The American Association of Certified Wedding Planners is a purpose driven organization that continually emphasizes training and experience to those seeking to excel in the wedding & hospitality business. To learn more about this group click Here
Today, three of us from LoveNotes (including founder Rev. Marty Younkin and his wife Carol) were honored by being asked to present a program to the current class of those seeking the CWP designation. The session was held at the Magnolia Hotel downtown. For today's program, we were asked to talk about certain special touches and ethnic/cultural practices during a wedding ceremony, primarily the Bible/Coins/Lasso for Hispanic weddings; the Huppah, Kiddush cup and glass breaking for Jewish ceremonies; and the wonderfully historic practice of jumping the broom for African-American weddings.
Looking around the room was somewhat like looking at a Who's-Who of wedding planners. Shari Johns (who invited us to speak), Wendy Kidd, Karen Radford, and Alison Fuld along with another two dozen or so made us welcome and graciously invited us to share lunch afterwards.
In the photo above are, left to right, Karen Radford, Laura DeBow, Trudy Baade, Marsha Ballard French, Shari Johns, Kimberly Sutton, and Micki Novak, all of whom are among the leadership in the AACWP.
Here's my point: this group is dedicated to providing couples with the experience of a lifetime when it comes to the wedding ceremony and reception. They're the specialists, the go-to people. When I walk into a rehearsal or ceremony and see one of these folks, I mentally relax a few notches as I know that the bride and groom are in good hands and things will go as planned.
I appreciate being asked to attend these sessions. Brides should appreciate that there are those who care enough about a wedding ceremony to spend hours and hours in a classroom to get the training so they can create that magic, fairytale wedding that couples dream about.
Blessings,
Ken
UPDATE: At the time I wrote the above post I didn't know that the AACWP had just given LoveNotesWeddings their 2009 "Favorite Vendor" award. It's a great honor, and it's also humbling to know that this distinction was given by the professionals in the wedding industry. We appreciate the trust, but we also know we have to earn it each time we walk into an event.
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