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.

As a wedding planner, you need to be a good listener.  But sometimes it is easy to lose concentrate when a person is speaking.

Here are 3 tips that will help you be a good listener, especially when you are having that important first meeting with a potential client:

Make it easy to concentrate on the conversation

Select a location for the meeting that is quiet and doesn’t have a lot of visual activity.  If the conversation is over the phone, make sure to schedule it at a time in which you can talk without distraction or interruption.  Don’t multi-task!  Even when the person can’t see you, they can tell if you are on your computer, preparing lunch, texting, or straightening your desk as you speak.

Spend more time listening than talking

When the other person begins telling you about themselves or their ideas, resist the urge to interrupt with information about your experiences.  When they are done, share relevant information and don’t give unnecessary details.  This might be difficult, because as planners, we’re very focused on details, but many times the listener only wants to hear the results, not the details.

Don’t spend the entire time thinking about your response

I’m often guilty of trying to think of a brilliant comment to what a person is saying rather than listening fully.  Turns out I sound more intelligent when I concentrate on what is being said first, then speaking later, after I have all of the information I need.

Do you have any tips about being a good listener?  Please share them in the comment section.

I often mention how you, as a wedding planner, need to have a blog and post frequently, at least 2 times a week if not more, to attract business and give potential clients an opportunity to get to know, like, and trust you, so they will hire you.

I get a lot of questions about blogging so I posted some here along with the answers:

How do I start a blog?

First you have to find a blogging provider.  Free ones are Blogger and WordPress.com.  They have templates and are easy to use, and you will probably be up and running in less than 30 minutes.  There are paid providers such as TypePad which give you more control over your site.  Or you can have a WordPress.org blog, which is what this blog is.  I downloaded free software but I pay a web hosting company a monthly fee to host it, similar to what I do with my websites.

The free blogs are very easy to use but you do not get as much flexibility and you don’t own your content. In other words, they can close down your site if they view you are doing something they don’t like, usually too much promotion or selling.  However, ff you aren’t very technical and absolutely need to start with a free service, you will be able to transfer blog posts from Blogger to a WordPress.org site.  I know because this blog started as a Blogger blog.

How do I find the time to blog?

It shouldn’t take you too long to compose a blog post.  They can to be short and quick and easy to read.  Schedule time on a regular basis to sit at your computer for 20 to 30 minutes and write a post or you can collect notes in a recorder or on paper during the day and just finish it when you get to your computer.

I usually have a list of things that I know I want to blog about.  Sometimes though, an idea will come to me while I’m walking my dog, driving, or reading a book or magazine.  In these cases I either jot down notes or speak them into a digital recorder that I carry and my post is ready to be finished when I get to my computer.

What do I blog about?

Write on topics that would interest the brides in your niche.  Get inspiration from magazines, wedding television shows, and the weddings that you plan.

If you need ideas to jump start your blogging, read my article, “7 Ideas for Blog Content” that I posted on my Wedding Planner Articles site.

Can I include information about my personal life?

It’s best to stick to information that is relevant to your business and your clients.  You can mention a little about your personal life to help your audience get to know you but keep very personal details out.  Remember what you are blogging will be read by your future clients.  Make sure you always appear professional.

If you haven’t started blogging yet, do it now.  It is an important part of marketing your business.

Let me know if you have more questions about blogging by posting a comment.

There has been much buzz this week that Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former President Bill Clinton and current Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, may be getting married this weekend.  It’s hard to say since, like the weddings of high profile entertainers, this one is being kept very secret.

But former President’s daughters and entertainers aren’t the only ones who demand privacy.  I have done events for people who are famous in their own industries, but are not household names, who wanted their events shrouded in secrecy. You may get the same type of clients so here are some tips, some from my own experiences and some from research, on how to keep wedding plans and the wedding itself secret:

1. Have them keep the guest list small.  The more people they invite, the harder it is to keep the event a secret.  My clients had less than 50 people.
2. It is not a good idea to send paper invitations since they can be intercepted. Invite people by phone or leave crucial information, such as the time and location, off of paper invitations and call people later with the details.
3. A good alternative is not telling guests it is a wedding.  In 2002, Julia Roberts invited friends to a 4th of July barbecue that turned out to be her wedding to Danny Moder.  Actress Kimberly Williams and country-western singer Brad Paisley told people it was a wedding rehearsal.  Kimberly surprised guests when she took off her coat and they saw she was wearing a wedding gown.  Britney Spears told guests it was an engagement party when she married Kevin Federline in 2004, in fact her mother and the entire wedding party didn’t know about the wedding until the last minute.
4. Hold the wedding indoors or under a tent, if it is outdoors, to avoid uninvited guests being able to see and photograph the event.  (This is what Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston did when they married in 2000.)
5. Don’t tell vendors the real names of your clients.  I placed orders and told vendors where and when to arrive but never revealed my client’s names.  All charges were billed to an assistant’s credit card.  You can ask vendors to sign a non-disclosure when they arrive, if necessary.  (In some cases you might need to shred your notes, that is what designers who handle celebrity wedding dresses often do.)
6. Collect cell phones and cameras, any types of recording devices, at the door.  (Singer Fergie banned cell phones at her January wedding to actor Josh Duhamel.)
7. Hire security to keep out unwanted guests.

Most importantly, be sure that don’t tell any of your family, friends, or associates whose wedding you are planning.

Get wedding planning tips from singer Natasha Bedingfield’s March 21 wedding to filmmaker Matt Robinson.  Natasha shared photos and information about her March 21, 2009, outdoor wedding at the Church Estate Vineyards in Malibu, California (the same place singer Fergie married actor Josh Duhamel in January), in the April 6, 2009 issue of  Us Weekly Magazine.

Here are some ideas you can use on your weddings:

• Rose petals sprinkled down the aisle versus using an aisle runner.

• The song “What a Wonderful World” played on a outdoor organ for the bride’s processional.

• Color theme of peach and purple.  The bridesmaids wore purple, short, sleeveless dresses.  Flower girls wore ivory dresses with sashes the same color as the bridesmaids’ dresses.  Linens were purple and centerpieces were orange-pink roses.

• A dessert bar of chocolate cake, apple crumble and fruit salad took the place of cake.

• Wedding favors were handmade ceramic pots filled with almonds.

Natasha mentioned was it was windy and she tried to hold down her veil, so make sure your bride is prepared for the wind if she has an outdoor wedding.

Pick up a copy Us Weekly Magazine and you will see Natasha in her beautiful custom Vera Wang gown that she helped design.

Find out more about it at http://www.gatewaytomaine.org/wedding_expo/expoframe.html.

If you are a wedding planner working with brides in the San Francisco Bay Area, you might want to consider attending the Gump’s San Francisco bridal event, Wedding Chic, with your bride on February 8.  Gump’s is a high-end gift store in San Francisco and their bridal events usually feature some of the top wedding caterers, cake designers, florists and wedding gown salons in the area.  They also have representatives from their wedding registry to help brides with their selections.  You can find out more about the event at their website, www.gumps.com/bridal.

If you are not in the San Francisco area, you still might want to go to their site and review their wedding registry guide.  It gives detailed information on choosing china, crystal, linens and other items that will help your bride make selections not matter where she registers.

Not every bride wants a Cinderella themed wedding.  As a wedding planner, you will be working with couples with many different tastes, personalities and interests. I just heard about a couple who are planning a horror movie themed wedding.  It seems they met through Flixster.com, a social networking site that allows people to share movie reviews and make friends with people who have similar tastes in films, and they want to express their passion for horror movies at their wedding.

Here are some of the details of how they will carry out their theme:

• Popcorn from an old-fashioned movie popcorn maker

• Tables will be named after their favorite horror movies

• Wedding cake will be topped with a director’s clapboard

• Grooms cake will be decorated with fake blood

Talk to your couples about how to best express who they are in their weddings.

Can you get tips on how to become a top wedding planner from the movie Bride Wars?  One big one, double check details, especially ones carried out by your assistant.  I just saw it this afternoon and found the movie is more about friendship than than weddings so you won’t find a whole lot more tips.  But you will enjoy seeing how they portrayed a top wedding planner, played by Candice Bergen.  She is strictly no-nonsense and professional, operating from a beautiful spacious office that includes a room in which she can show table settings and have clients sample wine.  You’ll also enjoy seeing two beautiful Vera Wang wedding dresses on the two stars, Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway.

If you are in the mood to watch wedding movies, check out these favorites:

27 Dresses

Father of the Bride

Made of Honor

Mamma Mia

My Best Friend’s Wedding

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Runaway Bride

Sex and the City

Sweet Home Alabama

The Wedding Date

The Wedding Planner

If you are planning destination weddings, make sure you research the laws. A country may demand a couple be a resident for several days or have a blood test and medical exam from a local physician. Also, make sure the state that they live in recognizes international marriages. They may need to have a second ceremony in the United States to be legally married.