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Day in the Life | Julie Gambrell
Welcome to our “Day in the Life” series! We feature wedding and event planners from around the world with many different levels of experience. If you would like to featured, download our questionnaire here and email your responses and photo to info@plannerslounge.com. We are excited to feature Julie Gambrell today!
Name: Julie Gambrell
Business Name & Location: Classic Creations Wedding Planning & Design Firm, Highlands Ranch, CO (but working worldwide)
Number of Years Working in the Event Industry: 19 years
Number of Years Owning Your Event Planning Business: 19 years
Website: www.denver-weddings.com
What is your typical day like?
After I get my youngest son off to school, I start my day with a workout at the gym. If I don’t do it in the morning my day gets too busy and I know it just won’t happen. I work from my home office and I’m usually at my desk eating my breakfast by 9:15, while clearing out all that junk email.
Each day of my work week is a little different. I created a block schedule that hangs on my wall and outlines different tasks for different days.
Monday- I have an office meeting with my associate to go over the plan for the week. Then I focus on checking on all that web stuff. You know……blogs, Google Analytics, Two Bright Lights, Twitter, and Facebook. In the afternoon, I respond to client emails from the weekend, and add any new tasks to each of their to do lists.
Tuesdays thru Thursdays- I’m mostly doing client meetings and working on their weddings. I try to save Thursday afternoons for networking meetings with new vendors or lunches with vendor friends.
I live for Fridays….it’s my creative day. Fridays include creating client design boards, writing blogs, checking out wedding blogs, playing on Pinterest (that’s what I’m loving most lately), or window shopping for design inspiration.
I have two boys (15 and 11 yrs old…oh and my hubby too) who are involved in a lot of activities, so I’m usually off and playing chauffer around 4:30, then come back to the office and work more. My husband gets home late, so I can work until 6:00 or 6:30 easily before all my boys get home.
I think one of the hardest things about being an entrepreneur is having work/life balance. Some days are easier than others! There are always client meetings on weekends/evenings, and fun networking events to go to in the evening. I try to select them carefully to make sure I’m not gone too often. During wedding season I try to take off a few afternoons during the week to go do something fun with my boys. It ensures that I’m super productive on the other days of the week!
How did you get started in the industry?
I’ve always loved throwing parties, but it took me awhile to realize that I should be in the wedding planning industry. Growing up, my mom hosted a lot of parties and I would hire my friends to act as servers. In college, I loved planning all the sorority rush parties and themed socials. I graduated with a degree in engineering and worked in that field for many years. Yes, I’m an engineer…I know…everyone thinks it’s so different from wedding planning. However, it’s pretty similar…you have a budget for the project, a deadline, and lots of vendors to work with. It’s just now I get to work with fun, happy people, and get to be creative!
Like many people, I discovered the wonderful world of weddings when I got engaged. I was the first of my friends to get married, and so I helped all of them plan their weddings. Everyone told me I was great at it. So I decided to look in to it. There weren’t very many courses or much information available at that time. So, I called a wedding planner to ask what it was like, and she said “You work every weekend, long hours, and have no time to yourself” then hung up on me.
Not to be discouraged, I found a class through the Association of Bridal Consultants (which was still relatively new at that time). It was a local, two day course, and there were about 7 people in the class. When the students realized being a consultant was more than just fluffing gowns and going to cake tastings, several of them didn’t come back to class the next day.
I loved every bit of it and decided to start my company while I worked a full-time job. After a couple of years, I left my “real world” job, and dove into planning weddings full time.
Now, I even do a lot of destination weddings out of the country (which is a whole other topic of how I got started in those).
People say, “Wow, after 19 years you must have seen it all”, but after all this time my job is still changing and the company growing. Thank goodness, because it keeps it fun and challenging!
Where do you find design inspiration?
I love to go out and just window shop, I get great ideas for the upcoming wedding colors. Sometimes it’s a fabric or piece of ribbon that gives me inspiration. Mostly, we find it from our client’s lifestyle and personalities.
Twitter has surprisingly been a fun place to find inspiration (and new vendors). I’ve found some great artists who provide unusual handmade wedding items, and there are just some inspirational people on there.
I try not to buy magazines anymore. You end up seeing the ideas from them anyways when the brides brings you their idea files. We really don’t use those ideas for anything more than a jumping off place for their design discussion.
However, I do have a horrible Pinterest addiction, but who doesn’t these days. It’s interesting to see what wedding styles/themes are trending, and what trend you might be able to start. I love being the inspiration and posting pictures/ideas from our weddings, and then seeing how many times they get repinned.
What is the most unusual/challenging/difficult situation you have experienced as an event planner?
I haven’t really had difficult situations with brides. Most of my challenges are with weather, especially when I do destination weddings. These things don’t really throw me off, the ones that do are when life has thrown me a curve ball, and I’ve almost had to put in to effect my emergency plan.
My most difficult situation would probably be when my mom passed away unexpectedly during wedding season. I was setting up at a wedding in the mountains when I got the call she had been admitted to the hospital. I didn’t know how serious it was until the next morning, and had to rush to the hospital. She went in to hospice that night, and was there for four days before she passed. Obviously, a very difficult time. I didn’t have a wedding that weekend thankfully. I did have one the following weekend, but decided not to tell the bride what had happened until a month after her wedding when we went for coffee. I was friends with most of the vendors at her wedding, and they all knew what had happened. The vendors were so supportive and helpful. I had to step out during the mother/son dance as the song they choose was a song we had been singing to my mom while she was in hospice.
I didn’t have to use my emergency plan for this situation, but I’m glad I have trusted people I can count on if I ever did need to. Everyone should have an emergency backup plan. You just don’t know what life will throw at you.
On happier note….thankfully those life situations are rare. I think the situations that really shock me now are when unusual things happen…like the bride’s young son coming up and putting his hands on my boobs while he asked me a question; or when the bride asked me to cut off several layers of her $10,000 Monique Lhuillier gown because she was hot.
What are your favorite online resources for your business?
Planners Lounge – You’ve done a great job discussing a variety of terrific topics.
Think Splendid – Great insight into our industry.
Julie, thank you so much for taking the time to share your story and and a day in your life. If you are an event planner and would like to be featured, download our questionnaire today and email it to us along with a photo.
A complete set of templates, checklists, and tools for professional wedding planners.
Business
Wedding Planning
Marketing
Day in the Life
Self Development
Friday Favorites
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