In 2011 as a company we traveled less but traveled to some amazing destinations. Destinations we never thought we would ever plan a wedding. We met people that left such impressions and just made us think about how we do business and the need to give back on a regular basis.

In 2011, we assisted 21 brides and grooms with their wedding. We had a few amazing dinner parties, and a few fun birthday parties. Out of those 21 brides and grooms, we received invitations to 6 baby showers and have already visited 2 babies!! I know, it makes me smile thinking about it.

On the personal front, my son celebrated his 8th birthday and his second year with no emergency room visits!! He also attended sleep over camp for the first time! My daughter Nastajea faced her last year in middle school and I think I did okay handling what happens to the life of a thirteen year old.

Like many of you, I’ve been making my plans and pledges for 2012 and this year, they’re very simple. On the professional front, I always resolve to get closer to my clients. Be the best planner/designer I can and know how to be. I resolve to take advantage of learning more about the cultures of the destinations I’m so privilege to travel to.

I truly believe with all my heart and know God is preparing to come back soon and I want to be ready for him. I do go to church and ready my bible but I still slack off especially when I travel. You see, I am nothing without Jehovah and his holy spirit. I am just a person and I know I cannot conquer anything without his guidance and strength and for that, I want to take care of myself, my body, my health and hopefully my mind will always be clear and ready to hear him speak and provide guidance. For that, in 2012, I resolve to pledge myself again to him.

On the blogging side, we strive to continue our pattern of posts. We’re looking forward to writing about the issues that matters to our clientele. We’ll 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 the amazing beauties our 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. If you’re a client reading this post, we’re so thankful and grateful to you for choosing 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.

Off course you know we welcome all your suggestions, comments and feedbacks. If there’s any particular subject you would like us to cover please send us a note. Did we miss something that’s important to you? What should we write more or less about? What are your plans in 2012? What are you resolving to do more or less of?

I hope your 2012 is filled with love, patience, endurance, guidance from your almighty, faith, and so many blessings. Extending my finest flutes to you and toasting to a very happy New Year! Until next year.

Cheers,

Violaine

Prioritizing your needs is also important as it helps you determine where, what and how to allocate your budget. Regardless if your budget is $15,000 or $200,000 this is still a very personal question and only the two of you can answer. Instead of following the typical or basic wedding budget calculators you find online, I like to have my clients spend some time in coming up with their own calculating formats put your money where it matters the most… to what makes it YOUR wedding.

Often after some discussion between the couple, below are three very different samples of how some of my clients prioritize their weddings…

• A great venue. Some will want one that could accommodate both ceremony and reception
• Flowers and setting a nice ambiance
• Best photographer in our budget
• A nice four hour hosted bar
• The best deejay or band
• Great food

Sample two
• Flowers, flowers and more flowers
• Great food
• Top shelf liquor
• Band or deejay
• Photographer
• Location

Sample three
• Customizing everything
• Photographer
• Venue
• Wedding cake
• Ambiance
• Food

Sometimes my brides will turn the question on me and ask me “What do you think my wedding priorities should be?” this is the one question I can never really answer 100% (until we really get to know each other) but I can tell you when I’m planning my own personal events my priorities are usually the following.

• The best photographer I can afford (You all know I believe in a GREAT photographer!)
• The best deejay or band I can afford (If all else fails, the guests will be entertained!)
• Champagne flowing all night long (Champagne sings sweet melodies to my soul!!!!)
• Décor must provide a WOW factor (Yes, I LOVE décor & want it to look like my style)
• Great food (I’m a foodie 1000%)

Well after all the reading “What are your wedding priorities?”

Happy prioritizing,

Violaine Diogene

2010 was a hard year because my homeland of Haiti was and is still in peril when an earthquake devastated the tiny country. After days and what seemed like weeks of searching for our loved ones, we were able to locate most of our family. We lost some people but our circumstances were much better than some others. It still amazes me when I see and hear from my people. Their courage and strength in the lord still blows my mind.

While I lost a lot in 2010, I also gained a lot. 2010 was the best year for my son who suffers from really bad asthma and in 2010, he only had three attacks. This is from the child who spent two weeks in ICU in October of 2009 and so three attacks and no emergency hospital visit is amazing!

On a business level, 2010 couldn’t have been better. We travelled to so many wonderful places and got a chance to make a difference in so many lives. Crossed paths with so many different cultures and made amazing new friends. We’ve had the chance to plan a few wonderful weddings, designed an amazing mitzvahs or two, we even planned a couple darling birthday parties. And off course with weddings and young couples starting their lives together, three of our couples from 2009 sent us pictures of their newborns. I’m telling you, our job could never get any sweeter.

In 2011, as an individual I resolve to get closer to my clients, give more of myself to those around me, be the best planner/designer I can and know how to be. With all that’s happening in the world, I truly believe with all my heart and know God is preparing to come back soon and I want to be ready for him. Even though I think I give him my all, I also know it’s not always 100% true. In 2011, I resolve to pledge myself again to him for all his right and strength. You see, I am nothing without that man and his holy spirit. I cannot conquer anything without his guidance and strength and for that, I want to take care of myself, my body, my health and hopefully my mind will always be clear and ready to hear him speak and provide guidance.

As a company, we resolve give the best to our clients and provide more personalized services to make their event planning even easier. We resolve to make changes in the way we communicate to our community and really make a greater impact in our community. On the blogging side, we strive to continue our pattern of posts. We’re looking forward to writing about the issues that matters to our clientele. We’ll 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 the amazing beauties our 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 2011? What are you resolving to do more or less of? 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 2011 and may the good Lord all mighty shine his light on you, give you patience to endure the bumps you’ll encounter and not matter what, remember to praise his name and trust in his love for you.

Happy New Year,

Violaine Diogene

And

André Winfrye

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

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

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