As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, I am so thankful to have a successful business doing what I love to do (and feel what I am meant to be doing).

First of all, Kirkbrides won 4th place this year in the Fox8 Hotlist! It is an honor and I wanted to say thank you to all of the past and current clients, vendors, family and friends who voted for us! I am thrilled to be listed in the Top 5 Wedding Planners with great company since no one planner, vendor or venue works best for every single client. We have learned this through working with many different clients with all different styles, tastes and budgets. There are lots of excellent vendors mentioned in the Top 5 of all of the categories, and lots more we love to connect our clients with that weren't mentioned who do an amazing job. Congrats to all of the vendors who placed in all of the wedding categories!


I recently had the honor of helping my sister in law with a few details for her wedding day on November 14. One detail I helped with was recommending the photographer, Imagen Photography (who just won 1st place in the Fox8 hotlist for wedding photography). They were so happy with working with Nathan, and how the pictures turned out. Check out their post on the wedding with lots of pictures by http://www.imagenphotos.com/blog/wedding-pine-ridge-country-club-wickliffe-ohio/. Congratulations Kelly and Andrew!!!

I sent out a little catch-up and how are we doing note out to tell our clients how thankful we are to have them and I just wanted to share some of the awesome compliments I have received back.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who reads the Kirkbrides blog! :-)

Thanks Valarie! I can't keep telling people how happy we are with our decision to hire Kirkbrides! People are shocked with the amount of decisions we have been able to make already. Thanks for making this as stress free as possible!
I look forward to talking to you tomorrow!
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Thank you & Happy Thanksgiving! You are great and I am so glad we have you to help us!
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Hi Valarie,

Thanks for the sweet email. And thank you for being my wedding planner/designer/organizer -- your insights, organization and enthusiasm (and more) have all helped make this experience managable and fun! I'm especially excited now that we've really started diving into the design phase. (I was starting to drown in printer clippings, haha -- there's too many pretty things out there!).

Thank you again for all your hard work. I, too, hope you and your family have a safe and fun-filled Thanksgiving holiday!
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Hi Valarie,

Thanks for the sweet note! We certainly couldn't be happier with our experience working with you so far, and know that the next 6 months will be just as enjoyable and helpful! All weekend our family and friends who were in town for my shower kept asking if the planning had been stressful, and we both credited no stress (except stupid issues with makeup appointments) all to you!
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Thank you Valarie. Same to you!

I am thrilled with your service and enjoy it a lot.
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Hi Valarie --

Thanks for the note! Hope you have a great Holiday weekend, and wanted to say thank you for all your help thus far. When we hear our friends talk about how stressful their wedding planning was/is we look at each other and are thankful to have you helping us. Its been a real pleasure.

I'm happy to post a link to Style Me Pretty's Little Black Blog, who recently ran a post focusing on my own wedding! I got married on August 15, 2009 and had so much fun finally planning all of the details after working on so many other weddings for so long! I believe that this post sums everything up perfectly.

All of the amazing wedding vendors who contributed to the wonderful day:
Coordination: Kirkbrides (of course!)
Band: Tony Quarles & the Discovery Band
Cake: Flour Girl
Ceremony Music: Sonata Strings
Desserts (Petit Fours): Phyllis Lester
DJ: Scott Jones
Floral Décor: Grande Designs
Hair: Barb Banko
Lighting: Vincent Lighting
Linen Rentals: L’Nique
Makeup: Ramona Dauksiene
Photography: Easywind Studio
Transportation: A1 Mr. Limo
Videographer: Moonstruck Productions

I really felt like I saw things from a different perspective that day, allowing me to do my job even better to help my brides in every way possible as their planner. I also saw how valuable MY coordinators were to me, my family and all my vendors (Rachael and Maura from the Kirkbrides team). Our families and bridal party all said how awesome and helpful they were...I felt like I had to keep reminding everyone that they are my own team, haha!

Enjoy!

Click here for the full post:
http://www.stylemepretty.com/2009/11/04/a-wedding-planners-wedding-valarie-james/

Pictures courtesy of Easywind Studio

Thank you all for your support last year in the Fox 8 Hot List Contest and helping us to win #1 wedding planner!!!

If you have a minute and would like to vote again for this year's contest we would appreciate it!!! Just click here:

http://fox8.cityvoter.com/kirkbrides-wedding-planning-and-design/biz/55297

The voting ends this Friday, November 13th at 11:59pm (my birthday! even more reason to vote!).

Thank you for your support!

I had the pleasure of helping Melissa and John plan their September 12, 2009 wedding in Cleveland for 14 months. They hired Kirkbrides mostly for our unique location expertise and also because they live in Hoboken, New Jersey so the distance made their planning a challenge. Melissa was a referral from Marie and Matt, from August 2007! It's so nice to see our work coming around for friends of past clients getting married. And it was also wonderful to see Marie and Matt at the wedding!

We lucked out because we got to share the tent and some of the rentals with the wedding I had at the same location the very next weekend! (see Nora and Chris, below) So that helped us on the cost a bit!

Below are the awesome pictures from Mark Davidson, our photographer for the day. I love his take on the day, so unique.























A note from Melissa:
Thank you
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 10:29 AM
From:

"Melissa xxx"
View contact details
To:
"Valarie Kirkbride"

Dear Valarie and Team,

Hope you're all doing very well. Sorry we have taken so long to write this, but we just wanted to drop a line to express our gratitude for your wedding planning services. Our September 12, 2009 wedding was the perfect day. It was the wedding I have always pictured in my mind, and thank you so much for helping us to bring it to fruition. Thank you for helping me make all of the difficult but pertinent decisions in the planning process. Being a very indecisive person, your direction was imperative! The food, decor, and setting fit our personalities so perfectly. I even received a few "That was the best wedding I have ever been to" and "That was the most beautiful wedding I have ever seen." Though I am sure those compliments were mere flattery, in my mind, they are true. We now have the BEST memory! Thank you.

Since there was absolutely nothing for me to keep track of or worry about during the course of our day, we had the rare opportunity of having fun at our own wedding. Unfortunately, I was so busy having way too much fun that I lost my veil. I was so excited when it turned up in my mail a few weeks later! It was so nice of you to go to the extra trouble of (well, finding it in the first place) mailing it. It was such a nice surprise!

We hope you'll all get a chance to relax a bit now that the wedding season is coming to a close! Keep in touch!

Kindest regards,

Melissa and John

Some pictures taken by me and my team. The sunset was just too amazing to resist taking a few of our own. You can't buy or rent the sunset anywhere! Definitely a highlight of the wedding. Congratulations Melissa and John!