Categories, Criteria, Our Esteemed Judges
The WPIC Wedding Awards is a program to celebrate the achievements and allow the over 8500 Alumni of The Wedding Planners Institute of Canada Inc. and The Wedding Planners Institute of Coordination Inc. to showcase their work and compete for top honours among their peers.
Photo by Avenue-Photo.com
Categories:
- Best Wedding Under $50,000
- Best Wedding Over $50,000
- Best Wedding Over $100,000
- Best Destination Wedding Under $50,000
- Best Destination Wedding Over $50,000
- Most Creative Styled Shoot
- Best Tablescape
- Best Social Media for a Wedding Professional
- Wedding Entertainment of the Year
- Wedding Officiant of the Year
- Wedding Designer/Decorator of the Year
- Wedding Floral Designer of the Year
- Onsite Wedding Coordinator of the Year
- Destination Wedding Planner of the Year
- Wedding Planner of the Year
Eligibility
All submissions are based on the year of 2019. Weddings need to have taken place between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2019.
Why Enter?
Recognition: Winning an award recognizes both your hard work and your commitment to excellence in your field. It recognizes you as an industry leader.
Marketing: Winning an award is an endorsement for you and your business and provides a distinct competitive advantage over other professionals in your field.
Reward: An award is a physical recognition and reminder of your professional achievement to you, your peers and your clients.
Competitive Edge: Winning an award in your industry can elevate you and distinguish you from your professional peers.
Return on Investment: Submitting to awards is relatively low cost and delivers infinite rewards due to the prestige of being recognized for excellence within your industry.
Criteria for Submissions:
Best Wedding Under $50K, Over $50K, Over $100K, Destination Over and Under $50K
Your Submission must include:
- 5-7 photos of the event
- Client testimonial, if available
- Description of challenge and how you overcame it
- Description of the theme and design of the wedding
- Description of how you made this wedding worthy of winning
- Description of why this wedding should win this category
- Any relevant supporting documents such as Timelines, Budget and breakdown of costs, etc.
Best Tablescape, Style Shoot
Your Submission must include:
- 5-7 photos of the Tablescape or Styled Shoot
- Description of your inspiration for the design
- Description of the theme and design along with what your objective was
- Description of why this design is worthy of winning this category
- Any relevant supporting documents such as sketches, links to publications of this design, etc
Best Social Media for a Wedding Professional
This category is open to any wedding professional, in any field, and will honour the best use of a Social Media platform (this can be a Blog, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, etc.).
Your submission must include:
- your Social Media Handle
- the platform you feel you excel at and why
- 5-6 screen shots of your Social Media account (to show the design and appeal)
- a description of your Social Media Plan, outlining your goals and how you achieved them
- Screenshots of most effective posts, showing engagement from followers
Entertainment, Officiant, Designer/Decorator, Floral Designer, Destination Wedding Planner, Onsite Coordinator, Wedding Planner
Your Submission must include:
- 5-7 photos of your work
- Client and/or professional testimonials, if available
- Description of a professional challenge and how you overcame it
- Description of why you are the best choice for this award
- Description of your unique attributes
- Any relevant supporting documents such as examples of your work, etc.
Fee per submission:
Each submission will cost $50.
Award Presentation
The WPIC Wedding Awards will take place on Saturday, February 29, 2020 at the Waterside Inn, during the annual WPIC Kickoff Gala (a ticket must be purchased to the Kickoff Gala in order to attend the Awards Ceremony). Awards will be mailed to those not in attendance.
Judges
We have an esteemed panel of incredible wedding professionals from around the world to serve as our nonpartisan judges.
Meghan Ely
Meghan Ely – USA
OFD Consulting owner, Meghan Ely, combines in-the-trenches event experience with a love of wedding PR to empower her clients to take their businesses to new heights. She is a WeddingWire Education Expert as well as a regular contributor to Wedding Planner Magazine, Wedding Business Magazine, Catersource and SpecialEvents.com.
Meghan represents her clients globally and has earned them coverage with the New York Times, Entrepreneur, Brides, Bridal Guide, the Knot, Martha Stewart Weddings, the Travel Channel, HGTV, Brit & Co and Refinery 29, among others.
Meghan has served on the national board of WIPA and is a long-time member of the NACE conference education committee. She is also an adjunct professor in the Mass Communication department at Virginia Commonwealth University, specializing in Public Relations. Most recently, Special Events honored her as one of the top 25 young professionals in the event industry.
OFD Consulting
Timeesha Duncan
Timeesha Duncan – USA
Timeesha DuncanTimeesha Duncan is an International #1-Best-Selling Author, and award-winning Branding & Marketing Expert and Educator. She is best known for helping entrepreneurs create brands that captivate their target audience, build their tribe and impact millions with their brand message.
Timeesha has coached over 3,000 students and clients in over 10 countries. She has high-profile collaborations with million-dollar brands and has been featured in numerous highly prestigious platforms such as the Huffington Post, Amazon, and Forbes.com, and shares her expertise on ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox news, and she continues to expand her reach and presence.
Ana Maty
Ana Maty Trujillio Gedeon – Colombia
Gema Tours – WeddingsBy the end of the XXth century, the Colombian jet-set declared Cartagena as its social & events destination, where sophisticated and magical weddings are held with guests from all over the world. Since then, the wedding fever has been nonstop and more than a decade ago Gema Tours Wedding Planner Division, was created under Ana Matty’s leadership.
Respected for her discretion and no-nonsense advice, Ana Maty works behind the scenes with numerous wedding suppliers in order to create the most memorable of weddings. Each one of them has its own personal charm and fascination. Our weddings narrate an entertaining story for every guest. Her main goal and desire as a wedding planner is to get a cohesive visual narrative where the bride and groom are the stars of the night and make guests feel delighted.
Wedding planning wasn’t always in the cards for Ana Matty. At first, she wanted to get immersed in the tourism industry and that was when she started working at Gema Tours in the congress, convention, festival & summit divisions as the leader of the operative team. Under her leadership, Gema Tours, the largest in the local host travel agency industry, increased profitability and market share.
It was then, after a couple years as master event organizer, with a Cordon Bleu Degree and her banqueting expertise that her clients asked her to organize weddings for friends and family. Today, Gema Tours Wedding Division has grown from a small, localized market segment, to a massive logistical operation with a great reputation.
