Wedding Planning and Where to Start: 5 Things to Do Right Away

Ok, so you have made it through the planning stages of your engagement and are ready for the big day. But hold on for just a minute, there are so many things to remember to pack for the wedding day to ensure that you have everything. There was something that my photographer told me to have so they could take those amazing detail shots, but what were they.

As couples start to get close to their wedding day, nerves and excitement start to set in. Feeling a little overwhelmed is very common and all the little things that need to get done the week of your wedding seem like a little much. Hopefully, you have hired a professional wedding planner to get you through all these times where you are feeling overwhelmed and stressed. However, if you did not, I am here today to share with you the packing list of the items you will need to have to get those amazing detail shots you see on Pinterest.

1. Invitation Suite – bring everything that you used for your invitations including your save the date card
2. Rings – of course, you need those for the big day, but make sure the bride has all the rings for these shots.
3. Jewelry – any jewelry that you may be wearing on this day really makes those detail shots amazing.
4. Florals – make sure your florist brings a few extra flowers for these shots. Also, make sure your bouquet is being delivered in time to make it for these shots as well. Bouquets work great for the placement of your rings, for some amazing detail shots.
5. Ribbon or material – you would be amazed at what a piece of material or ribbon in the colors of your wedding will do for your detail shots.

While there are many other things that you could bring for your detail shots these are the must-haves so that you end up with some amazing pictures of these items. If you are still unsure about items that you should pack for your wedding day, click here to get a free copy of my wedding day packing list that I give to all of my brides to ensure they are ready.

You are engaged! You are ready to start planning your big day but where do you start? Do you know what vendors are the best to take care of you and your needs? You ask your friends, relatives, and start doing social media searches for vendors in your area to help make your day everything. But wait, do you know that these are the right vendors, have you vetted them to be sure that their reviews are accurate? What are you to do, where are you to begin?

The first vendor in that search should be a professional wedding planner. When you hire a professional wedding planner, you can bet that this individual has done the vetting for you. Most planners will recommend vendors to you only after you have had a meeting or two with them. They take your thoughts, dreams, moments of the day, and every detail you have shared and use that information to recommend the perfect vendors to make your dreams come true. The experience that a professional planner brings to your day makes it a stress-free process. This includes the time spent with vendors, watching them work, understanding their process, their pricing, as well as their ethical practices when it comes to working with couples. All of this information is important to a planner when recommending the right vendor your way.

It truly pays to consider a wedding planner when you are in the beginning stages of planning. This professional will guide you through the entire process, ensure that you select the must-have vendors first. After those important vendors are secured, the planner will then start to work through all the needs and details of your day to ensure you get the best vendors to make it all happen.

While working my last couple’s wedding day, it was truly evident to me that we had secured the correct vendors to make their dreams come true. They had a pole barn that they wanted to completely convert to the wedding day of their dreams. Below are the images of the design process we went through when they were describing what their desired look was.

Below was the final look! Finding the right planner can only help you find the right vendors to make your dream day come true.

Blessed Magnolia is a full-service wedding planner. We specialize in serving those couples that want to be a part of every process of their day but are busy professionals that need the assistance of a full-service planner to keep it all together. Set up a time for us to talk today to see how we can help you have the wedding of your dreams and connect you to the vendors to make it all come true.

You did it, you got your first inquiry, and now feel overwhelmed at the process to close the sale. This process does not have to be overwhelming as there are 5 steps to get a client from inquiry to contract. Once you write these steps down and follow them each and every time you talk with a client, you will watch your sales process become easier and easier.

1. Inquiry
2. Conversation or Sales Call
3. Proposal
4. Acceptance
5. Contract or Close the sale

*Inquiry – take the time to make notes about the information the client took the time to give you. If your inquiry process lets them give you information, be respectful of their time and know your client before you call.

*Conversation or Sales Call – you have done your homework, studied anything that the client has given you in advance from the inquiry, and feel confident that you are ready to speak about what you do and ensure them that you can handle their big moment.

*Proposal – be prompt in getting a proposal to the client. If it is going to take you a week to get a proposal to the client, tell them that. Don’t say you will get it right over to them and then it takes many days before they receive it. This will leave a client wondering if you could even handle a deadline when presented with one. Be open and honest about the time frame. Make it clear when you will get it done and earn their trust right away.

*Acceptance – Congratulations you have made it past the hardest part, the proposal. Once a client accepts your proposal with or without conditions, get to contract right away so you can begin working to make their day fabulous.

*Contract – Even though it feels like a victory to send out the contract, sometimes clients do not sign them right away. If you require that a contract be signed in a certain number of days, you have to let them know that upfront so they have the urgency needed to get it signed. Clients have to be held accountable to your expectations as well. Don’t be scared to be clear about your deadlines. Trust me a client will not be scared to present you with theirs.

Write down your sales process in steps 1 – 5 as I have them above. Make a script that you follow every time you have an inquiry. Once you have established the flow for you and your business, it will amaze you how easy this process becomes over time. Guess what you just wrote your first SOP, standard operating procedure. Congratulations and happy planning.

The fall wedding season is on the horizon. As wedding professionals, we are going to experience a boom that we have not seen in some time. So before that season is upon us, we need to think about our workflow and those areas that are truly the pain points that stop us from being productive. Below are 5 steps to prepare yourself to outsource these areas to get you back to your clients.

1. Write down those items in your daily work that are necessary but take time from your clients.
2. Group these items by task. (ie. CRM work, Social Media, Content Writing, Bookkeeping, etc.)
3. Prioritize these items by the order of importance you need to take care of vs. those items you would like to consider outsourcing.
4. Research professionals that can help with the items that you feel you need the most assistance with. Use Clubhouse, Facebook Groups, or referrals from other professionals to assist you in your search.
5. Schedule a consultation to determine if the cost of outsourcing these items is worth the time you gain.

A professional that is ready to handle your outsourced items should have a clear and precise onboarding process that makes this transition easy for you. Take these 5 steps today to get back to your clients and to get back to the reason you started your business in the first place. Don’t waste your time on items in your day that take away from your client experience.

If you would like to talk about a virtual assistant or OBM assistance for your wedding business, let’s schedule a time to talk today.

Gifting your mother is probably one of the hardest things you will do in your life. Knowing what is the right gift to give the woman that has given you so much. When it comes to your wedding day, the #1 gift to give to your mom is the gift of hiring a wedding planner.

As a planner, I have spoken with many mothers and most of them have all said that having a planner was one of the best investments their son’s or daughter’s has ever made. Ensuring that the day was taken care of, all of the steps were handled along the way, not trying to figure everything out and keeping everything straight, and knowing that nothing was missed. All of these things gave them peace of mind and helped them to enjoy the day to the fullest.

There are so many stressful factors that creep up along the way during wedding planning. Hiring a professional that does this every day, ensures that you do not need to worry and can feel confident that everyone is on the same page.

Here are some notes that I have received from the moms of brides:

“I just wanted to tell you again what an outstanding job you did with our daughter’s wedding. I thank you very much for your help and for being such an awesome person.” ~Kim

“It was such a nice day. Sooooo many compliments. Thank you so much for all you did to make this day great.”

~Julie

“Thank you Penny for all of your hard work. You did an amazing job. So thankful that you were able to help make it such a special weekend.”

~Lynn

“Thank you so much for everything. Everything was truly amazing.”

~Jennifer

So when you are thinking about the best way to keep everyone stress-free for your big day, hire a professional that understands everything about making it the greatest day for not only you and your future spouse but your mother as well.

Congratulations, you are engaged! Now What? Where do you start? Who pays for what? How do we get started planning our big day? These are just a few of the questions that many couples tell me that begin to float around in their heads once they are engaged.

Don’t let the confusion of how everything seems to fall together overwhelm you. Enjoy every moment of your engagement. Start by doing these 3 important steps:

1. Set a Budget
   • You have to start by setting a realistic budget for what you are willing to spend on your wedding day. It is a good idea to sit down with your fiance and talk about what each of you wants for your big day. Don’t assume that the other will not want to discuss their desires, because after helping many couples get from “Yes” to “I do”, I can tell you that each partner has definite wants and desires for this day.
   • Determine who is going to pay for what. Do you have family that is willing to help you pay for different items in the budget?
   • Knowing all of these factors will help you in determining exactly what type of wedding you are going to be able to afford. This will help you determine how many guests you can have, what type of venue you can afford, what type of menu to have, how many florals fit within your budget, what type of photography package you can choose, so many choices are based on your budget.

2. Open a Joint Wedding Checking Account

• Once you have determined your budget, the way to keep that budget intact is to open a joint checking account that will be used for all things wedding.
• You will be able to track your wedding spending more efficiently and also see where you are spending more or less in different areas of your planned budget.

3. Start Your Search for the Perfect Venue

• Once you are armed with your financial road map to the big day, begin your search for the perfect venue. The venue should be the top priority in your planning process.
• Start inquiring about venue packages and pricing. This will help you determine if you are able to tour a certain venue and if it fits within the budget you have been able to establish.
• Remember, design and decor should not happen until you have a venue. Things that work great in one venue may not work well in another.

The budget is one of the biggest items on your to-do list after you are engaged. Make sure that you both set realistic goals and numbers when it comes to the budget. Don’t start the process stressed, make it something that is easily attainable. Have the conversations with those that can possibly help with any of the costs so that you know that going into the planning stages. Take a look at each line and make a determination what items about the big day mean the most to each of you. This analysis may help you eliminate things that you don’t want, allowing you more money for the things that you do want.

Wedding planning should be an exciting and wonderful time. Download your free budget checklist today from Blessed Magnolia here. Enjoy the process and love your engagement time.

As a wedding professional, I know how busy every day can be. Especially when you are a solopreneur handling every aspect of your business. There are emails to answer and sort through, inquiries to respond to, vendors to call and coordinate, social media posting, bookkeeping, couples meetings, and usually this is all handled in our minds before we even have our first cup of coffee. What if I told you that there was a way to outsource some of the areas of your daily grind to professionals that are out there just waiting to give you the reins to be the CEO of your groove.

You heard me right, there are professionals that do all of this. Below you will find a list of the 3 things that you can outsource today to make your life a little less hectic and get you back to why you started this business in the first place.

1. Social Media Marketing – there are virtual assistants that specialize in this field. They are remote independent contractors that understand the different social media platforms and how to help you set goals and analyze the metrics to see if you are reaching your desired outcomes.
2. Administrative Duties – there are virtual assistants that specialize in everything administrative. They help keep your inbox organized, set up appointments for you, handle inquiries, onboarding clients, and many other administrative duties that you would like to outsource.
3. OBM – Online Business Manager – this is for the wedding professional that would like to have someone take a look at their business model and see what systems would work to help with workflow and customer relationship management. This professional would be equipped to understand the wedding industry and after a lengthy consultation and reviewing more information about how you are working with your current systems, would be able to determine what systems would help you function more efficiently.

So sit back and enjoy that cup of coffee, put your feet up on the desk, and love the life that you have built for yourself in this business. Live the role of the CEO, enjoy what you do during your day, and outsource items so that you can get back to the reasons why you started your business to begin with.

As a wedding professional, there are tools that I use every day to run my business and keep me on track. You know these are the tools that if you had to live without them it would drive you crazy. Today I want to talk about the top 4 tools that I use on a daily basis.

Aisle Planner

Aisle Planner is a CRM platform that wedding pros use to keep all things planning in one spot. This platform allows you to hold all your client information, vendor information, timeline, layout drawing, guest management, design boards, palette choices, notes, and budget all in one place. You can choose to bring your client into the planning process by adding them as a planning partner, assigning them tasks that need to be completed, and also having conversations inside the platform to keep all correspondence in one place. This is by far the number one tool that I use every day. I log into the platform daily and handle my client’s accounts and ensure that we are on track for their big day. Have you thought about trying Aisle Planner or would like to learn more? Use this link to learn more about AP, sign up for their free 30-day trial, and receive 25% off your first three months of a new subscription after your 30-day trial period is over.

Flodesk

Flodesk is an email marketing platform. I use this platform to send out weekly emails to my subscribers with things like my weekly tips and tricks videos for Aisle Planner and a link to what is on the blog this week. If you sign up for creative management assistance, as soon as you do an inquiry through my AP account a trigger is sent to my Flodesk account to send out an email thanking you for the inquiry and includes a link to set up a phone conversation to see how I can better help you. The best thing about Flodesk is that there are no limits on the number of subscribers you can have. You heard that right, no limits. You can have 5 or 5,000 and the pricing is still the same. I have worked in different email marketing platforms and I love when I can make the emails look professional and pretty. Flodesk has some of the best templates that I have seen in the industry. Give it a try today. Your first 30 days are free and then it is just $38/month. However, if you use this link you can get Flodesk for just $19/month. You will not be sorry that you gave it a try.

Tailwind

Do you ever find yourself wondering how other wedding pros seem to always have time to post to Instagram? I know I did. My daughter convinced me that I needed to have Instagram, as an old school kind of person I never understood the importance, and boy how I have jumped on the Instagram band wagon. However, I did find that it was so laborious, and did not know how to stay on top of it and everything else that I had to do as a solopreneur. That was until the day I found Tailwind. This is such a great platform that allows you to sit down and plan out as many days of posting that your heart desires. The best part is that it will post to Instagram and Facebook simultaneously and you just took one day to sit down and bring in the content, write the posts, and schedule them. I typically sit down every Monday or Tuesday and schedule out the entire week of posting, then drop the mic I am done for the week. Did you know that you can even schedule IG stories? What, yes I said schedule IG stories. There are a couple of extra steps to that but wow does it save some time. Here is the best part though, it is only $14.95/month. Want to learn more and see if Tailwind is the right fit for you, check it out here.

Calendy

Before using Calendy, I would call my inquiries or email them and play telephone tag or email tag trying to connect. I found that I was losing some inquiries due to their inability to set up an appointment to talk right away. With that, I tried something new, I tried to put a link directly on my website to schedule a call now. To my amazement, my inquiries went up around 50% and they actually turned into more bookings. I credited this to giving the client an opportunity to book with me right away to have a conversation. The best part is that Calendy is free if you only need to have one type of booking. It connects directly to your calendar and you tell the system when you are available to take calls and actually schedule the amount of time you want to give to these calls. Since starting with Calendy and as my business has grown, I have since started the premium membership that I pay $15/month in order to host as many different types of schedulers that I want to host. Give it a try today and you will not be disappointed.

It is always my goal as a wedding professional to share great tips and tricks that I have learned throughout my career to help others. When we help one another grow, we are giving the world great professionals for couples to work with. Thank you for stopping by today.

Disclaimer: Occasionally we do share an affiliate link in my content, via social media posts, the blog, emails, digital downloads, youtube videos, and the site. This means that if you click a link and purchase a product, I receive a little bit in return. This allows me to keep creating quality, free content. But, please know that I only share things I absolutely believe in! Again, I only share products I believe in.

It was my first wedding back since the start of COVID. I could not wait and at the same time was so nervous. It had been so long since we had done weddings, events, or anything that would bring people together. I found myself during our time of shut down questioning why I started this business and did I make the right choice leaving the great job I had where I was sure to retire from. The day arrived and I knew it was right.

When you are an event professional, everything in your blood tells you that you live for the moment when everything seems to be in chaos. Funny that we would admit to that, but it is so true. We know how to take the chaos and turn it into productive positive motion. We know how to calm the masses and ensure them that everything is going to be ok and they should not worry about anything.

This first wedding back was nothing short of just that. I delivered the flowers to the bride that morning and I knew that she had been watching the weather, as her wedding was outside and there was a high chance of rain that day. Now, as a wedding professional, you know that Plan B is always front of mind and you do your best to ensure that your couple does not worry about the weather at all. The first thing I said to her after I told her how beautiful she looked, was to stop watching the weather, I have it all under control. We had already talked about what would happen if it rained and where the ceremony would be. She laughed and said, “Okay, you got it”.

That moment changed the entire day for me. It let me realize that I had chosen the right path opening Blessed Magnolia, as it was my dream that I could ensure any couple that worked with me would have their day stress-free. I am so grateful to Zac and Tayler for choosing me to be their planner and letting me give them a stress-free and great day. Yes, it did rain (only during the ceremony time) and their ceremony was moved undercover, it was beautiful and everything they hoped it would be.

As a planner, when you have moments of doubt, which you will, go back and remember those weddings or events where something happened to give you great joy and made you realize why you do what you do.

Your wedding day is something you dream about from the day you say “Yes” until the day you say “I Do”! All of the hours that you have spent planning this glorious moment, the details that you ensured you thought of, the people that you have enlisted to help make it happen, and thinking of every scenario to have success. What happens when the rain comes? Have you thought of your Plan B? The one scenario we all tend to just keep pushing to the back of our minds, as we are truly don’t want to think that it will happen on our day.

When you hire a wedding planner, “Plan B” is the first thing they start to think about when they are listening to your dreams for your big day. They strive to ensure that your dreams come to fruition inside Plan B so you don’t sacrifice anything on your day. Their goal is that you do not have to think about the impending weather, you just think about marrying the love of your life and enjoying every minute of the day.

The images linked to this post are from Shelby and Matthew’s big day. Their original wedding day was transformed into an intimate backyard wedding. However, it was their dream to celebrate with family and friends and have the wedding of their dreams. Shelby knew that she would not go it alone for this big celebration and hired Blessed Magnolia to ensure that everything came to life. The big day came and so did the rain, leaving us with Plan B, and pulling off a magical moment to make their dreams come true. We were so honored to be a part of this day and ensure that they did not worry about anything except each other.

Enjoy these images of this breathtaking day!

Photos courtesy of Eighteenth Hour Photography