Tara Martin-Crawford, a graduate of LWPI’s Preston Bailey Signature Wedding and Event Design course, is quickly learning that event planning is all about timelines and staying on task. Today she talks about how important organization is to a production department and to certified wedding and event coordinators.

“With the install dates for their next event quickly approaching, the Production Department has been working on finalizing all their supply orders this week. Unfortunately, this is something that should not be done until the client signs the proposal, thereby approving all the selected design elements. In the case of this event changes were requested several times, which delayed the approval process. Nonetheless the proposal was signed and production is now moving forward. Due to the lack of time left before the event date the speed at which the Production Department needs to operate has been greatly accelerated. For this event there are many items that are being custom made, such as table linens, slip covers for furniture, and party favors with custom embroidery.

The majority of my time this week was spent sourcing vendors who could provide some of the services we need in our very limited timeframe. Luckily I was able to locate good sources even though our selection is much more limited than it would have been if more time was available. Needless to say whenever things are done on a rush or high-priority basis costs are also going to be higher. This is never the preference for either planners or clients, but sometimes it is unavoidable. If possible, though, always try to order custom items as early as you can in order to avoid higher prices, inventory issues, and to leave time for the correction of potential mistakes.

Another project that I was involved involved organizing the information from email correspondences for two upcoming overseas events. When you have an event in which the client requests frequent changes, there are multiple vendors constantly updating one another via email, or there is a third party responsible for physically producing the event (such as for overseas jobs) it is important to stay on top of all changes. Organization is so important and when you receive as many emails as the Production Manager of Preston Bailey Designs does it helps to have a way to track important information that doesn’t involve constantly referring back to the messages themselves. Therefore for each event I made a bulleted list of all important email conversations, placed in order by date (newest to oldest), with the name of the sender and the updates listed out for easy reference. This way the Production Manager can keep track of what issues he needs to address as well as any changes in the client’s preferences for the event.

The ability to multitask is an ability that will make or break a person in this industry (or so I’m realizing). Therefore whatever you have to do to keep yourself on track - do it! You never want to lose track of where you are on a job or overlook critical information.”

Be sure to come back for the next installment of Tara’s journey as an intern at Preston Bailey Designs! To learn more about Preston Bailey’s Signature Wedding and Event Design course through LWPI, take a tour or enroll in a class today.

What are your plans for your wedding- and event-planning business? Are you hoping to be known for your upscale style? Or do you want potential clients to look to you for environmental knowledge? If that’s the case LWPI’s Green Wedding Planning course is for you. One recent LWPI graduate, Sharnice Thompson, shares with us why she chose the course and what she got out of it. Will you be the next certified Green Wedding Planner in your region?

Why did you choose LWPI? I did my research and found that LWPI met the criteria that I was looking for, and the institute as a whole is very sophisticated. The staff is knowledgeable about the school and programs, and this is the only institute that offers an eco-friendly wedding-planing certificate course.

What made you decide to be a Green Wedding Planner? My husband and I are very much into the “green” lifestyle, and when I decided I wanted to be a wedding planner I knew that I wanted to be a little different and make a big impact. Therefore, I choose to go with green wedding planning, something among the path I’m already on and am very much familiar with.

What did you like most about the course? I like that it’s at-your-own-pace. I was able to balance my cake business, school, work and the course at the same time.

How did the course prepare you to work in the event industry? It helped me become organized, and it guided me in the direction of a successful wedding planner.

Do you think Green Weddings will grow more popular? With the direction that the world is going I know that Green Weddings will absolutely grow in popularity in the years to come.

Why should a bridal couple try to plan a Green Wedding? Wedding couples should try Green Wedding Planning to see the bigger picture: their commitment to one another; their commitment to their community and the world; and their commitment to lessening their carbon footprint as a couple. It can also be the beginning of a green life together, and it may help them save money.

What are your favorite eco-friendly trends? I love eco-friendly clothes, jewelry and makeup. People are always trying to enhance their appearance, and if they use green materials it makes a large impact on our world.

What trends do you predict will grow in popularity and become more mainstream for non-green weddings? Gowns: They will be heirlooms, recycled, made from recycled materials and/or donated.

Do you have a background in event planning? I do not have any previous background in event planning, but I do plan to continue to grow my business to a full-time job.

Do you have anything else to share with aspiring Green Wedding Planners? Reach for your “green” goals, and be sure you’re making your clients aware of how they can reduce their carbon footprint.

You can find Sharnice through her business website, Haute Chic Cakes and More. Be sure to click on the Eco-Chic Wedding Tab for wedding and package information. To reach her, visit the Contact Page, where you will find her name, number and her email address.

Tara Martin-Crawford, an LWPI graduate of Preston Bailey’s Signature Wedding and Event Design course, is interning this summer with Preston Bailey, himself, in his Manhattan office. She has been keeping a weekly journal for LWPI, letting future and current certified wedding and event coordinators know what it’s like to work for one of the top event-design companies in the industry. This week she writes:

“The date of Preston Bailey Design’s next event is drawing near so things in the Production Department are starting to switch gears a bit. While the past few weeks have been about sourcing items that can be presented to the client and incorporated into the design, this week was much more focused on bringing everything together so that production can start happening.

After the client has been presented with the proposal and approves it the production department begins to physically secure all the necessary items for the event. The first step in this process is to create a Production Copy from the client’s proposal. The Production Copy is used as both an outline of all the design elements and a way of tracking costs. After being created by the Production Manager, all of the goods that PBD needs to purchase or secure are listed on a separate document called a Supply Order List. For each item you have to specify the size, color, quantity, purpose, vendor, order date and cost. This is where you will determine how many extra perishable items you need as well in case some get damaged or are defective.

The Supply Order List should be organized so that if there are multiple items needed to create one design element, i.e. a centerpiece containing candles, and one of those elements is removed, you should know that you can also remove the corresponding number of candles that pertained to that centerpiece. Therefore, when you list each line item, you should specify where in the design it is going to be used and how many of those elements there are in total. That way, you can divide the total number of items you need by the number of elements they are being used for so that you know how many of each item is being used for one element. Designs tend to change, and this is just an easy way to ensure that you can make adjustments if necessary without having to jump through a bunch of hoops to get the information you need.

The Production Schedule is also in the process of being created this week. In order to do this the Production Manager contacts all of the vendors who will be working onsite and asks them to outline what they need to do and how long it will take them. He then creates the schedule based on the logistics of the venue, start time of the event, and how the vendors will have to work together to build off one another’s work. Everyone’s contact information is at the top of the document and it is distributed to all parties for review. Any final adjustments are made the week of the event.”

Be sure to come back for the next installment of Tara’s journey as an intern at Preston Bailey Designs! To learn more about Preston Bailey’s Signature Wedding and Event Design course through LWPI, take a tour or enroll in a class today.

Certified wedding and event planners are obviously expected to keep their brides and grooms happy. But there are others to think about, too, especially during the hot summer months. Don’t let the heat bum out the wedding guests - or the wedding party! Keep them cool and refreshed with these great ideas:

* Have the caterer set up an ice-cream bar at the reception. You can keep it simple by having several flavors of homemade ice creams, or you can go all out with a sundae bar, replete with candies, syrups and fresh fruits. We’re also loving the idea of a gourmet ice-pop cart! The King of Pops, Steven Carse, who is based in Atlanta, will come to you!

* Various colors of lemonade are a fun way to add color to the affair, and guests love to sample flavored teas, especially when they’re sweet and served over ice! Summery cocktails are always a nice touch, and they keep guests refreshed (and happy!) during a hot summer evening.

* When it comes to the food think cool: gazpacho in shot glasses; individual servings of chilled banana pudding; shrimp cocktail; chilled oysters; and fruit “salad” skewers. We also absolutely adore these sorbet “wedding cakes” from Martha Stewart that serve as a palate cleanser and a guest chiller! The possibilities are endless!

* Outdoor weddings are parties so treat them as such. Steel-drum bands and ukelele players create the perfect music for weddings during the day or those that take place under the stars. The music will remind guests of breezy Hawaiian beaches, which could be very helpful on a hot August afternoon!

* Offer double-duty favors: Fans are always welcome during an afternoon wedding, and they can also serve as the ceremony programs. Specialty drinks, such as the sodas from P&H Soda Co., are colorful and fun. Coordinate one flavor with the colors of your wedding, and make sure the bottles are chilled. The guests can grab a drink and relax while they wait for the wedding to start, or for the wedding party to finish the picture hour.

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What’s it like to work for a big event-design company? Tara Martin-Crawford, a graduate of Preston Bailey’s Signature Wedding and Event Design course at LWPI, is finding out as she interns for Preston Bailey himself over the summer. In her journal entry today she discusses the details that go into site visits and production meetings.

“Trying to work within a budget while giving clients all that they want (and nothing they don’t) is challenging, to say the least. This past week was spent working toward finalizing design-element options for an event that will take place at the end of the month. I believe that most clients have a vision for what they want their event décor to look like, and Preston Bailey Designs is exceedingly talented at extracting that vision and creating it. However, when décor details become extremely specific it becomes increasingly hard to keep the costs from skyrocketing because your source options become limited and you will often have to resort to more expensive options in order to stay in-line with the client’s vision. Resourcefulness and perseverance become key at that point, and it’s just a matter of finding as many options as possible, presenting them to the client, and trying to work out a balance between the client’s dream and his or her budget.

This week I attended my first site visit/production meeting. The key players from the tent, lighting, catering and security companies met with the PBD’s production department on-site to discuss logistics and begin to formulate their installation schedules. This was a very important meeting because it gave everyone a chance to examine and document the site, address their concerns, and talk about how each company’s part of the install would affect other’s parts. I took meeting notes and wrote down questions for the production manager to follow up on.

One of the key issues that needs to be addressed for this event is timing. The event is taking place at a private residence under a tent. However, the tent permit only allows for it to be in place for 24 hours. This creates a very small window for all vendors to complete their install. Also, because of the logistics of the residence it is very difficult for more than one company at a time to be loading equipment and supplies into the tent area. This will make the production schedule challenging to create and extremely important to stay on track with during installation.

As I’ve said in previous weeks, each event is unique and poses different challenges. Being in the event industry requires you to anticipate as much as possible (something that definitely comes with experience) and roll with the punches for the rest.”

Be sure to come back for the next installment of Tara’s journey as an intern at Preston Bailey Designs! To learn more about Preston Bailey’s Signature Wedding and Event Design course through LWPI, take a tour or enroll in a class today.

The celebrity weddings keep rolling in, and celebrity brides are pulling out all the stops. They’ve had some major celebration footsteps to follow, after all, with Prince William’s Royal Wedding earlier this year in England and Prince Albert’s nuptials recently in Monaco! Certified wedding and event planners are likely to have brides following the details of every celebrity celebration so they know what The Next Big Thing is in the wedding industry. Here are some of our favorite celebrity wedding details of the past few months.

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Sara Rue: Every bride knows how hard it can be for her and her fiance to choose a wedding-cake flavor. That’s why we love the route Sara Rue took at her May wedding: She had three cakes! “I’ll be having one of each,” Rue told PEOPLE of the three wedding cakes planned for the nuptials, including a red velvet and a pumpkin caramel confection. How fun is that?

Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz: While we love a big, beautiful wedding as much as the next planner we also love sweet, intimate events. Not many details are known about the Craig-Weisz nuptials, but the idea of saying “I Do” in front of only your children and officiant strikes us as super-sweet.

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Dylan Lauren: When your dad is famed fashion designer Ralph Lauren there’s no question who is going to design your wedding gown! “I wanted to just give her something that she’d really treasure, give her something that would be really amazing, and I wanted her to feel fantastic,” Lauren told Oprah, according to People. And of course Dylan, the owner of Dylan’s Candy Bar stores, put her own touch on the dessert bar!

America Ferrera: We’ve all fallen in love with America as we’ve watched her grow up on television and movies so it’s so sweet to see her fall in love and have the wedding of her dreams in real life! America married her fiance on a Monday, and our favorite detail? Her dress and styling. How gorgeous is she?

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Niecy Nash: If you’re a TLC fan you already know all about Niecy’s wedding because of her show, Niecy Nash’s Wedding Bash. If not, however, you might not know that Niecy took a moment to sit down with each of her attendants before the wedding. She tells Essence.com, “I had a little time with each one of my bridesmaids… they just kept coming to my room, one by one, and we had conversations about our friendships, and what kind of woman they think I am and I was just like, ‘Oh my God!’ I was so overwhelmed that women I hold in such high esteem thought so highly of me. I definitely had to lay down for a little while and put ice on my eyes because I was so emotional.” This has to be one of the sweetest wedding moments we’ve ever heard about, don’t you agree?

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Prince Albert and Charlene Wittstock: This wedding, a calm, religious ceremony, took place in a palace courtyard because of the large guest list. We loved all of the traditional details, down to Albert’s cream-colored summer uniform of the palace guards. But our favorite parts? The couple exchanged vows in French, which the bride religiously practiced before her big day. And second? The couple rode to their reception in a Lexus hybrid - showing their green side! We wonder if they had a Green Wedding Planner working behind the scenes…

Do you have a favorite celebrity wedding moment?

Today, Tara Martin-Crawford, a graduate of Preston Bailey’s Signature Design course through LWPI, talks about some of the specifics of event design, specifically the Scope of Work document. She will continue her internship at Preston Bailey Designs through the summer and each week will be sharing with us what she’s learning.

“This week I was introduced to the Scope of Work document. This item is used to keep track of what items are needed for the complete production of an event as well as what the cost of each element is. Throughout the course of the design and production process the Scope of Work will be updated and modified several times. The Production Department uses it to keep track of outside vendor costs as well as in-house costs. It is best to organize the Scope of Work according to guest flow through the event from arrival to departure. For example: entrance, cocktails, dinner, departure, etc. This keeps things organized and coherent.

The majority of my time for the rest of the week was spent obtaining pricing information for various elements for PBD’s next event, which is on July 30 in Southampton, NY. When contacting vendors, regardless of what type of items or services you are looking for, it is important to have all your information laid out in front of you so that you know exactly what you need to ask and what answers to give in case the person you’re speaking with has questions. Becoming good at effectively communicating with vendors is a matter of practice and experience. There are many variables in the event industry, and this can make it complicated when learning how to address issues and get things done in a straight-forward way. Event planning is pretty fast-paced. Plans develop and change quickly. Therefore, you don’t want to give vendors misinformation or lack of information and cause the process to be held up. That is why prior to contacting anyone you should really try to anticipate all the information they are going to need to know in order to help you as completely and quickly as possible. Be organized and to-the-point with your needs and questions, and don’t be afraid to redirect things if they are not moving in the direction they need to go.

I have had a lot of practice with all these things this week, and all of it has been a learning process for me. I am finding that it is easy to get flustered and momentarily lose focus at times, but the process is definitely becoming clearer to me as my internship progresses. I appreciate my teachers at Preston Bailey Design for all of their wisdom, encouragement, and patience. I am really enjoying this experience. Being with PBD, even though it’s not what I’m used to, feels like a little bit of home away from home for me.”

Be sure to come back for the next installment of Tara’s journey as an intern at Preston Bailey Designs! To learn more about Preston Bailey’s Signature Wedding and Event Design course through LWPI, take a tour or enroll in a class today.

Amanda Allen started planning weddings in San Diego in 2003. Armed with a degree in studio art and psychology, Amanda was inspired by her florist mother to help brides have stunningly beautiful weddings. MMD Events Inc. was created five years ago upon moving to Florida, when Amanda and her husband, Matt, realized that with their powers combined they could work together to create a one-stop shop for brides in need of a comprehensive design for their wedding day. MMD Events offers full floral and décor services in addition to event design. MMD’s motto “more is more” has created a design aesthetic that attracts fashion-conscious brides who keep their schedule full throughout the year. Weddings are their main focus, however, MMD has proudly worked on a number of prestigious projects throughout the Tampa Bay area including the premier party for the Discovery Channel Show Pitchmen with Billy Mays.

Amanda says she believes that teaching should be a part of everyday life whether it is teaching her staff, educating clients, addressing her peers at a luncheon, teaching for LWPI or giving seminars at bridal showcases. She says that “if you are not learning than you will fail to adapt and if you fail to adapt you will fail.” This will be her fourth semester teaching for LWPI at St. Petersburg College in Largo, Florida. To learn more about the course or to register for Amanda’s class, which starts July 12, visit the LWPI website. You can also take a tour or contact the LWPI staff for more information.

St Petersburg College Wedding & Event Planning Classroom Course
Tuesdays & Thursdays
6 p.m. until 10 p.m.
13805 58th St N
Largo, Florida 33760
United States