Over the past 11 years that I have been part of the wedding industry, I have been painfully aware that Los Angeles and New York have been in direct competition with the types of weddings that we all do here in Washington, DC.  However, New York City simply has the best shopping resources and some of the brightest and greatest minds in the wedding industry.  I tried my best to blog about all of my adventures while I was here in New York back in October for Bridal Market.  However – I took so many photos – there was no way I could have posted all of them.  I wanted to save this post for now.  I knew I would be back in New York often and meeting with all sorts of people.  Here are few more photos!

Yes – that is Randy Fenoli and I from Say Yes to the Dress!  I found him to be one of the most amazing people I have met in the wedding industry.  Not because he has a TV show and not because he is a major player at Kleinfeld’s – but because of his open and warm personality.  I think it is very easy for TV and wedding personalities to become full of themselves and act like they are better than others.  I have had my share of people acting like they are better than me simply because of their position in a certain company (this pertains to any industry).  However, we ran into each other at about 5 events that week and every time he gave me a warm hug, kiss on the cheek and had nothing but funny and interesting things to say. On top of it, he remembered my name.  With all the crazy amounts of people that he has met – he still manages to take the time to remember the names of as many people as possible.  This is not just representative of a kind man, but a fantastic business man who understands that relationships are important to growing a business. I can’t wait to hang out with him again and hopefully bring him more brides for their fantastic dresses at Kleinfeld’s!

I also had the chance to finally meet Carley Roney at one of the fashion shows during Bridal Market.  Carley Roney from The Knot is obviously one of the wedding world’s most brilliant minds.   If we are all honest and think back…The Knot really is the one that revolutionized the wedding search engine!  We have this woman to thank for many innovations in the weddings industry.  She was so sweet and I look forward to running in to her again!

There were people like Adele Wechsler and Lela Rose that I met, along with some other very influential people in the wedding industry.  I can’t wait to get back to DC and write about all the fun things I am doing this week in New York!

I hope you were able to see the Launch Party live!  If not – you should be able to check out the recording soon!  I will be posting al about the launch party shortly!

Cheers!

~Katie Martin