Tracy

“I want something classy with a blue theme for my birthday”. This is what our featured client Jacenta approached me as her initial idea.  Jacenta loves the color blue and for me, a lover of the same color, it was very easy to come up with creative ideas to help morph her vision of a classy celebration for her upcoming milestone birthday.

Yes, Devoted to Your Event’s first client of 2015 hosted the celebration of our dear friend Jacenta’s 50 and Blutiful Birthday celebration.  Jacenta is a retired veteran of the U.S. Army, full time mom, Government employee, owner of a health and nutrition company Blutifuly Fit and Fabulous, sorority sister of Zeta Phi Beta and loving wife to her husband Dee. We traveled to Alabama to set if off in an elegant way and got the ball rolling for this classy lady’s event. When I say classy, it was classy!

After stumbling over a couple themes, it was Jacenta that came up with the word Blutiful. What does Blutiful mean I asked? “Blutiful is a word we use in Zeta-land; it is the combined words of blue, their sorority color and beautiful”.

Immediately, I started taking copious notes and gathering ideas of not only how to decorate but what activities would be fun and engaging for all of Jacenta’s guests. Over the next 6 months, we entertained the process of seeking out the perfect venue, the right Deejay, caterer, baker and photographer to solidify the required resources to make this just right. Not to mention selecting the distinguished guests and creating the perfect invitation.

As the time grew near, nerves were growing with intensity but the evening went off flawlessly. The song “Champagne Life” set the tone for all the guests to greet and honor the “Queen of the evening”; It was on to a great time for all! The atmosphere said elegance, the crowd- mature, the pictures were beautiful, the food was scrumptious, the music was pumping the entire time keeping everyone constantly dancing except during planned activities and even then, the DJ did his thing. Last but most importantly, Queen Jacenta was flawless! Unfortunately many knees, backs and necks were aching the next day from all the dancing but it was worth it! Thank you Jacenta for the awesome opportunity to serve you! I am glad you enjoyed yourself as we pride ourselves in producing unforgettable events.

Devoted to your Event, LLC would like to acknowledge Chef Eric and Jerri Kerlegon for the catering, Christopher Stewart of Fountain City Entertainment, LLC for the Deejay services, Stephone Berry of Kingdom Shots for the photography, Angela Hagler for designing and Kia German for transporting the delicious and elegantly decorated cake and lastly my fabulous Event Manager Patty Jackson for always supporting me. Thank you all for working with me to create the celebration that Jacenta wanted; these guys all rocked!

Tracy Pope, MBA
Certified Wedding Planner/Accredited Event Designer
301-358-1264

Now that you’re engaged, everybody is happy for you and your fiancé. Everyone is so happy that they immediately start overloading you with questions about when, where, how, and why about your upcoming wedding.

Folks want to transcend their vision of what you should do and why you should do it. Comments come before you like, “You know you’re Catholic so you have to have service in the chapel before you marry” or “You have to wear something blue”, “We are Jewish and it is customary to say the Jewish prayer” or “You have to jump the broom, it pays respect to your ancestors”. Before you know it, you’re confused about what to do and you turn to the internet for information overload.

The reality is, we no longer live in a time where weddings have to align to weddings of yesteryear or look like a live version of the Cinderella story. The perfect wedding is not what your grandmother wants, your mom wants or even what your dad wants (unless they are footing the bill) and even then, the perfect wedding is what you and your fiancé want to have, whatever that may be.

If you choose to have a traditional wedding in a Church with all the bells and whistles, then by all means do it if that is your vision of the perfect wedding. If you and your fiancé love the Flintstones cartoon, Butterflies, Pink Pansies or Dinosaurs and you want to have that as your wedding theme, then by all means do it if that is the vision of the perfect wedding for the two of you.

Don’t allow others to dictate what the perfect wedding is to you. The perfect wedding is what you imagine it to be. So don’t limit yourself from the possibilities of ideas you and your sweetheart can create for your Big Day; be sure to give it a lot of thought and do as much or as little to live out one of the most important days in your life. You deserve it!

TAP

From the auto repair to the office project to selecting your soul mate, trusting relationships develop in a predictable way: You engage in a situation to test the expertise, if the test is passed, you may get the chance to become a regular trusted resource. Afterwards, you evolve through a pattern of consistent delivery and integrity to a trusted advisory, colleague, friend or spouse.

In order to develop and maintain successful and lasting relationships trust must be built. To have trust is to care, have reliance and confidence. It is an expectation of others to behave responsibly or honorably and a dependence on what will happen in the future. If you can’t trust someone regardless of the relationship whether personal or professional, you miss out on the benefits and to stall progression. The benefits of trust are:

1. Openness
2. Respect
3. Access
4. Involvement
5. Long-term relationships

Trust is typically built on a four step process which is the basis to establishing trust in all successful relationships:

1. Foundation – When building a relationship, it’s essential to starting off in a good place. To do this you must demonstrate credibility, professionalism, and empathy.
2. Practice active listening –listening shows you can reserve judgment and focus on the situation at hand or issues that may come up.
3. Communicate- Providing open, honest, quality facts will earn the trust from your counterpart.
4. Commitment to effort- Regardless the situation, you and the other party must be able to visualize success and jointly commit to the effort and avoid blame, set realistic expectations, surface risks and challenges

Knowing the importance, benefits and process taken to build trust, put these efforts into action and do what is right and your rewards will be tenfold. If perhaps you aren’t willing to develop anything long term, then don’t bother. Life has its ways of circling around and you never know when you’ll need to turn to someone or you may pass up that lasting love. Establishing trust in your relationships is beneficial in one way or another that will serve you well into the future.

TAP

Budget for your wedding? Why do some people think that having a budget is not important? When it comes to figuring out what your budget should be for your wedding, it is an all important topic that should be discussed with your fiancé in the early planning stages. Many couples today are contributing financially to their own wedding and most likely both individuals work. It’s no longer the sole responsibility of the bride’s parents to assume the financial task of paying for their daughter’s wedding. The grooms parents may offer to contribute, although they typically pay for the rehearsal dinner. Many second, third and possibly even fourth-time brides and grooms are definitely footing the bill for their nuptials.

What I think is very important is understanding as a couple what is your ideal wedding. Many couples have no idea what the cost of having a wedding is today. The average cost of a wedding is about $20,000. Here in the Washington DC Metropolitan area, the average cost of a wedding in 2013 was $35,306. Events such as these have become very expensive but it doesn’t have to be overly expensive. A couple on a budget can still have a decent celebration that possesses all of the typical traditions of a more expensive wedding. The difference is that the more money you have, the more you can purchase and the less you have to do. With less money you have to be more creative or possibly start a fund early on.

The estimated breakdown of a typical bridal budget is:

Honeymoon – 5-15%
Transportation -3 -5%
Attire – 5-15%
Parties – 2-5%
Ceremony – 4-8%
Photographer – 7-10%
Decorations – 2-3%
Reception -40 -60%
Flowers – 10-12%
Rentals – 3- 5%
Gifts – 2-5%
Stationery – 4-5%
Marriage Prep – 2-3%
Videographer – 5-7%
Wedding bands – 2-5%
Music – 4-9%
Miscellaneous – 8-15%
Wedding Planner – 8-12%

By far, the most expensive part of a wedding is the reception. if your budget is $10,000, then you can already be prepared to spend about $5-6K on food and drink to accommodate your guests in a catered meal situation. This is where, couples can really lose track of their dollars if they don’t stay on task and on budget.

Trying to include everyone in your friends and family network may not fit with your budget, which is why you and your fiancé need to have that all cumbersome task to agree on who to include and eliminate. The bottom line, more people equals more money. It’s not about who you are trying to impress, but more what you can afford. But if you just can’t say no, try being creative and have a pot luck type of event where everyone bring a dish, an early in the day celebration where the food is less expensive or a less popular day like during the week, a Friday or a Sunday. Starting your marriage in debt is not what you want to be aspiring to do.

Hiring a professional to help you stay on course and on budget will come in to be the most valuable investment in your wedding. Be sure to trust this with someone who you have the opportunity to get to know and who possesses the credentials and experience to back it up.

TAP

According to research provided by The Wedding Report (weddingreport.com), the most popular time to get married has shifted from May and June to September and October. There are some great reasons to consider when to marry and it many times that decision is based on the couple’s wallet or if guest participation is important, it may play a heavy role in that consideration.

The time of the year to consider getting married can vary from one couple to another. Some couples want to choose a time that is significant them as well as a time when it is considerate for families, friends and the wedding party. The origins for when May and June were more popular to marry were:

Harvest
Couples often chose to marry in accordance to their peak harvest time. Having a late spring early summer wedding meant that a possible summer pregnancy would still be early enough in the season that a wife could help out with manual work during that year’s harvest period. It also meant that after a spring birth, the recovered bride would be in good enough health to assist in the next year’s harvest.

Cleanliness
A long time ago, regular bathing wasn’t exactly considered a necessity and was therefore reserved as a once-a-year event that the most of the population observed during the last part of May or beginning of June. As expected, right after their “annual bath“, many couples decided to tie the knot since each person was probably their most presentable (and less stinky) during this time compared to the upcoming twelve months.

The Roman Goddess: Juno
Juno was the ancient Roman goddess of marriage, and accordingly, many Romans chose to honor this goddess by having their wedding in June. Many considered this month to be the most favorable time to marry and would be showered with luck and good wishes from the gods above if they did so.

Fast forward into the 20th Century, these months remained more popular because of the weather, it typically ranges from warm to hot and perfect for outdoor weddings. Participation from family and friends were more likely since kids are traditionally out of school and folks took time off of work. The more popular the time frame however, the more expensive venues, catering and other aspects of the wedding became.

Now in the 21st Century, the shift for the most popular times to wed went to the fall months, so why the fall? Many reasons were based on the weather, the fall months are far more “comfortable” for outdoor weddings and the scenery is as beautiful as the summer months. Less creepy crawlers in some areas are also popular reasons. The cost of venues were less expensive than late spring or heart of the summer but now that trend is also changing to be more like the summer months yet still slightly less. The level of participation with family and friends have not changed now that couples are sending out Save-the-Dates as a courtesy for planning purposes.

Overall, the off season (or deep winter) months are still the least expensive times to have your wedding; months such as — January, February, and March –but, December has been gaining fast because of the holidays). Because there’s less demand, you’ll likely get discounted prices on your reception site — not to mention most of your other wedding services, like catering, photography, and flowers (except around Valentine’s Day and Easter, of course, when roses and lilies are at a premium because they’re in high demand). You can still save on high peak times depending on the time of day and week you want to marry.

So when you are thinking about the best time for you and your sweetie to get married, be sure to consider not only the weather and participation of your guests but keep in mind what is best for your wallet.

TAP