We were lucky to catch up with Jackie Waechter recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jackie , appreciate you joining us today. Please tell us about starting your own firm and if you’d do anything different knowing what you know now.

I was running the family Auto Body Shop and working 60+ hours per week with a 45 minute commute each way – with 3 small children at home. It was exhausting and I missed my kids. I decided I wanted to be a stay home mom so I resigned and began my life at home. Soon the itch to work was nagging me but I wanted to be available for my kids full-time. I started making custom wedding sneakers at home in the evenings and selling them on Ebay (back in 1998). The demand was more than I could handle and I was not ready to invest in hiring an outside manufacturer so I started looking for something else to do. I knew I wanted to be in the Wedding industry because it’s fairly recession proof and such a fun time in peoples lives. My searching brought me to a franchise called All About Honeymoons – I would own a travel agency! It was a very new franchise so I was in ground floor. What that also meant was I had to train myself because they didn’t have system in place. Baptism by Fire is what it was. I found every bridal show, country club, bridal store, magazine, etc to try and market myself. Within 2 years my business had taken off and I was always the top selling franchise owner. After 8 years I decided it was time to establish my own brand and company as I saw the franchise owners making very poor business decisions. It took about a year to get everything into place and I began Blissful Honeymoons & Destination Weddings on January 1, 2003. I had spent that year getting my legal house in order and establishing relationships with suppliers apart from the franchise. Next was branding which included designing a logo and building a website. Finally, I came up with a way to advise all past clients that I had started my own company so they could find me easily. Planning ahead was the key to a successful transition to owing my own firm. As expected, the franchise went belly up and many of the franchise owners were looking for a place to book travel without having to do all of the work I had done. That is when I became a host agency allowing other advisors to use my name, website, logo, marketing and professional travel ID to book travel for a fee. Blissful Honeymoons & Destination Weddings is now one of the top producing Romance Travel agencies in the country.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Jackie Waechter and I am an empty nester now after raising my 3 children.  I am currently grandmother to 3 boys and 1 girl and am excited for the next batch!  Both of my daughters have worked in the company, so we are truly a family business.

People are often surprised that travel advisors still exist in the age of online travel companies. They are even more surprised to find out they will not spend more using a travel advisor but will most likely end up spending less and getting more. You cannot always believe what you see online and I cut through all of that because I spend a lot of time traveling and experiencing the resorts and locations so I can best guide my clients. Anything can look good in a photo. I provide the real untouched photo of the resorts.

What started out as a 1 woman show to earn a little extra money for the household has grown into a well recognized brand in the travel industry with a team of 15 advisors across the US. Over the past 20 years the Blissful Team and myself have earned top awards with some of the worlds top resorts and wholesalers. Our largest source of new clients is repeat and referral clients which lets me know that we are doing things right for our clients. Planning travel is my passion and I wake up every day excited to get to work.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Covid was a terrible time. We saw years of work disappear along with paychecks. Travel advisors are not paid until clients travel so everything I had worked so hard to book for clients over 2 years was gone. I spent the better part of a year working unpaid cancelling trips all day. The downtime ended up being a blessing. My team and I spent many hours rebranding the company. Designing a new logo and website were the main items. We also spent a lot of time on Zoom trainings learning about new destinations. The entire goal was to move into a more luxury market and better support our clients. Once the restrictions began to lift we were ready for the influx of travel. Our business has doubled over our 2019 numbers.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

Keeping in touch with our clients is essential. During Covid we also upgraded our CRM and worked on consistent client touch emails. Recognizing birthdays and anniversary’s. Sharing amazing deals that come across the desk. Mailing (snail mail) some lovely travel magazines a few times a year.

We also use a program that asks our clients to leave us a review after they return from a trip. That lets us know how we are doing and reach out to anyone who’s service was less than 5 stars so we can continue to improve.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.blissfulhoneymoons.com
• Instagram: blissfulhoneymoons
• Facebook: @blissfulhoneymoons
• Linkedin: jackiewaechter
• Youtube: blissfulboys