WOD at Azul La Jolla

1^st WoD Meeting of 2008

What an amazing lunch at Azul in La Jolla (www.brigantine.com/azul)! WoD met this past Tues., Jan. 22^nd and kicked off ’08 in style. GM Helen Nguyen and her staff outdid themselves with a delicious buffet of culinary treats for our members and fantastic service. We also thank her for contributing a bottle of wine for our monthly raffle. Everyone should visit this wonderful restaurant!

We had a great turnout of 26 members and guests and our featured member for the day, violinist Gloria Paris from Gloria Paris’ Sterling Strings (www.gloriaparis.com), serenaded us both prior to the luncheon and briefly toward the end. It is so special to have Gloria as part of Weddings of Distinction.

WoD welcomes new members: Chef Scott Wagner from ChileCo (www.chilecocatering.com), Lola Chaney with West Coast Print Brokers (www.westcoastprintbrokers.com), Renee Hirsh from The French Gourmet and her new coordination endeavor RMH Events (www.rmhevents.com), Ellie Blomgren from A New Twist (www.anewtwist4u.com) and Katrina Lacape or Magical Party Rentals (www.magicalpartyrentals.com).

We were visited on the day by Cam Schultz from EmbroidMe (www.embroidme-sandiegocentral.com), Cheli Madrid from St. Tropez Specialty Cakes & Desserts (www.sttropezbistro.com), Karen Goslin from Authentic Flavors Custom Catering (www.sttropezbistro.com), Reshma Singh from the catering dept. at the Manchester Grand Hyatt (manchestergrand.hyatt.com) and long lost friend and Associate member Jeff Martin from John Franklin Jewelers (www.johnfranklin.com).

Our 2008 Board of Directors and committee chairs were introduced and each had an opportunity to share some ideas in the works for the group for the year ahead.

Look for continued membership growth as WoD continues to be a warm, inviting networking group – not too big & not too small. Dozens of business leads were exchanged amongst members throughout the mtg. New year dues were collected.

New marketing ideas and future plans were discussed. These include taking advantage of monthly bridal lists from current advertising to drive an email marketing campaign aimed at brides & grooms. We may utilize this idea to promote the group within the special event and wedding industries, too.

New brochures are about to be printed. We use these to promote the group with prospective brides, industry people and with the venues we visit each month for our meetings. We’ll also be updating our web site very soon. Members who have changes are encouraged to view their listings and get back to Shannon Henry ASAP.

A quick shout-out to Dalice from Premiere Weddings & Events on the new addition to her family. Dylan Johnson Haugum was born on Dec. 24, 2007 @ 9:52pm. And…Happy “21^st” Birthday to Mr. Dennis Way from ABI Photography.

Lastly, but most importantly, mark your calendars…our February WoD meeting will be held at the Del Mar Hilton!! It’s Tuesday, February 26^th at 11:30am. If attending, please RSVP with VP Anthony Garcia (a71garcia@san.rr.com). Let’s connect, network and generate some business!