We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Marina Colicci. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Marina below.

Marina, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I think success can be defined in a multitude of ways, and success can look different for each and every person! I don’t think there should be one blanket definition of what success looks like. In general. success for someone can be just getting out of bed every morning and tackling their day, even if they are experiencing significant hardship. Success to some people can also look like financial success such as hitting six or seven figures in their business.

To be successful in business, I think it takes a variety of skill sets. Running a small business is like wearing a multitude of hats and not only are you the CEO of your company, but sometimes you also can be the full-time marketer, the accountant, the PR Coordinator, Human Resources, Social Media Manager, ALL the things. It is no easy feat but believe me it feels SO worth it. It takes serious grit, consistency, customer service// luxury client experience, kindness, patience, determination, motivation, organization, time management, and so much more to keep + run a successful small business.

Marina, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am the CEO of Marina Paige Designs. We are a luxury Event Planning + Design company specializing in Weddings, Corporate Events, Music Industry Events, and Social Gatherings.

A little background on me — I am a Johnson & Wales Graduate who majored in Sports/Entertainment/Event Management and graduated with my bachelor’s in 2016. I always knew I had a passion for making people happy. I wanted to bring joy to their life in some capacity and be a part of some of life’s most special moments. I wanted to be a memory maker! I also knew that Nashville, TN was a massive dream of mine, and I had a vision of working there in this industry + catapulting my career. Little did I know that I would move down there in February of 2017 where I started planning + designing events for Country Music’s biggest artists + labels, as well as planning high end//high budget weddings and large-scale corporate events. Working in Nashville, was a dream come true and I truly think it gave me such an advantage and skillset that I am able to deliver within my own business.

I moved back to NY in 2019 to have my son Anthony [I was pregnant at the time] and knew I wanted to be closer to my family when raising my son. I had a traumatic birth and post-partum experience that almost cost me my life on multiple occasions, and so I had to take the rest of 2019 to heal. Then I was a stay-at-home mom and Covid-19 happened in 2020. I kept feeling so lost, so empty like I had no identity anymore. I went from this amazing career, to not living in my favorite place anymore, not having my friends around, not having my career, and not making an income for my son, I just knew things had to change and that they had to change FAST! That is when Marina Paige Designs was born — January 2021.

I love working with clients, clients are my happy place! They FUEL me, they FUEL my passion. I end up becoming such good friends with all of my clients because we build such a strong connection throughout the planning process. My goal, as a planner and within this business, is to not only have my clients enjoy their event but the planning process as well! The planning process can be emotional, and high-stress, but it is MY job to make it as fun and stress-free for them as possible.

When I say we offer Luxury Event Planning — I don’t mean luxury as in you need to have the budget for a 6-figure wedding. I mean luxury as in a luxury experience. Our client experience is like no other!

Design is my passion, and so I love to infuse my eye for design into event planning concepts, regardless of the budget size or type of event. Marina Paige Designs even offers set design, tablescape styling, and so much more.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

While working in Nashville, I learned so much from such incredible industry leaders. However, there are things I took mental notes of, and disagreed with, that I vowed to never bring into my own business.

The first company I worked for down in Nashville — had a reputation for being THE it-company for all Luxury Event Planning needs, especially Music Industry. One thing that no one could ever knock them for, was putting on some incredible events and experiences. However, what their clients did not know and realize, was the poor treatment of vendors that was happening behind closed doors as well as the lack of financial transparency on how much their events TRULY cost [there were a ton of upcharges on every single item].

Vendors are the backbone of this industry. If it wasn’t for our vendors, the event that we spent so long planning for would purely just not happen, and not happen successfully at that. I like to call my vendors, “friendors”, and treat them with so much kindness, understanding, and respect. Our vendors are experts within their own field, and it’s important to let them succeed in their wheelhouse and not undermine them, act better than them, or treat them poorly. At the end of the day, we are all business owners. It is important to foster a relationship and work together to improve our client’s experience. That is one thing I had to really take a step back and unlearn from that company in Nashville and say, the way you treat these vendors is not right at all, and I will never ever talk down to people the way you do! There is no need for that and the reputation will spread within the industry of the poor treatment.

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

For me, the best source of new clients for me has been word of mouth! That is actually how we have built most of our clientele so far, and I am SO beyond thankful for that!

I love building connections with the community, with vendors, venues, other planners + creatives in the area, etc. In turn, we have received a really great deal of word-of-mouth leads that turn into our clients!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.marinapaigedesigns.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marinapaigedesigns/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarinaPaigeDesigns
• Other: My email is [email protected]

Image Credits
Stephanie Sorenson Photography in Nashville, TN