Wedding Venue Owners Working Vacation to Biloxi, Mississippi, November 1–4, 2026
Escape From Your Wedding Venue Island, Learn Directly From REAL Wedding Owner Colleagues, Experience A Beautiful City, Learn The Best Strategies for Success, and Leave INSPIRED & Supported By Your Wedding Venue Community!
Six years ago, I started hosting Wedding Venue Owners Working Vacations because I believed wedding venue owners deserved a completely different kind of education. I wanted venue owners to have a place to learn directly from people who actually understand what it takes to own, manage, market, protect, and grow a wedding venue.
Not another massive wedding-industry conference. Not education built around selling advertising packages. Not strategies designed primarily to make wedding venues more dependent on directories, lead providers, marketing companies, or the next shiny marketing gimmick.
I wanted to create an experience centered on one thing: Empowering the independent wedding venue owner.
From November 1–4, 2026, Wedding Venue Owners from across the country will meet on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for our Wedding Venue Owners Working Vacation in Biloxi, four days of venue tours, education, networking, conversations, new ideas, Gulf Coast inspiration, and some much-needed time away from our own venues.
And for many venue owners, the timing couldn’t be better. Wedding season will finally be slowing down. It’s time to refuel.
This is one of the articles written by Angie of 22 Acres Farm, she attended the Wedding Venue Owners Working Vacation to Columbus Ohio. Wedding Venue Owners Working Vacation: Education, Connection & Industry Leadership – 22 Acres Farm
This Is Not a Traditional Wedding Conference
A Wedding Venue Owners Working Vacation is intentionally small, personal, practical, and focused specifically on the needs of wedding venue owners and managers.
There are no giant exhibit halls to navigate.
You aren’t sitting in an audience listening to generic marketing advice intended for every category of wedding vendor.
And the education isn’t built around convincing you that the solution to every problem is buying more advertising.
Instead, we spend time together.
We tour wedding venues.
We study markets outside our own.
We talk openly about what is working—and what isn’t.
We compare ideas.
We learn from venue owners who understand the challenges sitting across the table from us because they live them too.
And then we work on strategies designed specifically to help wedding venues become stronger, more visible, more independent, and less vulnerable.
That has been my purpose with these events from the beginning.
Wedding Venue Independence Matters More Than Ever
For years, wedding venues were taught a relatively simple marketing formula:
Build a website.
List the venue on major wedding directories.
Buy advertising.
Post pretty wedding photos.
Wait for inquiries.
Follow up with those inquiries.
Hope enough couples tour.
Hope enough tours become bookings.
That approach isn’t enough anymore.
Today’s couple may discover a venue through Google, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Maps, an AI answer, a local restaurant search, a wedding guest itinerary, a hotel recommendation, a photographer’s content, or something they weren’t even originally searching for.
That creates an enormous opportunity for independently owned wedding venues.
Your venue website can become much more than a digital brochure.
It can become the center of your local wedding ecosystem.
Your venue can become a resource for wedding vendors.
A local wedding planning resource.
A Wedding Tourism resource.
A Wedding Guest Experience resource.
A trusted source for hotels, restaurants, rehearsal dinners, welcome parties, transportation, coffee shops, attractions, photo locations, after-parties and everything else couples and their guests need when they come to your community.
The goal isn’t simply to rank for:
“Wedding venues near me.”
The bigger opportunity is becoming so deeply connected to your market that couples begin encountering your venue throughout their entire wedding-planning journey.
That is the kind of independence I want venue owners to build.
What We’ll Be Learning in Biloxi
The Monday and Tuesday afternoon education sessions will be led by me, Didi Russell, Wedding Venue Strategist and founder of WeddingVenueOwners.com.
My strategies have developed through more than a decade of studying wedding venues, touring and researching more than 1,200 wedding venues across 28 states, coaching and consulting with venue owners from coast to coast, and learning alongside a Wedding Venue Owners & Management community that has grown to approximately 13,000 venue owners and managers.
These aren’t generic small-business lessons adapted for weddings.
They are strategies built around the unusual reality of running a wedding venue.
We’ll focus on areas including:
- AI SEO for Wedding Venues
- Local SEO
- Social Media SEO
- Wedding Tourism
- Wedding Guest Experience
- UGC and authentic content strategies
- Increasing your venue’s local digital footprint
- Developing your website into a true wedding-planning resource
- Creating more opportunities for organic lead generation
- Improving lead conversion
- Building stronger digital sales tools
- Becoming known throughout your local region
- Reducing dependence on wedding advertising directories
- Recognizing marketing gimmicks and ineffective strategies
- Building long-term search visibility rather than constantly chasing today’s lead
- Developing content that can introduce couples to your venue months before they’re ready to book
- Building relationships with local businesses and tourism partners
- Finding wedding venue colleagues for networking, collaboration and mentorship
Most importantly, we’re going to talk about how all of these pieces connect.
AI SEO isn’t one strategy.
Local SEO isn’t another.
Wedding Tourism isn’t something separate.
Social media shouldn’t live in its own little box.
Your venue’s website, content, social channels, local relationships, guest resources, videos, reviews, vendor network and reputation can all work together to make your venue increasingly difficult to overlook in your market.
Stop Building Your Entire Marketing Strategy Around Today’s Buyer
One of the biggest changes I want wedding venue owners to make is expanding who they believe their marketing is for.
Most venue marketing is focused almost entirely on one person:
The couple searching for a wedding venue right now.
Of course we want that person.
But what about the couple who will start looking in six months?
What about the person getting engaged next Christmas?
What about the bridesmaid attending a wedding at your venue this year who becomes engaged next year?
What about the mom searching for a hotel?
The wedding guest looking for brunch?
The photographer searching for local wedding information?
The couple researching your city before they even know which venues exist?
I want venue owners thinking much bigger.
Get known before you’re needed.
Become visible throughout your community.
Create useful information.
Become associated with weddings in your entire region rather than appearing only when someone types a transactional wedding-venue search.
The venue that teaches people about its destination, introduces local businesses, showcases great vendors, answers wedding questions and helps guests experience the community has far more opportunities to be discovered than the venue publishing another photo with:
“Still dreaming about this beautiful wedding.”
Pretty photos still matter.
But they can do much more when they’re part of a larger strategy.
Why Biloxi and the Mississippi Gulf Coast?
Biloxi isn’t simply a beautiful place for us to gather.
It’s a living classroom for exactly the strategies we’ll be discussing.
The Gulfport–Biloxi–Pascagoula wedding market was estimated to host 2,014 weddings in 2025, representing approximately $57 million in total wedding spending. Harrison County alone was estimated at 1,096 weddings and approximately $26.9 million in wedding spending. Those numbers demonstrate that weddings represent meaningful local economic activity—not simply for venues, but for photographers, restaurants, hotels, transportation providers, caterers, florists and countless other businesses surrounding an event.
Now add tourism.
Coastal Mississippi reported 15.7 million visitors in 2024, generating more than $2.2 billion in economic impact. Overnight travelers alone generated nearly $1.5 billion in spending across lodging, dining, entertainment, shopping and transportation.
That intersection between weddings + travel + restaurants + lodging + entertainment + local experiences is exactly why I believe Wedding Tourism presents such an important opportunity for wedding venues.
A wedding doesn’t only create a venue customer.
It can create dozens—or hundreds—of visitors to a community.
And those guests need somewhere to sleep, somewhere to eat, something to do, coffee the next morning, transportation, entertainment, welcome-party ideas and recommendations from someone they trust.
Why shouldn’t the wedding venue be one of the most trusted local resources helping them?
Biloxi Gives Us Wedding Guest Experience Everywhere We Look
Coastal Mississippi has 62 miles of coastline, including 26 miles of white-sand beaches. The region combines waterfront recreation, restaurants, arts and culture, casinos, historic sites, boutique lodging, resorts and distinctive coastal communities.
Biloxi itself combines beaches with fresh Gulf seafood, casinos, museums, nightlife, music and landmarks including the Biloxi Lighthouse and Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum.
And getting to the Gulf Coast became even more interesting when passenger rail returned in 2025. Amtrak’s Mardi Gras Service now connects Mobile and New Orleans with stops in Pascagoula, Biloxi, Gulfport and Bay St. Louis.
Think about that through the eyes of a wedding venue owner.
Hotels.
Restaurants.
Beaches.
Local seafood.
Transportation.
Nightlife.
History.
Arts.
Attractions.
Day trips.
Guest activities.
Those are not unrelated tourism topics.
Those are wedding guest experience topics.
Biloxi gives us an opportunity to experience firsthand what happens when a destination has far more to offer a wedding couple than simply a ceremony and reception location.
You may find this article interesting: Didi Russell: Wedding Venue Expert – WE DO WEDDINGS
We’re Going to Get Out and Tour Wedding Venues
Some of the most valuable education during a Working Vacation doesn’t happen in a classroom.
It happens when we walk through another wedding venue.
On Monday and Tuesday mornings, we’ll get out into the Gulf Coast wedding market and tour selected wedding venues in the region.
Venue tours allow us to look at another business differently than a couple touring for a wedding would.
We notice:
How do guests arrive?
How does the property flow?
What is the getting-ready experience like?
What creates a sense of place?
How does the venue use indoor and outdoor spaces?
What amenities matter?
How does the venue communicate its brand?
Where are the operational challenges?
What would we borrow?
What would we do differently?
What does this market teach us that our own market doesn’t?
You can learn an enormous amount from walking through another venue with ten or twenty other venue owners.
One person notices the sales process.
Someone else notices landscaping.
Someone studies guest flow.
Someone asks about staffing.
Someone spots a brilliant operational solution everyone else missed.
And suddenly we’re all standing around talking about how that one idea could be adapted back home.
That is the magic of getting wedding venue owners together.
The Conversations Between Sessions Matter Too
There is another reason I’ve continued hosting Working Vacations for six years.
Wedding venue ownership can be lonely.
Your friends may love you without understanding why you can’t simply take Saturday off.
Your employees may care deeply about the venue but they aren’t carrying the same financial responsibility you are.
Your couples don’t see everything happening behind the scenes.
And the wedding vendors working inside your property are running very different businesses.
Then you meet another venue owner.
And within five minutes you’re talking about septic systems, Google rankings, cancellations, staffing, pricing, preferred vendors, sprinkler requirements, tours, leads, landscaping, bartenders, insurance and the couple who emailed at 11:47 p.m.
They get it.
That is why the connections made on these trips matter so much.
Sometimes another venue owner gives you a marketing idea.
Sometimes they solve an operational problem.
Sometimes they become a referral partner.
Sometimes they become a mentor.
And sometimes you simply need another owner to say:
“Yes. I’ve dealt with that too.”
Your Biloxi Working Vacation Schedule
Sunday, November 1
Arrive + Cocktails & Connections
Get settled in Biloxi and then join us from 6:00–8:00 p.m. for Cocktails & Connections, our opening meet-and-greet.
No rushing into a giant ballroom.
No trying to determine which of 3,000 attendees you should meet.
This is your opportunity to start getting to know the wedding venue owners you’ll spend the next several days learning beside.
Monday, November 2
Wedding Venue Tours + Education
We’ll spend the morning visiting wedding venues and experiencing the Gulf Coast market firsthand.
In the afternoon, we’ll move into our Wedding Venue Owner education sessions—taking what we’re seeing in the market and connecting it to practical strategies you can take home.
Tuesday, November 3
Wedding Venue Tours + Advanced Strategy
Tuesday gives us another morning of venue exploration followed by deeper afternoon education.
By now, the conversations become particularly valuable because attendees aren’t strangers anymore.
Ideas start connecting.
Collaborations form.
And owners begin looking at their own businesses differently.
Wednesday, November 4
Head Home With More Than Notes
The goal isn’t to fly home with 47 pages of conference notes that never leave your suitcase.
I want you leaving Biloxi knowing:
What am I going to stop doing?
What am I going to start doing?
Where am I unnecessarily dependent?
Where is my venue invisible online?
How can I become more important in my local market?
What content should I create?
How can my website work harder?
What opportunities am I overlooking?
Who did I meet here that I want to stay connected with?
And most importantly:
What am I excited about again?
Because Sometimes You Need to Leave Your Venue to See Your Venue Clearly
By November, many wedding venue owners are tired.
Really tired.
You’ve spent months answering questions.
Cleaning.
Selling.
Posting.
Touring.
Managing vendors.
Managing employees.
Managing families.
Watching the weather.
Checking bathrooms.
Troubleshooting.
Fixing things nobody else noticed were broken.
Making sure hundreds of people have beautiful days while quietly carrying the responsibility for everything happening behind the scenes.
Sometimes the solution isn’t another webinar watched while answering emails.
Sometimes you need to physically leave.
Walk on a beach.
Eat something wonderful.
See another city.
Tour another venue.
Sit beside someone who runs the same kind of business you do.
Laugh.
Talk.
Learn something completely new.
Remember what interested you about this business in the first place.
And return home with some fuel in the tank again.
That’s why these are called Working Vacations.
Yes, we’re going to work.
But we’re also going to breathe.
You Don’t Need Another Gimmick. You Need a Stronger Business.
For more than a decade, I have been obsessed with understanding what makes wedding venues successful.
Not theoretically.
I’ve traveled.
I’ve toured venues.
I’ve talked with owners.
I’ve studied their websites.
I’ve researched their markets.
I’ve watched businesses grow.
I’ve watched others struggle.
I’ve seen marketing trends arrive with enormous promises and disappear.
I’ve coached and consulted with venue owners across the country.
And I’ve had the extraordinary opportunity to learn from thousands of wedding venue owners and managers through the Wedding Venue Owners & Management community.
That research has changed what I teach.
I don’t want wedding venue owners becoming more dependent.
I want you becoming more capable.
I want your website stronger.
Your digital footprint larger.
Your local recognition greater.
Your content more useful.
Your leads more qualified.
Your sales process more effective.
Your relationships stronger.
Your understanding of AI deeper.
Your visibility broader.
And your confidence in your own ability to market your business dramatically higher.
You should know how to grow your venue without constantly wondering which outside company you need to pay next.
Come to Biloxi Ready for Your Next Chapter
The Wedding Venue Owners Working Vacation to Biloxi, Mississippi, November 1–4, 2026, is for wedding venue owners and managers who are ready to step outside their everyday routine and see what’s possible from a different perspective.
Come learn.
Come ask questions.
Come tour wedding venues.
Come challenge strategies you’ve been following for years.
Come discover new ones.
Come meet wedding venue colleagues who may become some of the most valuable people in your professional network.
Come explore a Gulf Coast destination where weddings, hospitality, tourism and guest experience naturally intersect.
And come give yourself permission to spend a few days away from your property thinking about your business instead of simply working inside it.
You have spent another year creating experiences for everyone else.
This one is for the wedding venue owner.
Learn more about the Wedding Venue Owners Working Vacation to Biloxi and additional resources for independent wedding venue owners at WeddingVenueOwners.com.
