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.

Drama Behind The Scenes: What!? The cake is here already?

Welcome to the first installment of Drama Behind The Scenes! 

Recently I was hired as a Day-of Coordinator (DOC) for a wedding.  Everything was going rather smoothly, meeting with the vendors, reviewing the final plans for the day, and ensuring all the timelines were correct. 

Well, the vendors and I all SEEMED to be on the same page, I even made a follow up call the day before the event, to ensure that all the scheduled delivery times of the flowers and cake were confirmed.  So, why on the wedding day does my cake arrive at 9:00 AM instead of 3:00 PM as scheduled and confirmed?

Upon discussing this with the bakery, they informed me that they had overbooked their deliveries for the day, and had the delivery the cake early to stay on schedule.  This is a problem, for one, the cake table is not yet setup and decorated and two, the cake will now need to be refrigerated because of the filling and the early delivery, and three, the cake is not fully assembled.

Now, you may wonder where is the DRAMA in this....let me reiterate, the CAKE STILL NEEDS TO BE ASSEMBLED and the hotel will not set up and assemble the cake either. Fortunately, we have experience with assembling and decorating wedding cakes, so needless to say, the CMS staff was able to get the cake set up and assembled before the reception.

A Word of Wisdom:  Please check with your event planner before thanking all your vendors about the beautiful job that they did to on your wedding day.  Things may not have gone as smooth as you think.  Also, quite often you are charged a delivery and set up fee----you may be entitled to refund, if they in fact did not do the set up!