Wedding Planning Three

You have your date, your budget, your location and the save the date cards are in the mail.
Now is the time to book your wedding photographer. Booking a photographer early is important because they are usually just one person(with an assistant) and can only photograph one major event per day. The best photographers book up quickly. When I am working with clients, I tend to refer them to the web site of our wonderful organization, the Santa Barbara Event Professionals (I am currently VP) http://www.sbep.com
From there one can view many different excellent photography web sites and determine a style they like and then determine if their pricing will fit their budget.
Here is a nice article written by a former SBEP member Marcia...
http://marciaphoto.com/2009/11/how-to-hire-your-wedding-photographer

Wedding Planning Two

So now that you have a budget, date and location, it's time to get out those save -the-date cards. There are many choices of style & papers. Photos, magnets, postcards, cards that match your invitation or theme...hundreds of choices to fit every budget & style. I have an entire album of just save-the-date's or you can click on the save the date link at http://www.weddingsbydiana.cceasy.com
When you are putting your addresses together, put them into an Excel spreadsheet that you can use again & again; for the invitations, for thank you notes & later for holiday cards, etc.

Wedding Planning for 2010

Congratulations to all the happy couples who became engaged over the holidays!
So you are getting married and now what do you do? The minute you become engaged, all your friends and even complete strangers take pleasure in providing you with endless amounts of advice and information based on their own wedding experiences. (The same thing unfortunately happens when you become pregnant!) You listen patiently to all they have to say and yes, there may be some great advice that you can use. They all mean well but don't let people pressure you into feeling like planning a wedding has to be stressful and you have to hurry, hurry hurry. It can be overwhelming, and, as a wedding planner with over 30 years experience, my advice is WIN...do what's important now. Take it one or two steps at a time...keep it fun...enjoy the process!!!
So you may ask, what IS important now?
The first thing is to inform your families and maybe discuss budget. The second thing should hopefully be to hire a professional wedding planner (would LOVE for it to be ME!) and thirdly, two things that go together...the date and the location.
Tune in soon for more...

More Claudia and Ryan...

Can't wait to get the "real" photos...

Claudia and Ryan

Sunday, October 25th
On the rooftop of the Canary Hotel..coordinated a gorgeous small wedding for the loveliest, most gracious couple from Alabama...on the rooftop of the Canary Hotel...all yellows and creams roses, freesia, ranunculas...gorgeous flowers and decor from Nico Designs...exquisite music from Aurora Ensemble...exquisite cake of the ...bride's own design from Christine Dahl, elegant charge plates from the Tent Merchant...wonderful food and service from the Canary Hotel...love working with brides who put their guests experience first! Can't wait to see photos from Av Photography but here are some from my camera phone.

Lots of stationery orders today..hooray!!!

Beautiful custom note cards for several people at Cate School, personalized note cards for a good friend, personalized post it notes for a customer, beautiful 50th wedding anniversary invites with wedding photo and photo of couple today, and business cards for a photographer!

yet another Carpinteria Valley wedding...

Took me a while to get these photos but finally received them from the bride. The bride herself is a photographer and spent allot of time searching for the right photographer for her style. It was a fall wedding - last October - a beautiful hilltop backyard wedding at her parent's ranch. Hearts Bloom did a gorgeous job on the flowers which included lots of pumpkins - Michael's Catering prepared an exquisite meal with the sit down dinner of seabass and roast tenderloin, Christine Dahl made the beautiful cake, Classic party Rentals did the equipment rentals while Bella Vista did the lantern lighting. The bride and groom built their own platform to be married on and the groom designed and made the bride's wedding gown as well as his own suit.
Instead of a regular band they opted for the Wine and Roses Quintet (2 violins, mandolin, string bass, and guitar) and English country dancing with a caller/teacher there to keep things moving. They all had a wonderful time!