June 9th, 2015

Speakers:-Lisa Light - Destination Bride-Daniel Morales - Tiffany’s-Ashley Krauss - A Little Something White-Roe Phlala - Festivities Catering-Christine Georgopulo - Arthur Murray

Schedule6:30: Cocktails7:00: Intros7:15: Lisa to start by explaining the format of the panel and then speak on the stats, trends, and best ways to market in the luxury destination wedding industry. Then Daniel, Ashley, Roe and Christine will speak. End with Q&A

INTRODUCTIONHello everyone. Thank you for coming. I want to welcome everyone to the world of weddings…I am going to tell you a little about myself and the wedding industry as a whole and then my colleagues who all work on a different aspect of weddings will tell you more about their areas of expertise.

Lisa Light❖ 23 Years in the biz❖ Planned weddings in 12 States, 30, countries spanning 5 continents

and the Caribbean. ❖ Wrote a book and was a featured planner on the TV show Married

Away❖ Now am focusing on consulting more than full-service production. We

are the first stop for a couple thinking about a destination wedding. We listen to their vision, then help them find the perfect place and the perfect planner wherever they want to be married. We also provide marketing consulting and services to tourism bureaus, venues and vendors who want to reach the US wedding market.

So Let me tell you about weddings...

Weddings are an interesting phenomenon and therefore make for a very interesting industry. There is a lot of money to be made but it does not come easily!

Weddings are advertised as the biggest, most important day of our lives, which puts a lot of pressure on the couple, the parents and the service providers who have promised them perfection.

They are among the most expensive purchases a family makes after college educations and houses therefore, perfection is expected.

It is also a very dynamic industry. It encompasses travel, real estate, food, wine, fashion, jewels, music, stationery, lots of gifts, perfume, cosmetics, religion, transportation, hospitality, insurance, cosmetology, etiquette, budgeting and bookkeeping, and psychology.

Wedding planning is a very big job. As a matter of fact it is number 8 on the Forbes 2015 List of Most Stressful Jobs! http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2015/01/07/the-most-stressful-jobs-of-2015/

The Knot did a survey in 2012 on DESTINATION WEDDINGS and

this is what they found...

● 1 in 4 (24%) couples had a destination wedding

● Average destination bride is 30 years old

● 66% of international destination wedding brides and 45% of

domestic destination wedding brides opted for a destination

wedding because they wanted a special, fun or exotic locale.

● The second most popular reason why international brides chose a

destination wedding was to host a more intimate affair with fewer

guests (65%), HOWEVER this is not the case with the luxury

market. They plan a destination wedding because it is more exciting

for them.

● Average of 86 guests per wedding

● Domestic destination weddings are larger, hosting an average of 96

guests

● Most destination weddings last three or more days.

● The median destination wedding spend is $404 per guest

internationally, and $225 per guest domestically, compared with

the national wedding average of just $137 per guest.

● The average total destination wedding spend is $20,890 (not

including honeymoon, engagement ring or travel expenses). The

common spend for the luxury destination wedding couple is

between $100,000 -$250,000 and we have had couples spend

between 500k and 1.2m.

● More than 4 in 5 international destination wedding couples and

guests stay at the wedding destination beyond the wedding date,

while more than half of their domestic counterparts do the same.

Which is important for local economies and businesses that

are not necessarily directly related to weddings.

● Nearly 9 in 10 couples still plan to take a honeymoon after the

wedding, with 7 in 10 of them honeymooning in their wedding

locale – either for part of the honeymoon or the whole trip.

● In addition, nearly 3 in 10 will have another party when they get

home.

● 51% of destination wedding couples use a wedding planner

In 2014 The Knot did on study on general wedding statistics and

found that...

● Average Wedding Cost: $31,213 (excludes honeymoon)

● Most Expensive Place to Get Married: Manhattan, $76,328 average

spend

● Weddings in CA and the North East avg 30-50k

● Least Expensive Place to Get Married: Utah, $15,257 average spend

● Average Marrying Age: Bride, 29; Groom, 31

● Average Number of Guests: 136

● Most Popular Month to Get Engaged: December (16%)

● Average Length of Engagement: 14 months

● Most Popular Month to Get Married: June (15%) followed by October

(14%)

● Percentage of Destination Weddings: 24%

TRENDS IN DESTINATION WEDDINGS

● In 2011, 70% of couples chose a continental US destination for

their wedding and 30% of couples married in an international

destination

● The top five domestic destination wedding locations include:

Florida (18%), California (13%), Nevada (9%), North Carolina (5%)

and South Carolina (4%) however the Hudson Valley is definitely

trending thanks to the Farm to Table movement and the popularity

of barn weddings and its proximity to the tri-state area.

● The top five international destination wedding destinations include:

Caribbean (39%), Mexico (24%), Hawaii (20%), Central/South

America (7%) and Europe (6%). I am finding that well-traveled well-

to-do clients are branching out to more unique destinations like

Dubai, India, Guatemala and Bali. Iceland, the South Pacific and

South-East Asia are among the trending honeymoon destinations.

TRENDS IN LUXURY WEDDING MARKET

❖ Exclusive or Privately Owned Venues (Castles, Villas, Estates, hotel buyouts)

❖ Millennial/Hipster trends are hookah bars, cigar rollers, tattoo and henna, burlesque dancers, circus acts especially aerialists, a variety of entertainment like extortionists, piano bars, mimes, sexy string ensembles playing current songs.

❖ Experiential itineraries….planning a trip of a lifetime in addition to a wedding celebration.

MARKETING STRATEGIES THAT WORK BEST IN THE WEDDING INDUSTRY

❖ It depends of course what kind of a business you have.

❖ If you are a vendor the best way to market is via event planners and venues.

❖ If you are a venue or a destination you need to get the event planners and vendors and media into your establishment to experience it and then buzz about it. Consider hosting a fam trip or planning a marketing event and if you need help this is something we do at Destination Bride.

❖ In general, luxury marketing is best done through networking, referrals and getting published.

❖ Networking: You can do this through social media, professional associations, and simply reaching out to your local colleagues.

❖ Referrals from colleagues. WORK TOGETHER! Encourage referrals with commission. Work on referral programs with your past clients too.

❖ Getting Published work with your event photographers to submit real wedding stories into blogs like Style Me Pretty and 100 Layer Cake and to magazines. They are all looking for submissions. Once your weddings are published it gives you credibility.

❖ ALSO if you do not have time to manage a marketing campaign, consider working with a national Wedding Magazine. They all offer affordable, multi-media marketing campaigns. I have brought a copy of Destination Weddings & Honeymoons Magazine because we have started an affordable vendor marketing program with them. If we make the introduction for you to them, they will give you a discount on the program. Destination Bride offers a similar benefit with Elite Wedding Collection Magazine.

I am going to stop there but I would be happy to talk to you individually about your marketing if you are would like to. You will find my card along with the magazine. I look forward to getting to know you all better.

Now I would like to introduce Daniel Morales with Tiffany’s!