Verve Austin Event Management | Wedding Photographer Jeff Brummett
Verve Austin Event Management
Verve Austin Event Management is one of my favorite Texas wedding planning firms! Their weddings always stand out from others in and around Austin. In a city known for the avant-garde, Verve Austin’s events are immediately recognizable. But please don’t get the impression that these are stuffy, generic designs. Founder and lead planner Barbara Shorts creates stunning, artistic environments for her couples. They are colorful, bold, and filled classic style and luxurious touches. Her work is always intentional and well thought out.
Barbara loves getting to know her couple’s personalities. She then pairs them with creative professionals who will best bring their vision to life. The passion for people and creating personalized art, is something we share. She always puts her couples first. It’s what I love most about Verve Austin Event Management. I asked Barbara to talk about her process and working in beautiful Austin, Texas.
Founder and President Barbara Shorts
I am Barbara Shorts, Babs to my close friends. I’ve been in the event industry for over 30 years and I love what I do. Verve Event Management is what I like to call a concierge-style planning service. We assist our clients with every aspect of the event planning process. We want to do the heavy lifting so that you can enjoy the journey from start to finish. To put it simply, we are a high-end full-service planning firm.
Time as a Venue Planner
I was a planner for a wedding venue before starting my own event management business. When I was a venue event planner, two things that made me good at my job and still help me today.
1. Knowing the space and what the venue’s capabilities and limitations were. This way I can better plan for the clients and the vendors.
2. I am a Foodie – So assisting clients with menu selection comes second nature to me. But, given that I worked at a venue previously, I like to respect how each venue manages their food and beverage process. We love to customize menus, but use the venue’s sample menus as a jumping off point.
Verve Austin Event Clients
My clients are the best! We like to consider ourselves a company that creates timeless events. We want the client to look back at their photos years from now and feel that they can still relate to the entire event. When a bride come to us and says, I want my wedding to look like my parent’s photos. That is the greatest testimony to any wedding. Did I just date myself 🙂
Verve Austin Event Management Weddings
Every bride is different and there is no one size fits all wedding formula. I like to ask my brides to pick a few inspiration photos and then we build their dream.
What I love about the Wedding Design Process
There are small windows in the planning process that make me smile. I would have to say, when we nail the vision for the bride and she can let go, because she knows we get her. Then the dream and the planning have met, and we’ll have a great wedding and reception.
Bringing Out the Couple’s Style and Personality
We make sure the bride is part of the process and meets all her vendors. After every meeting, the vendors come away knowing bride and her vision and then we are all on the same page. It’s fun to look at other weddings and see, through the photos, that everyone understood who this couple is. I have been doing this for quite a while, and I can always tell. One of the things I have always told my team and my vendors is, IT IS NOT ABOUT US, IT IS ABOUT THEM!
What Makes Austin Weddings Special
Austin is a wonderful, different, happy, place. I grew up here and though it’s grown and changed, it’s kept what made it weird, fun, and special. So while I do love to travel and host weddings in other places…for me Austin is home!
Favorite Verve Austin Wedding Venues
Picking a venue for a client is about many things. So for that reason I do not have a favorite, my clients do. It is my job to embrace what they love about their venue.
Best Time of Year for an Austin Wedding
I can handle the cold and heat, but rain is not on my radar. So I will take any time of the year, just hold the rain.
My Favorite Weddings
I am one of 7 children and my mom always said, I love you ALL individually. So I love each and everyone one of my couples and weddings individually. None are the same, but they are all perfect.
Working with Vendors to Tell a Couple’s Story
Most of my couples love a space with character and/or different spaces in the same venue. We then get to make each space a little different, while giving them a cohesive look and feel. Each space reveals a bit about the couple. I love hearing guests say, “OMG, that is so them!” or “That has her written all over it.” The photographer and I work together to ensure that he or she understands the couple. Knowing their story, family, as well as the ceremony and reception plans before the wedding day is important. The story is in the details, and capturing those details allows us all to relive the day over and over. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Favorite Austin Wedding Vendors
Honestly, it is not about me, it is about who I think will be a good fit for the couple. Yes, I have various vendors that I connect with, but like I said, weddings are not a one size fits all event. It is about each individual couple.
Find out more about Barbara and Verve Austin Event Management and get to know what makes me different than other wedding photographers.
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