One of the best ways to find out if a new career is right for you, or to apply the skills you are learning in a course, is to undertake some form of work experience.  Every week, when I speak to people looking to enter the wedding and events industry, I am asked about work experience.  Practical experience is an important aspect of skills and knowledge development so I am always encouraged to hear people giving thought to this.  At the Academy we recognise the importance of experience also and have incorporated a practical element through each of our courses by giving you practical exercises to undertake.  We are also active in finding and promoting opportunities for both paid and unpaid experience, but there are also things you can do yourself to gain opportunities.

The first thing to consider, is the time you have available to undertake work experience.  What I suggest doing is keeping a diary of how you spend your time for an average week in your life.  Make sure you include everything you do, from paid work, study and travel for work, to leisure activities.  Once you have done this, go through the diary and highlight free time and also time you would be able and willing, to re-allocate to something else.  This is generally going to be your leisure time, so it is important that you are honest with yourself about how much current free time you are willing to give up in the name of work experience.  You should also consider how far you are willing to travel for work experience and what transport is available to you for out of hours work.  Remembering that very often, work in the wedding and events industry is out of hours, so it may not always be appropriate for you to use public transport.

Armed with information about your availability, you are ready to look for opportunities.   You can try approaching event and wedding consultancies and many of these do offer paid work experience during peak times.  The difficulty can be that this work is often undertaken during normal work hours, as well as out of hours and it can be difficult to schedule in with your current job.  If you are able to secure an opportunity like this, consider whether you can apply for leave without pay from your current employer, in order to take advantage of the opportunity.

Another way of approaching work is experience is to look to your personal and professional networks.   If you work within an organisation that holds events, manages events or hosts events (for example a venue) approach your employer or supervisor and outline your future goals to them.  If you have performed well so far they may consider you for a transfer or promotion to the department that looks after events.  Take this opportunity to also discuss the potential for you to volunteer your time at events, or shadow someone working on them.  You must be prepared to do this for no additional pay and on top of the normal hours you work in your current role.  This is a great way to demonstrate to your potential employer that you do have drive, ambition and initiative and that you are prepared to work hard to achieve your goals.  It is also an excellent way to gain experience in the areas you are looking to move into, without leaving your current work environment.

If you are not currently working in an events or wedding environment, but want to gain experience, look to your personal network.  Events, of all shapes and sizes are happening everyday around us; friends and family are getting engaged, married, having babies and retiring, they are turning 1, 18, 21 and 50 and your local sporting club, schools, Churches, Show Societies, etc. all hold events that could benefit from volunteers and especially from volunteers who have some knowledge of how to manage an event, the right way.  All of these events present opportunities for you to put into practice the skills and knowledge you are gaining from the course and develop more networks as you are able to show off your skills to large audiences of people attending the events you are working on.  Not-for-profit and Community organisations are other avenues for finding work experience.  These types of organisations survive on the support of volunteers to work on and promote their events.  When approaching an organisation like this, you should be prepared to get involved and do ‘work’ that may not always seem related to what want to learn.  But also let them know that you want to gain some events experience.  Generally if you prove your worth to the people running events for these types of organisations, you will be rewarded and given more responsibilities each time you return.

Finally before applying for any type of work experience, make sure your Resume is up to date and that your cover letter reflects what you are contacting the potential employer for.  This recent blog post has some tips on how to write your Resume when you are considering a career change.

If you have some tips of your own of how to gain work experience or a story of undertaking work experience, we would love to hear about it and share it with the readers, simply email me at christine@aawep.com.au

Image Credit: www.flickr.com/photos/darwishh/57956597/

There is no such thing as a bad idea. This is something I tell our students at AAWEP all the time. Ideas are good and it is something you need in a creative industry such as ours. The problem with ideas is that they can arrive at the most inopportune moments and sometimes take us on a path that makes no sense or aren’t where we should be going at that point in time. Knowing all this we often let our ideas slip away from us.

I am sure you have all had ideas that have seemed brilliant and then forgotten all about them only to see someone else has has the same idea, but they have actually gone through with it. So how do you stop that from happening? How do you stop your ideas from disappearing? Easy. Write them down. The moment you write something down it is much harder to forget it. I have always kept my Idea Journal and in this journal nothing is off limits and all ideas are welcome, no matter how far fetched or in the future they may seem.

The key with ideas is to let them happen when they want to but know how to bottle them. Most of the time it is when we need an idea that we can’t think of one. It is always when our minds are running free without the stress of having to search for an idea that we usually produce our best ideas. So my method has always been to let ideas flow freely, capture them at the time of their conception and then have them available for stimulation when needed. My Idea Journal is always there for me to read and use as inspiration, but it doesn’t distract me or lead me down paths I shouldn’t be straying as I know I can revisit those ideas whenever I feel the need.

So the moral of this story is to enjoy your ideas when they happen and let them flow freely. Don’t stifle them, give them room to breath and then write them down as soon as you can so you don’t forget them. This way you will always have plenty of inspiration at your fingertips.

Q: Pamela tell us what course you completed and why you chose this course?
A: I completed both the diploma of wedding planning, styling and design as well as the advanced diploma of wedding planning and design.

Q: What was it about the Academy that made you choose to study with us?
A: I decided to study with AAWEP because of the course content. This was in my opinion by far the most comprehensive wedding and event course out there that covered areas that I was interested in learning such as styling, design, step by step process for planning a wedding and event as well as good advice and tips on how to establish a business and communicate with clients. This course was basically the only course I saw that offered all of this and set you up to be able to start your own business at the end.

Q: What have you enjoyed most about your experience of studying with the Academy?
A: Learning more about the industry that I’m passionate with.

Q: Have your goals changed during the course of your studies?
A: No. My goals still remained the same and that was to get a wealth of experience in the industry and start my own business.

Q: What do you intend to do after the course?
A: I have finished the course and since then I have been studying a bachelor of business majoring in event management and was extremely busy starting two businesses, one of them being an event company.

Q: How has the course prepared you for taking the next step?
A: This course has given me so much knowledge in every aspect of weddings and events it amazing and has helped me with starting my own business.

Q: Have you undertaken any work experience since starting the course and if so, what was this experience like?  How did what you learnt during the course prepare you for work experience?
A: Yes! I have undertaken heaps of work experience in weddings as well as events. The knowledge I received from this course prepared me for work experience, it also motivated me to get out there and offer my services for free so that I could learn all the ropes.

Q: Tell us about your business if you are planning to launch one, or have launched one.
A: Haus of Events is a Sydney based event management company that offers services all over Australia. I specialise in special events. From small and intimate private gatherings to weddings and larger scale productions. We also do custom candy buffets and dessert tables.

Q: What would you say to anyone thinking of pursuing a career in Wedding and Event Planning?
A: If you are seriously wanting to pursue a career in wedding and event planning I say do it! It s so much fun… BUT it is hard work too; you really need to have a passion for it otherwise you won’t last long in this industry. I love it every day is different and exciting and even all the hard work and running around is fun for me because I love it that much so if you feel the same as me I would defiantly go for it!

Q: Would you recommend the Academy to others and why?
A: Yes I would defiantly recommend AAWEP to others interested in this industry because of their course content and the knowledge anyone will gain from completing it.

Eco Weddings have been a trend now for some time but often people have a misconception of what they are. There are many things that can make up a an Eco inspired wedding and there are some really gorgeous elements that can be used in the design as you will see from the mood board we have created above. There are many things that can can help to create an Eco wedding and we have listed some of them below:

1. Try staging your wedding at a farm, museum or historic building so the need for lush backdrops is reduced.
2. Try using organic caterers who will help you create a menu that uses local homegrown produce
3. Invites can be sent our using recycled paper or for some couples they are even happy to use digital invites and avoid paper altogether
4. Green wedding favours are right on trend at the moment with many couples opting to use products such as local jams or seeds
5. The decor is another huge area where you can introduce some Eco friendly products such as using remnant materials from fabric stores and visiting flea markets to source plates, chargers and other items
6. Keeping your wedding local is a help too as it stops guest from having to travel too far and avoids flying and driving.

If anyone has any other Eco friendly tips to share with us we would be pleased to hear from you so make sure you post a comment.

Wedding and Event Planning, Styling and Design, often attracts people who are looking for a career change.  The industry is a creative one and many of us who have found ourselves in other roles, often in sales, marketing, hospitality, Interior Design, HR, retail, administration and Personal/Executive Assistant roles, find that whilst there are things we enjoy about our jobs and are good at, there is an element missing and without it, we just don’t feel fulfilled in the role we are in.   In my role with the Academy of Wedding and Event Planning, I speak with people every day about their goals and dreams for a future career and I have come to understand that this missing ingredient for many of you is the opportunity to express yourself creatively and work closely with others to produce something magical.

What scares many people however, is not only making the transition, but being able to demonstrate to an employer that whilst they have not been working as Wedding/Event Planner, they do have skills that have worth.  When you are looking to make a career change it can be hard to see for yourself that you do have transferable skills, let alone demonstrating this to someone else.  Too often the focus of people’s attention is on that creative side of the role and this affects their ability to see what they already have to offer in terms of skills and experiences.  I often hear people, who have 5-10 years of work experience behind them say, ‘I don’t have any experience’.  But this is not the case.  In fact, almost every skill you apply to any job; can be applied in another way.

Attention to detail, time management, organisation, communication, computer literacy, problem solving and critical thinking skills are just some of the words we use to describe what we do in our Resumes and all of them can be applied to a multitude of jobs and industries, including Wedding and Event Planning.  For example, a nurse needs to be able to communicate well and work in stressful situations, so does a Wedding Planner.  Personal and Executive Assistants often work on Projects and need to understand how to manage their time and others to take the project from start to finish, not unlike an Event or Wedding Planner must when taking an event from its beginning to end.  An Interior Designer needs to understand how to design within a space, to a brief and to a budget, just as a Wedding Designer/Stylist does.  Administration Assistants must be good a managing a large flow of information between parties, so do Wedding and Event Planners.  Bankers need to understand budgeting and finance, so do Wedding and Event Planners.

What many people do, when writing a Resume ahead of a career change, is focus on telling the prospective employer that whist they have no experience, they are ‘willing to learn and work hard’.  Whilst this is admirable, it is not generally going to be enough to grab the employer’s attention.  What the examples in the previous paragraph should show you, is how to look at what you do and see what it is that you already have, that is of value.  When writing your Resume you need to do the same and sell yourself by joining the dots for any employer, by showing them what you do have experience doing and how this can be applied to the role you are applying for.

Here are some tips on to go about doing this:

• Firstly do your homework to understand the jargon/keywords of the industry and more about the industry generally.  To do this, follow blogs, pay attention to the terms we use in the Courses and analyze advertisements for the roles you are looking to apply for.  Then look for ways of using that jargon within your Resume.  But be careful with how you use it and always keep in mind that what you are trying to do is show a prospective employer that what you already know how to do can be applied to what the employer is looking for someone to do.  You might also like to visit the websites of organisations you would like to work for.  Read the profiles of those working for them in the roles you are interested in and learn as much as you can about what others are bringing to the role you seek.

• Analyze your transferable skills (ones like those we have already mentioned) to demonstrate how your current experience can be applied to the job you are seeking.  A clothing retail assistant for example, has sales experience.  A Project Manager has time management skills.  An Interior Designer has Design skills.  A good way to approach this when writing your Resume is to follow the following format:

1. What was the problem or challenge that you were faced with?
2. What did you do?  What action did you take to solve the problem?
3. What was the outcome?  This is where you sell yourself.
4. How does this translate into a positive for the employer you are seeking to sell YOU to?

• Next, state your objective.  Begin your Resume with a paragraph or two where you spell out what you are intending to do.  This is your Career Objective.
• Finally include all relevant information.  Our paid work experience is just part of the picture.  If you have volunteer experience or have gained experience via practical exercises you have completed in your course, include information about this.  For example, when writing a Resume for an AAWEP student, who had participated in a number of event management roles, I included these at the beginning of her Resume as they very clearly showed what experience she had to apply to a role in the industry and also what she was prepared to do to gain that experience.  If you have experience of working on events as part of a larger role, highlight this and what you did within those roles.  This is all relevant information that you want to draw attention to.

The Academy offers a Resume Review service for anyone needing advice on preparing their Resume for a Career Change.  Student Rates are also available.  To find out more, or for a free Resume Review, contact me at christine@aawep.com.au

Q: Congratulations Lara on winning the first Annual Wedding Games. It has certainly been quite a journey for all of us and we are so excited to be able to showcase the incredible talent that these games have uncovered. Wedding and Event Design is an industry that has really come into its own over the last decade and has a very real place as a standalone career. As educators within the industry we see new entrants from all walks of life, but they all have one thing in common – the desire to be creative. What was your motivation for entering the Wedding Games?

A: Professionally, I am a physiotherapist. What has always inspired me about this line of work is understanding how a particular environment influences a person’s physical well-being. This same passion extends more generally to how creating the right environment can impact on people’s experiences and emotional well-being – say for example, at a wedding. Planning my own wedding was one of the most exciting and inspiring things I have ever done. It has given me the confidence to pursue my true passion of a creative career in the world of wedding and event planning and styling. This journey began one evening while researching a course on wedding planning when I came across the Wedding Games competition. I entered immediately. Three days later I got the email informing me that I was Tribute 7 – Centerpieces, I could not believe it! I saw this competition as a chance to make an entrance and an impact on the world of wedding styling, and to create a name and a presence for myself in the planning and styling industry.

Q: A large part of the Wedding Games revolved around using the Social Media tool Pinterest. Had you used Pinterest prior to entering the competition?

I had just begun to use Pinterest about a week before I learnt of the competition. I hadn’t actually pinned anything to a board of my own, but I was following a few people and always look at the “Wedding and Events” public board.

Q: This competition has sparked quite a bit of media interest because it is based loosely on the Hunger Games and not your usual inspiration for a wedding. Where did the inspiration for your board come from and what elements did you draw upon from the movie?

A: I took my inspiration for my board from the concept of “The Girl On Fire”. I used the full colour spectrum of the flame – reds, oranges, yellows, gold and blues – for my colour palette. I used elements from nature to represent the forest of the Arena where the Tributes fight to their death, bringing in natural textures such as wood, leaves and rustic flowers. I wanted the drama of the “Girl on Fire” to be contrasted with the softness of nature.

Q: The one thing this theme has is an abundance of colour inspiration. How did you decide upon the color scheme for your board?

A: Sticking mainly to the colours of fire as I mentioned previously, I chose bright, vivid tones and hues to appeal to the gaudiness and opulence of The Capitol.  I love the excitement and energy that the bright, and at times over the top, costumes and make-up the people of The Capitol convey – I wanted to elicit the same emotional response from my board.

Q: In our industry researching your design is a huge part of what we do. What research did you do prior to and during the competition?

A: Honestly, not much, there wasn’t much time!! I saw the movie a few days before I entered the competition and just kept going back to the emotions that I felt while watching it, especially those relating to Katniss and her whole experience of The Hunger Games. If I had more time, I would have liked to finish reading the books (which I had just started).

Q: During the competition the Gamemakers threw a few challenges at the Tributes. One of these challenges was based around Twitter. You were offered the chance to secure extra votes for yourself by creating a tweeting storm on Twitter using the hashtag #TheWeddingGames and mentioning WedInstitute in all your tweets. How did you manage this challenge?

A: I had never actually used Twitter before this challenge! I took a quick crash course from a very kind and patient friend and just tweeted to as many people that I knew and could find on Twitter, especially those with a larger following. I learnt that I had to make sure I had the correct tags in my tweets in order to draw the right attention to myself.

Q: Entering any competition is challenging and with the Wedding Games there were two challenges, creating a design and drumming up public support using Social Media. What was the most challenging part of this competition for you?

A: The lack of time! I am currently working full time as a physiotherapist and am getting married in 4 weeks so with so much going on in my life right now, I just didn’t have enough hours in the day – I survived the week on adrenaline!

Q: Everything you do in life should take you on a journey of some description and allow you to learn and develop. What do you feel has been the biggest lesson you have learned from entering?

A: Definitely the power of social media. I generally like to keep the details of my life private and don’t have an online following at all, so realising the power of how many people you can reach just by using Facebook and Twitter was quite amazing! I got support from friends from all over the world. I now understand that in the fast paced, technology driven world that we live in today, I need to get on board the social media train!

Q: As part of winning this competition you receive a pool of prizes which is very exciting. What has winning the competition meant for you and which course will you choose to take as part of your prize?

A: Winning this competition came as a huge surprise as I knew I was up against some very talented industry professionals. I approached the competition without any formal event planning education or skills I just did what felt natural and had fun. So the honor of being chosen as the winner of this international competition has definitely given me the confidence boost I need to more formally explore the creative world of design. I haven’t yet decided which course I will choose – I would like to do a bit more research into all of them and find the one that I think I would be best suited my skills and future career goals.

Q: The wonderful thing about these games is that it has reached people from outside the industry as well as those already within it. Has taking part in this competition influenced the direction your career is taking? Has it confirmed for you that this is an area you would like to pursue?

A: Definitely!! When all my own wedding hype has subsided, I intend to fully explore what all my options are and find the right area of event planning and styling for me.

Q: Now the competition is over what are your plans for the future?

A: Get married, go on honeymoon and then start my new life as a Mrs with clear career goals. I intend to I find a niche in the design industry that will give me a fulfilling and exciting career!

Q: Lara, we have to ask what advice would you have for next year’s Tributes?

A: Have fun, be daring and don’t conform to what everyone else is doing. Also, make sure you have an online following – a blog, an awesome twitter following, a cool Facebook page or whatever, BEFORE the games start so that you will have lots of people behind you from the start. Stick with one theme, and make sure you showcase the industry you have been given.

We are now down to the Final 5 Tributes in the Wedding Games. The Boards have been completed and submitted with the standard being incredibly high from ALL Tributes. This has made our job of choosing Wild Cards very difficult indeed. But there can only be 1 winner. Twelve went into the Arena and only one comes out as the victor.

We are very excited to announce our 5 Finalists that will be going through to the final round and facing the judges. At this point we would like to thank all of our contestants for embracing this competition so wholeheartedly and showing us some amazing creativity. We are honoured to have had you them on board. The finalists are as follows and to view their boards please click on the name of each Tribute:

The two who received the most Public Votes:

• District 2 - Lighting – Niki Lannigan
• District 10 – Accessories – Agnes Achetraritei

The two Wildcards chosen by Christine Kerr from The Wedding Design Institute:

• District 1 – Colour – Hayley Blakiston
• District 12 – Hair and Makeup – Donella Machen

Finally the Facebook Choice Tribute

• District 7 – Centrepieces – Lara Bloom

Congratulations to all Tributes and we look forward to announcing the Victor of the 1st Annual Wedding Games within the next 24 hours. Stay tuned!

Good luck to the final 5 and may the Odds be Ever in your Favor!

One of the most important tools needed for a successful wedding business is a beautifully designed and compelling website.  Whether you need a brand new site or your current site redone, WedLock can help!

WedLock provides a site design service specifically for wedding professionals. WedLock Sites’ comprehensive package includes all of the following

• An in depth website consultation with WedLock’s SEO expert, Nicole Munoz ($400 value) You will discuss your wants, needs and expectations for your brand new site. You’ll even look at your competition’s sites and see what you can do better than they are!
• A brand new website built on WordPress, customized for your brand
• A WordPress Blog installed on your site
• A full year of WedLock Marketing and Business Building Support –this  includes the bi-monthly journal, marketing consultant support via forum access, and monthly business building webinars ($350 value)
• Training Videos to teach you how to do basic maintainence to your new WordPress site, (no need to pay a pricey programmer!)
• SEO keyword Report so you can learn how to rank for your niche market.

AND this is all being offered to AAWEP students at the discounted rate of $1900!! (Valued at $2500!)

Learn more information here: www.wedlocksites.com or www.wedlockmag.com/web-templates

My tough hunter instinct will take on the rules to feature my district in the name of love.  Let the wedding games begin!

Pinterest Board for District 11: http://pinterest.com/WedInstitute/district-12-hair-make-up-donella/

Donella, in Suzanne Collins’ riveting tale of life in North America after its destruction, a powerful Capitol emerges as residents of its twelve outlying Districts individually struggle to survive under its bleak rule. Each year, the Capitol assembles its Gamemakers to create an elaborate arena filled with deadly trigger points and calls upon one girl and one boy from each of the twelve Districts to play in its nationally televised Hunger Games. As part of the ‘game’ The bored, wealthy people of the Capitol are entertained by the spectacle and Capitol-appointed prep teams create an image for each tribute by providing costumes, makeovers and talking points. Tributes who impress the Capitol viewers win “sponsors” — or wealthy fans, who will fund gifts of food and equipment at critical points in the Games.

Q1: The Wedding Games has no such sinister plot, instead they are our chance to celebrate creativity and your chance to impress your audience and win ‘favor’ and prizes, just as the contestants of the Hunger Games must.  The Heroine of the Hunger Games is Katniss Everdeen.  She is a witty, survival-savvy girl who yearns to trust in a world that has shown her nothing of the sort.  In 25 words or less define your image for your voting public. Donella = Dainty – Original – Natural – Eclectic – Luxe – Laidback – Admired

Q2: What inspired you to enter the Wedding Games?  Are you an experienced designer looking to showcase your talents, or someone just starting out and wanting to make a name for yourself.  Maybe you are a Hunger Games fan.  Give us some insight into what has motivated you to enter the arena. Admittedly, I work for an amazing accounting firm which does challenge me every day to reach my potential.  However, like many of us, I think there’s always one (or maybe several) unexpected challenges in our lives that force us to redefine what we are doing and question if this is what we want. I refuse to dwell on any negativity here, since what has come from my experiences over the last year is this positive reassessment of what I want to achieve.  The strength and courage, like that displayed in The Hunger Games, is what now sets me my biggest challenge to date: how to live life.

I’ve always enjoyed arranging events for family and friends, but never considered it a career option.  The amazing things that have come out of this last year have been the celebrations; from the “all-clears”, to the engagements, to the baby joy, and a wedding (not to mention what’s still to come this summer in the UK)! Each celebration has been marked in some way with a small event, taking into account that persons likes and making it personal to them.  It’s required long nights after work, weekends and during my lunch breaks, but I would never use “I don’t have enough time” as a worthy enough excuse not to test oneself and follow a dream.  Afterall, we have the same amount of time as those who make real differences in the world, and isn’t a smile on someone’s face the biggest difference you can make?

You’ll notice that I don’t make reference to any blogs, websites, twitter accounts or other social media, which is simply because I am very new to the event design industry! The accountant in me has undoubtedly had her reservations about embarking on such a risk, so I’m taking it slow.  I’m still with my current firm and my event design career is very much in its infancy.  At present I’m completing the Advanced Diploma of Special Event Planning and Design with UKAWEP, alongside arranging events and dessert tables for my close family and friends in my spare time. It’s a great outlet for honing in on my creative side, whilst gaining experience and making lasting memories. I’m also meeting loads of talented people along the way who are truly inspirational and entering the arena is where I will hopefully meet more like-minded individuals.

This in itself had made me realise that I’ve definitely got the “7 year itch” with my current career, so the accountant in me thinks that, coupled with the fact I live at number “7” and that “7” is a lucky number (oh and I’m 27, does that count?!), the odds are definitely in my favour!

Q3: In the Hunger Games, the ‘Gamemakers’ design and control The Hunger Games. They design the arena, the outfits, and a number of the deaths. From the tiniest detail to the biggest bloodbath, the ‘Gamemakers’ are in charge of entertaining the Capitol to the fullest.  Turning back to the much more wonderful world of Weddings and Events, who are the ‘Gamemakers’ who inspire you?  We want you to give us the names of 3 and tell us briefly what it is that inspires you about their work.

Amy Atlas – known as the “Sweets Stylist”, Amy is an entertaining expert who believes “that your party should be an expression of you”.  Amy has been an inspiration to me in many ways, but mostly because:

• She used to work on political campaigns and practiced law, so like me, had to make the transition in her career to return to her creative passion for entertaining. By doing this, Amy has become a role model for me as I think about taking that leap to pursue my passion for event designing.  I have taken on her words of wisdom by experimenting with my designs on friends and family before jumping in fully.
• She has taken the wedding industry by storm with her beautifully styled dessert tables, which captured my imagination from the very first time I saw her work.  I had never considered what an effect such an idea could have to a room, nevermind a full event, and this concept has transformed the way I host my events.

The inspiration I drew from Amy helped me design my first dessert table for an “Un-Birthday” tea party I held for my friends.  As the title suggests, it wasn’t anyone’s birthday, but my friends and I enjoyed a unique Wonderland-inspired dessert table which any Mad Hatter would have been delighted to attend!  What’s even more significant here than this simply being my first event, it was the event at which one friend announced was expecting her first baby and another that had found her perfect wedding dress for her wedding this winter – a day we will all never forget!

Loralee Lewis – as a paper designer and event stylist, Loralee Lewis realised that her true talent was “making things beautiful”.  Like Amy, she too came from a different career background, but realised her potential in what she truly loved and believed in. The result has been a portfolio of pretty paperie which transforms any party. Loralee inspires me not only for the work she does but also how she manages this whilst being a mother of four.  She has shown that whilst motherhood is a full-time job in itself, it is also even more reason to follow your dreams.  From an interview I once read, two points Loralee made have resonated with me ever since:

1. “Done is better than perfect” – A very humble individual demonstrating how everyone is only human; and
2. “The most important clients are within the walls of your own home” – My family and friends are a constant inspiration for me.  The events I design for them are a reflection of their personalities, as well as a thank you for the continued support they provide me with.

I have had the pleasure of using Loralee’s company this year when I organised my friend’s baby shower in the style of Mary Poppins.  The most outstanding attribute of hers is how she personally contacted me to ensure the products were to my expectations and that they were delivered in time. The result was a very pretty baby shower which was practically perfect in every way!

Jenn Sbranti the Editor in Chief and founder of “Hostess With The Mostess Inc”, and is a designer, entrepreneur and writer. Like with Amy and Loralee, Jenn realised there was something missing in the design world and set out to change the design aesthetics for parties and events.  It’s determination like this which has seen the event industry change, with a constant flow of fresh new ideas and inspiration which others can incorporate into their special events. What I love about Jenn is how she shares her creativeness in the form of free printables and tutorials, which help others transform their events with something not ordinarily available on the highstreet.  I have a book full of ideas that I’m looking for the perfect opportunity to use (not that there’s any excuse to host a party)!

The HWTM blog is also full of amazing profiles of others in the industry, which like Amy and Loralee, she encourages and promotes. The quote which struck a chord with me was this: “whether you’re designing a website or styling an event, it’s all about colour, composition, a smarty functional layout, and plain and simple – creating some eye candy”. The child in me definitely echoes this sentiment, and as with all three of these designers, their main aim is to make life just that little bit sweeter.

Q4: Finally, what can we expect to see from you in your Wedding Games submission (we don’t want you to describe your submission here, but instead give us a teaser or a sense of how you are going to approach this design challenge). I have to admit, I am yet to see The Hunger Games (think I’m heading straight to the cinema after I’ve finished typing this!).  However, from what I have read so far, the strength and courage I touched on earlier are also key themes here, and I’d like to bring this into my district of “hair and makeup”. In terms of approaching this design challenge, I therefore want to capture the raw natural beauty which can often be over-looked when hair and makeup are considered.  The Hunger Games to me in some ways promotes beauty from within, and is also summarised in the following quote from Ruby Dee: “the kind of beauty I want most is the hard to get kind that comes from within – strength, courage, dignity”.

What I hope will culminate, is a wedding where “dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true”.

Happy Wedding Games! May The Odds Be Ever in Your Favor.