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

Devon, appreciate you joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

The naming of All Sett Up, stemmed from before I even knew I would be taking the leap to start my own company. 4 years before my launch, it was a sunny day in the Dominican Republic, where we were away celebrating my now husband’s birthday with friends, and to my surprise he popped the question, on a day bed, as I thought we were about to take an afternoon siesta.

I Facetimed family & friends, and a few hours later was ready to share the exciting news with everyone else back home via social media. Back then, wedding hashtags were hot, everyone HAD to have one. So, naturally, with 10 years of marketing & events experience under my belt at that time, having to constantly be thinking of campaign hashtags for brands & their events, I felt the pressures of having an epic hashtag for our big day.

Not sure if it was the flowing champagne, the high of just getting a ring put on it, but, I posted that “a forever yes” photo within hours of saying yes, with #WereAllSett” as if it was the most natural thing that ever came to mind. For those of you still sitting here like, huh … still not getting it. My husband’s last name, and now my last name is Settembrini, and his nickname since he was a kid is LSETT. So, the #WereAllSett had that double meaning for us, and people were obsessed.

Fast forward to the day after our wedding. I’m sad because wedding planning is over. Not just that the wedding was over but the PLANNING. I found such joy in the process, in the details, that something inside me knew our wedding was not going to be the last wedding I planned. I sat on the plan, on our way to Thailand for our honeymoon & thought, “what if?”. What if I left my full time corporate job – a job I had been doing, and doing extremely well for YEARS? What if I left it all behind because of this itch, this something inside of me that was saying, just do it. What if….what if it was called All Sett Up?

2 years later, All Sett Up was officially born, and 3 years after that, here we are! Continuing to grow & flourish, along this crazy journey! I never once altered from or thought twice about the name I had come up with years before. Just as quickly as that Hashtag came to me on the beach, the business name came and stuck with me. It will always remind me of my wedding day, the feels I felt that day and how much I want The All Sett Up team to set every couple we work with up with the best plan, the best design, the best vendors, the best everything. We want them to feel how we felt on the big day & leave them & their guests with memories that will last a lifetime.

Devon, 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 have been in events for my entire career (13 years + counting). I started working on massive trade shows, to running events for a prestigious wine publication, to managing top-tier brands all over the country – who I curated campaigns and experiential events of all scales for. I’ve always loved the strategy & creative thinking behind putting together an event based on the client’s goals, expectations and vision. It’s like a giant puzzle & I get to put all the pieces together.

I got married in 2019, and after the wedding was over, something inside me would not shut up about wanting to take my expertise and passion for the intimate weddings and events off on my own to see what I could accomplish. Simply put, there was an itch that I needed to scratch!

Based on my past positions, and having that experiential background, I feel that I bring another level of expertise to the table, where not only do I look to have the couple or client’s day emulate them as individuals and have their event be unique to them, but I have the lease of the “guest experience” as well. As much as your special day may be for you, you want your guests to have an amazing time too. My mind is always thinking through, what is the best flow, what & where should signage be, will guests be comfortable here, how does the timeline affect the guest experience, what will the temperature be in this location vs this – the list goes on. And this is not to say that all professionals in this industry are not thinking about these things, but I do think it takes a level of expertise and experience to have these things top of mind when planning a big day.

Secondly, we pay attention to trends, it would be silly not to, however, we will never push trends on our couples or clients, unless of course it makes sense for what you are looking to bring to life. We want your event / wedding to truly reflect you and have guests remember that day because of those details.

Have you ever had to pivot?

In the beginning of my business I was leaning heavier into offering event and wedding rentals as well. I have a passion for the details, so I enjoyed starting to collect an inventory of items, and having my husband built some custom ceremony arches that I could offer as rentals for weddings. It seemed like a simple task at first, but after being at it for some time, I realized that a rental business like that, to be successful and what I’d want it to be, needed 100% of my attention.

I was enjoying the planning and design part of the business 100 times more, so I knew it was time to let the rental part go. If I had something that worked with someone’s wedding, great, I could offer it to them, but I wasn’t going to have that as a main pillar of the business.

I had to remind myself that it’s important to not pull yourselves in 100 directions when you can control that. Focus on what fills your cup and what is helping you maintain the life you want to live!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I would say there have been 3 approaches that have helped and are still helping build my social media presence.

1. When I first started off, I attended a lot of styled shoots, which was a tremendous help in terms of networking in the industry, but also helped get my business name out there. As part of styled shoots, when the photographs are shared, it’s customary for all vendors to be tagged in respect to how they participated in the shoot, so my business would be credited with the planning & design of the shoot. The photos are shared out by the other businesses who participate, so not only are the participating vendors following you, but their follows are getting exposed to your work and potentially following you as well afterwards.

2. Similar to the above, at any event or wedding we work, we share a list of vendors credits with the vendor team (similar to the styled shoots) so that all businesses can be credited for their work here, and people on social media can see who put their expertise into the day.

3. Simply sharing my business and what my business is up to on my personal social accounts (IG, FB and LinkedIn) has been very helpful in building my social brand. Those who support you, want to share and tell others about you, so don’t stop sharing or talking about what you are accomplishing and up to!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.allsettup.com
• Instagram: @allsettup
• Facebook: All Sett Up
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devon-settembrini-02997116/

Image Credits
Arielle Knapp Photographer Meghan Ann Imagery Skylar Jordan Molly Quill