Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Corri Lewis. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Corri, appreciate you joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

I’ve been in the Wedding industry for over 30 years. Couples who don’t have a high budget are often times overlooked. But not by me! I love a good deal, hard work and the pride of seeing hopes and dreams become reality….with a little pocket change left over.
My passion is serving the couple who is willing to roll up their sleeves, ask for help and learn something new. It’s a challenge and a surprise at every single wedding, and I have yet to be disappointed!
If you’ve been engaged and on a tight budget, you understand how difficult it can be to decide where to spend your money. It can be humbling or discouraging. However, I love a good budget–and putting that money to work for your dream day.
That’s why I started my company, The DIY Wedding Coach. Everyone deserves to live their dream, and not be turned away.
Do we have to be creative? Yep.
Do we have to ask for help? Also Yep.
Do we learn how to navigate every step of the dream? You bet!
Is it overwhelming? Difficult? Discouraging? Not as much as you may think.
It’s actually a lot of fun to support couples through the process of figuring out what is important and who to ask to be on their team. We celebrate the wins every step of the way!
I have chosen to work with DIY couples because of their grit, their tenacity and the pride they take in a job well done. And looking back, I can’t think of a single wedding that looked “homemade”.
I’m the Wedding Pro who’s on your team, giving you ALL of the inside tips and tricks-and cheering you on! (Am I being overly obvious about my passion?)

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was engaged 34 years ago and planning my wedding. My father was battling cancer at the time. As you can imagine, our budget was tight.
I also have a background in Fashion Design, so I designed and created my wedding gown (I never recommend this, not even to me!).
We had to be creative!
We chose the free venue ( a church) that had red carpet. It didn’t support my dream of having peach dresses (you’ll need to envision all of that peach taffeta for a brief moment! It was, after all, the late 80’s), but I understood the circumstances and we went with it.
We set the time for a 7pm ceremony to save money on food (we offered desserts and cake).
I was the first in my family to get married, so we had no idea what we were doing. Thank goodness for family and friends!
We workshopped the invitations (back then, weddings were HUGE! We had over 400 attend our wedding and another 500 attend our second reception in my husbands home town!).
My step mother hosted a group of friends to write/stamp/lick every invitation while she provided a luncheon. It turned into a wonderful day full of fun stories of weddings past, bridal advice and perfect memories made. I was surprised by some of my grandmothers stories from their own weddings and being newlyweds! It’s one of my favorite memories around our wedding!
My dad’s best friend married us (free) at the (free) church with red carpet. My Bridesmaids all wore black sheath dresses that I designed (we had them made) and carried red rose bouquets. I remember when we started working on the bouquets. Remember, this is before Pinterest and YouTube! It was my husband who figured out how to make them dimensional and elegant.
The Wedding Day Coordinators (my step mothers best friends-also free) ran the show from the month before the wedding through the Reception, and it is because of those two ladies that I later realized what other Brides were missing.
They protected me like I was their own. To this day, I only know of one thing that went wrong at my wedding but those two friends took care of it quickly and discreetly.
Later in the year a close friend was getting married. I had designed her gown but wasn’t going to make it until the month before her wedding…..however, she changed her plans and called me up to ask if I could finish it by the following Sunday. I’d made the pattern and the mock up so all I needed to do was sew the actual gown….in 4 days. Of course I said ‘yes’! During the day I helped her with wedding errands and I sewed every night.
I also ran the rehearsal the night before and hosted the bachelorette party. I hemmed her gown right before she walked down the aisle. Then I made sure everyone went in the right order, I ran the reception and realized all that I had been blessed with that she missed out on. My heart broke for her-yet she didn’t realize that she’d missed a thing. She was thrilled and in love.
It was at her wedding that my passion ignited. I knew that some how-some way, I needed to become a Wedding Planner. I had lived the dream during my engagement and planning without realizing it.
A fun side note: I delivered our first child 4 days after her wedding.
Second side note: Dad is a 34 year cancer survivor!!
Over the next years, I volunteered for everything that involved event planning so I could learn all of it. With every event, my passion deepened, and my heart to serve those who could “only” dream became part of who I am. It wasn’t long before I was too busy to work with everyone who asked, so I developed what is known today as a “program” or a “course”. Together with the couples with whom I’ve worked, we’ve pulled off some stunningly beautiful miracles!

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

I shared the origin story of how I started my business. It was a side hustle for a very long time. That makes me sad in many ways that I didn’t believe in myself enough to feel like I deserved to live out my dream. My calling. Instead, I worked and did this in my “spare” time. In October 2019, my husband was in a career ending accident. Thankfully he survived, but at the time of this writing, it’s been 4 years, 4 surgeries and 3 more in the near future. He suffers from a Traumatic Brain Injury as well, so I was compelled to leave my career to become his full time caregiver.
When the world shut down, we were already at home. We had already had a major life change, and were still reeling.
I was talking to a friend one day and she asked if I’d be interested in creating an online course so I could reach more couples. She gave me some excellent resources and I did some investigating.
This was a great idea for me! I loved it–and I could expand my reach to help more couples who were struggling to DIY their weddings.
That’s how the online course was born. Grit and Tenacity-plus a very strong will.
It’s been a struggle to put everything online. First, I don’t want to overwhelm anyone (but the passion to help is real!) and second, because I’m new to building websites. I’ve learned over my lifetime that difficult does not mean ‘give up’. It means learn the new thing and get good at it!
While the world was on pause, I planned safe events for our neighborhood. We still need community-especially at that moment in time. I also joined a ton of groups on social media to give support to couples who were still planning their wedding. I love those groups! I can jump in without pretense and just answer questions & lend support!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

If you work with me in person, I require you to sign a contract. It’s really standard operating procedure. However, one point that I make is that neither party can ask me if anything went wrong at the wedding for 6 months. The Wedding Party must also agree that this is the Couple’s day, and we-together-protect them like it’s our full time job. Over the years, I’ve had so many things go wrong!
A drunk relative shows up.
Someone want’s to apologize to the Bride for the 20 year fight they’ve had with the grandparents right before she walks down the aisle.
The Groom passes out.
The flowers show up dead.
The cake frosting isn’t whitest white (as ordered).
Food is not at temp and has to be replaced.
There isn’t enough food.
Every wedding has something that doesn’t go according to plan, or tries to derail the whole thing.
In every instance, I have taken on whatever the challenge and moved mountains to ensure that the couple is protected from whatever stressor is looming.
To this day, I haven’t received the 6 month phone call or text asking what went wrong.
And that’s the point, isn’t it? Nothing should go wrong for the Couple or for their Mothers.
Being prepared for the unexpected is something that I’ve learned over the years. It’s something I’ve trained the Wedding Parties along the way and hopefully they’ve learned and used their experience with me to support and protect other wedding days along the way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thediyweddingcoach.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corri_thediyweddingcoach/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheDIYWeddingCoach/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corrilewis/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@thediyweddingcoach

Image Credits
Rhonda Kirkes; Kevin and Renee Photography