Backstage Bridal Pro

Certifications, Designations, Internships... Oh My!!

2012-02-15T22:00:00.000-08:00

Last week, I received a phone call from Tami. "Lisa, you really need to get on the Facebook Backstage Bridal Group Page. Someone asked the question "Is a certification necessary?" and I think you would be the perfect person to answer this question!" Although I did not get on the page and respond, I did peek in to read all of the comments and suggestions and decided I would prefer to write a post about it instead covering Certifications, Designations and Internships.

Before I move forward, I'm going to go back about 22 years ago when my aunt ran her Bridal Consulting business. It looked so glamorous and fun. I wanted to work for her so badly and my first job working with her was what some would call the "grunt work". I had to set up and tear down, sweep floors etc., not to mention make a million of those tissue flowers to decorate the cars rain or shine they had to be made and was part of her service package! I did this "grunt work" for 3 years until I left and went away to college when I returned home for breaks I was back at it, helping my aunt with her weddings.

Now fast forward... here I am typing away on my computer getting ready to answer the question "How necessary is a Certification?"

I am a strong believer in continuing your education, whether it be in Wedding Planning or building cars. Whatever your passion, that's where you need to educate yourself.

Certifications:

There are many Wedding Planning Certification courses out there AFWPI, The Wedding Planning Institute, ACPWC and Weddings Beautiful, to name a few. However, the question should be how many of these courses are Accredited?

To answer that question, none of these courses are Accredited. However, there is one course that has started the process of becoming Accredited and once there accreditation is received you will have to complete a 2-year Degree to become a Certified Professional Wedding Planner. That course would be Lovegevity's Wedding Planning Institute you can read more about that here.

Whether or not you want to pursue one of these certifications is an individual decision, however before you do anything I strongly suggest you do your RESEARCH!

Some of these courses require a lot of research, time, commitment and money in order for you to receive your certificate. I'm not voicing my opinion when I say this, I'm speaking fact. If you don't complete your assignments with LWPI you do not receive a certification. I have taught this course for almost 5 years and a few students who thought they were up for the challenge couldn't complete it and as a result had to pay an additional fee to continue the course. I have also taught and mentored over 100 students who were dedicated and determined to reach their goal, did what they had to do and walked away with their Certifications.

If you are going to be receive a certificate of completion for a wedding course, I highly suggest you consider Backstage Bridal Pro Academy. We have fashioned the courses to fill the gap that is left from the information the online courses provide and the information you still don't have once you complete the online course. At Backstage Bridal Pro Academy, we made sure that you are prepared to be the best you can be and that you will be positioned for success. Our Academy is competitively priced, offers much more value, includes luxury accommodations at the nations #1 5-star resort and our courses are taught by the absolute best in the industry. Names you know and trust, such as Diann Valentine, Ed Libby, Linnyette Richardson-Hall, Sean Low and more... And guess, what? You will go home with a certificate the same as you would taking an online course.

So what would you rather do? Take an online course, learn a little and leave with many unanswered questions and little support? Or attend Backstage Bridal Pro Academy, learn everything you need to know to not just be a wedding planner, but a profitable business owner, meet the people teaching you, build lasting relationships and have access to ongoing support afterwards to receive the help you need in making sure you succeed in your business goals?

There are many choices. And the choice is an individual one. But I think the value of your investment is painfully obvious, as I demonstrated.

Designations:

I have been a member of the Association of Bridal Consultants for over 4 years and I have taken advantage of their educational programs, conferences, meetings, etc. However, ABC does not offer a Certification. Instead they offer Designations:

Professional Bridal Consultant (PBC TM)
Accredited Bridal Consultant (ABC TM)
Master Bridal Consultant (MBC TM)

In order for you to receive and maintain these designations you must maintain membership and earn points read more about the Association of Bridal Consultants point system point system here .

The Association of Bridal Consultants also have a Novice level. This level is for the planner with very little to no experience .

Internships:

As I was reading along, one thing that jumped out at me were the number of people that wanted internships. I was fortunate, as someone who started working in the wedding industry with someone who was willing to share everything with me. However, as I began my solo journey and decided to run my own business, I realized that there were still things I needed to learn. With that said I decided I wanted to take a course and became "Certified". Once I completed the course I realized that I could not do it ALONE! I needed to build relationships with other industry professionals that were just as passionate about the industry as I. So I felt it was beneficial for me and my business to join the Association of Bridal Consultants.

As a member of ABC I found that many members were willing to help, but there were just as many that did not. I scheduled appointments, sat down and met with folks. I was very direct in what I wanted to learn and told them what I wanted to do and asked for the opportunity to intern. Before I took the steps to make that happen I did my research, I attend all kinds of industry functions, I volunteered. Bottom line, I paid my dues and got my internship with a Master Bridal consultant and a highly successful planner in Michigan.

Now let's get down to the good stuff! The do's and the don't s when it comes to interning.

Do your RESEARCH when applying for an i nternship. Know who to contact, how they prefer to be contacted and company information. After all, you don't want to contact a company that just opened up shop and is simply looking for free labor.
Do respect the Company rules. If there is a dress code, follow it. Especially for the events you will be working. It's the client's celebration, not yours. And most importantly you are a representative of someone else's company. Keep it professional!
Do get up, get out and meet people. How can you intern from your living room?
Do ask questions. Closed mouths don't get fed and most people are not mind readers.
Don't pretend to be a bride to find out information! (Contracts pricing, packages etc.)
Don't steal the planner's work and post on your site as your own. A HUGE NO! NO! (I will discuss this in detail further in the post)
Don't contact as a intern and then send in your payment requirements. Most internships are unpaid (I had someone tell me they wanted to be paid $50 an hour but had no experience. My thought = WTH?!)
Do ask for letters of recommendation or participation if you need them for your portfolio or association. It's easy. You just to have ask!
Do be on time when working. I shouldn't have to say this but I said it anyway because if you don't respect the time when you are working in the office, how can you be trusted to be on time for an event?
Do NOT promote your company at an event you are interning for. It's rude and disrespectful
Do use common sense...

Let's go back to where I said, "Don't steal another planners work and then put it up on your site". Well, I had a student that did just that... She had been a student in my class for 8 weeks and she applied for an internship with me. She had been with me for awhile so I trusted her .

I held a meeting with her like I did with any interns. I covered all of the Do's and Don't s for my company so she clearly understood what I expected..

She worked two weddings with me. One of which there was a confidentiality agreement and because of this I told the assistants and interns there was absolutely no use of cameras this included camera phones before or during this wedding and they all signed confidentiality agreements.....Well, a few months later she annouced the launch of her website. I was so excited that she was moving forward with her dream. But my excitement was very short lived after I saw her photo gallery and there were photos that she had taken of wedding guests, details shots (decor,design, florals etc).

I was hurt and saddened by her actions because I trusted her. I had gone above and beyond to help her and she tried to use my hard work as her come up.... It is sneaky antics like this that, as wedding planners and business owners, we have to worry about when we open up our businesses. I was fortunate that I caught it before my client saw the photos. That would've been another story! In this case Copyscape could not track if someone had copied my work. Instead it was her stupidity and lack of common sense that lead to her demise.

So, to sum it all up: No, you don't have to have a Certification. No, you don't have to join an association. No, you don't have to earn a Designation. Nor do you have to continue your education. But then ask yourself, why would someone invest time and money in me if I don't want to invest time and money into myself?

Someone told me this a long time ago and I have carried it with me "The more you know the more you grow and in order to go up you've gotta show up"

Attending Backstage Bridal Pro Academy will equip you with all the tools you need to to breathe life or new life into your business. You will receive a certificate of completion, just as you would taking any of the online courses that are out there. What makes Backstage Bridal Pro Academy different is that you will learn more, we will go deeper into helping you grow and establish your business and you will have ongoing support and assistance once you are an alumni so that you can reach the business goals you have set. You will have to opportunity to meet and speak with many attendees and speakers that want to help you grow. However, the only way for that to happen is for you to show up.. Tami and I will be there will you!

Creating a Digital Storyboard / Wedding Inspiration Board

2012-02-13T22:21:00.000-08:00

Following many questions that I received from scholarship entrants, I am primarily writing this post as a supplement to the "Fabulous + Graceful" Backstage Bridal Pro Scholarship Contest, however this information will be useful to anyone who is interested in using digital storyboard to visually articulate your proposal for a client's vision. I call them storyboards, but you may have heard them called inspiration boards because they inspire ideas. However, I like the word storyboard because I when I work on design for my clients, I pair it with a written description that works alongside the visual to paint a story in their minds of the fabulous idea I have pulled together to articulate their wedding day vision.

You do not have to own Photoshop or be a tech savvy graphic designer to create them for your clients or for this Scholarship Contest. The internet is an endless source of inspiration. Everything you need to create a beautiful storyboard is at your fingertips... literally! There are many online board makers and tools to choose from but to keep it simple, I'm going to share my favorite and what I find to be the absolute easiest around.

I {puffy heart} Style Me Pretty!
As the largest and most visited wedding blog around, if SMP were a corporation, it would be among the conglomerates of this world. It is a behemoth of gorgeous images and all things pretty. The best of the best wedding photography and the most stylish weddings can be found here, ready to be used in your storyboard. Their inspiration board maker not only has the most beautiful content, but it also the most user-friendly. Here is a step by step with screen shots on using Style Me Pretty's Inspiration Board Maker:

1. You will need to either create a login or login using Facebook. Once you do, you can to enter the Board Maker by clicking "Build A Board", which can be found on any of their pages.

2. This will take to the next page which will display a grouping of photos. You will need to select "Board Builder" on the right hand side.

3. Choose your template.

4. You can now choose to search for images using popular "tags" or

by "color" or

by "categories".

5. To get started I chose to use color and when a color I chose was selected, I was then given a broader range of choices within that color family.

6. You then end up with a selection of images that are tagged with the choice you made. There is an arrow near the bottom of the images so you can scroll through the many images within that selection.

7. When you find an image you love, you simply drag it over to the template. (Drag and drop feature does not work using Explorer, but does work with Chrome, Firefox and Safari). You can then resize and reposition the images in the board or remove and replace images for others.

I chose to go with a soft pink and creamy caramel vintage feel to create this storyboard:

If you choose to use SMP's Inspiration Board Maker to create your storyboard for the Scholarship Contest, they also provide you with an embed code. Please feel free to copy and paste this code and send to us to use for the blog post of your entry along with the names and links to each photographer's image used so we may provide links and credits such as I've done below.

{Image credits clockwise: Lane Dittoe | Erin Hearts Court | Garrett Nudd Photography | Float Away Studios | Caroline Tran}

Color Palette Generator
This color palette generator by Big Huge Labs is really one of the easiet color palette generators out there. Here are the step by step instructions with screenshots to show you how to use this for submitting your color palette.

1. You can upload a photo from your computer files, from Facebook or from Flickr. I chose to save my storyboard that I created above to my desktop and uploaded it to the color palette generator from there.

2. Once your photos is uploaded you simply press the "Create" button...

3. TA-DA! You have a color palette. The number and letter combinations you see are for CSS or website development. But look again... there are color names there! YAY!

4. Now you need to select the colors that best fit the storyboard you are submitting and send the color palette our way. Let's say in this case I choose: Calico, Buttered Rum, Swiss Coffee, Dust Storm and Contessa to tell my story. Simply type those out in your submission just as I did.

5. Next you will need to send us this palette. You do this by taking a screen shot and saving it to your computer as a .jpg. If you aren't sure how to do that, I will tell you now.

6. You will need to have your color palette up on your screen. Then you will need to hold down the CTRL (control) button on your keyboard and the PRTSC (print screen button) on your keyboard at the same time. Got it?

7. Next you open up a simple program in Windows called Paint or on Mac called Paintbrush and you paste your screenshot directly into the program.

8. You can then select and crop your color palette and save it as a JPG or if that confuses you, don't crop it at all and save it as a JPG as is and we can take care of pulling the color palette out for you.

And your done! How easy was that? The hardest part of creating a storyboard is selecting the photos from the hundreds of thousands of images out there to convey the message and vibe that you want. Plus let's face it... it is stinking addictive!

Hope that this was easy enough for you to understand. Please let me know if this helped you at all or if you have any questions!

And don't forget the deadline to submit your entry for the scholarship is March 15! So what are you waiting for create, create, create! We can't wait to see your amazing ideas!

Backstage Bridal Pro Scholarship Contest | Fabulous + Graceful

2012-02-08T21:00:00.000-08:00

You asked... we listened. And that is why Lisa and I are proud to bring you the Backstage Bridal Pro Scholarship Contest! Backstage Bridal Pro Academy was created to bring the most amazing educational experience imaginable to serious Wedding Professionals who are looking to reignite and catapult their businesses to success. Wedding Professionals from all over the nation will be gathering together for 4 amazing days of incredible education by the industry's brightest and best. This is THE educational experience of the year, taking your business to the next level with real applicable tools that you can implement immediately and providing you with the best opportunities to network.

Here is your chance to join them! Backstage Bridal Pro Academy and Fabulously Wed are proud to host the Fabulous and Graceful Scholarship Contest. We are offering scholarships to three (3) worthy wedding pros, sending you to Backstage Bridal Pro Academy at Pelican Hill Resort in Newport Beach, California September 23-26, 2012. The only out of pocket expenses the Grand Prize winner will have is air and ground transportation! We are challenging ALL wedding professionals. You DO NOT want to miss this one! We want to see how each of you talented wedding pros fuse two descriptive words together in fresh and unique ways. We know you will come up with something AH-mazing! So check out the details and submit, submit, submit!

PLEASE NOTE: We decided that your photo shoot does not need to be shot by a professional photographer, although submitting pro photos are a plus! With that in mind, please be sure your photos are not dark or grainy in quality. We want to be sure the details you put together translate as best as possible on our blogs to ensure more votes for you!

Don't forget to submit for your chance to win. (a $2,195 value)!!!

We can't wait to see what you can do! So, let us know... are you as excited about this as we are?

Backstage Bridal Pro Academy at The Special Event 2012

2012-02-01T23:30:00.000-08:00

CONFERENCES AND THEIR TARGET AUDIENCE
CONFERENCE	TARGET AUDIENCE
Backstage Bridal Pro Academy	For the next generation of HOT up and coming wedding professionals with a focus on building and sustaining successful wedding businesses, creating a superior client experience and understanding the logistics of wedding day. Ongoing support, mentoring and networking available to all alumni following the event.
Wedding MBA	Novice or Veteran Wedding Pros wanting to learn the latest techniques marketing and business operations
ABC Conference	An association conference for wedding planners wanting to refresh their skills and network.
The Special Event	Open to Event and Wedding Pros with multiple breakout sessions on a variety of topics and various areas of focus.
Engage!	Specifically for well-established Wedding Pros looking to grow, network and cater to the luxury wedding market.
ISSE	For Novice or Veteran Wedding Pros with a focus inspiring business to succeed using printed publications, networking, mentoring and educational events.

BREAKDOWN OF CONFERENCE INVESTMENT AND OFFERINGS
	Backstage Bridal Pro Academy	Wedding MBA	ABC Conference	The Special Event	Engage!	ISSE Mexico
Standard Full Registration Price	$2,195	$309	$795 for non-members	$925	$2,200	$2,100
Number of Days	4 days	3 days	3 days	4 days	3 days	4 days
Accommodations (at conference hotel)	5-star luxury bungalow suites included (average cost of bungalows $565/night)	No room block provided; Standard hotel cost approx. $700 (based on taxes & fees)	Standard hotel approx. $760 (based on $149/night plus taxes and fees)	Standard hotel approx $1050 (based on $225/night plus taxes and fees)	5-star luxury hotel not included approx. $1,200 (based on $230/night plus taxes and resort fees)	Luxury hotel suites included
Food	Breakfast and Lunch Add'l $200 for additional meals, coffees and snacks)	None included; $320 (Based on $80/day for three meals, coffees and snacks)	Breakfast and Lunch included for 2 days; Approx. $80 for the third day	None included; $400 {Based on $80/day for three meals, coffees and snacks)	2 Breakfasts, 1 lunch and 2 dinners; Add’l $200 for additional meals, coffees and snacks)	Included
Assuming You Attend All Extra Events (Gala, Cocktail, Parties, Tours, Etc)	Included	None	$175	$834	Included	Included
Travel	By car or by air	By car or by air	By car or by air	By car or air	By car or air (passport required when in Grand Cayman)	By air (passport required)
Total Cost to Attend	$2,395 not including flight or ground transportation	$1,329 not including flight or ground transportation	$1,730 not including flight or ground transportation	$3,209 not including flight or ground transportation	$3,600 not including flight or ground transportation (except in Grand Cayman)	$2,100 not including flight (ground transportation included in Mexico)

Backstage Bridal Pro

Certifications, Designations, Internships... Oh My!!

Creating a Digital Storyboard / Wedding Inspiration Board

Backstage Bridal Pro Scholarship Contest | Fabulous + Graceful

Backstage Bridal Pro Academy at The Special Event 2012

New Year Fresh Start Sale

You Asked...We Listened!

Your Wedding Planning Business: Setting S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Your Wedding Planning Business: Preparing for 2012

Your Wedding Planning Business: Bridal Shows

Making A Vacation Out Of It!

'Tis the Season for Engagements!

What's Included at Backstage Bridal Pro Academy?

Our Holiday Gift To You!

Your Wedding Planning Business: 7 Stress-Relief Strategies

Your Wedding Planning Business: Personal Growth

Help For Your Weddings

Get It While It's Hot! Early Bird Special Ending...

Introducing: Linnyette Richardson-Hall

Your Wedding Planning Business: Are You A Bargain?

Register for Backstage Bridal Pro Academy and Get the Keys to Grow Your Wedding Planning Business!

Introducing Saundra Hadley!

happy selling!

When Brides Want To Think About It...

Your Wedding Planning Business: Choices

Introducing Amber Gustafson!

Backstage Bridal Pro Academy Spa Giveaway!