Brooke Roberts Photography
It’s a new dawn for the wedding industry in the Golden Isles. The area’s brightest and best, tried and true wedding professionals are coming together as members of the Golden Isles Wedding Association (GIWA) to support each other and grow the industry in the Golden Isles. Founder and President of GIWA, Justin Henshaw, a longtime member of the wedding community as the owner of Island Sound, has focused his passion and business acumen on joining forces with others to promote the Golden Isles as a top wedding destination.
According to Justin, the Golden Isles does more wedding business per capita than any other wedding destination on the East Coast. But brides and grooms from outside the region who are checking national databases or online industry advertisers like WeddingWire or The Knot can be led to outside competition simply because they don’t know any better. Businesses on those sites may look like they’re in coastal Georgia, but they’re really Jacksonville-based or from even more distant states. One of GIWA’s missions is to solve that problem by launching the area’s first and only wedding resource directory.
Having an all-encompassing unbiased resource for hotels to share with guests and industry members to share with clients is an invaluable tool. The directory will be printed twice a year, with Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter editions. The first edition, arriving this Spring, will see 20,000 copies distributed throughout the Golden Isles, to event venues, local restaurants, visitor centers, welcome centers, and, of course, to member businesses. The directory will also be available digitally on the GIWA website. Simply by sharing the link to the directory (goldenislesweddings.org/directory) in an email, thousands more leads are generated for GIWA venues and members. The GIWA directory will be THE Golden Isles Vendor Referral List, and because GIWA carefully vets its members, it also gives the client confidence that if they select a vendor from this directory, they are choosing a local, licensed business professional. If you’re a Golden Isles wedding vendor, you will not only want the benefit of a listing as a GIWA member, you’ll find the directory to be an essential resource that allows you to find other local vendors whose products and services you require and also a necessity for your clients as well.
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Chris Moncus Photography
Smith-Thomson Wedding
Photos by Chris Moncus Photography
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Chris Moncus Photography
Smith-Thomson Wedding
Photos by Chris Moncus Photography
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Chris Moncus Photography
Carter-Doud Wedding
Photos by Chris Moncus Photography
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Brooke Roberts Photography
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Chris Moncus Photography
Bostock-Rutter Wedding
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Brooke Roberts Photography
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Brooke Roberts Photography
Chris & Amanda Moncus, four-time Elegant Island Living “Best of Golden Isles Wedding Photographer” award winners understand the need for GIWA and such a resource: “The Golden Isles have been one of Georgia’s best kept secrets for too long. Brides across the US are discovering the beauty of this region and have found it somewhat difficult to plan weddings from afar. This association of wedding professionals is giving destination brides the guidance they need to find the best vendors in the area who will make their wedding a day to remember! Our economy will also benefit from this as more wedding revenue is kept local—creating jobs, encouraging tourism, and strengthening our industry.”
“While GIWA is a collective of wedding businesses, it’s not invite-only or even limited to just those in the wedding industry. More importantly, Justin advises that GIWA shouldn’t be considered as just another clique or friend group for those in the business. He stresses the fact that the association was created to be welcoming, drama-free, and inclusive of everyone connected with weddings and the tourism that they create here. Justin describes the Golden Isles wedding community as a family, and with that comes an inherent potential to have some conflict from time to time, as part of human nature. However, he says, “that does nothing to support our local wedding industry as a whole, and ultimately does a disservice to our clients because they are not able to see all options available. GIWA is bigger than that kind of mess. I think of GIWA as a large golden umbrella of sorts; we rise above the fray. That includes ALL participants, and that shelters from those storms of conflict.”
Stacy Bass of Straton Hall Events agrees about the nature of the business and with the family atmosphere that GIWA strives to maintain. “After 19 years in this industry,” he says, “it’s wildly apparent that the Golden Isles wedding community is unlike any other because you just don’t see any cutthroat action here. We build each other up instead, making fellow vendors, ourselves included, love what we do even more. The passion trickles down to the couple and their families making the whole wedding experience even more magical and memorable.” That’s exactly the kind of experience that GIWA members want to provide to their clients.
GIWA also aims to provide protection against outside competition and more security for the members. The association is created to be a safe place where members can share ideas, network, and socialize. Not only can members treat each other like family, they have the benefit of working together as a team against outside competition. It’s not just one vendor fending off a non-local competitor, but an entire local network saying, “this is our turf, and we protect each other.” That makes the group a powerhouse against outsiders who want to come in and compete.
Justin says, “That’s one of GIWA’s goals, to be so prominent and such a trusted network of support that it will be impossible for outside businesses to break in here. GIWA will be so well-known for ‘If you want it good, if you want it local, go to a member of GIWA.’” And he suggests to local vendors, “If you want to be safer from outside competition, join GIWA.”
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Chris Moncus Photography
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Brooke Roberts Photography
Stacy Bass didn’t hesitate to become a founding member of the association. He explains, “After 19 years of making wedding dreams come true, it just made sense to team up with other top notch vendors to produce even more successful events for our clients. Somewhat of a collaboration of excellence.”
To strengthen the group dynamics, GIWA will offer plenty of networking opportunities. Social events and member gathers are a top priority, and they plan to have two large events each year as well as smaller events that rotate venues and have different themes. There will be Lunch Bites and Banter fun for the midday crew. For early risers, Coffee and Connections is where you can enjoy some breakfast treats and meet and greet new members. Beer and Brainstorming is an after-hours session to get creative with new ideas over a brew or two. If you’re more of the martini mindset, Cocktails and Conversation is another after-hours gathering, simply to relax, have fun and do some light networking over drinks with other members. Many of these little mixers are in the planning stages now, including some that might be on the water, so be sure to follow the GIWA social media accounts and look out for emails with details so you won’t miss out. If these sessions aren’t your thing, Justin says that’s okay too. “I want all of our members to know that you can be as involved as you want to be. There’s no pressure and I know you’re busy.”
Amy Jenkins, owner of Bienvenue, has been doing hair for weddings in the Golden Isles for more than 20 years. She says, "GIWA is such a great way to gather and share information between local vendors in the industry. It's invaluable for getting word of mouth out about different resources available at different venues or which vendors can provide specific services. Some of us work on the periphery and don't get to see everyone connected to the weddings we work, or who are also providing services, so even just the gathering of members are a wonderful way to be able to put a face with a name for people we work with on a regular basis. This is a really exciting way for us to share insight and information between Golden Isles businesses."
Island Sound
But just because GIWA members like to have fun and Justin is making sure there are ample opportunities for them to do that, don’t brush them off as not being serious about business. Justin has reached out to his alma mater, the College of Coastal Georgia, and they have agreed to conduct an economic impact study about the wedding industry in the Golden Isles for GIWA. The Reg Murphy Center for Economic and Policy Studies will be using IMPLAN to estimate direct and indirect effects on spending and employment. Conservative estimates on just guest spending alone is above $100 million. To help the Murphy Center calculate real figures that include spending on the weddings themselves, and revenue and jobs generated by these events, GIWA members are invited to participate in the study. Its results will certainly be useful. As Justin says, “Knowledge is power — power for GIWA and for the Golden Isles community.”
GIWA is just getting off the ground, but it already has several members and more are joining every day. Stacy Bass isn’t shy about sharing his excitement about the future of the association, “GIWA is off to a great start! We’ve already been asked about GIWA a lot and they have already proven productive for us. We will enjoy watching GIWA’s success in promoting the gorgeous Golden Isles as the perfect destination wedding location and we’re proud to be a founding member.” It’s just this kind of word of mouth and spreading buzz that makes GIWA so important. Growing GIWA is essential to growing the Golden Isles wedding industry and promoting the Golden Isles as a wedding destination. To use Justin’s metaphor, “A rising tide lifts all boats.”
GIWA’s purpose is to develop the local wedding business by advertising the Golden Isles as a premier wedding destination throughout the country. No longer does being “Georgia’s Best Kept Secret” benefit us. Hearing “I didn’t even know there were islands in Georgia” is not a positive thing when we are trying to promote those islands as an ideal spot for weddings. Now is the time to focus on advertising to get the word out to engaged couples about what a beautiful location we are and what a strong community of wedding vendors exist here to make their special day absolutely perfect. GIWA will start with regional advertising but can increase the marketing budget and expand to national advertising with more members.
The association is not just for big wedding vendors, although every one of those SHOULD be a member. When brides and grooms, their families and guests arrive in the Golden Isles, they don’t just go to the rehearsal dinner and wedding and their hotels. They go out to eat. They go get mani-pedis. They go shopping. They go golfing or fishing together or maybe want a kayak tour. All local businesses are invited to join GIWA and get the benefits of being listed in the directory and being a part of this strong network of vendors.
What can you do beyond becoming a member? Spread the word! Let the world know that the sun is rising on this new era of the Golden Isles and its shine will be brilliant!
To learn more about GIWA, find a listing of current members, or to become a member, visit goldenislesweddings.org.
