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Is there a way to "educate" future brides?

Watching with great interest the forum - if brides only knew.. - I realize that while there are so many wedding professionals, information, internet, books, magazines etc. giving advises, ideas for planning, the future brides are not "trained" as one would expect.

It seems that they do not yet know what they want, what much money can spend, what photographer to hire, what decoration etc. particularly in USA where the information is even more than in other countries,for example in my country, Greece.
So what is the "secret" in order to educate the future brides and know what they want;

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Permalink Reply by Take it Personally by Christine on December 14, 2009 at 6:54pm

I'm starting to think some brides just don't want to put the effort into something that they claim they truely want. The resources are out there. They just need to read them :)

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Permalink Reply by Konstantina Saraidari on December 16, 2009 at 10:05am

I believe ultimately, we are who will educate the brides and that requires a lot of effort, time and patience.

Thanks Christine

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Permalink Reply by Phyllis Cambria on December 23, 2009 at 9:26pm

I think you're both right. I think that brides don't want to make the effort and that it's up to us to train them.

I come from this from a different perspective these days. I'm a semi-retired planner meaning that although I've been doing this for 20+ years, these days I don't solicit brides. I do, however, write a wedding column that's meant to teach brides some DIY things and very often why they need a planner. I also teach them about budgets, give them resources that I believe are helpful and so forth.

My problem is that most of my readers are planners, not brides. Why? Because the planners don't like to share the information with brides because they're afraid that they are going to lose business. And that's looking at it the wrong way. The more a bride knows, the more likely she is to ask for help because she'll realize the process can be overwhelming.

If planners would do some of the research for their potential brides and drop them a line and maybe reference an article, with something as simple as "I just read something you might find interesting about budgets (flowers, photographers, decor or whatever). Here's the link," then the brides would start to realize that the planner has their best interest in mind and would come to think of the planner more as a friend rather than just someone else who wants to get their hands on their money.

But that's my opinion for what it's worth.

Phyllis Cambria
Examiner.com
www.examiner.com/x-27776-Miami-Wedding-Planning-Examiner
WeddingPlansPlus.com