Last week I had the pleasure of having lunch in San Francisco with wedding planners, Emma and Vincent Willis, of The Wedding Daze, in Sheffield, England. We had never met in person or spoken on the phone, our entire relationship had been through Twitter and Facebook. We decided to meet in person when they scheduled their honeymoon here in California.

Emma and Vincent are experts at using online social networking to enhance their offline relationships. They have connected not only with brides through Twitter, Facebook and their blog, but also with local high quality vendors who they now partner with to plan fabulous weddings.

Here are 7 tips for using social networking to grow your offline network:

1) Give tips and information about wedding planning so people see you as an expert

2) Send people to your blog and website when you have new content

3) Tweet and post often, don’t let days or weeks go by without connecting, people will forget about you

4) Pass on links with interesting news and information about weddings

5) Chat with others in the wedding business and with brides

6) Participate in #weddingwednesday and #ff (follow Friday) on Twitter. This is when you recommend that your followers follow other people. On Wedding Wednesday, recommend people in the wedding industry. On Follow Friday, it can be wedding professionals and others.

7) Don’t just send out messages blatantly asking  people to refer or hire you, use social networking to let people get to know, like and trust you then the brides and vendors will follow

Congratulations to Emma and Vincent on their wedding and for knowing how to use social networking to build their business.

When former MTV VJ, LaLa Vazquez, married Denver Nuggets basketball star, Carmelo Anthony, on July 10, her wedding planner, Mindy Weiss, dressed up the red soles of her Christian Louboutin heels with “I Do” in blue. It turns out Mindy sells a rhinestone shoe applique, so you can do the same for your brides.

Other wedding ideas that you may be able to use at weddings that you plan:

They sent their save-the-dates out on Valentine’s Day

If your couples have a red theme, this would be the perfect date to send out a red heart card.

They had a candy bar stocked with sweets

This is popular with many brides today. You can fill glasses and glass candy jars with the bride and groom’s favorite candies for guest to enjoy.

A photobooth served as a guest book

You can find photobooth rental vendors at bridal fairs or you can find them by Googling “photobooth rental.” Photobooths not only take the place of guest books, they also serve as a form of entertainment during the cocktail hour. If there are no photobooth rentals available in your bride’s area, set up a special area in the cocktail or reception room and have a photographer snap photos of the guests.

They had a red wedding cake

Wedding cakes can be any color the couple want. If they have a favorite color, you might suggest they talk to their cake designer about a colorful wedding cake. This one was a red velvet cake with red frosting and an edible 22 karat gold monogram that took Ron Ben-Israel Cakes a week to make.

You can see a video of LaLa preparing for her wedding on the Entertainment Tonight website.

LaLa’s red-themed wedding was filmed for a five-part reality show that will begin airing on September 19 on the VH1 channel.

Are you attending any weddings? Since you are a wedding planner, be an observant guest. Keep your eyes open during the event and pick up ideas for the weddings that you plan.

Some things you might want to take note of:

Directions -Were directions that came with the invitation accurate? If you did not get directions, do you think they are something you want your brides to include?

Parking – Was there adequate parking for guests? Was it close to the venue? Did you have to pay for parking? If so, how did you and other guests feel about it? Would you suggest your brides pay for guests’ parking if this is an issue?

Entrance – Did you know where to go when you entered? Did anyone greet you? If not, do you feel this is something important for the weddings that you plan in the future?

Ceremony – Could you see and hear the bride and groom? Did the couple incorporate traditions and customs that are unfamiliar that you wished they had explained to the guests? Would you suggest the bride have the officiant explain things like this or print information in a program?

Cocktail Party – Was there enough food and drink and a variety that pleased you and other guests? Did the size of the room accommodate the guests well? How were the lines to the food or drink? What did you like about it or how would you have done things differently?

Reception – Did it start at a good time or did you feel you had to wait a long time before it started? Did the food selection appeal to most guests? Did the events such as the first dance, wedding toasts, cake cutting and bouquet and garter toss flow smoothly and seem well organized? If so, how did they accomplish that and how can you be as organized? If not, what might you have done differently?

Outdoor Ceremony or Reception – Were you comfortable outside? If it was warm, were you offered water, juice or lemonade? Was there a way to be inside, especially during a long reception, so guests could be comfortable? What do you think of outdoor weddings? What type of “Plan B” would you have if this outdoor wedding faced bad weather?

Invitation – After the ceremony, take a look at the invitation. Did it give a good indication of the real style and personality of the wedding ? If so, how was that done? If not, how would you have advised the bride?

Although you might have been able to do things better than the DIY bride or the wedding planner, be polite, keep your opinions to yourself. People do things differently and/or mistakes happen. Don’t be judgemental, just decide how you might do things differently yourself.

As a wedding planner you may be asked to help a bride select a caterer and a wedding day menu. Here are tips from top caterers from the September/October issue of Bridal Guide magazine.

1) Your bride should find a caterer who specializes in the type of food that she and her fiance enjoy

2) The couple should chose food that they love that would also appeal to their guests

3) A good rule is to stay away from basic things people don’t like and may be allergic to like garlic, onions, heavy sauces, spinach or another greens that easily stick to teeth. (I would also add that it is best to avoid things that can get stuck between teeth like sesame seeds and poppy seeds.)

4) Select a menu that has fresh ingredients that are in season and locally grown for the best taste and the best value

5) The desserts should not undermine the wedding cake and should add a level of surprise to the wedding reception. Caterers and planners have set up candy bars, macaroon bars, ice cream sundae bars and even a fire pits for camp-style s’mores. One planner brought in an ice cream truck. 

6) The bride and groom should set a budget before meeting with caterers then tell them what it is so caterers can recommend the best menu for their money.

7) Find out what is included in an estimate. It might be only the food or it can also include wait staff, linens, china, flatware, glasses, taxes and gratuities. When the bride gets the contract, all of this information should be listed on it.

You might want to pick up a copy of Bridal Guide for more information from top caterers.

Celebrity wedding planner David Tutera’s latest challenge was a Texas bride who was planning a cowboy themed wedding complete with a collection of cowboy boots (to use as vases for sunflowers), wagon wheels (to lean against tables), mason jars (to use as drinking glasses) and horseshoes. All of which David found to be a little kitchy.

Here is what David did to change the wedding from cowboy kitchy to country chic:

Set the wedding at MD Resort in Aurora, Texas, a guest ranch and Bed and Breakfast.

The ceremony was outdoors and set to look like a backyard wedding. He hung ribbons is from the trees which blew in the wind and added movement and color. The aisle was sprinkled with flower petals. The seating was an electic mix of old chairs and pews.

The bride, in a gown by Jorge Perez that David chose, and wearing her purple rose boots, arrived in a horse-drawn carriage with her parents. Because she did not have bridesmaids, David used this as a way to create a dramatic, theaterical moment that usually comes with a procession.

The reception was in a barn at the resort. The ceiling and columns were filled with lights and ribbons and sunflowers hung from wagon wheels on the ceiling.

David wanted the tables to look like someone went to grandma’s cupboard and pulled out whatever they could find so assorted little jars, mason jars, and soup cans tied with burlap and lace were gathered together. Each had one flower, a sunflower, tulip, peony, or ranunculus, so it looked like someone went to the garden and picked flowers to bring to the tables. Plates were a mix of vintage china patterns. Linens added color and texture to the tables.

The wedding cake was rolled fondant painted plaid and decorated with gum paste flowers. The grooms cake was made to look like a fishing tackle box. The cake designers/bakers offered three flavors; white cake with white buttercream filling, almond cake with blackberry cream cheese filling and white cake with raspberry liquor buttercream filling. The bride had selected white with white buttercream and the baker suggested she have different flavors on each tier. She just should make the anniversary topper, which the bride and groom will eat on their first anniversary, the favorite flavor.

The dance floor and band were setup outside the barn.

The video above shows the wedding with all of the details and you can go to the WEtv site for a full list of the vendors.

When helping a bride select her wedding colors, you might want to follow the recommendations of celebrity wedding planner David Tutera. In his advice column in the September/October 2010 issue of Bridal Guide magazine, he writes about the importance of selecting colors that express the personality of the bride. This may mean getting the bride away from traditional all-white or all-pastel wedding color schemes and getting more daring.

Some of his suggestions:

Spring Weddings

Add plum or coral to pastels

Summer Weddings

Bold yellows, purples, reds and blues or use shades of one color such as coral, salmon and burnt orange as a scheme

Fall Weddings

Taupe or burgundy with copper and a touch of lavender

Winter Weddings

Use white with a touch of lavender or add a metallic pewter, silver, copper, bronze or gold

David suggests having fun with color but not overdoing it by trying to incorporate more than three or four hues.

Read the magazine for more of his advice on color.

Many of you are busy this summer planning your first weddings as a professional. Congratulations! As you plan these events, you will notice that some things that you do work really well and you want to do them that same way again. Or you think of ways that you could do things differently in the future. Don’t rely on yourself or your assistant to remember how to do it later, write it down.

Here are 9 questions you might want ask yourself at the end of a wedding to help you prepare for your next assignment:

1. What do you wish you had asked the bride about her wedding wishes before you began planning her wedding?

2. What projects should you have started earlier because they took longer than you thought they would?

3. Did you hire the right number of assistants?

4. Did you hire the right assistants?

5. What vendor issues should you watch for more carefully in the future?

6. Did your wedding day attire work well for you or was it uncomfortable?

7. Did you accurately estimate the amount of time you spent on the wedding?

8. What worked really well for you that you would want to do again?

9. What must you absolutely do differently the next time?

Answering these questions after each wedding will make it easy for you and your assistants to be even more successful in the future.

Many brides carefully follow celebrity weddings to get ideas so, as a wedding planner, make sure you read about celebrity weddings to keep up with your brides.

Singer Carrie Underwood wed Ottawa Senators center, Mike Fisher, on on July 10, in Georgia.  Her wedding was featured in People magazine.

Here are some of the details from the wedding, you can may be able to use when working with your brides:

Processional Music  – “Bride’s Chorus” (Here Comes the Bride) by Wagner.

Wedding Gown – designed by Monique Lhuillier, it was a custom-designed, drop waist, ballgown with a corseted bodice made of Chantilly lace and covered in silk flowers and crystals.  It was cinched with a blush pink sash. The chapel-length circular veil with clear and pink crystals was topped with a diamond tiara from her groom. For dancing at the reception, Carrie changed into a short, strapless, corseted, cocktail dress with an organza skirt also by Lhuillier.

~Your brides can find Monique Lhuillier’s corseted wedding dresses in her Spring 2011 collection.

Ceremony – traditional vows with favorite scripture passages were exchanged outdoors, on the lawn of the Ritz-Carlton Reynolds Plantation Resort in Greensboro, Georgia, beneath an arbor of birch trees and roses by Branches Event Florist in Nashville, Tennesee. White flower petals were sprinkled on the sides of the aisle.

A dog in the wedding - Carrie’s dog, Ace, dressed in a Swarovski crystal-encrusted pick tuxedo, walked down the aisle with the ring bearer and flower girl.

~There are many sites on the Internet that sell formal wear for dogs if your couple wants to include their pet. Make sure they assign someone, in advance, to care of the dog during the wedding day. They might want to have the pet taken home instead of taking it to the reception. Animals are usually not welcome where food is served.

Reception location - indooors in the ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton Reynolds Plantation Resort.

Reception decor – Everything was pink!  5,000 crystals were lit in pink, vintage toile tablecloths had a pick design, and pink napkins were folded to look like tuxedos and accented with crystals.

~You can find instructions for folding a napkin in this way in this video on YouTube.

Table Assignments – cards with the guests’ names were attached to painted hockey pucks (a nod to the groom).

First Dance – “Love Never Fails” sung by Christian singer Brandon Heath.

Wedding Cake – a cupcake tower with a small cake at the top was placed on a round cake table and surrounded by the bride and bridesmaids’ bouquets. The cakes were made by her bridesmaid, Ivey Childers, of IveyCake in Franklin, Tennesee.

~Cupcakes are very popular right now and you can work with a traditional bakery to create a cupcake tower for your bride. Or, find a bakery that specializes in making only cupcakes, there are many of them now and they make creative cupcakes in many flavors. (If you are in Southampton, United Kingdom, talk to Laura of Genii Cupcakes. She is a wedding planner too so she will really understand your brides’ needs.)

Look at the July 26, 2010 edition of People magazine for photos from the wedding.

When you help a bride plan her wedding, she may also need you to help her select her wedding invitation. Most brides have never had much experience with ordering custom printed invitations or personalized stationery so they aren’t prepared to make decisions concerning lettering styles, printing, colors, shapes and sizes.  It can be overwhelming. They will need your help to choose an  invitation that coordinates with their wedding and gives guests an idea of their wedding style. They also may need your help wording the invitations correctly.

If you don’t have a lot of experience you can direct brides to stationery stores and bridal shops that have people trained in helping brides but you should also take the time to learn about invitations. You can start by going to websites such as emilypost.com and learning the correct etiquette for wedding invitations and announcements. You can also visit stationery stores and bridal shops yourself and do some research. You might want to speak to a wedding invitation consultant and see if you can add her or him to your vendor network to exchange some referrals.

The August 2010 issue of  Brides magazine features a guide to invitations which will give you some basics such as a timeline, a glossary of terms and it has photos of some great invitation designs.

If you love the idea of helping brides select their invitations, consider becoming a dealer. Stationery companies, such as Carlson Craft, welcome wedding and event planners as dealers for their products.

I received an email from Preston Bailey Designs that they are planning a new section for their website. They are looking for entertaining stories and photographs from parties you have thrown for yourself or your friends. They do not mind that you are a professional wedding and event planner, but they do NOT want client photos.

Your stories and photos should include:

• What the event was
• Where it took place
• Who was invited
• Any horror stories related to the event
• Any moments of triumph that happened

Email party stories and photos to Karell@prestonbailey.com

If they pick your story, you’ll be featured on their website so please let me know so I can talk about it here on this blog.

Good luck!