Gathering Expertise From Across the Industry
Amber Anderson
After a decade in weddings and events, Amber Anderson, founder of Heavenly Day Events, pivoted her career into coaching others while maintaining a role in her planning company in Austin, Texas. As the host of Refine for Wedding Planners, Amber desires to coach and mentor planners via the largest Facebook group exclusively for wedding planners by offering a course, retreat, membership and templates.
Muriel Saldalamacchia
Ranked among the world’s Top 20 Luxury Planners, Muriel Saldalamacchia is an internationally acclaimed wedding planner who provides an unsurpassed guest experience to a discerning clientele in search of excellence. Muriel leveraged her experience while running two successful businesses and working alongside other wedding planners. In 2020, she launched the book “The Anti-Ghosting Method”. The Muriel Saldalamacchia brand also offers professional training courses, effective masterclasses, and technical workshops.
Michelle Loretta
Michelle Loretta is a strategist for the events industry and creator of Be Sage Consulting, formerly Sage Wedding Pros, with experience as a stationery entrepreneur herself. With a degree in accounting and a career rooted in her time at Deloitte, she dissects numbers to help level-up businesses’ earnings and has educated, coached, and consulted event pros since 2009. In 2021, Michelle launched the Sage Coaches program to match industry experts with event professionals to provide coaching in niche topics. Michelle has spoken at a number of industry conferences, including WeddingWire World, NACE Experience, and The Special Event.
Lynne Reznick
Lynne Reznick is an educator-turned-photographer whose own love story and marriage inspires her to document the love of other soulmates. She finds joy in supporting her couples and connecting with industry peers. Always an educator at heart, Lynne is committed to building opportunities for connection and learning within the wedding industry and beyond. She’s the creator of the online course The Wedding Client Experience Academy and enjoys mentoring and coaching new wedding pros one-on-one and in hands-on workshops.
Kelly Ann Peck
Kelly Ann Peck is a business coach and sales strategist at Sales UpRising that is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs develop actionable strategies that turn ideas into profitable 6-figure businesses. With 24 years in the events industry and as a sales expert, Kelly has sold over $23 million in revenue and has helped countless business owners transform their businesses into well-oiled, profit-generating machines.
Aleya Harris
Aleya Harris, CPCE, is an award-winning marketer and former chef and catering company owner. She is the owner of Flourish Marketing, an agency that provides marketing education, strategy, and tools to help wedding and creative professionals get and keep a consistent stream of clients. In addition, Aleya is a StoryBrand Certified Guide. She uses that narrative-based framework to develop clear, engaging, and highly converting marketing assets, like email sales funnels and social media solutions. Aleya is the current Marketing Committee Chair and Black Caucus Chair for NACE and a top speaker at conferences like Catersource and The Special Event.
Dixie Bagley
Dixie Bagley is the owner of The Farm in Rome, Georgia - a European farm estate with lodging set in the northwest Georgia mountains. The venue focuses on working with couples who want to give their guests a relaxed but thoughtful countryside weekend wedding experience. Having been in the wedding industry for 12 years, Dixie is a master of multi-tasking and wants to make everyone feel at ease. Dixie is an active entrepreneur in the wedding industry. In addition to owning and operating a venue, she also owns The Sweet Bar Bakery, Tillman Hangar, Dixie Events Planning and Business Consulting, and she holds a degree in exercise science from the American Council of Exercise and is launching her new initiative, The Southern Wedding Collective.
Randi Bushell
Randi Bushell is the Founder & CEO of Merri, a 3D visualization platform for the events industry – bringing venues, planners, and vendors onto a single platform to design and execute best-in-class events. Prior to starting Merri, she spent her early career in Ecommerce at Macys.com, Jet.com, and Walmart.com. While planning her wedding in 2018 she struggled to make design decisions without adequate tooling to visualize the event, which acted as the catalyst for starting Merri, and has now grown to be one of the fastest growing platforms in the industry.
Julianne Smith
Julianne Smith is a nationally recognized wedding accessory designer, digital media strategist, and small business educator. In addition to being the owner of The Garter Girl, a stylish wedding garter design company, Julianne helps creative small businesses throughout the wedding industry who are struggling with their online presence.
Courtney Hopper
Hustle + Gather is a training and consulting firm that is on a mission to inspire others to take big leaps, dream big dreams, and create amazing teams that grow profits and an enjoyable (but productive) culture within business. They specialize in the hospitality industry and have coached and trained businesses to increase their profitability while creating a kick ass team along the way.
Heidi Thompson
Heidi Thompson is the best-selling author of Clone Your Best Clients and the founder of Evolve Your Wedding Business where she helps wedding professionals grow 6 figure businesses without working all the time. Her business & marketing expertise has been featured on several wedding and business outlets including The Huffington Post, Social Media Examiner, Wedding Business Magazine, Sprouting Photographer, Photo Biz Xposed, Honeybook, WeddingWire World & she’s an advisory board member for the UK Academy Of Wedding & Event Planning. She is the creator and host of Book More Weddings Summit & Wedding Business CEO Summit.
Meghan Ely
Meghan Ely is the owner of wedding PR and wedding marketing firm OFD Consulting. Ely is a sought-after speaker, adjunct professor in the field of public relations, and a self-professed royal wedding enthusiast.
Jordan Kentris
Jordan Kentris is the founder and owner of A Good Day, a boutique design firm that creates one-of-a-kind stationery, establishing unique brands for each and every event. A user experience (UX) designer, Jordan regularly works with creatives on digital projects to ensure they are capturing their brand's essence. He was recently recognized by BizBash as one of the Most Innovative People in 2020 for his creative, holistic approach to virtual events.
Matt Campbell
Matt Campbell is the founder of My Wedding Songs. He curated 600+ song lists to help wedding couples and professionals create wedding playlists. Matt is a member of the Rolling Stone Culture Council and has been referenced in DJ Life Magazine, Forbes, Style Me Pretty, and The Knot. He hosts the Wedding Songs Podcast and is the author of the "Wedding Music Playlist" book.
Nora Sheils
Nora Sheils is the co-founder of Rock Paper Coin, the first software platform to bring together wedding planners, couples, and vendors into one system for managing and paying contracts and invoices. She is also the founder and lead wedding planner of award-winning firm Bridal Bliss. In addition to recognition by Portland Business Journal in its 40 Under 40 series, she also earned a spot in The BizBash 500 for 2021.
Elizabeth Sheils
Elizabeth Sheils is the co-founder of Rock Paper Coin, the first software platform to bring together wedding planners, couples, and vendors into one system for managing and paying contracts and invoices. Elizabeth is also a lead wedding planner with award-winning firm Bridal Bliss, where she manages the Seattle team. In addition to recognition by Special Events in its Top 25 Event Pros to Watch series, she also earned a spot in The BizBash 500 for 2021.
Tayler Cusick-Hollman
A marketing consultant and small-business builder, Tayler is the Founder of Enji—an exciting new startup that launched in May 2023. (Though you might recognize her from one of her other companies: TAYLRD Media and Designs and Sourced Co.). In her newest endeavor, Tayler is taking everything she has learned over nearly a decade of helping small businesses with marketing to design and build a suite of online marketing tools that fit your lifestyle and make sense for you.
Gretchen Culver
Gretchen Culver is the creative mind behind Minneapolis’ go-to design and planning firm, Rocket Science Events, but her business prowess doesn’t stop there. In 2020, she opened the doors to Minne Weddings, a brand that provides stylish and affordable micro-weddings, as a way to meet her clients’ evolving demands for small-but-significant celebrations. Named one of the “30 Under 40 to Watch” by Special Events and recognized as a top planner by BRIDES and Martha Stewart Weddings, Gretchen’s award-winning work has been featured in magazines, online, and on television.
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