We were lucky to catch up with Victoria Hamilton recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Victoria, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

My love for events and accommodations began in childhood with my maternal grandparents. My Grammy Bryant loved to entertain and my Poppy Bryant became blind in the last decade of his life. Grammy taught me about flowers, china, flatware and table linens and Poppy gave me the opportunity to inadvertently discover a love of audio description.

Since that time I have rediscovered my love of creating beautiful events that engage all five senses and welcome all people to the table.This passion began at a site visit with a couple who were ready to sign on the dotted line at a venue that would have been a logistical nightmare for the groom’s father who used a wheelchair and the bride’s mother who is blind. I realized that because these disabilities were part of their families’ day-to-day reality, they probably hadn’t even considered how considerations, adjustments and accommodations for their parents would ultimately benefit everyone in attendance.

VLBHCreations & Events’ mission is to create beautiful events that engage all five senses and elevate the guest experience by considering all guests and their abilities throughout the planning process, not merely as an afterthought.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My love for events and accommodations began in childhood with my maternal grandparents. My grandmother, Grammy Bryant loved to entertain and taught me napkin folds, enlisted me to help her polish her silver and would take me with her to appointments with florists and rental companies. I’d lovingly run my hands over the brightly colored linens and point out my favorite flowers. I was hooked! My commitment to equity and access is inspired by my grandfather, Poppy Bryant. By the time I was nine, Macular Degeneration had reduced his sight to largely a blur. As a family we were unaware of any services that might have been available to him, so I would sit next to him at the ballet and describe what was happening onstage in vivid detail. This delighted him, but dismayed other patrons seated around us who shushed us harshly. Eventually, he grew tired of being scolded by strangers who likely had no idea that he was blind and he retreated to the familiar comforts of his home where I could describe the on screen action as loudly as he needed. From that point on, he only dared venture out in public accompanied by me, his resident describer, on very rare occasions.
As a child I used to pray that life for our family would go back to the way it was before everything changed, seemingly overnight. Instead, without realizing, my grandfather’s disability helped me discover my mission in life and learn to experience the world differently.
In 2015, exactly ten years after Poppy’s passing, I attended my first work conference on integrating disability and in the arts and was reminded that nothing in life is EVER wasted! I realized the connection to my childhood and the vivid pictures I painted with my words. The full circle moment shocked me! Wow, I had a skill that I could still use to benefit others! At that conference and through my job, I learned that accommodations, simple considerations, adjustments, and universal access and design benefit everyone.
Over the years I assisted friends and colleagues with community events, festivals and weddings galore, never giving it a second thought. In February 2020, I coordinated a friend’s destination wedding, a few weeks before the Pandemic would begin. Coordinating a detailed wedding in an unfamiliar place was more stressful but equally exhilarating than all the previous times I had done it before and something just clicked. This was it! I had found my new (old) passion, and I was ready to jump in!

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

I have been fortunate, thus far to have mainly gained new clients by word of mouth. All of my clients thus far, have been referrals from former clients, attendees at other events I have planned or other planners who have already been booked and recommended me instead. I hope that this speaks to the quality of my work, my strength of the network I work every day to establish and the advantage of being someone whom others regard as a person of integrity, creativity and vision.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I’ve had to unlearn is that I am competing with any other planner in the Washington, DC or any other market, or that the market is oversaturated. It might be crowded, but few other people do what I do for the reasons I do it. Additionally, I’ve had to unlearn that everything I want to do has already been done, or will be done better by someone else. When, in fact, I am only in competition with myself and the sneaking suspicion that I am not good enough.

A friend happened to be a guest on a podcast and shared her belief that an idea is only ours until we hesitate to take action. When we hesitate, someone else will eventually also think of it and actually move forward first, unless we silence our doubts and fears and initiate. Since that time, I have continued to work to not take myself out of the game too early and keep the naysaying voices on mute, like a Beyoncé number during the Renaissance World Tour.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.vlbhcreations.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/vlbhcreations
• Facebook: Facebook.com/vlbhcreations

Image Credits
Victoria Delgado, Tori Del Photography and Tanekwa Bournes, Class and Style Productions