The Significance Of Wedding Photography In Wedding Planning

The Significance Of Wedding Photography In Wedding Planning . Indeed, weddings are definitely one of the happiest moments in a person’s life. But, this momentous occasion does not always come as blissful as the event itself. Days and even months before the big day, couples usually cram up with the littlest details. The wedding planning process includes listing down and cutting down everything into specific details such as the wedding date, the venue, the reception, the caterer, the designer of the gown and suit, all the way down to the wedding coverage.

Because to hectic schedules, most couples usually do not pay much attention to one of the crucial things in any wedding: the wedding coverage. Despite the overwhelming tension and excitement, couples do not have to be nonchalant when choosing their wedding photographers if they want their fun times and precious memories recorded very well. Wedding Photography

Choosing your wedding photographer

To avoid making this slight neglect that usually leads disastrous results, couples have to decide first what kind of wedding photography they would want to have. Most wedding photographers today categorize the types of wedding photography into two—the traditional or classic style and the wedding photojournalistic style.

Today, the most common style used by wedding photographers is the traditional or classic wedding photography is considered as a “timeless” and the “safest” style because you normally see in countless wedding albums. Characterized by classic poses of subjects aware of the camera, this style involves so much control from the photographer because he is in-charge in arranging individual and group shots before, during, and even after the wedding.

Here, the photographer must have excellent portraiture skills to focus more on the quality of the photograph by making the subject look great from the littlest details. Expect typical wedding photos like pre-ceremony pictures, formal shots of the bride and groom posing with bride's maids and ushers, cake cutting, garter and bouquet toss, and the like when you choose a classic wedding photography. This style is ideal if the couple would want to keep portraits of family members for their wedding album.

If the couple is adventurous and unconventional, then you might want to consider the wedding photojournalistic style of photography on your big day. An increasingly popular style today, wedding photojournalism offers fresh and new style of taking photos in the occasion. Characterized by candid shots of the subjects unaware of the moving camera, the photojournalism style lets the attendees act freely to capture their pure and true emotion.

Sourcing style from his experience in journalism, the “photojournalist” pays more attention to minute details and candid shots rather than arranged ones. He’s more into eyeing interesting moments and capturing those in his lens to produce a narrative collection of images that tell a story. Although some traditional poses will be present, expect photos that show actual emotions of the bride and groom and of other participants throughout the duration of the wedding when you choose the photojournalism style.

While wedding planning, make sure that you meet up with your photographer first to avoid ruining the documentation of that big event. Make sure that that early on, the wedding photographer meets all of your standards. When you meet with the photographer before hand the so you could discuss the details you want.


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The Dress As The Main Consideration In Wedding Planning

Wedding planning for most future brides is all about the wedding dress. Since they are ought to be the most beautiful person in her wedding day, most women consider their gown as the major consideration in wedding planning.

If you are one of those brides who think that their dress takes the center stage in any wedding planning, then you should be starting that search for the perfect wedding gown. Experts say that for you to be able to find the ideal wedding dress for you, it is always best to prepare everything you will need.

Below are just some of the things that you should consider before shopping for a wedding dress and some tips that can help you get by when looking for that perfect wedding gown:

1. Conduct a simple research about wedding gowns. This very important because this research will somehow serve as your guide in choosing that dream wedding dress. Research can be done online or by reading bridal magazines to get updated with the latest designs and trends for the season. When you are conducting your research online, make sure that you visit sites that contain general and extensive information about wedding dresses.

2. Know your own body type. This is one of the basic guidelines in finding the perfect wedding dress. Once you know your own body type, you will know which are the best wedding dress shapes and styles that would complement your physique. Whether you are tall, short, petite, chubby, pear-shaped, have long neck, full hips, full waist and the like, there is always a perfect wedding dress shape for you.

3. Familiarize yourself with the available wedding dress shapes. Knowledge on the available dress shapes, styles, and designs out there will definitely make it easier for you to find that dream wedding dress. Available wedding dress shapes include two-piece ball gowns that have full skirts and bodice, A-line Princess dresses, Empire cut dresses, Mermaid dresses, Straight line wedding dresses, strapless, halter, or tube wedding dresses and variations of each shape are also possible when custom made.

4. Don’t be overwhelmed with sales talk. When shopping for a wedding dress, always make sure that you don’t listen to everything the salesman or woman says because they don’t always do you good. It is safe to listen to some of their suggestions but make sure that you have your own specifications in mind that cannot be swayed using mere words.

5. Plan your budget carefully. Before setting your foot out in any bridal store for wedding gown shopping, make sure that you have a specific budget that you can spend. Remember, you are only at the beginning of the wedding planning stage. Although the wedding dress is a big part of the event, bear in mind that there are still so many things that you need to pay and buy for the big day so don’t splurge when shopping for your wedding dress. To be safe, allot at least $1000 to $2000 for your wedding dress—of course depending on your financial status.


Read another article : The Wedding Industry  and outdoor wedding ideas

The Wedding Industry – History, Facts and Whatnot

In 2008, more than two million couples married in the United States alone. While in Canada, around 115,000 marriages happen daily. China, the most populous country, has 9 million marrying couples every year, spending $19,900 dollars per wedding. Such an escalating rate attracted many capitalists to what we know today as the wedding industry.

The wedding industry is composed of many business enterprises including the jewelleries, caterers, couture, flower shops, printing press, music, transportation, photography and videography. Because no company provide all of this in one-stop shop, the wedding planning sector also emerged to relieve couples from the stress. A recent study showed that one out of two brides hire a wedding consultant for the planning.

This industry has further expanded to education sector. The increasing number of schools offering certification on wedding planning and management is an evident of a sustainable industry.

In discussing such occasion with a wedding planner, the usual spending goes to reception cite, engagement ring, honeymoon, wedding rings, photography and video, rehearsal dinner, bridal gown, bridal accessories, bridesmaids, flowers, music, limousines or any transportation, formal wear, and the clergy or chapel.

The industry started as a potential commerce when women were regarded as a commodity and sold in exchange for valuable goods like cattle and grain. In history, wedding ceremonies mark the alliances of powerful tribes or families—known today as arranged marriages. The following decades have changed but weddings still played an important role in the society.  In some countries, a wedding ceremony reflects the societal status and economic class of a couple. Hence, lavishness in gowns, themes, and reception has become a trend.

Globalization further contributed to the growing industry. As the 60’s and 70’s marked the non-traditional wedding—a ceremony outside the church—destination wedding becomes a vogue. Tourism turned out to be an important economic factor giving ample revenue to countries. The weddings of Hollywood artists greatly intensified the trend.

For example, a traditional Japanese wedding would cost a couple an average of $70,000 according to the Census of Japan in 2005. Because marrying in Guam is cheaper by 60%, the Pacific Daily News reported a 25% wedding of Japanese couple in Guam last year.

Las Vegas, Nevada is ranked as number one city where most couple from all over the world plan to wed, with around 106,000 weddings a year. It is followed by Istanbul, Turkey with 92,000 annually. Gatlinburg in Tennessee and New Orleans in Louisiana, both in the United States, are the next in line respectively. Expensive destination weddings are the Caribbean, Mexico, and almost all parts of Europe.

The Philippine wedding suppliers also penetrated the global market in 2008. Banquet Specialty Shoppe Inc. provide services to several Asia Pacific events. The Jardin de Miramar gained recognition internationally when it was featured in the international news agencies Associated Press and Reuters. Led by Mr. Lito Genilo, the Smart Shot Studio received recognitions from the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) and its local counterpart, Wedding and Portrait Photographers of the Philippines (WPPP).



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Wedding Planning Programs: Making Its Way to Possibly Dominate the Education Sector

Wedding Planning Programs: Making Its Way to Possibly Dominate the Education Sector. Enrolling in a school for wedding planning courses must have been unimaginable a decade ago, much less a wedding planner to be a profession. The increasing number of weddings all around the world, which is proportional to the expenditure cost spending per marriage, changed this customary view. Around 2.1 million wedding ceremonies were held in United Sates alone in 2008, says the Association of Wedding Professionals—a site dealing with statistics that cater to wedding professionals.

This is why schools teaching wedding planners—including wedding and bridal consultants—became a potential venture for the wedding industry, which has stretched to various terrains. For instance, contemporary times marked the emergence of online wedding. Wedding Planning Programs

The Internet played a significant role in the education sector. Right now, online schooling is one of the types of wedding planning programs.  The other types include home study and classroom, the latter being a promising enterprise. This is becoming available in some community colleges in other countries.

The difference between home study programs and online ones is the period of schooling. The latter offer no time constraints and sessions are online.  It is worth noting that this education is not a degree. Anyone can still call himself a wedding planner without schooling.

Since planning a wedding can be stressful, a guide is provided to enhance skills in facilitation, communication, and organization. Knowledge on business administration and accounting is also vital. Other good schools include courses on advertising and marketing so that students will obtain the skill in filtering vendors, photographers, caterers, and so on. These trainings will be very useful for budding professionals.

The cost of tuition and miscellaneous fee vary from one school to another. Worth noting is that expensive schools do not necessarily guarantee a good education and ensure success in the field. The benefits however include building a network. This is possible for instance, when a student becomes intern in the field. The student gains experience and knowledge from established wedding professionals.

The two reputable wedding industry associations are the Association of Bridal Consultants and the National Association of Wedding Professionals. The other organizations are American Association of Wedding Planners, Bridal Marketing Association, and Wedding Careers Institutes. These organizations provide relevant information on the wedding industry including databases on wedding gowns and manufacturers, statistics, and market research. Meanwhile, the Better Business Bureau contains schools that received considerably several complaints or compliments.

The Wedding Planner School (WPS) is the leading independent school in Europe’s wedding planning industry. It offers the program in home study mechanism in three different levels—beginners, intermediate, and advanced courses in Wedding and Events Management. The Wedding Planning diploma focuses on gaining clients and customer care. The Events Management course introduces possible areas on the field that one can venture on.

The school may provide basic knowledge on event organizing and communication---that includes administrative, organizational, and accounting skills—but a true professional wedding planner enriches his knowledge by continuous reading of available materials to keep him abreast of the latest wedding trends, styles, and colors.


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Steps in Planning A Wedding

Getting married is not as easy as one watches it on movies. Planning a wedding is a tedious job. Several important details and considerations are taken into account.

The primary tasked in the preparations is the budget. The question of how much is available and who is footing the bill are the important questions in setting the budget. Planning A Wedding

Hiring a wedding consultant is practical for busy working couples who have less time to spare for the preparations. If the budget is tight, there are also consultants who work by the hour. An outsider’s perspective is beneficial to both the bride and the groom.

Once the budget is set, the next step is creating the timetable of schedules. The important factors to consider include honeymoon, work schedules, holidays and family occasions, and day of the week. Some consultants say the bride’s menstrual cycle should be regarded to avoid getting the gown stained or feeling busted on the wedding day. Alternate dates are also a consideration.

Now, choosing the ring and announcement to family, relatives, friends, and other significant others come next. The contemporary times suggest that couples choose the ring together. Announcements may come formally or informally. Traditions though recommend that the groom’s mother take the initiative to communicate with the bride’s mother. Usually, a dinner is set up for the families of both parties to get acquainted. This will be helpful in the following days of the preparations. In some countries, newly engaged couples send an official announcement to local newspaper or magazine.

After making the wedding known to all, the second essential is the guest list. This list usually affects several aspects of the wedding specially the budget and the size of the party. Dividing the guest list into five categories will better sort out the list: a) bride's list; b) the groom's; c) couple's common friends; d) groom's parents' list and; e) bride's parents' list. Alongside the list is the couple’s decision on invitation card designs and packages. These details match the over-all tone of the wedding. Proofreading of the invitation cards is a very important task however tiresome it may be.

The ceremony and reception music, flowers will set the mood of the wedding. Like the invitation, these things should match together to express the style and theme of the wedding. The same with the wedding gowns, bridesmaids dresses, and the groom’s attire—they are usually decided based on the theme.

The photographs and videos should not be forgotten for they will immortalize that one memorable and valuable once-in-a-lifetime moment. Many wedding planners suggest taking the formal shots a week before the wedding to avoid stress.

Then when almost everything is done and decided, the next step is the rehearsal—reducing the risk of ceremony disappointments. Rehearsal parties immediately follow the rehearsal. This is a chance to mingle with family and friends.

The ceremony site sets the tone of the wedding. Traditional weddings are celebrated in church; however, there are many non-traditional that have emerged since the 60’s and 70’s. Beach and garden weddings are just a few example of the latter one.

Last but not the least are the reception and catering. Included are the place, the food, and the wedding cake. It is pretty much anything the bride and the groom want as long as it fits the budget. The w

Other side events organized during the wedding planning are stud party and wedding shower. This is one of the exciting part in wedding traditions.##


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Plan Your Profession: Be a Wedding Planning Consultant

Be a Wedding Planning Consultant. Back then, hiring wedding planners is a luxury. As the number of couples who use the services of wedding coordinators rise, this part of the wedding industry showed a high potential for being a profession or career.

Such viability is evident in the rising number of businesses that offers wedding planning services. The Internet also became the venue of this burgeoning industry in stretching its terrains even to technology and education sector. Several wedding planners now offer downloadable wedding planning software programs that serves as a guide to couples. Schools also now embrace the idea of offering wedding planning career programs. Wedding Planning Consultant

As its name suggest, wedding planners, also called wedding consultants, bridal consultants, and wedding coordinators, plan the big day. The question is why the demand for wedding consultants is continually rising.

The Gatlin Education Services (GES) said that a professional wedding consultant is skilled in events planning and monetary management. GES provides online workforce to various colleges and universities for their career programs including certification for wedding planning programs.

The skills include creativity on several aspects of design and decoration, insider’s knowledge with and network of the best vendors in town, and updated information on almost all areas of wedding ceremonies.

GES further put weight on the role of wedding consultants by encapsulating in its job description every detail---it may be small or substantial—of the wedding, such as conception of theme and decorations, contracts, ceremony details, and industry formulas for deliveries.

Specifically, a wedding consultant receives, makes, documents telephone calls, and schedules appointments with clients and vendors, assists clients with their wedding attire selection, tracks budget and plans projects, visits sites for venue selection, troubleshoots and solves problems, manages and delegates task, collects payments, and so on.

With such arduous work of planning a wedding, several brides opt to hire wedding consultants. The SuperWeddings.com’s survey showed that 72% of recently married brides regretted not having hired a wedding consultant while 49% said that hiring one is the vital detail they missed about their entire weddings.

It is no doubt the employment of wedding planners was projected to increase by 20% between 2006 and 2016, according to the United States Bureau of Labor and Statistics. In addition, wedding planners have a relatively high earning—a 10 – 15% of the total wedding expenditures.

GES is just one of the many schools that spurred following the rise in the demand for such profession. GES standardized the curriculum, instruction, and evaluation of the Certified Planning Program across its partner schools. Since 1999, the SuperWeddings has been offering a certification program. An online program though, but it provides a close student – teacher relationship.

In the United Kingdom, the Wedding Planning School’s (WPS) curriculum covers all aspects of wedding and event management. It provides training venues in Bristol, London, Manchester, and Leeds. The WPS also offers certified programs with classes during weekends and home study courses. Another example is the United States Career Institute (USCSI) that offers an online four-month training only for wedding consultants.


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Plan Your Own Wedding: The Variety of Ceremonial Rites

Plan Your Own Wedding: The Variety of Ceremonial Rites. Which kind among the many types of wedding ceremonies is one of the most important decisions that a couple will be making when they planned to get married.

The most common wedding is the formal one. The bride dresses in a length-train gown, veil on top, driven by a white car, and eats an exceptionally large cake at the wedding reception. This kind of wedding embodies the elegance and seriousness of what a marriage is all about. Plan Your Own Wedding

Nothing compares to civil wedding ceremony when it comes to seriousness. The civil wedding ceremonies—may vary from being large or small, indoors or outdoors—is one in which an appointed marriage authority like a judge is hired to officially tie the knot. This kind of wedding is held outside the church. For some couples, they marry at the municipal hall where the judge is located but one can always opt for other places.

Both Asia’s June wedding and the West’s summer and spring wedding are another example of traditional wedding. It has always been the best to plan a wedding when the sun is shining. The best time therefore is during the afternoon or early evening when the sun shines at its finest. Essential to design and decorations for this kind of wedding is the vibrancy and color of the theme. Usually the color used are deep red, orange, yellow and cooper which look beautiful in flower arrangements.

During this season, there are many practically other choices of wedding places to choose from. Beach resorts offering wedding packages are currently a rising business industry. Couples may also want to consider getting married in tourist destination areas like Caribbean, Bali, or Phuket. This kind of wedding however is advisable only during summer of the country you are going to hold your wedding. Garden weddings are also yearned ceremonies especially of hopeless romantic couples. Any garden or park that is spacious and picturesque is a possible place to hold a wedding ceremony.

There are couples however, who choose a small kind of wedding—consisting of less than 50 guests. This wedding usually takes place in boutique hotels, renowned restaurants, historic places of interest or function rooms at museums. Aside from they are often licensed for wedding, they also provide a picturesque and stylish setting depending on the couple’s choice.

Since churches are archaic and beaches and garden weddings are worn-out ideas, there are many odd, quirky, yet fashionable weddings that couples opt to do. Some examples of this modern wedding include vintage cars, icing-covered cake filled with grotesque and horror, and ‘meringue’ like dress of bridesmaids. Themed weddings are also a fad. Examples are Indian and Elvis-inspired weddings.

Also worth noting are the important wedding rituals of various cultures and countries. The Judaism for example does not encourage lavish dresses and decorations. The sanctity of the marriage is the most significant principle. Islam weddings usually follow the Muslim traditions. Different ceremonies like exchange of rings, sending of wedding jewellery to the bride, and the manjha ritual take place before the big day.


Read another article : Wedding Planning Certification