No Fail Strategies to Survive A Bridal Show

Feature Article

by Tracey Baxter

Throwing bunches of wedding professionals together in one place should make it easy for anyone getting married to find their preferred pros for everything from bridal fashions to wedding stationary. It seems like a no-brainer: as a bride to be, of course you want to go to a bridal show! Unfortunately, these events are often overwhelming for everyone involved and lots of energy is expended without the intended end results: wedding service professionals and brides, grooms or MOB's finding each other to create memorable weddings for the couples and their guests. You can avoid this by attending bridal shows with a little strategy to get you through the day!

Keep those dogs from barking! Be sure your shoes can go the distance. Most shows last 4 or 5 hours so choose your shoes accordingly. Depending on the location, you may not be permitted to kick off those heals let alone want to if it’s a concrete convention center floor.

Bring your road map. Have a list of your priority professionals prepared so you can bee line to their booths first. Remember, priority professionals are the services that you must have for your wedding and without those services, your personal wedding will not feel complete.

Take your time! Plan to spend time and start to build a relationship with the professionals you need. After you've visited your priority pros, go back and invest some extra time with the ones you think will be your best partner in creating your wedding vision. You can possibly prequalify who gets your valuable time if the show lists the participating vendors in advance of the show. Send an email question to that professional to see how you like their response time or enthusiasm to help you - or if they respond at all.

Any old bag will not do. Especially not the bag they give you at the show pre-filled with all kinds of professional promotional materials. This bag will probably have an uncomfortably awkward handle at best but at worst, the handle will not be sturdy enough for all that crap the show producers, bless their hearts, charge to shove in there and it will break spilling all the contents! BYOB! Bring your own Bag! A flexible bag, especially something with a shoulder strap will assure you can comfortably carry everything you want to collect.

Know your budget! There will be deals and you will be tempted. Deals like those won’t last for long. Knowing the parameters of what you can realistically afford will help you stay on track and not impulse book so many “great deals” on the spot that they may not be so great when the math gets done later.

Book’em Dano! Sometimes the on the spot deals really are THE REAL DEAL! Knowing your budget and your priority professionals in advance will help you secure the best professionals for your wedding at a phenomenal savings.

Knowing your rights, you can tell who is legit in their business practices. The CAN-SPAM law prohibits people/businesses from using harvested or paid for lists in email marketing. This means that the bride attendee list the promoters of the show will give to the participating wedding pros, as part of their booth fee, may be used for direct “snail mail” but not email. When you registered for the show, you gave the show producers permission to send you email, but not the 70+ professionals at the show. Technically, you should not receive post-show email from any professional that you didn't visit to personally. You may however get letters, post cards or other physical mailings from everyone who had a booth! And just so you know, every e-message that is 'commercial' in nature must have a one click 'unsubscribe' and you must be unsubscribed within 10 days of that request.

Decide from who you DO want to receive email contact:

• Be sure to get on your priority professionals’ list– in their booth! If they offer email newsletters, coupons or other promotions, they will have a sign-up sheet available!
• Create a separate wedding email address for keeping all your wedding related email organized and reduce personal/work and wedding message mix-ups.
• Make signing up a snap: print address labels with your name, address, phone number, email address and wedding date and put this on the sign-up sheets in the wedding pro’s booth rather than having to write this info 75 times. Including the contact info for the groom to be can also be helpful.

Nobody Wins! If you already have booked a photographer, don't go looking at photographers at the show because you lose valuable time. Likewise, the photographer would rather invest their marketing materials and time in someone visiting their booth that truly needs their services. It's not a winning strategy to waste your time or theirs.

Your Wedding Planning Homework:

Don't forget to get your tickets to The Wedding Connection Bridal Show!! Make a plan that you can stick to no matter which bridal show or event you visit!

copyright 2011 Aisle Do

Want to use this article in your e-Zine, blog or website? You may as long as you include this complete statement:

Wedding Solutions Specialist Tracey Baxter publishes the "Aisle Do" bi-weekly e-zine. Get your Free Report: "From Drab to Fab - The Five Secrets to a Show Stopping Favor Display” at www.aisledoweddings.com

Timely Advice!

Creating Your Wedding Day Timeline

A wedding timeline, schedule, or event plan is the chronology or order in which all actions will occur on the wedding day.  For a wedding, the actions are many:  Get hair styled,   flower girl arrives, photographer takes groomsmen’s photos… and the list could go on....and on...and on!

The timeline can be created at any time once you get engaged and start planning.  Getting started early will help make sure decisions being made throughout the process, such as whether the photographer leaving at 9pm will mean they miss your last dance and departure!  While it’s unwise to intentionally leave anything to the last minute, the timeline is something that it’s never too late to start and complete. 

Timelines can be elaborate or simple, but the important thing is to have one!  A wedding day without a plan is guaranteed to be stressful and potentially costly if the schedule gets delayed enough to run beyond contracted time limits.  So creating a timeline will be among the most important pieces of your wedding planning puzzle to reduce stress and last minute expenses.

Creating your timeline starts with good organization.  If you don’t have everything you need to get started, you will leave important parts off the schedule.  Organize your ideas and your materials for efficient use of time.  You can create the timeline with paper and pen or on computer, but starting with a rough draft or brainstorm will yield your best results. 

Creating an effective timeline means you will have to do a little math!  Allow a realistic amount of time for each event element, venue change, and travel and set up.  This is where the timeline will either create a seamless day or show its weaknesses.  Remember the sum of the time allowed for the parts cannot be greater than the time available for the entire event! 

10 Questions to Ask Your Wedding Planner

Check out this great article about choosing a wedding planner!  



Question 10 is going to help you to have a successful relationship with any professional you hire. You want the professionals you hire to relate to you and understand your vision and it starts with communication.

Especially note of question number 1.  This question is so important!  It’s suggested for brides as an “ask your-self” question, but don't be afraid to answer this question directly if you don't feel it was thoroughly covered during the interview or consultation. 

Enjoy!

"Feeling overwhelmed with all the work that goes into planning your wedding? Consider hiring a wedding planner to help with the preparations so you can relax and enjoy your big day. You can choose from planners who handle last-minute tasks leading up to the wedding, or those who take charge of every detail of your event, from the rehearsal dinner to the honeymoon and everything in between. The right planner not only keeps things organized and on schedule, but also advises you on where to find the perfect venue, dress, cake and bouquet. For many couples, wedding planners are so important to the event's success that the best planners are booked more than a year in advance.

These 10 questions won't just help you find the perfect wedding planner -- they'll also help you maintain your budget (and your sanity) leading up to the big day. Consider this your cheat sheet for interviewing prospective wedding planners..."

Read the full article right here…

Article citation:   Turner, Bambi. "10 Questions to Ask Your Wedding Planner" 20 April 2010. HowStuffWorks.com. 22 June 2011

Can Stylish Plans, Slumber Parties and Amusement Parks Really Coexist!?

Feature Article
by Tracey Baxter

At The Bridal Showcase, the biggest question I heard was “How do I choose a venue?” The best place to look first for a great venue is right in your own mind! No joke! Think about the style of your wedding.  Really imagine it – if you could be ‘on location’ in the perfect venue for your wedding, what do you see in your mind?  Are you in a ballroom or lakeside? If you are outdoors in your vision, you have effectively eliminated a lot of venues right off the bat! Or if you are in a mansion or historic site you’ve also effectively eliminated many! This is great! You’ve saved yourself time and energy and can avoid visiting places that you wouldn’t prefer to host your wedding ceremony, reception or both.






When choosing a venue, when you walk into the space, do you feel like it conveys your style? Keep in mind; I am using the word style – not the word theme! Eliminate theme from your wedding vocabulary and think style. Themes are for 2nd grade slumber parties and amusement parks. Both fun? Absolutely! But theme is not fun for at least 90% of weddings! Now, yes there is that 10% or less that want to do some sort of over the top “theme” but pulling that off without creating a hot mess needs cautious planning! In my experience theming is not what most brides are looking to achieve on their wedding day – it’s style!






Let’s talk for a minute about this because if not theme, what constitutes style? Style is not something that you beat your guests half to death with by making everything matchy-matchy like something out of "The Stepford Wives". It’s not the favor tags, seating cards or other details, although those elements can enhance the style if used properly! Style is like the big picture. Style is a ribbon of continuity throughout your wedding that creates a feeling or ambiance. Style starts with your save-the-date cards or invitations, ends with your thank you cards and includes everything in between, but it is not any of these elements individually. So now with style clarified, again picture your perfect wedding day. How does the venue make you feel? When you go on site to check out a venue if you don’t get that very same feeling you’re imagining at this moment, you’ve not found your venue yet.






The reason finding a venue that is suitable to your event style is critical is because to create that feeling of your style, in a space that doesn’t naturally convey it, can quickly become time consuming and costly. To a degree, it’s like reinventing the wheel! Yes, you can bring the outdoors in but if a ballroom is bright yellow and grey, it will be take more to mask that décor and create something natural and outdoorsy, than if you found a ballroom with a more neutral or green décor scheme that could easily blend into your style.






On the other hand, if you are not locked in to a specific color swatch yet, then the ballroom or other location you select can determine your scheme so you are easily coordinated with the style of the room.  And there is really nothing wrong with that approach as long as you walk in that space and feel “Ah” instead of “Blah”.



So that is the essence of venue selection!






Your Wedding Planning Homework:


Connect with a venue this week! Remember while visiting to really envision the style of your weeding and how it will appear.










copyright 2011 Aisle Do


Want to use this article in your e-Zine, blog or website? You may as long as you include this complete statement:

Wedding Solutions Specialist Tracey Baxter publishes the "Aisle Do" bi-weekly e-zine. Get your Free Report: "From Drab to Fab - The Five Secrets to a Show Stopping Favor Display” available  at http://www.aisledoweddings.com/

"The Most Common Mistake Made by Newly Engaged Couples"

Feature Article


"The most common mistake made by newly engaged couples!"

by Tracey Baxter



This major mistake can be costly in many ways. Whether you are dreaming of a very intimate gathering or a bash that rivals New York’s Times Square on New Year’s Eve, the most important factor to consider is creating your wedding guest list. Most brides and mothers of these brides estimate that they will host a certain number, say 135 guests, and jump right into booking venues and dress shopping. Unfortunately, what they think will be 135 guests actually tallies to something quite different when they finally sit down and make a list of who they really would like to invite. Let’s examine a couple examples of how guessing your guest list total sabotages your wedding planning before you get started.







Some brides justify procrastinating creating an accurate guest list thinking there will be a large number of guests that will be unable to attend. This is not usually the case. Inviting more than 10 guests over what your venue will safely accommodate is not a gamble worth taking. You will be in a world of hurt much too late in the game to change the location and your venue will have no choice but to force you (or your family or wedding planner) to turn guests away at the door because they take fire code violations very seriously. This would be more horrific than not inviting some people to begin with don’t you think?






When you over estimate your guest list and choose a venue scaled for well over your actual needs, you’re still not making the most informed decision. Hosting a small event in a massive space is not the end of the world but you will still have only two options if you don’t care for the idea of your intimate event getting lost in the expanse of the ballroom. And your options could be expensive. You will need to either increase your budget to make the space feel more intimate by adding fabric, tents or other large scale décor or forfeit the deposit so you can find a venue elsewhere that is more appropriately sized for your event.






The guest list, particularly the trimming of the guest list, has more potential for prickly discussions than any other wedding planning category. When brides immediately start searching venues and caterers, they often choose a site that is too small because they underestimated their guest list. This creates unnecessary stress as the guest list has to be reduced. Traditionally, the guest list size is determined by the host and is divided in half for each family to select their share of the guests. But if the reserved venue is much smaller than the guest list needs, there are only two options. You must either trim the guest list or lose your deposit and booking somewhere that safely accommodates all of your invited guests.






Guest list size makes the financial impact. If you have a large reception in mind, say 300 guests, allotting $65 per person will total $19,500. The same reception for 200 guests drops to $13,000 and for 100 guests to just $6500. This example of $65 per person included bar service, cake, décor in addition to a plated meal. If you selected a menu that alone is $65 per person, revisit the numbers above and add to them at least 50% for the addition of décor, bar service and cake. You can easily see the financial significance of accurately figuring out the guest list right from the start.






Communication is key!  Regardless of if you go with the traditional guest list allocation, tally based on who is contributing to the budget, or some other formula, clear and compassionate communication between you, your fiancé, and both of your families is important. Not only are you more likely to create an event that you truly desire, it will also set the standard for a future of good communication between you all.

Your Wedding Planning Homework!

It's time to make that guest list! Don't procrastinate! I like to use a spreadsheet and make columns at the top for the guest first name, last name, their spouse or guest's name, names of children, total guests in the party etc. The auto tally feature also helps so you don't have to count them up when you are done. If you already have a gotten started on your guest list, have you considered a column for how the invitations outer and inner envelops should be written?


If you're closer to the wedding then sending invitations, on your guest list spreadsheet, don't forget a column for how the escort or seating cards should be written and recording the date when you wrote a thank-you card!