A headline on the cover of the April 2010 issue of Brides magazine reads “Save $1000 on your wedding (it’s easy and fun).” The article teaches brides to have an “iPod wedding,” meaning save money by loading up an iPod or laptop with tunes instead of hiring a band or DJ. The articles offers tips on avoiding the glitches that can arise when couples do this, such as the iPod or laptop dying, running out of music and not having music that appeals to a wide variety of guests.

But there are other things that you need to make your bride aware of if she wants an iPod wedding:

1) She needs to hire master of ceremonies (toastmaster) and this person should not be a member of the wedding party or a guest. It is too easy for someone involved in the wedding to get caught up in the celebration and not remember to make announcements at the proper time.

2) She may need to rent a microphone for the MC to use if the crowd and/or venue is large.

3) She may need to rent audio equipment to hook up to the iPod or laptop. And if she is thinking she can use her home audio equipment, let her know that it will not sound the same in a wedding venue. (She will need to test all equipment at the venue before the day of the wedding.)

Having an iPod wedding may or may not be a good way of saving money. Make sure you and your bride do the research needed to determine the amount of money and extent of the time she would need to take to make it successful. You may want to work with her to see if she would be interested in interviewing professional DJs so she can compare costs and understand what she would get with a DJ versus doing it herself.

In the April 2010 issue of Brides magazine, newlyweds revealed what details they obsessed over during their wedding.

Here are a two of the things they mentioned and how you can help your brides if they have similar obsessions:

1) The wedding menu had a green and white color scheme but the caterer substituted cantaloupe for honeydew when the fruit arrived spoiled. It ruined the bride’s color palette.

If you are involved in the planning the menu and know that a detail such as the color of the foods is important, make sure the caterer knows this and reviews options with the bride while the menu is being planned. See that this information is put in writing so both parties are clear on what is expected.

2) Three of the newlyweds revealed that they had obsessed over DIY items. One had hand-painted 200 wine glasses for her guests, one scoured her neighborhood for theme items for her centerpieces and awoke at 4:30 every morning to work on them and another spent a great deal of money finding the right colored tissue paper to wrap gifts for the attendants.

Brides often think if they do some things themselves, they will save money. That isn’t always true, materials can be expensive and because they are taking the time to create things, they may need to hire people who can save them time in other areas. Talk to your bride about the things she wants to make herself and add it to her timeline. Also decide at what point she needs to be done and either purchase the items she is trying to make or hire people to finish her projects for her.

Try to get your bride focused on the reason for her wedding, marrying the man she loves. Remembering this should help her be more relaxed and enjoy her day even when things don’t come out exactly the way she wants.

The Spring 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings magazine has an excellent article on selecting rental items for wedding receptions that will not only be a help to you but also your bride. The article, “Luxe On Loan”, was written by Matthew Robbins of Matthew Robbins Design and if you don’t have a copy of the magazine,  it also posted on the Martha Stewart Weddings website.

As a wedding planner, what you need to do before taking your bride to a party rental company is to visit there first. In fact, get to know a few party rental companies in your area and learn the quality of their items and their customer service before you recommend any of them. You will find that the some rental companies keep their items in immaculate condition, always have or have access to the latest in china, linen and chair covers that your brides could possible want, give excellent suggestions and always deliver on time. But there are also others whose items look well-used or only offer the most basic items or whose customer service could use improvement. So take the time to meet and network with the vendors.

If you don’t have access locally to a variety of vendors, there are many companies who are willing to ship items, especially linens, to you. BBJ Linen and Creative Coverings, vendors who often exhibit at conferences for wedding and event planners, are two that are up on the latest trends, have excellent websites with ideas for you and your brides and offer good customer service. Of course, do your research before doing any online rental.

Friday night’s episode of the TLC show, “Four Weddings”, the show in which four brides judge each others’ weddings with the winner getting a luxury honeymoon, again gave insights into what makes a wedding great from a guest’s point of view.

Some observations that might help you plan better weddings:

There is such a thing as “too much”

One bride had a very lavish, black-tie optional, wedding that the other brides that felt was nice but “too over-the-top.” With cocktail receptions both before and after the ceremony, then a full sit-down dinner and huge dessert buffet, there was too much to eat. Also, by the time dinner was served, it was midnight and it seemed to one guest bride that it was too late to eat dinner. The wedding did not end until 2am.

There is nothing wrong with a lavish wedding, but you might need to remind your bride that she may not want her wedding to last too far into the night.

Food presentation and taste is important

One bride wasn’t that concerned about the food at her wedding and it showed, the food was poorly presented and seemed to one guest bride to taste like something you microwave.

Food may not be a major concern to your bride but guests always remember the food so work with your bride to select a good caterer.

Consider the pitfalls when the bride selects to have her wedding on a yacht

One bride chose to have her wedding on a beach-like yacht. There was limited space on the ship so everyone was not able to sit during the ceremony and the reception. Also, guests had to juggle their plates of food on their laps because there wasn’t enough room for tables.

This type of ship is great fun for an informal wedding, just make sure guests know they will be on a cruise. One guest bride got seasick so be prepared for people who could suffer from motion sickness. Also like any outdoor wedding, you need to be prepared for rain, wind, heat and cold.

The bride needs to make a conscious decision about alcohol

One bride did not serve alcoholic beverages and the guest brides found the event a bit boring. On the other hand, guests got out of hand when there was an open bar, as seen in the video above. Talk to your bride about the pros and cons of serving alcoholic beverages so she can make an informed decision about what she wants to serve.

The photo below is of the  Tikki Beach party boat in Miami, Florida where one of the four brides had her wedding.

The show will be rebroadcast during the next week so check the listings on TLC’s website.

Fashion and bridal designer Carolina Herrera, showed one of her wedding gowns on yesterday’s episode of ABC television show, “The View”. The wedding dress was ivory and navy with a large blue bow in the back. The dress was actually made with the wrong side of the fabric on the outside.

Carolina’s most famous wedding dress is probably the one she designed for Caroline Kennedy when she married Ed Schlossberg in 1986. She said she had been asked by Caroline’s mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, to design the dress and Caroline was in charge of the way she wanted to look, her mother never got involved (which is what Carolina thought should happen).

You can see the entire episode of the March 12, 2010 show on the ABC website.

A new wedding planner I was talking with told me she had decided to market to three niches instead of just one. She thought that by having multiple niches, she could make more money. She planned to reach brides in all three niches with the same website, blog, Facebook Fan page and Twitter account.

My question to her was; “How are you going to successfully market to more that one niche with the same marketing message?”

For example, if she selects a niche with DIY brides and one with brides who are corporate executives, they are not going to be interested in the same services from her. The DIY bride may be interested in creating most of her wedding herself and having a wedding planner coordinate her wedding on the “day of.” While the corporate executive bride wants to hire someone whom she can rely on to coordinate all of the details while she is busy at work. So the wedding planner with a “generic” marketing message could end up not having either of them as clients.

If this wedding planner keeps all three niches, she will have to create wedding services and packages for each different niche, create marketing and advertising messages that attracts each niche and create separate websites, blogs and social networking accounts.

You might see some celebrity wedding planners successfully working a lot of different niches and creating a wide variety of products but remember they have been in the business for a long time. Also, they have staff who can handle all of the different parts of their businesses for them. When you juggle multiple niches yourself, you spread yourself too thin and end up not being profitable in any area.

The bottom line for you, if you are a new wedding planner is – do research and select a profitable niche. Then create the services and packages the brides in your niche need and invest your time and energy in selling them.

The February 27, 2010 wedding of Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney, who met on the television show, “The Bachelor”, aired on Monday night. By Tuesday, the Internet and talk shows were full of opinions and comments on how the outdoor wedding event could have been handled better.

Here are 3 things you can learn from the wedding and the comments:

1) You can never predict the weather

It does rain in Southern California and it does get windy. At other times it could be too hot or too filled with bugs. If you bride insists on an outdoor wedding, tell her the possible pitfalls and have an indoor plan also.

2) You may not have total control over the final decision, so plan around it

The wedding planner, Jo Gartin, was not able to give the bride and groom a Plan B, probably because the television network wanted an outdoor wedding and the rain and wind just made the show more dramatic and interesting. Guests were given clear umbrellas, seats were covered and there was probably a hairstylist and makeup artist waiting to do some repair when the wedding party stepped out of the rain.

3) You can not control what people think or say about you

I read comments such as, “Why didn’t the wedding planner get a canopy or clear tent?” “Why didn’t someone give umbrellas to the wedding party?” “What kind of wedding planner doesn’t have a Plan B?” The wedding planner said on the show she wasn’t able to do a Plan B but people either didn’t remember or didn’t see that. A canopy, tent and umbrellas would have blocked the camera’s view and we would probably not been able to see the wedding, making for bad television.

There will be many times when things happen that you cannot control. Do everything you can, do the best that you can and remember the comments are not personal. The bride and groom thought their wedding was perfect which is what probably mattered the most to their wedding planner.

Last month I mentioned I met a vendor, Unveiled, who sells wedding favors, gifts and accessories. Today I had the pleasure of having coffee with the owner, Sally Otsuka, and Cheryl Bethe and I got the opportunity to look closely at many of the items in their store and learn what is popular with brides.

I know you, like many wedding planners, may sell your own line of wedding accessories but you still might want to refer their site to your clients for items that you don’t carry. Sally and Cheryl visit gift shows around the country to bring back unusual and delightful things to fill their shop and online store. They also create some products of their own.

Brides love their table name cards, table number cards, place cards, menu cards, favor tags and programs, all of which they customize for each wedding.

Also popular are gifts they created that are almost exclusive to their store, “Her Floral Highness” gift box for the flower girl and the “Ring Protection Agent” gift box for the for the ring bearer.

Check out their online store, or visit their shop in Walnut Creek, California, when you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, to see their entire line of products.

Get Married Media, which brings us the Get Married television show and a magazine of the same name, announced the results of their online survey of more than 1500 brides.

Here are 4 of the results and what they mean to you as you create services and market them to your brides and grooms:

1) The average age of brides today is 28, and more than half of those surveyed being over the age of 26

This means they have probably been working for a few years, may have an established career and need your help getting things done.

2) 92% are paying for some portion of their weddings

They have more control over what their weddings looks like and who they hire to help them with their planning.

3) 44%  found that the most surprising wedding stress is establishing the wedding budget

You may want to offer a service in which you work with couples to help them put together their wedding budgets. Or you can give classes teaching couples to create their own budgets.

4) Grooms have the strongest opinion about the venue, catering, music and photography

Keep this in mind even if you are just working with the bride, the groom may want to weigh in on these areas before the bride signs the dotted line on any contracts.

More information and details about the survey can be found on the Get Married website.

I just watched another episode of the TLC show, “Four Weddings”, the show in which four brides judge each others’ weddings with the winner getting a luxury honeymoon.

Some negative comments that the brides had about each others’ weddings that you might help you plan better weddings:

The presentation of the food was more important than taste at one wedding

The food and the wedding cake have to not only look good, they have to taste good also. Make sure your brides offer a wide variety of selections, especially since may people today are vegetarians, and have the food served promptly so guests aren’t waiting around hungry with nothing to do.

A Sunday night wedding was inconsiderate

Venues usually charge less for wedding receptions held on Sundays since it is not a peak wedding day. However most people work on Mondays so if your bride is considering a Sunday, you might want to talk to her about doing it early.

Music during cocktails can be too loud

People aren’t surprised when dance music is a little loud but when guests are trying to mingle and enjoy cocktails, they want only background music so they can hear each other speak.

The photo above is of The Venetian Catering and Special Events in New Jersey where one of the four brides had her wedding.

The show is rebroadcast during the week so check the listings on TLC’s website.