We were lucky to catch up with Meagan Culkin recently and have shared our conversation below.

Meagan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

A few years into my business, I was asked to coordinate two weddings that happened to fall on the same day. Being that I didn’t have a team at the time, I either had to pass on the opportunity or find someone who I trusted that could help on the wedding day. I called one of my sorority sisters who I knew had worked in events in the past, and over a shared bowl of queso at Moe’s, I hired my first team member. That was 8 years ago, and Savannah is still an incredible member of our now 15 member team! While the hiring process was much more relaxed and in a state of necessity back then, now we have an internship program and offer extensive training to any team members who decide they want to become a planner on our team.

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

I began working in the events industry when I was in high school working at our local country club, and while I always liked weddings, I was not the girl who thought I would every grow up to be a wedding planner one day. When I went to college, I gravitated more towards events on a large-scale, and assumed I would end up working in Higher Education in Student Affairs.

I began an online bakery while I was in college, and began offering catering for small scale events, as well as baking classes for children over the summer months. As my bakery gained popularity, more people began asking whether I would be able to help coordinate their weddings as well. Although always happy to help wherever I could, the logistics of delivering a cake several hours before it was needed began to weigh on me as I felt the quality would suffer, so we only began offering select small desserts.

Because of my knowledge of the events industry already, it was important to be to build a team that was very knowledgeable in several areas i.e. catering, bartending, experienced servers, etc. We are always sure to step in and assist wherever is needed, and are qualified to do so, because it is ultimately the most important for us to ensure that the day goes as smoothly as possible.

As the company has grown, it has been most important for me to establish a safe place for couples who feel that regardless of their style, religion, or sexual orientation, we are thrilled to work with them and provide the best day possible. Everyone deserves to have their perfect wedding day, and it’s our job to help create that for them.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

I first began planning weddings very much as a side hustle for fellow sorority sisters and friends, but at the time I never really intended for it to become my full time job. When I moved back to my hometown, there were no other wedding planning companies at the time, so it became more a business of necessity than anything else, because there was such a need as the industry continued to grow.

When I began getting inquiries for weddings on the same days, I enlisted a few friends who also had experience with planning, so that we would be able to assist more couples in need. As time went on, we added bartending and event staffing to our services, and continued to add members to the team as well.

By year four of juggling both by full time job and my business it was time for me to leave my full time job and go full time in the business. Around that time I also chose to rename the company, from “A Touch of Class Events” to “Magnolia Grove Weddings and Events”. Four years later we rebranded again, to “Magnolia Collective”, which is what we’re known as today.

Eventually we added an internship as well, in collaboration with one of the local universities that offered a Hospitality program, and several of the ladies who went through the internship would go on to become lead planners on our team.

Last year we expanded our offerings to VA, and now have two teams that serve NC and VA. We have a team of 13 event planners, designers, and licensed bartenders who assist with weddings, social, and corporate events.

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

We are very active on social media and a large number of our new clients find us through TikTok and Instagram, The Knot and Wedding Wire are also valuable lead sources for new couples for us.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.idomagnolia.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/magnoliacollective.co/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/magnolia.collective.co
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@magnolia.collective

Image Credits
Meagan with couple- Whitney Gremaud Photography Meagan with beer- Fancy This photography Team on rooftop in tan and pink- Fancy This Photography Team on couch in green- Mina Von Feilitzsch Meagan carrying dress- Page Productions Lighting Candles- Arika Shelest Team in green on Rooftop- Jaclyn Auletta