The World According to Weddlady

Danielle & Trevor's Williamsburg Wedding

2011-08-01T07:31:00-05:00

This May wedding was so much fun. Danielle and Trevor were married in a beautiful ceremony at historic Bruton Parish, followed by a rocking reception at The Williamsburg Hospitality House. Both are closely tied to the local community, and they did an amazing job of incorporating elements of their experiences into their wedding. One of my personal favorite DJs, Ryan, from DJ On the Side kept the dancefloor full all night. The beautiful photos are courtesy of E. Leise Photo Design.

Congratulations Danielle & Trevor!

Vignettes from Orange - The Holladay House Bed & Breakfast

2011-06-28T06:17:26-05:00

One of the highlights of the recent visit to Orange, Virginia was meeting Sharon Elswick of Holladay House Bed & Breakfast.

Not only is the property beautiful with a vintage flair and contemporary hospitality, but Sharon is positively delightful. When you meet her, you know you’ve met someone who is passionate and invested in her business. While we had less than an hour to tour the site (and eat delicious cupcakes from Charlottesville Cupcake and Cakes by Kristine), I could have stayed all day listening to Sharon share her experience as a young B&B owner. If you’re a younger couple and the thought of staying at B&Bs appeals to you, but is kind of intimidating, I’d highly, highly recommend starting at Holladay House – Sharon and her husband Samuel will definitely make you feel at home.

Holladay House can host intimate functions like small weddings, bridal luncheons and teas. They permit outside catering which is an advantage. It is also uniquely situated in town on Main Street, and therefore in walking distance of salon services, dining and shopping. It is also great for providing accommodations if you are holding a larger wedding elsewhere in Orange.

Thank you to Sharon for sending me some photos to share with our readers. I was so full of cupcakes by the time we toured the venue that I forgot to take out my camera!

Happy Planning!

Shayna Walker

Williamsburg Wedding Design

Why I Hate Junk Mail and Awards

2011-06-27T16:25:21-05:00

Each year (well, twice each year, really) I express a very unpopular opinion – I don’t like wedding industry “awards”. To be clear, I don’t like certain kinds of awards. There are great organizations like ISES and NACE and others who grant awards that I think are awesome. They have objective criteria as well as subjective judging. They require submission of a body of work or a demonstration of skill to enter and to win.

I don't like awards where the awarding marketing firm doesn't reveal its criteria.

I don't like awards that aren't accompanied by some kind of application process, judging, maybe a resume or portfolio. You know - something that proves you did something to earn the award?

I actually don't mind awards where you must be an advertiser in order to "compete" - as long as it's clear to brides that if you don't pay, you can't play.

Along with these awards, I also DECRY any award that you can only get if you purchase it. Yes, there are "awards" where a company sends an email or letter to a wedding professional and says "if you pay me $X, I will send you an "award" (extra for a plaque, by the way). The very, very worst kind of pay-to-play. And people get sucked into it all the time.

I don't like awards that mislead you into thinking that you're choosing the BEST, when you're really choosing the best that the particular award giver thinks they have to offer.

Transparency

I would totally dismiss all of it if on the surface it was easy to understand how a professional earned the award.

Did you know that in some cases you must be a paid advertiser in order to participate? You probably didn't know, and in my opinion you should. Simple disclosure.

Did you know that some "awards" are given to pretty much anyone who can drum up enough positive reviews by a certain date? At least that's what seems to happen. Unfortunately, those awards don't come with "criteria", so no one really knows. Disclosure.

Well, then there's that super-icky "send me money, I'll send you an award". That's just wrong. Definitely lack of disclosure.

Why Do Wedding Vendors Participate?

A) They are usually not asked. You are "awarded" status without any kind of effort or achievement.

B) Fear - I have had more than one person over the past couple of years tell me that they hate the awards...but are afraid to be the only one without one. Great. Fear-based participation is a sign of healthy business planning, right?

C) It's easy. The "awarders" send out shiny badges with HTML code, easy links for Twitter and for Facebook. You don't even have to be creative about announcing it. Just hit "send" and everyone knows how cool you are. Excellent. You will be easily distinguished from the thousands of others who are publishing the same thing at the same time.

How many times do you have to read the same press release before you start to wonder what's going on?

I’d be ambivalent about the whole thing…if it wasn’t for the fact that brides are lead to believe that some kind of competition existed and that the award winners did something merit-based to win.

Just a clear label. That's all it would take me to avoid my twice annual rants.

What This Isn’t About

It would be really easy to say "she doesn't like them because she didn't get an award". (You only get to say that if you use a taunting 2-year-old voice). Fair enough argument, except...

I choose not to advertise with companies that offer unlabeled advertiser-only awards. I don't feel like "pay to play" is an effective use of my dollars, so I don't do it.

I did participate in a review-based site once. Then they enacted a policy that I felt was unfair and non-transparent. I brought this to the attention of the company. The response was unfavorable. I asked to have my (20 positive) reviews taken down. My access to monitor the reviews was removed, but my reviews were not. My requests for further discussions were ignored.

If I wanted the award, I could probably obtain the award (I imagine...I haven't been able to find the criteria for awarding them, so in truth, who knows?). I could not, however, in good conscience accept an award without knowing how it was awarded, and why. Without that information, how could I say in good conscience to clients that I had "won" anything?

Wedding Industry Junk Mail

I get junk mail at home all the time saying I've "won" something valuable, or that I'm someone's "Best Customer". I hold all kinds of "VIP" cards to establishments that I pay for services and products.

I don't put that on my website. Do you?

Some industry awards amount to fancy junk mail. Fancy junk mail with fancier "badges" and easy to use links to promote your fancy junk title throughout social media to prospective clientele that simply doesn't know better. It's sad.

The way it stands, brides can't tell the difference - and it's totally not your fault. These are MARKETING companies do a really good job of marketing stuff to you, so they can charge higher advertising rates to wedding professionals in order to gain access to you. That's cool - as long as you know it. They leave that part off of the fancy badges though (the ones that generate traffic from the "winners" to their site so they can publish higher traffic demographics and sell more expensive advertising to the...winners). Guess being transparent isn't graphically pleasing. Sigh.

More on Transparency

My displeasure with all of the awards is the effort at making a dollar at the expense of transparency. And while I have made attempts to discuss this with more than one company in the past, I have been given the “party line” and sent on my way.

Why Bother

Why do I write about these pseudo-awards? Why do I risk irritating my colleagues who just want to proudly show off their "awards" and be done with it? Because I believe that brides and professionals have more than a right to think about what they are accepting as truth - but a responsibility. There are a lot of issues with these marketing ploys, and if you’re going to participate in them, I think you should do it knowing the good, the bad and the really, really ugly.

Every year I make a point of expressing this opinion loudly for one reason – to spur brides and my colleagues to scratch the surface of what looks shiny and find out what is real. Many, many of the award winners are FABULOUS wedding professionals who I would give awards to myself if possible. I just wish they would consider who they lump themselves in with when they publicize their junk mail awards.

What Do I Hope You'll Do? Simple - Just Think

The takeaway is this – if you want to be wise about your decisions for your wedding (and for your advertising dollar), drop random awards from the criteria and instead look for value, reputation and skill.

Vignettes from Orange – The Inn at Willow Grove

2011-05-25T06:19:03-05:00

Our visit to the Inn at Willow Grove was one of our last stops on the 2-day Orange Weddings Tour (naturally, I refuse to begin at the beginning). Every venue was elegant and hospitable in its own way. Willow Grove was one of the largest properties with some of the newest renovations and most luxury accommodations, and the staff’s greeting matched the site’s grandeur – a line of servers and management holding trays of sweet iced tea and champagne awaited the tandem arrival of our James Limousine coach and limo bus.

The brochures for the Inn at Willow Grove describes the property as “a luxurious country Inn” – which is a monumental understatement. The grounds are sculpted and manicured with fountains and hidden footpaths leading from the huge primary estate building to cozy private cottages. The front of the property (like almost every one we visited in Orange) has breathtaking views of horse country and the Blue Ridge Mountains. I actually wished for a minute that I was a photographer, because every angle offered an epic scene (No worries, photographers, I am the least talented person with a camera in the entire world. Not even point and click will save me).

The interior of the main building belies the historic exterior – it is pure contemporary with tasteful animal print accents, flat screen TV’s – lots of sleek angles and attention to quality and detail. This isn’t Mayhurst…total non-historic liberty was taken with the multi-story building, and as such, it has a personality all its own. Cosmopolitan couples looking for a wedding spot that meets big-city comfort and amenity standards but offers wine country vistas will fall in love instantly with the Inn at Willow Grove.

From a wedding perspective, the ceremony site that they demonstrated was intimate, cool and had an ethereal quality like being in a secret garden. The converted barn is contemporary and sophisticated, with interior restroom facilities, and can accommodate 150 guests before the addition of the satellite adjacent tent.

Lunch was gourmet and inspired with a fusion-Virginia flavor. The chef captured my attention by displaying dessert first (but I’m like that) – and the only thing missing was a cup of coffee (sorry, this was day 2 of the whirlwind tour and every opportunity to re-caffeinate was deeply appreciated – besides, who can eat a delectable mini chocolate chip cookie or a gooey brownie without coffee? Okay, I managed to eat plenty).

From the patios appointed with purely southern rocking chairs to the stone-accented firepit, every visitor finds some little spot at The Inn at Willow Grove to claim as their own. As a Williamsburg resident located just 2 hours from the property, I would definitely plan to stay for a long weekend, and as a planner wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this venue to brides (in fact, let’s combine the two – I’ll meet you there!).

Happy Planning!

Shayna Walker, Williamsburg Wedding Design