Photos courtesy of Bauman Photography
We were privileged to meet at The Abbey, a truly unique venue–there’s nothing else like it!–located in downtown San Diego. Also unique was our delicious luncheon, with very creative dishes, such as cold melon soup with a creamy dollop, and Portabello mushroom/leek loaf.
Our hosts, Kristi and Jill, pleasantly interacted with us throughout our time together; they ate with us and participated in our open discussion. Host Kristi shared with us concerning the Abbey. Built in 1910, it served as a church building for fifty years, then as restaurant for 25 years, then for 25 years as it present venue. As the Hornblower’s “land” location, it hosts weddings, proms, dinners, and many other events. The Abbey can customize any food item.
The Hornblower provides full service event planners for its seven different-sized boats as well as for the Abbey. The boats also give harbor tours.
President Ann opened the meeting by introducing an open forum, which addressed good business practices, emphasizing the importance of our being “vendors of distinction.” As we dined, our industrious board members gave a well-organized, helpful presentation, along with a printed outline.
Strongly stressed was the value of high integrity, in such matters as timely response to clients, consistency, sincerity, and compassion toward often-stressed brides. We were advised to pay attention to our branding–identifying our own specific type of client–and also to consider using free service of interns for assistance in our business activities.
Next month we’ll be meeting at the studio of Hartworks Floral Design and dining on delicious San Diego Paella!
