We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Courtney Wilson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Courtney, thanks for joining us today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?
I am in a unique position as a business owner because this is not my first career. I was in AmeriCorps NCCC, did Teach for America, and was a public school teacher for 10+ years before I decided to totally turn everything upside down and start my own Wedding Planning business.
If you were to ask me even just 5 years ago if I would be where I am now, I would’ve laughed in your face. I was still deep in the throes of teaching with no exit from the profession in sight. I was beginning to feel the seeds of burnout and desire for change grow within me, but I had no real idea when or how it would come about. It wasn’t until I decided to take a leap and allow a hobby and a passion to become my entire livelihood. It was unexpected– I still remember the shock on my principal’s face as I told her my plan to leave and found my own wedding planning company! But WOW how it has flourished in such a short amount of time.
Needless to say, I am exponentially happier as a business owner because I know what I’m doing is the right path for me. Every day is a new adventure– meeting new people like our amazing couples, talented vendors, and incredibly fellow wedding planners is definitely one of my favorite parts! Plus, it gives me the opportunity to be creative and design a brand that is exactly what I want it to be. I have big dreams for Moonstruck and I am excited to see them flourish!
I can’t imagine moving back into a real job at this point. Just the other day, I was at a networking event, sipping a glass of champagne at 10:30 AM and eating a slice of the most delicious cake, when the thought occurred to me– nowhere in any other profession am I going to have such unique experiences as this one. I’ve found my niche as a wedding planner and I can’t imagine doing anything else!
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?
As I said before, I was a public school teacher for many years before leaving to start my wedding planning business. In fact, my husband and I were actually set up by the principal and school nurse of the elementary school at which I taught for many years! Were it not for that chapter of my life, I wouldn’t be where I am now. Working closely with the planner who planned my wedding was like feeling an internal puzzle piece click into place– it was then that I realized this is what I was meant to do. Seeing her interact with so many incredible people and learn about the details of what she did was all the confirmation I needed to know that I wanted this life for myself, too.
I founded Moonstruck in 2020, amidst the height of the global pandemic… talk about baptism by fire! It was very tumultuous to start a wedding planning business in a time when people were not gathering for large-scale events, but somehow we figured it out! It took countless hours of collaboration with my husband, my insanely creative friends (one of whom actually left her teaching job to join me full time this past year!), my own wedding planner who became my mentor, and this incredible network of fellow planners who taught me the ropes. And here we are three years later, having evolved into a company that is flourishing with so many beautiful couples past and present, “friend”or contacts for days, and the same deep-seeded passion to help people wildly in love have their perfect day.
Moonstruck Events is a boutique wedding planning company that specializes in romantic weddings for couples passionate about love, beauty, and fun. We offer a range of services from Event Management (“I did most of the work myself but want someone to help the day run smoothly”) to Full Planning (“I have a color palette and a Pinterest board, now what?”). We treat all of our clients anywhere in that range with the same care, and attention to detail. It is sometimes easy for other planners to lose focus on their smaller clients, but our team of multiple planners helps us ensure that all couples feel just as loved as they deserve!
We always tell our clients to “consider us your Wedding Day Besties!” because we take care of any and all problems that may arise with a smile on our faces! Leading up to the wedding, we handle anything from communication with vendors to design to timelines to even just listening as you rant about your husband’s family. On the actual wedding day, we handle *EVERYTHING* so that you can just bask in the glow of your new marriage. 150 light up cowboy hats need turned on? You got it. You want your napkins folded a specific way? We’re already watching a YouTube tutorial. Your bridesmaid’s zipper pops and you need a safety pin? We’ve got one at the ready. (Funny story, one time a bridesmaid dress did pop and they needed a safety pin… one of our planners actually took one she happened to have in her own dress and fixed it up on the spot!) We’re basically wedding day fairy godmothers. We make drinks, food, and decor appear and all of your stress vanish.
What sets us apart is how passionately we love what we do. Every day is a new adventure meeting new people, creating beautiful events, and helping others in a unique fashion. We have big dreams for Moonstruck and would eventually like to see it transform into something even larger than just event planning. We run a blog full of wedding planning tips, wedding spotlights, stylizations, etc., and would love to see that come to fruition someday. We have big dreams that we can’t wait to turn into plans!
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
Put simply, we are passionate about people even more so than we are about just creating gorgeous events. The heart of everything we do is serving people. That’s not something that can be learned in a business school or manufactured to boost sales.
A lot of our clients are referrals or from word-of-mouth, which is a testament to the way we run our business: people first. We have a broad range of vendor contacts because we value their time and talent instead of seeing them as someone to just keep in our pockets.
And not to brag or anything, but you also just can’t fake an eye for design. Our team is filled with insanely creative people who have an eye for beauty and design and know how to transform a gathering into an event. Attention to detail is something that bleeds into every facet of our business, from foresight and pre-planning months before the wedding to the grunt work on the actual wedding day, we notice and care for every. single. detail. That kind of care and service is one that builds notoriety and is one that can’t be taught!
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
When Moonstruck was founded, it was the middle of the Covid pandemic. People were not gathering for large-scale events (or any events of that matter)…needless to say, this was a detriment to us, a wedding planning company. Yet we persevered and flourished, despite the odds! We focused on ways we could serve brides beyond just planning the event and set out to produce meaningful blog posts, instagram content, pinterest boards for inspiration, lots of the virtual things! Plus we helped plan a few elopements and put a lot of effort into cultivating really gorgeous styled shoots. It was a trying time, but if it weren’t for it, we wouldn’t be able to have the same resilience and “we’ll figure it out” mentality that we do now. When your business is born in adversity, it makes pretty much every problem afterwards seem trivial.
Contact Info:
- Website: moonstruckeventstx.com
- Instagram: @moonstruckeventstx
- Other: We are working on growing our blog, which is https://moonstruckeventstx.com/blog/
Image Credits
DreamStudios Photos Samantha Webb Photography Sonia Alexandria Photography Amy Maddox Photography Kate Elizabeth Photography, LLC