About Mark Willand Productions

Born and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, Mark Willand graduated from Worcester State College in 1985 with a degree in Communications.  A year later, he fulfilled a lifelong ambition when we was named Assistant Director of Public Relations with the National Hockey League's Hartford Whalers (now the Carolina Hurricanes).

During Willand's six year career in Hartford, the Whalers were recognized for having the NHL's premier media guide (1987,1988, 1989) and top press box (1988, 1989, 1990).  Willand served as the liaison between the players and the media and authored over 400 feature articles for GOAL Magazine

In 1989, The Whaler fans awarded Willand with the coveted  "'Alan Hanglseban Award" for service to the Whalers fans and Hartford community.

In 1993 Willand was hired by the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins to spearhead the team's pay per view cable network, PenVision.  In addition to marketing the new entity, Willand also produced a home shopping program and television commercials for PenVision.

When the Penguins sold their TV and marketing rights to Fox Sports in 1995, Willand and his staff joined the network and made a major impact on the Pittsburgh sports media scene.

While with Prime Sports and later Fox Sports, Willand created and produced the "Players' Show", a sports magazine program that served as the pre-game show for the Penguins and baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates.  On the Players Show, Willand hired many sports legends as co-hosts, including former Penguins Troy Loney, Peter Taglianetti and Jay Caufield as well as Pirates legends Sid Bream, Mark Johnson and Bob Walk.

In addition to televison production,Willand secured lucrative marketing deals with hockey legend Mario Lemieux and produced numerous TV commericals and the Penguins official team video, "Fire on Ice."

During this period Willand spent 80-hour weeks in TV studios honing his video production skills.  Working with an award-winning production team Willand learned what it took to produce network-quality televison programing under demanding deadlines.

In 1998 Willand returned to the Bay State and realized another lifelong dream when he formed Willand Video Productions.  By 2001, Willand had become one of New England's most prolific video producers, finding a unique niche documenting weddings on video.

By taking a TV producers approach to weddings, Willand helped transform a profession once know for cheesy low-quality work into a high-quality journalistic art form.

Mark Willand and his team are recommended by many of New England's premier wedding professionals.  Legendary photographer Steven P. Ericson, a 30-year wedding veteran, has called Mark Willand  "The rising star in the wedding industry."

Willand has appeared in numerous publications including the Hartford Courant, Norwich Bulletin, the Hockey News and NBC's Today Show.

Willand recently created and produces the nation's premnier wedding planning TV show -- weddings24x7.com. and the ultimate guide to WHA Hockey:  Mark Willand's WHA Hockey Blog.

Mark and his wife Rose reside in the Blackstone Valley with their daughter Lauren and son Stephen.