Introduction
Hello! Welcome to my online blog portfolio. Below you will find a video introduction of myself. But first, let me show you around the site.
To the right of the screen, you can find a variety of blog posts from events I have planned to blogs I have written. Below that, the blogs are divided into categories.
Event planning: These are events I have planned in the past that I have decided to feature in this blog portfolio.
BloggerBrides: These are blog posts I have written for BloggerBrides.com, mostly about planning my own wedding.
Social Media: These are posts I have written especially for this site in order to share my thoughts and experiences with social media.
In this video, I also talk about how social media is gaining ground in the event planning world. It is so important to stay up to date with what is going on in the world and I give a few examples of how event planners and vendors can stay connected.
Finals Feast
Last semester, I was asked to plan a large event to close out the end of the semester for Eagle Entertainment at Georgia Southern University. Finals Feast is an annual event that has been happening for over 20 years. After a huge success the previous year, I was given a tough task to top.
Finals Feast happens every year during fall semester of finals week. It gives students a chance to take a break from studying to relax. It also gives a chance for the senior administration to give back to the students, as they are the ones who serve the “feast.”
In tradition, breakfast was served for dinner and two buffet lines were created at the entrance of the ballroom.
An ongoing canned food drive was also held that ended that night in raising over 1,000 canned goods.
Students could also play boardgames and decorate gingerbread cookies.
Although the room was set up to flow, nothing could have prepared us for the overwhelming attendence. Over 1,000 students attended the event from the previous 400 students that attended last year.
Ultimately, the big hit of the night was the massage therapists that I arranged. Free 5-10 minute massages were given to relieve stress. This was set up on the stage of the ballroom.
The night was a huge success and I received wonderful feedback from both the senior administration and students.
Alpha Omicron Pi Family Weekend
This past fall I had the pleasure to plan a low budget family weekend for Alpha Omicron Pi. The weekend consisted of a dessert reception with a silent auction on Friday night at the Holiday Inn in Statesboro, Ga. It was followed by a tailgate lunch at the AOII house which preceded the Georgia Southern University Football game.
The weekend started off with a formal invitation to all family members that were ordered from Formal-invitations.com.
A cardinal red rose was used on the invitation as that is the sorority’s flower. It was pinned with a ruby, the sorority’s stone.
The dessert reception was a drop-in from 7pm until 10pm and was catered by Holiday Inn. Round tables with bouquets of red roses were set up for seating. Long rectangular tables surrounded the room and pre-reception area that held the auction items. As an inexpensive decorative item, sticks, branches and rocks were spray painted red and laid out on the tables. There was also a projector set up with an ongoing slideshow of pictures throughout the past year.
As a treat and special surprise, I also had a panda cake made, which is the sorority mascot.
The next day, a tent was set up outside the AOII house to accommodate more seating. A buffet was served by RJ’s Steakhouse and the silent auction was so successful from the night before that it continued until noon Saturday. Unfortunately, I do not have pictures from that day in my file.
The weekend was a huge success and the auction raised over $800 toward the AOII Juvenile Arthritis Foundation.
Twitter has exploded over the past year as a social networking phenomenon. Something that was once so misunderstood is now widely used around the world. Celebrities are on it, students are on it, businesses are on it, and it wasn’t until these past couple of months that I found one more segment of people that are on it: Wedding and event vendors.
The average bride today is busy working as she scrambles to plan her upcoming wedding. So what does she turn to? The internet. Twitter is just one more medium on the internet that allows you to feel connected to those around you.
How did I set up my engagement pictures? Through twitter. How does a vendor let someone know their at a bridal show? Through twitter. How can a wedding planner get a picture out to multiple people as fast as possible? Through twitter.
Twitter is the new age way of communicating. It is so important to keep up relationships with your clients, and twitter is one way of making that happen.
I personally created a twitter account for Eagle Entertainment so that students could “follow” and stay up to date on the events being offered.
Twitter can also be used to find clients. Through using hash tags and searches you can easily find brides that are looking for your services and send them a “tweet.” What better way to start a relationship with a bride than to make them feel special that you sought them out (without really having to do any work! shhh!).
So if staying up to date with social media is key, a Twitter account is definitely needed for every wedding and event vendor out there.
Business of Event Planning
The original blog post can be found here.
For my PR Practicum class, we were assigned to read a trade book and present a book review to the class. Well, most of the books on Barbara Nixon’s list were about Public Relations (who would have thought, in a PR class right?), but since I wanted to focus on event planning I decided to go off the list and choose a book about event planning.
After a short search on Amazon, I found The Business of Event Planning: Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Successful Special Events By Judy Allen.
The book was an easy read, yet somewhat repetitive. Here is the slideshow I made in response to the book:
If you are interested in the comments I made for each slide, please e-mail me.
Modern Etiquette
This orginial Post can be found on BloggerBrides.
So I am now a little under 8 months away from my wedding. I cannot believe it and I know these 8 months will pass by so fast.
Classes start back for me on Monday, but over the break, I was able to fit more reading in (which I loved!). After many trips to the local Books-a-Million store and searching through the wedding section over and over again, one of the books I came home with and read was…
New Etiquette for Today’s Bride by Diane Forden
This book was so great and touched on SO many different areas.
Some of the few things I loved in this book were:
- The idea of a Ribbon Bouquet: This is an old tradition. At one of your showers, a bridesmaid can collect all the ribbons and bows used to wrap your gifts and create a Ribbon Bouquet out of them for you to use during the Rehearsal.
- Charm Cake: This is also a tradition. You hide a charm in a cake during your bridesmaid brunch with a string attached. Each bridesmaid pulls hers out and each charm means something different.(i.e. a horseshoe is good luck, a ring is the next to marry).
- It also gave the exact order of how to put invitations together.
- I was able to understand the “and guest” rule more easily.
- Rehearsal dinner toasts are explained.
- Anniversary Dance: I LOVE this idea. All couples dance, and one by one are called off the dance floor until the couple who have been together the longest remains. In tradition, the bride can then present them with her bouquet, but in my case, it will most likely be my grandparents (57 years on Jan 6), so we are each going to cut in and I will dance with my grandpa and my then hubby will dance with my grandma.
- Welcome Basket: as my wedding is somewhat of a destination wedding, this was very helpful.
There were PLENTY other tips and tricks in here as well as the regular protocol when it comes to etiquette.
I would recommend this book to anyone who has questions about any traditions or etiquette or just likes a quick read about weddings.
Invitations
This original Post can be found at Bloggerbrides.
When I last posted, I was having trouble finding the right invitations and the ones I did love were a little bit over budget. So I decided to look into the DIY approach.
Well, just yesterday, my fiance and I got back to our house and a sample of the invitations were in the mail. I thought they were pretty online, but in person they are 1o times better! I fell in LOVE with them. Luckily, my parents met us in Savannah for dinner last night and I showed my mom and she agrees! Although they are a little over the budget, I have saved PLENTY in other areas that we can afford them!
So here they are!:
They are from InvitationConsultants.com. The names at the top will have a & sign instead of the monogram, because I believe it’s bad luck to use the monogram until after the ceremony (just one of my nip-picky things).
These invitations have also inspired me to use gold throughout my wedding as the trim of the inside is a thin gold band. I am so excited about these and can’t wait to order them.
In the mean time, since my wedding is still 8 months away, I will be ordering Save the Dates first. I have also found these and will be ordering within the next week.
I knew I wanted to use an engagement picture on my Save the Date magnets, but after getting our pictures back, I can’t choose just one!
So I found these magnets from agiftfulheart.com
I love that I can use 4 photos and also put our wedding site on there. The background will be navy with white writing and possibly gold accent?
However, now I have to choose four of our engagement pictures. Here are the candidates:
Pictures by Teresa Earnest at MemoriesNMore.com
Which ones do you think I should use? Has anyone else done save the dates with multiple pictures?
Flowers Galore
This original post can be found at BloggerBrides.
This past Tuesday my fiance and I got to take our engagement pictures. I am very excited to get them back this week. I have had a few peaks at them at my photographer’s blog, but I will post them here as soon as I get copies of them!
In the mean time, this is what I have planned thus far. I am sure things will change, but I am happy to say I am ahead of the game. I finally found my florist! I’m still waiting for the full contract to be signed, but here is what is planned for the ceremony.
My ceremony is going to be in a small square in Savannah with a military statue in the middle. As my colors are rustic orange and navy, orange rose petals are going to line the aisle of white chairs.
Photo Credit: Great Expectations Sky
Similar to above, but there is no tree blocking my aisle.
The only flowers at the front(besides the bouquets) will be the rod iron unity candle stand with a flower embellishment on the front.
Photo Credit: Events Rentals
This flower arrangement will be with flame mini calla lillies, roses, red berries, and greenery. At the beginning of the aisle there will also be a shepherd’s hook on each side with a cone bouquet hanging from it.
Photo Credit: Francoise Weeks
It will be similar to above, but more in a cone shape and in my color scheme, of course!
Finally, the bouquets!
My bridesmaids will each carry a small bouquet of Flame Mini Calla Lillies with short stems wrapped in green fabric.
Photo Credit: Prescott Wedding
And my Bouquet will be Mini Calla Lillies as well, but all white. I am going to have it wrapped in the left overs of my dress after it is altered.
Photo Credit: BBlossoms
The men’s crosages, which is only one groomsmen and the family members since the rest will be in their military uniform will be one single flame mini calla lilly with red berries. The mother’s ( and grandmothers) crosages will be a couple white mini calla lillies, so that we will not have to worry about clashing outfits.
Well, thats it for the ceremony, I will share the reception details on another day. What do you think? Any ideas? What are you doing the same or different?
New Blogger Bride
This original post can be found at BloggerBrides.
Hello all! My name is Kacie and I am a brand new blogger bride! I got engaged on Oct. 17 and I am well on my way to planning my wedding! My Fiance, who is in the Army, and I will be getting married on September 4 (Labor day weekend) in Savannah, Ga. Our ceremony will be at Madison Square and the reception will be at the Hilton DeSoto.
I have already found a photographer (Teresa from MemoriesNmore, day of wedding coordinator and DJ.) I am currently in the process of finding a florist. The colors of my wedding are Navy (since the guys will be wearing dress blues) and burnt orange.
Below is the inspiration board I created for my wedding.
Has anyone else used/ is using these colors? Has anyone had/been to a reception at the Hilton DeSoto? I’d love to see pictures and hear ideas!
