Wonderful Weddings
No more wedding woes!
Planning for a successful wedding day
By Brian Joyce
The following wedding event was planned and coordinated by Susie Weiss and her Winter Park firm Wonderful Weddings.
Rachel and Micah had been dating for about two and a half years. Micah had completed law school and was offered the opportunity to work in Rachel’s father’s law practice to gain experience. However, the law firm was in Birmingham, Alabama which meant a move for both Rachel and Micah. A "going away dinner" was planned by Rachel’s mother and step-father for an evening in October 2006. Just prior to the dessert cake being presented, Micah got down on one knee and asked Rachel to marry him. Her ring was brought out on a platter while "their song" was played on her step-dad’s I-pod. (And of course Micah did the right thing prior to this event and asked Rachel’s parents for her hand in marriage!).
When Rachel accepted Micah’s proposal of marriage, it was obviously one of the most important nights of her life! But once the "pixie dust" and excitement of the marriage proposal and all its attendant trappings settled, Rachel knew that she had a lot of work cut out for her to plan her wedding, especially since it would be long distance. Rachel says the next big decision she made was to hire a wedding planner.
In speaking with Rachel about her criteria for choosing a wedding planner, she stated that reputation in Central Florida, price point but most importantly—personality--were the three points she used to make her selection. When asked how many she interviewed, her response was "One and done!" Rachel and her Mom Christy met with Susie Weiss of Wonderful Weddings in November of 2006 She shared with them a detailed presentation of her service options (she offers several different work scenarios to be able to be suited for most any bride). Rachel and her Mom chose to work with Susie within her Total Involvement level of service minus accompaniment on site and vendor selection appointments. Rachel says this was the easy part—she still had to convince her dad Archie that hiring a wedding planner was the right thing to do! Rachel asked Susie to e-mail her Dad and share with him everything she shared with them. She did that but the next step was a personal meeting with Rachel’s Dad and Susie. He flew to Orlando about a week later and had a face-to-face meeting with Susie. He asked her all the right questions and she apparently had all the right answers because he called his secretary in Alabama and requested that Susie be sent a deposit. And he upgraded the level of service—he felt that it was important that Rachel and her Mom have a knowledgeable, objective third party along on all of the key appointments so that Rachel could make critical decisions without hesitation.
From late November of 2006 through to Rachel’s wedding day of September 22, 2007, I shadowed Rachel, her Mom and Susie and sometimes just Susie so I could learn what goes on in the professional life of a wedding planner and the relationship with her client. She also let us have a peek into Rachel’s file—a three-ring, two-inch binder with five dividers that contained nearly 300 e-mails, budgets and contracts!
Once Rachel’s father accepted Susie’s Contract & Proposal, Susie presented Rachel with a six-page style sheet. This is the tool she uses to determine taste, desires and priorities and often gives a bride the "nudge" she needs to think more in-depth about the statement she wishes her wedding to make. This document also enables Susie to accurately create a detailed budget on paper for the client’s review, which includes everything the bride would like to be a part of her wedding. Susie states that she never wants to manipulate the budget so it only looks good on paper—because once shopping for site and service providers begins, the budget would not be a true reflection. In the case of Rachel’s wedding, her father provided her a very generous budget. However, because Rachel is a member of a very large family (her blended family consists of 7 sisters and a brother and her Dad is one of 10 children!), the overall dollar amount still needed to be carefully distributed and allocated because of the number of guests. Rachel had already chosen her church prior to Susie’s involvement and had tentatively chosen a reception site. But Rachel’s Dad asked that Susie also give suggestions of some other possible reception sites that might serve to stretch the budget a bit further. Research on this was done by Susie but after careful review of the offerings and inclusive amenities of her original tentative reception site choice, Rachel booked her reception at a long-standing, downtown Orlando business club. And its location was perfect to downtown hotels for her out-of-town guests and in very close proximity to her church.
Once Rachel’s Dad approved the budget, Susie’s next step was to set up vendor selection appointments for Rachel. Again, because of Rachel’s re-location to Alabama, this was a bit of a challenge. But Susie says that she is used to the "absentee" bride and organizes their appointment itineraries when they are in town to maximize their time here. 
Susie felt the first big choice to be made was photographer. Rachel was scheduled to come to town to interview photographers along with her Mom and Susie. But something came up that prevented that so only Susie and her Mom conducted these interviews in early December. However, Rachel knew exactly what she was looking for and was able to communicate this so the best choices were available for her Mom to choose from. The photographer was hired and Rachel felt very happy that one of her bigger decisions had been made.
The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays of 2006 came and went and while Rachel did come home to Orlando for the holidays, she took a bit of a "wedding break’ and concentrated more on family. In the meantime, Susie provided Rachel and her family some guidelines for setting up her guest list (for future use of a calligrapher or machine addressing company and also to get a serious handle on the number of guests) and also she set up room blocks for the downtown hotels.
Another big decision for Rachel was selecting her band. Once again because of her status as an absentee bride, Rachel just was not able to go out and hear bands in a live performance setting. Susie advised Rachel that this was the best way to make this very big decision. But it just wasn’t a possibility. Based on Susie’s recommendation and several Rachel received from friends who had used this particular band, she selected a nine-piece band to play at her wedding reception. Her biggest criteria for the band was that they be able to play "Sweet Home Alabama!"
At Susie’s suggestion, Rachel decided to shop for and purchase her wedding gown in Birmingham. Her Mom flew up to accompany her on these shopping trips. Rachel selected her gown. Rachel had a very large bridal party (12 bridesmaids), many of which lived all over the country. During her Christmas 2006 visit, she did select her bridesmaid gown—a short, sleeveless v-neck gown of an iridescent mango color. Rachel commented that she felt the hue was perfect for the array of hair color that existed in her bridal party and the overall style was flattering to all of her very slender bridesmaids!
Rachel came home in March of 2007 for an engagement party. For a few days prior Susie organized a florist appointment and a menu selection appointment at the reception site. Susie typically suggests her clients start out with one florist appointment. Because it is such a subjective category of the wedding and so much time and idea presentation go into this appointment, Susie believes that multiple appointments in this particular category may often just lead to confusion! Of course, there needs to be a bond as well and Rachel and her Mom bonded quickly with Susie’s florist suggestion. Rachel commented that it was probably the one appointment of all at which she had the most fun! Color palates were selected, the florist methodically went through all the elements of the wedding and a proposal was created. Rachel had her heart set on an all-stephanotis bouquet; but once the florist presented her proposal and Rachel learned of its cost, she knew she would have to make some compromises. However, both Susie and the florist assured Rachel that the ultimate bouquet would be beautiful and would certainly not come off as a compromise when paired with her beautiful Monique Lhuillier satin gown.
While Rachel wanted to be able to provide as much seating as possible at her reception, she also did not want a sit-down dinner. The catering director at her reception site along with Susie assisted her with selection of the most appropriate menu for this scenario and also laid out a tentative diagram of the banquet space. The catering director also provided information about the many amenities that were included in Rachel’s package—personalized beverage napkins, menu cards, linens and favors. Rachel upgraded to a chiavari chair to maximize the seating availability. The catering director and Susie also offered detailed advice on how to approach the bar—an hourly bar versus consumption. It was decided that a decision on this would be made once the date got closer and the responses came in.
Rachel was desirous of a video to document her wedding but she knew
that it was an option that might have to be deleted due to budget constraints. But Susie helped Rachel with this decision and Rachel hired a videographer that met her criteria.
As the spring of 2007 came to a close and the long summer arrived, Rachel came to town another time to select invitations and select her wedding cake design and flavors. The wedding cake was part of the package at her reception site so this eliminated several steps for Rachel.
At approximately 90 days before the wedding, Susie conducted a to-do list with Rachel and her Mom via conference call. This is an exercise that is crucial to the overall management of the wedding and important to the delineation of the fine details. Susie states that once this exercise has been completed, she knows in her heart of hearts that it’s not likely anything will fall through the cracks. Also during this time, Susie began creating a payment schedule for Rachel’s Dad. This is an important tool that would help him to keep on track with all the vendor’s subsequent and final payments.
When we took a peek at the nearly 300 e-mails that were written between Susie and Rachel from November of 2006 to September of 2007, we also realized that there was more than the nuts and bolts of the wedding that the two of them discussed. A definite bonding had taken place between them which only helped to add to the success of the wedding day.
About six weeks before the wedding, Rachel, Susie and her Mom conducted another conference call during which time they created the draft of the wedding day scheduling package. Once all missing information is filled in, Susie presents this to the client for final approval before distribution. This is a tool that Susie states is the floor plan of the day—it is ultimately e-mailed to all sites and service providers that includes set-up, delivery and strike times of vendors as well as fine details such as who is seating the grandmothers, mothers and special dance song titles, etc. The schedule is distributed 10 days before the wedding and then the sites and vendors are reconfirmed 72 hours before the wedding. Susie states that usually everything is set at this time but there is time for reaction to any troublesome issues that might have come up due to scheduling.
Susie also created client-specific calendars for Rachel starting in August—these calendars included generic tasks that needed to be accomplished for that month as well as appointments that had been set for a specific date. These calendars could then be edited by Rachel to add more information.
Susie distributed the schedule to sites and vendors 10 days before the wedding and her office assistant Elaine reconfirmed all sites and vendors on Wednesday, September 19th. Also on that day, Susie scheduled and conducted a "same page" meeting at the reception site with the catering director, Rachel and her Mom—just to be sure that everything was in order. Rachel brought any reception-related items at that time so that on the day of the wedding she could be traveling "light!" Even though there was not organized seating for each guest, Rachel did wish to provide seating for some immediate family and bridal party and their guests so at this time Susie and Rachel worked on this and then Susie ultimately created the reserved seating signs.
Rachel’s ceremony took place at a church with a strong and organized church coordinator program. However, the coordinators at this church always welcome the additional help of an outside wedding planner contracted by the bride. Susie and her associate Donna respect the roles of these ladies and vice versa. Having the assistance of an outside wedding planner enables the church coordinators to concentrate more on their specific duties. On Friday evening at the rehearsal, the church coordinator conducted the actual rehearsal but graciously provided Susie about 10 minutes at its conclusion to hand out Photography and Transportation Schedules to the entire bridal party. These documents are personalized and highlighted for each person involved so that he or she knows exactly his or her role on the wedding day. Even though this was a very large bridal party, they arrived on time and were very attentive which made the jobs of the church coordinator and Susie much easier at both the rehearsal and ultimately on the wedding day.
Susie and Donna arrived at the church on the wedding day prior to the arrival of the bride and her party. They came armed with their expansively fitted-out emergency kits that go way beyond needle and thread!
Rachel’s bridesmaids arrived dressed but Rachel waited to put on her dress at the church. Susie, Donna and Rachel’s Mom assisted with her dressing. Once this was completed, the photographer and videographer were ready to follow the shooting order already laid out in the schedule. Even though there was a blended family, the schedule enabled the photographer to keep all of that straight and achieve the appropriate combinations.
When possible, Susie likes to organize the pre-wedding photos so that there are 30 minutes of "down" time for the bride and groom prior to walking down the aisle. During this time, I spoke with Rachel about her thoughts on her wedding day as well as during the months of planning and asked her several questions: When asked how she was feeling at that particular moment as regards the comfort level with her planner, Rachel’s reply was "I am stressing like any bride but certainly not about the details because I have Susie to look after those. I know that she has 100 percent everything under control and all I have to do is get down the aisle. She’s made things easy on everyone else as well, like having tweezers available to button my gown and personalized bags for my bridesmaids’ things. I just can’t imagine any bride doing this without a planner, especially as one as good as Wonderful Weddings." 
The five o’clock hour was approaching and so it was time for the Wonderful Weddings team and the church coordinator to organize for the processional. The wedding started right on time and ended at 5:30. Susie’s associate Donna stayed back at the church to monitor the post-wedding photos (among these were several large extended family group shots, the total of which involved 100 people). Susie left the ceremony for the reception site as soon as it concluded so that she could review the room set-up and deal with any last-minute issues.
When Susie arrived at the reception, she learned that the band that was to perform at another wedding in another area of the club had set up their equipment very early in the day in wrong place—the area of Rachel’s wedding reception! The band for Rachel’s wedding had just arrived at 5:30 to set up (for a 7:00 p.m. down beat) and saw equipment in the area. The catering director at the club tried unsuccessfully to reach the band but did reach the coordinator for that event who was able to reach the band. In the meantime, Rachel’s band needed to move on with their set-up so they very carefully and respectfully moved the other band’s equipment to the dance floor and set up theirs. This was a perfect example of the camaraderie that exists in the Central Florida wedding industry.
Susie’s associate gave her a call to let her know that the extended and immediate family photos had been completed and that Rachel and Micah and their party were now headed for some fun shots in the streets of downtown Orlando as planned on the schedule. The photographer kept Susie up to date on the timing of this and when to expect the party.
Once Rachel and her group arrived at the reception site, they were provided a private room during which time they could have some drinks and hors d’oeuvres prior to their announcement into the reception. During this time, the club staff began urging the guests to move into the main dining room area.
Susie says that organizing a large bridal party for announcements is always a challenge! She had a typed list with all of the couples and had previously gone over pronunciations with the band leader. She also provided an enlarged lay-out of the reception space for use as an "audio-visual" so that the couples would know exactly where to re-position themselves once inside. All of this worked very well and the start of the well-planned wedding schedule had begun.
Rachel’s reception included all of the usual components but a very special one was commemoration of Micah’s great-aunt’s 99th birthday! She was presented with her own birthday cake and the band played and the guests sang Happy Birthday to her!
Susie said that the schedule was, for the most part, maintained with just a few adjustments along the way. She says it’s a rare wedding where a reception goes exactly as planned because, after all, it is a party! Susie noticed many times (which is so often the case), that guests would stop Rachel throughout the evening for someone to take a photo of her with them. Susie asked her once if she was tired of smiling and her comment was, "No I love this, and I’d do it all again tomorrow … with your help of course!"
Because a wedding generates so many personal items and keepsakes that must leave the reception, Susie has created a special form for this. It lists all the possible items that could be generated by a wedding plus space for "other." The bride completes this form prior to the rehearsal. Susie can then inventory all the items at the end of the evening, coordinate with the person responsible for taking away these items and then signs and dates it and also requests the signature of the responsible person. She then leaves one copy with the items and takes a copy with her.
Rachel had desired a rose petal departure. So Susie coordinated with the band leader to explain the activity prior to the last dance and then again once the last dance had been played. Susie organized the guests and the distribution of the rose petals, made sure that the photographer and videographer were in place and then gave the couple the signal that it was okay to make their get-away! In the instance of Rachel’s wedding, there was no departure vehicle because their wedding night hotel was within walking distance. It had rained hard earlier in the evening but by the time 11:00 rolled around, the skies had cleared for a successful departure!
Susie came back upstairs after the departure activities to finalize the organization of the personal items for Rachel’s Mom to take. I had a few minutes to speak with her about the day. When I asked her if she was tired, she said, "Yes, I’m tired, but it’s a good kind of tired!"
Prologue: Due to the timing of Rachel’s return from her honeymoon and the submission deadline of this article, I was not able to speak with Rachel after she returned. However, I was able to chat with her briefly just prior to the end of the evening and asked her if there was anything she would change about her wedding. Her response was, "Absolutely nothing … well, maybe one. The date! September 22nd was also the date for the Alabama/Georgia football game (long-time rivals!). So the game was a bit of a distraction during my wedding reception. And unfortunately Alabama lost! But, my band played a rousing rendition of "Sweet Home Alabama" which did help to soothe the guests’ disappointment with the outcome of the game!"
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