Friday, August 28, 2009

Boudoir, anyone?

Our friends over at Raw Photo Design are hosting a boudoir marathon in September. This is a fun opportunity to get dressed up, let your hair down, and get some tasteful, intimate images of yourself. Boudoir photos are becoming a popular wedding gift for grooms, but they also make a great anniversary gift for husbands, no matter how long you’ve been married.

If you’re not feeling 100% confident about your body, no worries. Eric and Amber know how to pose you in only the most flattering of ways and can do some amazing things with Photoshop. You’ll look like you walked straight out of the pages of a Victoria’s Secret catalog. Head on over to their blog to check out their boudoir portfolio. Contact information is below.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

How to Negotiate with a Wedding Vendor

As a general rule of thumb, we don’t negotiate with wedding vendors on behalf of our clients. Actually, let me rephrase that: we don’t ask vendors to lower their prices simply because their existing pricing structure does not fit within a client’s budget. In the current economic climate, wedding budgets are being tightened like never before and as a result, some couples seem to think that vendors should reduce their prices accordingly. After all, money is money, right? Booking the client at a lower rate is better than losing the business altogether. Not quite. Think of how you would feel if your boss came up to you and said, “Look, funds are a little tight right now, so I’m going to cut your pay by 25% for the next two weeks, but you’ll still have to come in and do the same amount of work.”

You see, wedding professionals are in a service industry. Negotiating the price on a new car, for example, is an entirely different ballgame. In this case, you are simply asking the car dealer to lower their profit margin. They pay a certain amount for the vehicle and sell it for a higher price. The higher the price, the more money they make, and so list prices are typically inflated to leave room for negotiation. A wedding vendor, however, is essentially selling themselves. They provide a service and base their pricing on the time, effort, and resources involved in executing that service. By asking them to lower their price just because you can't afford it, you are devaluing them. Most vendors don’t appreciate this.

Think of negotiation as a compromise: both parties agree to give something up in order to get something in return. If a certain photographer is out of your budget, for instance, you can ask for a lower price in exchange for less hours of coverage at the wedding, fewer photographic prints, or a smaller album. That way, you pay less and the photographer spends less time and/or resources on your event. Everybody wins. Keep this in mind the next time you are negotiating with a wedding professional.

Do you have any negotiating tips to share?

[Image credit: Brides.com]

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Happy Anniversary Kelly & Giancarlo!


Kelly and Giancarlo are celebrating their first anniversary today. They were married in the picturesque gardens of Caramoor. Happy anniversary to you both!

[Image credit: Ken Lax]

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Bad Bloggers


Okay, we admit it. We’ve been slacking off on the blogging lately. But it’s only because we’ve been busy coordinating weddings and enjoying summer vacations with our families. We’re going to get back on track soon (we promise!) so be sure to keep us on your RSS feed!