Hello wonderful readers!
We have moved our blog. We still have the same posts and information, but it’s now hosted on our domain.
Go to: www.blog.southerneventplanners.com to keep reading! We also redesigned the blog as well.
So update your Feed Readers! The new blog feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/SouthernEventPlanners. The new feed link is also over in the sidebar as well.
Go check out the new location and leave us comments and feedback!
Happy Planning!
Categories: The World According to Us
Tagged: New Blog, southern event planners
We have been working hard to improve our Unique Event Rentals web-site. We’re ecstatic to announce: It’s finished and online!!!
Visit www.uniqueeventrentals.com to check out (most of) our inventory, along with information and ideas for your event.
Since we couldn’t do a ribbon cutting or bottle breaking ceremony, a blog post will have to do.
Take a look and let us know what you think!
Categories: Have You Heard?! · The World According to Us
Tagged: Unique Event Rentals, Web-Site
After months of pouring through magazines and visiting every bridal store in a 300 mile radius (or more) you finally found the dress.
Your wedding day finally arrived: you had your hair and makeup professionally done, pretended you were a supermodel in those great “non-posed” photos, got married, did your first dance all in the dress.
So here you are after the wedding, weeks, months, maybe years later and you still have the dress. Some of you may still put it on and dance around the house when hubby isn’t home (ahhhhh “the memories of the way we were”), while others had it cleaned and preserved when they returned from the honeymoon. Then there are those of you that have it in a bag in the hall closet with the two extra bread makers you got as a wedding present that you have been meaning to return…
Well ladies, I have the perfect solution. Those of you who are going green will love this. Donate the dress for a good cause.
There is a great organization called the Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation. The foundation helps grant wishes to women and men with Metastatic Stage 4 terminal breast cancer. When you donate your wedding gown to Brides Against Breast Cancer, they resell the gown and the proceeds go to granting the wish of a breast cancer patient.
Can you think of anything that could serve a better purpose? You get a tax deduction, you recycled fashion, and helped another bride have a fabulous dress for a reasonable price – not to mention you are saving the overworked silkworms, all the while making a wish come true for a special person.
Categories: A Few of Our Favorite Things · Have You Heard?! · The World According to Us
Tagged: Breast Cancer, Brides, Brides Against Breast Cancer, Charity, Donation, Pink Ribbon, Wedding Dress
We all know that when your boyfriend gets down on one knee and ultimately becomes your fiance, he places a ring on your finger to symbolize this commitment. But which finger does the ring go on? Why, the ring finger, of course!
Any ring that implies a marriage or a commitment to marry should be worn on the left hand ring finger (you know, the one next to your pinky). You start with your engagement ring, then, when you are married, you can modify the engagement ring and it can become your wedding ring, or you can purchase another ring and wear it on top of the engagement ring. This implies the idea “the more diamonds (or stone of choice), the better!”
Now that you know what the ring finger is, it’s important to know how it originated. It’s very simple, and it started it Egypt. It was believed that a vital blood vessel ran from your heart to the ring finger on your left hand. Wearing a ring on your left hand symbolized true love. This particular vein was given the romantic name vena amore which translates to “vein of love.”
However, modern science has proven that there is no “vein of love” but it’s still a fun little tidbit.
So now you know what’s up with the ring finger!
Stacy
Categories: The World According to Us · What's Up With That?!
Tagged: Egyptian Legends, Ring Finger, Ring Finger Origin
We were searching online and we came across one of the cutest ideas ever from Estilo Weddings:
Cupcake Wrappers.
Not just any cupcake wrappers…take a look:
These would be adorable for bridal showers and wedding receptions. They also have several different colors and designs.
How cute are these?! We thought so too.
Categories: In My Opinion · Inspire Me, Inspire You · The World According to Us
Tagged: bridal shower, Cupcake Wrappers, Cupcakes, Fun Favors, wedding cupcakes, Wrappers
We are so excited and want you to be also!!!!
Last week we posted about our Bridal Seminar. Since then we have gotten even MORE prizes for attendees to win! The resposnses from our vendors have been overwhelming.
Now our prizes include:
You only have a few more days to sign up, March 4th is our deadline, so call us at (901) 757-9339 to reserve your spot!
Categories: The World According to Us
Tagged: Bridal Seminar, Prizes, Successful Wedding
Nashville songwriters Jan Linville and Dave Tough wrote a wonderful song that can be played during the Mother/Son dance at your wedding. It’s called My Little Boy.
They sent us an .mp3 of the song to pass along to those who are interested. Contact us at weddings@southerneventplanners.com if you would like a copy of the song.
Here are the lyrics:
Categories: Adventures in Wedding Planning · In My Opinion · Inspire Me, Inspire You · The World According to Us · To Be Wed
Tagged: Mother/Son Dance, My Little Boy, Song, Wedding Reception
Southern Event Planners is going to be at the University of Mississippi career fair on Wednesday, February 18, 2009.
The career fair is from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. in The Inn at Ole Miss Ballroom.
Stop by our booth and say hi! We’d love to meet you!
Categories: The World According to Us
Tagged: Career Fair, Ole Miss, Wedding Planning, wedding planning business
As you may know, I live my life with eyes wide open: always looking for my next inspiration. Well little did I know I would find it in my own store. A laser cut candelabra:
Then I found this amazing laser cut wedding dress the other day and loved the way it looked like a jagged version of lace.
laser-cut-dress-Andreas Kock
I started searching around and actually found quiet a bit of laser cut items that would be great for a wedding.
Then this cake picture is incredible!
Laser Cut Icecake Tord Boontje
Let me know what you think about it. Could this be the new wedding trend for the modern bride who wants to keep it romantic with an edge???
Enjoy!
Angela
Categories: In My Opinion · Inspire Me, Inspire You · The World According to Us
Tagged: 2009 Trend, Candelabra, Laser-Cut, Wedding Dress
All brides, regardless of your current planning stage. This seminar is designed to help with every aspect of planning a wedding: budgeting, hiring vendors, design, etiquette, menu selection, timelines, guidelines, and Do It Yourself projects. We know that wedding details are stressful, and sometimes you have more questions than answers.
This is an open forum designed to educate brides so the wedding planning experience is a positive one. You can meet other local brides, discuss plans, share stories, and of course, ask questions. It will be a few hours of fabulous girly fun!
A 2 hour question and answer session, a 30 minute personal consultation to ask any questions you may have with one of our planners, a bridal swag bag, cake, food, drinks, a wedding checklist/timeline, and planning questions to ask your vendors. You also have the chance to win one of the 15 amazing prizes listed below. This is a $450 value, not including the prizes!
The seminar will be held inside the Chickasaw Oaks Village shopping center on March 8, 2009 from 1:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M. Registration and sign-in for the seminar will be at Southern Event Planners , Suite 18 from 12:30 P.M. to 1:00 P.M.
To ensure that each bride receives personalized attention, space is limited to 30 brides. This seminar is for brides that are serious about receiving wedding planning advice from a professional wedding planner. This is not a meet and greet open house with vendors trying to sell you their services. You will not be pressured in any way.
If you would like to attend the Secrets to a Successful Wedding Seminar, you can call us at (901) 757-9339, email us at: weddings@southerneventplanners.com or stop by our store in Chickasaw Oaks Village at 3092 Poplar Avenue, Memphis, TN 38111.
The cost of the seminar is $100. A 50% deposit of $50 will be due by March 4, 2009. Once we receive your deposit, you will be sent a receipt via email or fax, whichever you prefer. This will ensure that your space is reserved.
Southern Event Planners has been in the wedding industry for over 10 years. We have planned weddings of all sizes, budgets, and themes. Angela Dacus, owner and wedding planner, is considered an expert in her field. She has been interviewed by every media outlet and has written several articles on hiring vendors, wedding budgets, and wedding design and decor.
In addition, Southern Event Planners has had 4 cover weddings and 21 featured weddings in local and national bridal publications. We are considered the premier wedding planning firm in Memphis.
Our brides are the most important element of our business. We do what’s best for the bride and for the budget, and we understand how overwhelming planning a wedding can be.
It’s nice to know that you can spend a few hours with other brides, be entertained and educated, and then walk away with the feeling of having a wedding planner without actually having to hire one.
If you would like to find out more about our company, visit www.southerneventplanners.com for information on our staff, our portfolio, and our featured weddings and articles.
Categories: Adventures in Wedding Planning · Have You Heard?! · The World According to Us
Tagged: Wedding Planning, wedding seminar
It’s amazing to hear that over $120 billion per year is spent in the wedding industry. That is a significant share of the market in this economy. When Southern Event Planners first went into business, over $20 billion made up the wedding industry. The past decade has seen a significant increase in revenue as well as an influx of wedding planners. It seems like everyone is calling themselves a “coordinator.”
When Jennifer Lopez starred in The Wedding Planner, she made the job look glamorous and fun. But in reality, being a wedding planner is a lot of hard work, long hours, and not to mention the job of owning your own business!
Every week, Southern Event Planners receives numerous inquiries and resumes from people wanting to enter the wedding planning field. We want everyone to follow their dreams, and if your true passion is to own your own wedding planning business, as a wedding professional, we want to provide you with the proper tools that are needed.
We have developed a series of seminars that will educate and inform you of all of the areas of being a wedding planner. These seminars will cover every aspect of wedding planning, from the definition of a wedding planner to actually directing the wedding day events. If you are serious about starting a new career as a wedding planner/consultant, then these seminars are a must!
The first two seminars in our series will be about starting your business and how to direct a wedding ceremony and reception.
Starting Your Own Wedding Planning Business
The first seminar will focus on the following:
This seminar will be on March 5, 2009 from 6:00 P.M. to 8:30 P.M. Light snacks and drinks will be provided. Registration and sign-in will be from 5:30 P.M. to 6:00 P.M. before the seminar at Southern Event Planners inside the Chickasaw Oaks Village shopping center at 3092 Poplar Avenue, Memphis, TN 38111.
The cost of this seminar is $99 and it is limited to 15 people to ensure that each person gets the attention he or she needs. A non-refundable deposit of $49.50 is due by March 2, 2009 to reserve your space. The remaining balance of $49.50 is due the day of the seminar. We accept Visa, MasterCard, cash, or check.
You Can be a Wedding Director
The second seminar will focus on the following:
This seminar will be held on March 7, 2009 from 8:30 A.M. to 2:30 P.M. Lunch is included, as well as an instructional book. Along with the knowledge of being a wedding director, you also have the opportunity to intern at an actual wedding, and upon completion of the seminar, you will receive a certificate.
Registration and sign-in will be from 8:00 A.M. to 8:30 A.M. before the seminar at Southern Event Planners inside the Chickasaw Oaks Village shopping center at 3092 Poplar Avenue, Memphis, TN 38111.
The cost of this seminar is $249 and it is limited to 15 people to ensure that each person gets the attention he or she needs. A non-refundable deposit of $124.50 is due by March 4, 2009 to reserve your space. The remaining balance of $124.50 is due the day of the seminar. We accept Visa, MasterCard, cash, or check.
You can call us at (901) 757-9339 for more information, email us at weddings@southerneventplanners.com, or stop by our store inside Chickasaw Oaks Village at 3092 Poplar Avenue, Memphis, TN 38111. If you would like to know more about our business or view our portfolio, visit www.southerneventplanners.com
Categories: Adventures in Wedding Planning · Have You Heard?! · The World According to Us
Tagged: how to be a wedding planner, wedding planning business
Wow, I can’t believe we are already in 2009! Who knew 2008 had wings and could fly as quickly as it did? This year has been incredible. We expanded our retail store. Destination weddings increased this year having us traveling over 7,000 miles for five different weddings. Our staff expanded to include a new office assistant and additional setup crew. Continuing education was a big focus as we attended three different educational conferences, and a few members of our staff received floral design training.
One of our brides was selected as the “Featured Wedding” for the cover of the 20th Anniversary of Southern Bride. That makes four cover weddings for us! We also had ten weddings (count them, TEN) featured in magazines. We are waiting to hear if Grace Ormond is going to pick up one of the destination weddings, so that would make eleven. That is a record for us. We built new relationships with some amazing new wedding talents and rekindled some old. Southern Event Planners started blogging (after months of “should we/shouldn’t we”) and now we are addicted. It’s all we want to do – outside of planning the next wedding.
We have been blessed to have worked with so many great clients this year: an NFL player and his amazingly gorgeous wife, a Cardiologist (a real lifesaver) and his “should be a model” wife and their precious daughter, 12 teachers, 4 attorneys, 3 retail store owners, 2 speech therapists, 6 nurses, 3 marketing professionals, 2 chemical engineers, 2 human resource managers, 1 librarian , 1 hair stylist, and a slew of college students/new grads.
Since we started blogging late this year we wanted to go back and share with you some of the highlights. Hopefully you will find something to inspire you and make it your own.
Enjoy!!!
Categories: The World According to Us · To Be Wed
Tagged: Pictures, Rentals, Updates, Weddings
If you just started your own wedding planning then you may not have a clue how much help you will need from a wedding planner or maybe just a day of director. Wait, aren’t those the same thing? Actually most brides think that a day of director and a wedding planner are the same thing. On the contrary…they are two very different and very seperate jobs.
A wedding planner is involved from the beginning of the planning and leads you through to the wedding day. The planner creates budgets, recommends vendors, schedules and attends vendor meetings to interview, obtain contracts and negoiate fees for you. For instance, if you have never hired a caterer before, and you don’t know the right questions to ask, it can be very intimidating and overwhelming. A wedding planner will make sure all aspects, even the smallest details, are addressed and planned for and have a backup plan for those hiccups in the process.
Some planners get involved in the overall design of the wedding: selecting linens, designing floorplans and traffic flow, creating signature cocktails, working with the caterer to design the buffet or tabletops, even selecting a trousseau of paper items to ensure your wedding has that cohesive look. The planner’s job doesn’t stop until she or he sends you down the aisle, coordinates your first dance, ensures your top tier of the cake and your special toasting glasses are all packed away in Mom and Dad’s car, and you and your new hubby are whisked away to your wedding night. There are several planners that can offer you all these services or you can pick and choose which ones fit you best.
A day of director is hired strictly to direct the rehearsal and ceremony and to follow the timeline of the reception. Most directors arrive a couple of hours prior to the wedding to help pin the flowers on the bridal party and family, make sure the programs and guestbook are in place, cue the start of the music, and tell the bridal party when to walk. Of course, that’s not all that the director does. His or her job continues on to the reception as well. You don’t need to worry about your guestbook not getting to the reception, making sure you do your first dance and cut the cake before the photographer leaves, or that the catering staff is passing the champagne for the toasting, a day of director does that for you.
So when deciding how much help you need with your wedding, think about the different roles that a wedding professional has and that will help you on your search for finding a qualified director or planner that provides you with just the right amount of service.
Happy Planning,
Angela
Categories: Adventures in Wedding Planning · The World According to Us
Tagged: Coordinator, Day of Coordinator, Day of Direction, Director, Our Services, wedding planner, Wedding Planning
Hey everyone!
We’re going to have a booth at the Bridal Show and Wedding Expo on Sunday, January 11, 2009. The location of the show is at the Hilton (939 Ridge Lake Blvd, Memphis, TN).
The hours are 12:00pm to 4:00pm. You can order tickets and get more information at: http://memphis-bridalshow.com/!
See you there!
Categories: The World According to Us
Tagged: Bridal Expo, Bridal Show, Hilton, Memphis, Wedding Expo, Wedding Show
According to TheKnot.com, 40 percent of engagements occur between November and February. If you are reading this, then you might be included in that 40%.
Dream Ring courtesy of Van Atkins
Since engagement season is upon us, I thought I would share a series of postings on how to start the wedding planning process: What to do before the I do’s.
Congratulations, you’re ENGAGED!!!! You have called and text everyone you know and shared your exciting news. I’m sure you are already out the door to buy a small library of wedding magazines and look for a wedding dress. But hold up…wait a minute…you are crazy excited and want to get going on the wedding planning. There are a few things to do first.
The big question is “now what do I do?”
My first piece of advice is to talk to your cute and lovable fiancee and decide what kind of wedding you would like, while keeping in mind what time of year is favorable and checking each other’s calenders for unavailable dates.
After you have decided if you want a church wedding or maybe a garden wedding, the next step would be to pick a time of year. With a few dates picked out, consult both sets of parents and family and make sure there are no other conflicts (your little brother’s high school graduation or your Alma Mata having a huge game that weekend and you know you can’t miss that either).
The next big task (and I do mean BIG) is to start compliling names of the potential guests. Doing this early will help you in determining what locations and the type of budget you will need. While making the list, start the budget talk and include all of the financial contributors. Make sure everyone is being honest and up front about who they want to invite and how much you will have to spend.
Armed with this ammunition, get ready to hit the bridal shows. January is the start of bridal shows. There is one almost every weekend in the month of January and they all differ, so it would be wise to check out at least two shows. You get to sign up for free giveaways, eat yummy cake samples, visit with photographers, look at wedding videos, check out the latest in bridal fashion and get ideas from florists and other wedding designers. Take a sheet of address labels to the show so you can easily sign up for any giveaways.
When you get home with your bag full of goodies, start sorting out which vendors caught your eye (you should have made a few notes on their materials) and start making yourself a wedding notebook of vendor information and magazine clippings of decor and gowns you love.
Check back often for the next “What to do before the I Do’s”!
Happy Planning,
Angela
Categories: Adventures in Wedding Planning · The World According to Us · To Be Wed
Tagged: Engagement, Estate rings, Wedding Planning
