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Wedding 2.0: Seven interactive planning tools

Posted on by Emee Pumarega

For this week's roundup, I thought we'd put together a list of some cool planning tools that are making  use of the latest technologies to help you plan your wedding. If you know anything that should be in this list that I've missed, please post in the comments!

Olivia Luca Design Studio  This Portland-based design firm has an addictive Flash tool where you canOlivia-luca-wedding-gown
design your bridesmaids' dresses from silhouette down to the sash and the trim.  Eco-friendly fabric options are available for order as well, or you can be like me and just keep making tons of dresses online and daydreaming about the fetes I can wear them to!

Wedding Gown Guru   I met Bridgette, the "Wedding Gown Guru" , on twitter.com and took a look at her interactive gown selection tool.  Simply answer a series of questions about your style and personality, and she will suggest several different looks for you! Much more fun that a visit to a crowded bridal salon, and a great way to prep yourself before going out to shop in person.

Wedding-gown-interactive-tool
David's Bridal "Dress Your Wedding"  Thanks to Sasha Souza, celebrity planner and the brains behind Sparkliatti, for turning me on to this. They have done a great job in creating a Flash tool that allows you to mock up your bridesmaids' gowns and colors, plus groomsmen's attire, so you can preview the lineup of your whole virtual wedding party, including groomsmen and child attendants!

Calculators at Eventageous  Eventageous is an Austin-based event planning firm, and they've been on Eventageous-austin-planner
the cutting edge for forever. I know this because they've had these great calculators on their Resources page since I started my business in 1999! Scroll down this page to see the Calculators; here, you can tote up everything from the number of people that will fit into a given square footage, to a sample wedding budget. Simple tech, but so helpful!

Wedding-mapper-logo
Wedding Mapper  So many weddings involve out of towners, so this interactive mapping tool with great design is a must.  You can even tag the locations with your notes ("Here's where he proposed to me"/"This is our favorite bar"). Also included is a method for leaving and reading reviews of vendors.

Backpackit.com  Not an exclusively-wedding tool… Nonetheless, Backpack, the consumer version of design Backpacklogo-small
powerhouse 37signals' Basecamp, is inexpensive, easy to use, and a great way to invite collaboration across a large group (think Mother in law, mom, bridesmaids, dad, the groom, and your wedding planner!) I'm currently using it with a client and love it — we might even make it part of our standard package in the future.

Evite Drink Calculator  Most of us have used Evite for their free online invitations, but I recently discovered their handy-dandy drink calculator. It's not super detailed, but it at least can give you a place to start, if you have no idea where to begin as far as beverage purchases.

Hope you find these helpful!

The Impossible Project: Bringing back Polaroid film!

Posted on by Emee Pumarega

Polaroid
Remember our post from last year lamenting the closure of Polaroid’s instant film factory?  We thought that was the end of those cute little guest books, at least in the traditional format.  Well, it’s so exciting to hear that a group called The Imposssible Project (love that name!) has announced:

“We aim to re-start production of analog INTEGRAL FILM for vintage
Polaroid cameras in 2010. We have acquired Polaroid’s old equipment,
factory and seek your support.”


So go to their website, and see if there’s any way you can help them!  I know a lot of you are creative types, and it looks like a daunting task.  We wish them luck.

If you can’t wait for 2010, then Adesso still has the original Polaroid film in stock.  And right now they have a special buy-two-get-one-free deal!

Here’s to new beginnings!

Posted on by Emee Pumarega
Obama-wedding-photo

I hope that all of you are having a wonderful day, enjoying the promise that the future holds for us. Whatever your political leaning, I hope you'll be reminded that we all have much more in common than we have that is different.  Here' s to an inspiring year! And if you are engaged, may you be just as blissed-out and happy at the end of your wedding as these two looked at theirs. Thanks to Gangsta Bride for the pic!

Art of Weddings Recap and Roundup

Posted on by Emee Pumarega

The past week was plenty busy with our participation in the first wedding show of the year – The Art of Weddings.  We had so much fun and saw all kinds of cool things that we just have to tell you about. So today’s Saturday Roundup will have a lot of content, hang in there!

First off, we were so lucky to be placed near Annette from Swanky Tables Event Design.  Her business centers around getting all the little details on the table just right, from linens to place cards, and she even has a candy buffet setup service!  Her table was all decked out in pink and silver, and it was hard to resist the pink rock candy swizzle sticks! We can’t wait to do an event with Annette.

Swankytables portland wedding

Next up is Karren’s Specialty Cakes.
They were handing out full-size samples of their chocolate orange and
pear cake and both were fabulous.  I am really picky about
cake so take my word, it’s great! I heard tell that Karren only does
one cake a weekend, so if you’re interested, get on it! Pictured below
is the Porceline cake from her website:

Porceline wedding cake portland

Continue reading “Art of Weddings Recap and Roundup” →

how to get gigs through event planners and hotels

Posted on by Emee Pumarega

Disclaimer: I’m not a booking agent; there are lots of wonderful reasons to use one and there are some really great agents out there, especially in Portland (like here and here).

On the other hand, I know there are lots of bands without an agent who want to know what they can do to start up a little bit of buzz and get some regular gigs playing out, which will hopefully eventually lead to more contacts and those prime, well-paying event and wedding jobs?

Here’s my list, and feel free to comment with your opinion, especially if it is different.

1. Make your media packet digital. There’s more room to store mp3s on a hard drive than in the office. Also, if you happen to send it to a semi-prolific blogger, the way Hideki Yamaya did here, said blogger may instantly go to your website, listen to your music, blog and tweet about it. Instant PR!

2. If you must send paper packets, try to target the right person at the organization by doing a little online research. Sending out a bunch of CDs to “Catering Manager” is just a waste of time.

3. Don’t call event planners or venue managers and ask them for their address and “if you can” send them a packet. Most event planners and hotels have addresses that are easily found online and asking them this information just makes you look lazy or not very smart. And asking their “permission” to mail is just a waste of time. Just mail it!

3a. Also don’t call event planners and tell them that you are interested in getting more gigs. Great! But that falls into the dreaded “AAM” (All About Me) conversational faux pas. Much better either not to cold-call, or if you do, prepare by learning about your target planner’s business and offer a way that you can help them.

4. Find ways to play out to the right crowds. Sometimes this means playing for free. My husband Dave disagrees with me on this one, but I do think that if an event planner hears you at an event, they are more likely to seek you out and book you for their own events, than if they have only heard a CD or online mp3. Good places to go are hotel lobbies, happy hours, and association meetings like ISES, ABC, and MPI. Again, do research ahead of time to see if the organization is a good match for the kinds of gigs you are looking for, and find out if there’s an upcoming meeting that your entertainment might be perfect for. Or pitch the association board with a novel idea, such as a meeting centered around an entertainment showcase, like the one ISES Seattle did a while back. If you don’t want to gig for free, then figure out some dates that you already have a gig on the books, and send a pretty calendar or other “reminder book” (perhaps with an invitation to be on the guest list) to some key event planners that you are after.

I hope you find these helpful! Please feel free to comment with your thoughts.

great inspiration from a fellow planner

Posted on by Emee Pumarega

Thalia Plummer, who sits on the board of ISES Portland with me, and is the owner of Premiere Events Portland, recently posted this great piece of inspiration on her blog:

“With what the media is calling our “Arctic Blast” of 2008, the disarray of the stock market, and the disillusioning nightly news reports being pumped into homes across America day and night, it can be hard to keep focus on what’s really important…”
Read more at Thalia’s “Meetings, Events and Parties” blog…

I just had to share it with you!