New Episode of WWIIA airing May 19th!

Hello WWIIA fans! We have a new episode coming out soon! The wedding of Divina and Aaron will be airing Tuesday night May 19 at 10pm on the Style Network. This episode is sure to please for several reasons:

1. The couple is simply fabulous...great personalities, outgoing, the works!

2. The design/theme of their wedding was so original...stemmed from the place of their first encounter... "Barnes and Noble."

3. I was 7.5 months pregnant while filming (I apologize now for my HUGENESS and LETHARGY!)

Enjoy!

Jenny

Wedding planners, Professionalism and the Puffer Fish

I typically rely on blogging as a means to share news, trends and exciting accomplishments with our readers. But I'm taking a different route today...offering some insight into something that I feel is definitely worthy of blogging.

It’s not often that PBW gets to mix wedding planning with marine biology. Unless, of course, you count ocean-themed weddings! But that’s a topic for another blog entry.

We’re sure you’ve seen pictures of the pufferfish – the big, round, intimidating critter – right? Well, it turns out that the pufferfish is, in fact, a pretty clumsy, slow, puny member of the underwater kingdom who needs to puff itself up with air and water to appear bigger and meaner to ward off potential predators.

Well, people tend to puff themselves up too – in job interviews, online dating profiles, and lots of other situations involving exaggerated self-promotion. It’s called puffery and while we at PBW don’t condone any exaggeration of credentials or accomplishments in the wedding planning industry, we can understand why some planners may feel the need to do so.

We are alarmed, though, about a disturbing trend that a number of brides-to-be have alerted us to where mere puffery has morphed into something entirely different and more distasteful.

It seems that the wedding planning business is not immune to the type of badmouthing, devious plotting and outright lying that you expect to see on primetime reality TV programs like “The Apprentice” or “Survivor.”

We’ve heard stories about planners making personal attacks against not only other businesses, but individual planners as well, including unfounded statements about physical and mental health, as well as other outright fabrications.

Maybe it’s the state of the economy and a fiercer competition for a limited pool of clients. Maybe it’s a lack of good business acumen or principles. Perhaps it’s just general cattiness. Or maybe something more…psychological.

Whatever the root cause may be, the good news is that this type of talk seems to have the opposite of the intended effect. All of the brides-to-be who we’ve spoken to say they found such comments off-putting and considered it a factor in deciding against using that particular planner.

We here at PBW take great pride in our reputation and professionalism. We don’t badmouth other planners. We don’t need to. We let our success, rate of referrals and the overwhelmingly positive comments of former clients speak for itself.

Chances are if your prospective planner spends time talking about their competitors instead of focusing squarely on their own abilities, services or accomplishments, they may not really have great confidence in those services or their ability to provide you with the wedding of your dreams.

PBW encourages all of its prospective clients to meet with several planners before deciding whose services to use. In fact, we are so confident in our wedding planning philosophy and abilities that we want you to meet with us last. We guarantee that we will do our best to exceed any comparable package or services.

And that’s not just puffery, that’s a fact.

Jenny

PBW soon to launch Plush Events

We simply adore planning weddings...but we also enjoy working on many different types of events. Over the years we have designed and planned bat and bar mitzvahs, sweet 16's, corporate functions, showers, etc. but we sort of "flew under the radar" because they weren't wedding related!

It took some time but we are now offically ready to launch PBW's sister company Plush Events! This company, while still maintaining the popular PBW motto of "making it fun and stress free," will focus on designing and planning events all throughout the tri state area.

We will soon launch our new website showcasing all of the fabulous work we've done over the years. We're very excited about this new venture and hope for loads of continued success!

The Knot BEST OF WEDDINGS has hit newstands!

The 2009 issue of the Knot's Best of Weddings has finally hit newstands! And for the third year in a row Pampered Bride Weddings has been selected as one of the "best" wedding planners in NJ! Gotta say...we're super excited!!!!!

We have to give a big thanks to all our friends at the Knot...you guys are awesome! And of course, we have to extend a HUGE thank you to all the brides and vendors who voted for us! We wouldn't be here today without your support!

P.S.

PBW moved offices to Springfield last summer and the new phone number is 973-912-8099

Another fabulous engagement shoot!

I'm a huge fan of www.Photography-by-Rebecca.com

Her work is always unique and simply breathtaking! She recently shot one of our clients' (Shannon and Chris) engagement session and as you can see...the pics are simply fabulous!

How do we find such good looking couples??? LOL

Enjoy!

LATEST PRESS - BRIDAL GUIDE - HAVING A FABULOUS AND INTIMATE WEDDING FOR UNDER 5K

I recently had the privilege of being featured in the one and only Bridal Guide magazine. The article was entitled "Fabulous $5000 Weddings!" and can be found in the May/June 09 issue. I chose to design a sassy beach soiree, filled with ocean inspired decor and beachy/seaside yummies!

Special thanks to Kristen Finello at Bridal Guide and of course to the amazing Therese Marie Wagner for the beautiful photography!

Jenny

You love us, you really, really love us!!!!

Great news!!!! PBW has received (for third year in a row) the honor of being chosen as one of the Knot's "Best of" for 2009!!! We just got the news last week...and we're elated! Thanks so much for voting and for being such big fans and supporters of our work. We are truly honored! To do what you love and get an award for it is just awesome! Here's to a fabulous 2009!