Archive for the ‘save the date events’ Category
Monday, January 4th, 2010
2009 was an incredible year for us here at Save the Date Events!
Here are a few highlights we’d like to share:
*We won a Knot Best of Weddings Award for both 2009 and 2010 for being a top Colorado Wedding Planning Company
*We were nominated for the Denver 7 A-List AND placed in the top five in the Wedding Planner category
*In February 2009, we added Shelby, Kristen and Jen to our staff.
*We successfully planned and coordinated more than 30 events in 2009
*We toured over 40 Colorado venues to keep the most current database for our clients
*We updated our logo and website to showcase our expert planning, flawless coordination and distinctive wedding design.
*We attended more than 20 networking events to keep in touch with our vendor contacts and establish new vendor connections.
*We continued our partnership with the Better Business Bureau as an accredited business
*We entered our fourth year as an active member of the Association of Bridal Consultants organization
*We were asked to be a preferred wedding planner on numerous preferred vendor lists at venues we worked at this year
*We were published in both the Knot Colorado and Brides Colorado in 2009
*We attended the Eventology conference to expand our business knowledge
*We brought StudioWed to Denver which opens later this month
We can’t wait for our incredible 2010 and 2011 weddings. We truly have the best clients and are so thankful to each and every one of you.
Tags: Breckenridge wedding planner, Colorado mountain wedding planner, expert wedding planner, professional wedding consultant in Denver
Posted in save the date events | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
Thank you to our wonderful clients (past and present) for touching our lives and allowing us to be part of such an incredible time in your life. We are blessed and honored to be working with each and every one of you and your wonderful families. Thank you for allowing us to live our dream every day.
We are so thankful for the many incredible vendors we have had the privilege of working with over the past year. You inspire us, keep us sane, make us laugh and take exceptional care of our clients. We couldn’t do this without you.
Best wishes for a very fun and relaxing holiday. We’ll see you in 2010!
Debbie, Gabby and the staff at Save the Date Events
Posted in save the date events | No Comments »
Monday, November 30th, 2009
Check out the latest issue of the Knot Colorado Magazine to see Iris and Jeff’s wedding at Devil’s Thumb Ranch! We worked with Iris and Jeff from start to finish to plan their Colorado destination wedding. We had a fantastic time assisting them with all the planning details and logistics of their Tabernash, Colorado wedding.
In the same issue, theKnot announced their Knot Best of Weddings 2010 winners. We are beyond excited to see that Save the Date Events has won this award for the third year in a row in the event planner category! Look for us to be published again in their Knot 2010 Best of Wedding Magazines.
Tags: Colorado destination wedding planner, Knot Best of Weddings Award, Tabernash Colorado wedding coordinator, Winter Park Colorado wedding planner
Posted in public relations, save the date events | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
From all of us at Save the Date Events, we wish you a very happy Thanksgiving and a fabulous shopping day on Friday! Thanks to Tastefully Entertaining for the Thanksgiving wedding inspiration.
Tags: professional wedding consultant in Denver, wedding coordinatos in Denver and Boulder
Posted in flowers, save the date events | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
Did you know you can listen to great wedding planning experts while you drive or work out? I Do Radio is an incredible resource for brides to get advice, learn about featured vendors and gain valuable insight on planning their wedding ceremony. We are thrilled to be their featured vendor this weekend. You can listen to our interview on Saturday morning, October 24th at 9am (MST) on Blog Talk Radio
Debbie Orwat
Denver Wedding Planner
Tags: Add new tag, Beaver Creek wedding coordinator, Colorado destination wedding planner, Vail wedding planner
Posted in public relations, save the date events | 1 Comment »
Monday, October 5th, 2009
Thanks to the ultra talented Karie Mclain photography, Carrie and Ben’s Beaver Creek wedding was published on the WeTV website!
You can see the full press article here.
We are also thrilled to announce that Save the Date Events was voted as a Top 5 Colorado Wedding Planning Company for 2009! You can read more about us here and see over 100 reviews from previous clients and vendors.
Tags: Beaver Creek wedding coordinator, Colorado destination wedding planner, Colorado mountain wedding planner
Posted in public relations, save the date events | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
I often received emails from novice wedding planners asking for advice and tips. While we do offer hourly career counseling for novice planners, I wanted to share some tips and advice.
- Treat your vendors well when you are coordinating a wedding. If you have professional vendors, they do not need to be micromanaged. Check with your photographer and caterer when making your time lines to ensure they have enough time to do their job. Then let them do what they do best.
- Learn to say no. There will be clients who are just not the best fit for you. You can recommend other planners and save yourself a year of stress. Aletha from Pearls Events wrote an excellent blog post about this topic here.
- Be yourself. Brides are hiring you for who you are. Whether you have a quirky personality or superstar design skills, show it off. It is always better to be a first rate version of yourself instead of a second rate version of someone else.
- Integrity is essential in this business. This seems like a simple concept but I am amazed at how often I hear about other business owners not delivering what they promised, not showing up to meetings or just being “flaky” with their clients. If you know you can’t deliver something, don’t promise it to your clients.
- You cannot be a professional planner if you have only planned your own wedding. Take classes from ABC, work for a caterer, do an internship with an event planner, go to network events, read wedding blogs, meet with vendors, follow wedding planners on twitter, go to conferences, create your business plan. These are all things that will help you learn more about the industry and help grow your expertise and business skills so that you can be a professional planner.
- Charge what you are worth. Take time to figure out how much money you want to make per hour then multiply it times 3. That is a very rough estimate of what your clients need to pay you. You will pay almost 30% for taxes alone plus all your business expenses before you can pay yourself. For example, if you charge $500 for wedding day coordination that includes the final walk-through, rehearsal and 10 hours on the wedding day plus a few meetings with your bride, creating time lines and confirming vendors, you end up with around $25 or so per hour before taxes/expenses. Take your taxes and business expenses from that and you make about $8-$9 hour. AND that does not include paying an assistant. Isn’t all your hard work worth more than that? I sure hope so, even as a novice.
Debbie Orwat
Denver Wedding Planner
Posted in planning, save the date events | 3 Comments »
Friday, July 31st, 2009
If you are from Denver or know anyone from here, you are probably overwhelmed with the number of businesses asking you to vote for them in the
Denver 7 A-List Contest. We would love a vote from you too and here is why you should you vote for us:
- Our blog rocks with consistent advice, tips and real Colorado weddings
- We came in 2nd place last year and it’s always more fun when the underdog wins
- We won a Knot Best of Weddings Award for the past two years and really want to add “Denver 7 A-List Winner” to our list of accomplishments
- Every client of ours could be used as a reference. You won’t find a bad review for Save the Date Events.
- Where else would you find a more fun group of young and hip wedding planners?
We would be honored to have your vote. You can click here to vote for Save the Date Events.
Thank you for being a loyal reader and taking a minute to
vote!
Debbie, Gabby, Danielle, Shelby, Jen and Kristen
Colorado Wedding Planners
Posted in public relations, save the date events | No Comments »
Friday, July 24th, 2009
{Park Hyatt Beaver Creek}
{Westin Riverfront Resort Beaver Creek}
{Ritz Carlton Beaver Creek}
{Pines Lodge Beaver Creek}
{SaddleRidge Wedding}
We spent yesterday touring wedding venues in Beaver Creek. We have already visited or worked at many of the wedding venues in Vail and Beaver Creek. We still like to visit so that we stay current on any changes and stay in touch with the venue coordinators so that we have the latest information for our Colorado brides.
Debbie Orwat
Colorado Wedding Planner
Posted in mountain wedding, save the date events | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009
We are thrilled to show off fabulous new pictures of our team. A HUGE thank you to the incredible photographers at AHP Photography. Adam and Imthiaz have great personalities and a huge amount of talent. We cannot wait to work with them again. Our new pictures will be posted soon on our website.
Debbie Orwat
Colorado Wedding Planner
Posted in Danielle, Gabby, Shelby, meet the team, save the date events | 3 Comments »
Monday, June 22nd, 2009
Do you like reading our blog? Vote for us on the Wedding Channel’s top wedding blogs contest! You can
vote here.
Posted in public relations, save the date events | No Comments »
Friday, June 12th, 2009
Keri and Kyle had a fantastic wedding last Saturday in Denver. We have worked with them for over a year to plan the perfect wedding day. Their wedding ceremony was a traditional Catholic ceremony at Our Lady of Mt Carmel Church in Denver. The outdoor cocktail hour and Italian style reception followed at the
Tuscany Ballroom on the University of Denver campus. We have never seen such a huge dessert table! Thousands of homemade Italian cookies, a whimsical cake from
Kelley Kakes and cupcakes from
Lovely Confections adorned the 14′ long display.
Design by Ann created stunning bouquets and centerpieces with orchids and hydrangeas. We lit the room with over a hundred candles to provide a romantic atmosphere for dinner and dancing. The green and purple whimsical flower theme was used throughout the stationery details, cake and favors.
Special thanks to the fabulous Karie Mclain Photography for capturing the day!
Debbie Orwat
Colorado Wedding Planner
Posted in real wedding, save the date events | 2 Comments »
Thursday, June 4th, 2009
We were featured on IN Weddings yesterday!
Posted in public relations, save the date events | No Comments »
Monday, June 1st, 2009
We have been so busy the past few weekends at
Save the Date Events. We coordinated a fabulous Hindu wedding ceremony and reception for
Manjari and
Sameer over Memorial Day Weekend. This past weekend, we planned and coordinated a stunning Colorado destination wedding at
Devil’s Thumb Ranch for Iris and Jeff. We can’t wait to share all the details and photos. We didn’t have a chance to take our own photos but we promise to post professional pictures from the photographers as soon as we have them!
We were just featured on the blog of Bella Fiori Events. Alicia and her team are fantastic floral designers based in the Denver area. Check out the blog post here!
Don’t want to miss a post from us? You can subscribe to our blog in a reader. Are you on Twitter? You can follow Debbie here and follow Gabby here.
Debbie Orwat, Denver Wedding Planner
Save the Date Events
Posted in Gabby, public relations, save the date events | No Comments »
Monday, May 25th, 2009
Last week, we spent a very productive day touring Colorado wedding venues with the Association of Bridal Consultants. Our tour included Pelican Lakes Golf Course shown in the first picture above. It’s a little piece of island atmosphere in the middle of Colorado. We toured and held our monthly meeting at the stunning new Estes Park venue, Della Terra. We also toured the Stanley Hotel and Lost Antler Ranch in Estes Park.
During our meeting, we competed in a table design competition with stunning flowers provided by Amore Fiori and linens provided by Linens Unlimited. Linda from Linens Unlimited also gave us a preview of current chair cover trends shown in the above photos.
At Save the Date Events, we have been active members of the Association of Bridal Consultants for almost four years. The monthly venue tours and meetings allow us to stay on top of trends, see the latest wedding venues and network with some of the best industry professionals in Colorado.
Special thanks to fantastic photographer Hardy Klahold for the photos. You can see more photos of our day on his blog.
Debbie Orwat, Colorado Wedding Planner
Save the Date Events
Posted in ABC, mountain wedding, planning, save the date events | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
As
wedding planners, we have many requests from vendors who would like us to refer them. The unique thing about wedding planners is that our reputation not only depends on our work but also relies on the work of our vendors. At
Save the Date Events, this is what we look for in the vendors we refer:
Outstanding Reputation - You have been in business for at least a two years with a lot of experience, great references and fantastic reviews.
Talent - You have to be great at what you do. Occasionally vendors have fantastic business and marketing sense but not the talent to produce a high-end product. Or vice-versa.
Business Sense - No matter how good you are as a photographer, florist or cake designer, the vendors we refer respond to our clients (and us) in a timely manner, act professionally and will answer questions quickly and efficiently. Follow-up response time and good contracts are very important.
Personality - Brides and grooms choose their planner based on previous work, awards and presentation. However, the biggest factor is personality. We know that our kindness, professionalism, warmth and genuine personalities are big selling points. We like to work with vendors who have similar personalities because they typically fit our clients the best.
Pricing - We work with brides on a variety of budgets and use vendors in every budget category. We may meet with a new, up-and-coming photographer before we meet with a high budget photographer if that is what we need on our vendor list.
Your Opinion on Planners - We love vendors who promote wedding planners and coordinators. They see the value and benefits that an experienced planner provides for brides and grooms.
I could list many other tips for vendors but these are the big ones we look for when we refer vendors to our Colorado brides.
Debbie Orwat, Colorado Wedding Planner
Save the Date Events
Posted in planning, save the date events | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
Aren’t they cute? Amy and Doug are current clients of
Save the Date Events. Their engagement photos show their beautiful AND fun personalities. Their photographer,
Rachael Grace, is an up-and-coming very talented photographer in Denver.
Here are a few tips for your engagement photos:
1. Dress in a way that makes you feel good. If you are most comfortable in jeans, wear your favorite pair. There is no “right” or “wrong” way to dress but keep in mind that extra tight or extra baggy are not going to be your best choices for photos.
2. With #1 in mind, you also want to dress in a similar style to your fiance. If you wear jeans, he shouldn’t be wearing a suit.
3. Can’t decide on one outfit? Bring a few. It’s okay to change mid-way through the photo shoot.
4. Wear make-up. Even if you don’t usually wear any, at least consider mascara and lip gloss. The camera makes your everyday make-up seem like you aren’t wearing any so add a little extra on the day of your engagement photos or splurge on a professional to apply your make-up.
5. Bring your pet. If your dog is a big part of your life, bring your furry friend for a few photos.
Your photographer can also give you tips and advice on what works for their clients.
Debbie Orwat, Colorado Wedding Planner
Save the Date Events
Posted in photography, save the date events | 2 Comments »
We are so excited to post about Iris and Jeff’s wedding last Saturday at 
