The Northwest has the BEST wedding professionals!

Hello NW Wed Pro’s!

April is nearly here. Unfortunately we don’t have a venue yet for our next meeting. If you’d like to host it please contact me.

Let’s recap the March meeting. it was fantastic!

March 10th the NWWP met at Weatherford’s Grand Lodge in Oregon City. They offered us the Fireplace room for our private event. We had a great turnout. After registering, guests were able to visit with each other and get to know the other wedding professionals. We had a LOT of first time visitors to the meeting.
Then the buffet opened. Weatherfords prepared us a beautiful spread with salad, quiche, chicken skewers and pasta alfredo. It was wonderful. Our featured vendor this month was White Rose Bakery. Debra provided us with a delicious almond apricot cake for dessert.

The meeting was started with an explanation of the NW Wed pro and NWWP group. (networking, referrals, shared knowledge, team playing)
The Multi Network Holiday Gala was announced. All of the region’s major networking groups in the Wedding, Event, Catering & Hospitality industry will be having one big joint Event this winter. Tickets will be available soon to members of these organizations.

A check for $203 was presented to Clackamas Women’s Services Charity. They were the recipient of the Bridal Fair fundraiser.

More discussion about next year’s NW Wed pro Bridal Fair. Many of the guests announced the bookings that they got from the Bridal Fair Feb 6-7 at Willamette Valley Country club.

The educational portion of the meeting was about tracking your website traffic and seeing what brought every hit. Keywords and links were discussed, as was content. (This week I received an email from a guest that implemented the simple points we discussed and it increased her website hits from FOUR to EIGHTY!)

The advantages of writing reviews and recommendations for other businesses was discussed.

A door prize drawing was held and the winner received a beautiful Silver, crystal embellished photo frame.

All guests were introduced around the room then it was networking time again. Many great connections came out of this meeting. Looking forward to the next meeting.
If you Face Book, become a fan of “NW Wed Pro”
If you Blog, follow our Blog!
Those that attended the meeting should check their listing on NW Wed Pro to make sure the information and link is correct. A link on your site back to NW Wed Pro is greatly appreciated.

Hope to see you all in April!


Beverly Mason
The Radiant Touch Weddings
www.TheRadiantTouch.com
www.nwwedpro.com
www.nwwpnetwork.com

NW Wed Pro March Madness

Hello NW Wed pro’s!

It’s looking a lot like Spring out there. We survived the winter months and now wedding season is just around the corner. Last minute brides are still booking vendors for their summer weddings so do not despair if you still have a few dates open.

The next meeting of the NWWP network is Wednesday, March 10, 2010 from 6pm – 8:30pm at Weatherford’s Grand Lodge fireplace room in Oregon City. Please rsvp as space is limited. $10 (light food provided by Weatherfords, cake provided by White Rose Bakery)

In February we had a wonderful meeting at the Clackamas County Event Center in Canby. Our guest speaker was Thomas Caddy of National Marketing Associates. It was a very informative message. Thank you again to Portland Catering Company and Chocolette’s for providing food and dessert. Asparro video shared with us the vendor spotlights that he made from the Bridal Show. Each vendor can link directly to their video clip from their own website. Go to http://www.asparrovideo.com/Links_-_Asparro_Video.html click on your name, then copy the URL into your link from your website.

Thank you to those that answered the bridal fair survey. If you haven’t yet, please do so. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/86B6K8W
This will help us determine exactly when, where and cost of the next Bridal fair for the NWWP.

I hope that you are all taking advantage of your networking opportunities. Here are some suggestions for the week.
1. Write a review or recommendation for a vendor online (wedding wire, merchant circle, google profile, Yelp, Naymze, linked In, etc)
2. Share a photo you have that another vendor may like to use for their services.
3. Schedule a co-vendor event with someone for your prospects and brides. (catering & cake tasting, trial run hair & makeup with photography, florist and cake decorator, officiant & planner)
4. Feature a vendor on YOUR Blog post.

It’s a great week to try something new. Times change, and we have to learn to change with them. What has worked for the last 15 years may not be as effective these days. Keep trying new things, do searches to see what is working for others, always give just a little more and you’ll be amazed at what you’ll receive in return. Stay positive and have a good attitude. Exude confidence. Be the best at what you do.

Have a wonderful week. Please rsvp for the next meeting. Thank you for completing the survey too.
(P.S. thank you Willamette Valley Country Club, Johanna Respini and Michelle Winner for the wonderful referrals this month.)

Become a FAN on Facebook of NW Wed Pro and NW Wed Pro Bridal Fair
Radiant Touch Weddings also has a Fan page.