Brides today are using Pinterest to plan their weddings. As a wedding planner, you’re probably there too, pinning your favorite photos of wedding details such as invitations, cakes, tabletops and dresses. That’s great! Doing this is a way for you to attract brides and show them your style.

Did you know you can also use Pinterest to send brides back to your blog to get to know more about you and your business? I learned about pinning posts from The Publicity Hound and it’s a perfect way for you to market your blog to brides.

Here is what you need to do:

1) Create a new board with the title “Wedding Planning Tips,” or something similar.

2) Go to your blog and select blog posts in which you have offered wedding planning tips, ideas on wedding decor, and other topics in which you have shared your expertise. (I’m going to guess that your posts already have great photos on them.)

3) “Pin It” after you have written a short, compelling description of your post.

To see examples of “pinned” blog posts, check out my board, “Wedding Business Tips.” I’ve started to pin some of my old blog posts on it along with tips from other sites that I thought would be interesting and helpful.

By the way, don’t forget to complete your profile on Pinterest, you want brides to know you are a wedding planner when they visit your boards.

As a new wedding planner you will need to give a good first impression at meetings with brides and fellow wedding vendors. You want the brides to hire you and want vendors to recognize you as a high-quality wedding planner so they are willing to join you in creating the weddings your brides want.

Here are 5 things you must do to create a good impression at all of your meetings:

1) Prepare in advance

Set a goal for your meeting. For a bride, your goal might be for her to sign a contract. When meeting with another wedding professional, you may want to find out if they would be a good fit for your brides and if they are willing to exchange referrals. Once you know your goal, you’ll know what you need to bring with you, such as your portfolio, a contract, marketing brochures for others to share, etc.

2) Plan to be early to your meetings

Check the route to the meeting place in advance and leave in plenty of time so you can get there early.

3) Avoid stressful situations before any meeting

The morning before a meeting with a potential client, or a vendor who could potentially refer brides to you, is not the time to have a heated discussion with anyone. Your negative feelings from that conversation will carry into your meeting and you will not be at your best.

4) Plan your attire and accessories in advance

You should look well-groomed and professional so check your clothes and shoes the night before and be sure what you want to wear is clean, pressed, and polished.

If you plan to carry a handbag, briefcase, or tote bag to the meeting, it should be clean and free old receipts, papers, and miscellaneous items so if you need to get something from it, you can find it easily and nothing embarrassing spills out. If you don’t look organized, the other person will assume you will not be able to organize a wedding.

5) Put away and turn off  your cell phone and/or tablet

It goes without saying that you should not talk or text while you are meeting with anyone. Put away your phone and iPad or other tablet (unless you will be showing a presentation or your portfolio on it) and turn them off so you don’t get any unwanted alerts.

Once you are at the meeting, remember that people are attracted to people who listen to them when they speak, so be sure you aren’t the one doing the majority of the talking.

And don’t forget to send a note later thanking the person for your meeting, even if it didn’t result in a client or a partnership, it’s worth the effort. You never know if something might work out for you with them, or someone they know, in the future.

A wedding planner recently told me she doesn’t have a Facebook business page, blog, or write an ezine because brides probably already know a lot of the information she would share.

Not true!

When you are a wedding planner you’ve been “behind-the-scenes,” you know what it takes to really plan a fabulous wedding, the preparation, the attention to details, the organization, the patience, and the hard work.

Think about the first time you planned a wedding for someone. Remember all of the things that you might not have been prepared to handle that you can now take care of without a second thought. Write those ideas down and start creating tips that you can post to your Facebook page, blog, and write in your ezines.

Brides want to know the information you’ve gained from your experience so share your “behind-the-scenes” tips and let brides get to know you as the expert you are. They’ll come to understand what it really takes to plan the wedding of their dreams, realize they can’t do it all themselves, and want to hire you as their wedding planner.

When I speak to new wedding planners, I always ask them if they have a niche, a group of brides they target market, and many of them say they do. But when I look at their marketing, I often don’t see any evidence it. Their marketing is very generic. They basically just list their services, most of which seem like they can be offered by any wedding planner, so we work together at making them stand out.

Here are 3 tips to help you make sure you appeal to the brides in your niche:

1) Create services and products that fill their specific needs

Every niche needs something different from their wedding planner. For example, brides who have established careers and are planning their wedding in their “spare” time have different needs than those who may just be completing school, or from brides who are getting married a second time and already have children. Find the unique wedding planning problems of your brides and create services and products to fill those needs.

2) Communicate the benefits of working with you in their “language” and communication style

Once you know your niche’s problems and needs, speak to them about the benefits of hiring you using the medium that they use. Your brides might like to communicate via Facebook or Twitter, so speak to them there. Or, you may need to get out and join their social and business groups because they prefer hiring people they know personally, or have heard about from friends. Determine what works best and use that marketing channel.

3) Keep your marketing focused and consistent

Brides should know, when they read your marketing, your area of expertise and specialization. If, for example, you specialize in “day of” coordination, your marketing messages should convey your expertise in this area. Your website, blog, and articles should explain the benefits of having a “day of” planner. If you offer a free report on your website, write a list of the most important things a bride needs to do on the “day of.” The last tip, of course, can be to hire you to relieve them of handing these last-minute details.

Many successful wedding planners will tell you they were struggling until they decided to select a niche and target their marketing efforts towards specific brides. So if you have done the research and chosen the niche that you believe will bring you success, take the time to create the services and products that they need and the marketing messages that will tell them that you are the expert who can best help them plan their weddings.

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?

On the season 5 premiere of “My Fair Wedding,” celebrity wedding planner, David Tutera, fulfilled a Make-A-Wish Foundation wish by a teen-aged boy, Ryan, who wanted David to go to Kansas to plan his mother’s wedding.

Within six days of arriving, David, with the help of his staff and many Make-a-Wish Foundation volunteers, was able to give the bride the wedding of her dreams.

The bride had originally had a theme which included 1000 origami cranes (symbols of happiness, peace and prosperity). She wanted a spiritual, peaceful feeling to her wedding and a decor that included weeping cherry blossoms and a long aisle with trees along the way.

David made her indoor venue look like a serene, organic outdoor space with pergolas,  trees and the cherry blossoms the she wanted.

Here are 5 of David’s tips for bringing the outdoors in that you might want to use for your brides:

1) Rent plants and trees rather than invest in additional flowers to transform a space and make it look more nature-inspired, they are also more affordable than flowers

2) David banded together both real and silk cherry blossoms when decorating the pergola to make the arrangements more lush (make sure you are using good quality silk flowers that look real)

3) For an evening wedding, add twinkle lights to the trees, accent foliage with uplights, and hang glass-enclosed candles from the tree branches (check to make sure the venue allows open flames)

4) Use trees along the aisle to define it and act as markers along the bridal path

5) Define sections in your venue with tress – separate the ceremony, cocktail and reception areas

Bringing the outdoors is in very popular today, especially since trees were brought into Westminster Abbey for the Royal Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

In the video below are scenes from the show where you get to meet Ryan and his mother and see some of David’s designs. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mindy Weiss, wedding planner for many Hollywood celebrities such as Hillary Duff, Heidi Klum, and Kate Beckensale, shared tips for planning beautiful weddings in the September/October issue of the U.K. Edition of Brides magazine.

Here are tips she shared that may help you when working with your brides:

1) At her first meeting with brides, she asks them to tell her all about their wedding dreams

The brides Mindy works with are busy, so she asks them to tell her everything at their first meeting. By their second meeting, she gives them an idea of what their day will look like.

2) She makes sure the bride chooses her location carefully

Whether the space is indoors or outdoors, modern, vintage, or rustic, the venue will dictate the look and feel of the wedding. The bride should know what feeling she wants to create before selecting her site.

3) She pays close attention to table decorations

These are what guests will be looking at throughout most of the event. Mindy likes to mix a variety of vessels on a table, then she fills each of them with one variety of flower. She might put calla lilies in one vessel, peonies in a second, winterberries in another, then have all three on one table.

4) She believes white weddings are always in style

White can be done any time of year, on any budget, by any bride, even if it’s not her first wedding (Heidi Klum did it for her second marriage). To keep a white wedding from looking too flat or cold, Mindy suggests using accent colors in the flowers and centerpieces. She used blush and cream flowers at Hillary Duff’s white wedding.

You can read more white wedding tips from Mindy on the U.K. Brides magazine website.

Now that you are a wedding planner, you need to keep up with the trends in the industry. One simple way to do this is to read industry magazines such as Event Solutions which is published for event professionals. Their August/September 2011 issue happens to be their first wedding-themed issue. It’s filled with predictions on trends in weddings from some of the top wedding professionals in the country, including celebrity wedding planner, and star of the television show, “My Fair Wedding,” David Tutera.

Here are 5 of Tutera’s top 2012 trends that you might want to share with your brides:

1) Deep, Rich Colors

David predicts red and eggplant will be popular colors next year.

2) Personalization

David, and other wedding professionals, feel couples will be interested in finding ways to show their personalities on their big day. An example David cites is the getaway car that William and Kate used in their Royal wedding.

 3) Family Style Food Service

Rather than having waitstaff serve plated food, large platters of food will be placed on tables for guests to help themselves. This gives a wedding a more relaxed feeling.

4) Metallics

From centerpieces to cakes, wedding professionals agree with David that metallics will be everywhere in 2012.

5) Unique Juxtaposition

Weddings will have interesting combinations of styles that will surprise and please guests. Examples, filling a sparse venue with lush florals or decorating a beach location to look like a garden.

You can read the rest of David’s trends, get more information on wedding food and decor for 2012, and find tips on running your wedding planning business in the digital copy of Event Solutions.

Could you plan a wedding that included rats? That is what Tori and Dean did on last week’s episode of the Oxygen network show, “Tori & Dean: sTORIbook Weddings.” Their bride and groom were ballroom dancers who wanted a Hollywood club style wedding in bright fuchsia with lots of sparkle, bling and feathers that included their pet rats, Sparkly and Butter.

Here is how they carried out the color and style of the wedding and included the rats. Your couple’s wedding doesn’t have to include rats to get inspiration from this wedding:

The ceremony took place on the rooftop of  The London West Hollywood. Fuchsia petals lined both sides of a carpet that was used as an aisle runner. We got to see Tori, Dean and their art director, James, struggle with getting the aisle runner straight – it’s nice to see that even celebrity wedding planners have stressful moments.

The rats entered the ceremony in a fuchsia cage on wheels that was pulled by two flower girls. The rats wore wedding attire that Tori designed and made herself.

Since the bride loved feathers, they were distributed to the guests to throw after the big kiss.

For the reception, the ballroom was washed in fuchsia lighting.

Since the couple were dancers, it was important that the dance floor be special. It had the monogram of the bride and groom and, of course, a silhouette of a rat.

The tables had the right amount of sparkle and color after Tori encouraged the groom to weigh in with his opinion. Had the bride made all the decisions, the tablecloths would have been covered with hot pink sequins. But Tori was concerned that the groom be able to express his desires, since it was his wedding also – something you need to do with your couples. 

Cookies are a fun favor or dessert at a wedding and you can incorporate the theme in the cookie, like these rat-decorated ones.

Of course, the toppers on the wedding cake were modeled after the couple’s pets.

On tonight’s episode, Tori and Dean plan a lovebird themed shabby chic wedding that will, no doubt, include real birds.

When new wedding planners come to me, I find that they often need help figuring out how to get all of their work done each day. They are unaccustomed to having the freedom of owning a business and don’t know how to structure their time.

If this sounds like you, here are 5 tips that I often offer that will help you accomplish more each day:

1) The first thing in the morning, take 10 minutes and write down what you intend to accomplish for the day

If you don’t have a plan, you will be spending a good part of the day trying to decide what to do next. I write a list of what I plan to do and cross each item off as I accomplish it. Don’t make the list too long, be realistic about how much time you need for each task.

2)  Don’t multi-task

Believe it or not, you can actually accomplish more in a shorter period of time if you allow yourself to focus on one task at a time. Don’t try to create a floor plan, blog and cook dinner all at the same time and definitely don’t text messages to brides, or anyone else, while you are driving.

3) Minimize interruptions

Let family and friends know when you can and cannot be available. Schedule your time on email, Facebook and Twitter instead of responding everytime a message appears.

4) Take breaks during the day

Schedule breaks between some of your tasks. Make it a point to eat lunch, take a walk or at least step away from your work for a few minutes. You’ll often find it easier to focus after a break.

5) Evaluate your day

At the end of your day, look at your plan and see how well you followed it. If you were not able to complete all of your tasks, determine if it was because you allowed yourself to lose focus or because you over booked yourself, then decide how you will do things differently tomorrow.