Introducing: The Wedding Planner

*I apologize in advance for the long post*

Let me tell you about my job. Not my full-time Corporate Event Coordinator job, but my "part-time" wedding planner job. I have recently been accused of doing a job that "anyone can do" and of being a "cultural hall decorator" (which was said disdainfully and thus I take to mean that they think I have low quality decorations and no taste). In this post I hope to be able to enlighten my friends and family about what I am actually committing to when I take on a client. Hopefully I don't bore you to death with the tedious details. My job is a lot more complicated than simply putting up Christmas lights in a cultural hall.

I love, absolutely love, being a wedding planner/decorator. It has become a major passion in my life. My absolute goal is to always make the wedding better than the bride imagined it would be. Sometimes I am limited by the bride herself, but I strive nonetheless. If some of the weddings I have done are less than perfection it is only because I have been restrained by clients with small budgets and low expectations. I get giddy when a bride leaves a consultation really excited for her wedding. It means that I have done my job right and am earning my paycheck.

I have discovered that in order to be good at my job, I need to be really in-tune with my perceptive skills.

Before each consultation I take a careful study of what outfit I should wear. Because I have already figured out what kind of a person they are, I try to dress in a way that will gain the confidence and respect of my potential client (a consultation is simply a long, fancy advertisement to convince people to "buy my product"). I can tell when some brides want an over-the-top planner, like the ones they see on TV, and so I dress in classy (expensive-looking) black with modern accents. Some brides are shy and afraid of being intimidated. These people I try to connect with on a friend level and will wear trouser jeans with a hip blouse and dangling earrings.

Between the time I first talk to them on the phone and when we meet for a consultation, I need to have already developed a sense of who they are and what they want. In most cases I have only talked to them for about 10 minutes on the phone before they show up at my house. However, 8 out of 10 times I know which backdrop they will love and choose before showing them a single picture. I judge how well I am doing by how many pictures I need to show them during a consultation.

This is all before they even sign a contract! Getting a client to sign and commit is the number one, hardest part of the job but once it's signed, we celebrate. Getting a sale is cause for celebration for anyone in this tough economy.

With a signed contract and deposit in hand, I then proceed to buy the most expensive looking materials for the cheapest price. I am a highly-valued club member of Roberts, Michael's, and JoAnn's. I always shop with a 40-50% off coupon in my hand and at Robert's the cashiers know me as "the wedding decorator". I roam up and down aisles that I have been up and down dozens of times, trying to get my mind to work up a better way to make something new. At Michael's the staff now know that I'm not lost and that I will probably bug them about getting in 15 vases when they only have 2 in stock.

The week before a wedding I go crazy. Literally. I have 3 different lists and my work load ranges between 3-15 hours of last minute projects. If I am lucky the boxes are loaded, in the car with minutes to spare before driving at break-neck speeds to get to the venue on time. Once we are at the venue things are great if it is only me and my crew there. If family or (heaven-forbid) the bride herself is there, the stress level jumps about 10 notches. The average wedding takes about 3 hours to set-up, despite the fact that we run everywhere we go and I have 3 helpers. It just takes a lot of time. Sadly, about 2 hours of that I am standing on a ladder with my arms above my head trying not to poke wire underneath my fingernails.

Once the wedding is set-up I breathe a sigh of relief and pray nobody touches anything until I return that evening. I have been known to seriously lose my cool if I return to clean up and find tablecloths on the floor and LED lights missing. I just remembered that I forgot to include that clause on my contract: "Everything stays where it is until Elegantly Expressed returns to clean up that evening. I don't care if you ended 2 hours earlier than you thought, that is not my problem. You will sit and wait until I arrive before you even THINK of touching a table or a pillar."

Each wedding I do brings an immense satisfaction. I love being a part of the most important day in most couple's lives. It is a blessing to be able to contribute to their happiness.

So thanks for those of you who support me with encouraging words and positive comments. And those of you who think I am an amateur? Please tell me if you find anyone more devoted to their job than I am.

Shar's Wedding

I have known Sharylann for years, we used to work together planning conferences and workshops for a university. Her wedding was so exciting to plan, and it was a blast to be able to take part in all of the preparations.

Shar's colors were red and black with a real modern twist on traditional elegance. I think this wedding actually turned out to be one of my favorite's. We put up our most popular backdrop, draped it in gorgeous red (just like the for the Valentine's Dance) but I added some extra swag to the front to create a more graceful effect. To add a modern twist, I also added red and black spangle branches that I used in the centerpieces. It really tied the room together nicely.

The backdrop behind the cake was draped in black with a shiny red ribbon running through it. I loved it! It turned out perfectly . :)

In a clever attempt to decorate a blank wall, we put up large frames, scrapbook paper, and Shar's bridal pictures to create a collage effect and dress it up a bit. In the end it really added a lot to the room. Kudos go to Alisyn for making it look so awesome. This was her project and she mastered it. What would I do without her?

On top of decorations, we also provided two fountains, one chocolate and one nacho cheese, oh and of course the punch fountain. I have to tell you how much the guests raved about the food! I even found comments on Facebook about how great it was. :)

All in all, it was a really fun event. In the end it's really all about making the day as perfect as possible for the couple getting married, and it's always wonderful to have a hand in that.

Main Backdrop:


Cake Backdrop:



Pictures on the Wall:


The Tables:


The Room:


Finally, the food..somehow the chocolate fountain didn't make it into this picture, oh well:

The Valentine's Dance

Tonight Alexander and I hosted a Valentine's Dance for the Elders Quorum (and their wives). It was a very successful evening and everyone had a lot of fun. I created a great play-list with a variety of songs that made for the perfect dance. We also decorated the joint a little bit. I really enjoy decorating when I can do it the way I want it to be. :)

Here are a few pics of the night:

Some of the Decorations:









My cute parents who volunteered to babysit all the kids:



Everyone got their pictures taken in front of the backdrop, including our guest DJ's, my brother and his adorable girlfriend:



Oh yeah, and I get to do it all again tomorrow night for a Stake dance... ;)

Bridal Fair

I have been so busy lately. Saturday was the Bridal Fair and it was awesome. It was very successful and I have been having a blast working on so many weddings. My booth was pretty cool too.

Fountains of Cheesiness

I did a wedding on Saturday that was a little bit different than I have done before so I thought I would share it with you. As you know, in addition to my regular decorating, I also do Chocolate Fountains. I had a client whose dream was to have a cheese fountain at his wedding. He didn't care about anything except the cheese. His fiance was a little skeptical, but after consulting me, she got really excited. I gave her some ideas of the food that could be served with the cheese and she signed a contract right then and there. I was a little nervous, having never put anything other than chocolate in my fountains, but I read online that it could be done (everything online is true, right?) so I went forward with the idea.

While the cheese obviously didn't run as quickly as chocolate does, it was still pretty cool to see. Men literally started drolling when they saw it. People were taking pictures and wishing they had one for their Super Bowl parties. All in all, it was a good experience. It should be interesting to see if this idea catches on.

2009 is Out of the Gate and Running at Full Speed!

I just realized that it has been forever since I have posted anything here so I've decided to tell you that I am exhausted. For some reason I just can't get my act together. Oh well.

Do you ever feel guilty about reading blogs of people you don't know? For example, maybe you click on your friend's blog, and they have a link to someone else's blog and even though you don't know them you read it anyway, cause you are bored? Sometimes I do that. And then I feel bad. However, I am totally addicted to somebody's blog and I don't even know them. It's like their life is the most interesting soap opera and I have to catch all the episodes. I think I must be so lame.

I have a wedding coming up this weekend. I'm not doing very much for it because they are having a carnival reception. Popcorn, cotton-candy, and those little games; my mom would have killed me if I had done that for my wedding. Really all I am doing is providing a nacho cheese fountain. Apparently this is the latest rage, but it sounds a little unappetizing to me, or maybe I don't like it because I know that by the end of the night I will be covered in the stuff. Just so you know, I also think chocolate is disgusting due to the excessive work I have done with my chocolate fountains. The very smell of melty chocolate makes me ill. I'm glad that so many other people like it though, I need the business.

The Bridal Fair is coming up in a few weeks. My booth will look beyond awesome! My colors are a bright pear green and robins egg/light teal. It is totally modern, chic, and adorable for spring! I am using white paper lanterns and creating a chandelier effect with them using colored LED lights. The show is on February 7th, you should all come and say hi :)

Other than all of that, my life is kept busy with job searches (if someone has a job for my husband, please let me know!), podcasts, convention planning, Elders Quorum activities (I am planning a Valentine's Dance!), and oh yeah, my full time job. I should really chill out a little more, but I know that's not going to happen anytime soon. ;)

Christmas 2008

I know it's a little late, but it has been understandably busy around here.

Christmas is the most incredible time of year. Alexander and I realized that this was our fourth Christmas together, which is an overwhelming thought. It was fun to reflect back on the past few years and the joy that we have shared together. In 2005 we spent Christmas in England with Alexander's family and at that time we decided to get married. In 2006 we were both staying with my family, as it was right before our wedding and we had been kicked out of our apartments. 2007 was our first Christmas together in our little home. It was quiet, peaceful, and a lot of fun.

This year, 2008, we spent another quiet Christmas together. Christmas Eve we sang carols and read stories at my Grandmother's house. It was such a special time and it was good for us to spend time with my Grandma, as she has been ill for quite some time now.

I woke up Christmas morning very sick. It made opening the presents a little less fun, but we still had a great time. I spent most of the day in bed but around 5:00 I was able to get up and go to my parent's house for Christmas dinner. So much fun!

Anyway, here our some of our Christmas memories.