We were lucky to catch up with Christa Graham recently and have shared our conversation below.

Christa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, let’s start with trends – what are some of the largest or more impactful trends you are seeing in the industry?

I see more couples replacing stale traditions with highly personalized and meaningful moments. For example, a recent couple invited all the mother/son & father/daughter couples at their wedding to join them in those dances. Most of our couples choose to forego a wedding favor that would be forgotten for additional entertainment or a more luxurious dessert at their reception. Making these small substitutions creates a unique and memorable wedding experience for the guests.

Christa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I decided to start a wedding planning business in 2017 when I had just moved to Michigan and did not want to continue my career in hospital pharmacy. I had always enjoyed making special moments for those in my life and I wanted to take that to a much bigger scale!

I offer wedding planning services from full scale design & planning to wedding day management. I help couples navigate the wedding industry, make responsible wedding decisions, and provide a calming presence amid the chaos and stress of planning such a large event! I am most proud when a client tells me how easy the wedding planning process was for them!

I like to take care of my vendor team, also! As a wedding planner, I view my job as a liaison between my client and their vendors and also as an advocate for our vendors. Vendors that work with us know that they will have the information they need to successfully deliver their services!

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I started Christa Graham Weddings & Events as a side hussle while working a full time job with my local school district. It was always my goal to take my business full time. I may have been frustrated that it took five years to do so, but looking back, slow growth allowed me to adjust my trajectory along the way. I can now see how focusing on something new each year helped my business grow into what it is today.

Networking – The year I opened my business, I focused on networking. I joined as many creative entrepreneur groups as I could, attended the meetings, and got to know several other business owners well. I even became the leader of one of those groups just 5 months after my first meeting. I also worked for other wedding planners, sometimes for free, to get more experience. Even if I didn’t get paid for the job, I learned something valuable that day as well as received referrals later for being a hard worker!

Branding – I designed my first logo for free in Canva. As I learned more about who I wanted to work with and the type of weddings I wanted to plan, I saw the value in working with a branding designer to make my business reflect the right demographic. We worked together on elevating my logo, color palette, and fonts. Later that year, I hired a photographer to take nice photos I could use for my website and social media. A year or so after that, I worked with a website designer to help incorporate these new assets into my website, fine-tune my verbiage, and create clear actions for potential clients.

Delegating – Outsourcing my social media is one of the best decisions I’ve made as a business owner! Not only does it help bring in clients, but simply not having to stress about what to post, when to post, and learning new algorithms…it’s priceless! I’ve also built an amazing team of assistants over the past couple of years. Delegating and outsourcing is something that I never thought I’d be comfortable with, but now I see how it has helped me grow unlike anything else could!

I didn’t implement all of this at the same time. It all evolved very slowly and naturally over the past six years (even with the hiccup of 2020 thrown into the mix!). I can see how these things contributed to a TON of bookings for this year (2022) and allowed me to comfortably quit my full-time job working for someone else and confidently step into the full-time business owner role! I am so looking forward to seeing how my business will grow and change over the next few years as well!

Have you ever had to pivot?

In the beginning, like most new business owners, I looked at what the industry was already doing. I looked to the industry standards to tell me how to run my business. I’ve since learned that it’s okay to do things differently than others. In fact, doing things differently will help your business stand out amongst the others and help you forge a new path that clients will look up to.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.christagraham.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/christagraham_events
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/christagrahamevents
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christagraham/