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!

Sunset Weddings

Ok, here’s a nifty little site for you. Official site of U.S. Naval Observatory. Now you are asking why would a bride need this site? Well on this site you can put in the day of your wedding and location and find out exactly what time sunset will take place. This will help you decide on what time you want your ceremony to take place. Maybe you want your ceremony to end at sunset? (Remember though, the more light you have at the ceremony, the better for the photographer and the less expense for you.) Maybe, you would like for sunset to happen during your cake cutting or during your photo session after the wedding. Whatever you want, this is a great site to find out exactly when sunset will take place.

No Tee Shirts Allowed

I was reading Anne Chertoff's blog From I Will To I Do , a favorite blog of mine, this morning and she mentioned something that I agree is so important that I thought I would blog about it here.

I know every bride has put a lot of thought into what she will wear on her wedding day. The dress, the shoes, the jewelry, but have you thought about what you need to wear that morning before you put on the dress, shoes and jewelry? What should you wear to get your hair done and your makeup? I know you are thinking what does it matter? Well, it actually matters a lot. Let’s say you decided to wear your “I’m the Bride” tee shirt to go get your makeup and hair done. Looks great right? Yes it looks great alright, till you get ready to take it off and actually put the wedding dress on. Now, you have a problem. Ever tried to get a tee shirt off over wedding hair, makeup and a veil? It’s not going to happen. Not without a pair of scissors involved.

Moral of the story is, on the wedding day remember to wear a button or zipper shirt, no tee shirts allowed.

Picking Wedding Colors

Having a hard time picking your wedding colors? Maybe this will help.

Here’s a fun website that you may not have heard of. It’s called Palette Generator and it is so much fun to play with.

All you need to do is download your favorite picture. Let’s say you have a picture of a bouquet you just love, but you are just not sure what colors you need to pick for the rest of your wedding palette to go with it. Well, all you do is go to the site, select your picture and it does the rest of the work for you. It generates a palette of colors that work beautifully with the picture.

What an easy way to get started on picking the perfect colors for your wedding.

Wedding Show At Belk Simpson at Haywood Mall

I just wanted to say hi to all the sweet future brides I met at the Belk at Haywood Wedding Show on Sunday. Willrich Bridal was thrilled to be invited to set up a display at the show showing brides just what a wedding planner can do for them. It was a small show with a lot of personal one on one time with the brides, my favorite kind of show. We met a lot of sweet savvy brides to be.

There were also some of my favorite vendors in attendance. Diane Richey from Wedding Invitations and More , one of my favorite vendors was there. Also Michelle and TJ from Getz Creative Photography , who we recently did a wedding with were there. They do beautiful work, check it out. Susan of Couture Cakes of Greenville and her sweet husband were there too. Susan does great cakes and we have used her on several occasions. Mark from Ernest Rawlins was also there and we spent some time talking and found out we have some mutual friends. I love his work, it’s so classic.

Anyway, it was a great show and if you missed it I’m sorry, but the good news is Belk’s plans on having another one in the near future, so be sure and watch for it and we’ll see you there.

Martha Stewart Finally Caught Up With Me

Guess what, Martha Stewart finally has a wedding blog. I can’t believe it took this long. (Ok, so I’m a tiny bit proud that I was more cutting edge than Martha.)

The Brides Guide From Martha Stewart Wedding Magazine is one to add to your favorites list. I’m sure it will be chock full of ideas, hopefully not better than mine (yeah right), but just as good. Enjoy!

Copper Crest in Hendersonville

We were invited to a vendor dinner at the beautiful Copper Crest in Hendersonville, NC last night. This is an inn built in 1908 that over the last few years has been restored to its original beauty. For the bride, looking for a weekend wedding in the mountains or the "something different" wedding, this is definitely a place to check out.

There are beautiful gardens to have the ceremony in, lovely restaurant, great bar area, reception areas and rooms for all your guests to spend a wonderful, memorable weekend in the mountains.

I have to say, I was impressed. I had toured the facility a little over a year ago with a bride and liked it then. I am even more impressed now with all the new work that has been done.

Check it out.

Tag, You're It

Ok, one of the wedding planner forums I belong to is doing a round of blog tag. Basically the rules are that players that have been tagged by other bloggers list 8 facts/habits about themselves. Well I got tagged by Shanika of SJB Wedding & Events based in Charlotte NC. (Check out her very cool blog.)

Anyway, I have been racking my brain trying to come up with eight interesting facts about me or my habits. I have come to the conclusion that I’m a much more boring person than I thought. There goes that dream of a movie about my life (yeah right).

So here goes:

1. I have a BA in English (yeah, yeah I know you can’t tell it by this blog. Hey it was in literature, so give me a break.)
2. My dad’s family is from Possum Kingdom (yes there really is such a place).
3. I have a sixteen year old son.
4. I was born on Valentines Day. A real sweetheart. Romance is in my blood.
5. I am wedding obsessed (just ask my husband, he’ll tell you), which means I have every wedding magazine and wedding related book on the market. Well maybe not all of them but pretty close.
6. My favorite TV shows are all the wedding ones (thank goodness for TiVo), Kyle XY, Monk, Ace of Cakes, Top Chef, Burn Notice and yes although I hate to admit it I do occasionally watch the soaps.
7. Favorite author is Amanda Quick, aka Jayne Castle and Jayne Ann Krentz followed closely by Julia Quinn.
8. I have a gorgeous Maine Coon cat, that knows she is perfection and a parrot that is just plain crazy.

Ok, so I’m not Einstein, or Angelina Jolie, but I am a pretty darn good wedding planner if I do say so myself. You know they did make a movie about a wedding planner so maybe there is hope yet.

Chris and Susanne's Wedding at Larkins

I was out of town all last week and didn’t get a chance to post about the beautiful wedding we did last weekend. Even though it was hot as a firecracker outside, everything about the wedding and reception went as smooth as ice.

It was the wedding of a really fun couple, Susanne and Chris. The wedding took place at Larkin's On The River with the reception at the Wyche Pavilion. The crew at Larkin’s could not have been nicer to work with. I was very impressed.

The colors of the wedding were red, white and black with the flowers done in bright tropical colors. It was gorgeous. Dave McMillan of Memories by McMillan did the flowers and once again he proved why he is one of my favorite florists. Dennis and Yvette of Photography by Dennis and Yvette did all the photography and I can’t wait to see the pictures.

Music was provided for the ceremony by Strings for Things who did a lovely job. For those of you that have been to a ceremony in the courtyard area of Larkins, you know what a beautiful little area this is. The musicians sat above the ceremony on the bridge area above the guests. Music wafted down over the guests for a fairytale effect.

For the reception music, Blake from Jumping Jukebox had everyone up on their feet and dancing despite the heat. He definitely had the place rocking.

I just heard from the bride and groom and they were thrilled with everything which makes my job worth it!