Ever been to a wedding and thought, "I could do this better?" I, Aisha Garnett, used to think the same, until she found her path from TV production to becoming a Certified Wedding Planner. Her journey was shaped by the Certified Wedding Planner Society (CWP Society). Together with its founder and CEO, Laurie Hartwell, they explore the mission of the CWP Society - to provide affordable, comprehensive education and certification for aspiring wedding planners and now... to ALL wedding professionals. They shed light on the society's revolutionary impact on the wedding industry and its commitment to raising the standard.
Imagine your perfect wedding being crashed by a complete stranger! Shocking, right? We bring this issue into focus as we talk about a strange case about a woman who has been making the rounds in three Southern states, crashing weddings and stealing gifts. Tennessee wedding planner, Krisy Thomas, weighs in on this bizarre issue, providing insights on the impact and prevention of wedding crashing. We round off this discussion with advice on securing your wedding against such incidents.
A wedding is an occasion of joy and cheer, and what better way to remember it than through a guestbook filled with messages of love from those who shared your special day. But who says your guestbook has to be a book? We explore intriguing ideas like photo booths and polaroid cameras that capture fun memories from your guests. We emphasize the importance of introducing unique ideas to your clients. Finally, as we wrap up this thrilling episode, we invite you to join us again next month as we uncover more about the fascinating world of wedding planning.
www.cwpsociety.com | info@cwpsociety.com | IG: @cwpsociety | FB: @cwpsociety
Ever been to a wedding and thought, "I could do this better?" I, Aisha Garnett, used to think the same, until she found her path from TV production to becoming a Certified Wedding Planner. Her journey was shaped by the Certified Wedding Planner Society (CWP Society). Together with its founder and CEO, Laurie Hartwell, they explore the mission of the CWP Society - to provide affordable, comprehensive education and certification for aspiring wedding planners and now... to ALL wedding professionals. They shed light on the society's revolutionary impact on the wedding industry and its commitment to raising the standard.
Imagine your perfect wedding being crashed by a complete stranger! Shocking, right? We bring this issue into focus as we talk about a strange case about a woman who has been making the rounds in three Southern states, crashing weddings and stealing gifts. Tennessee wedding planner, Krisy Thomas, weighs in on this bizarre issue, providing insights on the impact and prevention of wedding crashing. We round off this discussion with advice on securing your wedding against such incidents.
A wedding is an occasion of joy and cheer, and what better way to remember it than through a guestbook filled with messages of love from those who shared your special day. But who says your guestbook has to be a book? We explore intriguing ideas like photo booths and polaroid cameras that capture fun memories from your guests. We emphasize the importance of introducing unique ideas to your clients. Finally, as we wrap up this thrilling episode, we invite you to join us again next month as we uncover more about the fascinating world of wedding planning.
www.cwpsociety.com | info@cwpsociety.com | IG: @cwpsociety | FB: @cwpsociety
Welcome to the Wedding Planner podcast brought to you by the Certified Wedding Planner Society.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Wedding Industry News, where each episode covers something old, something new, something borrowed and some news. It's December 2023. And I'm your host, ayesha Garnett, owner of Sharia More Weddings and Event Planning Master, Certified Wedding Planner and Certified Educator with the CWP Society an industry membership for planners, venues and pros. Let's jump right into some news In today's episode. I want to start by sharing a more personal note with our listeners, which will lead to some exciting news news that will be a complete game changer for the wedding industry as a whole.
Speaker 2:To give you a little bit of background about me, I received my BA in communications with a focus in journalism. After that, I started working for the CBS affiliate in a Metro Detroit as a TV producer. That is when I started dating my future husband, mike. Later I moved to DC and Mike decided to join me, and that is when I worked for the Department of Health and Human Services in the government. About two years later, I got married and that's when I first became interested in wedding planning. Some 13 years ago, we moved to North Carolina a year later and I decided to get my Master of Business Administration degree in hospitality management Because, after all that planning I did for my own wedding.
Speaker 2:I felt that the wedding industry was pulling me in and that becoming a wedding planner was where I was always destined to be. I decided that I wanted to become a wedding planner, but not just any wedding planner, a certified wedding planner. I wanted to make sure that I received the education to set myself apart from other planners in my market, so I did my research and due diligence in finding the best organization that will work for me, an organization where I could gain all the knowledge and expertise that I needed to thrive in the industry. At the time, I stumbled across what was then called the Brattle Society, now known as the CWP Society. I spent an entire weekend learning from an amazing mentor who took the time to teach every single person in the room aspiring to hone their craft as a certified wedding planner all they needed to know to get them started in the industry. When I walked away from that certification course, I walked away with a wealth of valuable information that would help me on my way in an industry that I was so eager to take on. Today, the CWP Society has completely changed my life, and they've created opportunities that I'm so grateful for as a Master Certified Wedding Planner.
Speaker 2:This is just a snippet of my personal story. Believe me, I could go on and on bragging about this organization, but we all know behind every amazing organization is an amazing leader. I know firsthand just how hard she works to prepare wedding planners like myself for this billion dollar industry because she has a billion dollar mindset. Now she's got something even bigger and better of her sleeve that is bound to take the wedding industry by snoring. Joining me to share more about an organization that is changing the wedding industry for the better is our very own Laurie Hartwell, founder and CEO of the CWP Society. Thank you so much for joining me, laurie.
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you, Aisha, and thank you for those kind words. That was honestly one of the sweetest things anybody has ever said, so thank you Absolutely.
Speaker 2:You know how I feel about you, laurie. Let's jump right into this topic. I feel like this is an exclusive. Our listeners are hearing it here first. So let's get right into my first question. Starting an organization such as the CWP Society isn't an easy task, but you saw a need and you did it. Can you share a little bit of your story and how the CWP Society came about?
Speaker 1:I absolutely can, and you're right, it definitely was not even close to being easy, and it hasn't been an easy task from the beginning or even now. But it has been my life mission and it's been, honestly, one of my greatest joys, outside of my children and my husband. The first wedding I planned was way back in 1993 and about 15 years into my career. After I had mentored so many wedding planners, I just was thinking to myself I wonder how many people I can help if I can figure out a way to maybe do this on a larger scale. So I wanted to provide wedding planners with everything that I just didn't have when I had first started out. So, first of all, access to certification. You know that back then, back in like the 1990s and early 2000s, it was really hard to find that access without having to go through all these unnecessary hoops that required me to kind of work for all these other people. But see, aisha, I didn't want to work for other people, I wanted to work for myself. I feel like I was one of those natural born entrepreneurs where I just wanted to kind of forge my own path, if you will. Now, that's not. There's no problem with working for other people, but I knew what I was looking for. So I was really looking for one of those companies and educational providers that would not make me go through all those hoops.
Speaker 1:I wanted to give people that head start that included all of the knowledge that's gonna be necessary for them to execute a really fantastic, seamless wedding to the best of their ability right out of the gate, not after years and years and years of practicing with other people's clients and other people's businesses. There are plenty of smart, brilliant, wonderful human beings out there that have a lot of faith in themselves and know that they're gonna do a really great job, but they need the education to be able to execute that great job. So, in my opinion, an education program or an educational program that requires you to pay year after year after year just to keep your certification active and requires you to purchase thousands of dollars worth of courses just to get to that certificate to begin with, tells me that they're not really out for our industry. They're out for themselves, and so I never wanted to be that type of educational provider. I wanted to create a way for wedding planners and others to kind of get their certification, gain that knowledge, and then equip them with a community in a one-time low fee, and then I wanted to provide great benefits in continuing education at no additional costs, year after year after year.
Speaker 1:Now all wedding planners and I feel like we've had we have over 8,000 wedding planner members. We have just this great, amazing community. But now I know too that all of these wedding planners feel like they're on an island, kind of how I felt my entire career. They don't feel understood, and not just by complete strangers, but even their family members don't have a full grasp of all that goes into our job, much less all of the other wedding professionals that we work with. So we're feeling like we're fighting this uphill battle on a regular basis, and planners have their, of course, favorite wedding professionals the ones, the pros, that do an amazing job. They always show up on time, they provide their couples with white glove service, these professionals who just appreciate and support the planner and everything that we bring to the table during the planning process as well as on the wedding day.
Speaker 1:But with that said I hate saying this there are a lot of wedding professionals who are really just not team players and they give a lot of pushback to anyone who's planning the wedding who is not either the bride or the groom. They don't want to have any contact or communication with anyone other than the bride or the groom. And the problem with that is, if the couple hired me, I'm a wedding planner. We're being paid to be the single point of contact. We're being paid to have all of the communication between the wedding professionals and the couple. So when we experience these wedding pros who don't like planners, it creates an enormous issue within our industry.
Speaker 1:Now, of course, there are reasons behind them feeling this way, so I completely understand it. On some level, maybe they worked with a cousin or a friend who claimed to be a planner but had no idea what they were doing and were a complete and utter mess on wedding day. So I see it, I understand it. Maybe these wedding pros who give pushback to planners maybe they worked with the type of planner who likes to throw their weight around and show everyone who's boss. But those two examples that I just gave you of planners give all the other wedding planners who care very deeply for the industry as a whole a really bad name.
Speaker 1:Okay, and so it bothers me and I wanna change the narrative. I wanna make sure that wedding professionals see our intention. I want them to understand that our intention is to educate wedding planners so that they are not making our wedding pros lives way more difficult than they need to be. I want wedding pros to up their game and become the kinds of wedding professionals that wedding planners love to refer time and time again. So I have this dream to bring membership and education to all wedding professionals, no matter what category they fall under, and I firmly believe that if we all understood each other a little bit better, then we can show up in the industry a little bit better, and then we can become better ourselves and then become a more efficient team for our couples and for the wedding as a whole on wedding day. And so that's why we are actually bringing a membership now to wedding planners, which we've always had, but now to wedding professionals, and I'm just so stinking excited about it.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, I'm excited about it too, lori, and that, indeed, was a huge dream of yours, and I just love seeing that come to life. I'm actually living in that dream with you, so I appreciate you. The wedding industry is forever changing and you created a space and a community where wedding professionals can come together to support one another and thrive personally and in business. Can you share your thoughts on the impact that wedding professionals would experience just by coming together in a way that you've envisioned?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, of course. Anytime professionals in the wedding industry can find common ground and understand each other better and to see what other people's needs are, it's always gonna bring excellent results. My dream is that every single wedding pro understands what a wedding planner does, needs and what motivates them, and my dream is also that every wedding planner understands the perspective of every category of wedding professional, all to have the same end game, which is to be a better version of ourselves and to bring a better product to our couples. There are so many things that we can do so much better than we're currently doing them.
Speaker 1:If we all come together and if we raise the standards in the wedding industry, I can tell you right now with 100% uncertainty, if we do that, then it's gonna result in better education for our couples and that means that our couples will have higher standards for themselves as well as for their wedding, and I feel like that's what every single, I'm gonna say, reputable wedding professional strives for and wants. But how will that happen and how can we actually achieve that if we're not coming together and having a set set of standards, if we're not talking, if we're not communicating, if we don't understand each other, if we don't understand each other's needs, if we have no idea what that person would prefer to have go on on the wedding day. And then you have to take into consideration personalities and communication styles. If we have a better understanding of all of these things, then we're not gonna be attacking each other and we can actually show up for one another, which will only make the wedding 10 million times better and our couples 10 million times happier.
Speaker 2:I completely agree, and this industry is. It's not easy and although the industry is all glitz and glam to those on the outside looking in, every industry has its flaws and things that could stand to be improved. Can you share a few ways that the CWP society is helping to improve our industry and how wedding professionals can engage and get involved with the CWP society?
Speaker 1:You're right. Each other wedding industry definitely has two sides. It's side that couples and their guests see, which is the glitz and the glam and all of our final pictures on Instagram, and then there's really all the hard work that went into that all the blood, the sweat and the tears. The best way for wedding professionals in our industry to kind of level up and to make themselves better and to improve on themselves as well as our industry, is to make sure that we are educating ourselves and that we are plugging into a company who has only their best interests at heart, and I feel like that's probably one of the biggest things for me is that was hard for me to find when I was a brand new planner. It was really hard for me to know which companies to trust and which ones not to trust, and I think the reputation of the company should speak for itself, and that's why I am so proud to say that we have all five star ratings. We are five star with BBB. If you look at every single one of our reviews online, it's all five stars. There's a reason for that and it's because people know our heart. So our entire team that is behind the CWP society has a heart for the industry and we are so invested in who they are and what their needs are and how they can do their job to the best of their ability. That's why we've come up with three membership options. So we have a wedding professional membership, where you get a one year free trial. It includes monthly wedding pro workshops, monthly newsletter, your member marketing badge, as well as a ticket to our annual wedding pro Palooza. And after your one year free trial, our members can either pay just $15 a month or you can save $36 if you choose our annual plan Now. So that's our one year free trial wedding pro membership. Then we have our certified memberships. So we have two of those the certified wedding planner and the certified wedding professional. So for our certified wedding planner member, you guys get so much. You get your certification program, your official certificate, your title of certified wedding planner. We even provide you with social media graphics. We give you a marketing badge that you can put on all of your marketing materials, including your website, your emails, signature and so forth.
Speaker 1:We have monthly wedding planner workshops. These workshops are taught by my vice president, chrissy Thomas. She is so great on honing in and figuring out exactly what education our wedding planners so desperately need so that they can keep getting better at what they do. We also offer quarterly group business coaching. We offer monthly work-life balance workshops because we as planners are rated number three of the most stressful jobs in the world and we need to know how to balance this craziness in our lives. We also provide Society Stellar Awards, where we give out wedding planner of the year and wedding planner on the rise, as well as the Wedding Industry Legacy Award. Then we also give all of our certified wedding planners of Community Forum where they can talk 24 hours a day, seven days a week and they do.
Speaker 1:And we also provide a place where wedding planners who have a job opportunity maybe they have a wedding coming up in the next several months and they're like listen, I really need a great assistant, but I don't want to train someone from scratch. I'd rather get someone who is already certified and who knows what it is that they're doing, to have a set standard right. We have a place in our Community Forum where you can actually post your job opportunity. Then, of course, we have industry discounts from all of the top industry companies and you get exclusive discounts that no one else on the planet gets. We also have templates business templates that can get you started.
Speaker 1:We have additional certification programs if you're like Ayesha, where you just don't want to ever stop learning those are my favorite people, I love learning and then, of course, the ticket into our annual Palooza virtual event. And then our certified wedding pro gets something very similar that gets that certification program, the certificate, their title, those social media graphics, the digital badge, those monthly professional workshops where we're really gonna be breaking down what wedding pros go through on a weekly basis at their weddings and how we can improve and what we could do a little bit differently that make our lives a little bit less chaotic. They are also going to have access to all of our quarterly group coaching sessions, our monthly work-life balance workshops, as well as our Society Cellar Awards. So we're gonna be giving away the wedding pro of the year, as well as wedding pro on the rise and our Legacy Award. And then, of course, they're also gonna have access to our exclusive industry discounts and the ticket to the annual Palooza.
Speaker 1:So there's a lot going on, but my goal and my mission, aisha, is to change the industry as we know it, because I feel like what we're doing right now is settling, and I don't do well. When I'm asked to settle for something and just, uh, I know it's not great, but don't worry about it, then you're talking to the wrong person, because I'm the person who worries about it and says but I can fix it, just let me help. And so that's my motivation. That's where I'm wanting to go with this, because I think it's not gonna only help wedding pros. I think it's gonna help wedding planners in a very big way as well.
Speaker 2:Lori, what I'm hearing you say is the CWP Society has everything you need for the wedding professionals. Yeah, that's pretty much what I'm saying, and I believe you. I can vouch for that. So where can wedding pros find you? What's your website?
Speaker 1:So go to CWPsocietycom CWPsocietycom. You can also find us on Instagram, our handle, cwpsociety I know it's a huge stretch, where did they get this from? And Twitter, cwpsociety, facebook CWPsociety, so our handle is the same. Go to our website. Learn as much as you can about us. If you have any questions, you can also reach out to my amazing team at the email address of info at CWPsocietycom, and they will be happy to answer any and all questions that you may have.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, lori, for joining me and for sharing this amazing and exciting news about the CWP Society. And if you are a wedding pro, you should be heading over to the website. I agree, I agree.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, Ayesha.
Speaker 2:Now on to something borrowed. In this segment, we feature information from an alternate source that I feel you would be interested in. Remember the 2005 comedy film Wedding Crashers featuring actors Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn. Now this box office hit made its way to the big screen with a fun and innocent fictional twist, bringing out all the humor in the wedding industry. However, in real life, wedding crashing is no laughing matter.
Speaker 2:According to USA Today, one woman has made her way across three Southern states as an uninvited guest, crashing weddings and making out with thousands of dollars in cash, credit cards and gifts In a string of heists across Mississippi, tennessee and Alabama. 57-year-old Sandra Lynn Hinton has no problem showing up to weddings dressed apart and going table to table, taking items that clearly don't belong to her from unsuspected wedding attendees. Whether it's during a couple's first dance while guests are surrounding the dance floor, or during the grand exit while all the guests are outside lined up with sparklers, hinton uses these moments to crash and steal. Tyler Melton, a sergeant with the Florence Police Department in Alabama, first arrested Hinton on theft charges in 2019 for allegedly crashing multiple weddings. It seems as though her tactic is to move from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, only to be slapped with fines and a probation.
Speaker 2:In spite of being on probation after serving time in a Mississippi prison for some of her crimes, law enforcement said Hinton is at it again. Just recently she appeared in Pontotoc County Justice Court in rural northeast Mississippi, where she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of petty larceny, trespassing and disturbing the peace. After her arrest for crashing the wedding of 22-year-old bride Lexi Butler this past September, hinton was booked into jail and less than two days later posted a $2,000 bond, appearing in court with no representation. Hinton walked out of the courthouse after Judge David Hall accepted her guilty plea in the case and she still remains free here. To weigh in a bit further on this story is Chrissy Thomas, vice President of the CWP Society. Thank you so much for joining me, chrissy.
Speaker 3:Hey, thank you for having me this topic. Oh, this seems like a reality TV show. This doesn't seem real.
Speaker 2:Hi, I'm Gritty and it's real. Sadly, it's real. Let's get right into it Now. You are a renowned wedding planner in the state of Tennessee, one of the states hit by Hinton. What is your take on this story, and have any of your clients been victimized by this wedding crusher?
Speaker 3:So actually, this is right in my backyard. Some of the areas that she has hit are actually areas that we serve and part of our wedding planning market. Fortunately, this hasn't happened at any of the weddings that I have planned, but it has happened with some of my local wedding planner friends and some of my venues that we frequent often. So it's as crazy as this is, it's literally right in my backyard and it's something that as a community, we're constantly keeping each other in the know of. Oh, she's back in Tennessee because, like you said, she makes her rounds kind of across Mississippi and Alabama and if we see that she's back in Tennessee, we'll communicate with one another and say, hey, heads up, she's back in Tennessee, keep an eye out for her, because this is something that she clearly does quite often. It's something that is planned Like. This is something that she clearly has been doing for years and has a strategy that's working, where she's able to get in and out of these weddings unnoticed, pretty much where no one sees her coming in and out.
Speaker 2:That's crazy On one of the most important days of a couple's life. It's one thing to have guests show up to your wedding that have an RSVP the ones we all know and love but I can't imagine a wedding crash is showing up with cruel intentions. What steps would you recommend wedding pros or couples take to avoid or handle wedding crashers?
Speaker 3:That's such a good question and I feel like she serves as a really good example, because the way that she operates is she shows up very much like a wedding guest, so she doesn't look at a place, she's dressed as if she is there to attend the wedding. After the pandemic, when guests would wear masks to a wedding, she would have a mask on, so she would ultimately blend in and she was getting bold enough to wear. She was also walking into the getting ready suites and stealing from them and because she was dressed the part, because she had the appearance of someone who was possibly a guest at this wedding or related to someone in the wedding party or related to the couple who was getting married, it would take people a while to figure out. No one knew who she was. Why is this woman in the getting ready suites? Oh, I mean, she was very calculated. Another way that she was also very calculated and I believe in her most recent arrest they found where she had a full notebook of weddings that she was going to hit up over that the next course of that weekend. So one way that I think wedding professionals can kind of protect themselves, and this was actually something that I started doing after her most recent recent arrest was I would typically share on wedding day an Instagram story of happy wedding night to my couple and then I would say here are the wedding pros who are part of this wedding, and I would include the venue location so she could be following me. She could be following other wedding planners or the photographers who were also sharing this information, getting it on wedding websites, and she would create a list of all the weddings that she was going to visit and seal from. So I took this as a okay. This is something that I need to protect my clients from. So I have decided to stop sharing that post where I'm sharing the location. I'm sharing all the information about their wedding day, when it's taking place, and what I do now is just a follow up, like the next day, I will do a recap just one way that I can protect my clients. Another way that we need to protect our clients is actually educating them about this, letting them know this is something that does happen. So part of my final planning meaning that I have with my clients, I will talk to them. Okay.
Speaker 3:Who was designated person to gather up your wedding gifts? There is a lady who goes around stealing wedding gifts, and it's not just her. I've had weddings where it was wedding guests people that they knew and that they love were snatching card boxes or you know, going into the wedding suite and stealing items from the wedding party. These are things that unfortunately happen and, as blissful and as exciting as the wedding days are, sometimes we have to educate our clients on the ugly side of things that may happen on their wedding day, and this is one of those things. So, as the planners, when you're having those final meetings with your clients, I want to make sure that you're mentioning this and finding a designated person that they trust to gather up these items and then put them in the safe space. For a while there, that safe space was the getting ready suite. Now, to me, that's no longer a safe space at all, unless the venue has some type of keypad and they lock it and the only people with access or maybe the couple or the planner. But even then, at this point, I'm like just whose car can we put these in? Whose trunk can we put these in? Where can we store these? It's where it's going to be safe. So I let my couples know who. I need to know who's going to be taking care of that, and for my planners also, I want to make sure that you are not taking on this responsibility either.
Speaker 3:Some couples are accusing wedding planners of stealing the gifts. So and I'll kind of give you an idea of what that looks like Some couples say, okay, I have, there are 200 guests attending this wedding. I should have 200 cards, or I should have 200 gifts. And we all know the proper etiquette is not to arrive to a wedding day with a gift anyway, or they have already gifted them a shower prior to the wedding. So not every guest is going to come in hand with a gift. However, this is probably their mindset, and if the planner is the one who was taking that card box and putting it in a safe location, they're thinking well, the planner was the last one to touch the box. She must have stolen, you know, she must have took some of these cards, and that's not the case. So just to completely eliminate that and not put yourself in that situation at all, make sure that it's someone that the couple has designated.
Speaker 3:You introduce yourself to this person, you put it in the timeline, I put it in my timeline. Such and such and of the bride collect the gifts from the car table. I get aunt's phone number and I schedule a lot of text message reminder on my timeline software program and I let so she gets that reminder of it's time for her to pick up these cards, and it's not me. So that's one way that you can protect yourself as a planner, but also protecting your clients and making sure no one steals those items from them. And then also, I think, us, communicating with the venues that we work with on a regular basis. What security systems or procedures do they have in place to protect these items, whether it's items from the gift table or in the wedding suite or just protecting the guests you're attending? Like you said, if she's going around during the sparkler exit and, you know, going through people's purses that have been left inside to the reception, what security measures does the venue have in place to protect your couples who are getting married at their venue?
Speaker 2:These are all great tips, chrissy, and it's unfortunate that this is the way we have to think when we're planning a wedding or attending a wedding, but to make sure that our valuables and property and all the things are safe. These are some great tips that I think wedding pros should definitely take on. So thank you so much for weighing in on such an interesting topic. Of course, thank you. Next up is our old and new segment. This is where I'll be discussing an old trend and what's replacing it.
Speaker 2:Classic and traditional wedding guest books are used more so at weddings to log the wedding guests that are in attendance. It's usually your typical book, customized with a couple's name or monogram, and it's displayed with a fancy pen on the welcome table. There's nothing too special about the guest book, but guests know exactly what to do when they see it. After the wedding day. Couples usually use it as a resource to send out thank you cards to guests that have signed the guest book. In today's world, couples are wanting to use something more interactive, something their guests can enjoy, something that is a more fun way to capture the memories of those in attendance. So here are a few alternatives you can share with your couples. One of my favorites is the audio guest book. This time was Option allows guests to record messages for the newlywed couple on a vintage, retro or specialty telephone. Not only does this display include the cutest and most creative little setup, but it's something your couples will be able to keep for a lifetime After the wedding. Newlyweds receive the compilation of messages as a digital download or via streaming, or they receive it physically on a vinyl record, cd or thumb drive, and it's usually in a more customized package with the couple's photo.
Speaker 2:Another favorite of mine is the Photo Guestbook. This option allows you to place a cute photo booth for guests to take their pictures, print them on the spot and place them in an adhesive photo album. It doesn't stop there. Guests can then sign a special note for the couple to read and enjoy year after year. If your couple is planning a vintage themed wedding, there is an option of using an old typewriter for your guests to type out a more personalized message when they arrive.
Speaker 2:How fun would it be for your guests to see a vintage typewriter. This may tell the age of a few guests, because some will know exactly what it is and how it works, while others may just be in awe, but either way, this is a fun way to capture some great memories from your guests. Sticking with the classic and traditional guestbook is perfectly fine if that's what your couples want, but be sure to share with them the many options they can use when it comes to guestbooks. Get creative and introduce to them something that fits them, something they will be able to display and enjoy for years to come. That wraps up our December 2023 Wedding Industry News. Thank you for listening. We look forward to having you join us next month in a brand new year here on the Wedding Planner Pipe cast.