LWPI again welcomes Sally Lorensen Conant to the blog! Sally is also known as the Gown Care Lady, and she has a wealth of invaluable knowledge for brides and certified wedding and event planners. Be sure to visit her website, the Association of Gown Preservation Specialists, too.

Plastic bags are the worst possible choice for your gown because plastic emits fumes that can yellow your gown. If you have a bag made from muslin or tyvek, there will be no harmful fumes, but bags are not a particularly good choice for long-term storage. Hanging for long periods of time can distort the shape of your gown even if it is hanging from the ribbon loops attached to inside seams. All fabric, especially lace, will stretch if you hang it, and who needs a big bubble where the bustle should be or a saggy-looking bodice?

Having a professional clean and pack your gown in an acid-free wedding chest is a much better option. A professional will pack your gown so that it maintains it shape perfectly with a minimum of folds and creases, and the wedding chest takes up a lot less room in your closet than a big bouffant gown bag. Wedding chests also protect your gown from sharp objects that can slice into your dress. And they are a much more effective barrier against insects and mice than bags. A bride once came to me in tears because mice got into her bag before the wedding, shredded her train to make a nest, and left her a present of lots of little black stuff!

No museums that I know use bags to store textiles, and that, too, should tell you something: An acid-free wedding chest is a better choice than any bag.

The journey to your future begins with the first step. Did you know that LWPI now offers one-day seminars around the country for those looking to speed up the learning process and get started right away as a certified wedding and event planner?

Seminar instructors help students meet all assignment requirements, create project presentations, and prepare for the industry CWEP Exam. Seminar students receive access to LWPI’s online student center, which includes the student library, community, and resources for six months after the one-day seminar. Each LWPI student also works with a trained and certified wedding and event planning mentor who guides them through the certification process and assists with students’ internship experiences.

Life is busy, and starting a new career takes time. Find a seminar location near you, and get started today on your path toward becoming a certified wedding and event planner!

Click here to enroll for CWEP Seminar with Online and Mentor
Click here to enroll for CWEP Online Only with Mentor
Click Here for the CWEP College Classroom Schedule
Click to enroll in Preston Bailey’s Signature Wedding and Event Design Course
Click to Enroll in LWPI’s Green Weddings Course
Coming Soon! Preston Bailey’s Series of Floral Design Courses

CWEP Tuition will vary based on enrollment options such as online, seminar, college classroom, etc.

When it comes to interviewing possible bridal clients there is one thing every certified wedding and event planner must be: prepared. Being prepared means being on top of new and exciting wedding trends, and it means that planners must anticipate the questions brides-to-be are going to ask. Here are some of those questions; how would you answer them?

. How long have you been a planner?
. Are you a certified wedding and event planner?
. Is this your full-time job?
. How much do you charge?
. How many weddings have you planned?
. How many clients do you take on at one time?
. What is the largest wedding or event you have planned?
. Will you be at the wedding?
. Are you willing to travel to another region on the day of our wedding?
. Do you bring a staff with you?
. What are the best venues that fit our budget?
. (Once they choose a venue) Have you worked with this venue before?
. Can you help us with venue contracts?
. Can you get us discounts with vendors?
. Are you willing to stick to our budget and not guide us in a direction we can’t afford?
. How, and how often, may we contact you?
. Do you also plan honeymoons?

Suffice to say - brides are likely to add numerous questions to this list, but these are some common ones that every planner should expect to answer, and answer well. Remember that brides want to feel comfortable and feel heard. They’re likely going into this interview with a very specific vision in mind, and although your ideas may enhance their dreams - they’re still the clients’ dreams!

It’s important to remember, also, that although you’re the one being interviewed it’s a good time for you to get to know potential clients and try to figure out if you will work well with them. Trying to figure out how to say no? Read this great column by LWPI instructor Amanda Allen of MMD Events in Tampa, Florida: Insight from the Wedding Planning Institute: Saying No. To do a great job and end the day with a satisfied client you have to make sure your personalities mesh well!

What other important questions would you add to this list?

Congratulations to LWPI graduate and instructor Carol Crist, who is settling in nicely to her new position at Rancho de Corrales in Corrales, New Mexico. (You might know or remember Carol from her LWPI Instructor Spotlight!) We asked Carol a few questions about her new job and how her time with Lovegevity’s Wedding Planning Institute has prepared her for working in the wedding- and event-planning industry.

What are the responsibilities of your new job? I am tasked with increasing sales, networking to increase exposure, and working with the local vendors in the wedding business to help market Rancho de Corrales, and of course closing sales with clients.

What do you think your favorite part of the position will be? Working with young couples to see their events become reality!

How many couples do you expect to work with per month? Probably four to six.

How did LWPI prepare you for this job? LWPI provided insight into all aspects of the wedding business, such as: how to negotiate, listen, market our venue at the most competitive pricing, and keep a fresh face on our website.

How will this position help you be a better LWPI instructor? It allows me the opportunity of physically showing my students a venue, table and chair options, linens, a full kitchen, etc. It will also help me talk to them about how to structure an event. And I will also offer them the option of volunteering during an event, which would really give them insight into what it takes to be a wedding or event planner.

Tell us a bit about your venue. Rancho de Corrales is a 200-year-old adobe structure with lots of ghost stories! Ghost Hunters did a show at the venue a few years ago to see if they could pick up any energy. You can catch it on YouTube.

Do you plan events other than weddings? One of my goals is to move Rancho de Corrales into the corporate market. I am on emails and rack cards to showcase the facility from a different perspective, and I hope to pick up mid-week business instead of weekend-only business.

How do you think this position will expand your career? My career is exactly where I want it! I have not too much and not too little to do. I am well-known in the Albuquerque area, and most of my vendor associates are very supportive in providing leads to me, as do I for them.

LWPI sends best wishes to Carol as she uses the skills she learned through LWPI to help her new venue grow and increase its business! Are you an LWPI student, graduate or instructor with news to share? Contact us so we can showcase your hard work and success, too!

Today’s post is the second of three parts on budgeting for destination weddings. Our guest writer is Chezelle Rodriguez, the owner of Chezelle Dezines, an event-planning and graphic-design company in Puerto Rico. And be sure to check out Part I and Part II if you missed them.

What couples often overlook and what to expect – Part III

Beware of the small print!

Hotels and resorts usually have fees that you won’t know about until that final bill comes. Find out in advance how much tax the city or place where you will hold your venue charges. This tax will be added at the end of the bill, plus a percentage for gratuity, usually 22 percent.

Sound equipment is always overlooked! Venues will charge for this automatically knowing that their space needs it. Sometimes couples don’t need this because their DJ will set up a sound system. Let your catering manager know if you have someone setting up the system to get that fee taken off. I always advise my clients to block rooms directly with the hotel. This always brings controversy, especially when guests arrive and the rooms they are given are not the ones with the best views. When booking through such third-party companies as Expedia, Travelocity and Hotwire the hotel has made specific rooms available, which cannot be upgraded or changed. When you block a room directly with the hotel you have control of where you want your guests to stay. You can even change the rooms once you check in if you want your parents closer to your grandparents, for example. Some venues offer free nights for the couple depending on the amount of rooms they block.

Everything is Negotiable!

Are you a last-minute or spontaneous person? I have some good news for you! If your lead time is less than two months you might be able to get an incredible deal. The sooner the event, the better the savings might be. Negotiate aggressively – your wedding planner can help you with this! Venues and vendors know it’s unlikely that another last-minute event will come along, and they are often eager to do business with you.

Destination weddings are beautiful, intimate, and a great way to have a mini vacation and celebrate your wedding at the same time!

Thank you, Chezelle, for a fantastic series on planning and budgeting for destination weddings! You can read more about Chezelle’s work in her Real Weddings From LWPI Graduates post.

Being a certified wedding and event coordinator means you get the opportunity to take an idea and bring it to life. From color to texture to florals, your style is a big part of the finished product. Learning how to create events from start to finish is a major part of LWPI’s training for its students. And instructors are encouraged to allow their students to get hands-on practice during their courses. Marling Obando, an LWPI instructor at Miami-Dade College, Wolfson, recently encouraged her students plan an event from start to finish, and she provided the materials for them to do so in class. Based on an assigned linen color they brought one of their class exercises to life, just as they would a real event. Marling says her students enjoyed the activity, and it was only one of the hands-on experiences she provided.

What a fun project! Are you interested in becoming a certified wedding and event coordinator? Check LWPI’s class calendar for a course in your area, and take a tour to learn more about the LWPI classroom experience.

This month’s Real Wedding comes from Randi Lawrence Moore, the owner of Randi Lawrence Moore | Couture Wedding Gown Salon in Atlanta, Georgia. You can read more about Randi in her Instructor Spotlight (Chattahoochee Technical College - North Metro Campus), and she has a few articles available at The Wedding Report’s Wedding Tips and Trends blog. Today she gives us some of the details of the wedding she planned for Michael and Tomeka Stevens.

“Working with this couple was a joy. Who says love doesn’t come later in life? With this being their second marriage, Michael and Tomeka wanted to go out with a bang! The love they share is so sweet and innocent, and they wanted to celebrate in style! Their tropical theme was wonderful, and their acrylic invitations set the tone. It was a great wedding with wonderful vendors in the Atlanta metro area. Their inspiration was: The Second Time Around is With the Perfect Person, My Best Friend!” How cute is that?

Are you an LWPI graduate or instructor? Are you interested in having one of your weddings featured? Contact our managing editor for more information, and for more on the vendors used in Michael and Tomeka’s wedding see the following links.

Wedding Planner: Randi Lawrence Moore
Wedding Gown: RIVINI
Photographer: Sapphire Photography
Drapery: Event Drapery
Wedding Cake: Perfect Wedding Cake
Venue: Ventanas
Ceremony Location: Hilton Garden Inn
Ceremony Decor: A Legendary Event
Videographer: Creative Video Moments
Florist: Fuji Floral Design
Stationary: Sandi Spells Design
Ice Sculpture: Ice Sculptures Unlimited
Catering: Epicurean Drama Events
Linen: BBJ Linen
Singer: Treble Clef Sounds

Everybody knows that Florida is a place that brides flock to for their weddings. If you’re an aspiring wedding and event planner - who wants to get certified to take your business to another level - Ana Cruz is just the person you need to talk to! She’ll be teaching an upcoming certified wedding- and event-planner course at Miami Dade College, North Campus, Miami-Dade County.

Ana Cruz

Ana has had her own business, Ana Cruz Event Planning, for going on 11 years. Certification is an important part of a career in wedding planning, she says, and “aspiring wedding and event planners today have so many wonderful tools to get started in the business.” Students should know that this business “is a lot of hard work. While many consider a party just ‘fluff,’ people hire a planner because they want to mark a milestone in their lives, help their business to be successful, or raise money for a worthy cause. All these things are very important and should always be treated at such.”

Ana didn’t plan on being an event planner. “I initially wanted to be a teacher,” she says. “Right out of high school I got a job at a bank, where I took on positions that involved such event-planning tasks as the company picnic, holiday party, etc. I really loved that part of my job and realized it came very natural to me. By the time I received my teaching degree I was sure I wanted to be an event planner. I was promoted to marketing manager and loved my job but a restructuring caused my job to move to New York, and I had too many ties in Miami to take the leap. In 1999 I took a position planning events for the American Diabetes Association and was very qualified thanks to having been a volunteer for the March of Dimes for almost 10 years, in which I helped with fundraising events. While my background was in corporate planning and later in not-for-profit event planning, I did plan a few weddings along the way for friends and relatives. In 2001 I started my own business, giving myself a year to either make it or go back to corporate America. I have never looked back!”

One of Ana’s weddings was featured on the Style Network in 2005, changing her client base. Suddenly more brides were coming to her asking for an amazing event like the one they saw on TV. While Ana plans all types of events, 70 percent of her clients are now bridal. She was also featured on the Style Network’s hit show “Whose Wedding is it Anyway” from 2005 until 2010, and she has also been featured on the network’s destination-wedding show, “Married Anyway.”

When it comes to planning, Ana’s favorite part of the job is “being able to be a big part of a milestone in someone’s life. It is a gift to be able to create an amazing memory for a client. With my corporate and charity events, it is very rewarding to create a vehicle to help my clients showcase their business or make money.” And the toughest part? “Balancing work and family. This is not the type of career where you can take a sick day. You have one shot to do it and do it right. My husband and two young boys, ages 8 and 11, are supportive and proud of what I do. There is a quote I once saw posted in the Florida Panthers’ locker room that said, ‘The will to win is easy, the will to prepare is difficult.’ Everyone wants to have an amazing event, but not everyone can or wants to put in the effort to make it happen. Luckily for people that hire a great planner, they do not have to.”

Ana Cruz Events / Facebook / Twitter
Certified Wedding and Event Planner Course
Miami-Dade College - North Campus
Miami-Dade County, Florida
Register for the class

Today’s post is the second of three parts on budgeting for destination weddings. Our guest writer is Chezelle Rodriguez, the owner of Chezelle Dezines, an event-planning and graphic-design company in Puerto Rico. She specializes in destination weddings, and you can read more about Chezelle’s work in her Real Weddings From LWPI Graduates post.

Photo Courtesy of Saul Padua Photography

What Couples Often Overlook and What to Expect – Part II

Tips on How to Tackle that Budget Monster!

With the huge increase in the number of DIY couples who are making their own wedding invitations and favors, it’s obvious that they are looking for ways to cut down on wedding spending. There are plenty of cost-saving ideas online.

Take your scissors to the guest list early and stay firm. Some couples opt out of having children in their wedding for multiple reasons, including reducing their wedding budget. Some child meals can cost just as much as an adult dinner.

The general rule is to set aside 6 percent of a wedding budget for your gown, but you can get away with far less. When figuring the cost factor in alterations, dry cleaning (some wedding planners offer a steamer), underpinnings, veils and accessories.

Receptions:

Receptions typically take up about 40 percent of the wedding budget but can increase to 55 perecent depending on the venue and menu. Marrying in the off season helps. Timing is everything: Roughly 70 percent of weddings take place between May and October. With this said, however, event spaces and vendors are always eager for your business at other times of the year, which can help reduce your costs.

Call ahead and ask event spaces, hotels and vendors about their down time. You will be surprised to see discounts from about 40 percent off compared with peak season. This is very important when planning a destination wedding, especially since you might not be familiar with the seasonal quirks of the area. Plan your festivities to take place between Sunday and Thursday, the slow days at most resorts, and you might benefit from some considerable discounts. Saturday evening is the prime time for weddings and prices will soar! Also keep in mind that government-owned properties have the most reasonable fees and have beautiful unexpected places to marry.

BYOB!

Some venues allow you to bring your own liquor. This will save you a boatload of money, costing about $20 a person as opposed to $60 a person at a traditional venue. Negotiate bringing in the liquor or having a bar per consumption. In some cases this will save you thousands of dollars! When buying the liquor ask the store if they have a buy-back policy.

Photography:

Photography averages 7 percent to 10 percent of an overall budget. Beginning packages start at about $1,000, and an entire day’s booking is about $3,000. One quick way to cut down on that cost is to ask for a “shoot and burn” package (very popular with small weddings and elopements). What you get is a photographer for four hours and all the unedited, minimally retouched, high-resolution images on a DVD. This allows couples to share their photos with friends and family as well as on social networking Websites. I always tell my clients that if they absolutely love the style of the photographer then splurge. After the wedding is over all you have left are memories and the pictures!

Flowers and Décor:

Flowers and décor eat up about an 8 percent of your budget. Since in-season flowers will save you money, search online to see what will be available on your wedding day. Average costs of bouquets range from $100 to $500 depending on the flowers. The more types of flowers that go into the bouquet, the more expensive it will be. Spend the money on flowers where it will make more impact. A ceremony might last up to 30 minutes, while a reception will be four hours and where guests will spend the majority of their time. Alternating flowers with candles will give your reception a romantic feel that won’t weigh down your budget.

Another great way to reduce your budget is to rent Par 64 or Par 56 lights and bases. The right lighting can save you big dollars from having to transform a space with flowers and other decorations that can cost much more.

Cupcakes or Mini Cakes?

This trend is catching on fast, and I’ve seen my clients choose them instead of a traditional wedding cake. Venues often charge a cake-cutting fee ranging from $2.50 to $6 a slice.

Be sure to check out Part 1 and Part III of Chezelle’s great series!

LWPI is delighted to once again welcome Sally Lorensen Conant to the blog! Sally is also known as the Gown Care Lady, and she has a wealth of invaluable knowledge for brides and certified wedding and event planners. Be sure to visit her Website, the Association of Gown Preservation Specialists, too.

Six Things that Can Spoil Your Wedding Day

1. Drooping bustle: Whether your bridesmaids simply cannot figure out how to fasten your bustle or your gown is very heavy or someone just plain steps on your train, you will wish you had asked for extra hooks or buttons to keep your gown from dragging on the ground. Plan ahead, and attach several safety pins to the lining near the hem of your gown so they will be there when you need them. Here are some other tips for emergency gown.

2. Flowers that hide your gown: If you are going to carry a large bouquet, practice holding your flowers low. If you hold them too high they will hide your gown when you are walking down the aisle, and you will see more flowers than gown when you look at your video and your photographs.

3. Veils and hairstyles that hide your face: Make sure your veil frames your face — not hides it — after you lift your blusher. And remember not to obscure the right side of your face with your hair. That’s the side next to the groom, the side everyone wants to see when you are at the altar.

4. Relatives taking photographs: Uncle Charlie may be a great guy, but he is not trained to stay out of the way so that others can see you when you exchange your vows. And it is also not fair to relatives who want to be part of the celebration to make them spend the day behind a camera with one eye closed. Let a professional capture all those special moments and share them afterward with your family.

5. Unplanned schedule of events: Avoid leaving hours and hours between the ceremony and the reception if you possibly can or some guests may party so hard they do not make it to the reception. If there must be a long delay, offer guests some options such as a lounge in the reception venue or, for out-of-town guests, a list of nearby things to do. On the other hand, do not forget to allow enough time for photographs. No one really minds if you miss hors d’oeuvres  with your guests, but a dinner that gets overcooked because you are still taking pictures is a disaster. If you are having your ceremony and reception at the same location, you might even consider posing for your formal photographs before the ceremony, and then you will have extra time to spend with your guests.

6. Kids at weddings: If you plan to have a very young ring bearer or flower girl, be sure each gets to bed early the night before the wedding. Designate someone other than mom or dad (if they are in the wedding party), to watch them during the ceremony. For children at the ceremony, whether they are in the wedding party or not, things such as snacks in a Ziplock bag that opens quietly, clear (in case of spills) juice in boxes, and a coloring book with washable markers will hold their interest. At the reception, serving children’s meals promptly and having books and crayons on hand will help keep them at the table.

One more tip: After all your thoughtful planning, try to relax and enjoy each moment. It will all go by much too quickly, and your friends and family are there to share the joy of your special day — not to complain about missteps along the way.

Adapted from The Seven Biggest Wedding Mistakes by Rod Jovanelly at A Touch of Color Photography in Connecticut.