BUSINESS: Society of Event and Wedding Planners

Marketing yourself and your business isn’t always easy. But for members of the Society of Event and Wedding Professionals, having nearly 50 reliable industry professionals to stand behind you makes it a lot less challenging.

Stephanie Hill, owner and publisher of the Perfect Wedding Guide, and Robyn Martin, owner and operator at The Wedding Belle, teamed up to form the society and have recruited Edmond and Oklahoma City vendors steadily for the past 10 years.

“We started to basically have an avenue for wedding professionals to network together and to co-market each other,” Hill said. “We have the education aspect of it, too, where we can educate brides and event planners to properly plan weddings and events.”

The society, which goes by SEWP for short, not only connects wedding and event professionals, but makes wedding and event planning easier for those in the Oklahoma City metro area. Because the group allows only one vendor per category (think jewelry, florist, videography, photography), the difficult choice of finding reliable vendors is made for you.

“We’re a viable place where a bride or event planner who’s looking for these types of vendors can go and choose, with confidence, people who are industry professionals,” said Debbie Lowery, society president. “We have high levels of standards and ethics, and great talent among all our members.”

The society is a large sponsor of Hill’s annual Perfect Wedding Guide bridal show, which takes place on January 10th from 1-4pm at the Embassy Suites in downtown Oklahoma City. Tickets are $12 at the door or buy one get one free when purchased online at okcpwg.com.

Hill said attendees can expect a fun, full afternoon of meeting SEWP members, learning about their services and participating in mini-seminars and sampling products.“We try to make it more interactive and an experience—more than just throwing stuff in a bag,” she said.

For Hill, the biggest benefit of the group has been networking with vendors from around the metro and introducing them to her publication and how it can help them in their business. “You don’t have to be a member to benefit from being in the publication, it’s a go-to resource for wedding planning,” Hill said.

“It’s about forming relationships and friendships over the years with all these fabulous event planners I get to work with,” she said. “It’s not really like work.”

Learn more about the Society of Event & Wedding Professionals and its members at sewpok.com.