This morning, I received an email from a radio reporter in a major United States market. She had been assigned to do a story on the dynamics of the wedding industry during the challenging context of today’s economic climate.

Her email asked if I could provide her with a couple of wedding industry professionals in her market to be interviewed. She wanted one on the planning side and one on the vendor side.

When I asked her how long she had been reading my blog, she said, “Not until today. I Googled various combinations of terms, such as weddings, recession, marketing, brides… and your site came up. I thought your post titled: What’s Your Recession Package? was particularly enlightening, and decided to email you.”

We chatted a while about what I observed through my direct conversations with wedding professionals. That became a back drop for the wedding professionals I would refer to her.

I got on the phone and contacted two people I know through NACE, at national conferences, over about a 10-year period. Both of them continue to network with me, online, through LinkedIn and Facebook. At least one of them subscribes to this blog, and reads it regularly.

I called them both, and they were thrilled at the possibility of getting some airtime in their local market. By being interviewed, both individuals and their companies would be able to share important information and perspective to the public. And, they would be positioned as industry experts.

Among other things, this is an example of qualified referrals. When I called the reporter back, I confirmed that I had emailed her the contact information on both people, and that they were looking forward to her call. I gave her a little more background on each person, and a couple of questions I thought might be pertinent.

There are several morals to this story.

Right now, I believe referrals are the life blood of business. With the proper foundation being laid, I think it’s likely that my friends will be interviewed, and provide excellent content to the reporter. How that will benefit them is hard to say. The important thing is that, collectively, we made a connection.

Receiving referrals is a wonderful thing. Giving qualified referrals is a very gratifying thing. It’s not unusual that people who give lots of referrals, receive them in return.

So while we are in this collective struggle for survival and prosperity, ask yourself what you can be doing to help other people be successful. It may be the key to your own success.

Your thoughts?

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

written by Andy Ebon \\ tags: publicity, radio interview, recession marketing, referrals, wedding marketing, wedding planner, wedding professionals

Preston Bailey, Event Designer Extraordinaire, appears to have a nasty habit when presenting in public. The event guru, a favorite of Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump, Regis Philbin, Liza Minelli, Lawrence Fishburne, Matt Lauer, Joan Rivers, and many more, is an icon to wedding and event planners everywhere.

His work is brilliant, and often ground breaking. The fact that he inspires great work, in others, is outstanding.

Here’s the downside. On my trip to Toronto to a couple of months ago, Bailey spoke to a gathering at BizBash. The audience of several hundred people, mostly women, were there for ideas and inspiration. They got that and more than they bargained for.

Bailey dropped the F-bomb, referring to certain vendors as f**kin’ idiots. As well, he referred to some of his brides as b*tches during the course of the presentation. He wasn’t the slightest bit apologetic about it. Didn’t miss a beat.

In talking with some wedding planners, after the event, I was told that this wasn’t the first time his language was ‘out of bounds’ at a public presentation (AIFM being just one of the conferences mentioned). After verifying this from several people, I was pretty disappointed.
—-
We are in an open-mike, YouTube world. One just can do this. Whether you’re a world class designer or a local small business owner, people judge us in a split second. When one has reached icon status in an industry, it carries ‘role model responsibility.’

Preston Bailey is a design genius, but wedding planners and design professionals that look up to him, are a bit less enamored with him. Very sad.

written by Andy Ebon \\ tags: cursing, Preston Bailey, vulgar language, wedding planner

For several years, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has run an exceptionally successful campaign, Vegas Stories. These risque vignettes always ended with the slogan: Las Vegas: What happens here, stays here. The slogan has crept its way into popular culture, adding huge leverage to the campaign.

Something else has happened. A few people have watched too many of these commercials… or taken them too seriously.

On Saturday night, over Super Bowl weekend, I took Jessica to the Salute Lounge at the Palazzo hotel, one of Las Vegas’ newest. Our friend, bass player and vocalist, Tim Scott, was performing at Salute, with his band, The Other Side.

After a couple of great sets of music, we decided to go the Grand Lux Cafe, right next to the lounge, for a late night breakfast. The hostess seated us right away at a table for two, all the way at the end of a seating row. Facing each other, we couldn’t help but notice the couple in the next booth for four, seated next to each other, on the banquette.

They were a nice looking and well-dressed couple, probably in their 30’s. The were seated rather cozily, and appeared somewhat disheveled and at some level of intoxication.

Jessica and I were seated for barely a moment when the gentlemen looked over to us and said, “So, where are you guys from?”. Wanting to avoid the conversation, I peeked up from the menu, and said, “We’re locals. We live in Las Vegas.”

He followed up with, “I bet that living here, you hear a lot of wild stories.”

Again, I downplayed it, by saying “No, not really.”

He wouldn’t let it go. “Bet you can’t guess what OUR story is.”

Now, being challenged, I went for the home run. I looked at the two of them, scanned them for about 2 seconds and said, “You probably just met and flew to Las Vegas to get married.” Then I went back to reading my menu.

Flabbergasted, he said: “How did you know that?” Then Jessica said, “Yeah, how did you know that?” I just shrugged my shoulders.

HERE WAS THEIR VEGAS STORY: The happy couple was Chad and Valerie, residents of Dallas, Texas. They had met about 10 days prior, and started dating. Apparently, they had ‘hit it off,’ because just a couple of days ago, they were at a Dallas watering hole, when Chad said to Valerie, “I could so marry you.”

Valerie responded with, “OK, let’s go get married.” …. and off they went to the airport. Despite the fact that it was Super Bowl weekend, Chad was able to secure rooms at the newly opened Palazzo. He dented his credit cards with roundtrip airfare to the tune of $2100. They left their cell phones in their car, at the airport, and came to Las Vegas with no baggage.

Chad bought Valerie her engagement ring at one on the fine jewelers in the hotel, and bought her wedding dress at Barney’s (also in the Palazzo). He paid $2500 for the wedding dress. I remember that, specifically, because he mentioned it three times.

They trekked downtown to get a wedding license and made one mistake, there. The gave the cabbie a $100 bill to wait for them. Never saw him again. Then, they had their nuptials performed at one of Las Vegas’s finest wedding chapels, happily without incident.

We listened to their story in total deadpan amazement. Chad wondered aloud about how their families would take to the fact that they had been married after knowing each other barely a week. I tried to assuage him by telling him the story of parents. My dad proposed to my mom after just three days, and they were married almost 50 years, until her passing.

“Great,” he said, “We’ll bring you home with us and you can explain it to our families. At least we’ll invite you to the reception.”

I continued to spook them by saying, “You could have a small affair at the III Forks or a larger one at the Adolphus Hotel.”

“Wow,” he said, “You really do know Dallas.”

So, the conversation continued, we exchanged contact information, and we committed to attend their reception.

Driving home, Jess and I shook our collective heads. Even for us, this was a new one. We tried to guess whether their marriage would last a lifetime, or just until they sobered up. I emailed Chad to check in and learn what happened next, but haven’t heard back from him.

There is no moral to this story, just a couple of notations. Sometime people make life decisions and spend money, willy nilly, at the drop of a hat. Other times they agonize over minutia and nickels and dimes.

Other than the cab ride, for the marriage license, their Las Vegas experience was great. The Vegas Stories ad campaign was the only wedding marketing needed in this case. The Palazzo appeared to do everything well. And yes, we recommend the Grand Lux Cafe, both for the food AND the conversation.

It did occur to me, “Where’s a Las Vegas Wedding Planner, when you need one?”

What happens in Vegas?: Life imitates art – Congratulations Chad and Valerie

written by Andy Ebon \\ tags: Grand Lux Cafe, life imitates art, only in vegas, Palazzo Las Vegas, wedding marketing, wedding planner, what happens in las vegas