Cielo Celebrations and Team wins Design Lab Challenge at Biz Bash 2011

Last week I was so lucky to first, be invited to Biz Bash at the Ft. Lauderdale Convention Center by wonderful Wedding Planner and friend, Tammy Waterman but second, I was lucky enough, with a team of amazing wedding professional to not only attend the Design Lab but win it.

The event, hosted by Donald Braun Events, was the first of its kind at Biz Bash. He pull off SUCH an amazing event and he should be so proud. To begin we experienced Donald and his team showing us how they transform plain spaces into incredible works of art. We were then treated to demonstrations from Panache as well as in floral design. After pairing off into teams we were then surprised with the table theme that we would have to execute. Thankfully we happened to get one of my favorites, Las Vegas, to design around. After this the magic happened! They opened the wall and it was a planner and designer's playground! We had some of the most beautiful linens, chairs, chargers, vases, floral and other decor items to play with. We had one hour to execute our team's vision and below is what we came up with, using charger plates that looked like poker chips, feathers to tie in the showgirl feel and lots of bling...Vegas wins the Design Challenge! :)

A special thank you to Rebecca and Michael with Limelight Photography for capturing all the cool and funky images!

Until Next Time!

Happy Anniversary Meagan and Steven!

Happy Sunday Everyone and a very Happy 1st Wedding Anniversary to two of my favorites, Meagan and Steven! I know you are both having a blast with your family today but I wanted to say a VERY Happy First Anniversary with many, many more to come! I love you both and it was an honor to work with you for your amazing wedding!

**Photography by Timothy Capp Photography**

Until Next Time!

Engagement Photos CAN be cool!

I have done weddings for quite a while now and for some reason I think the art of having a good time during your engagement shoot is getting lost in most of the sessions I see. I love it (and most photographers love it too) when couples come to us and want to do something completely out of the box.

You can imagine I was COMPLETELY over the moon while during a planning discussion with Debe, she mentioned that she would love to surprise Owen by doing part of their engagement shoot at Raymond James Stadium, home of my beloved (and Owen's) Tampa Bay Buccaneers!

Right away I got on the phone with some contacts over at the Stadium and they were pretty accomodating with our request. The engagement shoot date was set and we were all SO excited!

We got to run around a majority of Raymond James like the huge fans that we are...although it looks a bit different in the off season...we still had a blast! The always phenomial Tim Capp of Timothy Capp Photography took the awesome shots. I am being nice and leaving myself out of this blog but rest asured this fan did get her photo on the field and on the Pirate Ship!

After our time was up, everyone headed over to the always reliable Y'Bor City to take a few more cool and totally funky photos.

Thanks to Debe and Owen for always being fun to go out and play with! I can't wait til the wedding!!!

**All photos courtesy of Timothy Capp Photography

Until Next Time!



Sounding Off...

When I began writing this blog I truly envisioned it as a tool to help inform and educate my brides. I am not sure if this is going to help out much but tonight I am writing this to the Wedding Planners, FOR the Wedding Planners.

With the current, not so fabulous, state of our economy and because of ALLLLL of those Wedding Shows showing how GLAMOROUS (lol) all of our lives are, we are finding a new and very green crop of "Wedding Planners" cropping up. This is true for those who are DJ's since a large portion of brides I meet first say "can't I use an iPod?" (NO!) and those who think they are professional photographers because they took a class in college and own a Kodak EasyShare. Now let me just say I AM for a new crop of Planners! Our industry benefits from new people with fresh ideas. It keeps the rest of us on our toes and makes us strive to work better...and harder. I AM for those who try to learn the industry, the right way. Not those steal ideas, that don't try to educate themselves (JOIN THE ASSOCIATION OF BRIDAL CONSULTANTS) and are all around not willing to learn from those who have been there, done that and are still navigating it on a daily basis.

What really prompted me to write this blog today was some really discouraging news about two Wedding Planners in the industry. These people are not novices, they are not new to the industry and how it works so they are not getting a pass for their behaviour. They SHOULD know better by now and I really hoped they would be able to show grace and class in challenging situations.

I would never be unprofessional and call them out in a blog personally but there are two things I will say: First, my BIGGEST pet peeve, DO NOT LIE to a fellow wedding planner. We are all in this craziness together and truly, deserve respect and honesty, we work hard for it and it makes our jobs a LOT easier with it. We should be helping each other out, not bringing each other down.

Second, don't trash the industry that made you. Know where you came from, be humble about it and pass it along and teach others. Speaking out of turn with people who do not deserve it, only makes you look like a fool. We all know there are some poor vendors out there, we have all unfortunately worked with them at one point in our careers or another and at some point in time they will just fade away. Calling out a brilliant team of professionals is just career suicide. I always say, it is harder to get on my personal vendor referral list than it is to get taken off. Many people also share that philosophy and honestly, ask yourself, which is more important, your business and reputation or your opinion? Sometimes it is better to bite your tongue. Trust me, as one who would LOVE nothing more than to tell life the way it is, I know it's hard but, most often, is worth it. It's like that great quote from Abraham Lincoln, "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt." Pretty much true.

With that being said, because I feel there is enough business to go around, I will say that I would love to, and would be honored to be, your Wedding Planner. I appreciate doing what I love on a daily basis with some of the best Wedding Professionals in the business. I know my business will grow with my hard work and I will be fulfilled by doing things the right way. However, if it is not me that you work with (because hey, I know I am not for everyone,) right now I am being HONEST in saying that these women listed below are some of the BEST Wedding Planners in the industry, you can find them all on my Facebook page as I consider them friends, and you would be so lucky to work with any of them! I don't hesitate to say the names or link you to the websites of these women in Florida, they are ETHICAL, RELIABLE, TRUSTWORTHY, ABC MEMBERS and all around GREAT people. Would you put it on your blog? Have faith in yourself, do the right thing, treat people the right way and we are all going to come through this more fabulous than ever!

P.S. Don't kill me if I forgot any of you ABC Members in Florida on my page. :)

Florida: Orlando
Elisa Delgardio, CSEP, ABC
Elise Enloe, MBC
Evelyn Duran
Heather Snively, MBC
Jennifer Reed
Kerline Docteur
Linda Frisard
Naomi Hinds

Florida: Tampa
Emmanuela Pierre Stanislaus
Jamie Morton
Tammy Waterman, ABC

Florida: Jacksonville
Cassie Cherneski
Heather Canada, ABC
Lisa Burnett, MBC
Tanya Hendricks

Florida: Pensacola
Samantha Jackson

Florida: South
Carmen Mesa, ABC

Til Next Time!

Jack and Jaclyn's Stunning February 5th Wedding

I was so lucky to be able to meet Lisa, the Bride's amazing mom, back when I was working as the Director of Catering at Emerald Greens. I loved her the second I met her and know I would love Jaclyn as well! From that point on, even though I was leaving Emerald Greens, I was so excited and honored to be able to be her Wedding Coordinator.

The Ceremony took place at the beautiful Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz, Florida and was followed by the Reception at Emerald Greens Golf Resort and Country Club. I was absolutely blessed to work with some of the best wedding professionals in the business for Jack and Jaclyn's Wedding and even the ones I worked with for the first time I would HIGHLY reccommed. It's hard to impress me but I was awestruck at their talent and professionalism.

Here is a quick preview of some of the stunning photos by Shannon. More to come!

Amazing Wedding Vendor team:
Photography by Shannon Livingston with Livingston Galleries
Cinematography by Molly Brown with Cinematique Films
Cake by Melissa with Alessi Bakery
Floral by Jeff with Four Seasons Floral

Until Next Time!

Brides Beware – What “Awards” are REAL?

My mentor, friend and AMAZING Wedding Planner, Elise Enloe, MBC wrote this blog post that was actually very thought provoking and something that a lot of great wedding planners were thinking. Elise is one of the BEST in the business, she doesn't need any "awards" for her talent to show. Honestly, I don't feel I need any either to show off the hard work I have put in however nice they may be. Don't get me wrong, there are INCREDIBLE Vendors in the Wedding Industry that have won, deservedly so, but the stories like the one Elise shares is becoming all too popular and sad, leading an potentially unsuspecting Bride down a path where her vision may not be turned into reality due to a lack of experience. Here is her blog:

I had a call yesterday from a seasoned wedding professional who was quite concerned that a new wedding planner in her area (not in Florida – but it happens here too) received the Knot’s “Best Wedding Planner” for 2010 in her area.  This “planner” has never even planned or coordinated a complete wedding, just a reception for some friends. 

How can that happen?

Many of these so-called awards (The Knot, Wedding Wire, etc.) are determined by essentially “stuffing the ballot box” by rallying your friends, relatives, and even voting for yourself.  My colleague even contacted the Knot on this issue, and there’s really nothing they can do about it – it’s based on the “votes received,” and is slanted towards those who pay to advertise with the source of the “award.”  Yes, you can vote for others, but they are “write ins.”  I receive frequent requests from my wedding colleagues asking me to vote for them for some of these so-called awards that are based on popularity, not merit.  For the record, I believe in the old fashioned voting process of being able to cast ONE vote for the most qualified for an award, or awards that are based on merit.  So, for couples that are considering my services, you won’t see a “voted best” of anything banner on my website or marketing materials, but I am the only Better Business Bureau Accredited Wedding Consultant in the Orlando area and one of only two Master Bridal Consultants in Central Florida.  I am proud to share the Association of Bridal Consultants highest designation with Heather Snively, Weddings Unique, who achieved this designation in November, 2010.

Until Next Time,

Association of Bridal Consultants Annual Conference

Hello all!

It has been a while since I have been able to update everyone here but besides being busy with Weddings, I was off in Phoenix, Arizona at the Association of Bridal Consultants Annual Business of Brides Conference. What an AMAZING time was had by over 400 of the most wonderful and professional Wedding Experts.

Over the span of 4 days we were treated to wonderful food, brilliant decor and of course a lot of educational seminars to better assist all of our brides. The best part was we were fortunate enough to be able to have the ever fabulous Sasha Souza, MBC and the awe-inspiring David Tutera speak to us about trends in the industry, their up-and-coming projects and most importantly, they allowed us to ask the questions that we have all been dying to know and they graciously answered with the utmost honestly.

Be on the lookout for more updates from Annual Conference soon! Also, if you are a Professional Wedding Planner or Vendor, mark your calendars for November 6-8, 2011, ABC Annual Business of Brides will be in BALTIMORE! I hope to see you all there!

Until next time!