We are so excited to have some fun features in this issue of Inside Weddings! First up Ashley‘s gorgeous vintage garden bridal shower is featured!! We loved working on it and are so proud of it! Second up, Kristy Rice of Momental Designs’s  beautiful hand painted stationery is featured and a gorgeous Bella Weddings and Events wedding is featured with JL Designs! Stay tuned to see more from this wedding on our blog soon!

The lawn of Lyman Harbor Marina features the perfect backdrop for a fabulous summer wedding, but thrown in a beautiful couple that’s bursting from the seams with love and it’s even more breathtaking! Kelly and Justin were married in Sandusky, OH right on Lake Erie. The talented Millie Holloman captured every detail of their big day, which included over 200 guests, tons of fresh flowers and a photobooth for some reception fun!

Photography: Millie Holloman

Venue: Lyman Harbor Marina

Flowers/Design: K&K Interiors

Videography: New Departure Productions

Stationery: Artsy Occassions

Photobooth: Shutterbooth

Cake: Windy Kromer Confections

Rentals: Event Source

Bride’s Gown: Marisa Bridals

Bridesmaid Dresses: Eden Bridals

Tuxes: Calvin Klein

Hair & Makeup: Scarlett O’Hair

Transportation: Tom’s Cruz Limousine

]]> http://www.inspiredbythis.com/2010/11/grey-and-pink-lake-wedding-with-urban-elements/feed/ 7 http://www.inspiredbythis.com/2010/07/tuesday-tips-what-is-public-relations-and-how-is-it-relevant-for-you/ http://www.inspiredbythis.com/2010/07/tuesday-tips-what-is-public-relations-and-how-is-it-relevant-for-you/#comments Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:15:43 +0000 Leila http://www.inspiredbythis.com/?p=5254 When approaching this topic, two things come to mind: The emails I receive from people who say they just need help getting press and the Samantha Jones from Sex and The City and her famous tag-line, “Samantha Jones, Public relations.”  To many people, public relations is somewhat of a nebulous thing floating between marketing and [...]]]>

When approaching this topic, two things come to mind: The emails I receive from people who say they just need help getting press and the Samantha Jones from Sex and The City and her famous tag-line, “Samantha Jones, Public relations.”  To many people, public relations is somewhat of a nebulous thing floating between marketing and advertising or they think it is a compilation of the two, while others think it is just getting into magazines and on Television. Here is the text book explanation of what it really is as explained by PR News online, “Public relations is the management function which evaluates public attitude, identifies the policies and procedures of an individual or an organization with the public interest, and plans and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and patience.” The Leila definition is a little more simple and states, “Public relations is the management function which evaluates one’s actual and perceived value, and creates and implements a plan to enhance and maintain both.”

A solid PR plan is not based solely on press placement and will rarely be effective if your branding/online presence,  portfolio work, networking and industry contacts are not up to par. With my coaching program I often hear my clients saying one of their top priorities is to get press and almost every time I tell them it’s not going to be in their next 1-5 steps. There is a lot to do before you start promoting yourself.

Here are 5 components of Public Relations:

1) Research: Thoroughly understand not only your company but your clients and potential clients. How well do you meet their needs? What do you offer that is unique or special?

2)Strategic Planning: Identify your target audience, your marketing goals, and what needs to be done to actualize these goals.

3) Communication: Your outward communication to vendors, clients, and media is one of THE most important uses of PR. You screw someone.. guess what?? That’s bad PR. They are going to talk about it. When you are emailing and reaching out that is your brand speaking loud and clear. Are you portraying yourself accurately?

4) Internal Relations: Employees are your internal audience and good staff is hard to find. They are a reflection of your company and how you operate it. Be sure that your internal relations ( including your own relations with others) is on point!

5) Publicity: Simply put as said by PR guru, Eric Yaverbaum “getting ink and air time!”

Image found on : Guide Spot

5 Reasons WHY Public Relations is Necessary and Relevant for you:

1) You’re a little Fish in a Big Pond: So how do you stand out?

2) Your product or service is the best and nobody knows about it.

3) Traditional marketing is not working as well as it used to:  Public Relations is the most cost effective form of marketing.

4) Your competitors get all the good press.

5) In a down economy companies are forced to get more creative in the way they make their services appear necessary and relevant.

(again the above are inspired by PR guru Eric Yaverbaum)

Where are you at in developing your public relations plan? Do you really need a publicist? Often times the answer is no, but if we can help you get on the right path, let us know!

*This post was originally published September ’09*

Every potential bride dreams of the way she will look on her wedding day. Walking down the aisle she will be magically taller and more graceful, her hair will be lush, fuller and be blowing perfectly in a breeze and her face will look simply flawless and glowing ethereally. This does for the most part become a reality for many brides, especially for those who hire Nicole Deanne! I met Nicole through her fabulous sister Amelia Lyon. When it came time to shoot my new head shots, Amelia brought her sister in to do my hair and makeup.  Her warm and friendly personality coupled with her talent put me at ease right away and I was in love with the results. Feeling good made me much more relaxed in front of the camera. Check out the beautiful brides whose beauty she has had the privilege to enhance in the past. You can see more of Nicole’s work on her blog or follow her twitter for live updates.

all photos above by Amelia Lyon Photography

Above 2 images photographed by Jessica Claire

Above 2 images photographed by Jonilyn Brown

Above  image photographed by Jason Q Tran

The old adage says a picture is worth a thousand words. In an industry all about aesthetics and logistics your marketing materials can and should speak those thousand words. If you haven’t realized it already the past few PR tips have built upon one another and are all imperative to your business success. This next one is no exception! So think about your current stationery, portfolio, packaging and marketing kit-how pulled together or rough around the edges are they?

This can be an area that is often overlooked. You may think, I am just sending out a check or a cd, it doesn’t need to look nice. If that is you, oh my friend how you are mistaken. Every single item you send out, put down on paper or present to a vendor, client or the press should be an extension of the awesome brand you have created. If you just send some crummy package out the recipient will think of your work as just that, mediocre. However, if you send over something clean and interesting looking they will be impressed, which is after all always the goal. You will instantly be more memorable and your credibility will surely increase. I have seen the marketing materials from the following outstanding companies: Forget Me Not Designs, Paper Tape Fims, and Amelia Lyon Photography and you would be blown away by how well they package themselves. I almost want to call them up to see if they can dream up something as amazing for me.

You don’t need to go out and buy all letter pressed stationery or silk boxes but you do need to come up with something that on first glance is visually appealing and also clearly communicates who the package/letter/marketing kit is from. This isn’t any less important when the materials are traveling from vendor to vendor. True, it is paramount that your clients are wowed so that they will book you, but you also want other vendors to respect you, want to work with you, and recommend you. No matter who is receiving your marketing materials, they need to believe in you and your brand right down to the postage stamp!

elum design

Whimsy Press

From The Bride’s cafe printing by Simple Song

Found on The Ritzy Bee printing by Simple Song

Found on Martha Stewart Weddings

The Paper Source

Dauphine Press

Hand sewn, diaphanous threads coming together to make the most delicate of fabrics..mmm I just love it!! Lace has been around since before the 13th century and unless you’re locked up in your office staring at your computers all day, you will probably encounter some this week if not today. It is the essence of timelessness, femininity and is extremely sexy! Lace can make something simple look expensive and extravagant. It is also used to add a modern flare in fashion and design. As far as weddings go, lace is no longer limited to the bridal garb, you will now see it adorning bouquets, vases, candles and even see it as a pattern on the cake and stationery.

My personal favorite is vintage lace. It can tell such an inspiring story of an era from long ago. My grandma, who was a seamstress, gave me a collection of lace hankies, swatches, and various sentimental keepsakes that she had with her during World War II. These pieces definitely show their age but they are intimate reminders of history combined with love, strength, beauty, and grace.

Lace can easily lend itself to several different styles, whether it be rustic, romantic, glam or traditional.

Bride and groom picture photographed by Dana and Jeremy Grant, Wedding dress shot is by Gabriel Ryan, Cakes and pumpkins are from Martha Stewart, Lace wrapped bouquet stem is from JL Designs

Lace: still a tried & true option for the gown, although the style has surely changed through out the years

Some more lovely lace images! Photo below by SimplyBloom Photography

From a real wedding featured on Snippet & Ink Photo by Photography by Leah

Image via  Martha StewartFeatured on Ritzy Bee
Featured on The Bride’s Cafe Photo by David Schwartz PhotographyBeautiful stationery from Saima Says Designs
“There are no mistakes in lace, just misdirected threads that present a new challenge”- Barbara Bulgarelli

What a great metaphor for the road blocks and detours we face in life. Are they disasters? or just a different path we have to take to find an alternative and often beautiful outcome.

*if I used your images and did not mention you please let me know! I forgot some of the destinations since finding many of them a while ago..

Do you have a website? It sounds crazy I know. You’re thinking…why would she even ask this question? Of course we have a website. Don’t be fooled, many industry vendors may have a sad shadow of a website or nothing at all. I have received countless emails from wedding business owners who have a blog and no website. They have an email address that isn’t tied to a legitimate business name. Instead I see “company name {at} hotmail.com” gmail.com, comcast.com or even aol.com. Most of your customers are on the web and navigate websites daily.  In order to have full faith in a vendor for an upcoming wedding, brides want to feel comfortable that these businesses are reliable and aren’t going to disappear anytime soon. How do you give your customer this peace of mind with no website, a blog with barely any posts, and no real email address? There is nothing more frustrating as a consumer than searching for information on the internet and not finding anything or being utterly disappointed just to be turned off by what I do find. PLUS how do you expect media to be impressed with you as “the” expert in your field, which many of you claim to be, when you have a website that is less then impressive? You may be getting all the blog coverage and link backs you could hope for from other online media sources, but if all people can find on you is a rinky dink blog or website under construction with a splash page that does more damage then even having a website at all,  you will be sorry!

To all of you vendors who have the brand and logo thing down and are working on enhancing your website keep in mind: It is the only version of you most people will meet before considering contacting or booking you, therefore you must make sure it clearly communicates what you do, why you are qualified, and the manner in which you do business. Only put up the best images of your work. I can’t tell you how many wedding planners, photographers, floral designers, confectionists etc.. who do amazing work tend to showcase the less appealing details and images in their portfolios. Your brides have limited time to spend on your website before she hops on to the next medium of online inspiration. How will you keep her hooked?  Don’t forget to add press, success stories if they apply, and what makes you special or an expert at what you do. Your contact information is also key, unless you want people falling in love with you, wanting to book you and losing interest after a wild goose chase looking for your email address or phone number. So if you have a website-fabulous! Does it make the kind of impression that leads to sales? To those of you are are currently without..how do you intend to capture market share in an industry with many competitors who stand out and do it right?

Below are a sampling of websites I really like! Click on the image to see more.

Are we loving your logo? Is it strong? Does it make a statement about who you are? As mentioned in my post last week on branding, how you make your niche in the wedding industry is paramount to how you do business and to your success. If someone had to give their first impression about you after only seeing your company logo, how accurate do you think they would be? Your customers’ perceived value of your overall brand is what is ultimately  going to drive their purchasing decisions. The logo you choose becomes an integral part to the foundation of your brand, so it’s important to ask yourself: Do you know what your logo says about you?

Since my last tip, I am sure you have all searched your souls, mirrors, and the web to really strip down to the nuts and bolts of what what your company is depicting to the wedding world. Now that you are armed with this invaluable information, it is time to zip it all up in a compressed little package: your logo. This will be smeared across your website, blog, business cards, marketing materials, contracts, press kit, in your email signature and hopefully on the pages of a glossy magazine or two, so it’s got to be remarkable. In the words of  Seth Godin, “Remarkable doesn’t mean remarkable to you. It means remarkable to me. Am I going to make a remark about it? If not, then you’re average…” Therefore, your logo needs to communicate who you are, what you do, and portray that you are interesting and enticing enough to remember. It should be clean enough to read yet captivating enough that it lends to a second glance. Breaks my heart to see bad logos happen to good companies. If this strikes a cord with you, then do something about it! The longer your potential client isn’t impressed the less your marketing, PR, or sales efforts are going to result into booking business and increasing your bottom line.

Below are the before and after designs for the logo of my client Lucia|Paul Design (formally known as Exceptional Events). We decided a re-brand was in order: new name, new look, new target market and a new start! So out with the masculine and corporate look and in with the clean and modern, yet still feminine and soft. We call it our version of “Martha Stewart meets Design Within Reach”. I LOVE what we came up with! Stay tuned for  more to come on the re-brand of Lucia|Paul Design. I know that their contributions to the world of wedding planning and design will  be nothing short of remarkable.

BEFORE

AFTER

LOGOS TO LOVE:

Thanks so much for the overwhelming amount of comment love and Twitter shout outs! I SO appreciate you taking the time to check out my new blog and for supporting me!  Here we go for day 2 of my first week of blogging!

Several months ago I wrote a Twitter series on Wedding PR 101. My thinking was that if you all saw the nuggets of valuable information in the 140 character limit on Twitter, chances are you’d appreciate an elaboration of these tips! So without further hesitation… here is my first set of insights into making a name for yourself in our business.

First, let’s assess three key components of the wedding industry- clients, vendors, and media. Now, take a moment to evaluate the way you are currently being perceived by each. How are you presenting yourself and services to them? If you aren’t polished and refined then this is the way you are being viewed. If you aren’t showcasing your expertise in an appealing manner, then chances are, you’re not going to be known as a pioneer in the industry. You will attract the type of client you have marketed for yourself.  Think about what you have been charging or want to charge  for your photography, planning, or product based services and does your brand support this? If you’ve identified that you are schlepping around telling the industry you don’t have it together, how do you fix it?

You need to focus on branding yourself! Don’t be silly and think this means a hot metal stamp on your hyde and don’t be overwhelmed and think this isn’t something you can’t do, because you can! What you need to do is simple: Define yourself by distinctive characteristics. Decide what your niche/specialty is and project it! Do you have a vintage flair or modern taste? Does your story continue beyond the logo and website to how you dress and how you interact with peers and vendors? What type of reputation do you hold in our business? Are you cute on  the outside (marketing, logo, great pictures) but  caddy, competitive, or hard to trust beyond all of that? I say: Standout! (but do so with integrity)  Some of you may think- “I’ve got the branding thing down.” Really? Are you that sure that you don’t believe there is room for improvement? Let’s not partner Ego with your brand!

Fashion Icon (and fabulously branded) Coco Chanel said, “In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.” This statement couldn’t better reflect what needs to be taken into consideration when defining your wedding business brand. Your services may be fantastic, but odds are, so are those of your competitors. You must establish what sets you apart, identify and promote what else you are bringing to the table; follow Coco and highlight what makes you unique.  The way you go about this is the key to your success!  See Coco here… So if you haven’t done so already, tear yourself away from whatever you are doing and realign your attention and focus on your brand. Competition is fierce, and you should always ask yourself; “How will I remain relevant?”

Bravo to the following vendors and bloggers who have the brand thing together! ( This is just a small sampling! There are many more I love… just wanted to highlight these today!)

Well Branded Wedding Industry Bloggers:

Kiss the Groom

100 layer cake

Well Branded Wedding Industry Vendors:

The Sweet and Saucy Shop

Ritzy Bee Events

Elysium Productions

Joy Thigpen Wedding Styling