We stood on stage with warm lights on our face and butterflies in our stomach. We looked out at the audience, and Phoenix’s top wedding professionals looked back. Some the best planners, coordinators, florists, and photographers in Arizona — and across America, for that matter — staring at us from the ballroom floor. All of our peers in one place. People we’ve had the pleasure of admiring from afar and the privilege of working alongside, too. We were some of the youngest people in the room, which is a little intimidating, yet we had the honor of raising our right hand, being sworn as new board members, the Regional Directors of Education, and introducing the event’s guest speaker.
Last year, we joined the Wedding Industry Professionals Association (WIPA) because we wanted to be part of something bigger than ourselves, an organization dedicated to striving for excellence with our clients, a group committed to the belief that collaboration with each other is better than competition, that serving is better than slighting, that continued education makes a continual difference, and that a rising tide, does indeed, raise all ships.
If you would’ve told us a year ago that in twelve months we’d go from the front of our classrooms to the front of this room, we would’ve never believed it, because we still associated being a teacher with being part of a place instead of what it really is: who we are.
A very special thanks to our friend, Stuart Thurlkill of Eyes2See, for all of these killer photos and for making us look way cooler than real life.