Friday, December 23, 2011

2012 upcoming events

and many more to come, like a wedding show at the Mark Twain House & More.  Stay tuned!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Holiday Cheer

We here at ESTOccasions would like to wish you some holiday cheer.  Our offices will be closed from the 23rd until the 26th.  Feel free to send us an email during this time.  May your holiday season be filled with joy, happiness, good friends and family.  May all of your traditions continue, and with any luck we won't all gain an additional 10 lbs.  :)    
    HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Holiday Wedding Maddness

The holiday time is really upon us.   No matter what you believe in, how you celebrate or what you do during this holiday time, there is bond to be parties, gatherings and people who are going to ask over and over again how wedding planning is going.  Not only will they ask but they may even give unsolicited advice, or opinions about your planning. 

At the office party, you will hear about your coworkers daughter's college best friend's wedding and how they just LOVED that wedding.  Or how their cousins son DJ's on the weekend, and they don't mind passing along your name. My favorite is when brides tell me after the holidays how great aunt suzy wanted to know how long after the wedding will they wait to have kids. The other wedding conversation that comes up is how much you are spending. The simple thing is that you don't need to share this information and do your best to politely just exit the conversation.  Or tell people your planning is moving along well and that you are really just enjoying being engaged.  Don't feel as though you need to explain yourself and honestly most people ask only cause they are interested. 
 
As a planner, I do tend to pick the brains of people who I meet who are engaged or just got married. I warn them first and ask them if they don't mind if I ask them a few questions.  I also state it is for research because I can learn a lot from people who just went through it or are in the middle of it.  Everyone is different, and what they end up loving and hating, I find interesting.

So good luck as your work your way through this holiday time, only a few more weeks to go.  Soon it will be 2012, a whole new year of people asking you how it is going. :)  Happy Holidays!



Thursday, December 1, 2011

Taking My Own Advice

Most couples who have been planning (even if they have a planner) find one or two tasks that just seem impossible or as far away from being enjoyable as they can be.  It is bound to happen, it can't all be fun all the time.  If it was, do you think you would enjoy the good times as much?  (Not sure why I had a sort of zen moment)  Anyways I can almost always pick the two things each couple won't want to do after they start, of course each couple is different.  

I find myself saying often "it is okay", " this is just a bump in the road", "think about the big picture" , "take a deep breath" and then walking them through the issue until we find a solution that works out best for them.  I have to do the pep talk first though, I have to bring my couple back to a point where they are listening, calm and ready to honestly tackle the task at hand.  The last few weeks have been interesting here at ESTOccasions and even I, have moments of "what the hell" though depending on the issue, there may be other words in that phrase. Most of us wedding professionals work for ourselves.  It is a balancing act (which for the most part I love and makes me good at what I do.   Example: Delaying the bride by 10 minutes to ensure the rental company truck won't be in any photos as they deliver a working oven this time to the catering company, all while smiling and letting her know that we are just waiting for a few guests to sit down.  Which was true and thank goodness for last minute folks.)  I have to balance between running two businesses, a household, a family and time to just breath.  It is what I love but I found myself this morning in a bit of stress.  The boys needing one thing, only have instant coffee in the house (bad choice but better than none), a full email box, appointments later today, deadlines and thinking how in the world was this going to work today.  So I took a deep breath, reminded myself that everything really is OKAY and I need to look at the big picture.  Slowly just went back to checking one thing off at a time and being thankful that I get to do something I LOVE every single day. Now I remember why I say these things to my clients.  :)

So if you find yourself this weekend, stressing while trying to figure out your long list of wedding tasks, remember to take a deep breath.  Tackle one thing at a time.  Know you can't make everyone happy and always, ALWAYS look at the big picture.  Your friends and family are coming because they LOVE you, they want to share in this moment with you, and maybe remind yourself why you are doing what you are doing.    This zennish moment has been brought to you by instant coffee, 5 hours of sleep and a happy wedding planner. :)