WS 002: How To Enter The Destination Wedding Market with Ophellia McKnight

On episode 002 of the Wedding Safari Podcast, Jamaican wedding planner and president of the Jamaica Wedding Professionals Association Ophelia Mcknight discuss ways wedding professionals can dive into one of the fastest growing segments of the wedding industry.

Jamaican born and bred with almost two decades of Toronto living, Ophellia McKnight has 20 years of wedding industry knowledge and experience.  She is Jamaica wedding planning royalty, being the first formally registered wedding planner on the island.  Her first company, then called The Bridal Affaire, has grown into an international destination wedding planning and design firm and rebranded to Bridal Affair Destinations ten years ago to support and refine her development in the industry.  

Discussion Time Summary 

2:46 What are you seeing presently in the destination space?

4:00 How to penetrate the destination wedding market?

4:44 Just getting started, how do you attract customers to build business?

5:01 Trial and Error

6:36 What to do when you want to get into the destination wedding space?

8:30 How to Branding within the Destination Wedding Market Place

12:00 Managing client expectation

14:14 How to position yourself to attract destination brides?

17:15 Importance of Collaboration

23:25 The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

24:02 What is one of the most rewarding aspects of being in the industry

30:00 Leveraging Mistakes

30:56 Working with Vendors who can’t support your brand.

35:07 Niche Market: Should or Shouldn’t you?

40:23 Work-Life Balance

53:40 Wat would you do differently?



Wedding Safari-

Website- https://www.weddingsafaripodcast.com/

Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/groups/WeddingSafari/



Guest: Ophellia McKnight

Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/ophellia.mcknight

Facebook Page- https://www.facebook.com/TheDestinationCollective/

Website- http://www.thedestinationcollective.com/

Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/destinationcollective/



Host: Milton Lawrence Jr

Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/miltonlawrencejr/

Website- http://www.miltonlawrencephotography.com/

Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/miltonlawrencejr/



Mentions

Munaluchi Bride Magazine- http://munaluchibridal.com/

The Coterie- https://vendors.munaluchibridal.com

Credits 

Audio Editing- done by Willis Aybar

Music By- John Deley

Merrick Cousley of Merrick Cousley Photography

Dwayne Watkins of TeamDWP Studios

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