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)?

• AE       

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

• AE      

(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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

Blog 22: 3-Column Chart

3 Column Chart

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. 

(c) Provide a digital spreadsheet

• 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. 

• Average Number of Wedding Guests in 2011
• The Knot Wedding Planning Checklist
• Top 3 Caterers in the San Diego County Area
• San Diego DJs
• San Diego Photographers
• San Diego Videographers
• San Diego Florists
• San Diego Cake Baker Vendors
• San Diego Hair and Makeup
• Westgate Wedding Event Planner Guide
• Westgate Master Menu
• Wedding Package Menu

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. 

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. 

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!

Sweet Pea Floral did an amazing job on these centerpieces. They lasted all day!

Of course we can't thank Bring that Beat Back for the AMAZING music throughout the day!

Other vendors I haven't mentioned yet are:

Simply Divine Cuisine (AMAZING food. Their strawberry shortcake is to die for!)

Beauty from Ashes

Quest Drape

My Blooming Business

Anticipated Arrival Photography

Jackie Lamas Photography

A Helping Hand Event Services (The lady was so nice! She offered to clear our tables when we could have done it ourselves!)

Jalisco's Mobile Tacos

Ultimate Limousine

Masquerade Cupcakes (Ever heard of a strawberry lemonade cupcake before? Well you have now!)

Great Officiants

Candee by Sandee

Comfort Inn in Riverside

I'll try to update with more pictures of these vendors as soon as I can!

San Diego Hair and Makeup

These are the three top vendors in the makeup and hair field in the San Diego area. They seem to have the most positive reviews on the website, Wedding Wire.

Makeup, Hair, and Dance by Meleah

BIJOU Beautiful

The Makeup and Hair Studio

San Diego Cake Baker Vendors

These two cake baker vendors were the most positively reviewed in the San Diego area. After researching their styles and past cakes, I believe my clients would be the most happy in choosing one of the two vendors.

Sumi's Oven

Twiggs Bakery

San Diego Florists

After a lot of research, I have finally narrowed down my three top florists in the San Diego area to these three vendors:

Susan M Florals

Third Bloom Flowers

Elegant Touch Floral Designs

San Diego Videographers

After researching for videographers, I have stumbled upon two in the San Diego area. For my independent component, I will be using one of these two videographers  for the wedding I'm "planning".

Taylor Films

Bob Hoffman Photography and Video

San Diego Photographers

3 photographers were chosen for the engaged couple. They specifically wanted a photographer that could present the style of photojournalism for their wedding. The photographer I chose fit into their budget and their criteria. The couple would choose one of the 3 photographers I had laid out for them.

Stephina Photography

Heidi-O-Photography

ABM Foto

San Diego DJs

The couple specifically wanted a DJ so their guests would interact more at the wedding. So I have narrowed it down to these two specific DJs due to their great reviews and amazing services.

DJ David Cutler

DJ Guy

San Diego Lighting Events Company

This is the lighting events company I will use while planning for the wedding in San Diego.

San Diego Lighting Events Company

Top 3 Venue Sites

I chose three venue sites for my independent component. I am planning a wedding for a couple and they will choose which site they want the most with budget and guests in mind.

West Gate Hotel
Caramel Mountain Ranch Country Club
El Cortez Don Room and Terrace

Top 3 Caterers

My independent component requires me to choose certain caterers to present to the couple that is getting married. Since my couple is planning to marry in San Diego, I have chosen caterers around that area. These caterers are very flexible in their cuisine types and they are proven to satisfy their customers.

Continental Catering

Personal Touch Catering

TOAST Catering

Blog 20: Three Column Chart

Three Column Chart

The Knot Wedding Planning Checklist

This is the checklist I will use to plan my wedding successfully for the independent component. Obviously, I don't have as much time as regular wedding planners do to plan a wedding but I will try to meet all of the criteria given.
The Knot Wedding Planning Checklist

Senior Project and ELSRs

Content:
1.What ESLR have you excelled in most in your senior project?

• The ESLR I have excelled in the most is the Effective Learner

2. Please explain why you think you have excelled in this ELSR.

• Well for one, Effective Learner stresses the importance of personal creativity which my entire senior project is mainly about. Especially through my independent component did I realize that creativity was vitally important. For a person who may not have much creativity, scrapbooking may be a difficult task but I've completed it with flying colors. I also turn in all of my work on time for my senior project whether that be research count, mentorship hours, presentation lesson plans, etc. 

3. Provide evidence from your senior project to support your claim.

Blog 18: 2-Hour Meeting Answer #3

1. What is your essential question?

• Why are wedding planners essential to a successful wedding?

2. What is your third answer to your essential question (write your third answer in a complete sentence)?

• Wedding planners are essential to a successful wedding because they are able to provide connections with other vendors such as florists, bakers, photographers, etc. to further enhance a wedding or lower down the costs.

3. What are three details to support or justify your third answer (details are examples or facts)?

• A wedding planner can lower down the cost of a wedding by hiring the right vendors they have connections with. Most of the time, a wedding planner can also persuade a vendor to pitch in an extra deal.
• An engaged couple can provide more trust within a wedding planner when they are offered connections of other vendors. They realize the other vendors may be more experienced this way.
• If something goes wrong, instead of putting the full blame on themselves, an engaged couple can turn towards the wedding planner to pitch in for warranty for providing them with that vendor. It's like another contract towards the wedding planner to provide more safety of the special day.

4. What source helped you prove this answer is justified for your essential question?

• Puckett, Susan. "Wise Weddings: The Do-It-Yourself Reception No Catering Required: Enlist Talented Friends to Contribute Their Culinary Skills to Help Make Your Wedding Feast a One-of-a-kind Celebration of Food, Friendship and Memories: [Home Edition]." The Atlanta Journal the Atlanta Constitution [Atlanta] 22 Feb. 2001: n. pag. Proquest. Web. 7 Jan. 2013.

5. What do you plan to study next and why?

• I plan to look more at the connections of vendors and see into detail how that works. For example, do they need to have contracts with one another or do they just offer their partner to customers by word. I also plan to contact some vendors to see if they are willing to provide connections with my current mentor at Entertaining as Always. 

Average Number of Wedding Guests in 2011

With the link provided, I will use the average number of wedding guests in 2011 to help plan my "virtual" wedding for my independent component 2.
Average Number of Wedding Guests

Fourth Interview Questions

Content:

1. Why are wedding planners essential to a successful wedding?
2. How can a wedding planner help hostile family members adapt to the environment of the celebration?
3. How does a wedding planner think quick when a problem arises during a wedding celebration?
4. What are some ways a wedding planner keeps organized?
5. Are there any preferred degrees a wedding planner should have in order to sustain more clients?
6. What is the key to budgeting a successful wedding?
7. How does a wedding planner manage to successfully plan a wedding under a short amount of time?
8. How can a wedding planner voice their opinion about details of a wedding without seeming too judgmental?
9. What are some tips to successfully manage a wedding on a time budget?
10. In what way can a wedding planner offer professional help to a couple who have not yet decided on hiring said wedding planner?
11. How does having connections with other vendors help a wedding planner?
12. What are some characteristics a couple looks for when hiring a wedding planner?
13. Where does a wedding planner start when they are planning a wedding for a new client?
14. How does a timeline play a significant role in wedding planning?
15. Are there any tools that may help a wedding planner better keep on track while planning a wedding?
16. How does a wedding planner help create the vision of a dream wedding without breaking the budget?
17. How does a wedding planner create a trust bond with his/her client?
18. What happened when a client cannot afford the full services of a wedding planner? Will there be a possible discount?
19. How does a wedding planner establish a contract with his/her client?
20. What are some ways a wedding planner can gain more clients?

Blog 16: 2-Hour Meeting Answer #2

Content:
1. What is your essential question?

• Why are wedding planners essential to a successful wedding?

2. What is your second answer to your essential question (write your second answer in a complete sentence)?

• My second answer to my essential question is learning how to successfully manage time.  

3. What are three details to support or justify your second answer (details are examples or facts)?

• Well first off, if a couple does not successfully manage their time they might run into trouble such as a delay in the wedding celebration. For example, I attended a wedding where the bride was 30 minutes late because she didn't wake up on time and that held the ceremony and I could tell the guests were starting to get irritable. So basically, to avoid unnecessary problems on the day of the wedding, manage your time well. 
• Second, by not planning out components of the wedding during the time your suppose to, you might find yourself in a situation where your dream venue or vendor might not be available. Venues and Vendors really like to know in advance when your wedding date will be so they can alter their agenda for you. But if you decide to plan something last minute (lack of successful time managing) you might not get what you want. 
• Third, by planning the wedding components at the appropriate time, you will feel yourself being less stressed the closer you get to the day of the wedding. Instead of procrastinating and feeling stressful, you and your fiance will feel more relaxed because their is less stuff to do. 

4. What source helped you prove this answer is justified for your essential question?

• My mentor, Gretchen Davis Strutzenberg helped me the most while finding my second answer. The article "Short Engagements: How to Plan a Wedding on Short Timing" also gave me ideas as well. 

5. What do you plan to study next with your second answer and why?

• With me second answer, time managing, I plan on studying how couples who do not manage their time well have an unsuccessful wedding celebration because I feel like I need to look at what they are doing wrong in order to better educate myself on what is the right thing to do. It's kind of like monkey see, monkey NOT do. 

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

CONTENT: 
(1) Write a description of what you plan on doing for your independent study component

• Well I plan on actually planning a "virtual/simulation" wedding covering from photographer to venue and so on. I will give myself the average budget and guest list size as a starter point of my wedding. I will actually be making the guest list, seating chart, and agenda for the entire event. Basically, I'll be trying to plan a wedding in 2 months which may be a challenge but I'm ready for it. I'm actually debating on whether or not to have someone pretend to be my "bride & groom" so they can make the decisions and pretend to be my client. 

(2) Describe in detail how you think your plan will meet the 30 hours work requirement. 

• Well on average, a wedding takes 16 months to plan and I'm basically trying to plan it in 2 months. Although the wedding won't actually take place, organizing all of this data actually takes a long time. Figuring out the guest list itself will take a couple of days. I'm not worried about not meeting the 30 hours work requirement because there are many components in this independent component that takes up time. 

(3) How does your independent study component relate to your working EQ?

• My EQ is "Why are wedding planners essential to a successful wedding?" and my possible answers are "budgeting and time-management". This independent study component is required to use the answers for it to become successful. By having a hands on experience of planning a wedding, I can see why wedding planners are so essential to a successful wedding. I will have to face a lot of stress in order to understand why wedding planners are like a god to some couples. 

Blog 14: Independent Component 1

• LITERAL
  (a)  I, Sydney Tieu, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
• (b) Tiffany Ho: (951) 317-0376
• I mostly did the independent component by myself but my mother was there as a witness of my grueling 100+ hours. 
• (c)  Log of Independent Component Hours
• (d) I researched the best vendors in the Los Angeles county area (from venues to caterers) and compiled a list of their contact information, their specialties, and so on. I then realized that it would be aesthetically pleasing if I could put all of these vendors in a scrapbook form so I can show "future clients" later. Little did I know, there would be over 90 pages.    
• INTERPRETIVE 
  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.  
  
• First off, my independent took me FOREVER to do. Mrs. Ortega gave me the idea to compile a list of the best vendors but I took it to another level and made it into a scrapbook. The significant parts of my component is basically the research and knowledge of other vendors. I had to know what made a good vendor in order to put them on my list. It's like another essential question and figuring out ways to answer it. This is proof of 30 hours of work because really, how can you finish 5 scrapbooks in less than 30 hours? It's impossible!
• 
  

• APPLIED
  How did the component help you understand the foundation of your topic better?  Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped.
• This component helped understand the foundation of my topic better by providing a possible solution to my second answer. Although I can't word my answer yet, it's forming. For example, I have a specific article on florists that tells me what florist I should hire and what qualities to look for in a florist. Another article tells me to beware in some specific photographers because they might be flaky. And the scrapbook further enhances my creativity which every wedding planner needs. 

Comfort Inn Services

Hello everyone,
recently my mentor and her wedding coordinating company teamed up with the Comfort Inn in Riverside to help plan services for their hotel. I was asked to spread the word of these new services that my mentor is offering. Down below is the link of her packages so if you are interested in planning an event or have any questions to ask, you can always contact her! :)
Comfort Inn Services

Blog 13: Rough Draft of 30 Minute Presentation

Rough Draft of 30 Minute Presentation

*NOTE* When viewed in Google Docs the text gets cut off so it's preferred to download it as a word document instead.

Blog 12: Third Interview Questions

Content:

1. Why are wedding planners essential to a successful wedding?
2. What are some on scene accidents that can happen at a wedding site?
3. How does time management play a role in successful wedding planning?
4. How does a wedding planner calm an overly stressed couple in order to plan a wedding successfully?
5. How does having connections with a wide array of vendors benefit a wedding?
6. What are some sacrifices a bride and groom would most likely make if they choose not to hire a wedding planner?
7. What is some information a wedding planner might provide to his/her clients that will further benefit them in planning a wedding?
8. How does a wedding planner know how to make proper budget cuts to a wedding?
9. How can a wedding planner create the "dream wedding" without overspending?
10. How can a wedding planner give good critical advice to a couple without offending them?

Top Videographers in the Los Angeles County Area

I have compiled a spreadsheet that lists the information of top Videographers in the Los Angeles County. I specifically looked at their videography although some also specialized in photography as well. These videographers that I have listed can work with a bunch of styles such as storytelling, cinematic, and short film. I also made sure that the viedographers I chose were liable in case they did not show up to an event.

Top Videographers in the Los Angeles County Area

Top Wedding Cake Decorators in the Los Angeles County

I have compiled a list of Top Wedding Cake Decorators in the Los Angeles County area. These Cake Decorators also specialize in other customized desserts such as cookies, cupcakes, groom's cake, and so much more. Many of these Wedding Cake Decorators can also customize a wedding cake by providing dietary option such as a gluten free, organic, and even lactose free cake.

Top Wedding Cake Decorators in the Los Angeles County

Top Disc Jockeys (DJs) in the Los Angeles County

This is the spreadsheet for top Disc Jockeys in the Los Angeles County Area. Many brides feel that bands do not fit there wedding reception and would rather pay for a Disc Jockey instead.So I made sure that the DJs allowed unlimited requests from songs (both couple and guests) and were liable if they were to suddenly not show up to the event. I also chose a variety of DJs that would fit the budget of most couples. Many of the Disc Jockeys won awards on wedding websites and some were even featured in famous TV shows. After collecting all of my research, I will display all of the information and pictures in a scrapbook so future "clients" would be able to flip through and look at the visuals and info.

Top Disc Jockeys (DJs) in the Los Angeles County

Top Bands in the Los Angeles County Area

I have compiled together a list of top bands in the Los Angeles Country Area within a spreadsheet. These bands were recommended by many former brides and I have chosen all of whom had 5 stars as their rating. I made sure to choose bands who could cover a variety of music from rock to swing. I also kept in mind of their price ranges from cheap to pricey.

Top Bands in the Los Angeles County Area

Top Wedding Caterers in the Los Angeles County

Here is the link to the spreadsheet of the top wedding caterers in the Los Angeles County recommended by other brides, myself, and the famous wedding site The Knot. The spreadsheet consists of contact information, price ranges, and specialty in meals. These caterers are listed as "The Knot's Best of Wedding" and some are included in the regional magazines and newspapers. I have other documents that go further in the detail of the caterers and their styles. I will add it all in a scrapbook later.

Top Caterers in the Los Angeles County