Making Your Weddings and Parties Unique

“Hey, we ought to gather more friends, and continue talking about this. It’s a great topic for brainstorming!”

I thought this at least ten times at last Tuesday’s meeting of Silicon Valley NACE (National Association of Catering Executives). What an evening, socializing with some of my best colleagues! Networking groups like this create powerful opportunities to share ideas and explore new solutions to persistent problems, like how to make our work unique.

You might already be thinking like this, but here’s my favorite way: Make yourself unique. However you make a living, it’s always good to develop your own special talents and strengths, and then apply your distinctive personal style to everything you do. How to do this? For one excellent strategy, hang out with unique friends and colleagues. If you like to stay up-to-date, get yourself involved with a networking group like NACE or hundreds like it. You can easily find plenty of groups to cover any subject that interests you. For starters, take a look at MeetUp.com, as well as professional associations.

Talking about being unique, last Tuesday two of my favorite colleagues -- Amy Blach (AMB Designs) and Natti Pierce-Thomson (North American Theatre Technology) -- described how they always customize their services, to suit their clients’ wishes. This way, they’re able to present an outstanding value for any budget.

Both Amy and Natti are at the very top of their professions, offering to create many unique options for their clients’ events. They’re like a waiter in a fine restaurant, who first inquires about what his guest wants, and then describes several appropriate options from the menu, offering helpful recommendations and ways to customize each of them.

Amy specializes in creating spectacular, one-of-a-kind balloon decor (“painting the air with color”), as well as eye-catching party props and whimsical table-top displays. Her clients range from the energy-packed home games of the San Jose Sharks to smaller, more intimate personal dinner parties.

Natti specializes in creating stunning theatrical lighting for weddings and for private parties, as well as for professional theatrical productions throughout the Bay Area. She combines an artistic flair for imaginative design with a sure grasp of the latest lighting technology. You simply have to see it to believe what a vivid impact dramatic lighting has on an event.

Both Amy and Natti are unique. For each, their greatest assets are a complete “toolbox” of professional skills and a trained imagination honed by years of experience. Their services might be imitated but never duplicated. In contrast, many of their competitors are “commodities”, like identical loaves of plain bread -- sure, they get the job done, but it’s hardly special. Maybe it’ll be just another balloon arch or yellow spotlight that everyone forgets the next morning.

So here’s the big picture. Want to do unique work? Here’s how to claim your success. Whatever you do, be distinctive and stand out from the crowd. Keep your eyes open. Identify your own strongest personal interests, skills, and talents, and always work to make them even better. Then, based upon what you do best, create options, and apply them with imagination. You’ll become one-of-a-kind, and not just another commodity.

We’ve never been just another “going-rate” band. This year the band has been jazzing up many unique events, and I’m always on the lookout for more opportunities. For instance, will you be celebrating a significant event soon? Throw a party and include us. Are friends talking about a wedding? Please recommend us. Today I’m talking with people hosting parties for Memorial Day and Father’s Day. If you’ll have a soiree on one of these days, or on any day in between, now’s a good time to arrange the details, including the music.

Have a question? We’ll have the answer. Call us at 408-245-9120. You’ll love what we do. We’re easy to work with, so let our experience help your celebration.

In the meantime, please catch us at a public event coming up. On Saturday, June 27, we’ll be setting the perfect elegant mood for “The Vintage Affaire” wine auction and dinner party at a fabulous estate in Atherton. Please visit MagnoliaJazz.com for details, and I hope to see you there.

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Thanks for reading my blog. Please send me a comment (below), and I’ll reply promptly. Here’s a question for you: How do you make your work unique?