Last week I had the pleasure of speaking on a panel at the Destination Weddings and Honeymoons Magazine “Celebrate Romance” event, which was held at the timeless Beverly Hills Hotel. Susan Moynihan, editor of the magazine, moderated the panel and I sat alongside Harmony Walton of The Bridal Bar, and Sasha Souza, of the famed Sasha Souza Events.

My focus was to speak about virtual planning, which is a relatively new phenomenon in the world of wedding planning, especially destination wedding planning. But it’s something that we’ve been working on perfecting here at LUXE Destination Weddings for the past five years. Virtual planning refers to planning with a company that doesn’t include in-person meetings but rather spending your time on the phone and via email. In this incredibly busy world, we find that many of our clients cannot commit any hours in their day to come in and meet with us face to face, therefore by offering this planning service at the convenience of the client (either on the phone, including Skype, or by email) it is really the most convenient way for them to have a planner help them with their wedding, while maintaining their lifestyle. Many of our brides are doctors, lawyers, professional atheletes and other busy professionals and they prefer this type of planning. Also, as some clients are international, we don’t have the pleasure of always meeting face to face before the wedding, so this can be easily accomplished through Skpye or email.

That said, LUXE still offers the full planning service that includes in person meetings, day of planning onsite and more, but virtual planning is definitely a growing industry and it was nice to be able to speak about this at the event.