All in a day's work...

I would like to share a Day in the Life of this wedding planner to give you an idea of what variety goes along with my work...each day is different!

 This week one of my work days included touring venues for one of my couples who live in Boston, meeting with my wedding team who will assist me at my 2012 weddings, and visiting the Facebook offices in Menlo Park to have a wedding planning session with one of my clients who works there.

 When a wedding planner is hired to help a couple plan their wedding in SF from across the country, we often need to make site visits to hotels and other wedding venues to help them evaluate the options and advise them in making decisions which will be very important for their guests.  The first stop on our day in the life of a wedding planner is the Omni Hotel SF

  I took my 2012 wedding team with me for a site tour of the Omni Hotel where the bride and groom, who live in Boston, will be hosting their guests from all over the country who travel here to celebrate the September 2nd wedding.

 Elka Goldstein and/or Tony White will be my colleague/assistants for each of the weddings I have booked for 2012.  I like to work as a team, and am sure that the 3 of us will be able to provide the warmth and professionalism I like to provide for my brides, grooms, their family and guests.  What better way to prepare my team than to include them in tours of the locations where we will be working.

 The Presidential Suite at the Omni will provide an elegant and spacious location for the bride and her bridal party to get ready on the wedding day, and for the newly married husband and wife to spend their wedding night.

 

After touring the guest rooms as well as evaluating the mezzanine for a farewell brunch the day after the wedding, Tony Elka and I left to drive to the Flood Mansion where my Boston clients will host their ceremony and reception, Since Tony and Elka have not worked at the Flood Mansion before, I wanted to be sure they were familiar with the venue.  I had some questions  to go over with the venue manager, and I wanted to time the drive from the hotel to the wedding venue for my transportation scheduling.  This is all part of how I like to prepare myself and my team for the service we will be providing on the wedding day for my clients, their families and guests.

 The ceremony and cocktails will be held in the Courtyard just off of the Ballroom where the guests will have dinner.

 The entrance to the Flood Mansion where guests will be invited in for dinner after the ceremony.

 The dancing and dessert buffet will be located in this lovely room off of the main ballroom.

 With a 180 degree view of the SF Bay including the Golden Gate Bridge and Coit Tower, this beautiful alcove will be the location for the wedding cake.

 The ballroom will be filled with elegant tables, bathed in warm up-lighting, and will be seen first by the guests through an elegantly draped entrance inviting them in to enjoy delicious food and wonderful music among friends and family rejoicing with the bride and groom.

One more photo of the JMW team before we head down the Peninsula for a meeting with Alison who works in Menlo Park for Facebook.

Walking across the campus of the new Facebook headquarters, we felt right at home with all the Facebook symbols and signs in the windows and on the doors--who doesn't see those symbols each day of their life as they check in for messages from friends!

We met in the Facebook Cafe to enjoy a healthy meal with Alison, who will be married this September at Nestldown. Since we have been working together since August, most of the main vendor decisions have been made and the ceremony planning is being finalized.  In this review meeting, we discussed wedding favor selection, design meetings, first dance songs, hotel welcome bags, etc.

  I had particularly wanted Alison to meet the two people who will be working alongside me on her wedding day;  having Tony and Elka come to the meeting was in part to introduce them to Alison as well as to review wedding planning progress at this point.

 

Finally, after a long day, our Facebook security name tags still in place, the 2012 JMW wedding team calls it a day....another day in the unique and varied life of a wedding planner.

And I say Thumbs Up to the life of a wedding planner.

Season 2012, Here We Come!