The World According to Weddlady

Green Lighting: Guest Post by Karen Hill

Thank you to Karen Hill, Owner of Particle Wave Creative, for the following post on Green Lighting! Karen also provided the pictures that illustrate the article.

 

  
  

Green event lighting does not mean that you have to use those spiral CFL light bulbs everywhere. As someone who is passionate about lighting and providing Green Lighting services to my clients, I never use CFL light bulbs, not even in my home! The light they produce is sterile and cold. Lighting should warm up a space and create an atmosphere. Home lighting on a dimmer uses less power and creates a warm glow.

Custom Hand-Printed Recipe Cards - Perfect Wedding or Shower Gift

I was surfing blogs when I was supposed to be writing for this one. Turns out it was fate. I stumbled upon these adorable custom recipe cards on Paisley Tree Press and fell in love. (PS: This isn't an affiliate link...I just really love these cards!). They would be the perfect shower gift, and I could totally see them accenting a kitchen-themed wedding gift. I know a few wedding planners who wouldn't mind receiving a set for that matter!

 

Happy Planning!

Shayna Walker, Williamsburg Wedding Design

What Does it Mean to Be Green?

As part of a 14-month research tour of bridal shows, I attended the Mid-Atlantic Green Wedding Showcase this past weekend in College Park, Maryland. It was an eye-opening experience, full of dedicated, creative professionals with a great cause.

The Green Wedding Movement, like most newer concepts, has been a little bit slow to reach the wedding industry in this region of Virginia. I have read blog posts and magazine articles about ways to make weddings more eco-friendly, but attending the showcase on Sunday made it glaringly clear to me that I am a total newbie on the Green scene.

Fortunately, I loved what I learned, and I can’t believe how many ways there are to make both your wedding, and your wedding business green!

 

One of the highlights of the show was a presentation by author and former green bride Kate Harrison. Her book, The Green Bride Guide, is a fun read and full of practical tips to make your wedding more eco-friendly regardless of your budget.

Harrison and the other vendors at the showcase, all of whom had to meet exceptionally rigorous standards to even participate in the event, emphasized that reducing the impact of your event could be achieved through a combination of material selection, best practices and innovation.

Some of the tips that Harrison shared for brides and grooms included:

-   Choose invitations made of recycled materials and printed with soy ink

-   Use local, seasonal flowers and reduce the impact of shipping, preservatives and excess packing materials

-   Donate your bridal gown or bridesmaids’ dresses after the wedding to a charity that reuses or repurposes them

-   Choose a venue that is green and LEED certified

-   Ask your caterer to use local items and organic foods

-   Select all-natural beauty products

-   Find vendors who offset their carbon footprint (a really interesting process!)

If you’re dedicated to hosting a responsible wedding, pick up a copy of Harrison’s book and subscribe to the Green Bride Guide blog. Another great new resource is Katie Martin’s Eco-Beautiful blog.

Thank you to Lori Hill and her co-producers for allowing us to attend the Mid-Atlantic Green Wedding Showcase. I look forward to featuring more of the vendors and their commendable efforts in the days to come!

Happy Planning!

Shayna Walker, Williamsburg Wedding Design

Check out www.lifeinweddings.com today for an update on Shayna's big national research tour of bridal shows (50 states in 14 months). Wish me luck, and happy planning!

A Message to My Clients & Friends

Miss Me Yet?

It's been quiet on this blog this week, but we're certainly busy enough at Williamsburg Wedding Design! In between new client contracts, potential client consultations and administrative work, we've been plotting the great Bridal Show Tour stops #2 (Pennsylvania) and #3 (Maryland) for this weekend. We have some fun posts coming up for the "World" as well, so keep checking in, or subscribe (see the boxes, top right) and I'll make it even easier for you!

I wanted to explain a change that was made this week as I think many of our client and vendor friends will notice and may not understand.

Their Policy Changes & Mine

Due to some policy changes at a national website for brides and vendors alike, we have removed most of our outbound links to the site (and are in the process of removing all of them) and have removed our profile from their vendor search.

You can read more about the issues that led to the decision HERE. In a nutshell, the policies that they have recently enacted are, in my opinion, destructive to the industry and are unfair as they represent a material change to the vendor/site relationship that can only be "resolved" by paying the site a large sum of money.

How Former Clients Are Impacted

If you are a former client, the biggest impact is that I can no longer access reviews that you left on the site. Almost all of you wrote me super-kind thank you notes in addition to the reviews, and I am very grateful (and have kept all of them)!

Impact on Current Clients

If you are a current bride, the result is that you even if you leave a review on the site at some point, it will not be an asset to Williamsburg Wedding Design. I believe they are still searchable by future brides, so hopefully your efforts will continue to benefit engaged couples in their search.

Vendors, Take Note Please

If you are a vendor, I encourage you to familiarize yourself with the new policies and make your own choice how to react. You do need to react, though, if you disagree with the changes, as sitting by idly is the same as condoning the behavior.

I have been a long-time advocate of the site and am deeply, deeply saddened by the direction they have taken. I hold out hope that they will recognize the damage they've done, and will change back to the company that they were. In the meantime, I am required to speak my conscience and act accordingly, and I appreciate the friends and colleagues who have supported me in this effort.

More tips and secrets from Weddlady coming up!

Happy Planning.

Shayna Walker, Owner

Williamsburg Wedding Design

Mid-Atlantic Floral Industry in Crisis due to Snowmageddon

  

Colleagues in Trouble

Friends, this post is going to seem silly at first, but it is actually heartfelt. There are so many individuals and businesses impacted by the two weeks and more of freak snowstorms in the mid-Atlantic states. Williamsburg had fewer inches but has actually been impacted longer as the first storm that disabled us missed our northern friends (who are paying for that luxury now with a much more severe set of storms, I'm afraid). I watched as Starbucks workers re-stocked almost an entire store this morning as they tried to meet their a.m. rush because supplies hadn't been trucked in for days.

Among the businesses "frozen" by these events, and particularly impacted by these storms are our local floral designers.

A Little Budget-Friendly Help with Your Candy Buffet

I've mentioned this before, but by far our most popular post of all time was our Ultimate Fall Candy Buffet post. Evidently you cannot get enough of Kerri & Chico's incredible sweet masterpiece.

We appreciate how many people visit us to enjoy our candy buffets, and we finally located a little tool to help you save on your own spread of treats! If you love personalized M&M's (which are featured in the L-O-V-E dishes in the photo) this is the offer for you:

Buy 3 or more Bags Of Custom Printed MY M&M'S® And Get 1 FREE!

This link is an affiliate link, so by clicking you are helping support this blog. If you don't like affiliate links, you can always enter the M&M's website directly into your web browser and we'll love you just the same!

We love to see other candy buffets, so feel free to submit photos of your own masterpiece to shayna{at}williamsburgweddingdesign{dot}com. We'll share great photos right here on the Weddlady blog!

Happy Planning!

Shayna Walker, Williamsburg Wedding Design

A New iPhone App & Website for Brides!

Our friends at My Wedding Concierge just released a powerful new tool for couples who are planning the way a lot of busy people do today: via technology like the iPhone! Add to that a sleek new website with a super-useful search function, and www.my-wedding-concierge.com should be one of the first stops on your planning journey.

The My Wedding Concierge iPhone App allows couples to use their phones to easily search a database of professional wedding vendors, accessing business details, contact information, photos and more. The App includes a "mobile collaboration tool" allowing brides to find and rank vendors, as well as share and organize them among their friends via social networks like Facebook and Twitter!

All from the comfort of your iPhone!

Imagine going to a florist appointment and instead of leafing through your bulky folder of photos, just whipping out your iPhone where you've already rated and filed favorite pictures to share.

I confess, I am about a decade behind on cell phone technology (hey! I'm pretty good with Social Media anyway...), but an app like this one would convert me to an iPhone in a heartbeat if I were planning my own wedding today.

Whether or not you have an iPhone, check out www.my-wedding-concierge.com, home of My Wedding Concierge. The site is a great resource for local vendor searches, and is full of photos and access to great information.

To get more information and download the App, visit the My Wedding Concierge website: http://www.my-wedding-concierge.com.

Happy Planning!

Shayna Walker, Owner

Williamsburg Wedding Design

Time Management Strategies for a Great Party

Executing a great event takes more than just a great eye for style, fun guests and good food.  It requires superior time management and in-depth knowledge of how much time you'll need to get things done.

Start a Timeline

Establish an event timeline that can operate as your "script" on the event day, and the days of prep before it.  Get as detailed as you can, indicating everything you expect will happen, who will be responible for it and what to do in the event that things don't go quite as planned. 

Extra note: put copies of your script into more than one set of hands and you'll ensure that you're not the only one who knows what's going on.

Do a Run-Through

If you are planning a lot of manual tasks, be sure to try them out in advance and find out how long they really take.  Have 200 napkins to fold?  Try folding 5 or 6 in advance and set aside plenty of uninterrupted time to accomplish the feat before the big day. 

Write out your instructions (even include pictures) in case you are called away to handle another issue - it could save you time if someone has to take over mid-task, and you can always store away the info on index cards for your next event.  And always have plenty of "staff" support.

Include Good Art

Invest time in accurate diagrams.  Nothing eats up time on event day like rearranging a room ad nauseum because you haven't pre-determined your exact layout.  Use a program like PowerPoint to establish a visual layout in advance. There are also more accurate programs designed specifically for special events. They require an investment but are handy tools.

Assign a Timekeeper

If you tend to get "carried away" in the setup, assign someone to give you regular time checks, and establish an absolute cutoff time when you will depart and get yourself ready to host your party!

Respect Experience

Hire pros when necessary.  A professional team setting up an event may seem like a luxury, but the fact is that many of the setup tasks will take a lot longer than you might believe.  If timing is critical, hire a professional event planner to accomplish the pre-event work, and consult with her accurately about the extent of work that needs to be done.  The return you'll receive in reduced quantities of stress will be worth every penny!

Subscribe to our blog to receive more great party tips!

Happy planning!

Shayna Walker Weddle
Williamsburg Wedding Design

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