Meet our coordinators!

I have waited almost two years to write this special blog post. It's somewhat easy to find interns and assistants (I receive inquires from interns as often as I receive inquires from brides to be!), but it's not easy to entrust our clients' most special day to another individual completely, nor is it easy to train and develop one's talent. I'll be completely honest. When it comes to weddings, I'm a bit of a control freak, and it took me two years to finally figure out how to let go. I've had numerous girls assisting me but these two definitely stand out in their work ethics, attitude and passion. However, as I observed how they not only had interest in the industry, but also in growing MBS TOGETHER, I was inspired to grow together with them.

Christine & Leena have been working with me as my assistant for the past year and a half and now, they're fully ready to take on weddings of their own. As we move into the year of 2011, the two ladies are handling most of MBS' month-of coordinations (Simple Story), while I am focusing mainly on full planning services (Elaborate and Exquisite), with a few exceptions.
I am incredibly thankful that MBS is slowly transiting from a wedding design & coordination company of Me, Myself & Esther, to a team of three planners/coordinators who are ready to take on this wedding industry! They have already booked some amazing weddings next year and I'm SO excited for them!

There were two main reasons for my decision to welcome these exciting changes:

1) I realized that strictly coordinating an event did not meet my personal desire to exercise my creativity. I found that my work is best when I am given the opportunity to be personally involved in choosing vendors and developing ideas, and the end result is an amazing collaboration between the clients and myself. Bottom line, I like getting to know my couples on a deeper level. Really.

2) Now that Grant is a toddler and requires more attention & care (who knew playing with a toddler can be so exhausting?), I decided to only manage 18-20 weddings which excite, challenge and move me, and hope to still manage to have playdates with other moms & babies! ;) or who knows I might pop out another one next yr! lol

Christine and Leena are extremely talented and incredibly smart, and are very passionate about their work. Bottom line, they're lovely, down to earth ladies and I really hope that future clients of MBS will have a chance to work with them! After much careful planning and thought, I now fully endorse them in the year of 2011 as the new faces of MBS.


Please visit our website and check out their bio!

Are you misleading your potential clients?

A few months ago, I received a call from a vendor who wanted to know if I receive some type of commission for posting a 'vendor spotlight,' because they wanted me to feature their work on the blog. I have said this thousands of times before, and also emphasize this on my contracts, but I will say it again. I NEVER receive any type of commission by referring vendors NOR do I receive a commission for doing a vendor spotlight. In keeping up with this ethic, I have also turned down several vendors who approached me to ask if I'd be willing to advertise their services on the blog for a monthly fee. The reason why I am against the whole idea is because my intention of starting up this blog was not to make more money off of advertising. I feel that personal blogs, like wedding planners' blogs, should not be collecting fees when clients are paying for services anyway. Also, I feel that ads are a bit distracting on a blog.

If you've been a faithful follower of my blog, you'll notice that I stopped doing 'vendor spotlights' and postings on wedding related images (unless they're our clients' weddings) because of several reasons.
1) I realized I could be potentially misleading my clients that these types of features were 'my' work. How often people just scan through blogs and DON'T read the posts carefully!
2) I'd rather have loyal readers, stay relevant and practical than posting inspirational images everyday. (plus, I have no time to browse the web these days! ;)
3) If you wholeheartedly respect fellow designers out there, it's really unfair to them who have spent a lot of time & money purchasing products, collaborating with other vendors, only to have someone copy and paste it as their own. I, too, have made the same mistake by posting other people's work when I first started this blog and after doing a few shoots myself this year, I realized these styled shoots & personalized weddings take up so much energy, resources, originality and sometimes pulling all nighters. There's no way I can now dare to copy & paste the designer and the photographer's hard work.

To the bloggers who call themselves event designers/stylists/coordinators/vendors:
1) Before you just copy & paste someone's beautiful work, please do a bit of research to find out who the designer is, and also who all the vendors involved with the photos were, instead of just linking to the photographer's website. This isn't just talking about using images to create inspiration boards, but blogging a entire post on other weddings/shoots and writing about it as if you were somehow involved?! SO not ethical!
2) Please ask yourself deep inside your heart if you may be potentially misleading clients by posting someone's work.
3) If you're thinking of using other florists/planners/designers/photographers' work, please state it CLEARLY. This will help readers make a better evaluation of the information they are taking in from your blog.

To the brides who are surfing the web to find inspirations:
1) Please note where the blogger got the photos from.
2) If you want to see the vendors' portfolio, make sure you visit their website, read their list of services, bio, etc. before you send an e-mail. You have NO idea how many times people thought I was a photographer, baker, venue concierge, florist, etc... Really

With all this said, let's create an environment of honest work ethics in the blogsphere, and not mislead our potential clients.
Any piece of honest advice or real experience you'd like to share? Please leave a comment or two!

Happy Halloween!

Mommy was too cheap to get me a Halloween costume so she got creative!

By day.. I was a teddy bear.
HOW TO GET THIS LOOK:
a hand-me-down PJ and mommy glued leftover pom poms from my birthday party.

By night.. I was a lil ROCKSTAR!

Do you notice my cool chains & plugs? :)

Mommy told me I'd look cool if I wore her shades so I did.
HOW TO GET THIS LOOK
a girl's tights ($2.99), converse ($24 @ Target), Kenneth Cole baby jacket (gift from a friend) and some gel or moose for the mohawk hairstyle. ;)

G-night, readers! I'm all pooped out from partying too much! - Grant

Celina & David's Wedding Featured on Green Wedding Shoes!

Today's wedding has been featured on Green Wedding Shoes and we're SO delighted to share more photos from Celina & David's adorable, sweet wedding taken by the talented Heather Kincaid! Please head over to Green Wedding Shoes to read all the juicy details from Celina & myself.

How it all started...
"It was Valentine's Day, 2004. Celina was a sophomore at Wellesley; David a junior at Harvard. Earlier that day, Celina's friends had made plans to go dancing with some gentlemen from Harvard. Bending to her friends' pleas, Celina agreed to go along. And off to Boston they went. The night on the dance floor was magical. David was struck by Celina's poise and beauty. Celina was struck by David's childish dance moves..."

Without much interruption, hope you enjoy these photos & be smitten by their cuteness!



Isn't Celina SO adorable? :)






My favorite shot of the couple.. They're SO in love!



Can you believe Celina drew the map herself?

To keep the focus on the beauty of the chapel, we kept the florals understated with a few lemon garlands along the aisle. Celina’s childhood pastor officiated a beautiful ceremony. It’s unclear who shed the first tear, but by the time the dust settled, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house!





It's been a while since I helped with the pae bek ceremony this year so I had to refresh my memory a bit. ;) If you haven't already, please visit our pae bek site to watch the demonstration & all the step by step instructions about the ceremony.
Now onto some juicy reception details..



Stinkin cute DIY Mr. & Mrs. lemon that Celina made!





I'm so in love with these lawn game shots that Heather took!











NOTE: If you've been recently engaged, I highly recommend you to visit Green Wedding Shoes Vendor Guide. They hand-picked and linked the TOP wedding professionals I personally LOVE and My Bride Story is also listed with so many great wedding designers/planners in the industry. Thank you GWS!

We still have a few more weddings to reveal so come back real soon! Happy Wednesday!

Things that make me all warm & fuzzy

I usually keep all the thank you letters & gifts to myself but I wanted to share these two reviews that past brides have sent me. These letters were not about how organized, professional or helpful I was on their wedding day, but rather, they both expressed the love & passion that I have for my clients. Building these wonderful relationships with clients & vendors is without a doubt what excites me most about this job, and it is always encouraging when clients are somehow affected by this passion.

Here are two recent reviews that almost made me tear up:

...When I first heard of you and your business, it had a sense of warmth and love behind all of your work and I think that's what really drew me to you. Little did I know that not only do you love your work but you love your clients as well. I feel so undeserving for all you've done for me including giving me wise advice about work, God and life & marriage and it really reflected a bit of God's grace. Thank you for helping me get ready for this new journey together with my now-husband!..."
-Angela

We cannot begin to express our gratitude to Esther for making all of our hopes and dreams for our wedding come to life. Esther is truly dedicated to her work and is passionate about making all things beautiful. She really took the time to understand our style/personalities and was so great about sending us new ideas and inspirations. We could not have asked for a more beautiful wedding and most importantly, our guests loved the experience. Being a bride can be really stressful and Esther made the experience so much easier by having wonderful relationships with quality vendors, paying attention to every detail and executing magazine-worthy designs with her impeccable style. Her staff is absolutely wonderful and if there were any hiccups on our wedding day, I certainly didn’t notice! I would have to say that the best part about working with Esther is that she became my friend and just by watching her, I learned so much about family and love and that a job can be so much more than a just a job.
-Susie

Sneak Peek of Diana & Myong

Alright guys. This isn't my usual sneak peeks but I couldn't resist posting the details shots from Diana & Myong's wedding. We're still waiting for the images from Taek Photography but just thought these images would brighten up today's gloomy day! I'll post up all the details later once I receive the photos but enjoy these for now! :)

Here's our overall ceremony set up which was later turn into a modern, sophisticated ballroom.



I am officially adding 'styling' dessert bars for my 'elaborate' & 'exquisite' story clients! :)

Click on people's faces in the photo to tag them.

All the desserts & custom cake were provided by Vanilla Bake Shop and they were SOOO yummy!!





We had two completely different looks with the kings & rounds and loved how intimate & cozy the ballroom turned out!

I'll be sure to list all the vendors who were involved with the wedding & some of the incidents that happened which weren't expected! Humble to know that not ALL our weddings can turn out absolutely flawless even if we do our best to control some of vendors' mishaps. I'll be sure to cover specifically about this post next time!