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

Kaci, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Talk to us about building your team? What was it like? What were some of the key challenges and what was your process like?

At the very beginning, it was only my business partner and myself. We took the time to create a good base to start the company…this included our packages, how we intended to pay our staff, a good solid contract and much more. Shortly after we did hire two other lead coordinators. Both of these ladies were past brides! They had shown interest and we thought they would make a good fit. Since they had witnessed us in action, they both knew what we were about and the level of service that we wanted to give to our clients. Looking back on how we trained the first two employees, we have learning a lot along the way. However, I do feel like throughout the years all of the individuals that we bring onto the team have helped mold our training process with their feedback and insight! I also feel that since I am still learning with every wedding, there is no way to 100% prepare any new hire for what could happen on wedding day. I just need to give them enough confidence to know that they can figure it out!

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 name is Kaci Johnson, and I am the co-owner of Xoxo Weddings. Xoxo Weddings is a wedding coordination company based in Southern California with branches in Reno, Nevada, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Chicago, Illinois. The team consists of 17 lead coordinators throughout the 4 locations. We provide day of coordination, partial coordination, and full planning packages. Within these packages, we help with everything. From finding your venue to booking for cake vendor, we will help you through every step. Xoxo Weddings prides itself on being present throughout the entire planning process. Once you sign any package, you have full access to us via phone or email. We believe that no question is too silly!! Our communication with our clients sets us apart from our competition. Our policy is that we will respond within 24 hours even if we don’t have the answers yet;).
Our job is to make our clients dream come true. We figure out their vision, work with their budget, and make it all come together on their BIG day:)

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I feel like the perfect example of the company’s resilience is COVID! For a year and a half, no events took place. This meant that we still had clients that we were contracted to that we works for full time throughout the pandemic. This included rescheduling their weddings multiple times for no additional money. Because of this, we were booking new clients during this time to pay the bills. Now during the quarantine, this extra work load was fine. However, when we opened up in mid 2021, the next year and half we did three times the amount of weddings we would have done in a normal year and a half span. We made it through 2022 with MANY happy couples, but for me, burn out hit me hard for about 3 months. I am very grateful for the work load evening out again because I always want to give my couples 100%!

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

For years, the best source of new clients has been referrals!! Mostly referrals form venues because my goal is to make the on site people’s jobs easier. Once they realize how much we take care of leading up to the big day and at the actual event, they want us there all the time. Every venue has its own rules, once we understand these rules, we make sure the entire team also understands. This means that whoever is the lead coordinator, we all have the dos and don’ts for that venue. It makes it easy on the client and on the venue:)

Contact Info:

• Website: xoxowed.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xoxowedding/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/XOXOWeddingPlanning
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/xoxo-weddings-north-hollywood

Image Credits
Sun and Sparrow Photography Yair Haim Photography Alexandra Wallace Photography Katrina Jayne Photography Ester and Smith Photography