I was given the chance to meet and mix with the top wedding industry professionals in the US and I feel like the trajectory of my life and career has now changed forever.
It all happened because I was at SoHo House West Hollywood a few weeks ago having drinks with my friend Rebecca who made some offhand comment that she would be attending this bi-annual (does bi-annual mean twice a year? it's twice a year) event that brings together the best of best in the wedding industry: planners, magazine editors, florists, cake makers, caterers, etc etc. and that if I was free I should come check it out. Well it turned out I was free (it was taking place between wedding weekends in Florida and New York) and it sounded suuuuper awesome.
This year's event happened to be taking place in Scottsdale, home of Lady Di, so I jumped at the opportunity if they would accept my application to attend.
They try to keep it small, around 200-300 people. So you have to apply and be accepted. There's a wait-list. But I was in the right place at the right time, knew the right names to drop, someone cancelled the day I signed up, and I was able to commit and pay (it costs like $3K+travel/hotel expenses to attend, eek!/worth it!) within hours of them accepting my application.
I thought it was going to be fun...I didn't know it was going to change my life.
Over the course of 3 days, we sat through seminars and talks and panels from leaders of our industry - people who regularly plan, design, photograph, and publish million-dollar weddings. Ate amazing catered meals in smaller groups designed to maximize our mixing and mingling with each other. And partied our butts off each night to incredibly designed events which were basically weddings themselves without all the ceremony stuff.
It was basically camp for wedding vendors. And it was awwwwesome...
DAY 1
Registration...
I arrived on Sunday and they were setting up for the big welcome party which would be taking place that night...
Immediately upon getting my registration packet, I was stopped outside the front desk by two pretty girls Anja and Samantha. They had been told to look for me by their friend/coworker Rebecca. (Rebecca's the one who told me about Engage.) Little did I know that over the next several days we would all become inseparable.
Weddings are all about the details... and for Engage, every single detail was so well thought out. There were amazing flowers everywhere (florists showing off their skills to hopefully book more million-dollar weddings). Itineraries and schedules and menus and stuff was all immaculately printed (lots of high-end printers, calligraphers, invitation-designers wanting to show off their goods to their fellow vendors). Amazing food and snacks (caterers etc). Plus it was all very well documented by a team of videographers and photographers.
We had a welcoming session and listened to some speakers and learned about what to expect over the next several days. Then there was a break for wine and cheese and meats.
It was quite a spread.
And this was just for our snack.
Then it was back in for several more sessions. Basically people talking about brides. And bridezillas. And billionaires. And billionaire bridezillas. I could listen to people talk about billionaire bridezillas ALL DAY LONG.
This guy is supposedly famous or something from Say Yes To The Dress.
Sessions ended around 5ish. Then there was a break for us to get ready for the opening night Welcome Party.
Tents and food and music had all been setup around the pool area. It looked pretty awesome.
I actually didn't have a hotel room (since I booked at the last minute) and was staying at Lady Di's, so the Knot Girls (Sam, Anja and Rebecca all work for and basically run The Knot) took my orphan ass into their suite during all our downtime to get ready for each nightly party.
After getting some work done, we descended on the fiesta.
There was a dancefloor.
And an amazing wedding band.
It was basically a wedding.
Oh and I met Mindy Weiss, one of the most famous wedding planners in the world having planned thousands of celebrity weddings...LOVE HER.
There was plenty to drink and plenty to dance.
Pictured here are the Knot Girls and my other bestie Allan. Allan is a fellow wedding photographer. His website kinda sucks - www.allanzepeda.com - but he is amazing.
Besties besties.
We met lots of other fun people too.
And people love me because I'm a giant.
This whole event was so cool because these are all people who normally are WORKING during a wedding/event. So here we REALLY got to let loose without a care in the world.
LOVES getting my head chopped off in pictures. NOT.
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DAY 2
OK. Morning number two we showed up at our session and everyone had little gift boxes in front of them...
The gift box contained notepads, pens, snacks, and little inspiration cards. So cute and thoughtful! Perrrrrfect for a wedding welcome bag or something (nudge nudge).
After some speakers...
We broke for snacks...
And then more speakers. Here we had Abby Larson, founder of Style Me Pretty, talking to Jose Villa, THE MOST INCREDIBLE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER IN THE WORLD. (Congrats to you if you can afford him.)
We broke for lunch under these incredible tents...
Our place settings came with cute little inspiration cards showing off some ridiculous quality paper products...
And the food presentation also was awesome and delicious.
Upon returning to our session...
We had a new gift box, with even more neato gifts. This time they were electronic. Headphones, phone chargers, usb sticks, etc.
My pal Anja gave a talk.
And then we broke for snacks and THERE WAS A BACON BAR with 5 different types of BACONNNNN!!!!!!
Then we had a sit down dinner which was fish and I didn't like it but the flowers were pretty...
And then there was a dessert party with millions of desserts.
Since I was crashing w Lady Di, I invited her to crash the dessert party and everyone loved her obviously.
Such fun!
I have no idea who this is.
But this event just brings lots of wonderful people together.
(Well not EVERYONE was wonderful. But all our friends were. A lot of people were really...network-y...but you can see those people and their B.S. coming from like a mile away and we wonderful people just played with each other and had the best time ever.)
DAY 3
Breakfast the next morning was a carnitas benedict and it was YUMMY.
Again we ate among the tents and breakfast ended with a motivational speaker and exercises designed for us to talk to randoms about our goals and accomplishments etc.
Rebecca hosted a panel with Abby (from StyleMePretty) and Shira (editor of Martha Stewart Weddings)
They talked to the room about how to get published and what magazines/blogs are looking for and answered questions and shook hands with their superfans.
Then there was a wedding planner panel (a majority of Engage attendees are already-successful wedding planners aspiring to make it that top tier of million-dollar-wedding planners)...
And featured Bryan (who famously planned Chelsea Clinton's wedding), Mindy (who is doing Jessica Simpson's upcoming wedding and Bachelor Sean Lowe's as well, among others that she's probably not allowed to disclose), and Marcy (who did Padma Lakshmi and Salman Rushdie's wedding (RIP) and is best friends with BillyJoel, a fact that she stated several times).
Then there was Todd, Tara, and Ed. (If you are bored, all of their websites and portfolios are innnncredible...and will make you feel very very poor.)
Snacks!
And I met Sylvia Weinstock. World-famous cake maker.
Then there was a gifting suite where we got to run through and get lots of swag and feel like celebrities. Vera Wang had a station and there was a robe station and a station for free ballet flats (wooooo!) (Most of the attendees were ladies all week.) and cookies and cookies and cookies.
THEN we got ready for The Gala.
Upon entering The Gala (our final event) we encountered this incredible flower wall covered in glowing lantern escort cards telling us our table assignments.
Everyone looked purrrrty.
Such an awesome idea!!!
After cocktails, the doors to the ballroom opened, we walked in, and our jaws dropped.
The floral design was unreal.
Oh and there was a 20-person band.
These "centerpieces" were SO F*CKING COOL.
And the food was awwwwesome.
Truffle GNNOOOOOCCCCHIIII
We all looked soooo pretty.
Everyone take a selfie!
And the DRINKS.
They were served by the most beautiful bartender in the world.
He was 6'3" and Irish and I stalked him on Instagram and he added me on facebook and now we are friends and will probably marry.
*Sigh*
Oh right after that I dropped my camera and it broke (it is now fixed though) but I didn't take any other pictures except this iPhone pic with these amazing people who are the absolute best at what they do. It is amazing and inspiring (and a little bit intimidating) (but not really) to hang out with people who do exactly what you do (but do it like 100 times better).
Some faves from the photobooth.
It was so awesome. Thank you to Rebecca (especially) and the other Knot Girls (and Allan) for taking me under your wings and bringing me into this experience which would have been totally different and less-epic otherwise!
And did I mention have Engage twice a year?
Yep. Every time in a different city at some resort that is trying to show off its amenities and foods to lure the top wedding planners of the world to convince their billionaire brides to get married at their venue. Amazing.
Cannot wait for Engage14!!!!
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