or event, precisely as we envision, but sometimes tough choices have to be made. I’ve seen all kinds of cost-cutting scenarios; some work well, but others leave brides unhappy. Here are my favorite ways to trim your budget without sacrificing the wedding of your dreams:
I think this is probably the number one cost-cutting scenario across all planners and wedding publications. Taking the guest list from 250 to 125 not only allows you to save on food, drinks and incidental costs (favors, printing, rentals), it probably will translate into many more dollars saved in the form of a smaller venue. Instead of tracking down a large ballroom, you may be able to hold your wedding in a more cost-effective location.
Yes – this means that you probably won’t be inviting your third cousins from across the country… But a smaller wedding can mean less stress for the bride and groom – and more time with your guests.
But try not to get caught up in the “should” game – weddings are often about what we feel we’re “supposed” to do and many brides feel as though they must invite someone, even though they’d rather not. Even if you were invited to someone’s wedding, or they’re your distant relative, or they’ve asked nicely, you are under no obligation to invite anyone. Make sure that your invited wedding guests are the people you want to spend your wedding day with – they’ll be in your wedding memories forever.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t invite people that you want to – just that you don’t have to invite people you don’t want to.
In addition to keeping your guest list down, it’s often easier than you’d think to find a location that meets your expectations while keeping your budget in check. Want a beautiful outdoor setting? Many golf clubs offer excellent wedding specials at reasonable prices. Have a vintage soiree in mind? Keep an eye out for historical homes, womens clubs, and restaurants. Often times you’ll be able to find a great location that isn’t well-advertised; my mother found my wedding reception location in the yellow pages (after my husband and I spent days looking on the internet!).
The important part of making this work, though, is finding a place you will love to spend your wedding day. Make sure that it meets your needs – aesthetic and otherwise. In choosing a location, keep in mind the following:
Food and drinks are another area where brides and grooms hear several “shoulds”. As in, “You should serve dinner,” or “You should have an open bar,” or “You should choose whatever food your guests will like.” Again, the trick to trimming wedding day costs without cutting down on your day is making the right choices, within your means. But don’t forget to keep these points in mind:
Your photographer captures your wedding day, and nothing else from the day will be as lasting. Photographers’ prices vary widely, from a few hundred to several thousand dollars. Many times there are good reasons for this – some photographers may be more experienced, or have better references, or provide more services than others. But sometimes as a bride it can feel overwhelmingly expensive just to have someone photograph your wedding. It may be tempting to completely ignore professional photographers altogether, perhaps asking friends to take photos with their personal cameras. But there is a reason that pros charge so much: they know what photos to take, and when. So before you cut out a photographer completely, consider these options:
I’m not saying you need to hire a full wedding planner. I know that it’s not a realistic expectation, and that hiring a wedding planner is not at the top of every bride’s to-do list. I’m also not saying this just because I want you to hire me. But a planner can be especially valuable to budget couples in a variety of ways:
In short: do consider alternatives you haven’t thought of yet (such as a “more expensive” venue that actually costs less overall, a-la-carte consulting with a planner, or hiring a photographer for part of your day) and don’t let planning your wedding on a strict budget stress you out. You can do this!
Photo credits:
This post has been inspired by some conversations I’ve had over the last few months, both with other vendors and with clients and potential clients. Every single point addressed here has come from more than one source, so I hope no one feels singled out! I’ve been meaning to write something like this for a while!
Ah, wedding planning. The fun! The joy! The feeling of balancing on a tight rope with hundred-pound weights on your feet.
How do you know where to go? For advice? For support? For recommendations? After all, Aunt Mildred might have known all about wedding planning when she got married in 1943, but things have changed. Drastically. Even in just the last ten years. Even in the last five.
With the advent of the internet, it’s incredibly easy to do research on your own. And it can be incredibly overwhelming too. How can you decide what you want when everything starts melting together after hours of searching into a big puddle of jewel-encrusted, lace-embellished, rose-scented goo?
Budgets are important of course – and it’s certainly not a good idea to spend more than you feel comfortable with. But having been both a budget bride and a wedding vendor who works with brides who have budgets of all sizes, I think there are some other really important – and often overlooked – points to keep in mind when you’re choosing the vendors who will make your wedding day special.
Photo credits:
DIY (or Do-It-Yourself, if you’ve been living under a rock) details can bring heaps of personality to your event. The handmade look is “in” – but more than that, there’s a real sense of accomplishment when you look back at an event that just screams that you were the host. Details you created by hand can take your wedding from blah and everyday to unique, interesting, and personalized. And – sometimes, if they’re done right – they can save you money.
I am a huge supporter of DIY projects for weddings and events. But there’s a catch. If you want to Do It Yourself, you have to Do It Smart.
It’s a natural tendency. The insistence on being Superwoman (or Superman!), on taking everything on. We all do it. But it’s one of my jobs to alleviate stress for my clients, so I will always have the same advice:
Okay, it’s not poetry. But trust me on this, it’s advice worth heeding. Unless you actually like to be stressed out, up working on projects all night right before your wedding or event, of course.
Choose wisely
While you might be painfully aware of every single detail that goes into your wedding or event, your guests only ever see the final product. They won’t notice if your tablecloths are the perfect shade to compliment the bridesmaids’ dresses. They won’t judge you for buying premade sweets for your buffet. They simply won’t care if you’ve hand-embroidered every napkin.
Oh, they’ll see the overall look. Some of your (more event savvy) guests might even notice a few of the special details. But as a rule, your guests only notice a fraction of what you put into your wedding or event; so choose your handmade details wisely.
I always ask my clients who are considering making the details themselves what they want most to see at their wedding or event. When in doubt, go for the visual impact – the big wow. I also ask whether they have any experience with the DIY project at hand. After all, baking and decorating a dozen cupcakes can be a challenge for someone who rarely cooks, but baking and decorating twelve dozen is tough even for the most experienced baker. Likewise any project that you haven’t done before has a 50/50 chance of being harder than it looks (I, for example, am a disaster at making cake pops, no matter how many tutorials I read or watch).
When discussing strategies with my clients for designing their wedding or event, I always suggest to take on only one or two DIY projects; with careful advance planning you can do more, but beware the totally normal tendency to try to do it all. Taking on too much might mean not getting it all done.
Plan ahead
French chefs are trained to cut first, cook second. Instead of searching frantically through drawers and cupboards for just the right spice as the dinner is bubbling away on the stove, they measure just the right amount of each ingredient into little nesting bowls, all laid out on their workspace, before turning on the stove.
The trick to a smooth DIY project is to prepare your own mise en place (“putting in place”). Read the instructions for your project, or figure out your plan of attack if it’s a totally unique idea. Read them again or sketch out exactly what you need. If you’ve heard the expression “measure twice, cut once,” that’s exactly what you need to do here. Especially if a project is brand new to you, the last thing you need is to get halfway through and realize you need to make a run to the store. Make yourself a shopping list and always get more supplies than you think you’ll need (if I’m making a dozen tissue paper flowers and my instructions say I need ten pieces of tissue paper per flower, I’m picking up 130 or 140 pieces; always better to have too much than too little, in a case like this!). Lay everything out on a nice stable, permanent surface, and expect to dedicate the surface to your project until it’s completed. And don’t forget to find a storage place for your finished project, before you start!
Do a trial run
I get a lot of questions from clients asking how long a project should take them to complete. There’s no short answer to this question, even if I’ve done the project a thousand times before. For example, it might take me twelve minutes, on average, to fold and fluff a tissue pouf. But I’ve made dozens of them, so I have the advantage of experience. I also have ripped dozens of them (it happens), and I know that certain tissue papers will be more cooperative than others. If I tell you that you should plan on 15 minutes apiece, that might be an excellent estimate. For me. But if you have less of an affinity for the project, you’re exhausted from a full day of work, or the tissue paper you’re using is particularly thick or thin, it might take you closer to an hour. Or you might get so frustrated by the whole thing that it just doesn’t happen at all.
To estimate how long a project will take you, to determine if you like the materials you’re using, and to make sure that you can even complete it at all (cake pops will never again be something I attempt!), you must do a trial. Get enough of the supplies to make a single trial piece, set a timer when you start, and go slowly to make sure you complete all the steps.
Start early
Of course your trial run will help you establish a ballpark figure for how long your DIY project will take. But a rule of thumb is that something is always going to happen to get in your way of finishing on time. I always, always, always suggest to my clients to estimate that their project will take twice as long as they think, and to plan accordingly. And, except for perishables, I strongly encourage them to plan on finishing no less than a week before the wedding or party (the earlier the better). That way if the family dog gets sick, or the Maid of Honor can’t make it to help, or the store is out of supplies, you won’t be in the weeds. You’ll just calmly pick up where you left off, a day or two after you’d anticipated, or add a day or two on to your finishing time.
Starting early has another advantage, too. You can tell before the-wedding-eve if you might have trouble finishing, and call in reinforcements (what’s the wedding party for, anyway?) or move on to the next item. And it’s an exceptionally satisfying feeling to look around you two weeks before an event and think, “I have no more DIY projects to do – I’m going to the movies!”
Leave plenty of time
This might sound redundant, but it goes hand-in-hand with starting early. Especially for weddings, the days leading up to the Big One can get hectic. Family comes into town. Nails and hair need doing, the dress needs one last fitting, the rehearsal needs rehearsing. It’s easy to overschedule.
Even for a social event, if you’re working a full-time job (full-time mommy is a job too!), or you have other obligations, it’s easy for time to slip away. Something I’ve learned to do is carve out large sections of time for projects, but even that can get tough. Leaving yourself plenty of time, solely dedicated to preparing your DIY projects, scheduled into your week, is the best way to ensure that you’ll be able to get it done.
Work efficiently.
You know how big manufacturing was revolutionized? The assembly line was invented. One person did the same thing over and over until all of the pieces for all of the items being manufactured were made. And only then (if ever) did they start on something else. The same principle should apply to any DIY projects you might have. It’s much faster to cut 100 strips of paper to use as belly bands for your invitations than it is to cut each strip individually, as you need it. And if you think “in bulk,” you’ll be inclined to think of things like minimizing the number of sheets you can cut at once while still maintaining quality, or how best to make the minimum number of cuts (I once received a “finished” piece from a designer that required four cuts per strip of paper, with little tiny stripes of white between each strip… I almost threw my paper cutter across the room!). You can use this principle to make backdrops or table runners, embellish details, and assemble just about anything solo.
But working efficiently can mean recruiting help, too. After all, what makes a project go faster than spreading around the workload? My favorite method for assembling boxed candy favors is to create an assembly line where one person folds boxes, another places paper shavings inside, a third adds one type of candy, a fourth another, a fifth closes each box securely, and a sixth ties a pretty bow or adds the sticker on the outside. Yes, it gets repetitive. But it ensures that everything is done consistently, quickly, and with minimum fuss. And it’s a heck of a lot more fun than putting everything together by yourself. This goes the same for assembling Out of Town bags, invitations, and a multitude of other repetitive tasks. It’s also a great way to involve people who might not be as artistically inclined – they can make precise cuts, count out exactly the number of candies that go in a box, or stick adhesive to an invitation, and still make a big contribution to your wedding or event, without you having to redo their work. That said, working efficiently means not redoing work – so if you worry that one of your loved ones might not be able to handle the task at hand, don’t assign it to them!
Embrace imperfections.
Handcrafted events are just that. Made by hand. Unless you’re secretly Martha Stewart (and if you were, you’d tell me, wouldn’t you?), your DIY projects probably won’t look like they belong in a magazine. Especially the first time you make one.
But that’s okay.
In fact, it’s better than okay. It’s excellent.
You made this piece. With your own hands. How often can we really say that, in today’s grab-and-go world?
I think one of my favorite reasons to DIY is to just get my hands dirty. To feel the paint and the clay and the wood and the paper. It brings me joy. And it should bring you joy too. Remember art class in Kindergarten? Your project didn’t have to look perfect. It was perfect because you made it.
The same thing goes for your DIY projects. Unless you’ve been sewing, or painting letters on a sign, or making tissue paper poufs, since the age of three, you probably will need a lot of practice to just make something that doesn’t look like a mess. And even if it does… Who cares? You made it. Be proud of it. That’s the charm of “handmade” after all.
Be realistic about costs.
One of the biggest misconceptions people have about DIY projects is that they’re always less expensive than buying ready-made pieces, or hiring someone to make a piece for you.
I’d like to tell you that it’s true. But it’s not.
Between buying equipment (staple gun, paintbrushes, drill, paper cutter, sandpaper, etc.) and supplies (paper, wood, paint, ribbon, etc.), a simple-looking project can turn into a money pit. Many artisans can actually make a handcrafted project for you for less money (and in less time) than you could, because they already own the equipment, buy supplies in bulk, and know how to do the projects to ensure that they don’t waste anything.
This isn’t to say that you can’t create an inexpensive DIY piece. But if budget is really an issue, it pays to be extremely aware of the costs of all of your equipment and supplies before purchasing anything. Don’t forget to factor in extra supplies for your trial/learning.
Know when to go to Plan B.
Including beautiful handmade projects is a fantastic way to personalize your wedding. But not every project is for every person, even if you’re crafty. I learned this the hard way when I was making pipe cleaner Mickey Mouse ears for a friend’s Disneyland bachelorette party last year. I can whip out a tissue paper pom in no time, but twisting a simple pipe cleaner around a cup to make an attractive ear shape, and hot glueing it to a headband, was impossible.
I ended up making a lumpy, gluey mess.
Luckily my sister was on her way over and just happened to be a pipe cleaner Mickey Mouse ear prodigy (who knew?). The project that I’d been struggling with for an hour to make a single, awful-looking piece was done in forty five minutes. And she made twelve.
I share this story to demonstrate that no matter how crafty you might be, you might not be able to make your preferred project, no matter how hard you try. And in the event that you don’t have a crafty backup person whose strength just happens to be in the area of your weakness, you might have to come up with a backup plan.
Repeat this with me: It’s okay to use my backup plan.
If you’re struggling, slogging through hours of DIY without getting good results, getting angry at yourself and your supplies, or completely unhappy with your finished pieces, don’t forget it’s okay to stop. Set yourself a time limit or a specific date (at least a week prior to your wedding day) by which you must finish all your projects, so that you’re not still trying to furiously work on DIY projects at 3 am on the day of your wedding. Trust me on this one: it’s better to substitute your original plan with something more doable (buying or renting napkins instead of hand-embroidering them, hiring a graphic designer instead of creating your own invitations, or buying decorations instead of making them, for example) than to stress yourself out over finishing it.
I promise.
So if you do decide that you want to Do It Yourself, keep in mind the simple rules I laid out above. Choose wisely, plan ahead, do a trial run, start early, leave plenty of time, work efficiently, embrace imperfections, be realistic about costs, and know when to go to plan B. And don’t be afraid to ask for help, from a more experienced friend or family member, an online advice forum, or your wedding planner (who has probably already done this sort of thing!).
Oh, yes, and have fun! 🙂
Happy crafting!
Photography credits:
Today I’m starting a new feature series here on my blog. I’ve got so many post ideas that end up being so extremely long that I’m trying very hard to break them into smaller, more digestible bites. This one came out of a discussion I had earlier this month with my newest couple (Diana + Julian). Julian was skeptical that they really needed a coordinator to help with their wedding day preparation, and it got me thinking about all the different “hats” I wear in my function as planner (or designer or coordinator, but for this particular series I’ll be using the term “planner” to encompass all parts of the design, planning, and coordination process).
There are a lot.
So I decided to write them out. Give a little explanation. To give you some insight into just what your wedding planner does, on and before your wedding day. You might just be surprised.
The first of my functions? Editor.
Do you remember playing as a kid? Imagination abounded, you could be and do anything you wanted. Possibilities were endless. One day you had your heart set on being a rock star when you grew up. The next it was a doctor. The next an astronaut, or a paleontologist, or a baker who made cakes 100 layers high. Do you remember that feeling? That there were so many amazing opportunities for you?
That’s kind of how it feels when you’re first planning a wedding.
Actually, I know that it’s not the case for everyone (some people flat out hate wedding planning, and that’s where another of my roles as planner comes in, but we’ll get to that in a future post). But for so many of my couples, their wedding is this fantastic opportunity to do whatever they want!!!! Bubbles, rice, confetti, streamers, sparklers… The possibilities are astounding. And those are just for the end of the ceremony!
Most wedding planning journeys take a lot of twists and turns. You might choose a theme but be completely stuck on colors, or decide on one look and then suddenly realize it’s wrong for you. One of my former clients looked into three separate “feels” for her day. Sometimes remnants of one theme stick around after that theme is long gone. Sometimes there are just too many ideas to decide. Sometimes there isn’t much clarity at all.
In my role as wedding planner, I help you to pare down all those ideas and unify all those themes. Part of my job in the planner/designer capacity is to make sure that your ideas all tie together on your wedding day. I try to look at your overall plans and tweak them so that they make sense.
For example, when designing the details for Emily + Jeremy’s Wedding, we knew that the very!bright! color of the pool house wasn’t going to tie in with her wedding day style. So we created a showpiece using Chinese lanterns, and brought them into the other spaces in the wedding.
For The McAwesome Wedding, Neva came to me with a few ideas – elephants! birdcages! The Party! lanterns! peacock feathers! daisies! – and her wedding invitation (which featured a round cutout piece of patterned rice paper) and we sketched out a basic plan for her table runners and reception decor, bringing them all together.
For E+D’s Wedding, I remember when the bride first sent me the link to her inspiration photos in Google Docs. There were over 40 different photographs there! Together, we went through, prioritizing, discussing options, working to unify her disparate ideas. In the end, we pared things down to just what was really important to her, carried the bird theme loosely throughout the day, and I threw in a couple of fun surprises.
Your planner will ideally be able to help you create an overall vision for the day, cut out the pieces that simply don’t fit, and put a pretty little bow on top. Because your planner has seen how all the elements of a wedding interact with each other on many occasions, she can tell you what will make the greatest impact or how best to make all your ideas work in concert. But only if you share your vision with her and listen to her input – otherwise, she’s got nothing but a blank page!
Photo credits:
I started writing this post over the weekend, after my ohmygoshamazing wedding. It obviously took me a few days. I also realized that I’m severely behind on posting. Like, I still have weddings to blog from last fall, behind. When I get busy with planning weddings, posting on my blog sort of goes by the way side. I also have been furiously working on my website (good news: content is almost all done… bad news: design doesn’t work… back to the drawing board!).
Anyway, I was thinking a lot about wedding songs. First dance songs in particular. Couples so often want them to sum up their relationship in one neat and tidy bow, or be the “theme” on which their reception is built. First dance songs can be meaningful in other ways to the couple (first song you danced to, silly song you sing to each other, etc.), but for the couple who doesn’t have “a song,” it can be a challenge to agree on something.
So I made a list. Of some of my favorite songs for first dances. Just some of my favorites now. It’s not exhaustive (I know for a fact I’m missing a huge swath of older R&B, pop, country, and swing, for example). But I tried to go for songs that you might not have heard yet, or considered (although I did sprinkle a few of my “tried and true” songs into the list).
I found myself writing, “I love these lyrics!” over and over again, so I’m just listing the songs. But you can bet that the lyrics are either adorable, romantic, or otherwise perfect for a wedding:
What songs would you add to this list?
If you’re in the middle of your wedding planning, you’ll certainly agree that things change. From the moment you get engaged until the moment you walk away from your reception, the details of your wedding day are likely to change plenty.
Changing your mind is totally normal. But what happens when you pull a switcheroo and don’t tell your wedding vendors?
Or when you ask them to do something way beyond their contracted duties?
In my last blog, I talked about tipping only vendors who go above and beyond your expectations.
But what happens when your expectations end up being above and beyond what you – and they – agreed to?
It’s hard to say for sure. It does depend on the vendor’s resources and time. But from the planner’s perspective, when a lot of changes are made, especially very close to a wedding date, it creates a good amount of background chaos.
When you hire a new vendor within a week or two before your wedding day, we need to add them to all correspondence, timelines, and diagrams. And make sure that they know exactly what they need to do, which is actually more difficult in many ways than just getting them into our timelines. Even the best vendor added at the last minute will have a lot of confusion about what they need to do, when, and where.
And when you add new duties for your existing vendors, especially right before the wedding itself, they may not actually be able to do a good job with the duties you’ve already asked them to perform.
For example, let’s say you plan to put together your own centerpieces but realize the day before the wedding that it won’t be possible. You ask your coordinator to do them instead. She might be able to. But it might be at the expense of hanging lights, or placing favors, or helping your groomsmen put on their boutonnieres, or making sure that the caterers are setting up in the right place, or just plain managing other bits and pieces of your day. She might not have enough staff to make that change so close to the wedding day, or she might need to start working even earlier on your wedding day than she’s expected to (and a good coordinator will already be working a 10-12 hour day at least, so please don’t ask her to get there earlier!). Let’s say that you have very basic centerpieces, and every one takes an average of 10 minutes to put together (the amount of time goes up as the complexity goes up, and a coordinator might not actually have the ability to execute something very complicated!). If you have 10 tables, that’s 100 minutes – almost two hours – that your coordinator wasn’t expecting to need to spend on your centerpieces. At minimum.
The same thing happens when you ask your florist to “just put together the flowers we bought” in addition to the ones she’s already bringing, your DJ to set up the dance floor lights you rented, or your caterers to set up place settings that you weren’t able to get your volunteers to do. Or you add extra pieces to your tables, or extra decor to your ceremony. Trust me, a good vendor team will do everything they can to make your wedding day amazing. But if you’ve made a change or addition, they might not always be able to find enough hands, or enough time.
So this is my very special request: When changes to your wedding day vision happen (they will), please keep your affected vendors informed, as soon as they happen. No matter how small and insignificant they seem. Please don’t wait until the last minute to spring a change on your vendors, and expect that they can make it happen. Please don’t balk if your vendors tell you that, because of the additional work you’ve added, they will need to hire more helpers at a higher cost. And please don’t hold it against your vendors if they’re unable to make a last-second change happen the way you’d like.
I’ve been incredibly lucky that my brides have truly been amazingly communicative and reasonable, and my vendor teams have truly been amazingly talented and flexible. But if you’re a bride who’s thinking of springing a last-second change on your vendors so that you don’t have to pay them extra (it happens), please reconsider. And if you’re a bride who’s made a last-second change with her wedding and is wondering how to proceed, please contact your coordinator and all affected vendors to explain the situation as soon as possible, and be understanding and flexible of their reactions!
Oh yes, and if you do spring a last-second change on your vendors, please consider this a situation in which they’ve gone above and beyond, and tip them!
Events by Elisa 