Vendor Tips: Helpful Hints To Keeping A Bride Happy

The bridal industry is big business and can bring in lots of money to a great vendor. It’s also a small industry, with a lot of competition and a small window of opportunity to gain someone’s business.

Here are a few of my tips to help these vendors help themselves.

Answer your damn phone. Or find someone to do it for you. I should not get a machine every time I call. I hate machines. If I do actually find it in my heart to leave you a message, call me back in a reasonable amount of time.

It’s 2011, people. Time to embrace electronic mail. I’m a busy girl who loves to fire off quick emails to get things done.  I have an iPhone which allows me to check email anywhere, anytime. They are quite affordable and fantastic. As are all the myriad of smart phones out there. You have absolutely no excuse for not replying to an email I send you.

Get a functional and up-to-date website. Again, hello? It’s 2011. This is your easiest form of branding. People can go there and get any info they could possibly need or want from you without having to BOTHER you. They already have a good chunk of knowledge about you before contacting you, so no wasting your time with mundane questions that could have been answered from a damn website. This is just common sense and blows my mind when I see the craptastic websites people have out there loaded with thumbnail-size fuzzy pictures and stupid music and awful fonts. Or, ya know, just don’t have one.

If you have a contact form on the website, MAKE SURE IT ACTUALLY WORKS. I like those, because it’s easy and doesn’t waste my time. That is, unless it doesn’t work. And I have to call you anyway, explain what my request was that I already typed and then possibly send it to you again. Eff that.

Have set prices. Don’t try to tailor your pricing for each particular bride that walks in. If you want to give me a good deal, sweet! But don’t size me up and then inflate your prices because you think I may have money. People hear my venue and see dollar signs. In reality, the venue is quite reasonable but no one knows that based on its location and cost to dine there regularly. If I feel you blew up your pricing or can’t send me some sort of standardized pricing list, I won’t work with you.

Be nice. I will readily admit I can be difficult and demanding, however, I’m the customer. And usually that’s only set off by how you, the vendor, are treating me. If I think you’re screwing me around, I will not be nice. If I think I paid for something I’m not getting, I will not be nice. If I think you’re being rude and not giving me the treatment I deserve, I will not be nice. It’s really simple, golden-rule type shit, folks.  Do unto me as I shall do unto you, or else you will bear the wrath of Ali and no one wants that. Trust.

Be available to meet on the weekends or after hours. Hello? I work. My fiancé works. I shouldn’t have to use vacation time to get this party planned.

Don’t have a stupid, cheesy name. When I was still looking for a DJ, I talked to someone from a local company who was listed on The Knot. He seemed fine, gave me a decent price, then emailed me to confirm. His name was Forrest. Forrest CRUMP. Um, no. Forrest Crump will not be “in da house”, doing the chicken dance or any other wedding cheesiness. Not that this is some refined, uptight event. This is a Lastrapes party. We will be throwing down. However, it will be cool and fun and not painfully dumb. No idiot DJ trying to be funny. No bouquet or garter toss. No cheesy songs like the Chicken Dance or Macarana.  Only Lastrapes/Rastiello-approved, bitchin’ fun.

That’s it. I think it’s simple! I don’t know why people find these things so hard to do.

Here’s to a bitchin’, cheese-free wedding!

-Ali

To Envelope or Not To Envelope…

That is the question plaguing my house this evening.

Today, we got a sample of the new invite I think we”re gonna go with. It”s essentially the same as the one I fell in love with: same papers, ribbon, etc. However, the shape is different and it allows for both an inner and outer envelope. I liked that. We are so completely non-traditional, but sending wedding invites without the inner envelope just seemed… wrong.

This sparked a ridiculous and incredibly passionate rant by Mike.

It started with a blank stare from him while I”m opening the sample.

Mike: “I don”t get it.”

Me: “What?”

Mike: “Why two envelopes?”

Me: “Are you serious?”

Mike: “Yes. Explain this to me like I know nothing about weddings.”

(MAJOR eye-roll from me.)

Me: “The outer envelope has the family name and address. The inner envelope spells out each individual specifically invited.”

Mike: “So, in order for people to know they are invited, they need two envelopes?”

Me: “Yes, that”s exactly it. It”s etiquette, Mike.”

Mike: “Oh, YOU”RE worried about etiquette. HAAAAAAA.”

Me: “I want the TWO envelopes. Deal. ”

Mike: “No. NO. This is some wedding industry bullshit. It”s designed to squeeze that extra quarter per invite from everyone. AND extra postage because it”s an odd shape. It”s a conspiracy to take our money and make huge profits for Big Wedding. (Oh, yes. As in Big Tobacco). Well, they won”t get our quarter. We aren”t perpetrating this shit.”

Me: “We”re totally getting this one. I want two envelopes. Maybe 3 if you keep pushing me.”

Mike: “Fine. Just throw our quarters away.”

This is me, tossing quarters by the handful across Airline Dr. Alert the panhandlers.

I swear, I”m totally buying him his own tiara. He”s more dramatic than me. BY FAR.

A Very Kroger Wedding

I had a very strange dream last night, one where we had to change our wedding venue to a Kroger grocery store. But, it was okay, because it was a fancy Kroger, with an all-in-one banquet hall just behind where they keep the shopping carts lined up.

I don’t remember everything, but I am going to try and document as much as possible.

Not only were we getting married at the Kroger, but everything was going wrong.

Some of the bridal party wasn’t wearing the right clothes, but then they were, and not again.

My sister Amy was in charge of the music for some reason, and she played all of the songs in the wrong order. (Sorry, Amy.)

When Ali was trying to walk down the aisle, the kid pushing the shopping carts was yelling at her for being in the way. “These carts need to be re-stocked! Get out of the way, lady!” While that was going on, I was off to the side goofing off with friends, not paying attention (totally out of character for me, I know).

After Ali got to the front, I rushed up the aisle all nonchalant like, trying to pass off that was the way it was supposed to happen.

At this point I was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and Ali was looking at me with that WTF face. Then, magically we were at the back of the Kroger reception hall, Ali in a full blown wedding dress, and me a in crazy tuxedo and she looked at me and said “screw this, we’re starting over.”

Needless to say, Ali was pissed.

How Do I Thank Thee?

With bad-ass attendants gifts, of course.

They arrived today!

6 months to go!

We’re Movin’… and Groovin’… and Dancin’ to the Music…

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to shake my ass. I started taking dance lessons when I was 3 years old and haven’t stopped since. I have a lot more ass to shake now, but I can still rock it like a champ. Mike likes to dance, too. That may come as a shock to some of you since he can be rather quiet, but find him in HEB and the right song comes over the PA, he’s a dancin’ fool.

Although Mike does like to get down with his bad self, he really doesn’t like “dance music”. Give him some Motown, or some classic 70’s funk or some Beasties and he’s good. But anything modern? He turns his nose up like a Jr. Leaguer at a honky-tonk.

This poses a problem come reception time. Cuz as much as I like to kick it old-school, I like new stuff as well. Mike has made comments about some of my choices and I’ve been conservative! If I had it my way we’d be knee-deep in Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Brit-Brit, JT and Urrrr-sher. (Sorry K-So, no Biebs. I draw the line at children’s music.)

SO, my darling, faithful readers. We need your help. I want you to pick one song you think is a must-play to get everyone bumpin’ and grindin’ on the floor. Post it in the comments section.  It’s your civic duty to do so. I’d like to say we have a prize for you if we pick a your song, however, we are paying for a wedding. And, anyway, knowing that you have helped bridge the gap between two radically different music tastes and restored harmony and peace to our relationship should be reward enough, don’t you think?

For now, I’m going to leave you with a song I would love to play at the wedding. It’s not on the list, however, because I know Mike would be all “WTF! WHY AM I MARRYING SOMEONE WHO SUCKS?” But, I love it. It makes me wanna “shake my ass all the way up this hill”. If I had a hill.  ALSO, I totally dig Dev’s choppy, asymmetrical hair cut.  I would totes get my hair done that way if I had the swagger to pull it off. I absolutely do not, but I may still do it after the wedding. I’m a rebel like that.

Texas Baby Blues

In our quest to do our wedding our way and make it all Mike and Ali, we’re making a lot of the items and decorations ourselves. Also, everything that we are using has a special meaning.

This has also carried over to the table assignments. If it was up to us, we would just let it be a free for all and let people sit where they wanted. However, the venue is requiring not only table assignments, but seating assignments as well so they know who ordered what dish at RSVP time (more on this when the time comes) and where to serve it.

This request forced us to add an extra layer of Mike and Ali to the planning. We weren’t about to just number the tables and leave it at that, we needed table names that were meaningful, and unique.

On a further level of making everything ourselves, we are incorporating my photography into the table names and assignment cards.

One of the table names is “The Lone Star State”, and we were trying to come up with a photo that represent Texas.

Cut to a few weeks ago, I was telling Ali I wanted to drive out into the sticks (didn’t have to go far in Texas!) to get some photos of bluebonnets, the state flower of Texas.

We set out this past Saturday morning to Chappel Hill, Texas, A little town that hosts the Bluebonnet festival every year, a little over an hour outside of Houston. The town itself was a little disappointing.

We were hoping that the town that not only hosts the Bluebonnet Festival every year (the biggest festival in Texas) and the town that calls itself the “birthplace of Texas” to have a little more history to  explore.

That not withstanding, we had a fun time on our little road trip and we accomplished our goal of taking some great photos of Bluebonnets.

To see the rest of the photos, take a look at my Flickr photo stream.

Save The Date

Apology preface:

We would have loved to have had an enormous wedding inviting everyone we’ve ever made eye-contact with, however, that just wasn’t feasible. We have a limited budget, limited space and 2 huge families. So, please don’t get your feelings hurt if we couldn’t include you. We agonized over the list. We have a lot of guilt. Trust.

2 weeks ago we sent out our save-the-dates! These aren’t your traditional cute-pic-of-us-o- a-card-with-a-date-on-it. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) Oh, no. We had to do this Mike and Ali style – which always involves a camera, sweet music and the internet.

A marketing-style email went out to all guests with a link to the following:

Save the Date from Mike Rastiello on Vimeo.

I hope you enjoyed watching it as much as we did making it.

Special thanks to Kristen Ruth for shooting it for us!

-Ali

Finding the Perfect Wedding Cake

Thanks to my Best Man Phil for bringing this to our attention. You all see why he has that title.