Announcing… The 2011 Wedding Innovators of the Year Award Recipients
These amazing Innovators will accept their awards LIVE at Grace & Luxury in Las Vegas. You can still join them there by clicking here.
Sylvia Weinstock
She’s called the “Queen of Wedding Cakes”. Sylvia Weinstock creates cakes for luxury clientele. Her client list includes Mariah Carey, Maria Maples, Eddie Murphy, Tom Arnold, Whitney Houston, Chynna Phillips and William Baldwin, Cyndi Lauper, Jane Fonda, Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, Wayne Newton and Oprah Winfrey. Sylvia creates more than 500 cakes a year in all shapes and sizes. All Sylvia’s cakes are custom designed and created according to the specifications of her clients. Her cakes can be as tall as 12 feet high and feed as many as 5,000 people. Sylvia’s cakes have been all over the world, including Japan, Mexico and Saudi Arabia… even to Canada where one of her creations was featured at a wedding I planned.
Chris Easter
Chris is Co-Founder of the TheManRegistry.com, the web’s leading wedding resource and gift provider for grooms and groomsmen. He also serves as Editor-in-Chief of the company’s blog, GroomsAdvice.com. The Man Registry’s network of sites offers a male voice in an otherwise female-dominated wedding industry. Since 2007, The Man Registry’s “for men, by men” approach to wedding gifts, wedding showers, booking vendors and, of course, bachelor parties, has helped grooms realize it’s possible to have fun during the wedding planning process.
Easter has been quoted in national media including Details Magazine, The Knot, Fox News and Entrepreneur Magazine, and has appeared on The Big Idea With Donny Deutsch, The Tyra Banks Show and Playboy Radio. Easter was recently named one of the Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30 by Inc. Magazine. He has signed a book deal with Penguin Publishing to create a men’s guide to wedding planning that is due out in December of 2011.
Stacie Francombe
After a successful career as a television Producer, Stacie launched Get Married in 2006, growing the company into a nationally renowned wedding planning resource, connecting brides and advertisers through three unique media platforms – online, television and magazine.
During her time at Get Married, Stacie developed and served as Executive Producer for Get Married with David Tutera & Get Married with Colin Cowie, both on Lifetime, then as host in its final season on WeTV & Wedding Central.
She was the visionary behind the publication Get Married – The Shopping & Trend guide for the Savvy Bride, serving as Editor-in-Chief, filling a gap in the bridal market, and growing the title into a nationally distributed quarterly magazine.
As Get Married’s Founder, Stacie was a sought after public speaker and industry insider, addressing wedding professionals and brides around the country, and appearing on CNN, Fox, WABC, and more.
Stacie also developed and hosted the successful web series Get Married in Times Square, planning and hosting the first of its kind wedding event on New Year’s Eve 2010.
Having sold the company, and after much soul searching, in February of 2011, Stacie stepped down as Editor-in-Chief to pursue new business ventures.
In March 2011, Stacie launched Celebrity Wedding Reporter {CWR}: Celebrity style for your walk down the aisle, because every bride is a star on her wedding day! On her personal blog she translates celebrity wedding trends and shows brides how to use these trends as inspiration for their wedding day details.
Stacie is also a Founding Board Member of an organization called Wish Upon a Wedding. Wish Upon a Wedding is a nonprofit 501 (c) (3) organization that provides weddings and vow renewals to couples facing terminal illness or other serious life-altering circumstances, regardless of sexual orientation. Often, couples facing such situations do not have the energy, time, money, or resources needed to plan their wedding. Wish Upon a Wedding takes care of all the details, offering couples a chance to relax and enjoy a very special day while surrounded by the love of their closest family and friends.
Want to hear what inspired their innovative wedding business ideas? Click here to attend.