Featured Vendor - Chandra Keel | Event Designer

We have a new monthly feature that we bring to our blog... we are excited to share tips from some of the best vendors in Arizona.  Our cheerful and very talented featured vendor for the month of October is Chandra Keel.  Chandra is the owner and operator of Chandra Keel | Event Design.  We just recently got to see some of her work in action and she has some amazing ideas to bring to your special day.

The Salad Bar Wedding

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE a good salad bar.  But by the time I hit the end of that line, my plate hardly resembles a healthy salad.  But it all looks so good.  I can’t help but keep piling it on.

Unfortunately, some weddings resemble my salad plate.  There’s SO much to choose from when planning your wedding, and sometimes you may find yourself adding a little of this and a little of that without any thought as to what your ultimate goal is.  And, before you know it, your wedding resembles my trip to the salad bar.  The key to preventing this is in sticking to two rules: 

Have your concept clearly in mind 

Without a clear concept to stick to, you’ll be at that salad bar grabbing anything and everything that looks good.  Determine what you want your wedding to be and hold on to it for dear life.  Create a storyboard and keep it with you so you can refer to it at anytime.  You can easily do this in Word or a similar program by pasting images (worth a thousand words) that reflect your vision and then writing captions for each photo to remind yourself what this photo represents and how you will make it unique to your wedding.  Remember, photos should act as inspiration, not as a blueprint to your concept.  Or hit up your local craft store and browse the fabrics, paper and embellishments and craft a storyboard on heavy cardstock, slip it into a sheet protector and you’ve a storyboard that you can take anywhere with you.  Don’t make decisions on anything until you consult your storyboard.  

Stay true to your budget

Your budget doesn’t like it when you ask too much from it, nor does it like to be surprised.  If you’re trying to fit too much in without the budget to support it, you’re planning process will be painful.  Be realistic from the get-go.  You may have to make sacrifices in some areas (a high guest count is the biggest budget guzzler) but whatever your concept, it can be achieved.  And, albeit a bit of biased advice, a wedding planner WILL be your best friend in this department.  

Stick to these two rules when planning your wedding, and I promise, you’ll never end up with the “salad bar wedding”.