Success story highlights the challenges of expat life in Europe and the power of perseverance
COLICO, Italy— Jan 16—WeddingBox, the award-winning destination wedding planning business based in Colico, Italy, on Jan 15 announced that it has successfully expanded across Europe through franchising. The company, founded in 2009 by Sally Sephora, a British expat, offers a full range of wedding planning services for couples wishing to get married in Europe. Her success story highlights the challenges of expat life, as well as the power of perseverance in building a business abroad.
“We are thrilled to be in expansion mode,” explained Sephora. “When we started WeddingBox, we were just trying to keep the lights on…literally. Now, we are planning dozens of weddings a year in Europe’s most scenic and romantic locales. We are in the business of making your wedding dreams come true.”
WeddingBox offers a range of services for destination weddings in Europe. These include full wedding planning, along with coordination on the day of the wedding itself. The company can facilitate proposals, elopements and ceremonies, plan extra events, and arrange photo shoots. It also offers corporate event planning services. WeddingBox now has locations in Lake Como, Lake Garda, Lake Orta, Lake Maggiore, Tuscany, Paris, Lisbon, the Algarve, and Cyprus.
The path to success was not simple for Sephora, who emigrated to Italy with her husband and son in 2007. The dream of living abroad ran into a number of challenging realities, and the couple, along with their two small children, almost found themselves living on the street. “I wrote a big list of ideas down, and as soon as I thought about weddings,” Sephora said. “I felt immediately excited. It was the first idea that genuinely gave me energy and made me believe I could build something meaningful. I started WeddingBox on the kitchen table with my phone and my old laptop. The early years were tough and slow. Gradually, I got good reviews from couples I had helped, and I became more experienced.”
Sephora is now teaching other wedding planners how to run their own WeddingBox franchise in other European locales. She provides training, systems, and real-world experience.
For more information, visit www.weddingboxlakecomo.com
Photo by Jeremy Wong: