We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ilana Karcinski a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ilana, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

The idea for our company came to us while working for Hilton Hotels in Tampa, Florida.

We saw a need in the wedding industry that spoke to us; couples wanted to include their pets in their special day but quickly became overwhelmed. Our pets are our family and we couldn’t imagine them missing out on such a special day.

Everyone you normally trust to watch your pets is unavailable… and are you really going to ask someone you didn’t invite?

There was no other company offering the services we knew these couples needed, so we paved the way & created what we’ve now coined as the Wedding Day Pet Care industry!

It was difficult in the beginning to introduce this very unique service, to vendors & couples alike. We worked extremely hard educating & perfecting our service. It was a roller coaster as so many people didn’t see our vision and thought we were crazy.

That being said, it’s been so incredible to watch as wedding pet care has become an option for so many couples across the world! We recently franchised our business so are now launching in cities all across the U.S.

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?

I (Ilana) & my business partner, Kelly, have been best friends since we were 13. We founded FairyTail Pet Care together in 2015 when we saw the need for a service missing from the wedding industry.

FairyTail Pet Care is your dog’s plus-one. We are the first wedding pet care company in the nation. Wedding pet care ensures you and your dog can have the best day ever!

A professional handler will take care of all the logistics, including coordination with your vendors along with pet transport on the wedding day. You can include them in the day with peace of mind knowing they receive the best care possible. FairyTail even provides a one-of-a-kind service with our Dog of Honor™ Videography, a wedding video all from your pup’s perspective!

A portion of proceeds from each wedding goes towards helping shelter animals find their forever homes.

We are all-inclusive, meaning all couples & breeds are welcome!

We recently started offering franchise opportunities nationwide. We offer such a unique service, & as the first in the industry, we received interest from couples all over, not just where we founded the company in Florida. We wanted to grow the right way, for ourselves & our clients, & working with like-minded franchisees around the country fit exactly what we were looking for. We’ve already launched 3 locations with a couple others on the way, & cannot wait to continue sharing our passion with as many as possible!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

One of the major challenges we faced was being taken seriously. As young women trying to sell a service of taking dogs to weddings, we received so many dirty looks & sarcastic comments. We were asked many times if our dads helped us run the business. People called us “millennials” as if it was a derogatory term, but we didn’t let any of these negative comments get us down. In fact, it only fueled us to work harder!

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

TikTok & Instagram have been huge for us in building/growing our brand and finding our ideal clients. It can sometimes feel overwhelming, but you’ve got to start somewhere! Don’t be paralyzed by perfection. Put yourself out there in a way that feels authentic & be smart about your time management so you don’t get burnt out (ex: bulk editing & scheduling one day a month to set up. your entire month’s social posts)

Contact Info:

• Website: www.fairytailpetcare.com
• Instagram: @fairytail_petcare
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/fairytailpetcare
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fairytail-pet-care
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/fairytailpetcare
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fairytail_petcare

Image Credits
In order of upload: Shauna & Jordon Photography Autumn Nicole Imagery Abundant Grace Photography Samantha Lowe Photography Marc Edwards Photographs Tara Koenke Photography Lifelong Photography Studio Love & Covenant Photography