Today we’d like to introduce you to Vlada Washington.
Vlada, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I can’t honestly say when it all had started, but I remember being 8 years old putting up the talent shows with my best friend for the neighborhood kids. Later in the Middle and High School, I was always planning and coordinating most of the events. And just in general, growing up I loved to be involved with all the social events and activities. When it came to choose my degree, I decided to go with Hospitality Management that geared me up to working in the Hotel industry.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The path to my dream job as Wedding and Events – Catering Sales Manager at beautiful Moody Gardens Hotel was not easy. I have started working at Moody Gardens Hotel in September 2011 in a position of a banquet server and then moved to be a restaurant server. A year later I left Food and Beverage department to work as a Front Desk Agent where, I got my first promotion to a Front Desk Supervisor. Just a little later there was an opening for a managerial position at Moody Gardens Convention Center, so I applied and finally moved closer to world of the events. Outside of everything else, in this position I learned something very important in the event planning industry – design of CAD Diagrams that are so essential for all visual thinkers like myself. Another year has passed, and I came back to the Front Desk as an Assistant of Front Desk Manager and that was the last “stepping stone”. In March 2016, I was promoted to the Catering Sales Manager position where I finally jumped into the world of beautiful weddings, grand balls, amazing proms and many others awesome events. Every department/position came in with new rules, new colleagues, new responsibilities and at the times the transitions were not as smooth as I had to learn a lot of new information very fast to stay efficient. However, the experience I received from working in all these positions really helped me to see the event planning from different perspectives. And it’s important, especially at such a unique property as Moody Gardens.
Moody Gardens Weddings – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Moody Gardens Hotel, Spa, and Convention Center is a Four Diamond Resort that features 428 guest rooms, including 10 hospitalities and 8 junior suites. Between the hotel and the Convention Center we have over 103,000 square feet of combined convention and meeting space. The hotel’s other amenities include a Texas-sized heated pool, as well as a full-service spa, fine and casual dining, 24-hour room service, an indoor lap pool and fitness center, Moody Brews Starbucks outlet, Garden Cay activity room and the Moody Gardens Golf Course.
Our Resort also includes the Moody Gardens Rainforest, Aquarium and Discovery pyramids, 4-d and 3-d movie theaters, Palm Beach water-park, Colonel Paddlewheel boat. The coolest and most amazing thing about Moody Gardens is that it’s non-profit. Our mission statement says: “Moody Gardens is a public, non-profit, educational destination utilizing nature in the advancement of rehabilitation, conservation, recreation and research”. This is really inspiring, especially for such a nature loving person as myself. Not only I get to see and be a part of people’s lives as they celebrate their special occasions, but also be a part of an organization that helps the animals and nature.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I was meeting with one of my beautiful brides and her family. She was expressing her vision about how she wants the Wedding day to flow (time wise). There was a lot of controversial suggestions coming from her family members, so she got very confused and didn’t know what to do. Suddenly she looked up to me and said: “I’ll go with what Vlada thinks would be the best thing to do. I trust her.” That was the proudest moment of my whole career. I believe earning client’s trust is the main indicator of being excellent at anything we do.
Contact Info:
- Address: 7 Hope blvd., Galveston, Texas 77554
- Website: www.moodygardenshotel.com
- Phone: 409-683-4418
- Email: vwashington@moodygardens.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moodygardensweddings/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MoodyGardensWeddings/
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/MGHotelWEDDING/
Image Credit:
Creative Photography by Manny Chan, Maria Lara Photography
Getting in touch: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
