We recently connected with Gillian Vendittelli and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Gillian thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright, let’s take a stroll on memory lane, back to when you were an apprentice or intern. What’s a memorable story from that time that you can share with us?
My first professional experience in the event world was with LDT Events. Loren Stabile, the owner, has become a mentor and support of my career aspirations. The story I want to tell from this experience is how I found it and how I knew this was going to be the career path for me.
Post COVID I was struggling to find a job in hospitality that aligned with my career goals and aspirations. I went on many interviews at different types of businesses and sectors of hospitality. Despite the job offers, none of them felt like a good fit for me and what I was looking for in an internship. I am a strong believer that you have one to live and you should do so filling your time with things that inspire you, fulfill you, and push you to grow. The day I turned down my last offer I was feeling defeated and began questioning the career path I had chosen to pursue. That same day, an old family friend reached out to my mom regarding a position she saw on Facebook with LDT Events for wedding assistance. I had an interview with Loren and we clicked! I accepted the position and had my first wedding with her a few weeks later. That first wedding weekend was magical! Trying to explain the feeling I had is hard to do in words. It was the most fulfilling experience. I felt like I had finally found my place where I belong in the professional world! That sense of belonging is the best feeling ever and provided me with much relief as a college student. The lesson I learned through all of this was to always wait for when you want and never settle for a position. This internship ended up being one of the greatest experiences of my life, connected me with numerous professionals, and provided me with my greatest mentor!
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
I come from a family of successful business owners and entrepreneurs. From a young age I grew up in my family businesses and was exposed to an entrepreneurial environment my whole life. It was a given that at some point in my life I was to start my own business like the rest of my family; it was just a matter of when and what it would be.
I was on the path to pursue my dream career of becoming a professional ballerina when I suffered an injury that required me to rethink my career choice. During this time, a family member of mine was getting married. Despite having a professional planner they became very overwhelmed with the process given that they both work full time. That said, I was injured and not able to do much, so I helped them with their wedding! Being a romantic at heart, while helping, I had a realization of ‘why is the most special day of their lives such a hassle and becoming tainted by so much stress?’ This is when the seed of Grand and Wells Events was planted into my head. While helping them I was able to, first-hand, experience the process and pain points of being a couple trying to plan a wedding. At a time when I felt loss about what new career path I was going to chose, this opportunity came my way and showed me that this is what I was meant to pursue. I am a strong believer in that everything happens for a reason, and it took me stepping out of the spotlight of ballet to see my true calling. When I finally declared this as the career path I would follow, my mother pointed out how this has always been a part of me. She said how I would always plan every family holiday and event, throw fun parties for my friends, and help with events for my family businesses, to even the extravagant tea parties I would throw for my dolls as a young child. I had always been an event planner, I was just so focused on my dance career that I never saw it.
My passion and dedication for dance quickly transitioned into my passion and dedication to event planning, and helping people enjoy the most special day of their lives. All of the precision, organization, time management, creativity, and focus that I had learned during my ballet training beautifully merged with event planning and was what helped me create the processes for my business that elevate the stress associated with events. I wanted to solve the problem of stressful events, and make the stigma that events are stressful disappear.
Getting accepted into an entrepreneur accelerator program at my university provided me with the perfect support system to begin my business with. It was the proudest moment of my life when I began my business and could join my family of entrepreneurs and business owners. I event got my first client during my first month of business thanks to a recommendation. 2022 I called my “soft launch year” as I was finishing my final year of college and getting everything together. We will be officially launching and opening our books on January 11th, 2023; the one year anniversary of Grand and Wells.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
I love this question! Being that one of my majors is general management I have had a lot of education on how to manage a team and maintain high morale. My biggest piece of advice I have for managing a team that I have learned through both professional experience and my education is to learn your team members! Learn what each member knows and doesn’t know. Learn what each member likes and dislikes. Learn their creative process. Most importantly learn how they overcome road blocks and problems. Especially in the events industry, road blocks happen and you sometimes have to pivot on the spot. Seeing how each team member tackles problems is a great way to learn how to work together. Taking the time to learn about your team allows you to work together more efficiently and properly assign tasks.
In terms of morale, that has been a huge topic of discussion following the COVID-19 pandemic. The hospitality industry was one of the industries hit the hardest by it and has many employees of it concerned about the future of the industry. As a leader of a team, and the business, it is my job to provide job security and support to my employees. When I was looking for internships and jobs during high school and college the biggest thing I looked for in a company is that they supported my learning and growth. Positions where there was emphasis on learning and making mistakes is where myself and teams I worked with thrived! In Grand and Wells learning and growth is expected and mistakes are accepted as part of the learning process. When employees know they are supported, they want to perform better and come to work. SO my advice for maintaining high morale is to support the growth and learning of team members.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I briefly mentioned this in the previous page, but I had to completely change my career path. I have been dancing since the age of 2, and knew that I was one day going to become a professional dancer and make that my future career. I dedicated majority of my life to pursuing that dream and setting myself up for success. I approached the age and skill level where I was ready to put myself out in the dance world and begin looking for ways to get discovered; then I got injured. I had to get a complete reconstruction of my ACL and meniscus. The recovery process was a lengthy one, and by the end of it I felt like I had missed my window of opportunity and I would be behind. Given past injuries I began to worry about my future physical health and during my knee recovery I began to come up with a plan B. The hardest thing for me to accept about this career pivot was that the dream my 2 year old self had, that I had been working so hard for, was no longer a logical career path. That is when I found event planning during my family member’s wedding, which then led to my internship with LDT Events, and finally starting my own business.
During every life pivot I found a common theme: no matter how much I tried to plan my career path, or anything in life for that matter, it never went to plan; however, what did happen was what was always meant to be. When I stopped planning my life and began living my life pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place. Despite becoming a professional planner, I’ve learned that business pivots, career pivots, life pivots, they all are meant to happen and are the universes way of pointing us in the right direction.
Contact Info:
- Website: grandandwellsevents.com
- Instagram: @grandandwells
- Facebook: Grand and Wells Events
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillian-vendittelli-1820171a4/
- Twitter: @grandandwells
Image Credits
Head shot of Gillian: Bill Clements at Focal Life Photography Photo of Loren and Gillian: Taylor Stinson Photos of Mac Ray Harbor ballroom: Gillian Photos of Gillian: Loren and her mother