You’ll Love These Weddings with Flower Girls and Ring Bearers

Friendors, if you have a couple undecided on having children in their bridal party, show them this post for thoughts. 😉

Who else are your guests going to photograph besides you? Give yourself a break! Put a crown on ’em and it’s like having your very own Disney Princess. Kind of.

No one can serve up some side eye realness to your Groom like a Flower Girl who knows what’s up.

Who else is gonna bring toy cars to your event? Heeeelllllloooo Dare Devil Party Animal. 😉

Who else is going to teach you the Zen ways of Rock Gardening before such a pivotal change in your life?

THIS. Your wedding is a perfect opportunity to get professional photos of the newest addition to the family.

You think your Groomsman is gonna drag a toy boat behind him down the aisle? Doubts.

Flower Crowns + Flower Girls. Do we need to say anything else?

Good luck gettin’ your bridesmaids to dress like that for you. Plus, I doubt they’ll even think to pick up keepsake rocks for you.

Who else is gonna bring the Mickey Mouse Magic to your big day? Bet you forgot.

The coolest member of your bridal party knows they’re supposed to stick their tongue out while walking down the aisle. Duh.

Who’s going to initiate interactive games with flowers?

How else are you going to have Chicken Tenders and French Fries you can sneak onto your plate? Kids Menu 😉

That’s all we’ve got… for now 😉

4 Ways To Get Motivated About The Industry Again – Friendors Consultancy

Feeling jaded, burnt out? We know how it feels and we’re here to tell you that it’s normal to encounter boredom many years into your career – we think most people, regardless of what industry they are in, can get stuck doing things a certain way and get bored or burnt out on something they in actuality love, without realizing. (if you’re encountering these feelings too early on in your career, maybe you should reconsider your path instead of looking for ways to get motivated?)

You know you’re a die hard wedding and party fan, you know you love the industry, but are just a little worn out after years of wedding and event seasons – that’s okay. We’re sure Britney Spears has days where she doesn’t want to go on stage because she’s not feeling it. But you know what she does? She battles through like a Diva and loves every minute of it, finding new ways to enjoy it, and falls in love with performing over and over again – just like you do (and can do) with your business.

So, here are 4 simple ways to get you motivated about this incredible industry again.

Go to a conference – they excite like no other. The classes (if you choose wisely from the line ups) are totally beneficial and educational, get you pumped like a mofo, and have you coming home with so many new ideas. But it doesn’t stop there (man, I swear). They also have PARTIES at these conferences. And guess what? These parties are for YOU. Yes, that’s right – after a lifetime of making other peoples parties bomb ass, you get a bomb ass one for you and all your Friendors. After watching everyone else drink and have fun event after event after event (times almost every weekend of the year), you get to grab yourself a few cocktails and shake your cute lil thang. And when you’re dancing like a wild child in the middle of the dance floor or talking with an entrepreneur you admire that you got to meet after class, you remember why you began in the party industry to begin with – you love events and want everyone to have this heart exploding feeling you feel right in this moment. Going to your own party makes you appreciate all parties.
Attend a wedding without any expectations. This one is a little difficult because it’s mostly in our heads. We all get caught up with wanting every wedding to be the prettiest wedding ever, the one wedding that makes us go viral online and makes the phone start ringing so much that you have to hire a team of receptionists (the dream!). We want these things so badly that we forget about the couples and create expectations in our head and are let down by our own fault, instead of appreciating each love story for what it is – beautiful. We challenge you (and ourselves!!) to go to a wedding without any expectations. Don’t be sad if a couple spends 500 on flowers instead of 5,000. Don’t think DIY means ugly (we’ve found it to usually mean the opposite because artists do DIY weddings often). Don’t think about how you would have done it if it were yours. It’s not yours – it’s theirs and it’s perfect and you should just enjoy the honor of being a part of it.
Do something just for you at the wedding. We know we just told you that it’s all about the couple and to drop your expectations at the door, but if you’re feeling down – go in with plans to do something just for you to make you enjoy the night. We once told a DJ who was tiring of playing the same top 40’s music every weekend to choose a song he really dug before each wedding, whether it was one the crowd would know or not, and make plans to play it. Just for himself. Mix it in some fun way to make it about the crowd so they enjoy it too. It will rejuvenate you to go in and get something you want out of an event and to see other people digging it.
Personal projects are where it’s at. By personal projects, we mean a couple of things. We mean personal as in nothing to do with your career personal, and personal as in a decision to make your career more fun personal. Styled shoots are a great form of personal projects – the kind that make your career more fun which makes your personal life better. It’s your chance to do what you would do if it were yours (it’s okay to have those thoughts, just not at every wedding!). You’re tired of seeing the same style weddings every weekend? Design something you want and get it published and put it on your website. You sell what you show so if you show what you want, your personal life gets better because you enjoy your weddings more. And don’t stress over it – these personal projects aren’t things you have to do and you shouldn’t treat them like work, even if it helps your work life. They’re projects. Fun art projects.

Until next time, click here to read more Friendor Tips.

XOXO

6 Networking Tips Part 1 – Friendors Consultancy

Hey there, Friendors! One of our favorite things to do is network. Network, network, network. So, we thought we’d begin a Networking Tips Series for ya. Here’s Part 1: 6 Networking Tips.

1. Wear a conversation starter. This makes it easy to break the ice and will make people remember you. For example, instead of a simple black dress – why don’t you wear a sequin top and some glitter cat ears like Schellie from Far Out Galaxy? Or a wedding gown and some kick ass accessories like Baton Bob. Everyone loves a cat and everyone loves a bride. What can be your thing? (seriously, get to thinking!)

2. Have a drink or two. But not too many. You should loosen up a little and a drink or two is a great way to do that – but you don’t want to be blabbering and then unable to drive yourself home. The company providing the alcohol is probably doing it as a Sponsor (for free) for promotional purposes and they’re there for you to enjoy. Do.

(Awestruck Ciders featured below at The Blogcademy)

3. “What brings you out?” is the best first question to ask. It gets you straight to the point to see if your relationship is compatible and if it could become mutually beneficial for all parties involved.

4. Sure, ask what brings them out but go deeper once you know that answer (if you feel compelled to continue the conversation). What do they do when they’re not working? This is a great way to make a personal connection. Maybe they are (just like you!) trying to learn how to roll their own Sushi with Youtube Videos too – you never know.

5. Have business cards. Too many business cards. You never know if someone wants 100 business cards of yours instead of one.

6. Name tag. Pleeeeeeazzzzzzz. It makes it so much easier to remember you and it’s just a nice thing to do.

Until Part 2!

XOXO,

Friendors Consultancy

LABOR DAY

It’s Labor Day so you won’t find us doing any labor today.

Peace. 😉

Wanna be Insta Friendors Forever? – A New Kind of Instagram Community

A trend is growing on Instagram – a new kind of community, and we are here to get everyone on the train to Coolsville. People are matching up accounts (influencers and brands) into communities in the form of group messages (about 15 accounts in each group) where you come together in support. Participation (liking and commenting on each members every post to build each others profiles up) is what it’s all about. Each time you post, you simply drop a Heart into the group message alerting the group and you all exchange likes and comments – a mutually beneficial friendorship for you all. We love the concept so we’re starting some groups with you all now! Want to be put into groups on Instagram with accounts you’ll vibe with and become Insta FFs (Friendors Forever)?

Click here to sign up to be a part of your own Insta Friendors Forever Group.

Pretty Up Your Phone, Friendor – NYC Inspired Wallpaper Download to Keep You Motivated

You remember our Watercolor Phone Wallpapers from last year? Well, we’ve got another phone background for ya from Six Hearts Photography to keep you motivated all your days.

Simply hold down and save to your phone and set as your background.

And stay tuned for more Pretty Up Your Phone, Friendor posts.

70’s Geometric Inspiration Collaboration Published on Bespoke Bride – Friendors Consultancy

We’re totally into the 70’s, man. We dig how far out everything is. Because of this large love, we decided to have a 70’s Inspiration Collaboration. But not just 70’s – with a geometric spin as well – a Colorful Geometric 70’s Bridal Friendors Inspiration Collaboration! Whaaaaaa? Yeah – really groovy.

Even groovier? It was published on Bespoke Bride!

Click the image below to view the feature.

atlanta-wedding-photograph-friendors-70s-geometric-six-hearts-photography_172

Concept: FRIENDORS CONSULTANCY

Photography: SIX HEARTS PHOTOGRAPHY

Hair and Make Up Artist: REBEKAH NELSON

Model: Raven Hill

Garland: ROBOTBOOTH

Furniture: IKEA

Dolls: THE CINNAMON BEARS

Skirt: FOREVER 21

Blouse: Vintage

Is Instagram’s New Story Feature Killing Off Snapchat? – Friendors Consultancy

Instagram has been in and owning the social game for a long time now (or should we say Facebook cause they own Insta?) and we’ve seen them appropriate other original ideas and incorporate features that another premier app has before that app even has a chance to succeed.

Remember Vine? Instagram didn’t have video capabilities and Vine, a video looping app, came out so they added video to keep users on their platform. And what did everyone (well, mostly everyone) do? Abandon Vine.

We guess there really shouldn’t have been any shock when they did the same to Snapchat but it really did a woozy on us.

We opened Instagram one day and saw the Story feature magically at the top of our feed – tempting you to touch it to view a mini How To they put together as an introduction. And you know what the How To said? “We’re ripping off Snapchat and you all are going to go with it”. Actually, it screamed that.

If you’re not familiar with Snapchat, read our post where we shared how it works and ideas on how to use it – you know, before Instagram stole their glory. Here’s a quick overview of Snapchat: you share stories (photo or video) and they disappear in 24 hours. “Well tah-dah, we do it too!” we imagine Instagram saying.

It’s a dog eat dog world out there.

So to answer the question to whether Instagram Stories is killing Snapchat? Yes.

Well, kind of. You can still use Snapchat (we would totally miss those lenses that make us all pretty if we dropped it cold turkey) but we think for your business and marketing that you should work Instagram Stories a little more.

So regardless of how we or you or anyone feels about it (don’t you feel a little dirty using it?!) the fact is that it’s there and we can’t ignore it. We actually kinda like it, to be honest.

Here are a few reasons we’re okay with Instagram ripping Snapchat a new one (even if they don’t have the incredible lenses that contour you… yet):

Our following is already on Instagram.

We have to admit, that even though we love the shit out of Snapchat, we were having to grow our following on a new platform to make it worth using and that’s an every day struggle. Why would we go elsewhere when our following is already on Instagram and we can now give them an experience very similar? We don’t have to now. Guess there’s a benefit to age in the social industry.

Finding and Following is SO much easier on Instagram.

Snapchat did have a few things we didn’t like about it’s interface. For example, it was always super hard to discover new people and add them as Friends. Basically, if they weren’t in your phone’s address book or you didn’t know their username perfectly, you weren’t finding them. We really like the search function of Instagram – allowing you to simply search by name and get lucky, the explore section, the hashtags, the location tagging. It’s all so user friendly which makes it easy for new followers to find you (and you to find them too!).

It’s all in One Place.

This goes back to our first reason – we already have following here, of course, but there’s also less of a work curve since you’re not stretching yourself across multiple platforms. Doing everything on one platform keeps it simple for you. K.I.S.S. right?

Anyways, we’re sure we’ll find more reasons as to why we’re in love with and cool with sticking to Instagram as well as more reasons why we hate them for stealing ideas and more reasons to miss Snapchat (we know you have these contradictory feelings too!!), but we’re gonna keep on keepin’ on – so, until next time, XOXO.

How We’re Making Our Instagrams More Cohesive With a Scheduling Tool – Friendors Consultancy

Your may remember our post on Social Media Scheduling Tools and we’re here to talk a little bit more about one of the tools we shared with you then cause we’re super in love with it now.

They call it “the simple way to plan your visual content marketing” and we couldn’t agree more.

Latergramme, now just Later, is a website and app that allows you to upload images from your computer to their site and then to a calendar there in a drag and drop style. You can go ahead and write your caption, choose the time to post, etc. Then, you just download the app onto your phone and your posts are all magically there within it – it’s incredible and a nice way to get those images off your computer and onto your phone easily.

Prepping your instagram posts on a computer is soooo easy breezy lemon squeezy and takes the stress out of last minute preparations on your phone.

Not only is it nice to see a calendar with your images on it prepped in advance, but Later also has a Preview feature within the site that pops up the size of your phone and shows you what your feed will look like with all of your scheduled posts up – which gives room for improvement for those of us struggling with cohesiveness.

This feature helped us take our profile’s feed from this to this. (We used @FarOutGalaxy for this example)

Wouldn’t you agree we’re doing much better in the after? (these images haven’t gone live on our feed yet but this is the preview tool of what our feed will be in a few weeks – ya know, if we don’t switch it up)

It allowed us to see our color palette and layout in an enlightened perspective, a more hindsight way – before we made any mistakes, really helping to create smooth transitions between our posts and a profile that’s more aesthetically pleasing and easy on the eyes for our viewers. We’re excited to see it pan out.

You’re given 30 scheduled posts each month for FREE with upgrades to premium packages for special features such as more posts, multiple accounts, etc. We found that we’re happy with scheduling 1 post per day a month in advance so haven’t really needed to upgrade yet but your needs may be different.

Anyways, we suggest you head on over and play around.

CLICK HERE TO START YOUR SOCIAL LIFE WITH LATER NOW.

Editors Tell All, Snapchat Mistakes, + Millennial Infographics – Favorite Friendor Internet Finds – Friendors Consultancy

Hey there, Friendors!

We’re here with some of our most recent Internet Finds that you might find helpful/enjoy.

You know how it goes

Until next time!

xoxo,

Friendors Consultancy