Ladies and gents, meet Jessica Kersey, wedding planner extraordinaire. . .
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We thought it was high time you get to know this pretty lady! She's designed some of the most fabulous Arkansas weddings you've ever seen and you won't find a single person who doesn't adore working with her. Soooo, get yourself all comfy and sit a spell. Jessica has some super duper advice to share with us!
TWP: How would you suggest preparing for a meeting with a vendor?
TWP: How would you suggest preparing for a meeting with a vendor?
JESSICA: Regardless of what type of vendor you are meeting with, there are certain ways you should prepare before that first face-to-face appointment. Most importantly: Know your budget for that specific portion of the wedding before you begin discussing details with the vendor. This is one of the first things the vendor will ask, and if you don’t know the answer it is difficult for them to know where to begin with your proposal. After that, if it is a décor related meeting {with florists, a cake designer, or rental company, etc.} you’ll want to bring an inspiration board. An inspiration board will give the vendor a good snapshot of what you want your wedding to feel like and will help to inspire their designs & suggestions for you. We create an inspiration board for 90% of our clients and it helps immensely to convey your vision to the vendors. If you’re meeting with an invitation designer or paper company, you’ll want to bring a list of items that you will need them to create for you. This includes everything from your Save the Dates and Invitations to the smaller items like Programs, Menu Cards, Place Cards, Signs, and much more. This way the vendor knows exactly what you will need and can start planning & designing with every little detail in mind. One of the vital services that a wedding planner provides is to help you to gather your thoughts and will make sure that you have ALL necessary information ready before walking into meetings with vendors. If you cannot afford a wedding planner, try to be as organized and prepared as possible and know your budget!
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| Danielle Davis Art/ Photography, Eventures |
TWP: What are some of your favorite first dance songs?
JESSICA: For your First Dance you want something timeless & special. It is all a matter of taste but I prefer something that is not current - something you won’t look back on and say, “Obviously we were married in 2011” {No offense to “Marry Me” by Train girls! }. My favorite choices are classics by Barry White, Al Green, Louis Armstrong, or Billy Joel. I also love songs that feel old like Ray Lamontagne’s “You Are the Best Thing” or Michael Buble’s “Everything”. The best advice I can give here is to choose a song that means something special to you. Maybe it is the same song your parents danced to at their wedding, or it’s just a song that you both really love. Either way, it will be important to you & your husband for the rest of your lives and you want a song that deserves that special place in your hearts!
TWP: With the endless opportunities to find inspiration (Pinterest, blogs, websites) how can a bride truly create a wedding of her own and not just a disappointing version of some unrealistic inspiration seen on Pinterest?
JESSICA: This is a tricky one! In the world of Pinterest - a blessing and a curse for wedding planners - ideas and inspiration are never ending. The blessing is that it’s very easy to find photos of details that you love and to share them with your vendors to inspire your wedding design. The curse is that many of the photos you find on Pinterest are unrealistic for the average bride. When I bride shows me a photo of a stunning Karen Tran wedding, I have to tell her quickly that the flowers alone for that wedding are easily $60,000.00. It’s important for brides to ask the experts about the details they’ve fallen in love with on Pinterest, so they won’t be disappointed when they arrive at their wedding and their $5,000.00 floral budget couldn’t compete with the Karen Tran wedding worth more than 10x that.
Another very important thing to consider when using Pinterest to inspire your wedding is that you don’t want to copy it exactly. Who wants a do-over of a wedding that’s already been done and is out there on Pinterest for thousands of other brides to copy as well? If you do this, you won’t have a personal, one-of-a-kind wedding, and every bride and groom should have that! So use Pinterest for inspiration, but don’t copy the items you see. Make them personal to you! Make them better! Make them your own.
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| Carper Creative Photography, Lisa's Cake Boutique |
TWP: How do you advise the newly engaged bride-to-be! How does she start planning? What are the most time sensitive matters to attend to first?
JESSICA: Congratulations to the lucky lady! First and foremost, you want to hire the vendors who are most in demand. These are the vendors who can only do one wedding per day. Highest priority vendors include your Wedding Planner, Photographer, and Venues. I recommend contacting these 3 vendors before you even have a date! Find out if they’re available for a few dates that you’re considering and see if you can match them up all up. From there, it depends on what is most important to you. If you want a band, I recommend booking them next. After that, an Invitation Designer, Florist, & Caterer should be contracted. Then your bakery, rental company, lighting company, etc. will all fall into line. If you are a busy bride, the most important thing to do is to call a wedding planner! If you don’t have time to weed through the thousands of photographers out there, a wedding planner can give you the best 3 to consider, set up appointments, send the necessary details to these vendors before your meeting, and much more!
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TWP: How do you make an appropriate sized guest list that will include the bride & groom’s friends plus their parents’ lists without spiraling out of control?
JESSICA: This is a BIG issue in the South, where we still keep in touch with our preschool friends and feel close to our cousin’s best friend! The biggest thing to remember is that an average wedding costs approximately $150.00 per guest. I know it seems high! But it’s accurate according to many studies. Think about it: For every guest, you must provide a meal, drinks, cake or dessert, a place to sit, dishes, etc. And for every 8 guests, you need a table, table cloth, & centerpiece. Plus the other items that all guests enjoy like the entertainment. It adds up! You can cut this down a little if you have a morning or early afternoon wedding where the cost of food & drinks would be significantly lower, but you’re probably not going to get it down below $100.00 per person. So, keeping your guest list at a reasonable number is vital! When starting your guest list I recommend coming up with a number of people you’d like to have at the wedding. This could be 50 or it could be 400. Whatever it is, just have a number in mind or you won’t know when you’ve gone over! Let’s just say you want to have 200 guests at your wedding. If this is the case, you can invite around 350 people and expect 200 guests to come. This means your entire list including your parents friends & colleagues needs to fit within this number. The best way to ensure that it does is to divide it up evenly. I recommend the bride & groom get the larger portion of guests with their list together coming to 150 people. Then each set of parents would get 100 guests. If each person knows they have this number of people from the beginning, there will be no surprises and no hurt feelings.
TWP: How do you discuss the budget with your future in-laws {groom’s parents} and address what they’re responsible for financially?
JESSICA: Discussing the financial responsibility of the groom & his family can be difficult. If you’re lucky, your future mother in law will approach you about it! The key is to be ready when she does. I have a list of “who pays for what” according to traditional etiquette. I send this to my clients at the very beginning of the planning process so that they’ll have it handy when the future mother-in-law comes to them saying “What can we help with?” or “Let us know what we need to pay for.” My brides can just hand this form over to the in-laws so that everything is on the table and the awkwardness can be avoided. The problem arises if you’re not prepared when this happens, then it can be difficult to bring up the subject again later. So the biggest advice I can give is to be prepared! Have a list of items ready to go when your mother-in-law comes to you.
Every once in a while, the in-laws don’t offer help or don’t know that they are supposed to take care of anything. This is a little tougher to handle. For my clients who have to deal with this, I offer to call the mother of the groom to see if she needs any help with her responsibilities {i.e. rehearsal dinner plans} and to answer any questions she has. I approach it very diplomatically and don’t just come out and say “Here’s a list of stuff for you to pay for.” 9 times out of 10, they’ll ask me what they’re responsible for during that conversation.
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| Tanarah Luxe Floral & Event Styling, Melissa McCrotty Photography |
TWP: How do you determine a destination guest list? How do you avoid hurting someone’s feelings when they ask and aren’t invited?
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| A Moment Captured |
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| Melissa McCrotty Photography |
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| Erika Dotson Photography |
Thank you, Jessica! Super great advice!
Don't you just love her? ALL of those fabulous photos are from Finishing Touch weddings! AND!!!! (This post just keeps getting better!) Jessica is rewarding ALL future brides who hear about Finishing Touch Events on TWP (from now through January!!) with a whoppin' 15% discount!!!!!!!!! Can you believe?!! Just tell her you heard it here!! :)
We heart you, Jessica!!!
Finishing Touch has recently relocated to Northwest Arkansas. Here's their NEW address and contact info:
Jessica Kersey
2002 NE Oakview Cove, Bentonville, AR
479-414-4136
Email: jessica@finishingtoucheventdesign.net
Twitter: @jessicalkersey
There ya' go, friends. Now, get out there and make this wonderful day count.
Hope to see ya' back here bright and early tomorrow morning! Love to you all!
XOXO,
Deborah
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