Meet Our "Real Life" Brides

Take this opportunity to meet our "real life" brides. We will be following them and blogging about their experiences from getting engaged to getting married. We will be introducing you to our brides and learning about all aspects of their wedding planning including organizing/planning, career balance and everything in between. Make sure to check back often!

AMANDA:Engaged: July 24, 2007, Wedding: Still not determined (maybe March, April or May 2008)
Goals: Create a wedding on a limited budget that doesn't look like it, Maintain a budget and savings plan, Find creative areas to cut the budget, Find a great reception site, Figure out how to delegate projects to others involved, Create a timeline and figure out how to pull together a wedding in a short amount of time, Make sure that everyone is happy along with herself.
Action items: Find a suitable reception site, Decide on the date of the wedding, Decide if a caterer is needed, Send out Save the Dates, Find a photographer, Decide on bridesmaids, Find a church, Decide on colors for overall wedding.
Planning items accomplished: Budget set, Maid of Honor decided, Decided that will go to a flower market and have bridesmaids help with the arrangements, Decided will look for dress in NC.

JUSTINE: Engaged: July 19, 2007; Wedding: September 6, 2008
Goals: Work on negotiating skills to get better deal with vendors, Work on communicating with support team on what dresses she wants them to wear and to stick to her vision, Empower herself in decision making process even when others have a different opinion or view, Find a photographer by end of November.
Action items: Speak with DJ and reduce per hour pricing for his services, Contact Church to work on original pricing quoted and to reduce it with questions and negotiating tools learned, Communicate her vision, so when dress shopping comes, there are no conflicts and everyone is on the same page, Keep Empowering herself that this is her wedding, how to say NO gracefully when appropriate, and to trust her intuition.

YVONNE: Engaged: July 12, 2007; Wedding: June 21, 2008 to be held on Isla Mujeres, Mexico.
Goals: To drop 3 dress sizes by wedding June, 2008 wedding!
Action items: Give up fried foods, Stick to exercise routine including 3 x week exercise classes, Getting in .5 to 1 hour extra exercise on the weekends.
Planning items accomplished: Budget Established, Ceremony and Reception Site Chosen, Save the Date Cards Sent Out, Wedding Party Attendants Asked Wedding Coordinator Hired, Rings Purchased, Accommodations Established, One of 2 Officiants Selected.
Biggest lesson learned so far: “Everyone has an opinion and will put in their 2 cents, so you have to do what YOU want when it comes to your wedding.”

Thursday, August 30, 2007

To Register or Not To Register?

When working with brides and helping them organize, I always recommend registering for gifts after you get engaged. In fact, I tell brides to register as soon as possible. Many people hate the “unwanted clutter” they get on holidays and birthdays (remember Aunt Edna’s holiday sweater?). So, keep this idea in mind before it’s too late and you are stuck spending your first few days of marriage returning unwanted presents. Today there are so many choices for brides like home stores, organizing stores, honeymoons and charities. Why not take advantage and put a stop to unwanted clutter (or at least as much as you can) and register for items that will be useful to you and your future husband.
Posted by at 1 comment:
Labels:

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

The Difference between a Coach and a Wedding Planner

While wedding planners help brides with coordinating all aspects of their big day, coaches act as a personal support system for the bride:
  • We believe in empowering you: the modern day successful and savvy bride.
  • We help you advance your career and find fulfillment in your personal life as a busy bride.
  • We coach you on managing all aspects of the planning and maintaining balance throughout the process.
  • We offer online tools, one-on-one and group coaching sessions, and workshops designed to help you network with other brides, and stay motivated and focused.

Think of a coach as your personal trainer: someone who holds you accountable, keeps you focused and moving forward, and empowers you to create your dream come true. After all, YOU are in charge!

Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Welcome to Wedding Help At Your Fingertips!

Hello! Welcome to our blog, Wedding Help At Your Fingertips, geared toward helping YOU Brides stay focused and balanced during your wedding planning. We realize you have established careers and getting engaged as wonderful as it is it can also be a bit stressful too.

Our goal to launching this blog is to help make YOU and your planning process go more smoothly without hitting any barriers or hiccups along the way. We are based in Chicago and Washington, DC and work with career women who are now adding "Soon to be Bride" to their resume.

This blog is not about selling products to you. We want to be a resource for you and one that provides services that you will need. As recent brides ourselves we know what you will need to stay balanced and in the wedding zone.

Some areas that we will focus on in our blog are achieving Life Balance, Getting Organized and Staying Empowered during your wedding planning process.

Here are some questions for you to ask yourself to see if we can help:
1. Since your engagement have you been making time for both your professional & personal life?
2. Are you getting everything done on your to do lists? Do you have or need a system to help you get jump started?
3. Have you stayed in the driver's seat during your planning process? Are you allowing others to influence and sway you in your decision process?

If you answered YES to any of these questions we KNOW we can help you.

Please check us out at we build and make us a part of your "Wedding"!!!

Ready...Set... Go...
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)