 The
wedding day for most people is one of the most stressful of
their lives. So how has wedding planner Donnie Brown, JWIC survived
more than 2,000 of them? He has a secret weapon. "I try
to use humor on a day-to-day basis," he says, "humor
makes the day more fun."
But Brown's warm and wacky
sense of humor has done more than just smooth over nuptial
nerves; it's also made him a reality TV star. Fans of the
Style Network's top-rated reality show, Whose Wedding Is It
Anyway?, tune in regularly to watch Brown and other big-city
wedding planners pull out all the stops to give couples the
weddings of their dreams. With his clever one-liners and gregarious
personality, Texas native Brown quickly became a fan favorite.
Brown has survived some of
a planner's worst nightmares during Weddings' eight seasons,
including a stained wedding dress and a cake threatening to
topple; all while mastering grace under pressure on camera!
Brown's career as wedding
guru began at age 16 in Lubbock, Texas by helping out some
friends who owned a floral shop with weekend weddings. It
also proved a lucrative enough hobby to allow Brown to put
himself through college at Texas Tech University. In 1994
he went pro, opening Dallas-based Five Star Floral Design
and Events. Soon, Brown had established a reputation in town
as a top-notch wedding professional. His clients appreciated
his talents with floral arrangements and décor; but
more so, his lighthearted approach to a process that can quickly
become overwhelming.
PCM's Kristyn Clarke and Khusbu
Joshi had the recent opportunity to chat with Donnie about
the wedding industry from tips to recreating lavish celebrity
nuptials to some of the strangest requests he has encountered....
Read on!
CLICK HERE to read some of Donnie Brown's Wedding
Money Saving Tips for Hard Ecnomic Times!
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Q:
Now must be quite the busy time for weddings and such, how are
things going?
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Donnie Brown: Oh, it's crazy. We had a little
bit of slowing down right after the first of the year like
everyone else did, but we seem to be recovering much more
quickly than most. We are booking weddings like crazy and
in the middle of weddings that were already booked.
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Q:
That is good to hear! So I am sure that people have to find
joy in something these days. I think that delving head first
into wedding planning can get everyone's' mind off of other
problems for a little while.
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D.B:
Of course it can! These are the times in our lives that we remember,
so we want to try to outweigh the bad with the good.
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Q:
What is your favorite aspect of working in the wedding industry?
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DB:
I have always said that my favorite part is the time when the
bride and groom get to see the reception site for the first
time and we always try to set that up before the guests arrive
and are let into the room. There is a quiet calm. I always evacuate
all the staff to make sure it is completely empty so that the
bride and groom can come in and just peruse around and see how
everything turned out, it is just a wonderful moment. We try
to make sure that happens for couples, because it will never
look that way again. Once the guests come in, it is all over!
(laughs)
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Q:
With such a huge focus on celebrity weddings that we see on
the cover of all the tabloids, what are some tips or advice
you can share with us to help us replicate some of these lavish
weddings that many of us would not be able to afford?
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DB:
There are lots of different things that you can do! Obviously
the celebrity weddings set the trends, but then the wedding
industry works very hard to try to create some semblance of
"reach ability" from those trends. What you see in
celebrity weddings is lighting, elaborate centerpieces, beautiful
linen, a lot of drapery and ceiling treatments. All of these
things are attainable to any bride that wants them. For instance,
in Dallas there used to be only one company that had lounge
furniture available to rent and in the past year we have had
seven more companies pop up. And of course they are all fighting
for every piece of business they can get like everyone else
is, so costs are not as bad as you might think. You can actually
get celebrity-style custom lounge furniture in your wedding
for less than 3,000 dollars.
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Q:
Wow! That is impressive! I think everyone has the idea ingrained
in their head that it is so expensive they could never dream
of affording it! I am sure there are plenty of ways to get around
it!
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DB: There are, and you know one of the things
that sets an ordinary wedding apart from a splashy celebrity
wedding are ways of covering up a ballroom and such! Obviously
hotel ballrooms are used so much these days and they are
used for a reason, because they have all the stuff you need.
You don't have to rent all of it. More and more brides are
learning to cover up what looks like a ballroom by creating
a space that is all their own with draperies, foliages,
ceiling treatments and things that you can do that really
aren't all that expensive in the end. You would be surprised,
you can turn a room into whatever you want it to look like.
The pictures on TV and in magazines from celebrity wedding
planners, you see a lot of draperies and ways to cover up
a room and the lighting they use to create an ambiance that
is custom fitted for the wedding.
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Q:
Back to the celebrity weddings that we spoke about earlier,
do you have any favorites?
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DB:
Oh, I have a lot of favorites. (laughs) We can look at Heidi
Montag and Spencer Pratt's wedding for instance, I think it
is a shame he had nothing more to wear than a pair of jeans
and some tennis shoes. (laughs)
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Q:
(laughs) Yeah that is pretty bad! 'Cause you know he is oh so
famous!
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DB:
Well, I know, come on! He could have at least put on a pair
of slacks. I dress like that to go to the grocery store!
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Q:
(laughs)
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DB:
So, I thought that was a little bit unfortunate! She looked
cute in her little, fairy dress, I thought that was nice, but
all in all it was a little dressed down for my taste. Other
weddings that I thought have been really nice were of course
Leann Rimes. I did that wedding so, I have to say so, but also
I thought Orlando Joneses was very pretty; also the Ivanka Trump
wedding, it was over the top but it was just unbelievable. And
to have Donald Trump coordinate the whole thing, I mean come
on, how often do you see something like that happen?
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Q:
(laughs) What was one of the most expensive or over the top
weddings that you personally had to plan?
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DB: I did a wedding for one of the Pulitzer
granddaughters and it was nearly a million dollars. It was
funny because the groom's family didn't come from that kind
of background. And after the ceremony, when the reception
was in full swing, people were just dancing, the cake had
been cut and the groom's family took out the flowers from
the centerpieces and threw them on the floor and danced
on them.
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Q:
Did they really?
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DB:
Yeah, that was something I have to say!
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Q:
I have to ask, what is the strangest request you have ever encountered
and how did you make it work?
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DB:
I am going to give you two! One that really wasn't all that
strange, but to me was just undo-able, but we ended up making
it work. It was a bride who wanted all the guests in her Catholic
cathedral ceremony to have a candle in their hand. My first
thought was, 'well, this isn't an AIDS Walk, it's not a vigil,
why would you want everyone to have a candle? Also, is the priest
even going to allow everyone to have a candle in his sanctuary?'
You have to realize that 300 people with an open-flame candle,
that could get kind of dangerous, but he let her do it! The
funny part was that the mother of the bride was a little on
the hammered side, so she was sitting in her seat and she was
divorced so she had some girlfriend sitting next to her, and
these little girls went down the rows with candles and everyone
had a candle in a cup just like you would have at a vigil. The
little girls were lighting the peoples' candles at the end of
each pew, then they would pass the candle light down till everyone
had a candle lit. Well of course the mother of the bride was
the last one, being the front left. She reached over and when
the little girl lit her candle, she stood there and looked at
it for a minute, then the woman next to her, who was a friend
of hers, bumped her as to say "light my candle, too,"
so she leaned over and lit her candle. When she did, hot wax
spilled out of the cup and hit her on the top of the left foot!
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Q:
Oh, No! Ouch!
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DB:
And she screamed out something that I can only say would be
something I have never heard screamed out in a Catholic church.
(laughs)
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Q:
Oh, man, that is horrible (laughs)
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DB:
Yeah, it was pretty funny. (laughs) That was one of them, and
the other one I had was interesting because it was a multi-cultural
wedding, an Asian bride with a Middle-Eastern groom. When I
was having my final detailing with them I asked, 'So, how do
you want to enter?' The groom stated that he wanted the bride
to make her entrance to the altar and then he wanted to make
his entrance last. Which of course I thought was ridiculous
and so did the bride. She was not going for it. So we turned
it around and did it the right way. However, he wanted to wear
a cape and enter to the tune of Superman under a spotlight!
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Q:
Oh, my gosh!! (laughs)
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DB:
Which he did! And he got exactly the response that he wanted,
everyone burst out laughing and that was the only laughter I
had heard all day because he was 45 minutes late and he and
the bride had a huge fight before the ceremony. We were glad
to have laughter of any kind that day. I also had another groom
who was a conservative Republican and he entered to "Hail
to the Chief."(laughs)
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Q:
(laughs)
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DB:
You would be surprised at what people ask for! It is funny for
me being on Whose Wedding Is It Anyway, for all these
years because it really isn't my wedding so whatever they want
they can have. I try to talk them out of it, sometimes...
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Q:
What would your perfect wedding be?
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DB: I had my perfect wedding. It was small
and it was not over the top. It was held in my backyard, around
my pool, on my arbor and all of our best family and friends
were there and it was absolutely perfect! To me, it doesn't
have to be wild and over the top
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Q:
Yeah, you know sometimes I think that type of wedding can be
just as beautiful and memorable as something lavish and off
the wall, like you said.
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DB:
Of course! My memories of that day are as memorable as any other
I can ever think, or anyone else that I have ever helped get
married.
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Q:
What do you feel it is about a show like Whose Wedding Is
It Anyway that resonates well with viewers?
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DB:
We are currently filming Season 10! First of all, I think you
have to put all the wedding shows together, combine them together
and see what they have in common. Obviously they have something
in common, something that everybody either remembers fondly
or wants desperately, so those two things combined create an
arena that's really sought after and people want to see it.
Whose Wedding Is It Anyway stands apart from the other
shows. They were really smart when they did this because if
you think about it, every time you tune in and you see Bridezillas
or you see Platinum Weddings or whatever those other
shows are, there is never anybody that is there all the time,
that you see all the time. There is no cast! Every time you
go on, it is always new people, new circumstances and there
is nobody to blend over from an episode before. Whose Wedding
Is It Anyway is the only show that has an actual cast of
planners, and that's good because that makes it feel a little
more like a scripted TV show in that you get to know the cast
and those are the people that you follow. I think that is one
of the main reasons the show has done as well as it has and
why we remain at the top of the ratings. People want to know
all about the planners; they want to know what we do for fun;
they want to know what we do all the time. It is like watching
Golden Girls, you fell in love with all those girls because
they were there all the time. Had it been a show about middle-aged
women and there were different women there all the time it would
not have been as wonderful
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Q:
I am sure there are certain fans who become attached to each
one of you.
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DB: Of course! It is unbelievable! Several
of us have had stalkers! You know, the show filmed in my home
for a long time, so it made people feel like they knew me
even more because not only did they know me, but also they
knew me in my environment. They really felt like they knew
me. You hear the old stories about South Fork in Dallas and
how they really used to believe that ranch. People used to
climb the fence because they thought they really lived there.
It's really funny how people don't pay attention to what's
real and what's not real on TV.
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Q:
How much pressure does the camera add when you're planning a
wedding?
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DB:
A lot! The first thing you have to realize is that I have a
major goal. That goal is to make sure the wedding comes off,
all the vendors do what they're supposed to and the bride and
groom have the day that they want. That's number one, but I
also have to pay attention to the fact that we need the show
to get what they need so the show does well. Then I also have
to pay attention to the vendors, especially when vendors have
donated or discounted things to help the couple out. It's important
to me personally, that the vendors come across looking good.
And sometimes little tiny mistakes can be blown out of proportion
and they're things that can happen to anybody, any weekend.
They can be really blown out of proportion, so I never let those
kinds of mistakes show. I just think it's ridiculous if somebody
comes in and says, "Ok, well we're going to let you do
your wedding in our venue and we're going to give you 15% off
for this couple," you certainly don't want to throw them
under the bus over a set of chopsticks sitting on the table
or something silly. You'd be surprised how little tiny things
can really come out looking much worse than they really were.
So you have a lot of different irons in the fire to pay attention
to and the stress is immense. It's funny because there are other
wedding planners that think that they could do what I do everyday,
but most of the people I work with say, "there's no way,
you just have this way of tying it all together," and it's
really hard and very difficult.
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Q:
You are really busy and you have tons of people who want you
to plan their wedding. How you do prioritize who you want to
do the weddings for?
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DB:
That's hard because obviously we have a staff and we can take
on more than one wedding in a weekend. If it's a weekend that
we think is going to be busy and let's say the bride that comes
to us just wants a week of service and some décor. They
tell them that, "Donnie will over-see the planning and
he'll make sure everything is right, but there's a chance that
he may not be at your wedding." Then if something else
comes in that I need to be apart of in order to book that business,
I'll be at that wedding and an assistant will be at the smaller
wedding. It doesn't happen every week like that. They're really
careful to protect me so that I have the option of doing something
that I need to do. Also, I've got my book coming out this fall,
so all these weddings that we're booking for the fall and the
early winter are at times when I'm going to be on the road doing
my book tour. We're going to have to be very careful, but we're
fielding something between 150-200 weddings a week. Then we
also try to refer weddings that we simply cannot accommodate
because, you have to realize, some of these weddings have about
350 people and a $10,000 budget. That's not the kind of budget
you can hire a wedding planner with, but we have a sister company,
The Décor Company, and we often just transition over
and do flowers for them. We feel like everyone deserves to have
a nice wedding and we'll work with any budget. But whether or
not I can personally be there depends on the date and what we
have going on.
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Q:
Back to what you were saying about the show on style how do
they choose these couples and decide which planner to pair them
off with?
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DB: There's two different ways that it works.
Traditionally, for many years most of the couples came from
the planner. So you hire the planner and the planner submits
the couples he wants. Then, of course if somebody goes onto
our website and they fill out a form on the website to contact
us, it says: are you interested in being on the show? So we
have a list of all the brides so that when they tell us they're
filming, we pull up the brides we have booked in that time
frame that want to be on. Now that's one way, the other way
is a different avenue, the couples can contact the network
and the network then picks a few and pairs them with the planner.
That all depends on personalities, but what they look for
in the couples are dynamic personalities and an interesting
story; they don't like the couples looking like other couples
we've had, they don't like couples with the same story that
we've had or the same type of wedding we've had. They're really
good at continuing to progress and make things look fresh
and new and keep the audience excited. But let's say for instance,
I have a couple I've submitted for the show and the couple
gets picked up, the next step is a screen test and there's
a series of questions that they're asked on camera. The network
sees those and determines whether they're going to look good
and talk well on camera.
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Q:
I know humor is a great way to ease tension and calm nerves.
How has that been a helpful in dealing with your career and
dealing with some difficult clients?
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DB:
I learned a long time ago that humor was the best icebreaker
in the world and it was the best way to get people out of a
bad mood, if you can just find a way to do it. Sometimes the
silliest humor is the best because people think, "well
that was funny, but it was also stupid," but then they
start laughing because it was stupid. So I just learned a long
time ago, wedding planning is very, very stressful, it's stressful
on everybody; so you want to have ways in your back pocket that
you can just wedge into the ice and just kill it as quickly
as possible so the cooler heads prevail and they can move on.
Even when I meet with clients, I tell them we're going to take
as much of the stress off you as possible, but there's time
when no one, even a good wedding planner or anybody else can,
especially the last day of the wedding. And you can joke all
day long, but it's not going to help. It just happens to everybody,
especially those girls who have been planning their wedding
in their heads all those years. I've always used humor in that
way, I have to intervene when I can. There's nothing better
to crack a joke to somebody who's on the edge of a breakdown
and getting them to forget about what they were on the edge
about.
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Q:
Has there ever been a time when something you've either said
or done, where the couple wasn't happy with the wedding?
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DB: There's always a time when somebody doesn't
interpret the wedding the way they see it, but we've learned
to get beyond that. We do prototypes and carefully detail
everything out to make sure the couple knows exactly what
they're getting in advance. When it comes to a centerpiece,
it's never a tall cylinder of pink flowers; it's never like
that. It's almost like a restaurant menu, it's very detailed
and organized and shows how wide things are, what shape they
are, what flowers are being used and all that stuff is all
there. The important parts, like the bride's bouquet and the
centerpieces on the tables are usually done in advance so
they can be tweaked and perfected. We really don't run into
that very often anymore, but there have been times in years
passed; but we haven't had anything like that in a long time.
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Q:
What are tips for planning the perfect wedding? Will a lot of
that be covered in your book?
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DB:
It's all being covered in the book, and there's side bars in
the book that give items you need in your emergency kit, questions
to ask each vendor and not just the questions, but what to expect
from the answers. There are all kinds of great tips in there.
But I would say that the top tips would be, first of all, if
you can afford it, hire a wedding planner. You just can't believe
how much they can take off of you. Secondly, you don't want
to be one of those brides that snaps her fingers at people trying
to control her wedding reception, it just doesn't look good,
because anytime the bride and groom are visible, they're on
a stage so everybody is watching you. Another thing is, everyone
has a budget, and I fully understand that, but you have to be
very careful with the vendors you hire. There's a format in
which to do this and you don't want to spend 40% on decor and
then 2% on entertainment. Another thing is to prioritize your
wants and dislikes, 'cause every couple is different; some want
to spend more on decor, some the food, and some of them, the
entertainment. So it's important to weigh your likes and dislikes
and build your budget accordingly. I had a bride who had a $4,000
budget on a gown; now that's a decent budget to get a very nice
gown. I know there are dresses that can be a lot more, but you
can still get a very nice gown with $4,000. When she came back
from the bridal shop, she came back with a dress that was $12,000,
plus alterations, it came up to be around $15,000! I mean that's
almost a 400% increase, then they were all upset that they're
budget went over. And I was like 'duh, what did you think was
going to happen when you marked up your gown 400% over budget.'
It has to come out of somewhere, do you want to skip out on
the alcohol in the reception and make people leave after an
hour? Do not make people sit there sober. They will leave after
dinner.
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Q:
So to tie things up, what's the best way for fans to keep up
with what's going on with you?
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DB:
Well I have my fan site; actually you can get to everything
through
http://www.donniebrown.net/
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That is a portal site that has my merchandise section. It also
has my press kit and my press materials in there so you can
see articles and things that we've done. It leads off into my
wedding planning company and you can go off into my floral company
and decor company and then it's got my fan site. There's an
"Ask Donnie" section in the fan site and that's fun.
People ask questions and I pick a few here and there and answer.
It's kind of like a mini blog. Then, actually for the last 3
weeks I've been on Twitter! I actually have fun with it and
you can look me up as wdonniebrown
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