Is "Engagement Season" a Thing???

Isn’t this time of year wonderful?  It’s full of champagne and sparkly things… No, I am not talking about the holidays, it's officially the beginning of ENGAGEMENT SEASON, folks.

Yes, according to many sources and surveys the time between late November and mid February holds the record for the most engagements of the year.  According to wedding bells 2015 survey “35% of all engagements occur between December and February with December being the most popular month to pop the question.”  To be exact, it was observed that 1 in 5 engagements happen in December. WHOA!

After getting engaged it is natural to want to jump in with both feel and start nailing down the fine details of that wedding that you have been dreaming about since the "Barbie Years".  This is great – I hope your planning enthusiasm stays at maximum capacity throughout your engagement, but the holidays can be quite busy and stressful already, and now you have a wedding to plan?

Let’s take a look at a few more statistics according to the wedding wire survey:

- the average length of an engagement is one year 10 months – with 67% of weddings occurring between June and September.

- The average expected cost of a wedding is in 2015 was $30, 717 with an average number of 129 wedding guests and 75% of brides admitting that they will “Likely spend more than anticipated”

So, what does it all mean?

First of all, don’t freak out – these are just numbers and like everything in life, you get to set your own path. Here are three things to keep in mind as you get used to your new bling this holiday season.

1.  You don’t have to have a plan for your wedding yet – geez… you just got engaged!

Over the holiday season you will likely see a lot of your friends and family.  These well meaning and excited folks tend to have a lot of question – likely that you don’t have answers to.  It may be helpful for you and your fiancé to come up with your stock answer. Example: “We are really excited to get planning, and we will likely shoot for a summer 2016 wedding”

This will give everyone enough information to satisfy that you have thought about a wedding date, but that you need more time to nail it all down.

2. Just relax and enjoy, your engagement over the holidays

With "engagement season" falling directly in line with the holidays, it is a VERY busy time of year.  There will be plenty of time to pour over budgets and spread sheets in the months to come.  Allow yourself to enjoy the holidays and leave the wedding planning for a time when things slow down to the normal pace.  For now, buy yourself a wedding magazine (or two or five) and just enjoy the romance of day-dreaming for a bit.

3. I don't mean to be frivolous…but tend to your nails! ;)

You are about to have everyone and their monkey ask you to display your new bling – this means photos, social media posts and people you barely know paying an unusual amount of attention to your hand – so be proud to show it off and put your best finger forward. 

Once the dust from the whirl-wind holidays settles down a bit you can relax and start your planning process (Think about getting in touch... I'd be happy to help you with this!!!) 

Do you expect to get engaged this season?  Are you planning to pop the question? 

Let us know your tips or tricks on how YOU plan to survive the holidays and getting engaged. 

Already engaged and need some tips to get the planning ball rolling.  Check back next week to see my early planning guide with some great do’s and don'ts for getting started.

(Thanks to Britton Images for the above photo) 

   

"The Initial Meeting" - What to Expect and How You Can Prepare.

As I am sure that you have noticed, most wedding vendors encourage you to book an "initial meeting" before you book their services (I, myself am one of these vendors and say it many times on my own site).  But, what does this mean? What can you expect to get out of this meeting?  And how can you make the most out of this opportunity?

First of all, the initial meeting is free of charge and allows us to meet before signing on the dotted line.  For me, I approach this meeting like a coffee date with a new friend rather than a formal job interview.  It is a chance for us to sit down and get to know each other.  I don't believe in hard sales lines or pitches, for me choosing a Wedding Planner is like choosing a really organized best-friend that will help you though an emotional, expensive, complicated and really important milestone in your life - you have to find the right FIT.

I have always had an amazing working relationship with all of my clients.  I genuinely CARE about their weddings and I truly want the best planning experience for my clients.  During the initial meeting  I will ask about your lives together, your hobbies, jobs, families... anything that comes up, really... I am a great listener.  I try and guide this meeting in a relaxed and informative manner so that we can walk away from it feeling like we truly know each other.

Of course, since we will also be sharing a business relationship, I will go over my company history, and talk with you about my process as a designer and a planner.   Together we will discuss what areas of your wedding you feel that you will need most help with and how, as a professional, I can help you in the most beneficial and cost efficient way.

We will discuss the wedding packages that I offer: Full Planning, Partial Planning, Month of Coordination, and pretty much everything in between.  Every wedding that I work on is unique and each couple deserves an individualized approach to planning.  During this initial meeting we can discuss what is going to work for you, your vision, and your budget.

I will show you some photos of weddings that I have worked on in the past and talk to you about my goals for these weddings and the role that I took in planning them- this will give you a better understanding of the work that I do and how I take a unique approach to each wedding... no cookie cutter weddings here.

So... How can you prepare for this "Initial Meeting"?

I really appreciate it when clients take the time to review some of the information that I have posted online, my Blog (yay you are already here!!) , my Facebook page, and my Website are all really good places to start.  You can also check out my reviews on wedding wire from some of my past clients.  By reviewing these sites ahead of time,  we will have have more time during our initial meeting to talk about how I can help you, and will need to spend less time talking about what I have done in the past.

Write down any questions that you have for me in advance so that we can go over your list together and make sure that when you leave this meeting you have all of the answers that you were hoping to get - of course if you forget something you can always email me and I will be happy to answer! ;)

I think that choosing your wedding vendors - especially your wedding planner - is a truly personal experience and the decision needs to be based on your comfort level with your planner and your confidence that they are going to be the right person to really listen to your needs and guide you though this process!

Want to know a little more about who I am and how I became a wedding planner? Check out this blog post for a glimpse into this or my FAQ section on my site.

Still have questions? Get in touch any time to set up your initial meeting - I look forward to hearing all about you!

Can I get a quote?

Not surprisingly one of the first things that most clients ask for is a quote- and it the first thing I would want to know as well.  But it isn't that simple.  Each wedding that I plan is as unique (photo gallery) as the couple that I am working with - no two are alike and a one-size-fits-all pricing structure doesn't seem fair to anyone.

Usually the best way to determine your custom quote is to sit down together, have a coffee and chat (free of charge of course) is so I can hear a bit about what you have in mind for your wedding.  I need to know how big/small, fancy/casual, elaborate/simple your vision is and your specific needs from your planner.

When we sit down for our initial meeting we will spend approximately one hour getting to know each other.  I will ask you about what you have in mind for your wedding and what you have in place (if anything) so far.  I will go over the service options that are available to you and together we can determine your needs. 

After I have all the details, I can determine a custom quote for service.  I use your answers to help me determine the number of hours it will take me to create your vision and I multiply that by the cost/hour for time and expenses.  

So… How long DOES it take to plan a wedding? 

Here is the breakdown of MY time spent planning a wedding

The numbers below are REAL numbers from a REAL wedding that I planned this past season.  

Just a few details about the following wedding:  this was a local wedding (Approximately 100 guests) and the couple wanted to keep it "simple, yet elegant" and had an average wedding budget. 

Here is the breakdown of my time on this wedding:

21.75  hours          14 meetings (both with vendors and for planning purposes)  

10.91  hours          Travelling to and from meetings                                 
28.08  hours          I received/sent (337! )emails in regards to this wedding (approx 5 minutes/email)                       
09.50  hours          Researching potential vendors and venues

07.50  hours          Working on story boards and design ideas    

09.00  hours          Creating/maintaining budgets, planning schedules, itineraries,             

                              floor plans, set up checklists, contact sheets etc                                                                                                               

24.50 hours           On Site for the Wedding Day and Rehearsal (Time includes 1 assistant)                                

     
That is a total of 111.24 hours not counting all of the quick phone calls and text messages of which there were too many to count and record! ;)

Need more information or want to set up an initial meeting with me? Send me an email and we can set up a time to chat.  Click here to email me!