Most weddings revolve around one thing: color. Color guides gown and flower choices, and it also affects cake design. Color plays a role in the invitations, and you’ll find a wedding’s signature color in all the details, too, such as in ribbon accents, tablecloths and favor packaging. But how is a bride supposed to know exactly which color is her signature color? Preston Bailey, the author of Preston Bailey Celebrations and the go-to expert for all things wedding-related, has a great new tool for certified wedding and event planners to offer their clients. His Color Palette Picker can easily guide brides to choose the perfect color palette for their wedding, and it’s all based on a few simple questions. The result of this fun tool is a customized color palette for each bride, along with some great suggestions for incorporating the colors into a fabulous event.

So go ahead and give it a try! And when you have a bride walk in who knows perhaps what color she’s leaning toward, but not how to bring it out in her wedding to full effect, you’ll have a great tool to help guide her.

Links you may be interested in:
* The Color Palette Picker
* Preston Bailey.com
* Preston Bailey’s Blog
* Buy Preston Bailey’s book

Photo courtesy of People.

* We’ve talked a lot recently about creative weddings and how it’s important for certified wedding and event coordinators to incorporate the couple and their personalities into the wedding details. Well, this is one way to do it! Shrek is a fairytale after all, right? Actually becoming Shrek and Fiona was this couple’s version of a fairytale, anyway.

* While there hasn’t been an actual White House wedding in a long time there are first daughters tying the knot these days. (Jenna Bush, who just celebrated her second anniversary, comes to mind.) Now it’s Chelsea’s turn, and all eyes are on her. While a lot of the details are being kept under wraps there are a few things out there. Here’s a link to give you all the information you want - or all the information you can get at this time.

* There is no denying the allure of Twilight. Women of all ages swoon every time Edward comes on the screen. (Unless you’re Team Jacob, of course.) And now they can have a little piece of Bella - Twilight Engagement Rings have arrived.

* Planning a wedding? (Of course you are you’re professional wedding and event planners!) Well, there’s an app for that! (Well, again, of course there is. Isn’t there an ap for everything these days?) Regardless this ap is something you definitely want to check out if you have a Smartphone. iBride is a personal wedding planner and directory that lets brides (or wedding planners!) plan their wedding on the go.

So, as always: Tell us your favorite wedding stories of the week, or share the links with us! You never know what you’re going to run across in this industry.

In today’s wedding market it’s a given that to succeed you must utilize the Internet. With such social-networking sites as Facebook and Twitter growing in leaps and bounds, certified wedding and event coordinators have to not only be comfortable using these sites, but they must also figure out how to successfully fit them in to their business plans.

The Wedding Report estimates that online wedding sales will grow to $22.7 billion by 2013, with an estimated growth rate of 7 to 10%. It also found in a recent survey that 81% of couples use the Internet to plan their wedding because of the specific planning tools they find there. Their top reasons for using the Internet? Tips and ideas; photos of other weddings; creating a wedding website. The Wedding Report also says that the average age of a newly married person is about 27, which means that most of your bridal couples are part of a generation that is the most technologically advanced ever. It also means that for your wedding and event coordinating businesses to survive you must embrace technology. How can you do this? Here are a few ways:

1. You turned to your community college or local university to become a wedding planner, right? You may want to consider turning right back around to check out what kind of classes they have on Web design, online marketing and social networking.
2. Pick up copies of popular magazines that cover computers, marketing and networking. An afternoon spent at your local bookstore, coffee in one hand and magazine in the other, will be time well spent.
3. Integrate social networking into your business plan. Build a Twitter following by focusing on the wedding industry in the region you target. Start a Flickr page, and fill it will slideshows of the weddings and events you’ve planned. Start a blog, giving tips to brides, showing them how a coordinator can help alleviate their stress! And create a Facebook page to help guide users to your blog and other sites.
4. Keep all of your sites and information updated. Wedding and party trends ebb and flow, and you need to show possible customers that you’re up on the trends - and maybe even have a lot of great ideas of your own.

Getting out there, pounding the pavement, if you will, is definitely one way to grow your business. But to attract the Wired Generation you have to show them that your business is modern and growing. Being a successful wedding and event coordinator depends a lot on word of mouth, yes, but you want to attract business from every possible angle. And the Internet is an excellent place to begin.

As certified wedding and event coordinators you’re going to get a lot of zany requests. Weddings are very personal celebrations, and every couple has Just The Thing to make their day even more special:

* Dogs as ringbearers? Check.
* Bathing suits for the couple instead of a gown and tuxedo? Check.
* An all-black wedding (even the flowers) or perhaps a red wedding gown? Check.
* Donuts or Moon Pies instead of wedding cake? Check.

You name it, and there is a wedding coordinator out there who has done it. But this? An iFairy Wedding Officiant? This is new to us. The 4-foot, pigtailed, decorated robot gave the couple such directions as “Lift the bride’s veil.” It was well-received by the Japanese crowd, which is no surprise considering the country’s efforts to incorporate robots into everyday life.

As for us, well, we’ll stick to a real, live, breathing officiant. But we’re sure there is a bridal couple out there in America just dying to have this robot at their wedding. Legal? We’re not sure, but as their wedding consultant it will be up to you to find out!

It’s no surprise that wedding magazines never seem to go out of style - everybody loves to flip through them and see the latest trends! They’re filled with eye candy for brides-to-be and maybe even a few already-been-brides. (We admit it. We’re kind of obsessed with weddings. But how can we not be? They’re so fun and pretty and frilly and colorful and yes, okay, we’re addicts!) Here are a few of our favorite finds this week from etsy, which may be even better than our beloved magazines. (And yes - etsy is another one of our addictions!) All of you certified wedding and event coordinators are bound to have a few favorite finds of your own to share. Tell us about them in the comments!

1. Eco-friendly dress; 2. Custom-painted heels; 3. Hand-made shawl

1. Pearl and rhinestone necklace; 2. Mr. and Mrs. seat signs; 3. Vintage diamond ring

1. Bird-cage veil; 2. Hydrangea hair pins; 3. Hydrangea bouquet

And on that note, Happy Weekend to all of Lovegevity’s certified wedding and event coordinators. Wedding season is in full swing this month. We wish you weekends filled with brides, sunny skies and timely vendors!

Finding the perfect wedding cake is no easy feat: It’s impossible to even begin narrowing down the choices of style, color, flavor, size … the list goes on and on. There are several things for certified wedding and event planners to keep in mind as they begin to help couples narrow down their choices for choosing and ordering their cake. First things first: Do some research. (That is a requirement for you and the bridal couple!)

Photo courtesy of Sweet Things Blog (Click to visit their amazing bakery!)

First: Have your bridal couples prepare for the Cake Talk. It’s a good idea for them to have an idea of what they want, and encouraging them to keep a folder of clips is a great way to get a feel for what they’re going for. But be sure that you also have a folder of suggestions for them to flip through. Who knows? That one cake they’ve been trying to find but can’t might be just the clip you’ve collected for them.

Second: Make sure that they have gone into this together. The cake should be a reflection of them and what they like to eat. You don’t want the groom scrunching his nose as he eats a piece of cake with rose-water-flavored petals on top! (Pictures do speak louder than words, you know.) Suggest cakes with different flavored layers. Or maybe they would consider cupcakes: one for him, one for her, so they each take a bite of exactly what they like!

Third: Make sure the cake fits into the overall design. It’s very likely that you have already discussed with the couple their colors and style for the wedding. Elegant? An all-white cake would be gorgeous. Vintage? Pound cakes made with family recipes, lightly dusted with powdered sugar, would be perfect. Colorful and funky? Topsy-turvy cakes are popular right now and can set a fun tone to the reception.

Fourth: Know the budget. This goes without saying, really, but knowing how much the couple is willing to spend on the cake will guide a lot of the decisions. Don’t let them get their heart set on a five-foot, gold-dusted cake with hand-made lilies if they can’t afford it. (No one likes to see a bride with a broken heart!)

There are lots of other things to consider when buying a wedding cake, but these suggestions are a great way to start. What questions do you ask your couples when you begin helping them design and choose their wedding cake?

In today’s wedding world it’s all about one thing: creativity. Do you have bridal couples just oozing with the stuff? Or do you have couples depending on you - their fabulous, certified wedding and event planner - to be creative for them? Here are some of our favorite creative wedding ideas. Take them and adapt them to match your couple’s style. Switch out the colors. Personalize the backdrops. And get the couple involved! The creative process is the most fun part, and we’re sure your brides have tons of ideas. But it’s up to you, their creative, organized planner, to sift through the ideas and make them sing for each couple.

Photo courtesy of The New York Times

* Go on a trip to Candy Land. Literally! Remember how fun it was to visit the candy store when you were a kid? The awesome colors everywhere you looked. The sweet smells of every type of candy you could imagine. Now imagine all of that as part of a couple’s engagement photos. And if the couple wants to incorporate the Candy Land theme into their wedding consider these ideas: Have bridesmaids carry colorful, oversized lollipops! Incorporate candies into the decor, such as candy garlands and licorice sticks in flower arrangements. Create a trendy, always-popular candy buffet for the guests at the reception. Done the right way a Candy Land wedding can be both adorable and classy.

* Make it vintage. Going green, and going vintage, is huge right now. Couples are doing everything they can to make their wedding special yet earth-friendly at the same time. This couple found the perfect backdrop for their engagement photos: a flea market! With the right clothes (and hats!) and the right lenses these photos will look like they’re right out of your grandparents’ photo album. And that’s the point! What a great way to showcase the couple’s vintage style and earth-conscious attitude.

Photo courtesy of Offbeat Bride

* Ahhhh, the fairytale wedding. The dress, the cake, the flowers - in a fairytale wedding whimsy abounds! But why not take it to the next step? Pick a specific fairytale and draw inspiration from it! The obvious choice? Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, of course. This couple got it all right: the clothes are reminscent of the fabulous land of Wonka, and they even incorporated the Golden Tickets into their invitations. (Want to see more photos of the fabulous wedding? Visit their Flickr page for a slideshow!)

Okay, we’ll be the first to admit that not every bride is going to go for these ideas. But again, that’s the point! There are bridal couples out there who want to wow their guests, be themselves, and be funky all the while. These ideas definitely fit that bill! As certified wedding and event coordinators you have to be prepared for every bride that crosses your path - funky ones included. Besides, you can’t spell funky without fun! And these ideas are just that - loads of fun.

Have any of your brides had some off-the-wall ideas that turned out to be a lot of fun to create?

Photo courtesy of weddingwire.com

* There is so much to love about this article! Yahoo put together a list of 10 Unbelievable Wedding and Marriage Records, which include the longest marriage (86 years!) and the biggest wedding cake (17 feet high!) We don’t know about you, but we can only imagine the stress of planning a wedding with a cake that can feed 59,000 people. It might take a whole crew of certified wedding and event planners for that kind of party!

* Several prospective brides and grooms were unsure where they’d say their vows when the Clio wedding chapel burnt to the ground in Michigan. But thanks to an insurance company and a lot of style the chapel is up and running again - and making a lot of couples happy! They all agree the chapel is more beautiful than ever.

* Tim Tebow, a former Heisman Trophy winner, recently helped two fellow alumni from the University of Florida get engaged. Ian Lis wanted to make the proposal memorable, and what better way than to involve a famous quarterback! We’re sure that bride-to-be Sarah Springer (who obviously said “Yes!”) was thrilled! Check out a video of the proposal.

* This couple has the budget in the can - literally! Andrea Parrish and Pete Geyer got engaged in 2009 and decided to pay for their entire wedding with money they made off recycling 400,000 alumnium cans. As of April they were only about 60,000 cans short of their goal! The wedding, which is planned for July, has a budget of only $3,800. The couple has had a lot of donated cans, and they’ve been interviewed by hundreds of media outlets. Their wedding is sure to be a green, unique one that they’ll never forget!

So there you have it. These are some of our favorite wedding-industry stories this week! As certified wedding and event planners you never know what you might come across! Any stories to share?

Wedding trends don’t stop at fashion, you know. There is all the food to be considered! And to be honest it’s the food that guests really remember: Was there enough? Was there a good variety? Was it really, really tasty? Every bridal couple wants to offer their guests a fabulous time, and near the top of their to-do list will be Find The Perfect Caterer. That’s where you come in. Certified wedding and event planners are the go-to people in town when it comes to finding the best caterer for the best price. So while you’ve filled your files with the names of the top vendors in your area it’s also a good idea to start a catering trends folder. Here are some of our favorite food finds for 2010:

1) Going Local! Bridal couples - and caterers - across the country are all about local food finds this year. Being a “locavore” is really an outgrowth of Going Green. Serving foods that are fresh and in-season can be cheaper because they’re plentiful at shops and farmers markets. They’re also going to taste best! Consider what the area is known for and the ethnic backgrounds of your couples. Talking about these options with a caterer will be a sure way to make reception food not only fresh and tasty but also representative of the couple. It’s just one of those details that wedding and event coordinators are expected to bring about!

2) Eating Family Style. Couples are all about the familial aspect of weddings right now, as we all know. A lot of them are falling in love with the idea of their guests crowding around tables and eating family-style. This means passing the food to each other and sharing in the breaking of bread. It’s a time-honored tradition in our own homes so why not introduce it to a wedding reception? While it’s not a great idea for huge weddings it is a great idea for smaller, intimate receptions.

3) It’s All About Organic. And maybe vegetarian! Just like being a locavore is about Going Green, couples are very interested in knowing how their food is grown and where it comes from. They want to treat their guests as VIPs - and they want their food offerings to show it! Going organic can be expensive when it comes to meat options so couples are also looking at vegetarian ideas. Having one meat option, along with a few vegetarian ones, makes it possible to serve fabulous dishes with fabulous and organic ingredients.

4) Food Stations. They’re still hot. (And still a bit expensive so be sure to consider the budget before you offer this suggestion!) Setting the food out in groups, separated by cuisines, is a great way to insure that first, the decor of the room is going to be incredible and two, guests are going to get up and mingle. Who wants to sit in a chair all night? We think a Food From Around the World reception would be amazing!

5) Custom cocktails. While this trend has been around a few years we think it’s here to stay. Couples are asking for cocktails in their signature wedding colors. They want cocktails reminiscent of the areas where they grew up - think mint juleps for Kentuckians; cosmos for New Yorkers; and mojitos for couples from Miami.

6) Dessert Buffets. Dessert tables are all the rage right now - and with good reason! Bridal couples want to leave their guests with sweet dreams, and what better way is there to do so than offer up a ton of dessert? Amy Atlas-inspired tables are cropping up at receptions all across the U.S. Macarons in the wedding colors are pouring out of bakeries. And candy buffets are being set up at weddings of every budget. Sugar is fun! And you’re unlikely to encounter a couple who isn’t willing to set the bar a little higher for their sweets budget!

Catering trends ebb and flow from year to year, with the exception of a few, lasting ideas. What are your couples requesting? What fabulous ideas are your caterers offering?