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

Rachel, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Before starting Rachel Kendall Events, I worked as I Senior Publicist at a boutique music/film PR firm. We would work on, and attend, multiple festivals and I absolutely loved being on-site working the festivals. Fast forward a few years later, I was now in Maryland working remotely for the same company and planning my own wedding. My now husband and I knew right away that we’d get married at my parents house on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and we dove into private residence wedding planning, turning a house into a venue. I absolutely loved it. I looked at the wedding planning as more of an event than a wedding. I was never the girl who dreamed about getting married and was more dreaming about owning my own company. I also learned during the planning that of course there are traditional elements you can include in your wedding day if they are important to you or your family, but you can also throw that all out the window and do whatever feels right to you and your fiancé. I think this is truly what adds personality to your day and makes it memorable to your guests. By the end of the wedding planning process I realized I had found my niche that included both logistics and design. My husband and I decided to quit the jobs we currently had to travel for a few years, and I knew that whenever we returned to the work force, I would start Rachel Kendall Events.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

At Rachel Kendall Events, we plan weddings and events with the simple goal of making every occasion unforgettably stellar.

I am a cheese enthusiast with an affinity for Aztec-prints, a glass of wine, and traveling the world. After I got married, my husband and I lived on our sailboat and experienced our first year of marriage as full-time sailors, exploring new places around the Caribbean.

Before sailing into the horizon, I spent 6+ years as a Senior Executive Publicist at a boutique entertainment PR firm in NYC. My job not only gave me a ton of opportunities to meet talented creatives, it also gave me ample experience with listening to the needs of my clients and making their aspirations and dreams a reality.

While I’ve always been an incredibly organized, “people-person” with a knack for composition and design, it wasn’t until I began planning my own wedding on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay that I realized my love for designing weddings with personality. I infused my [then] fiancé & my style into every fiber of my wedding, creating a day that lived up to exactly what my husband, my family, and I envisioned.

I thrive off of meeting new people and learning about their passions as individuals and as a couple. There is no better reward than seeing my clients smiling and enjoying their day with their family and friends.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Honestly, other wedding planners or wedding vendor recommendations is one of my top sources of referrals these days! Otherwise, I would say Instagram is a close second.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Overall, I think it’s extremely important to be honest and genuine in your business. I operate by community over competition and know there are enough wedding and events for everyone out there! Back in 2019, my good friend [Katie with Rose Gold Events] and I started a vendor meet up called “Friendor Hangs”. It was started with a simple mission to bring like-minded wedding/event vendors together to get to hang out and share stories without an event going on around us. We would meet such great people at our weddings but as the planners, we couldn’t actually connect with them since we were fully focused on the success of said event. Friendor Hangs has really taken off since 2019, even with us going remote during COVID, and we’re now getting about 100 people per event. It’s amazing to have a platform to get to really know other vendors in the same industry on a personal level, and makes it more enjoyable when working together on weddings/events!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://rachelkendallevents.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rachelkendallevents/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RachelKendallEvents/

Image Credits

Emily Gude Photography
https://www.egudephoto.com/
https://www.instagram.com/emily.gude/