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Host:	Amy Mader
Location:	Intercontinental Stephen F. Austin Hotel Austin, TX 78701 US
When:	December 12, 2007, 11:00AM CST

Meeting Notes

1. Introductions of Members

a. Members Present: Amy Mader, Wendy Neuman - (Your Very Own Fairy Godmother), Scott Ertresvaag, (Amy's Platinum Weddings), Sarah Miller (Courtney Caplan Events), Jamie Carpenter ([clink] Events), Denise Walpole (Soiree), Becky Brock- (Something to Celebrate)
b. Advisory Board Members Present: Rachel Garrett, Courtney Caplan, Dawn Earley, David Walchak, Courtney Caplan

2. Announcements of Graduates

a. Shannon Calabrese- Germantown, Maryland
b. Laura Miller- Katy, Texas
c. Valerie Bell- Rockwall, Texas
d. Kami Elam- Pearland, Texas

3. Advisory Board - New Members: I would like to welcome our newest board members to our advisory board. To find out more about our new board members, visit www.nuptialessentials.com and click on advisory board. They are here to answer our students and members concerns.

a. Meredith Hill- Four Seasons Hotel- Catering Director
b. Courtney Caplan- Courtney Caplan Events- Mentor Advisor
c. David Walchak- Parliamentarian

4. Monthly Meetings sign up

a. Pass around sign up sheet
i. Our members have graciously signed up to arrange the site for our monthly meetings. Please refer to our website concerning any months that are available to host. To host a meeting, you are required to locate a site (most often a board room) and arrange a menu for lunch that works within our designated budget.

5. Direction of the Organization

a. Organization By- Laws
i. For 2008, we will be flushing out the organization by-laws and standing rules. They will be posted on the secured section of our website. All meeting procedures will be executed using the Robert’s Rules of Order and enforced by our Parliamentarian, David Walchak.
b. Expansion nationally
i. For 2008, will be looking to expand our chapters to other areas. We are looking to our general membership to assist us with this project. The meetings will start small and they will grow over time as membership grows. The current meetings involve a program to further the knowledge of our general membership. Current members have already submitted numerous topics they would like to learn more about at the meetings. We are looking to focus on the Dallas and Houston wedding markets. We will only be successful with the support and help of our graduates and students. If you are interested in having an organization like this in your area, do send me an email at amy@nuptialessentials.com.
c. Members- The general membership discussed inviting outside members to our meetings. The cost would be an additional $15.00 per person ($40.00 per person). If you have someone that you would like to invite, feel free to email me and we will add him or her to the guest list.
d. Activities: We had a very productive discussion concerning the promotion of the organization. An idea was presented by Denise Silverman to have NEAWP sponsor a trade magazine. This would feature articles about weddings as well as weddings from our members. We will be exploring this idea further by checking into the cost of printing to get something like this started. A helpful website that was presented was www.austintidbits.com.

6. Introductions of Guests

Guest Speaker: Rachel Garrett, Senior Sales Rep - Marquee Event Group www.marqueerents.com you may contact her at: Rachel@marqueerents.com.

We were so pleased to have Rachel Garrett at Marquee Event Group as our guest speaker and honored to have her as one of our advisory board members for the organization. She will be speaking about the impact of rentals on the wedding industry and provide you information on how wedding consultants can improve their relationships with rental companies

Rachel Garret:


The most important thing that the consultant can do is determining the needs of the client. Most clients will say they do not need rentals since they are too expensive, however this is not always the case. Ask your rental companies about any sales they are potentially running, discounts on pick up versus delivery and time of year. Planners make life easy when they understand the role of the rental company. They can inform their client about fees (set up/delivery/pickup/fuel/ labor), custom items and subcontracting rental items. Rentals companies work with each other and if one does not have something, the other can get it for you. You need to use effective communication. If you do not know an answer, ask someone. Be honest about your potential client. If they don’t have a lot of money to spend, tell the rental person.

Don't misrepresent your client with a large budget since most sales reps have a commission on the total sale. In addition, if you make a mistake, make sure you tell someone.

Don't be accusatory or defensive. Own up to your mistake and work together to fix it. Throwing your vendor under a bus might feel good at the moment, but will not make your life any easier in the future and your reputation will get around to other vendors in the industry.

Be confident with what you are talking about. Make sure you do your research with the vendor to know what their inventory is and what their policies are. Check your orders to make sure you understand each line item so you can effectively answer questions from your client. If you do not know, ASK. Don’t assume anything. Be able to make a decision. Too many opinions and unorganized meetings are detrimental to your event and your relationship with the vendor.

Approach your event and vendors by cultivating a team. The vendors are not hired help. If you begin to treat them this way, you will get exactly what you contracted for, but not any thing extra. In addition, when you need a favor, they might not be willing to “jump through hoops” for you.

Don't create the drama. There will be enough that you need to manage, and therefore, don’t add any stress to the event. The downfall of many consultants is that they create the issue with a client or make a bigger deal than it needs to be. There are many “coordinator friendly” vendors, but if they are not, you need to make the effort to change their opinions.

Provide the utmost service to your clients. Many clients have a difficult time visualizing their event. Ask your rental company if you to borrow a sample of the linens, rentals, chairs etc) to set up at the tasting. Most companies do not charge for this (it is assumed this is the cost of doing business) but they will not deliver the times. You will need to pick them up and return them the same day. It is a great service to offer your clients and will keep you ahead of the curve with you competition. In addition, you should consider having the florist make a centerpiece sample to finish the look. The flowers might cost additional (however you can try to negotiate having your client pay the wholesale cost of the flowers to the florist if there will be a fee).

New Trends: using local and organic foods. See what your hometown or state has to offer. You should consider looking into local produce, beer, wine and other foods. In Austin, Texas we have www.edibleaustin.com or www.eatlocal.com. Unique food stations: Standard banquet tables are being replaced with square stations placed in the reception hall. Each station will have a theme “Dude Station- burgers, fries, pizza”, Seafood Station, Souci Station, Dessert Station, Salad Station, and Pasta Station etc. Be creative with your floor plans and use different size and shapes of your tables and plates, use vibrant colors for your linens and décor.

Custom Linens: To make a profit, a linen company needs to rent linen five times. Being that most companies want to increase their inventory, they will make just about anything if they can rent is numerous times (specialty fabrics will determine if a linen can be rented more than one time). If you have a fabric that is not usable after the first time, the company will make them for you (and get the fabric) and they will give them to you after the event is over. Look at the fabric swatches in their showroom to see what your possibilities are. In addition if there is a fabric they cannot get, if you provide the fabric to them, they will charge a labor fee to make that happen

Vendor List - It is recommended that you ask to be on it after you do an event. First find out if the vendors have one and also ask if they will write a review for you. Vendors treasure coordinators relationships since it is free business for them.

7. Bride Seminars: This point was tabled as we ran out of time during the meeting.

a. Select a date
b. Promotions and Sponsors
c. Creative ideas
d. Duration- one time per month
e. Locations

8. Next Meeting Date

a. January 23,3008 11:00am Four Seasons Hotel

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