What is the number one best tip for the Bride's Ready room? 
     With all the excitement of the wedding day, what is the best tip I can offer?  Well, I will base this on an experience of a bride from several years ago. When she heard of this suggestion of what not to bring in the ready room, she readily agreed!   She made this her rule and asked that it be enforced!
     On the day of her wedding, she was so happy to let just about anyone in the room where she was getting ready. It was a very large room at this venue.  It had 3 tables with mirrors and little benches. It also had 2 full length mirrors and two dressing screens, (this venue really thought about everything) for the bride and her  "maids " to get ready.  She was getting ready, and so were all six of her ladies. They were nearly all ready and some photographs were going to be taken before the ceremony of the bride, her family, the ladies, the men and of me and the bride, the photographer and the bride and more so she had to be ready about 2 hours before the ceremony. 
     Everything was going great. Her sister was in the wedding party and she brought in her son who was a little over a year into the room with everyone.  Their father came in all dressed, once he heard everyone was mostly dressed.  He took off  his jacket, hung it over the chair, walked over to the couch and picked up his grandson, sat down and put him on his lap. Everyone was so happy and chatting away, all looked good.  -- So what was the big rule?  The rule is no drinks with any color in them.  - No coke, no cherry Pepsi, No cool- aid, no Gatorade, except the clear kind.  It was said to everyone, if you need something to drink, bring water. Everyone should have their own water bottle. And everyone did. Except the bride's nephew, he had juice in his sippy cup. It was red juice! The little boy took a big sip, held it in his mouth, opened his mouth and spat all the juice on grandpa's clean white shirt! His tuxedo shirt. A matched shirt, that matched the entire wedding party.  Everyone just looked at the mess and went "Oh no," What do we do??? I immediately went into action. I asked the father to carefully remove his shirt. I got on the phone to one of several cleaners I called. I stated I had an emergency with a shirt and red juice. One of the cleaners agreed to do it and stated his fee. I had the brides credit card on file and had it with me so I could charge the cleaning to her.  I contacted someone in my office to come to the venue, pick up the shirt and take it to the cleaners. I was told it would be done in an hour. My staff stayed in the area and once an hour had passed, she went back and the shirt was just being pressed and ready for bagging. It was absolutely clean!  She drove the shirt to the wedding, the father put it on got dressed and was ready for about the last 8 poses from the photographer. Then after the ceremony they created special photos with the father.  I didn't tell anyone about the "hic-up" we had 2 hours before the ceremony. If any of the guests found out about it, it wasn't from me or my staff. 
So now you know what emergency can come up on your wedding day and why the wedding planner needs to have a credit card from you to pay for incidentals that come up.  The bride later said how grateful she was that all of this could be taken care of. -- Had the wedding been out in the country, or the nearest cleaner was a 30 minute drive (and I do have venues where that is true) then we could have not provided this service.  Maybe you should rent 2 or 3 more shirts, in case you have a problem like this come up at your wedding. Just a thought! Thanks for reading. God Bless!

I never imagined I'd start a blog, but  with things going on and I've been asked so many questions about being a wedding planner I though'd I start one.  
Firstly, I often attend weddings in another aspect. Not as the wedding director, but as a DJ or videographer. I had my own videography company for 10 years, but more and more brides wanted me to direct, rather than get videography. Of course they regretted not having a video afterwards.

Secondly, I see that so many brides don't have a wedding planner and their wedding is disorganized. I plan with the guests and Photographer/ Videographer in mind. I am very respectful of the guests who want to see what is going on and who have  traveled so far to be a part of the day. I also direct so that the photographer gets great shots and the videographer has a line of site to get the whole ceremony.
During the past 2 years, as I go out with our teams to weddings {we do videography and music (DJ) also at our company} and we were not hired to be the wedding planner, I sometimes have to bite my lip and not look, when watching a wedding rehearsal.  So much goes wrong. So much could look more elegant. Look more polished and *smart*. You know that extra little something that makes the guests go "wow."

​What's the key to a dream wedding? A perfect rehearsal? Well the actual key and secret to this is... Pre-planning.  I see so much planning still going on at rehearsals. I see so many people not knowing what to do.  Sometimes, there is really no one in charge as the bride was the planner and she put someone out there with her notes that isn't familiar with how to direct a wedding.  They start the rehearsal at the beginning of the ceremony. -- Uhm, nope. Always start a rehearsal at the part where the minister welcomes the bride at the front. Her father (someone) has just walked her up to the groom. Start there. Let the minister do the rehearsal twice, then he/ she can go.  Then do the beginning and just the end. Twice. You are Done.  But what else can you do to make it look more elegant. People traveled far to get to your wedding. Are you going to be able to wow them?  Do you want to? How do you make it better?   

(January 2021)
Well I suspect to make your wedding picture perfect is to have vendors that know what they are doing. I once went to a wedding reception (as the videographer) and got the shock of our lives! {We get permission from the DJ, to plug into an output from his sound board to get great sound on the video, especially the speeches, announcements and special music for highlight events}. When we arrived the music was so loud that we could not talk without shouting. Seriously!  We were shouting to ask the DJ if we could plug into a 1/4" plug, the head phone out, etc.  But we could hardly hear his reply. He barely heard and understood us!  -- The guests were arriving and the DJ was playing Pop Music from that year (early 2000's) and the sound level (between a 1 and 10) and should be a 3 when guests are first arriving   [and the music slowly gets louder over the course of the evening. (When it's time to dance)].  The music was at 9 1/2.  All through Dinner we were shouting at anyone we needed to talk to. I suggested politely to the DJ that they bring the music down a little so guests could talk during dinner. The DJ replied "No, the groom said to keep the music really loud."   The DJ kept the music at this ear deafening level until the grandfather of the bride, went up and took a hold of every one of the mixing pots and turned them down to 1. Then he shouted at the DJ "I told you we are old, not deaf! I can't talk to my wife and my friends can't talk to each other.  Keep the levels down!!!!" -- Of course everyone was taken aback, but then some laughter started and more guests were laughing. Then the applause started.  The DJ was from Richmond. I don't think he was a family friend. (Back in 2001 - 2012 there were only 7  Professional DJs that worked weddings in this area), so I think they hired out of the local area when they couldn't find someone. This guy was most likely a great, wonderful club DJ, but he took part in ruining the wedding reception. 
So part of making your own wedding Perfect (not just picture perfect, but SOUND perfect too)  is by hiring the right vendor, who knows what he is doing.    Who actually can do what you are hiring them for.  I plan to start a thread about good weddings that went bad because of vendors who really didn't know what they were doing. (I have some of it on video! However I will  not show it and embarrass anyone.)