Wedding Hive Podcast
Giving you the tea and ALL the buzz in the wedding world! New episodes every Wednesday!
Wedding Hive Podcast
004- A Wedding Planners Guide For Planning Your Unique Wedding
Chelsea from Black Tie Optional shares her journey from corporate event planner to award-winning wedding planner, revealing how her passion for creating unique, personalized celebrations has transformed countless couples' special days. Her approach to wedding planning focuses on authenticity and originality, helping couples break free from traditional expectations to create experiences that genuinely reflect their personalities and love stories.
• Becoming an award-winning planner after starting her business during COVID when vendors recognized her exceptional skills
• The importance of the "big three" early decisions: venue, date, and budget
• Why staying true to yourself is the ultimate wedding planning philosophy
• Creating unique experiences like book wall installations and Harry Potter-inspired floating candle displays
• Strategies for handling opinionated family members, especially those contributing financially
• Essential vendor booking timeline: which professionals to secure first
• The value of videography—why it's the one thing couples most regret skipping
• Designing weddings that showcase Arizona's natural beauty rather than following trends
Use code HIVE25 to get a special discount on Chelsea's upcoming DIY wedding planning course launching June 1st, 2025. The course will guide you through every decision from engagement to post-wedding life.
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Hey Queens, it's Kelsey and Grace back with the Wedding Hive.
Speaker 2:Giving you the tea and all the buzz in the wedding world. Let's jump right in.
Speaker 1:Hey Queens. Welcome back to another episode of the Wedding Hive podcast. We are here today with Chelsea from Black Tie Optional, an incredible planning service here in the Valley. They specialize in out-of-the-box wedding planning and, Chelsea, we are so happy to have you here. Thanks for inviting me.
Speaker 3:I'm excited to chat with you.
Speaker 1:Yes, you have such a visionary mindset when it comes to planning weddings, just like we were talking about before, before the cameras turned on, really getting into every element of planning the wedding, from not just what your guests see, but also what they feel, what they smell, just to have a overall experience. So I'm super excited to chat with you about that, thank you. But before we get into that, how did you get into this industry? What made you say that is my thing.
Speaker 3:Oh, great question. You know, a little bit by chance and a little bit by like every single star aligning in my path in life, you know I have always loved events. I used to do corporate events right out of college and loved the like logistic side of it the planning, the people moving, the transportation, all of the kind of nitty gritty like day of stuff. But it's like the emotion of weddings that really like locked me in. When my husband and I were planning our wedding all my vendors were like you're like freakishly good at this, like why are you so good at planning your wedding?
Speaker 1:And I'm like well freakishly good at this.
Speaker 3:Like, why are you so good at planning your wedding? And I'm like, well, my whole background's in event planning, um, and it was in COVID, so I had been laid off from my jobs because COVID just like ruined everything. I had two jobs at the time and, um, they're like you should start a wedding planning business. I'm like, okay, why not? You know I don't really have anything else going on right now. So, um, yeah, it just like worked out because of my background in events and obviously, having just planned my own and had a few friends coming up that were getting married and got to dabble in some of theirs. Actually, bto's very first wedding was my florist, so she's the one that really pushed me to start my own company and she trusted me so much and believed in me so much that she hired me to coordinate her daughter's wedding, and so that was our first wedding on the books, official. And yeah, the rest is history. We just kind of took off after that. It was great.
Speaker 1:I love that, and you have a full team now we do so, a full team of planners and you've won many awards, yeah, so tell us about your awards and you've won many awards?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so tell us about your awards. Oh gosh, yeah. So we consistently, every year since launch, have won the Knot and Wedding Wires, like Best Of and Couples Choice Awards, which is really cool. It's based off of, like couples feedback and reviews and all that good stuff which we're so blessed to have. So many couples give us really wonderful feedback. And then the Arizona Bride Magazine. We were voted best wedding planner in Arizona. We were voted best wedding designer in Arizona. We took first place in the Confetti Collective design competition this year, which was just really cool. There was some amazing planners and designers there, so to take best overall was quite an honor. And then this year we're nominated in three categories for Arizona Bride again best wedding planner, best wedding designer and best overall vendor.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 3:It's like a dream I love your dream team all in one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, literally.
Speaker 2:What's your out of? Like all those awards? When you got that email, like what was one where you're like wow, like I feel like I've made it in my business.
Speaker 3:Oh, I got chills Best designer for sure when we won best designer. I you know you're in front of everybody, so you don't want to make a spectacle, but I was like almost hysterical because, like you know I talked about you know my background being in corporate event planning. You can do the logistics and there's just something different between being a good wedding planner and being a good wedding designer. It shows a real level up in the industry where you're not so much just focused on making sure things happen properly Of course that's super important and understanding how things work and how things should flow and move on the wedding day and adjusting to last minute changes, like yes, that's super important.
Speaker 3:But to be a really like visionary designer and create ideas that people haven't done before and, you know, execute someone's create, you know, take a wild Pinterest board and all this different inspo and really pull it together into something beautiful, like that was a huge level up for us. So that was that was my favorite by far. And then, like top it off with winning that design competition in kind of the same, 365 days yeah, just showed like a real growth for our company where we really elevated from like okay, just doing weddings, to like. No we're, we're like designers.
Speaker 2:Now we yeah, because you're putting in the work and it's like showing yeah, I'm just killing it.
Speaker 1:Thanks, that's so amazing.
Speaker 2:Um, I have a fun little um when we ever have, we have guests on. We like to do either like this or that, or yes or no. Um, do you enjoy planning more spring weddings or fall weddings?
Speaker 3:oh, um. So yeah, maybe fall, um, also because the weather's like slightly more predictable. You know, in the spring you're dealing with in Arizona, like the weather's a little bipolar in the spring, so it's hot, cold, hot cold, maybe rain, it's like a little tougher, but most of the time so beautiful, whereas in fall it's really just like is it still going to be lingering hot or are we starting to get like a little bit chilly, and so it makes it a little easier planning wise, for sure, um, but yeah, I love a good fall, right, and then the colors yeah, those deep colors.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like maroon totally obsessed with those and our brand tends to lean a little moodier. You know like of course we do springy weddings and we do pastel weddings and we've done a lot of beautiful, bright colored stuff, but overall I think our brand DNA is kind of on that moodier, edgier side and so you really get to bring that out in the fall a little bit more than people are inclined to do in the spring.
Speaker 2:Kind of random, this just pops in my head. Have you ever planned a Halloween wedding? We have actually. Yeah, I'm thinking of all. I'm like what, what you know, holidays, I'm like halloween yeah, we've done a couple halloween weddings.
Speaker 3:One of my favorites was um up in sedona at the like creekside canyon location, um right by the trout farm, and they were really into harry potter and so we made like a floating candle um display behind their sweetheart table. And so at night, you know, it was on like the clear, like fishing wire or whatever we did to affix it to the trees behind them, but at night they literally looked floating behind them. It was so cool. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:A little weird wonky you know at a Halloween wedding, but it like fit the bill perfectly. I'm here for it.
Speaker 1:I'm a big Harry Potter fan so like wait, should I have done that for my wedding? Yeah, I'm a big Harry Potter fan, so like wait, should I have done that for my wedding? I'm like wait, I actually agree.
Speaker 2:I know I should have, but that's super fun and I love that out of the box kind of stuff too, totally, yeah, so so, as soon as couples get engaged, what would, what is your wisdom in telling them what to do next?
Speaker 1:What is the first, most important thing Hire a planner. You know, of course, I'm gonna say that.
Speaker 3:No, I mean, it depends on them and like who they are and where they're at. You know some people. You know I've done thousands of consultations with newly engaged couples and some people are like they know from the beginning, like I need help, I cannot do this alone and they recognize the value in like hiring an expert right away to guide them through the whole process. Some people are like I can totally do this. I just want to make sure that I'm like doing it right. So, if you want help at all, a planner is obviously like the logical first step.
Speaker 3:But most people start with venue.
Speaker 3:You know they start putting a Pinterest board together and starting to get a vibe together and start touring venues and so that first, like we call it the big three the, the venue, the date and the budget are the like most important things to really like nail down in the early stages and like a planner, of course, but that's what we're here for, yeah, but yeah, those and they tend to be like the most overwhelming decisions for couples, because where you choose to get married so heavily influences every single other decision to come.
Speaker 3:Some venues are inclusive, some are not, some price their you know food differently than others or have minimums that you need to know how to navigate, and so it's like a lot of decisions. But yeah, I would say, you know, fresh off the bat just got engaged. I would say, enjoy it. You know, enjoy that season of life, it's so beautiful and maybe take a beat to just enjoy being engaged. And then, when you're ready to dive into planning, start putting together a Pinterest board, start shopping around, looking at venues, doing some tours and, if you know you need help right away, definitely start doing some planner consults.
Speaker 2:Speaking of Pinterest boards, do you feel like your Pinterest board was the same as what your wedding was Like? You know, when you're in high school making your Pinterest board do you think that it was the same, or was it completely different?
Speaker 3:What's really funny is I didn't do Pinterest at all until I became a planner and I, like, had to evolve into Pinteresting because our brides did. But yeah, I wasn't really a Pinterest girly, I was like old school and like saved photos to like a Google Drive folder.
Speaker 1:I think, oh my gosh. Or like made a Canva presentation, or like a Google Drive folder, I think, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:Or like made a Canva presentation or like a mood board and stuff like that. But yeah, I mean, I definitely had a very clear vision of what I wanted in my wedding to look like and it was like very different from what everybody else was doing at the time and so that also really like carried through to our brand DNA. Is that really kind of against the grain, like if everybody's going this way, I want to go this way just because everybody's going this way, type of mentality? And so, yeah, I knew exactly what I wanted and my husband was like really bought in and we had a very clear vision of what, how we wanted that day to feel, and that's like totally what happened that day which was great.
Speaker 2:Okay, I just had to ask. I thought of Pinterest and I'm like, I feel like my Pinterest board, definitely. You know, you have all the different arrows and like styles and you're like, wait, why did I save this? It's like bright, crazy teal and like the teal, like the bow, and I'm just like, oh my gosh, but I mean.
Speaker 3:Well, it's so funny. Sometimes we'll see client Pinterest and if you scroll back far enough, you're like, oh, you've been working on this board for a while.
Speaker 2:You can see each of their stages, the progression of style. As time goes on, you're like, okay, yep, I've been thinking about this, the evolution. What is your biggest advice you'd give to couples who are planning their wedding day?
Speaker 3:Biggest advice Be true to who you are. You know, um, we really try to not follow trends intentionally. Um, trends are are tricky because they they're beautiful in the moment. But looking back, you don't want to have a wedding that was like just like everybody else's. And if something's trendy and it also resonates with you, amazing.
Speaker 3:But if it doesn't feel like you, especially with even kind of wedding traditions, the bouquet toss, the garter toss, you know a lot of couples are forgoing that stuff now because it just doesn't feel like them and they don't like those like super traditional moments that they feel like they have to have. So I would say something we're like consistently telling our couples is what feels like the right answer for you or what feels important to you, how can we make this wedding feel like a true reflection of you and your love story and your priorities and what you care about? Don't feel like you have to do things a certain way because that's what you saw on Pinterest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that. Keep it to what you and that, because I think a lot of times wedding planning, you can do what other people want because you want to please everyone, but just reminding couples that it's your day, so do what's going to make you happy when that day comes. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, and sometimes couples don't know what they want, and that's what's so overwhelming for people sometimes is like you're looking down the pipeline and you have a literal million decisions that you're about to have to make, and it can be very scary and if you're not a super visual person, you don't know how all of those pieces are going to come together. Like that's where we come in and we can really take all these crazy scattered ideas and like pull them out of you. We're like translators of that story. And so that's probably one of my favorite parts is helping couples on that journey to really discover, like what is your unique voice in this space and what is your unique perspective on how your wedding can really unfold. And that's what we like to do.
Speaker 3:It's storytelling, it's visual storytelling. That's what's so beautiful about what we do, and especially that design piece that we love so much is getting the chance to like help people take their scattered ideas and turn it into like a literal translation of what they were picturing all along. And that moment when they you know we see it so clearly in our mind's eye while we're planning because we do it all the time and then that moment where they see it on the day for the first time come together and they get teary eyed or they, you know. They're just so excited and grateful it's like so beautiful. It's our favorite moment by far. I love that.
Speaker 1:So your style of wedding planning is going against the grain. Like you said, what everybody else is doing, that's not what you want.
Speaker 3:You want their unique, absolutely love that. What is your target clientele? We love a couple that would like call themselves the black sheep of their family. You know, we love somebody who, again, just really likes and appreciates you know kind of pushing the envelope and thinking outside the box and they want to do things differently. And that doesn't have to mean like crazy outlandish, like design. We still have couples who love a very like classic, timeless white roses, you know greenery vibe, but maybe it means that the flow of the day or the, you know they don't like cake and they want to do a you know pizza cutting instead, just little things where they're like I don't want this to be a super traditional wedding that feels like everybody else's. I want something different.
Speaker 3:Those are our people. We love people who are a little bit edgy, off the beaten path. We especially love the people who like appreciate the natural beauty that Arizona has to offer. We love a good outdoor wedding with a view we really like pride ourselves on embracing the natural beauty of the Southwest and infusing that into our design and really, you know, thinking about the location that the wedding's happening in and how to really organically infuse that into the aesthetics of the day. And so if they're just as jazzed up as we are about showing off Arizona's natural beauty to their guests, like that gets us so pumped up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you guys do a lot of destination weddings?
Speaker 3:We do. Yeah, I would say our client load is pretty split between local and from like all over the country, maybe like 50-50. Actually, maybe even more like 75-25, with the majority being out of state couples. Just because, you know, our weather is much more predictable, we have a much longer wedding season. It's an awesome destination for people who even right now, you know, it's still freezing cold on the East Coast and raining and gloomy and gross, and then they come here and it's like spring break you know and their guests have such a good time.
Speaker 3:So yeah, it's probably pretty split.
Speaker 1:We find the ones from the East Coast on site because we're bundled up in jackets. And they're in shorts and flip flops. And it's 65 degrees and we're like like we're dying and they're like this is incredible.
Speaker 3:Yes, they are living their best life.
Speaker 2:Yes, I love that. Um so, with the planning process, you know you obviously talked about like the big three. Um, how early do you think, like when a dream world, should couples start planning their wedding at?
Speaker 3:At least 12 months, depending on like how involved it is, how big it is, how much you care about design, maybe even, in a perfect world, 18 months. That said, you know we've busted out entire weddings that didn't even have a venue yet in three months, so I wouldn't recommend it but it's possible with health you know.
Speaker 3:But yeah, perfect world, I'd say 12 months is a fantastic timeline to not feel super stressed and pressured, to make a ton of decisions really quickly. But you know, if you are dead set on a specific venue or dead set on a specific photographer, for example, like some of those earlier booking, vendors and venues book out years in advance potentially. So if you have your heart set on someone like, contact them ASAP and figure out what their availability looks like so that you can kind of plan accordingly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Do you think that you can have a very beautiful and unique micro wedding or do you think people have to stay like with these super large guest?
Speaker 3:counts? Great question. Yeah, I mean elopements, micro weddings, medium weddings, crazy huge weddings all of them can definitely be beautifully designed and very intentional and very, you know, couple centric. We always like to to say we are experience first. So if the couple cares the most about it being a really intentional, intimate experience, they only want their closest friends and family there. We just did one last fall actually. That was at the Boulders Resort and it was only 25 guests.
Speaker 3:The couple was from Colorado, their family was from all over and it was like this really beautiful family retreat almost. And they were from. The couple was from Colorado, their family was from all over and it was like this really beautiful, like family retreat almost, and the design was still gorgeous and the wedding day was still amazing, but it was just they didn't need to have 200 people there. They wanted like their closest friends, their closest family, so they could have personal conversations with every single one of them, and they really made it like a weekend long event, you know where. They got to spend a ton of quality time with their closest people and that's amazing, you know. So if that's what you care about, of course, do that.
Speaker 3:You know you definitely don't need the 200 person wedding.
Speaker 2:I love that Me too. On the day itself, what do you feel is most important for a couple and are there anything like anything you think that couples can skip or like, pass on, whether it's like the design aspect or vendors or anything like that.
Speaker 3:Ooh, I mean, of course I'm going to say, um, absolutely necessary, Do not skip. Is at least a coordinator? Um, you just don't want to be the one running around answering those frantic phone calls and vendors can't find you and something went wrong, and it's like so unbelievably chaotic behind the scenes. You know so, when you do hire external help and all of that stuff is taken care of for you, that's what allows you to be truly like present on your day. You've spent so much time, so much money, so much effort making a day that is supposed to be a celebration of you guys and your love, and then, if you're the one running the show, it's like you planned this party for everybody else and you don't even get to like be present with your partner. So, yeah, I would say, at the very least, do not miss a coordinator, and especially like an external coordinator.
Speaker 3:I know a lot of venues offer like onsite help, which is amazing, like find a place that offers that too. But when you have an external coordinator, that's like has your family on speed dial and like someone's hung over and they didn't catch the shuttle and you're like calling them an Uber. You know, like there's things that we know about our couple's families or you know, dynamics and stuff that maybe is deeper than what somebody else might be able to do, because we take on such a small like client load every year. So I think that like intimacy really helps. But yeah, coordinator is a must, of course. Like photographer, videographer.
Speaker 3:DJ like don't miss those people either so many of our couples, if they didn't get a videographer, they regret it. They say like that's the one thing. Even a girl on my team every time this conversation comes up on a call with our couples, she'll like come into the frame and she's like, don't skip a videographer. Like I regret it so much from my wedding because the photos are amazing, of course, but like the video just tells a different story and captures it in such a different way that people never, ever regret getting it. Some definitely regret not getting it. I agree with the videographer.
Speaker 2:I had one at my wedding and just that video so special. The day goes by so quick and it's like fun to see, like, maybe clips, like you were out taking pictures and like you see a video of like you know, like people mingling. You're like, oh, that's so fun. Or people you know, and I remember my mom even was like, why are you getting a videographer?
Speaker 2:You know, she's been married for so long. She's like what is the point of that? And then we got the video and she's like, okay, my mind's been changed Like a hundred percent, so glad you guys did that. And I'm just like, exactly, you get it now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that's a good point, like seeing the things that you weren't around to see, I think.
Speaker 3:As you know, brides, grooms, you have FOMO you know, it's like all your favorite people in one place. You want to see it all and talk to everyone and be there, like I know, the morning after my wedding, even, like you know, the day after like a networking event. I'm like dang like I wanted to talk to that person and that person and you just feel like you missed so many things and so a videographer definitely does help. You feel like you got to kind of see the whole thing. Skip on anything that doesn't feel like you you know, whatever that is.
Speaker 3:If a videographer doesn't feel like you, don't feel pressured to get it. You know, of course I'm going to say like I really think you should, but if it doesn't feel right, don't do it. If you, you know, really want a band instead of a DJ, like get the band. You know. Prioritize what matters the most to you guys, and that's something we work with our couples on all the time is like all right, let's look at your finances. Let's break down what you're willing to spend on your wedding as a whole and what matters the most to you. You don't have to splurge on X, y, z. Those things are like minor to you. Let's really prioritize the things that matter the most to you and are going to make the biggest impact to you and that you're going to remember 20, 30, 50 years from now and yeah. So I would say, if you're going to skip on anything, skip on the stuff that doesn't feel genuine to you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm pro skip the favors. Yeah, you talked about that. Yeah, I'm like just things like that.
Speaker 1:I'm just like yeah, it's like totally, totally so do you have any advice for couples who have very opinionated family members and how to navigate that?
Speaker 3:Hire a planner. No, we work with a lot of couples who do have you know, can have overbearing parents or family members, and a lot of times that comes into play when there's like the financial dynamic. You know, the parents maybe are like well, we're paying for this, so we're going to invite who we want, or we're paying for this, so we have a say on the menu and we advocate for our couples very deeply. You decided to pay for this. That doesn't mean it comes with contingencies. It's you decided, you wanted to participate as a financer.
Speaker 3:It's not your wedding, and I think you as a couple should feel empowered to say that to people too. If they're trying to like control you based on a financial situation, you can say, like I didn't realize that it came with strings attached and I didn't really sign up for that. Like this is our wedding, this is what we want and we're going to ultimately make the choice. I appreciate your input but at the end of the day, like this needs to be what we want to do with our day. But also sometimes it's, like you know, same as when you have a baby like people just all of a sudden start making all these like assumptions and interjecting their thoughts and ideas and you should do this and shouldn't do that. And it's like girl calm down, Like I.
Speaker 1:I didn't ask.
Speaker 3:You know it's like I don't need the advice, but thanks. So I don't know. Take everything that you hear from overbearing friends or family with a grain of salt and you know if it needs to just go in one ear and out the other. Let it Like don't take too much feedback to heart because again, at the end of the day, it's like your day.
Speaker 2:And that's all that matters. Yeah, I love those like not. I mean, I guess sayings use like no strings attached contingencies, so I think it's hard to like put your foot down and have the right wording to not make it come off rude. But I like those like you know sayings that you said, cause I feel like that says it nicely but stern at the same time. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:And I think that helps. That also helps the family realize like, oh, I am making it seem like I only gave the money because I wanted to control how the day turned out, and that's I. Maybe I'm being a little bit overbearing, and so I think, if you like frame it a certain way, they realize, okay, what I'm communicating isn't what I'm intending, and so maybe I need to like take a step back. Hopefully if they're self-aware individuals Right.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. So obviously you're very you love out of the box. Um, weddings and people doing out of the box things for their day, um, what like got you into that? Have you always been someone that's kind of like pushes the edge, like always been someone that's out of the box and does things differently? Like, how did you come to do that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I always like to tell people like I'm. I'm almost six foot tall and I have been since high school. I was like I sprouted up real early so I like towered over the boys. All my girlfriends were like feet lower than me and I still was like the girl that wore heels to school. Just because I was like, because you know, I want to.
Speaker 3:And so, yeah, I've always been like I'm going to do things my way. I don't really care. Of course I care. Um, I, yeah, I think. Um, what was your question? Again, sorry, I got I started thinking about high school.
Speaker 2:No, you're right. Oh my gosh. No, yeah, so you've always been out of the box, so that's what you wanted to bring into your business. Is that like how it came to be? Yeah, yeah, it's always been like that and you're like you know what I want?
Speaker 3:to push the grain and just totally yeah, well, and again, like when we were planning our wedding, we had a hard time finding putting the pieces together to create the vision that we had and that we knew so deeply that we wanted. So like, for example, we were adamant about getting married with like a desert background and it not being on grass. That was like my one put my foot down, I will die on this hill. Rule for our wedding is that we're both native Arizonians. We both really wanted that like super authentic Arizona vibe, and I was just. I don't know why I was so dead set on this, but I was like grass doesn't grow here.
Speaker 1:I was like I just want to get married, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So we had a really hard time finding somewhere that like checked those boxes and then when we finally did, even there we had to, you know, kind of do a little work around to where they usually have their weddings and pick a different spot for our wedding to take place so that we could get that exact look that we wanted. And so that's just an example. One of like really advocating for yourself and what you want and not being afraid to speak up and ask the question. But two, yeah, like just kind of thinking differently and thinking outside the box and not doing what everybody else is doing. I loved, you know, quirky touches on my day and weird things that maybe guests hadn't expected or hadn't already experienced at other weddings before, and we love bringing that mentality into our planning process with couples is like, what are some things that you guys love or care about that we can infuse into the day that your guests, who have been to a thousand weddings in their lifetime it will truly be the first time they've ever experienced anything like it.
Speaker 3:So, like an example of that, recently this spring we did a wedding with a couple who is really into books. They were big book people and their whole underlying theme of the design was kind of like a sexy candlelit library in Spain and it was beautiful. I can't wait until we can show photos, but we're actually submitting it to a national publication so I can't post about it yet in case they do pick us up. But when we do it's going to be epic because the photos are so juicy.
Speaker 3:But anyways, they told me that they really loved books and novels and that's like something they connected on early in their relationship, and so we came up with this idea to do like a book wall installation as their lounge set. So we built a custom like lounge for them and their guests that had this crazy cool book wall behind them and yeah, it just looked like you were like immersed in this library. It was like all the books were kind of like flapped open and so you could see the pages like rustling in the wind and we put flowers like in vines, like draping through, and it was so sexy and it's just, you know, like everybody maybe does, like when everybody's doing neon signs or like um, solid, you know, wooden backdrops. We're like let's do books, you know, let's hang vines from it.
Speaker 3:Let's be weird. So yeah, we love to kind of do things that are just a little against the grain outside the box that is so cool.
Speaker 1:I'm a total book nerd so I cannot wait to see. I know oh it's so good just your description.
Speaker 2:I'm like, oh, it's gonna be good yeah even like even their card box.
Speaker 3:You know, like I think there's little touch points throughout a wedding where you have an opportunity to just like dribble in little pieces of you and like their card box, we did, um, like a hidden book container, so like it looked like a like a stack of library books, and then you could like open it up and that's where the cards went, and so now the couple has that forever. They can like put that on their you know bookshelf at home. Yeah, and it's was their card box at their wedding.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's adorable.
Speaker 3:And I think we even like. The night before their wedding I wrote in Sharpie on a book like cards to like label like this is where you put cards because it wasn't super obvious. Yeah, but yeah, it was just, you know, those little kind of touch points throughout a wedding where you can tie the whole design together is one of our favorite things to do.
Speaker 2:And I've seen once the like seating chart was a bookshelf with like and I thought, oh my gosh, that's so cool and it did different. I've never really seen something like that, which is super cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, we love those like juicy brainstorming sessions, you know, where we have really deep, deep like kind of design dives with our couples early in the planning process to figure out like who are you, what do you like, what are you motivated by?
Speaker 3:And we try to really get into their heads so that throughout the planning process we can think like them, because it's really hard for people who aren't in this world to articulate what they want.
Speaker 3:And so we try to kind of like do that for them, you know, get to know them so intimately that we can anticipate what they're going to want, what they're going to need, and come up with ideas to dazzle them, you know. And so those are some of my favorite days at work is when all of our girls are in the office and we're just doing a quick think tank on one of the couples and we like read our notes and we're talking about it and we're just like vibing and spitting out all these cool ideas and we're like what if this, what if that? That's how the whole um, confetti, collective design idea came to life. We were doing a design think tank and all the girls were just like, what about this, what about that? And it's like snowballed into this crazy, cool, immersive experience and, yeah, it's just our favorite thing, yeah I love it creative minds yeah, were you super artistic in high school, like, have you always been like artsy or?
Speaker 3:No, no, that's what's so funny is I'm like a very is it right brain. I'm very math Like. I loved math, I loved geometry, I loved the sciences. I tend to think in black and white, like there is a right and a wrong answer always. So it's weird that, you know like breaking into this world drew this very artistic side out of me. Um, I, when I was in high school, I like idolized this girl in school who, um, wanted to be a fashion designer, and she was always like doodling in her notebook these gorgeous like mock-ups of dresses and crazy outfits, and she was super stylish. And I was always just doodling in her notebook these gorgeous like mock-ups of dresses and crazy outfits, and she was super stylish.
Speaker 3:And I was always just like, damn girl, you're like really cool, I want to be just like you, and so I would like try to draw in my little notebook, like little you know, mock-ups, like kind of like I'd be like try to draw. And mine sucked so bad.
Speaker 2:Like they were not good at all.
Speaker 3:You're like oops, nevermind.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they were terrible, and so, yeah, I've never been artistic in that way. But this way is so cool for me because it's like I get to dream up ideas and then find the right team to like execute those wild ideas. I don't necessarily have to be the one nailing books to a shelf, you know Like. I know the people who can like produce that and make it happen, but I'm just the one that dreams up the crazy ideas and then happens to have the amazing connections in the industry that can like make it come to life.
Speaker 2:For sure. Would you say that most couples that you work with do they come to you with an idea, or is it like mostly you giving them like these crazy, cool out of the box ideas, or do you think they kind of come ready and prepared, or it's always like we don't even know where to start?
Speaker 3:a little bit of both. Yeah, there's definitely some couples who come in and they're like this is exactly what I want. Here's my Pinterest. It's very like, it's very specific, I can tell their vibe right away. And then there's some other couples who like, yeah, maybe they have a Pinterest but it's a little kind of like spotty all over the place. They're not really sure how to like, articulate what they want, and so that's part of our design process is like learning how to really pull that out of them and figure out why they like what they like. And you know, maybe they saved a particular photo and they like this and this element, but not really this element and that's important to discover. Like, is it the size that you like? Is it the color? Is it actually just like the photography editing and it's not really the content of the photo, but you just like how that photo feels. So, yeah, that like discovery process is a lot of fun, but I'd say it's kind of split, yeah, 50-50. It depends on their personality style.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like type A, type B, totally we have a lot of type A couples and we have a lot of type B couples. And sometimes people are like this is exactly what I want, I just don't know how to execute it and that's what they hire us for. And then sometimes people are like I literally get hives when I think about what. I'm going to do for this wedding. I have no clue how to bring it all together, and so that's where we like really step up and make it happen.
Speaker 2:And bring the vision to life. Yeah, yeah. That's so awesome.
Speaker 1:Outside of the venue and planner. What other vendors do you feel are really important to get locked in early on in the planning process?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we recommend. We like really break things down into kind of like primary, secondary and design vendors. So your primary vendors are going to be your venue, your catering, your bar, if that doesn't come with the venue already. So, venue, food and Bev photography, videography, dj, those are like. And planner, those are the top, you know, most important ones to book right away because we tend to book out the furthest in advance. And also those are all the vendors that you like can't have a wedding without. Yes, you can have a wedding without a photographer, but nobody's going to. So yeah, I think venue, catering, bar photography, videography, dj, planner those are like the most important to start out with. And then, once those are really locked in, then it kind of becomes the couple's priorities. Do you care the most about a band and the least about flowers? Cool bands who we're hiring next? Do you care the most about flowers and the least about music? Maybe we didn't even book DJ in the first round. Maybe we started searching for florists right away because their Pinterest was like screaming flowers and we wanted to make sure we got them like the best person for their vibe. So some of that also kind of depends on those early conversations and what they care about the most.
Speaker 3:But I think after that kind of primary vendor booking phase, then we move on to design vendors. So that would be your rental companies, your lighting, your tabletop, your linens, your florist and then and stationery. If you want custom gorgeous stationery you need to hire somebody like early so that they can do your save the dates, they can do your invitations, your wedding day stationery, and it can all be really cohesive. So that's like a sneaky early one that you might want to get in there. People don't think about that until it's time. Most people would like order their save the dates on Minted and then, when it comes time for invitations, they're trying to find a calligrapher or a stationer and maybe it's too late because they actually do book out pretty far in advance. And then, you know, maybe hair and makeup's in there somewhere, dress shopping, all of that fun stuff, but they're kind of like peppered throughout, depending on the the bride's vibe.
Speaker 3:But yeah, um, I don't know, did that answer your question?
Speaker 2:yeah, that was really good with working in the wedding industry. Like a quick little question what is like the craziest or like coolest vendor you've ever seen at a wedding? Because they're one that you can think of, or even maybe one that you just love when you show up at weddings.
Speaker 1:Kelsey loves well, she thinks um. I got to hang out with her at one of her weddings, was it? It was fall of 24, was it fall of 23? And they did the ice luge? Yeah, I think it was 23, yeah, 23, yeah yeah, the ice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because I was pregnant. Yes, yes, it was so cool. Ice luge moment is so sexy. Yeah, did they do espresso.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was their initial picture.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, it was espresso martinis through it or something like that yes.
Speaker 3:so they knew they wanted espresso martinis. That was like the bride's drink of choice. She's like must have espresso martinis. I was like, okay, love that. But how do we kick it up a notch? How do we make it a whole moment an experience for your guest? Again, experience first. So how do we make it an experience for your guest, something interactive and fun at the end of the night? And we're like ice luge baby. And so, yeah, we hired Armitage Ice to come do a really cool custom piece for them that had their monogram, their wedding monogram that we had designed for them, like etched into the ice somehow. It was so cool. And then, like the luge part was like part of the design. And so the bartenders, you know, mixed up the martini and poured it through the luge and then collected it in the martini glass at the bottom and like popped the little espresso beans on top.
Speaker 1:It was awesome. I remember the conversation like it was yesterday, because Chelsea was the one that said to the couple, what about like an ice luge? And they were like that'd be so cool. Do you know where to get one? And she was like no, but I will, yeah.
Speaker 2:She do you know where to get one? And she's like no, but I will. She's like I will find one. There's one in Arizona, we like went back and forth on text.
Speaker 1:I'm like, hey, what's the deal with the ice loo? She's like I almost have it locked in. I'm like you found it and she's like I freaking found it.
Speaker 2:And it showed up. That's so iconic.
Speaker 3:And it was so cool about this industry is like there are so many crazy talented individuals that offer so many different services and products and amazing things. And it's like you really. I think that's why weddings are so magical and why they've become what they are today. You know, you were saying, like your mom got married forever ago. She's like I don't get the videographer thing. Like parents, grandparents from forever ago, they don't get like the spectacle of it now. But it really is. It's like this whole thing.
Speaker 3:It's a chance for you to finally like express yourself and like really like break out, like this is my life now you know like this is what you know me as before, like maybe you're an old high school friend or a family member that saw me grow up, but like this is who I'm going to be forever moving forward, and so that's why weddings are just so cool. But yeah, there's so many amazing vendors in the industry that do really cool stuff. Oh, I have an answer for you. My I think, probably coolest favorite vendor that I've ever had at a wedding was a tattoo artist. So at the cocktail hour they had a tattoo artist doing flash tattoos and it was just. We got the coolest pictures of all these guests getting tattoos all over the place. I would be in line. I got one. Actually, I can't remember what arm it's on.
Speaker 2:You got one, is it on this?
Speaker 3:arm.
Speaker 1:Is it like a yes?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's from one of my weddings.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's so cool, that's so amazing. Oh sorry, that's iconic, thanks, they hired a tattoo artist.
Speaker 3:They're based out of Phoenix and they still do tattoos. They own a venue now too, actually, but they still do tattoos at events and there's a ton of them that offer it. But it's such a cool thing. You know, the couple was fully tatted. Actually, one of the brides had full sleeves, both sides. She was super tatted. And then the other bride had never been tattooed before.
Speaker 1:So that was her first tattoo was like on her wedding day was one of the special fun. Like I love that. Yeah, so good question for you in regards to budget. You work with couples all the time who are newly engaged, starting to go through the process. What advice do you have when it comes to budgeting or anything with the finances? Yeah, great question.
Speaker 3:First things first, figure out how much you're willing to spend on the wedding as a whole. Maybe that's flexible, that's cool too. But where is that money coming from and what's the goal amount? If there is a hard stop, like, we need to know that so we can plan accordingly. And even if there's not a hard stop, like, let's set a kind of financial threshold, because we start with that and we work backwards. So we'll say okay, if you're for easy math, if you're going to spend $100,000 on your wedding, we typically recommend devoting 20% of that to a venue, assuming that the venue will provide lights, tables, chairs, you know all that stuff. Another 18% to food and Bev, 15% to your planner, 6% to photography, 6% to videography. So we have kind of like a standard percentage allocation that we use, but we customize that greatly again based on those conversations with couples and like what's your priority? What do you care the most about? I'm not necessarily going to allocate the standard 7% to floral. If they're like we care a lot more about candles or we want really romantic lighting or we want a crazy like light tunnel, you know those things are going to take priority over some other things maybe. So decide, you're all in amount and, you know, chat with a planner.
Speaker 3:Ideally, we offer a la carte consultations too. So if you're in those early stages and you're like I just don't know how to figure out how to allocate my finances, like I could use some help with just this piece. I'm not even sure if I need a planner yet. We can have a consultation and just set that up for them to make sure that they're like on a good path, moving forward, to plan like confidently, but yeah, I would say the percentages. And then, if you're getting money from family, like have them commit to an amount. Sometimes we hear from couples that like, oh, my parents have, you know, graciously offered to give us some money for the wedding we're not sure how much and we're like I don't want to be rude, but like get an amount from them, because if you think in your head it's 20 grand and they're thinking 10, I don't want to plan for the full hundred with your guys' money too if it's not that much. So, yeah, getting really concrete about how much the total budget is super important.
Speaker 3:Yeah that's good.
Speaker 2:Okay, last question before we wrap up Do you have any horror stories or maybe just something crazy that's happened on wedding day that you've had to deal with? Because we would love to hear, oh, gosh, a lot, a lot, a lot.
Speaker 3:That's like what we do, right? That's why people hire you to coordinate is so that you could, like, put out the fires without them knowing. Hopefully, we've had literal fires on wedding days.
Speaker 1:Was it pompous? Yeah, yes, freaking pompous, always Freaking pompous Loves to light on fire, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I mean it fires sometimes. But to think of a couple like super specific examples a recent wedding we had, the bride had her heart set on this very specific aisle at her ceremony. I think I was telling you guys about it earlier that we had done a really cool custom aisle for Arizona Bride Magazine and she saw it in the magazine and was like I need to have that. It's like the reason she hired us. And so from day one this aisle had to happen, and the month of their wedding the vendors that we had hired to produce the aisle something happened with their equipment and they weren't able to produce it anymore, and so we had to like on the fly, figure out, okay, what other vendors are out there that can do it, have availability this day kind of piece together the new vendor team that could make this happen, because it was a non-negotiable, she had to have this aisle.
Speaker 3:But then of course, the original vendor was all-in-one they were providing the physical flooring as well as the vinyl wrap on top, and the only way that we could find to fix it was multiple different vendors now, which increases the price, and so part I don't know if you want to put this in the podcast. But part of our job is to like negotiate on the couple's behalf and really advocate for them, and we're like, hey, through no fault of theirs, like something that they paid for almost a year ago now can't happen. Like they shouldn't, a couple of weeks from their wedding, have to drop another thousand dollars in delivery fees from multiple companies because your guys' equipment failed, Like you need to fix this for them.
Speaker 3:So, um, you know, we advocated for them and got the company to figure it out and cover the cost, and they negotiated with the new team to work out some sort of like trade agreement where they were like subcontracting them essentially, but got it to be a really seamless experience for the couple where they still got their aisle. They were none the wiser that anything even happened and the aisle was beautiful and it turned out perfectly. But it's like I can't imagine how stressful that would have been on a couple weeks before their wedding and it was like the one thing that they wanted from the beginning. You know, that's like the most recent example.
Speaker 1:I can think of.
Speaker 3:Of course there's like weather stuff you know that you can't control. Yeah, I remember there was one weekend in I think it was 23. You guys probably remember like it was like in October, october 23, where there was like crazy monsoons, like hurricane winds almost, and we were out at a venue like out in the middle of the desert basically. So we were very exposed to the elements and I remember they had cocktail. The whole arch fell over and the groom's dad had made the arch by hand like woodwork to the arch. It fell over in the wind. A piece of it broke. We were like out there with literal wood glue like making sure that it went back together and looked well and was sturdy. And then I remember one of the cocktail tables was like the wind was so strong that the cocktail tables were blowing over and like rolling down the desert like tumbleweeds.
Speaker 1:And we're like chasing down cocktail tables getting my cardio in today Crazy.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, there's all kinds of wild situations that pop up on wedding days and before that. Hopefully, you have somebody in your corner to help you navigate. For sure, family dynamics we talked about there's a lot, you know. It's a highly emotional, potentially very stressful process and it's a lot for somebody to handle on their own.
Speaker 2:So you know, and that's where you come in. That's where we come in, but lean on your friends and family too.
Speaker 3:You know other friends or siblings who have gotten married. Like they know, I always say like don't talk to your non-married friends about your wedding problems because they will not get it until you're married. You don't, you have no idea, You're just there for the party, you know. You just show up, you're ready to drink, ready to have a good time, and then it's like after you do it yourself and you go through all of the planning and you understand like the blood, sweat and tears that goes into making a wedding happen. You have a whole different respect for weddings. You show up on time, you like follow the. You check the website, follow the dress code, you buy off the damn registry, you know. So, yeah, always talk to your like married friends about your wedding struggles.
Speaker 1:Smart tips yeah, I agree. So you have something really exciting coming out this summer, yeah, and I think it will benefit so many people who are currently planning their wedding. Can you share with us this upcoming project?
Speaker 3:I'd love to. Yes, we are launching a do-it-yourself wedding planning course that is aimed to really guide couples from start to finish. You just got engaged all the way through, like after you're married. What do you do now? Helping you make all of those decisions, helping you navigate the financial conversations and the right questions to ask vendors and just all of the things. Ton of educational content packed into one little course. So we're launching that in June. We're aiming for a June 1st launch and I'm so excited because we're offering listeners a special early access website and a discount code if they'd like to participate in the course. So Hive25 is our discount code. If you go to btoeventscom forward slash course and if you're listening after the launch, after June 1st 2025, you can still take advantage of the Hive 25 promo code.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. Thank you so much. We appreciate that On behalf of our listeners. They will definitely use it.
Speaker 2:I'm so excited Because they know the stress, yes, everything they've heard blood, sweat and tears.
Speaker 1:It's hard, it's a lot.
Speaker 3:Like I said, you look down the pipeline and it's millions of decisions that you have to make between now and your wedding day, and it can be quite overwhelming. And so you know, the point of this course was to really be the roadmap, the GPS to navigating the chaos that can be wedding planning Right.
Speaker 2:the chaos that can be wedding planning Right the chaos that ensues. Yes, well, chelsea, thank you so much for coming on today. I know our listeners are really going to appreciate all the tips and tricks you gave for them. If you guys are looking for her, you can find her on btoeventscom, as well as on Instagram, btoevents. Be sure to listen in to our next episode next week, and you guys can find us on our socials, tiktok, instagram, the wedding hive podcast, and we'll see you guys next week. Bye.