Tonya and I attended the Association of Bridal Consultants educational conference on Saturday, March 17th. The conference was held in Cincinnati, Ohio at the Vernon Manor Hotel. The conference focused on Inspirations & Motivations.
We left Indy early with our Starbucks in hand. The directions to the conference were a little misleading but we were able to finally locate the hotel before the seminar started!!!! So our first tip is always print off directions from Mapquest.
The morning started off with coffee and pastries and networking tips from Brennan Scanlon, Executive Director of Business Network Int'l. Then we moved into another ballroom for the morning presentation from Sasha Sousa of Sasha Sousa Events. WOW!!! She spoke about color and tone and the different ways that she was inspired. She also told us more about her wedding that was featured on Whose Wedding is it Anyway?
After her presentation, we had a Q&A. Sasha said the 3 things that make the biggest impact on a wedding are:
1. Flowers/candles
2. Lighting/linens
3. Great service
Then we had lunch which was very good. The afternoon presentation was from Karen Bussen of Karen Bussen Designs. Karen was full of energy, very down to earth and fun. Karen pulls inspiration from everywhere. She had a stack of papers about an inch thick just from her trip to Ohio. She told us about how she got started in the business and showed us pictures from her portfolio. Karen has a written 4 books and fifth one is coming out this fall.
The day wrapped up with coffee and wedding cake (my favorite) and a room discussion from wedding planner to wedding planner. We shared ideas of what we are doing for the upcoming season. Tonya and I left with a notebook full of new concepts, trends, a ton of inspiration and dying for a fountain diet coke. We are excited to share our new knowledge with our current brides and new potential ones too.
