122: Brides of Beverly Hills takes on Destination Weddings – Renée Strauss of Wedaways

Background on Renee Strauss of Wedaways:

Renée Strauss is the founder of Wedaways. Her career spans decades in the luxury bridal industry, from selling wedding gowns in Beverly Hills to planning weddings for her clientele. Destination weddings were always a favorite part of her business. Discovering magnificent wedding venues and local vendors to produce flawless events, led to relationships with some of the best wedding properties and professionals in the world.

Wedaways.com streamlines and simplifies the entire process of planning & managing destination weddings & honeymoons. Wedaways work with 170 international properties in 22 countries and they continue to grow. Their clients are engaged couples, travel advisors seeking top destinations, properties and professionals catering to the wedding & honeymoon markets, and wedding planners seeking to expand their portfolios and require ground services in the wedding destination. Wedaways engage as their DWMC.

Users have full access to their curated, world-class property portfolio. Wedaways match engaged couples to top wedding planners in their worldwide network and virtuoso travel dept advisors plan, design, and produce experiences of a lifetime.

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

[1:51] Renee Straus is the owner of Wedaways, which is a platform that caters to the wedding, travel, and honeymoon market. She explains in detail what Wedaways is all about.
[4:19] She was originally from Chicago but she moved to California when she was 16. She got a job in a bridal salon, which made her more interested in the bridal business.
[5:54] Renee talks about her first business opportunity, which was a retail store selling menswear. Her second business was a bridal salon.
[8:28] She continued to enhance her bridal salon and continue its fast-paced growth. Her business entered the TV and movie production industry.
[12:13] The importance of relationship building when buying or creating a business.
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[17:54] There were a lot of challenges and hurdles before she was able to buy her first and second business. Getting those deals was not easy but she did it.
[22:01] 1990 was a critical time for the bridal business because Vera Wang came into the scene. This was also the time when Renee decided to go to Europe to import wedding gowns. This decision saved her business.
[26:00] Renee tells the story of how Vera Wang got into the wedding scene and designed a wedding dress that became a trend for two years. This prompted Renee to find wedding designs that are unique and different and it would cater to a different market that is not looking for the latest trend.
[30:33] Renee created a referral booklet or a resource list, wherein she charged $500 a year to be a part of it.
[31:31] She took on a destination wedding that was 2 years in the making. This unforgettable destination wedding job was held at the Vatican, Rome. She describes it as an amazing experience.
[36:09] Doing destination weddings expanded her network and even led to having her own television show called Brides of Beverly Hills on TLC.
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[40:46] Renee had her share of personal and professional pitfalls throughout her life but she never gave up.
[45:55] She tells the story of how Wedaways came into fruition.
[52:50] Renee talks about some of the financial problems she experienced from her first and second business and the lessons she learned from it.
[1:05:31] Her last advice to the listeners regarding the importance of kindness and being a giver.

Fabulous 4 Questions:

📖 📚 Favorite Book(s)? Power Relationships by Andrew Soble & Jerold Panas
🙌😎 Favorite Amazon.com purchase? Bluetooth Speakers! (I've forgotten the name!)
🌱💸 Favorite Tool that's GROWN your Business? Buffer
💭💡 BIGGEST Challenge keeping your Business from GROWING? Website Traffic

Key Point from the Interview:

“Her last advice to the listeners regarding the importance of kindness and being a giver.”

Resources Mentioned:

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