Earlier this week I was browsing through my Facebook newsfeed, when this event popped up from Society of Wedding Professionals (SWP) to see David Tutera speak at the Crescent Hotel in Dallas.  He would be sharing his tips for marketing and sharing his story and how he started with the wedding industry here in Dallas.  Well, as any small business owner knows, marketing is always always always something we can work on and strive to improve.  So I immediately signed up, and was getting super excited all week.  I woke up early this morning so I could get my hair in curlers and get out the door by 9am so I wouldn’t be late because as you know, traffic in Dallas can be crazy.  Well 9am did turn into 9:30am but traffic was smooth sailing, so I arrived 20 minutes early.  The food presentation The Rosewood Crescent Hotel had set up for us was amazing.  I think there really was every type of breakfast food.  And I always enjoy getting to see some of my close friends and catching up with them.

I did take some pictures of the food displays but they were taken with the iphone so not the best quality so don’t judge hahahaha 🙂

I loved how energetic and honest he was, very cool to see he is the exact same person you see on My Fair Wedding.  He let us know how he started in the event industry and the changes he has seen over his 27 yrs working as an event designer and planner.  I really loved hearing how he got started by looking for a job in the penny saver and getting hired to do the singing/dancing telegrams.  Things just slowly grew from there.  It wasn’t until many years into his business that he started to  make television appearances on shows like The View.  He then had his own television show with Discovery but that failed and he said he would never to television again.  Then, WEtv approached him several times with a concept and he finally heard them out and loved the show and so did viewers.  The new season of his show will be starting soon and this year we get more of a glimpse of his personal life and the show’s title as changed along with some of the concepts.  It will now be David Tutera Unveiled.   He shared some info on episode 5 and I’m super excited to watch it.  My tivo will be busy recording it since it will be on Saturday nights and will be busy photographing weddings then.

Well getting off the subject of David’s tv show, I have to share my favorite thing he spoke about that had tears running down my cheeks.  He was asked by Bridal Guide Magazine to be on the cover and he was super excited because a guy has never appeared on the cover of a national bridal magazine.  That was until he learned through someone that neither has a black woman.  David did his research and found that to be true and the reasoning was that it wouldn’t sell as many magazines.  Well David Tutera said he would only be on the cover if an African American model was next to him.   Can you just say WOW!!!!! The magazine agreed and so David changed the fact a black woman had never been on the cover of a national magazine.  I so had tears forming and rolling down my cheeks at this point (getting emotional writing this).   It was very emotional and a great reminder of the difference just one person can make.  I left the lecture, and feeling so inspired and ready to conquer the world.  I really want to thank David for sharing his journey and making such a huge difference in the lives of woman.

This photo is from BridalGuide.com.  The rest of the photos were taken with my iphone so please excuse the lack of detail and quality.  Thanks 🙂