Engage 2011 // Grand del Mar

Last week, I flew to San Diego to attend Engage11! Engage is a 'luxury business summit' for wedding professionals in the luxe wedding market...but I'd rather refer to it as the 'best networking/hangout experience' I've ever had when it comes to investing in my personal continuing education. Engage has absolutely everything to do with its name. The sole purpose of this conference is to build solid, lasting relationships with vendors all around the world. This is my second time attending Engage, and it was really, really cool to see just how amazing the connections I made at the last conference have grown into some truly awesome relationships!

The event is put on by two amazing women, Kathryn and Rebecca. Their vision was to bring together the best-of-the-best and give us all an experience to inspire, connect and collaborate, to simply make our industry the absolute best it can possibly be! They have raised the bar in SO many ways, and the most impressive part about our weeks at Engage is all in the details. Absolutely every little thing has so much thought put into it, for instance, while planning out our coffee break, they didn't just put out a pot of coffee, instead they took-it-to-another-level and created an entire array of coffee-flavored-treats and goodies to keep us going! You see, Engage is all about the experience and this week is all about learning HOW to better serve our clients, vendors and potential clients to give them THE ultimate experience. I didn't take out my camera all week, simply because I wanted to soak it all in. All of the speakers, all the gorgeous details, food and drink - I wanted to taste, listen, learn and meet absolutely everything I could from this amazing group of people who I was surrounded by! And, thanks to the AMAZING crew of Mel Barlow & Co, I have these stellar images to show you!

There is just so much I would love to share with you all, but I feel like 6 different blog posts might be too much (and if you follow my twitter feed, you are probably already sick of hearing about this, but too bad :0) It's just to000 good! ) So, here are some of my favorite little tidbits:

"This fittin' in is some bullshit" - Diann Valentine

"When your work is being emulated, you need to move your business forward, and you must be open to changing your business often" - Todd Fiscus

"Excellence is not optional" - Cindy Novotny

"Develop relationships with key people who will make things happen for you, not just the popular kids" - Cindy Novotny

"If you're shopping against price, I'm expensive" - Marcy Blum

"$106,000 is the average budget for a luxe wedding" - Carly Roney

"Details are not going away" - Mindy Weiss

" Love deeper, Dream bigger" - Monique Lhuillier " Success depends on perseverance and the relationships we build" - Michelle Rago

" Fail Forward" -Simon T. Baily

"If you are going to be relevant in the future, who are you going to partner with?" - Simon T. Baily

"Success is an attitude. Get yours right. It is astonishing how short a time it takes for very wonderful things to happen." - David Beahm

[blogshow id=4ded13bd1a118 player=0 autoplay=0 toolbar=0]

Again, a HUGE thank you to Mel, Judith and Allan for taking all the amazing photos above! You all worked your asses off this week, so I wouldn't have to and I SO appreciate it! To all the lovely & talented friends I saw and new friends I met, it was so great to experience this all with you! We ate, we drank, we laughed, we learned, we talked, we danced and as cheesy as it may sound...we engaged! :0)

LOVEe