WPIC Co-founders Attend Engage!13 Luxury Wedding Business Summit

By: Tracey Manailescu

Last week, Danielle and I had the immense pleasure of attending Engage!13. Wow, wow, wow! What an amazing time we had. Thank you so much Rebecca Grinnals and Kathryn Arce, and the entire Engage!13 team!

Photo credit: Andrew Henderson for Carla Ten Eyck (please ignore the water spill on my dress…Eeek!)

If you followed us on Twitter or Facebook, you saw some of our photos and comments while we were at the beautiful Biltmore Estate in North Carolina. We have attended Engage! previously in 2010 in Cayman Islands, and really enjoyed it then, as well. Danielle and I have produced several conferences, attend many conferences and speak at a ton of conferences, as well. Some really & truly stand out from the crowd. We have our favourites, and this is definitely one of ours.

Photo credit: Allan Zepeda (There’s the back of our heads in the back row! I always know by my hair, LOL!)

Photo credit: Allan Zepeda

I really found that I took away a ton of information that I will be using now, today and from here on out. Honestly, I took 10 pages of notes! There were humble and heartfelt seminars from some admirable people in the wedding industry who provided tips, growth experiences (through set backs and accomplishments), and ways to improve our businesses that most of us could relate to. Some of my absolute favourite seminars were from David Stark, Jasmine Star, Simon T. Bailey, Cindy Novotny and Harriet Rose Katz. I also found that we really were encouraged to step outside of our comfort zones and network, network, network. I may, or may not have panicked slightly BEFORE we were thrown into these situations, LOL!

Photo credit: Allan Zepeda

Photo credit: Jeremie Barlow

A personal note to Sean Low, who I had my Dine-Around Dinner at Deer Park with, and bus buddy. You really got me thinking. I appreciate the advise given, and will definitely be implementing it.

We had opportunities to explore the grounds of Biltmore Estate in group activites of our choosing. My group experience was River Rafting. This was amazing! When I asked the guide how many people have fallen out of the raft and into the river, he said, “Hardly ever. However, there was someone just yesterdsay.”