The global pandemic of 2020 really took its toll on travel agencies. We spent most of the year canceling all of the amazing vacations that we planned for people in 2019. It was heartbreaking, brutal, exhausting and devastating. We truly put our heart and soul into planning each vacation for our clients and to have to undo all of that was hard. Very hard. Our team worked 16 hour days for most of March, April, May and June doing nothing but fielding questions, canceling trips, deciphering travel policies and processing refunds. It was like we were walking through a nightmare. Unfortunately when people don’t travel, we don’t get paid so it wasn’t easy for our small business to continue to pay rent, utilities, phone, Internet and salaries just to stay available to our clients looking for refunds, but we did it. And we are now back to planning vacations for those ready to get back to living and some looking forward to 2022 and beyond. It’s still a challenge trying to navigate these new waters with every country having different restrictions, the CDC coming out with new guidelines for Americans traveling abroad and all of the travel protocols we need to advise our clients of, but we are doing it because we love travel and we love our clients.

After the initial shock began to wear off, I started to think of all of my friends in the wedding business. They had it hard too. Most of them are small business owners and the wedding industry was impacted very significantly during the pandemic. I watched so many of them on social media vent about canceled weddings or rescheduled weddings and how heartbroken they were for their couples. No one was complaining about lost business… They were just genuinely sad to see these couples lose their dream weddings that they had waited so long for. That was exactly how I felt about canceling vacations! When you plan a vacation a year in advance and count down the days until you can go, it’s hard to watch it all slip away. For the traveler, but almost even more so for us... And that’s how my wedding vendor friends felt about watching these weddings slip away. Sad. Just so so sad.

I have been in the travel industry for 35 years and I’ve owned a travel agency for the last 25 years. During this time I have really fell in in love with planning honeymoons. That has introduced me to an entire second industry that I feel very connected to. I do tons of bridal expos and events that introduce me to local wedding professionals and I’ve really gotten to know a lot of them very well over the years. These people are amazing. They make dreams come true! I decided I had to do something to help them so an idea was born...

Towards the end of 2020 when bridal fairs were not happening and we didn’t know when people could all be in a room together again, I decided to launch AugustWeddingPlanning.com. Initially it was a love letter to my friends in the wedding business who I knew couldn’t get out and advertise their services but really needed to get back to business booking future weddings. I bought the domain name, gathered my favorite wedding professionals and mentioned it to a friend who happens to be an amazing website designer and she graciously offered to assist making the entire project so much better than it ever could have been! You definitely want contact Keziah Felak with Bek Designs for website design or anything marketing related. (She also does amazing wedding invitations!)

When we launched the website on Valentine’s Day, 2021 we had approximately 20 businesses listed. Mainly those I knew and trusted and who I felt were the best in the business. No one was charged a penny as this was all a mission to do nothing but help after a really heard year, but then I realized what an amazing resource this was for local couples planning their wedding! They can’t really get out and meet with anyone right now so I decided to expand our vendor list and include as many as possible in an effort to make the wedding planning process painless for local couples. All of the wedding professionals on augustaweddingplanning.com are serious about what they do, experienced in their field and completely vetted by us. I’ve literally seen hundreds of brides post in local networking groups on Facebook asking for recommendations on the best wedding photographer, florist, planner, venue, etc. and every post gets so many comments but do we really know who those people are? When you ask for a recommendation for a professional make up artist for your wedding day, do you want someone who is trained and that does make up professionally with weddings every weekend or someone that does it as a hobby? You don’t really know when someone gets tagged in the comments of a Facebook post!

With the help of my team at Vacations To Remember, today we have approximately 70 amazing wedding businesses listed with more to come soon. We spotlight a different pro on instagram every day so brides can see the face behind the business and hear more about their offerings and who they are as a person. I am so proud of this venture and have such high hopes for the success of Augusta Wedding Planning. If it helps local couples connect with their perfect vendor and weddings can get back to the way they used to be, my job is done!