2013 WPIC Year in Review

A message from Tracey Manailescu and Danielle Andrews Sunkel, Co-Founders of WPIC Inc.

2013 was a year of growing pains, amazing highs, tough lows, success and accolades.  This year marked the 10th Anniversary of WPIC and we celebrated by launching our on-line course, so that our core course would be more accessible to our International Students.

WPIC Events
We’ve had a lot of great events this year for our Alumni.

The first official WPIC Event was the “WPIC 2013 Kickoff” planned by our current Regional Representatives.  128 WPIC Alumni attended Rennaissance by the Creek.  There was a live band to dance to, a DJ, a panel of professionals providing business advice, a vendor fair, chances to learn and to let your hair down and have fun.  Read more about the event here.

In September, WPIC held a working shot extravaganza.  An event for WPIC Alumni to get professional photos in gorgeous wedding set-ups.  We took over Paletta Mansion and transformed 6 areas into dream weddings.  Each room was professionally designed and had a professional photographer assigned to the space.  Many of these set-ups will be featured in wedding magazines in 2014 including Elegant Wedding Magazine, The Wedding Planner GTA and Bride and Groom.  One of the photoshoots has already been featured on the Poptastic Bride Blog.

In November, we held a Mexico Wedding Specialist Certification event for our WPIC Alumni.  Not only did attendees get the chance to learn about all the amazing places Mexico has to offer their clients to get married, but also the ways they can improve their businesses by bringing weddings to Mexico.  The event included networking with Alumni, Mariachis, a Mexican buffet, networking with key Mexico partners, seminars from Hard Rock, Velas and Palace Resorts, a Specialist Certification Seminar from the Mexico Tourism Board and two inspiration Mexican wedding set-ups.  These set-ups will be featured in wedding media, such as the Elegant Wedding Blog, in 2014.  Read more about this great event here.

 

The Weducation Business

Many companies are trying to sell education to wedding planners, but as always WPIC is still heads above the crowd.  We have kept our course the best by never being complacent, we never stop adding and updating.  We are now on our 14th edition of the WPIC text book.  It is bigger and better than ever.  Our after-class support leads the industry in that we provide unbelievable continuing education opportunities to our members, for FREE.  We invest tens of thousands of dollars every year to advertise WPIC Certified Wedding Planners, maintain our free member alumni boards and provide support to our past students, again at no cost to them.  Our dedication to helping our past students succeed has never waivered and we have witnessed unbelievable success from our past students.

This year past students have received several awards, much media attention and best of all, great success.  The face of our Alumni has evolved to a more modern, polished professional.

In order to provide the best to our students and alumni, this year we have:

• updated the WPIC text book to be the most modern possible and provided all updates to all our past students
• written many professional development articles on the WPIC Blog and on the WPICAlumni forum
• promoted WPIC in multiple media outlets through interviews and sharing events
• advertised the value of working with a WPIC Certified planner in many media outlets
• added to our international recognition through speaking at several international wedding conferences in Mexico, the USA and Canada
• created several strategic alliances and partnerships with large companies
• added a new French-speaking WPIC instructor, Daniela Caputo, to the roster, to aid us in expanding our classes in Quebec and the east coast of Canada.  Daniela joins our wonderful long-standing instructors, Monica Hill and Melissa Nowakowski who we adore and value beyond words
• realized that we could not do without the fabulous Kim Choy, our WPIC office manager

In the New Year we will:

• continue to support our alumni with education and opportunities for business growth
• completely overhaul the Destination Wedding Coordinator course
• continue to increase accessibility and support for International students
• continue our fabulous partnerships which provide unbelievable opportunities for our alumni
• work smarter, not harder

 State of the Wedding Industry
This year we saw a lot of formally successful wedding businesses close their doors.  These businesses were from every facet of the wedding industry: decorators, dress boutiques, tuxedo rental stores, wedding planners, DJs, photographers, magazines, etc.  Those who did survive, reinvented themselves, fine-tuned their business image and several added different services to their repertoire.

The face of wedding couples has changed.  Couples value guest experience over showing off, quality over bling.  This is exciting for wedding professionals as we are able to be more creative.  Entertainment has become very important to our couples, as has the quality of food.  The little details that wedding planners have always loved, are now a necessity to our couples.  Weddings are all about telling the story of our couples.

Our 2013 Speaking Engagements

This year we spoke at international wedding conferences, conventions and symposiums including: Latino Americano Congresso de Bodas de Destino in Guadalajara, MX (our Blog here), Wedding MBA in Las Vegas, and Love Mexico in the Riviera Maya.  Our seminars focussed on Practices of Successful Wedding Professionals, Destination Wedding Professionals, and the intricacies of Destination Wedding Planning.  On a local level we spoke at several colleges to students considering a career in the event industry.

Travel and Conferences
It is no secret that Mexico holds a special place in our hearts and we have focussed a lot of our attention there this year, showing our alumni the amazing opportunities this country offers them and their Destination Wedding clients.  We toured haciendas and event spaces in Guadalajara, Tequila and Guachimontones this past summer.  Read about our experiences here and here.

We also attended the BizBash conference in South Florida (our Blog), Engage!13 at the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina (our Blog), and the Cancun Bootcamp.  These conferences provided us with opportunities to meet wonderful peers in the industry.

International Seminars

This year we held training in Barbados and in Mexico.  We trained the Palace Resorts Wedding Team for the third time!  Students travelled from Mexico, Italy, Norway, Japan and all over the Caribbean to attend our classes.

Media
WPIC, Danielle and Tracey were interviewed or featured in many media outlets this year, including but not limited to: Reader’s Digest, MacLean’s Magazine, Bride and Groom Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, MSNTravel, Poptastic Bride, Dab Wedding (Europe), Beautiful Beginnings, etc.

We have already conducted several interviews that will be released in the new year, including a full page article written by Danielle and Tracey to be published in the 2014 Winter/Spring issue of Today’s Bride.

2014
In 2014, we are looking forward to growing WPIC even more, providing countless opportunities to alumni who are willing to constantly better themselves, supporting them in making couples’ dreams come true, creating enduring working relationships and seeing even more of our big, beautiful world.

We never stop learning and we are just as committed to sharing our knowledge now, as we were 10 years ago.  We truly believe that the best way to keep the wedding industry strong, is to share knowledge and best practices so that all professionals are properly educated.  One decade down, many more to go 😉

We wish you nothing but success!

Danielle & Tracey