One of the most common questions I receive is what does CPCE stand for?

The National Association of Catering Executives (NACE) encourages the professional development of caterers through voluntary participation in its certification program.    As a proud member of the NACE Hawaii Chapter since 1999, I know that my involvement with this association has been the key to my success throughout the years.

Achievement of the Certified Professional Catering Executive (CPCE) designation demonstrates expertise in the special events industry earned by taking a comprehensive examination that covers all aspects of professional catering including seven core competencies;

• Accounting
• Beverage Management
• Catering Services
• Contracts and Agreements
• Event Management
• Food Production
• Sales and Marketing

Achieving the CPCE certification was a personal goal which was achieved in 2002 and every five years I have to re-certify which requires an achievement of 60 points in employment experience, formal education, continued education, industry memberships, leadership positions and professional achievements.

I am honored to be the only professional event planner  in the State of Hawaii that holds the CPCE designation and the only person in the State of Hawaii that holds both the CPCE and Certified Meeting Planner (CMP) certifications.

Everyone is human, and we all have “those days” that just nothing seems to be going as planned, but think about this:

1.   You woke up this morning…….there are some that didn’t make it another day.

2.   You have family and friends that love you and accept you for who you are.

3.   You have a roof over your head……some people are homeless.

4.   You are enjoying breakfast or your favorite Starbucks hand crafted beverage……there are people in this world that don’t have any food.

These are just but a few little things in life that we often take for granted.    One of the greatest lessons I have learned is that having a positive attitude changes everything!

Have you ever gone to a busy shopping center and thought “I’m never going to find parking” and proceeded to go around and around, and around looking for a stall?    Personally, when I go I tell myself  “all I need is one” and 9 out of 10 times someone in front of me starts to pull out.   Do I have negative feelings that one time it doesn’t happen?  The answer is “no” because I am grateful for all the times that it did happen.

How do you stay positive?   Personally, I surround myself with positive people and naturally tend to avoid negative people that never have anything good to say.

These are just a few of the sources of inspirations.   Take a few minutes out of your day and find a few resources that give you a sense of peace, hope and gratitude.

SuccessConsciousness.com http://www.successconsciousness.com/index_00003a.htm

ThinkExist.com http://thinkexist.com/quotations/positive_thinking/

The Secret Book http://thesecret.tv/living.html

“I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.” Winston Churchill

Being a wedding and special event planner, I am often told “you must really have had an elaborate wedding.”   The truth is, at the time we got married, I was a front desk clerk at Holiday Inn Waikiki and my husband was a waiter Captain’s Table and I didn’t have a clue about planning a wedding as I had never been to one.

So what did I do?    I actually used a wedding planning service for our simple wedding which was held in front of a waterfall with a luncheon reception held under the pavillion that was conveniently located on-site.      My father-in-law used to have a flower shop so he arranged for all flowers including my catalaya bouquet , the maile lei and best man and maid of honor flowers.   As he was the first in his family to get married, we really had no clue about having centerpieces, music, toasts, first dance, money dance, etc. but were guided by our planner and our bridal party.

It’s interesting how things work out in life, back then I would never have imagined that I would would have my own event planning business and helping our brides create their special day.

Five years ago today Hawaii Weddings and Events was officially registered as Hawaii’s newest full service event planning firm.     It has been an amazing journey and we’re so very grateful and blessed to have been of service to couples from around the world.

With every journey there are lessons to be learned, and we’re happy to share some of our experiences.

1.   Dreams do come true if you have a very strong determination to succeed.    In my case, failure was not an option, I had two kids going off to college so my business plan was plain and simple  “make money, pay tuition.”

2.  Continually adapt. There is a saying, that if you don’t change, you cHANGe.   One of our biggest strengths has been to adapt to the ever-changing needs of our brides.    What we offer today is completely different than what we offered five years ago, and that is due to listening to our clients needs and creating packages that were tailored towards them.   The packages are a “starting point” to give an idea of our services, but we still customize packages as needed and are continually developing new concepts.

3.  Service-Service-Service. We believe that every client deserves a wonderful Hawaii wedding, whether it is just a beach wedding for two or an elaborate wedding,, therefore, we are able to effectively and efficiently service all types of events including social and corporate parties.  We have also learned that we need to avoid back-to-back events as it keeps us away from the office for extended periods of time so we have expanded our team in order to better serve our valued clients.

4.  Put yourself in the clients’ shoes. Many prospective couples have never been to a wedding, so they have many questions.  Put yourself in their shoes and think about a topic you don’t know much about.  I myself think about an auto shop, I know I ask them a lot of questions and am always grateful to those that will explain things in terms I can understand.

5.  Be Grateful and Thankful. We are so truly grateful to all of our client that have entrusted us with their most special celebrations and love that many have become friends and our biggest advocates.    We are also very thankful to our family, friends, mentors and vendors who have wholeheartedly supported us each and every step of the way…….we couldn’t have done it without you.

Eagerly anticipating his arrival, I became overwhelmed with emotions as he started to greet the other “meet and greet” Event Solution lucky winners that were honored to meet this fabulous event professional.    With a kukui and mock orange lei draped on one arm, A “My Fair Weddings” book embraced in the other, a camera and tears in my eyes, I eagerly awaited my turn to meet a man I truly admired .

For those of that you don’t know, David not only is the star of “My Fair Wedding” but he also is the designer for Disney’s “Couture Collection” and it would be another dream come true for me to assist him should he ever have an event at Hawaii’s new Aulani Resort which opens later this  year.   I think what I admire the most about David is his ability to incorporate really personal elements into the wedding day, while at the same time, giving the bride more than what she could ever imagine.

David took the time to talk to each invited guest and also made us all feel very special by arranging for front row seats to the next day’s keynote presentation which would surely be standing room only.

I am so very thankful for the opportunity that I was given, it truly was an honor and drean come true.

I’m currently at the Event Solutions “Idea Factory” in Las Vegas and had the distinct honor of personally meeting event guru Preston Bailey last night.   This tall, slim and extremely talented gentleman welcomed me with a huge hug  just before I presented him a lei from Hawaii.

We spoke for a few minutes and then he graciously autographed my “Fantasy Weddings” book and said “I do keep these you know” as he accepted my business card.

I first saw the New York-based renowned event designer at the 2005 National Association of Catering Executives (NACE) in Orlando, Florida where he truly opened my eyes and was just larger than life to me.

I’ve been an avid follower of his incredible designs and love his blog, but now having met him in person, and hearing his presentation on “Endurance and Transformation”, I think what I now admire most about him is how he so openly speaks about experiences (both the good, and the bad) and is just a genuine person with a wonderful sense of humor.

Preston mentioned that he travels with his team, but also enlists the aid of local event industry experts when traveling abroad, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed that Hawaii becomes a destination for one of his grand events.

During these three days, we will be making the time to review our 2011 goals which includes:

1)  Adding another wedding coordinator to our team

2)  Planning our company’s 5th anniversary celebration in March

3)  Scheduling continued education opportunities for event team which in turn better serves you as we keep abreast of the latest trends and products.

4)  Taking the necessary steps to maintain the high level of service we are known for which will include limiting the number of bookings
that each of us will handle.

5)  Creating new packages to meet the ever changing needs of our valued clients and our favorite venues.

We will have limited access to e-mail during these three days and appreciate your patience as we invest time in our team which wholeheartedly focuses on providing service excellence to our valued clients.

For many, it is also a day that they are deciding whether or not to honor the memory of parents, grandparents or other close relatives who have passed away.    Contrary to some couple’s beliefs that it may damper the mood, from experiencing thousands of weddings, we’ve found that honoring their memory actually has had a very uplifting effect as they felt their “presence” during their special day.

There are many different ways of honoring their memory and keeping them close to your heart on your wedding day, these are just but a few ideas:

• A locket with your loved ones picture may be attached to your bouquet.
• Cuff links with pictures may be worn by the groom.
• Memory candles with their names may be displayed along with a personal note such as “Keeping you in our thoughts on our wedding day, until we meet again…..”
• Reserving a seat (or seats) at the ceremony and placing  a lei.   This may be preset in advance, or may also be incorporated into your ceremony by either having the groom place on the chairs right after walking in or having the spouse or son/daughter of the loved one carry in the lei and place on the chair after they walk down the aisle.
• Ringing a bell during the ceremony and taking a moment of silence to recognize the loved one and give all those in attendance a moment to also remember one of their loved ones.
• Placing photos of those to be honored in a visible place in the ceremony is another way to recognize those who are no longer with you
• Including their names in your wedding program
• Another sweet way to remember your family is to use something that has been used for generations or has been handed down to you.  Perhaps you can wear your grandmother’s string of pearls or use your mother’s wedding cake topper, or mother-in-law’s sterling cake cutter for the cake cutting ceremony

“Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.” – Robert Fulghum

Those that know me well know that I pretty much work every day, which could be considered a workaholic to many, but I really don’t see it that way.     I started Hawaii Weddings and Events a little over four years ago and I could not imagine going back to the structured environment of the corporate world.   Although as a small business owner  I have many hats (sales, marketing, controller, public relations, logistics, troubleshooter, event manager, etc.)  I still do work hard, but I have so much more flexibility in my life and am able to have more balance between my personal and business life.  Although I still put in long hours just as that is the nature of my business,  it is wrapped around doing things that I want and love to do, which in turn makes me more productive and happier.

For the first time in my life, I am able to plan trips when I want to go versus when I am “allowed” to go.   With modern technology, I am blessed to be able to work from a home based business which allows me to take a break to walk the dogs, go the movies at the spur of the moment with my daughter, do my shopping during the “off peak” times of the day (which is a huge time saver), meet clients in a mutually convenient location and I even was able to meet clients in the Bay area while getting my son settled in at college.    Another benefit is to my clients, as I am able to keep my pricing fair and reasonable as  I don’t have to pay for office space which is a fee that is built into others pricing.

So how do you live a balanced life?     It actually does take work, as it is very easy to get caught up with work (or wedding planning) and forget about everything else.  I enjoy reading motivational quotes and one of my favorite blogs is Zen Habits as it is a constant reminder of what is important in life.  A great article is on  http://zenhabits.net/balance/

So no matter what you are doing, take just a moment to learn how you can live a more balanced life…..you’ll be glad you did!

Needless, to say, I was ecstatic with the opportunity and took a few days to contemplate what I could do that would utilize items that couples’ may already have in their homes, could be purchased locally and most importantly, could be re-used for other purposes.

This year, Valentine’s Day (February 14, 2010) also happens to be Chinese New Year’s.  With that in mind, I wanted to incorporate Asian elements into the design of the table, while at the same time,  keeping costs down by limiting the use of traditional Valentine’s Day flowers such as red roses.

Using items that I already had on hand, along with a shopping trip to Pier 1 (absolutely one of my FAVORITE places to shop) the design started to evolve.  I found a rich burgundy table runner with beautiful embroidery that would be more versatile than bright red, gold trimmed votive candle holders, heart bookends, bubble vases with candle holder, a rich red picture frame, red and ivory essentials plates and amber crackle stemware.

To keep costs down, I used beautiful red mokara orchids with bear grass at the bottom of the bubble vases with Island Orchard votive candles.   The bubble vases can easily be changed into completely different theme such as a sea theme with beach sand, shells and a blue candle.    The red frame featured a “Valentine’s Day Gift” poem for the evening, and may be re-used for a picture of the couple at one of their favorite places.

A few red roses were used along with the river rocks (which always lends itself to an Asian feel) along with the decorative chopsticks, wooden flatware and a Valentine’s Day menu printed on parchment paper which was custom designed to fit inside the plate and and printed on a basic HP Officejet printer.

Our non-pro picture is posted here, with professional images from Kris Labang are featured on pages 30-33 in the magazine alongside Elite Catering which is now featured on-line at http://www.chromaticmagazine.com/

“Chromatic” magazine which is a quarterly publication providing the people of Hawaii information on the latest fashion, beauty, hot spots, entertainment and lifestyle.