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Posts tagged ‘Wedding planner’

Feb 5

A little more on invitations

I know that I haven’t written anything since Katherine and Chris’ wedding. I have had events since then. But, I’m pleading the holidays and bridal show season and… that’s it. So, on with the blogging!

It seems that I have been working on about 5 client’s invitations all at once. With this conversation coming up so often for me, I decided that I needed to put a few items on the blog.

I’m not going to go into the full etiquette of invitations. That would take FOREVER! Emily Post wrote whole chapters on invitation etiquette so please refer to the source :) .

What I am going to do is to attempt to show how invitations are an extension of the wedding. This will be a series of posts so stay tuned for more info to come. But, to kick it off, I thought I would continue in the Kat and Chris theme and discuss their unbelievable invitations.

From the previous post of their reception photos, you can see that we were going for a classic southern wedding. Formal, yet inviting. Fun and beautiful. So, when we were going through their invitation options it was clear that a classic and formal invitation was the only choice. What does that mean? Ecru card, gold gilded edges, gold initial motif, black engraved text. Perfection.

Photography by flipflopfoto.com

Invitation, response card and envelope. Photography by flipflopfoto.com

Invitation close up. Photo by flipflopfoto.com

Kat and Chris actually had two identical invitations. One invited just family to the ceremony because the church was very small. The second one invited all of their guests to the reception at the Taylor family home. Since this was a “home town wedding” (meaning the bride and groom both grew up in the same town), the only other piece in the invitation was the response card. The motif at the top of the invitation was used throughout the invitation. It was designed to honor their Catholic ceremony with the cross and then their first initials intertwined.

All of this was engraved onto a heavy ecru card that had gold edging. In a word – gorgeous. You can’t get any more classic than this. Seriously. I’m not expressing myself very well. I just love this invitation!

Now, the next subject really deserves its own post. But, I had to mention it here because it really completed the entire invitation suite. Calligraphy. It really sets an invitation a part. Calligraphy is truly an art and I have been blessed to work with some true artists. There are different styles and formality to calligraphy, so there is a style for every wedding! But, please feast your eyes on the finishing aspect of Kat and Chris’ invitations.

Photo by flipflopfoto.com

There is much more to come! Please stay tuned for more discussions of amazing invitation design. I promise, I’ll be good and post more often.

Feb 20

A new gallery

Check out the gallery page that I added to the blog. There’s a tab at the top of the page and a link over to the right. It’s just a way to add photos quickly. Hope you enjoy!

Feb 9

Wedding Weather

I was thinking about the gorgeous weather that the South (Auburn, Ala.) has been blessed with in the past couple of days. The wedding I did this weekend was so lucky. It was held in a church downtown and then the country club in Auburn. For a February wedding, they had 70 degree weather. They were able to have all the doors open to the outside at their reception. People were more willing to stay and talk with the bride and groom. Unreal!

That’s what is so crazy about this area. Just one week ago, we had 30 degree highs. So, you can’t exactly count on temps this time of year. In contrast, you can expect 95-100 degree highs in July. No doubt.

I say all that to bring attention to the fact that I seem to do more outdoor weddings than anything else. Or at least there is some outdoor part of things. People here seem bound and determined to use outdoor space if at all possible.

I just want to say that you need to think through the outdoor situation. Unless you are getting married in the tropics, there is reason to believe that there is more than a slight chance that your January wedding will be cold. And rain is always a possibility. I have seen more than a few weddings turn not so great because someone has planned a lot of the activities for the outdoors and then weather didn’t cooperate. Please don’t think that you can outsmart the weather.

Here’s what I’m trying to get at. Take this past weekend’s wedding. Instead of her planning on using any outdoor space at the club – which would require having heaters and possibly tents – she planned on everything being indoors. And, as a wonderful bonus, she got fabulous weather and everyone got an extra nice time at the reception. Now, say she had planned on using the outside space – weather be darned. Well, she would have had to rent patio heaters (which aren’t great) and what if the weather had been seriously frigid? No one would want to go out there anyway. Then, any drinks or food that she put outside would have been wasted. Sad.

So, here’s the deal. It is really tough to fight the weather. If you decide to take that on, you are going to have to pay for it, literally. If you have to fall back on your “back up plan” that what your wedding will look like – a back up plan. Isn’t it better to just plan you wedding with your guest’s utmost comfort in mind then have a nice surprise if you get great weather?

*I’m not trying to throw cold water on any outdoor wedding wishes. I love outdoor weddings. I’m just trying to get everyone to be realistic about what comes with that plan.

Nov 10

Choosing your wedding style

An alternate title of this post could be “Choosing your wedding theme,” but I hate using the word theme in weddings. That makes it sound like a kids party. So, I go with style. Style can mean a lot of different things: color choice, time of year, formality, etc. With that many ways to look at things, how do you decide on one?

I tend to think that a wedding’s style should always come from the couple’s personality. Letting their personality flow through the wedding’s style choices is always best. I have seen it many different ways: the mother of the bride decides everything and ends up with a wedding of her style, the bride decides everything according to her taste and ends up with a girly or cutesy wedding (the worst in my opinion) or the mother of the bride (who is paying for everything) and the bride don’t agree and get a wedding that looks pieced together.

So, my first piece of advice is to think of your wedding in terms of we and us. Even if you and your fiance don’t agree much on style, you can make a cohesive wedding that will reflect you as a couple. Brides, just try not to be the diva on everything. I promise that you will be the center of attention that day. You can compromise on a few things if you have to. And honestly, I wouldn’t even want to be a guest of a wedding where a bride has made it ALL about her (think princess weddings – ick). I like to celebrate the couple, not the bride’s overbearing personality.

As a side thought, I can appreciate a feminine tune to a wedding. I mean, it’s a wedding for pity’s sake! I don’t hate pink. I just hate things to be overdone, especially when it is done in a cutesy way.

We have established that it is personality that brings the wedding style. So, now what? Well, what kind of couple are you? Outdoorsy? Metro? Beach? Casual? Formal? Use things like that to pull together an overall tone to the wedding.

Now, start to think about how you and your fiance would want to entertain. Don’t think on wedding terms. Think in overall general ways, how do you like to have your guests over? Are you more intimate – small groups? Are you lavish – upscale dining or a swanky cocktail spot? Do you enjoy being outside – maybe a garden party?

Once you have started to think in these terms, you are well on your way to knowing your wedding style. It is such a disappointment when I meet with a bride and she has already picked her colors with out even knowing where the wedding will be held. That is doing things in an opposite way. And it usually ends up being reflected in the end product.

Again, speaking with a planner before you go making these style decisions can help you ENORMOUSLY. Don’t pin yourself into one track before you know where that track is going.

Oct 20

Wedding Planner vs. Wedding Director

To kick off Invision’s weekly articles, I thought I would write on the difference between a wedding planner and a wedding director. I have found that these two titles confuse people from time to time and I could see that an explaination was in order.

Wedding Planner – While the field of wedding planning is still being defined, leading to many different types of wedding planner, there are several points that anyone with this title should carry with them. A wedding planner is the one in charge of all the wedding details from beginning to end. They will be with the bride/couple during the entire planning process. They will meet with the vendors, negotiate contracts, organize the budget and calendar, consult on matters of etiquette and will oversee the wedding activities that day.

With all that said, I have found in my experience that there are two different types of wedding planners. There are those who will act more as managers (sticking to the organizational parts of it) and those who are what I call wedding designers. A designer is more likely to be concerned with the look and style of the wedding and not necessarily the organization of the process and/or the day itself. In my opinion, you are better off with the manager type. Most planners will have a creative streak in them and should be able to bring new ideas to the table in terms of style and colors, but to ensure a well-run wedding, you need a manager. A good wedding planner is the one who can offer their design ideas, but leaves the actual design work (i.e. any work done the day of the wedding) to the design professionals: florists and other decorators.

As a side note, beware of those vendors who claim to do it all – florists who are planners, caterers who are planners, planners who also do florals, etc. No one can do it all and it is much more to your benefit to have someone who has no other responsibility that day than to make sure that everyone else does the job they are supposed to do – vendor and wedding party alike.

Wedding Director – This person is in charge of directing things the day of the wedding. A director will meet with the clients a few weeks before the wedding and will get all the details of what is going on that day. They will help them organize the logistics of how things will work out with set up, bridal party getting ready, transportation, etc. Then, they will be there that day to direct the rehearsal, ceremony and reception.

A director is most beneficial to the client who is easily able to plan the bulk of the wedding on their own, but knows that they can’t be the one to oversee it that day. While a director is much less involved in the process than a planner, they are no less important when it comes to making things run smoothly that day.

Every wedding needs a director. I’m not saying this because it is what I do (I’m sure you don’t believe that statement, but it is true). At the very least, everyone needs a wedding director to oversee the day’s activities. Even the smallest of weddings needs someone to tell people when to walk down the aisle. The moto that I use for wedding days is this: No one who is emotionally attached to the wedding (family member, friend, etc.) should be in charge of running the wedding day. You need to hire someone who has no emotional attachment to the wedding. A wedding is one of the most emotionally packed events in life. If the director of these events is running on emotions as well, what do you think that does to the rest of the wedding? Having someone who can direct these events with no personal attachment will ensure that your wedding is not compromised because of high emotions.

As I try to wrap up this post, I realize that this article has probably raised other questions to go along with the title. In trying not to ramble, I hope that I clearly defined the two titles. Send in your thoughts and questions and I’ll elaborate as much as possible!

Happy planning!

Julie

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