Engage10- The Breakers A Luxury Wedding Business Summit

Here is an stunning Slideshow of pictures by Donna Von Bruening DVB

For many of you that follow my blog you know that I attended a life changing conference of top industry professionals back in June in Grand Cayman. Well this week I attended the follow up Engage10! conference at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, FL. It was 4 days of AMAZING! About a year and a half ago, my dear friend Ali Phillips from Engaging Events by Ali in Chicago convinced me to attend, and I am so glad she did!

From the time we arrived, until the time we left Rebecca Grinnals and Kathryn Arce of Engaging Concepts and the whole entire Breakers staff made us feel like royalty. We had a list of speakers that consisted of some of the top names in the industry. To name a few, Randy Fenoli from Say Yes to the Dress, Sylvia Weinstock, Abby Larson, Todd Fiscus, Darcy Miller, Mindy Weiss, Carley Roney, Marcy Blum, David Beahm ,and Bryan Rafanelli (yes, THE Brian Rafenelli known for planning Chelsea Clinton's wedding). Each one of them dove deep into their professional and personal lives to share with us their stories. It was truly inspirational! However, the speakers are only part of the Engage experience. I know that from my pictures it looks like we did nothing but have fun, well that was the case actually, we did have fun. But it was so much more. From the morning breakfast sessions, we networked and connected with professionals from all over the world. Then we had daily speakers, as I mentioned before who kept us on the edge of our seat. Then each evening we had events, that allowed us to further connect, network, and share experiences. I think for me that was the most valuable.

Mindy Weiss Presenting
Me with Randy Fenoli

Unfortunately for me, I was sick with a head cold the entire time, so I wasn’t able to meet as many people as I would have liked. But I am blessed that I got to experience this again, and cannot wait to take the information back to my business and our clients. Thank you to Kathryn and Rebecca for doing such a great job, and for all of the lifelong connections both personal and professional that I have made.

Here is a video recap from the SUPER talented Cloud Nine Creative Inc.:

Engage 10 {Day One} from Cloud Nine Creative on Vimeo.

Engage '10 {Day 2 + 3} from Cloud Nine Creative on Vimeo.

On a side note, thank you to the following speakers who also have inspired me to push myself further. Simon T. Bailey, Harmony Walton, Liene Stevens, Ali Phillips, and Bernadette Coveney Smith

These pictures were of me enjoying the events:
This is the dessert each and every one of us was served on the final night! No that is not a prop! Just deliciously amazing

This picture is of me with Anthony Luscia from Martha Stewart Weddings, and Photographer Sara Kauss

Me with Ali Phillips

Me with the always inspirational Simon T. Bailey

Engage10 recap continued

The second part of my recap from my Engage!10 experience. One of the highlights to attending is to meet talented ( and talented is an understatement) industry leaders. This post would be far too lengthy if I listed and showed pictures of every person I met. So I am going to take the very wise advice of Liene Stevens – CEO Splendid Communications, and keep it short.

Some of the highlights of my experience were:

1) Getting to meet Sylvia Weinstock again. She is such an icon, and quite a good dancer. She told us that she never ever skimps on quality ingredients. The basis of what she was telling us was that although you can get things “cheaper” they are not all created equally. Fine, expensive ingredients, are just that fine, and expensive. You could find similar or lesser quality ingredients that would be less expensive, but be aware they are not the same. This was so important to me, as it relates to what I do, and the questions I field every day.

2) Hearing Colin Cowie speak I have heard him once before and met him once before. However, when he takes the stage and explains the events he creates, I am immediately speechless. Which being speechless does not often happen to me. In his South African accent he keeps us captivated with his passion for the industry.


3) Using a photobooth- I know this doesn’t sound exciting to many of you. You might even be thinking, photobooth? You could get that anywhere, and you would be right. My excitement was the “experience of the photobooth”. I loved watching everyone, who see these photobooths every weekend, step up and smile! Mustaches, big lips, poses, it was precious, Here are some of mine.
With my friends Kelly Karli owner of Frosted Pink Weddings, and Erin McDonald from Heffernan Morgan Stanley

I love this picture of us from Top Left: Kelli Karli, Shawn Leech - Rain Salon in Orlando, Anthony Luscia from Martha Stewart, and on bottom Rusty James. See I told you the photobooth was entertaining.

Me with Ali Phillips who is from Chicago and is owner of Engaging Events By Ali, Inc.


4) Experiencing the royal treatment we received from the Ritz Carlton Grand Cayman. It’s funny but this kind of ties into Sylvia’s comments. I mean it was so refreshing to hear “it would be my pleasure”, or “good morning miss” EVERY single time a staff member passed me in the hallway. The customer service I received is nothing less than FABULOUS!

5) Getting to attend a fun evening event, and not having to worry about timelines, vendor arrivals, etc that I got to be a guest. The last night we were at Engage was bitter sweet. It was bitter sweet because we were leaving the next day, but fun because we really got to enjoy the fabulous party that was thrown for us.

6) Spending time with Randy Fenoli from the show Say Yes to the Dress. Randy has more energy than 4 people combined, and then some. However, hearing his insights on style was wonderful. Since we are Event Stylist, and Personal Stylist, this was invaluable to me.

6) I cannot even do these two justice but the fabulous and very inspiring Cindy Novotny, and Simon T. Bailey. Their energy and attitudes are contagious. If you ever are presented with a chance to hear them speak...DO!
Here I am with Simon

I am so happy that I got to share some of my highlights and images of Engage!10 with you. I got quite a few questions like “this looks like it was all celebration and no work”, or “how does going to paradise = working”. The images of more around the fun experiences but what I didn’t capture on film was the large amount of time we spent in educational, informational sessions. So there you go, although it was a lot of fun, it was work. Work that I would not trade for a second.

PS…sorry Liene this is 563 words… ( I tried)

Photobooth Images Courtesy of: Jennifer Domenick/Love Images

Engage10 Grand Cayman

I just returned from a life changing conference that was held in Grand Cayman. The name of the conference was Engage!10, and it was comprised of some of the most talented wedding professionals in the industry. The 3-day conference was held at the gorgeous Ritz Carlton Grand Cayman. From the time our plane touched down on the little island, I knew I was in for a treat, and the beaches weren't too shabby either.




The luxury wedding business summit as it is called, was definitely just that… luxury. No detail was left out, the team at Celebrations did an amazing job with the décor. Rebecca Grinnals and Kathryn Arce from Engaging Concepts greeted us personally at the door of the Ritz which immediately made us feel welcome. (kudos ladies on that personal touch)

This experience was unlike any I have ever had at a conference. I am not just talking about the all star lineup of speakers either (which let me tell you was unbelievable). I am talking about the attendees. The attendees are some of the most brilliant, warm, and talented people I have ever met.




When I sat down to write this blog post, I realized that my words were not going to do this justice as to the depth of what I learned and experienced. But I am hoping to try my best using pictures. In the next 3 blog posts I am going to break my experience up a little so that you can share my journey.

In addition, my friends at Avery House did an AMAZING job of capturing images. But hey they are pro's, so I highly recommend checking out their images on their blog