We were lucky to catch up with Emma Clark recently and have shared our conversation below.
Emma, appreciate you joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
I started the company Moss & Maeve Event Planning & Styling in 2018, after working as an assistant wedding planner for years. It started as this huge dream that seemed completely unreachable until I finally took a leap of faith and decided to make the Moss & Maeve a reality.
In the wedding industry, the most important part of building a business is the strength of your vendor connections, so I brainstormed ways to meet high quality vendors in the area, while also getting my name out there. I started reaching out to all different types of wedding vendors via email, introducing myself and asking to meet for coffee to hear about their business in more detail. I also drove to every venue in the city and beyond, simply to introduce myself and leave a card for the venue coordinator.
I knew I would also need photos that showed my talent and eye for design in order to create a website and online storefronts for brides to visit and learn about the services I offered. I decided to design a “styled shoot”, which is basically like a faux wedding created with the sole purpose of getting content for your website and social media, while highlighting your strengths and overall design aesthetic. I asked vendors if they’d like to participate in the photo shoot in exchange for full use of the photos to show off what they could do as well. The photographer, florist, venue, rental company, jewelry store, and bridal boutique all donated their time and services for free. I think overall, my previous experience in the wedding industry, vendor connections and that first styled shoot helped jumpstart the business and website and it has grown exponentially from there.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
My name is Emma Clark and I’m the creator and lead planner of Moss & Maeve Event Planning and Styling. I’m a Boulder, Colorado native who loves yoga, hiking, and skiing (or really anything in the mountains!) As I completed my bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Colorado in Boulder, I worked as an intern for a wedding planner where my interest in this profession took off. After graduation, I moved to Denver and continued to work for and learn from incredible event planners based out of the Denver area before launching Moss & Maeve in 2018.
Moss & Maeve is an event planning and styling company located in Denver, Colorado and has been featured in several international wedding magazines and blogs including Rocky Mountain Bride, Ruffled, Style Me Pretty, Magnolia Rouge and Wedding Chicks. At Moss & Maeve, we work closely with our clients to deliver completely customized weddings and specialize in elegant and flawlessly-executed events. Our expert team of wedding planners will go above and beyond to ensure each client has the wedding of their dreams. Whether the event is simple and intimate or extravagant and grand, our goal is to handle all of the most important details of the day so our clients can truly enjoy their once-in-a-lifetime wedding experience.
From day-of coordination to full-service wedding planning, Moss & Maeve provides professional event planning, coordination and styling services with a focus on beautiful and custom weddings. Event services offered include the following: event design, month-of coordination plan, partial wedding planning, full wedding planning, day of timeline creation, custom wedding planning checklist, vendor communication, coordination of the wedding rehearsal, vendor referrals, budget management, contract review, etc.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I think building a reputation within this market takes a lot of hard work and patience. A lot of my clients have been referred to me by previous clients or vendors that I’ve worked with in the past. It took a long time and showing up again and again to prove my reliability and worth as a wedding planner to various vendors (florists, photographers, DJs, etc). Vendors that enjoyed working with me began to recommend me more and more and slowly I built a company on those referrals. Five star reviews have also benefited Moss & Maeve’s reputation as a high-end event planning company, but those took time to accumulate. I also think getting some of our work published in wedding magazines helped immensely in getting our name and designs out there and building a reputation as designers as well as planners.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Last year, I booked a wedding for New Years Day in Boulder, Colorado, which was right at the time that the Marshall Fire happened. Although the wedding venue had not burned down, the fire had gotten so close to it that it completely lacked power, water and gas. The venue coordinator informed us that there wasn’t a chance that the wedding could be held at the venue the following day. Also, the catering team wasn’t able to pick up the food order due to road closures from the fires, so there was uncertainty over whether there would even be food for the event. Some of the catering staff’s homes had also been affected by the fires, so there was much less staff available for the event as well. To make matters worse, a huge blizzard hit the night before the wedding, making it even more difficult for vendors to travel to the venue.
The bride and groom considered canceling and rescheduling their event, but ultimately decided to move forward with it since they had a large number of out-of-state guests in town. In under 24 hours, we had secured another venue and moved the entire wedding from one location to another. The caterers went to half a dozen different grocery stores to buy all of the ingredients necessary to cook a pared down version of the original dinner menu. I set every place setting and folded every napkin for each of the 200 guests so the smaller-sized catering team could focus on prepping, cooking and serving the meal. Somehow the ceremony and reception went off without a hitch and the food was a huge hit. The bride and groom ended up having a wonderful day regardless of all the road bumps leading up to the event and their guests enjoyed themselves as well!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mossandmaeve.com
- Instagram: @mossandmaeve
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mossandmaeve/
- Other: https://www.theknot.com/marketplace/moss-and-maeve-denver-co-2028959
Image Credits
Sarah Porter Photography Samantha Ruscher Photo Delaney Hady Photography Abby Rindels Photography