Sydney Senior Project

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Senior Project Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your 2-Hour Presentation and/or senior project? Why?

The thing that I am most proud of in my senior project is that I can now say that I know how to successfully plan a wedding. This ties into both my 2-Hour Presentation and Independent Components. In my presentation, I perfectly executed the do's and don'ts of planning a wedding. I went into full detail of important qualities such as budgeting, vendors, timelines, and so on. In my independent component 1, I had to look up perfectly qualified vendors that would fit into a wedding. This took a lot of time and effort and I was really happy about the outcome especially when I saw the looks on peoples faces when they opened up my wedding planning scrapbook. Also, my independent component 2 really helped me in planning a wedding as well. In fact, I actually did. Researching qualified vendors while fitting within a theme, budget, and time frame really strengthened my ability to plan a wedding. And the fact that my uncle is even considering hiring me as a wedding planner makes it even better.

(2) Questions to Consider

a. What assessment would you give yourself on your 2-Hour Presentation (self-assessment)?

b. What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

My mentorship and research really worked for me. They were the strongest points in my senior project because they provided me with such great knowledge of wedding planning that I did not know before. My research even went over 120 articles! And experiencing how difficult wedding planning is made me realize that this occupation is more than what it seems

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would have you done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?

I would probably have given myself more time to prepare projects such as my indpendent component. For example, my independent component 1 required me to look up the best vendors in the LA county and then create a scrapbook of each vendor based on the category they are placed in. I figured I could finish this within a month with time to spare. Little did I know it would be so much work. I pretty much woke up at 8am each morning and then went to bed at 4am to complete my scrapbooks. If I had given myself two months to do it, I would have been less stressed and the quality of the scrapbooks would have turned out much better.

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors? Be specific and use examples.

Well for one, it really opened my eyes to the wedding planning field. I really was not on planning on considering this career option because I wanted to stay withing the medical field, but after the intense researching and experiencing, I have come to realize that I really do enjoy doing this. It let me express my creativity that I will not be really expressing in the next ten years of college. I have now considered wedding planning as a possible career option if the medical field is not suited for me. I was even offered a part time job by one of my mentors and have now been promoted from intern to assistant.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Blog 25: Mentorship

LIA Response to blog:

Literal

Log of Mentorship Hours
Gretchen Davis Strutzenberg (951) 941-9666
Claudia Santialles 1(909) 560-9155

Interpretive

The most important thing I have gained from this experience is learning how to be more open and talk upfront with strangers as well as learning how to negotiate. Also, I learned that the job of a wedding planner is not as easy as it may seem. At the beginning of the school year I wasn't exactly shy but I wasn't exactly outspoken either. This job really pushed me to talk to people and to communicate easily with vendors. It is a very helpful life skill that I will be needing in the future. I am not the type of person to haggle or negotiate. I just like things with a fair price tag on it with no strings attached. But by doing my mentorship, I saw how important it is to try to lower down the cost as possible. Not just for weddings, but for anything in the future. Negotiating is also something I will carry with me in the future especially when I will be a poor college student.

Applied

I basically derived all of my answers from my mentorship. Gretchen showed me the process of planning a wedding which is by utilizing a proper budget and creating a timed schedule,while Claudia took me to the events and allowed me to make connections to vendors to advertise the company. Getting to see my mentors in action allowed me to see wedding planning as a whole and nitpick essential parts that basically makes a wedding thrive. Without my mentorship, it would be quite difficult to create my answers. It really takes being there and doing the hands on work to come up with answers such as utilizing a proper wedding budget, creating a timed schedule, and having connections to vendors.

Friday, May 10, 2013

Blog 24: Exit Interview Questions

Content:

(1) What is your essential question? What is the best answer to your question and why?

My essential question is "Why are wedding planners essential to a successful wedding?" and my best answer is by utilizing a proper budget for the couple. This answer is my best answer because the budget is basically the foundation of the wedding. It guides the wedding in a certain direction based on how much a couple can afford. It determines if a wedding is a luxurious celebration or a laid back event. Also, this answer is most vital to my essential question because it also affects the couple after the wedding is over. Unlike my other answers, the budget determines whether or not a couple will start their marriage with debt which will also affect the successfulness of the a relationship. Therefore, this answer is the best answer to my essential question.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

At first, when I typed "Wedding Planning" into the Cal Poly database, the most frequent searches that appeared had to do with budgeting. Immediately this captured my attention. After researching article after article about how important money was to a wedding, it was easy to determine what my best answer would be. Each article stressed the importance of having a proper budget and sticking to that budget in order to have a successful wedding. I have dedicated most of my research to finding the most efficient way to budgeting so it was apparent that my best answer would be utilizing a proper budget. Even my mentor, Gretchen Davis Strutzenberg, always stressed how important a budget was whenever I interviewed her.

(3) What problems did you face? How did you resolve them?

One problem I faced was my science experiment. For my experiment, I had to survey brides to see whether or not they hired a wedding planner based on their budget. I decided to take the easier route and posted it on line on popular wedding sites such as The Knot and Wedding Wire. I figured this would work more efficiently rather than stopping by at every boutique in town to ask an individual bride. My questions were something along the lines of "What is the wedding budget?", "Do you have a wedding planner?", "What is your age and race?". I did not expect that a bride would get so offended and insult me on these sites. She attacked me by saying I was rude and it was inappropriate to ask these questions. I did not think it would be personal questions but in the end I quickly apologized to her and explained that it was just for an experiment and I did not mean to offend her in anyway. Afterwards, I deleted my thread and decided to do it the old fashioned way. I would stop at boutiques and ask friends and family members if they knew if anyone got married recently. Although I suffered some hardships with my project, it all worked out in the end because I got enough data for my science component.

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

One of my most significant sources would be my mentors, Gretchen Davis Strutzenberg and Claudia Santialles, because Gretchen allowed me to look at the process of planning a wedding. Such as figuring out the budget, client's taste, timeline, and so on while Claudia allowed me to attend wedding events to see the celebration up close. I experienced what happened when problems arose during the celebration and how to fix it quickly before it got out of hand. My mentorship provided me with a lot of knoqledge about wedding planning.
Another significant source would be David Tutera's "Big White Book of Weddings". Although this book was aimed to brides who could plan weddings themselves it really gave me an interesting perspective of wedding planning. I trusted this book because a celebrity planner wrote it and it provided me with so much information. The book covered budgeting to folding napkins and I learned most of my wedding terms throughout this book.

(5) What is your product and why?

I believe my product is learning to multitask and balance different components while serving under a lot of pressure. In the beginning of my senior project, it was very easy for me to get stressed out over every little thing. But while learning how to plan a wedding and seeing how tough it can get, I believed I could handle relieve my stress better. My independent component 2 was planning a simulation wedding for my Uncle and it involved all of my answers utilizing a proper budget, providing a timed schedule, and having connections to vendors. While being forced to do all of those tasks at once, I got better at balancing my priorities.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Blog 23: 2014 Interview

Who did you interview and what house are they in?

Marilyn Sambo from East House

What ideas do you have for your senior project and why?

Clinical Psychology because it is something I am interested in. Also, I am thinking about choosing this along the lines of my major and it will help me later on.

What do you plan to do for your 10 hour mentorship experience?

I have already found a Clinical Psychology through connections and the people I know there runs their own office. I just plan on helping around whenever they need me and shadow them while they do their work.

What do you hope to see or expect to see in watching the 2013 2 hour presentations?

I just have high expectations for this presentation. I'm hoping to see people who are doing the same topic as mine or something along the lines of it. Overall, I just hope the presentations are really good and I look forward to them.

What questions do you have that I can answer about senior year or senior project (or what additional information did you tell them about senior year or senior topic)?

When do I start the 10 hours?: You start and complete the hours during the summer. If you go over the 10 hours, they do not roll over to your 50 hour mentorship and the 10 hours are not included in that mentorship as well.
I advise you to start early when finding a mentor because it can be quite difficult to find. From my past experience, a lot of people rejected me just because I was a high school student. They didn't take me seriously enough to do their professional work. So starting early is easy and it creates a stronger bond with you and your mentor.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Blog 21: Independent Component 2

Literal
(a) Statement saying:

I, Sydney Tieu, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

(b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component

No mentor or book helped me include the independent component. Instead, the sites The Knot and Wedding Wire had tools to help me plan a wedding.

Independent Component 2 Log of Hours

(d) Explanation of what you completed

For this independent component I fully planned a wedding that I would show to my future clients, my uncle and his fiance. Basically I had to start from scratch. The date I set the wedding was the day the independent component was due. There were some difficulties in planning this wedding especially when you do not really have the bride and groom at hand. I provided the venue after reviewing potential areas, the entertainment, the florist, the caterer, the dress, the tux, the attire for the wedding party, stationary for the wedding, the party favors, and so much more. Of course every wedding would needed a color scheme so after putting various colors together I decided that the color scheme would be purple with splashes of gray and blue. I also created seating charts for the reception and a timeline for the entire day. After hours of finding appropriate songs, I constructed a "Do Play" and "Not to Play" playlist. I also kept in mind of the traditions and customs of the couple. They are a Vietnamese/Chinese Buddhist couple so I had to make sure the wedding would be appropriate for the elders. In the end, I assembled all of the little wedding components into a binder.

Interperetive
Defend your work and explain how the significant parts of your component and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work. Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.

Planning a wedding is NOT easy. It takes time, skill, and patience (definitely patience). Trying to design the wedding from scratch take a large amount of time. Even just putting together the seating arrangement took hours of work! I also had to do more research on wedding celebrations and create spreadsheets for the vendors.

My wedding planning binder filled with hours and hours of rigorous work.

Some sources I stumbled upon while planning the wedding. They have really unique ideas for party favors, invitations, and his and her gifts.

The wedding planning checklist which I copied and pasted from The Knot. As you can see, every box is checked and notes were written all over the paper

The reception seating chart which I tried to upload digitally but The Knot would not allow me to do so.

The color scheme I created on The Knot but again, I could not upload it onto blogspot.

Choosing the right shoes for the bride while still staying within the price range.

Of course the bride needs the right wedding accessories so I had to choose some bling for the bride.

The garter toss is an American tradition. Seeing as how my clients grew up in San Diego, this is an essential for them.

A suit selection for the groomsmen. and accessories that may go along with it.

A tux selection for the groom and accessories that may go along with it.

The perfect wedding dress chosen for the bride. She requested a strapless sweet heart that is a fit and flair.

Bridesmaid and Maid of Honor dresses. The bottom dress is for the regular bridesmaid and the top dress is for the maid of honor.

Possible updos for the bride and embellishments that may go along with each hairdo.

The bride requested a long laced veil that would go well with her dress. As requested, I showed her some selection.

The bride did not want a tiara for her dress. Instead, she wanted floral arrangements in her hair.

I chose an elegant guest book for the reception. The cool thing is, is that the ribbons can accommodate to the color scheme of the wedding.

I created a wedding program for the reception.

The wording for the invitation.

Save the Date cards that will send out before the invitations so guests will know an important event is coming up.

An elegant invitation that will be used for the wedding except the color would be purple and the ribbon would be gray.

Applied
How did the component help you answer your EQ or support one or more of your answers. Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped.

This component helped me support my answers because it tied in all my answers. To create a wedding, a wedding planner needs to utilize a proper budget, have connection with vendors, and create a time budget for the special event. Seeing as how I scheduled the date of the wedding to be on the day the independent component is due, I had to set up a guideline of what tasks I needed to do each day. Of course, a wedding can not take place if it does not have a budget. So after giving myself a budget of $27,021 (the average budget of a wedding in the U.S.) I planned each wedding component to accommodate that. In the end, the budget ended up being $26,785 which was under what I planned it to be. As for the vendors, I actually emailed the West Gate Hotel and talked to the head wedding planner there. She gave me lists of the rooms and how big it is, the menu, and wedding packages.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

April 14, 2013: Open House at Comfort Inn

Today I got to work with my mentor, Gretchen, and her assistant, Neferete, on the Open House at Comfort Inn. Just a few months ago, we were working on a mock wedding to present the Comfort Inn facilities to interested clients. Now, we have finally opened the comfort inn venue after months and months of planning! At the Open House, many vendors appeared to advertise their business and expertise. I got to talk one on one with many vendors such as caterers, bakers, photographers, DJs, bartenders, tux shop people, and so much more. There was even a photo booth! Here are some pictures of my crazy adventure today:

Here is the advertisement for the Open House which can also be found on the Entertaining as Always Events Facebook Page

Some goodies presented by the McGrath's catering (it was bomb diggity!)

This is what came in the packet that we handed out to guests. Information about all of our vendors for the day!

Friar Tux Shop also came down to advertise their awesome deals on tuxes and suits. Be sure to check them out!

Now this is just plain awesome. The Snapden photo booths had a bunch of awesome props AND right after you take your picture, it prints instantly. You can even email it to yourself and share it with friends and family!

We even had a bartender! Non alcoholic drinks of course. They were so fruity and delightful. Compliments to Treeshrew Bartending for their awesome drinks. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the website but you can always contact Gretchen at Entertaining as Always to find out the contact information!