We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sam Sprik a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sam, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I started in this industry as a photographer. Through that work I found myself around weddings and naturally, wedding planners. A dear friend of mine had started her own wedding planning business, and I always secretly wished I could be on that side of the event. Eventually I reached out to her to see if I could join into what she was doing. I believe my exact offer was that I would be willing to do anything, even something as small as unpacking candles for set-up if that’s what she needed — anything to get my foot in the door.

Fast forward two years of working with her and my curiosity for this work grew into a passion. My friend moved away and put a pause on her business and I was left with a choice: find another planner to work under or take what I learned and start something of my own. Beyond the natural hesitation that comes with taking a big step like this, I never doubted my readiness. I understood the black and white aspects of what the job would entail, but more than that, I knew who I wanted to be as a partner for my future clients.

There is this really interesting dichotomy within weddings. On one hand, you’re living within one of the most joyful, expectant, and celebratory periods of life. On the other, you’re inundated with decision fatigue, stress, and financial pressure. One of the greatest rewards of working with my couples as their planning partner is lessening that feeling of strain to allow them to just live within the joy of their season of life. From that idea came the name for my business. The word “halcyon” describes a time of peace and calm, happiness. My ultimate goal is to bring that sense of peace to couples, both throughout the planning process and on their wedding day.

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?

Wedding planning can so often turn a time that should be all about celebrating the love and commitment of a lifelong partnership into a time of worry, tension, and deadlines. But I believe that the wedding planning process can and should be a joyful one.

I started Halcyon Events because first and foremost, I love weddings! It would be dishonest to say that isn’t a large part of why I do this work. I have always been drawn to work that brings together the right and left sides of my brain — I am detail-oriented and a big fan of a plan but also find great joy in good design. But beyond my personal interest in the industry, I am constantly humbled by the opportunity to play a role in such an important moment in the lives of my clients.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

Keeping in consistent, reliable contact with clients is important to any business, but even more so in the role of a planner. My entire brand equity centers around being organized, efficient, and trustworthy. When couples hire me as their planning partner, they are looking for someone other than themselves to be the brains of the planning operation. I take it as a true responsibility to never let anything fall through the cracks. I consider it a true privilege to be trusted with something as sacred as someone’s wedding day. It’s incredibly important to keep open channels of communication with clients throughout the full process. I do that primarily through Honeybook — a client management tool that houses all of my contracts, payments, client communication, calendars, etc. It keeps things organized for me and makes things simple for my clients. Win win.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

I am enormously grateful to the community of vendors I am a part of for so many reasons. But the greatest has to be the mutual support and referrals that come from working together. My business would not be where it is today without the support of the other planners, photographers, florists, venues, that have passed my name along to potential new clients. I consider myself lucky to have found such a lovely group of creatives and business owners who value collaboration over competition. It has been an invaluable asset to myself and my business to learn from and work with so many talented individuals.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.halcyon.events
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/halcyonweddings/

Image Credits
Sam Hill Photography Lindsey Billings Photography Jessica Martinez Photography