Lake Tahoe is a perfect destination to celebrate “I do” amongst your family, friends and loved ones. Celebrating 250+ days of bright blue skies, picturesque snow-capped mountain backdrops, lakeside beach ceremony stages and cool, crisp evenings it makes for the BEST destination wedding location. So I do have to preface that I am a bit biased since Lake Tahoe also happens to be the location where I chose to marry four years ago along the shores of Edgewood Tahoe Golf Resort. But planning a destination wedding isn’t easy and I couldn’t have done it without the professional planning and expertise of Kerry Hawk and her team at Blue Sky Events.
When I became engaged I was living in Maui, Hawaii but my husband and I decided to plan a destination wedding celebration in Lake Tahoe since it is a special place to us. Attempting to plan from afar and not familiar with the wedding players in Lake Tahoe, I knew immediately I would need assistance. I also knew that being someone who had worked in the luxury hospitality market for years prior, I wasn’t going to be the easiest of customers. I knew what I wanted, was overly detailed by nature and that nearly anything was possible. Enters Kerry Hawk and team to save the day!
Over the next 6 months+ Kerry and I arranged conference calls where we began creating my perfect day 2,500 miles apart. I had hired Blue Sky Events to assist with pre-event planning as well as on-site coordination on our wedding day. Kerry was readily able to answer all my wedding planning questions and provide perfect local solutions for all of my needs. She knew the region like the back of her hand and had key partnerships with reliable local vendors whom I ultimately choose my stylist, florist and cake designer from her sacred “list”. Beyond the usual responsibilities and tasks expected from a wedding coordination team, Kerry personally went above and beyond the call of duty which I want to share with you here.
First, since my husband and I had met and were currently living in Maui yet hosting our ceremony on the ‘mainland’ we wanted to incorporate a traditional island ritual into our special day. Specifically, we wanted to include a Hawaiian lei ritual into our ceremony. After calling dozens of florists, I learned that they really didn’t have access to the tropical flowers needed to make authentic leis. I found a company in Maui that would FedEx real Hawaiian leis for our ceremony but there was one big glitch. They wouldn’t ship them to a hotel (which is where we would be staying) yet only to a home residence since upon delivery they had to immediately be refrigerated and stored. After searching for a solution Kerry immediately stepped in and offered to have them delivered to her personal residence! To say the least, the leis were delivered, stored and transported by Kerry successfully and were an integral part of our ceremony. These special leis are 
dried and still hang in my house today!
The big day arrived. And of course… there is always at least one thing (if your lucky!) that goes not as planned. For us it was our DJs who were NOT one of the recommended vendors on Kerry’s list – lesson learned! In short, they were terrible – late, without our extensive list of preselected wedding songs and totally clueless. At one point in the night they were actually sitting at the bar! The great news ….is that I barely noticed thanks to Kerry Hawk. I will never forget walking into our reception as Kerry calmly walked alongside me reassuring me not to worry but purposefully asked what our signature first dance song selections were because the DJ didn’t have them! Later, I learned that Kerry had downloaded the songs to her iPod and had them playing on queue so that no one besides us ever knew what had happened. This woman could simply do it all!
I had the privilege of recently reconnecting with Kerry to ask her about what projects she and Blue Sky Events were currently working on and where she sees the future of her company headed. I learned that Blue Sky Events has expanded immensely into the incentive and corporate event planning realm in addition to their full-time wedding coordination business. Jason Hawk, Kerry’s husband, has also joined the company and is now co-owner greatly contributing to the expansion of their business into corporate and resort event management. As part of their event management portfolio they have added a roster of events including the annual Tahoe Snowcial, Discount Tires annual incentive trip with over 500 attendees and are the preferred event planning team for on and off snow events for Heavenly Mountain Resort just to name a few. Blue Sky Events also plans the Tahoe South Heavenly Holidays for a two week run of events in the Heavenly Village, that culminates on New Years Eve with an event bringing in thousands of attendees loaded with entertainment and the worlds only Gondola Ball Drop and Fireworks! Quite the Lake Tahoe local superstar planners.
When asked what contributes to her success, Kerry emphasized the ability to pull from so many resources within the area thanks to the well-established relationships they have created – a key success factor when operating in a small region like ours. Kerry sees the future of their company continuing to “give amazing service to all people visiting the Lake Tahoe region to ensure that their time is well spent while here” and hopes to create a unique, annual festival all of their own! Can’t wait to see what Kerry, Jason and Blue Sky Events have in the making!
Do you have a wedding, special event or corporate conference that you need assistance with planning? Do as I did to ensure a flawless experience by consulting with Kerry and Jason Hawk at Blue Sky Events. You will never look back.
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Photo credits: Kerry Hawk & Robin Penning
Keeping Lake Tahoe...The Best Lake 