Today I’m continuing with wedding ideas from the San Francisco Wedding Fair.

The Chandon booth had some ideas you can share with champagne loving brides.

They used their petite 187 ml bottles of sparkling wine and attached elegant name cards to them with white satin ribbons. They are place card holders and wedding favors in one. (See photo above.)

The booth also showed how you can have a couple can use a magnum bottle of champagne in lieu of a guest book. Just provide gold-colored permanent link pens that can write on glass, you can find these at craft stores, and have guests sign the bottle. The bride and groom can drink from it on their honeymoon and on wedding anniversaries.

If your bride is looking for a colorful signature cocktail, the Chandon website has recipes using champagne along with ingredients such as fruit juices and nectars to give it color and different flavors.

Keep your eyes open when you attend or exhibit in bridal shows and wedding fairs and you can get ideas for your business and your brides. 

When you attend wedding fairs and bridal shows you can pick up many ideas, not only for planning weddings but also for planning your own booth when you are an exhibitor at a fair or show in the future.

When you become an exhibitor, your main goals will be to attract potential clients to your booth, sign up them up for appointments, and collect contact information so you can market your services to brides after the show is over.

The San Francisco Zoo had a fun way to accomplish these goals at the San Francisco Wedding Fair. They asked brides to provide their contact information for an opportunity to spin their prize wheel (you can rent one at a party rental store or prop house). The wheel had small prizes, such as a nail file and a plush toy, in addition to bigger prizes such as 15% off venue rental and a free ceremony. Because every bride who provided their information would win something, more brides were interested in providing contact inforamtion than booths that offered only one prize. Now the zoo has grown their list of brides they can market to in the future.

The other side of the exhibit booth was a large screen featuring a slide show of photographs of weddings that had been held at the zoo and two staff members who were talking to attendees about the benefits of their venue.

Take a cue from this busy booth and find a creative way to attract brides and have them willingly provide their contact information to you. (Be sure they know you’ll be sending them emails or you’ll be considered a spammer.)

Absolutely do not think you can get clients by renting an exhibit booth and sitting or standing behind a table with a stack of brochures and a small laptop with photos from your weddings. You will not attract many brides this way. Get out from behind the table and engage with attendees. Set up your space in a way that shows off your style. If you need a centerpiece, ask a florist to provide a striking arrangement in exchange for placing a sign in your booth. If you want to show a video or slide presentation on a screen, use a large one that will draw attention from across the aisle.

And you can get more help with exhibiting with my downloadable Action Guide, Exhibiting at Bridal Shows and Wedding Expos. It includes the information you need to market your services successfully and an exhibit-day checklist so you’re prepared on the day of the event.

One of my favorite bridal shows takes place every year at the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco. It’s the San Francisco Wedding Fair, and it’s a great place to see the latest wedding ideas for high-end weddings and get inspired by some of the top wedding vendors in the San Francisco Bay Area. I”ll share some ideas and show some of the booths this week.

Floral and event designer Floramor Studios had a room with tabletop displays inspired today’s top female singers.

Above and below are photos of the table inspired by Katy Perry, fun and pink, with centerpieces of glass jars filled with candy.

The tabletop inspired by Fergie featured a centerpiece of a glass dome with stelleto heels.

The Jennifer Lopez table was silver and white.

with a stunning crystal beaded candelabra.

Beyonce inspired an elegant table of copper and white.

The Britney Spears table was both sexy and romantic, with it’s mirrored table and candelabra of crystals and pale rink roses.

And Lady Gaga inspired a huge single flower as a centerpiece and deep, rich-colored linens.

Where might you and your brides find inspiration?

When you are starting to work as a wedding planner, you’ll want to be ready to help brides plan their dream weddings. The February issue of Brides magazine published results of their survey in which they asked readers to give them a portrait of their dream weddings.

Here is where brides said they wanted to get married along with my tips on what you should know about the sites:

1) Gardens

A garden wedding can help a bride save money on her floral budget but you can also work with a florist to bring in additional tress and flowers to make the setting seem more opulent. There are public gardens available in most cities but also check private estates that rent out their homes for events. The ceremony can be held in the garden and the reception in the home.

2) Beaches

Not every wedding planner has the ability to plan a wedding at local a beach but if you do, scout locations that give the best views and are easily accessible for guests and, most importantly, make sure you have a Plan B. Wind, rain, and heat can pose challenges during any outdoor weddings but especially at a beach weddings where there may not be nearby shelters.

3) Tents

Once a tent meant a plain white structure. Today you can find everything from clear tents that make guests feel like they are outdoors to luxury tents that work for weddings with exotic themes and come complete with hanging chandeliers and matching furniture.

4) Wineries

Like a garden wedding, wineries can provide natural decor for the event. It’s not just large wineries that offer event facilities, small private vineyards often open their property for events on a limited basis so do some research to find them.

5) Museums

Think beyond art museums and find ones that specialize such as auto, technology, maritime, and railroad museums. Even the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum can host weddings. So, think outside the box to give your brides their dream wedding locations.

Successful entrepreneur and owner the basketball team the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, recently posted an article with his rules for startups. I thought 5 of them applied particularly well to the wedding planning business so here they are along with my comments on how they apply:

1) Don’t start a business unless it’s an obsession and something you love

Today there are many celebrity wedding planners on reality television and it has made many people believe it might be a fun. It is but it is also hard work so unless you have a real passion for planning weddings and working with brides, don’t do it. If this is your dream, take steps to begin your business right away.

2) Know how your company will make money

Before you begin your business, you should have a plan that outlines who your specific target market will be (not just “brides,” think about who they are, what they do, what their budgets are, and what type of weddings they want), the services and products you are going to offer to them that will be of benefit to them, and how you will market to them. 

3) Know your core competencies and be great at them

The services that you offer should be the ones in which you can do the best, that is how you will be unique and that is what brides will pay you to do. If you want to offer other services, partner with people who are good in those areas.

4) As far as technology goes, go with what you know

It’s important that you are able to communicate with your clients, potential clients, vendor partners, and complete your office work. This doesn’t mean you have to make a large investment in the latest expensive electronic gadgets to impress people. Use what you have and know how to use first, before you make any huge investments.

5) Don’t invest in a lot of giveaways with your logo

I’ve spoken to new wedding planners who have given away expensive tote bags and other items to brides at bridal shows, hoping to stand out and look like a big company. Save those for your clients. While promotional items can be a way of keeping your name in front of brides, there are other, more effective and less expensive, ways to market.

You can get more of his startup tips on the Entrepreneur website.

You probably back up your computer everyday because you don’t want to lose information about your wedding planning business, the weddings that you plan, or your brides.

But have you backed up your website? Do you regularly back up your blog? How about your Facebook profile?

You spend a great of time and energy writing content and posting photos online to market yourself, so you need to make sure you have copies of your sites. If a site comes down because of an error made by your web host, your site gets hacked or hit by malware, or, like me, you try to add a plugin to your blog and you crash it, you need to be able to get up and running as soon as possible!

To back up your website you can download a free copy of FileZilla and download all the files to the hard drive on your computer. If you can’t do this yourself, your web host can tell you how to back up your site or ask your webmaster to help you. (I always call my webmaster, Toolie, she has helped me out of many jams.) 

Regarding your blog, if you are on Blogger, you can go into “Settings” and “Export your blog” and download a copy to your computer.

If you have a Wordpress self-hosted site, there are many plugins you can install that will automatically back up your files according to your schedule.

For Facebook, you can request a download by going to Account then Account Settings using the top right menu.

Scroll down to Download a copyof your Facebook data and click on it. On next page, read the information on the page and click on the Start My Archive button.

Facebook will send a download link to the email address associated with your account. You click on the link, enter your Facebook password, and click on the Download button to download a zip file that has all of your Facebook profile information.

You can also use a service such as Backupify that allows you up to back up three social media accounts for free.

Don’t risk losing your hard work, make and keep updated versions of all of your online information.

Most brides, whether they on a small wedding budget or a large one, love to find ways to save money. As a wedding planner, you should be able to give them tips on how they can do this. Last month I wrote a post with 5 ideas for cutting wedding costs. The Winter 2012 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings magazine has more tips that you can use and share with your brides.

Here are 5 more ideas on how to cut costs:

1) Select a venue that is “all-inclusive”

Rather than choosing a site that requires the bride to bring in all of the items needed to set up her ceremony and reception, choose a place that has just about everything she needs. This means she doesn’t have to rent tables, chairs, china, flatware, linens, a stage, dance floor, and a sound system.

2) Don’t splurge on the tablecloths

Guests have more contact with the napkins. Rent the best ones the bride can afford.

3) Have a lunch or brunch instead of a dinner

These meals are usually less expensive and not all guests will want to drink a lot of alcoholic beverages during the day.

4) Rent high-quality stemware for serving wine

Stemware made of high quality crystal or thin glass enhances the experience of drinking wine so the bride can serve a less expensive brand at her reception.

5) Expensive flowers should only be used in the bridal bouquet

If you bride has her heart set on a type of flower that is very expensive, suggest she use it only in her own bouquet. This will keep her costs low while still giving her the blooms she loves. A florist can help select flowers that are in season and locally grown, and therefore less expensive, for her attendants and for the decor.

There are more cost cutting tips in the magazine, including ideas on how your brides can save money on their wedding dresses, accessories, hair, and makeup.

Did you spend the last week of 2011 thinking about goals for your wedding planning business and for your personal life? Goals can keep you focused and help you achieve what you want in life.

But many times when I work with new wedding planners, I’ve found that they have too many goals they are trying to accomplish at the same time. Their attention is scattered, they feel overwhelmed, and they end up not moving forward with any of the goals they set out to accomplish.

It’s not until we select two or three to focus on at one time do they start seeing success and, with it, gain the confidence and energy needed to move forward quickly.

Don’t let yourself get bogged down by trying to accomplish all of your goals at the same time, select two or three to start with first then move on as you beginning seeing results.

Here are 4 steps for selecting and accomplishing your first goals:

1) Start with the goals that excite you the most

If you start with goals that you feel you “have to do” or, worse, someone else wants you to accomplish, you will procrastinate and not get anything done. But when you start with something that excites you and makes a big difference in your life, you will quickly reach your goals.

2) Write them down, in detail with due dates

I’m frequently surprised by the number of wedding planners who keep their goals in their heads. Writing them down will help you clarify what you want and putting goals onto paper can make you feel more committed to getting them accomplished.

3) Schedule your tasks

Determine the tasks you need to perform to get your goals accomplished and schedule them on your calendar. Since you are starting with two to three goals, your list of tasks should not be overwhelming and your calendar should not be overbooked before you even start each day, which can happen if you are trying to do too much at one time.

4) Review your accomplishments

At the end of each day, review what you have done towards your goals and adjust your schedule for the next day, if necessary.

When you focus all of your attention on just a few goals at a time, you are able to have more clarity about them and will find them easier to accomplish in a shorter period of time.

The dragonfly wedding theme is not new but when celebrity wedding planner David Tutera planned a dragonfly wedding on his WeTV Show, “My Fair Wedding,” he took it to a whole new level. He added a feeling of whimsy and magic and gave the bride a fairytale wedding that was much more beautiful than she could even have imagined.

The bride had not yet selected her ceremony site and had planned to have the reception in her own backyard. David moved the entire event to the Calabasas Inn. Although it is already a beautiful location with trees, gardens and a waterfall, he had the florist bring in rose bushes and plants to make the site even more lush.

Tip – add flowers and plants to an outdoor space to make it suit your bride’s theme.

The ceremony was set outdoors, guests were seated on mahogany chairs with lavender cushions. Programs, printed on green paper, hung on ribbons from the backs of the chairs.

Tip – tying the programs to chairs is a great alternative to placing them on the seats where they can fly away.

When it came time for the outdoor reception, the chairs were moved to the dining tables and the lavender cushions were switched to white ones that matched the white lace napkins and white candles that were on each table.

Tip – switching cushions gives a different look without the cost of renting additional chairs.

The long dining tables themselves were positioned around the dance floor. They were covered with lavender underlays and lavender sequined overlays.

To give the guests the feeling of that they were sitting in a garden, there were no cut flowers anywhere at the reception.

A “garden” of rose bushes, flowers and moss decorated the centers of each table.

Tip – if your bride wants to use plants for centerpieces, she might be able to rent them or she can select plants that can be given to guests as favors. 

The cake had a garden theme and was decorated with dragonflies.

To give the wedding the whimsical feeling, David had wonderful costumed showgirls walking among guests, a garden nymph, a purple fairy in a “glamour sphere”

and a 9 foot tall gold candelabra “glamazon.”

Tip – a couple shouldn’t be afraid to give their wedding a feeling of fun and magic if that is what helps them express their personalities in their wedding.

What would you do if you had a bride who wanted a dragonfly themed wedding?

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Wishing you a healthy, prosperous, and successful year

 filled with an abundance of your ideal clients.

Happy New Year!

Sharon