Live from The Lighthouse: Wedding Trends, Tips, and True Stories

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Maggie's fixing herself, so we're not live. We are live. All right, Maggie. Hi. How are doing?

Great. How are you? Good. So welcome to your party. Yes. Welcome to the Lighthouse. So tell us a little bit about what you have planned for everyone here today. So we worked with a planner today and her theme was La Dolce Vita, ⁓ Italian coastal. And so that's what we have today with all of our vendors contributing in that theme. I know everyone worked really hard to make your place very beautiful. It's really pretty here today. Thank you. Thank you. It's not hard to make things look pretty here. No, it's

The view is something else here. it is yeah All right, so tell us a little bit about the lighthouse for those that may not know so we are a privately owned property in a private marina located in Glen Cove, California and We rent it as a full-on property for a full day and you get accommodations upstairs, which is the 3,000 square foot house Yeah, sleep six to eight people or eight to ten depending on how many you want to squeeze in there But it's four bedrooms and then it's a property

So all of the luscious lawns and patio deck and the spanker room that we're in right now. ⁓

I love it. So how many guests can we have here at the lighthouse? So I would say the comfortable max is like 120 ish, but a lot of people really activate the outside areas and we could actually seat 195 out on our West lawn for dinner and then dancing inside because the standing room only 195 so we can really have a really awesome event here and these days, you know, busting people in people can have a rockin party and you know hop on a bus back to

hotels. love it. love it. So what about, ⁓ tell us some tips or tricks that you may have for some couples that are for maybe coming up. So I would say, know, everybody thinks everything costs less than it really does. Yeah, that's true. ⁓ And think of it more of you are planning an epic event to host your best friends and family and you don't want to do it your house. No. So just hire professionals.

No, and I love that you said epic. That's I mean that's it is it's a once-in-a-lifetime event that and I think couples forget that This is the one time in their lives that they will have all these people together in the same room, right? So it why not do it right at the lighthouse, especially now after kovat We're finding a lot of people like during kovat. They couldn't do things. So we're having a lot of like anniversary parties and even baby showers now are like a booming thing. Yeah

had three in the past two weeks and they were like mini weddings because people weren't able to celebrate and gather with family and friends and so that I feel like that was kind of a substitute. So we don't just do weddings here. We do all types of events and it's just nice having a private rental property basically for that special occasion. And it's funny that you said that because now we're starting to get a lot of 25 year, 20 year celebrations and yeah so I think it's

people are really thinking out. We did a 50 year. 50? Yeah. Yeah. I'd love to live to be make it to my 50th anniversary. That's that's that's my goal. I don't know if I'll make it. But yeah, that would that would be great. Well, I mean, I'll have my epic 50th wedding anniversary. it on. We we love our friend. got a long way to go. I got I'm only at 17, so I got a long way to go. Oh, There you go. I love it. I love it. All right. So I love the tips. I love the tricks. So tell us how we can find you and we'll have it in the show notes.

So we are at the Lighthouse GCM com all of our information pricing FAQs facility use policies Preferred partners are all on our website, but we do private tours So just reach out to us and we'd love to show you what we have and tour the property Perfect. We'll have all that in the show notes. So thank you for having us and hosting us You are the most gracious hosts that we know so thank you. Thank you. All right

Now I can drink. Jesse's next.

What did he ask you? Trends? We talked about the party. Yeah, I had to talk about the party in here, but you know Be careful, the party's coming in. You know what?

Hi August, sorry you have to edit this.

Can you hear? you can hear, Test, test, test. You can get comfortable however you want to be. ⁓

All right, Jesse, how are you? good, how are you? Good, welcome to Now I'm Engaged, How Do I Get Married? Tell us a little about you and your company. My name is Jesse, and I've been doing videography for about 15 years ⁓ in the Bay Area. And we specialize in true storytelling. So we're working with our couples for anywhere from two to three days. We really do a deep dive into who they are. I love that. So then what does the end product look like for them?

are you seeing trend-wise for: 2025

Get them in the door, offer a six hour package, price it little bit higher than you normally would, in hopes that they maybe upgrade later. But people are cutting back on expenses. So I would rather make maybe one or $2,000 less on a Saturday, but be working. Yeah, but they'll get something and some memorable piece of the wedding. I love that. All right. So what is, if I'm going to hire Jesse and work with you as a couple, because we're talking to couples right now, what should I expect?

Do we prep ahead of time a lot of meetings on the day of you know, about with the couple? Yeah with the couple Yeah, we just had a couple where we spent we had dinner with them. ⁓ awesome and and on top of that We don't just send a wedding questionnaire to our couples like most photographers and videographers do we send a very deep dive questionnaire It's everything from what's your favorite candy to your favorite movie? Okay, because they start to open up and who they are what their what their hobbies are what they really do at their time Okay

And so then I take all that information and I try to find some way to tie it into the wedding film. I love that. And I go even further. I read the speeches. I read the vows ahead of time. And that way, for instance, we had a couple where the maid of honor in her speech was talking about how she remembers the bride bringing chocolate chip cookies every day in kindergarten. And she would share them with them. OK. And I said, OK, so we brought some chocolate chip cookies to the wedding and had the bride and the maid of honor sit on the couch and eat them together.

story. She's giving her speech about the chocolate chip cookies. We tie that footage into it. I love that because then it's taking it back. That's amazing. So now word like everything's digital now. Gone long gone are the days of DVD. So how do people consume the video that the wonderful videos you make? One of the coolest ways to absorb your footage is one of download to what's called a mediazilla.com. Okay. It's just like a DVD experience. Yeah. So you can send out a link to your family, friends, ⁓

your bridal party and they click on that link, pops up a beautiful photo with some music and you can play movie or you want to see the ceremony or if you want to see a specific speech. Yeah. So and then they can download that and save it on their computer. I love that. And it's a very interactive way of experiencing it on your big TV. You can watch it on your phone now. I'm on your phone wherever you are. You can put that app on your 75 inch big screen TV and share it with all your family and friends. That's awesome.

resolution. I love that. That's amazing. Alright, so Jesse, how do we get couples to contact you, hire you for their big day? They can find me at loveuniquestudios.com and that's the same for my Instagram. Alright, perfect. We'll have all that in the show notes, but before you go, I want you to tell us a story, something memorable that you remember from a wedding. Memorable story. I'm putting you on the spot. Yeah, we filmed a wedding. We're at the prep.

She let us have our rings. We filmed the rings. We set them back on the table.

went on with our day. get just 10 minutes for the ceremony. They can't find the rings. no. They left him at the hotel ⁓ and staff broke into the hotel and took them and they had the guy on video doing it. ⁓ that's amazing. But at first they were thinking it was us. Yeah, that's an uncomfortable feeling. exactly. But thankfully they were there and it wasn't Jesse. So all right. Well, Jesse, we will make sure to have all the information in the show notes and thanks for being here today. Thanks for having me. All right. Perfect.

Thank you, Jesse. Yeah, yeah. That's awesome.

Talk about whatever you want to talk about. Do we want to talk about some of those NACE meetings? Yeah, look. my god. We're good to go?

All right. So first next Diana, this is your maiden voyage on now that I'm engaged. How do get married? So thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. Yes. We're to have to have you do a full episode. You promise? Yes. I want to do it. OK, we're going to have you on doing a full episode. But before we get going, let the couples know who you are, what you do. OK, how did you get here today? it's been a long time coming. So been in the business for 15 years with Napa Valley Linens in August. And we do specialty linens.

and we have over a thousand different linens. That's amazing. So we make the event very pretty. I love that. All right. So and we deliver all over the world, right? We do. We have shipped internationally. Yeah. But we do deliver nationwide and then we deliver by van in the Bay Area. I love it. I love it. All right. What are some of the trends and things you're seeing with linens right now? Well,

You know, everything has been... First we were in the blush era. Yeah, we were. I feel like we are out of the blush era. Every once in a while it pops in. And then we went to the neutral era. Yeah, we did. We're still very neutral. But this year, I've noticed people wanting to add a little more color and pattern, which a lot of couples are afraid of pattern and colors. They just want to do, oh, I'll just do ivory. Or I'll just do that's behind us. Yes. Yeah.

And for people in the industry that are designers, it's like, we could do so much more. And so it's very exciting when we have somebody that wants to do pattern and color. And it's the most square footage of color you're going to add to a room. If you add up the square footage of every table, that's the most square footage of pattern or color you're adding to your space. So if you're looking to add color, is the best way. Linen's the best way. Biggest bang for your buck, and the biggest way.

to see anything changing for: 2026

This is great. It's not an ivory or it's not a flax or neutral or beige. So loving that. That is that. No, that's a lot of fun. So now tell us a crazy linen story that you may have. God, a crazy linen story? there's got to be a crazy linen story. We've had some gross linen stories, which I won't share. Yeah, please don't. ⁓

Crazy linen story. You know, we're just so good. Truly. Because people say, you know, they don't want to have a linen shortage. Yeah. We never short a linen. Yeah. If there's ever a shortage, it's because they didn't order right. Yeah. So as far as crazy, you know, I can't think of a crazy off the hook on that one. And story. Yeah. Can't think of anything. All right. How about then I'm going to say your favorite linen story or your favorite, like,

taking back to a memorable event.

memorable event. It would probably be when I first started. I wanted to overly help the people. So I had a client who was a planner and we made this beautiful event at Wente. ⁓ And she's like, Diana, do you think you could come help me set it up? Well, we don't do that. That's what the people at Wente do. They're staff. that's when they know how to do. That's when they did it all. So I was like,

Sure. And I show up and I help do the whole setup, which is not a part of my job. I'm in sales, not set up. And the Wente people were looking at me like I was a little nuts. Why are you here, Diana type of thing. And I was like, oh, I'm just trying to be helpful and nice to this planner who was also new and naive. And we just had a connection and she wanted me there, I think. So that would be one of my first, I mean, that was like one of my first big events.

I love that so and I just wanted to be so helpful. I love that. Yeah. All right. So tell us how we find you How do we get Napa Valley linens? How do we get some bold color coming to our wedding? Let's talk about color. So we ⁓ It's envy linens calm for our website to look you get a sneak peek. all of our linens

If you're in the industry, you can call me. We can set up a meeting and you can order directly from me. Instagram, course, Napa Valley Linens on Instagram. We're on Facebook, not as much, but Instagram for sure. So yeah, it's pretty easy. You could email me directly at dcardinas at nvlinens.com.

And would love to help you out. All right, perfect. So real quick, I want to grab it since we have you. Yeah. What is if I'm a bride or a couple getting married, where do they they start with the website? But how do they really do they get to come to the showroom? They can. OK, it's funny, though. A lot of people do not come to the showroom anymore. Really used to so we used to do all the time. I would meet with clients and now they just want to see pictures. So I said I send them links to pictures.

Or I send them swatches and they're happy with swatches. I think since COVID, COVID has changed us. I have probably met in the showroom five clients in the last five years. Wow. I'm starting to see a little bit of a trend of them starting to come back. Okay. That would be nice. Yeah. Yeah. I like to see the people. Yes, it is nice. You get a little more hands on. And you get to know a little bit more about them. Yeah. So now it's like phone conversations. That's such a lot of emails.

emails, even people text me and then we're mailing them swatches and they usually go from there. I love it. Yeah, we're, but you know, I like to help whatever is more convenient for them. I love it. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Well, thank you for being here at the Lighthouse today. Thank you for sharing all your information. We'll be sure to tag you and then we'll, you know, get you on the show. Yeah, it'll be good. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Cheers.

you

Is this visually recorded? ⁓

you're fine.

All right, so welcome to Now Let Them Get You How To Get Married. Tell us a little bit about yourself, Belinda, your company. Hi, well, I'm Belinda. My business is Lucky Orca Designs, and I do weddings, stationery, and signage. So I work with couples and planners, making anything from invitations to their day of pieces.

⁓ welcome signs, seating charts, place cards, menus, anything that can be designed.

with them to print it. Yeah. The CD chart sounds stressful because that was the most the craziest part when I got married. That was the hardest thing to do is to put everyone at a table. So that must be stressful for you. Wait, we moved them to table 14 and now they're you know. Yeah, there could be a lot of moving parts for that. I feel like I'm I'm pretty flexible. know things can change like two weeks before a wedding. So I try to be as flexible as possible. I love it. I love it.

couples that are going on for: 2025

2026 I see a lot more I don't know fun creative designs going to stationary at least I don't know let me think how to explain that because I feel like people who are looking for templates kind of have that more

I don't want to say stiff, but it's a very elegant, very refined look. But now I see a trend of people wanting more handwritten looks. Personalized maybe. Yeah. Personalized, having their pets involved in their wedding. Lots of pets. And that's always really fun. Having a little portrait of themselves with their venue.

favorite date spot. It's just like having more who they are as a couple into their stationery. I love that. That's like where I come in. I love hearing couple stories so I can incorporate that into their wedding day. Okay, I love that. So what would tips or tricks would you tell the couples when if we're hiring someone like yourself to do stationary signage? Like what do we need to do to be prepared? What do we need to know?

When you're thinking about stationery, I really think figure out what is your priority in terms of do you want, as cost a priority, personalize things that you want to share with your guests that are coming to your wedding because that all kind of factors into what your stationery is going to look like.

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you

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Any tips? Yeah, think about that, guess, upfront. OK. And I guess it just helps with the planning process, because then you don't have to come down to the cost later and then be like, I need to take back everything. Yeah. So. Yeah, that makes sense. What about a memorable sign or something that you've done for a couple that just still sticks with you today?

did really recent is of a couple that wanted a little portrait of them with their dog with their wedding venue for the invitation. Oh, like very personal, very personal. Like you're giving an intro to your guests of like where the wedding setting is going to be. Obviously, you know who the couple is, but it's just it just feels more personal. Even with like the dog in it, it's like, you know, this couple, you know, the.

things so it felt very special to create a whole look for the first thing that your guests are gonna look at. I love that and I think that the couples nowadays they start with dogs before they start with kids and to make sure that they can get get through it so yes we're seeing more and I that. Alright Belinda tell our listeners how to get in touch with you we'll have it in the show notes but what's the best way to find you find your work?

best way I would say Instagram has all my latest work on there that I showcase. I don't really update my website too often. ⁓ My Instagram, at Lucky Orchid Designs, or reach out to me by email. All right. Yeah. I love it. Well, thank you for being here today, Saren, sharing some tips and tricks. And we'll be sure to tag you in the show notes. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Hi. How are you?

All right, you ready? I'm ready. right, welcome to Now That I'm Engaged, How to Get Married. ⁓ Kathy, tell us a little bit about yourself and your company. So I'm Kathy Newby. I've been doing rentals for 30 years, and I'm currently with AFR Furniture Rental. We're a national company, and we specialize in luxury lounge furniture and accessories to do your special events. I love it. And I follow you on Instagram, so I see all your beautiful work and all the cool designs. mean, I feel like you're constantly

constantly pushing the envelope when it comes to new furniture, new looks. We're always trying to do that. We're waiting for a bunch of new products to come in right now, but tariffs have kind of slowed us down a little bit. yeah, I mean, we help design, we collaborate with the clients, we do 2D and 3D renderings so that clients can actually see what the product's going to look like in their space. Oh, I love that. Our products are in Prism, which is now owned by Seabend.

Yeah, and so we we have all of our furniture in there and it's great. So we go in and people go we don't like it this can you move it here? don't like that color combination Yeah, we're always trying to you know, push the envelope and do things that are creative and just not so cookie cutter No, I love yeah, cuz why it's boring to do the same thing all the time Yeah, either colors or trends that you're seeing in the furniture right now right now wood tones are very popular Okay, so we just got a new line of ⁓ coffee

tables, end tables, bar tables, and dining tables. Wow. So they're wood slatted bases. And we have a new line of what we call pub tables. So standing height, square tables, and rectangular tables. So wood tones. We just got some new modular sectional sofas in a beautiful sage green. wow. Which can be done like with a dining table. So do some seated on the sofa.

some regular dining chairs on the other side. now are you seeing people mismatching a lot or having fun with that? ⁓

⁓ Sometimes they're afraid to like think out of the box like no we can't do half and half and it's like well why not? Yeah why not is right. Definitely. I love it. And then some new high back sofas ⁓ which again are all modular so they can be used as armless chairs or you can put them together to make sofas. So we have a lot of modular furniture which kind of helps people think outside of the box sometimes because they think a sofa is a sofa.

to be a sofa. You can do a grouping with club chairs. Yeah, I love that. Now, are you seeing, like you mentioned pub chairs, a lot of high-low stuff? Yeah, definitely. And we do a lot of corporate work too beside social events. So what's really popular for like... ⁓

general sessions is the communal tables in the back with bar stools. Then sometimes they'll bring in maybe hotel tables and then they'll do soft seating in the front. I love that. Yeah. So it's being able to like, you know, give people a view without, you know, having to come in and build risers. Yeah. And then you can give people option. Are they to be more comfortable in the soft or go up and the guy that can't stop doing his email in the back? I that. love that. Okay. So any other trends? Do we hit them all?

I feel like pretty much. Okay. So yeah, just the wood tones are really really popular. I the wood tones That sounds yeah, would be nice because we just had Diana on from Napa Valley. She's starting to say bold colors They're starting to come back. So wood tones with a bold color would look really cool. So yeah, we've got a couple different lines We have a ⁓ mango bright orange line Wow Penelope, which is like a chartreuse. Yeah. Yeah, we do have some ⁓ Bright colors as well as some really, you know traditional things. you know

Bye!

Again, people are hard from changing their minds on stuff. So yeah, I want a white chair. It's like you can have a white chair I know it's funny because they always come back to the yeah to the neutrals. Yeah, yeah, they really do They're like I want color and then here we are the but we can you can certainly do all that But let's bring in the pop of color with pillows. ⁓ do that, too I just did an event where it was all white furniture and we brought in the company colors with the pillows I love that. That's a good fun. Look in a way to bring in a little bit of color

little bit of pop. right, Kathy, how do we get in contact with you and hire you for tons of furniture? So it's knewby at rentfurniture.com and our website is afrevents.com. All right, perfect. We'll make sure to have all that in the show notes. Thank you for being here today. Appreciate it. Bye.

All right, grab your microphone. Can you hear us, Lindsey? Hey, girl, hey. All right, we're ready. All right, Diana, tell us a little bit about yourself. Well, first off, welcome to NetherEngage. How do we get married? Tell us a little bit about yourself and your company.

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Hey hey hey! ⁓

So I'm Diana, I have two brands. So I have Dia Photography that focuses on weddings and like family portraits and then I have Lumina Studio which focuses more on like headshots, corporate events ⁓ and brands.

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I love it. Okay, so we're here at the lighthouse. We're talking to couples on our What are you seeing when it comes to 2026? Like what are they looking for out of a photographer? Full service,

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full service.

Video and photo with one person. think it's been they want to deal with like people who are offering everything together versus hiring multiple vendors to make it a little easier on them, which is why I added a videographer to my team this year. Okay, because that's what I was saying. and then getting them connected with under other vendors as well. Okay, that's what I mean. That's kind of always been a thing.

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Yeah. ⁓

Yeah,

yeah, I love that. So now for target is engagement session. So I'm 17 years ago. I got married. It's been a long time. I'm sure a lot has changed So what like everything digital I'm assuming some like our albums still

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So album albums are still thing. Okay, what I've been seeing like on wedding days though, so I've been starting at proposals now ⁓ so I go from proposal to engagement to wedding And then the new thing is that people aren't doing like first looks anymore. They're doing like a first touch so they're like Coming up like walking backwards, right or like depending on where we're at Like ones on one wall and ones on another and they're just kind of like holding hands

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Well, that's exciting.

my god.

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reading their vows to each other. So they're not seeing each other. They're just like, they're calling it a first touch.

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Okay, I've never heard that, so I love that. I'm learning, you're teaching me today. So, okay, but that's a very intimate moment for you to capture, right? A lot of crying, a lot of tears. Okay, and are you crying along with them? I love it. Okay, so now when it comes to photography, is it still you or multiple people? Like, how many people does it take to shoot a wedding?

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I'm trying not to.

So typically I always have a secondary person. think that any wedding that has over 80 people, I require a second person. Just because I can't, I mean although I want to be at two places at once, I can't. I need, I'm still trying to.

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You haven't taught yourself how to clone yourself yet? Still working on that

one.

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But yeah anything over to anything over 80 people requires two photographers and that just comes included in my package Okay, even a add-on it's just it's part of it just because I want to be able to all the missed moments that the couples don't get to be a part of like especially during cocktail hour ⁓ or during their First dance or their you know, the speeches and stuff there. They can't see everything all at one time

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Yeah,

so now if you start with them at proposal it sounds like okay, so how do we know? Like how far out do they reach out to hire for proposal?

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You know, it's been changing up recently for proposals. Like I have sometimes people reaching out to me like sometimes like three to six months in advance for proposals. Not for the wedding.

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That's crazy. Yeah,

but that's that's crazy because how do you know that far out? Like that's a long time to wait to ask someone.

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But I just had a recent one that I just did in San Jose. He reached out to me a week before. goodness I was still available. But that was like on the golf course. They were golfing and it was like on the ninth hole.

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wow.

Did you have to sneak in? and so you had to be like paparazzi? That is amazing. It was cool. That is kind of... and did he arrange with the golf course so no one thought you were crazy? Yeah. All right. That is amazing. So you were there to capture that moment. All right. So tell us a memorable wedding or something that happened at a wedding that you can't... that's in the brain that you can't forget. can be yours.

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I'm

Can it be mine?

Okay, so I'm Latina, I'm Mexican, and I married my husband who is Irish. So the mixing of the cultures is pretty interesting. So in Mexican culture, we have something called ⁓ La Viva de la Mar. I think that you've probably done some Mexican weddings. So it's where the bride and groom stand up on these chairs and the women usually tend to go first and they, get kind of like a veil and everybody kind of like dances around the veil and they're kind of like running.

The men go next after the women and the goal is to kind of knock the groom off of the chair and there's two other guys that are holding him up as this is happening so that was probably like one of my favorite moments at the wedding just because his family really committed to it.

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Yeah.

They were they were all in

did they knock him off or did he survive? That's good. That's good That would be horrible to get knocked off. All right, so now you do propose I'm stuck on the proposal thing cuz I'm blown away But have you ever have you seen a no yet? No, yeah, cuz that would be horrible to have you there and have it on video and photo footage of someone saying no, so

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No. Thank God.

I've almost missed one because I drove, what was it, Point Reyes? It was like two hours, so I live in the Bay Area, Union City. I drove two hours north to a beach and I didn't get a selfie of the couple for whatever reason because it's a really secluded beach. I like, I don't need a selfie of them. They're gonna be the only ones walking up. It's like a mile in and they walk up and they have their dog, but as they walk up,

There's also a couple right behind them that also has a dog and they start going in different directions

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Oh crap. Oh, she's right. Oh,

God. I was like, you had to come in at that moment.

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I the right couple because I remembered the description of the dog. Do you? I remembered the description of the dog. Otherwise that would have ended badly. But lesson learned, always get a selfie no matter what.

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Did you?

Yeah,

there you go. then, speaking of dogs, I've heard dogs a couple times as we've been interviewing people here today. More more people are including the animals. Yes, I love it. I love it too.

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My

last wedding had their dog, they had a dog sitter on location just so he didn't have to be at the party. So he was there for the ceremony and then they let the dog walk or take him back to the bridal suite and then he was coming in and out throughout the day. So that was really cool.

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That's

really good and we actually on the Now language how to get married a podcast we had someone that specializes in pet sitting at weddings So it's but she's on the East Coast Yeah, so I would love to see something like that over here because I feel like we all love our dogs They're all like part of the family and they all need to be included on the

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yeah, we need that on the west coast.

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So tips on the day of, hair, makeup important, what do I need to do to make sure I'm ready to go for my big day, the wedding?

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for the wedding, have a planner or a coordinator. That is like, it just makes the family's day easy, the bride and groom's day easy. When you have a friend doing it, I'm sorry, it just, doesn't work. Having the coordinator the day of is the key.

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a must.

Yeah. Yeah.

All

right, well there you go. We love it. All right, well how do we get in contact? How do we find you? ⁓

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So

on Instagram, ⁓ I'm at underscore Dia photography underscore. And then for my corporate events, I'm at lumina.studio co.

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Okay,

and we'll have all that in the show notes for you. And what about a website?

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Our website is diafotographyco.com and luminastudioco.com.

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Perfect. We'll have

all that in the show notes. Thank you for being here today. Thank you. All right. Bye

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you made that so much.

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Can you hear us? I like the giggle in your eye. You were like giggling at us. It was funny. All right, so welcome, Laurence, and now that I'm engaged, how do I get married? Thank you, Kevin. Tell our listeners a little bit about yourself, what you do.

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Are we live?

Okay,

my name is Lauren. also go by Lo. So I am with Lo and Behold Events. And I do event planning and coordinating. So weddings, private parties, corporate affairs. You're ready to party? I'm ready to take you there.

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Alright,

we're talking a bride, tell us what are you seeing when it comes to a wedding? When are they starting with you?

(: 43:04

Well, that's actually kind funny because I was going to say one of the things that I'm finding right now is I feel like a lot of people are kind of coming to their vendors later. I agree. Really short term turnaround. So I guess my advice would be plan early. Give us as much time as possible. So, I think whether it's a trend of generations right now or a trend with the economy and society where we're at right now, it feels like a lot of people are kind of waiting to book things or it feels like they're looking for things kind of short term, which, you know, it's fine as long as we're all available, but especially

Especially as a planner, I like to have a lot more time.

(: 43:36

And I

tell the couples when you come last minute, instead of having A to Z options, you may have A to D. You have less options.

(: 43:46

More limited. Yeah, it's harder to get the venue you want the vendors you want the exact looking vibe you want ⁓ But you know, I guess if you are kind of budget hunting you might be a great way to find some vendors who are trying to fill some holes and spaces there but personally as a planner who again is trying to help you find your venue help you find your vendors get your date and all of that set in as much time as we have is great, so At least a year would be nice

(: 44:09

Yeah,

ust had our first booking for: 2027

(: 44:17

I was like

Will my prices even be the same? ⁓

Yeah, so, you know, I think it's always great having a client that trusts you, that comes to you and says, you know, isn't trying to nitpick everything. Like, we love you to be involved. Like, I want you to pick the decor you want or choose the napkin fold you want if you are that detail-oriented. But I also want you to trust that we are the professionals and that we've been doing this for a really long time and we are here to take care of you and make sure that your story is told the way you want it to and to trust us as the vendors that have the experience.

⁓ So that's kind of always what I'm looking for in a client. But for me personally, like, I'm about the fun, I'm about the party, I'm about the uniqueness and the unique experience and particularly the guest experience. So I like somebody who wants to have fun and do something kind of out of the box and non-traditional.

(: 45:24

We see the same thing over and over again, so it's fun when they're pushing us to do something different.

(: 45:31

Okay.

Yeah, like I love

if you want your wedding to be like a music festival or a rock show and we get your whole party in a bus and we take them over to the Great American Music Hall or somewhere where we're basically then setting up your reception to be like a rock concert or you're doing a really immersive theme situation. I had someone who did a ⁓ greatest showman circus style wedding and all of the bridal party was a different character and they marched into the song and you know it was just a lot of fun and it really told their story and

and made it a super unique experience.

(: 46:03

Talk

about it. Yeah, I was gonna say right now it's about guests. I'm a big believer guest experience is key. Yep. And the more you can give your guests, the more memorable your wedding. Yeah, mean, and I got married 17 years ago and we did late night snacks. Yeah. And it was like it was unheard of back then. We also got married on New Year's Eve. So I wanted drunk food. So that's what it was all about. But so but still to this day, I run into people that were at our wedding. They're like, you have the best food just kept coming. You know, so it's guest experience. I think it's all about guests.

(: 46:10

Absolutely.

ate night munchies we did for: 1030

(: 46:51

seconds.

favorite part of the job? What is your favorite part of working with couples?

(: 47:05

I really love being there at the event in the wedding. Like, I'm a girl who will cry every time the daddy-daughter dance is going on. I love watching you guys get on the dance floor with your family. ⁓ You know, I'll be there to start the dance party if it comes to it, if you feel like your family's sitting around. So I really like to be there in the moment and watching everyone enjoy this project that we've been working on for hopefully at least a year. ⁓

But being there to see the whole experience come together and watching everybody enjoy that, that's kind of what I'm doing at all.

(: 47:41

It wasn't until I had kids, but now that I have kids, I start crying at weddings when the parents are talking about the... And I'm like, it's just because I can relate and I can see myself in that.

(: 47:51

Yeah, absolutely. And same, like I lost my dad in 2020 right before my wedding. So it was something I had always dreamed of having my dance with him walking down the aisle. so especially getting to see people like have that. But that's also like that's something now that I can bring to the table of, know, just a couple of weeks ago, I was with my bride right before she walks down the aisle there with her dad. And I'm like, remember, this is a very special moment. And like, you're a very lucky girl. Your daddy is here with you. He gets to walk you down. And sometimes those little pep talks for them help kind of bring them into the moment.

Yeah, them down, bring them into the moment, make them focus on again the emotion that they're feeling there and that connection that they have there. And then yeah, I'm just sobbing off in the corner during Daddy.

(: 48:21

down.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I

agree. I agree. I'm sorry. So all right. So now that we've gone through there, you're seeing any trends in weddings right now?

(: 48:40

gosh, I mean, I feel like the trend that I like right now is kind of like we tapped on is uniqueness. It's doing it your way is, you know, I think we can all get caught up in the details and the little things there, but I feel like those details have to speak to you and your story. So everybody may have the special glassware or the champagne tower or whatever it is. But if that champagne tower is for loco because you guys met drunk on a four loco night, you know, like that's what makes it.

versus just the trend that everybody's doing. So I love the things that are there but that are still unique in a way. And then other than that, trendy for me, I love lighting. I love how lighting, and you especially know this, I love how lighting can completely transform a room. And it can be a really easy thing to bring in, to zhuzh up a space, to give life to a space, to change color to it. You can do the floods, or I'm blanking on where you do the fill on the walls.

The light fills on the wall. just really transforming a space with lighting is where I'm at right now. And I'm a big music festival person, concert person, so I love that kind of immersive lighting experience and seeing how we can translate that into events and parties and weddings. And it It makes it more fun. Yeah, exactly.

(: 49:58

Perfect. So Lauren, how do we get in contact with you? How do we find you?

(: 50:02

You can find me

on Instagram at lowandbehold.events. That's L-O for low. You can email me low at lowandbeholdevents.com ⁓ or find me at my website lowandbehold.events.

(: 50:17

We'll have it

all in the show notes and we'll make sure to tag you and all the good stuff. So thank you for being on here. And I guess I will have to start calling you low because I've always called you Lauren.

(: 50:24

You know, it goes by about the birth name was Lauren, but Lo is just sometimes the way to...

(: 50:29

It's

the easier way. All right. Thank you for being on here.

(: 50:32

Thank you

for being here, Kevin. Cheers.

you

(: 52:22

I liked your latest reel. You did like the collage. I was like, where's the socks? Where's the socks? We didn't get that far. All right. So Gina, welcome to another, to our episode of Now That I'm Gay, How to Get Married. We're doing it live, as you know here at the lighthouse. But tell us a little about yourself and how we got you here today. Okay, Kevin, thank you for having me here. Of course. ⁓

I'm just, you know, it's like the theme is ⁓ Italy and I was in Italy two years ago. ⁓ And it's just like, my goodness, it brings back a lot of memories. But ⁓ my name is Gina Lettsch-Risbury and I am the owner and founder, CEO, Chief Creative Officer. you janitor too? I'm the janitor too. Inspirations by Gina, Floral and Event Design. And I actually started off as a wedding planner.

Back in: 2008

orals, what are we seeing for: 2025

people flying in from all over the world. Yeah. I mean people are really scaling back. Okay. They're looking at sustainability. They're looking at local. They want fresh. But also they want someone who has expertise. Okay. You know that understands the couple. Okay. You know what they're looking for. You know just picking up on those little nuances with the couple and then bringing it to the wedding. Okay. So everything is more customized. I love that. Yeah. Okay. Are we seeing a color for

this year? You know it's surprising there's still a lot of bright colors out there. Okay.

But for some reason, I get a lot of green and white weddings. I was just saying, I'm seeing a lot of green. Like garden, green. Yes, yes. Everyone's looking for greenery and white roses, white peonies, dahlias. They want, you know, they still want volume. Yeah. And they wanted to reflect who they are. OK, I love that. Yeah. Now, so it's funny you said greenery. I always think of that's the weed from Texas, the Smilax weed. No, I have a whole

bunch of it in my cooler. Oh, do you really? Actually, that is that's still on trend. Yes. And it cracks me up because one day I was working with a florist and they were putting some greenery on our chandelier and I was helping her and I was like FedEx like it was coming out of it. And I'm like, oh, yeah. Texas. What the hell is this? Oh, yes. And she goes, oh, it's coveted and it's a weed that only grows apparently. But it's beautiful. My suppliers are going to get mad at me, but it's mainly in Texas. It's in the southern states.

Texas, Mississippi, ⁓ Alabama. Crazy, right? And it grows in wooded areas. Okay. And it wraps itself around a tree. And it could go up as tall as 160 feet. but it's beautiful. It's beautiful, yes. But it's a weed. Who knew? Well, so are orchids in Hawaii. Are they really? Yes. I did not know that. the orchids in Hawaii, they grow on the trees.

Well, I'm going there next week, so I'm going have to look. I know. You'll

now. my god. Yes, they grow on the ground. mean, it's just they grow everywhere. They grow everywhere. That's crazy. My uncle had like ⁓ hundreds of orchid plants and he kept that was his like pet. I think it kept him away from my aunt and kept him insane but it was his he loved his orchid plants but he had them take them apart, breed them, the whole thing. was crazy. He would love it. I tried so much fun. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. You gotta be retired. Yeah, he was retired. exactly. Yeah, kept him busy. Alright, so what memorable

something that happened that was fun that you can take us to? Actually, it happened here at the lighthouse. that's okay. It was last October. Wonderful cuppy couple. Izzy and Maggie. Sorry, Izzy and Maggie, if you're listening. But Maggie came up

to the lighthouse in a canoe. canoe? A canoe. That is cool. And her father rode the canoe. that's memorable. the hair and makeup person posted it on TikTok. It went viral. ⁓ I bet it did. It sounds so cool. And both the brides had on just beautiful, colorful...

(: 57:27

⁓

(: 57:47

⁓ attire and for me Just meeting with them. I said, okay this wedding is gonna be Betsy Johnson. Yeah meets Bridgerton. And they loved it Wow. All right. I love that's one of one of my most memorable weddings as a designer the other

memorable one was when I was still a planner and I had a bride walk down the aisle singing to her groom. no way. Because when she told me she was going to do that and she was going to be you know she was going to the studio and take on yeah yeah okay whatever. But she was good. She was really good. ⁓ like.

being on American Idol good. wow. Because I think sometimes when we hear, I want to sing, you automatically go to the right. Right. Exactly. You think, my goodness. But she belted. mean, it was my job dropped. I love it. I love it. All right. Can you give the listener some tips and tricks about working with a florist? What's OK. So ⁓ I'm going to kind of dress the DIY. OK, because I know a lot of people kind of like DIY. Yeah. There's nothing wrong with that. No.

It's just you really have to prepare. Yes, and And it's stressful on other vendors. It's stressful enough to try to do your flowers the night before your wedding. Don't do that. Yeah, don't do that. No. ⁓ If nothing else, if you can't afford a florist, at least get some higher florist to give you some guidance. I love it. to teach you what you need to do. Yeah. Because sometimes something looks beautiful like a

peony I want all peonies but peonies they don't last very long ⁓ they don't last in the Sun hydrangeas yeah yeah so you gotta know what you're dealing with you got to know what you're dealing with now if you want to hire a florist like myself I mean there's questions that you need to not only ask the florist you know

Just ask pertinent questions. How much does it cost? And if you are shopping, going around shopping for a forest, remember that everybody's pricing is different based on their business model. Just because someone is $2 cheaper or $2 more, I'm not saying they're good, I'm not saying they're bad. You're comparing apples to oranges.

are. It's really and I think that's across that's what makes it really difficult for everyone in the wedding industry when they're comparing whether it's a band, know, caterer, whatever. You're comparing apples to oranges when you go. Exactly. Yeah, you really are. So yes. Yeah, I love that. All right. So as we close, I want you to like think back. Well, you told us a funny wedding, but like and you did the tips and tricks. I think we did it all. Now that I think about it. Yeah, we hit it all. So how how do folks get in contact with you? So

What they can do is they can definitely find me on Instagram. Okay. At inspirations by Gina. Okay. Or they can go to my website, inspirationsbygina.com. I love it. And there's some amazing photos, but I don't have everything that I've done on there. And Instagram probably is a good place. It's a good start. You know, you can look at Facebook. I don't have really have a presence on TikTok. Yeah. Thread I'm kind of getting into, but it's mainly Instagram. Yeah.

-: 9070

Just give it a little honk? Just a little honk, but there's also a QR code that you can scan. it really? And it will take you to my website. I love that. All right. Well, thank you, Gina, for being here today. Thank you, Kevin. All right. You were great.

(: 1:02:10

would be phenomenal.

(: 1:03:11

Thank you.

(: 1:04:38

The camera, right?

(: 1:04:41

Check check mic check mic mic mic. All right, you ready? I'm ready. All righty. So JD tell me about the section. I'm All right, we're start live anymore this no, we're not live it does this microphone actually work though It does ask well Lindsay heard you in the headphones

(: 1:05:01

you

(: 1:05:02

Check mic, mic check. Tell her her hair sucks. Lindsay, wait to see you in the salon. I know, that's why I'm saying that. We'll see you on Thursday.

All right. All right, JD. Welcome to now that I'm engaged, how do I get married? So you've been wanting you on the pod for a long time. And we had to wrangle you and wrestle you to get you over here. But tell us a little bit about yourself and in your company. Perfect. So I'm the owner of status salon and beauty agency. So we have a full service salon located in Livermore, California. And then our agency specializes in bridal hair and makeup. And we travel all over. And we actually just officially launched our East Coast team.

East Coast? Yes. I love it. I know. for you. Congratulations. Thanks. We're super excited. It's been a mission. So if I'm a bride or a couple, want to get married, what are things that I need to know when it comes to hiring a makeup artist? Absolutely. think the biggest thing is going with what you're truly attracted to. So don't settle. if you can see the people's work. Instagram is so great now because it has like an active real life gallery. mean, websites are great, but we update them.

(: 1:05:55

Yeah.

(: 1:06:11

every day and if an artist is truly committed to their social media platform and like utilizing that, you can see their work immediately so you know that they're gonna be a great fit. And that's part of what we do when I have all my calls with our brides. We connect with them and get to know what their inspiration is and then I'm able to pair them and say like, okay, great, this artist is perfect for you. She specializes in this look. I love it. being like trying to narrow it down, but trusting the professional. right. So is it important to do a trial?

has been a huge topic. Yes. was that big thing that happened on social media. So I interviewed that. Yes, I interviewed with the girl that took off the makeup. Yes. OK, so I interviewed the makeup artist. ⁓

business coach and we talked about the whole thing. Yeah. So I thought about, I don't know why I thought about you, but I was like, poor JD. That's all. We all felt that way. We actually had like a big group meeting or individual meetings with all of our artists. Like if in the event, here's how we can prevent this stuff. So trial runs definitely help. I believe she had a preview. Yeah. So I think that, um, you know, a trial run is really helpful for them to get to meet the artists ahead of time and make sure that that connection's great too. And also like

with us, like we're okay to say no. ⁓ okay. if our artist feels like it's not a good connection or the bride felt like it wasn't a good connection. Yeah. It's important. We spend the most verbal time with brides on their wedding day. You do. completely set the mood. Yeah. The stage. So I think it's really important for that connection when we first talk and the trial to be so intimate. Well, and I'm probably honest. You need honesty. Yes. That's the best part. Yeah. And that's what's hard too. I think that a lot of people are people pleasers and they're scared to voice their opinion.

And then when you have like a bridesmaid or a mom or...

just someone who, instead of supporting, wants to kind of like push the buttons. It can really put a bride already in emotional state just over the edge. Well, it's great because you guys sometimes are starting with these bridal parties, 4 a.m. or crazy, crazy a.m. times because they have early morning weddings and all that stuff because it's some like I just did an Indian wedding last summer and we had the ceremony at 8 o'clock and the bride got up at 3. Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, we start super early. So we're not only that, but getting them

energized. Well, I'm saying you gotta bring the energy. Yeah, and them going. So is it, does it determine how many bright or how many people were doing the makeup for how many artists we need? Yeah, yeah. So the timeline, we work with the event planner directly and the photographer and coordinate with them like counting backwards of what's needed. And because we've been doing it for so long, we had the timeline set pretty well with the buffer. But we count backwards and we try to not ever have beauty prep be over six

wow. Okay for every time it's gonna hit that we bring out another artist Okay, so that's like a perk with the agency because we have so many artists to work and it's not additional It's just part of booking through the age and how long does it take on the morning up for? So usually if it's the bride we allot two to three hours. It just depends on the overall look Okay, and then like if the bridesmaids are Lindsey's getting her hair and makeup. Yeah, it's 45 minutes per service Okay, and she's actually been a bridesmaid of ours to which is really fun. She's easy

Alright, so trends we talked about what about like so the booking process how do we go through it we went through anything we're missing when it comes to

Yeah, think that with, mean, trends are huge. making sure that the trend is still something that's you. Because I think sometimes we found with trial runs, a bride will do what's trending and they don't like it and they want to do another trial run and everything adds up. So it's like trusting, you know, not only the trend and yes, it's beautiful, but also being the best version of yourself. That's definitely something we Is it a good idea to come in with ideas what I'm like ahead of time? Yeah, something what you like. We tell them to similar

features so like if you're light-eyed don't pick some with dark eyes because the makeup will reflect differently okay and then we also create a mood board for our bride so we get their wedding dress we get any inspirations from them and we just let them visually see it and then our artists will also brainstorm as well with them so I love yeah it's really fun all right any crazy memorable moments that you have that you could share

We have a really funny one. The bride, we were in Tahoe. Okay. And we had this beautiful bay window similar to this one and we're watching the bride and the groom do a first look. She had a beautiful sleek updo and they get on a boat.

Uh-oh. Oh, Oh, and... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

on a boat. no one told us about the boat. No one told us about the boat. That's funny. Yeah, but so far it's been, season's been good. All right. No madness. I love that. And is it more fun to do on location or I guess easier for you on location or in your studio? great question. We, our artists definitely love the bridal suite that we offer ⁓ because it's home. Yeah. You know, and they, we just feel like we can set up. A lot of times we'll go the evening prior and set up. So it's just, it's more organized.

Okay. ⁓

Show notes so we'll log you there. All right, so I keep asking you When do I get my hair and makeup done is what I've been asking for a very long time Because you know, I have such beautiful hair, you know and such I need such features Yeah, I need a lot. I need a lot of work. So the next podcast. Yeah. Yeah, you go. Yeah, I'll be for hours Yeah, I'll be probably the same amount of time. It takes a bride to get ready. It will be the same amount of

Great. Love it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Cheers.

your daily shave. On your daily shave. I'm going to shave my Sit back down. You're to do the outro with me. You're going be last one. All right. You ready? What are we doing? No, we're just doing a goodbye. OK, great. Yeah. I'm so glad that you all got to see me tonight. Yeah. And it was lovely seeing you as well, Kevin. Yeah, well, it's always lovely seeing you. Of course. All right. So here we go for real.

All right, so as we wrap up at the Lighthouse, this is it. It's a Thank you. This was a fun event. We want to Maggie for allowing us to be here today to do the podcast. I want to thank all the wonderful guests. And we couldn't have done it without JD. I mean, thank you. She came early. She came early, did my hair and makeup, made me look beautiful. yeah, yeah. That's what it's all about. So thank you, folks. We'll see you next time. And now that I'm engaged, how do I get married? All right. Cheers. Cheers.