Recommended-Preferred-Favorite- call it what you will.

What you'd notice if you were to sift through all the weddings I have had the opportunity to plan is that quite frequently you're going to come across the same professionals. As a wedding planner it is my responsibility to present my clients with options that are best for them and the events that they are planning. So when a client asks for my recommendations to book their vendors, my list is full of people I love to work with. Are they favorites? I suppose you could look at it that way. You could also look at preferred or recommended professionals from the same perspective as I:

They've proven that they're consistently dependable, high quality & fair;
They've exceeded my expectations & more importantly, exceeded my clients expectation;
They're a pleasure to work with from the 1st meeting through the wedding day (and beyond when it comes to photographers & videographers).
It also means that:
They're more than knowledgeable of their product/service;
That they know the locations, rules and restrictions of venues we frequently work at;
And that they work well with other wedding professionals.

Side note: If you have a team of professionals who love working together- you get a better wedding. There is no denying this. Just like your job- when you have awesome co-workers, the results are always better because the "workplace" is just a better place to be. It's great when I can call up a florist and say, "so&so is going to be making the cake for this wedding", and the florist gets incredibly excited. Why? Because she knows that she's going to be decorating a masterpiece (and a masterpiece that will arrive on time at that).

So what to do if you don't have a planner to give you a great list of exceptional professionals who love to work together? Ask your vendors who they love to work with. They'll be honest because they want to work with them too.

In the photos: Just a small few of the SW Florida wedding pros who love weddings, love to work together, and to celebrate each others successes and accomplishments. There are many many more, but it would make this post 15 pages long.

Meet Ericka. She’s tiny but mighty.

Ericka knocks out a to do list like nobody’s business. Somehow she has the magic ability to get our clients to respond in record time.  Since she’s only had one wedding with us, so she’s still in that shock and awe stage of wedding planning.  It only takes about 3 weddings though to realize how consistently crazy destination weddings really are behind the scenes.   Ericka is also the only one who sings out loud with me in the car when we’re going to meetings.  Thank you for singing with me Ericka.  Like Whitney, she graduates from school next year; so I think I’ll just give her a 6000 item to do list so that she has to stay longer.

Ericka on Twitter: @wbsEricka

Meet Whitney. She makes everyone smile and organizes everything.

 

Whitney is why our studio is so organized.  It’s very clear when she’s been out of the office for a few days because there will be client binders all over the floor and all the desks are covered in wedding planning documents and details.  We can also tell when Whitney was there because there’s always something prettied up.  Last month I came back from 2 weeks of traveling and she had redesigned the bathroom with the leftovers from the October weddings.  Whitney is also who keeps me in line with the stuff that I am so not focused on (because I’m always focused on weddings).  Things like paying the garbage bill and booking my hotel reservations. I’m not looking forward to the summer coming because I know that Whitney is going to graduate and leave Weddings by Socialites to go be the best ever personal assistant L.A. has ever seen.  Until then, we are so glad to have her.

I have to give credit to a couple people: Krista at Impressions Photography who took all our staff photos and Ashley Brockinton who told me about Whitney in the first place.

Whitney on Twitter: @wbsWhitney

More great video!

This was our 1st wedding of the spring season this year and it was such a fantastic one to start off with. Thanks again to AMC video for sharing these clips with us today.

An oh so sweet clip

I love video!