Bermudians Katie Trimingham and Chloe Lusher are expanding their event planning business to take advantage of a burgeoning destination wedding trend.

“This year and the next are predicted to have the largest number of destination weddings coming from the United States, in history,” said Ms Lusher, who runs All The Trimmings with Ms Trimingham.

Tropical weddings are particularly popular. Mexico and Hawaii top the favourites list. The pair want a piece of the action.

“We are hoping to convince people that we have got something really special here in Bermuda,” Ms Lusher said. “It is really about putting Bermuda on the map for American and Canadian clients.”

In the last year, Ms Trimingham has seen an influx of North American clients.

“That increase in business has been purely from word of mouth,” she said. “I got to the point where I could not do it on my own any more, which is why I recently took on Chloe as a partner.”

Ms Trimingham started All The Trimmings in 2013 purely focused on weddings. Now the friends will be organising other events as well.

“We are hoping to work with some American brands to bring people here for weekend excursions,” Ms Lusher said.

All The Trimmings will be offering several new packages, one of them being for milestone celebrations.

“We will be doing everything from birthdays to graduations and retirements,” Ms Lusher said. “We are also taking corporate projects like retreats.”

They want to be all encompassing. “We will keep doing weddings as well, as that is Katie’s speciality,” Ms Lusher said.

They want to bring a new energy to the island, and have assembled a team of seven people to work with, who are youthful and well-connected.

Ms Trimingham came into wedding planning after graduating from university with a degree in psychology.

After working for another wedding planner, she took a job in food and beverage at Rosewood Tucker’s Point in Hamilton Parish for several years.

“I was seeing a lot of weddings and really fell in love with the business,” she said.

She admitted the planning can be stressful, but loves seeing everything come together.

“Ninety-nine per cent of my brides are happy and easy to work with,” Ms Trimingham said. “I handle it one day at a time, and just smile and nod.”

When planning weddings, one of her biggest obstacles is largely out of her control.

“We have had some challenging events due to weather,” she said. “A wedding is such an emotional day for everyone. It is not a corporate event where there will be another one next week.”

Ms Lusher lives in New York City, where she has worked as a comedian and as a show and screen producer.

She spent two years working on a true crime documentary for a large television and movie screen platform, only for the project to be dropped at the last minute.

“It felt like a massive loss, but you live and learn,” she said. “Since then I have been working on some smaller freelance development projects.”

Her screen production experience comes in handy with event planning.

“With both, you always have to have a vision of something way bigger than what is in that particular moment,” she said. “I have an ability to picture it, and make it happen.”

During wedding season she will be in Bermuda for three weeks followed by a week in New York. After weddings slow down in September, she will switch the schedule over.