Sodalite is a dark blue stone with white calcite interspersed and is supposed to bring inner peace. It is also known to stimulate endurance and is therefore become the stone of athletes. It is a fabulously strong colour and I have seen some bridesmaids dresses that are simply stunning. As in the mood board above it can really create a magical look for a reception room when used as a colour wash on the walls.

How would you use this colour?

I recently got asked a question by one of the students at the UK Academy of Wedding and Event Planning about how to deal with clients when they don’t like the design you have spent hours creating for their wedding. Where do you draw the line between creative artist and customer service?

Hmm…well this is a great question so I thought I would give it some space here on our blog as I am sure this is a question many of you would love to know the answer to, so here goes.

What you need to remember is that no matter what you do within the wedding industry you are in still in the business of customer service. It is very easy to get caught up in the design and creativeness of what you do. When you have spent hours on something and created what you feel is a masterpiece it is extremely hard to get negative feedback.

My advice is that more often than not we get very carried away with the thought of what we want to create rather than listening to what it is that our clients actually want. It is very easy to hear what we want to hear when a client is giving us their ideas and visions for their wedding or event. All to often we only half listen and by the second sentence have started visualizing unbelievable designs which are actually not anything like what the client wanted, apart from the fact that they might be using one of the colours mentioned. Don’t worry I have done this too so you aren’t alone.

The bottom line is that you need to listen to your client and over time you will develop an instinct for these things and be able to tell within 5 minutes of meeting & chatting to a client the style that will work for them. Not only that, you will also develop your own unique style that becomes a trademark so clients using your services will already know up front what they are in for when working with you.

I hope this has helped but I would love to know your thoughts on this subject too so post your comments below.

Somewhere over the rainbow. Another great trend for 2012. This fabulous theme allows your couple to incorporate all the colours of the rainbow within their wedding and is perfect for those who are finding it hard to settle on colours. The seven official colours of the rainbow are red, green, blue, yellow, indigo, orange and violet.

There are so many ways to make it work from 7 bridesmaids in different colour dresses and 7 groomsmen with different colour ties to a 7 tiered wedding cake with each tier being a different colour. This theme can be done in a very chic way and for those who are brave enough it can even be incorporated into the brides dress.

What do you think of this theme? Is it one that you think will catch on in the UK?

Image from Martha Stewart Weddings

Last week we looked at the steps to take when creating the design for events and we talked about creating a ‘collection‘ in the same way as a fashion designer does. One of the most asked questions when we talk to students about design is what the latest trends are, especially at the start of the year when everyone is looking at putting together their main style for the year. Trends can be very hard to predict and although we have our trusted sources such as Pantone, the fashion world, the red carpet and interior design magazines it is more about what your client wants that what is in vogue at any given point in time.

One of the best trends from 2011 was that of the Royal Wedding. From the moment Kate Middleton stepped out in her wedding dress the new big trend became vintage, Grace Kelly style. This has been a great one to play with as it is classical, delicate, whimsical and many other adjectives can be used to describe it.

So what is the next step when putting together a design for an event? Well the first thing I always do is to Create an Inspiration Board. It is quite common for me create both an online and offline version. I find the online is great as I can carry it around with me wherever I am and the offline version I love as I can touch it and get a real feel for the event. There are many different online tools you can use to create an Inspiration Board but I use Smilebox as it allows me much more flexibility, and for a very small fee is each year I can print or save my designs without any advertising or watermarking.

Next you need to Reinvent. It is very hard to constantly come up with a style or design that has never been done before, either by you or someone else. The best way to keep your designs looking fresh is to give a few of the elements within your design a news twist. Use them in a different way, combine them with something you wouldn’t normally and generally play around with them.

Finally Bring It Altogether. This is the best bit. Let’s look at an example. It is very hard to find a completely new way of creating a table design as you will always use the same elements:

• Table Cloth
• Table Accessories
• The Centrepiece

What you can do though is mix up the way you set them up and place them. If you always use table mirrors to place your centrepiece on perhaps give them a new lease of life by encircling them with T-lights to give them a different feel. Perhaps combine different styles of linen within your design so it gives variety to the texture?

There are many ways you can make a design unique by using the same elements over and over again. It is how you make that plain vase look different each time it features in a design that is what makes the design original.

If you have any ideas on how to make your design unique we would love you to share them here for all our readers to see.

The Wedding Industry Awards took place on Wednesday 18th of January and both Zoe and I attended as representatives for the UK Academy of Wedding and Event Planning (UKAWEP) and what a night it was. The venue, Cafe de Paris, was fantastic and was opulent and visually appealing with a chandelier hanging from the ceiling and cozy booths with velvet interior around the dance floor. It had a real Moulin Rouge feel to it which thrilled me as I have just come back from a mini New Year break in Paris, so this was very apt for me.

The event itself seemed to go off without a hitch and was very well organised. We were welcomed by staff at the top of the stairs and pointed in the right direction whereupon we were served a glass of champagne. As this was a cocktail event with canapes being served throughout the evening there was much mingling and networking going on as the elite of the wedding world came together to celebrate the industry.

As there were Regional Winners from each category in attendance the dance floor area had been set up in regions to allow easy networking between those that knew each other whilst the close proximity to other regions allowed for new friendships to be formed.

The room was buzzing by the time Damian Bailey, the man behind the awards, took to the stage to start the formalities of the evening. Each category was introduced by Sarah Hewson, Sky News Presenter, who looked stunning in a green cocktail dress and gave us a behind the scenes glimpse of her life as a Royal Wedding Correspondent.

The quality of the entries for each category was extremely high and in some cases led to the judges awarding a ‘Highly Commended’ to entrants in some of the categories. Of course the category we were most interested in was that of Best Independent Wedding Planner, as this is the area we hope to see one of our students in next year. This honour was taken out by the very talented Jane Riddell and her company Planned for Perfection. We are hoping to do an interview with Jane over the next week and talk to her about her award and what she feels it takes to be a successful planner.

Another category that was of interest was that of Best Wedding Coordinator within a Venue and this award went to Michele Jetzer of Riverstation and we would like to extend our congratulations to Michele as well.

As I said it was a wonderful evening and we would like to congratulate Damian and his team on a fantastic effort for the first in what we hope will be many more Wedding Industry Awards evenings. We are looking forward to next year and for those of you looking to enter the 2013 Awards click here to be kept up to date on what is happening. To finish things off here is a happy snap of Zoe and I having fun at the Awards!

]]> http://www.weddingindustrypros.com/industryarticles/the-wedding-industry-awards/feed/ 0 http://www.weddingindustrypros.com/industryarticles/interview-with-academy-student-and-wedding-blogger/ http://www.weddingindustrypros.com/industryarticles/interview-with-academy-student-and-wedding-blogger/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:13:12 +0000 Kylie Carlson http://www.weddingindustrypros.com/?p=805 Sonia Collet is a student with the UK Academy of Wedding and Event Planning and the owner of wedding blog Want That Wedding. Sonia is studying the Diploma in Wedding Planning, Styling and Design and has already launched her blog whilst studying, and has recently been featured on Rock n Roll Bride which was cited as one of the top 5 wedding blogs by Elle Magazine (UK), Rock My Wedding, Wedding Chicks and Bridal Guide. It is always inspiring for our current and potential students to read about the success of others studying with the Academy regardless of which campus they are studying with, so we have interviewed Sonia about her experiences so far to give you an insight into the world of an Academy student.

Some photos sourced from Pinterest

Interview with Course Consultant, Christine Kerr

Christine: Sonia, I am absolutely blown away by the stunning images you have styled in the theme of Twilight and featured on your blog, ‘want that wedding’   I read that what you wanted to do was create something beautiful to inspire Brides, whether they were a Twilight fan or not.  I have to admit to not being one of those people who have been caught up in the Twilight craze, but your shoot captured my imagination.  It is stunning and tells a story.

Christine: So, let’s go back to the beginning.  Can you tell us a little of your story and what you are looking to achieve within the industry?
Sonia: I guess this all started for me whilst planning my own wedding, I realised that it was something I was really interested in, particularly the styling. After our wedding was featured in Cosmo Bride, various friends kept telling me I’d make a great wedding planner so the idea started to blossom and I decided to go for it. I came across your wedding planning, styling and design course and the styling and design aspect really appealed to me. I am in the early stages of the course as I’ve also set up a wedding blog which takes up quite a bit of my time.

Christine: As someone who is not working professionally in the industry just yet, this shoot is a spectacular achievement.  Getting suppliers, of this calibre to work with you has obviously helped you to bring your vision to life.  How did you go about putting your dream team together?
Sonia: I have a twitter account @wantthatwedding and I follow lots of people in the wedding industry, I knew I wanted the shoot to look high end so spent time looking into the suppliers I thought could help me achieve that look. I also worked with a couple of suppliers that I used for my own wedding day as I knew how good they were and what they were capable of.

Christine: How did the creative vision for this shoot come together?  Did you create a story, a mood board, brainstorm with your team?  Can you give us an insight into the creative process?
Sonia: The creative vision came together bit by bit, I had this amazing vision in my mind and I would picture each part of ‘the wedding’ I ‘Googled’ my ideas to see what I could find on the internet, I took inspiration from various things I found along the way. After an idea was formed I would contact a supplier I believed in and share my vision, I knew that I needed to trust the talents of the people I was working with, it definitely became a collaboration. Eventually, everything just came together. I did email mood boards to key suppliers so they could understand the kind of look I wanted to achieve.

Christine: Do you have a background in styling/interiors?
Sonia: I have absolutely no experience in styling apart from planning my own wedding; I had a very strong vision for that too.

Christine: What is next for you?
Sonia: I’m not sure really, I definitely want to finish the course and see where that takes me. I would also like to develop the wedding blog and would love to continue producing and styling wedding shoots. Here is a link to my latest styled shoot - click here It featured on Rock n’ Roll Bride

Thank you for your time Sonia.  It is an absolute pleasure to share your success with our readers.  We look forward to watching your career blossom.  
Christine Kerr

The course we get the most questions about at the UK Academy of Wedding and Event Planning is our Event Design Course. Many people struggle with the concept of event design and where it fits in within the overall scheme of things. It may seem quite straight forward, but you would be surprised just how many people struggle with where to begin. So today I thought we would look at how I go into each year and what I do to make my designs have a bit of zing.

Event designers are often likened to fashion designers and with good reason. They both create a concept. A fashion designer has to come up with four completely new concepts each year, one for each season. Now although this might be taking it a little far for an event designer it is a great model to use.

At the start of each year, or even before the start of each year if possible, you should work at putting together a collection for the forthcoming year. The problem we get as designers is that it is very easy to get comfortable with a particular style and before you know it all your designs and events start to look the same. And that is not a good thing. So let’s split this down into more manageable pieces.

Step 1. Name your collection. Every great designer has a name for their collection and yours should be no different. This is where inspiration comes in. Think back over the past year to the things that have inspired you the most.

• Movies – Hugo or Breaking Dawn Part 1
• Cities – for me I would be looking at Paris, New York and London
• Fashion Designers – I love Vera Wangs Spring 2012 Wedding Collection
• What’s Hot in Interior Design – my favourite place to browse is Material Girls

Step 2. What look are you going for? This is important as it will really dictate the direction you take. I know for me that I am really loving anything that is inspired by the 20′s Art Deco. To me there is something so refined, elegant and timeless about this era and it is so much fun from a design perspective. Regardless though of what look you are creating you must make sure you do your research. For my collection I would make sure that I used sites such as the Art Deco Fairs website so I can attend a couple of fairs and really immerse myself in this era.

Step 3. The colour scheme. This is probably my favourite part as it is very easy to get used to using the same colours within your designs. It is good to challenge yourself to work with a different combination of colours as you will be surprised how it will breath new life into your designs. Again make sure you do your research. There are three or four different colour combinations I could use for this look but I will probably work with Black, Gold and Ivory and Rich Red, White and Black as these are both classic Art Deco combinations.

Next week we will look at the next stage of putting together your new Event Design Collection for 2012. Remember we love to hear from our readers so if you complete the above 3 steps please send them in so we can feature them on the website.

• Certificate Courses – £25 Cash Back to be applied within 48 hours of enrolling
• Diploma in Wedding Planning, Styling and Design – £50 Cash Back to be applied within 48 hours of enrolling
• Advanced Diploma in Special Event Planning and Design – £75 Cash Back to be applied within 48 hours of enrolling

For more details or to chat about your options please speak to Zoe McKeown on 0845 313 6023 or email zoe@ukawep.co.uk

I love colours that pack a punch and that can certainly be said of some of the 2012 Pantone Wedding Colours which were released late last year. The colour I am featuring in today’s board is Cabaret and I love it. Not unlike the Pantone Colour of the Year, Tangerine Tango featured on our Australian Blog, this is one fiery colour that is definitely not a simple accent colour, but is very much a primary colour.

I particularly like the idea of teaming this colour with silver in a similar way to the shoes featured above. This could be a very striking combination which would really help to show the Cabaret colour of to its full.

Next week we will take a look at another colour featured in this group.

Every year millions of people make New Year’s Resolutions with the usual culprits being to give up smoking, get fit, lose weight or start that new career. At the start of every year I always sit down and take a long hard look at my business and decide where I want to take it during the year that lies ahead. It is a time I always look forward to, as it is the one time of year I can indulge myself by delving into my notebook packed with all those ideas I came up with during the course of the previous year. Normally any idea I have is written down and filed away, so that it doesn’t distract me from what I really need to focus on. The New Year however, is the perfect time to revisit these ideas to see if they have any merit.

In the same way we feel the need to make New Years Resolutions as individuals a business needs the same injection of something new. It is very easy to lose your way in business as the end of the year draws near, so the New Year is the perfect time to look at things with fresh eyes and put new plans into action.

So how do you do this? Well everyone is different, but for me I have a format that seems to work very well. I set aside one day at the start of January and my sole purpose for that day is to put together a working plan for the year. My surroundings play an important part in this and need to be conducive to creative thinking allowing me to be inspired. I then set up 3 white boards and on the first I write down ALL the ideas I have come up with the previous year. There is no right or wrong to this process and no idea is a bad idea.

Once all the ideas are written down and easy to see I then start to move them over to board number 2 and try to formulate them into an order of some kind so they make sense. From there the filter process begins and ideas with a common theme are grouped together. Once this is done it is usually time to sit back and let the ideas sink in and formulate in my mind.

This last process can often take a couple of hours as I allow the ideas to take on a life of their own. Once this is complete it is time to move onto the 3rd board. Here is where I have to be strict with myself and only allow the ideas that have definite merit to come across and make it onto the final board. From this final board is where I draw my inspiration for the year ahead and although this isn’t an exact science it certainly hasn’t let me down yet.

I would love to know how you set yourself a plan for the New Year so please leave your thoughts here as we can always learn new ways of doing things.