Whitney Wing Drake to Speak at The UKAWP Annual Convention

It was recently confirmed that I will be a speaker at the United Kingdom Alliance of Wedding Planners (UKAWP) Annual Convention in London, England entitled "Wedding Planning Excellence" on March 2. It is a tremendous honor to have been asked to speak by the organization's President Bernadette Chapman. I am thrilled to be going to my favorite city in the world for such a distinguished event and I'm just bursting with excitement. The UKAWP is a wonderful organization for wedding coordinators in the UK, comparable to our own Association of Bridal Consultants here in the states. More information can be found here. I'd better start putting some words together because I leave in 12 days!

It's Valentine's Day! Get Twitterpated :)

I love Valentine's Day for many reasons but my favorite reason is because I get to use my very favorite word all day long: twitterpated. All you Disney buffs out there know what i'm talking about, right?

Yep it's the word made famous in the movie Bambi when the owl explains "Nearly everybody gets twitterpated in the springtime. You're walking along, minding your own business. You're looking neither to the left, nor to the right, when all of a sudden you run smack into a pretty face. Woo-woo! You begin to get weak in the knees. Your head's in a whirl. And then you feel light as a feather, and before you know it, you're walking on air. And then you know what? You're knocked for a loop, and you completely lose your head!"

As wedding coordinators, we work with a lot of twitterpated couples and we think it's the best! So let's celebrate being twitterpated today - with your boyfriend, girlfriend, fiancee, husband, wife, BFF, secret crush, or French Bulldog. Even after 5 years of marriage I can still proudly say i'm twitterpated :)

Happy Valentine's Day to all our favorite couples (past, present, and future)!

Image property of fanpop.com

Our Grand Opening Celebration at the New Wish Wonder Dream Pasadena Studio

Thank you SO much to the 300-something guests who made it to our studio on Friday night for our Grand Opening Celebration. It was such a delight to see all your lovely faces and it meant the world to us that you came to show you support and see our new digs :)

It was lovely celebrating with every one of you and, honestly, you're the reason we do what we do. You make our jobs amazing every single day and we were so happy to have shared our special evening with you.

Here are some photos from the lovely Megan Welker:

FEATURED AGAIN ON ELIZABETH ANNE DESIGNS!

We were so excited to learn today that the wedding we coordinated for Katie and Steve was featured on Elizabeth Anne Designs. I'ts such a lovely tribute to Katie's beautiful taste. We LOVE that blog and follow it daily so we're always so pleased when our weddings are featured!

CONGRATULATIONS KATIE AND STEVE!

Once October rolled around and we thought we'd closed the chapter on our 2011 wedding season, all of a sudden the phone rang. It was Katie, a bride who was only a month away from her wedding and had a falling-out with her previous wedding coordinator. She was very upset and in need of a coordinator who could jump in right away and help her and her mother tie up all their loose ends. I arranged a meeting with them that weekend and we began immediately. Katie and her mother Christine had done a fabulous job with all their plans and I was very excited to be getting involved.

 Katie and Steve chose to have a Mass at St. Maximilian Kolbe Church followed by a "Christmas at the Beach" reception at The Malibu West Beach Club. Katie brought her love of evergreens and pine cones to the beach club where her brother had been married years before and the two themes meshed surprisingly well.

Katie's parents let us know about a very special surprise they planned for Katie and her new husband Steve. They had invited the USC marching band to come for a surprise performance. We decided that just after dinner and before the dancefloor opened would be the perfect time and it was a blast greeting them at the door and sneaking them into the staging room. I'll admit that it was tough being amongst all that Trojan pride (being a very proud Bruin myself) but I got over it just long enough to pull the big surprise off without a hitch. Katie, a proud Trojan and huge fan of the band, was absolutely floored when the roar of the trumpets echoed in the room as the band marched in. They played for a good 15 minutes and Katie danced like a crazed fan the entire time. She couldn't have loved it more and it was amazing to watch!

It was AWESOME helping to pull this fantastic event off in the final month and it was such an honor being asked to step in at such a crucial time. We were thrilled to have been able to help and it was the perfect close of our 2011 season.

Thanks so much to Heidi Ryder Photography for these gorgeous photos!

And here is the gorgeous video from JakPhoto. We're so happy the videographer took our suggestion and used the audio of the bridesmaids, maid of honor, and the bride's mother signing "Going to the Chapel." It was such a beautiful moment when they sang it to Katie as she prepared to walk down the aisle. Such a lovely video!

Katie & Steve 12.10.11 from Jakfoto Films on Vimeo.