Happy New Year again; I feel like I will be saying this all January long. What is the time limit on when it is appropriate to stop saying Happy New Year....Does anyone else feel like they don't know when to stop saying it? If I see an old friend in June is a "Happy New Year" greeting still acceptable???? Help a girl out ya'll  

Okay let me get to it, I know a lot of new and aspiring planners still have full-time jobs, and sometimes it might feel overwhelming managing your job and your business but time blocking is a skill that will help you this new year. Practicing this over the years helped me run my business successfully even before I knew it was a thing.

It's finally 2022! I absolutely love the holiday season because it is a time I get to unplug and be with family and just soak in all the joy of the season. My favorite thing to do is watch Christmas movies , even though they all have the same plot; I can't help myself. Now that the holiday is over, it is time to get back into the full swing of work. 

Most people come into a New Year with a lot of optimism and excitement and big plans for their businesses and lives. However, one thing we know for sure if that it is easy to lose momentum and lose track of your goals when things get busy with work and personal life. 

One thing I always recommend is not just making a list of your goals but making a list of things you know that can deter you from your goals. Ask yourself "how I'm I going to stay accountable for the things I have set out to do for my business this year?" What habits are you going to implement to ensure you become the person you said you were...

Money is a touchy subject in a lot of ways and can be something that leads to tension if you don’t manage it properly from the start. A huge part of wedding planning also has to do with being able to help your clients manage their budget, their money, and also their payments.

I have found these two things to be a good way to avoid money issues:

Create a budget before you get hired: This might be an unpopular opinion but one that I have used and seen so much success with. I recommend creating a budget for a potential client after a consultation to give them a realistic idea of what they might have to spend for their wedding. A lot of couples have ideas for their wedding that do not match their budget so it is important to paint a realistic picture for them so they have a sense of what a budget that matches their vision could look like and then they get to decide if they are willing to make compromises to stay in budget or if they want to increase their budget to...

The job of a wedding planner is tasking on your time and sometimes finding balance with work and life can be difficult. One thing I always recommend is making sure you have certain days during the week where you get to focus on working on your business and not just on your business.

It can get tricky and hard to do this because the demands of work never end. There is always that one extra thing you have to do for a client and one extra task that is outstanding and sometimes it feels like a lot to manage but I have learned in order to build a successful business you have to create structure around your work.

Choose one day a week where you don’t schedule meetings and you can use this day to focus on reviewing your goals for the business for that month or quarter and create plans and strategies on how to achieve them. You can use this to also create your social media posts, no client work just work you need to do for your business.

You can have a certain...

 Hi people, so I did a blog post recently on the importance of networking and I thought I should go a bit further about 3 things to do after meeting a new vendor.

If you end up going to a ton of events and networking but you don’t do anything with it, it is a wasted experience, and you end up not seeing any benefits. I share some of this in the course “Advertising Your Wedding Beyond Social Media.”

So here are 3 things you can do after meeting a new vendor

1. Follow: Follow the vendor on social media, it costs you nothing to do that, and as the saying goes one good turn deserves another.

2. Appreciate: If you do a tour with a venue, it is okay to send them a thank you email. Address it directly to the person you met and just simply thank them for taking the time to show you the property and let them know you will look forward to working with them in the future. To stand out from the crowd, you can take it a step further and send a...

 One challenge I had with inquires via email was it sometimes felt like a back of forth of many different emails to the potential client to get a meeting confirmed.

Some emails would go something like this:

Couple: Hello, my name is Nini, I would like to find out more about your services for my wedding next year.

Me: Hello Nini, congratulations on your engagement and thank you so much for reaching us to RAE Affairs. This must be an exciting time, what’s your fiancé’s name? We will love to talk with you about your wedding vision, please let us know a good time for you to talk. Thank you.

Couple: Thank you for the response Shile, my fiancé's name is Josh, I am available to talk anytime from 3pm-6pm on Thursday.

Me: Thank you for the feedback Nini it is great hearing from you, unfortunately, Thursday won’t work because we have a food tasting at that time. Does anytime on Friday or Saturday work for you? I am pretty open and flexible for both...

Happy New Month people, have you heard there is a wedding boom? It has been termed the boom of 22, but in reality, I think it Is here now. The residual effect of the pandemic was not only weddings moving and getting rescheduled but also one of the effects was newly engaged couples who held out on setting dates until restrictions were lifted. Now that things are starting to better with the pandemic, everyone is looking into having an event. From weddings to birthday parties, PEOPLE ARE BOOKING!

So how do you handle the demand of inquiries and consultations without being overwhelmed? One-word “SYSTEMS.” In the course “processes and systems for your wedding planning business” I share some important tools and that exist to make the job of wedding planning easier and more manageable.

One tool that will certainly get you together and keep you organized is Planning Pod. It is a great all-in-one event management software for event planners and venues,...

Hi there new wedding planner, congratulations on taking the step in this new career path. I know first-hand starting out as a wedding planner can be exciting but after the “high,” sometimes you can be left wondering “while I am waiting for new clients what can I be doing.”

So here is one thing I think every new planner should be doing now. As things are opening back up you want to position yourself with venues and start to build new relationships. You should be NETWORKING.

When I say networking, I don’t mean just attending an event and looking pretty I mean intentional relationship building.

1. Meet With New Venues: Make a list of 5-10 venues you will love to do weddings with in the future (I love to give you homework ) and schedule a tour. Don’t wait until you have a client, get yourself out there and meet event managers. You kill two birds with one stone with this one, you get to tour potential venues in your area for future...

I am excited about the second half of the year and I am sure you are too. Sometimes the second half of the year feels like the start of the year because it is that opportunity for you to assess your goals and align yourself. 

We all have plans and goals at the start of the year but for some of you life might have happened and it might have derailed you a bit. The second half of the year is a good time to assess and see if you are off track. It is a good time to revisit your goals and sometimes write new ones. It is a good time to develop new strategies if the old ones were not working. It is a time to take a new stance and re-focus for the rest of the year. 

As we go into the first work week of the second half of the year make sure you take time to have a strategy for how you intend to win the rest of the year.

I am sending you positive vibes for the second half of the year, remember you have all it takes.....I am always rooting for you

On this Tuesday, I am sending you a little motivation from this quote. 

The landscape changes, so enjoy it: of course, you have to have an objective in mind - to reach the top. But as you are going up, more things can be seen, and it's no bother to stop now and again and enjoy the panorama around you. At every meter conquered, you can see a little further, so use this to discover things that you still had not noticed. -Paulo Coelho

A few reasons I love this quote is because it is a simple reminder as you keep pushing to the best planner you can it is also important to enjoy the ride. Don't focus on getting to the top only that you forget to see and learn lessons along the way. 

Have a great everyone