Engage!12 :: Luxury Wedding Summit Recap!

It’s that time of year again! The time of year where I post swoon-worthy images of a few adventure-filled days in my life! Yep, that’s right, I’m fresh back from Engage!12 and the good folks over at Elan Artists provided me with MANY, MANY beautiful images to share with you!

What is Engage! you ask? Engage! is four action-packed days where the best of the best in the luxury wedding industry congregate to learn, grow, network, re-evaluate business and of course, party (I mean it’s the business we are in, so we have to party hard, right?)!  The Engage! summits are put on by the beautiful minds over at Engaging Concepts, Rebecca Grinnals & Kathryn Arce. They give us four fun-filled days with amazing speakers, set at gorgeous venues, filled with beautiful people and of course, the best experiences! I’ve been attending Engage! since 2009 and honestly, it just keeps getting better and better, year after year. There aren’t too many (ANY) summits/conferences out there that you can attend where you will sit in a room with 200-250 like-minded individuals and talk shop, gather ideas, reinvent your business, get that much needed pep talk, ask open honest questions and receive open honest answers!

If you’ve ever considered attending an Engage! summit, but you’re on the fence about it, please call or e-mail me – I am HAPPY to talk you into it. If you are serious about your business or being in the luxury wedding business, it’s a must attend. The next Engage!12 summit is set to take place at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida, in December, where they are pumping tryptophan into the bedrooms (seriously the best sleep I’ve ever had in my life)…REGISTER TODAY!!!

Now, onto the fun stuff – the spectacular details, the fun, the glamour and all of the beautiful images of all of the beautiful people! Huge Thanks to Elan Artists, Scott Clark, Ready Luck, I Do Films, Gifts For the Good Life, West Coast Music, Revelry Event Designers, Bob Gail Special Events, Two Paper Dolls, Kristy Rice of Momental Designs, Mandarin Oriental Hotel and Four Seasons Las Vegas and of course, the Engaging Concepts crew that not only consists of Rebecca & Kathryn, but also Rebecca’s parents, Cindy Folak & her husband from Tulla Belles and the super smart Trisha Hay (and of course – all of their families, for sharing them with us!)

This year’s color story was gold and 50 shades of blue. It blended so well with the atmosphere at the Mandarin Oriental! At registration, we were given so much swag that my bag weighed about 15 more lbs than when I left home. Seriously, the swag is insane…It’s one of the things Engage! is well known for… AMAZING SWAG…..

There were so many great speakers throughout the three days. Motivational, inspirational, telling us valuable stories to keep us from making some of the mistakes they made, talking about the future of our industry – I can truly go on all day about them.

Our welcome reception was held on the Mandarin Oriental pool deck. Scrumptious mini stations of food were set-up everywhere, while Elan Artists played live music and we enjoyed synchronized swimmers putting on a show for us. In true Vegas fashion – we all enjoyed the show!

And if I haven’t mentioned it before, it is a great place to reconnect with old friends, make new amazing friends, and finally meet your twitter friends face to face and just have a good ole’ time!

A nice little treat for all the attendees was that after every long day or after lunches/breaks, we were always treated to little gifts that were all so perfectly branded with the Engage! logo and color story. These bento boxes were a perfect little item to find at our seats before opening sessions on day two. Filled with everything we would need to get thru the day! Those Gifts for the Good Life girls never cease to amaze me!

Since everyone in attendance is in the party planning business, the closing night gala is always the big shebang for us! It’s an amazing party, with live music, scrumptious food, fancy dresses, beautiful people and the last night before we head home & back to our realities. This year was no exception! Edgar from Revelry and his crew did NOT disappoint us. No detail was left untouched when it came to decor. Of course, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, so I can only show you the “before” pictures! The after pictures are sore feet, wedding planners gone wild on the dance floor, puffy eyes and more fun than you could ever imagine! To say it was a good time would be an understatement!

If all of these gorgeous images weren’t enough, the talented filmmakers over at I Do Films created not one, but TWO amazing Glee-like films for us to remember the whole experience. This is why I push Cinematography to Brides – the memories of the day are priceless!!

PS- If you want to see some of the week thru my iPhone lens, follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram – or look for the #engage12 hashtag on twitter & Instagram so that you can follow along with everyone in attendance…

See you in December!