Why Hire a Wedding Coordinator

Planning a wedding is a big job with investment of not only your money but also your time. Before you embark on this journey, consider the following misconceptions about wedding planning:

Planning my wedding has been a dream of mine since I was a little girl. I don’t need to hire anyone…
Picking out bridal gowns and theme colors is only a small fraction of the entire wedding planning process. The glamour starts to wane when you are confronted with deadlines, budgets, and contracts. The process may become arduous for those not used to managing endless details involving logistics and coordination with numerous vendors. Through years of experience we know what needs to be done, when it needs to be done by, and who to go to for the best price and quality. Our job is not to steal your joy of planning your own dream wedding. Instead, we are here to help make that dream a reality and ensure that you and your significant other get the opportunity to enjoy one of the most memorable days of your lives.

We don’t need to hire a coordinator. We have many friends and family who have volunteered to help with the wedding…
While it is nice to have those close to you offer a helping hand it can also be a double-edged sword. Tasks may not be done in your time frame or by your standards. Unless you have hosted a wedding before, you do not know the amount of stress and anxiety that can build up in the weeks/days leading up to the big day. Disputes may arise and tempers may flare. The last thing you want to do is spend the night before your wedding, much less your wedding day, checking up on everyone to make sure they’ve done their job. Also, think twice before asking your maid of honor or a close relative to be your wedding coordinator. Like other hired vendors, good coordinators spend most of their time working at your wedding not drinking cocktails and mingling with guests. Let your guests be guests at your wedding and leave the work up to us.

There is already a coordinator at my ceremony site…
Don’t confuse wedding coordinators with site coordinators. Site coordinators will only take care of things related to the use of their sites. They do not help you develop or adhere to a timeline, nor do they act as a point of contact for all your vendors and helpers. A lot of times they are present only at the start of the event to make sure rules have not been broken. Ultimately their number one priority is the well being of the venue, not you.

We can’t afford to hire a wedding coordinator…
Our vendor connections and know how puts you at a financial advantage. Clients who have used our services saved anywhere from 20-30% on the overall cost of their wedding. This is an investment that pays for itself. You simply can’t afford NOT to
hire us.

Wedding Entrance Hit on YouTube

We've seen people dancing into their Grand Entrance at their wedding reception, but at the processional for the ceremony? That is what newly weds Kevin Heinz and Jill Peterson did at their wedding ceremony a few months ago, and the video shared on YouTube has caught some attention worldwide.


I think what this couple did was very creative, and fun. It looked like everyone in their wedding party had fun doing it, and their guests were quite engaged to this unusual entrance as well.


Hey, it's your wedding. Whatever ways you can make it fun and uniquely yours is only limited to your imagination! Hope you'll enjoy this video as much as I do.

Will you ever consider doing this?

I saw this clip on The Today Show, and thought I should share the video with brides around the world. While the idea of "trash the dress" gives photographers and brides the opportunities to express their creativity and unconventional sides, this is certainly not for everybody.


I myself would choose to eBay my wedding gown if I don't think I'd ever wear it again - at least someone else can get an inexpensive gown and the dress gets "recycled." For now though, I am still holding on to my preserved gown, hoping that I would be able to give it away either as an heirloom some day, or a gift to a friend or relative.

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08.30.09 Cindy & Thomas's Wedding Recap

Cindy has been my best friend since junior high, so when she called me in May to announce the good news that she got engaged, I asked her what I can do to help. It turned out that she already got her ceremony location in mind - the redwood grove in the Berkeley Botanical Garden. Having an available location picked made planning a wedding 3 month from the engagement quite feasible. Also, Cindy had pretty distinct ideas of what she wanted for her wedding, so coordinating for her wedding was a breeze! My only challenge was that I'm in Southern Cal and the wedding is in Northern Cal, and I am not familiar with the area, so unfortunately in selecting vendors, I could not contribute much. All I did was give Cindy some ideas.

Group photo at the redwood grove (picture by Jesse)

Cindy & Tom wanted a small and intimate wedding with about 45-50 people. They wanted a short, non-religious ceremony follow by a casual reception where everyone gets to party and enjoy the food. Being environmentally conscious, she sent her wedding invite with eVite, and almost all of her guests RSVP through that. She took my suggestion and had Greg, my husband, married her & Tom.

A few other things made her wedding really unique: she has no wedding party, she has a customized wedding dress that she designed, a band consisted of guitarist & violinist to play bluegrass music for the ceremony as well as the beginning of her reception, and she had none of the typical wedding activities like bouquet or garter toss, slide show, or party favors. Toasting was basically free-style.

As much as things are very casual with Cindy & Tom' wedding, there were still things to coordinate to ensure her wedding day went as smoothly and carefree as she wanted. It did, and I had fun being involved with her wedding by being the coordinator!

Congratulations again to Cindy & Tom. What a memorable wedding!

Credits: Photography by Dann Chen.

The "stage" of the outdoor mini amphitheater

Guests of the wedding waiting for the bride to march down

Here comes the bride with her beautiful bouquet!

Exchange of rings

The kiss

The violinist playing at the reception

Street view of the reception site - Adagia Restaurant (picture by Peggy)

 

The reception room & the centerpiece (pictures by Peggy)

The reception

The salmon & the steak were both delicious! (pictures by Peggy)

The flower and the cake

Cutting the cake

Latest Wedding Trends - Part II

When we got married in 2004, film was on the verge of being converted to digital almost completely. At the time, 35mm was still considered better quality than digital photography because of the limitation on the mega-pixels. The same goes with edited video footage of your wedding day.


I remembered my husband didn't even want video initially, but after a visit with a videographer, we totally changed our mind, and we are glad that we did the video, because things in motion are definitely different than things in stills. While great photography tells good stories based on the moment the pictures were captured, a movie transcends the mood and the tone of your big day with much more power.


With video, our 8-hour day was condensed to an one-hour movie which can help us reminisce our wedding day any time. At the time, many wedding day videos we've seen are mostly raw footage of the whole day, documentary style, so imagine our appreciation of a nicely edited wedding video that can be played like a movie.


Well, the past few weddings I've been to this year, I noticed a new trend has emerged, due to the awesome development of technology, and it's taking that wedding day video to a step above - it's call "same-day-edit," which is a highlight reel of your entire wedding day in as little as 3-5 minutes, mostly shared as a presentation toward the middle of the bride & groom's reception. 


If your wedding day video is like a movie, then the same-day-edit is like the preview for the movie - it contains all the heart-wrenching scenes that makes you want to watch the movie!


Same-day-editing videos also makes sharing your big day online with friends & family that much easier.


Here are some samples of a same-day-edit, this one below is the work of Ray & Joyce from Still Motion:



yen+tom // the trailer from stillmotion on Vimeo.



Here's one from Ray & Joyce's wedding day, produced by Still Motion in collaboration with MindCastle:



joyce + raymond // stillmotion special edition sde // LA from stillmotion on Vimeo.

Want to hire a good videographer to do a same-day-edit for your wedding? Be sure to contact us for referrals!

Latest Wedding Trends - Part I

Bygone are the days of chocolate fountains, ice sculptures, and dove releases. If you really want to impress your wedding guests these days, I highly suggest renting a photo booth for your reception. Take my word for it. It’s a small price to pay for the hours of joy and entertainment you will derive from it.

Peggy and I just finished a wedding last weekend. It was a beautiful intimate wedding with 110 guests, most of which were Chinese family members from both the bride and groom sides. For those of you who’ve never been to a Chinese wedding, it’s sometimes difficult getting the older Chinese generation to let loose on the dance floor. Don’t get me wrong. There are exceptions to the rule. When the mood strikes, my mom will not hesitate to give you a taste of her line dancing skills. Nonetheless, more often than not you’ll find Aunt Rosemary or Grandma Lee sitting at their respective tables guarding the centerpieces, being entertained only by watching the younger generation crowd the bars and spill their drinks as they stumble their way to the dance floor. Well, I was happy to see that this was certainly not the case at a wedding reception well equipped with a photo booth.

Before I continue, for those unfamiliar with a photo booth. It’s a portable booth approximately 6’tall x 5’wide x 3’deep (see pic). You and your friends step inside the booth and with a press of a button the built-in camera takes 4 shots which are then printed almost instantaneously in photographic quality.

This particular photo booth printed all 4 poses on a 4”x6” semi glossy waterproof photo paper with a customized footer selected by the bride and groom (see pic). Two copies of the photo are printed, one for the guest to keep (FREE of charge) and one for the married couple to put in their photo album. Yes, TWO copies, so pose with discretion ;) This photo booth vendor even provided scrapbooking tools for guests to get creative with. This was very popular with the kiddies.

Back to my story, the photo booth welcomed its first guests at the start of the cocktail hour. This worked out really well because guests, especially the non-drinkers, find themselves at a lost during this portion of the wedding day. They’ve already signed the guest book, found their seats for the reception, and pocketed their favors. What else is there left to do? Well at this party, even before the drinks were flowing there was a line forming at the photo booth. Rarely do you see that happen on the dance floor.

Needless to say, no one noticed that an hour had passed before the wedding party made their entrance. In fact, I personally had to put a halt to the photo booth line so that people had sufficient time to take their seats before the official start of the reception. I sensed a sigh of relief from the guests when the emcee announced that the couple rented the booth for the entire reception so people were welcomed to use it at any time. Sure enough, they did not need to be told twice, as groups of friends and family flocked to the photo booth throughout the entire evening. It helped fill in any gaps that you may otherwise experience at a wedding. By the end of the evening the 200 picture album was almost completely filled up! The couple definitely got their money’s worth.

I think the photo booth appeals to guests because it’s easy to use, photos are shot in private so people are more comfortable with their poses, and best of all you get to take with a free photo keepsake of yourself having a good time with your friends and family. By the same token, the photo booth is a great way for the bride and groom to entertain guests who are dance floor shy and as an added bonus, they will take with them many photos of their guests having a blast on their big day!

Interested in renting one of these guaranteed crowd pleasers? Just ask Peggy or I and we will get you a great deal!

The Wedding Toast

Two weekends ago, I was the unofficial wedding coordinator and the non-existent matron of honor to my best friend Cindy (more on Cindy's wedding later).


Regardless of the title, I gave a toast, as I was not about to give up my only chance to congratulate my best friend in public. My speech was well received, there were quite a bit of laughs throughout my toast, and at the end of it, I think I saw Cindy's eyes glistening with tears.


I have been to many weddings myself where sometimes the toasts were so long that they were unbearable.  Part of the reason is because most people dread public speaking. In fact, in one of the surveys, making a public speech is the #1 fear for most people! I cannot believe that making a public speech is actually feared more than death!


So I thought I share what I think are the elements of a good speech for a toast. I am talking mostly about content. As for introduction, body language and delivery of the speech, please refer to: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Wedding-Toast


Here are some Do's & Don'ts:


Do's:

1. Prepare for what you want to say ahead of time. Rehearse it, and time yourself.
2. Tell people who you are, how you're related to the bride or the groom. It's important for people to know your relationship with the bride or groom, because it makes your speech that much more relevant.
3. You can share with people your first impression of the bride or the groom, including anecdotes, if any.
4. Add some humor to your speech, if appropriate.
5. Use short stories or imagery to demonstrate your points.
6. It's OK to make fun of yourself.
7. Be sincere and genuine.
8. End your speech with well wishes for the couple.

Don'ts:

1. Don't read from your writing. It's OK to use little cue cards with highlights or bullet points.
2. Don't have a long speech. People have short attention span. It's generally good to keep the speech under 3 minutes.
3. Don't embarrass the bride or the groom. Although it's OK to poke a little fun at them, if you know that this won't upset them in public.
4. Try not to get overly emotional and cry while delivering your speech, because it makes your speech hard to understand.

Next time when you ask people to raise the glass, hopefully it leaves a warm, fuzzy feeling to the people whom you're toasting.