More often than not, a bride will say to me, “my hotel has a wedding planner” or “My Catering Sales Manager said I don’t need a separate wedding planner!” Since I’ve played both roles (I was a Catering Sales Manager for a Hilton property) I thought I should take a moment and perhaps attempt to clarify the difference between the two roles.
Yes, you’ve found a beautiful hotel, a mansion, a country club, or a private home where you will host one of the most important (if not the most important) event of your life. This venue is staffed with a Catering Sales Manager and you’re assuming this person will serve as your wedding planner. Allow me to explain. A Catering Sales Manager is employed by the venue and primarily specializes in booking events/weddings for the venue. A Catering Sales Manager can have 1-5 weddings at the same time depending the size of the venue and wedding season. A Catering Sales Manager is usually on location for your wedding day and will often depart once the first course is served. I also like to stress to my brides that the Catering Sales Manager is employed by the hotel and can also be terminated without notice to you by the hotel.
A Wedding Planner, is a personal consultant who is employed by you and depend on what you contract him or her for, they are with you in all aspects of the planning of your wedding. Your planner will be at hand to assist without hesitation in the negotiation process, will mediate when needed, will design, be a confident and really help eliminate most of the stress that comes with planning a wedding. Your planner will attend meetings with you and on your behalf. Your planner will be the go to person at your wedding and point of contact for all your vendors.
When you know the specific services of the two different roles, it will help ensure there are no surprises on your wedding day.
Your Catering Sales Manager will provide the following services
-
Cater to you upon the initial contact to the venue. They will provide a personal tour of the venue.
-
Send a proposal to you or catering package with the venue’s food and beverage minimum or if you’re renting a venue (Mansions, Museum, Private Homes, etc) they tell you what the rental fee is.
-
Sign the contract for the property and give you their list of recommended vendors.
-
Assist you in the menu selection (If they’re providing the catering)
-
Conduct a personal tasting with you to finalize your menu
-
Provide you with a BEO (Banquet Event Order) which is standard in hotels and is basically a contract outlining your event. From the food you selected, your beverage selection, what time you would like the event to start and all specifics of your event (the part that’s happening in the venue. If your ceremony is not taking place at the venue, this will not be listed on the BEO) to ensure flawless communication to the operational team.
-
Design a floor plan of your function space which will allow you to provide seating arrangements
-
Create an estimate of charges outlining your financial commitments to the venue/caterer
-
Will oversee the ceremony and/or reception room/rooms set up and other venue/catering operations
-
Ensures the hotel delivers what was contracted
-
Ensures the banquet captain is equip for a seamless transition to handle the event when he/she leaves
Your Wedding Planner (depends on what kind of services you contracted) will do the following.
- Provides full-service coordination from your engagement party to your honeymoon activities
- Will go venue shopping with you
- Negotiate your contracts on your behalf
- Provide a range of professional referrals to accommodate your taste, style and budget
- Assist in the designing of your event
- Provides assistant with etiquette and protocol your invitations, registry, colors, ceremony toast, bridesmaids luncheon, rehearsal dinner and all wedding related matters.
- Available to you to discuss your event or sometimes have dinner to take a break from the planning
- Attends vendor meetings with you
- Meets with all your vendors to ensure all things contracted are being handled accordingly
- Negotiate and establish room blocks with different hotels to accommodate your guests
- Coordinate activities for your out of town guests
- Manages your hotel room block
- Designs a comprehensive vendor payment schedule according to their contract
- Works directly with hotel/venue to ensure diagram, BEOs and menus are correct
- Act as a liaison between your family, (yes, your family and they also play shrink and referee when needed) bridal party, photographer, videographer, band/DJ, florist, caterer and the many more vendors that it takes to produce a spectacular event.
- Provides assistance in planning all events pertaining to your wedding
- Designs complete timeline for all events happening on your wedding weekend and ensure all essential parties have the timeline
- Coordinate and direct your ceremony rehearsal
- Assist the wedding party, mother of the bride, certainly the bride with getting ready if needed.
- At hand the day of the wedding from to ensure the wedding party have their bouquets, corsages and others. Also assist the groom where needed (usually an assistant is at hand to do that if contracted) with the pinning of the boutonnieres.
- At hand to ensure arrangement of all ceremony/reception programs, escort cards, favors, place cards, personal items (your mom’s toasting flutes, cake knives, guest book, your grandparents photos and any other personal items.)
- Direct the ceremony line up with the bridal party, parents and most important of all; bride!
- Works directly with the venue and catering staff to ensure the proper setup of the reception room
- Coordinate the reception lineup with the grand entrance of the parents of the bride a groom, the bridal party, bride and groom’s grand entrance, first dances, toasts, gown changes, cake cutting, garter toss and grand exit
- Ensures gifts are collected and delivered to the appropriate parties.
- Stays well after bride and grooms depart to ensure all personal items are collected and rented items are properly stored and or picked up.
Sorry for the long post but I hope you found it useful. You also know you can reach me with any questions you may have.
Happy planning,
Violaine Diogene
Wow, what a year! Every New Years Eve I like to grab a seat in my favorite chair and reflect on all that’s happened in the year and New Years Even in 2009 was no different. What an amazing year 2009 was. What a wonderful and joyful year 2009 was for us at André Winfrye Events! So many wonderful weddings. A few amazing mitzvahs, birthday parties and with all our weddings, 4 of our brides informed us that they’ve already started their families. So many lives touched and we couldn’t be happier.
Hopefully you all know what our mission was and continues to be when we started this blog just a few short months ago and with all the phone calls and email we’ve received on just about every posting, it appears as though you are satisfied with our postings. In 2009 we discussed everything from how to choose a diamond, borrowing a diamond, incredible gown designers, to yummy gorgeousness, grooms’ club, fanciful honeymoon hideaways and one of most beloved post; our Perfume Etiquette series.
In 2010, we strive to continue our pattern of posts. We’re looking forward to writing about the issues that matters to our clientele. We attend wedding expos both locally and nationally to bring you the latest trends and still remind you how to create your own trends. We will research venues, both nationally and internationally to show you all this beautiful earth has to offer. We will continue to bring you the lasts fashions and certainly we will continue to challenge you to think outside the box when it comes to planning your event.
In closing, please know and trust that I am grateful that you’ve chosen to read our blog. We’re grateful and thankful that you’ve chosen our company to plan your event. We’re mindful of all the other blogs out there and all the other event planning companies to choose from.
With that said, is there any particular subject you would like us to cover? Did we miss something that’s important to you? What should we write more or less about? What are your plans in 2010? If you read our blog on a regular basis, you must know just how much we value your opinions. We would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year, a very resourceful 2010 and many blessings to all of you.
Best wishes for 2010,
André Winfrye
And
Violaine Diogene
Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of having lunch with one of my favorite grooms to talk about a surprise birthday party he’s hosting for his stunning and absolutely darling fiancé. Doing our conversation about his tux and desires to wear something unique which will reflect his personality we thought about customizing his tie out of all things. Off course I thought it was a brilliant idea and the fact that I would have a say in the designing process was even better. Later on I went to my some of my favorite sites ranging from Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and finally to Etsy and starting looking for groom’s ties and came across these amazing ties.
I know I’ve said this before, but I love Etsy and everything on that site. How amazing are these ties? These ties were designed by Cyberoptix TieLab and upon your visit to Etsy, you’ll soon notice the extensive colors and designs available to your fiancé and his fellow groomsmen, and yes, they have some of the same ties available for the ring bearers and junior ushers. I love the creativity in the ties; I love the array of colors available from the very simple silver to the very bold burnt orange and fuchsia. And the fact that these ties are very affordable ranging from $30 for a set of 3-4 ties to $200 for a set of 5-7 ties will really please majority of brides and grooms.
Below are my two favorite collections available on Etsy. The first tie (according to the description on Etsy) is an original illustration adapted from a client’s custom wedding stationery. Mehndi designs are traditionally comprised of floral and teardrop elements and symbolize both luck and prosperity in weddings or any special occasion. The quintessential paisley motif originates from Persia and India. The tie is made of a soft microfiber, having almost the same hand as real silk and is printed with high-quality, non-toxic, waterbased ink. And because I love anything Indian, I fell head over heels for these. My second favorite is Poppy silkscreened microfiber necktie which is a symbol of wartime remembrance; poppies are used as emblems on tombstones to symbolize eternal sleep. The opium poppy was cultivated in lower Mesopotamia as long ago as 3400 BCE. And the fact that these ties comes in pink, yellow, brown and blue really tickled my soul. What’s not to love? You know the rules, let me know your thoughts on the ties. What’s your fiancé like? If you had to pick one to these ties for him, which would you pick? If you have pictures of your fiancé in his formal wear or a picture of his tie, send me a picture and we’ll discuss it.
Love all things weddings!
Violaine Diogene
| Send this post to a friend
| Leave a Comment
To me, pictures are worth a million words. Pictures tells a story in a fashion like non other. A brilliant photographer can make you feel as though you personally know the person who’s being photographed, as though you can feel the essence of the love and passion instilled between a bride and groom. A brilliant photographer can show you the excitement in a newly engaged couple awaiting their day to become husband and wife. With my obsession for amazing photography, I came across the work of Keith Cephus out of Virginia Beach, VA but certainly travels all over the world to photograph people from all walks of life. I have to tell you that I’ve worked with some amazing photographers in my 13 years of planning weddings and events and very rarely do I gasp at the site of a photograph but these photographs managed to get a few gasps out of me.
I love these engagement photos which I’m so privilege share with you. Keith managed to infuse seduction into his engagement sessions. There is nothing traditional about these pictures and that’s why I love Keith’s style! I simply love how seductive these pictures are. I love the boldness of these photos and can appreciate the creative edge it takes to photograph these beautiful couples. One of my favorite pictures is of the lady in red on the hood of the car. I love the bright light on her face while the hood of the car serves as a mirror which clearly reflects how beautiful she is and highlights her bright, red lipstick. I love how her smile simply shines in the picture and further more, I love how her fiancée is casually sitting back and looking at her. I love that Keith focused on the bride and showed very nice details of her but managed to include the groom in great details as well.
It takes a creative, bold, spontaneous couple to go take such pictures. As always, I would love to know your thoughts. What do you think? What kind of photographer are you looking for? What’s important to you? Leave me your thoughts on the pictures below.
Best wishes,
Violaine Diogene
While browsing The Knot’s website as I so often do, I came across these 5 top trends for wedding cakes. Naturally, I thought of my brides and I wanted to share them with you. My personal favorite in the five cakes features? You guest it, I LOVE cake number 4 which features a mini cake designed with handmade sugar flowers, sugar pearls and white chocolate fondant. As always, what do you think about these cakes? Send me a picture of your cake and we’ll feature it in an upcoming cake contest.
Happy Planning,
Violaine Diogene
Trend 1: Black & White
A black-and-white Parisian wallpaper pattern is so stylish when designed on a round cake.
Tip Your cake should blend with the wedding decor, so use the pattern in other places like the place cards or cocktail napkins.
Cake by Truli Confectionary Arts, Philadelphia; cake stand by Simon Pearce; wallpaper by Classic Wallcoverings Inc.
Trend 2: Flower-free Designs
Arts and crafts goes chic as sewing-inspired elements are everywhere. Think exposed stitching on invites and fondant vintage buttons on a white-on-white cake.
Tip When talking to your vendors, keep the look wedding-worthy by using keywords like heirloom rather than handicraft
Trend 3: New Shapes
Cakes are scaling new heights — this skinny square cake is offset by a delicate floral pattern for a stunning combination.
Tip You’ll get less cake per tier because of its slender sides, so this is the perfect shape for a smaller, more intimate affair.
Valentino Home china from Michael C. Fina
Trend 4: Coordinating Cakes
Match your masterpiece with mini cakes in the reverse color scheme — this stylish color combo of robin’s egg blue with chocolate-brown accents is flipped for added interest.
Tip Package the mini cakes into individual favor boxes for guests to enjoy as a midnight snack.
Trend 5: Haute Chocolate
You can kiss vanilla goodbye. From a marzipan and dark chocolate truffle cake to designer chocolate favors, give chocolate a moment in the spotlight.
Tip: If you’re scared the flavor might be too rich for your guests, serve cake with a small bowls of fruit.
| Send this post to a friend
| 1 Comment
This past weekend, I travelled home to Boston for a well deserved long weekend with a few of my closest friends. Upon my arrival to my cousins home I instantly felt at home and welcome not only because it was her home, rather because of the steps she took to ensure that I would feel at home. In the guest room which was carefully prepared for me was a note on top of the pillow letting me know just happy she was that I took the time to come and visit her and a single rose accompanied the note. How sweet and thoughtful was that? After I smiled from ear to ear, naturally my mind wondered into “wedding/event world”!
Yes, I know that it’s time consuming and with all the planning and running around a bride and her mother and others have to do, it leaves very little time (if any) to be leaving personalized notes and putting roses on one’s pillow especially for guests that are not staying at your home. But that’s why you’ve hired a planner. Your planner should be able to assist you with all those minor tasks at hand or to the very least make suggestions to you on how to handle such situations.
I know that you all know of the “welcome bags” that are often given the guests upon their arrival at the hotel or guest house. But rather than just a standard “thank you for sharing our weekend” note, why not take the time to personalize the card or note to each of your guests? Why not take a few minutes to share a quick memory with your guests about you and your future spouse? Why not take a few minutes and scribble something silly or a favorite memory tailored to the person who’s taken the time to attend your wedding, or your first child Bart Mitzvah?
Can you imagine your how your girlfriend from college would feel when she reads a card in your handwriting letting her know how blessed and special you feel that she’s travelled 100 miles to see you begin your new journey in life with the man/woman of your dreams? One small touch, yet a grand gesture!
Until next time,
Violaine
With all the convenient ways to communicate these days, it’s easy to forget the meaning and power of a personalized, handwritten note or card. With everyone juggling demanding schedules, we’ll often log onto our computers and just shoot a quick email or post a message via facebook or other social networks. Certainly when you’re pressed and you need to say thank you for a job well done, or you just want to say thank you for the nice gift, you can send a quick email but if you want to take it a step further just take a moment to write a simple note and I promise you when one receives a card in the mail with a hand written note from you, it makes one feel special. It makes one feel as though you thought of them and took a great deal of time out of your life to buy a card, a stamp and you actually sat down and wrote them a note. And that my friends is a feeling neither an email, facebook or any other social site can deliver!
| Send this post to a friend
| Leave a Comment
For the past 10+ years that I’ve been planning weddings, the world of technology has changed dramatically. We are so fortunate to be able to communicate with each other with just a click of a computer mouse or a push of a button from our cell phones. Not to long ago, I had an hour long conversation on via Facebook IM with a very close friend whom resides in Venezuela out of all places. I was thrilled when I realized that hour long conversation didn’t cause me a penny or a minute from my carefully monitored cell phone plan.
Brides and grooms have a way to reach out to other brides and grooms from all parts of the planet. Whether you have questions about an old African American tradition that you’d like clarification on or want ideas of how to incorporate an Irish dish into your menu planning, the resource is at your fingertips.
