We were lucky to catch up with Hayley Neville recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Hayley thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Any advice for creating a more inclusive workplace?

From the beginning, it was our mission to make bxbbly as inclusive as possible. Sam and I have so many incredible people in our lives that come from so many different and unique backgrounds. Something we want to get across as much as possible is that our celebrations are for EVERYONE. We have tried hard to show that in our styled shoots and businesses we support and work with. We also do our best to give back to the community, most recently donating a photo backdrop for a local summer camp for kids with type 1 diabetes that I volunteer at during the summers. We have so much more to learn and so much more work to do, we are always looking for new ways to grow in our support and advocacy!

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?

My name is Hayley! I’m 28, from Louisburg, KS but currently living in the Olathe/Gardner area. My husband Eric and I got married in October of 2023, so just over a year ago now! My best friend (and now business partner) Sam came up with the idea for bxbbly after planning my bachelorette party in 2023! We had so much fun planning and putting together my party, so we did some research and realized that there wasn’t a huge market for bachelorette party planners in Kansas City. Not like Scottsdale or Nashville, where there is a massive market. In the last few years, KC has really started to become a popular destination, which makes sense with how much cool stuff there is to do here! We thought, “now is the time!” So I told Sam to go for it, fully intending on just being support for her while she chased this dream, but soon after she bought the domain and started building the website, she asked me to come on this crazy ride with her, and I immediately agreed. We started small, with parties for people we knew, an initial styled shoot just to get some practice and content under our belt. Every single party we planned and executed, we learned more and got better. I became our content person and I handled all of our charcuterie requests. Turns out playing with food can become a career! I was truly tested when I was asked to do a 100 person chakra-themed grazing table for a friends business anniversary party, that was truly a challenge that helped shape my skill for the better! I also quickly took over our social media. I run all of our social media pages and manage posting and networking. Sam handled balloons, while I helped her as backup. She learned very quickly several new methods on how to work with balloons, and it’s truly incredible to see how far she’s come in her craft in just a year. I’ve recently started on working more in depth with the balloon side of things as well, but Sam is definitely our pro!

We focused so much on bachelorette parties at first that we realized we were missing out on a much bigger market. We decided to expand to all parties at that point and since then, we’ve done several birthdays, graduations, bridal showers, baby showers, charity events…but bachelorettes will always be our favorite! At this point we had met so many incredible vendors that we’ve since grown incredibly close to and have worked with closely on collaborations and styled shoots. That’s something we truly didn’t expect when we started this business were the connections we would make with other people and it’s truly been one of the most rewarding things so far. We are so grateful to the wedding vendor community here in KC for being so welcoming to us!

The last few months have been a whirlwind. We launched our rentals with our incredible, hand made vintage phone booth for audio guestbooks, followed by several other pieces that we’re slowly building our collection with. We were a top 5 finalist in the Kansas City Engaged Couples Choice Awards which we never in a million years could’ve imagined, especially in our first year! So many photo shoots, balloon installations, magazine articles, new followers and friends, and the skills we now have that we never thought we would have. It’s truly been incredible so far. We are so lucky to be where we are!

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

While this journey has been so exciting and rewarding, it’s come with a lot of personal challenges. I work a full time job, and I’m disabled. Some days it’s difficult to get out of bed and exist as a human being, but you have to show up. For your clients, your business partner, and yourself. In the times that I’ve struggled, Sam and my husband Eric have been an incredible support for me, reminding me to take care of myself and go easy on myself. My husband is constantly reminds me how proud he is of me for doing all of this on top of my health, and that truly means so much to me. Juggling my work schedule has been very difficult as well, so every time we have a weekend job, I’m extra excited! I’m doing my best to balance it all, but my goal is to be able to do this all full time eventually!

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

This has definitely been a slow process! Word of mouth is the best way to get your name out there, and at this point we’ve absolutely noticed that our name is getting around! But in the beginning, it was a lot of commenting on other vendors posts, doing a lot of following, replying to stories, just being online all the time. Marketing online helped us form relationships in person with other vendors, which has been amazing. While I do the posting, Sam and I always discuss beforehand what is going to be posted. We have worked very hard to keep our voice and vision genuine to who we are as people. We will never pretend to be something we’re not, and we aren’t afraid to admit when we’re excited about something! We are who we are, and we try to get that across in all our our posts, messages, and comments and we hope people can see that, especially once they meet us!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bxbbly.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bxbbly.kc/profilecard/?igsh=eWJtMmxxaGRjaTQ3
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552649189786&mibextid=JRoKGi

Image Credits

Milestone KC
ATN Foto
Piper Reese Photography
Madi B Photo