Hi people, Shile here reporting live from Covid-19 quarantine state day 8……….okay jokes aside it is officially day 8 since I have been home trying to adhere to the guidelines from the Maryland government about social distancing. Needless to say, these are interesting times indeed!

One of my mentees has all her events in the fall and I said to her “girl you are so lucky.” I, on the other hand, has been dealing with postponement plans and the effects it has on the clients. I have spent the last few days talking a lot with my event planner friends and other industry professionals and one thing that everyone is trying to do is take it a day at a time. One question on a lot of people’s minds is what to do now that you are home for the next couple of weeks. 

You know your girl; I am all about resting in times like this, but I also really think one thing we should all do is see this time as an opportunity to “RENEW OUR...

I hosted a webinar recently called “how to plan right when things go wrong” (a snippet of the webinar can be viewed in the clip above) ……. Well, little did I know how wrong things were about to get. The webinar was great and the main focus of it all was crisis management. As event professionals, we understand that crisis will happen and it’s all about how to approach it. 

Well, no one was prepared for the crisis of covid-19 and the impact it will have on the event industry until it happened and here we are right in the middle of it all. In full disclosure, I had one event cancel and three events get postponed in the month of April and we are yet to reschedule a new date because there is a lot of uncertainty regarding what will happen next.

The last point I mentioned in the webinar was to be flexible and improvise when a crisis occurs. This point has been so real over the last few days. Here are some tips on what to do with the crisis we are...

Did you hear......I released a new FREE downloadable template this month? I want to make sure my people get a chance to snag it too. Grab your copy HERE.

I can’t stress enough the importance of making a great first impression. The world we live in is fast-paced and most times you have less than 5 seconds to grab people’s attention. When a couple reaches out to you to plan their wedding, they have taken time out of their schedule to figure out if you will be the right fit for them. So, make it count!

I get questions from new planners all the time wondering what it is they are doing wrong and why it seems they are not booking the right clients or why they are having consultations, but that are not leading to any sales. When I seat with them and inquire further, I have found that sometimes the issue is they are not asking the “right questions.”

Trust me I was there too. The more I practiced talking with clients the more comfortable I got and the more I could...

I get this question so often from emerging wedding planners and I can totally relate. I hosted a webinar in January of 2020 on “4 things you need to know before starting as a wedding planner.” This question came up again, so I decided to write a blog post about it because I feel it is such an important topic to address (you can watch my video response to this question from the QandA session on the webinar).

Believe it or not, a lot of people who want to start out as planners feel the exact same way. In your heart, you really want to do this, but your mind is saying, “no, there are so many other people who do it so well so why bother?” I get it, but before you rule yourself out, come with me on this journey.

Close your eyes with me for a second and think about the major restaurants in your area (you can open now so you can keep reading lol). For my area DC, Maryland, and Virginia there are a lot of fast-food restaurants like McDonald's, Burger King,...

 The last time you heard from me was 11 months ago. I cannot believe this year has gone by so fast. As 2019 was approaching last year I had plans, great plans on what I wanted to do especially in relation to mentoring and RAE Moments. The year started off rough with some personal setbacks but 2019 has also been a very amazing year in a lot of ways. The truth is I have been hiding something from you all for a while.

I am sure you are like whatttttttt, it’s not as bad as you think. What I have been hiding is a good thing. For the past 11 months, I have been building an online teaching platform for wedding planners. Phew, I am so glad I got it off my chest. It is not a secret anymore my people, RAEmoments.com is live and here to stay. 

If you have been rocking with me for a while, you know I have been teaching and mentoring for years but this year I decided I wanted to take the knowledge online.

 Don’t get me wrong I still love to mentor and coach but...

A lot of times when we think of the word "compassion" it's usually in the context of family and friends. Have you ever thought of the word compassion for your clients? That’s what I want to focus on today.

Compassion is defined as a sympathetic concern for others. Other ways to describe compassion is empathy, kindness, consideration, showing understanding. An article in “Huffington Post” broke it down so well as it described eight signs you a compassionate person:

1. You find commonalities with other people
2. You don’t put emphasis on money
3. You act on empathy
4. You are kind to yourself
5. You teach others
6. You are mindful
7. You have high emotional intelligence
8. You express gratitude

Compassion is a trait some readily have but it is also a trait that can be developed if it doesn't come naturally to you.

When I started out with this post I thought it was going to be one part but I got half way and felt,  wow a lot has been said already by looking at these eight signs....

It feels good to be back. It has been a while since my last blog post titled "rest". I have spent the better part of 2018 re-branding which has been a long and hard process of redefining the who and what of RAE Affairs. It was certainly a journey worth taking and it has helped me tremendously to understand more of the what and why of my business.

Also in the past few months, I have still been teaching with the Wedding Planning Institue. I have also spent a lot of time working on 2018 weddings and to be honest it has taken up so much of my time I have been waiting for the fall to start back up with RAE Moments. However, my fall calendar is even busier than the rest of the year so I said to myself you know what Shile "There is never going to be a perfect time, work is never going to get less, so just start."

I think it was perfect that the last post I had talked about "rest" as I mentioned rest is vital but after the rest its time to make a move right? Sometimes we are waiting for...

When I started out as an event planner I took some courses. One of the things my instructor said was after a major event you need to "Rest." At that time I did not fully grasp all of what she was saying but as I have continued on in my career I have come to appreciate her advice.

Rest is a vital part of being successful as a planner. It is important to take a day after planning a major event to rest and recuperate. You owe it to yourself and your clients to be fully prepared for the next event ahead. When you rest, not only will you be rejuvenated but you will also think more clearly. Depending on where you are in your business you might not have the privilege of resting after every single event especially in the height of the wedding season with back to back events. 

To some rest might look like sleeping most of the next day, to others rest might be spending time with family and loved ones, to others rest might be catching up on T.V. shows, to others, it might be...

I’m I really meant to do this? This is a question you might find you ask yourself constantly when you are thinking about starting out as an event planner. I want to first say that doubt is very normal. However, doubt can limit you from starting, it can keep you stuck in the same place and you only live out your dreams in your mind but never bring it to reality.

You might feel you don’t have all it takes but you will never know until you try, and the only way to try is to start from where you are. Look at the resources available to you and around you and ask yourself what you can do with these resources? It could be that you register for one of our workshops, or you sign up for a webinar or find a local non-credit school near you that offers wedding planning. Or you could reach out to event planners in your area to volunteer.

Whatever you do, remember that sometimes the picture is not fully painted and you have to start from where you are and all the lines will...