Welcome to another 2-Minute Tuesday!  This week, Austin sits down with Cindy B. Thymius and Martie Watson of Wedding University to talk about weddings, honeymoons, and planning for the big day.

Watch the video here, or read the transcript below.

Wedding University Video Transcript

Austin: Hey, everyone.  Today, I’m here with Cindy and Martie.  Welcome!

Cindy:  We’re glad to be here.

Martie: Thank you.

Austin: Thanks.  Thanks for coming in.  It’s good to see ya’ll.

Martie: Good to see you.

Austin: So, they’re here today to talk a little bit about a wedding event they have coming up. But first, if ya’ll don’t mind, give our viewers a little bit of background on yourselves. Cindy?

Cindy: I’ll start.   I’m Cindy Thymius with Cindy B. Thymius Photography, and I’m a wedding and portrait photographer.   I’ve been in business for 15 years.  I actually started out in West Palm Beach, Florida, and I get a lot of flak for, “Why did you move here?” But um, we started out in West Palm Beach, Florida, and moved here in 2007, and so, I’ve been serving the Memphis and Collierville community.   I just love what I do, and I’m so thankful that brides and grooms trust me with their big, special day.

Austin: Awesome.  All right.  Martie?

Martie:  I’m Martie.  I’m with Travel Leaders.  We are a full-service travel agency.  We’ve been in the industry for 32 years.  We’re actually the largest travel agency within North America.

Austin: Wow.  Okay.

Martie: So there’s a lot of things that we can offer brides, grooms, or anyone who wants to travel more so than going online or going with some of these other agencies.  We service the whole Memphis area.  We’re out here also in Collierville.  We have a big presence out here as well.  But our main concern with this here today is we love helping brides and grooms plan their honeymoon and their destination wedding.  It’s a trip of a lifetime for them.  There’s a lot of planning and stressful things that go through with planning a wedding and everything.

Austin: It’s hard to plan a wedding.

Martie: It is.  And so with us, we try to help them with making that a little bit less stressful.  Because we can take care of everything for them to help make that trip of a lifetime they’ve been dreaming about for years a reality.

Austin: Gotcha.  So obviously photographer and travel agency—so ya’ll are in slightly different fields that deal with the wedding industry quite a bit. How did that idea for the Wedding University Seminar and Workshop… How did that kind of come together for you all?

Martie: The Wedding University is a workshop that we put on once a year. It’s not like your typical bridal show of going to all these different booths and these brides coming out like a deer in headlights.  We’re actually educating these brides and grooms on how to hire vendors, what a budget is… There’s been several times we’ve asked a bride and a groom, you know, where do you want to go for your honeymoon?  “Oh, we want to go to Hawaii.” Well, what’s your budget? “$1,000.” Okay, which one’s going and what palm tree do you want? It’s just not a reality.

Martie: Now, we can help with whatever budget they may have, but going to Hawaii for $1,000 may not get you there.  But that’s where we can kind of give them ideas and suggestions for what they can do within their budget. That’s where we are educating them more of… Rather than you go online and start looking at things that are so confusing, that’s where we want to make it stress-free for them.

Austin: It’s information overload.

Martie: It is.

Cindy: And if I could just kind of add to that: We’ve got wedding experts there.  We know what we’re doing.  You know, we have our licenses, our insurance, years of experience.  So we’re not out to make the big almighty dollar; we’re there to educate you as you plan your day.  We want you to ask us questions.  We’re there to help you.

Austin: This is almost like cutting out the middle man.  This is one-on-one, talk with the experts, and you know, learn a little bit about how you need to go about planning your wedding in all aspects.  From photography, from the travel, from the honeymoon, and catering, choosing vendors, everything.

Martie: We are a non-profit 501c.  All the advertising… That is, all the money that’s received for putting on the show goes directly back into advertising.  No one’s paid.  We’re all, as wedding vendors, putting this together to be able to help out our community.  It’s our way of giving back.

Austin: Gotcha.  Okay.  And all of this is kind of through the Memphis Wedding Association.  Is that right?

Both: Yes.

Austin: What exactly is the Memphis Wedding Association?

Martie: Well that’s part of it.  We do these educational workshops and shows once a year, but also, it’s kind of a networking group.  Um… And there’s… It’s a group of wedding vendors, working together to help brides be able to make better decisions on planning their entire wedding.

Cindy: If I could just add to that.  It’s not only that, but we’re also dedicated professionals with high-quality standards.  So, we’re all in it to not only help brides, help each other, and provide as high level of service.

Martie: And that’s like with the vendors at the show.  They’re some of the best in the city.

Austin: That’s one of the tougher things about planning your wedding.  It’s that there’s so many different vendors, there’s so many different parts—from the flowers, from the catering, to music, to the venue, and you, know, choosing all those different vendors.  Are you all going to kind of talk through how to choose your vendors?  I guess there will be vendors at the show, right?

Martie: Absolutely.

Austin: Who all is going to be at the show?

Martie: You’ve got Frost, for your cakes.  Cindy, of course, is going to be there.  Memphis National will be there.  You’ve got Maple Grove will be there.

Austin: So, all kinds.

Martie: Yeah, just all kinds of vendors.  Drapers will be there for your catering.  There will be some good food there.

Austin: Okay.  And also a chance for people who are coming to talk to them.

Martie: Absolutely.  They’ll have time to go up to each booth and talk to the different vendors as well as learn about things in these seminars.

Austin: yeah, and they get a little taste of each vendor, I guess.  Kind of see what each one of them is about.  And that can kind of help, too, in their decision, I’m sure.  As well as how to kind of navigate those waters when choosing your vendors.  So ya’ll have spoken a lot about brides.  Can grooms come?  Is this a thing for grooms, too?

Cindy: We want them to come.

Martie: We want the grooms to come.  There’s a lot of things that these grooms, they’re responsible for.

Cindy: It’s their day, too.  We want them to feel like they’re a part of their day—not just the bride, but the groom.  So, we’re going to have a groom’s room set up just for them so they can get some information about what kinds of activities are available for them on their day.  So we’re really excited to offer that for them this year.

Austin: Gotcha.  So what all will be in the groom’s room?

Martie: It’s a surprise.

Austin: It’s a surprise.

Martie: You’ll have to come and see.

Austin: Gotcha. Okay.  Cool, cool.  All right.  So, this day: Is it going to be a come-and-go type thing?  Is this a class or a bunch of different classes?  Kind of walk us through the day a little bit, if you would.

Martie: Well, they’ll come, and they’ll register, of course.  We have a wonderful door prize, but it’s not going to be given away until toward the end.  They’ll have a chance to win a honeymoon.

Austin: Oh wow.

Martie: So that’s one of our big giveaways.  It’s going to be to Dreams Tulum and the Riviera Maya.  But we’re going to have a lot of door prizes throughout the day.  We’ve got an Allure dress that we’re actually going to be giving away.  We’ve got Grizzlies tickets for like a date night.  We’ve even got some things for bridesmaids to win a bridal party.

Austin: So lots of good things.

Martie: There’s something for everybody.  It’s free.  We want to encourage the bride to bring whoever is involved in their wedding.

Austin: The event itself is free.  Anyone can come, and it’s free.  You just have to sign up?

Martie: Mmhmm.  And you know, there will be seminars throughout the day, so the longer you stay…

Cindy: The more you learn!

Martie: …the more you learn.  And like I said, there are door prizes that will be given out throughout the day.

Austin: So when is the Wedding University workshop?

Martie: Sunday, January the 6^th, from 12:30 to 4:00.  It’s going to be at the Hilton Memphis at I-240 and Poplar.

Austin: Okay.  So why Hilton?  Why that venue?  What made ya’ll choose that as the venue?

Martie: They’re just a partner with us.  And they’ve got the space for everyone.

Austin: Yeah, ya’ll had a pretty big turnout last year, right?

Martie: We did.

Austin: How many years have ya’ll been doing this workshop in total?

Martie: We’ve done… We’ve had some other venues, but this will be our second year at the Hilton.  But we’ve done it every year for about ten years.

Austin: So, how can we sign up, and how can we stay up to date with everything that is going on with the event leading up to it?

Cindy: So, you can find us on Facebook @wehelpbrides.  And there’s going to be updates from our vendors.  They’re going to be posting some of the specials that we’re going to be offering and some updates we’re going to be having.  You can find us there.  And we definitely want you to register at wehelpbrides.com.

Austin: Well, okay.  And thank ya’ll so much, and we’ll definitely see you there.