This week, I chatted with Avis Glenister, the owner of Peach & Pearl Events, the owner of Carillon Weddings and Events, and the founder of 30A Wedding Co. I've had the pleasure of being a part of several weddings with Avis as the coordinator, and she is even more of a delight to work with than she sounds with her charming Southern accent.
We got to talk about how she arrived here from Georgia, the different levels of wedding coordination, how to properly budget for your wedding, as well as how important expectations are when getting ready for the biggest day of your life. She also shared the most interesting answer to my favorite "Getting to know you" question as well as hope for weddings in the future.
This Highlight Weddings & Events Podcast was edited and produced by DropHouse Voiceover Production Studio and Tony Tee Neto, Voiceover Artist & Audio Producer. For more info on branding elements, editing, and post-production services, visit http://drophouse.com.
The intro and outro used for this episode is Crush by https://audiohub.comLicense: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
This week, I chatted with Avis Glenister, the owner of Peach & Pearl Events, the owner of Carillon Weddings and Events, and the founder of 30A Wedding Co. I've had the pleasure of being a part of several weddings with Avis as the coordinator, and she is even more of a delight to work with than she sounds with her charming Southern accent.
We got to talk about how she arrived here from Georgia, the different levels of wedding coordination, how to properly budget for your wedding, as well as how important expectations are when getting ready for the biggest day of your life. She also shared the most interesting answer to my favorite "Getting to know you" question as well as hope for weddings in the future.
This Highlight Weddings & Events Podcast was edited and produced by DropHouse Voiceover Production Studio and Tony Tee Neto, Voiceover Artist & Audio Producer. For more info on branding elements, editing, and post-production services, visit http://drophouse.com.
The intro and outro used for this episode is Crush by https://audiohub.comLicense: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
[Crush - Royalty-Free Music by https://audiohub.com License: CC by (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)]
Josh: This is Episode 7 of Make Your Wedding a Highlight. My name is DJ Josh from Highlight Weddings and Events. My guest today is Avis Glenister, owner of Peach and Pearl Events and Carillon Weddings in Carrilon Beach, and the founder of 30A Wedding Co.
Tony Tee Neto from DropHouse: If you’re getting ready to, or already in the process of planning your wedding, you’ve come to the right place. DJ Josh, owner of Highlights Weddings and Events, interviews other local 30A wedding pros to offer insight about how to make your wedding a highlight.
Josh: Well, hello, everyone. Thanks for stopping by and checking out the podcast today. I have a very special guest. Her name is Avis Glenister. She is the owner and creative director of Peach and Pearl Events. She’s also the owner of Carillon Weddings as well as the founder of the 30A Wedding Company. How are you doing today?
Avis: I’m wonderful. How are you?
Josh: I’m doing alright. The weather is much better than it was yesterday.
Avis: Yes, I agree.
Josh: So let’s just get it started. How did you get into weddings.
Avis: Well, it’s kind of a long story. I’ve been in it for this is 12 years.
Josh: Awesome.
Avis: So I will say that the journey started back when my parents shipped me off to UGA and built a house on 30A. I graduated with my bachelor’s in social work, which I feel is pretty unique for me as a planner. Then I eventually followed them down here and worked in restaurants and the hospitality industry. Became assistant front desk manager over at the hotel over in Carillon Beach. And that just sparked my relationship with the creator, or the founder, of Carillon Weddings in Carillon Beach. We had a relationship. I started working for her. Fell in love with it, obviously. Who doesn’t fall in love with celebrating love? And then I ended up working for her. She ended up retiring and selling the business to me. I took over and decided to rebrand and restructure for today’s bride and the rest is sort of history. It’s been a great journey.
Josh: Very cool. So you’ve worn a lot of different hats within the wedding industry.
Avis: Yes, that’s for sure.
Josh: So, what excites you about weddings? And I actually share a similar affinity to weddings as far as I love being a part of love. For me it’s a reminder of my wedding with my wife. And, it’s really cool to be a part of that kind of atmosphere. But what in particular excites you about being involved in weddings?
Avis: Beyond celebrating the couple, I really love that our area is probably 98% of the weddings that I doare destination. To me, that means the clients and most of their guests are coming in from out of state or out of town. So for me I really love to love on their guests. The obvious answer is you know making the client feel special and the bride feel special because I do. But to me something that we focus on and really excel at, I think, is making sure those guests traveled and spent the time and taken off work and footing the bills for their rooms or their rental homes or whatever. Just to know they’re so loved and that they wanted them to be a part of this. So we wanted to make sure we love on them and make sure that they realize how thankful they are that they came to sacrifice and come to celebrate with them.
Josh: That actually made me think of something. It’s easy living in this area to kind of be like “Oh, there’s the beach, whatever, it’s always there.” But, it’s really cool that the guests and the couples that are coming down here since it’s a destination wedding, they don’t get to always be around the beach. So, it’s kind of like that excitement which is really nice. It’s very easy to be kind of jaded about the beach. Not that it’s not beautiful and wonderful but it’s like when that’s where you’re office is, it’s good to have that reminder of “Oh, yeah! This is something to really be excited about and really cherish and enjoy.”
Avis: I agree. I even love when I take them on a tour somewhere and we’re checking out different venues and you kind of get to see those venues you’ve seen millions of times through their eyes and through their excitement. They’re envisioning spending their best day of their life so far i guess at that location, so it just makes it exciting all over again to be able to see these venues and our beautiful beaches through their eyes. It’s a world of a difference I think.
Josh: Definitely. So, for those couples, what can they do to make working with you a highlight for their wedding?
Avis: Trust. Let go. You’re hiring me for a reason. Obviously we have a few different ways that we want to make sure initially that we’re a good match. When you’re new as a planner, I feel like you’re like “Ok, well you’ll pay me. You trust me to run your day.” But now that I’ve been in it for so long I know I will love your wedding that much more if we have a great relationship and trust just has to be there, so if people can let go and let me do my job. You know, you trust me to hire all the different vendors that I think will take care of you the best and will fit your aesthetic or your personality or your budget. For all those reasons I just want to make sure it’s a great experience all the way around. The best thing they can do is let go. Especially with clients that are a self-proclaimed type A. And I’m not nervous about those people. I love them because I get it. But I also want to make sure that they can feel confident in their decision and that’s why they hired me to let me just take care of things.
Josh: I used to be a realtor. And, a wedding coordinator is pretty much a realtor for a wedding. What a good realtor does is they can help you find your house but that’s pretty much something you can do on your own. What a good realtor does is they make sure that they take care of everything that needs to be taken care of so you can just show up and sign the documents and either sell or buy the house.
The benefit of a good coordinator, event planner, or a designer is you’ve vetted the different wedding professionals and the different wedding companies. And you’re also getting an idea “Ok, what’s this couple’s style. What’s this couple’s personality?” So you can almost help to focus their search so that they don’t interview different wedding pros where you know their personality is not going to mesh very well with the couple. Or even their vision. There are different florists that are going to be suited for different types of clients.
Avis: 100% for sure. And otherwise all these girls or guys know is looking on instagram and seeing “Oh, that’s a pretty flower.” Well, but do you know that they are questionable at showing up on time? Or do they finish their event on time on the back end. So our expertise that you’re hiring us for is also knowing problems before you realize that there’s a problem. We make sure we skirt around that by hiring vendors that are tried and true that we don’t have to worry about that stress.
Now priorities and if it’s budget. So then you just hire a planner that goes “Ok, I know they have this reputation or I’ve had this experience in the past so I’m going to overplan. They need to know that they need to be finished with setup by a time way earlier than you would let other people finish by so that you know all those puzzle pieces to make sure you can foresee the potential of hiccups before they even happen and you can just squash those.
I think that’s a huge difference between hiring a veteran, someone who’s been in the industry for a long time. They’ve seen things that fall apart. I’d be lying if I said I knew everything. I think I’ve learned something at every wedding still to this day. Hundred of weddings under my belt. I think if you go in with that knowledge that you’re going to learn something new and take something from that every time, that’s just what makes you a better planner. And not that things are ever perfect. Things will potentially go wrong but if you hire a professional, they will handle things so nobody will know the otherwise. They will never know better. Nothing happened. It was all seamless.
Josh: So let’s talk about the event planner or the wedding coordinator specifically. What’s a good way for couples to decide what the level of service they’re going to need will be?
Avis: I can only speak for myself. There are a wonderful group of incredible planners down here. Many of us started around the same time but I can definitely speak for myself and knowing our area and our market. But, for me, there’s only a handful of people that actually do design work and would consider themselves event designers. So, we’re there from, technically you can start anything on your own but once we’re hired, we’ll start out from the beginning and kind of walk everybody through all the different parts.
It’s really for the clients that are super busy at home. Whether they have really taxing jobs. I’ve certainly had my fair share of ER doctors and things like that. Where they’re like “I really don’t have time to plan a wedding.” And, they just trust you to be able to hand over and make all the big decisions. We have lots of fun questionnaires and conversations that I dive deeper into making sure I know exactly what they’re thoughts are, what their priorities are. But then they trust me to hand it over and let me make some design decisions. And then pretty much I meet vendors on their behalf and do more of a presentation style of wedding planning.
A lot of people think it’s easy to pick and choose but then it’s like “I love it. I don’t like that. That’s perfect. Can we do this instead?” It’s easier for them to change something that’s already presented to them than from starting from scratch. It’s also for the clients that, honestly, they know that they get overwhelmed really easily. They don’t want to sit there and make a million decisions with the florist. They don’t want to sit there and make a million different chair choices. We kind of handle all that on the front end for them. And present it for them of course all their decisions come to play. And they can customize it to whatever they want but it’s a lot less muss and fuss about it.
I would say there’s a logistical planning aspect that I would say the majority of planners down here offer that consider themselves full service. It’s logistical planning. So we help choose the vendors and then go to the vendor meetings. We take copious notes and weigh in expertise. And just kind play google to them. Every time they have a question we just respond via email. So that’s more of a logistical planning standpoint.
And then if you really feel like whether it’s your venue that just requires a planner and you are used to having that midwestern family that loves to help and decorate and things like that. And do things and you want someone to help you get down the aisle, there are planners that offer more of a day-of service. Although I don’t think it’s really day-of anymore. I would consider it more, we like to call it, event management. We offer it on a very limited basis. It’s normally for clients that are booking semi-last minute or not on a prime date. We will offer it.
Our management starts 60 days out. It’s really a wrap up service. You’ve done most of your things. You should already have all of your vendors and proposals in place. We don’t handle budget or anything in that level of service. But we will of course wrap everything up. Dot all the I’s and cross all the T’s. Fine-tooth comb a timeline. All the good things like who’s escorting who and what song do you want to walk down to. All that good stuff. And then we will execute everything and wrap it back up for you in a pretty package. It’s still to us in that 60-day window, we choose that because i feel at that point you’re still waiting for your guest count to come in and there are ways that we can come in and say, “So after looking at everything, here are some suggestions that I would make that won’t make a huge impact on your budget but I think would make a huge impact on your event overall for your guests.”
We really specialize in high touch. So I want to know, even if it’s just doing event management or someone from my team is. That we still kind of put our stamp on it and it’s something that we’re proud of, It’s something that we want to make sure that the guests. We kind of go back to the beginning. What makes us excited. To be able to love on guests. And make everyone feel comfortable and welcome and that then in turn makes the parents of the bride calm. And, of course, in turn the bride. So they can all enjoy their day.
Josh: Definitely. So let’s say hypothetically, and I’m sure because of what has happened recently with coronavirus that some couples are going to opt to do a shorter engagement, how would you recommend couples go about planning their wedding so that they still have an amazing day even though they don't have a lot of or as much time as you would typically have for a wedding planning?
Avis: The obvious answer is to hire a planner who knows what they’re doing. Don’t just hire somebody that’s a warm body because the biggest issues that I think have happen with a smaller or shorter engagement is you want to make sure things aren’t missed. So knowing pieces of the puzzle before you realize “Oh, I never thought about where am I getting the forks or the knives for this? Or, Who’s supplying the napkins? I never really thought about that.” So those are the things that we want to make sure that were covered in some shape or form. No matter how formal or informal your wedding is we still want to make sure some basic necessities are in order.
And then from there, it’s like, I’ve certainly done plenty of weddings in less than 30 days or 60 days actually. One of my biggest ones was 175 guests and we planned it in about 40 days. So a little over a month because he was about to deploy. So we had to hurry up and get it done. But it was beautiful and it’s still one of my favorite weddings to date.
But it’s getting all those puzzle pieces together really quickly. Knowing someone that can look through all these vendors’ proposals and make sure nothing is missing. It might throw a little bump in the normal process of design but knowing that you have somebody guiding you and holding your hand through the whole process makes a huge difference.
I think knowing where you can get a beautiful dress that you don’t have to buy off the rack at David’s Bridal or something like that I think you can still have a lovely wedding without skimping in some areas. But thankfully you can really focus on your guest list and those people that you’re likely inviting in that short engagement for whatever reason is. They’re the people that would be there if you told them you were getting married on the moon. They would be there.
For the most part knowing that the guest list are the people that are going to come. At something that’s a short engagement, there’s not a whole lot of time for people to plan accommodations and things like that, so I think those people. Those are your important guest list, your VIPs for sure. There tends to be a more intimate event when there’s a shorter engagement in my experience.
Josh: I’ve found that if it’s a more intimate event, it’s actually usually somewhat better in a way. I’ve touched on this a couple of times. Well, those people are invested in the couple. They’re not just there because “Oh, yeah. Let’s go. It’s gonna be fun.” They’re there because they want to be part of that big day.
Avis: I totally agree.
My sister’s actually getting married next year, which is awesome. In my family, I'm the oldest of eight and we have a lot of aunts and uncles on both sides and she asked me if I invited the cousins and stuff like that. And I told her "No, because I'm not really close with them or wasn't really close with them at the time." So it didn't really make any sense to invite people that I wasn't really too familiar with. I don't think you should ever invite people out of a sense of obligation.
Avis: I agree and I think the beauty of a destination wedding is you can always fall back on that. And say, “It’s destination. We’re just keeping it intimate to our closest friends and family,” and just do that. No obligatory invites. I totally agree. Because your luck, they’ll show up because they wanted to come to the beach or whatever you know so you have to sort of plan if you really don’t want to invite those people just how that goes. And I think people understand.
Josh: So you mentioned budget. What are some things that couples can afford to possibly skimp on and what are some things that you think they should splurge on as far as figuring out what they're going to be spending their money on for the wedding?
Avis: Well, it’s sort of a loaded question. I don’t think I can personally guide them unless I know what their priorities are.
Josh: Well, then what would be the criteria for deciding how they should best allocate their budget?
Avis: Prioritizing. Figuring out “Ok, well is it more important that you stay within this overall budget or is it more important that all 150 people have to come?” Because that totally changes the scope of what their wedding is going to look like and their budget, in general. Though, if they want all the things and they want this epic instagram-worthy, pinterest-worthy thing and they will love that already speaks to me that it’s going to be a high budget wedding. But if you come in and you’re telling me that it’s a wedding that you want to do it on the cheap, that’s completely different. So some people come in and tell me they’re 100% foodies. So I’ve already narrowed down in my head who I would recommend for food and catering or a restaurant or whatever.
And I think that’s all this ever evolving conversation of doing our job and being and knowing all the options out there but also a huge part of my job is managing expectations so most of these people unless they’ve been married multiple times or they have siblings that have been married already, they have no clue what they’re getting into. They have no clue what things cost. Most of the wedding education out there in blog form or whatever is false. I just think it is. I think these girls are misinformed, unfortunately. No one’s trying to rip anybody off. There’s a lot of work and effort and pressure that goes into somebody’s biggest day of their life. So there is a lot at stake in that. And equipment and shipping things.
Josh: Tthere’s also the point that different regions have different pricing. Costs for things are going to be different. What could be normal in let’s say the midwest for example could be either low or drastically higher down here and vice versa. It definitely depends. You have to check the source. What is their context? What are they writing from? Or you could go with how much things are in California? California is the land of everything expensive. You can’t just be like “Oh, yeah. That’s how much this thing is supposed to be.” You have to make sure you’re getting the appropriate context for what you’re reading.
Avis: I really agree with all of that.
Josh: So as everybody is experiencing coronavirus, I just thought it would be cool to kinda get your take and see what your experience has been like. How have you been adapting to the things that have been put in place for COVID-19?
Avis: When it comes to dealing with things and handling things, it’s just trying to be patient. And continuing to have empathy for these people but also not lose our businesses. I mean, you want to bend as much as you can for these girls, and their families, without breaking. Because nobody knows anything and nobody knows the future, if it’s going to happen again or if we will see it again next year, or whatever it is. I think the best thing that we can all do is look out for each other. Literally, everyone is in this at the same time. And just dealing with things as they come.
We try to be fair. We’re human. That’s sort of the beauty of a small business but it’s also the hardest part of a small business. To be able to stay afloat and pay our bills and do all the things. We’re just chugging along. And we’re really looking forward to being able to celebrate with people again.
I’ve put in submissions. I’ve obviously worked closely with Carillon Beach and now I’ve sent one over to The Pearl about our future of weddings and what I would recommend because it really just has not had been much of a discussion down here as to when these venues are opening. Because if venues don’t open, then we can’t book anything. I’ve had many people reach out and they’re so precious and I really want to help them. But, I don’t feel right in the midst of postponements and moving and cancelling and all that stuff to take anybody’s money or contract that’s a huge investment to be able to not have a definite answer. To be like “Yes, you’ll be able to have a wedding in july. Yes, you’ll be able to have a wedding in september.” I don’t know that yet. Until venues make a decision.
So, I figured I’d beat them by saying “Hey! I’ve already presented this to Carillon. We are definitely moving into Phase 2 as soon as the governor says they are moving into phase 2. I think we are the only venue in the 30A area that is now confidently allowing 10 person weddings or less. Because even in Phase 1 when that was technically allowed, no one was still allowing that. I think that’s a big difference.
I try to be a forward thinker and instead of them being like “Ugh, we don’t know. We don’t know what to do with weddings. Are we responsible for them gathering? Do we make them wear facemasks?” And I’m like “No. You don’t make them. You can’t make anybody go to Publix and do it. But you can have them around and make it easy for them to feel comfortable by putting them on. You can have it cute and branded. It can match the linens if you wanted to.” You can do whatever you want. But I think to make it comfortable for as many guests as possible.
The people that are going to be uncomfortable at the wedding are not going to come to the wedding, in general. You know what I’m saying? That’s what people aren’t really understanding. The extreme people that don’t want to touch anybody or hug anybody or dance near anybody, those people are likely not going to come at all. It’ll break my heart to know that grandparents can’t come to weddings and things like that so there are concessions for that and trying to. I mean I have my own hotspot now that I invested in so that I know wherever we are we can broadcast it for somebody.
It’s like always thinking beyond and outside the box to see just like anything. Make sure that any issues that arise we can already cut them off before they can happen. Making things readily available. Have on-brand and pretty hand sanitizer stations. I have all of that ready to go. So, we’re just waiting for venues to open up. We’re here and still chugging along and ready to celebrate these people.
When I was meeting with the board for Carillon Beach on Friday, they were asking me if the short term rentals were holding people back. I said “At this point, these people just want to be married.” This isn’t just a party. This is somebody joining, signing a document. All those things that make it so special and wanting to celebrate it with their closest friends and family. They just want to get married. That’s why there’s so many people that are getting married on Zoom and they don’t even need all that stuff. They just want to be married. I think if we can still make it a really exceptional experience for them for sticking it out and yeah. It’ll be really exciting when things can kind of get back to “normal”. We’ll just always be cautious for all the same safety standards that we always try to hold ourselves to anyways. But just more for guests now.
Josh: It’s just a very weird time. I am looking forward to getting back and being a part of weddings but you definitely want to be measured and not do too much too soon and something happening again. It’s a very tough position to be in, not only for the different wedding professionals and the venues, but also the government
Avis: Especially the government.
Josh: Because nobody knows what we’re dealing with really. We know what it’s called but we don’t know what could happen or even sometimes what has already happened. Just because of the way testing has been.
Avis: Yes, and unfortunately, it’s become yet another polarizing issue with our country. There’s always going to be people that are the people that are for it or against opening. It’s extremes, so you just have to walk that line of doing what you think is the best for the most amount of people.
Josh: Thank you for sharing all of that wonderful wedding business information but now we’re going to talk about Avis, the person. How’s that sound?
Avis: Oh, gosh. Sounds great.
Josh: This is one of my favorite getting to know you questions. What did you want to be when you grew up?
Avis: Oh my goodness. So I was just talking about it yesterday but I really in my heart wanted to start my own non-profit and build a building that was like a community center. And in my dream of dreams that is still gonna happen in South Walton. I still want to build an epic community center that events can happen at that is beautifully done but it’s a safe place for groups to gather, kids to play, organization to go to and meet with their people, and showcase art of local artists. You know, do all those kinds of things and programs. We don’t have anything like that and we didn’t have any thing like that. I mean now there is now that I’m gone in Metro Atlanta, but growing up that’s something I really had a heart for. Even in high school that’s something that I really wanted for our community.
Josh: That’s so cool!
Avis: It still translates here. I stay up at night thinking about this. I literally have floor plans in my mind of how I would want it to be. I have enough TDC connections. I’m sure I could make that happen here. But it’s definitely in my scope of future endeavors.
Josh: That is probably the coolest answer I’ve ever of that question.
Avis: Really? That’s funny.
Josh: Yes! It’s so cool.
Avis: Did you want me to say like “Doctor”?
Josh: No! No, no, no, no.
Avis: Brain surgeon.
Josh: Actually, the two photographers that I’ve talked to they both said that they wanted to be photographers when they grew up.
Avis: Oh, that’s lovely.
Josh: No but, it’s just that I love how varied the responses can be. For me, I wanted to be a fighter pilot because my dad was in the Air Force, I grew up on Eglin AFB, which is the local Air Force Base in the area. And just fighter pilots are just so cool. It’s just interesting to see where everyone kind of envisioned themselves. But like with you, even though that’s not what you’re doing now, that’s very much, what you’re doing it relates to it very closely.
Avis: It definitely translates, so I mean, I manage an office and a work space. And, we built it out to what our specifications of what we needed. We talked with the builder. We picked the colors and the floorings and all that stuff. And the doors because we wanted sunshine to come in. All those things, I’m like “Yes. This is a very mini scale.” I wanted people to gather. I wanted people to do work here and also hang out and make it comfortable. It is still translating ona smaller scale but I would love to see that dream come into fruition one day. I think that it’s something that this area, as we’re growing, of course there’s huge influxes of tourists that keep us alive down here. We also have an incredible group of growing locals that don’t have things like that. We just don’t have the space to gather, beyond a church. We really just don’t have anything like that here. It’s kind of my goal. I love to bring people together. And I think it all is kind of to my core, I guess.
Josh: I can attest to the fact that the 30A Wedding Company’s office is very well done. It’s very welcoming.
Avis: You should see it now thanks to Coronavirus. We have lots of greenery.
Josh: Ah, nice. I’ll have to come by and check it out soon.
Avis: Come on by any time.
Josh: So, my next question is what’s the best compliment someone has ever given you?
Avis: That I’m genuine and that I am the same person everyday. That I treat people the same way basically. I don’t know. I think that really speaks the world to me. Any time I have a referral from a client or a vendor event, it just warms me and makes me so happy because I know I took care of somebody enough that they would recommend my services. And, then I’m like, “Challenge accepted! I’m going to make sure that you know why I was recommended to you.” But I think when a friend told me, “I love how consistent you are. You are always that same person. I know you’re not going to be back stabbing or whatever one day. And then super happy.” I don’t know. That’s just who I am. I wear my emotions on my sleeve. And I think that hopefully, I attract other people that way and those are the people I want to be around. They’re kind. You know you just want people with a good heart. I really value genuine connection.
Josh: I think that the way you are is very much like a Southern thing. Because, how small the area is, if you’re not consistent, people will figure that out. And there’s going to be an element of distrust that goes into that when dealing with somebody who’s not the same every day. It helps to build rapport and being genuine goes a long way at just in the South, in general. If you’re fake or if you kind of have mood swings, it’s just not a good thing. And, people always want to know, “Ok. Who am I dealing with?” Instead of just having to be like, “Oh. She must not be having a good week because she’s treating everybody like blah, blah, blah.” Just be you.
Avis: That’s true.
Josh: So, last question. And I realize we’ve had a little bit more free time as of late, though, because of the amount of hats that you’ve had to wear, you probably haven’t had as much as everyone else. But, if you were to have a Saturday where you didn’t have a wedding or event, what would be the ideal way for you to spend it?
Avis: 100% would be with my kids. I would love to be back at a water park or something. But for now, we’ve been really soaking in our time. We’ve been going to the beach. It’s been so nice once they opened it up for the locals it was a blessing to be able to watch them run around and that’s our backyard. So we want them to be able to enjoy where they live and not take it for granted. Sometimes I look at them and think “Y'all don’t even know how good you have it! You get to go to the beach. It’s five minutes from our house, and you can just be in this beautiful Gulf.” And just having a day with them. I think the best thing about this time is the slow down. You’ve heard everybody say it. I’m 100% a workaholic, so to find so much joy in spending time with my family again has been something that you can’t put a price tag on. Money lost or time lost or whatever from working all the time. It’s nice to slow down and see them. They’re still at a fun, cute little age of 3 and 5, so it’s been nice to spend extra time with them. That’s for sure.
Josh: That sounds like a really good Saturday. Do you have any thoughts or things that you’d like to share with the guests?
Avis: I think that we’re all in this together. I think spreading kindness and giving people grace now is the best gift you can give anybody right now.
Josh: Indeed. So how can potential couples get in touch with you?
Avis: They can go through our website or Instagram. They’re always welcome to schedule a call. I love chatting with people. Obviously, I can send information but it’s so much nicer to have that actual conversation with somebody and kind of get to know them. Because not only do I want the client to feel like I’m a good fit for them but I also want my clients to be a good fit for me. So I want to know that we can work together well and have the same sort of vision together.
Josh: And what’s the website?
Avis: peachandpearlevents.com and if you’re looking for a beautiful venue, I guess they can go to carillonweddings.com.
Josh: Well, Avis. Thanks for taking the time to chat with me. I had a pleasure. I hope you did, too.
Avis: I did. It was wonderful. Thank you. A nice little break.
Josh: Yeah. And I’m looking forward to when we can start congregating and meeting together so we can have like a 30A Wedding Co mixer.
Avis: Most definitely!
Josh: Wedding professionals get together. Sanity from having to be stuck inside all day.
Avis: Yes. I agree. We’re actually tossing around trying to put together a mock wedding.
Josh: Ooh! That’d be fun!
Avis: Just to be able to show local people that we can do this with social distancing standards. So we’re working on that. If you want to be a part of it let me know.
[Crush - Royalty-Free Music by https://audiohub.com License: CC by (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)]
Josh: Definitely keep me in the loop.
Avis: Ok. Will do. Thanks so much, Josh.
Tony Tee Neto from DropHouse Productions: Thanks for stopping by and checking out the podcast. If you like what you’ve heard, please subscribe and leave a review. It will help other couples just like you find it. For more resources, including our helpful blog, check highlightweddingsandevents.com. And make your wedding a highlight!