event planning: Jobs Landed

I have had a long history working with food, restaurants, craft beer, wine, and any other wonderful refreshments that go into a great event. As the former Marketing Director for a restaurant company out of Kalamazoo, switching gears to a catering company in Ann Arbor was a nice fit.

Something I love doing since I began my work at Katherine’s Catering, is a monthly contest I developed that awards our guests for getting creative (2 dozen fresh baked cookies for a great haiku, coffee service with breakfast pastries for sending a photo proving why you need coffee, etc), and the feedback has been fantastic and creative. Marketing to me is much more than promoting a product, it’s about creating an open dialogue between businesses and their guests/fans. I’m lucky I get to work in a field that allows me to think outside the box everyday, run with my wacky ideas, and get creative through photography and graphic design. And the free food isn’t bad either…

I have always had a passion for people and organization.  After planning campus wide events in college, and then conferences, seminars, and gatherings in a corporate setting, I decided to go out on my own and indulge in the more creative and personal side of events...weddings.  I love the creativeness and uniqueness of every couple we work with and every event we design.  We offer full planning, partial planning, "day of" coordination services, and hourly assistance.  Design services are priced separately and can be added a la carte to any planning package or purchased on their own.  Prior to starting my company, I worked in the retail industry for a year and it taught me so much about customer service and the value of building real relationships.  We view our clients as family, and often end up keeping in touch long after the wedding is over!
 
I grew up in Ann Arbor, and after meeting my husband and starting our family, we felt like the Metro Detroit area, specifically Ann Arbor, is where we wanted to be, close to our friends and family. Though my business is based in Ann Arbor, I find myself and my team traveling all over Southeastern Michigan to service our clients and plan, design, and coordinate some really awesome weddings!  I feel very fortunate to be able to do what I love.

There was no doubt in my mind that I would open my business in South East Michigan I just really thought it was going to be a coffee shop.  As it turns out my true passion is floral design, fresh unique, modern floral design.  My job as owner of Sweet Pea is to meet with future brides and create a custom floral proposal for their big day.  After that I get elbow deep in buckets of blooms and boxes of blossoms and go into a floral trance that results in a collection of artful bouquets, boutonnieres, centerpieces etc.  I love delivering and setting up for weddings, I always feel caught up in the excited energy that surrounds a wedding and the happy anticipation of everyone else around.  My favorite thing about my job as lead designer is the creative outlet that this provides for my inner artist it is very satisfying to dream something up and then make it happen.  Flowers are the perfect medium for a Jesus freak like me too, I find so much truth and beauty in the natural and being surrounded by it day to day is completely inspires me.

I recently started my own wedding and event planning company in Metro Detroit. It has been my dream to be a wedding and event planner for a long time. After doing a lot of researched I discovered there is a need for planners in this area despite the economy. A person's wedding day is one of the most important days of the life, so they are willing to splurge a little. I have met so many great planners through different organizations and all of them seem to be keeping busy. I am from this area and I intend to stay here. It only made sense to start my business here. I absolutely love what I do. I cannot imagine doing anything else.