Enjoy the Life You Were Born To Live

Is that a cliché’ to say live a healthy life, eat healthy and everything will be right with the world?   We would all like to think that, but we  know that things happen and in a spur of a moment, our lives change.  At our Association of Bridal Consultants Meeting this past April, we had two speakers, Judith Topper, healthy living speaker and Alayne Gatto, Certified Nutritionist.  Judith shared with the wedding planners and wedding professionals about healthy eating for our busy lives.  We are all guilty as wedding professionals of eating at our desks, grabbing fast food in between client meetings and the worse one of all, skipping meals.  Judith showed us through proper planning of our meals how we can maintain our health (and figures!).

Alayne Gatto, brought us some education on pregnancy for the pregnant professionals. But she also brought us information on how babies born too soon can affect our lives as well as the babies.  This month the Association of Bridal Consultants invited The Gift of Life, a local non-profit organization that supports parents of premature babies and babies in the neonatal intensive care unit.  The takeaway from this part of the meeting as wedding professionals, all lives matter, because that very premature baby can be our client and prematurity can affect anyone, even a wedding professional.  Tying that back to taking care of our health so that we can be as healthy as can be during the pregnancy for the things that we can control,   for example, proper sleep, nutrition, and exercise will help us be the best we can be during this stage.

Listen to both of these speakers as they give you a glimpse in to their topics!

 

When coordinating this meeting, we had to take in to account the topic of healthy eating.  The Chef at the Sheraton, knew exactly what to make so that we were eating a healthy lunch ad dessert of fresh fruit for our day.

Thank you to our Wedding professionals on this day:

Venue: Sheraton Lake Buena Vista

Linens/Angels Dream Events

Chivari Chairs/Chargers: A Chair Affair

Floral: Peddles

Photography:  Captured by Elle

Videography: Treasured Momenst

DJ/MC: Roque Productions

AV Media: Sheraton Lake Buena Vista

Speaker: Judith Topper/Topper Productions

Speaker: Alayne Gatto/Mead Johnson

Charity: The Gift of Life

Your Co-Directors:

Mark Kingsdorf, MBC

Diane Jenson, PBC

Rosie Moore, MBC

Blog Post by: Rosie Moore, MBC

Attracting and Working With the Luxury Bride

Have you ever wondered what it takes to work with a luxury bride?  What is considered a luxury bride? In this market managing a luxury bride means managing large budgets and planning events for clients that have high expectations.  It is not enough to have a degree in wedding planning services to call yourself a luxury wedding planner.  The luxury wedding planner must have experience, etiquette and knowledge of what a luxury wedding entails along with exceptional service.

Luxury brides most of the time come referred to a luxury wedding planner through word of mouth.  One rarely sees a luxury bride at a bridal show or being contacted through any of the online forums.   To work with a luxury bride, you will need to learn where  these brides eat, shop, get their hair done and work out.  It is a circle that you would have to be willing to frequent.  Most wedding planners starting out do not have the finances to invest in to their business right away so they start small which is okay as they develop their company.

If you are going to cater to the luxury bride, your prices will need to reflect that to the client, but with that will come a certain expectation of expert quality care.  Ask yourself, does your website reflect luxury? Are the pictures that you are showcasing considered luxurious? You won’t appeal to the luxury bride if your pictures and videos that are being showcased reflect a DIY or budget conscious bride.   For the right wedding planner the DIY or budget conscious bride is perfect,  but for the luxury bride,  from the moment they look at your website to the moment that they meet you, needs to say luxury.

A luxury wedding planner does not take on as many clients in a year due to the time that is invested in each client.  The luxury bride is usually a very busy high-profile bride that will not have a lot of time on their hands;  their expectation will be flexibility and trust in you as the luxury planner to plan their wedding seamlessly.

As a luxury wedding planner, you must always look and sound your best.  From the location that the client meetings take place , to the purse and  attire that is worn.  When meeting the client it is not an option to be in slacks and a sweater or a shirt.  The luxury planner should in a nice suit, dress, or pant suit.  It does not matter if the bride and groom come in jeans and a polo, they are looking at you and how you fit in their inner circle. Think about your hair, is it professional looking in style, is your make up, professional, are your nails done? You might say all of that is vain and yes it can be if not looked at in stride, however,  in order to capture that circle of clients, a certain level of expectation is going to be required.

Now  dress code and professional attire should always be a must regardless of what client any wedding planner is meeting because you only have 60 seconds to make a first impression when you walk into a room to meet a client.  Let the attire speak first, then what comes out of your mouth in the next few minutes is part 2 of selling yourself to the client and finding out if you are a good fit for them and if they are a good fit for you.

These are great tips to think about as you mold your business to the type of clients that you want to work with.

Heather Snively, Master Bridal Consultant spoke at our Association of Bridal Consultants luncheon recently.  We wanted her to bring us a few points on working with the luxury bride.  When coordinating the venue and the wedding professionals for the meeting,  it was important to think of the topic and who we needed to obtain to showcase a high-end event.  One of the points that Heather brought up in the meeting, was about meeting the catering manager of the high end venue for the first time.  When the planner comes to the luxury venue to meet the catering manager, it is important to have an established relationship prior to the meeting, even if it is on the phone.   When walking in to the venue with the client, exude confidence in who you are as a planner and have the knowledge to know the client’s budget, even though a luxury client may have a high budget, there is always an amount in their mind of what they are willing to spend but will most of the time spend much more because they go with a want and must have vs a need.

Listen to Heather talk about the luxury budget.

Our Luxury Wedding Professionals at our Association of Bridal Consultant Meeting:

Venue: Citrus Club

DJ/MC/Lighting: White Rose Entertainment

Floral/Linen/Chivari Chairs/Chargers: RJ Glamour and Innovation

Photography: 123 Photography

Videography: Treasured Moments

Harpist: Christine MacPhail

Our Speaker: Heather Snively, Master Bridal Consultant

Listen to some of the points that Heather had for the wedding professionals:

Thank you on behalf of the Local Association of Bridal Consultants for attending the meeting on Working and Attracting the Luxury Bride.

Co Directors Association of Bridal Consultants:

Mark Kingsdorf, MBC

Diane Jenson, PBC

Rosie Moore, MBC

Blog Post by : Rosie Moore, Master Bridal Consultant