Ep 29 • Inside the Mind of a Modern Bride: What Couples Really Think When Hiring Vendors with Maggie Rault

Transcript:

[00:00:00]

Alex: Welcome to another exciting episode of Weddings Unscripted. Of course, we have another amazing guest. We have a past client. We have Maggie Rault with us today. How you doing, Maggie?

Maggie: Hi. I am good. How are you guys doing?

Alex: We’re great. We’re great. And of course, Alison is here with us as well. How are you, Ali?

Alison: I’m doing good.

Alex: Good. Good. So, Maggie, was just one of our favorite clients. Honestly, her family and her friends all became like our favorites by the end of the wedding weekend. I mean, we were hugging guests as they left your brunch because we spent the weekend with them and everybody was just so delightful. So last year, and I’ll let Alison get into a little bit more, Maggie hired Alison to be, full wedding weekend experience planner. So essentially what that meant for this particular client, Maggie and Nikki, was six events in four days in the DC metro area. So it was a lot of work. I don’t know if Alison slept at all, but it was so great. And the design was [00:02:00] amazing. It just was wonderful.

 We thoroughly enjoyed working with you and Nikki. I mean, you’re on the podcast so we can’t wait to your thoughts of the planning process. So yeah, why don’t you tell us a little bit about you and how you met Nikki, and just a little background for everybody.

Maggie: Hi everyone. I’m Maggie. Yeah, I met my husband Nikki at Georgetown. So DC was a special place for us to get married because it’s where we met. We met senior year of college. We really had our whole college experience kind of walking in parallel to each other, but our paths never intersecting.

 So we lived two doors down from each other. Freshman year, our dorm rooms were two doors down. We had no idea. And then senior year, he knocked on my door because he knew one of my roommates and she asked him to bring a bag of ice over to make rose. So Nikki came over, I was like, he was this cute guy and he lived across the street.

 And then we were together for nine years. We did four years of long distance. We had a whole, very long era of just dating. [00:03:00] And then finally our paths came back together in DC and we moved back here three years ago. And so we knew that DC was a special place for us to get married, but at the same time when we met, we had this other connection, which was New Orleans.

And so we had this challenge of how do we bring these two loves together in the wedding, and we did in the most beautiful way. It was amazing.

Alison: And when you say you loved New Orleans, you actually lived there.

Maggie: Yeah, when Nikki and I met, I was already committed to moving to New Orleans and he was committed to staying in DC and something was on tv, I think the first time he came over and it was New Orleans, and I was, oh, that’s my city. And he’s like, what are you talking about? Like, my family’s from New Orleans, so what’s your connection to New Orleans?

And so it really was, this great connection. So yeah, I was a middle school math teacher in New Orleans after college. And so we go back multiple times a year now and we go to Mardi Gras and we have lots of friends and family that live there.

Alison: I love that. And if you guys wanna hear all about their wedding, we did [00:04:00] two episodes of a podcast to download afterwards. ‘ cause it was a huge wedding. And we also knew that Maggie is a listener. So I was kind of like nerding out, earlier on when we first started our podcast because Maggie was like, oh, I listen.

And I was like, oh my gosh. One of my clients was listening to my podcast and it was kind of like I was nervous, kind of thing. But at the same time it was like, that is so cool. Like we were starting to get a little bit of a following here and Maggie, you even one time sent over like some suggestions.

Like you were just generally so sweet and excited for us, that you were like, you should talk about budgets, you should do this. And I was like, thank you for the feedback. I love this. So we’re, very excited to have you on because we’re going to be talking about, a big topic that I think a lot of vendors will love listening to, on a client’s perspective.

 before finding a planner, what was one thing that was kind of like stressing you out? Because, you knew you needed one going into it, [00:05:00] but did you know that right away, or did you find that out as you were looking at venues?

Maggie: Yeah, I think I started having conversations with some of, the events teams at the venues I was looking at, and they were asking me questions but I was like, I have no idea. And so this was like before we made, an estimate of the guest list. So that was kind of determining some of the spaces we were looking at.

 And then some of the venues I was looking at, there was nothing in the room. And I didn’t know that from the pictures that I was looking on social media, it’s like, oh, look at those tables and chairs and they’ve got all this infrastructure. And I think all the venues that we looked at were empty rooms and you had to hire teams to bring everything in.

 There was no fork on the premises, so I was like, wow, I’m gonna need a lot of help with assembling a team and that there’s so many logistics that come along with that long list of vendors. So I definitely knew I needed a planner and the whole vision of it, it’s hard for me to look at social media and not wanna replicate a wedding exactly in that space. I [00:06:00] couldn’t think beyond the picture. And so I also needed help with the creative side, right? Like, I can’t take this blank space and think of what it could be, but I know that a team like yours could be able to do that and assemble a brave vendor team.

Alison: I love that. So, it is hard and obviously like DC is a little bit different than a lot of other locations. There could be other cities where things are included and it depends venue to venue. But mostly in DC if you are getting a venue, you have to bring in your cater. They could have a list that you can pick from, but you still have to go and look at all the caterers.

They then bring in the rentals, you then have to select all those rentals. So it does become a lot, especially like Alex mentioned, we’re doing six events and just to touch on this briefly, ’cause I think everyone can go listen to the two episode series that we did on Maggie’s wedding, but you had rehearsal, I guess we’re counting that as one.

But we had rehearsal, dinner, welcome party. Then we had wedding day and after party, which [00:07:00] I’m counting as two separate things. ‘ cause even though it was at the same location, it’s two completely different things, even though it was at the same venue.

 And then we had your brunch the next day. Yeah. So, Thursday and friday were two completely different. We had the welcome party was completely different day from the rehearsal dinner, so it was completely different events every single time with different themes and budgets and stuff like that.

Maggie: Yeah, I wanted to make sure that you didn’t sleep the entire weekend. So I was like, how do I time this all so that you have to be awake the whole time? So that Sunday at noon, she just sleeps for a week.

Alison: Oh yeah. But I was super perky every single event.

Maggie: Oh, for sure, couldn’t believe it.

Alison: So, we definitely loved working with you. Your vision for the wedding was amazing. But the main topic we wanna hit today is how we can help vendors get in the mind of a client. And I know you did have a planner. There are some people that don’t have planners, so obviously this isn’t gonna hit every single possible [00:08:00] person.

You’re just a small sample size of what vendors can kind of jump into to understand what went on in your mind as a young person getting married in the DC area.

Alex: I would love to actually start with how you found us, because we didn’t help you find us. Right? Like you did that part on your own.

Maggie: Yeah. I think, once I found out how complicated my venues were gonna be in the best way possible because they’re great. I was like looking at planners who had worked in those spaces before, and even when I hadn’t like fully decided on venues for every single event, just someone that like had comfort with those places before.

So I think I literally went to like a geotag of the venue searching weddings with the hashtag wedding to figure out what all the planners that have used those spaces before. But I think the social media, showed me what a wedding could look like in that space, or like what your weddings look [00:09:00] like in general.

But I really think after that first initial impression, which is social media. I do think that my conversations with all the people that have worked with you guys in the past was like the main selling point for me in terms of like, okay, now I have like a bunch of planners. All their pictures look great on social media, but like, how am I gonna really make a decision? And I think that came down to like speaking to referrals and other people that have worked with you.

Alison: And it’s funny because not every single vendor has to supply referrals, and sometimes planners don’t even have to because it’s a connection right away. They see the social media and you go from there. But when you are planning so many events, they’re logistically challenging. You have to make sure you’re finding the right person for you that you’re gonna trust throughout the entire planning process.

 So you have where for a planner, you talk, you find us, you reach out, we have a conversation. I loved our conversation from the minute we started talking was like, I love this girl. I need her, I wanna collect her and we ended up [00:10:00] working together. So it worked out. But then from there, I either offered it or you asked, and it was like.

 Let’s get some references. So then we source some, we confirmed with each person because we’re dealing with live people, it’s not just like, you know, someone calling a former boss. You wanna give clients, old clients, like a heads up that someone’s going to be calling them out of the blue potentially.

 So we ask nicely. Most people usually say yes, and then you talk with them either through text or on a phone call, do email, whatever you wanna do or whatever that person wants to do. So then from there you can then decide. But when it comes to finding a photographer, I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone ever ask me as their planner for reference for that photographer.

 It’s more of like, I’m the reference as the planner and then you do your homework from there.

Maggie: Yeah. Maybe it’s ’cause the planner is really like, one of the first steps [00:11:00] and so you wanna like take a lot of time and it is like a time investment. I remember that took me a long time, right? I had to set up a call with someone else. It wasn’t just me like doom scrolling late at night looking at weddings.

 I was like, oh, okay, now I have to like interview and talk to these people to hear. And they were long conversations, ’cause obviously everyone has so much to say about their own wedding, what the process was like. There were long calls. It was definitely like a time investment, that I had to like, invest that time in the beginning, but obviously it was so worth it.

Alison: Yeah. ‘ cause I think our call was an hour to an hour and a half, if I remember correctly. I think you told me originally you talked to five different people. So if you have to do that times five, then yeah, that’s five hours or more of your life during work and trying to like also look at your venues and stuff.

So that’s a lot in the beginning process. But the reason why we’re talking about this today is, we have a Slack channel with a bunch of planners on it, and we’re just constantly like, oh, this person ghosted me, or why did they make this decision?

Or why did they do this? So, we’re trying [00:12:00] to just always get in the mind of our clients, but clients are more informed today than they ever have been before. You have all of the different review sites, social media, wedding blogs, their own personal website for each vendor, you have the knot wedding wire, and then you also have word of mouth.

 So vendors are just wanna try to understand so that we can sell better and make stronger connections with the people that are reaching out to us. And we know that we might not be able to perfectly achieve that for every single person. But we wanna try to get as close as possible. ‘ cause especially when you do have an hour and a half long phone call with someone and you fall in love with them, and you wanna collect them, then you end up going, oh, why didn’t they book me? or where did they go? So I think I wanna thank you for coming on and helping us dive through this.

Alex: All right. So you two basically, fell in love and that’s amazing. That means there’s trust there, there’s confidence, like all of the things. And [00:13:00] sometimes people don’t realize how big personality means, there’s plenty of wonderful people out there that I might talk to we’re just not connecting.

It just doesn’t feel quite right. So the fact that you two hit it off was great. So you two are now diving into this, how did you even start? Like I’m assuming we started with the wedding day, so how did you guys start tackling vendors? Because there’s a lot.

Maggie: I love them all. Like I really love the vendor team. I wish I could do it again just to see them all work together. I also think as I was doing that first, like glance through Instagram, when I first was looking at planners and venues, I also would stumble upon the same names on Instagram of vendors.

So I kind of had some in the back of my head so that then when Alison would send me her list of vendors, I was like, oh, I had seen that one before. And then the other ones, if I hadn’t seen it organically, like the first place I would go would be their Instagram. I need to see all their stuff, paper [00:14:00] goods, like let me see everything they can do, cakes, all of that.

Like if it wasn’t already like at the top of my head is their name from my prior research, that was always like the first place that I would look.

Alison: That’s interesting at you personally, and obviously we’re stressing that you are one person, small sample size, but did you go to people’s websites at all?

Maggie: Initially, no. I think the two websites I would say that were the most important to me was the band, ‘ cause I wanna see full videos, read reviews, like really dig deep into that website and seeing people’s full galleries on their website was really important.

 And Nikki Daskalakis, my photographer, she also had just done a website upgrade. And so she had this very cool branding of the website itself. And I remember, obviously that’s not the selling point, and I fell in love with Nikki, my photographer, and I fell in love with her on a call.

 So there were so many reasons that I chose her, but I remember thinking like, wow, she’s putting some time into [00:15:00] this website and I’m going there to look at the full galleries. Anyway, so that was like one point of design that I thought was cool.

Alison: So photographers having their galleries to help get you to their website is a big selling point.

Maggie: Yeah, and on their website listing a full gallery of one of their weddings, because on Instagram is all basically the same pictures, right? It’s like the couple kissing, you know, lay flats, tablescapes. But I wanted to see, especially for me, I wanted a lot of good pictures of my guests, which I got a bunch of.

 And so seeing a full gallery of a wedding on a photographer’s website gave me the insight into, here’s a picture of grandma crying during the speech. You know, here’s a picture of like the uncle dancing on the dance floor. I really wanted to see like all those little moments and what those would look like for me, not just what’s on Instagram worth posting in the five slide post for a wedding.

Alison: And you guys are big photo people, so I know that was also [00:16:00] very important to your now husband and you as well, your home was filled with photos and stuff, but you also are very big family people. So like I can see the importance of wanting to see all of the little moments that you might have missed because you were on the dance floor and you didn’t see someone hugging in the corner or something, but Nikki saw that and was able to capture that.

Maggie: Yeah, exactly. We had some of the best things we’re looking at those, like there were some shots of the whole room and then you zoom in on each section of people and you’re like, what were they talking about? Ooh, look at those two were having a conversation like what was that about. One of my favorite ones was actually saw three of my friends standing at the bar chatting with you. I was like, how did even find Alex? This is amazing.

Alex: I clearly remember that. Yeah. We were just like yapping away.

Maggie: I loved it. I was just like, oh my God. Wait, you met Alex. It was so good.

Alison: And it’s funny because I know this is way off topic, but since we’re got in here. I went to go like, find Alex in the after party [00:17:00] room to tell her that it’s pouring rain when I was trying to get your mom out the door. And, she’s just like hanging out with two people.

 Like she’s working. I’m putting it out. She was working, but, she was just like, chit chatting with these. And I was like, come on, like, I need you for a second. She was like, all right, bye ladies.

Maggie: It was amazing and you guys all looked so good that it was like you all could have been the guest. Like if no one knew who the planner was and who the guest was, because you guys were like dressed to the nines and just immersed in everything.

Alex: Yeah, it was funny, cause Alison stays, I’ve often described Alison in a very nice way as a psychopath because she’s not gonna turn off. She was like eight months pregnant at a rehearsal dinner. And I said goodnight to the client. The client looked at both of us and said, why are you leaving and why is she not leaving?

I said, she won’t leave regardless, so I might as well get a good night’s sleep, so I did, there was sort of some downtime during the after party where I I sat on the bed and it’s very funny, like, guests want to talk to us. They’re very interested in the whole thing.

 So your friend, you taught with in [00:18:00] New Orleans? She was lovely. I talked with her the whole weekend. She was great. So, yeah, but like I said, by the end of it, like we were hugging your guests and i’m, like so fun.

Alison: But anyway, back to why we’re doing this today. So, research kind of looked like, Instagram for you, so like obviously with us as your planner, you’re getting options from us. we’re doing research based off of a very massive long, long, long, long budget meeting we did with you and Nikki and your father, who didn’t attend the whole thing.

’cause I don’t think he realized how long and detailed that was about to be. And so with that, we would source people that we thought would match well with what you were trying to do for your wedding personality wise and stuff like that. And then we would set up interviews, but before we even got to the interview, you would have to look at them because you had to make the ultimate decision, is this the vendor for me?

Because I told you in the beginning, you could always come back to me and say, this isn’t the right fit for me. And then I might go, okay, why? but sometimes we don’t always get that information. We’re [00:19:00] gonna talk about that in a little bit but, mainly your research was, okay, Alison sent me this vendor.

 I’ve seen this name before, from the venue, from Instagram, and then you would go look at Instagram. Did you use anything else? Did you look at the reviews? Did you go on Reddit? Because I feel like a lot of people are using Reddit now for like authentic reviews. Because do you feel like people pay for reviews? Like from a client standpoint, do you trust places like Wedding Wire or The Knot?

Maggie: Yeah, sometimes I remember with WeddingWire, like for bands for example, they’d be like, they were amazing. And then I was like, kind of getting some information from that, but kind of not, you know, like what made them amazing. So sometimes it’s limited and obviously it’s like people opt in to write those reviews.

 I also would like, when they were recent reviews, like to know that they were like still getting current business, that it was only from a few months ago. So I did look at the, recency of a review on WeddingWire, comments on [00:20:00] Instagram. I look at all those. it was also kind of like dating a little bit.

So when you’re like, find someone that you kind of know and look them up on Instagram, and then you can see who of your followers also follows them. Do you know anything about them?

 And I think I did that even with you, Alison, I found a vendor on my own and I said, I noticed you follow them. Have you had a client that worked with, I think it was my bridal dress alterations company. You just need someone else to tap into. And so I did find that, like I would have friends that had followed some of the vendors and so I would reach out to them and ask what they knew about them, why they were following them on Instagram. So maybe who follows you is important and is who you keep in your network.

Alex: I think the network piece of that is the trusting piece of it. You trust your friends or your community, that they’ve thought it’s just like six degrees of separation with that just helps trust, like, okay, everyone knows this person. One’s using them like they’ve done a good job. Yeah.

Maggie: Not totally random. Not outta nowhere, not just getting started. [00:21:00] That’s the other thing, right? All of that proof of what’s on social media means like you have experience with all these big weddings and stuff. So part of it is do you have enough content to use to sell?

Alison: And did you find that, you personally were looking at how many followers someone had or is it more of just like their beautiful work that they had a good portfolio on Instagram and then the word of mouth kind of thing, element that you were talking about?

Maggie: I don’t remember looking at follower count except maybe photographer, because photographers like post all of your contents. I was like, oh, how many people would see this if my photographer posted all this stuff? So I think I do remember looking at that. And I also have to add, I had basically like a burner account that was all weddings on Instagram.

 Like I would only follow wedding accounts because it was too much when I had it with my friends. So I created a burner account on Instagram.

Alison: Okay, this makes sense now because I was wondering why two Maggie’s were [00:22:00] messaging me on Instagram or that like sometimes they were connected like you would message your, burner. That is so funny.

Maggie: I had a burner ’cause I had to just have my wedding content in one place and be able to turn it off because otherwise I was like all weddings all the time. So I had a little burner account where I would follow, Vogue weddings and all the vendors I was finding and then it would curate just a whole entire Instagram page. That was just me scrolling endlessly through weddings.

 In terms of like finding and identifying vendors. I think I did go to the website of Paper Goods to look at more, you know, sometimes Instagram is limited, and I wanted to see like the full range. And that’s the one thing I think that sold me about, you guys as planners was like the range of types of weddings you have, like it’s shown on your social media.

 It’s like, wow, so many different couples come to you guys, either they come in with a vision or you guys help create their vision, and it’s just so different. Like you have so many different types of weddings. I thought that was so cool, right? That [00:23:00] like, I could come in and I do think some people don’t look for that.

 They look for who has made the wedding that I wanna have and how do I align all those vendors in the same place and do it the same exact way. And I think that leads to less creativity, and that was the same with all of the vendors that it was in the conversations that we had that was like.

 Okay. I’m not really sure what the vision’s gonna be. Can you work with me? I wanna plant little Easter eggs everywhere. Can you help me do that? And just having like vendors that are flexible, that’s saying like, social media is showing you what I’ve done, but it doesn’t show you everything I can do.

 And I totally learned that like all of our vendors could do amazing stuff that had never been done before and it wasn’t seen on social media. It was only seen once we built the relationship and like kind of took the relationship a step further.

Alison: It’s funny you say that because sometimes I even like rag on my vendor friends. And this is a huge hint, to everyone listening that is a [00:24:00] vendor. Make sure your planners know the full scope of what you can do. Because I remember even talking to edge Floral, who was your florist a million years ago and we were chatting and they off the cuff said something and I was like, you can do that.

 He was like, oh yeah, we’ve been doing it. I’m like, I did not know that. See, if I knew that I could’ve been selling that to people. So I was like, what else can you do? So now, like every time I meet a vendor or I’ve been working with someone for a long time, I’ll go to them and be like, have you added anything new that I need to know about?

 I just recently found out that someone added this really cool like photo booth. That they can do now that they weren’t able to do a couple of weeks ago. So, that’s helpful for a planner to know and for a client, like of course, you’re not gonna know the full scope of everything that a vendor can do, and that’s why we’re sourcing and helping connect you with them, knowing that they could do that for you.

But sometimes we might get surprised ’cause you’re like, [00:25:00] why didn’t you tell me you could do that?

Maggie: Yeah. I think like the range of what people can do, I think as clients like we are looking at so much content and a lot of it is pretty much the same. And so it’s hard to think outside of that. Like, can vendors do something else? Like I had a friend who she didn’t understand that a catering company that you hire for your wedding, could be flexible like that they don’t assign you the menu depending on the catering you have, of course, but you can talk to them. And this happened in our tasting. Obviously Ridgewells is amazing and Mary Margaret was always willing to be flexible and we created these really cool menus for all the different nights, but that you could have agency over what food was served, that they weren’t just telling you that you could have the steak.

It was like, well, let’s see if they can do a chicken. Let’s see if they could do a fish, or like bringing part of what we as a couple or we as like clients are interested in, instead of it being like, here’s the package you’re signing up for and here’s what you’re getting.

Alex: And that’s more of what a hotel typically is, they’re [00:26:00] much less likely to bend the rules, and a good caterer, they like to get creative too. I have a wedding in Charleston next year, and it’s a younger crew. They all went to Ole Miss and I was like, we can’t do three courses.

Like, it’s too much time. Like we just can’t do it. So we’re like we need a, hardier second course, so we’re gonna do the barta salad with a fragment, maybe we’re gonna do that. I don’t wanna give anything away, but with a fried green tomato or a small crab cake on it. I asked the venue about it and they were like, oh my God.

Like, that’s such a great idea. Like, we would love to do something like that. You know? And I’m sure the culinary team gets excited when they do get those kinds of requests. Like, let’s push the envelope a little bit. Let’s just do something different. So that is funny that she didn’t know that, but hey, that’s why I do what I do, because I felt the same way as your friend.

 And after the wedding, I feel like people poured this a million times, but after the wedding, I was just kind of confused. We had a great day, but I was like, I feel like I paid all this money. And people kept telling me, no. I was like, I want a yes. I’m super excited about your [00:27:00] vision.

Maggie: And like a conversation about trade-offs, right? Like, we can do that, but we might have to stop this, right? So like we can have that fried green tomato, but we can’t do that with the salad. You know, like there’s some kind of conversation about what a trade-off could look like, instead of just like a here’s what it is, do you want it or not?

Alex: Right. Even that third course, it’s like you’re gonna lose 30 minutes of dancing if you serve a third course. So if having a long dinner party is your goal. Let’s do it. It’s great.

Alison: And so when you were look like before us or even after us, were there any ever, like, whether it was a planner, a venue, you don’t have to call out anyone specifically, obviously we wanna be nice here, but do you feel like there were any sales tactics that you could tell what they were trying to do or, off-put you?

Maggie: I know that some people, especially some of my friends that have not planners, some of the access to vendors, right? Because, like Alison, you were having a lot of preliminary [00:28:00] conversations with vendors before I was to get proposals and I know that some of my friends that spoke directly to vendors, like, Hey, I’m looking at you for a floral, for my wedding.

How much do you think it’s gonna cost? The steps they had to go through, fill out all these forms, have lots of calls before they got any idea of pricing, that’s like a hard thing. How much work am I gonna do, to figure out if you’re actually a viable option for me, versus like, I’ve just wasted all that time and you’re nowhere near my price range.

Or like, there’s so many things that are limited or you’re not available on my date. Right? There’s all these things where they’re not actually options. And so I do think for folks who don’t have planners, how can vendors make themselves more available for that first conversation. How much time it takes for vendors to build those proposals and like, I totally appreciate that and I remember going back and forth what’s taken them so long and obviously there’s so much work that goes into it.

 And also like why a planner is so important, right? Like you could invest all that time and have the calls with the [00:29:00] vendors and let them know what the parameters were in order for them to set up a proposal. But I think sometimes it’s hard to just get that first touch point with a vendor themselves, to figure out if they’re an option or not.

Alison: That’s really interesting. Thank you for sharing that. ’cause I find that a huge disconnect sometimes with some vendors. ‘ cause even as a planner I’ve reached out to vendors. I’m not gonna say what category they are ’cause someone would probably know instantly who they were stuff. But sometimes as a planner I even have to like fill out forms before I even get pricing.

And I’m like, before I take the time to fill out this form, you can’t just give me a range, like your general range. I won’t even take that as the price for my client. At least just tell me your rough, average, ballpark and then I’ll know if I can fill out the form and go from there. But again, yes, this is my full-time job.

I have the ability to do that. You spent five hours or more talking to planners to figure out who to book. So now you’re trying to do this for every single [00:30:00] vendor. It’s a lot. And I find that vendors do wanna protect their process, but at the same time, you might be turning yourself off to people that are just trying to reach out and find out more information.

Because yes, there are florists that have minimums, and I understand that that might be a sales tactic. Like I don’t wanna scare you off with my minimum, without showing you an itemized list of everything that goes into that because you might be getting a lot of stuff for my minimum, but that’s for me to come out on a peak weekend.

 so yeah, there’s gotta be a way that we can figure this out as like a collective. And I think that’s something that kate with Floret and Vine, with the DC collective, that’s what we’re trying to do. And this is something that we could bring up is like, how can we make it more accessible? And I think that probably answers the major question that everyone always asks, which is why am I being ghosted a lot? Why is this person, reaching out or having a conversation and then now [00:31:00] they’re disappearing on me? And it’s because were you not transparent enough? you didn’t cost enough, and I say that as a joke, there are times where you don’t cost enough.

 Because even as a planner, I’ve bid on weddings before where I knew that I was less than the other person. And I’m like, okay, cool. They’re gonna go to me because I cost less and I’m still a really good option. But then they ended up going the higher price option. And you have to sit there and be like, oh, why did they do that?

That’s so interesting. But it’s just trying to get in the mindset of how people shop. And it’s fascinating.

Alex: Also with the proposal stuff, they have one chance to put their best foot forward, right? So they wanna take that time to like do that, give you a really nice proposal. So setting expectations sometimes, I think giving that range, if they’re like, oh, no, we cannot afford two 50 per head.

 Like, I’ll go somewhere else like that can just eliminate it right then and there. But also if you can afford the two 50 per head, [00:32:00] setting expectation to be like yes, I can get this to you. It will be three weeks we are in peak wedding season. if you don’t hear from me on this date, go ahead and follow up, but I’ll do my best.

 Again, setting expectations instead of like, it’s on my list, I’m gonna get to you. and you’re like, but you’re not.

Maggie: And like the more like responsive they can be with prospective clients, it probably saves them that time of building a proposal that wasn’t gonna work anyway because there were all these other factors that weren’t gonna work with the couple. Right? So it saves them that time of investing in the full proposal if there’s other reasons why it might not be a good fit.

Alison: And so do you think like hearing from your friends, like as they’re excited as they’re getting engaged or they’ve passed married, and now that you’re married, like you all share stories and stuff like that, do you have any like, main theories on reasons on like why someone would ghost a vendor? Is it mainly you think like they just were shopping really quickly and just forgot who they reached out to?

If they reached out to [00:33:00] 10 different florists, they’re like, all right, I don’t need to like go back and tell every single one that I’m not moving forward with them. Is it like a shame thing? Like you feel bad, like you’re gonna hurt their feelings? I’m curious, what you think it is.

Maggie: Yeah. Oh my God. The more we’re talking, the more I’m like, I feel like shopping for vendors is like dating, like it’s all the same. Like I have a friend who, refuses to ghost guys that she goes on dates with. So she has this prepared message that she sends to them, and it’s like, okay, she’s already thought about what she’s gonna say, you know, she’s like, tested it, it works.

It’s not offensive. It gets the message across. And so I think maybe people need to do the same thing with their wedding vendors, right? Like going in a different direction I mean, I would never ghost a vendors, and I would hope my friends would never do that. So I’m trying to like, understand, because to me it’s like not courteous.

And I knew how much work was going into everything that was being put forward with any prospective vendor that I was talking to. But I think it would be like the next step, right? To provide them some type of feedback. [00:34:00] Maybe if the vendor sent a bump message like, Hey, just checking in.

I wanna make sure you’re okay. ’cause I did have a few vendors that actually did that to me. And then that bump message was like, oh, hi so sorry, like, ended up going in a different direction. But thanks for the message. So I do think that if they forget about you, maybe you don’t forget about them and just, right.

You have nothing to lose at that point, they’re not working together for this, because I was also thinking about doing my wedding in New Orleans. So I was speaking to a bunch of people in New Orleans and no hard feelings. I didn’t go with you, I didn’t go with the city, and so I still wanna keep you in mind in case I have an event in New Orleans.

 So, I definitely got like some bump messages on that. And then like was able to leave things in a better place, after I remembered that I had reached out to them.

Alex: It’s just uncomfortable for people to, feel like they’ve developed a little bit of relationship with you, a little bit of rapport. We’ve been emailing, we may have talked on the phone and now back to dating. I gotta kind of break up.

Maggie: Yeah, exactly. Or if you have a planner, you’re like, Alison, can you break up with all [00:35:00] those other vendors?

Alex: That’s what we do. Yeah. There’s no hard feelings. They just need to like, check this, yes or no, And, move on. So for our listeners, don’t feel bad. It’s just really courteous and we do appreciate it if you just give us like a we’re going another direction, it’s all good.

Alison: Yeah, and when we’re talking ghosting like, if we emailed, and you’re like, Hey, I’m interested, and like, cool, here’s the information and I never hear from you again. That’s quite different from I’ve been on the phone with you twice now. You’ve talked to referrals, we might’ve met in person.

Sometimes it goes that far, like our first date, if we’re using that analogy here, and then you completely disappear. That’s where it’s kind of like, whoa, what happened? Is it that you were just nervous, like to tell me? Or is it really that you just moved on and that’s fine. Like the other day, I saw something on Instagram that was like, I’m fine with ghosting and this was a vendor saying this, and they’re like, I’m fine with ghosting because it just meant that you weren’t the vendor for me. And I was like, that makes sense. But at the [00:36:00] same time, sometimes you connect with people so much.

 I think I’ve had at least two in my whole career where I’m like, where did you go and why did you leave? But other than that, for the most part, if we really connect with someone and we, find a person like Maggie, we’re happy that we get to stick with them, and be friends for a long time afterwards too.

Maggie: I’m gonna go back into like all my messages with my, wedding email address and make sure that I didn’t leave anyone hanging on, and I was like, well, I ghosting anyone. I don’t think I was.

Alison: See that’s how nice Maggie is. You do not have to go do that. It is been several months now. don’t do that. If a vendor needs to follow up with you after the initial conversation, like how many follow up emails is too many?

So like you’re looking to book us, for example, we have a good conversation. I email you a thank you after our call, and then two weeks later I follow up again and then I follow up again. Like, [00:37:00] how many of those is too many?

Maggie: Yeah, I think two bumps is maybe enough. I actually found it. I was always doing it the other way. I was always like re bumping the vendors. I was like, can you respond to me please? but I think two bumps. For me, it was always that first one, like I said, there was enough time that passed and I’m not sure if it was two weeks or a month, that a few of the vendors sent those reminder emails.

 But I think at least for me, one was enough for it to bring it back to the top of my inbox and remember about it.

Alex: Yeah, and I appreciate a bump. I give grace to other people, especially like I’m in 15 different carpool chats for the kids you know, I’m like, it was just one text message.

They may have missed it, you know? like just bumping it up. I know you have as much going on as I do, like I’m just giving you a little reminder here.

Alison: And it’s weird because sometimes we just hold on to hope because I have oddly gotten a request after not hearing from them from like a whole month. And then they’re like, we wanna book you. And I’m like, [00:38:00] oh, let me go back and look at my notes on who you were, because that was a long time ago. I’ve done like four weddings since we’ve last talked, but, it doesn’t happen that often. So that’s where it’s like, I’ll be on the phone with Alex and I’ll be like, should I follow up with them? Like, it’s been a week, should I follow up with them? So it’s like we’re nervous behind the keyboard, like messaging clients we’re like, Hey, just like following up.

Or like, we’re trying to think of creative ways on how to follow up instead of just saying, Hey, I’m following up. So I think that’s just the internal battle that every vendor has to go through, and I guess we’ll just hit the nail on the head. This is like dating because you get nervous.

 Even on our side. I’ve been doing this for 10 years and I still get nervous, like talking to new clients and stuff, like before a phone call, I have to like prepare myself and then like afterwards I’ll be talking to my husband. I’m like, that was a great sales call. I felt really good after that.

 Or I’ll call Alex and be like, that was okay. She like, do you think you’ll book them? I’m like, I [00:39:00] dunno, because that was not my best. So yeah, it’s just interesting.

Maggie: But when it goes right, like it’s so right. Like I remember it really is about dating, like the first call with Nikki, my photographer, I was like, whoa, that’s it. I actually didn’t even need to look at our website if that’s how the call went. You know, so when it goes right, I think all parties can feel it when it’s right, and then you just build trust and relationship off of that.

Alison: That’s interesting you say that. ’cause that’s actually one of our questions, which is how important were visuals verse like how they communicated to you, like their tone, their price transparency, their personality. Like how important was that verse? like, obviously you want it all to line up, but what would you put more weight on?

Maggie: Photography visuals was the sale. Like it was looking at the galleries and saying, if you replace all these people with my crew, would I be so into these pictures? And I would, so I think like photo and video, That’s number one is visuals. The cake was [00:40:00] not visuals.

The cake was eating the cake. I wanted a good looking cake, but I wanted a better taste and cake more. Floral, I actually thought was the relationship, talking through what it was gonna be and then building trust. So, we had edge floral build a tree, and I didn’t see trees in lots of their Instagrams.

They told me they had done trees in the past and then we’d look up pictures, but at that point it was like, we’ve already built this relationship. I trust you that you’re gonna make the tree. And they made the tree bigger than what I was expecting. I was like, oh my gosh, I think, some of it was really like a relationship and do I trust you and are you picking up what I’m putting down?

Right. I remember steve at Edge, I was like, I want white flowers, but I don’t want white roses everywhere. Do you get what I’m saying? And he’s like, I think I get what you’re saying. And then by the time we had like a little trial , I was like, where did you find these white? I’ve never even seen these white flowers before, but I already knew from the [00:41:00] call that he was gonna be able to do that, being able to show that you have range and be transparent about whether you can do it or not, like Lilia the Valley can’t do it. We’ll see.

So, you know being transparent about what’s doable and also we can do that, but it’s gonna be more, or we can do that, but it’ll take us longer time. You know, being open about, the limits of what’s possible.

Alex: Should we talk about the parade, the float for a minute? Because that was just, Alison was the lead planner here. I was just to hired help on the wedding weekend. I love the vision of it, but then like having a come to life is a whole another story. Like, are you on the same page? This has to be phenomenal.

Maggie: Yes. And I remember it was so many pieces to put together, obviously that Alison put together very well. But it was, what is all of our vendors’ first reaction when I bring it up to them, and the guy that we had to get it through is Joe, it was at the Melon. And he’s like, he’s the one who knows if something [00:42:00] hits the floor too hard, that’s not gonna go right.

So what can we throw? Where can we throw it? Can we put something on the floor? Are we gonna break a glass if we throw beads? So there were all these like, will dad Joe let us get through it, and Mary Margaret at Ridgewell, she was like, I’ll talk to Joe. Like we can do it a hundred percent, we’re gonna do it.

 And then it was design Foundry, like, can you build the float? Can we fit in it? Can the design be what we’re looking for? Like, is it physically possible? Yeah, lots of logistics.

Alex: Maggie, you mentioned that you were at an event where you saw one of the vendors you ended up using. Will you tell us a little bit about that?

Maggie: Yeah, so I went to the airing Go Glam event, which I think is hosted by Ridgewells, and so it was actually at my wedding venue at the Mellon Auditorium and someone on their team invited us, as, you know, we already booked to have our wedding there. And so Nikki and I went, [00:43:00] it seemed like it was mostly vendors there, but it was Ridgewells food and it was Design Foundry rentals.

 And we walked in and we were like, oh my gosh, I love this, I love this. It was really seeing all these things in action in our wedding venue, and it was at the perfect time when we were still making decisions about what to book and what not to book. And I was like, I know that Design Foundry has these bars.

 I’ve seen them with my eyes. Let’s figure out how we can get them. But I also remember this year on my birthday. My mom and I went into the Art in Bloom DC event, which is at the Anderson house, and it was like, it’s beautiful.

It’s like flowers everywhere. And each room had a different floral that was like matching the room or the art that was in the room. And they all had little cards that had different, like whatever company, local Dc, Virginia Maryland, floral company, prepared that. And so I also thought that was like a great way for me to go and like see some sample of like what local florists could do.

 [00:44:00] So I was like, oh, writing down the names of all of those companies and okay, for Mother’s Day, I’m gonna use that one.

Alex: That’s great. I mean, that’s not sort of anything I would actually think of to recommend, but like going to some of these local events, you might be able to bump into someone who’s doing something really dynamic.

Alison: So obviously part of the wholesale process is again, we source vendors for you or clients are finding them organically, and then you are doing the research. You had mentioned you used Instagram pretty heavily. But, then you have to get on the phone with them. And it’s funny because obviously like, are you wanting them to show off more personality or do you want them to educate you on everything?

I guess it depends on the vendor, because they feel like, when I’m trying to talk to a client, I’m trying to do all of that, and I’m trying to show my personality. I’m trying to show you what we could do for you and try to be different from everyone else. But, at some point, a planner, they all do the same thing.

So then it comes down to [00:45:00] personality and how we could showcase that to you. So like, what are you looking for mostly in some of these sales calls? Because they’re short too. Like when you’re talking to a photographer, you’re talking to a videographer, a band, like these are 30 minute phone calls.

Maggie: Yeah. For me, I had to go into those calls with somewhat of a vision of what I wanted so that I could see what their reaction was, right? Like, are they into this plan? Have they done something like this? Or are they like, oh, I’m not sure about that. Right? Like, what’s their reaction to some of the ideas?

So I remember I did some like preparing of myself, like going in obviously I’m like hiring them, but I had to think a little bit like, what is my vision for music and what is my vision for paper goods and what little idea do I have that I can feed to them? And then see what they do with that. And I think we get a lot through email in terms of pricing and, even like the design boards and stuff, like a lot of that’s through email.

So it’s like, what is beyond that [00:46:00] email? What can we talk about, on this call. And so I do think it is like a personality fit a little bit. I do love when they’re like super excited about you being engaged, ’cause you just wanna like, soak up that era of being engaged and wedding planning and it is stressful.

And so how is a vendor showing me that like, they’re not gonna make this process stressful for me, right? They’re gonna be so excited and they wanna celebrate us, and they’re gonna put their best foot forward. So I also think it’s just like being excited and asking about us and asking about our vision.

And if we don’t have a vision, what are things we like? What do we like to do? All that stuff.

Alison: And did you feel like people were genuine in asking you those questions?

Maggie: I definitely think so. We had a lot of filters before I got on a call with the vendor, you know, it’s like a lot of time. So once you had recommended them and I had done my own research and I was like, okay, I think I’m gonna book this person. After looking at their website and Instagram, let’s just get the call to see what they think of the ideas and our [00:47:00] personality is.

Alison: But, for phone calls like, I don’t know how their planners do it, but I’m on every single one, or at least I try to be, because I never know what a vendor’s going to say. And not that I’m scared that they’re gonna out anything.

Like everything is above board. Like we’re not hiding anything. Vendors can talk to my clients anytime they want, if my client is open to it. ‘ cause sometimes they just don’t want the clutter on their phone or in their email, and we have to remind vendors that they’re like, I wanna talk to the client.

I’m like, I understand that, but they’re super stressed right now, so could we just like, let them marinate in what we’ve sent over and then you can talk with them if they want. But I’ve got been on some sales calls where it’s like, I’ve worked with the person before, or I’ve known someone else that I trust that has worked with them before, and the sales call goes terribly. I think there’s some sales tactics out there that people really need to like, and it could work well for them. That’s the thing. Like you never know, [00:48:00] like behind the scenes that sales tactic could work for them 99% of the time, but when I’m on the call, it gets a little awkward, which is like, they don’t congratulate the couple.

 So like you’re not showing your excitement and I don’t care if we are the first vendor the couple is talking to, or the 99th vendor that you’re talking to, you should still be congratulated. You should still be excited to talk to them and show that joy because they have that joy. So I love that you said that, but it’s also, you know, ask about their story.

Sometimes we don’t always get to it. I understand that there’s more important things to talk about. We know you’re at least generally excited for them, but I’ve had vendors that have gotten on the phone and they’re like, what questions do you have for me? I’m like, literally, we just said, hello, this client knows nothing.

 I’ve shared your pricing, they want to hear from you, they wanna know your personality. And again, that tactic could work for them. [00:49:00] But every time one of my clients gets on a call and they hear that question, they immediately clam up and they go, can you tell me about you?

 So it’s like I get as a vendor, it’s kind of hard to immediately go into talking about you, but that’s where you can open up with some softer things.

Maggie: Yeah, I had my first call with Illumina Films, my videography team, obviously had seen their videos. Like there wasn’t a video they made that I hadn’t seen by the time we got on the call. So I was like very well researched in their work. But what it didn’t know about them was like, who they are.

 Reagan and Sam, they’re married and they’re like this married dynamic duo that films wedding videos. And I remember getting on the call and like the first thing they did was like, told me their history and told me about how they got started doing it. And I love that. And it’s like stuck with me today.

 And yes, it wasn’t relevant to like, the angles we were gonna take and you know, all the little details but I really did like [00:50:00] learning about them and then it’s really about like relationship building. Like Nikki, my husband and I are like, how do we go out to dinner with Mary Margaret, our caterer? Like how do we hang out with all those vendors again? Right? it’s like we just wanna hang out with them because we like built such strong bonds with everyone, that it became more than just, you’re in such constant communication.

 And like you said, Alison, I appreciated you being kind of like the buffer. And I appreciated you being on the calls because they were like, what questions do you have? I’d be like, I don’t even know what questions to ask. And I remember you would always chime in like, oh, and one more thing about this, and in the contract it says this.

And I’m like, wow. Thank you for reading the contract. Thank you for asking those questions. You know, there’s like a lot of things that, you know, from your experience that I would have no idea whether to ask or not. I’d be like, what’s your favorite color? It’s not relevant.

Alex: There’s a narrative out there that planners want to be so in control and we’re so a type and some vendors are like, God, chill, just let me talk to the client. And I’m like, I get that and I want you to talk to them too. [00:51:00] But if the client mentions their grandmother’s heirloom necklace, and then they forget to mention it to us. Like, we just wanna make sure we’re listening to every little thing, so nothing falls through the cracks.

Maggie: Yeah. And either it’s like having the clients or as like those vendors having to repeat what they said in that call to you. ’cause you guys have to know what’s going on, like what did we talk about? And so it kind of seems like you’re like jealous, like, what’d you guys talk about?

Like, you gotta know what’s going on. So either we’re gonna repeat it to you, or it falls through the cracks and only half the vendor team knows about the grandma’s heirloom.

Alex: Right, or just pause record on the zoom call. Let me watch it later. You know, it’s also just sort of operating inefficiency, which is a big thing for me as well, not having to repeat things to different people like we’re all on the same page, we all know the same information. But isn’t interesting if a vendor gets on the phone is like, alright, what can I do for you? It’s like, they’ve never done this before. It’s a really big emotional day. It’s a huge investment. Let’s ease into it.

Maggie: And I think it’s probably different [00:52:00] than like your corporate customers, right? Like, I’m sure those corporate clients who are like, yep, here’s what I got this time. Like, for a wedding it’s like our first time doing anything, like throwing events. Like we have no idea what’s going on until we know. And I think, everyone starts out totally in the dark, even if they’re like doom scrolling on Instagram like I am all the time.

Alison: And that’s where it’s like I will always spend the first five minutes on a phone call with the vendor before a client even gets on with them to remind them what we’re talking about, who you are, you know, little tidbits that they need to then take that into their sales call.

Because behind the scenes, I want you to like this vendor. So I’m not telling them to lie or to do anything. I’m like, just show off your personality. I’m gonna mute myself for most of the call. I want you to shine and be you and just talk to them. And then I’ll jump in with the logistics questions and stuff like that.

Like Maggie said, I do. I’ve even [00:53:00] prompted vendors a call before and been like, don’t just ask them what questions they have because they’re nervous about this call and they’re not gonna have any for you. So just start talking about yourself. And even then I’ve had vendors been like, what questions do you have for me?

 And I’m like, okay. No, no, no, no. And that’s the thing where it’s like, this is an amazing vendor, but sometimes they’re just awkward on the phone. And it’s hard because then you have to have that behind the scenes, like research that you’ve done as a client and have stressed on this podcast episode here, and I think this is a good kind of like recap.

 You use Instagram mainly. You sometimes would look at websites if it was more of a portfolio piece needed, it was the personality and the excitement that they gave you on the phone, the transparency and, stuff like that. So when you have someone that isn’t great with a phone sales call, [00:54:00] you feel so bad for them and you try, but we’ve had people text us before to have been like, I wanna get off the phone with this person.

 And I’m like, but I promise you they’re such an amazing dj, or they’re such a great florist. They just are awkward on the phone. And, you can’t come back from that sometimes, even though that might have been the best vendor for that client.

Maggie: It’s like your resume versus like that final interview for a job, right? Like, how do you seal the deal? How do you let people know who you are and how do you like, really make a connection first, right? They already have all the information. They know what you can do. They’ve seen pictures, they’ve seen a proposal, they’ve consumed a lot of information about you, but like, what is it that’s not coming off of all of that that they need to know about you?

Alex: Yeah, it’s sort of interesting because like if the vendors are coming through Alison, they’re already vetted. So you can trust that and then you go and do your own research so you can see the level experience that you’re looking for. But then it just raises this little question mark if you’re not communicating, if you don’t think they understand what [00:55:00] you’re saying, you don’t trust that your vision is gonna be delivered.

 And I think sometimes, like, let’s say we’re just talking about lighting, maybe, the personality doesn’t match, so you gotta kinda weigh it. But if it’s like a custom build, we have to be on the same page. We have to be crystal clear about what we’re thinking and the process and all that sort of stuff.

Maggie: Yeah. And one thing that also I remember with our bear and Terrance, the band leader, I remember he took a call and like I had a tough schedule. Nikki had an even tougher schedule, so he only joined some of the calls. And I remember Terrance for the first call that we had with him, he was in Hong Kong maybe, and just the fact that he was able to deal with that time zone difference. He woke up at a certain time just to have the call with me, like as soon as we got connected, I was like, oh my gosh, thank you so much. Right. It was just like that evidence of effort that like he’s gonna go above and beyond because he just did that.

He’s like on tour doing a gig and he still wants to talk to me and he is not going through any other person. He’s like, I’ll talk [00:56:00] to her directly, and I really appreciated that. Right? Like, how much are people really going above and beyond, that way I knew that he was gonna be the second line and it was gonna be great.

Alison: And they were amazing on site, and it’s obviously like that was a trusted company for us. So we knew that they delivered excellent bands, but that was the first time I worked with that band and they were phenomenal.

Alex: What is one word you’d use to describe your dream vendor? If you can narrow it down to one word.

Maggie: I think innovative. We were really looking for something that wasn’t seen on Instagram. That’s what made it hard through the creative process. It’s like, we’re trying to make something that’s not on Instagram yet, and so think it needed a vendor team that was willing to be innovative.

 And I’d also say discreet because I had a lot of surprises, things, you know, that my vendors knew that they couldn’t tell my now husband. We were keeping secrets from him. So discreet and innovative.

Alex: I love the innovative. ‘ When people come to us with crazy ideas, I mean, that’s just so much fun. Just like, [00:57:00] let’s figure out how to get this done. And any advice you would offer to any vendors?

Maggie: Yeah, I think those calls are really important. I think just letting your excitement show through, and just showing range on social media because there are people scrolling and I’m one of them, and we scroll and we look at everything and we really wanna be able to see the range of what you can do, before we even get on a first call with you or first reach out. So just showing that you can do a bunch of different things allows us to see that you’re not just, you know, one type of vendor and no one is, they can all do tons of things.

Alison: Did you ever use AI for any of your planning, for anything?

Maggie: No, for me the timing was just off. One thing that we haven’t talked about is TikTok, and TikTok was huge with wedding planning, a little bit with finding vendors, but more, it’s all these people that document their wedding planning process. Here’s 10 things you can’t forget. And so all those little tips.

So I wrote [00:58:00] all those down and that’s why I had lidocaine in my suitcase and all those little things. So I do think TikTok was helpful. AI, I use chat GPT on the daily now. I think the timing was just off, like it was a few months too late. But I also worry though that AI would’ve given me the cookie cutter wedding I didn’t want.

 So they’re probably helpful in figuring out the process and stuff, but not when it comes to, design and execution.

Alex: I have a quick funny story because there’s so much going on. So Maggie is changing for the after party. So out of the wedding dress, hair, and makeup team is there to get a fun pony. And you were like, Alex, I’m sorry, but can you please get the lidocaine out of my bag? Spray the bottom of my feet.

 And I was like, yeah, no problem. Like we just held your chest when you went to the bathroom, like spraying your feet’s, big deal. And I looked at you and I go, what is Lidocaine? And you’re like it numbs the bottom of my feet. I was like, oh my [00:59:00] gosh, I can’t believe I’ve been doing this 19 years and I didn’t know what ligate was.

Maggie: Yeah, the tips and tricks. Maybe I’ll make a list for you guys and you can share it with everyone, of just things I’ve compiled from all the other brides out there on TikTok that were like, you gotta do this, you gotta do this. So yeah, I had a local wedding, but I had a suitcase full of all these extra things that just in case items.

Alison: I mean, I don’t know if you saw my emergency kit rolling around it at any point, but it’s just like over time we’ve just learned so much that you end up just putting random stuff in your emergency kit.

Like I was telling my dad, funnily enough, the other day I was like, yeah, there’s nipple covers in my emergency kit, just in case, a woman needs them.

Maggie: And the thing is you don’t know what’s gonna happen. Obviously you guys have tons of stories of things going wrong, and people always ask me like, did anything go wrong? Or like, what did I have to activate for my emergency kit? I was like, if something went wrong, I didn’t know.

 And I think so much of that is just having a vendor team that you trust will just work in [01:00:00] synchronicity to just respond immediately. So I do think I didn’t have to activate that much stuff in my emergency kit.

Alison: And we got along even though you are a swifty and I am not. So that is my last question for you, which is on a scale of one to a hundred, how excited are you about Taylor Swift’s wedding?

Maggie: Oh, I’m so excited. I’m glad that I got married before ‘ cause otherwise, I know if I had a cookie cutter wedding, that would be the cookie that I would be basing it on. So I’m glad I could watch it afterwards. If the engagement is any sign with those florals, with that ring, it’s gonna be huge. And it’s gonna lead to a lot of good inspo.

Alex: Everyone’s wedding’s gonna be influenced in some way or another. Maybe not everyone ’cause some people are just like so anti, but I feel like there’s more pro Taylor people. So, alright ladies, I think we shall wrap it up. Maggie, it is truly always a pleasure, your wedding was just so fun.

Even me, I’m like, let’s run it [01:01:00] back. That was great. So, if you guys wanna see pictures of Maggie’s wedding, look for the green and white, beautiful wedding on our Instagram.

And, that’s it for today. Thank you so much for joining us, Maggie. We will chat with you soon.

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