Recap of WPIC’s Boutique Certification Course

By: Tracey Manailescu

Last weekend we held our first ever Boutique WPIC certification course. The venue was the Radisson Admiral and taught by WPIC Co-founders, Danielle Andrews Sunkel and myself, Tracey Manailescu.

Capturing some of the highlights of the class was the super talented Christine Boni of Take 1 Photography.

Why the Radisson Admiral? Aside from being a true hidden gem right smack downtown and on the waterfront, the staff are kind, quick, extremely pleasant, as well as easy to work with. Did I mention that the Event Coordinators are WPIC certified? They sure are 😉

We had 17 students enrolled in this specialty class, who were given the manual and homework ahead of class, to accommodate our four, yes four amazing guest speakers.

Wayde Salmon of D & W Entertainment Group spoke to us about DJ’ing and MC’ing.  He spoke about what type of things to look for in a DJ, what you should know as a wedding coordinator in the best interests of your clients, and how to work best with each other leading up to and on the wedding day.

Next was the always amazing Margaret Diotalevi of Avenue Photo.  Margaret spoke to the class about the importance of hiring a professional wedding photographer, what questions to ask, what you should expect, what your clients should expect, as well as the importance of having great relationships with vendors and clients.

We had the one and only Andy Samaroo, who is the Senior Account Executive of HUB International. Andy is the force behind the exclusive insurance program put in place for WPIC alumni. Andy discussed the reason every coordinator should have liability insurance along with E & O (Errors & Omissions).  HUB International has built a very meticulous and detailed program for our members to best protect ourselves as well as our businesses. A professionally certified wedding coordinator should not be operating without Liability and E & O.

We then had the fabulous Paras Mehta, WPICC of Paras Events speak to us about design, contracts, and the process of working through the design process with clients.

Finally, we had a wedding site visit led by Catering Manager, Jasmine Lee, WPICC. We saw event spaces including the South Beach style pool and cocktail area, wedding reception spaces as well as the guest rooms that overlook lake Ontario. (You may remember the swanky poolside area from the WPIC event we held there last August for our WPIC Destination Wedding Certification course.)