A Sweet Retreat!

I love creativity in every aspect of my life- clothing, hair, furniture decor, as well as food! There are some very creative cakes on the scene, but people tend to forget about the little ole cupcake. Cupcakes have really evolved from your school's bake sale. You can arrange them into bouquets, tier them, decorate them - the opportunities are endless! The best parts about using cupcakes is that they may be less expensive than regular cakes and you don't have to worry about waste as much. That is why cupcakes are my new sweet retreat!

Where It All Began... Intern Extraordinaire!!!

People often ask me how I became interested in event planning. Well, while working as an intern in the entertainment industry, I realized that I really enjoyed the planning aspects of my day. I enjoyed watching small things come together to bring great results. Believe it or not, I am naturally a shy person so staying in the background was never an issue for me. I was always the go-to person for making phone calls, picking up entertainers from the airport, or arranging their accommodations. I really enjoyed these things and soon found that I had ways to make these tasks more enjoyable and memorable for the client. Soon my employer began to use my skills to plan parties for his fiance and children. That's were I really found my niche! Trust me, I worked hard for very little money if any at all at times, but it didn't matter because of the experience I was receiving and I truly enjoyed what I was doing.

No matter what field of work a young person (or older adult) is looking to enter, being an intern is one of the best ways to "get your feet wet" while gaining valuable experiences and relationships that will last a lifetime!

BravoBride

Everyone knows that planning a wedding can be very expensive for a bride and her family. Wedding venues, decorations, catering, and attire are a few of the things that can cause a budget to go through the roof. Luckily, there is help on the by way of BravoBride.com. This is a website that allows prospective brides the opportunity to purchase new and pre-owned wedding items. It also allows previous brides the opportunity to sell these items. It is a win-win situation! So if you are a bride or knows one who is looking to save some money on wedding planning, guide them over to BravoBride.com.

Surviving A Groomzilla: A Guide for Brides!

The term Bridezilla is used so much that we often forget that there are sometimes overbearing grooms-to-be as well! Although I have not had a lot of experience with these Groomzillas, my contact with them has been quite enough to last me a lifetime!

These men are very hands on which I welcome, but when they're participation is marked chaos, conflict, and discord- there is a problem. I often find myself trying to be the mediator between the bride , groom, and bride's parents (who are footing the bill). Not an easy task to say the least.

One of the easiest ways to help alleviate a groomzilla situation is to let the groom know that his opinion does count. After all, it is his special day as well. Do not discount the efforts that he is trying to make to contribute to making the wedding memorable for all.

Also, compromise. This is the beginning of what will be a lifetime of compromises to be made. Being selfish is not going to help the situation, but only increase the roar in this groom-to-be. We want to simmer the fire, not reignite it!

The last tip is to just remember why you are marrying each other in the first place. The love that you share for one another is reason for this joyous occasion. Your groomzilla loves you with all his heart and wants your special day to express that! Give him the opportunity to express his love in his special way/style (within reason, lol)!

Networking, networking, networking!

Okay, so my one New Year's resolution is to get out of my comfort zone and grow my business and what better way to do that than to network! I know that I have posted about networking before, but I can not stress the importance of it to small businesses such as mine (or any business for that matter). Word of mouth is the strongest advertiser there is!!!

I am currently planning the Spring Event Expo for this upcoming May, and in doing so I have met some very inspirational business owners. I consider myself to be a people person, but kind of reserved at the same time. I love to observe people before opening up (so why do i blog???). Anyway, I am learning so much from the people that I am coming into contact with, most do not even work within the event planning industry. This is very exciting to me, as I love to learn about anything, but when it is beneficial to my personal and professional growth it sends me to the stars. While networking with another business owner, I was introduced to a business social networking site. Like most people, I have a Myspace, Facebook, and LinkedIn page but I do not really log on and have found minor benefits to these sites for business- they're great for reconnecting and meeting interesting new people on a personal level. Well, this associate of mines introduced me to Ecademy. It is a social networking site for businesses. The interface is much more user friendly than LinkedIn and it allows other users to rate your business "good." My 1st day as a user on the site yielded 46 contact requests from other business owners across the WORLD. Now I must admit that some of the businesses are unique, but I am not one to knock anyone's "hustle." So if any of you fellow business owners want a new way to network and expand your contact, give this Ecadamy a try!

Happy New Year!!!