Security in Weddings Has a Whole New Meaning With Antalek & Moore Wedding Insurance (Sponsored)

Wedding bells are ringing! The wedding season has begun, and you or your friends may need wedding insurance to have the Big Day. While we'll always plan for events to play out dreamily, what if your reception venue goes out of business a month before the wedding, and you lose your deposit and have to find another location? Or a hurricane causes your wedding to be postponed? What if your bridal shop closes, leaving you without a gown? OMG. You don't need to be left speechless.

You could call Antalek & Moore to get Wedding Insurance to cover things like Severe Weather, Transportation Shutdown, Ruined Photos (the worst!), Call to Duty, Venue Requirements, and more.

Coverage is also included even after the big day. Kelly and Roberto enjoyed their beautiful wedding up until their photographer called to say their wedding photos were ruined during the development process.  Having the right insurance can help cover the cost to re-take some of your wedding photos.

The average cost of weddings is around $28,000, but that number is rising. You have been planning your wedding day for months and there is no reason it shouldn't go off without a hitch. Call Antalek and Moore today at (845) 831-4300.

Antalek and Moore works in collaboration with Travelers, and wedding coverage includes:

• Lost deposits
• Damaged gown/tuxedo
• Lost rings
• Weather
• Sudden illness
• Transportation shutdown
• Ruined photos
• Call of duty
• Liquor liability
• Damaged gifts
• Additional venue insurance
• Additional expenses such as changing venues at the last minute

Weddings are an investment, like buying a car and a home, so let Antalek and Moore be a part of your wedding planning by providing the protection your wedding deserves. 

Antalek & Moore is a sponsor of A Little Beacon Blog, and this article was created for them as part of our Sponsor Spotlight program. It is with the support of businesses like this, that A Little Beacon Blog can bring you coverage of local happenings and events. Thank you for supporting businesses who support us! If you would like to become a Community Partner, please click here for more information.

Plan Ahead for Health Insurance 2016! Antalek & Moore Can Help Select Your Coverage (Sponsored)

It is December and everyone is all-a-chatter about which health insurance carrier to select for 2016. Well guess what? You have someone to talk to right on Main Street - the good folks at Antalek & Moore, an agency of independent agents who can shop around for you to get you the best rate for your needs. We know the options are overwhelming, which is why Antalek & Moore can help! They are located right on Main Street, and always have the cheeriest window displays for every season (as pictured here for the holidays). They are happy to review your policy and see how you can save more.

As an independent agent, Antalek & Moore has access to all of the new plans sold on and off the exchanges, throughout New York State, including Aetna Health Plans, CDPHP, Emblem Health, Empire BlueCross/BlueShield, and others. Call Antalek & Moore at (845) 831-4300 or click here today to learn more.

Antalek & Moore is a sponsor of A Little Beacon Blog, and we thank you for supporting businesses that make this publication possible!

Accuprint Pack 'n Ship Comes to Main Street!

Beacon just got a lot more walkable, and business-friendly! Every town needs a bank, a grocery store, a cafe, a restaurant, and a shipping/printing/notary center. Yes, Beacon has the beautiful Post Office which offers plenty of packaging options and decorative boxes, but sometimes you want to walk into a store, see a friendly face, and say: "Hey - I need to ship this key." or "Hey, I need to ship this paperwork." or "Hey, I need to ship this giant sidewalk sign that weighs a ton. Can you help me?" or even "Hey, I'm selling my car, can you notarize this?"

To kick off our new series, "Come In!" where we walk into stores that you may have walked past a hundred times, we are highlighting Accuprint Pack 'n Ship at 242 Main Street on the same block as Homespun, Vogel Pharmacy, Isamu (sushi), Gerald's Seafood Cafe and Max's on Main. Accuprint Pack 'n Ship was opened by Elberta "Byrdie" Lynn Gaither in April 2015, in front of the accounting office run by her mother Denise Gaither, ERO, a professional tax preparer and consultant.

The mother/daughter duo running businesses out of 242 Main Street.

Elberta's shop is an authorized shipping center for FedEx, DHL, UPS and USPS, and even sells stamps. Whether you need to ship something tiny or large, Accuprint Pack 'n Ship can package it up for you, typing your address into the computer and spitting out a label. Forget hand-writing the address on shipping envelope off to the side on a table in the shadows while your kids threaten to run out the door, like at the Post Office. This is modern times and a regular shipping center with pricing options for all of the different shippers at the click of a button.

Shipping options include UPS, FedEx, DHL and USPS.

Don't get me wrong - I love me some Post Office - and Priority Mail has proven to be a really fast and low cost way for me to ship - but I also love handing someone my stuff instead of worrying that I picked the right packaging box or envelope, brought my own tape to tape it up, and wrote everything in just the right spot.

Elberta "Byrdie" Lynn is cutting business cards for a customer.

Accuprint Pack 'n Ship is also a copying center, and can produce flyers, brochures, business cards, color prints, laminating, and can even staple booklets. If you can't stand to scan, Accuprint can do that too. Come tax time or if you are preparing documents for a mortgage refinance, you may want to give yourself a break and just walk those documents down to Main Street for a friendly scan.

"Black Lady Gaga" is sideways because she was photocopied that way.

With printing services usually comes graphic design services, and behind every graphic designer is a unique set of artistic skills. When you walk into Accuprint Pack 'n Ship, you'll see a color copy of something that you might think is an angel taped to the giant color copy machine. That would be "Black Lady Gaga", as titled by Elberta. This is a photocopy of a Barbie doll that Elberta took all of the hair out of, died it in Kool-Aid, teased it, fluffed it, and put the hair back into Barbie's head to make angel dreads. Elberta painted on the dress and all of the makeup, and actually sold this doll long ago. So you never know what you will find in Accuprint Pack 'n Ship, but chances are, they have what you need.

Accuprint is in the building with the Accutax Accounting sign (mother/daughter businesses) next to Gerald's Seafood Cafe, just down from Max's on Main.

Katie of A Little Beacon Blog to Speak at Ladies Night for The Chocolate Studio

Let's meet!

If you know me, you'll know I do many digital things online - social media and blogging being one of them. I also work with and celebrate small businesses via this blog, and my other venture, Tin Shingle.  This Thursday, I get to be part of the delicious Ladies Night at The Chocolate Studio, formerly Gourmetables, that shop down by the falls that smells of melting butter and caramel corn when you walk by in the summer.

I'll be the entertainment (crazy!) talking about why social media is your friend if you run a business or if you're nurturing a passion project. I'll talk about how you can easily and enjoyably make this part of your day to reach people in this community and other communities, but most importantly, why using social media is imperative to your business - no matter if you're a retail store, a service provider, or a regular person who loves making things.

There will be chocolate bliss and other chocolate treats and coffee. So come! It's from 6-8pm at The Chocolate Studio - 494 Main Street Beacon NY.

Fresh Flower Cutting & Financial Education in the Morning

Doing bills and bookkeeping on a Saturday actually brings me great joy. As a small business owner, Saturday mornings are usually quiet, devoid of emails and demands of the week. In this digital age of newsletters and tweets, I actually look forward to the monthly, paper newsletter put out by the accounting firm Arthur DeDominics, CPA, based in Wappingers Falls, that contains financial planning guidance of everything from small business needs to college planning to splitting assets in divorce.

Nothing like a little fresh flower cutting and financial education in the morning, right?