Business Archive

It is official …. Leigh Pearce Weddings is now Leigh Pearce Events!!

Weddings will always be our heart but with a bigger team (coming soon!) it is important to expand our reach from our exclusive full service wedding experience to include corporate and social events as well as wedding day management. That’s right, our much requested service of wedding management is back and better than ever.

Our beautiful new website is **LIVE** so enjoy a stroll around with your morning coffee. So without further ado, feast your eyes on the lovely new www.leighpearceevents.com!!

Site by my friends at Love Inspired Inc.

In school, we all learned about plagiarism and properly crediting our sources. So now that we are grown up and wedding vendors, do the same rules not apply? Of course they do! There is an ever growing trend online, in particular on social media, of wedding industry professionals (and hopefuls) posting photos with no credits to the people who produced the photo or the work shown. This may seem harmless, but it can have a big impact on your business. In general, I find that people in offense of this major faux pas fall into two categories: 1) a person or business who posts photos of work that they had a hand in creating but credit no one else involved and 2) a person or business who posts photos of work that they have NO hand in creating in any capacity.

Let’s dive in a little deeper and talk about these two respective camps:

The No Tagging of Your Vendors Person: This offense is SO easy to remedy. Just tag your vendors! Everyone has their own take on what this looks like, but for me, the best way is to take a three part approach.

1. Tag your vendors in the caption. Whether you are posting on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc., this is the easiest and quickest way to incorporate your vendors. My go to formula is to select my photo, write my caption about said photo, then at the end of the caption, tag my vendors. Yeah, that simple! I analyze the photo and look at each element to make sure I do not forget anyone. Can you see any part of the venue? Tag them. Are there any floral elements? Tag them. Everyone wins with this method. You supported your fellow vendors, you may get a share from that vendor (bonus), and it makes you look professional.

2. Tag your vendors in the photo. This comes in to play in regards to Instagram. I like to tag my vendors in the actual photo (click the Tag People button before you post the photo to your profile). This means when someone taps your image, the names of those you tag pop up and someone can click on them to take them to their profile. Better yet, the image you posted will show up in their Photos of You tab in their Instagram profile. Potential clients may be looking at this, see the image, click over to your profile and voila! You now have a new lead.

3. Is there an opportunity to add a geotag? This can be done on Facebook and Instagram and connect you to a location’s online map so to speak. The marketing benefits are similar to tagging vendors in a photo. Your image now shows up under the geotag for that venue, for example, and any potential leads can see you and become interest in your work. Another no brainer.

The Posting Other People’s Work Person: This is the worst offense in my opinion and frankly, NO ONE should be doing it. You are misleading clients that the work you posted is your own. But wait, what if you tagged the vendors? This is a moot point because at a glace, looking at your Instagram profile, for example, a client could just see the thumbnails of the pictures you posted and assume all the work is yours without clicking. Posting work that you had NO hand in creating is misleading to clients and disrespectful to the vendors whose work you are posting. Moral of the story: Just don’t do it!

A few more important tips to keep in mind when posting images to your social media accounts that represent your business:

1. Pinterest is not a photo source. I repeat, Pinterest is not a photo source!  This goes back to posting work that is not your own. You must be thinking, “But Leigh! I posted my source. I found the picture on Pinterest!” Well, honey, Pinterest did not take the photo and edit it. Pinterest did not arrange that lovely bouquet. Pinterest did not take countless hours to design and plan the beautiful wide room shot you are looking at. PEOPLE did.

2. At minimum, tag the photographer. If you are following the rules and posting images that you had a hand in creating the content, then you should have no problem remembering who you partnered with. That said, if you happen to have a dose of amnesia or cannot find the person you are wanting to tag on social media, at minimum tag your photographer. If you cannot tag the photographer (or add their name in your caption) then do not post the photo.

3. Copying hashtags is bad. General hashtags like #wedding, #bouquet, etc. of course do not count. What I mean is do not try to ride on another business’s coat tails and post their curated, branded hashtags on your images unless it is 100% relevant. For example, you are a florist and you are posting images of your work (yay! you are off to a good start!). You wrote your caption, tagged the photographer, then typed out your hashtags. One of the hashtags you added was #leighpearceweddings, my business hashtag. But I did not work with you on that event. This misleads the customer to look like you worked with someone you did not, in this example. Also, and more importantly, now when someone clicks on my hashtag, they see your work and assume it is mine. This goes back to being misleading to the client and is a major no no. There are so many wonderful hashtags you can use to drum up business without stealing someone else’s ….. but that is a whole other post!

All in all, these are such SIMPLE solutions for what is becoming a really big problem. Friends, be CONFIDENT in your work and share your OWN work.  I would love to hear from YOU in the comments. Do you have any other tips to share about crediting vendors? 

Usually here on the blog, you can find me sharing planning advice, snaps of our events, and other news speaking mostly to clientele. But in addition to my lovely clients, a large part of my blog readership is actually other wedding and event professionals. In person, I love discussing industry trends, the best business practices, marketing, and the like with my colleagues — so why not put pen to paper (so to speak) and start a event business focused series on the blog! I am really excited about the content to come and would love any feedback on topics you are interested in hearing about.

Today’s post is something that I do not feel has been addressed very much online. However, I find myself discussing it pretty frequently with other planners and it is a top question I am asked by fellow vendors: how can vendors work better with a wedding or event planner? If you are a non-planner event professional (think photographer, rental provider, venue manager, caterer, DJ, etc.), the following tips are crucial in getting repeat business with a planner. Being added to a planner’s recommended vendor list takes more than just executing your contract to the client:

Alisandra Photography

Be on time: This is so crucial and sets the tone for your working relationship. Professionalism is being on time (read: exactly on time or five minutes early) for in person meetings and conference calls during planning. Even more important is your arrival time on event day. If you confirm with the planner you will arrive at 2 PM and do not show up until 3:45 PM, you will most likely throw off the rest of the event schedule. Other vendors are relying on your part in the event before performing their part. Alternatively, being too early can also be bad. For example, if you are providing florals and show up extremely early, staff may still be placing linens or even waiting for them to arrive. Planners love that you arrived early and are happy to see you, but please do not try to rush the process because you need to be at your next event.

Understand our job: Every planner is different, just like every <insert your job title here> is different. We have common practices but the way we perform our jobs and curate our client experiences all vary. When you begin working with a planner, ask them about what services the client rendered from them (day of coordination, full service, etc.). Also, ask them how your role in the event fits in with their overall planning time line and process. For example, all LPW clients receive a full service experience meaning we handle every detail from planning to design to coordination. So if you are a DJ, for example, I will handle the contracting, sharing of information, sending time lines, etc. There will be little to no need to communicate with our clients unless a face to face meeting is requested. Knowing this process then calling the client anyway to ask questions and not reading the detailed information sent over to you will quickly create frustration for the planner.

Perry Vaile Photography

Appreciate the the planner’s perspective: We have the whole picture of the event in our mind as well the complex knowledge of our clients, their family dynamics, budget constraints, and so on. If you disagree with a planner on a point, of course let them know. We encourage you to share your expertise with us! But do so respectively and in a constructive way. We may not be a DJ, to continue the example, but we have a great deal of knowledge on how your role in the event works and may have made a plan for you based on that. It is always better to talk it out before jumping to conclusions and especially before contacting the client.

Be a great communicator: Emails and phone calls should always be answered within 2 business days. Period. Even if you do not have a proper answer to return, at minimum send a note saying that the email was received and you will get back to them by a certain date. And stick to the date! It will build trust in your planner and thus, the client. Extremely delayed email responses that say something to the effect of “Sorry I am just so busy” or “I’m sorry! It is wedding season!” are not valid excuses. Sending this type of a response shows that you do not manage your time well and creates doubt in your planner about your management skills. Most importantly, after understanding what role the planner plays in the process, do not contact the client for any reason without connecting with the planner first. In the eyes of the client, it either makes you look bad because they expected you to contact the planner OR it makes the planner look bad because the client thinks the planner did not communicate with you.

Alisha Silver Photography

Be kind and honest: So simple and so important. We are all here to work for the same goal which is to provide our clients with the absolute best experience possible. If you look at your vendor partners for an event as a team, everyone, including the client, wins.  Another way to ensure honesty is giving credit where credit is due. Make sure to tag and reference vendors associated with an event (not just the planner!) on social media. This continues the teamwork mentality and showcases everyone’s hard work. Lastly, keep in mind the way you represent yourself online. Your language, quality of work, and brand should always shine through. Nothing is more disappointing than realizing that all the photos a vendor shares on Instagram actually do not belong to them and were found on Pinterest. Share your own work and represent yourself in an honest way.

Be informed + proactive: Set aside time to thoroughly read the time lines and information we email you. Nothing is more frustrating to a planner than for a vendor to show up to an event or meeting and be uninformed. If you have an adjustment or recommendation, please share! Planners are all about changes and being flexible, but also do not try to change or question every single detail. Furthermore, be prepared! Print out the information you have been sent. I cannot tell you how many times vendors have shown up to events and expected me to have the information that was sent to them in advance printed out for them. Lastly, look at your process. Forms and questionnaires serve a great purpose when a client does not have a planner. However, do not expect a planner to fill out a tedious worksheet that answers the same questions as our time line and other information you have been sent. This goes back to doing your homework and reading the information sent over.

Cultivating a great planner/vendor relationship is so important. We all work so hard to create a wonderful experience for our clients and joining forces can only make us all better.