With the brilliant tag team of Tayler from Taylrd Designs and Cassie from Peanut Press Creative these ladies and I have been working so hard to pull this all together and when I say “we” I mean THEY. My technophobic self ( yes it’s a real thing :)) could have never made this all happen and make it look so flawless. I’ve been anxiously awaiting launching it into outer space, oops I mean that world wide web.
However, I would love to reveal this all in a much different time when peoples energies were positive, our industry was in a different place, and all the uncertainties weren’t consuming our everyday :( virtual tear. But in light of all thats happening around us I thought maybe this would bring a little normalcy to my life and others would have some pretty flower pics to look at, cause who doesn’t enjoy that? Even if its just my mom who looks and it brightens her day. . . Hi Mom!
I also thought this would be a perfect opportunity to check in with my event clients, my brides and grooms and anyone else that might be experiencing this mess and how it relates to their event. I’m so glad that so far the events that have been affected have all postponed and the reschedule dates have all worked out, which is just magical. One of those events was for an amazing couple who was having to adjust their beautiful garden inspired spring wedding in May to August.
The bride and I got to chat and just work through how that date change might affective our initial design. It wasn’t that the aesthetic itself needed to change but the season difference from spring to summer has a bit of an impact on what floral varieties we are able to bring in. We were going to be using a lot of Coral Charm peonies (which I love) but really have their peak season in spring and early summer. There is still a possibility I could get some but wanted to bring in a back up plan if I cant get my hands on them. My absolute favorite replacement for peonies are beautiful ruffly and romantic garden roses that have a similar petal structure as peonies. The variety I suggested was Romantic Antique which gives that same lush coral color tone and I know the bride would love and be so happy with. So, just like that a small wrinkle was ironed out and I was thrilled that having had to come up with similar suggestions in the past for clients, but was able to bring in an alternative that wouldn’t be a sacrifice on the brides vision.
To offer a suggestion to others having to navigate these unchartered waters here’s where I would START if you are having to postpone your big day or event:
Contact all your vendors and working with your venue get a list of possible alternative dates.
Make a spread sheet or excel with the alternative dates along the top and each vendor listed in a column below.
Email that out and have each of them fill in their availability.
PRESTO! You get back one list (that you didn’t have to work on) that gives you one clear overview of who can or maybe can’t move forward with you.
Make sure each of those vendors get you NEW contracts with the updated event date.
Next what to do once you have your NEW date:
Get RE-EXCITED! What are the advantages of this new date? Your out of the country friend can now be a bridesmaid? SWEET. That splurge out of the budget idea you had, you now have extra time to save for? RIGHT ON. Oh your guest are going to be that much MORE excited to celebrate you? YES! Sorry I’m no longer seeing a downside.
Consider if your date changes from spring to summer (like I mentioned) and how that might change things. Not necessarily flower related but maybe your signature summer cocktail was a mojito and now you’re doing a winter wedding so maybe that needs some tweaking. Maybe the fig salad is no longer an option. I’d go through and start to think of each of those details with your planner. Or if you don’t have one, reach out to each of your vendors and ask them to tell you! “Hey photog does the change of daylight savings being different affect our timeline and that sunset pic I wanted?”
Put the awesome vendors you hired to work. They WANT to HELP you and since you hired amazing people who know what they’re doing WE GOT YOU!
You also might think of a creative way to announce your date change to your guest. Everyone probably already feels so bad for you, and thats certainly not the energy I’d want around me, so I’d consider a funny way to bring the excitement back up and make the best of this and set the tone for the EPIC celebration ahead. A funny comic strip you come up with and mail out, a cool photo op that you make into postcard to send, a hilarious “news update” video, so many fun of options.
Lastly I wanted to offer that if ANYONE (my client or not! ) wants to chat through this stuff I would love nothing more at this time than talk about something that I love WEDDINGS + EVENTS! You might have to overhear my two screaming kids in the background but I promise it would be worth it.
ALRIGHTY! WEBSITE LIVE. First BLOG WRITTEN. Is it the first of the year? Oh wait my New Years resolutions are just happening thanks to a global pandemic :( now if I could just get my at home snacking under control.
Thank you for logging into my website. Thank you for reading this. Thank you for supporting me, you have no idea how much I appreciate it.
:) Leigh