Today I hung out at K&B Bridals and Event Planning in Bel Air, Maryland. I had a great time brainstorming with Bridget (the owner) and Randie from Faye Daniel Designs. She does customer bridal accessories, including jewelry and hair pieces. I always love catching up with her and hearing her ideas. She’s an all around awesome woman!
Here’s one of her new pieces!!
So, I have spent more time in DC the past 5 days than I have in my whole life combined!
Today I met up with a small group of Christian Wedding Vendors for lunch and sharing. It is SO refreshing to talk with vendors who understand how you think about business and how it relates to your relationship with God. Amazing women! I met up with Susie of Photography by Susie at her home and we traveled around the city together all day. It was great to have someone to travel around with!
We all met up at Ted’s Bulletin in DC. Let me just say this was THE coolest restaurant I have ever been to! First, here’s the MENU!
While we were waiting for food, we were all having different conversations and I ended up catching up with and sharing all the awesome things God has been doing in my life and business with the lovely lady in front of me, Sarah Danaher of Ampersand Photography! She was actually the one who got me in touch with this awesome community of Christian wedding vendors! I am deeply indebted to her for that.
Anyways, while we were talking she thought of a verse and pulled out THE most used bible I have seen in a while! I’m talking cover falling off, underlined and highlighted and notes written everywhere. It was truly a beautiful thing…so much so that I had to take a picture!
Also in attendance were Heather Behlendorf of Heather Bee Photography, Allison Harper of Alison Harper & Co and Meghan Hale of Meghan Hale Photography. What a WONDERFUL group of ladies!
What? The food? You want to see that too? That was almost as good as the company….
And what’s this? A homemade Pop Tart?? Yes please!
Today’s post comes to us from Bridget Moore of K&B Bridals and Event Planning. Bridget is one of my highest recommended vendors and she is one of my dearest friends. (She was also one of my brides!)
K&B Bridals and Event Planning offers LOTS of things! Today Bridget is going to talk about the all-inclusive bridal boutique.
When I say all-inclusive, I mean it! They offer wedding dresses, accessories, bridesmaid dresses, mother’s dresses, flower girl dresses, tuxes, and prom gowns! If you’re looking for a one stop shop, THIS is it!
I can personally attest to the amazing service you will receive from this bridal boutique! I have been in the store when brides have been trying on dresses and the staff is SO attentive and really takes the time to find the perfect dress for YOU. There is such an awesome vibe in the store, it’s hard to leave!
I could talk for hours about how awesome they are, but I’ll save that for another day! I’m passing the blog over to Bridget!
What is one thing that would surprise most brides about your business?
When it comes to finding a wedding dress, about 99% of brides buy the complete opposite of what they come in looking for. It helps to be open minded when looking for your wedding dress. Most brides think that there will be that moment when they cry and know it is the one, but very few brides cry when they find the perfect dress. It usually comes down to the dress that fits the bride’s style and personality and makes them feel the best when they are in “the one.”
Walk us through what a bride will typically experience working with you.
When working with a bride we usually encourage them to start their bridal gown shopping 12 months in advance of their wedding. The whole process take about a 12 month period, and the wedding gown tends to set the tone for so many other parts of the wedding.
When we meet with our brides we try to find out about their style and the style of their wedding. We first start with trying on the 4 basic silhouettes that all bridal gowns are created from to help narrow down the search and keep it from being so overwhelming.
Once we know which silhouette the bride feels the best in, we work to pair her with the dress that makes her feel and look the best and brings together her personal style with her wedding… creating her “BrideStyle.”
After helping the bride find her dress and accessories, we work with her to find her attire for the bridal party that will compliment her wedding.
What is your favorite thing about weddings?
All of the excitement around the wedding, and hearing the love story behind it all. It’s so fun to hear the bride talk about their fiancé and the wedding and all the details surrounding their big day. One of my favorite parts of the actual wedding is that moment when the couple sees each other for the first time! I love to see the look on their faces!
Since this is a blog more about marriage than the wedding day, what is one piece of advice you’d give to future brides and grooms?
Not to stress too much about the wedding itself. This is just a small step to the beginning of the rest of your lives. It’s so easy to get caught up on the wedding, and the stress that can come along with it, that you can lose sight on the reason you are getting married.
If you could go back and change one thing about your wedding, what would it be?
I don’t know that I would change anything about our wedding… Maybe just that I would have had it closer to home so that more of our guests could attend.
If you got married while you were working in the wedding industry, did you make a change in your business based on what you went through?
I realized how expensive and stressful weddings can be, so we made the concept of our boutique to be an affordable boutique as well as all inclusive, so it is less stressful by doing everything all in one place.
Would you like to offer any special deals on your post?
I would be willing to offer $100 off a bridal gown purchase.
Now that you’ve heard how this bridal boutique can help you find your “BrideStyle” go make an appointment at K&B Bridals and Event Planning!
If you’re not convinced, check out a few of their dresses!!
Today we hung out with some friends near Oregon Ridge. We brought all kinds of goodies for a small cookout, hanging out and fireworks. I’m so thankful for this group of friends…yet I didn’t take any pictures of them….I was having too much fun chatting!! We stayed until after dark to watch the fireworks from a distance, I DID get pictures of those! I love the full moon above them!!
And the guest blogging continues!!!
Today’s post comes from Matt Buerhaus of Buerhaus Design, LLC. I met Matt a few years ago through K&B Bridals and have really enjoyed getting to know him! He was even my groom model for the style shoot in April! This just goes to show how hard Matt works to help his fellow vendors!
Between shooting, I grabbed this quick shot of him with his fiancé (who is also a total sweetheart)!
Without further ado, here’s Matt!
What is one thing that would surprise most brides about your business?
The time it takes to produce a video… an average wedding video takes about 40-50 hours to film, edit and produce.
Walk us through what a bride will typically experience working with you.
Brides will typically experience a personal level of communication with me personally. I coach them on the ins-and-outs of video and what to expect, which is also explained in detail on our webpage, and our entire crew is family, so they know they’re getting a personal level of service and not a ‘cookie-cutter’ experience.
What is your favorite thing about weddings?
The fact that I know the documentation of each wedding we film will be around for generations and touch hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives eventually, long after my time is up. Imagine having a well produced video of your parents or even grandparents (or great-grandparents) wedding? It would be priceless to see what the family was like, or relive times with folks that we’ve lost. That’s very powerful to me and I take a lot of pride in the fact that we provide these memories for dozens of couples every year.
Do you use lots of cables or a ton of lighting at the wedding or reception?
Our goal is to blend in and not be a distraction to the guests. In fact, if one was to read reviews for us on our website (www.buerhausdesign.com) (in the Feedback link) or on Wedding Wire, a common theme will be “we didn’t even know they were there!” To answer the question specifically, we leave a very small footprint, and will use dim lighting only in very dark reception halls. No video camera can film in the dark! In moderately lit halls a light isn’t even necessary in most cases, and if we use a light at all, it’s just bright enough to light up the subject matter right in front of us (and not the entire room).
Since this is a blog more about marriage than the wedding day, what is one piece of advice you’d give to future brides and grooms?
Don’t overspend on things that will be gone once the reception is over. Going overboard on favors, centerpieces, food, lighting, etc. will kill a wedding budget… which usually forces cut-backs on photo and/or video. What’s ironic about that is, photo and video is the only way to relive the most important day of one’s life. There should be an emphasis on those two services when planning. Why have all of this elaborate stuff when you’re not going to have professional documentation of it?
At the same time, be careful to not let photo or video blow a budget, either. Just because a photographer or videographer starts at $4000 or more, doesn’t mean their work is better than those that start in the $1000 range. It’s a cut-throat industry, and a lot of vendors get away with murder with what they charge. We could charge a lot more than our current rates to reflect what some other companies charge, but we like to sleep at night knowing we’re not ripping anyone off. We’re not the cheapest act in town, our rates are ‘middle-of-the-pack’, but we feel what we produce is the best video work in the region and offer all of our clients a real value.
The biggest mistake I see couple’s make all the time is overspending on a lot of things. There’s deals to be had within reason, and with those deals, you’ll probably get more bang-for-the-buck.
What is one thing that has surprised you in planning your own wedding so far?
What some vendors charge! We look at one dress and it’s 8k. Then we find one for $500 that looks exactly the same. No brainer. Same holds true of cakes, flowers and just about anything else. Why is one cake-maker charging $1500 for an average wedding cake, but our local bakery is charging $300 for basically the same thing? Again, no brainer here either. More expensive DOES NOT mean better.
Would you like to offer any special deals on your post?
If a bride mentions this blog, Buerhaus Design will give you $100 off regular in-season rates.
This is a great deal, so head over to Matt’s site now to make an appointment!
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