Episode 79: ESCAPE THE ORDINARY WITH JENNIFER STEIN OF DESTINATION I DO
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Today we are talking with Jennifer Stein, Co-founder of Destination Media, LLC. In 2014, Jennifer helped create Destination I Do. She had a longing for an intimate wedding away from home and also realized that there were scarce magazines covering the topic of weddings. She has a background in publishing and loves weddings and traveling, so this was the perfect combination to start the magazine, Destination I Do. Since 2004, she’s watched her magazine grow from a small, home-grown product to a title couples know the second they start planning their dream destination weddings and honeymoons.
GETTING HER FOOT IN THE DOOR
When Jennifer was growing up, her mom worked for an airline, so they got to travel all over. When she was 14, they traveled to Maui. While she was there, she saw a couple getting married and fell absolutely in love. She knew that was exactly what she wanted when she got married and that memory always stuck with her. Years later when Jennifer was in college, she worked as an assistant for a wedding planner. During her time as an assistant, she was seeing the same decor at weddings over and over again. She knew she wanted something unique when it was her turn to tie the knot.
DESTINATION I DO
Jennifer is really close with her mom, so they decided to start a business together! Destination I Do was born. One of Jennifer’s biggest pet peeves with magazines is that it takes forever to get to the table of contents. Instead of doing the same thing that other magazines do, she decided to place their table of contents at the very beginning. No more turning through 20 pages to get to it! There were other things from a magazine flow standpoint that she did market research for to figure out what they really liked and didn’t like. They also really had to evolve and find out what couples are really looking for and what their challenges are.
BIT BY THE TRAVEL BUG
Jennifer absolutely loves to travel and this job has certainly helped with that! She says, “Traveling is almost better than the paycheck.” She gave us her list of her favorites. Her favorite piece she has written about is Thailand. She went there with some other writers, and it was really fun for her to relive her experience through writing. Her favorite wedding destination is Italy. The food, the culture, the topography…what’s not to love!? Everything is romantic and worth going back to over and over again. Lastly, her favorite honeymoon destination is Bora Bora. To get there, you have to take a teeny, tiny little plane. In particular, The Brando is her favorite place to stay in Bora Bora. She heard about this luxury resort one day when she was watching the Ellen show and Margot Robbie went there on her honeymoon!
HOW TO GET FEATURED
If you are trying to get featured in a magazine, Jennifer’s advice is, “Look and research them to see what they have done already. We are always looking for different things in weddings.” When submitting pieces specially to Jennifer’s magazine, don’t send them a piece that is not a destination wedding. Their name is Destination I Do after all! Lastly, make sure there is a sense of place.
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