What our members are doing...part 2!

We've had such a great response I wanted to post 3 more! Our members are amazing and giving and each one of you should be so proud of yourselves!  Check out what these 3 members have been doing...Robin Ballard from Events by Robin - A photographer friend (Allison Margaret Weddings) and I have partnered up to have monthly flat lay styled shoots each month to keep our creative juices flowing and perfect our flat lay styling skills.  We're creating new content not just for ourselves, but we have opened it up for vendors to safely drop off their items for us to use in styling and shoot to provide them new photos for social media since none of us are having weddings. We have partnered up with venues, rental companies, stationary, bakeries, florists, cocktail mixologists, etc.  It’s been really fun to collaborate and create all while wearing our masks and doing it safely!  We want to host a flat lay styling workshop in the near future, so we can help educate planners and photographers to create gorgeous flat lays during this downtime!Here at Wedded Perfection, we have reached out to all of our clients for the 2020 year and have assured them that we will help them either social distance their weddings, or move them to a new date. That includes us helping them to contact their vendors and try to reschedule a date that works for everyone! As we work in multiple states, we are working to balance the differences in the timing and regulations that each state is opening up with, and what those states are doing in regards to how they are handling social distanced events. Most of our weddings for this year have now moved to 2021, but we do have a few hold outs that are waiting to see what's going to happen, and some that are moving ahead full-throttle. For example, as of June 1st Ohio is opening up events to 300 guests, but the tables need to be 6 feet apart with no congregating. That means seated and social-distanced cocktail hours and no dancing. Couples are required to have mo more than 10 guests at a table, which is problematic for larger bridal parties that want to be together. Because we have weddings who are moving forward with their June wedding dates, we are coming up with creative solutions, like marking off areas around the venue where guests at tables who sit together are able to dance together. Also, doing long string bouquet pulls instead of bouquet tosses and switching to plated meals. Having guests attend for shorter periods of time in waves has also been a solution that many couples and venues alike have been interested in researching. It may not be like weddings pre-covid, but we sure are making the best of a tough situation.In the meantime, we have rewritten our contracts to include clauses that protect our coordinators from attending events that they don't feel are safe and using other staff, as well as put in moving and cancellation clauses specifically sighting pandemics. We have shared with our clients that our staff will be wearing PPE, and will have the authority to demand that guests social distance during times that the government is requiring it. It is rocky territory when there are political discrepancies between a client and vendor who have different beliefs, but so far we have been able to navigate those waters with tact, and haven't had an issue with protecting out coordinators or our couples.Arielle Gavin of Wedded Perfection - Personally, as the owner of Wedded Perfection, I have been taking this time to take professional development courses offered through ABC and for programs we use on a regular basis like Allseated and Trello.  With offices in both Southeast Michigan, and Columbus, Ohio, I was already using video conferencing to communicate with couples and plan events virtually. However, we are now working on training couples on how to plan their own weddings (especially when so many businesses are in unknown territory). We are creating virtual, live, and pre-recorded courses designed to walk couples through the planning process. With the unemployment numbers still rising, and future economic uncertainty, we have fallen back on the roots of why this company was started. We believe that every couple deserves to have a stress free planning process and to be a guest at their own wedding, as ABC has always heralded. With this belief, we want to make sure that even from a distance, we are able to help couples create the wedding of their dreams (or as close to it as possible) without breaking the bank and causing undue stress. Our plan for the future is to take these courses online and in-person once we are able to meet in large groups again!For now, however, we take each day one step at a time, and try to be as accommodating and helpful to our couples whose plans have been uprooted. Being a wedding planner allows me to be a stay at home mom, and with schools closed, my 3-year old didn't get to complete pre-school. We have been learning to read, write, and playing UNO so much that she beats me almost every time. Current and potential clients alike have been amazingly understanding when she interrupts my conference calls and Zoom meetings because we really are all going through this together and life and weddings will continue no matter the changes that are put into place.Priscilla Arminio from Prisar Weddings and Events - Hi From Puerto Vallarta México.  I am ABC Member since 2008, I had one cancellation and all other weddings i have were postpone to Nov 2020 and January and February 2021, not booking events for the summer as all my weddings are destination weddings, and here in Vallarta rainy season starts mid June until end of October so there is a lot of humidity so we usually dont plan weddings on this time of the year.These had been challenging days as a mother of three boys and house to clean and cook all day, but despite of all that i had been reinvented myself, i am listening and watching every webinar i can, i am now working on my website renewal, almost soon to have ready pretty soon a youtube program, preparing all my paperwork to become an Acredited ABC member, and right now i am on a 21 day challenge with Sasha Souza.And also my contracts are now on revision with Alicia Torres, lawyer and ABC wedding planner, to do the changes i need to do.Regarding new protocols for events now, last week i organized a zoom meeting with all planners and vendors of this area to know about what we need to do and also because as a wedding planner i neeed to guarantee my couples that all vendors will provide all services on the way they have to be now, it was a very productive session.Since a couple of weeks me and other planners from the area began a campaign with our couples that had gotten married here, we asked them for donations for the families for all people on this industry that right now is not receiving money, ( mariachi guys, waiters, people from caters, from rental companies) here in Mexico we dont have an unemployment program so this had been difficult. So a lot couples had helped us on that and we had been able to give 254 full packages with groceries. You can see the pictures on my Instagram and Facebook Page.Right now we begin a program Adopt a family so we can continue giving groceries untul this people can begin to work again. I had been busy for sure but very thankful that me and my family is safe!Thank you so much to these wonderful members for sharing all that they are doing.  We are inspired by you and wish you all much success in the coming years!