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

Hi Amber , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

I know it is not going to be super glamorous, but its true….The thesaurus. I knew I didn’t want my name attached to the business name because I always wanted to have the option to scale, grow, and have a team. I wanted any one on the team to represent the buisiness and clients not thinking they are getting a “back up” because it wasn’t Amber Cowell. I had the big idea of not my name, and secondly not a cheesy wedding specific or traditional name, so here is where the thesaurus comes in. I started looking at words associated with events, love, wedding, and the words of words associated with those and all the synonyms of those words. I would write down any words that I liked and eventually….The Love Riot was born.

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 Amber Cowell , I am currently the owner of The Love Riot, an event planning company I started in 2010. We specialize in the mid level ($50k-$200k) market and our brand tends to attract couples that are looking to do something a little more non-traditional or unique. We focus on creating meaningful connections with our couples and their families. We want to have couples and their guests be able to focus on being present and enjoying the day instead of all the logistics to make it happen. I fought my way into this field after the financial collapse in 2008, when I was working as a commercial interior designer and was laid off, along with many other. I knew I loved weddings, after planning my own a few years earlier, but also knew if I could learn the language of the wedding industry I could apply the project management skills I had from my interior design experience. Now, I just had to find out how to get a job in the industry with no experience. I did research and contact planners all over Orange County, trying to see if they needed help or would talk to me about how they started. No one would talk to me. So, one day, I met someone when I was volunteering and she told me to email her friend who was a wedding planner and was SUPER busy. Her name is Jesi Haack, and she is an amazing innovator, teacher, and partner. I was her first intern, then 1st employee, then eventually teammate. Jesi decided she hated the planning part and I realized I didn’t like the crafting part so I started The Love Riot and offered planning only, which Jesi offered design only. We came together and were a great team. Our businesses started to shift and we slowly parted ways as they did, but are still friends and neighbors.

We are also a woman owned business. It has been great to provide an opportunity to women as they are going through a tough time in their lives, want flexibility to be at home with their kids, but still provide for their family, and creating a community amongst our team and other vendors we work with.

We focused on creating strong relationships and support to our couples while also moving into corporate and non-profit events. We are proud to work with organizations doing good in the world and supporting them, strategizing with them and creating events that help them raise money to make their impact in the world.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When Jesi + my partnership fizzled out, I felt lost. I had only known doing this job with Jesi by my side and we were a great team because she was our visionary + I was our logistical thinker. I felt super overwhelmed at trying to be another Jesi, that is just not as natural to me, and I also didn’t want to compete with her. I didn’t think that I was going to be able to stay successful without offering an innovative and beautiful portfolio to clients. No one gets excited about a super detailed timeline that is colored coded…I mean some people do, but not brides.

I realized I needed a business refresh. I did some business coaching, which helped me identify my core values and my vision. It helped me identify what I have to offer at my client’s event even if I wasn’t the top level designer.
I also decided to expand into other areas like corporate + non-profit. We launched our corporate + non-profit side of The Love Riot in March 2019 and booked 7 events that fell into that category before the shut down in March 2020.

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

I would say word of mouth from our clients and vendors. We pour a lot of effort into building relationships whether that is with our clients or our amazing vendors we work with.

We haven’t spent money on marketing or advertising up to this point. But, are trying to work on our social media presence because I know that it is an easy (and free) marketing opportunity.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theloveriot.com
• Instagram: @the_love_riot
• Facebook: The Love Riot

Image Credits
Steve Cowell Photo B Young Forever Photography Kreate Photography