Written By: Jaime
Valdes-Riench, owner of Travel & Events with Style
Image by Kamp Photography
I love this time of year, and I love making a New Year’s
blog post. Like every year I like can’t
believe how the year flew by. I love
looking back and at the best and the worst times. Really, even the hard times just make us so
much stronger and wiser. I believe in
growth at all times. Whether we sign up
for it or not, we always some how are moving forward.
Now, “Lucky 13”.. Hum.
I am not a superstitious person, but even the number 13 makes you think
for a moment. During my annual December
prep for events (weddings, corporate and personal), I had the opportunity to
have a few days of a quiet mind. My thoughts
brought me to this, 13 is only unlucky when we do not prepare and follow
through with what life will serve us (so it doesn’t have anything to do with
the number, but more with what we do with life). In other words, I really don’t believe in
luck, but rather being proactive rather than reactive in order to have a
positive outcome. It is all on how we
work with the hand we where dealt with.
When we plan and take responsibility for our choices, we can then find ourselves
in a “lucky” or prosperous situation. This
is just my perspective of course.
Now how does this apply to the With Style companies? First off, all our dear 2013 wedding couples
are getting ready for one of the most special days of their lives. They planned, they hired professionals, and
they followed through with a dream. In
the end, they are will have an incredible memory to start a new journey. That’s not luck, that’s planning and hiring experienced
people to help to be proactive with their dream. I am not exaggerating that I literally smile
ear to ear when I think about all the couples, one by one, and imagine their special
days. How I wish Tiffany, Jorge and/or I
could be at them all. Not because of the
“trip”, but for that perfect moment when the bride comes around the corner to
see their future life partner waiting for them to say “I will forever”. I wish I was there for the moment when love
binds and makes a new beginning.
Now for new beginnings and what is in store: 2013 will bring us more change, and has
inspired us to push the limits even further.
Tiffany, Jorge and I really believe in increasing the value of our
services every year. What is in store do
you ask? Well, for one, we decided the
beginning of the year we will invest in wedding planning tools for our new
couples that will sign us starting 2013.
We are increasing services to our wedding planning packages, making a
lot of online tools and a more thorough wedding website for our couples so
their guests can feel a little more part of the planning process. We find, especially with destination
weddings, that guests want to feel a part of the process and want to be more
informed. With destination weddings, guests
are making larger financial commitments so they are always looking for comfort
that they are making the right decision to participate in the wedding by going. So does the couple. Among these positive changes, we always are
working on building international relationships with vendors and resorts. That
is something we take a lot of pride in.
How we are different: The With Style Team is not constantly trying to sell to our clients! You
are not going to get a million email flyers from us for travel sales, we are not going
bombard you with a million ads such as “heard you got engaged please sign up here” with posts on
social media, and you are not going to hear us tell you that “you have to act now or will loose this great opportunity for this limited time offer” (unless of course it was a third party that made a deadline that is out of our control – still then we will give you both sides of the reasoning so we can help you decide). Now why do you ask we approach it this way? Isn’t that against everything marketing tells
us to do as a company? Why yes, yes it is. Our team works really hard on building trust and pairing ourselves well with our clients.
If we wanted to make a sale I am pretty sure we could, but our main objective is not to make a million sales. We understand we will be your partner for the next year to build your wedding dream so if you hired us based on hype you would not trust us once the hype subsided.
Our team wants to be able to look you in the eye and be able to give you
an honest opinion at all times. We pride
ourselves in this integrity. It is not a
secret Jaime, yes I mean myself, has a BIG funny personality and Tiffany and
Jorge have to be the sweetest humans on earth, but all of us can say we care
deeply about our job and our clients. We
go to all lengths to help and support our clients over the course of the planning
process (and boy, do we have a few interesting stories to tell). The one thing we have in common is that we
are compassionate, empathic, educated and most of all, are extremely honest in
caring way. We have a job where mistakes
can take a huge emotional toll on our clients, so for that, we take that to
heart to better ourselves every day. We
ADORE our jobs and we adore our clients!
So in closing, it is that time again to say thank you! Thank
you to all our clients, to all the vendors we work with, and our amazing team. Every part of this job is incredible, even on
the bad days. We have a job where we
make dreams come true, not everyone can say that. We really feel blessed to be able to do what we do.
So SALUD! And we wish you all nothing but the best in 2013
and beyond!
Also, if you made this far in this article.. that is an extra thank you I must
say. This was a long one! (wink)
Written By: Jaime Valdes-Riench, owner of Travel &
Events with Style
Currently many know the sky lantern as a Wish
lantern. Brides looking for that wow factor, this is a great way to end your
night. Have your guests gather together in an open outdoor location. For our
Destination Wedding couples, the beach is a great location for this. Everyone receives
a wish lantern and can write down a wish for the newlyweds on the lantern. It
is believed that when the lantern is released into the sky the wishes they
wrote on the lantern will come true for the bride and groom. What a memorable
way to end a very special night with all your nearest and dearest watching as
all the lanterns fly up to the sky.
As with all things, there can be easy answers to all these
questions and there can be some second guessing that can come with it as well. If this all sounds like it could be your
dream, focus on the important things that can work for you. See if you can fix the areas in doubt and if
so, stand back and look at it again. If
you have found the answer for the area in question, Congratulations! You have just started the first part of
planning you wedding! Here is an example
of a challenge: If you are not
comfortable in dealing with the legal procedures of another country and the correspondence
that will come with it, consider having a civil ceremony locally prior to
leaving. This way, once you are at the
resort, you can have a renewal of vows, and the legal paperwork is done here in
Canada. If having the legal ceremony
here is an option, have an important person in your life such as a pastor or
priest marry you prior to your departure (remember, all that is required to
make a marriage legal in Canada is to have the officiant, the bride, the groom
and 2 witnesses be in attendance and of legal age while the marriage vows are
being said). Then you can still have
your dream ceremony at the resort with all your guests in attendance. You will have the best of both worlds! If there is no one in particular you would
like to request officiate your vows here in Canada, there is always the option
of a Marriage Commissioner or Justice of the Peace employed by the province of
Manitoba.
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