A message from Tracey Manailescu and Danielle Andrews Sunkel, Co-Founders of WPIC Inc.

Tracey Manailescu and Danielle Andrews Sunkel, Co-founders of WPIC Inc.

Each time we write the WPIC Year in Review, we are amazed at just how much happened in one year!  We have met so many new friends and business colleagues, we have seen so many new places and had so many cool experiences.

This year epitimized the philosophy of Yin and Yang, the good with the bad.  Average wedding costs decreased slightly and most of us in the Wedding Industry were affected.  On the flip-side, wedding planners were viewed as a necessity more than ever before!  Another exciting shift in weddings, thanks to sites like Pinterest, is that couples are more interested in personalizing their wedding.  Couples are open to adding special touches that wedding planners have always craved.

More than ever people are trying to imitate what WPIC does and has been doing for 10 years, but our unofficial slogan still holds true: “Often imitated, never duplicated.”  We are now on our 12th revision of the WPIC text book.  It is bigger and better than ever.  Our after-class support leads the industry in that we provide unbelievable continuing education opportunities to our members, for FREE.  We invest tens of thousands of dollars every year to advertise WPIC Certified Wedding Planners, maintain our free member alumni boards and provide support to our past students, again at no cost to them.  Our dedication to helping our past students succeed has never waivered and we have witnessed unbelievable success from our past students.  This year past students have received several awards, much media attention and best of all, great success.

Photo by Adventure Photos. WPIC’s Monica Hill was one of the alumni who took the opportunity to attend the Mexico Romantico Destination Wedding Event. (Click the photo to read about it)

In order to provide the best to our students and alumni, this year we have:

• completely overhauled and upgraded the Member Forums
• updated the WPIC text book to be the most modern possible and provided all updates to all our past students
• added a Regional Representative program so that local WPICAlumni can get together and continue their knowledge and have an opportunity to network with each other
• added an instructor based in Barbados to help service the southern Caribbean islands
• gotten WPIC in multiple media outlets
• added to our international recognition through speaking at several international wedding conferences
• created several strategic alliances and partnerships with large companies

In the New Year we will:

• continue to support our alumni with education and opportunities for business growth
• completely overhaul the Destination Wedding Coordinator course
• focus on accessibility and support for International students
• continue our fabulous partnerships which provide unbelievable opportunities for our alumni
• work smarter, not harder

Cool Things Danielle & Tracey have done this year on behalf of WPIC

We have gotten a lot of cool and amazing opportunities over the years from sleeping in Medieval Castles in Ireland, to visiting magic towns in Mexico.  No one understands just how hard we have to work, but no one benefits from their labour quite like we do either.

Photo by Italianweddingphotojournalist.com

Photo by Cinderella Images

By far the coolest and most memorable events this year were producing not one, but two photos shoots in Rome, Italy and being invited to attend the Grand Opening of the Hard Rock Hotel Cancun where we saw Flo. Rida and the Goo Goo Dolls perform live and met stars like Wilmer Valderrama!

Danielle Andrews Sunkel with Wilmer Valderrama at the Hard Rock Cancun Grand Opening VIP Party

2012 Speaking Engagements

Tracey Manailescu and Danielle Andrews Sunkel of WPIC, speakers at Wedding MBA

This year we spoke at several international wedding conferences, conventions and symposiums including: Abaco Wedding Professionals Conference in the Bahamas, Bringing the Fabulous in Barbados, Wedding MBA in Las Vegas, Love Mexico in the Riviera Maya, and Latino Americano Congresso de Bodas de Destino in Cancun.  Our seminars focussed on Practices of Successful Wedding Professionals, Destination Wedding Professionals, and the intricacies of Destination Wedding Planning.  On a local level we spoke at several colleges to students considering a career in the event industry.

Travel

WPIC’s Danielle Andrews Sunkel and Kim Choy at the ISES party in Dallas

This year we travelled to many places in order to strengthen WPIC’s international reputation.  We travelled to: New York for the Wedding Party and Kleindfeld’s Wedding Fashion Show; Tianguis Turistica in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; Abaco, Bahamas; Barbados; BizBash in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Rome, Italy; Dallas, Texas; Las Vegas, Nevada; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; Cancun, Mexico; ICOMEX in Mexico City, Mexico; Durango, Mexico; Hildago, Mexico; and Riviera Maya, Mexico.

International Seminars

With the Hard Rock Punta Cana wedding team, showing off their “WPIC Certified” lapel pins.

We trained and certified the Abaco Bahamas Wedding Professionals, the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association, the Hard Rock Hotels Wedding Teams in the Dominican Republic & Mexico and the Palace Resorts Wedding Team in Mexico.  Students travelled from Mexico, Berlin, France, and Norway.

In 2013 we are looking forward to growing WPIC even more, providing countless opportunities to alumni who are willing to constantly better themselves, supporting them in making couples’ dreams come true, creating enduring working relationships and seeing even more of our big, beautiful world.

We wish you nothing but success!

Danielle & Tracey