Today's Guest: Lois Pierce of Beautiful Occasions. in Hamden, Connecticut
Today's Host: John Bentley
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Lois Pierce Transcript Page
Loise Pierce Expert PageANNOUNCER: Welcome to the VTalk Radio Spotlight is brought to you by morephotos.com helping professional photographers with all their internet needs. Welcome to the VTalk Radio's Bridal Spotlight brought to you by www.weddingdetails.com . Now here's your host, John Bentley.
JOHN: Today we are in the studio with Master Bridal Consultant of the Hamden Connecticut area, Lois Pierce of Beautiful Occasions. Welcome to VTalk Radio's Bridal Spotlight, Lois.
LOIS: Thank you.
JOHN: Well we certainly appreciate you joining us today. Could you tell us a little bit about your consulting service, Beautiful Occasions?
LOIS: Beautiful Occasions was a established in 1986, and we have been serving brides up and down the eastern seaboard to help them in whatever ways the feel they need help to plan their beautiful occasion. From the point of the engagement, helping to find a wedding site, vendors, to put together a time line, to negotiate contracts, working to coach the brides on various areas of wedding planning, up to and including after the wedding for what we call the after glow which is a wedding brunch or lunch or something the day after the wedding. So as much service or as little service as a bride would like we are available to do so.
JOHN: Well, you know, I just got married this past year, so I understand all that goes into this process, and it can be quite overwhelming for people. It's nice to have a service like this out there, isn't it?
E: It is in the sense that everyone has been to a wedding and everyone understands what the end result is which is that there is a husband and a wife, but there are many details that are involved in the over all planning that unfortunately, you don't know about until you're in the process.
JOHN: Yeah.
E: And working with a wedding coordinator and particularly Beautiful Occasions, we have done this many, many times. So, therefore, we know what's coming and can help you prepare for it.
JOHN: Now let's kind of divert a little bit from the actual service that you provide. Let's talk about how do you become a master bridal consultant?
E: Master Bridal Consultant is a designation in the Association of Bridal Consultants. It is the highest level of achievement. There are 3 different levels. You take a study program and complete it and the first one is the Professional Bridal Consultant. Three years later you are able to apply for the next level which is the Accredited Bridal Consultant, and then three years after that you can apply for the Master Bridal Consultant. Along the way there are peer reviews as well as client reviews, testing, and services that you must provide in the community that would get you to point of being a Master Bridal Consultant.
JOHN: Ok. Let's talk a little bit about the various services that you offer in a sense that I know there are wedding planners. I know there are wedding coordinators, wedding designers, and of course, wedding consultants. What are the differences between all of these various aspects of this industry?
E: That's a very good question, because many brides will go to various places and those terms may be used, and they feel, ok, I have one of those, I don't need any of the rest of them. But the truth is that there's different designations. You can work with a wedding coordinator who can oversee the entire process, or just be a coordinator for the wedding day. You can work with a wedding producer who a bride could approach or groom could approach and say, I would like to have my wedding on August 14th, and here is my budget, here are my likes and my dislikes. I'd like for you to produce it, for you to hire them to control within the parameters of my budget within the style that I like, but you are responsible. You are the one that's going to handle this. The wedding designer very often is one who has more than aspect with the floral and decor part of it. The designer...you may come to a designer and say, this is what I feel, I just don't know how to make it look like the end result that I want. And that designer can chat with you and develop a theme or pull together the overall look of the wedding, and then again some portions of producing make that happen. And a planner is one who basically will sit and work with you throughout the process to make sure that what you have hired all of your vendors to do is actually being accomplished as well as work with you to make recommendations of the wedding. The consultant and planner are often terms that are flipped back and forth. They're usually one in the same.
JOHN: Ok, now we are in the studio via the telephone with Hamden, Connecticut, Master Bridal Consultant, Lois Pierce, of Beautiful Occasions, and you're listening to VTalk Radio's Bridal Spotlight. We're going to take a break right now, but we'll be back right after these important messages.
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ANNOUNCER: Did you ever wonder why the groom is supposed to carry the bride over the threshold? What does the saying something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue mean? Visit www.weddingdetails.com and click on the lore and tradition section. We've got culture and tradition information from around the world. Visit www.weddingdetails.com tonight.
ANNOUNCER: We now return you to VTalk Radio's Bridal Spotlight with your host, John Bentley.
JOHN: Welcome back to VTalk Radio's Bridal Spotlight. We are in the studio today with Hamden, Connecticut, Master Bridal Consultant, Lois Pierce, of Beautiful Occasions, and you're listening to VTalk Radio's Bridal Spotlight . Welcome back to the program, Lois.
LOIS: Thank you.
JOHN: Now we've been talking about your consulting business. Let's talk a little bit about the community that you service out there in the Connecticut area, and also do you travel to do this kind of stuff?
LOIS: Hamden, Connecticut, actually is a town of a population of about 53,000 within the town. It is probably in a good spot, because we're 15 - 20 minutes North of New Haven where Yale University is and can be either in Hartford which is the capital within a half hour or out to the shoreline where some of the casinos now are in Ledyard and Stonington area, and also can be in New York City in an hour and a half so there's...we're kind of centrally located and able to service quite a large area. We as a business have traveled as far south as Georgia, as far north as Massachusetts, and Rhode Island to work with clients.
JOHN: Let's talk about some of the most common mistakes that people make when they're choosing a wedding consultant.
LOIS: Well one of the mistakes that's made is that it's going to be free and the service that is provided is the same as you would go and work with an accountant at PetCon. It is knowledge that has been acquired over time and it is a profession and so the wedding professional should be paid for his or her services. One of the mistakes that's also made is that the client doesn't come to the consultant with an idea of what their budget is and that's a very important component. It's a matter of trying to help someone work within what they have or to establish a budget, but they have to know exactly what they're going to do. And many times clients will come and say...well I'm willing to find out what a wedding costs and then I'll know. Well I always feel that there's an ouch point. You know when you're going to get to that ouch number that you don't want to spend any more than X. So it's important to come to the consultant with that information. And another common mistake is that you don't feel that you need to have continuing communication with your wedding planner. It is extremely important that any changes that are made any things that are going wrong with the family or with the bride or the groom then it's shared with the consultant so that they can consider that in all of the planning, and also in some cases share that information with some of the vendors because it can make a difference on the day of the wedding.
JOHN: Now, Lois, one of the important aspects of your business, I notice on your website is that people can actually do online training with you. Let's talk a little bit about that.
LOIS: Yes, the online training is something I'm very excited about. There are persons who would love to become a wedding consultant and really I'm not sure of how to go about doing it. So what we're trying to do is be able to provide this service to those in the comfort of your own home by way of the internet. Now there are different syllabus there are shared that go from evaluating the person themselves as to whether even being an entrepreneur is good for them including how to establish a business plan, home marketing plan, how to set up an office, how to work with vendors, how to work with brides, a little bit about the physiology of working with a bride, how to set up your files, how to work on the wedding day, and networking opportunities that are available through many of the wedding organizations. Another part of that training is the opportunity to have someone that will work with you as you build your business and often what may happen if you start a business and you have a lot of energy and you have a lot of ideas and you're willing to get things done and then it takes a little toll on you because it does take work to have a business and so here's where our coaching comes in, because we're able to help you stay on point, continue to meet your goals, even expand your thoughts, and to expand the opportunity for your business.
JOHN: It's certainly a big advantage of having someone there by your side that you can rely on to give you tips along the way.
LOIS: Yes, being a mentor.
JOHN: Now before I let you go, a couple more things. One thing I noticed on your website was the tip of the week. I thought that was kind of a neat idea. What is your tip of the week this particular week, Lois?
LOIS: My tip of the week is about the budget. This time of the season when many brides are starting with the opportunity to plan their weddings again it's a matter of establishing a budget. To have a conversation with all the persons who would be involved with the wedding, el biet, the bride, the groom, the bride's parents, the groom's parents, and in some ethnicities it's not just the parents, but there may be aunts, uncles, God parents, that are contributing to the cost of the wedding. To have a discussion about what the contribution will be totally and then go and find the site for both the wedding and the reception that sits within your budget. A wedding is a day in your life. A wedding is not your life, and so what you need to be able to do is when the day after the wedding comes to be able to breath and enjoy what you've planned versus enjoying it for a moment and then thinking about all the bills that need to be paid. So our tip of the week is to be able to establish a budget in the beginning and work within the budget.
JOHN: Now before I let you go, Lois, will you kindly share your website and contact information for our listeners.
LOIS: Sure. It's www.beautifuloccasions.com and we're located in Hamden, Connecticut, telephone number (203) 248-2661, and our email address info@beautifuloccasions.com.
JOHN: Well thank you, Lois Pierce, for joining us today on VTalk Radio's Bridal Spotlight.
LOIS: Thank you and have a great day.
JOHN: We have been in the studio via the telephone with Hamden, Connecticut, Master Bridal Consultant, Lois Pierce, of Beautiful Occasions, and you've been listening to VTalk Radio's Bridal Spotlight. I'm your host, John Bentley, thanks for tuning in today. Have a great afternoon.
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