The Wedding Biz - Behind The Scenes Of The Wedding Business

Andy welcomes Victoria Dubin to the podcast today! Victoria runs Victoria Dubin Events located in New York City. After graduating from Cornell University, Victoria began her career in finance and real estate and was later the owner of a successful gift and home design accessories business. She eventually started a highly sought-after event planning firm. Victoria Dubin Events offers a complete scope of services for social, weddings, corporate, and nonprofit events, both in New York City and elsewhere. Tune in as Victoria reflects on her childhood and how certain aspects of it instilled a love of entertainment and events. She also explains her usual process with new clients and how she matches her plan for them with their personalities, how she thinks about and approaches competition, how she feels about older approaches to the business vs. newer ones, what her retirement plan is, and so much more. She also offers advice to anyone who might be looking to go into this business. Andy recalls meeting Victoria a w

Lighting designer and owner of Images by Lighting Ray Thompson is here today to talk about storytelling with lighting for events and designing lighting for lux weddings. He has over 30 years of experience and an amazing passion for creative design. He also pioneered the modern event lighting industry. His company has created the lighting for events at major corporations like Adobe, Taco Bell, Gillette, NFL Super Bowl and many more. He has also been involved in premieres and events for major movies and entertainers like HBO, DreamWorks Pictures, Disney/Buena Vista, Elton John and more. In this episode, Ray shares how he got started and was able to transition his passion into a career and an award-winning company. He also talks about the evolution of lighting, changes in technology, tools smaller designers can use to create amazing lighting, how he finds inspiration and more. This episode is sponsored by Zola, the fastest-growing wedding platform that connects today’s couples with the right vendors. Zola gives

Andy is so excited to present this interview to you with Zainab Alsalih who has been on the show once before when we were still in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic. Zainab is the founder and creative director of Carousel, one of the most prominent companies in the region for event design. She is considered one of the most respected authorities on weddings in the Middle East, and she has been covered and quoted in countless regional and international programs and publications in many languages, including Harper's Bazaar, Martha Stewart, and Vogue. She has also been recognized on many occasions as one of Dubai's leading female entrepreneurs. Listen in as Zainab touches upon various topics such as how the pandemic has impacted her over the last two years. She also reflects on one of her favorite weddings from the last two years, how she felt having to have virtual meetings when the pandemic was at its height, how rearranging her environment rather than letting it get stagnant inspires her, how the pandemic ha

Today's guest is no stranger to the show as he has been featured on it before! Welcome Brett Culp, an acclaimed filmmaker and social entrepreneur. He is the personal cinematographer for Hollywood stars, music icons, authors, hall of fame athletes, and royal families, and his films have been featured on Netflix, Apple TV, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. His uplifting keynote speeches deliver practical methods for uniting teams for a meaningful mission and creating growth through trust and genuine connection. Brett talks about the difficult social climate in which we currently live and what responsibility falls upon the shoulders of entrepreneurs to be a source of light for people. He also touches upon his view of leadership, how the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a shift in leadership mindset, the difference between managing and mentoring, how to unlock people's hidden potential, the benefits of feedback and one-on-one communication, why stress makes us stronger rather than weaker, and so much more! Andy, as usual, foun

Corbin Gurkin of Corbin Gurkin Photography joins Andy today to talk about her unique journey as a wedding photographer. Corbin has photographed weddings in places as diverse as California's wine country, the beautiful beaches of Thailand, country estates in Ireland, the hillside villages of Tuscany, and more. Her work has been regularly featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, and Town and Country, and she has also won PDN Top Knots Wedding Photography grand prize award! Learn about how Corbin had originally planned to be a war photographer but eventually decided to become a wedding photographer. She also dives into how she makes standard aspects of weddings such as toasts unique and artistic, what drives her as an artist, what it was like photographing Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner getting married, how she feels about film vs. digital, how the wedding industry has changed since she started shooting wedding photography twenty years ago, and so much more! Andy found his chat with Corbin to be

Frequent guest David Stark comes back to the podcast today! David is a renowned event producer and designer based out of New York City, and his team creates events worldwide for weddings, entertainment, fashion, publishing, arts, media, and more! Some of his high-profile clients and events include Brad Pitt, Glenn Close, Saturday Night Live's fortieth anniversary, Louis Vuitton, and fundraising galas for the country's most elite. David also has several published books including his most recent, titled At the Artisan's Table, and has been a guest expert on many television shows and has even been featured numerous times in various major publications. The last time that David was on the show was in April 2020, just a month after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, so he discusses how the pandemic has impacted him over the last two years. He reveals that he has learned a lot about flexibility because of the pandemic, declaring that innovation comes out of constraints. He also likens creating an event to directing

Jack Ezon, C.E.O. and managing partner of EMBARK Beyond, returns to the podcast to talk with Andy about where he is today in the travel industry. Embark Beyond is a luxury lifestyle partnership that specializes in bespoke travel experiences. They have the ability to access royal palaces, private homes, luxury yachts, global landmarks, and more, and they negotiate hotel, air, and other components related to travel. EMBARK Beyond ultimately acts as a full concierge service to develop the perfect itinerary in the world's most sought-after destinations. Jack reflects on the travel industry and its current status right now with COVID-19 still being a problem. He gives some helpful tips and advice such as to be sure to buy travel insurance and to ship luggage rather than travel with it in anticipation of something possibly going wrong. He also talks about the importance of emotional impact when it comes to clients' trips and how loyal customers are drawn toward heart, not money, gives an example of a recent weddin

Regular and longtime listeners of the podcast will likely recognize today's guest's voice as she has been on the show before! Carrie Goldberg is the founder and creative director of CLG Creative, a fashion styling and creative consulting firm which caters to personal and corporate clients all over the globe! Carrie channels her multifaceted background in editing, art direction, and creative direction from her experience as the weddings and travel director at Harper's Bazaar, and before holding that position, she was the senior fashion editor at Martha Stewart Weddings. CLG Creative's body of work is even further elevated by a top-level team of stylists whose experience spans the realms of fashion, men's wear, accessories, fine jewelry, interior design, e-commerce, travel, and more! Carrie talks about the personal difficulties that she endured in 2021 and what she learned from getting through them. She describes her team, reveals her biggest challenge with the company right now, discusses her styling process,

Andy's guest today is Jeannie Young Savage, president of Details Details Weddings and Events. Details Details is a premier full-service event planning and design company which specializes in distinctive weddings, lavish events, and corporate functions. Prior to launching the company nearly twenty years ago, Jeannie was the general manager of several full-service hotels including managing 200 employees and dealing with over forty vendors! Details Details has also been featured in numerous publications such as People Magazine, Martha Stewart Weddings, Inside Weddings, the Say Yes to the Dress television show, and more! Jeannie reflects on her younger years and when she developed a passion for crafting and designing. She also talks about her time as a general manager for hotels and what she learned from that experience especially as an Asian woman, how she became a mother right around the same time that she started her company, what her typical process is with clients, how she develops her creativity, what her p

Since you’re listening to this podcast, it’s obvious that you want to find new ways to improve your wedding business. That’s why I’m excited to tell you about the Book More Weddings Summit!   During this online conference, which is free if you mention my name, you’ll learn how to more easily book more weddings by hearing from over 20 industry experts. The host of this event is previous podcast guest Heidi Thompson and she always pulls together a great speaker roster!    Attract your dream clients, stand out from the competition, and make more money without working more hours and find out more about the next Book More Weddings Summit free online conference by typing in bookmoreweddingssummit.com/andy    “Luxury does not come without service. Service is luxury.” Today, CEO of HMR Designs, Rishi Patel, talks about how service and luxury work cohesively to create astonishing events and a mutually fulfilling experience for the client and their designers. In this episode, Andy and Rishi focus on establishing c

Andy welcomes Stephanie Cole of Cole Drake Events to the podcast today! Stephanie is the founder and principal planner of Cole Drake Events, a luxury destination wedding planning company. They have been featured in Martha Stewart, Harper's Bazaar, and the New York Times, and in this episode, Stephanie and Andy talk about Stephanie's early influences, how she made the transition from having a business partner to running her business by herself, what her process tends to look like with clients, and what kinds of challenges that she has faced and how she overcame them. She also shares an interesting story about her favorite wedding, discusses her pricing philosophy, and more. Stephanie identifies what her personal signature is, revealing how detail-oriented she is. She also reveals that one of the most difficult aspects of her job is having to say goodbye to some of her clients. Andy had such a great time interviewing Stephanie and especially enjoyed getting such a great snapshot of her business. He would apprec

Longtime and/or regular listeners of The Wedding Biz will likely remember today's guest as she is no stranger to the show! Returning to The Wedding Biz to once again chat with Andy about what she does is Julie Novack, C.E.O. and co-founder of PartySlate! Founded in 2016, PartySlate is an online resource full of photos that connects people who are planning events of all kinds with leading event planners, venues, and vendors. It is also a place where leading event professionals can share their work, build their brands, and drive leads. Before founding PartySlate, Julie held executive positions at top-tier digital agencies such as Razorfish, Vibes, and Agency.com, and with more than two decades of digital marketing experience, Julie has brought so much expertise into the events industry and has helped some of the biggest brands in the world! Julie discusses some of the positive outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as how so many people were so eager to collaborate and rebuild relationships that had been put o

Augusta Cole joins Andy in this episode of The Wedding Biz to talk about her career and how she always manages to stay one step ahead, discussing how she took the leap to start her own business, how she built her team, and more. Andy first met Augusta when she was working for Lynn Easton as Executive Director where she garnered a stellar reputation for her wide-ranging abilities. She has since started her own business - Augusta Cole Events based out of New York City and Charleston, South Carolina! Augusta has always, as she shares, had a love for this business. As a child, for example, she loved having birthday parties and always wanted to hand-deliver invitations on silver trays. She touches upon her education and what it was like for her to make the transition into entrepreneurship. Also discussed is her usual process with her clientele and how she does scheduled check-ins with them and goes about assuring them that she is one step ahead. Augusta also shares what her experience has been like doing virtual m

Joining Andy on today's episode of The Wedding Biz is Jean-Pierre Uys of Jean-Pierre Uys Photography! Based out of New York City, Jean-Pierre is an acclaimed wedding photographer, artist, and creative explorer. Having shot over 700 weddings, his images have been published in over seventy local and international magazines, and he even helped publish two hardcover wedding books. Jean-Pierre is also the recipient of numerous awards and accolades including but not limited to a Framed Awards nomination as one of the ten best wedding photographers in the world and Junebug Weddings' Best of the Best Wedding Images Around the World. Jean-Pierre talks about his childhood and education, revealing that he always had a love for visuals but originally more so videos as opposed to stills. He and Andy agree that creative entrepreneurship isn't something that they originally saw for their futures, especially not long-term, and Jean-Pierre reflects that he didn't originally think that he would be involved in photography for a

Andy's guest today is the founder and C.E.O. of Miss Diamond Ring, Michelle Demaree! Miss Diamond Ring is a Los Angeles-based diamond concierge service that offers its clientele a personalized boutique service as special as their love story. After honing her craft for more than ten years in the diamond industry and representing state-of-the-art brands such as Harry Winston, Tiffany & Co., and Van Cleef, Michelle has created her own signature process offering the highest level of bespoke ring-making for global clients seeking the best that is out there! Michelle herself is also known as “Miss Diamond Ring” and has been featured in many publications such as Forbes, People Magazine, The New York Times, Today, and Modern Luxury Weddings. Andy and Michelle discuss Michelle's tagline on her website and how Michelle believes that what she does should be making sparkly works of art that tell her clients' love stories. Michelle also reflects on her history and how she got into the diamond industry. She makes the p

Joining Andy this week is returning guest (and host of another podcast as part of The Wedding Biz Network) Preston Bailey! Preston is the premier international event designer for a client roster that includes celebrities, royalty, CEOs, and athletes! He has had a number of art installations with showcases in cities including but not limited to New York City, Las Vegas, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and London! He is also a master educator and is the author of seven books, five of which have been bestsellers! Andy and Preston discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected a lot of people's work ethics and has also impacted supply, both problems that have made finding employees more difficult than before. Preston touches upon how and why he feels that he needs to work a little bit harder now than he used to, and he and Andy agree that creativity is like a muscle that needs to be consistently worked which is why they both have morning routines during which they do just that. Preston, at nearly seventy-three years old, also

There are many digital platforms that provide inspiration for designing and organizing events, however, PartySlate is an especially curated platform, using images, that offers such inspiration and connections to local professionals. Creating such a well-orchestrated and impactful company is no small feat, which is what makes building this creative source so impressive. Julie Novack is not only the mastermind and CEO behind PartySlate, but also has 20 years of marketing experience working for top tier digital agencies. Join us in this episode of The Wedding Biz with Andy Kushner to learn more about raising venture capital, building a digital platform, and how to expand and continue to stay relevant.  And check out The Next Level episode, releasing Wednesday, in which Andy and guest co-host Sean Low, of The Business Of Being Creative, discuss Julie’s interview. Show Highlights: How childhood passion carries over to current career Finding ways to get connected with local professionals and the best in the event

Sean Low of The Business of Being Creative joins Andy today to talk about his business and how it has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic over the last couple of years. The Business of Being Creative is a consulting firm that is focused on providing practical advice to those in the business of being creative! His client list includes the who's who of the wedding industry and design community, and he is also the host of a very informative podcast with The Wedding Biz network called The Business of Being Creative. Sean dives deep into how his approach has been impacted because of the pandemic, and he and Andy discuss how the heart and soul of the wedding business has gotten even deeper as a result of the pandemic. Sean also reveals and discusses some of the common themes that he has been noticing among his current clients and posits that business owners need to be sure that they have clarity about what qualifies as rational vs. irrational about the way that they run their businesses. He also encourages busin

Joining Andy today is returning guest Laurie Arons of Laurie Arons Special Events! Laurie founded her company in 1994 and has been featured in numerous magazine publications. She has also been listed in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Martha Stewart Weddings as one of the top worldwide planners. Her clientele consists of noteworthy trendsetters like Sophia Coppola, Vanessa Getty, and Christy Turlington as well as prominent business moguls such as Gary Friedman, Frank Caufield, and Eddie DeBartolo. Laurie has also created and runs a successful wedding planner master class. Laurie, in this episode, reflects on the last couple of years and how the COVID-19 pandemic affected 2021 for her. Grateful for her team and how they overcame them, she details the struggles and reveals why she brought on very few new clients for 2022, taking on fewer clients but charging more. She also talks about how the hospitality industry in general was hit very hard because of the pandemic and how her goal remains to make people happy. And

Andy is joined today by KT Merry of KT Photography! KT has been recognized for her industry excellence by top media outlets such as Harper's Bazaar and Vogue, and she has built a thriving and very profitable business that allows her to also pursue her passion for conservation by using her art to protect the planet and its inhabitants who are most vulnerable. Over the past ten years, KT has evolved into a multidisciplinary creative with a highly profitable house of brands such as photographing luxury destination weddings and editorials around the world. KT shares how her love of photography developed and how she assisted some major fashion photographers. She discusses her ideal client and elaborates upon some of the quotes that she has on her website and identifies the why behind what she does, discussing her passion for protecting the planet and how she has married that with her passion for photography. She touches upon how she came upon photographing weddings, how she feels about digital over film, what her