Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Anna Johnson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Anna, appreciate you joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

1. Define your version of success. Any discussion on success is not complete without first stating that success is a transient term. My version of success is different than the next person’s. Lack of clarity on where you’re going as a business owner is a recipe for mission creep and lack of success. I believe that having concise language on where your business is going, its goals, and clear vision for what success looks like for you is critical to being successful. Business owners can get caught in “revenue is everything” thinking, but is that truly how you want to define success? Client satisfaction, streamlining processes, mentoring, and growing client pools are all examples of other aspects of success.

2. Be a lifelong learner. As a business owner, you will never reach a point where you truly “know it all”. Approaching your work as a learning opportunity no matter how experienced you are will set you up for constant growth and increased organizational adaptability.

3. Give yourself grace. Ask yourself: how do I treat myself when I am unsuccessful? The answer to that question is likely a good indicator of how long you can stay in your industry. Being hard on yourself can turn into burn out and dissociation with your original purpose of creating your organization. Failure is an inevitable consequence of owning a business and that is okay. When failure comes your way, are you using it a redirection towards better or are you beating yourself up? Failure without grace is a missed opportunity.

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

History: I originally started coordinating weddings for friends and people I knew because I was the typical “type A” friend who already made the plans and organized details anyways. Who doesn’t want the “mom friend” making sure your wedding day goes to plan, right? Anyways, a year into that, I thought to myself: why am I not doing this as a business? I thoroughly enjoy planning and helping couples make their dreams happen for their wedding day. Fast forward a few years, and here I am!

Put simply: A wedding coordinator helps you dream, plan, budget, coordinate, and accomplish the perfect wedding day for you and your person. When your wedding day comes, it should be nothing but happiness and fun for you both. You won’t have to worry about a thing. When you allow me to be a part of your dream day, I can help with anything and everything. I can be a resource of services and venues, help you organize timelines, coordinate every detail of your day, create a killer seating chart, hairspray any last-minute flyaway you have, anything! Wherever you are in the planning process (almost engaged, 2 years away from the wedding day, 3 months away from the wedding day, etc.), I will jump in and help you from there until your wedding day.

My main hope for my clients is that they have peace of mind during their wedding day. Peace of mind allows you to be in the moment. Your wedding day will fly by and it’s super important to be intentional about being present with your partner. That intentionality looks like adding moments alone in your timeline, delegating all relevant tasks at least a week in advance, and allowing yourself to let go of expectations, and focusing on enjoying yourself. Together, we can make it happen!

Whether it’s through my business or another planner, I would highly recommend booking one for your wedding day. You will never regret it!

Services Offered: Anna Grace Weddings assists with the event preparations at any stage of the wedding journey. Whether couples are newly engaged or the celebrations are just months away, the planners are on hand to help wherever needed. The company offers inclusive packages to accommodate full-service planning or mini-packages to assist with specific aspects of the day. The team arranges an initial consultation to discuss all event requirements and plans already in progress before choosing the most suitable package available.

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

Coordinating events for a living is guaranteed some bumps along the way. COVID-19 threw a huge wrench into things to say the least. Weddings went from indoor/300+ guests to outdoor/50 guests maximum in a matter of weeks. Many weddings got cancelled in the earlier stages of COVID-19 because no one knew if it would be safe to get together. This led to a lot of re-scheduling, re-working, and re-dreaming. I worked with couples that had to re-imagine what their wedding day would look like. Pivoting during that season was full of time spent reminding couples what their wedding was really about: their marriage. When the pizazz and party part is taken away from the wedding, what’s left is the sacrament of it. There were lots of couples that decided to wait to get married and moved their date, but other couples embraced the new season and enjoyed getting married anyways.

Although I’m not hoping that another COVID-19 season comes around, it was a great time of re-learning, patience, and focusing on what matters most.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

In the wedding/event industry, you work with a lot of other vendors. Vendor referrals and relationships are huge in building a good reputation. Really, weddings and events are a team effort at the end of the day. As the planner or coordinator, you are watching and ensuring the other vendor’s responsibilities go as planned, but you also rely on them to fulfill their part of the day. Working together and collaborating makes everything go so much smoother and it helps establish your credibility as well.

Similarly, word of mouth in this industry is also vital. Making a difference on one of the most important days of someone’s life is a privilege and when you treat it like that, you’re guaranteed a good event.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://annagraceweddings.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annagraceweddings/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/annagraceweddings
• Other: https://www.weddingwire.com/biz/anna-grace-weddings/469e53f358bf68a4.html

Image Credits
Lindsay VanEk