Today we are chatting with Kelly Strong owner of Kelly Strong Events. Kelly is a full-service, premier destination wedding & event planner who was recently featured on Martha Stewart Weddings.
It doesn’t matter if your big day is local or overseas, Kelly will guide you throughout the event planning process with carefully curated design and flawless execution. Not to mention, she has a beautiful Instagram feed filled inspiration.
Join us at her home on her cozy sofa in this week’s episode as we sip on prosecco and talk business and branding.
Tell me about yourself. Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Scotia, NY. I went to University of Vermont, that’s where I met my husband. We did a little bit of traveling after college and just came back to Scotia about a year and a half ago. We were all over the place for about 10 years, several states, Canada and overseas in Germany for one year and Italy for one year.
The traveling was for my husband’s career, he played hockey after college. When we settled, we came back to the states and lived in CT for a while and eventually came back here.
What led you to event planning?
I studied business at UVM. I was originally interested in sports marketing. I played lacrosse for two years and after that I was in the sports marketing department with the athletic department. After college I worked for the Oakland Raiders in their marketing and sponsorship department and I loved it.
A lot of what we did was events, whether it was VIP road trips or tailgates, that kind of stuff. So it was really event heavy and is where I learned I really did like events. It took a bunch of years with us traveling for me to fully come to event planning.
I worked for a small management company and we did all corporate and non profits, that was really logistic, meetings so I did corporate for a little bit then moved into association meeting planning which is any type of association that has a conference once or twice a year, all over the county, we did all of that planning. Then I moved into weddings, social gatherings.
What made you want to start your own business?
I grew up in a small business family so I knew I always wanted to run my own business it was a matter of what, when, how. I think I’m a terrible employee because I hate being told what to do, when and how it’s done. I needed all the years of experience but it was a matter of when I was going to do it. I was kind of forced into it because i was working for the association management company remotely but it was temporary so when that period ended it was kind of like, “OK here it goes!”
What was your first event?
I think it was probably my sister’s wedding which was about a week after I left the company. There was a period of overlap where I was doing both.
What is your process when you begin working with a new client?
When I’m first working with a new client it’s just gathering a ton of information and asking a lot of questions. If its their wedding I’m asking about what they’ve envisioned but also to learn about them as people, as a couple, what they like, what do they wear, what does their house look like, what to they do for fun.
The more I can learn about them and their personalities the more I can’t reflect that in the event and it also helps me to build trust and a great relationship. I want a comfortable working relationship.
In terms of managing expectations, each client is different. Some need to talk to you all the time, others are like “OK we’ll talk in a week.” It depends on the client, so its about learning their preferences and those will tie in together.
I’m up early and sometimes I’m shooting off emails and like “hold the phone, schedule it to send later.” Same for at night, I don’t want to set the expectation that I’m available all the time then the lines get blurry, so that’s something i have to work on.
How far in advance do you need to start event planning?
It totally depends. Some people work with me when they first get engaged and have no idea where to begin. I work with a lot of people who are really busy and don’t want to spend the hours doing the research. I’ll start working with some clients a year or year and a half in advance. Other clients that will hire me for more month of support and some will come to me when they realize they are under water.
What exactly do you do?
If I’m doing a full service event planning, some clients come to me with not even a venue so we’ll start from scratch. I keep a very large database of venues all over the place. What’s great about that is I may have a place that they haven’t found. Some clients have a venue but don’t have all their vendors so based on their budget, style and preferences I will help recommend vendors.
A really big part of what is time consuming is when you sit down and research something like “wedding photographer” it becomes very overwhelming. I can recommend someone based off their preferences. Once we have vendors in place there are a lot of meetings to iron out the details. We’ll have a tasting, full walk through with the venue, select any rental items, meet with florist. Leading up to the event it’s me communicating with the vendors finalizing the detail, the design, making sure the client has absolutely nothing to worry about the day of.
How do you stay organized?
For me, I’m a pen and paper type of gal. Every Sunday I re-write my list, broken out by business tasks and then by event. I start with what needs to be taken care of immediately and that gets put into my daily planner. It’s a lot of triple checks too, with my clients there’s a checklist on our google drive that also keeps the client on track and I also reference it to make sure nothing is outstanding. I also keep the budget there, vendor sourcing.
When I’m pulling an event all together, because of my corporate background, I use Excel with lots and lots of spreadsheets, tabs and pull it into a big event profile that everyone works from on the day of.
The event profile is every detail that could be relevant. The address of the ceremony and reception, where the bride is staying, where the groom is staying, hotels, minute by minute timeline, all of the vendors contact information, hair/makeup schedule, transportation is a big one and can get pretty challenging so we make sure to have each vehicle’s itinerary, details like names of the family and wedding party. Some of the information isn’t needed but always good to have. It also has the food and beverage order, all those details with the venue.
Can you share a planning or event catastrophe, how you overcame it and what did you learn from it?
No matter the event, something will go wrong. Going into it I know it will happen. It could be something small, it could be something large. It’s just a matter of how you react to it.
My goal is to never tell anyone anything unless they have to know or they have a solution. Always having a calm demeanor and know something is going to happen. I saw so many people get frantic, so I stay calm and maintain a balanced mood. I don’t want people to get worked up in anyway. If I’m calm then it calms everyone down. I come away from every event learning something new.
The last wedding of this year my assistant got to the church an hour early and the lights were off, the door was locked, we couldn’t find anyone, and people were already getting there because they love to be early. Another recent one was the bride and groom picked Congress Park in Saratoga for their first look. I helped them month of and found our there was an arts festival taking place at the exact same time. So I called around for a new location, presented it to the bride and she was happy.
You were recently featured on Martha Stewart Weddings! What is your secret to growing your personal brand?
I think I’m still trying to figure that out. For me its been super slow growth so I’ve been trying different things. I think one of biggest things is just consistency, showing up and trying new things. For me its be brave and show my face in videos on social media. People like it because they want to know who they’re working with and want to associate some kind of personality. Sometimes its pushing yourself outside your comfort zone.
Another thing is I could compare myself all day long to other planners out there and try to mimic what they’re doing but it doesn’t feel right. So I try to be myself as much as possible, put out as much positive wedding content but realize not everyone is there for wedding so show some other fun stuff and what I like, try to build that way. Be patient.
What other event planning do you do besides weddings?
I do a little bit of corporate and nonprofit. Right now I work with a local hospital and they do a few events a year so I’ve been consistent working with them. I like to have a little bit of the corporate work as well. It’s nice to mix in, its good experience. Anytime I have the opportunity to work with local businesses its nice to get out and meet new people.
I’ve done grand openings and all kinds of social gatherings. Another great part of my experience with corporate and association is that events were elsewhere. I got really used to planning from afar so I am still doing weddings out of the area.
Where are the top 3 favorite places you’ve done event planning?
Top 3 destinations in general- I love upstate NY, not just because we’re from here. The Catskills and up to Saratoga there are so many beautiful places. In the Adirondacks are also beautiful.
#2 is Vermont, I love Vermont so much. We had a beautiful wedding there last summer and it was so good to be back there.
#3 is Charleston. It’s such a romantic place, its the #1 wedding destination. It’s naturally romantic, I love it.
Do you use any tools to plan on your Instagram or other social media?
I dabbled in the scheduling tools but it just wasn’t working for me. I like to be able to shift as needed so right now my system is so old school. I sit down each morning, and I do have a plan- I usually have an idea of the week as a whole- and I post every day. I like the flexibility of posting something relevant for the day. I do spend some time getting some drafts together. I don’t use anything fancy.
A ton goes on a shared calendar and as a reminder on my calendar. Nothing too fancy. I find with clients its easier to use something they’re familiar with. Many businesses use Google Drive, so people are familiar with it from work. It’s simple, no learning curve, no separate log in. I think some tools are really useful but some just over complicate things. If it feels too complicated for me, I don’t want to pass that along to my clients.
Who is someone you look up to or see as a mentor?
I started working with Jacin Fitzgerald of Jacin Fitzgerald Events in the start of 2019. She has been so influential in my business. She’s been able to look at my business in a different way. She gave me a ton of confidence and ideas. It’s been an incredible experience working with her. She does weddings and corporate as well. She sometimes gives me the kick in the pants to keep going.
What do you do for lunch?
Normally I’m at home so I’ll have leftovers, or sometimes I’ll have breakfast for lunch.
Contact info:
Kelly @ KellyStrongEvents.com
