Metropolitan Weddings Podcast
Metropolitan Weddings Podcast
Meet The Wedding Pro - Ryan and Bethany with Alpha Lit Springfield
Step into the bright world of marquee magic with Ryan and Bethany, the new torchbearers of Alpha Lit Springfield, as they take us on an illuminating journey. Discover the electrifying charm of light-up letters that turn any event into a conversation piece. From the warmth of a wedding day to the whimsy of a surprise message, these two have mastered the craft of making moments shine.
Listen closely as we unravel the strings (and cords) of event décor, offering a peek into the meticulous organization and technical know-how required to bring these glowing characters to life. Whether it's ensuring each letter shines bright or sharing a laugh about potential marquee mischief, our chat with this entrepreneurial pair goes beyond the bulbs. It's a lesson in logistics, creativity, and the occasional light-hearted prank that keeps the business glowing.
Wrapping up with a spectrum of color, Ryan and Bethany shine a light on how choosing the right hue can set the stage for an unforgettable night. They emphasize the importance of planning ahead to snag these popular pieces, blending practical advice with vibrant storytelling that will have you seeing your special day in a whole new light. So get ready to be inspired, as this episode promises to brighten your perspective on event planning and decoration.
Welcome to Metropolitan Weddings. I'm Meg, I'm Dawn, and we are here to educate couples with information from wedding professionals in the industry.
Speaker 2:Our goal is to make the wedding planning process as seamless as possible by providing you with insight from industry professionals.
Speaker 1:Okay, couples, let's get this party started. Good morning listeners. We are here today with some friends that we've just made recently. Would you like to introduce yourselves and your business?
Speaker 3:I'm Ryan and I'm Bethany, and we are the new owners of Alphalift Springfield. We do light-up marqueee letter rental here in Springfield, and so we actually took over the business at the end of last year, in November. The business originally started here in the area in 2021.
Speaker 3:And we were close friends with the owners and were kind of helping them do deliveries. We were very much a part of the business when it first started and they had to make the difficult decision to move away and move out of state. They came to us to see if we would like to take it over, and so here we are today. So we have. We've been at it for a few months now and it's going really great and we have already learned a ton and we're excited to continue to keep growing.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. We're actually really glad to have you guys, because your energy and your like excitement about the industry and what you can do for couples and and your business alike are just like I don't know. You just have like a fun, bubbly personality and you're like ready to do things all the time, which we love, because obviously we love getting couples in contact with people who are like just as excited about their day as they are. So we're so excited that you guys were able to take over. I didn't know that you were doing deliveries and things like that before, so it was a natural progression for you. I knew that. Oh, you'd think that we share a brain after 18, or however, many years, but we don't.
Speaker 1:So that is interesting, all right. So when did they like come to you? Or when they started talking about moving? Were you like? So those letters? How did this? How did?
Speaker 3:it happen. Yeah, so they. So they actually came to us. So Robbie, who was one of the original owners he's my fraternity brother owners he's my fraternity brother. So when they first started it it was just kind of a hey, we're, you know, we're going to start this business venture. As we get started, would you like to kind of help out and do some deliveries for us and you know you can, you know, earn a little extra income on the side and just kind of help us build this.
Speaker 3:They wanted someone that they could trust, kind of starting out to lay some groundwork for customer service and for deliveries.
Speaker 3:And so when they decided to make the move out of state, they came to us and Robbie was basically like you know, you've been a part of this from the beginning.
Speaker 3:We know how much you care for the clients and how much you you know you've been a part of this for the beginning. We know how much you care for the clients and how much you. You know you really do a good job with interactions and the deliveries and making sure that the customers have a good experience. And we know that you actually care about the business and making sure that we do have good customer service and it's seen in a good light. So he said, when we made the tough decision to move out of state, you are the first thought for us to come to, because we wanted to offer it to someone who would care about it and be passionate about it and it could actually be something good for for us to take on and grow and make it our own, and they really wanted to see it succeed in the area, versus just selling it to the highs that are out on the open market.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I love that, that you guys have that back history.
Speaker 1:And then you took over because you guys do have a passion for the business and being a part of the wedding industry.
Speaker 2:So super cool.
Speaker 1:I like that Knowing people and helping people opens up a lot of doors, absolutely so there are many different styles of marquee letters. I know that you know the trend has been around for a little bit but tell us a little bit about which style you guys offer.
Speaker 4:Sure, so all of our letters and our numbers and symbols, they are actually white aluminum letters. So because of that, it allows us to offer what we call stacked setups. We can do, or we can do, single level setups where they're like all in one line. Um, we have a lot of flexibility with our letters because they are lighter weight, um, and then, uh, we have the ability to switch out different levels, to add different colors, to set up as well. Um, so our letters are there.
Speaker 4:Um, we're thankful that they're really kind of legible font. They photograph really well. Um, even from a distance it's pretty clear what they say. And we're just really happy that our letters offer just a lot of flexibility. On fun, creative setups, we always like to tell our clients, you know, if you don't want the traditional first two initials of your name and an and sign, let us know what you want to do. Like, we're all about being creative and our letters, let us do that. And so we have the little tagline of if you can spell it for us, we can light it up. We don't know how wild and crazy you want to get with it. We, we always love to do fun setups for people and at the end of the day it's you know, it's a memory from their event.
Speaker 3:Their guests are going to take photos with it, and things like that and we want it to be the setup that they want it to have. And additionally, with that, we have a good inventory of letters. So because of the manufacturing process and where we get them from, we're able to actually have a decent sized inventory. And because it is our primary focus, so we like to also market to our customers that we have the ability to spell out big setups and we can spell multiple things. We can have multiple clients on the same day. So we're not really we're not as limited as some other companies might be. Where it's oh, we only have, you know, one of each letter, or we can only do one client a day close to us, that in a pinch or a bind or if someone really wants to, you know, do something really big with a lot of letters. We can reach out and try to borrow letters from them for the, for the weekend or for the week, and, and that allows us some flexibility there as well. But the nice, the nicest thing about our letters is they're they're made very solid.
Speaker 3:You can buy DIY from Amazon and it really just comes down to the quality. Our leathers are going to be solid. We have stacking racks and single level racks that we attach them to. So, once we set them up, they're not going anywhere. You can put balloons around them, people do florals on them. Your guests can stand right next to them, you know, touch them, take pictures with them. They're not going to go anywhere. They're not going to fall apart. You're not going to have to worry about them blowing over or anything like that. So it really just comes down to quality and making sure that you've got something that you're going to be able to trust will last for the entirety of the event and it's not going to, you know, fall over, fall apart or the lights stop working or anything like that.
Speaker 2:It's amazing you guys. There's a reason why you go with a company who does it, instead of also the pain in the rear end that it is to try to manage all that stuff on your wedding day too, or making your family do it when you've got. You know people who come in and this is what they do for a living. Yep, so much, and that's what?
Speaker 4:yeah, and that's exactly what we tell clients of. You know you've already got a incredibly busy day. You are going to be pulled in 19 different directions and we have a team of we come in and do it and then we're out of there. And you know there's some weddings. We come in at 8 am because they're adding balloons and other elements later and obviously we need to be there first.
Speaker 4:So we always try to make sure that we work within the schedule of what they need and then they're there and it's one less thing that they have to worry about. And you don't have to try to rope in, you know, an aunt or an uncle or whatever to go pick them up and bring them back and all of that. You know we handle all of the setup and tear down, um, just so. That way it's more peace of mind for the client and it's you know, you can enjoy your day and you just get to see them lit up and have your you know your dance floor lit up with your last name or whatever it might be. You don't have to worry about all the logistics of getting them there and getting them set up.
Speaker 2:And then let's talk about the thing that you know anyone thinks about what are you going to do with those letters if you don't hire them?
Speaker 1:I was just imagining, like lining up 12 people, like you have a long last name or it's like you know so-and-sos are in love. Whatever it is, you've got to have, like what, 12 cars lined up, because how many of those can you fit in a car? Probably not.
Speaker 2:And then you're, and then you have to have a storage unit to hold something that you used one day of your life. Yeah, it's just a bad idea. Where do you guys keep these? Is it in your living room?
Speaker 1:do you guys keep these? Is it in?
Speaker 3:your living room? Do you just have a wall? No, so we actually have a storage unit facility that we house all of them in. So we have a bunch of racks in there and they're all organized by letter so that you know whenever we have a setup, we can just roll in and we know exactly where the letters are, grab them, load them up and then we take them back there and keep them there when they're not in use.
Speaker 1:Darn it. I really wanted to hear that you had a whole marquee wall in your house.
Speaker 3:If we had the space, we would do it, you would do that. They take up quite a bit of space.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they do.
Speaker 3:They really do. I'm not kidding about only one in a car, I don't know, I don't know if they'd fit.
Speaker 1:I'm not kidding about like only one in a car.
Speaker 3:I don't know, I don't know if they'd fit.
Speaker 1:So do you guys have like a song that you made a cup for, like the letters that you do have?
Speaker 4:We're like like we have A, a, a, b, b, c, C, c, c, d E. Yes, it would be a lot of multiples Right, what?
Speaker 1:what weird things do you have that aren't letters, not weird, whoa whoa what? All right. Weird was the wrong word. What adorable light up opportunities are there.
Speaker 2:What unique personalized things do you have? Thank you, Adam.
Speaker 4:We've got all your letters A through Z. We also have numbers of zero through nine, have numbers of zero through nine, and then we have what we call toppers and they are about a foot to a foot and a half tall and they actually sit on top of our larger marquee letters and we have a Mr Mrs topper or we have a couple of the toppers. We do those quite a bit for weddings as folks want to light up their new last name. And then we have some symbols. So this year we added a new engagement ring, and then we also have a question mark, we have a star, a pound or hashtag symbol, and then we also have the ampersand signs and then we have a heart. So and what's cool is where we order the inventory from.
Speaker 4:They are always adding new things, so we are just waiting for an excuse to get. The symbols are so much fun, so we're just waiting for an excuse to have to add some more to our inventory. There's a graduation cap that I have my eye on, but, yeah, we have the flexibility to do some different and fun, creative things. We're doing a lot of setup for weddings this year with the heart. That's been really popular this year and we're doing it in different colors. So that's how a lot of folks are kind of bringing in a little bit of a color element, is doing that heart in a little bit of a different color than the other marquee letters.
Speaker 2:Do you guys have to have? Do these have to be plugged in somewhere, or can they be put anywhere?
Speaker 4:So they do have to be plugged in. So what we do is they just kind of daisy chain together. So when we do a setup we connect everything all together so that way they run off of just one cord that needs to be plugged into a power source. We don't require a special outlet, it can be a you know standard, you know house outlet. And we provide extension cords for our setup and so that way we really tell people they're essentially like a giant lamp. When we're done with them they just need to be plugged into a wall and then they're good to go.
Speaker 4:We always leave extra light bulbs for folks because sometimes you know a light bulb will burn out. So we always leave extras with our setup. That way they can switch that out if they need to. But they do have to be connected to power. But we can. We've done a few setups that we've used about five extension cords to reach where the power outlet is. So we will do our best to make it work with the venue and space of where the client is wanting them set up at.
Speaker 2:It takes away my plan.
Speaker 1:Oh, dear Lord, Adam, what was your plan?
Speaker 2:They could start a pranking business just set them up and just set them up in people's yards, like with sayings and words and stuff on it, and then people wake up in the middle of the night like what is going on do they?
Speaker 1:can they just leave in a pot, because most people have an outdoor plug-in. They could just plug into that and then leave like an envelope with like a dollar fifty, like here's for the power we borrowed. No.
Speaker 2:Or maybe here's some extra bulbs.
Speaker 1:So I OK. So you. You've mentioned color a few, a few times and at our last show you guys did a setup. That was the first time I had seen the colored bulbs being used. You had like the pink. I can't remember which part you lit up in pink, but it definitely changed like the vibe of it and gave it like a fun, fresh thing. So what? All different colors are available.
Speaker 4:Sure. So we of course have red and green. We do a lot of that around the holidays at the end of the year, but then we have orange, yellow, blue, purple, and then we do have the pink as well. What we have found, just as I'm sure any event vendor will tell you, certain things work a little bit better than we would like for them to. So, case in point, our purple bowls.
Speaker 4:Whenever they photograph they actually look a bit more pink, and that's kind of a known thorn in our side in our industry is it's really hard to get the type of light bulb with that pigment. So certain colors do photograph and work a little bit better than others. Really, purple is the only one that's a little finicky. But we tell folks they can do letters and numbers all in one color or we can alternate. We've done a couple of like ombre effects before for some fun, um, so it's really just a way um for folks if they, you know, if they're doing a theme for a party or, um, you know we're coming up on graduation season for us. So we do a lot of school colors sometimes as well, just as a little bit of um, more of a little unique that they can add to it if they want. Or a lot of folks want those classic, clear, standard bulbs because that's your kind of you know, that's your classic look and they always photograph really well in the light or in the evening.
Speaker 1:Makes sense. It's a lot of weddings, so you know, the classic white light bulb does make a lot of sense, but it's fun to have a color.
Speaker 2:I love it because there's actually some creativity to all of those yeah there is.
Speaker 3:I was just I'm like, oh, you could do like a rainbow you could do, yeah, kinds of fun things, yeah that's super cool um look really good at night um so what looks good at night uh, the colored bulb Folks that have like outdoor or venues of outdoor space or like a patio or a courtyard or something We've done, some of those where, when you, when it gets dark, those colored bulbs really pop, interesting.
Speaker 1:Is there anything you won't do? You're like no, that's, you can't put them on the roof.
Speaker 3:Don't know putting them on the roof unless it's a flat roof, okay, and I can get them anchored really well. We haven't had that request yet, though we really we try our best to do what the customer would like for us to do. So as long as we feel that the letters are going to be safe and not at risk of falling over or blowing over or anything like that, we're willing to, you know, set it up just about anywhere as long as we feel it's safe. So we have had some situations where we've had to tell clients like, I don't think it will be safe in that spot, or if they're outdoors working with uneven land and landscaping, and the biggest thing for that is, you know, people want, people want the letters to be straight and level, and so if you start working on uneven ground or big hills or it's, it's really rocky or something, you're not going to be able to get the letter straight and it's going to, it's going to really stand out in pictures If you, if you can tell that there're sitting on uneven surfaces.
Speaker 2:Makes sense. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So I'm assuming that because of the nature of your business and you don't have A A, a, a, a, b, b, b, b, c, d?
Speaker 1:booking early is a definite necessity if you have something that you, if you're not being flexible, if you're like I have a really long last name and I really need it to say like the Shella Gerdes, so you know, booking with some, booking with you guys early and making sure that those letters are available for you on your special date. How far in advance do you recommend people give you guys a call?
Speaker 4:So we were kind of a little so our business, were sometimes one of the last things that people book, cause sometimes they say, if it fits in my budget. And then we in turn have, you know, clients that are like no, I for sure want this. And you know we've already got bookings into 2025, which is great. But you know, because we do have multiples and we do have multiple delivery drivers, we we tell folks, the earlier the better, because then you know you for sure have them, you don't have to worry about. You know you reaching out to us. And it's a day that we've already got six other weddings and unfortunately, all of our A's or all of our E's are gone and we can't get them from a neighboring location because it's also a really popular wedding date for them.
Speaker 4:So we do tell clients, you know we meet them at expos and open houses and things like that. And we meet them at expos and open houses and things like that. We like to say, even if you're not quite ready to book, go ahead and inquire with us. That gets you in our system and then that way we have it on our radar of okay, this is what you're thinking and if we have another client that reaches out and they would need some of those letters. We're going to reach out to that person that inquired first to be like hey, are you ready to move forward or do you still need some time? And then you know we try to be flexible and give clients different options.
Speaker 4:You know, if we don't have the letters available to do their last name, maybe we can, you know, do the initials, or we're actually lighting up a couple of first dance songs for some weddings this summer, so we try to give them a few different options if we can't give them what they were initially after for whatever reason. But yes, reaching out early is definitely encouraged and then that way you're at least on our radar and we know to reach out to you first if something else were to come in that would possibly need some of those letters and it kind of depends on when the wedding is as well.
Speaker 3:So for clients that are doing, you know, popular wedding times in Southwest Missouri October, for example, someone that was doing an event in October should have reached out to us about four months ago, should have reached out to us about four months ago.
Speaker 3:As we have, I think, we have three weekends in a row where we have like six events, then four events and five events all on a Saturday in October, and so if you know you're going to be in a busy time and you know that the letters are something that you want as part of your event, the earlier you can reach out the better, and we've already got a couple bookings for next fall, in 2025 already too, whereas clients that are in a little bit of time that's not super busy with weddings, so winter weddings, weddings in July, things like that there's a little bit more flexibility, so we might have letters available a little bit closer to the date and it's not something that would have to be booked super far out.
Speaker 3:But we always tell people you know, once you officially make a booking with us and sign a contract with us, your letters are locked in no one else. They're not available to anyone else, nobody else can inquire about them, them and we're not going to um, we're not going to even consider putting them in another event, because they are, they're set for you and locked in once you sign a contract with us awesome, I love it.
Speaker 1:Or if you waited past the four months and your wedding is in October. You guys are very creative at coming up with other ideas and things like that, so don't one thing. Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 4:And this is what's been really great about just the wedding community here in Southwest Missouri is sometimes we can make it work of the venue will let us come and set them up a little early or, you know, we can come and pick them up the next day. If it's something of you know, we've got four pickups all at 10 and 11 pm on a Saturday and we can't make it to this other venue. Sometimes the venues will let us come back the next day. So we try to get as creative with the scheduling as we can to make it work. We don't like to have to tell people that we can't make it work. We are going to try every possible solution that we can to see if we can help make it work for their special day.
Speaker 3:And we enjoy being. You know the ability to be kind of creative and you know a lot of people want their last name of creative and um. You know a lot of people want their their last name spelled out. But there's a lot of situations, like we were joking about earlier, where you may have an extremely long last name, um, and that's just not going to fit in the budget that you have um for the day.
Speaker 3:And so we always tell people like like, reach out to us and you know, give us some ideas, tell us what your first dance song is. You know we can explore initial options. You know we can be as creative as your mind can get on spelling different things out. So we like to tell people you know we can fit in a variety of different budgets. So we like to tell people you know we can fit in a variety of different budgets and if the letters are booked of what you originally wanted, maybe we can come up with a backup plan of something else to sell out. So, yeah, we really try to be creative and accommodate as many clients as we possibly can.
Speaker 2:Awesome, that's amazing.
Speaker 4:So if a couple is interested in finding out if their letters are available for their wedding date, how do they get a hold of you?
Speaker 4:So we have an online inquiry form. Folks are always welcome to reach out to us through Facebook or Instagram as well, but the inquiry form allows them to submit, you know, their address of where the venue is, times. You know a bit more details that we need to get that full picture and we are just it's alphalitletterscom slash Springfield. You can also Google us and we'll pop up that way as well, and that's just a great way. It's a pretty short and sweet inquiry form but it gives us enough details, um, to be able to follow up with the client and give them a full quote based on, you know, delivery fees and if it is a day of oh, you know we've already got multiple other setups we'll let the client know initially of. We can do this, but we may have to get a little crafty with the set-up time and pick-up times and stuff like that. So we try to give the client all the information initially.
Speaker 3:That way they have that to review as they're trying to make their decision on whether or not this is something that they can move forward with that want to reach out via Instagram or Facebook, or sometimes they'll text our Google number and they'll ask the simple question of well, how much are the letters or how much is this going to cost me? And we really encourage people to utilize the inquiry form because that's going to give us all the details. We need to actually give a quote for the, for the setup. That that's going to be accurate, because all of our quotes are customized based on, like, the name, of saying where, where, the events, at the location, the time. Everything is customized for them. That allows us, you know, saying, hey, how much are these? If you fill out an inquiry form, we can get all the details and then we can actually get them that customized quote and make it personalized for them and tell them exactly what they can expect.
Speaker 1:Nice. So it's alphalitletterscom slash Springfield. Is that what you said?
Speaker 3:Yeah, alphalitletterscom slash Springfield Perfect.
Speaker 1:I know you have to do the Springfield for sure At the end.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, if you just go to alphalitletterscom, you have to find a location before you can submit a free form. So if someone winds up on alphabetletterscom, it'll ask them to, you know, it'll tell them like to find a location before they submit a free form, and so they'll just need to look for Springfield, missouri, and we'll be the one that pops up.
Speaker 1:Perfect, awesome. Well, thank you for spending your morning with us and sharing your passion for your business with our couples. Um was there. I think we've covered pretty much all things letters today.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was. It was great um chatting with you guys and getting to talk about the business. We um we're very excited to be a part of the industry and we really enjoy getting to talk about what we do and meeting other vendors in the industry, meeting new clients and really just sharing our story and getting to hear the stories of everyone else. That's a part of this family as well.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Yeah Well, it was great talking to you guys.
Speaker 4:Yes, thank you guys so much. We really appreciate the time and the opportunity.
Speaker 1:Absolutely All right.
Speaker 2:Well, you guys have a good day. Thank you, okay, bye.
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