Today’s break beverage: my special Americano of course…  Why?  It gives me the added boost and is nice to my thighs (:

Mood: Busy, busy, busy…

Since I can’t get my two years of blogging uploaded here, I’ve decided to feature past entries here over time.   Here’s the first… enjoy!

So, you’re engaged and are planning your huge investment on creating a perfect beginning to your happily ever after. Now what?

It’s time time to outline the top three ways for you to protect this investment. We get excited when it’s time to plan “the day.” Through all that excitement, someone in the planning party is thinking about the total investment involved. With the rising cost of weddings and the fluctuation of the market, educated wedding spending should remain at the top of everyone’s priority list. After two popular Houston wedding venue’s shut their doors without offering any possible recourse for their booked events, this has become a constant subject at the tip of my tongue.

Allow us a few moments to list three simple ways to protect your wedding investment. It’s never to late to begin this practice. Whether you have eight months or eight weeks of planning remaining, something on this list can benefit you in protecting your investment.

NUMBER THREE…
Make all of your deposits and wedding purchases by credit card. Making minimum deposits by credit card keeps you with the advantage of being able to dispute charges for services not rendered. If you have made a purchase for a service with a credit card that has not be rendered, simply call your credit card company and dispute the charge(s). When calling your credit card issuer, request a charge back pursuant to the Fair Credit Billing Act. Charges for services that weren’t delivered as agreed are covered under this Act. Access the Federal Trade Commission for specifics on this Act.

NUMBER TWO…
This may sound odd, but I’m going to say it anyway. Some vendors may get excited to get payments above and beyond the required deposit amount. I beg to differ and strongly recommend the opposite. Pay only the required deposit to secure your vendor and hold your wedding date. Make all payments as outlined by the agreement. This goes hand in hand with having a good agreement that proper outlines all the terms, conditions, and agreements for both parties (the supplier of services and the recipient of services to be rendered). I don’t recommend paying for anything in full that you have yet to receive. If final payment is due two weeks prior to your event, that is when I suggest you schedule your payment. This way you are not out $20K eight months prior to your wedding because your venue decided to shut it’s doors and discontinued the telephone lines.

NUMBER ONE…
The number one suggestion for protecting your your wedding expenses (drum roll please): INSURE YOUR EVENT!

That’s right… Purchase wedding insurance coverage. Precious Nuptials and Destinations has been in the works of adding a couple optional basic wedding coverage to our full and echo chic planning package for some time now. The couple could always choose to enhance this coverage, but we feel it’s absolutely necessary to set the foundation and plant the seed. The state of our economy and all the uncertainty has surly put this wheel into full motion.

In this quest for finding ideal coverage providers to offer our clients, we meet with Jorge Sera of Total Insurance Coverage, LLC back in July. Mr. Sera’s services is an ideal fit for what we are looking for. Not only because the coverage options are so diverse, but also because he’s local and knows his stuff! I for one, totally connect with the fact of having a local insurance office to write and or source this policy. I don’t know about you, but I feel so much better when making important purchases with a physical person verses a web page. Jorge, I hope he doesn’t mind me calling him by his first name, is very knowledgeable about his product, protection, and limits. Here’s samples of what type of protection this policy can offer:

• Your reception venue went out of business
• Hurricane cause your wedding to be postponed
• Lost or damaged dress
• Lost deposits
• Lost rings
• Transportation shutdown
• Ruined photos
• Call to duty
• Damaged gifts
• Sudden illness
• Venue required insurance
• Liquor liability

Review this sample policy to see if this coverage is right for you. You may also become familiar with the protect plans from Travelers dedicated information site. In short, a few hundred dollars can invest the thousands you’ll spend on planning your perfect day. Contact Jorge Sera and allow him to assist you in properly protecting your wedding expenditures.

There it is… It’s that simple. Doing these three simple steps can save a lot of headaches and a ton of heartaches.

Also, we understand that our displaced brides my still have a need for wedding planning and coordination services. Precious Nuptials and Destinations will offer proven displaced couples discounted services on a case by case bases. We would love to help everyone, but know that we are not able to. In return, we hope that the three steps listed above will assist couples and their families from being displaced and out thousands to boot. Contact us at: staff[at]preciousnuptials.com for more information.

[Cheers!]