Jamaica Bridal Expo Review, Part 1

As a Bridal Makeup Artist in Jamaica one of my priorities is
staying on top of trends in the Bridal and Destination Wedding Industry. I aim
to offer my Jamaican and Jamaica Destination Wedding Brides a modern, luxurious
and bride centred experience.  I have
been looking forward to attending The Jamaica Bridal Wedding Conference 2017 for the last few months.  The Jamaica Bridal Expo 2017 was held at the Montego
Bay Convention Centre, Rose Hall on Friday September 22, 2017.

The Jamaica Bridal Expo was staged over three days. The Expo
opened with a wedding conference for wedding industry professionals, featuring
a line-up of top international and local speakers on wedding planning,
destination weddings in Jamaica and the business of bridal.  I will give a brief synopses of topics each speaker
presented.

The fist speaker was Sara Stanford, managing director of
Bliss Bridal Boutique located at Barbican Business Centre presenting on ‘Helping
Your Bride find the Perfect Dress’ as a bridal makeup artist I found
Sara’s presentation very interesting  as bridal
styling is very important to me. Sara gave relevant, insightful and useful
information on the topic.  She suggests
that:

-  Final fittings of the wedding dress be done 2
weeks before the wedding as brides generally have a ‘good wedding weight’ at
this time.  

-  Brides should wear wedding day shoes, strapless
bra and earrings to their fitting.

-  No waist trainers (as they do not sit as nicely
in a wedding dress).

-  Hair and Makeup trial are best scheduled on the
day of your fitting as you can better decide if anything needs to be changed. As
a professional bridal makeup artist in Jamaica, I definitely support this
suggestion as you can better see the ‘whole look’.  Given the timeline this may be more
convenient for a second trial or at your first trial.

-  Brides wear heels on their wedding day not for
the purpose of visual appeal but (wait for it) a woman in heels walks differently than one
in flats. Heels makes a woman strut while flats does the opposite, making her saunter.  When I was getting married I definitely
wanted to have my husband to be watch me strut down the aisle.  She recommends that you can always change
your shoes to something more casual etc. after the ceremony.

Next was a Panel Discussion on ‘Taking Your Wedding Business to
the Next Level: A Caribbean Perspective’ moderated by JoAnne V. Brown,
CEO of Celebrations Ltd, Grand Cayman. Some of the points from this panel
discussion were:

-  “Believe in Yourself and take risks” Marsha Brown

-  “Stop Stressing: Find Solutions to Problems rather
than worry” Sara Stanford

-  “Build on serving brides in the Caribbean and
Globally not only brides in Jamaica”

-  “Do your rate sheet - making costing
individualised” Ophelia McKnight

-  “Stop stressing the Weddings will come” Marilyn
Duncan-Wiltshire

-  “Utilize both social media and traditional
marketing platforms to build your wedding business”  Ophelia McKnight and Marilyn Duncan-Wiltshire

Marilyn Duncan-Wiltshire, principal consultant/certified
wedding specialist of TriniWeddings and Licensee of Weddings Beautiful
Caribbean.  Marilyn spoke on ‘Are
you doing Justice to the Wedding Industry’.  Marilyn shared that the Caribbean is the
perfect location for Destination Weddings as we boast beaches, ecotourism,
historical sites, diverse culture and other experiences. Marilyn after having a
very unpleasant experience as a wedding guest strongly believes that Weddings
should be tastefully presented and done well. 
Listening to her made me realise that the job of a wedding planner
significantly impacts the wedding experience, as many factors have to be
considered such as the culture and tradition of the couple plays a large role
in the dynamics of planning.  Marilyn is
responsible for training of Wedding Planners with a special focus on Caribbean
Weddings for Weddings Beautiful.

Tisha Holman, Event Planner and Designer of Tisha Holman
Events, USA started her presentation by acknowledging the warmth of our
Jamaican people. The topic of her presentation was the ‘Social Media Makeover’ Tisha shared very useful tips on social media branding and marketing. The key points that resonated with me as a Makeup Artist in Jamaica are:

- Utilizing the analytics and reporting functions
on the different social media platforms to manage your wedding business.

- Do what works for you. We all have a unique
flair about us which makes us ideally positioned in our business.

- Have brand consistency throughout all online
business platforms.

- Content is King (High quality photos and videos)
but so is consistency.

- Know your Target.

I was delighted that Tisha shared helpful resources and
tools from her book “The Social Media Makeover” on scheduling content, editing
videos, static assets and asset repository.

For details on other presenters Stay tuned for Part 2.