Like many little girls who have always dreamt of their wedding day, our bride Holly was no different. It has always been her dream to get married at The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum so when they hired us to help them with their wedding planning, we immediately scheduled time to tour the venue to make sure that it is the right fit to our couple. Holly & Peter wanted to have their wedding day be a celebration of their love and the unity of their two families filled with fun and great food. It was also very important to them that their wedding reflected their style and personality so that it can leave a fun lasting impression on all of their guests.
Why You Should Hire a Wedding Planner
With the enthusiasm that surrounds being newly engaged and wedding planning in the horizon, it can sometimes be a stressful and intimidating time for the bride with most of them asking "Where do I start? or How do I begin?" As any newly engaged couple knows, planning a wedding can be a huge amount of work. There are countless decisions to make, and they're all the more daunting for brides and grooms who are inexperienced with putting together such a big event. One of the best steps a couple can take is to hire a wedding planner.
Wedding planners are no longer just for couples with larger budgets. They have become indispensable today to many brides and grooms, who find their services well worth the investment. A wedding planner can actually save you money by helping to avoid costly mistakes. You might consider hiring a planner soon after you get engaged if you have a demanding job that leaves little time for wedding planning or if you simply feel overwhelmed by the details involved.
Wedding planners will:
- help you with manage your budget and understand your budget constraints.
- negotiate with vendors on your behalf. We have a built a community or network of trusted vendors in different fields that we would recommend.
- take the logistics so that you can enjoy the fun part of wedding planning.
- become the go to person at the wedding so that you don't have to answer ever question or request that come your way.
- manage your timeline to make sure that everyone including your bridal party and vendor tea sticks to the schedule and that you enjoy every moment of it.
- make sure that all of your guests are taken care of.
- help bring your vision to life and make your day and unique and personal to you and your fiance.
- allow you to have a life outside of wedding planning.
With all of that said, full wedding planning may still not be practical or even feasible for everyone. If a couple has already booked their major vendors and only decides to consider a planner mid-way through the process, most planners still offer partial or packages that can be tailored to fit your needs. Don't make your family members or friends who have been gracious to offer their help with your wedding planning miss out on a one of your most special days by having them work your wedding.
Enjoy your day and hire a professional
This is a once in a lifetime event and having a professional on hand to help you execute this day is priceless and well worth your investment.
Just Engaged? What's Next!
Engagement season is here and I don’t know about you, but my Instagram feed is overflowing with engagement announcements starting from Thanksgivng weekend. There is so much love and excitement that surrounds a newly engaged couple.
When the excitement wears off, reality sets it and now you have to start planning your wedding - something that you have may not have any experience in planning so we figured we would help you with your next steps to jump start your wedding planning.
Decide on a budget
Budget is imperative though it's not the funnest or most exciting part of the wedding planning but you really should not do anything before deciding on your budget. Figure out your finances, outside contributions, how much they can contribute and your total budget.
Choose your date
Start by thinking what time of the year you like, consider the weather, work schedules/vacation time and holidays. Choose 2-3 potential dates that would work for you and rank them based on your preference. Consider that most venues still offer lower rates and packages on Friday and Sunday receptions due to their popularity.
Start your guest list
Like the budget, your guest list is another task that might not seem as fun to get started on right after you get engaged but it's necessary since it will provide you an idea of your ideal guest count. Be realistic when you're creating your guests list since you're gonna want to add everyone but know that the more people you have, the more you have to spend. Guest counts typically decrease by the time the wedding day comes around but it is highly important to know how many people you're planning on having in order to make some decisions especially when it comes with your venue and catering.
Decide on your wedding’s style
There are many different styles from modern, rustic, boho, vintage and classic. Do your research and find out what style you're most attracted to and what you envision your wedding day looking like. Know the general style of how you want your wedding to be. Knowing this will help you find your most perfect venue.
Decide on your venue
Deciding on your budget, your ideal guest count, your possible wedding date and your general wedding style will help shape which type of venue you are looking for. Start your research and schedule some venue tours with your possible venues. Take advantage if the venue is offering an Open House event since this will be a wonderful opportunity for you to see the venue all "dressed up" and meet some of your potential wedding vendors. Be prepared when you do your venue tours with the appropriate questions that you need to ask the venue and potentially caterer. Once you have your venue booked and your date secured,
Celebrate with your fiance!
You're off to a wonderful start to your wedding planning.
Hello 2017! Website Launch
Happy 2017! The fresh new year is here and our fresh new website & blog has been updated. Why today? I felt compelled in launching this new website and blog on my birthday as I enter a new chapter in my life. Birthdays have always been one of my favorite times of the year but this year felt different for me. Scared? Yes for sure! Excited? Not even! More like mortified. However I did see this as an opportunity for me to give myself a gift in what I have always wanted to do and has always been on my list to do for Premier Soirees. I wanted to update the website and blog in order to show the growth that we have gone through the past four years. I'm thrilled to get 2017 started and eager to see what lies ahead for Premier Soirees but before I go on, I wanted to spend some time with the past four years and see where we've been through.
Premier Soirees was literally born out of my love and passion in creating happy moments in people's lives. I know it sounds cheesy right? But I must tell how happy and satisfied I get every time I look into my couples' eyes and see them enjoying their wedding day with their families and guests - that is the reason why I do what I do. To see those grateful faces beaming with so much love, laughter and enjoyment fills my heart with so much warmth and joy. It was definitely a giant leap of faith starting this journey but I trusted my husband when he pushed me over that ledge that I was deathly afraid of looking out from.
The past four years has brought on many cheers, tears, success, failures, good and bad reviews, lessons learned, challenges, changes in styles, automation in workflow, expanded our team of 2 and growth. We took advantage of the down time and learned about different aspects of this business and determined where improvements can be made in order to make a better experience for our clients. We were fortunate enough to do a 2 day wedding workshop and learned from one of the industry's finest Nancy Park of So Happi Together, participated in an online self-paced training through Wedding Planners' Gathering led by Angel Swanson of Love and Splendor and recently completed the INSTA180 class that Jasmine Star conducted on how to use Instagram effectively for your business. We loved learning from all these great professionals in this industry and hear what work and what didn't. I would say that one of the best things that I have learned from all of them is understanding and accepting that quality is far more important than the quantity of weddings or events that I do every year. This was a huge struggle for me to overcome but having spent this much time in this wedding industry, I realized that focusing on quality over quantity allowed me to focus more on each client and improved my client experience far more than what I was expecting. #shocked #lessonslearned
So what's next in 2017 for Premier Soirees?
We're excited to launch our new updated website and blog. We have many blog posts coming especially in the comings days/weeks after our launch to help all those newly engaged couples in their wedding planning. Don't forget all of our 2016 weddings and events that we are excited to share.
We're also elated, over the moon to share that we were voted as one of WeddingWire's 2017 Couples' Choice Awards. This award demonstrated our continued commitment to excellence and honors Premier Soirees as being in the top 5% of wedding professionals on WeddingWire.
This is all thanks to a community of people who have supported our journey - our families and friends, the community of wedding and event vendors that I have been very fortunate to work with, the wonderful clients that I have the blessing to work with and for, my amazing team whose dedication and loyalty have been a true blessing to me and of course no doubt my biggest supporter and cheerleader, my husband. The one who cheers my success and comforts me in my failures - THANK YOU to everyone. Cheers to 2017!