The Business of Luxury Weddings

In this captivating episode of The Business of Luxury Weddings , we're honored to be joined by the renowned Colin Cowie, an iconic figure in the world of luxury events. With nearly 40 years of experience, Colin shares his fascinating journey from his humble beginnings with just $400 and a dream to becoming the go-to planner for Hollywood's elite. He opens up about the evolving landscape of the eve...

In this episode of The Business of Luxury Weddings Podcast, we sit down with Joshua Fournier, one half of the power duo behind a flourishing luxury wedding photography brand. Coming from a medical background, Joshua and Leidy share how they transitioned from physician assistant studies to photographing weddings full-time—all while balancing the demands of medicine and life as new parents. They dis...

In this episode of The Business of Luxury Weddings Podcast , James and Otto chat with Rosemary Hattenbach of Rosemary Events. Rosemary's journey started in the film industry as a line producer, where she worked with A-list directors. Now, she brings that same level of attention to detail and collaboration to luxury weddings. Rosemary shares what it takes to succeed in high-end event planning—confi...

In this episode of The Business of Luxury Weddings Podcast, hosts James and Otto sit down with Sneh Diwan of Diwan by Design. Sneh opens up about her journey from studying design and merchandising at the Fashion Institute of Technology to becoming a "timekeeper" in wedding planning, where her love for watches perfectly complements her passion for crafting unforgettable events. Sneh shares the prof...

On today's episode, hosts James and Otto are joined by Britt and Francie from 42 North, a weddings and event planning business. While much of their clientele is in New England, they also plan destination weddings for clients in New York, Chicago, and LA. Britt and Francie share what a wedding planner does, comparing wedding planning to putting on a Broadway production with no rehearsals. They disc...

On today's episode, hosts James and Otto are joined by Alison and Bryan from  Alison Bryan Destinations . The couple has an impressive portfolio, which includes work around the globe, including Morrocco, Spain, and Greece, Italy and Mexico, just to name a few. Many people use "experience" as a buzzword, but with Alison and Bryan, it is a fundamental part of their ethos.   Kicking things off, Aliso...

As photographers and business owners, continuous growth is the name of the game. What gets in the way of this growth are the blindspots we all have. If we're not booking the weddings we want or showing up the way we want to, curiosity and radical self-honesty are the only way to initiate the change we need.   It's really hard to assess ourselves, and often that process is brought on by a huge life...

Unique experiences, powerful emotions, beauty, family, love and legacy…these are some of the words planners use to describe the service they provide. It's very rare to hear a planner talk about wellbeing and happiness being the leading drivers of what they do.   At the highest level of wedding planning, the concept of caring for people can get lost in the luxurious logistics. What sets the best ap...

Luxury weddings involve so many great things like travel, amazing experiences and glamorous events. Because all these facets are so fun and exciting, it's easy to fall into the trap of treating the job like a hobby.   In order to build something that sustains you, you have to treat it like a business. Yes, the job is fun, but it's also our livelihood so we have to handle it accordingly. In an indu...

Most wedding professionals are taught to grow by way of digital marketing, but there's something with a much higher ROI - relationship marketing. When you compare what you get out of fostering industry relationships with digital marketing, it's not even close. The former will always win.   One ad can bring in a single wedding. One industry collaboration can bring you hundreds of weddings throughou...

When you work in the fast-paced, demanding world of luxury weddings, it's easy to run on reactivity - to act first and then think later. Running on intentionality, being thoughtful first and then taking action is a completely different approach. Living by intention touches every facet of your life, and of course impacts how you run your business and serve your clients. For Lea Stafford, being inte...

A special event is made up of 3 types of experiences - the atmospheric, the tangible and the organic pieces of what's happening in the moment. Wedding planners are tasked with weaving all these things together and adding connection to the recipe. When this takes place in the context of a destination - local or abroad - there also has to be a story component centered on the place.   From the flutte...

Offer a discount, drop your rates, or put more into the package - this is what most people will do when they want to get more business. The problem is, in doing this, you're devaluing yourself in the eyes of the client, which works against you in luxury.   The secret to raising your rates is actually refining your brand and elevating your proposal which means eliminating elements. Instead of incen...

As luxury shifts from conspicuous consumption to conscious consumption, we have to change how we think about the services we provide. It's not that people are spending less money, they are just choosing to spend smarter, and putting more meaning behind every buying choice.   In the luxury travel space, crafting a great experience shouldn't start with the location, it starts with the feeling people...

Every human being has moments where inspiration strikes them, but not everyone will chase it. A great creative concept, collaboration, or business idea can fade because you're scared to put it out there.   Not for Sofia Crokos.   She goes down every avenue of creativity from fashion and weddings to food and flowers. Her secret: manifesting, chasing beauty, and acting on inspiration without limitat...

When your successful planning business has a thriving floral arm, why would you shut it down? To make room for more creativity and collaboration! Most people wouldn't dream of ending something that's doing so well, but that could be keeping us from what we really want.   If a business is just chugging along, it's easier to keep going as is. Shaking things up is actually so much harder than staying...

When it comes to branding and approach, most photographers are focused on themselves. It's all about their aesthetic and getting clients to fit into it. We make ourselves the thing our clients should aspire to. That was our approach for years…until we realized that it wouldn't allow us to sustain real success in luxury.   So we switched to this: focusing on our clients; and instead of pigeonholing...

Get to know your client and match yourself up to that. That's the format of traditional marketing we're taught to use. What if we could accomplish more by going about it in a completely different way? In luxury, cost isn't the biggest factor in the decision making process - desire is. If we make people want our service, they will buy it.   Creating desire instantly makes us more sought-after, espe...

For many photographers, weddings are a highly intimidating niche. The idea of shooting a once in a lifetime event, at the highest spectrum of emotions can be daunting.   And that's before you add a luxury component to it.   Shooting that level of event and having that caliber of client comes with a lot, but the biggest thing is a shift in our own mindset.   To break into luxury and command those r...

At the luxury level of weddings, it's easy to think you have to live in an epicenter city and have a ton of notoriety to succeed. The whole world has to know you if you want your business to grow. But bigger, famous and splashier isn't the only route to visibility, success can happen without notoriety.   You can thrive while being the best kept secret. It's possible to create these gravitas "goose...

Creating a magical wedding is a dance of balancing contradictions. You have to saturate the senses without over-producing, steep the event with individual details that become seamless, pace a fast-moving day, and counter the emotional crescendos with much needed lulls.   The planners responsible for this do multiple events a year, but they still have to make that particular event authentic to who'...

In this business, the biggest leaps don't come from adding bells and whistles to our approach. They come from stripping what we do down to the clearest, most actionable and exceptional basics. Going an inch wide and a mile deep produces more profound results than going a mile wide, an inch deep.    When you really think about it, we spend 10% of our time in the business behind the camera. What mov...

A simple, kind and meaningful act can have a powerful ripple effect, like giving a haircut to someone in need. Not only does it create doorways to connection. It can open up entire portals that break the typical pattern of how we interact with the community around us.    Through one simple compassionate act, we can create moments that matter - moments that can start to break through layers of hard...

Interior design and wedding design have always had a natural synergy. Inspiration from interiors has always trickled into events. Now that there's a huge movement to make weddings feel residential, interiors aren't just inspiring events, they are informing them. People want the big day to feel authentic, and not just like another decorated ballroom. The big day is an extension of how they'd host p...

Just like dress trends and decor trends, weddings and how they are planned have gone through a huge evolution of their own.    How the special day was crafted used to be formulaic and predictable. There were traditions that had to be met and boxes the event had to check.    Today, there's plenty of room for the unexpected, the whimsical and the meaningful. What people include in that day is more a...