Why should I hire a planner if the venue provides one?

This summer, half of my weddings had an on-site coordinator, but still hired me to facilitate their wedding plans.  When these clients initially called me to ask me about my services, there were a few concerns that seemed to form a trend.  So I’ll post them here:

• I’m nervous because the on-site coordinator won’t call me back in a timely manner.
• I don’t feel like the on-site coordinator understands my vision for the wedding.
• My on-site coordinator hasn’t asked me about anything except the food plans.
• My on-site coordinator doesn’t set up any of my decorations, or tear them down.
• I’m just not getting a good vibe from my on-site coordinator – like they don’t have my best interest at heart, only the best interest of the venue.
• My on-site coordinator shows up later on the wedding day and leaves right after dinner.

I was completely up-front with my clients about their situation.  You CAN save money and just use the on-site planner.  People do it all the time.  But if you’re feeling like the comments above are a reflection of how you’re feeling, you might want to consider bringing in a professional. 

I used to be an on-site planner.  That’s where my experience comes from, so by no means am I knocking the position.  But I strongly believe I was not the same as most.  I worked long hours on the weddings because I wanted to open my own event planning business one day.  I was getting experience with a company which allowed me to make all the rookie mistakes under someone else’s name – that sounds horrible, but it’s true.  A wedding has too many moving parts to leave in the hands of a rookie.  You don’t want your wedding to be a planners first rodeo.  So if your on-site planner doesn’t meet these standards at a minimum, consider hiring a professional wedding planner:

• They are available to you “anytime,” meaning they are willing to give you their cell phone number.
• They have been through a summer of weddings with their specific venue.
• AND they have been planning weddings for longer than 5 years, OR have worked on a minimum of 50 weddings.
• Your coordinator can commit to you that they will be in the room all night.  Often, throughout the reception, they’ll leave the room and head back their desk to work on other events (hotel venues are notorious for this).  You want your coordinator available to you at a moment’s notice.
• They are there for the rehearsal, arrive early on your wedding day to oversee your setup, and stay to oversee the teardown.

So my final suggestion is this:  if you have a lot of working parts to your wedding day – lots of décor, a complicated timeline, lots of details – consider giving me a call, even if your venue provides someone on site.  Sometimes the professional planners are even willing to discount their price if the “on-site coordinator” is strong enough to act in lieu of an assistant. 

Events by Autumn makes dreams a reality. . .even our own!

I have been talking about opening my own business for as long as I can remember.  And when I set a goal for myself, there’s no stopping it from happening.  Even if the road to get there gets windy and confusing, I always stay focused on the end result.  

As a kid, I spent every single summer and winter in Montana, skiing, riding, fishing, exploring, just enjoying everything the state had to offer.  When I got the chance to take a job in Missoula, MT at the age of 25, I jumped all over it.  I prefer being outdoors if given a choice, and Montana towns operate at a slower pace than the “big city.”  That combination makes living in Montana my ideal place, along with the fact I bought my dream home there – a log cabin on some acreage, ready for horses.  I’ve owned the house for about 5 years now in Stevensville, MT, located in the BEAUTIFUL Bitterroot Valley.

So when I took the job in Montana, it was with the goal of opening my own business one day.  But the job required more than 70 hours a week on a regular basis, and my salary wasn’t enough to save money.  So I didn’t have enough time, or money, to take the leap and open my own business.  I was good at my job, and was eventually recruited to take a position in Boulder, CO, doing the same thing I was doing previously.  I was hesitant to leave MT, but the pay was literally 3x what it was in Montana.  So, keeping my goal in mind, I took a leap of faith.  I took the job as the Director of Catering, thinking I would work there for 4 years, save some money, and move back to my dream home in Montana, live off the savings, and open my own business.

Well, the plans went awry, like they always do!  The new boss at the hotel was changing a lot of things – employees who had been there for 15+ years and were comfortable with the status quo didn’t like the new direction the hotel was taking, so they left in droves.  (Whole different topic, but change can be GOOD people, especially when the hotel hadn’t been making money for the past 15 years).  The mass exodus of staff alerted the ownership (from a foreign country), that they should take a look at what was happening at the hotel.  So they began to take notice of what we were doing, and the first thing they did was review the bonus structure -The same bonus structure that made my paycheck awesome.  It was cut completely.  So my plans of saving money and moving back in 4 years were up-ended.

It was time to re-evaluate my plans of opening my own business and how I was going to still make it happen.  So I took a part time marketing job with another company, and just went ahead and opened Events by Autumn in Colorado.  The past year and a half has been spent creating contracts, websites, marketing materials, and getting myself fully prepared to move back to Montana and hit the ground running.  And I’ve planned quite a few Colorado weddings as well in my first year, and received the kindest, most amazing positive feedback, which just reinforces that I’m on track.  But when you know where your heart belongs, you just feel compelled to follow.

In August, my renters moved out of my dream house in Montana, and I now had to be realistic about paying two mortgages.  So my decision was to move back to Montana, rent (or sell) the house in Colorado and get the business rolling where I really wanted it to happen in the first place.  Fall is the perfect time to move back, get re-acquainted with vendors & friends, and promote the business, since most engagements happen over the winter months.

I’ve been gone from Montana for 2 and a half years, and had planned on being in Colorado for 4.  I’d say that making a dream happen in about half the time is a pretty good feeling.

(A hazy day at the log cabin in Stevi. . .the Bitterroot mountains are barely visible in the background.)

How to create your own wax seal

Earlier this week, I wrapped up the event design for a ”Great Gatsby” themed party. Everything from the invitations to the gifts at the end of the evening needed to be themed. So I taught myself how to create a wax seal, to close up the envelopes. Follow the link for step by step instructions on how to make your own!  Below is a step by step tutorial on how I created the wax seals for the Gatsby theme party invitations.  

Materials your will need:  sculpey, a charm or item to imprint, plenty of wax candles in the color of your choice, access to an oven, dropcloths (this project is kinda messy!) and something with weight to hold your invitations together once the melted wax is in place.

1.  CREATE THE SEAL

You'll need some Sculpey clay (one of my favorite mediums), and some sort of charm to create the impression.  In my case, I purchased a charm letter "g" for "Gatsby."  I molded the Sculpey into the shape of the stamp so it was easy to handle.  The most important part of this is to make your "impression" surface flat and small.  If it's too big of a flat surface, it's going to spread and push the hot wax all over the paper.  A smaller stamp makes a better seal.  Once you've got the Sculpey in the right shape, press your emblem or charm into the flat surface of the Sculpey.  You'll need a pin or something similar to dig out the charm without causing a deformity in your seal.  Now put the Sculpey in the oven, according to the instructions on the package.  You need the seal to be tough when pressing down on the wax.  (P.S., mine is black in the picture because I took this image after making 200 invitations, so it's been burned quite a bit!  Fresh out of the oven, the Sculpey will be the same color as the handle of the stamp.)

2.  HOT WAX

Any color candle will do, but tapered candles work best for accurate dripping.  Take a burning candle and turn it on its side and start dripping the melting wax onto the paper surface you want to seal.  I like to put a few drops under the invitation flap to make sure the seal doesn't pop loose later.  About 25-30 droplets of wax makes a good sized wax seal.  Let your wax sit for about a minute (this completely depends on the temperature in the room you're working in!)

3. THE IMPRESSION

Take your "stamp" that you created and gently press down onto the wax blob you've put onto the invitation.  You'll get a feel for how long the wax needs to sit.  If it sits too long, the stamp won't make a dent in the wax.  If it doesn't sit long enough, the melted wax will squish into the crevases of your stamp, and potentially all over the paper.  If you time it just right, then voila!  You have your beautiful wax seal!  If you don't time it just right, just look through the handy dandy tips below on how to fix it.

HANDY DANDY TIPS:

• If you're using letters or numbers as emblems. . .remember that you will need to press the charm into the Sculpey in a mirror image of what you want the impression to look like!
• If you put your stamp to the wax too soon, and it squishes everywhere, that's ok.  Just use your finger to move any large blobs of wax back into the working area (a non-perfect wax drip makes the invitation look more legit), then use your lighter to melt those blobs back into the original form.  Let it sit, and try again.  If you need to add wax, that's ok -- just drip some more!
• If you wait too long to stamp the wax, take the lighter to your "stamp" and hold it there for about 30 seconds.  The sculpey will turn black and look charred, but it's ok -- it retains its shape!  Use the hot stamp and press down slowly onto the hard wax.  It should melt some of the wax and leave a small impression.  It's not as impressive of a seal as when you time it perfect, but it still gets the job done, and shows that you did it by hand!
• Never. Ever. Ever. EVER. Ever leave the invitations in a warm place.  It's wax, afterall, so it WILL melt.  ALL OVER THE PLACE.  It's a recipe for disaster, especially after you paid money for your paper invitations!
• Find sturdy objects to place on top of your invitations while you wax seal them.  That way, the flaps of the invitations stay in place, and it makes for a much faster assembly line.  Once you get the hang of this, you can do 100 invitations in an hour!
  

Welcome to Events by Autumn!

Well . . . I have been talking about opening my own event planning business for YEARS, and I’m so excited to say the time is finally here! I have always been an event planner in one form or another, but anyone in this business knows what that means; working long hours doing extra paperwork and undertaking job responsibilities that have nothing to do with planning events. But event planning has always been where my passion lies. If you’re going to spend extra time, you’d better be doing it on something you love to do!! So for more than 10 years, I’ve been talking about working for myself.If you know me, you know I have always set goals for myself, and I never stop until I reach it. I have to admit, It’s definitely been a little scary taking this leap, but when you’re supported by all your family and friends, failure is not optional!! It was just this April when the timing was perfect, and I finally decided to take the plunge and open my own business after all these years. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be able to take everything I’ve learned along the way and continue planning the successful events for my own clients! I hope you are excited too!