While not technically a wedding vendor, the Hampton Roads Wedding Guide is an indispensable resource for brides planning their wedding. I recently interviewed Marcia Jordan, publisher of the Wedding Guide.
Tell us about the Hampton Roads Wedding Guide. What is it’s purpose?
The Hampton Roads Wedding Guide is a complete planning guide and service directory designed to help engaged couples and their families plan the wedding. There are timetables and checklists as well as valuable information about wedding planning. And, best of all, it features local wedding professionals.
How long have you been involved with it? How long has the Hampton Roads Wedding Guide been published? How often is it published?
I am the original owner of the GUIDE. The first edition was in 1988. I publish twice a year – January and July so I am working on issue 44, January 2011.
Where is the Hampton Roads Wedding Guide distributed? How much does it cost?
The GUIDE is distributed through bridal shops, Macy’s, Dillard’s and Belk bridal registries, banquet facilities, many advertisers, and bridal shows. It is a FREE publication. Brides can visit us online for locations and upcoming bridal shows.
So many brides use the internet for their wedding planning, how does the Hampton Roads Wedding Guide help the bride with their planning? Do you have a website?
www.hrweddingguide.com features all of our advertisers and most of them have links to their website making our site a one-stop-shop when you’re surfing the net for wedding services and products. We also have a user friendly budget calculator. Bridal shows, trunk shows, and open houses are also featured on our website.
What do you see as the main benefits of having a printed publication to hand out to brides as opposed to online information?
The GUIDE offers easily referenced articles on wedding related subjects that the bride might not have ever thought about. We offer loads of tips from selecting your wedding vendors to decorating your wedding. Best of all, the vendors ads themselves lets the bride know who specializes in weddings. Our Reception & Rehearsal Dinner Site Directory is very popular with brides because at a glance they can know the capacity of a venue, if outside catering is allowed, if the facility has a view, etc. A person could spend an awful lot of time surfing the net for all this information that is found in the GUIDE. In fact, many years ago the Wedding Guide was coined “the wedding bible” by many brides and vendors.
Do you have any suggestions or tips for brides as they plan their event? How about grooms?
Share responsibilities: Don’t assume you have to do everything yourself. This idea is old-fashioned, as well as exhausting. Weddings are meant to be joyous celebrations but too often they turn into the quest for perfection. It is impossible to have the “perfect wedding”. By realizing that your wedding day is one big party that should be fun, you can let go of some obsessions; ribbons that don’t match your attendants’ dresses; the last minute substitution by your florist because lily of the valley was unavailable.
In your opinion, what has changed the most and what has changed the least in the wedding industry since you’ve been publishing the Guide?
The days of the groom being responsible for the rehearsal dinner and showing up on time for the wedding are long gone. With today’s believe that marriage is an equal partnership, the groom is involved in almost every aspect of wedding planning. The groom is also becoming more involved in the financial aspects of the wedding. With many couples marrying at an older age, many are paying for their own wedding or contribute to the parents’ wedding expenses.
As men become more involved, we are seeing traditional wedding duties change. Beginning with the engagement announcement, more and more newspapers feature photographs of the couple instead of the traditional bride-to-be. Many newlyweds today both work full-time and share housekeeping duties. Because of this the groom is being included in many bridal showers. Theme showers which include interests of both the bride and groom have become very popular. The ever changing roles of men and women are indeed having an effect on the traditional wedding.
Thanks Marcia for providing such a wonderful resource for wedding planning and thanks for featuring one of our images on the cover of your current issue!
