
THEME WEDDINGS – A REFRESHING WAY OF CREATIVE
CELEBRATIONS!
Hannah Chong
Business Director, Heaven’s Gift
Traditionally,
Chinese banquet or wedding dinner is a norm in
any wedding event. Ten course Chinese dinners,
three-tier wedding cakes, the first entrée
dish and the all time favorite “Yum Seh”
( Chinese toasting sessions) are essentials for
any wedding celebrations.
Amazingly,
in recent years, wedding celebrations have taken
a new phase of development in Singapore. Most
of us are marrying later in age, and we look
towards to a more innovative and sophisticated
way of holding a wedding celebration. We simply
want our weddings to be more than a mere ten-course
dinner. We desire to create our dream wedding,
one that contains our personal touches and one
we can proudly share and call our own.
With this new philosophy,
theme weddings are birthed. Just like how it
is called, theme wedding carries a central theme
that is creatively expressed in all the wedding
selections. Contrary to many beliefs, not all
theme weddings are luxuriously extravagant and
elaborate. Theme weddings can be as personalized
and intimate as both you and your finance desire.
When deciding the theme
for your wedding, take some time to consider
the following 3 key pointers:
1. Your Dream
Wedding
What was that one
thing you always dream of having in your wedding?
Was it the beautiful rows of red roses that
line up the walk way of your march in? Was it
a ride on the cruise to an island where you
and your bridegroom can celebrate with your
guests in privacy?
Most of the time, a good and creative theme
wedding can be developed from these simple fantasies
that you always have about your wedding. Do
not be shy to share about them with your wedding
specialists, they can be good thoughts for creative
themes, but most of all, they are a part of
your intimate wedding dreams. And you do not
want to miss the chance of making your wedding
dream come true.
2. Your Wedding
Budget
What is your overall
wedding budget? How much can you set aside to
have some of your dream ideas be developed and
deployed? What is the one element you would
not consider to replace regardless of the price?
Once you have determined a decent budget you
can work with, the conceptualization of a theme
wedding will come easy. Your wedding specialists
will integrate your idea with her recommendations
and expertise, and have them delivered within
your preferred selections.
3. Your Wedding
Guests
Who will form the
majority of the guests – your elderly
relatives, your fun and chilled out friends,
or your spontaneous colleagues?
How are they like when they gather together
in functions?
In most weddings, the guests make the difference
in the mood of the celebrations. A fun-loving
crowd is always spontaneously excited about
theme weddings. Once your guests get into the
mood of celebrations, you will be amazed how
much your guests enjoy themselves in taking
an active role in becoming a part of your dream
wedding.
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WHY A WEDDING COORDINATOR?
Doris M. Nixon, RBC
President, Weddings Beautiful Worldwide
At every major event
in life professionals are present! A doctor
delivers a baby, clergy persons baptize and
confirm children, city and school officials
preside at graduation, directors take charge
of movies and stage productions and licensed
persons perform marriages and bury the dead.
In each of these events rituals are involved.
There is a system for each, carried out by someone
trained to do so. With the high cost of weddings
and the time involved to pull all the facets
together, it is all but impossible for the bride
to do this while keeping her daily routine,
which is already in overload, intact. Listen
to some of the comments made by brides who did
not have a wedding coordinator.
“By the day of my
wedding I was so overwhelmed by all the things
I had to do I was like a zombie. I hardly remember
repeating my vows and I never did get anything
to eat.”
“There were so many
mistakes in my wedding that could have been
avoided had I hired a wedding coordinator. I
never gave a thought to coordinating the arrival
of the vendors, so the cake was delivered before
the linens and flowers. After the linens arrived,
the cake table was set up and the cake had to
be moved a second time. One pillar tilted, so
I had a lop-sided cake. We were shorted one
bouquet and no one realized it until it was
too late for the florist to deliver it. Everyone
was running around screaming--or so it seemed--blaming
each other. I just stood there crying. All of
this could have been avoided had I hired a professional
coordinator.” (A coordinator schedules
the arrival of vendors--Example: The linens
would arrive at 10:00 o’clock, the flowers
at 10:30 and the cake at 11:00. Thus the cake
table would be set up and decorated before the
cake arrived. She would have checked the number
of bouquets against the number ordered before
the florist left. In a real emergency, she could
simply pluck a few flowers from floral arrangements
and, using tools from her emergency kit, make
a bouquet.)
“I forgot my garter.
I had really looked forward to having Dan toss
it to his best man, hoping that catching the
bouquet would cause him to propose to my best
friend, Cindy, who was my maid-of-honor. Imagine
her disappointment and my embarrassment.”
(A coordinator always has a spare garter in
her emergency kit.)
“We forgot the Guest
Registry Book so we have no record of those
who shared our beautiful day. How sad, especially
so since it was the last time my grandmother
signed her name. She died the next week.”
(A professional coordinator has a checklist,
which she uses to be sure everything arrives
and is set up. Some even carry an extra Registry
Book.)
By now you get the picture.
A coordinator is trained to plan, coordinate
every minute detail and oversee all of it!
Are coordinators expensive?
Some brides feel a coordinator is too expensive.
Compared to what? The gown? The reception? The
band? Overall, the money spent for a coordinator
is a small percentage of the wedding budget,
which is where the coordinator begins before
she offers any suggestions. Many times she can
actually save you money because she knows the
“going” price. Frequently she can
negotiate prices. The following is a true story--a
telephone conversation I overheard while in
the office of a Certified Wedding Specialist.
CWS: “No, my client
will not pay $2.50 per head for that hors d’oeuvre.”
Hotel: “That family has ‘old’
money. They can afford it.”
CWS: “That’s not the point. The
fact is your hors d’oeuvres are not worth
$2.50 each.”
The coordinator got the
hors d’oeuvres for $1.50 each, saving
her client $450.00 on that particular hors d’oeuvre.
At another wedding, the
coordinator was able to negotiate the price
of golf game for the men in the wedding party
by pointing out to the reception facility manager
that the bride was having the rehearsal, the
wedding and the reception at the one facility.
When her request for a lower price for golf
was denied, she turned to the bride’s
mother and said, "Perhaps you should consider
having the rehearsal dinner at another site
since it’s obvious your business is not
appreciated.” A consultation between members
of the hotel staff brought the price of the
golf game down quite a bit. Because a wedding
coordinator brings repeat business to a facility,
she often has negotiating
power not available to an individual scheduling
a one-time event.
Do wedding coordinators
get a “kick-back” from vendors?
Although many vendors do offer coordinators
a percentage for any wedding they book with
them, a professional coordinator will not take
it. Instead, she will reply to the vendor, "That
is so nice of you but I am paid by my client.
Would you agree to offer my bride a discount?”
Thus the professional coordinator is working
every way she can to save her client money.
As important as it is to
save money, the major advantage of hiring a
coordinator is the time she saves you. She does
the legwork for you, always working within your
parameter. She does not dictate to you, but
she does offer you options. The pressure of
contacting the church, the reception site, the
caterer, the florist, the musicians, the photographer,
the videographer, the soloist, your attendants,
his family, your family, the hair stylist, writing
thank-you notes, etc. is overwhelming. Add to
that the big day itself, and the thousand and
one last minute details that take place then,
and you begin to realize what a task it is to
plan a wedding.
Now let’s take a
look at some actual wedding day scenes.
“The mother of the
bride forgot to change shoes and just before
the coordinator sent her down the aisle the
coordinator noticed the bedroom shoes. Quickly
she determined that the mother of the bride
wore size 8½. Slipping off her own size
8 shoes, the mother entered the church, feet
pinched a bit, but the perfect picture of a
Mother-of-the-Bride!”
“The small
country church did not have an organ but the
bride was determined to enter the church with
great fanfare. She secured her own taped music
and operator. When the time came for her to
walk down the aisle, majestic music filled the
air, then stopped, started and stopped again.
The tape was defective! There was silence and
more silence. Not knowing what to do, the person
operating the tape recorder decided not to try
again. The quick thinking wedding coordinator
walked about half way down the aisle and began
humming the wedding march, encouraging the audience
to join her. Soon the sanctuary was filled with
music--not what the bride expected, but something
entirely different. Misty-eyed, she walked down
the aisle and later declared it to be the most
romantic moment of the wedding.”
“The groom had a
red bandanna handkerchief in his back pocket.
Spying it before he walked in, this coordinator
now checks the pockets of all the men in the
wedding party.”
“When the bride chooses
her colors, I check the underskirts of the tablecloths
with the ink color on the placecards to be sure
they harmonize. What a difference it makes when
the colors are coordinated”, says one
coordinator.
“At a garden
wedding on a small island, I decorated the bridge
with clamp-on light posts and connected each
post with tulle, fern and baby’s breath.
It was breathtaking!” states another coordinator.
“I share this idea
with brides who are getting married in a temple
or cathedral that is very colorful and ornate.
“Why not have the attendants dressed in
white and use gold or silver as an accent in
the bouquets? An all white wedding is beautiful
and does not compete with, but rather complements,
the colorful surroundings.”
“The baker dropped
the wedding cake on the front steps of the reception
hall. We went to a nearby market and bought
200 Twinkies, tied thirty together with gold
ribbon, and stacked them in three tiers. Flowers
were added and all the guests admired the “different”
wedding cake!”
“If the bride’s
mother is very controlling and there is a conflict,
I ask, ‘Is it more important to have the
final decision or for your daughter to be happy
on the most important day of her life?’
This puts the situation in perspective and usually
we are able to arrive at a happy medium.”
“I like adding cultural
costumes to a wedding. At one Afro-American
wedding I coordinated, the bride and groom wore
white outfits with gold trim. Colors for the
attendants were black and gold and all wore
sandals. It was beautiful.”
“When I coordinate
a wedding and the bridesmaids differ tremendously
in size and/or age, I suggest that the bride
choose her colors and then ask each attendant
to select a style that flatters her size and
personality in the designated color. The length
of the sleeves and hemline is predetermined.
Everyone looks better and everyone is happy!”
Every bride-to-be attends
pre-wedding parties, the bridesmaids’
luncheon, and the rehearsal dinner--maybe even
a wedding breakfast. Think about adding those
to your already over-booked, over-worked and
over-whelming schedule and you begin to understand
why tempers flare, smiles vanish and tears flow.
No one enjoys anything; they are too busy “doing.”
A wedding coordinator frees your time, and handles
the stress. Then you are free to relax and savor
every moment of the entire event. A professional
wedding coordinator has been trained to handle
the unusual. For example, if a coordinator is
directing a wedding in California, she will
have a flashlight with her just in case there
is an earthquake. She can direct the evacuation!
On the East Coast that’s unheard of, but
the coordinator may be checking the tide schedule
just to make sure the boats can dock at your
island.
Brides who use trained
professional coordinators (yes, she will have
a certificate) find them to be their best friends.
Those who don’t are often filled with
regret!
[Weddings Beautiful
Worldwide is a network of independent Certified
Wedding Specialists who plan and coordinate
weddings around the world.]
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