We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alayna Mines. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alayna below.
Alayna , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.
I, Alayna Mines, was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin on May 31, 1991. I am a Professional Wedding Planner, Women’s Small Business Owner, and Entrepreneur. I founded both Roots To Stems (Boutique Wedding Planning & Events) and The Palm Mansion (Lake County’s historical wedding venue and gardens). I married my college sweetheart, Matt Mines, whom I met at Stetson University. We currently reside in Orlando, FL, where I execute most of my client weddings in the surrounding area.
Roots To Stems Wedding Planning, my first company, opened amid a worldwide pandemic (covid). Instead of closing my doors like many others, I surprised the world by introducing “Virtual Wedding Planning” during this challenging time, which I termed the “Pocket Planner.” This approach facilitated “non-contact” wedding planning through phone interactions, including ZOOM calls, online vision boards, phone calls, and text messaging. Despite the industry facing closures, I gained numerous clients by offering this innovative solution. Simultaneously, I focused on strategic marketing efforts for Roots To Stems, leading styled shoot campaigns with local vendors that boosted visibility and garnered community attention. Within the first year of business, I successfully navigated these challenges.
“I actually announced that I was opening my wedding planning business the week before the entire world shut down. I thought to myself, should I just give up now? This is crazy… There’s no way you can make this work. I was scared and had so many second thoughts on my go-forward plan. But I kept the faith and leaned into support from my family and friends and just kept going,” I said. “I focused on little wins like booking a call or something as small as having an Instagram conversation with someone I admired in the industry. Those were wins and propelling me forward, even if it was just an inch. I kept telling myself, just keep putting one foot in front of the other. I believed that my passion for the industry and my love for what I was doing would see me through… and amazingly enough, it did.”
My plan worked, and I became a well-known player in the industry, working with some of Florida’s biggest names and seasoned veterans. Roots To Stems has seen tremendous growth, expanding its offerings to include various levels of services. At the age of 31, I decided to further expand my business portfolio by opening The Palm Mansion, a historic mansion in Lake Country, FL. This mansion, built in 1904, has an incredible legacy that I became deeply passionate about. It has never been sold since the day it was built and has been passed down through five generations. By purchasing this home, I became the first buyer ever of this property, setting a new course of history.
“This next venture truly hit down to my very core of what I’m passionate about. Bringing love stories to life is what I passionately do for a living in my wedding planning business, and this house will be no different. The love and deep care that went into the initial build of this home 120 years ago all the way until last July when I bought the property, it’s been drenched in love by the family for 6 generations, and I can’t wait to continue that legacy of love. We plan to focus our design on restoring the property to its former glory and bringing The Collins Family (The original family that built the house) into every aspect. I am very passionate about telling the Collins family story and continuing their legacy.”
The Palm Mansion, located in Umatilla FL, just outside of Mont Dora, has been the heart of the town since the day it was built in the early 1900s. I plan to restore this home to its former glory and open it to the public for tours, field trips, special events, and weddings.
“We are six (6) months into the renovation, and truly this is an adventure of a lifetime. One of the coolest parts about this renovation is that my entire family has volunteered to get involved! My husband Matt, my mother-in-law, as well as my two sisters (Tahlia and Brianna and their significant others) and my mom and dad have all been a part of it! We’ve ripped up carpet, restored 120-year-old horsehair plaster walls, cleaned brass chandeliers, painted trim, the list goes on! As a family after a long workday, our new tradition has been to visit the local diner, Mason Jar, after a long day onsite! So, yes, this is a business venture, but also a family adventure that has been a blessing through this journey.”
I plan to have The Palm Mansion ready for events in March 2024, but currently, The Palm Mansion is open for “hard hat” tours during the renovation for couples looking for 2024-2025 wedding venues! Couples can book early and receive “Early Bird” pricing as well as get a glimpse at the renovations that have been completed thus far and learn more about future plans for completion!
Alayna , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
As for my early life and education, after my parents, John and Kirstin Burton, relocated from Wisconsin to Florida, my passion for event planning and design was kindled by observing them organize one of the largest event expos globally, Sun N’ Fun Flying, situated in Lakeland, FL. From my earliest memories, I thrived in this fast-paced environment, volunteering alongside other event specialists and absorbing the intricacies of running highly detailed events. In my early adult years, I assumed the role of Event Director for Stetson University’s event planning team at the age of 20. Subsequently, I embarked on a journey around the United States, working as an Event Specialist for a high-end experiential marketing event firm, where I had the privilege of collaborating with renowned brands such as Ford Motor Company, Facebook, Corona, Disney, Universal, MTV, and many others. My experience in strategic marketing and sales, especially with high-profile clients, laid the foundation for my entrepreneurial aspirations. In 2020, I realized this dream by founding my first company, Roots To Stems, focusing on the dynamic bridal industry.
Much of my success is attributed to my alma mater, Stetson University, where I graduated with honors. The institution not only provided an excellent education but also immersed me in numerous leadership opportunities where I excelled. Engaging in various activities, including Greek Life, school leadership positions, and founding and leading groups like Hatter Productions Events and HerCampus Stetson, allowed me to showcase my leadership skills. I maintained Dean’s List status throughout my Stetson career and graduated cum laude from the College of Arts and Sciences with a Bachelor’s in Communication and a minor in Journalism.
Before venturing into entrepreneurship, my career in Advertising, Sales, and Marketing honed the skills that later proved invaluable. Upon graduating from Stetson University, I secured a position at an Orlando-based influencer marketing company, IZEA (NASDAQ: IZEA). Rapidly ascending within the company, I led the sales management team for the Midwest (U.S.) region, managing the Midwest team while developing high-performing campaigns for my clients. I cultivated partnerships with celebrities, journalists, social media icons, and leading bloggers. Progressing in my career, I accepted opportunities at other companies seeking my expertise as a sales and partnerships subject matter expert. Conceptualizing and implementing brand strategy to boost client revenue gains became my forte, managing a book of business exceeding 1 million dollars. Notable clients included Facebook, GoDaddy, SnapChat, Acer, NASA, Walt Disney World, Oculus, AdventHealth, and Universal Studios. After a successful digital career, I decided to return to my roots in the event industry—a world I loved as a child and rediscovered after planning my own wedding in early 2020. This rekindled passion led to the inception of Roots To Stems.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
I think the biggest misconception about starting a business is thinking that you need all of this capital to get started – and that can be daunting! I’ve seen so many individuals with so much potential give up on their dreams because I think, they don’t know where to start. I always tell people, just start where you are. Do you have a computer? Do you have access to the internet? Do you have passion? Ok, that’s a great place to start! For Roots To Stems, I started with a small laptop and maybe $100. I built my brochures and website using CANVA and Go Daddy and learned how to do those things through watching YouTube videos. I built my processes, timelines and client materials using Google Docs and took checks from clients to save on the fee’s of a Customer Management Portal. Really anything I could do myself or learn for free, I did, You have to be scrappy and willing to put the work in on your own and THEN grow as your company grows. Once I landed a few clients, I started to invest in other tools like a CMS system, a better website, things like that. But my biggest advice is not to start too big. Do what you can yourself, land some work from early believers and grow your company as you grow your dollars. Now The Palm Mansion funding is a little different however, same concept. Since the day that I opened Roots To Stems, I have always dreamed of opening a venue – I just knew at that time, that I didn’t have the capital to open one yet and knew I’d have to wait that out. My plan was grow Roots To Stems, have fun, lan epic weddings for my clients, then use the money I gained from the company to invest in my other company. I waited and worked hard for years until I had what I needed to make that move. It was a natural growth addition to my business portfolio and of course, something I was deeply passionate about!
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I took a different approach to social media – it wasn’t about me, or how good I thought I would be, or my table designs, it was about my clients and telling their love stories. The Roots To Stems brand had and still has a very clear message “Telling Client Love Stories in Event Form” and we started with that approach and still stay true to that to this day.
I began posting about clients I was working with, their engagement photos, their floral meetings, any design session we were having. I didn’t have a lot of content at first, so bringing our audience into the day to day of how to plan a wedding and what clients I was working with was a way to get content creatively and stick to our value system -and it was fun to do! I am so glad that I was able to document so many of my early clients love stories from beginning to end.
Once we got rolling with weddings, we had a LOT of content. One of the cool things about the wedding industry is that you’re working with some of the most talented photographers taking photos of your work. The industry is so kind and generous with helping vendors or “friendors” we like to say with providing photos, videos, behind the scenes footage, etc. With so much content, I made sure to document all that I could and to this day I LOVE posting my clients weddings! It’s so fun to see their dreams come to life after months and months of planning.
The way instagram works, many times our videos or reels will gain quick attention just from the beautiful content that we capture at weddings. A few tips I always do:
-Focus on relevant hashtags for my audience (#weddingplanning, #weddings for exmaple) and I never throw random tags into my posts. The tags are a way for Instagram to get to know your account and know who to show your content to who is going to engage with your post. Throwing in a random tag that’s not focused will confuse the algorithm. Stick to what you do and it’ll sort itself out!
-I always tag the location that I am at. As wedding planners, we get a lot of business form other venues. So I want to show up in their feed! So many clients come to us by saying “I saw you on my venues instagram tagged photos and location.”
-I post reels. Reels I try and post about 3x per week to show Instagram that I am posting regularly and they favor accounts that post on a regular basis. My community also loves to see other weddings we are doing for inspiration! So posting is fun and helps us all!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.rootstostems.com AND www.thepalmmansion.com
- Instagram: @rootstostems and @thepalmmansion
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alaynamines
Image Credits
Meche Ausina Photogrpahy Josie Brooks Photogrpahy Tiffany Delk Photogrpahy