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The Background

Hi guys! In today's episode I'm going back – way back to where it all began so you know why this podcast started and where it's headed. Most episodes will be more advice and topic-driven, but you should probably know a little bit about the person who's giving you advice and why you should listen to them, right? This is the story of how I became the owner of a successful wedding planning company and the host of this podcast.

Want to skip reading it, listen to the episode!

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In the beginning . . .

So . . . where to even start.

Like I said in episode 0, I’m the owner of Verve Event Co., a company whose mission is to ensure its couples enjoy planning the contemporary, sophisticated wedding they’ve always imagined. My wedding planning company just celebrated its 3rd anniversary, which is crazy.

But I wasn’t always a wedding planner. . .Nope.

I was always into planning events and creating experiences, even during childhood, I just never thought about it as a career until a really dark and scary time in my life. But I’ll get to that later.

My first “big event” was my 11th birthday when I organized a viewing party for James and the Giant Peach since we'd just read it in school. I was the O.G. of immersive experiences back then.

In high school, I was always the organizer when it came to class events – like the hallway decorating competition during Homecoming (I came from a small town. Don't judge.)

It’s no surprise that for the Myers Briggs personality test, I’m the consul – which is often the cheerleader that likes to bring people together and support people. 

I’m also an Enneagram 2 – which is the helper and the host (2w3 but we can get into that on another day). 

Also in high school, the only reason I wanted to run for a class office was so I could make sure my friend's dream of having Prom have a “Stairway to Heaven” did NOT happen.

In college, I went to Colgate here in central New York and my roommate signed up our suite for the Spring Party Weekend Planning Committee, a giant weekend party for the whole school 2 weeks before exams started.

That led to me eventually leading our Activities Board, which planned all of the school's events.

(I promise, there's a reason I talk about this.)

However, I thought I wanted a career with lots of writing. I loved English and had PR internships and got a job with PR agency after school in Washington, D.C.

I was so excited.

The Moment of Truth

But the PR job was horrible. Basically, my team was made up of girls who were really passive-aggressive and unkind. 

I have NEVER been a quitter. And as an enneagram 2, it’s important for people to like me. 

But I didn’t love my job. I actually hated it and dreaded it. I even cried about it one night because I didn’t want to go to it so much.

I realized I needed to quit because it was a toxic environment.

When I quit, my boss basically threatened me and said that she hoped I had “another plan after this” because D.C. was a “small town” – meaning she’d make sure I wasn’t hired.

IT WAS AWFUL. I was so scared.

So, I went to church and prayed b/c I didn’t know what else I was going to do.  I thought about what I had experience doing and what I liked doing. 

I realized all my life I'd been planning events. Even at my PR job, I always asked if there were any launch events I could plan. Pitching wasn't where my passion was.

My passion was in creating experiences.

So I worked for some major organizations, eventually becoming a Director at a consulting firm, and worked on some amazing events with incredible people including royalty, dignitaries, former Presidents, and First Ladies, an inaugural ball.

The Big Move

At some point, I started to get burned out. At this point, my husband and I had been married for about 4 years.

Then we had a baby and I focused on being a full-time mom.  We moved to New York and then had our second child.

But after a few months, I wanted to use the other part of my brain.

I wanted more adult connections, to be creative, work with my vendors again.

I wanted to be part of a team and clients to serve.

I wanted to make more of an impact than what I was currently doing.

So I started Verve Event Co.

When I set out to start my company, I never even thought about what it would be like to be a business owner or that I would turn into a podcast host.

I just knew I wanted to help more people.

In the second year of the company, I wanted to serve more people than just the small number of clients I worked with every year.

One of the things I missed doing from my agency days was teaching the younger associates the ins and outs of everything we did and, more importantly, why. 

So, like I said in Episode 0, I just wanted a way to share all the knowledge and wisdom I’ve gained over the past 13 years. 

I love podcasts because you can listen to them while multitasking and I’m all about being efficient.

So I started Ask the Planner as a flash briefing. It started out as short, 1-minute clips because I wanted to be able to impart all my knowledge into easily-digestible clips for people like you.

But after 200 tips, I wanted to be able to dig deeper into the why and how of things. I wanted to be able to explain more fully the answer to a question or why you should do something a certain way and I couldn’t do that in 60 seconds.

So here I am! If you’re an engaged couple and you’re just starting out planning your wedding or you’re much further into your wedding planning, I’d love for you to Subscribe!

And if there are topics you'd like me to cover or experts you want me to interview, please let me know! 

Thanks for being here and I can't wait to connect with you!

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