The cold weather has me thinking about destination weddings. I posted something last week on Instagram where I referenced a destination wedding, and this sparked the video for this week. I get asked questions often about what it is like to plan a destination wedding.

I plan to share some more tips on this, starting with this question; how do you select vendors for a destination wedding? 

In this video, I share some advice on things to consider when looking for vendors for destination weddings; but the one point I want to focus on today is: 

Start your search with the venue's list of preferred vendors

I always say I teach planners I mentor things I know work, and this is one of those things that has never failed. I have planned weddings all over the world and also in different states in America and half the time I don't know anyone in that state or country so my first point of reference is the venue's list of vendors.

Besides social media and online search engines, I...

As we move into the week of Thanksgiving I am looking forward to two things, food and food  Jokes apart, when I think of thanksgiving I think about engagements. From Thanksgiving until Valentine's is considered engagement season. I am a hopeless romantic at heart so naturally, I get very excited to see pictures and videos of engagements. 

I don’t know if the pandemic will affect this season but I know I look forward to seeing all the beautiful love stories on my feed. Until then, let’s talk about YOU. How are you planning to attract these newly engaged couples? What are you doing to position yourself for couples to find you?

In the Marketing and Advertising module of the RAE Method, I have three-courses that can help you position yourself in the right place to help your ideal couple find you and be attracted to you.

*Social Media for Your Wedding Business

*Advertising Beyond Social Media

*Creating a Winning Website for Your Wedding Business.

If you are...

Hi there people, I hope October has been a fantastic month for you so far. It has been an incredible month for me and I have to say I am beyond excited because it is finally time for aspiring and emerging planners to enroll in the RAE Method. 

Hi people, I hope you are coping well in this season of Covid19. I started working on what I wanted to share with you this week and for a second I was stumped. Not because I don’t have tons of content, I have been itching to share but because the climate is so weird right now. In the spirit of full transparency, 70% of my events have been postponed to next year and I am like “wait what is going on?”

So, what is the most appropriate response in this moment for me, one word: THRIVE. I want you to be reminded that we are not created to merely survive but to “Thrive.” What does this mean in context to what is happening now? To thrive is to prosper, flourish, the Longman dictionary describes it as to enjoy or be successful in a particular situation, especially one that other people find difficult or unpleasant. 

One of the points I made in the webinar I had in January of 2020 “4 things you need to know before starting out as a wedding...

Hi people, Shile here reporting live from Covid-19 quarantine state day 8……….okay jokes aside it is officially day 8 since I have been home trying to adhere to the guidelines from the Maryland government about social distancing. Needless to say, these are interesting times indeed!

One of my mentees has all her events in the fall and I said to her “girl you are so lucky.” I, on the other hand, has been dealing with postponement plans and the effects it has on the clients. I have spent the last few days talking a lot with my event planner friends and other industry professionals and one thing that everyone is trying to do is take it a day at a time. One question on a lot of people’s minds is what to do now that you are home for the next couple of weeks. 

You know your girl; I am all about resting in times like this, but I also really think one thing we should all do is see this time as an opportunity to “RENEW OUR...

I get this question so often from emerging wedding planners and I can totally relate. I hosted a webinar in January of 2020 on “4 things you need to know before starting as a wedding planner.” This question came up again, so I decided to write a blog post about it because I feel it is such an important topic to address (you can watch my video response to this question from the QandA session on the webinar).

Believe it or not, a lot of people who want to start out as planners feel the exact same way. In your heart, you really want to do this, but your mind is saying, “no, there are so many other people who do it so well so why bother?” I get it, but before you rule yourself out, come with me on this journey.

Close your eyes with me for a second and think about the major restaurants in your area (you can open now so you can keep reading lol). For my area DC, Maryland, and Virginia there are a lot of fast-food restaurants like McDonald's, Burger King,...

 The last time you heard from me was 11 months ago. I cannot believe this year has gone by so fast. As 2019 was approaching last year I had plans, great plans on what I wanted to do especially in relation to mentoring and RAE Moments. The year started off rough with some personal setbacks but 2019 has also been a very amazing year in a lot of ways. The truth is I have been hiding something from you all for a while.

I am sure you are like whatttttttt, it’s not as bad as you think. What I have been hiding is a good thing. For the past 11 months, I have been building an online teaching platform for wedding planners. Phew, I am so glad I got it off my chest. It is not a secret anymore my people, RAEmoments.com is live and here to stay. 

If you have been rocking with me for a while, you know I have been teaching and mentoring for years but this year I decided I wanted to take the knowledge online.

 Don’t get me wrong I still love to mentor and coach but...

A lot of times when we think of the word "compassion" it's usually in the context of family and friends. Have you ever thought of the word compassion for your clients? That’s what I want to focus on today.

Compassion is defined as a sympathetic concern for others. Other ways to describe compassion is empathy, kindness, consideration, showing understanding. An article in “Huffington Post” broke it down so well as it described eight signs you a compassionate person:

1. You find commonalities with other people
2. You don’t put emphasis on money
3. You act on empathy
4. You are kind to yourself
5. You teach others
6. You are mindful
7. You have high emotional intelligence
8. You express gratitude

Compassion is a trait some readily have but it is also a trait that can be developed if it doesn't come naturally to you.

When I started out with this post I thought it was going to be one part but I got half way and felt,  wow a lot has been said already by looking at these eight signs....

It feels good to be back. It has been a while since my last blog post titled "rest". I have spent the better part of 2018 re-branding which has been a long and hard process of redefining the who and what of RAE Affairs. It was certainly a journey worth taking and it has helped me tremendously to understand more of the what and why of my business.

Also in the past few months, I have still been teaching with the Wedding Planning Institue. I have also spent a lot of time working on 2018 weddings and to be honest it has taken up so much of my time I have been waiting for the fall to start back up with RAE Moments. However, my fall calendar is even busier than the rest of the year so I said to myself you know what Shile "There is never going to be a perfect time, work is never going to get less, so just start."

I think it was perfect that the last post I had talked about "rest" as I mentioned rest is vital but after the rest its time to make a move right? Sometimes we are waiting for...

I’m I really meant to do this? This is a question you might find you ask yourself constantly when you are thinking about starting out as an event planner. I want to first say that doubt is very normal. However, doubt can limit you from starting, it can keep you stuck in the same place and you only live out your dreams in your mind but never bring it to reality.

You might feel you don’t have all it takes but you will never know until you try, and the only way to try is to start from where you are. Look at the resources available to you and around you and ask yourself what you can do with these resources? It could be that you register for one of our workshops, or you sign up for a webinar or find a local non-credit school near you that offers wedding planning. Or you could reach out to event planners in your area to volunteer.

Whatever you do, remember that sometimes the picture is not fully painted and you have to start from where you are and all the lines will...