37 Ways to Wow Your Wedding Guests

Wow Your Guests with an Absolutely Unique Wedding Day!

37 Easy, Cheap (or Free) Ways to Make Your Wedding Awesome!

Get the full report here: 37 Ways to Wow Your Wedding Guests.

Once again we’re teaming up with Stephanie Padovani from New York to give another FREE tool to help you plan the wedding of your dreams.

Have you ever walked into a beautiful, historic building, or climbed to the top of a hill with a gorgeous view, or heard such powerful music that you just lost your worlds for a minute? It’s like you were so absolutely overwhelmed by what you saw, heard or felt that it just blew you away?

That’s the Wow Effect.

“Wow” is that overwhelming moment of appreciation when you’re so moved that you can’t even express it.

When your guests experience the Wow Effect at your wedding they won’t just be impressed, they’ll real “get” who you are and why you chased this wedding day, why you chose this location, and why you chose this man to marry.

You guests will be wowed when your wedding day is a totally unique expression of you.

The Wow Effect happens in a group when you have people involved, connected and engaged in what’s going on.

The key to the Wow Effect is something called Engagement. No, I’m not talking about the kind of engagement that happened to you when your man got down on one knee, popped the question and you said yes.

To Engage means “to occupy the attention of someone” or “to attract and please.” It’s what happens when you’re really into what you’re doing.

The best way to wow your guests and get them engaged at your wedding is to give them the emotional experience of a wedding that is totally you. The secret to having a wedding that really fells like “you” is weaving your personality into your wedding day as much as possible.

There are a lot of different ways to do this.

• Tell your story.
• Involve your talented guests.
• Use music that creates memories.
• Get your guests actively involved.

Your wedding day should be special and unique and fun for all. Part of making it special and memorable for your guests is to engage and include them.

Here is the report that contains 37 fresh ideas and ways you can engage and involve your guests and help make your wedding day unique, memorable and totally you! And 3 worksheet to help you collect your thoughts and make your wedding day memorable.

37 Ways to Wow Your Wedding Guests.

Wow Factor Worksheet.

Your Story Worksheet.

Your Dream Wedding Worksheet.

These tools can help you make your wedding unique, engaging, fun and memorable for you, your family and your friends.

Ask me about your wedding and get more planning tips and information, visit our website, call email or text your questions:
(Seven One Four) 488-1689
johnw@johnwphotography.com
www.johnwphotography.com

Ask John W about Photographing Your Wedding

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Tastefully use social media at your wedding

Changing a Facebook status from engaged to married just after the vows is a growing trend, but don’t miss taking in those moments with the people actually there with you. Put down the phone and enjoy the company of those who came to celebrate with you!

I found this story timely, fun and important. How can you Tastefully Use Social Media at Your Wedding? Mashable has a great post to give you some ideas: http://tinyurl.com/Social-Media-Wedding-Tips.

HOW TO: Tastefully Use Social Media at Your Wedding

As social media becomes more and more a part of our lives, your wedding day is the perfect example of something your want to share with everyone. You want to share every tiny detail of your special day with your social circle, especially those who can’t attend, but where do you draw the line?

Experts in the wedding industry and a recent bride to try and establish the ground rules for tastefully using social media at your wedding.

Check out their advice and let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.

1. Pre-Wedding Preparations

Introducing wedding attendees online before the big day can help you avoid any day-of awkwardness. This will give people the chance to break the ice and virtually get to know a little about everyone else.“Help your wedding guests mix, mingle and stay in the loop with a private social network created just for engaged couples, like OneWed’s Wedding Pre-Party,” suggests Azure Nelson, the marketing manager and editorial director of OneWed.

“Wedding Pre-Party allows wedding guests to see who’s invited to the wedding (and lets the singles scope potential hotties before they meet face-to-face), interact and post comments on a wall, upload engagement photos before and post your favorite wedding photos after, and much more.”

If you’d like to skip the specialized sites route, you could also create a pre-party on Facebook using its “Groups” functionality. This can be a clever way to avoid cluttering the news feeds of folks not invited to the wedding, both before and after the event.

2. Stay Offline During the Ceremony

Tastefully using social media at your wedding means incorporating it before and after the actual wedding. The wedding ceremony should be off limits.There’s plenty of time during a wedding day to connect with the online world. Doing so during the ceremony is definitely not the right time for the principle players or even the guests. Mindy Howard of @TweetMyWedding has some advice for attendees:

“Be polite. Don’t tweet when you should be participating and listening, specifically during the liturgy or the ceremony.”

3. Appoint a Chief Tweeter

If you want your wedding to be recorded for posterity in 140-character posts, then let people know and even encourage them to get involved by creating a hashtag.“Tell your bridal party it’s OK to tweet!” says Howard. “Create a hashtag for sharing your event. This will make all tweets from your day easy to find later on and helps to create a feeling of celebration for your guests.

“Print up some tented cards on your menu or program with the hashtag for your event and encourage your guests to send you their well wishes, touching moments and snap shots. These are moments that otherwise would have been missed.”

You can take this even further by appointing a “Chief Tweeter” — or several — to document the day.

“Have an Official Tweeter and Well Wishing Station — have one or more ‘Tweets of Honor.’ Have some technologically obsessed friends? This is a great job for them! These folks can quietly tweet from a corner as not to be obtrusive or can come out of the shadows and provide you with a full on social media guest book station,” says Howard.

And you can even incorporate social media into the more traditional parts of the day. In addition to reading cards and messages out loud from family and friends that couldn’t make it, why not read messages from Facebook and Twitter too?

“Have your Tweet of Honor compile some well wishes that have been tweeted out and share them during the toasts. This can be a very fun twist on the traditional toasting time,” suggests Howard.

4. Set Up a Social Media Station

There’s a way to keep a traditional look and feel to a wedding celebration and still make room for social media. A “social media station” is a place where those who want to connect or comment online can do so, without forcing the issue onto the uninterested.“For the especially geeky — set up a station,” advises Howard. “Have a laptop and screen. Encourage guests to come by, tweet their well wishes and watch others’ tweets scroll over the screen.”

This can also work for photos, as well as text-based communications. A live stream of photos from the event can be a fun way to engage people and encouraging sharing.

“Ditch the tacky disposable cameras and set up a shared Flickr account so that guests can upload any photos they may take,” says Liene Stevens, former wedding planner and CEO of Splendid Communications.

“This doesn’t replace hiring a professional photographer, of course, but it does allow you and your guests to share in their view of your wedding,” Stevens says.

5. Live Stream for Those Who Can’t Make It

Thanks to the wonders of modern tech, nowadays you can share your special moments with people who can’t make it in person. Ustream and Skype are sites that can help you share your ceremony with those well-wishing from afar.This is particularly useful option for anyone getting married abroad or far from home.

6. Don’t Forget to Enjoy the Moment

“Changing a Facebook status from engaged to married just after the vows is a growing trend, but don’t miss taking in those moments with the people actually there with you. Put down the phone and enjoy the company of those who came to celebrate with you,” says Stevens. You only get one wedding day — if things go as planned, anyway — so don’t waste any precious moments you could be interacting with real-life people. Rest assured anyone who is following your day online will certainly understand your priorities.

“When you’re one of the major participants, you need to unplug for the day and focus on the people who are actually there with you. Weddings go by in a flash anyway, and you don’t want to sacrifice seeing your crazy Uncle Wally doing The Worm because you’re crafting some clever tweet. Leave that to your guests,” says Sally Kilbridge, BRIDES deputy editor. “In fact, part of the fun of weddings nowadays is seeing how fast they can make that video of Uncle Wally go viral.”

That, of course, is a whole other story…

Read the full story on Mashable.com: http://tinyurl.com/Social-Media-Wedding-Tips

– John W Photgraphy

 

 

Ask John W about Photographing Your Wedding

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Engagement Photoshoot

You’re going to have an engagement photoshoot and you’re wondering …
What does that mean? What do I do?

First thing you should be thinking about is – what to wear? This is your chance to get dressed up, plan your outfits and get some great photos of yourselves as a couple. This is a time you’ll want to remember forever, and your photos will help. You might even schedule your test hair and makeup for the same day. Here is a brief overview of what you and your fiance can expect from your engagement photoshoot.

Here is how your engagement photoshoot will work:

• First we’ll talk about your personal style and pick a good location for your shoot. Like I say, either Uptown, Downtown, at the Beach or in the Great Outdoors.
• We’ll go out and shoot for an hour or so at the location you’ve chosen.
• Then we’ll make selections based on our “favorites,” and I’ll edit and process those pics and get them ready for you.
• Next the set of “favorites” go online so you can see them and share them with your friends and family.
• When you pick the ones you love, I’ll send them to you either email or dropbox them to you.

The engagement photoshoot is really a chance to for you guys to get out and have fun. A lot of us aren’t very comfortable in front of the camera – in fact most of us dread the idea being “on display” at a photoshoot. Believe me, I understand!  In fact this is why I think your engagement photoshoot is so important. This gives you a chance to experience what it’s like before your wedding day. Then when your wedding comes around you’ll have already done this before and you’ll know what to expect.

We find THIS REALLY HELPS our couples.

Most couples end up using one (or more) of the photos in the planning of their wedding. They’ve been included in save-the-date cards, invitations, printed and framed for the reception, put into engagement photo albums and guest books, even sent out as holiday cards and of course – used for online profile pics and sent around on Facebook.

What do I do next? Call, email or text me and we’ll make it real easy.

Text: (714) 488-1689
Email: johnw@johnwphotography.com

Here is a look at a couple recent engagement photoshoots to give you an idea of what you can expect.

 

8 Questions to ask your wedding professionals

8 Questions You Must Ask a Wedding Professional
Before Booking Them.

Download the full report here: 8-questions-to-ask-wedding-pros

Hiring the right team is critical to planning your dream wedding…
and it can also be quite stressful.

How do you find the right match for you?  How do you know who to trust?

Where do you go for advice?

First of all, this is not an easy task and it’s totally normal for couples to feel overwhelmed, frustrated or confused.  It’s not like you plan a wedding every day!  This is all probably brand new to you, so be patient with yourself.

A few tips to finding the right ones for you…

• Do Your Homework. You’ll get much more out of a meeting or conversation with a wedding professional if you do a little background homework first.Spend some time on the internet or talking to friends who’ve recently been married.  Find out the average prices in your area and what services are available.  Get an idea of what you like and don’t like.  Wedding websites and chat rooms can be a great resource.  This way when you meet with a wedding professional you’ll be able to ask better questions and have an idea of what to look out for.

• Meet With Them. An in person meeting is the best way to interview a potential wedding vendor.  It lets you get the full experience of their personality, style and professionalism.  If that’s not possible, have a phone conversation.

• Ask Questions. There are no stupid questions!  Make sure you get clear, specific answers to your questions. If you aren’t sure what something means, ask them to clarify. Keep asking questions until you completely understand.If a wedding vendor has a problem with you asking questions, they probably aren’t the one for you.  The best wedding professionals are patient, understanding and take the time to help you make the best choices for your wedding.

• Listen. Don’t just hear the words they say, really listen.  Watch the vendor’s body language.  Are they confident and comfortable with their response?  Do they look and sound nervous?  Do you get a “funny feeling” about them?  Take all the sights, sounds and feelings into account along with their responses; if your gut tells you something isn’t right, it probably isn’t.
• Check References. Portfolios are hand-picked to show off the best work, but they may not represent the “average” wedding performance.  Videos are edited for the optimum presentation.  But real referrals from satisfied clients are hard to fake. Call up both client and professional references.  Ask questions and use those listening skills.  Even if they give a rave review, you’ll often be able to “read between the lines” if there were any issues or problems.Ask around and search the internet for reviews.  Check the Better Business Bureau for any outstanding complaints against the business.  Weigh all of this information into your choices.

Here are 8 Must Ask Questions to ask ALL your potential wedding professionals before booking:

1. How many weddings do you do per year?  How much experience do you have?
   This is an extremely important question.  Ideally, your wedding professional should have ample experience specifically with weddings.  Not only will they be more skilled in their craft, this also makes them a valuable source of information and ensures that your wedding day goes smoothly.
2. How much do you cost?
   Price is often relative, especially when you factor in experience, reputation and expert skill.  Generally, the most talented professionals have a higher price tag because they are worth it.
3. How much is the deposit?
   You want to save your date and lock in your wedding date. Typically your deposit will get you on their calendar.
   
4. What specifically is included in that cost? What do I have to pay for later?
   Because packages often vary, it’s likely that you won’t be able to compare one vendor exactly to the next without doing a little figuring.  The lowest cost isn’t necessarily the best deal; some higher quotes include services that you have to pay extra for in other packages.  Make sure you take this into account and ask what is included.
5. What happens if I cancel?  What happens if you cancel?
   Find out if your deposit is refundable under any conditions.  Does the wedding professional have a back up plan if something happens to them?
6. Do you use a contract?
   If the answer is No, RUN!  A contract is designed to protect both you and the wedding professional.  Don’t settle for a verbal agreement that won’t hold up in court.
7. Are there any additional fees?
   Taxes, service charges and travel fees can add up quickly.  Make sure you understand exactly what is included and if there are any other fees you’ll have to pay.  This should be clearly defined in your contract.
8. Do you carry liability insurance?
   The answer you’re looking for here is Yes.  This protects you in case an unfortunate accident should occur on your wedding day.  It’s also a sign that this is a reputable business, since most “fly by night” operations don’t invest in insurance.

Use these tips to help you get started planning your own wedding day.

Download the full report here: 8-questions-to-ask-wedding-pros

For more planning tips and information visit our website, call email or text your questions:
(714) 488-1689
johnw@johnwphotography.com
www.johnwphotography.com

 

 

Ask John W about Photographing Your Wedding

Find Me on Facebook |  See More Photos |  Contact Me Directly

Choose your wedding colors

When you start planning your wedding early, you start planning the fun stuff first. Choosing your wedding color scheme is one of those fun things. The Perfect Pallete offers a fun, visual color picker. Scroll through pages and pages of wedding color pallets and start putting together the ones you love best.

{The Perfect Palette}

Visualizing your wedding color palette doesn’t have to be difficult. The Perfect Palette is here to help inspire your color choices & help you see the many ways that you can use color to bring your wedding to life.

Visit The Perfect Palette and be inspired!

 

 

Ask John W about Photographing Your Wedding

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Get Your Wedding Planning Calendar

Where do you begin? You’re engaged and starting to plan your wedding and it’s challenging, because there are so many things to think about.

With help from RealSimple.com I’m sharing this awesome Wedding Planning Calendar with you. Download it here: Wedding-Planning-Calendar.pdf

How do you translate all of your inspired wedding ideas into a manageable course of action? Start by downloading our comprehensive checklist that is sorted and categorized based on the 16-month length of the average engagement.

A few tips to think about right away…

• Collect your fabulous ideas. Search the internet, wedding magazines and ask all of your married friends for fun wedding ideas. This is the fun part – make your wedding day everything you’ve ever dreamed it would be.

• Choose your date and book your venue first. Sometimes the availability of your church or your pastor will challenge you to shift your wedding date around a bit. If you’re reception will be held at a different location than your wedding ceremony (like having your ceremony at your church and your reception at a hotel or banquet room), finding a date when BOTH locations are available may also be a challenge. Start planning early and lock in your date as soon as possible.

• Some vendors can only make one commitment per day. Some wedding vendors can serve a bunch of different couples on the same day. Think about your florist, your bakery, party favors, cookies, cupcakes, these vendors typically handle more than one wedding per day. On the other hand, your photographer, band, wedding planner and most caterers can only be in one place at a time – so book these vendors early.

Get the Wedding Planning Calendar Now. It’s loaded with a bunch of things to considered, and some things you might not of even thought of yet – and I’m passing it along to you for FREE.

Find more resources here too:

1. 8 Questions to ask your wedding professionals.
2. Choose your wedding colors.
3. How to tastefully use social media at your wedding.

Use these tips to help you get started planning your own wedding day.

Download your Wedding Planning Calendar here: Wedding-Planning-Calendar.pdf

For more planning tips and information visit our website, call email or text your questions:
(714) 488-1689
johnw@johnwphotography.com
www.johnwphotography.com

Like us on Facebook.com/johnwphotography

 

Ask John W about Photographing Your Wedding

Find Me on Facebook |  See More Photos |  Contact Me Directly