Wedding Festivals January Bridal Expo

If you walked in my office right now, you would be shocked. I’m in a mess trying to get ready for the upcoming Wedding Festivals Show at the Hyatt this Saturday. You would not believe how much behind the scenes work is done before a show. It is hard work, but I enjoy doing the shows. It is such a great way to meet new brides and new vendors. There is so much excitement in the air at every show we do.

If you’re planning to attend the show, here are a few tips.

1) Wear comfortable shoes. This is not the time to dress up in heels. You are going to walk a lot.

2) Type out your name, address, email (set up one strictly for the wedding) and wedding date on address labels. This way instead of filling out hundreds of entries for prizes, you can just stick on a label.

3) Make a quick tour through the area first, decide which booths you want to spend some time at and go back to these booths when they are not crowded. The best time to talk to a vendor is actually during the fashion show. If you already have your dress, skip the show and go have some one on one time with vendors you are interested in.

4) Don’t bring your whole wedding party with you. You, your Mom and your best friend are plenty. If you can convince the fiancé by all means bring him along. Most shows now days have a men’s area with cigars, beer and chairs and there is always food to taste.

At the show on Saturday we will be in booth #100. Be sure and stop by to say hello.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone that helped make this such a special year for Willrich Bridal and Special Events.

I've Been Tagged Again

I have been tagged!!

Looks like another round of tagging is going on and I have been tagged by Dantzler Designz . I am supposed to list 7 random or strange facts about myself. Why is this always so hard? I’m sure my friends could give you seven weird things I do in a matter of seconds.

Ok, here’s what I can think of:

1. I was born on Valentines Day, so I’m a real sweetheart.
2. I love old movies, especially the Thin Man movies. Myrna Loy is the person I want to be when I grow up. When I die and go to heaven, it’s going to be like a black and white movie, I'm going to sit in one of those beautiful clubs with Cary Grant and watch Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance.
3. I have a huge doll collection and of course my only child was a boy.
4. I have a parrot named Ringo.
5. My cat’s grandmother was two time national grand champion, but she is just my beautiful baby.
6.My favorite part of the wedding is when the bride and groom are announced into the reception.
7. I have water skied practically my whole life.

Ok, that seven. Now, I am suppose to tag someone else, so I am tagging

Yvette at http://www.photographybydennis.com/ .

If you want to read some other really great blogs that’s owners have been tagged, check out:
Laura - Soiree Special Events
Cynthea - Art and Soul Weddings & Events
Carey - Lasso'd Moon Designs
Kimberley - Parisian Events
Liene - Blue Orchid Designs

Terrica - Once Upon Your Wedding

Dimitra Designs Bridal Emporium

As a wedding planner I get invited to a lot of cool things and on Thursday I was invited to the grand opening of Dimitra Designs Bridal Emporium. If you don’t already know Dimitra’s has moved into a new building across from Krispy Kreme on North Pleasantburg Dr.

I was met at the door by Diane Richey, of Wedding Invitations and More, who has a vendor space in the new building. Diane graciously handed me a glass of wine and took me on a tour of the store.

I have to say the new 15,000 sq. foot building is beautiful with thousands of wedding dresses, prom dresses and mother of the bride dresses to choose from. Each type of dress has its own section with dressing rooms for each area. They have a designer section that starts at $1000 and goes up.

I also understand there are plans in the future to have photography, hair and makeup available in the salon for brides. To learn more check out Dimitra Designs

Cutting The Cake

Let’s talk about cutting your wedding cake. Cutting the cake is one of the highlight moments of your reception. Not only is it a great photo op, but it is based on years and years of tradition.

Brides will plan with great detail, the exact moment the cake is to be cut (tradition is near the end of the reception, but in recent years that has been moved to just after dinner). They plan the song to accompany the cutting. They spend hours picking out the perfect knife and server pieces. But when the time comes to actually cut the cake, they look at me in a panic. What do I do? How exactly do we cut this towering confection?

Well the normal practice is to cut the bottom layer (unless this layer happens to be fake). Pick a spot on the backside of the cake for the best picture positioning. If there is ribbon on the cake, find where the pin is and remove the ribbon from the area you plan to cut. Tradition states that the bride’s hand goes on the knife first and then the groom’s on top. Photographers prefer, as do most brides (and I) to have the groom’s hand on the bottom and bride’s on top, so that the bling of that engagement ring and wedding ring show in the pictures. Take the knife and go close to the edge of the next layer of cake, point the knife straight down and cut a small slit. Then lower the knife and cut the sides of your slice. Take the server and slip it under the cake slice and slide it out. Place the slice on a dessert plate or napkin. Remember you only need a slice big enough for two bites.

Tradition declares that the groom serve the first bite to his bride signifying his desire to provide for his bride. Then she feeds him. Hopefully, all this is done while avoiding the whole smashing in the face thing.

Spring 2008 Colors

Ever wonder what colors will be hot next season. Trying to decide on a hip cool color scheme for your wedding? Well here is the place to look. Pantone is the world renowned expert on color trends. Go to their website and check out their trends section. You can find out what the colors for spring 2008 will be for the home and fashion industry. With colors like Snorkel Blue how can you go wrong?

Part 7-What Does A Wedding Planner Really Do?

Clean up starts the minute the bride and groom walk out the door. We start collecting everything we brought to the wedding for the bride. The sign in book, pens, left over favors, bubbles, napkins, flutes, cake set (make sure this is rinsed off) are all collected and repacked in boxes to go in the pre arranged car.

While the car is being packed, we start moving all the centerpieces and candles onto one table so the site crew can start breaking down tables. The mother of the bride comes in and decides what she wants to do with the flowers. Most weddings the vases are just rented so flowers must be removed from vases and put into some sort of container if the mother wants to take the flowers.

We run a quick check through all the rooms and make sure nothing has been left behind by the wedding party. Then we gather up our items, the emergency kit, the steamer, the timelines, etc and make sure it is all packed in our car.

At this point, we are all exhausted. We’ve been on the job for over 12 hours, most of that time spent on our feet. We say goodbye to the site crew, make sure the florist or rental company is on the way to pick up his rentals and trudge to the cars.

Just one more perfect wedding completed. Nothing to it…. yeah right….

Part 6-What Does A Wedding Planner Really Do?

Once the first dance is danced and the minister says the blessing, dinner begins. At this point, we begin moving the wedding gifts from the reception area to a pre arranged car. Since the gifts were going in the parents car and they had not remembered to give us the key, one of the team members goes to find the key and the rest start stacking gifts. Linda on my team is the world’s best car packer. She can get what seems like an impossible amount of gifts packed into one car.

While they pack the car, I stay in the reception and make sure the bridal couple has everything they need. I also try to get them away from guests and seated so they can at least eat a quick bite of the food.

Once my team returns, it is time for toasts. The best man is scheduled to do the toast, so we go remind him, tell the DJ and remind the videographer and photographer. We make sure the bride and groom know, so they are in the room. In this case, the best man did have his speech prepared, in some cases they don’t and we quickly run over a few things they can say.

Once the speech takes place, and the guests are completing dinner, it is time for the cake to be cut. Once again, we must remind the bride and groom, DJ, videographer, photographer, find the parents so they don’t miss anything and let the caterer know. The DJ makes the announcement and I go with the bride and groom to the cake table and tell them exactly how to hold the knife, cut the cake and serve each other.

We then flow seamlessly into the father/daughter dance. Ok, it flows seamlessly only because we have covered this with the DJ, photographer, etc. You get the idea.

After the dance is over, the DJ opens the dance floor for guests and for the first time, we get a moment to relax. At this point, we go in shifts to get a bite to eat. Those not eating are stationed by the doors to direct guests to restrooms, answer questions and make sure nothing goes wrong.

Next it is time for the bouquet and garter toss. Again, there is the whole remind everyone, bride, groom, videographer, etc, that it is about to take place. We locate the throw bouquet and hand it to the bride. We run the single guys out of the bar, so they are available.

More dancing follows and we begin packing the car for the bride and groom's get away. We load their luggage into the car, get the food the caterer has packed up for the bride and groom and move the car to the entrance.

By this time the party is winding down and the DJ announces last dance (with a reminder from us). While the last dance is going on we are making sure everyone knows the bride and groom are getting ready to depart. By everyone, I mean Mom, Dad, photographer, videographer, etc. Once the last dance finishes up, we have the DJ announce to the crowd to move outside to tell the bride and groom goodbye. We have two team members stationed at the doors handing out bubbles and favors to the leaving guests. I remove the bride and groom from the room (otherwise the crowd would never move outside). Once the guests are lined up, we send the bride and groom out to the sounds of a cheering crowd and masses of bubbles. As they are driving away we are rushing back in to begin the clean up part of our job.

More tomorrow……

Part 5 -What Does A Wedding Planner Really Do?

As the guests arrive for the cocktail hour, I make sure that the wait staff is butlering the drinks, that food is being replenished, keep an eye on the time and keep in contact over the phone with the team member left at the church to help with pictures. We need to know exactly when they leave the church so we can move guests from the cocktail hour to the reception area just before the wedding party arrives.

I make a quick last minute run through of the actual reception area checking to make sure any flowers brought over from the ceremony site are correctly placed and everything looks perfect. I also meet quickly with the band to make sure that they have my timeline and we go over any questions they have.

I try to snap a few pictures of the setup before the guests actually go in the room. Since the bride and groom will not arrive before the guests are let into the room, I think it’s nice for them to have a few pictures of how it looked beforehand.

As soon as my team member from the church calls to let me know they are on the way to the reception, I jump into action. I let the caterer know that the bridal party is on their way. We let the band know we are going to open the doors to the reception area and we move as a team to the doors of the reception area and invite the guests in. We try to have everyone out of the cocktail area and in the reception area before the wedding party actually arrives. Sometimes this can be just like trying to herd cats, but we get it done.

The wedding party pulls up to the site and we start lining them up to be announced in. Not an easy job with people wandering off to try and find their husband or wife, going to the bathroom or worse yet heading to the bar. The bridesmaids flowers were being used as part of the centerpieces on certain tables (to save on money) so we had to quickly gather these up and send two team members to slip in and get the flowers on the tables, hopefully before guests notice that some tables had no centerpieces.

Also, we have to get the bride's dress bustled. I always tell brides to have someone that knows exactly how to bustle the dress. It never fails that this person is no where around. So my team is up under the dress trying to figure out the bustle.

Once everyone is set, we signal the band to begin and open the doors. Everything goes perfect. Bridal party goes in and circles the dance floor. The new Mr. and Mrs. are introduced, and begin their first dance. We meanwhile are finding Mom and Dad and getting them ready to make their welcome speech to the guests and finding the minister to be ready to say the blessing.

Everything goes off without a hitch and the reception begins….

More tomorrow.

A Christmas Wedding

This past Saturday, Willrich Bridal was lucky enough to be the planner for a beautiful Christmas Wedding. This was Rebecca and Jeremy’s wedding at Edwards Road Baptist Church. They are one of the sweetest couples I have met. It was a joy to work with them. Rebecca wanted an elegant Christmas theme and that was just what she got. The ceremony site was done in poinsettias, 80 of them to be exact.



It was breath taking to say the least. The bride and bridesmaids carried white and green bouquets that once again Dave McMillan of Memories by McMillan created.



The reception was held at the Younts Center at Furman and everything was so elegant. Table arrangements were Christmas with a modern twist. Red and white roses and tulips with snow covered branches topped the tables and buffet.



We put together a candy bar that was a huge hit for the favors.
Congratulations Rebecca and Jeremy!

Part 4 -What Does A Wedding Planner Really Do?

So the bride has safely made it down the aisle, the wedding is progressing nicely and I’m exhausted, but there is no time to rest. While the wedding finishes up the Willrich team is still hard at work. Half my team is busily gathering all of the bride’s items to be packed in the getaway car, grabbing the sign in book and heading over to the reception site. Those of us left, including myself get in place to open the doors as the new Mr. and Mrs. return down the aisle. As the new couple and their bridal party come out of the church we send them back to an area out of sight of the guests to wait for pictures to start. We stop groomsmen that have to go back down the aisle to escort out family members, put them in the correct order and send them back down the aisle to bring out Mom and Grandmom.

Once the recessional ends and guests start to move out of the sanctuary, we are stationed at the doors to hand out directions to the reception site and answer questions. As soon as all the guests have left, we move the bridal party back into the sanctuary for pictures. As the pictures begin, we start packing up anything in the sanctuary that needs to be moved to the reception, left over programs, coloring books for the kids, and pew markers. We are also the ones bending over picking up all those beautiful rose petals that the flower girl just dropped, under the watchful eye of the priest. Yeah that’s right; someone has to pick up all those petals. Bet you hadn’t even though about that (another thing the florist does not do.)

As soon as the pictures are underway, church cleaned and we’re sure the limo is in the parking lot, the rest of the team, (except the one assigned to stay with the bridal party during pictures, to keep them on the 30 minute time schedule) leave and head to the reception.

When I arrive at the reception, I am pleased to see my team that arrived earlier has lit all the candles, put out the sign in book, and has started taking gifts from arriving guests and placing them on the gift table. Another member of the team is patiently helping guests find their escort cards and places at the tables. Of course friends of the bride have been assigned these duties, but as usual they are no where to be seen. Guests don’t enjoy doing these things when the bar is open and there are friends to talk to and I don’t blame them.

More tomorrow….

Part 3- What Does A Wedding Planner Really Do?

Meanwhile, back at the hotel the other half of the Willrich Bridal team is busily steaming dresses. Most of the bridesmaids were from out of town and gotten their dresses badly wrinkled during their trip into Greenville. After the steaming was complete and everyone was dressed, two of the bridesmaids stepped on the hem of their dresses and pull out some of the tiny tucks in the skirts. Lucky for them, some of my team sews and the damage was quickly repaired.

Earlier we had picked up the body flowers (florist term for flowers carried or worn by a person) at the church and delivered them to the hotel (another thing the florist forget to mention he didn’t do). Once everyone was dressed and the photographer had arrived the flowers were passed out and pinned on by my team. When the bridal party had left to go to the lobby and take some quick pictures, my team started straightening up the room and gathering up the bride’s clothes and bags so that we could take them with us to the reception and pack them in the get away car. As soon as this was completed it was time to go watch for the two limos that were coming to pick up the bridal party. Pictures were finished and bridal party limos arrived. The bridal party was placed in one limo and the bride and her father in the other. Once they were prepared to leave, my team jumped in their car and hurried to the church.

By this time, the whole team was back at the church. The groomsmen arrived and were placed at the doorways to greet guests and usher them to their seats. This particular church had two entrances, one the front main entrance and one on the side nearer the parking lot. Since we wanted the guest to enter by the front entrance only, we stationed a team member at the side door to send guests to the front entrance.

At rehearsal it had been carefully explained to the groomsmen and ushers, exactly where the family was to be seated and where guests where to be seated. Unfortunately as the church filled up, apparently one of the ushers forgot and filled the grandmother’s row with guests. We quickly and quietly moved in and asked the row to please slide over into the next section of seats. Disaster averted.

At this point, the minister had been mic’d and somehow the sound person had forgotten to turn the mic off. I suddenly hear the minister’s voice over the prelude music. Quickly we rush to find the minister and have the mic shut off.

Now it is time to line the wedding party up for their trip down the aisle. The bridesmaids are back in the bridal room happily waiting for their grand entrance, groomsmen are busily directing guests, but wait suddenly the bride’s limo (which had pulled up earlier) is gone. Now this is one of my biggest peeves with brides. I understand not wanting the groom to see you before the wedding, but there is no tradition about bad luck if a guest happens to see you. Do not worry about a guest seeing you in your dress. BIG DEAL. But because guests were walking near the limo, she had decided to drive off rather than come in as planned thus throwing off the whole schedule.

I now have musicians wanting to know if they should start the wedding music. A mother of the bride panicking that the bride is not in the room where she was supposed to be, we are behind schedule and no way to contact the bride since neither she, nor her dad, nor the limo driver have a cell phone with them. I decide to go ahead and line everyone up. Hopefully the bride has read her own invitation and knows what time this wedding is to start. I tell the musicians to just keep playing until we have a bride, my team lines up the wedding party minus bride and father. Luckily just at the time the mother reaches full panic mode the limo pulls up. We race down the hill, open the limo doors and a smiling calm bride exits the car and takes her place in line. (Glad she’s calm, I’m a wreck). The procession starts, everything goes off as planned and half my team gathers up the sign in book, emergency kit and brides clothes and leaves once again for the reception site. The rest stay behind to clean up after the wedding and get pictures going.

More tomorrow....

Part 2 - So What Does A Wedding Planner Really Do?

After we are certain everything is set and ready at the church, my team moves on to the reception site to do setup. We arrive at the site and I meet with the site planner. They have set out the tables and I immediately notice that we are one table short. Since this was a plated dinner, with assigned seating this would have been a big problem if it hadn’t been caught. But once I proved the headcount by showing them the bride’s seating chart, another table was quickly added.

At this point, the florist’s assistant arrives and begins to decorate the tables. I had been given candles that I was told to give to the florist and he was going to arrange in the windows of the site. When we hand the candles to the assistant florist, she of course has no idea what is to be done with these candles. So we discuss, decided on a plan and place the candles.

We place the escort cards on a table for the guests to pick up and quickly realize with the wind blowing through the site the cards are so light they are blowing off the table. No problem, I take some ribbon I happen to have in the wedding colors in my emergency kit (thank goodness for that kit) and we pin the ribbon in rows on the table and slide the cards underneath. Problem solved. Oh and did I forget to mention that the cards had not been given to us in alphabetical order, so we also took up some precious time getting them in order.

At this point, half of my team leaves and heads to the hotel to meet with the bride and bridesmaids and start steaming dresses. The rest of us continue setting up the guestbook, favors, etc at the site. About this time a few of the band members arrive and start setting up. A few minutes later I notice that cars are backing up on the road in front of the site. The band has parked their truck in the middle of a public road and just left it there. I have to drop what I am doing and track down the band member who owns the truck and get it moved.

The site’s setup crew comes to me with questions about the buffet setup for the cocktail hour. Seems since we had to add an extra table it has thrown off the plan for the placement of the bar and buffet. We discuss and come up with a workable plan for everyone. We are also missing a table for the gifts, so we round one up, find linens and get it in place.

More tomorrow…..

So What Does a Wedding Planner Really Do?

Ever wonder what really goes on behind the scenes at a wedding? Are you wondering “do I really need a planner” or “what will a planner do that my Mom or I can’t do at the wedding”? Well maybe I can answer those questions for you by telling you just a little of what we handled at a recent wedding.

This particular wedding was a “Day Of” wedding, which means Willrich Bridal, was not the wedding planner from the very beginning. We were hired by the bride to step in at the wedding and reception and make sure her plans went smoothly. “Day Of” planning is tough for a planner. Basically it means you are coming in at the last minute to handle all the mistakes and problems that wouldn’t have happened if they had hired you in the very beginning. It easy to see why “Day Of” planning is not being done by many planners. As a planner why set yourself up to get blamed for problems that come up that you have no control over.

So, for this particular wedding our day started out at 8:00am packing the car with all the bride’s items she wanted us to set out at the wedding. This included 200 favors, programs, memory candles, unity candles, card box, flutes, portrait, easel, candles, marriage license, rings and all of our wedding day equipment. We bring the emergency kit, the steamer, sheets to cover the dirty floor for the bride to stand on, umbrellas, sewing kit, extra garters, socks, stockings, and just about anything else you might need at a wedding.

By 10:00 we are on our way to the wedding. We started out at the church to make sure everything was set. The night before at the rehearsal the florist had argued with me about the time he would be allowed in the church. He was just certain the priest would allow him in earlier. I tried to explain that I had already been over this with the priest, but the florist wouldn’t listen. Can you say attitude? (This is same florist that I had repeatedly called and left messages for and never heard back from. He had no email, or website, no way for me to contact him.) He ended up hunting the priest down and (haha) the priest told him I was correct about the time. So I wanted to be sure he was there setting up. Well he wasn’t (in fact this particular florist did not show up even once the entire day). He did have an assistant there putting flowers in place. Everything looked beautiful except for two not very attractive arrangements the church had in place, which needed to be moved out of the way. The florist had assured me, the night before, that these would be moved, yet the assistant had no idea these were to be moved, so my group ended up moving them. We set up the memory candles and the unity candles. We artfully placed programs in the lobby and removed church supper signs out of the entrance way. Now keep in mind that the bride had no idea giant orange signs advertising the church supper where even there and if we hadn’t come in to set things up, these signs would have been in all her photos walking down the aisle. We also removed a podium that was placed in the center of the lobby that would have blocked everything coming in the front door.

More tomorrow…..

Wedding Planners vs. Site Coordinators

I was at a wedding show not to long ago and I heard a DJ telling a bride, “If you hire the right DJ, you won’t even need a wedding planner”. All I could think of is that poor, poor bride if she believes that comment. Not that there aren’t a lot of good DJ’s out there, I work with some of the best. But a DJ is NOT a professional wedding planner, not even close.

The same can be said for a site planner and an actual wedding planner. No matter what they claim, they are not the same thing at all. Want to know how to find out for sure? Ask the person that is telling you they will handle all your planning, when they are available to go on vendor calls with you, what their plan for transportation is, when can you call them to discuss the colors of your bridesmaids dresses or when will they be contacting your other vendors with timelines or even if they will be available to you through out your whole reception. Most site planners (and don’t get me wrong, there are some great ones out there), only stay at a reception until dinner is served and then they are out of there.

Ask any of these questions and I bet you get a shocked look and a stammer of “well we don’t handle that”. Well guess what, a professional wedding planner does. She handles all this and more. Real wedding planners are invaluable to a couple. We are hired to look out for your best interest. A wedding planner is a liaison, someone who steps in and coordinates all your other vendors, along with your plans and produces your one of a kind event. Wedding planners are there to help you make an educated decision on what is best for you. We are not selling the site, trying to make a quota on a food sell or trying to please our corporate boss. You are our boss. As planners we help guide you into the right decisions for your wedding and budget. Remember the site coordinator is only responsible for that one site. Her responsibilities stop at the door. The plans for your wedding do not stop at that same door.

Don’t get caught in the trap of believing that your site coordinator, whether it’s church or reception site is going to be there for you to call with questions, just try getting hold of one on a Saturday or Sunday. If you’re having problems with your future mother in law, or invitations or seating decisions, your dress, or accessories your site coordinator is not going to be there with the answers.

So many brides figure this out too late and end up a stressed out mess. They end up figuring out a month or two before the wedding that as the bride they can not handle everything and enjoy their wedding. Suddenly they are drowning in details and need help. I feel so bad for brides that call me frantic a few months before their wedding searching for help. So often I’m already booked and can’t handle it or I see so many mistakes that have been made, mistakes that wouldn’t have been made if they had hired a planner in the beginning.

Don’t let this happen to you. Know what you are looking for and ask the right questions next time someone tells you, you don’t need a planner.

Getting Great Candid Shots of Your Wedding

Here’s a cool idea to get those candid photos of your wedding. Set up a Shutterfly or some other photo site account for guests to upload all the pictures they take at your wedding .

You just need to set up the account and then print the information on a blank business card and place them on the tables for the guests to take home with them. Since so many guests now bring their digital cameras or camera phones with them to weddings, you should get tons of great shots that guests have taken. You can always encourage guests to bring their cameras if you think your crowd isn’t made up of a lot of shutterbugs.

This so beats the idea of those disposable cameras brides have been putting on tables for years. These cameras are usually picked up by the kids at the weddings who have a great time taking pictures of walls and ceilings and each other. So you spend tons of money developing pictures of the walls, ceilings and close ups of your nephew’s nose.

Save the money on the cameras and the developing and set up a Shutterfly account instead and let guests spend a few minutes uploading their great pictures for you to enjoy.

Romantic Wedding Gowns with a Twist

Want to see something really different in the wedding gown arena? Check out Alisa Benay, Fairy Godmother . I saw her on Get Married, the television show this morning. I was blown away by her designs. Maybe because they are so different, maybe because of the luscious fabrics and colors are maybe just the romantic in me was touched. Whatever the reason, I wanted to give you the opportunity to check it out.

Marriott Wedding

We did a really nice wedding this weekend at the Greenville Marriott on Pelham Road. The staff at the Marriott was great. Joelle Davis, Catering Sales Manager (that's Joelle in the picture with the cake)did a terrific job and everything turned out beautifully. This bride wanted to do a candy bar and I sent her to talk to Lori Suchanek, owner of Candy Catering. Lori comes to your event, sets up and takes down the candy bar for you. As you can see from the pictures, she did a wonderful job. Thanks again Lori.

Which Side Am I On In The Processional?

You know over and over I get the question at weddings from mothers and grandmothers, “during the processional, which side of the usher should I be on?”

Lots of older ladies want to be on the right side of the usher. Yes, when you are dating, this is the correct arm that a gentleman should offer, but during a wedding processional it is different. It is the left arm. (Opposite is true for the Jewish Processional.) I once read that this started when men still wore swords. They needed their right arm free to defend their lady if anyone attacked the wedding party.

Anyway, as you can see from the illustration from Elegant Bride Magazine, spring 2007 edition, ladies are on the left, (brides side of the sanctuary) and ushers or groomsmen are on the right (grooms side of the sanctuary). This also helps avoided the “do-si-do” affect when bridesmaids and groomsmen get to the end of the aisle if they come in on the other arm. And of course the whole thing is reversed for the recessional.

Why We Have Ushers or Groomsmen Do The Escorting

One of my assistants was a guest at an out of town wedding this weekend, which did not have a planner. She witnessed the outcome of one of my biggest pet peeves. Every so often I have a bride that insists that she wants her dad to escort her mother down the aisle or the groom’s mother by the groom’s father. While it seems that this would be the sweet touching way to do the escorts down the aisle, in practice it doesn’t usually work.

There is a reason for tradition and as much as I believe tradition sometimes needs to be a little shaken up, this is not one of those times. The tradition of the mothers being escorted down and back up the aisle by an usher with the husband following has a very practical reason. Let’s say you decide to set your wedding processional up without escorts. Groom’s mom walks out with dad, followed by your mother with dad. Planner or you, tells them when to go and everything works out fine right. Ok, great, now it’s time for the recessional, wedding party goes back up the aisle and then who goes next? Is your Mom and Dad in all the excitement going to remember they should rise and come back down the aisle next? Will your Groom’s mother know she is supposed to wait, what about the grandmothers? Maybe they will all remember their cues, but let me tell you, in my experience and as proven by the wedding my assistant attended, this is not usually the case.

If you have an usher or groomsmen at the back and someone sending him back down the aisle at the correct time to bring out the seated members of the processional everything goes smoothly. If you don’t plan on ushers or groomsmen escorting both in and out, you run the risk of having your planner at the top of the aisle frantically trying to get your Mom’s attention, or your Mom frantically looking around for someone to tell her when to go. Do both you and the seated members of your processional a favor and plan on having an usher or groomsmen doing the escorting both in and out, otherwise as my assistant said it just turns into one big traffic jam.

Help The Groom is Driving Me Crazy

When talking about grooms and weddings, I always hear either a) He won’t help with a thing. He leaves everything on me to do. Or b) He is driving me crazy changing things after I think they are already settled. Who knew he would have such definite ideas on things.

Its true most grooms start off saying “just tell me where and when to show up”, but about half way through the planning stage, they start to demand a few things done their way. And who can blame them, after all it is their day too and they are providing a big chunk of the budget in most cases. So rather than pulling your hair out or thinking this whole marriage thing is a mistake, let's talk about ways to make both of you happy.

When I first meet with a bride and groom, one of the questions I ask the groom is what parts of the planning he is interested in, what is important to him. Almost always the answer is food, liquor and music. So let him be involved in these items, let him help with the menu, choose cake flavors (the men love that cake tasting), chose the beer offering (do you really care what beer he picks) and let him be in charge or help with the interviewing of the DJ or band. Men are great at making the “play” and “do not play” list. Hours of listening to songs on the computer is usually something they enjoy.

Give him things to accomplish; most men don’t want to spend hours talking about flower colors or picturing wedding decorations in their heads. Give them a written list of the things they need to accomplish that they are interested in and let them run with it. Don’t go to them about every little detail. Unless your man is very different than most, talking to him about wedding colors or bridesmaid’s dresses is not going to make either of you happy. Giving him a concise set of objectives will help take stress off of you and give him a part in the planning one of the most special events in both of your lives.

The Ceremony/Reception Gap

My nephew is getting married and my sister called yesterday to discuss what I thought about gaps between the wedding and reception. I know this is a big problem with Catholic weddings especially, since brides have to get married earlier in the day due to mass times and then have to wait till the evening for their reception, if they want a night time reception. There are several things that happen when you have a large gap (we’re talking several hours here) between the wedding and the reception.

The good news is there will be plenty of time for pictures at a different location for the bridal party. There will be an opportunity for guests who are staying in a nearby hotel to go back and rest up.

The bad news is many of your guests will only attend one of the events. Most will skip the wedding and come only to the reception. People do not want to dress for a wedding, then after the wedding sit around dressed up with nothing to do and wait for a reception. Keep in mind some of your guests will have a hotel room or home to return to and wait, but what about those guests that have driven in from a neighboring town or city and do not have somewhere to go back to and wait. What are they suppose to do?

You can help avoid this by having an activity planned for your guests during that in between time. Have an informal gathering of guests in a hotel suite or at a friend’s home. If you are in a destination city, maybe rent a tour bus to pick guests up and tour them around town. For an inexpensive idea, supply guests with a map of interesting locations in the area, including things to see, places to eat or get something to drink. Don’t just leave your guests floundering with nothing to do.

This is your day, but if you want your day to turn out perfect remember happy guests are what will make it that way.

Barn There Done That!

Ok, I just have to brag a little bit. I was hired to do a rehearsal dinner for a young bride and groom. They wanted the dinner in this barn (see before pictures). We used the Dutch Barn in Greer, SC. It is a big old barn, very rough, but rented often for parties. As you can see by the before pictures, it was a lot of work getting it ready. Willrich Bridal, Dave McMillan, the florist, and Shane of Good Life Catering worked all day the day before, cleaning and setting up.

For those of you that think being a wedding planner is all romantic and beautiful, let me clue you, it’s not. I was on my hands and knees cleaning toilets, scrubbing sinks and even sweeping out snake skins (gross!) My team was also standing outside parking cars in the freezing cold during the actual event. I never saw JLo do that.

On the actual day of the event we started early again, putting all the flowers in place. It was a lot of hard work but it turned out wonderful. Everyone couldn’t stop talking about how great it looked. Good Life Catering created a “shabby chic” BBQ for 150 people that was just delicious. We had one of the top blue grass bands in the nation Steep Canyon Rangers (unbelievably great!!) as the entertainment. The groom is a big banjo player and he got to play with them, he was beyond thrilled. We had a huge banjo cake as the groom’s cake provided by Kathy And Company.

I was really proud of how it all turned out and the bridal couple was really happy and that’s what counts.

What Makes Willrich Bridal Great?

People ask me all the time, what sets Willrich Bridal apart from other wedding planners, what makes us so special. I would have to say, it is my team. I have a wonderful team that comes to each wedding and helps handle all the details. As one minister told me, most wedding planners consisted of one nervous lady with a clipboard. Well not Willrich.

We have a team of usually five that will work your wedding. Each person has their own specialty that they are in charge of at the wedding. Things like packing the car, pinning on boutonnières, the timeline, lining the processional up, setting up the reception site, decorating the bridal suite. Having worked so many weddings together, at this point we are like the proverbial well oiled machine.

I can’t imagine trying to do a wedding on my own, without a team. There is no way, one or two people can be everywhere you need someone on your wedding day. To paraphrase a famous quote “It takes a team to raise a wedding”.

Do I Really Need A Video?

Ok, my brides all know I’m all about saving money where you can, but I do have a few places that I strongly advise against saving money. One of the main ones is saving money by doing without a video. For some reason brides and grooms always leave the decision for a video to the very end. “I have pictures, why do I need a video” is something I hear a lot. Now let me get up on my soapbox and I will tell you why. There are two very important reasons.

Number One – How much would you love to be able to watch your Great Grandmother and Great Grandfather getting married? Actually hear their voices, see their parents, family and friends, all those people that passed away years ago. You’d really like that right. Well so will your children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. A video is a movie of their past that they can see and hear. This will be one of the few times that all your family will be together at one time, why let that chance at a family record, slip away.

Number Two – Guess who is going to be the person that sees the least of what happens at your wedding. It’s going to be you, the bride. You won’t see guests coming in, you won’t see your handsome groom getting ready with the guys, you won’t see the processional or the cocktail hour and you’ll be to nervous and excited to remember much of what you do see. After all these months you have spent on making this the perfect event, you my dear will see very little of it. Don’t lose the chance to see your mother’s tears of joy or bestman’s goofy little dance.

With all the videographers out there today, there is someone for every budget. Even if you have to use a family member (which I recommend only as a last resort) get the video. I promise you will thank me for it.

Thumb Tuckers , The End of the Strapless Dress

Someone asked me the other day, what is the biggest change I see coming for weddings in 2008. I would have to say one of the biggest is we are finally seeing a shift away from the strapless gown and moving toward dresses with straps, necklines or even (gasp) sleeves.

Frankly, I love the strapless dresses (wore one myself) on the right person. But too many times I’m seen them on girls that should not be wearing them. My group has a name for strapless dresses. We call them the “thumb tuckers”. I know you have seen them, brides or bridesmaids that walk around the whole night with their thumbs tucked into the top of their strapless dress pulling them up. A lot of the time, strapless dresses are just not comfortable when you start moving around at the reception. And let’s not forget the girls that wear them with obvious tan lines showing, incorrect undergarments (bra’s showing in the back) and the notorious “back fat” problem.

So considering the “thumb tuckers” status and the fact that strapless is all we’ve seen for several years now, I’m excited to see wedding dresses moving in a new direction. Just look at these beautiful Badgley Mischka examples. Who wouldn't love this look?

Tips For An Outdoor Wedding

Here’s a tip. When you plan an outdoor wedding ask what is going on around the site? Is there a football game that day? Is there a concert? Student’s moving into or out of campus? Is it on a bus route? Are the sprinklers turned on and off at a certain time.

Just because you think the site should know better than to plan an outdoor wedding the same time that something else is going on, does not mean that it does. Is there parking? Anything going on that will be taking up parking? Since most outdoor sites are on campuses, country clubs or restaurants there are a lot of possibilities of things that can be going on at the same time. Is there another wedding going on nearby? This can lead to confused guests and crowded parking.

Also, think about the weather and the time of year. You may have considered rain, but in the South you need to consider heat. Remember your guests are going to be there 30 minutes before the ceremony starts and during the ceremony. That’s a long time to bake in the sun, if no shade is available. Don’t forget, mosquitoes, sand flies, gnats and other insects that your outdoor wedding or reception will be subjected to. Sometimes what looks beautiful in a picture is not so beautiful in life. Remember icing and gnats do not make a good combination!

Also, remember you will need available restrooms. I have not been to a wedding yet, that guests arriving did not ask about the restroom. Telling a guest that they have a half mile hike to the nearest restroom, is not going to leave your guests remembering your wedding as a fairytale come true.

Going Out With a Bang or When to End Your Reception

Knowing when to end your reception may not seem like a hard thing. You have the reception space rented till 11:00, so the reception ends at 11:00 right? Wrong!

Think about parties or receptions that you have attended and left thinking it was a really great party. If you are at a really great party, reception, concert, anything and it ends with a bang, everyone up dancing, clapping, having a great time, you walk out thinking what a great party that was. If you are at a party, that all the guests have slowly slipped away and at the end you look around and it’s just you and a few drunk partiers in the corner, you and your guests are not walking away with the same feeling.

With a wedding reception timing is everything, including the timing of your exit. You want to go out with a “bang”, so that your guests remember it as a great party. Imagine you’re up on a full dance floor, everyone having a ball, the DJ announces your last dance, everyone steps back to watch your dance and then moves out to line your exit and cheer you to your car. You have left your guests wanting more, not glad it’s finally over.

Keep in mind when planning your timeline, that once dinner is over and the cake is cut your guests will begin thinning out starting with the older adults. Close the bar and you have maybe 15 minutes till the place is nearly empty. Keep an eye on the party, when it starts getting harder and harder for the DJ to get the dance floor full, it is time to end the party, even if there is an hour of rental time left. As I tell brides, you don’t want your exit photos to be a few drunken stragglers blowing bubbles at you. Timing is everything!

Clemson Carillon Gardens Wedding

Willrich Bridal and Special Events did a beautiful outdoor wedding at Clemson this weekend. The ceremony was held in the Carillon Gardens and the reception was held at the Hendrix Center. Christy, the bride, picked pink and brown, one of my favorite color combinations, as her colors and everything looked gorgeous. The ceremony site was set up with white wooden chairs, shepherd hooks holding baskets of flowers and two large garden arrangements up front. It was beautiful.

The reception at the Hendrix Center was done in browns and pinks also. She had brown overlays on the tables to set off the pink carnation centerpieces. She had one of the prettiest programs and napkins, I’ve seen yet.

Flowers were done by Kaye at Just Weddings. Cake was by Susan at Couture Cakes and Robert from Life of the Party was the DJ. Emily Waggoner provided the wonderful ceremony music and pictures were done by Fort Mill Photography.

Congratulations Christy and Will.

Wedding Reception Layouts

Let’s talk about floor plans or room layouts or room designs. Whatever name your site calls them, you need to be sure your site gives you one.

This is a diagram of how your room will be set up for the reception. Some, depending on what kind of computer program your site uses are very detail and drawn totally to scale. Others are just a quick sketch your sales coordinator draws out. Either way you need to see this. It should show you exactly where your tables will be placed, your buffets, your cake table, dance floor, DJ, etc.

You need this for several different reasons. First of all it gives you an actual picture of what your room will look like. Lots of time what you have in your head and what the sales coordinator has in theirs are not the same. Maybe you see your grand entrance through the double doors in the front. But your sales person may plan to have those doors blocked with tables. Maybe you want the buffet line to run down both sides of the buffet, but the site is going to push the buffet against the wall, allowing for guest to only go down one side. These things will become obvious to you, once you see the layout.

You are not the only one that is going to need the layout. Your planner of course needs it. This will be one of the items she lives by on the day of the wedding. You will not be around to check on the ceremony and reception set up. If your planner is a “Day Of”, she really needs this layout to make sure everything is exactly like you want it. Your florist will ask for this. It helps them decide on the overall flower design. That includes things like which tables need tall centerpieces, which the short arrangements, what type of buffet arrangements are needed and where they will be placed. The DJ will need to know where he is setting up in relation to the dance floor and guest seating.

So remember to ask for a drawing of the room setup and make your life and your vendors easier.

Bridezillas

Ok I admit it, I watch Bridezillas. I have to. The first words out of people’s mouths, when they find out I’m a wedding planner is “do you watch Bridezilla”? Followed quickly by “have you ever had a bridezilla”?

My answer to this is no, I haven’t had one. If you think about it, the major reason these girls are going crazy is that they don’t have someone they can depend on to help with their wedding. The second reason would be that they don’t pick vendors that are good reputable wedding vendors. The third would be that they aren’t following a timeline of when items need to be completed to avoid problems. All these complications are avoided when a bride has hired a good wedding planner. I know these girls think they are saving money by not hiring a planner, but is it worth what should be the best time of your life turning into the worst, not to mention the alienation of your friends and family.

Now every bride is entitled to a breakdown. They all have them. I’ve seen brides cry over just about anything. That usually boils down to a bad case of nerves. But true Bridezillas happen because the bride feels like she has lost all control of the situation. (Ok, some on that show may be just plain crazy.) If a bride has a planner and listens to the planner (that’s important) Bridezilla should never be a name anyone calls her.

Congratulations Monica and Josh

We were the wedding planners for a beautiful wedding in Greenville this past Saturday. The ceremony was held at Locust Hill Baptist Church. The bride had originally wanted an outdoor ceremony, but when that didn’t work out we translated her dream of a garden wedding into the church.

Dave McMillan of Memories by McMillan once again did a beautiful job. The front of the church felt just like you were in a garden courtyard. It couldn’t have been prettier. Jana Candler of Jana Candler Photo was the wedding photographer and also did the beautiful pictures of the Furman fountains that were shown on the screens. The screens were a tie-in to the wonderful reception that followed at the Furman University Younts Center.

We had a buffet, carving station, martini mash potato bar, and ice cream bar. Believe me, not one of the 410 guests went hungry. And these guests really knew how to party! With the help of the fabulous DJ, Robert Batson of Life of the Party DJ everyone and I do mean everyone was on the dance floor.

It was a really great wedding! Congratulations Monica and Josh.

Bathroom Baskets

Let’s talk about bathroom baskets. Bathroom baskets are small baskets of essentials that brides put together and place in the bathrooms of the receptions site. Granted this is an added expense that you can do without and I do suggest skipping them if the restrooms in your site are not private to your party. But if you can afford them and have the time to put them together, they are a really nice gesture for your guests.

The baskets contain travel size items of things such as mouthwash, mints, hairspray, clear fingernail polish for repairing runs, spray on deodorant, hairpins, safety pins and Band-Aids. Anything a guest might need in an emergency. I can’t tell you how many times guests have commented on what a life saver the baskets were. I even have the cutest poems available to frame and place next to the baskets, explaining them to the guests.

The picture above is a beautiful basket put together by one of my brides. Monica, you did a great job.

Bridal Registry at Foxfire Gallery

I spent the morning visiting with Susan Stiles at FoxFire Gallery on Augusta Road. Susan and I have known each other for years and she was gracious enough to spend time teaching me all about Foxfire’s bridal registry.

Up until now Foxfire was not the first store to jump to mind when brides have asked me where to register. But after spending some time there today and seeing what all they have to offer, they will definitely be on the list. They have an excellent online registry, a good return policy and some really beautiful and unusual items to pick from. Susan said brides need only to call ahead, to book a time to meet with a bridal consultant and they will have someone there to spend one on one time with you to help you get registered. Consultants are even available for Saturday meetings or after six meetings at FoxFire Gallery on Woodruff Road.

If you are looking for somewhere a little different to register, check it out.

What Do Brides Really Want in Their Photographer

I was asked to speak at a photographer’s meeting about what the brides today want from a photographer. Since the person in charge of the meeting knew I belong to a wedding forum of some of the best planners from across the country, she thought it was be interesting to not only find out what I hear from brides but what planners in other areas are hearing from their brides. I thought this might be handy information for brides to have too.

So with the help of my fellow wedding planners (thanks Randi, Maryanne, Shanika, Liene) this is what I have come up with.

The number one request we get from brides is they want a photographer that offers custom flush mount albums. These are hot. The brides all love them.

Tied for number one actually is the ability to own the rights to their pictures. They want high resolution digital files on a cd. I know a lot of photographers offer this option along with the purchase of a complete album. So that once the bride comes to pick up their album, they also get the DVD. This works well for several reasons, the bride gets an album of retouched perfect pictures, the photographer has a product out there he can be proud of when the bride shows it to friends and the bride can still go a cheaper route to get albums for her bridesmaids or grandparents.

The brides are looking for the magazine type shots. Now keep in mind the bride wants this, the mom, on the other hand, still wants the family poses, so you need to offer both.

Along with this goes the black and white shots, hand colored shots and lots of Photoshop work. I hear over and over, we want a modern feel, lots of outdoor shots, and lots of fun creative shots.

Here’s a biggie, understandable packages. Sometimes I think people in the wedding business tend to forget that this is all new area to the brides. So many times we leave a photographer’s and the bride looks at me and says “now, what do I get?” Spell it out, the bride get this many proofs, that the she keeps, I shot for this amount of time, I will arrive at this time and leave at this time, this album holds this many pictures for this amount of money. Keep it simple.

Be sure engagement sessions are included in the package.

Brides want the photographer there for unlimited time for the wedding day or at the least two hours before the ceremony and until the bride and groom leave.

Two or more photographers on the wedding day.

Confidence in a backup plan if the photographer was to get sick.

Here’s another big one, brides want to meet with the photographer that will be taking the pictures. They want to know them and feel comfortable with them. I have had more than one bride tell me they have sat through a meeting with a photographer, looked at his albums only to find out that this would not be the photographer shooting their wedding. Needless to say they were not happy and didn’t book.

Customer service is huge. When they email, they want a quick response back, even if you don’t have the answer they want, respond back that you are working on it. Same with phone calls. I have a bride now that is not going to use a vendor she had planned to use, because they never answer emails in a timely manner.

Along this same line is a nice pleasant area to meet in. Brides want to see pictures up, the more modern and updated the area looks the more the bride will like it. I know it sounds shallow but it’s true. Office or home doesn’t matter, but a nice neat clean modern area does.

Brides want to be able to preview photos online (gallery or slideshow) while they are waiting for finished product.

Also I am having more and more requests for photographers that have the ability to quickly download pictures from the ceremony and be able to have a slideshow running at the wedding.

I am sure this is not everything, but it’s a good place to start for both brides and photographers. What one should be looking for and the other should be offering.

Preston Bailey Blog

Unless you’ve been living under a rock lately, you know who Preston Bailey is. Only the most over the top, fabulous wedding designer and florist to the stars there is. Well he has joined the ranks of Martha Stewart and me and now has his own blog Inspiration and Transformation. It’s brand new, just like his newly redesigned website Preston Bailey . For some gorgeous pictures and ideas, check it out.

Enjoy!