I am very excited to feature one of the most inspiring and authentic women in wedding planning – Lisa Smith!

How did you get started in wedding and event planning?

When I was 16, I wanted to be independent, make my own money and have “fun”. With this in mind, I thought I’d get a job with my best friend at the local ice cream shop. However I’m an only child with overprotective parents and they said if I wanted a job, I had to work for my aunt who just so happened to be a Bridal Consultant. So I started working with her as an assistant doing all the “grunt” work such as set-up and tear down at events.

My Sundays were spent cleaning, repacking and storing containers and prepping for the next event. It wasn’t the fun work that a lot of aspiring wedding planners imagine. There is a lot of hard work, late nights and early mornings involved.

Can you share specific details such as any educational classes you took?

As a wedding planner, you need to know and understand every aspect on the industry. Here are some of the courses I have taken:

• Event Design Course
• Michigan Floral Association Course (this course taught me not only how to design and make pretty flowers but to also understand the handling and  care of flowers)
• Butterfly Certification Course
• Photography Classes
• Wedding cake baking and design
• Numerous Association of Bridal Consultants Courses
• Calligraphy classes

I have also attended several workshops, seminars, and conferences. It is very important to me to educate myself on a regular basis. The wedding industry is one that is always changing.

How many months until you had your first client?

Because of my background, I had my first client prior to launching my business.

Where did you learn the business basics?

I learned entrepreneurial business basics from my father. He has owned an industrial equipment company for over 35 years. I also learned a lot as a Mary Kay Beauty Consultant. My experience with MK taught me to be a “detail seeker” and find out what my client’s needs were and also to be able to recognize what they needed. My director from MK taught me the importance of being teachable and coachable and not take someone else’s suggestion as a criticism. Sometimes people will take a suggestion as criticism. We have to realize that no one knows everything and everybody knows something different. We can learn something new from someone every day if we are willing to be teachable and coachable.

What are all the types of services you offer?

I offer a limited number of month-of and partial planning services. The majority of my wedding clients are full service. In addition to wedding planning, we also offer event planning for all types of life’s special events, as well as rentals, stationery and Sandals Resorts destination weddings, honeymoons and romantic getaways.

What is your most popular service?

At this time full-service planning is my most popular service. I work with many destination brides getting married in Michigan who need me to handle all of the details. I also have many clients who are employees and executives from the Big 3 – working in the Motor City, a lot of my clients work in the auto industry and typically don’t have a 9 to 5 work schedule.

How have your services have evolved since you started?

My services have evolved within the past few years as the economy has begun to pick up. More clients are opting for the luxury of full service as opposed to just month-of.  Things change year to year and even day-to-day.

What advice do you have for someone who is new to the industry?

Educate yourself. I can’t say that enough. If you don’t know something, don’t fake it. Clients will know and that makes it bad for the industry as a whole. Invest time and money to educate yourself. New planners can’t expect experienced and successful event professionals to give you the store for free because most successful event professionals have worked and invested in learning the business. Hire a mentor, join and be an ACTIVE member in industry related associations or groups.

What are the biggest factors that have contributed to your successful business?

Educating myself, building a great network of trusted vendors and professional relationships and having the most amazing and trusted mentors.

It very rare that a business is an overnight success. Hard work and perseverance are very important. Building a business is not the time to be a know-it-all. There were times in my business when things looked very dim and I was unsure about what was going to happen next. I did not give up. I did not pretend everything was great. I pushed through it and sought help and advice from my wedding planner mentor and trusted vendors.

Is there anything else you want to share that would be helpful for a newer event planner?

I know that when you are a novice or aspiring wedding planner, you want to be successful and make money but don’t do things that are underhanded and sacrifice your integrity to be successful.

Don’t underbid and price your services so low to get the job that you don’t make any money. Let me be the first to tell you that charging $250 for day-of service is ridiculous. You will spend at least a month working on a wedding including an hour to run the rehearsal plus a full day working on the day of the wedding in addition to countless hours researching, emailing, making phone calls and working out the logistics for a day-of wedding.  Think about it this way, if you work 40 hours planning a day-of-wedding plus an additional 10 hours on the actual wedding day, you have spent 50 hours total on this one event. If you charge $250 for this service you are only making $5 per hour which is less than what minimum wage was in 1997.

Be original, authentic or whatever word everyone is using now. Just be you and don’t try to be someone else. Build and brand your company that is true and unfiltered to who you are, what you are and want your company to be.

Lisa, thank you so much for being an inspiration and for sharing your advice and wisdom with us. We all truly appreciate you being such a great teacher in our industry.

Photo credits:  Adam Sparkes Photography & Tracy Brown Photography