사장.

밤 10시에 (뜬금없이) 한국으로 부터 걸려온 전화 한통.
KBS VJ 특공대라는 TV프로그램 작가였다.
미국 상류사회에서 웨딩, 파티를 전문으로 활약하고 있는 이,삼십대 사장들을 취재한다는것이었다.

작가: 여기는 한국의 VJ 특공대 작가 황선혜입니다. 김에스더 사장님 맞으신가요?

나: 네??? …..(2초동안 잠깐 얼음) 아.. 네… (과연 언제부터 내가 사.장.이었던것인가? ㅋㅋㅋ)

작가: 미국사람들을 고객으로하는 웨딩, 파티플랜 전문가시죠?

나: 네??? 어…그게..사실은.. 꼭 미국사람들만은 아니고…ㅋㅋㅋ

비몽사몽으로 전화를 받고 한 20분동안 통화를 하면서 많은 얘기를 나누었지만, 결론은 다음주에 미국으로 와서 취재를 한다는것이었다… 나의반응. “다음주요?? 좀 빨리 연락을 주셨더라면… 헉!”
하필이면 내 웨딩없을날… -_-;; 그래서 좀 불가능할거 같다고 말하고 전화를 끊고 다른분들을 소개시켜주었다. 그래도 한국에서 취재하고싶다고 연락이 왔다는 사실에 영광이라 생각하고 나의 모습을 거울에 비춰봤다.
세수도 안한 꼬질꼬질한 모습에 머리는 대충 고무줄로 묶고, 남편의 large size t-shirt와 발에 질질 끌리는 잠옷바지. (사실 이 잠옷바지는 임신했을때 입고 아직까지 애용하고 있음 ㅋ)
어쩔땐 이런 나의 모습에 내가 놀래기도 한다. –ㅇ- 어쩜… 애기 한명 낳았다는 사실하나로 완벽한 아줌마의 모습을 하고 있는 나.
남편 회사 나갈때 아침밥도 거의 챙겨주지 않는 나.
요즘은 바쁘다고 애기랑도 잘 놀아주지 않는, 완전 빵점 엄마인 나.
그래도 이 일을 놓치기 싫고 더 잘하고 싶은데, 또 한편으론 애기를 한 세 명은 더 키우고 싶은 마음이 굴뚝인 나.

참나…..
요즘 이러한 저러한 복잡한 생각들로 아주 잠도 설치지만, 그래도 여기까지 온 나 자신을 보면 기특하기도 하면서 반면에는 두렵기도 하다. 그리고 나의 한계를 느낀다.
끊임없이 도전하고 계발해야하는 나 자신을 보며, ‘이러다 지치지는 않을까.. 어쩜 나도 그냥 평범한 가정주부로 사는게 제일 행복하지 않을까? 과연 엄마로써 아내로써 이 일을 감당해 낼수 있을지 확신이 없다. (full-time job 하시면서 애기키우는 모든엄마들! 정말 존경한다!!! 짝짝짝!)
시어머님께서 날보면 계속 하시는 말씀이있다.
“하나님안에서 평범하게 남편 뒷바라지하며 사는것이 제일 행복한것이란다.”
하지만 이제 삼십대를 코압에 바라보는 나에겐 평범하게 애기낳고 집안살림만 하는 주부로는 살기가 싫다.. 적어도 아직까지는…
모험도하며, 도전도하며, 그리고 사랑도하며…
앞으로 우리가정을 하나님께서 어떻게 쓰실지 기대하며 오늘하루도 사장답게 살아야겠다. ㅋㅋㅋ

Beware: One unprofessional vendor can potentially ruin your wedding!

I don't want to sound rude and mean, but it's true! Putting a wedding together is team work, collaborative team work between the vendors based on the bride & groom's vision. If you get the vibe that the vendor doesn't listen to you OR is inconsistent with his/her words, you MUST trust your instinct and walk out before you sign the contract.
While I love working and finding new vendors, when a bride or groom hires a vendor whom I haven't heard before in the wedding industry, it gets me nervous. First, I worry if they will come on time. 2nd, I worry that they might not 'deliver'. 3rd, I worry that they might not be a team player.

I look at the OVERALL picture, so the vendor who says he/she is the best at what they do and ignores the timeline that's given, he/she is not a team player.
So what makes a professional vendor? It's sometimes hard to indicate and weed out the good ones from the bad and I really think naive brides who have recently started planning their weddings can potentially be in danger and I want to help those brides make good decisions. After all, it's not like wedding vendors are FDA approved, and so we can only rely on referrals and their recent works.

What makes a professional vendor besides their talent and skills? (Please note that this is coming from my personal experience)
1) Someone who is reliable & trustworthy.

2) Someone who is consistent with their words. For example if he/she says something over the phone and says something else the next day. I might seriously reconsider.

3) Someone who has been in the wedding industry for at least 2-3 years. Make sure they have extensive backgrounds on weddings.

4) Someone who isn't difficult to get along with. Think twice because personality does matter!!!

5) Someone who is not just a lone ranger... but has staff on board.
6) Someone who can deliver on time!! I think I mentioned this several times on my blog, but if you missed it, please click here.
7) Someone who is willing listen to other people's ideas and be flexible to work with others.

8) Someone who does this FULL time... It's very important that your vendor does not do this out of hobby i.e. photographers, florist, wedding coordinators, DJs normally fall into this category.

It's just too risky to trust someone based on their words. You need to see their portfolio, ask them lots of questions, get referrals from RECENT clients and meet with them to see if you personally click with them.
Bottom line: Don't get sold only because they meet your budget. Integrity, honesty, being a team player and service oriented is just as important as their talents.

Have you also come across some not-so-great vendors while researching for the perfect one? Please share with us your experience!

BTW, please check back in a couple of days for some delicious details we will put together for this past wedding. You're gonna drool over all the details!! I promise!

Confessions of an Engaged Chick

Hello friends!

As Esther mentioned, I'm one of the new guest bloggers for 'My Bride Story' and I'm so excited to share my wedding inspirations with you all! Just a little bit about myself. My name is Angela and I write a design blog called Little Room LA. I met the lovely and talented Esther to learn about planning a wedding and all the ins and outs of the industry. I recently got engaged too and am starting the process of planning our own wedding so I'll be posting my adventures (or misadventures - but hopefully less of this kind!) with you also. The only thing I've done so far is look through pages and pages of wedding blogs and drool over the beauty and splendor of all the weddings. There are so many creative brides out there these days and whew, I just can't keep up! For some reason, I've been seeing a lot of non-traditional table numbers these days. I know it's just a small part of the reception but oh-such-pretty ideas! Since most weddings have a certain theme to them, the table number displays at weddings also seem to be incorporated into this. Here are a few below to inspire you for your own wedding!

Top to bottom: 1. Style Me Pretty 2. Bliss'd Blog 3. Ritzy Bee Blog 4. Once Wed 5. Ritzy Bee Blog 6. Style Me Pretty

the engaged chick, angela

Annoucements!

Hello readers,

I have some exciting news to share with you!

Its been almost two years since I started this blog back in January 2008 and I have pretty much been the only one putting together these entries . But starting from this month I’m going to have 2 regular bloggers! Yay! They are coming on board the My Bride Story team to join me in feeding your wedding inspiration needs. I’m hoping this will attract a broader audience of readers and I think having these girls will definitely bring different and fresh new ideas to the blog site. You’ll be able to hear from a non-wedding planner’s perspective. This doesn’t mean I’m going to stop blogging. I’ll still be blogging once or twice a week with real weddings from our clients, vendor spotlights and advice and tips as a wedding planner, and sharing a bit of what is going on in my personal life too. I’m hoping to give our blog a new face lift by the end of this year and focusing more on upcoming weddings we're currently working on. I want to kick off the 2010 wedding season by introducing our MBS team who have been faithfully helping me as we gradually expand our company. We still have a few more weddings and projects lined up before the end of 2009 and getting ready to kick off 2010 in FULL GEAR!

From now on, be look out for the names of our different bloggers.

The Girl And The Boy Together

This Engagement Party Invite is just too cute not to share. Andrew's mother found this book he made when he was 6 years old. They incorporated it into their invite. I love how it's meaningful but fun at the same time! My favorite line: 'They tell jokes. And they laugh a lot.'

..[via weheartit]..

Why I do what I do... locally and internationally

2010 weddings have been booking so fast and I cannot begin you to tell you how excited I am to be working at some of the amazing venues with renowned photographers in the industry next year. The upcoming venues include but are not limited to St. Regis in Monarch Beach, Fairmont Hotel in Newport Beach, Sheraton Delfina & Casa Del Mar in Santa Monica, Adamson House in Malibu and so on... I am truly honored to be chosen out of all the wedding planners out there in the industry and thank you so much for your kindness and encouragements.

When I sign and book a client, I make it a priority to make sure that they will be getting 100% of my time and attention. This is one of the reasons why I choose not to book 4-5 weddings each month. If I do, I know my clients won’t be getting the attention they deserve, and plainly put, I’ll go nuts! A lot of planners in the industry who exclusively offer full wedding planning choose only to coordinate a handful of weddings each year. This is because they want to ensure that each client’s needs and wishes are fully met and fulfilled. While I completely agree with this, I believe that there is a far greater purpose and motive behind this... well at least for me there is.

I love what I do, I love helping couples start a new chapter in their lives together, but it would be ironic and sad if my marriage was falling apart because I was so busy helping others start theirs. I believe that in my life the greatest blessings have been and continue to be my marriage and family. My job is wonderful but it does not and will never come before them. I would hate to think that a lack of time management and devotion would ruin what means the most to me. Marriage takes work; by work I mean you have to spend quality time with your husband and children and make them your number one priority. It would really suck if I was going through a divorce while helping someone else get married. It gives me the chills to even think of that, to be honest, the image of me filing divorce papers while creating a timeline for a wedding I’m planning scares me to death. I’m not perfect and I fail miserably. I’m sure there will be moments when I want to drop everything and run away from the responsibilities and duties of being a wife and mother. But it is my true desire to hold on to the precious gift of family that I have been given. I want to treasure it, make it work and make it grow.

At the end of the day, I don’t want to be buried in timelines, vendor contracts, floral arrangements, or even design boards for my clients. I want to go home to my husband and my precious son, they are the reason why I do what I do; I want to help others start their marriage and families of their own. (Motherhood is truly putting things in perspective. It's like finding a new identity that you never thought it existed in you! I sometimes surprise myself too!)

With that all said and done, I want to encourage all you 2010 brides to hurry and reserve your wedding date! I can’t wait to help make your special day a memorable one, filled with meaning and loads of personalized details that reflect who you are.

Oh… and before I finish this entry, I want to introduce you to one of my clients that I love and respect so much. Soo and Matt! They are both currently live and serve the Lord in East Asia. Soo and Matt will be tying the knot in LA, they have asked me to plan their wedding all the way from East Asia! We have been doing a lot of e-mailing, chatting and calling each other internationally. Have you guys heard of skype? Skype is an internet phone service, SO much easier and cheaper than your average calling cards or international calls.

Their wedding will be in January with a total budget of $9000 to accommodate 150 guests. Come by and check in on the updates for this wedding, I will have a break down of the total cost of the wedding to encourage brides not to fear tight budgets and that it is possible to have a wedding for less than 10K. Yes, it is my job to introduce fresh and unique ides, but that can cost an arm and a leg. Even though we are on a budget I’ve been thinking of creative décor designs and have been asking vendors to come on board to help out with Soo and Matt’s wedding. We want to give them their dream wedding before they go back to East Asia to live long term. If anyone would like to offer their products or services donations are more than welcomed!