Many of us get into this business because we love weddings: the flowers, the fashion and the fun that comes along with figuring out the details. But there are so many events out there beyond weddings, which is why  Lovegevity’s Wedding Planning Institute also puts a strong focus on event planning. Every class is urged to put on an event during the semester, and one class, led by Marci Bridgeford of Elk Grove Adult and Community Education and the owner of A Joyous Occasion, recently led her students through a fun, rewarding planning process. Marci, who is an instructor with LWPI, says:

“(The) class successfully did this by choosing the charity as a class - The Children’s Receiving Home of Sacramento. Led by their instructor every inch of the way they had a representative from the Receiving Home come to their class and they conducted a consultation. They asked all the appropriate questions and got a vision of what the home needed and would want. From there they drafted a donation letter and handed it out to various vendors, local companies and friends to raise money for the event. (Not one cent was an out-of-pocket-cost for the class or instructor). They drafted their vision and budget for what they wanted to create and had that dollar amount as their goal. With the generosity of the community and their passion for the event they ended up raising 3 times their goal and were able to give the home much more than they originally planned.

This event taught the class how to market, how to sell themselves, how to conduct a consultation, how to work with vendors, how to create a timeline, how to create the responsibility lists, how to work the A6 components, how to set up, work the event, and break down the event. It also taught them how to work within a budget and reconcile their books at the end of the event.”

The LWPI students held a party for the home’s girls, and it was about fulfilling desires - not just wants. A budget of $800 was initially planned, but the students ended up raising $3200! Just what did this fun event entail?

* A gym was decked out in all types of cute decor, to make the girls feel special. Pizza was donated, which really helped the budget. And what kid doesn’t love pizza?
* The girls had “points” that they used to buy things in a “store” set up by LWPI students.
* A makeshift photo booth was set up, and the girls could have their pictures taken with celebrities (which were posters of celebrity faces.) This was an especially huge hit, Bridgeford said.
* A henna artist was also brought in, which the girls also really loved.
* And all the extra money in the budget meant that the LWPI students were able to put together gift bags for the girls.

“Implementing an event into the curriculum was a great way to give each student hands-on experience of creating and implementing an event from start to finish,” Bridgeford said.

LWPI would love for all of its instructors to have their students plan this type of event. Lovegevity has always encouraged its students and graduates to get out into the community and do things to help others. This is a great way to get started off on the right foot.

LWPI is excited to announce that it has joined forces with world-renowned design icon Preston Bailey. Together, they will create and launch the first event-design course of its kind, based on Bailey’s 30 years of experience with such celebrities as Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey, Uma Thurman, Joan Rivers, Donna Karan, Liza Minnelli, Matt Lauer, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Ivanka Trump and others.

Preston Bailey’s Signature Wedding and Event Design course will allow students to experience the step-by-step processes and techniques utilized by one of the globe’s leading wedding and event experts, industry pioneer Bailey. This new course is a comprehensive “how-to” for the industry, providing real behind-the-scenes footage, photographs and documentation, including insights into the wizardry that can make a wedding a one-of-a-kind, magical event for a couple and their guests.

Starting this summer, Preston Bailey’s Signature Wedding and Event Design course will roll out to nearly 2,000 academic institutions around the United States . Dependent upon each school’s administration, the course will be available to both full-time college students in regular classroom environments and adults in continuing-education programs. It will also be made directly available to students through an online program hosted by LWPI.

“Event design has been a life changing experience for me,” said Bailey, the founder of Preston Bailey Designs. “I am excited to share my passion for design by working with the experienced team at The Wedding Planning Institute.  It’s a privilege to help others harness their talents to create weddings and other events that are truly unforgettable occasions.”

Are you interested in enrolling? Good news! You can enroll today! (The class will be available in both English and Spanish.) Want more information on this exciting opportunity? Check out the following links:

* More about the partnership and the course.
* Enroll for the class today.
* Take a tour of the course (English).
* Take a tour of the course (Spanish).
* Visit Preston Bailey’s website.

You already know that the Lovegevity Wedding Planning Institute is the No. 1 place to turn when you want to begin a career as an event and wedding coordinator. But did you know that Lovegevity also offers a Green Wedding Planning Course? Going green is all the rage these days, and it’s with good reason: Doing so can be an affordable option for many weddings - especially for DIY brides - and it can leave everyone involved with a feeling of environmental responsibility. Environmentally friendly wedding ideas are exploding all over the U.S., and the Internet has a wealth of information on “going green.” As Lovegevity says, “A green wedding is a celebration of awareness. At a green wedding, a couple is not just affirming their commitment to one another, they are also affirming their commitment to a sustainable life together - one that takes the needs to the environment and future generations into account.”

Lovegevity’s Green Wedding Certification Course comes from a class designed by Kate Harrison and her book, The Green Bride. Harrison graduated from Vassar with a major in Environmental Conservation and Sustainable Development. She wrote The Green Bride after she and her husband, Barry, planned their own green wedding in 2007.

What are some ways you can turn a wedding “green?” Have you had any brides offer suggestions to make their weddings more environmentally sustainable?

Links you may be interested in:
*Take a tour of Lovegevity’s Green Wedding Planning Course.
* Enroll in Lovegevity’s Green Wedding Planning Course.
* Check out a blog by Lovegevity’s CEO, Cho Phillips, about Going Green.
* Read an excerpt from Kate Harrison’s The Green Bride or buy your own copy.

Wedding and event planner Nadia Digilov is back with Lovegevity’s Wedding Planning Institute to share more of her excellent planning tips. Want to read more? See her first guest post: Top 10 Wedding Trends for 2010.

10 Secrets to Feeding Guests without Eating Your Budget!
By Nadia Diglov

One of the biggest checks that you will cut on your wedding date will be on the cost of catering. Food and alcohol can really eat up your budget and typically accounts for roughly 40-50% of the overall wedding cost.

Hard to believe, isn’t it?

To put this into perspective, think about going out for dinner: the cost of a medium size dinner for one at a major city such as New York is about $30 per person with tax & tip and not including much alcohol (perhaps 1 glass of wine). If you take this number and multiply it by 200 people the total comes out 6,000. Not that scary yet? Well, take into account that most guests will have more than 1 glass of wine (more like 2 or 3), a cocktail hour and a full Viennese table for desert. This number now doubles!

Want to cut a few corners and still keep your guests full and fed? Below are the 10 ways to feed your guests without breaking your budget. Using just the right fusion of psychology, imagination and practicality, you will be able to impress your guests without spending a fortune.

Here are 10 secrets of a luxury wedding dining experience without spending a fortune:

1.) Know your guests: the first step to designing an quality and budget friendly budget is to know your people! What are their priorities? Are they more drinkers or eaters, or both? What is more important, a bar that will have a variety of top shelf alcohol or 5 entrée options during main course? Your answer to this question will drive the rest of the decisions that you will make.

2.) Make a great first impression: One of my mentors once told me “you have only one time to make a first impression.” With experience I also realized that a first impression is really hard to break. A lesson in psychology for you: make a great first impression on your guests as soon as they arrive to your wedding! Set the tone with an immaculately dressed server greeting guests as they arrive to your wedding serving Champagne Bellini’s at the door! This will set an environment where your guests will feel welcomed and comfortable at your wedding, or in other words, at this time you will need to begin breaking a first impression of comfort and joy which most of the time will be hard to do.

3.) Cocktail hour: If you are having a cocktail hour, consider having the servers hand pass the pricier items such as shrimps and scallops. This will typically save an average of 30% of your catering budget.

4.) Not all seafood is priced equally: Calamari are about half the price of shrimp, make your choices for cocktail hour and reception keeping this in mind. Ask your caterer a lot of questions!

5.) Know your seasonal foods: Some dining options are perfectly affordable during a summer season and are expensive during the fall and vice versa. Scarcity of a particular food will increase the cost by up to 40%.

6.) Discount options: If you will have children at the reception, choose the caterer that offers 1/2 price for children up to the age of 16. This will save tons of cash especially if you have a huge family.

7.) Mix it up: Depending on the evaluation of your guests, consider a tasting menu that will offer up to 8 mini courses for your guests.

8.) Mix up the alcohol brands: Certain brands of vodka for example are pricier than others. Mix up expensive brands for guests that will inquire on brand and have your bar tender use the less expensive brands for guests that do not have a preference. This little trick will save you about 30% of the cost of alcohol.

9.) Close the open bar an hour earlier: Begin serving coffee and tea approximately 1 hour before you party will end. This will have tons of benefits by default. First, your guests will have a chance to sober up before leaving your party and second, it will save you up to 35%!

10.) Fore-go the full Viennese table: Go for a 5 tier over the top cake, with a chocolate fondue station and bite sized desserts that will be passed around. This will save you about $15 per person and that’s about $3,000, a nice chunk of change that you can use towards your honeymoon or (depending on your area of residence) a few months rent on your new apartment!

ABOUT NADIA DIGILOV & CELEBRATING IN STYLE:

Nadia Digilov is Manhattan’s premier luxury wedding expert and the founder and CEO of NYC event production firm Celebrating in Style. After seven years on the trading floors of the largest investment banks on Wall Street, her passion for production led her to begin creating luxury events that leave a lasting impression. Since 2002 Nadia has created weddings, corporate events, concerts, trade shows, and marketing events in major cities around the world including New York, Miami, Moscow, Tel Aviv and St. Petersburg.

He’s one part basketball coach one part … wedding planner? Chris Mooney’s duties as the men’s basketball coach at Beaver College were only part of his duties. He was also known to take a timeout from practice to talk to brides! Mooney had to talk with any bride whose wedding was going to take place in the Grey Towers Castle on the campus of Beaver College, now Arcadia University, in the Philadelphia suburb of Glenside, Pa. His coaching job was part-time, but as professional, certified wedding and event planners you know that planning any wedding is a full-time job!

* Fashion alert! Urban Outfitters, the brand of young, hipster clothing loved the world over, is planning to dip its toes into the world of wedding fashion. The new line is expected to launch around Valentine’s Day 2011, just in time for all the newly engaged couples of next year. We’re not sure what this line will look like, but we expect it to be heavy on color and funk. Full lines of bridesmaid dresses and wedding jewelry are expected, too, and the entire line will be designed with the help of Anthropolgie.

Princess Diana

* It was truly a fairytale wedding. When Princess Diana wed Prince Charles all the eyes of the world were on them … and on her dress. While it was indeed a showstopper it was also a dress that very few other brides could pull off. While the marriage didn’t end up as all had planned the gown has gone down in history. Now it’s Di’s brother’s turn to wed (yes, for a third time), and he’ll be saying vows with Lady Bianca Eliot. What kind of gown do you expect for this royal wedding? What kind of gown would you suggest, considering the circumstances?

* Move over Bridezilla because this Groomzilla may give you a run for your money! In our experience brides have the opposite trouble when it comes to wedding planning: Getting their grooms to participate in the planning at all is like pulling teeth! This U.K. groom, however, took the reins and took care of all the details, much to the delight of his bride. Well, almost. The bride did choose her own gown!

As certified wedding and event planners you may think you’ve seen it all, but as stories as these prove: Think again! Do you have any stories to share? Every wedding experience is one to learn from!

Before a bridal couple can do anything else, i.e. order invitations, book venues or hire caterers they must set their date. As certified wedding and event planners it’s your job to know which dates should be off-limits if the festivities are to go off without a hitch. Here is a list of dates you may want to encourage couples to avoid in 2011. Yes, 2011! Since it’s March, and Valentine’s Day is just recently behind us, there are lots of newly engaged couples out there looking for wedding planners right now! You can never be too prepared in the wedding industry, right?

* January 1: New Year’s Day
* February 5 and 6: Super Bowl Weekend
* February 12 through 14: Valentine’s Day Weekend
* April 2 through 4: Final days of NCAA Basketball Tournament
* April 22 through 24: Easter Weekend
* May 7 and 8: Mother’s Day Weekend (and many college graduations)
* May 27 through 30: Memorial Day Weekend
* June 18 and 19: Father’s Day Weekend
* July 1 through 4: Fourth of July Weekend
* September 2 through 5: Labor Day Weekend (End of summer and last vacations for many.)
* October 29 through 31: Halloween Weekend (Although some couples may want to choose this weekend.)
* November 24 through 27: Thanksgiving Weekend
* December 23 through 25: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
* December 30 through January 1, 2012: New Year’s Eve and Day

What do you think? As professional, certified wedding and event planners do you steer your couples away from specific weekends? It may be a good idea to discuss family birthdays and big anniversaries, as well as due dates for relatives and members of the bridal party. How do you help a couple choose their date or dissuade them from using one they may have already set?

Emily Meyer has always loved the idea of planning the most important day of peoples’ lives. She was the go-to person for friends and family when it came to planning social events and birthday parties. Each event was executed beautifully and flawlessly. It is when she began planning her own wedding that she knew this is what she was meant to do. With everyone around her getting engaged, she took it upon herself to offer them wedding-planning services by researching vendors within their budget and coordinating the processional for the ceremony. This is when Emily took a more serious approach to wedding planning and design.

She enrolled in the Wedding Planning Institute as her passion grew deeper for creating a fairytale ending.  After researching the best wedding vendors in Oklahoma City and completing the necessary training, the Wedding Planning Institute proudly recognized Emily as a certified wedding planner.

After six months of working closely with other wedding planners, Emily opened the doors to a whole new wedding experience. She started her own business in September of 2009. Her company, Chandelier Weddings, was a huge hit in the Oklahoma City area. After executing three weddings in her first month of opening, a high reputation and word of mouth from clients and vendors became her best marketing tools.

A unique aspect of Emily’s business is catering to not only high-end weddings, but also to weddings of couples who cannot afford an extravagant wedding. Emily says, “Every little girl dreams of that day where she will walk down the aisle to meet prince charming. For rich or for poor, I feel that every girl deserves to not only dream that wedding, but have that wedding.”

Emily was excited to find that the Wedding Planning Institute was looking for instructors in her area. She knew this was something she needed to pursue. With her ambitious attitude and strong passion for wedding planning, teaching what she loves would be an absolute joy. Emily was offered the position at the University of Tulsa and is eager to begin this endeavour as a new instructor with the Wedding Planning Institute. She looks forward to other teaching opportunities and sharing her knowledge and passion with other soon-to-be wedding planners.

“Becoming a certified wedding planner is one of the most rewarding jobs that could ever exist. Because you are certified, a bride and groom can trust you so much more. The best part of the job is when you see that bride walk down the aisle and the look on the groom’s face the first time he sees her. It is priceless. It is at that moment when you know that you have just turned a little girl’s dream into a reality and created a fairytale ending where this couple will begin a new chapter in their lives.”

The next Wedding Coordinator Certification courses taught by Emily Meyer at the University of Tulsa will be held from Feb. 8, 2010, to March 31, 2010, on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuition is $795 and includes text book, online access in addition to classroom instruction, testing and national certification from the Wedding Planning Institute. To register, contact Frances Najera at the Office of Continuing Education at frances-najera@utulsa.edu or 918-631-2937.