The Simple Plan Wrap-Up

Our first business planning workshop for wedding professionals, The Simple Plan, took place this past Friday and Saturday in Seattle and it was a HUGE hit!  A big thank you to the always fabulous Barbie Hull for her gorgeous photos which I’ll use to narrate our summary of the two days.

Hotel Andra was our gracious host for the two days in which Kelly and I led 19 participants through the business planning process.  Everything at the hotel was top notch… they left no detail unturned for us to work our brains in such a beautiful conference environment.  Not only was it a feast for the eyes, but also for our tastebuds… witness the magic of Tom Douglas…

We ate like KINGS & QUEENS!  If you’ve ever been to one of Tom Douglas’ 5 Seattle restaurants, you know that his food is simply divine.  If you watch Iron Chef, you may have caught Tom a few years ago when he beat Masaharu Morimoto.  It hardly seemed like “work” when we were spoiled rotten like this!

Next, fun little details and words of wisdom…

Being a paper fanatic (in my “day job”) we had to make that the paperie was perty… and it was.  The patterned binders were chock-full of  business geeky goodness.  The participants walked away with a PLAN in HAND!

And, last but not least… it was all about the PEOPLE who attended and presented The Simple Plan…

From L to R: 1) Kelly Simants & Michelle Loretta, Sage Wedding Pros 2) Christiane Zweifler, Flora Nova Design; Ariel Nay Nebeker, Mew 3) Morgan Van Dyke, Morgan Van Dyke Photography; Meguire Heston; Cheryl Kim, Prestigious Planning & Events 4) Blair de Laubenfels & Chrisy Weber, Junebug Weddings 5) All Participants 6) Christy Weber 7) Kelly Simants & Chrisy Weber 8.) Michelle Loretta & Rebecca Ellison, Rebecca Ellison Photograhy 9) Tara Bliven, Ephemera Letterpress & Morgan Van Dyke 10) Christopher Smith, Christopher Flowers & Christiane Zweifler

Blair & Christy from Junebug Weddings gave a brilliant presentation on marketing in which they shared their seemless strategy on branding.  From this participants were enabled to write their own marketing and sales plan.  Wendy Robinson from Aspire to Plan presented the very enlightening financial section.  Wendy’s talk was both informative and fun… participants walked away with a good feel for their numbers and a solid financial strategy.  Kelly and I presented The Company and Operational Plan sections, sharing our experiences not only in the wedding industry but also in the “outside” business world.

All of The Simple Plan participants worked together to share and collaborate in the writing of their plans.  With break-out sessions and group discussions, they further defined their individual mission statements, their company’s niche & target markets, and shared promotional strategies.  It is this collaboration that made this workshop so fun… and so valuable!

Thank you to all of you who were a part of our first The Simple Plan!  For those of you who couldn’t join us just yet, we look forward to seeing you in 2010!