I’m sure you received some great word of mouth referrals from your just married BFF, then you hit up Wedding Wire as well as visited your favorite blog to see who designed that stunning wedding you saw posted last week…but now that you have names, how do you select the one person that will be managing your big day?

Laura Hunt Photography

Here are my tips on how to find the best wedding planner, and what to ask…

1. Listening Skills – You call up a potential planner and she yaps on and on about this wedding she did and that venue she loves and never gives you the opportunity to share what YOU are looking for. As the client, you need to be able to express your wants and desires and a good planner will ask you the right questions to find out what your needs and hopes are for your wedding day and let you do the talking.

2. Trust – Once you’ve got a planner that listens, meet with them. A lot of planners have complimentary consultations so you can get to know each other better. Meet up over coffee, chat about all things wedding, and do a gut check. Does this person seem trustworthy? Do you get that good vibe and are your personalities clicking? Are they on time and do they seem organized, poised and confident? Remember, this person needs to manage you, your wedding party, your family, and your guests as well as all the vendors making the magic happen – do you get the sense they can handle the job?

3. Experience – This one goes a little deeper than the question “How many weddings have you done?” Make sure you also ask about the type of weddings they have experience with, for example if your wedding is on a boat, ask if they’ve dealt with anything similar. Or ask about any tricky or atypical situations they may have been in and how were they resolved? This will show you their problem solving skills in action.

4. References – A good planner will have quite a few references and will be open to sharing them. Past brides of fabulous planners love to share rave reviews so get those email addresses and use them. Ask those past brides how the overall experience was working with that planner.

5. Design Aesthetics – Even if you are simply hiring a planner for Month-Of Services, make sure that your design vision and your planner’s vision somewhat match. If there is a situation on the day of your wedding and the planner needs to make a call about something, you want to be able to trust that their design aesthetics are relatively aligned with yours. If you’re looking for a planner to manage logistics and design it is even more important that you like the look and feel of their events.

One last piece of advice…don’t forget to breathe! Planning a wedding is a huge job –which is how us wedding planners came to be in the first place. Good luck!

Do you remember when you went to the brick and mortar store to find your place settings that you always wanted, scan them, and then move onto the next coveted item. You could do this at 2, maybe 3 stores max, but if you chose items from too many stores, you would overwhelm your family and friends.

I still get a certain pleasure out of entering stores and going through their inventory, feeling the texture, and looking at the shine, but you no longer need to feel limited to specific store fronts or even household items for your wedding registry.

There are many creative registries that fit the needs of today’s bride…honeymoon registries for travel lovers, and online wedding registries that allow you to add any item from any online store. For example, take myregistry.com or WishpotWedding, both of which provide you with a toolbar widget that you push when you come across an item online that you want to add to your registry.

Wishpot takes it a step further with a search function that enables you to search for a specific item across their product database. This is great if you are not sure exactly what you want.

But, for all of you who are not interested in furnishing your home, or outdoor gardening, there is the Honeymoon registry. Personally, I’m a huge fan of Honeymoon Registries. It is your special time…why not indulge a little after all the stress from the wedding! Some Honeymoon registries include Traveler’s Joy and HoneyMoon Wishes.

Whatever your final decision on wedding registries, just know that there are many options out there. And, it means you get to go SHOPPING!

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• Wedding registry dilemma: Is it rude not to want stuff? (timesunion.com)
• EXCITING NEWS! Wishpot Launches in UK! (blogs.wishpot.com)

Aiko Designs

I met Christine Aiko Beck of Aiko Designs at the SF Wedding Fair a few weeks ago and I was drawn like a magnet to her organic and distinct designs.  I asked Christine to share a little bit more about herself for us so that we could get to know the artist behind the fabulous designs!

1. Why did you decide to go into jewelry? What are you passionate about?
Growing up, I was interested in fashion and wanted to be an artist, but I couldn’t draw and just couldn’t seem to find the right medium.  Over the years, I continued to take various classes and look into new mediums to nurture my creative side but still, nothing seemed to stick.  Eventually, jewelry was one of the mediums I took up as a hobby and finally, I discovered something I loved, something that was going to stick!  It took a while to go from the hobby to the business, but it grew organically and I still love what I do — creating pretty things that other people love as well.

2. How would you describe your style? What do you think sets you apart from other artisans?
I describe my style as sophisticated and elegant, organic yet ethereal.  My designs are very simple and subtle, but strikingly pretty and feminine.  I think my designs are thoughtful and my jewelry is special — details are important to me.  It’s not always easy to create simple designs that are unique, interesting and pretty — some designers just can’t do simple and tend to over-design.

3. What is your favorite part of a wedding?
When the bride and groom are announced and walk down the aisle together — I love to see the looks on their faces!

4. What has been your favorite wedding so far? What made it so special?
My friends Chris and Sarah were married several years ago in Sayulita, Mexico.  The wedding took place at a villa overlooking the ocean and was absolutely gorgeous!  Sarah is a graphic designer so her sense of style and unique touches made the wedding so lovely.  Luckily, some of her close friends are floral designers, photographers and jewelry designers (me!) and we were able to participate in helping her prepare and provide her with our individual specialties.  The combination of location, friends, family and fun made it quite special.

5. What would be your dream wedding to work on?
It’s always nice when someone you admire (i.e., another artist, someone with amazing style) compliments your work, so my dream wedding to work on would probably be with someone like that.  In my dream wedding scenario, I’d have sufficient time (and an open budget) to create something special and unique for the bride, bridesmaids and family/friends.  Also, ideally, I’d get to attend the wedding and it would be somewhere fantastic!

6. For fun: what’s your guilty pleasure? What can’t you leave home without?
I am guilty of collecting and loving accessories that aren’t my own jewelry (hats, scarves, handbags, etc…)!  There are some days where I’ll forget to wear a piece of my jewelry, but will have both a hat and scarf on…oopsie!

Here are more designs from Aiko — aren’t they lovely?

Aiko Designs Blue Topaz Drops

Aiko Designs Gold Moons Earrings

Elizabeth Hurley Photography - Michelle & Ben

For this Thursday’s scoop, I’d like you to meet Elizabeth Hurley. No, not Hugh Grant’s ex. I’m talking about a talented San Francisco wedding photographer with an exquisite eye, organic and earthy style and easy on the budget without sacrificing quality!

I met Elizabeth (Beth) at a wedding fair at the Four Seasons a couple weeks ago. I was immediately impressed by her style: vintage wire baskets held 11×14 mats dedicated to three unique weddings and the tables were accented with branches and peonies. Beth was also very friendly and flipping through the photos, I sensed that her clients were relaxed and clearly felt comfortable with Beth’s direction.

Visit Beth’s blog for recent weddings and reviews, and her website to browse her photo galleries, including horses! She also shares with us some tidbits about herself as well as some great photos below:

1. Why did you decide to go into photography? What are you passionate about?
I have been a photographer since I can remember. I started out at 10 years old with a Kodak Disk Camera, which I used to document my very exciting life. I continued to study photography throughout High School and College and my camera just became an extension of the way that I viewed the world!  So I am not so sure that I decided to go into photography, as much as photography became a part of me!

My wedding photography business was born of my passion for photography and the need to do something I love everyday!  Needless to say, I am most passionate about taking pictures, of documenting the people and places that are part of my life.  I consider myself to be a visual record keeper — archiving the extraordinary events that make up life.  Simply said, my passion is for documenting people and their connections to the world!

Elizabeth Hurley Photography - Rachel & Steve

Elizabeth Hurley Photography - Win & Hannah

Elizabeth Hurley Photography - Michelle & Ben

We often immediately think of the Sonoma and Napa area when grapes and more importantly wine comes to mind. In reality, we have so many local wineries in our backyard spanning from the Peninsula, to the North Bay, and even in the East Bay. These wineries range from small family vineyards to large generations old estates. So often overlooked, these local wineries make a great option for your “staycation” wedding spot, and an easy way to cut down on travel emissions.

I would like to introduce you to a cluster of wineries located in the Livermore Valley. In this post, I will give you a brief glimpse of the area and some starting points allowing you to explore and delve into the details at your own leisure. The Livermore Wine Country hosts over 40 wineries throughout Castro Valley, Sunol, Pleasanton, and Livermore region with many that have on-site wedding spaces or event spaces affiliated with the winery. For example, the Palm Event Center in Pleasanton (see photo above) sits next to Mitchell Katz Winery while Garre Vinyard and Winery hosts multiple weddings options on their grounds.

Sourced from LVWA

To start you off on this journey, a great resource to check out is the Livermore Valley Winegrowers Association which details wineries that provide wedding services along with all the contact information to reach out to them. This is just a quick overview to help you get going in your search for the perfect winery location. Look out for follow-up posts with dedicated blog entries highlighting a few wineries that are not only wedding friendly, but also promote sustainable practices!

In the coming weeks, you’ll be meeting an affordable jeweler with ethereal tastes, the most outgoing hair stylist I’ve ever met to date, and a down-to-earth photographer with a great eye.

On this inaugural post, I’m pleased to introduce you to Aaron Lee, of Aaron Lee Films, based in San Francisco, whom Corina Beczner of Vibrant Events recommended. I’ve enjoyed Aaron’s videos, as seen on his website, and his amiable personality shines through!

Mike and Melissa by Aaron Lee Films

1. Why did you decide to go into video? What are you passionate about?
My father was a network news correspondent, so I think I started off in T.V. as a news cameraman in an effort to follow in his footsteps. At the time of course, I thought I was doing it because I actually enjoyed the process of covering “the news.” There was a lot of excitement, danger, and intense emotion. I was operating as a successful freelance content provider, and selling 100 stories a year to local and network news outlets. I did develop a genuine passion for going after “the story”, but the repeated exposure to tragedy, and long overnight hours were taking their toll on my psyche. Plus my wife and I wanted to start our family, so running around the streets of Oakland all night long, sometimes into the day if a story “broke”, wasn’t conducive to the type of family life we wanted.

Without too much planning about what I was going to do, we got pregnant. Yay! I worked through the first 8 months of the pregnancy, and then basically quit the news business. My wife actually went back to work part-time before I did, and with some help from my Italian mother-in-law I was a stay at home dad. We bled cash for about 8 months, but I wouldn’t give that time back for anything.

After about seven months though, I was ready to get out of the house a bit. I had done the video for a couple of friend’s weddings in the past year, so I went ahead and cut a 90 second demo, and bought an ad on theknot.com. I told my first few customers, “Hey, I’m new to weddings, but here’s what I’ve done so far. Yours will be at least this good.” I was very fortunate to get hired by some really nice people who had planned some fabulous weddings, and I never looked back.

2. How would you describe your style? What do you think sets you apart from other videographers?
If I had to sum it up I’d call it “Cinematic Documentary.” I came up in news, but early on in my wedding journey, I discovered this amazing community of event filmmakers who were focused on artistry and cinematography as well as telling the story. Stillmotion, Bob Nicolas, and Cloud Nine Creative were the first to open my eyes to the new heights that wedding “video” had reached, and continues to climb. I try to capture all the moments, but always with an artistic eye. I’m also a musician, so the highlight montages are what I do best.

What sets me and my colleagues that I admire (because I’m not alone in this) is that I truly care. I’m not churning out content with a formula. Of course there’s a style and structure that I like, but each movie I make is done “from scratch.” I’m not in weddings because I couldn’t do something else. I’m here because I love it.

3. What is your favorite part of a wedding?
Wow, it’s tough to choose one part of the wedding day as my favorite. But I’m going to go with the vows. That’s truly the moment. Up there, in front of everyone, eye to eye with each other, and you make that commitment, you say those words, tears roll, and you cross a threshold in life.

4. How do you know what music to use? Clips?
Music is so important, and the selection process varies from client to client. Some brides give me a list to work from, and others will have me pitch ideas. I always have a list of songs that I want to use, and sometimes ideas present themselves. One time when I was procrastinating and reading Perez (don’t laugh), he had a link to an unreleased acoustic version of “Umbrella.” I’ll admit that I wasn’t that familiar with the original at that time, but this acoustic guitar version was making me well up with tears just listening to it. So I immediately emailed a client and said, “Hey, do you like this?” She loved it, so I made this video.  That video got such a great response. In a way, it put me on the map.

5. What has been your favorite wedding so far? What made it so special?
One of my favorite weddings was Heatherose and James. I think that the couple’s clearly unique style, and intense love for each other and their circle of friends made for such an emotional day. Add in the dramatic setting of the Scottish Rite temple in Oakland, and the pure good luck of working with Ben Chrisman and I can’t think of a wedding that inspired me more. Heatherose and James are fearless people. They take life seriously, and celebrate love.

6. What would be your dream wedding to film?
I want to film a Philippine wedding. Like, “in the Philippines” Philippine. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the weddings there, but I love the culture, the architecture, the family bonds, and the desire of the clients to have amazing videos. It’s a big deal over there. Videographers are hired before the photographers. Imagine that!