The Wedding Biz - Behind The Scenes Of The Wedding Business

Simon T. Bailey is no stranger to success, even though he’s quite familiar with failure. At a young age, Simon was turned down for multiple sports teams-but he didn’t let that stop him. He left his first college after just one year and moved into a low-income neighborhood. His path took him to a high-level role, which he transitioned away from when it became clear his days as an employee there were numbered. But in every situation, Simon was constantly searching for a way to use what he was truly passionate about-- helping others to discover their inner brilliance. Simon is unafraid to transform himself, to recognize the need to evolve. He understands this means putting yourself out there and potentially failing. He spends this episode sharing his experiences and dropping life-changing perspectives on how you can help yourself grow, forgive others, and take responsibility for pursuing your dreams and find success. About Simon T. Bailey: Simon T. Bailey helps people discover their inner brilliance. A best-sell

REVISIT: It’s hard to overstate how glad I am to share my conversation with Sylvia Weinstock with you. I am thrilled that you’ll get to spend some time with her, as I’ve been lucky enough to. If you’re in the wedding business or familiar with it, Sylvia needs no introduction. Sylvia Weinstock reinvented the tradition of the wedding cake, and for 37 years she and her team set a standard for wedding creations—quality, workmanship, pride—that few have matched, and few will match. In this episode, I talk with Sylvia about her amazing life and career in the wedding business, her philosophy on both, and about this amazing time in Sylvia’s life as she closes one chapter and opens a new one. Links About Sylvia Weinstock Cakes My Dinner With Andre Babette’s Feast On The Wedding Biz Network: The Stylish Bride with Julie Sabatino  

Andy welcomes Elizabeth Solaru to this episode of The Wedding Biz! Elizabeth is the founder of Elizabeth's Cake Emporium and Luxury Business Emporium and creates the most opulent and decadent handcrafted cakes using the finest ingredients! With clients that include British, European, and Middle Eastern royalty; international celebrities; and high net worth individuals, Elizabeth's creations have been featured in many prestigious national and international publications! She has even appeared on several television programs as a luxury expert and is a regular on Sky TV, being the only three-time winner of The Great Cake Bake! She is also a published author, having published the bestselling book Opulencia: Artisan Baking & Sugarcraft and offers master classes in cake-making and overall business consulting. Elizabeth discusses various aspects of her career with Andy, such as her former job as a biomedical scientist and how it was more than two decades before she fully made the switch to making cakes. She als

Sara Russell joins Andy in this episode to discuss Wedding Sparrow, the immensely popular wedding blog of which she is founder and editor. Wedding Sparrow has well over 300,000 followers on Instagram alone and has won multiple awards! It is a premier wedding resource and inspirational blog for couples all over the world, and it specializes in featuring film, photography, and fine art weddings. In the past decade, Wedding Sparrow has grown from a blog run by only one person to an international team of fine art lovers! Andy and Sara talk about what Wedding Sparrow is all about and also how Sara chooses between submitted pieces. They also discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the wedding industry and how it has affected its future, how Sara got into this industry and how it actually started as a side hobby, what sets Wedding Sparrow apart from other similar websites, how she defines fine art photography, her hopes for the future, and so much more! It was a pleasure for Andy to have this chat with Sara,

If you’ve never had the joy of working with a designer who absolutely lives to utterly delight their client, then you will find this interview with today’s guest, Eddie Zaratsian a breath a fresh air. Eddie’s abundant energy and passion for creating a feast for the senses, allows him to reflect the very essence of his clients in an unimaginable way. Eddie Zaratsian is the Owner of Eddie Zaratsian Lifestyle and Design. Eddie was born in Armenia and came to the US when he was 5 years old. He watched his parents arrive in the US, unable to speak English, without the promise of a career, and yet they were determined to pursue their dreams. The family arrived in Hollywood and built the life they had dreamed of. Eventually, Eddie started his own business that evolved over time and became a luxury lifestyle and design company serving A-list clients and creating events that cultivate a sense of wonder and delight the senses-both for the clients and their guests. Show Highlights: Hear the unexpected, organic way that

Joining Andy in this episode of The Wedding Biz is Emily Reifel, Social Events Director at CPS Events at The Plaza in New York City! In this wide ranging interview, Emily tackles a lot of different topics such as where her passion for events comes from, how she broke into the industry, what her relationship is like with her clients and with planners, what she looks for in creative partners, her view on how important entertainment is for weddings, how she stays relevant, and so much more! Emily also discusses her nickname, Empress Em of Events at The Plaza, and how it came to be. She enthuses over her love and passion for dance and how that actually led her to New York City and also talks about the COVID-19 pandemic and how it impacted her and her business. She and Andy also agree that the element of surprise (especially when it comes to entertainment) is a crucial part of hosting a wedding! It was a pleasure for Andy to touch base with Emily and get to know her! Be sure to visit Emily's website and Instagram

Andy is so happy to bring Chioma Adure Nwogu-Johnson to this episode of The Wedding Biz! Chioma is the creative director of Dure Events, a full service wedding and event planning company based in Houston, Texas. Chioma has planned events across the United States, Saint Lucia, Puerto Rico, Mexico, South Africa, Dubai, Paris, and more! She has also been featured on platforms such as CNN, Ebony Magazine, Essence Magazines, Bridal Bliss, and many more! Chioma walks us through her story, such as where her love for planning events comes from and how it began to manifest right in childhood even though she initially thought that she wanted to sing and dance on Broadway. She also shares her design signature and how she personalizes the experience for each and every one of her couples, her love for cooking, how she balances the business side of what she does with the creative side of it, her pricing philosophy, her social media and marketing strategies, how she stays relevant in an ever changing industry, and more! And

Emily Campbell, founder and executive director of Go Bella Events based in Colorado, joins Andy in this episode of The Wedding Biz to discuss her career! Over the course of over twenty years, Emily has created celebrations in over forty countries and on five continents from Africa, Asia, Europe, Central Europe, and the Caribbean! Emily is also the co-founder and executive director of Engage Foundation and is also a member of The Knot's Best of Weddings Hall of Fame. Her work has been featured by Martha Stewart, The Knot, Style Me Pretty, Rocky Mountain Bride, and more! She dives into so many interesting topics such as her major in Anthropology and how that relates to what she does now in the events industry and how the complications of a benign tumor steered her away from a more traditional job in Anthropology and led her to where she is now. She and Andy also talk about how to find the right balance between being focused on a project while not seeming standoffish as well as how things have changed because of

Mindy Weiss is a force in the high-end wedding and event planning business. Since her early beginnings, she has delighted celebrity and non-celebrity clients alike with her ability to build meaningful relationships every step of the way. On this episode, Mindy shares her wealth of knowledge about what it’s like to maintain an A-List clientele. But while there certainly are additional factors to consider when planning luxury events for celebrities, Mindy’s insights from years of experience working with families and couples are applicable to anyone in the event planning industry. From getting to truly know your clients-- both financially and personally-- to how you might be able to successfully evade the paparazzi, Mindy Weiss dives in with honesty and humor to share her wisdom on this episode. About Mindy: Mindy Weiss is based in Beverly Hills and is the best-selling author of 3 books: The Wedding Book, The New Mindy Weiss Wedding Organizer, and The Baby Keepsake Book and Planner. She is also a product innovat

Eva Clark is the award-winning owner and creative director of Eva Clark Events. She joins Andy in this episode of The Wedding Biz to discuss various aspects of her business and her life. She touches upon her business and how she found her love for weddings and especially travel, her newfound status as a destination planner, and so much more! Eva Clark Events plans and designs, specializing in luxury destination weddings. Named one of Atlanta's women of power and influence in 2016 and one of the best planners in America in 2019, Eva is based out of Atlanta. Her weddings have been published in many different wedding publications! She, in fact, even had a wedding that served as the backdrop of a music video of a chart-topping single! (Tune in to find out which one!) Andy and Eva talk about what sets Eva's business apart and how Eva does not want what she does to ever be cookie cutter and cliché but rather to be appropriate for the collective personality of each couple. Eva also readily admits to not being a goo

Joining Andy today is a good friend of his, Lauryn Prattes of Lauryn Prattes Events. Lauryn is one of the top planners in the country as per Martha Stewart Weddings' assessment, and she has also been recognized by numerous other publications as being one of the top planners in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Andy is not only a friend of Lauryn's but has also worked with her and her team, so he can speak to their high level of professionalism, commitment, and creativity! Lauryn and Andy chat about a vast array of topics in this episode of The Wedding Biz, including how Lauryn got started in this industry and eventually started her own business, how she tends to run her business, how she came to discover her personal style, her usual process with her clients, how she handles destination weddings, her philosophy around pricing, how she went about building an impressive social media following, how she finds a balance between her personal life and her professional life, and so much more! Andy really enjoye

Having had celebrity clients such as Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Lopez, Ryan Seacrest, Kim Kardashian, Lil Wayne, Nicole Kidman, and Demi Moore, this episode's returning guest has enjoyed quite the career so far. Colin Cowie has also had many corporate clients such as Dom Pérignon, Warner Brothers, CBS, Whitney Museum of American Art, Architectural Digest, and so many more! Colin is also a published author, having written books such as Dinner After Dark: Sexy, Sumptuous Supper Soirees, Colin Cowie Chic: The Guide to Life as It Should Be, and Colin Cowie Wedding Chic: 1,001 Ideas for Every Moment of Your Celebration. Colin, as he discusses with Andy in this episode, is all about making sure that he delivers the ultimate experience for his clients. Colin and Andy also talk about Colin's new book, The Gold Standard: Giving Your Customers What They Didn't Know They Wanted, which is Colin's eleventh published book! Colin discusses luxury and what it means in any business – that it is about customer service and not

Andy chats today with Jack Ezon, C.E.O. and managing partner of EMBARK Beyond! EMBARK Beyond is a luxury lifestyle partnership that specializes in bespoke travel experiences, and they have the ability to access royal palaces, private homes, luxury yachts, global landmarks, and so much more! Negotiating hotel, air, and other components related to travel, EMBARK Beyond acts as a full concierge service in order to develop the perfect itinerary! Jack talks about some of the things that he and his company have been asked to do – some of them being pretty colorful and illegal in certain countries – and reveals where his wanderlust originates. He also reflects on how he started as an attorney in commercial financing but knew that he wanted to be a travel agent, especially since he hated being a lawyer and didn't like the corporate world. Jack also discusses failure and having to overcome fear and take measured risks in order to grow, and he enthusiastically touches upon the concept of loyalty and what it means to hi

When we think about wedding and event floral designs, our imagination is often limited to bouquets and centerpieces. Today, I am talking to one of the premier event designers in the world.  She sees flowers and foliage as a way to create lasting memories of events your guests will never forget. Mindy Rice, of Mindy Rice Design, is a native Californian with a creative lineage. Growing up, Mindy was taught how to think like a designer. Never feeling confined by the “rules” wedding floral arrangements like to follow, Mindy seemed to fall into the wedding business after designing events for the corporate world. What makes Mindy unique is how she encourages her clients to step into their most daring self. She turns dreams into reality—no Pinterest board copy-cat ideas here! Today, Mindy is going to walk us through her process, from the exciting ideation stages to actually executing her most memorable pieces. She will share stories of how she has transformed a simple barn into a Redwood wonderland. Mindy will descr

Andy hopes that you will tune in to this episode of The Wedding Biz as he talks with Sunna Yassin and Mollie Jones-Hennes of Bash Please. Named top planners by Brides, Harper’s BAZAAR, and Martha Stewart Weddings, they are a full service creative event production company with studios out of Los Angeles and San Francisco. They are here to talk about what it takes to create an enjoyable and successful partnership, their social media strategy, their pricing philosophy, how they manage the business side of things, and so much more! Sunna and Mollie reveal how they came together as partners, explaining that it happened very organically. They touch upon how they handle the business and financial side of the business in addition to the creative side as well as how they maintain balance between work and their personal lives, emphasizing the importance of finding time for self-care. They also discuss how they feel about virtual meetings and how they stay relevant in an industry that is always changing. The industry ch

When you think of experiencing personalized and experiential destination weddings, you most likely need to be thinking of Harlan and Kara, The Travel Siblings. This duo has been designing private and intimate events and luxury travel experiences around the globe for years through their affiliation with the Elite Division of Travel Leaders  - Tzell Travel Group and were recently recognized by Conde Nast as the "Best Agents for Destination Weddings". The pair found their love for travel when Harlan was working as a traveling opera singer as a young teen. He would often bring his younger sister Kara on a few getaways in between tours. There, they both fell in love with the art of luxurious travel, fine dining, and unique global experiences. These moments informed and influenced the pair’s business of offering unforgettable luxury travel experiences uniquely catered to their clients whom wish to wed at a magical destinations. Today, Andy, Harlan, and Kara share a fun and lively talk about how the sibling’s upbrin

Listen in to Andy's conversation with Dave Calzaretta, the founder and president of Magnificent Events & Entertainment! Magnificent Events & Entertainment was founded in 2000 and has since established an impeccable reputation out of Chicago, Illinois (and also now Scottsdale, Arizona), and it is considered an international booking and event expert company. Dave always had a love for music, especially after fostering a unique friendship with The Temptations at a young age, but he majored in accounting because he was told that he should choose something practical. He reveals how he landed the career that he now has in the events and wedding market, however, and reveals what it was like to make the jump from the corporate world to a career in music and events. Motivated by a fear of missing out, Dave explains, he became an entrepreneur because he didn't want a 9-5 office job but instead wanted to live a more whimsical lifestyle. He discusses negotiation and how it's about gathering what's important on bo

Michelle Rago has always had wanderlust flowing through her veins. It’s what has inspired her to build her massively successful career as a wedding and event destination producer and expert. She’s now one of the most sought-after destination event planners in the world, in large part because of her vision, relationship building skills, and meticulous attention to every possible detail. Her love for travel and experiencing new cultures came from a study abroad trip in Greece when she was just 15. Ever since, she’s been exploring new ways to bring stunning events and weddings to the most inspiring and beautiful locations around the globe. Today, Andy and Michelle chat about the steps she took to growing her passions and her business, and some of the major epiphanies and milestones she realized along the way. The pair also dive into how she untangles the vastly intricate puzzles of destination weddings, her process of making an event come to fruition, and some of her favorite and most satisfying events to date.

Join Andy in this episode as he chats with Julie Novack, C.E.O. and co-founder of PartySlate, a photo-rich website (that, in fact, just recently hit a million photos) where leading event professionals share their work, build their brand, and drive leads. Before founding Party Slate, Julie held executive positions at top-tier digital agencies such as Razorfish, Vibes, and Agency.com. With over twenty years of digital marketing experience, Julie has helped some of the biggest brands in the world. Longtime listeners of The Wedding Biz may actually remember Julie having been on the show before as she has been on a number of occasions such as in episode 121. Julie is here in this episode to talk about how to optimize your digital footprint. She discusses how to do that with your website, blog, social media, backlinks (which she describes as very similar to PR), third-party platforms, etc. She talks about what she calls a homepage handshake and why it is so crucial on your website since no one should have to do a

NSBWEP stands for the National Society of Black Wedding and Event Professionals and was created in the summer of 2019. Since the inception of the association, they now have over 135+ Black-owned businesses that represent the industry from the East Coast to the West Coast to include the Caribbean. Membership is based on each business owner passing mandatory credentials and having an exemplary business performance. By the end of 2022, the association is on track to include 300+ businesses! NSBWEP serves as a foundation for its members to build hope, opportunity, community, and more while creating change makers to thrive in this dynamic environment! In this episode of the podcast, Andy chats with Tara Melvin (founder and Creative Director of Perfect Planning Events and founder and President of NSBWEP), Brian Green (Chief Event Architect and creative visionary of By Brian Green LLC and Chairman of the Board of NSBWEP), and Marc Wilson (founder and creative director of The Style Marc and Vice President and foundi