alright guys hello
and welcome to destination wedding planning made easy
season two we are so excited to be back this year
um we had a blast doing this last year
and we really got some great topics out
and i was super excited to
here's some of the feedback
and here's some of the conversation around
around uh
some of the things that we spoke about
so we're doing it again this year uh
and we are gonna dive in
we have got twelve brand new episodes for you
and we're super excited to
to jump into that list
the first one today we're talking about
i don't know if you want to call it generational travel
i don't know it's really
the focus
is the relationship that we have with our couples
that extends far past the wedding right
it's when we go through this process
you know
the average destination wedding relationship between
you know
the travel advisor slash planner and the couple
it lasts about a year right
um and you know
they come in they meet us in their consult
you know we
we work together and find the resort
we sign all our contracts
we book all their guests and then the wedding happens
and poof that's
that's it right
that's so really
what we like to focus on here
is that continued relationship
the you know
that's i think with our name
with destination weddings expert
a lot of people automatically assume we do weddings and
and that's it right
i i think one of the funniest things that i
i here from time to time is
you know one of our couples that'll go out and be like
hey this
you know i had so much fun at the wedding
here's some photos from the honeymoon
okay well
first of all
i'm glad you had a good time on the honeymoon
that's amazing uh
secondly i could have helped you
that's it
you didn't have to do all that planning on your own
right this
this relationship
this concierge style service that we provide
it extends far beyond that
that destination wedding planning
so the team and i were talking
you know we always do our
our planning calls for um uh
for our our episodes
and we wanted to talk about just kind of
some of the other things that we
we provide and i guess before we dive into that it's
since it's a brand new season it's
i forgot to introduce everyone
that's here we've got uh
nikki sanders from our reservations team
prissy paul one of our destination weddings experts
um ladies
thank you so much for joining me today
thank you for having us absolutely absolutely
alright so let's do it
um the first thing we kind of talked about
is before the wedding starts
right this
so you know
at before the wedding starts
before you even going down that road
signed into any contract a lot of our couples
i feel like especially this year
a lot of our couples are really reaching out
they want to do their research
before they sign any contracts
before they get locked into a date
and so we talk about the site visit right
so prissy tell me a little bit about the site visit
why we do it what's involved
well a site visit pretty much lets a cus
a couple test drive their resort before they lock in
um
some couples only go and visit one particular property
other couples take a week and might visit three
four five properties within a week
this is for those couples
who really want to hone in on what the
on resort experience is like
they want to see their on site vendors
they want to see the wedding locations
so they can envision themselves there
so i think if you can
i think every couple should definitely do a site visit
if not you're experts
we do site visits so
we'll be
able to give you some insight into those properties
for those of us
for those of you that were along with us
during season one
you heard us talk about this policy that we have
it's called we go so
you know right
and that policy what that means
is that we try not to recommend properties
that we have not been to
that we have not experienced ourselves
we want to make sure we can tell you the food's good
the you know
this drink at this bar is absolutely amazing that's
you know that's
go to this pool it's so much fun
we want to be able to speak towards the experience
now obviously
that can't happen with every property
but if we have not been there
one of our colleagues has been there
and we make sure that we understand
what that on site experience looks like first
but you don't know us from adam
when you first start talking to us right
so maybe they do
they might so
you know
you don't necessarily know what my food taste is like
what my drink you know
choices are like right
and sometimes you wanna experience it yourself
now
there's two different ways that you can do a site visit
and i think that's really important to talk about too
right
you can do it before you sign your wedding contract
before you lock in your date
and then you have a little bit more freedom to
go around look at a couple
couple properties see what
you know experience you want your guests to have um
but not as many discounts are involved in that
or you can go the other way
where you've already signed your wedding contract um
and you have your room block contract
and you're going to the site visit
to the property that you're gonna have it on
typically there is a uh
larger discount that's involved in that
some properties do some properties don't
but sometimes built right into your wedding package
that you get that discount
and then i like doing those ones with my couples
because then we get to do like
dive into the nitty gritty of the planning
the planning process goes much smoother
when you're there speaking to the on site
making sure that you know
they're letting you taste the foods
you're getting to experience what
what everything looks like
i do like those as well so either way
right yep
alright so we have the site visit
now
we're talking about the time between the site visit and
like signing contract and the wedding itself
it's
and i think one of the parties that people forget about
a little bit is the bachelor and bachelorette parties
so
i was actually telling the team the story this morning
about like
in my destination wedding
for those of you that didn't follow along
season one
i got married at eldorado royale and casitas in riviera
maya um
and that's such a huge long property
that we just made our trip a little bit longer
had some you know
had our um
we didn't have a wedding party
but we had some of our closest
kind of flying a little bit early
we started on either end of the resort
drank our way to the middle
i was told it was a very fun party that's and
i'm sure it's pictures somewhere to prove it right
but then we were talking
also with a vendor partner this morning
and we were talking a little bit about
you know what if we do multiple properties
as part of that experience
so you spend a couple nights at
you know let's just use
for example um
let's use high vivid grand island
start there you have your bachelor
bachelorette party there or
you know one of you are at grand island
one of you at another property
and then you meet at the wedding venue
we you know
let's we go up to secrets
moshe right
and that's that's where the wedding is gonna be
and then you meet the entire group there
and have the wedding there
there's a couple different ways
that you can structure it
or you do it you know
couple weeks beforehand get out and escape
but if you're doing bachelor at
bachelor at party and combining it all into one
you are saving yourselves a lot of expense
and you're saving your your bridal party
a lot of expense
rather than telling everyone to get on a plane
and ship out to vegas you know
a couple weeks before the wedding and
you know spend money at non all inclusive in vegas
i have i know nikki has but
have you been to vegas i have been to vegas
i'm too expensive but it's an expensive time
it's expensive my drinks are too expensive in vegas
no one wants my bar tab
i think that's
that's the idea of setting up that better
better and better at party as a package
just to you know
that's make sure that your your
you know entire crew is taken care of
and we're not you know
we're saving money by
kind of combining some of those expenses together
i think that is a really really good way to go about
and we can still get you a casino
hey yeah
we can still go to the casino yeah
it's some nice ones out there
yeah haha
uh okay
so wedding
obviously
we have talked a lot in season one about the wedding
we'll talk a lot in season two about the wedding
we're gonna skip over the wedding today
today the wedding is not the topic
um i wanna talk a little bit about honeymoons
so it's you know
you you go um
you go to the destination wedding
you have an amazing time
and then you either ship out from your destination to
your honeymoon or you go home first
decompress a little bit
will and i decompress for five years before we uh
went on our honeymoon right
like sometimes
you just can't dive into that honeymoon right away
wedding is a good time to change
yep um
so but it's when you go on the honeymoon
i think
again we talk so much in
you know in destination weddings
expert about mexico and the caribbean
we don't talk about all the other places
that we do have experience in right
it's so
prissy just got back from an amazing site trip
um so prissy
tell us a little bit about your trip and just kind of
some of the experiences you had
well it wasn't a honeymoon
but i did i did spend a lot of days in dubai
and then from there i went over to the maldives
so my sole focus while i was in dubai was to shop
um early january is festive season in dubai
so everything is on sale so
from gold to you know
cashmere sweaters to whatever you can name
whatever you can think your designer does
your local finds so i
my credit card is hurting right now
i think that's a girl
i think that's a girls trip right there
yeah yeah right
so i i did that
did all the things um
ate at some really nice restaurants
drank a lot of cocktails on some rooftops
but from there i went over to the maldives
and i have been selling the maldives
to my honeymoon clients i have not been
so dubai is about four hours from the maldives
so i'm like it's a perfect time to go
now i did the bulk of my flying
let's make a you know
an extended trip out of it
so went over there rested
did all the over water bungalow
and all the lux and beauty and relaxation
and they do have all inclusive properties there too
so you don't have to worry
we can definitely link you with a property
that fits your vibe fits your budget
absolutely isn't it funny
how a four hour flight in the states sounds horrible
but a four hour flight from dubai to maldives
sounds fantastic let's go
it's nothing it's nothing
well not after a twelve hour one
yeah that's true
yeah if you look at a lot of us cities though
like it takes twenty five hours to get to bali
it takes all of these hours to get to thailand
i like to break it up for couples
especially
if they're not used to doing such long flights
spend a couple of days in dubai
then keep on you know
to your next destination on your honeymoon journey
absolutely absolutely
now this one kind of ties into honeymoons
it ties into anniversaries
it ties into just wanting to get out of the house
but along those same lines
let's talk about europe for a little bit
alright so europe
i think is one that's so interesting
first of all european travel right now
for those of you that aren't in the travel industry
listening to this
european travel is one of the top locations right now
yeah it's booming
everyone's going um
and so what we wanna do
is make sure that you are getting there safe
you are getting to the right locations
you are taking care of along the way
just so that you know it's
you're comfortable i i it's
i think one of the most important things
when it comes to traveling is
i love stepping out of my comfort zone
i also don't want to be lost
and i don't
and i want to make sure i have someone there that's
you know kind of there to support me along the way
right so this
yes you can go and you can book your expedia
you can book whatever you want
that's and
and try and piece together a trip
the challenge with that is
if something goes sideways
good luck getting expedia to help you out
that's good luck you know
getting support that you need while you're
while you're in destination
so that's the same experience
that you get with your destination
wedding planning experience with us
you get on your european vacation
you get in the maldives vacation
you get you know
as you go
so when you come to us with a european request
i have an entire team that we
we use with our tour operator
that is gonna put together the itinerary
from the second that you take off from the states
to the second that you land in the states
so we're gonna get you on the plane
we're gonna get you on your transfer
probably a private transfer
instead of taking some taxi or whatever
right that's
we're gonna get you the hotel
we'll schedule your excursions
we'll make sure that you have tours set up
um and those tours could be
you know as involved as
you know like the
the cheesy european tour that everyone
you know that thinks of right away
which is like you know
you're all it's a hundred families on a bus
and you're going to look at all these different places
and offloading
to go to the restaurant and unloading back on the bus
yes get those as well
um but
or it can be a little bit more hands on it
you know nice and spread out
it could be a one on one private tour if you want it
that's something like that
but that's that's all available
and we can piece it from a
all the way to z in that european trip
right so again
getting into that more concierge style service
that you wouldn't necessarily get booking on your own
on on
you know the bulk sites
and those are the european trips are
those are the cultural experiences
you're just not going to get in the united states
so i mean you
you just a christmas market in germany
is completely different than a christmas market in like
beluxy i don't know where you're in beluxy hahaha
it's different it's different
that would be good
you know get out your bucket
start putting this in there
yeah so well
and that so i was actually
i was gonna talk a little bit about italy
but that is actually the perfect transition there
nikki just to the river cruises and like
some of the you know
some of the different experiences
that you have out there i mean
and the inclusions like
i don't think a lot of people look at the inclusions
in some of these whether it's
you know curated group travel or river cruising
it's a lot that you get you know
with those those styles of travel
i think my the
the thing that i try and avoid doing
as much as possible is going into our tour operators
you know uh
portal and
looking at the different
itineraries that are out there
it's once you start talking a river cruise in france
and we're stopping at all these vineyards
and we're drinking wine along the way
i it's
i really don't want to do anything else but that
like it's there's
there's these christmas markets
you know in germany
in italy
you're getting on sometimes not even the river cruise
sometimes you're getting on a train
and just doing an entire christmas market tour
there is all these amazing unique
like nikki said
cultural experiences that are out there that
you know sometimes you might not even have access to
if you you know
if you don't know where to look
if you you know
are just looking on the the budget sites
you might not even see these things right
and then you missed a moment
like i like to think of it
i want you to go back because you wanna go back
and not because you miss such amazing experiences like
you know to have to go back to vienna
because you didn't try schnitzel or
you know something like that
like go back because you wanna go back
and not because you missed the big moments
yep absolutely
that's i think
you know my my biggest
goal it's with
with the agency as a whole
but also just kind of my biggest goal in
in working with each individual couple that
that comes in is
yes it's a lot of fun to
to plan your wedding
and i love creating that relationship
that's the challenges is that when it's done
i wanna be your best friend after that like
so yeah it's
it's a little bit of where to next
like that's i
this our goal is to
as a destination wedding expert
as dwe as a company
is to really build that relationship
to be there as a travel partner all the way through
that's you know
if we have a forty year travel relationship together
i love that i would that's
i think that's something that is
is a goal and something that we strive for
and you know that's
our company hasn't been around long enough
to have a forty year relationship with anyone yet
but uh that
that would be the goal right
we've had some we had ten year reunions
anniversary celebrations
and i was at the wedding and the
and the anniversary that's it
we've had um
we have one uh
couple that's back with us right now for
is it it's a five year that we're doing a five year
yeah um
that's you know
and so it's
we do get to have those relationships with our couples
and we get to um
you know experience some of those things that are
in mexico and the caribbean
but we also want to be able to talk about
some of the areas that are
outside of that and experiencing the world together um
in in the best way possible
um
let's talk about just some of the things
that carry over from our systems um
and into travel right
we always talk about those quality curated trips
that's how we put together our kind of white
you know white glove
concierge service when it comes to the weddings
but that doesn't end those systems don't end that
they aren't exclusive to weddings themselves right
it's so you know
when we're talking about some of these things
we are gonna be you know
if you're traveling with a couple people
even if it's not a full like
room block if you're traveling with a couple people
we are helping you along the way
giving them information
on what to expect while in destination
and what to expect on the itinerary
um we are giving them a booking engine
so that they can go in submit all their information
find the itinerary that works best for them
and send it over to us uh
we are giving them reminders about travel insurance
and reminders about passports
and making sure that they have the information
and support they need on that piece of it
um and then
of course just the simple stuff
like reminding them that there's a payment due
like
it's just the support where they're like
do i need a travel adapter
yep you know
those little questions yep
that's we're almost here
yeah that's
you know there's
for those of you that have traveled with us already
who've been part of our wedding groups that's you'll
you know our groups
or our groups all get
kind of those nurture sequence emails that go out
and hey
don't forget you know
you can book your excursion
hey don't forget
you know you have to book your passport
you don't need a a a
an adapter in mexico you don't need
you know any of those things that are out there right
it's we send a lot of information
so that everyone feels super prepared for their travel
that extends further than mexico and the caribbean that
you know we have one of those for everywhere that we go
just to make sure that everyone is ready for their trip
that there's no surprises
of course if you don't take the time to read the emails
of course if you don't take the time to read the emails
you're not gonna experience that but
but um
the information is there it's available
and hopefully there's you know
everyone is comfortable to travel by the time it's
it's time to get in the plane right
absolutely
that's you you might have your wedding with us
but two years later your guest might email and say
you know what i had such a good time at that wedding
and i wanted to plan my mom's um
fifty birthday party
and she's a little nervous to travel
so this is a good way you know
we might be your first
or anyone's first experience using a travel advisor
in this time not when
in the nineties when i was first to try
but we do do that we do
we have birthday groups we have
you know anniversary retirement retirement
get your family vacations going together
because there are some great deals out there
and yep
you know we know where they are
i think the funny thing about that
nikki is
you know it's when we create that relationship with
with the groups
it's they get different experiences
like different people that they're speaking to
right so that's the couple
they know me they that's
they work with me all the time
we're doing planning
we're getting everything going with that right
but you're the one that actually gets the emails about
like the birthday trips
and the anniversary trips and what not
because they know you yeah
some of them are like who's mario yeah
the the guests
you know the guests interact with you
much more than they interact with me
and so it's really interesting to see the
you know when those
when those you know
why can't i think of the word
it's their referrals basically they
they referring themselves
a lot of the time
they just happen to be on our wedding trips
yeah and they want assistance and support
on their next vacation so we're here for that
absolutely absolutely
ladies anything else that you wanna talk about at all
while we're talking about kind of
some of this generational
long term relationship travel
i'm just gonna hype up the summer vacations
because there are some really good deals out there
you might not be at your wedding yet
but
you might wanna go with your family before the summer
speaking of that so we have one
one hotel group right now
that has just completely cut out children's rates
and i'm not talking like little children
i'm talking zero to seventeen
that's they have cut out children's rates
so anyone looking for some summer travel right now
alright reach out
we have got a deal for you yes
um which i think is amazing
you know that's the kids
they can't drink that's
you know what not that's
there's food i don't know how they're paying for for
and the kids they have kids clubs
and activities and things like that
so it
kids are expensive yeah
i have four i have four
and i'm not taking them anywhere anymore
they can they have their own jobs
they'll go on their own
yeah oh
alright ladies
thank you so much for joining us for episode one
season two
we hope you all enjoyed it and we will talk to you soon
bye bye
