Welcome to our “Day in the Life” series! We feature wedding and event planners from around the world with many different levels of experience. If you would like to be featured, download our questionnaire here and email your responses and photos to info@plannerslounge.com. We are excited to feature Italian wedding planner Bonnie Marie Bates today!
Name: Bonnie Marie Bates
Business Name & Location: Perfect Italy Wedding – headquarters in Canyon Country (California) and offices in Florence, Italy
Years Working in the Event Industry: 13
Years Owning Your Event Planning Business: 13
Website: www.perfectitalywedding.com
Business Facebook Page: Perfect Italy Wedding
Pinterest: Perfect Italy Wedding
What is your typical day like?
I have a home office that I share with my golden retriever Googie. My day starts with a walk in the vineyards to get our blood flowing, then it’s all day in front of the computer emailing, writing, and skyping.
Lunch is very often a nice bowl of pasta I whip up myself (I’m a Cordon Bleu graduate so I love to cook!). Thursdays is when I go to a nearby village where fisherman sell some of the best Mediterranean seafood.
This is the laidback life I lead strictly from November to March; the rest of the year it’s 7 days a week of running around Italy, calling vendors, working weekends, non-stop weddings, delivering symbolic ceremonies (my husband and I are wedding officiants) and assisting my husband with his bike tours in Tuscany. I have three businesses, the wedding blog Perfect Italy Wedding, bike rides with Bike Around Tuscany and Wedding Celebrants Italy.
I also find time to go back home every year to visit family in California and to visit my daughter and grandchildren in Warsaw, Poland.
How did you get started in the industry?
I really happened on a wedding planning career by chance. After 20 years teaching English as a foreign language and 2 years directing a teacher training center in Rome, we moved to Tuscany and teaching was just not the thing to do; it’s all about tourism. So I picked up a local newspaper and there it was: US company seeks Wedding Planner! I thought, “If J-Lo can do it, so can I!’ I went to Denver, Colorado, to train and from that moment on I started planning weddings. I have over 500 events in my portfolio, including 2 celebrity events and a wide variety of nationalities and cultures represented in my wedding planner portfolio.
I have been endlessly active in the wedding industry. I go to wedding industry conferences and bridal shows. I am passionate about evolving Italian weddings beyond the traditions used in the past. I held the first bridal show in a museum, a real novelty in Italy! I have been a speaker at numerous conferences and am a consultant to the Rome Chamber of Commerce for destination wedding professionals training.
Fun Fact: I was on TV! I was a contestant on an Italian cooking show, my theme was ‘all about ketchup’ and I had to create 9 recipes containing ketchup. A real blast!
Planner’s Lounge featured me in their post with creative wedding planner business cards!
What inspires you?
More than anything else, I’m inspired by the Italian lifestyle. I loved Italy from the day I set foot in Rome as a military dependent, only 13 years old! There is so much beauty, history, culture, and with all of this high-level inspiration, all Italians think about is having fun together – you gotta love ’em!
So many couples come here looking for that precise spirit of family-style time together and having fun on their big day. In Italy, it all happens so naturally and makes a permanent mark in the memory of everyone who attends the wedding.
As a wedding planner, I have always stalked Style Me Pretty for inspiration. I remember them right at the beginning, before they started having kids and when the blog was just a blog.
I love wedding blogs so much that I have become one myself! I write about all those great Italian locals who make dream weddings come true. I am so proud to be part of this amazing country.
What are your favorite online resources for your business?
The Planner’s Lounge! I think it is the only real website offering insight and ‘soul’ assistance for our community.
Social Media Examiner. They will keep you up to date on everything happening in the social media world. They hold a lot of educational Facebook live sessions, and they are objective in their reports.
Seth Godin. Wise words that help rationalize some of the tough moments in life.
Splendid Insights. Unbiased research on the wedding industry. I get their reports every year.
Aside from wedding and event planning, how do you spend your time?
I have a travel bug so whenever I can, I’m gone. That could be driving around Italy in our vintage camper or flying off to the Maldives. I’m a California surfer girl so whenever I can catch a wave, I’m happy. I’m also a foodie. I love to cook and eat as well as drink good wine. I’m on the last year of becoming a wine Sommelier with the Italian Somm Association. This will complete my food and wine training. You never stop learning in life!
Bonnie Marie, thank you so much for taking the time to share your story and a day in your life. If you are an event planner and would like to be featured, download our questionnaire today and email it to us along with a photo. If you aren’t sure about being featured, take a few minutes to read how it can help your business.
Via Event Planning Essentials http://www.rssmix.com/
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