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

Hi Christine, thanks for joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

The biggest risk I have ever taken was launching Christine McFarlane Events and taking it full time! If you were to google “How to Start a Business”, or read any self- employment books, it will provide you with a list of tasks to complete to properly apply for a business license and file for an LLC in order to best prepare yourself for your small biz start up, but those are all the easy steps- the less risky aspects of being small business owner. Putting yourself out there as a business owner to create industry relationships and attract ideal clients is the “scary stuff”. Then, consistently nourishing those relationships over and over again to help propel your business forward until the business is self-sufficient is the important part. But the risky part is then taking that business full time.

During the early months of CME, I was investing a lot into my business while also working additional jobs to stay profitable. CME was a “side hustle”, but the majority of my time, money, and efforts went wholly to being a small business owner. It was a comfortable way to live with multiple streams of income and a lighter wedding schedule, but it didn’t full feed the fire within. I was sick of saying “I want to be a full-time planner”, and instead wanted to say, “I AM a full-time planner”. So, within a few short weeks, I quit my other smaller jobs and took CME full time at the age of 24. The most common question I receive is when did I know I was ready. Truth is, I didn’t know. I don’t believe that anyone would ever be 100% ready. So, I took the biggest risk I have ever taken when I knew there was a potential everything could go south. What I did know is that I had the passion and determination to see this risk through and bet on myself. I knew that all of the efforts I had poured into my business over the last several months would be worth taking the risk. And what I now believe is the bigger risk, the bigger the reward. I am very thankful for the support I had to take the risk, and proud I am still living out the biggest risk of my life.

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?

Christine McFarlane Events is a boutique styled wedding planning service focusing on beautifully refined weddings for fun-loving couples. We offer three different planning packages to ensure our couples are getting the best fit for them and that they have the full support they need for their wedding day. We pride ourselves in creating and offering a new and unique planning package called “Event Design and Management” after seeing a need for it in our area.

Our inspiration comes for our couples- from fusing their personal styles together to getting all the details from their first date and proposal, or learning about their relationship traditions that they have created, and ultimately hearing all about the memories made along the way. We believe in keeping open communication with our couples from when we are booked until the night of and beyond so they can go into their wedding day with full confidence that CME will bring it all to life. Weddings are an investment- a financial investment, an emotional investment, a time-consuming investment, and we want to make sure our couples are making the best investment for them!

I knew I always wanted to end up in a career field based on design. Originally, I thought I would become a fashion designer, but my love/hate relationship with a sewing machine go in the way. Pivoting, I started to look into the job options that the event planning industry could provide. In high school, I landed my first internship with a party planner that focused mainly on Bar and Bat Mitzvahs.

During my time there, they started to dabble into weddings, and I was hooked. The romanticism of wedding design and the importance that this one day held intrigued me. I entered into college with my sites set on owning my own wedding planning business one day, and that experience in the field would be the best education I could receive. Over the next four years, I completed four internships in various realms of event planning to better prepare myself for post-graduation. After college, I remained in the wonderful of weddings for a few years before launching my own business. I was sick of saying, “I want to be a wedding planner”, and was ready to say “I am a wedding planner!” Since internships played a main role in my upbringing in the industry, I wanted to ensure my business could offer the same to young entrepreneurs in my community while serving amazing couples in the DMV area and beyond. In 2017, Christine McFarlane Events was born!

Any advice for managing a team?

Communication is key! Communication is a two-way street. While I provide clear direction and express my expectations to my team, I leave the line open for them to come to me with questions, comments, concerns. My team cannot best help me, if I am not helping them to the best of my abilities as well. In our industry, we are creating relationships with couples that we are working closely with for 12+ month, so I need to work closely with my team too. I have working relationships with each team member that allows us to be friendly, warm, and respectful.

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

In the wedding industry, planners are the ones expecting the unexpected. This same mindset goes for the business side of things too. You will never be 100% ready to start your business, so embracing the challenges along the way is exposing yourself to lessons to be learned that will only strengthen you and your business in the end. The route of entrepreneurship has it bumps- whether you see them coming or not- but, you will always make it to the other side! 2020 was out biggest challenge to date. That year, we had to reimage what weddings could look like to stay within guidelines and restrictions. We were able to learn how to pivot, twirl, spin, and flip to best support our clients and their wedding days that had already invested a lot into. These challenges strengthened our relationships with our clients and vendors because we were all in this together. While the industry took a massive hit in 2020, every season after has been on the up and up.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.christinemcfarlaneevents.com
• Instagram: @christinemcfarlaneevents

Image Credits
Megan Harris Photography, Megan Bennett Photography, Andreea Russo Photography, Karen Rainier Photography, Emily Blumberg Photography, Sidney Leigh Photography