I recently moved across the street from the most amazing location for weddings. The Carl S. English Botanical Garden at the Ballard Locks. I invite you to take a look at the pictures on the link provided below and imagine your garden wedding and a picnic on one of the lovely lawns after wards:
This botanical garden is a tribute to the devotion of horticulturist, Carl S. English, Jr. During the 43 years working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Carl transformed the barren lawn, left after the construction of the locks, into a garden worthy of serious study. These lovely grounds are a masterpiece of horticultural splendor, combining the elegant lines and vistas of the romantic English landscape style with the original character of more than 570 species and 1,500 varieties from around the world. One of Seattle’s best kept secrets is yours to enjoy. The garden offers color fragrance, and open spaces to awaken your senses all year long.
The Ballard Locks offer four different areas for your wedding ceremony and they are FREE with a reservation. I have done several weddings so far in the formal garden and rose garden which is reserved for groups of 10 or less. The other three areas that can be reserved can accommodate up to 40 guests each. Consider this — my fee to marry you in the gardens is $175 and the space is free. If you want to do a picnic after your ceremony you can keep it as inexpensive (sandwiches and chips) or as extravagant as you wish. Just remember that there is no alcohol allowed on the grounds.
Who says weddings have to be expensive? All in all, you can have a beautiful garden wedding and nice meal for your guests without breaking the bank! Call me to reserve your garden wedding at the beautiful Carl S. English Botanical Garden!
So about a year ago when I began my business as a wedding officiant, my business manager said I MUST sign up for Google Adwords. I didn’t know a thing about it. She has been an officiant for 22 years (Elope San Diego), however, and said that Google Adwords has helped her business immensely. So she set me up and thank goodness she did because it was like Greek to me as I followed her instructions on getting started. To this day I am eternally grateful for her help in those early days but that’s another post…
I ran my campaign for about 6 months until I realized that I was spending way too much on Advertising. Other advertisers were contacting me and I kept having to turn them down because all my money was going to Google Adwords. I mean we’re talking $500-600/month! The wedding business slows down quite abit in the Winter. It’s like someone turns the faucet off and the phone stops ringing and the e-mails stop coming. I therefore made the decision to turn off or “pause” my campaign until I figured out how to make more money OR spend less on advertising. It took one phone call for me to figure out what to do. Talk about divine intervention. An SEO company contacted me and told me they could get me on top for good doing what they do and they said they did it very well. Of course, my main concern was cost. This all sounded so great! So when they told me it would cost me $1,000/month a light went back on about Google. I thought to myself, hey self, if these guys want to charge you $1,000 to do the same thing that Google was doing, maybe Google isn’t such a bad idea. Or was it? What I really needed to figure out was how to fine-tune my campaign and get the $500-600/month I was spending before down to about $250. If I could do that, one booked wedding would pay for my campaign. So I turned my campaign back on and for the last week I have been running reports and trying to analyze my campaign. I went from running my campaign 100% of the time down to 37% and I am watching keywords very closely as I try to put myself in the shoes of my potential clients. When they put in Wedding Officiant what and who comes up? Well, if I play my Google Adwords cards right, I do. And so far so good. I have been getting very good results and I think it’s just going to get better. The key thing with Google Adwords is that you can’t just set it up and walk away. It’s a monster that has to be fed. In other words, you have to work at it very hard. For example, I sit down every day and look at the keywords that have been used the day before by users. I then plug those very same keywords in to see what they see. I’m still trying to figure out some stuff — like why aren’t all of my ads running? For the life of me I can’t figure this out and have sent an inquiry to the Adwords team. I am doubtful that I’ll hear back and therefore I continue to run reports and analyze this issue. I’m sure there’s an answer and I’m going to find it!
In summary: Google Adwords is the bomb if you don’t let it consume you. You have to be very involved to make it work for you. And I just happen to be very stubborn. I highly recommend it but only if you’ve got the backbone to work through all the elusive details.
Earlier this month I moved from my beloved Craftsman bungalow in Ballard, Washington to a one-bedroom apartment about 2 miles from my bungalow. Fortunately, I didn’t have to adjust to a new area because I frequented the area my apartment is located in regularly. In fact, if you have to live in an apartment, and it was time for me to downsize, this is a great location! I am now living right across the street from the Hiram M. Chittendan Locks (http://www.seattle.gov/tour/locks.htm). My two chocolate labs, Oscar and Oliver, walk here every day, and on nice days we like to (I say “we” because they seem to enjoy this activity) sit and watch the boats go through the locks. So the good thing about this move is that I am getting more walks in because of the dogs now being in an apartment. In my former home we had a doggie door that allowed them to get outside and sun themselves on the back deck if they chose. Now I take them out and we walk everywhere. It’s good for them and good for me. The negative part of leaving my home, not to mention all the sentimental stuff, is that I can no longer hold weddings in front of my fireplace in the Winter and outside on my deck in the Summer. Sorry to say, that is not possible in my little apartment. So that’s not great. What is great, however, (and if you have read this far — I’ve saved the best for last) is that the Locks will allow weddings in their beautiful world-renowned botanical gardens for FREE! Yes, you must reserve the space — one of four actually depending on the size of your group — but all you have to do is fill out a form and if the space is available, VOILA! You have a beautiful setting right in one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city!
So I get a phone call today and when I pick up I can’t hear anything on the line except buzzing — like a bad connection. When the connection didn’t improve I eventually hung up the phone. Then they called again and curiosity getting the best of me, I answered the phone in my usual professional manner, “Hello, this is Elaine”. The buzzing continued on the other end but suddenly it was paired with a man’s voice. “Hi, this is Steve” (name replaced to protect the caller’s privacy). “Hi Steve.” “Uh, you did a wedding for a friend of mine about a month ago and he said I have to call you because me and my fiance are getting married in April. I’m in South America visiting her — she’s deployed here”. “What, you are calling from South America?” “Yes, that’s right. She’s got a Majic Jack that makes it easy.” And the discussion progressed from there.
What really wow’d me about that phone call today is that Seattle Wedding Officiants became international! And it was with someone in the military which I love. I have done many military weddings and I’m getting to know the kind of young man that goes into the military. He is bright-eyed, polite, clean-cut, stands up straight — these guys are really amazing! And it’s consistent whichever part of the military they are in. For example, I had about 5 who were assigned to submarines. Facinating, huh? You bet. I was in awe of these young men.
I can’t say enough about how excited I am about my business. The call from South America, getting to know the local military — it’s a great time for Seattle Wedding Officiants and thank you to all of you who have helped!
