Celebrations Made Simple Recieves Bride's Choice Award

Purcellville, Virginia – January 26, 2011 - WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, is thrilled to announce Celebrations Made Simple has been selected to receive the prestigious annual WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 for Wedding Coordinators and Planners.

Recognition for the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 is determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 750,000 WeddingWire newlyweds. Our past clients are among those that shared their experiences on WeddingWire, the largest wedding review site in the nation.



Celebrations Made Simple stands among the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire community, representing quality and service excellence within the wedding industry. Awards were given to the top wedding professionals across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, and were based on the overall professional achievements throughout the past year.



“WeddingWire is honored to celebrate the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire community,” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “With the annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program, WeddingWire has the unique opportunity to recognize the best wedding professionals across the US and Canada. We applaud Celebrations Made Simple for their professionalism and dedication to enhancing the wedding planning experience last year.”



We are happy to announce that Celebrations Made Simple is among the very best Wedding Planning Category within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Martha Stewart Weddings, Project Wedding and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for nominating us to receive the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011.



For more information, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today at http://www.weddingwire.com/biz/celebrations-made-simple-purcellville/ce8e2d7e4bde4544.html



For more information on the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011, please visit www.WeddingWire.com.







About WeddingWire, Inc.

WeddingWire.com, the nation's leading technology company serving the $70 billion wedding industry, is the only online wedding planning resource designed to empower both engaged couples and wedding professionals. For engaged couples, WeddingWire offers the ability to search, compare and book over 200,000 local wedding vendors, from wedding venues to wedding photographers to wedding cakes. WeddingWire also offers an online community and a suite of cutting-edge planning tools for weddings, including wedding websites and wedding checklists, all at no charge. For wedding professionals, WeddingWire provides free online management tools creating the only market opportunity that gives local businesses control over their clients, reviews, leads and performance. Businesses that join the WeddingWire Network appear on WeddingWire.com and other leading sites, including MarthaStewartWeddings.com (NYSE: MSO), ProjectWedding.com and Weddingbee.com (both part of eHarmony), and Celebrations.com (part of the 1-800-Flowers family of brands, NASDAQ: FLWS).

Wedding Etiquette by Luxurious Wedding .com: 8 Reasons To Hire A Wedding Planner

Wedding Etiquette by Luxurious Wedding .com: 8 Reasons To Hire A Wedding Planner

"A Tiffany Wedding"

This fall I had the pleasure of being the Wedding Planner for a wonderful couple.  The experience was unique in itself that my initial consultation was with the GROOM!  I actually did not meet the bride until like the 2nd meeting.  When we met, the couple did not really have any idea what they wanted as far as a theme or color for the wedding.  I asked her a few questions about her favorite things, and low and behold, we have a common love for TIFFANY'S.  Needless to say we decided to move forward with the theme.  Here are some pictures of the wedding to share.

This day would not have happened with our valued vendors:

Rehearsal Dinner and Room Blocks were held at Embassy Suites Dulles North

Flowers by Sylvain's Florist

  

Music for Ceremony and Reception were provided by Spin City Productions

Bartending and Waitstaff Service were provided by Bartender 2 Go

The cake was a wonder ICE CREAM Wedding Cake, providing by Cold Stone Creamery, Warrenton, VA

  

Rentals were provided by Capital Party Rentals and Favors were done by Basket-N-Bags

Photography and Photographs courtesy of Saskia Paulussen Photography, LLC

Music Selections at Your Event or Reception

Typically when you hire a DJ for a party, you make a few calls, narrow down your selection and book the DJ.  However, when you hire a DJ for a wedding, the meeting is more detailed, you may see a video clip of their performance, you discuss the music to be played, etc.  Wether you are planning a party or a wedding, take the same activities into consideration.  In particular your music selections.  You will be much happier if you provide your DJ with a list of songs you definitely want played, but especially the ones you DO NOT want played.  Depending on your audience, all music may not be appropriate.  Enjoy your next event!

Happy New Year! WIN in 2010!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Well it's been a while since I have posted anything and I apologize for that.  However, being in the event industry December 2009 was very busy and closed out pretty exciting with all the holiday parties.  We had a couple of "in-home" holiday parties, a couple of Corporate Holiday events, and we celebrated a 21st Birthday "Mad Hatter" style.  Look for pictures to be posted soon of the various events we have done the last several months.

With New Years, comes resolutions and CMS Events (Celebrations Made Simple), surely made a few.  One was to keep up with this BLOG and to increase readership.  Another was to balance building and growing CMS and spending quality time with my family.  That is easier said than done, however with the upcoming women's conference: A Better Year.....A Better YOU! this should be an easier task.

Well let's look forward to an exciting 2010.  I am expecting it to be great!!

Thanksgiving Celebrations!

Hello Everyone, sorry for the late posting this week.  Fortunately I have had a busy week of new client appointments and networking events!  Anyway, on to this week's topic:  THANKSGIVING!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  The coming together of the family and for me it kicks off the holiday season.  I wanted to share an activity that you may want to use for your Thanksgiving Celebration with your family and friends.

Sometimes the people we are closest to are the ones we know the least about.  So why not pose some questions during dinner or use as an icebreaker before dinner - the answers just might surprise you.  Some questions you may ask:

1. What were the happiest times during your childhood?
2. What did you imagine your adult life would be like?
3. How are you like your parents?
4. Who makes you laugh the hardest?
5. What are you most proud of in your life

We are actually doing this activity at a client's family Thanksgiving that I am working on this year.  To add to the festivities, we have put the questions on colored cards with ribbon and leaves.  They will be included in our cornucopia centerpiece along with some pine cones, leaves, fruit, etc.  I am sure you get the picture. 

Regardless of what you decide to do this Thanksgiving, just remember to have a heart of gratitude and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Communicating with Event Professionals Via Email

I thought with this week's blog post, I would give some helpful tips for communicating with your event professional via email.  This may be your wedding planner, photographer, caterer, or florist to name a few.

As an event professional, we often have a lot of email to review.  It may be a request from a new client, questions regarding your upcoming event, etc.  I have developed a system with my current clients that seem to work really well.  I start my communications with an "event name", followed by the topic of the email.  For example:  Owens-Smith Wedding: Rehearsal Dinner.  This quickly tells my client that this email is in regards to their wedding and it pertains to their rehearsal dinner.  This will allow them to determine how soon they may need to address the email.  And of course, it really helps me to organize my emails and priorities when a client replies.

Remember, your event professional is dealing with several clients at the same time.  We really want to be able to respond to you promptly.  Here are some additional tips to consider:

1.  Only put one topic in each email, as many of us now use email as a TASK LIST item (especially those of use with Type-A personalities).
2.  Keep your emails concise, wordy emails will only make us put the email aside until we have time to REALLY read it.
3.  Use a helpful subject line, it will help us to better prioritize and address your email.

I have been using this system for almost 3 years now and I know it works.