This Friday, August 13, 2010 is the last day for Early Bird Registration which saves you $200. Final registration date is August 24, 2010. Added Bonus for September: The first five people to register for the September workshop will receive a wedding book on the first day of class. We are also already busy putting together some goodies for the September Roots Workshop attendees.

More details and registration form on Dallas Wedding Planner.

This is the last workshop scheduled for 2010 so you will not want to miss out of this opportunity.  You can read all of the details for the three day workshop on the website. But hurry, there are only a few spots remaining and the deadline is Friday.  If you are interested and want to attend, email me today at karol@dallasweddingplanner.com about pricing and more details.

Stay tuned because later this summer we’ll be giving away some MagnetStreet Weddings invitations to one lucky bride & groom to be! In the meantime, show your appreciation for their kind donation to our charity by visiting MagnetStreet.com and checking out how you can customize your wedding invitations, save the dates, magnets and much more! Got your eye on some invites? Tell us about it! Giveaway details to follow. And remember, there are many ways you can stay connected with Dallas Wedding Planner… subscribe to our blog feed, become a fan on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Check out one of their images below and visit their website to see more of their wedding photography portfolio. Thanks to GM Photography for supporting Dallas Wedding Planner as we continue to provide timeless information for Dallas/Fort Worth brides plan their wedding day.

We hope you will be joining us to learn the current wedding trends, tips to help your website, pricing your services, how to interview a bride, how to conduct a rehearsal, how to organize your business and much, much more.  We have some great DIY projects for you to pass along to your brides. We have extra door prizes for the July class as well which we are excited about. We love to give away stuff.  Makes us feel like Oprah! We hope you will be able to join us.

You can begin registering now for the July class now at this link.  Register early by June 11, 2010 and receive a $200 savings. Email us at planner@dallasweddingplanner.com regarding sign up and receive a special bonus as well.

One of the most important things we strive to do is establish a relationship with our brides. They are more than just clients to us, by the time we photograph their wedding, we have become friends. We build relationship with our brides and they come back to us for their maternity, baby, and family pictures.

Number of years in business: We have been in business for 2 years and are entering our 3rd year.

How did you get started in your business? We met in college and we both received our Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography in 2004. Karey went on to work with photographers at JC Penny and assisted several prominent photographers. Shauna freelanced with a couple of local newspapers and magazines and did some retouching and restoration work for a local company. Both of us are extremely passionate about photography and wanted to branch out on our own. We had several friends and friends of friends getting married that asked us to photograph their weddings and it really just spiraled from there.

What was the defining moment when you knew this is what you were meant to do? Both of us have always known since we were kids that we wanted a career in photography. We both talk about how we used to run away with our 110mm cameras taking pictures of everything. Thankfully our equipment has vastly improved since then.

Who or what inspires you? Oh geez, there are so many artists and photographers that inspire us. Photographer we love are Richard Avedon, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Irving Penn, Gordon Parks, and Duane Michaels to name a few. We are also really inspired by the locations we shoot at. Locations offer their own moods, vibes, etc. and we play off of that. Ok, we don’t want to sound corny saying this, but our couples are huge inspirations to us. Every couple interacts with each other in their own unique way and we discover what that is and go with it.

Who has been a major influence in your business? Our husbands who have been supportive and encourage us to keep at it.

What is your favorite part of the wedding day? Shauna - My favorite part of the wedding day is when the bride and groom are announced husband and wife, they kiss, then walk down the aisle. You can literally see all the stress dissipate from them. Karey - I love the dancing and seeing the couple let loose.

What is your most favorite place to do a wedding? Honestly, we really don’t have a favorite. We have shot amazing venues and we have some weddings at some fantastic venues coming up. We do feel though no matter how grand or how low-key a venue is, lighting can really transform the space.

If you could choose one place to shoot a destination wedding, where would you be going? Oh this is another really long list. Ok let’s say anywhere in Europe, it’s gorgeous there. We actually have a destination wedding coming up in mid-September in Connecticut, which has been a place we have wanted to shoot at, especially when the leaves are changing.

Do you have a favorite wedding blog or blogs? I think we both agree that Style Me Pretty is one we look at on a regular basis, along with Rock n Roll Bride and of course we blog stalk Dallas Wedding Planner (seriously we do).

What is your favorite industry book or magazine? We both love the photographer magazine, PDN. With regard to wedding magazines we love D Weddings and Grace Ormonde.

What is the best piece of advice that someone shared with you that has helped you in your business? Honestly, just to be yourself and to have fun.

Disclosure: K & S Photography is an advertiser with Dallas Wedding Planner.

Here are some of the highlights of what we will be covering:

• Teach the importance of branding your business and how to implement your brand through more than just advertising.
• Provide you with market research and facts about what’s really going on in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and beyond.
• Cover the current trends in the wedding industry and tips on how to learn to spot trends in the future.
• Discuss the art of selling yourself in your first initial consultation with your potential clients.
• Review the importance of your website and the qualities to include to establish a strong Internet presence.
• Guide you through fee structures, current market pricing, and how to keep in tune with your competition.

Sign up today and get the Early Bird Discount of $200.

Our weekend workshop teaches you what you can’t learn in a book. For example, we don’t instruct you on etiquette because you can go to a bookstore and read Emily Post’s Wedding Etiquette on your own time. We teach you what you can’t learn in a book about weddings – how to interview a bride, how to determine your fee structure, how to write a contract, how to organize your bride’s files – what generally takes years of experience to learn.

This unique course will instill in you the knowledge and confidence to succeed in your own wedding business. An added bonus of this workshop is you have the option of having your business listed on our website to help promote your business on the Internet at no additional cost to you.

You can read all of the specifics and more about the curriculum used in this workshop on the Dallas Wedding Planner website. Also read testimonials of some of the people who have attended the Roots Training Program.

Sign up here before April 1, 2010 and receive the Early Bird Registration discount of $200. Final registration date is April 14, 2010.

If you are a wedding vendor, you are invited to attend the meet & greet cocktail reception being held on Friday, April 16th at the Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia from 7 – 10 pm. The event is a great opportunity to meet and chat with all your favorite wedding bloggers in one place. For more information on registering to attend {and hurry because there are limited spaces!} please click here. We hope to see you in DC next month!

It may seem strange to some people but I think of January and February like many people think of March and April. I love to spring clean in January and February and get all organized for the new year.  Somehow it just makes me feel better and feel like more can be accomplished in a shorter amount of time if everything is organized and in it’s home.  This not only pertains to my personal life and getting my home in order but also Dallas Wedding Planner.  When there are hundreds of emails in the inbox to read and even more that went to junk mail that I need to sift through and see if there is something important in there, it becomes overwhelming and time consuming. There are blog posts to write, phone calls to make, advertisers to work with, workshop preparations to take place and so on. Organization is the tool for my sanity and my business to keep going forward.

If you are a wedding professional, how much clutter is slowing you down?  Do you have hundreds of unread emails in your RSS feed for all of those blogs you signed up for?  Do you have more unread emails in your inbox than you can count and it is easier to just hit delete than read them?

If you are a bride, organization is the key to your sanity when planning a wedding. There are so many decisions to be made and paperwork to keep up with. If you are recently engaged, be sure to read one of our recent posts offering you Twelve Tips to Start Planning your Wedding.

If you are a wedding professional and small business owner, I believe organization is the key to your business running smoothly because you are wearing so many hats in your business.

Dallas Wedding Planner would love to hear from you.  What are you struggling with as you enter in the new year?  What area do you need to tackle during February so you can move forward during the remainder of 2010?

Do you have a tip that you would like to share with other wedding professionals? Do you have a tip that you would like to share with a newly engaged bride to help prevent frustration during her wedding planning?