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

Bri, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?

My parents from as early as I could remember always provided me with the space and the push to try something on my own first. They wanted me to try things, multiple ways before I would ask for someone to assist. They would also offer advice within those multiple ways of trying before they would step in to help. All of this has lead me to have a strong work ethic, to feel accomplished in something I can achieve on my own and to know that when I do ask for help that I have tried it myself in different ways and its okay to have assistance in things we are not experts in.

They also pushed me to never give up, to try new and different ways to harness positive outcomes and to view disappointing things in constructive ways. Being in competitive gymnastics my entire childhood, I learned that things don’t always go the way you hope and dream they would go. You don’t place, you fall down, you don’t get the score you want, etc… They always pushed me to review my outcome in a light that most kids don’t and that light was, “what could I have changed, what could I have done better, what do I need to focus on improving to get the results I was hoping for?” These questions and view points that I learned to stand back and review have helped me my entire adult life. When the rug gets pulled out from under my feet, yes I am bamboozled but I also have the presence of mind to look at it as a learning and growing opportunity to see what I could have done differently, what I can change, what I can learn and grow from so that a positive outcome happens from an unforeseen disappointing time. I was also taught by my dad to visualize my routines and outcomes I wanted for gymnastics. I would sit in silence and visualize my routines over and over before it was my turn. Did it always work out the way I wanted, no, but I knew going into that routine I was in the best mental space because I knew what I needed to do. I learned and grew from that and I visualize to this day on the successes that I want in my daily life, my business, my relationships, and with my family. Again, does it always happen the way I visualize, no, but I know that I am prepared for what I want and will find other ways to move towards those goals and achievements. I never lose sight of the overall goal when I visualize.

They also allowed me to be creative even if they didn’t understand it. I was a gymnast and loved to dance and make up routines. Those routines weren’t always “So You Think You Can Dance” worthy but they allowed me to be who I wanted to be and dance the way I felt. They allowed me to sign up for talent shows and showcase those dance routines and I gain a lot of confidence in getting on the stage all by myself and having fun the way that felt good to me. My mom also allowed me to be creative with events and planning by going all out for birthday parties or if we were creating something from scratch. This has translated to my adulthood because I have creative outlets I know bring me joy and peace if I am stressed and I have also incorporated that into my business so that even with the stress of owning and operating my businesses, I know that there are days I get to be creative for that business which brings me happiness, peace and releases stress!

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?

I am Bri and I am an entrepreneur. I started my first LLC in 2019 after I was part of a mass layoff at the corporate company I worked for. I was 2 months away from my wedding date when the layoff occurred. A couple weeks after being laid off, while looking for another job, I had a lightbulb moment…why didn’t I just start my own planning and coordinating business? I was already planning and coordinating my personal wedding and I realized in that moment that every position I have ever had prior to that moment, I was planning or coordinating something for someone else. I figured the events industry was the perfect fit as I had worked in multiple roles throughout the industry in my past and I loved designing, organizing and planning every kind of event for friends and family that I could get my hands on. From there, the business has evolved to incorporating event designs, event floral and rental decorations. We are also starting to branch off to have some merchandise available for our clients and followers as well such as apparel, a signature line of candles and much more. Also, we will be starting classes for our fans/followers to teach them about creating sustainable floral for themselves or to take a class just have fun creating floral pieces with friends/family because it brings them joy.

We primarily handle weddings as our main events throughout the year but we also take on any other kind of event and/or party that requires any sort of planning, coordinating and/or design. We take the stress of planning off our clients shoulders in many ways. Whether that is planning, coordinating and designing the event from the get go, or coming in towards the end to create statement pieces with decorations and floral or to handle day-of coordination for our clients. We want to make sure that the client who is throwing the event, gets to enjoy the event as a guest would while we handle the million things that need to be managed during an event. We also offer consulting services for those people who love planning but may not do it often enough, or not know where to start so they set up a couple calls with us to help out.

Another side of the business is planning, designing and coordinating destination weddings (elopement, mini, micro or traditional sizes). We offer luxury packages for clients who want to have their dream wedding away from what and who they know; where they just show up and get married and celebrate in a way that is specific and unique to the couple. We take the stress of finding vendors in an unfamiliar place off their plate, we research the area to find fun, unique things for them and their guests to do while they are there, and make their stay so individualized to the couple, they look back on their day and could not imagine it being more perfect for them!

We are a non-traditional company with event planning in the sense that we stress to ever single client, it is YOUR event or YOUR wedding, let’s do what YOU want not what tradition tells you you’re supposed to do. We will incorporate anything that means something to our clients (including traditional aspects) into their day if that’s what they choose or we will create something brand new that no one has ever seen or been a part of in the past at other events/weddings. We pride our business on the fact that our clients get to be guests at their own event/wedding and they will forever remember the details and memories created instead of the million of things they did that day that took away from their event/wedding. I want people to look back on an event/wedding they attended like I have heard our wedding guests talking about my personal wedding…it was unique, beautiful, and something they had never been a part of. We had traditional things in the wedding day but we also had untraditional pieces that left our guests amazed they had never thought to do or not do something before. I used my wedding as my showcase piece of what a new mold to event and wedding planing could be and I stick to that feeling.

I am most proud that the business is continuing to grow and evolve and that we do not pigeon hole ourselves into one mold. We are un-moldable which makes us the perfect company for those who don’t fit in the “traditional” boxes. I am proud that we are unique individuals who have different backgrounds and experiences and we want to help create something unique for each of our clients. We enjoy trying new ways of doing something and continue to push ourselves to find those clients that want to do the same. We also strive to be different from the main stream event planning in that we try to be as sustainable as possible for each client. If we can come up with a sustainable alternative that our clients are okay with, we will go that route 10/10 times. Our floral pieces are all sustainably created and sustainably deconstructed and or donated so that more people can find happiness out of something we created.

Main takeaways for potential clients/followers/fans to know about me is that I fully understand not fitting in the the “typical” mold of what someone may push on you. I try my hardest not to push a specific mold or thought process, or way to execute or create an event onto our clients. I want myself and my coordinators to get to know each client, what makes them special and unique and how we can use that to make their event more personal, special and unique. Our brand is a representation of me and embracing being unique. I pride myself on being one-of-a-kind and I like that my business models that mindset. My work is unique because every event could be the same but we try our damnedest to make it different, special and unique for our clients in some aspect, large or small!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I come from a LONG line of learning how to be resilient and pivot in life. This has effected my personal life, my career and into my business. To share one story would only give you an ingredient to make a cake, not even a piece of cake because of how many times it has happened.

Early on, in high school, I was dead set that I was going to college on some sort of gymnastics scholarship until I found out I had to have surgery on both my elbows and that dream went out the window. I then went into college knowing 100% I was coming out with a degree so that I could pursue being a physical therapist (I had known that since I was a junior in high school). That all changed when I transferred to a new college and found out the advisor I had at my previous school told me to take what ended up being the bare minimum for classes making me not competitive in my graduating class. I was advised to take all the classes again at higher/harder levels which meant the three years I had spent previously were a waste of time. I had to pivot my entire life plan from getting my first 4 year degree into a 7-year, 4-year degree OR change my degree and graduate on time which meant a new career path. I chose the later and figured I would figure it out. From there I was in many different industries and positions; health and wellness, hospitality, service, insurance, recruiting, sales and operations, business coordinating and management. Each causing me to have to pivot after each let down of a job/company that I worked for. The rug got pulled from under my feet A LOT in my twenties and each time I had to pivot, restart and learn something new and unfamiliar. The resilience I have learned over the years of disappointing jobs, relationships, etc… has taught me that being comfortable isn’t something someone can give you, you have to be comfortable on your own and I learned to be comfortable in the uncomfortable.

All that time spent learning hard lessons from bad business owners, unhelpful bosses, positions where I was landlocked, has taught me lessons in ways I would NOT want to run my own business and for that I am grateful for those hard times of pivoting and learning to be resilient.

Within my business now, even still being “newer”, I have had to be resilient and learn to pivot. I “opened the doors” of the business in November of 2019…COVID had another plan for me at that time because everything shut down only a few months later…especially events. It was hard to run an event planning company when no events could be had so I had to pivot my energy and attention into controlling what we could (which was very little at that time). I created, Vendors Against COVID which was my way of helping out any person who was having a difficult time with their current vendors because of COVID (they lost a vendor last minute because that vendor was sick or made a business decision that was best for them and not the client). I reached out to so many local vendors in MN to see who and how they could help clients in unforeseen situations. I created a list of 100+ vendors and any person that was having difficulty had to do was reach out and ask for the list. When events started to be allowed back with restrictions, I kept the initiative alive because there were still issues being had all over the state within the industry. Since we have been back to being allowed to have events, we have pivoted the business to include services that clients are wanting and needing so that we can better supply our clients and potential clients with services they may not want to take on themselves. We are trying to be more of a one-stop-shop, meaning our clients have to deal with hiring less vendors but still getting the event they dream of.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

At first, social media was our best source of new clients, Facebook specifically however over the years, that has changed. Our new best source for new clients has been referrals from past clients, past client’s family and friends and vendors we have worked with.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bgeventsanddesigns.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bgeventsanddesigns/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bgeventsanddesigns
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bri-gehrman-a524b175/

Image Credits
Fox and Loon Photographer – Picture with the floral arch, I am in pink tank top Tim and Krista Films – all photos with mountain background Kyra Lee Photography – Putting up floral installation in plaid shirt & me on a a couch in green pants.